Quiet and Beautiful

AVADirect wasn’t really a systems builder on our radar until late last year when we reviewed their Avant Mini Cube Gaming PC. After extensive testing, we found that the system was well configured, well built, and well priced, quickly propelling AVADirect to the top as one of our favorite custom PC builders.

Recently, AVADirect sent us another one of the systems in their lineup, the AVADirect X370 Quiet Gaming PC, which as its name implies is AVADirect’s quiet gaming PC offering based on AMD’s X370 Ryzen platform.

AVADirect Quiet Gaming PC Specs Desktop AVADirect X370 Quiet Gaming PC Case Phanteks Eclipse P400S CPU AMD [...]

Several weeks ago, Intel and rival AMD made headlines when the two companies announced that Intel would begin using AMD Vega graphics in some of its mobile CPUs. It appears that the first SKU is finally rolling off the production line with the model name Core i7-8809G.

The Core i7-8809G carries a 4 core, 8 thread CPU. When Intel teased this chip in November 2017, it did so under the moniker “Kaby Lake G”, which suggests that it’ll likely feature Kaby Lake architecture with some tweaks rather than the new Coffee Lake architecture that’s rolling out on some of the newer 8th Generation Core Processors.

The graphics die is the center of discussion of [...]

For all the readers living in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you get all the food, drink and of course plenty of Black Friday shopping after!

Today and for the next 48 hours, we’ll be scouring the internet for the best Black Friday deals on technology, computer hardware, and other generally awesome deals you may want to check out. We’ll keep this post updated with all the latest deals, so check back often!

 

CPCR Black Friday Picks Laptops MSI GL62M 7RDX-NE1050i5 15.6″ (Core i5 7300HQ, GTX 1050, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) – $599 After $50 Rebate MSI GS73VR STEALTH PRO-060 17.3″ (Core i7-7700HQ GTX 1070 8G MAX Q 16GB [...]

Aorus, Gigabyte’s gaming-centric laptop branch, has released the world’s thinnest gaming laptop that packs two Nvidia GTX 1070 GPUs in SLI.

The Aorus X9 is designed for gamers looking to play at QHD/UHD resolutions and is more than VR ready. Complimenting the dual GTX 1070s is an Intel Core i7-7820HK quad-core CPU. The CPU is unlocked, meaning users can overclock it on their own.

Two display options are available: a 17.3″ UHD 3840x2160p IPS display with 100% Adobe RGB color gamut, or a 17.3″ QHD 2560x1440p 120Hz WVA high-refresh rate display. All displays are factory calibrated for the best color accuracy.

To handle [...]

Microsoft released the update Surface Book 2 in a surprise announcement this morning, bringing some much needed specs upgrade to the almost archaic Surface Book.

The new Surface Book 2 is now equipped with Intel’s 7th/8th Gen dual-core and quad-core CPUs. Graphics have been boosted to either the integrated Intel UHD 620, or discrete Nvidia GTX 1050 and GTX 1060 for the higher end models. RAM and storage options remain unchanged with options up to 16GB of LPDDR3 and up to a 1TB  NVME PCIe SSD.

Both the 13″ and 15″ model carries the always-sexy PixelSense display with a pixel density of 267ppi for the 13″ model and 260ppi for the 15″ [...]

Razer refreshed its Blade Stealth laptop with Intel’s 8th Gen quad-core mobile processors, bringing more performance while retaining battery life.

The Razer Blade Stealth laptop now uses Intel’s Core i7-8550U quad-core mobile CPU. Despite being a quad-core part, the i7-8550U has the same TDP as the previous generation dual-core mobile CPUs. This enables it to be fitted into thinner devices all the while doubling the thread count. Users can expect vastly improved multi-threaded and multi-tasking performance with excellent battery life.

Other aspects of the hardware remain unchanged. The Razer Blade Stealth still features a 13.3″ QHD IGZO [...]

MSI recently announced the Vortex G25, a small yet powerful gaming PC.

The MSI Vortex G25 is absolutely tiny. It’s slim build is almost reminiscent of a blade server. When stood up vertically, it takes up less space than a gaming console. It’s so compact, in fact, that it can be mounted on a VESA monitor mount. At just 5.51lbs, it won’t rip your monitor apart, either.

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For those waiting patiently for the latest installment in the highly popular Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Ubisoft recently released system requirements for the PC version of the game so you can make preparations to play when it launches on October 27.

Assassin’s Creed Origins which will be set in ancient Egypt is expected to feature the largest worlds in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

MINIMUM CONFIGURATION OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-2400s @ 2.5 GHz or AMD FX-6350 @ 3.9 GHz or equivalent VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX660 or AMD R9 270 (2048 MB VRAM [...]

Following the release of the 8th generation “Kaby Lake-R” mobile CPUs last month, Intel has finally launched its 8th generation “Coffee Lake” CPUs.

Model Core i7-8700K Core i7-8700 Core i5-8600K Core i5-8400K Core i3-8350K Core i3-8100K Cores / Threads 6/12 6/12 6/6 6/6 4/4 4/4 Frequency (Base/Boost) 3.7Ghz / 4.7GHz 3.2Ghz / 4.6GHz 3.6Ghz / 4.3GHz 2.8Ghz / 4GHz 4Ghz / NA 3.6Ghz / NA Cache 12MB 12MB 9MB 9MB 8MB 6MB TDP 95W 65W 95W 65W 91W 65W Price $359 $303 $257 $182 $168 $117

Coffee Lake uses an improved version of the 14nm FinFET. Though there’s still no transistor node shrink (we’ll have to wait until Cannonlake in [...]

Chinese tech site Expreview reports that the six core Intel Core i7-8700K CPU has its overclocking potentials gimped once again as the company has decided to use lower quality TIM rather than solder.

The article states that while the chip itself is excellent and can overclock beyond 4.8GHz without dramatic increases in voltage, heat will be the greatest barrier to achieving this. While Expreview hasn’t posted pictures of the CPU de-lidded, the author attributes the thermal compound as the culprit, stating that the thermal compound applied under the lid is poor quality TIM rather than solder. As a result, those who want overclocks beyond 4.8 GHz or 5 GHz will [...]