Techreport

Jeff Kampman, Editor-in-Chief

Today is Tuesday, and we're doing a deals post. Yesterday's eclipse did not skip us forward to Friday—we're just trying something different. We'll have smaller posts with fewer, tastier deals sprinkled throughout the week. Think of it like savings tapas that we're sharing with you. The menu today includes two fancy monitors: one has eight million pixels and FreeSync support, and the other a gigantic G-Sync ultrawide display. A barebones mini gaming rig rounds things out. ...Read more...

Literally short bread, but not technically shortbread.

HP's showing off its first high-end laptop with Omen X branding at Gamescom, and it looks like a pretty serious piece of kit. The new Omen X laptop comes with a 17" display with either 3840x2160 resolution, or a 1920x1080 panel refreshing at 120 Hz. The screen's hooked up to a graphics card up to a GeForce GTX 1080, fed by an unlocked Core i7 CPU. ...Read more...

A graphics driver developer's job is never done, as evinced by the approximately bi-weekly updates from Nvidia and AMD. New graphics architectures only add to the engineers' workload, too. AMD's latest Radeon Software 17.8.1 addresses fresh games and graphics cards both. The update is AMD's first non-beta release with support for its spanking-new Radeon RX Vega graphics cards. The software also brings optimizations for the early-access release of Bethesda's Quake Champions hero FPS and Volition's open-world romp Agents of Mayhem. ...Read more...

Android O has been in the wild in beta form for some time now, available to developers and brave souls who like to check out new software as soon as it's available. But now, Android 8.0 has an official name and a timeframe for public release....Read more...

Enthusiasts are spoiled for choice when it comes to computer cases these days, but Aorus thinks it has something different to offer. The company just launched the AC300W case that we saw back at Computex, and it looks just as nice now as it did then. This ATX mid-tower case includes RGB LED accents, a large side window, an option for vertical GPU installation, and front-panel HDMI and USB Type-C ports. ...Read more...

Lenovo's gaming brand is called Legion, and today at Gamescom 2017 (essentially Europe's E3) the company announced a bunch of new members of that family. The Legion Y520 Tower, Y720 Tower, and Y920 Tower gaming desktops all pack quad-core Intel CPUs and GeForce graphics cards, while the Legion Y25f gaming monitor is a 24.5" 144-Hz display with HDR support. ...Read more...

Back when the Oculus Rift first hit Kickstarter, its promise of next-generation, high-quality VR for just $399 was enchanting. Of course, reality intervened and the final product ended up slightly more expensive than that at $600 when it launched three-and-a-half years later. That number eventually dropped to $400 in what we presume was a move to try and counter the Vive's popularity. HTC has now struck back and announced a $200 price drop for the full Vive kit, bringing it down to $599. ...Read more...

Intel just announced a quartet of new four-core, eight-thread 15 W mobile processors this morning, and the ensuing wave of announcements of laptops with the fresh chips is already beginning. Acer is apparently first to embrace the eighth-generation chips. The Nitro 5 Spin convertible laptop should pack a pretty decent punch with its combo of an eighth-gen Core i7 CPU, a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card, and a PCIe SSD with up to 512 GB of capacity. ...Read more...

Intel formally announced a pretty big step forward in its mobile CPU lineup earlier today with the unveiling of four new eighth-generation Core mobile processors that stuff four cores and eight threads into a 15 W power envelope. The silicon manufacturer's website has a new product page with some information about the new Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs. Internet sleuths , including TR friend SH SOTN, were able to scrounge up higher-res shots of the box art for the desktop variants of those chips. The revised packaging has a new color scheme and apparently confirms rumors of increased core counts in desktop eight-gen Core processors. ...Read more...

Just a couple of days ago, we wrote about Asus' Vivobook W202NA ruggedized laptop built for classrooms. Asus has now unveiled the latest entry to its Vivobook Pro line, and the newcomer has specs that should make a lot of bigger kids happy. The Vivobook Pro N580VD-DB74T is built around an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card. This combination should make the Vivobook Pro as good for play as it is for work. ...Read more...

Enthusiast PCs seem to be heading in two directions: systems packing gaming punch into as little volume as possible, or do-absolutely-anything bruisers with high-end processors and motherboards with more DIMM slots than some hillbillies have teeth. Thermaltake's View 71 chassis takes the latter approach and offers Threadripper and Core X buyers the ability to really flaunt their E-ATX mobos through a whopping four panels made from supercooled liquid. ...Read more...

Greetings folks! We're putting the finishing touches on our lengthy (read: enormous) review of AMD's Threadripper CPUs. While that particular cake is about to come out of the oven, here's a collection of hardware deals for you. Today's hunting was particulary bountiful, and there's a little bit of everything. Enjoy!There's a chance you're looking for something we haven't covered. If that's the case, you can help The Tech Report by using the following referral links when you're out shopping: not only do we have a partnership with Newegg and ...Read more...

It's been a long time since I've run out of SATA ports on a new build, but it still happens in home servers and NAS boxes. If you happen to have some M.2 SATA SSDs laying around and not enough sockets to throw them in, Alphacool could help you out. The Eisblock HDX5 SATA RAID controller isn't the sort of product we usually see from the German group, but it's actually named for the giant heatsink that covers both sides of the card. ...Read more...

AMD's Radeon RX Vega graphics cards have a rather unusual pricing structure. While the Radeon RX Vega 56 lists for $399 and the RX Vega 64 for $499, the company is also selling those cards as part of more expensive "Radeon Packs" that offer the buyer bundled games and discounts on other AMD hardware. ...Read more...

Intel's Core architecture gets the lion and the tiger's share of attention around here, but the company still makes Atom chips. To wit, Intel just rolled out the Atom C3000 SoCs, its third series of Atom chips. In all, Intel announced 20 new models packing anywhere from two to 16 Goldmont cores, support for 128 GB or 256 GB of DDR4 ECC memory across one or two channels, support for up to four 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections, and Intel's Quick Assist Technology encryption acceleration. ...Read more...

The prioritization of power efficiency in CPU design has led to an era where machines displacing as little as two liters can deliver an enjoyable gaming experience at a resolution of 1920x1080. Typically, shoehorning gaming chops into a small chassis requires trade-offs like non-upgradeable components and limited CPU support. Shuttle's XH110G barebones system takes a different route. This little beastie offers support for desktop LGA 1151 CPUs along with a PCIe x16 slot ready to take in an expansion card. ...Read more...

What else were you expecting?

I'm a gamer. So when I look at a monitor, the first things I look at are the refresh rate and response time. For some folks, those qualities are all but immaterial. Photo pros and graphic designers need consistent, accurate color and brightness, along with a super-wide color gamut. For that kind of workload, you need something like Viewsonic's VP2785-4K. This is a 27" IPS monitor with a resolution of 3840x2160 that utilizes a 10-bit IPS panel and a 14-bit look-up table to achieve 96% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. ...Read more...

We've been impressed with the hardware that recently-reborn Nokia has been packing into its HMD Global Oy-manufactured smartphones. Even better, the Finnish marque has opted to not reinvent the wheel and is sticking to vanilla Android for its software. Until now, Nokia focused its Android efforts on entry-level and mid-range devices. The Nokia 8 takes a different tack and shows that the company looks to compete in the high-end arena too. ...Read more...

If you're one of the lucky few who have managed to get their hands on a Radeon RX Vega graphics card, you should absolutely pair it with a FreeSync monitor. I've been enjoying the revelatory experience of high-refresh-rate FreeSync in between test runs of late, and the lower platform cost of FreeSync is one of the strongest arguments for an RX Vega card you can make.Newegg is making it easy to step into premium FreeSync today with a flash deal on the Nixeus EDG 27 display . This monitor has a 27", 2560x1440 IPS panel with a 4-ms gray-to-gray response time and a 144-Hz refresh ...Read more...

To the chagrin of many, AMD has roped off access to the liquid-cooled version of its Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics card to individuals buying one of the company's Radeon packs. Prospective buyers that want an RX Vega card with extra thermal performance will soon have another option thanks to the German PC enthusiasts at Alphacool. The company's Eiswolf 120 GPX-Pro ATI RX Vega all-in-one cooler and Nexxxos GPX ATI RX Vega waterblock splash some fluid on AMD's Radeon RX Vega graphics cards. ...Read more...

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm all about fast cars and Alizée. Wait, that's Dr. Dre. I am actually a connoisseur of speedy computer monitors, and I've had my eye on Asus' upcoming ROG Strix XG27VQ for a while now. Asus has delivered the full details on the display, and it looks like a doozy: it's a 27" curved monitor with a 144-Hz refresh rate, FreeSync support, a blur-reduction mode, and a high-contrast VA panel. ...Read more...

Last spring, Microsoft introduced Windows 10 S, a slimmed-down version of its operating system primarily designed for use in educational institutions. School-age children are famously rough on computer hardware, though. Asus's new VivoBook W202NA notebook puts Windows 10 S in a machine that's designed to take a beating and keep on working. ...Read more...

Gamers looking for a potent, upgradeable PC with plenty of CPU grunt and pixel-pushing horsepower have more choices than ever these days. MSI is adding its Infinite A line of gaming PCs to the options. All Infinite A models pack Intel's locked Core i7-7700 quad-core processor and an Nvidia Pascal graphics card vertically mounted on a microATX motherboard with an Intel B250 chipset. The PC's gaming chops are on full display thanks to a tinted tempered glass side panel and MSI's Mystic Light RGB Illumination. ...Read more...

If you've been eyeing Lian Li's dual-chambered tempered glass O Series cases but just don't have the room for one, you're in for a treat. The aluminum case aficionados have just announced the PC-Q39. Folks familiar with Lian Li's nomenclature will already know, but for the rest of you: this is a Mini-ITX take on the O Series concept. ...Read more...

It always seemed a bit strange to me that Razer would name its mice after venomous snakes, given the eater-eaten relationship between the two animals. Stranger still, the peripheral and laptop maker sticks to this nomenclature for wireless mice that probably should be named after hamsters or some other tail-free rodent. In any case, the company's latest pointing device is the Atheris, named after the genus of venomous serpents commonly called bush vipers. ...Read more...

AIO kit makes it easy to join the cool kids' liquid cooling club, but even a 360-mm radiator can't provide enough thermal dissipation for some scenarios. Alphacool is stepping up to meet demand for larger AIO radiators with its Eisbaer 420 kit, including (as one might guess) a 420-mm radiator and three of the company's Eiswind 140-mm high-static-pressure fans. ...Read more...

8² + 15² = 17²

Among Adata's M.2 offerings that we saw at Computex, the most striking was surely the XPG SX9000. Besides the flashy red PCB and top-of-the-range branding, Adata presented this model as its fastest SSD to date. The company dropped us a line to let us know that the drives are out now in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB capacities. ...Read more...

Time was when Cherry MXs were just about the only game in town for mechanical keyboard switches. However, with the recent explosion of gaming peripherals, mechanical keyboards of all kinds have flooded the market packing all sorts of new switch types. The latest keyboard from SteelSeries is the Apex M750, and it features the company's new in-house-developed switches and per-key RGB LED lighting. ...Read more...

We wouldn't usually talk about a microATX motherboard as being miniature-sized. Yet, in the world of high-end desktops, that form factor is positively petite. It's difficult enough to cram all the hardware for a standard desktop mobo into a smaller size. When the intended CPUs have quad-channel memory and a plethora of PCIe connectivity, things can get trickier still. MSI is up to the challenge, though: bear witness to the new X299M Gaming Pro Carbon AC. ...Read more...

Gamers love to complain about the AI in many different ways. In the NES era, computer-controlled opponents were called "cheap." In FPS games, the opponents in single-player games are usually nothing but stupid cannon fodder. In games like the ill-fated Daikatana, friendly bots would hold the player back from completing the mission objective. But times have changed. After machines achieved success playing chess, Go, and poker, AI bots from Elon Musk's OpenAI venture have now defeated some of the best professional players in the world in one-on-one matches in Valve's popular Dota 2 MOBA. ...Read more...

When we reported last Thursday that Consumer Reports (CR) would no longer be recommending Surface devices, some gerbils expressed concern at the fact that CR's reliability data was seemingly based on consumer self-reporting. Today, Microsoft-centric analyst Paul Thurrott revealed that he has come into possession of what he claims is a leaked memo from the Redmond giant. Among other remarks, Thurrott says that the memo confirms the high return rates for the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book devices, apparently justifying CR's decision.Thurrott didn't publish the text of the memo itself, though he offers a handful of thoughts on it. The memo apparently admits that the devices had issues early ...Read more...

Well, for everyone who's been waiting for Vega—yours truly included—today's the day. The cards are out, and it's time to put up or shut up. The thing is, there doesn't seem to be anything to put up for. Our pals over at Newegg have no less than fifteen listings for the new graphics cards: one for each Vega 64 model (black air-cooled, silver air-cooled, and liquid-cooled) from manufacturers Gigabyte, MSI, Powercolor, XFX, and Sapphire. However, at this time, all the cards are displayed as being sold out. ...Read more...

AMD is hogging the headlines in the world of computer graphics today with the launch of the Radeon RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64 graphics cards, but Nvidia's engineers have also been hard at work. The GeForce 385.28 driver update was prepared especially for Volition's Agents of Mayhem, Gaijin Entertainment's Crossout MMO, and Tripwire Interactive's Killing Floor: Incursion VR horror game. ...Read more...

When it built the SC17 1070 laptop, EVGA packed about as much CPU horsepower and graphics muscle as one could reasonably hope to fit into an envelope 1.1" thick. The GeForce GTX 1070 in the machine was probably a bit overmatched by the 4K display, even with the benefit of G-Sync support. EVGA is back to remedy that situation with the SC17 1080, a notebook that boasts a GeForce GTX 1080 and an Intel Core i7-7820HK unlocked quad-core processor. ...Read more...

Nvidia put its earnings report for the second fiscal quarter of 2018 on the table yesterday. As one might expect given the company's dominance of the profitable high-end gaming sector and the money-printing GPU compute market, the company's financials were up across the board compared to last year. Reported revenue was a company-record $2.23 billion, up 56% from $1.43 billion in Q2 2017. Operating income saw even larger boosts, displaying a Q2 2018 figure of $688 million, 117% higher than the same period a year ago. The company reported GAAP gross margins of 58.4% and GAAP margins of 58.6%, both representing a 0.5% increase year-over-year, but also a quarterly drop. Nvidia's CFO commentary says this drop is the result of the end of a licensing deal with Intel. ...Read more...

All you folks waiting for Godot, uh, I mean, Vega don't have much longer to wait. Sapphire just announced three cards based on the fully-enabled Vega 64 design: the Sapphire Radeon RX Vega 64, Radeon RX Vega 64 Limited Edition, and Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid-Cooled. ...Read more...

Top of the morning to ye, gerbils! The sky is blue, the temperature's just right, everyone's at the nearby beach... and I'm sitting here putting up with you lot. Hrmph. But no matter, I'm a professional, I have to rise above and provide gerbils with hardware deals. After careful sifting and searching, here's what we have for today.There's a chance you're looking for something we haven't covered. If that's the case, you can help The Tech Report by using the following referral links when you're out shopping: not only do we have a partnership with Newegg ...Read more...

These days, multi-processor machines with mounds of memory are more accessible than ever. I can run down to Newegg Business and spec out some serious firepower. The thing is, hardware support in Windows 10 Pro maxes out at two physical sockets, 256 logical cores, and 512GB of RAM. There's also no support for NVDIMMs, Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) for 10-gigabit Ethernet adapters, or ReFS (by default). If I want to run Windows on my beast box, I'm going to have to step up to Windows 10 Enterprise, and the thought of weathering its licensing process is not enticing. Fortunately, Microsoft is about to release Windows 10 Pro for Workstations that can do all those things. ...Read more...

Whatever opinion one may have about Thermaltake's gear, one must admire the company's agility in adapting its product lines to suit the fickle tastes of gamers and syle-obsessed PC enthusiasts. The company's latest display of adaptability is the Floe Riing RGB series of all-in-one liquid coolers, available with 240-mm, 280-mm, and 360-mm radiators. Thermaltake says these are the first AIO liquid coolers on the market with RGB LEDs embedded in the pump block and the radiator fans. ...Read more...

Corsair's had SSDs in its lineup for a while now. The Force Series MP500 was the company's most recent foray into the field, and we liked it enough to slap a TR Recommended award on it. However, Corsair hadn't launched a drive of the PCIe add-in card variety until today. Meet the Neutron NX500. ...Read more...

PC hardware and computing

If you're reading this site, you're surely aware that AMD's Ryzen Threadripper many-core CPUs launched this morning. AMD's new chips have four memory channels, and that means to get the best performance you need to install memory four DIMMs at a time. Ryzen is famously picky about memory at high speeds, but never fear—G.Skill is here with new Flare X-series quad-channel kits specifically for Threadripper. ...Read more...

Microsoft's Surface line of mobile devices has a lot of fans, including our own Bruno "morphine" Ferreira. Consumer Reports (CR) has traditionally been part of that fan club, giving various devices a place on its recommendations list. However, the magazine has now removed the "recommended" designation for all mobile Surface models after receiving tens of thousands of complaints from readers. The news is headlined by a two-year problem report rate of 25%, suggesting that a quarter of all Surface owners will experience problems with their devices by their second year of ownership. ...Read more...

Do you regularly trek into active volcanoes? What about into the Antarctic? Protecting the rest of the PC is up to you, but Adata can at least make sure your data will be safe. The company just launched two industrial-grade M.2 SSDs, the beautifully-named IM2S3338 and IM2S3334. The IM2S3338 uses 3D TLC flash memory while the IM2S3334 can be had in MLC or TLC flavors.

In our Ryzen Threadripper cooler roundup post we noticed that AMD's Threadripper coolers page listed Arctic's Freezer 33 as compatible, yet the cooler's product page mentioned there was no TR4 socket support. Arctic's release of the special Freezer 33 TR version of the tower cooler now clarifies the issue. ...Read more...

Bad news: despite consuming the better part of a Coke Zero 12-pack overnight and typing until my fingers went numb, my Ryzen Threadripper review is just not ready for prime time. I am no more happy about this state of affairs than the rest of you. That said, I do have all of the gaming and productivity results I need to finish our review; it's just putting them all in context that's the obstacle at this stage. As a consolation, here's the sum total of my labor: ...Read more...