Author: batteryforpc

Intel is wheeling a ton of its NUCs (Next Unit of Computing) into the retirement home and, maybe even more notably, the ones based on the chipmaker’s unfruitful Cannon Lake (CNL) microarchitecture.

Cannon Lake will forever be a dent in Intel’s push for 10nm supremacy. With just one single chip, the Core i3-8121U, to show for it, it’s a wonder why Intel didn’t retire Cannon Lake sooner. Only a handful of devices, including Intel’s own NUCs, employed the Core i3-8121U. While the chip’s performance wasn’t horrible, the lack of integrated graphics certainly didn’t earn it any extra points, either.

Cannon Lake-powered NUCs, codenamed Crimson Canyon, are officially discontinued as of October 28. Intel’s customers can put in their last orders before December 27, and the final shipments go out on February 28, 2020.

The list of retirees also includes various NUC kits under the Pinnacle Canyon and Rock Canyon codenames. The aforementioned devices date as far back as five years and utilize long gone Braswell and Broadwell processors.

The last product order and shipment dates for the Pinnacle Canyon and Rock Canyon NUC kits are the same as the ones for Crimson Canyon.

As the company previously promised, it has begun rolling out firmware updates based on AMD’s latest microcode (AGESA 1.0.0.4), for its X570 motherboards, some of which are on our list of the best gaming motherboards. According to MSI, these BIOS updates bring with them over 100 improvements and fixes, and can shorten boot times as well.

“The latest 1.0.0.4 Patch B BIOS (SMU v46.54) comes with a massive improvement at all points concerning debugs and optimization for the previous version. There is a loooooooooong list regarding improvements and amendments. The most attractive one to me is optimized system boot up procedure that allows us to shorten boot time and less waiting,” MSI stated in a blog post last week.

Compared to BIOS releases based on the previous microcode, MSI says it has seen boot times improve by as much as 8 seconds, after clearing the CMOS.

These claims are a week old, but what’s new is that owners of certain X570 motherboards can now put this to the test, if desired.

It’s always a good idea to back up your data before flashing the firmware, in case something goes wrong. Also take note of your BIOS settings—you may need to adjust the settings after flashing to maintain that overclock you spent time fine tuning, to avoid a broken RAID array, and avoid other potential problems.

Whether the allure of faster boots is enough to warrant a BIOS flash, you’ll have to decide that for yourself—SSDs are a boon for boot times and you may find Windows (or Linux) loads fast already.

Beyond faster boots, AMD’s 1.0.0.4 microcode is also supposed to increase all-core boost clocks on Ryzen processors, though to what extent is not known.

Looking ahead, MSI says it will have new BIOS updates available for its 400 Max series motherboards around the middle of November, and for all 400 and 300 series motherboards by the end of next month. Other motherboard makers are expected to release new BIOS updates soon as well.

Having just lifted the lid on three new smartphones, the Moto E6 Play, Moto G8 Plus and the Moto One Macro, Motorola has further flooded the market with midrange budget camera phones – but with a dedicated 2cm macro lens, it’s the Moto One Macro that’s piqued our interest the most.

Packing midrange internals, a triple rear camera setup, huge battery and generous amounts of storage (the same starting capacity as the iPhone 11 and Pixel 4), we can’t fail to be impressed, given the Macro’s price.

Motorola Moto One Macro price and release

The One Macro costs £179.99 and is available in the UK from the 28 October, with a US release yet to be confirmed. There’s one capacity – 64GB, and it will be available from Amazon UK, John Lewis, Carphone Warehouse, EE and Argos.

Motorola Moto One Macro features

Despite having a plastic body, the Moto One Macro doesn’t feel or look particularly cheap. It’s high-gloss plastic frame and back emulate glass, and when sheathed in the soft-touch case, included with the phone, doesn’t really matter that it isn’t made of the stuff.

The screen’s a 6.2-inch HD+ panel, not a Full HD resolution display as found on some sub-£200 phones. With a sharpness of 295PPI though, it’s hardly dull, and the size is a decent balance of large and manageable.

The One Macro runs Android 9, Google’s OS, in tandem with some very light touch additions from Motorola. Powered by a MediaTek MT6771 Helio P70 processor which is paired with 4GB RAM, this isn’t a power-beast, and at the price, we wouldn’t expect it to be. That said, day-to-day tasks should be more than manageable, and the fact there’s a generous 64GB storage on-board too, as well as microSD card expansion up to an additional 512GB only adds to the phone’s value proposition.

Add to the mix a hefty 4000mAh battery and you get an impressive mix in the Motorola One Macro – but what about those cameras?

Motorola Moto One Macro: camera

The main camera on the One Macro is a 13MP, f/2.0 module with a 1/3.1” sensor and 1.12µ pixels, as well as phase detection and laser autofocus.

Next up, there’s that namesake macro lens with its f/2.2 aperture, combined with a 2MP 1/5“ sensor and 1.75µ pixels. Finally, there’s a 2MP depth sensor with exactly the same specs as the macro camera – this enables bokeh and foreground/background separation effects.

The macro camera has its own mode, and if you forget to fire it up, the camera UI will prompt you to make the switch, though be warned, unless lighting is fantastic, macros shots will be relatively low on detail and muddy, given the 2MP sensor resolution.

The phone captures video at up to Full HD resolution, 120fps from the rear camera, and the 8MP f/2.2 selfie camera grabs Full HD video at 30fps.

Motorola Moto One Macro: Early verdict

We’ve had a bit of time with the Motorola One Macro’s camera, and have managed to get a couple of cracking shots and a couple of pretty terrible ones – it’s definitely not one for casual snapping.

That said, its main camera seems to do a decent job for the price when paired with a steady hand. In turn, if the power under the hood checks out, then for £179.99, it’ll be yet another stonking midranger from Motorola – watch this space for the full review. 

Yesterday we reported on rumored prices for Asus’ upcoming AMD TRX40 motherboards, with the TRX40 chipset targeting AMD’s upcoming 3rd-generation Ryzen Threadripper CPUs. Today we bring you a new rumor: a list of Gigabyte’s upcoming TRX40 boards, as spotted by Computerbase. Sadly, we don’t have pricing for the boards this time around.

The info (PDF) comes from a compatibility listing for Gigabyte’s Aorus Gen4 AIC Adaptor and lists the following motherboards:

TRX40 Aorus Xtreme

TRX40 Aorus Master

TRX 40 Aorus Pro Wi-Fi

TRX40 Designare

Aorus is one of Gigabyte’s sub-brands targeting eSports and other PC gaming. But it also taps into other audiences, as shown by its Designare series.

There’s also a document (PDF) with details on PCIe support. As seen below, they all will apparently work at PCIe 4.0 speed, which doesn’t come as a surprise given that AMD’s mainstream X570 motherboards (for today’s generation of AMD CPUs) already do PCIe 4.0 too.

This leak follows an subtle reveal from just over a week ago, where Gigabyte South Africa’s Twitter revealed an image of what we suspect is one of its TRX40 boards (pictured below).

AMD’s upcoming TRX40 platform is said to debut in November and serve as AMD’s HEDT (high-end desktop) segment. It will launch alongside the Ryzen Threadripper 3000-series, which will pack up to 32 CPU cores.

If there is one thing computer accessories are in desperate need of, it’s more RGB lighting, right? Maybe, maybe not, depending on your perspective. Either way, like a runaway freight train coming down the side of a steep mountain, there’s no stopping the RGB locomotive. Rather than try, Razer went the opposite direction and outfitted its new Firefly V2 mouse pad with more and shinier RGB lighting than the original version.

There are two parts to the lighting upgrades. Razer says the Firefly V2 uses brighter LEDs than the original Firefly, and there are also now 19 lighting zones around all four sides of the mat. That’s four more zones than before.

“It is now the brightest RGB mouse mat powered by Razer Chroma—the world’s largest RGB lighting ecosystem, which supports over 500 devices and integration with over 130 top PC games of today,” Razer says.

The Firefly V2 is also thinner this time around. It measures 3mm wide, compared to 3.5mm for the cloth and 4mm for the hard editions of the original Firefly. Overall dimensions are 355mm x 255mm x 3mm.

This time around, however, Razer is only offering a hard version. There’s no cloth variant, though from Razer’s vantage point, the micro-textured finish and surface coating “provides the right amount of friction and glide that caters to any play style.” For anyone who prefers a cloth mouse pad, Razer says to look into its Goliathus Chroma range.

Other features include a cable catch to keep your wired mouse’s tail out of the way, and an anti-slip rubber base.

We have not tested this Firefly V2 and so we can’t compare it with the best mouse pads for gaming. We have played with and like the Firefly Hyperflux, though part of the appeal with that one is the wireless charging capability. This one doesn’t have that feature. It’s also quite a bit cheaper, though.