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 [...]

Earlier this week, AMD addressed some key questions regarding its upcoming Ryzen APUs.

To set most at ease, the APUS will be fully compatible with AM4 motherboards, with only a BIOS updated needed for newer CPU support. This lowers the cost of entry into the Ryzen platform, with tremendous upgrade options available later on.

Zen APUs are coming in Febuary which feature the Global Foundries 14nm process found in the current generation Ryzen CPUs. Both models will feature quad cores, but the Ryzen 5 2400G features SMT, a base clock of 3.6GHz/boost clock of 3.9GHz and 11 Vega CUs for $169. The Ryzen 3 2200G will lack SMT, be clocked at 3.5GHz/ boosts up to [...]

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 [...]

According to a report from Digitimes, AMD has revealed to its motherboard partners that it plans to launch its next generation 12nm Ryzen CPUs in February of 2018. The new CPUs will be manufactured on Global Foundries upcoming 12nm process.

The upcoming 12nm Ryzen CPUs will be codenamed Pinnacle Ridge and will feature both a die shrink as well as architecture improvements over current generation Summit Ridge Ryzen CPUs. Like Summit Ridge, Pinnacle Ridge will be divided into Pinnacle 7, Pinnacle 5, and Pinnacle 3. Pinnacle 7 will be launching first in February 2018 followed by Pinnacle 5 and 3 in March 2018. Following these will also be the Pinnacle Ridge low power in [...]

Several weeks ago, an Intel presentation slide was leaked detailing Intel’s upcoming chipset roadmap. The roadmap revealed a previously unknown Z390 chipset, which is a consumer enthusiast chipset coming in the 2H2018.

At the time, little additional details of the upcoming chipset was revealed however, according to a recent forum post on Notebook Review by a representative for system integrator, Eurocom, it appears that the Z390 chipset will support 8-core/16-thread CPUs that Intel may be releasing to accompany the new chipset. If this rumor is accurate, this will be the first time Intel’s mainstream platform will have 8-core/16-thread [...]

Geekbench scores for AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U APU has surfaced, showing almost double the performance of AMD’s current flagship consumer APU, the A12-9800B.

Manufacturer AMD Intel Model Ryzen 5 2500U A12-9800B Core i7-7600U Single-Core Performance 3,561 2,315 4,736 Multi-Core Performance 9,421 5,115 9,314 Core Count 4 Cores/8 Threads 4 Cores/4 Threads 2 Cores/4 Threads Tested Clocks 2GHz/??? 2.69GHz Base / 3.6GHz Turbo 2.89GHz Base / 3.9GHz Turbo TDP TBD 15W 15W

According to the leaked benchmark, the Ryzen 5 2500U scores 3,561 single core and 9,421 in multi-core, beating AMD’s current flagship APU, the A12-9800B, by 54% in single-core [...]

Der8auer, the German overclocker who’s become quite famous for delidding CPUs, has recently published a video not only de-lidding the AMD Threadripper 1950X, but he also removed the dies to learn more about what lies inside.

As the AMD Threadripper 1950X has 16 cores/32 threads, it was originally assumed to only have two 8-core Ryzen dies. Interestingly, Der8auer discovered that there are not two, but four dies under the heatspreader in a previous video. Further, each of the four dies are confirmed to be 8-core Ryzen dies by removing all the dies. This means that half the dies are disabled and are essentially just there as placeholders. Currently, it’s not [...]

Raja Koduri, head of AMD’s Radeon Technology Group (RTG), has recently revealed that he will be going on a sabbatical starting September 25 until December.

According to a recent article at PC Perspective, employees of RTG received the following email:

RTG Team,

You haven’t heard from me collectively in a while – a symptom not only of the whirlwind of launching Vega, but simply of the huge number of demands on my time since the formation of RTG. Looking back over this short period, it is an impressive view. We have delivered 6 straight quarters of double-digit growth in graphics, culminating in the launch of Vega and being back in high-performance. [...]

Geekbench scores of to Intel’s upcoming 6-core Coffee Lake family (i7-8700K, i7-8700, i5-8400) has recently been revealed in the Geekbench database.

Unlike the previous Geekbench leak, which was clearly a very early sample with not even a concrete processor name attached, the new leak now provides a clear image of the new processors complete with the processor names, codenames, etc.

Manufacturer Intel AMD Model i7-8700K i7-8700 i5-8400 i7-7700K R7 1700X R7 1700 Single-Core Score 5,541 5,539 4,991 5,733 4,071 3,891 Multi-Core Score 23,996 22,249 19,799 18,800 20,988 19,883 Core Count 6 Cores / 12 Threads 6 Cores / [...]

Just a few months after the launch of their mainstream Ryzen CPUs, AMD is launching their highly anticipated HEDT Ryzen Threadripper CPUs based on the Zen micro-architecture. The new AMD Threadripper 1950X and 1920X now make up the most powerful CPUs in AMD’s consumer CPU lineup.

Manufacturer AMD Model Threadripper 1950X Threadripper 1920X Core Count 16 Core / 32 Threads 12 Core / 24 Threads Base Clock 3.4GHz 3.5GHz Max Turbo Clock 4GHz 4GHz L3 Cache 32MB 32MB Unlocked Yes Yes TDP 180W 180W PCIe Lanes 64 64 Memory Support Quad-Channel 2,667MHz DDR4 (ECC) Quad-Channel 2,667MHz DDR4 (ECC)

It’s no secret that Intel was the dominant [...]