Kang Gosol

ZADAK, a maker of memory modules from Taiwan, has reportedly published photos of its upcoming unbuffered memory modules featuring a 32 GB capacity. The UDIMMs and SO-DIMMs are the first consumer-grade 32 GB memory sticks to feature RGB lighting. The main intrigue about the modules is how ZADAK managed to build them ahead of many rivals. This week the Chinese subsidiary of ZADAK published the first images of the company’s Shield DC Aura2 RGB-branded 32 GB UDIMM and SO-DIMM on its Weibo page. The modules are rated at DDR4-3200 MT/s (unknown subtimings), and are outfitted with large aluminum heat spreaders featuring RGB lightbars. So far, only Samsung has introduced 32 GB consumer-grade non-ECC DDR4 UDIMMs and SO-DIMMs. Samsung's modules are based on the company’s 16 Gb DDR4 chips and are available to select customers only. Other leading suppliers of memory modules, including Corsair, G.Skill, GEIL, and others, only offer 16 GB consumer-graded non-ECC unbuffered modules base

For a special occasion, and with what looked like a pricing error, I decided to splash out on a 10GBase-T switch for my testing lab. Coming in at almost £800, reduced from £1700, this beast was not cheap but surprisingly below my personal cost-per-port to get into the 10-gigabit game. Rather than review the switch (how do you review a switch anyway?), I just want to go through what this thing is and what I can do with it, plus some rough point-to-point bandwidth speeds.

Kingston has announced its new external SSDs. The HyperX Savage Exo drive is uses a USB Type-C interface and are compatible with Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, Microsoft’s Xbox One as well as Sony’s PlayStation 4 consoles. Kingston’s HyperX Savage Exo drive is based on 3D TLC NAND flash memory and comes in 480 GB and 960 GB configurations. The drive features up to 500 MB/s read speed as well as up to 480 GB write speed. Kingston does not name the controller it uses for the drive, but keeping in mind that Kingston works very closely with Phison, it is more than likely that the HyperX Savage Exo external SSD uses one of the solutions designed by Phison. Kingston’s HyperX Savage Exo is very light and portable: it weighs 56 grams and measures 123.82 × 48.61 × 10.24 mm. The drive can operate at temperatures from 0°C to 70°C, which looks like rather extreme conditions. The HyperX Savage Exo drives are already available. The 480 GB model (SHSX100/480G) is priced at $128, whereas t

The advent of 3D TLC flash and high-speed interfaces such as USB 3.1 Gen 2 and Thunderbolt 3 has resulted in a number of economical high-performance direct-attached storage devices in the market. These are essentially SATA or PCIe SSDs behind a SATA - USB 3.1 Gen 2 bridge or a Thunderbolt 3 controller. SATA SSDs behind a USB bridge are budget-friendly. Yet, the performance is quite good for the average consumer workload (particularly those sporting a USB 3.1 Gen 2 bridge). Today, we will take a detailed look at the 1TB variants of two such products - the Seagate Fast SSD and the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD.

Oculus VR this week introduced its next all-in-one untethered VR headset, based around a 6-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) positional tracking system as well as the same optics as the Oculus Go launched earlier this year. Essentially an upscale, more powerful iteration of the Oculus Go, the new Oculus Quest will hit the market next spring at a price starting from $399. The key feature of the Oculus Quest is its inside-out 6-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) positional and controller tracking that does not need any external sensors or a PC. The manufacturer says that tracking relies on four ultra-wide-angle sensors and computer vision algorithms, but does not go beyond that. When it comes to display subsystem of the Oculus Quest, the developer claims that the new unit has the same optics as the Oculus Go, but a display with a 3200×1440 (1600×1440 per eye) resolution (up from 2560×1440). Besides graphics, Oculus VR also indicates improvements of built-in audio capabilities of the headset. Last

Intel has officially launched the next wave of Optane SSDs, continuing a gradual rollout of higher density drives as their production of 3D XPoint memory catches up with demand. Intel's flagship consumer SSD family is still split between the Optane SSD 900P and 905P , with the more recent 905P filling out the higher capacities while bringing modestly improved performance and power efficiency. This week's releases are the 1.5TB 905P add-in card and 960GB and 1.5TB 905P U.2 drives, bringing the consumer lineup and the enterprise P4800X line both up to the same maximum capacity. The larger capacity options don't bring any more performance improvements because they are still using the same controller, and even the smallest 280GB 900P had enough 3D XPoint dies to keep every channel of the controller busy. The bigger drives do have higher power consumption, with the 1.5TB 905P add-in card rated for up to 17.7 W for write operations. We have probably reached the end of

Acer has quietly introduced two new curved gaming monitors that offer premium gaming features such as 144 Hz FreeSync and HDR10 support for relatively affordable prices. Acer’s XZ1-series LCDs share design elements with the company’s aggressively-styled Predator displays and will definitely appeal to those looking for inexpensive monitors with serious gaming capabilities. Acer’s XZ1 family currently consists of two displays: the 27-inch XZ271Ubmijpphzx (XZ271U) and the 31.5-inch XZ321QUbmijpphzx (XZ321QU). Both monitors are based on 16:9 aspect ratio curved VA-type panels featuring a 2560×1440 resolution, 250 - 300-nits brightness, a 3000:1 contrast ratio, 1 ms MPRT response times, and a 144 Hz refresh rate. Acer says that the monitors cover 85% of the NTSC color space, which means that technically they can reproduce more than 100% of the sRGB color gamut (i.e., show more colors than the sRGB covers itself). In a bid to distinguish the XZ1 from its more expensive product fa

Today we're looking at another SATA SSD with RGB lighting, but the Team Delta RGB is very different from our previous RGB SSD. The lighting design is far more efficient and flexible, and the storage performance is satisfactory. The RGB LEDs do give the drive a premium price tag, and most users would prefer a fast M.2 NVMe drive over a flashy SATA drive.

The B360 market should be a battleground for new PC builds: it offers almost all the features needed for everyone. There is a lot of scope for motherboard manufacturers to be creative in this space, and still offer a reasonably priced product: ASUS' take here is the Strix B360-G Gaming, a microATX offering that dives deep into the ROG Strix branding. For users looking to build a single-GPU gaming system, ASUS thinks they have a board you should be looking at.

On Wednesday, September 26th through Thursday, September 27th AnandTech's community team will be hosting an ask-me-anything session with Intel’s Optane Team, which will be taking place in the AnandTech Memory & Storage forums. Have a question about Optane drives and Intel’s phase-change 3D XPoint technology? Now’s your chance to speak with Intel directly. Log into the forums to join the discussion and learn about the latest news on the future of Intel’s non-flash persistent memory efforts. Intel Optane Technology Team Bill Leszinske , Intel Corporate Vice President, Strategic Planning, Marketing, and Business Development. Chris Tobias , Director, Intel Optane Technology Acceleration Team. James Myers , Director, Data Center Storage Solutions Architecture Avinash Shetty , Senior SSD Strategic Planner and Product Line Manager Roger Corell , Marketing Manager This thread will be unlocked, open and live for 48 hours starting at 11:00am ET on Wednesday. Questions

With the release of the GeForce RTX 2080 barely behind them – and the RTX 2080 Ti technically still in front of them – NVIDIA has announced the release date for their next RTX card: the 2070. The previously revealed card, which was scheduled for an ambiguous October, has been locked in for October 17th, where the Founders Edition version will hit the streets at $599. In line with the general performance progression for the GeForce RTX family, the RTX 2070 is slated to deliver around 75% of the RTX 2080’s performance. The exact performance depending on how each game scales with the smaller collection of resources. The RTX 2070 has about 75% of the shading/texturing/tensor hardware as the RTX 2080, however it has the same ROP count and the same 256-bit memory bus. So we expect that the biggest performance differences are going to be in SM-bound scenarios – now including ray tracing – while pixel-bound scenarios that rely mostly on ROP throughput should take a much smaller hit.

Zhaoxin, a joint venture between Via Technologies and the Chinese government, this week for the first time displayed its upcoming x86-compatible CPU, the KaiXian KX-6000. The SoC features eight cores running at 3 GHz and increases performance over its predecessor by at least 50%. The KaiXian KX-6000 is a successor to the KX-5000 CPU launched earlier this year. Both chips integrate eight-core x86-64 cores with 8 MB of L2 cache, a DirectX 11.1-capable iGPU with an up-to-date display controller, a dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory controller, contemporary I/O interfaces (PCIe, SATA, USB, etc), and so on. The key differences between the KaiXian KX-5000 and the KaiXian KX-6000 are frequencies and manufacturing technology: the former is produced using TSMC’s 28 nm fabrication process and runs at up to 2 GHz, whereas the latter is made using TSMC’s 16 nm technology and operates at up to 3 GHz. Zhaoxin claims that the Kaixian KX-6000 offers compute performance comparable to that of Intel’

As is custom by now every year, we look forward to TechInsights teardown of the latest new mobile SoCs. This time around we’re delighted to see a new die shot of the new Apple A12, the first commercially available 7nm piece of silicon. While TechInsights posted their take on the block identification and labelling, found on their iPhone XS teardown blog post , I do think it missed the mark in terms of the CPU complexes. Therefore I did my own analysis and took the liberty of adding a bit more visibility and custom labelling of the die shot: AnandTech modified TechInsights Apple A12 Die Shot We see two big cores in the centre-left next to what TechInsights labelled as the NPU. The cores have seen some larger restructuring and this is most obvious in the doubling of the SRAM macros of the L1 data caches which I’ve confirmed to be tested at 128KB – twice the size over last year’s 64KB of the A11 cores. We also similarly see a doubling of the L1 instruction cache macro cells – w

Sony’s PlayStation game console made a strong influence on the entertainment industry when it was launched in 1994. Having been sold in quantities of over 104 million units globally, the original PlayStation introduced video games to many people by offering them titles and even genres that have since become iconic. In an attempt to bring back good memories to owners of the first-gen PlayStation, Sony intends to release its PlayStation Classic console later this year that will be compatible with select PlayStation titles.  The Sony PlayStation Classic (SCPH-1000R) will look like the original PlayStation, but will come in a miniature package and will consume just around 5 W of power. The console will feature an HDMI port capable of 720p and 480p video output that will also be used to output linear PCM audio. Also, the device will have a USB Micro-B port for power delivery, similar to the other 'mini' consoles that have entered the market recently. The PlayStation Classic

ZTE's troubles as of late have been well documented. Following a substantial fine and a complete removal of the senior staff from SVP and above, the company is now allowed to continue selling in the US and receiving US technology, meaning it can once again focus on its product portfolio. With the upheaval, new and exciting devices from R&D like the dual-screen Axon M are getting put on the back burner, while the company focuses on more mainstream devices like its new Axon 9 Pro that was launched at IFA. We were told by our rep that ZTE was aiming to be one of the first vendors with an S845 device in market, but the situation caused a big delay. The company then subsequently waited another six weeks after the resolution to launch the Axon 9 Pro. This way, we were told, the story would focus more on the device than the other issues if they had announced it immediately. Axon 9 Pro Prior to the issues with the US, ZTE was a company proud of its ability to implement new fe

ASUS has released two ROG Ryujin closed-loop liquid coolers designed for AMD’s Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper processors. Both AIO LCSes feature a square waterblock with an embedded OLED screen that can be used for monitoring or style/personalization purposes. In addition, the waterblock has a small fan to cool down the CPU VRMs. ASUS’ ROG Ryujin 240 and ROG Ryujin 360 closed-loop liquid coolers rely on an ASUS-designed proprietary waterblock, and which is compatible only with AMD’s CPUs in AM4 and TR4 packaging (for now, AMD only supplies mounting brackets for contemporary AMD CPUs). ASUS does not describe design of its pump/waterblock beyond the fact that it is large, square, features an embedded 1.77-inch OLED display, as well as a microfan that can cool down surrounding components by up to 20°C, according to the maker. Meanwhile, the relatively large dimensions may indicate that the block can cover 100% of the TR4 CPU IHS (integrated heat spreader), which means efficient coo

While it was roughly 2 years from Maxwell 2 to Pascal , the journey to Turing has felt much longer despite a similar 2 year gap. But finally, at Gamescom 2018, NVIDIA announced the GeForce RTX 20 series , built on TSMC’s 12nm “FFN” process and powered by the Turing GPU architecture. Launching today with full general availability is just the GeForce RTX 2080, as the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti was delayed a week  to the 27th, while the GeForce RTX 2070 is due in October. So up for review today is the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080. But a standard new generation of gaming GPUs this is not. The “GeForce RTX” brand, ousting the long-lived “GeForce GTX” moniker in favor of their announced “RTX technology” for real time ray tracing, aptly underlines NVIDIA’s new vision for the video card future. Like we saw last Friday , Turing and the GeForce RTX 20 series are designed around a set of specialized low-level hardware features and an intertwined ecosystem of supporting software cur

Kingston's HyperX gaming brand is introducing their first SSD with adjustable RGB LED lighting. The LEDs add significantly to the price tag, but internally it's a mid-range SATA SSD. This lighting-first and SSD-second design pays off with no fewer than 75 RGB LEDs to illuminate the drive and surrounding components, but from our performance benchmarks it's clear that Kingston had to make some real sacrifices on the SSD side to bring this drive together.

Team Group has introduced its new dual-channel DDR4 memory kits for overclockers - the new T-Force Xtreem kits operate at 4300 MT/s and 4500 MT/s data transfer rates. Team Group’s latest T-Force Xtreem DDR4-4300 and DDR4-4500 dual-channel kits feature a 16 GB capacity (8 GB × 2), CL18 20-20-44 timings, and 1.45 V supply. The modules use specially-designed 10-layer PCBs as well as cherry-picked Samsung’s 8 Gb B-die DRAM chips that can run at extreme speeds. The voltages are a step above the standard 1.4 V for high-end kits. As usual, the high-performance memory modules support XMP 2.0 SPD profiles for easier setup of DRAM sub-timings. Furthermore, to ensure efficient cooling for DDR4 chips and grant its modules a unique look, Team Group equips its T-Force Xtreem DIMMs with aluminum heat spreaders. The key advantage of the new T-Force Xtreem DDR4-4300 and DDR4-4500 dual-channel kits versus their competitors from other makers available today are their CL18 timings. By contrast,

SilverStone has introduced its new PCIe x16 riser card for M.2 SSDs. The SST-ECM23 risers are aimed at those who want to maximize the efficiency of their SSD cooling, or just install more SSDs into spare PCIe x16 slots. As SSDs have transitioned from 2.5-inch drives to M.2 sticks, cooling high-end drives has been a sometimes uneasy prospect. The M.2 form factor along with NAND die stacking allows for a rather dense collection of electronics, and as high-end SSD controllers get more sophisticated, their heat dissipation has been increasing as well. To that end a number of companies (including ADATA, Cryorig, EKWB, and SilverStone, just to name a few) have released heat spreaders and even active cooling systems for M.2 drives over the past few quarters, and now SilverStone is ready with a yet another solution that promises to be more efficient than usual passive coolers for modular SSDs. SilverStone's SST-ECM23 riser card can house a single PCIe M.2- 2230, 2242, 2260, or 22