Kang Gosol

Western Digital this week introduced its new Ultrastar DC HC620 family of hard drives that consists of 14 TB and 15 TB models. The HDDs use shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology and are aimed at applications that need a lot of storage space, but are mainly read-focused operations. The manufacturer will only sell these products to customers with software that can manage SMR hard drives, primarily to those who already run 10 TB or 12 TB SMR HDDs. The HGST Ultrastar DC HC620 hard drives are based on Western Digital’s fourth-generation HelioSeal helium-filled enterprise platform that packs eight platters and employing multiple enhancements of internal components specially designed to improve reliability and durability of HDDs working in vibrating multi-drive environments. The DC HC620 HDDs use eight SMR platters with a 1.75 TB and a 1.875 TB capacity featuring a 1034 and a 1108 Gbit areal density per square inch respectively. Because of a very high areal density, the 14 TB

Intel has now started sales of its 9th Gen Core unlocked processors for mainstream desktop platforms featuring the company’s Socket H4 v2 for 1151-pin CPUs. The new products feature up to eight cores, up to 5 GHz turbo frequency, and an improved thermal interface. The new chips are more expensive than their direct predecessors, which will make PCs based on the new unlocked CPUs more expensive than before, especially after profit margin of retailers and PC makers is added. Perhaps a bigger problem is the fact that stock seems to be surprisingly thin, and fluctuating daily. Table of Contents: Unlocked Intel 9th Gen Core Processors: A Family Portrait More Cores = Larger Dies = Higher Prices Per Core Pricing: Going Down Actual Pricing and Availability Some Thoughts Unlocked Intel 9th Gen Core Processors: A Family Portrait For many years Intel offered two unlocked CPUs for its mainstream platform within each generation of products. There of course were exceptions (e.g

This week, NVIDIA launched their new "The Hunt Begins" game bundle, adding on Monster Hunter: World with qualifying purchases of the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1070, and GTX 1060 6GB (1280 core). The promotion is effective now and runs until November 29th. It appears to cover the usual AIB graphics cards, details are rather sparse from the terms and conditions so any prospective buyers should be sure to double-check the seller/retailer. For Monster Hunter: World, NVIDIA recommends the GTX 1070 for 1080p 60fps at High Quality, so the bundle is firmly targeted at mainstream type resolutions and gaming scenarios. No other NVIDIA bundles are running at this time, which is unsurprising given the recent launch of the RTX 20 series . While the promotion clearly covers the upper mid-range of Pascal GeForce, the GeForce RTX 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti are the intended successor for the enthusiast range. Especially with the RTX 2070 in the GTX 1080 performance bracket , NVIDIA won&

Samsung this week demonstrated its first 256 GB memory module for upcoming servers. The new Registered DIMM (RDIMM) is based on Samsung’s 16 Gb DDR4 memory devices introduced earlier this year and takes advantage of the company’s 3DS (three-dimensional stacking) packaging. The new module will offer higher performance and lower power consumption than two 128 GB LRDIMMs used today. Samsung’s 256 GB DDR4 Registered DIMM with ECC carries 36 memory packages featuring 8 GB (64 Gbit) of capacity each, along with IDT’s 4RCD0229K register chip (to buffer address and command signals and increase the number of ranks supported by a memory channel). The packages are based on four single-die 16 Gb components that are interconnected using through-silicon vias (TSVs). Architecturally, the 256 GB module is octal ranked as it features two physical ranks and four logical ranks. On a bit more of a technical note here, it's very interesting to point out that these new DIMMs are Registered DIM

Today we are having a look at the refreshed SF PSU series from Corsair. The company upgraded their popular SFX PSUs that now come with an 80Plus Platinum certification and are boasting even better overall performance. With a retail price under $100 and very impressive specs, the SF450 seems ideal for compact, high-performance living room gaming PCs.

One of the telling conclusions from our original 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX review was that because of the arrangement of cores and memory, performance in most applications did not scale from the 16-core, and in some cases regressed. Due to a serious of discussions, one potential culprit could be the fact that Windows scheduler seems to prioritize CPU 0 over everything else. We did some testing.

In the upper echelons of commercial workhouses, having access to copious amounts of local NVMe storage is more of a requirement than ‘something nice to have’. We’ve seen solutions in this space include custom FPGAs to software breakout boxes, and more recently a number of the motherboard vendors have provided PCIe x16 Quad M.2 cards for the market. The only downside is that they rely on the processor bifurcation, i.e. the ability for the processor to drive multiple devices from a single PCIe x16 slot. HighPoint has got around that limitation. The current way of getting four NVMe M.2 drives in a single PCIe x16 slot sounds fairly easy. There are 16 lanes in the slot, and each drive can take up to four lanes, so what is all the fuss? The problem arises from the CPU side of the equation: that PCIe slot connects directly to one PCIe x16 root complex on the chip, and depending on the configuration it may only be expecting one device to be connected to it. The minute you put four de

Last year Biostar released the first mini-ITX AM4 motherboard and it did its utmost to impress us without too much fluff or unnecessary features - it was a simple yet sophisticated runner. With the release of the second generation of Ryzen processors, Biostar has released a refreshed mini-ITX for the X470 platform, called the X470GTN which looks again to target the budget-conscious users looking for Ryzen in a smaller form factor. 

Samsung today has introduced the Galaxy Book2, its newest attempt to create an always on, always connected convertible PC. For the new 2-in-1 notebook, Samsung opted to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 supercharged mobile SoC and rates the battery life of the device to 20 hours. Like the rest of the Windows-on-Snapdragon systems, the Galaxy Book2 runs Windows 10 S. Meanwhile, unlike the original model, the Galaxy Book2 will be offered in only one configuration (at least initially). The Samsung Galaxy Book2 detachable notebook comes with a 12-inch sAMOLED display featuring a 2160×1440 resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. The device is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 SoC (four Kryo 385 cores at 2.96 GHz, four Kryo 385 cores at 1.7 GHz, Adreno 630 GPU) which is accompanied by 4 GB of DRAM, and 128 GB of NAND flash storage. The system’s wireless connectivity includes Snapdragon X20 LTE modem (Cat 18, 5CA, 4x4 MIMO, up to 1.2 Gbps DL, up to 150 Mbps UL and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. On the wi

Microsoft is in a bit of a unique place in the PC space compared to other manufacturers. Other than Apple, Microsoft is the only company that controls both the hardware and software sides, and when the Surface lineup launched way back in 2012, Microsoft’s goal was to showcase the advantages of their platform with a premium hardware lineup. On October 2nd 2018, the company unveiled their sixth iteration of what is now a staple in the PC space, the Surface Pro 6.

Earlier this year Cadence and Micron performed the industry’s first public demonstration of next-generation DDR5 memory. At a TSMC event earlier this month the two companies provided some updates concerning development of the new memory technology. As it appears, the spec has not been finalized at JEDEC yet, but Micron still expects to start production of DDR5 memory chips in late 2019. As noted back in May , the primary feature of DDR5 SDRAM is capacity of chips, not just a higher performance and a lower power consumption. DDR5 is expected to bring in I/O speeds of 4266 to 6400 MT/s, with a supply voltage drop to 1.1 V and an allowable fluctuation range of 3% (i.e., at ±0.033V). It is also expected to use two independent 32/40-bit channels per module (without/or with ECC). Furthermore, DDR5 will have an improved command bus efficiency (because the channels will have their own 7-bit Address (Add)/Command (Cmd) buses), better refresh schemes, and an increased bank group for addi

In the process of describing new features for the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, the comments on one of the slides let slip that Huawei is set to announce a new Matebook this November. One of the features, according to the slides for the Mate 20 Series, is a single button sharing with the Mate 20 series phones in order to share 1000 photos in two seconds. The side showed what looked like a regular Matebook, not the Matebook X, so it could be that thee new laptop is set to be a standard Matebook replacement, but information about the new laptop is set going to be upcoming. We'll keep our ears to the ground for more information.  Huawei's previous Matebook launch, the Matebook X Pro, was announced earlier this year with an Intel CPU and an NVIDIA GTX GPU. You can read our review here . 

Intel’s newest line of desktop processors bring with them a number of changes designed to sway favor with performance enthusiasts. These new parts bring Intel’s consumer processors up to eight cores, with higher frequencies, better thermal connectivity, and extra hardware security updates for Spectre and Meltdown. The only catch is that you’re going to need a large wallet and a big cooler: both price and power consumption hit new highs this time around.

Samsung on Wednesday started sales of its Q900R QLED 8K Ultra-HD televisions in the UK. The device initially available in the UK is the smaller 65-inch model, rather than the 75-inch one Samsung will be selling in the US in the coming weeks. Samsung’s Q900R-series televisions , featuring a 7680×4320 resolution, are currently available exclusively from Currys . Right now, only 65-inch 8K UHDTV from Samsung is available, but 75-inch and 85-inch models can be pre-ordered and delivered within 10 to 21 days. The “smaller” version of Q900R is priced at £4,999 ($5,588), whereas the 75-inch will cost £6,999 ($7,825) and the 85-inch will cost £14,999 ($16,768). Besides the 8K resolution, all Samsung’s Q900-series TVs are backed by a quantum dot-enhanced LED backlight that is also capable of FALD-like operation. The TVs offer a peak brightness of 4000 nits, which is the maximum brightness at which HDR content is mastered today. They also support HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG formats, but not D

We're here in London covering Huawei's new Mate 20 release event.

Every major CPU platform announcement brings a host of new motherboards and faster memory modules to the market. The launch of Intel’s 9th Gen Core processors and Z390 chipset brings no surprises from this point of view. There are dozens of motherboards based on the new PCH from various makers. To that end, G.Skill has already introduced its “Double Capacity” 32 GB UDIMMs and, of course, it also has new high-performance memory kits that push the bar further. To support performance-hungry enthusiasts with platforms based on the Z390 chipset, G.Skill introduced two high-performance Trident Z RGB dual-channel memory kits: a 16 GB (2×8 GB) kit rated for DDR4-4800 CL19 22-22-42 operation, and a 32 GB (4×8 GB) kit rated to work at DDR4-4500 CL19 22-22-42. Just like other contemporary UDIMMs designed for extreme data transfer rates, the new Trident Z RGB modules are based on 8 Gb Samsung B-die chips, feature XMP 2.0 SPD profiles, and are outfitted with aluminum heat spreaders.