Author: batteryforpc

One of our biggest complaints about the older GS65 was its flexible chassis. As lightweight and thin as it may be, MSI went a bit too far in that direction for the GS65 and chassis rigidity suffered. Competing ultrathin laptops like the Razer Blade 15, Dell Alienware m15, or Asus Zephyrus S would feel comparatively sturdier and more well-made in the hand.

MSI will be addressing these issues directly with the upcoming GS66. The redesigned chassis will be marginally thicker (0.78-inch vs. 0.69-inch) and heavier (4.6 lbs vs. 4.19 lbs) than the outgoing GS65. In return, the GS66 will be incorporating thinner fan blades (0.1 mm vs. 0.2 mm) for 10 percent more airflow and a thicker skeleton that’s less susceptible to warping. We can actually feel the increased weight and size over the GS65 during our short time with the GS66 demo unit. Still, the GS66 definitely has the stronger first impression than its predecessor. Note that the Razer Blade 15 will now be the thinner machine at just 0.70-inches.

Beyond size and cooling, the GS66 will ship with Intel 10th gen Comet Lake-H CPUs, 300 Hz 1080p options, and an updated SteelSeries keyboard with deeper 2.5 mm key travel compared to ~2.2 mm on the outgoing GS65. The newer keyboard feels softer than the keys on the GS65 based on the demo unit, but we’ll reserve judgment on a final retail unit.

Much like HP and its Spectre x360 15, MSI will be shipping the GS66 with “up to the latest Nvidia GeForce series graphics” in the next few months. The OEM wouldn’t specify the exact GeForce SKUs involved meaning that the next generation of GeForce GPUs will likely come sooner rather than later.

CES 2020 saw the debut of four new Chromebooks that are all exciting for their own, unique reasons but these weren’t the only devices announced this week. While not there as an official exhibitor, Oregon-based CTL revealed an entirely new lineup of rugged EDU devices that feature an industry-first for any Chromebook on the market.

The all-new NL71 line of Chromebooks from CTL may look like common fare at first glance but what’s on the inside make them some of the best machines on the market for not only educational institutions but the savvy consumer looking for a rugged laptop that won’t break the bank. CTL is already known for making some of the most durable Chromebooks available and now, they’ve enhanced their laptops with the refreshed Gemini Lake-R line of processors from Intel.

The Gemini Lake-R is very similar to the chipsets found in the current generation of entry-level Chromebooks but they should enjoy a slight performance boost thanks to a higher burst frequency. This should result in an increase of as much as 40% in performance when compared to the older Apollo Lake processors that we are all trying to forget exists. The update may not be earthshattering but it’s exciting to see a company like CTL advancing the platform and leading the charge with hardware that’s comparable to non-Chrome OS laptops. The new chips include the dual-core N4020 and quad-core N4120 from Intel.

CTL NL71 LINEUP

CTL’s new line includes an impressive five models that range from $269 to $399 in price and offer a traditional clamshell with an optional touch screen as well as 2-in-1 convertibles with optional EMR stylus. All five models are available for pre-order at CTL and will begin shipping sometime in mid-February. If you order now, you can even enjoy a significant discount. For example, the convertible NL71TW with 8GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and an included EMR pen is priced at a very competitive $369 at the moment.

Each of these devices features 11.6″ displays with Corning Gorilla Glass for extra durability. CTL diligently tests these devices for ruggedness and the new line is no exception. You’ll get reinforced ports and hinges, spill-resistant keyboards, shock-absorbent frames and peel-resistant keys. These models also come bearing Bluetooth 5.0 and up-to gigabit wireless speeds thanks to an Intel 9560 wireless card.

The convertible variants offer up two webcams. The traditional shooter on the display is a standard 1MP 720P with the second, world-facing lens offering a FullHD 5MP camera. The clamshell models are equipped with a single USB-C, 1 x HDMI and two USB 3.0 ports while the convertibles feature 2 x USB-C, 2 x USB 3.0 and all five devices come with a standard MicroSD card slot and 3.5mm audio jack.

We’ll be getting our hands on a couple of these in the near future and look forward to putting them through the wringer. If they’re anything like CTL’s normal quality, they should be great devices for the classroom as well as around the house. You can find the full specs for all five of these by heading over to CTL and you can check back soon for a breakdown of this entire lineup.

A regular fixture at CES, revered chassis manufacturer Lian Li is once again at this year’s event, showcasing its latest addition to the LANCOOL range of cases, the Lian Li LANCOOL II Mesh. The Mesh builds on the LANCOOL series with an integrated mesh front panel for improved airflow.

An alternative to the original LANCOOL II chassis, the LANCOOL II Mesh encompasses a mesh front panel and flip shroud panels which are designed to provide better airflow throughout. This allows builders with high-end CPUs and video cards to still receive plenty of cooling, as mesh panels allow more airflow to circulate in comparison to solid panels, as such with the original LANCOOL II model

The Lian Li LANCOOL II Mesh is a mid-tower chassis constructed from steel and features tempered glass side panels, much like its more solid sibling, the LANCOOL II. It supports PSUs up to 210 mm in length, as well as support for graphics cards up to a maximum length of 384 mm. As for fans, there is space for eight fans overall, with up to three 120 mm or two 140 mm in the front, two 120 mm above the PSU chamber, up to two 140 mm fans in the top, and a single 120 mm fan at the rear.

While Lian Li informed us that the LANCOOL II Mesh won’t be available until April, it is expected to launch with an MSRP of $89.99.

Gigabyte was showing the world’s first water-cooled eGPU at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. The powerful AORUS RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box was designed to accelerate workflows by offering incredible boosts in performance. It has been designed for video editing, 3D animation, photography, graphic design, gaming, architectural visualization, and broadcasting.

This is an eGPU for windows-based PCs. It isn’t for use on a Mac. The eGPU was first announced back in November 2019.

KEY FEATURES

powerful GeForce RTX™ 2080 Ti delivers incredible performance for games, creators and A.I.

WATERFORCE all-in-one cooling system

Thunderbolt™ 3 plug and play

Supports 3x USB 3.0 for peripheral

Supports 1x Ethernet port

Supports Power Delivery (PD 3.0) to charge the laptop PC

RGB fusion 2.0 – 16.7M color synchronize with other AORUS devices.

The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX™ 2080 Ti graphics card with 11G memory and 616 GB/s memory bandwidth has 4352 CUDA® Cores and hundreds of Tensor cores operating in parallel. It brings the power of GPU-accelerated artificial intelligence and machine learning to your laptop PC.

So how does all this cooling actually work?

AORUS provides the all-around cooling solution for all key components of the graphics card. It takes care of not only GPU but also VRAM and MOSFET, to ensure a stable overclock operation and longer life.

AORUS WATERFORCE all-in-one cooling system that integrates a large copper plate, a 240mm aluminum radiator and two 120mm fans. And with an optimized pump and water block, it provides the most efficient water flow and cooling performance at a lower noise level.

The cooling system is made up of 5 key components:

ALUMINUM RADIATOR

120MM 2x FANS

LARGE COPPER BASE PLATE

COMPOSITE HEAT PIPES

FEP TUBES

Connectivity

The AORUS RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box connects to a laptop PC through Thunderbolt™ 3. It provides speeds up to 40 Gbps and delivers 100W to charge your laptop.

There are 10 ports on the box:

1x Thunderbolt 3

2x USB3

1x Ethernet Port

1x HDMI Output

3x Display Ports

1x USB-C

Full Specifications

Graphics Processing GeForce RTX™ 2080 Ti

Graphics card

GIGABYTE WATERFORCE GeForce RTXTM 2080 Ti 11G

GPU clock：1545MHz

Memory clock : 14000 MHz

Memory Bandwidth : 616 GB/s

Memory type : GDDR6

Memory size : 11GB

Digital max resolution : 7680×4320

Multi-veiw : 4

Box Size 300 x 140 x 173 (mm)

Box Weight 3788 (g) ± 5%

I/O Thunderbolt™ 3 type-C x1

Ethernet port x1

USB 3.0 x3

Video output ( HDMI x1, DPx3, USB- C(VirtualLink™)x1 )

PSU 450W, PCI-E 8pin+8pin power

AC INPUT 100-240V ~ / 6A / 50-60Hz

Package content

AORUS RTX™ 2080 Ti Gaming Box * 1

includes GIGABYTE GeForce RTX™ 2080 Ti 11G graphics card

Thunderbolt™ 3 Cable 500mm (USB Type-C) * 1

Power cord * 1

Installation Guide * 1

Driver CD * 1

Carry bag * 1

System Requirement Laptop PC/Desktop PC with Thunderbolt™ 3 port and support external GPU.

Please confirm the Thunderbolt™ 3 compatibility with your PC manufacturer.

Windows 10

One of the driving features of performance in the high-end desktop space is the creator community: the need for fast CPUs and fast storage is strong, regardless of cost. Rendering video, requiring large 8K datasets, and being able to mix and match the hardware to meet the required performance is in-of-itself an exciting area to delve into. In order to meet the needs of the most demanding creators, ASUS is upgrading its quad M.2 card it put into the market last year to now support PCIe 4.0 SSDs for the latest AMD systems.

The card is essentially a mounting point to take a full x16 PCIe slot and bifurcate it into four separate PCIe 4.0 x4 links, which is each paired with an M.2 connector. Thus each drive should be able to achieve full speed – in order to ensure this, the drive also comes with a full aluminium heatsink and fan, which operates at a reasonably low RPM. The fan can be enabled or disabled via a switch on the PCIe bracket, and the bracket also has four activity LEDs for each of the drives.

One of the big issues with the older PCIe 3.0 version was the support of the card on different systems. The card worked well on AMD systems, but had issue with Intel systems, because Intel’s PCIe solution did not support multiple endpoints in the same way. With this new solution, that problem ultimately disappears, because Intel has no PCIe 4.0 solution right now.

We expect the Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 card to be available soon, focused mainly for Threadripper and EPYC systems. Pricing should be equivalent to the PCIe 3.0 version.

Cooler Master’s NC100 small form factor case enables pairing the Ghost Canyon NUC with a full length graphics card.

Intel’s recently unveiled Ghost Canyon NUC seems to have struck a chord with some of its hardware partners, several of which have announced products specifically designed for the modular gaming PC. One of them is Cooler Master’s NC100 small form factor (SFF) case.

In case you missed it, the Ghost Canyon NUC is a fully self-contained PC in its own right, with the option of adding a shortened graphics card inside the comparatively small chassis. It’s significantly more powerful than previous generation NUC systems, and is easy to upgrade—you could simply yank out the main portion of the Ghost Canyon NUC containing the CPU, RAM, and storage, and pop in an upgraded module down the line.

As a gaming PC, you’ll want to pair the NUC with a discrete GPU. Companies like Asus are stepping to the plate with shortened cards designed to fit inside the NUC, including a pair of factory overclocked Dual GeForce RTX 2070 Mini cards (one of the two models sports a slightly more aggressive overclock).

So far it looks like the 2070 is the fastest available GPU for the Ghost Canyon NUC. That’s where Cooler Master’s NC100 comes into play. Like Razer’s recently announced Tomahawk N1, the NC100 affords users the freedom of using a longer graphics card.

It’s a 7.5-liter case, compared to Razer’s 10-liter Tomahawk, so, it’s a bit more compact. The NC100 also comes with an SFX power supply. According to what a Cooler Master rep told The Tech Buyer’s Guru (good find by The Verge), it’s a 650W PSU with 80 Plus Gold certification. That’s exactly the wattage Nvidia recommends for its GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (which is a 280W GPU).

There’s also a special baseboard inside the NC100. This is to allow the Ghost Canyon NUC to communicate with the discrete GPU. Cooler Master says the case with PSU and baseboard will be available at Newegg, CyberPower PC, and other retailers for $199.99 in the second quarter of 2020.

DDR4 memory hasn’t been around very long, at least on consumer-level hardware—Intel switched to it with the sixth-generation Core CPUs (Skylake), and AMD adopted DDR4 with the release of the first Ryzen processors. Now we have DDR5 to look forward to, as Micron has announced it has started sending samples of the high-tech RAM to its hardware partners.

Micron promises that DDR5 will deliver “more than an 85% increase in memory performance,” while also doubling memory density. We’re still very far off from mass production of DDR5 RAM, much less the technology trickling down to gaming PCs (Intel reportedly won’t implement support until Sapphire Rapids in 2021), but it’s exciting to hear what’s on the horizon.

Some of the advertised advantages of DDR5 include doubled data rates (from 1600-3200 MT/s to 3200-6400 MT/s), lower power requirements, DQS interval oscillators to better protect against shifts in voltage and temperature, and on-die ECC memory.

Micron hopes to ship DDR5 modules for sever systems in the second half of 2020. You can find more technical information on Micron’s website.