ASUS today announced that its Z390 motherboards will support a maximum DRAM capacity of 128GB via a UEFI BIOS update that's being rolled out from today on the ASUS support site. ASUS will bring this increased memory support to all Z390 motherboards via additional BIOS updates that will be available soon.

Previously, support for 128GB of DRAM was available only on high-end desktop (HEDT) motherboards with eight DIMM slots, such as the Intel X299 platform. Intel recently updated its memory reference code (MRC), enabling the memory controller in 9th Gen Intel Core processors to increase the supported capacity of each DIMM from 16GB to 32GB, resulting in a total system memory capacity of 128GB when populated with two DIMMs per channel (2DPC) on both memory channels. This increased memory support gives users more flexibility for running memory-intensive applications and tasks.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is excited to announce a new memory specification of DDR4-3466 CL18-22-22-42 with 32GB (4x8GB) capacity configuration at 1.35V for the high performance AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor and X399 platform. This memory kit will join the G.SKILL "Trident Z RGB (for AMD)" series, also known as the TZRX models.

Previously, the highest DDR4 speed available for the AMD X399 platform from G.SKILL was DDR4-3200. G.SKILL is now expanding the specifications to DDR4-3466 under the quad-channel configuration. This kit has been validated with the ASUS ROG ZENITH EXTREME ALPHA motherboard and AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X processor, as shown in the screenshots below.

While AMD has enjoyed tremendous success in regards to their Ryzen, Threadripper, and EPYC processors penetration into the mobile market has been a bit slow. However, judging by the number of systems on display at CES 2019 that is about to change. Models from Honor, Acer, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell, ASUS, and HP. The one that immediately caught our eye was the Acer Nitro 5 which packs an AMD Ryzen 5 2500U CPU and an AMD Radeon RX 560X GPU. It also comes configured with 8 GB of memory, 256 GB SSD, IPS display and a backlit keyboard. Overall it looks to be a reliable entry level gaming system.

Next up was Dell's two offerings which were the Inspiron 5000 15 and 5000 14 2-in-1. The Inspiron 5000 15 was equipped with a 4c/8t Ryzen 5 3500U with Radeon Vega 8 graphics (512 shaders). It was also fully kitted out with 32 GB of DDR4 memory, 512 GB SSD, and a 1TB HDD making it an excellent option for productivity and heavy multitasking. Meanwhile, the 2-in-1 was equipped with a Ryzen 7 3700U which is a 4c/8t processor with Vega 10 graphics (640 shaders). It also came loaded with 16 GB of DDR4, 2 TB HDD and a 256 GB SSD giving it plenty of memory and storage space considering its more compact size.

ASUS unveiled its new flagship motherboard for the AMD platform, designed with out-of-the-box support for 2nd gen Ryzen Threadripper WX and X processors, the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Zenith Extreme Alpha. This board features an updated design aesthetic that's aligned with the company's latest ROG Extreme motherboards on Intel Z390 motherboards. The underlying PCB layout is entirely new, and different from the original Zenith Extreme, as are the heatsinks and shrouds covering various parts of the board, including a portion of its reverse side.

The I/O shroud which runs the entire length of the board is contiguous with a large RGB LED studded shroud covering the board's two M.2-2280 NVMe slots between PCIe slots. You get a U.2 port, and additional M.2 NVMe slots through the DIMM.2 riser accessory that's included with the board. ASUS has designed the CPU VRM of this board. It's still 10-phase on paper, but uses a high-end controller; and is tuned for overclocking the beastly Threadripper WX processors. Another killer feature with this board is 10 GbE wired Ethernet, driven by an Aquantia AQC-107 controller. You still get a 1 GbE driven by an i211-AT. ASUS appears to have done some cost-cutting with the WLAN card, though, which now only supports up to 1.73 Gbps 802.11ac MU-MIMO, compared to the original Zenith Extreme's 802.11ad draft controller with 4600 Mbps top-speed. The onboard audio solution is unchanged.

At CES 2019 we had the opportunity to look at Lian Li's revised PC-O11 Dynamic ROG V2 case which sees numerous improvements compared to previous iterations. It offers a tool-less quick release for all side panels along with improved radiator installation thanks to changed made to the bottom fan mount. Installing a GPU vertically is now a possibility with Lian Li going a step further by also including a seamless anti-sag bracket for stable GPU mounting. Even the dust filters have seen upgrades with the bottom fan filter now being equipped with a plastic frame for increased stability and better usability.

Enthusiasts will be happy to see improved water cooling capabilities with all radiator locations now capable of fitting thicker radiators. They also improved support allowing for the use of up to 360 mm radiator options as well. Those not interested in water cooling can instead use an included plate for more storage space while also hiding the side fan mounts. Overall it is a larger more luxurious case that has seen numerous improvements.

ASUS is excited to reveal the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix CTRL and TUF Gaming K7 gaming keyboards. The ASUS TUF Gaming K7 optical keyboard is no slouch either with faster actuation, near-instantaneous switch response time, and durability that exceeds anything mechanical switches can offer. In addition, ASUS is also introducing the ROG Gaming Keycap set (pictured below), which will allows users to personalize and add some more bling to their rigs.

NVIDIA late Sunday announced the GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card at $349. With performance rivaling the GTX 1070 Ti and RX Vega 56 on paper, and in some cases even the GTX 1080 and RX Vega 64, the RTX 2060 in its top-spec trim with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory, could go on to be NVIDIA's best-selling product from its "Turing" RTX 20-series. At the CES 2019 booth of NVIDIA, we went hands-on with a few of these cards, beginning NVIDIA's de-facto reference-design Founders Edition. This card indeed feels smaller and lighter than the RTX 2070 Founders Edition.

The Founders Edition still doesn't compromise on looks or build quality, and is bound to look slick in your case, provided you manage to find one in retail. The RTX 2060 launch will be dominated by NVIDIA's add-in card partners, who will dish out dozens of custom-design products. Although NVIDIA didn't announce them, there are still rumors of other variants of the RTX 2060 with lesser memory amounts, and GDDR5 memory. You get the full complement of display connectivity, including VirtualLink.

Cooler Master has a formidable presence at this year's CES, with the company unveiling 7 new cases. These include co-branding iterations of existing case models with the likes of ASRock Phantom Gaming and ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance. The MasterBox Q300L from last year gets TUF Gaming Alliance bodywork, which includes variations to the front panel mesh, streaks of TUF yellow, and a matte-black (somewhat gunmetal) finish for the metal bits. The ASRock Phantom Gaming renditions of the MasterBox K500 and MasterCase H500P Mesh swap out plain silver with chrome-like shades of brighter silver metallic finish, with red accents, a few more crease lines, and ASRock's favorite shade of red illuminating the fans, out of the box. This keeps up with the design scheme of ASRock Phantom Gaming series motherboards.

The new MasterBox NR400 and NR600 ATX introduce a new direction in which Cooler Master is taking its case designs - matte black, with very few creases or accents, and a subtle contrasting gray opaque band running across the mesh. The NR600 ATX is a conventional tower with a horizontally partitioned layout. The NR400 is a micro-ATX tower with a similar layout as its bigger sibling. Lastly, there are the MasterBox Q500L and Q500P, which are stretched out variations of the Q300 series, and designed for ATX builds, while retaining the cube-like appearance of their predecessors.

ASUS at CES showcased their upcoming lineup of ROG Strix gaming monitors specifically crafted for usage with AMD's FreeSync 2. The new monitors look to cater to most of the market with their diagonals and resolutions. These are premium solutions, with the smallest, the XG32VQR, sporting a 32" 1440p panel, 144 Hz native refresh rate, and VESA's HDR400 certification. The XG438Q ups the ante to a 43" panel and 4K resolution screen, with a 120 Hz base refresh rate (overclockable up to 144 Hz) and HDR 600, while the XG49VQ is of the ultra wide variety, featuring a DFHD (3840 x 1080) resolution, 144 Hz base refresh rate, and HDR 400.

All monitors feature a FreeSync 2 range of 48-120/144Hz, all employ a VA panel and a 4 ms response rating. The 43-inch sports 10-watt speakers, the 49-inch model has a pair of 5-watt speakers and the 32-inch XG32VQR lacks the completely. No pricing was available at time of writing, but these are ASUS' premium offering s for the FreeSync ecosystem, and with those specs, they likely won't come cheap.

ASUS is looking to one-up the competition in the flagship graphics card market with its ROG MATRIX rendition of the RTX 2080 Ti interpretatioin of NVIDIA's silicon. The ROG MATRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti will incorporate an AIO watercooling solution complete with waterblock, pump, radiator and fans in a triple-slot design. ASUS claims the Infinity Loop cooler will bring about performance equivalent of that of an external 240mm AIO - a bold claim, since physics and proximity of the radiator and fans themselves to the PCB and die should dictate a higher temperature than an otherwise completely external solution.

That said, the design of the Infinity Loop is likely one of the most interesting graphics card cooling designs in some time, with a completely self-contained solution. The shroud and side of the graphics card feature laser cutouts and LED-illuminated elements (because 2019 wouldn't be much different from 2018 in that regard). Out-of-the-box clocks are set at 1815 MHz before any additional overclocking, and the card takes power from 2x 8-pin power connectors. The cost? North of $1600. Now that's design, even in the price-tag.

Making its debut at CES 2019, the all-new ROG Zephyrus S GX701 takes hardcore gaming to the next level with the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs with Max-Q design and 8th Generation Intel Core i7 processor plus the GX701 doubles down on the display. It expands the 144Hz refresh rate screen to 17 inches, frames it with super-narrow bezels and adds NVIDIA G-SYNC and Optimus technology for the best gaming experience. The panel is Pantone Validated for serious content creation work before playing the latest blockbuster games.

Even with these upgrades and a much larger screen, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 maintains an impressively slender profile and surprisingly compact footprint. It's more immersive, powerful, and versatile than any Zephyrus before without sacrificing the portability that defines the family.

ASUS today announced Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix, ASUS Dual, and ASUS Turbo graphics cards that feature the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, highspeed GDDR6 memory, and real-time ray tracing capabilities. Each card is tailored for specific build types, with performance, customization, and cooling technology tuned to bring out the best of the Turing architecture and deliver outstanding performance on modern games with the graphics settings cranked up.

First up is the ROG STRIX RTX 2060, equipped a triple-fan cooling solution and ASUS' "MaxContact" technology paired with their "Wing blade fan design", offering IP5X dust resistance for durability along with a 0dB mode1 to minimize noise during light loads. The core clock is set at 1,365 MHz Base clock and 1,830 MHz Boost, with a software OC preset pushing these to 1,395 MHz and 1,860 MHz respectively. A 192-bit bus and GDDR6 6 GB GDDR6 memory are par of the course, while the display outputs are set at 2x HDMI 2.0b and 2x DisplayPort 1.4. The absence of a VirtualLink on any RTX 2060 graphics card likely means it isn't expected to be able to power VR experiences at acceptable-enough fidelity (at least for NVIDIA) and is likely a cost-cutting measure as well.

Today, AMD announced the first members of its 2019 mobility line-up encompassing all notebook segments: 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen 3000 Series Mobile Processors powering ultrathin and gaming notebooks; AMD Athlon 300 Series Mobile Processors powering mainstream notebooks with the fast and efficient "Zen"3 core; and optimized 7th Gen AMD A-Series processors, elevating performance for mainstream Chromebooks. In addition, AMD announced that starting this quarter, gamers, creators and enthusiasts will be able to install Radeon Software Adrenalin software to bring the latest GPU features and game optimizations to all systems powered by AMD Ryzen Processors with Radeon Graphics.

"Users expect mobile PCs that excel at both everyday tasks and compute-heavy experiences, and with our latest mobile processor portfolio AMD offers exactly that across all levels of the market," said Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, Client Compute, AMD. "Notebook users want to experience the latest modern features while streaming, gaming, or finishing work faster. Enabling breakthrough entertainment experiences, AMD is pleased to enable a wide range of AMD powered notebooks than ever that deliver on those expectations with blazing fast performance, rich graphics, and long battery life."

ASUS today announced TUF Gaming FX505DY and TUF Gaming FX705DY, a pair of gaming laptops powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor, with up to 32GB of RAM, and a range of storage options. This new platform is paired with discrete Radeon graphics tightly coupled to vivid FreeSync displays. Slim bezels frame the NanoEdge displays to further enhance immersion and shrink the overall footprint, while the reinforced chassis help the machines survive everyday life. Intelligently designed and carefully built, FX505DY and FX705DY balance performance, battery life, and affordability to provide a better gaming experience.

AMD's Ryzen processors have taken desktops by storm, and TUF Gaming laptops lead the deployment of the newest version. Otherwise known as Picasso, this 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile APU is built with industry-leading 12 nm technology. The Ryzen 5 3550H chip powering FX505DY and FX705DY boasts four cores and eight threads that deliver capable performance for popular games and everyday work. Multithreaded performance is particularly strong, yet the processor fits into a 35W power envelope that doesn't compromise battery life.

ASUS today announced ASUS Mini PC ProArt PA90, a new series of compact, workstation-class PCs that deliver powerful, fast and stable performance for designers and content creators. Featuring 9th Generation Intel Core processors, NVIDIA Quadro graphics, up to 64GB of high-speed DDR4 memory, Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and a triple-storage design that blends ultrafast SSD and high-capacity HDD storage, Mini PC ProArt PA90 provides uncompromising performance for computer-aided design (CAD) workflows for architecture, engineering and manufacturing in an attractively modern, compact form-factor that fits easily into any workspace.

Powered by the latest 9th Generation Intel Core i9 and Core i7 processors, which provide up to 30% better performance than the previous generation, Mini PC ProArt PA90 ensures smooth and responsive processing for content creators multitasking with the most demanding applications and working on complex projects.

Today marks the debut of the ASUS Chromebook Education series that provides lightweight, ruggedized Chrome OS computer solutions for educational use, and continues the ASUS commitment of providing an extensive range of innovative products and services for the education sector.

The series includes two traditional clamshell laptops - the 11.6-inch ASUS Chromebook C204 and the 14-inch ASUS Chromebook C403 - and the 14-inch ASUS Chromebook Flip C214 convertible. There's also a brand-new form factor introduced, with the ASUS Chromebook Tablet CT100, a stunning 9.7-inch QXGA wide-angle touch-display tablet. The new series features durability, spill- and tamper-resistant keyboards and all-around rubber bumpers to withstand the rigors that electronics often face in schools. This lineup provides educators and parents with a full-range of lightweight, ruggedized options that can cater to their specific curriculum choices and unleash the creativity and productivity of their students. The new ASUS Chromebook Education series will be available in the coming months with configurations, pricing, and availability to be announced at launch.

Thermaltake today rolled out the Pacific V-RTX 2070 Plus ASUS ROG, a full-coverage water-block designed for ASUS ROG Strix series graphics cards based on the GeForce RTX 2070. These include the ROG Strix RTX 2070 8G Gaming, A8G Gaming, and O8G Gaming. The block combines a nickel-plated copper primary material with an acrylic top embellished with steel. The top is studded with 12 addressable RGB LEDs that plug in directly to the aRGB header of the card, and take control from RGB software. You can also directly plug in the LEDs to a standard 9-pin USB 2.0 header on your motherboard. The block measures 22.6 mm x 149 mm x 286 mm (HxWxL), and takes in standard G 1/4" fittings. Also included with it is a 4 mm-thick full-coverage aluminium back-plate. The company didn't reveal pricing.

TEAMGROUP is proudly announcing the T-FORCE has done to the apex again, work with world's Korean renown overcloker, SAFEDISK, by using the T-FORCE XTREEM DDR4 4500 MHz modules all the way grabbed the world record of SUPER PI 32m calculation, successfully beat all the powerful professional overclockers from HWBOT and all over the world. This excellent performance of T-FORCE XTREEM made the possibility of completion on SUPER PI 32m calculation within 4 minutes and 5 seconds which is unbelievably amazing!

SUPER PI is a significant DRAM module overclocking benching application, also a way to check the overall module specification stability. This time T-FORCE understands need to show the high performance and stability in front of all the users. Thus works with SAFEDISKset up the test environment including T-FORCE XTREEM DDR4 4500 MHz module, Intel Core i9 9900K "Coffee Lake Refresh" CPU and ASUS ROG Maximus IX Apex motherboard. Without a doubt, the world record has been posted at HWBOT and all over the public platform in front of everyone to be the witness of all this awesome performance record from T-FORCE module.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced that the ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Wi-Fi gaming router is now available. Featuring support for the latest 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) standard, which includes a variety of new technologies that improve Wi-Fi speed and increase network capacity and coverage, ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 satisfies gamers' demands for ultrafast, networking performance and reliability. As a gaming router, it also offers numerous additional features designed to provide the best online gaming experiences, including triple-level gaming acceleration to reduce ping times and provide low latency gameplay, Game Radar to let gamers find the best game server before connecting, Open NAT for simple, three-step port forwarding and dynamic frequency selection (DFS) to avoid interference from other wireless devices.

The gaming market is one with high gross margins in the vast majority of its product lines - this is easily seen with the number of companies that have just slapped the same aesthetic look and "gaming" branding to otherwise "normal" product lines. One such instance, in particular, is the gaming monitor segment, where increasing perception of more competitiveness with higher refresh-rate monitors has brought about an urge to upgrade in the market - and not the least of which was brought about by games such as PUBG and Fortnite (the former even sparked an upgrade frenzy in China's Internet Cafes as they vied for ever more customers who would get an edge on their store over others that didn't sport these high refresh-rate monitors).

According to TrendForce's report, ASUS is the worldwide sales leader i the gaming monitor segment, followed by Acer, with AOC/Philips coming in a close third. TrendForce reports that the increased demand has seen shipment of gaming-grade (or at least branded) monitors has doubled in 2018 compared to last year, and that a sector that has increased significantly is the one of curved monitors, which has been taken up chiefly by Samsung, bringing it to the fourth spot in the manufacturer race. The curved monitor market has achieved a 50% stake in the whole of the gaming monitor, led chiefly by China's demand.

Maybe the guys at ASUS haven't noticed it, but this is probably the worst time to announce an effort to promote cryptocurrency mining. The crypto market has fallen about 80% since its peak in 2017, and this November has been an special tough month for crypto investors with Bitcoin going under $4,000 for a few days. Miners are running away and a lot of people think the bubble is finally exploding. Companies such as GIGABYTE are suffering the consequences, but ASUS seems to be quite sure that the situation isn't that bad.

They have partnered with blockchain technology provider Quantumcloud and they will encourage users to use their idle GPUs to mine cryptocurrencies. Yeah, that's right. There are no details on what crypto currencies will be mined with Quantumcloud's software, but at least ASUS is letting now those potential users that they "won't get rich quick, but you can earn some easy money with your idle GPUs". In fact there's a disclaimer telling they do not "guarantee that users of its software will make any earnings or profit" and ASUS adds that users "are responsible for considering their own usage costs". Maybe a year ago this could have been a thing, but the idea seems really uncool right now.

GeIL - Golden Emperor International Ltd. - one of the world's leading PC components and peripheral manufacturers today announced the new additions to their SUPER LUCE RGB SYNC Series DDR4 memory. The new modules are available in three capacities and speeds: 4133 MHz 16 GB (8 GB x2) CL19-19-19-39 1.40 V, 3600 MHz 16GB (8 GB x2) CL16-18-18-36 1.35 V, and 3200 MHz 16 GB (8 GB x2) CL14-14-14-34 1.35V

The 4133 MHz 16 GB (8 GB x2) CL19-19-19-39 1.40 V DDR4 kits can be the overclocker's new favorite with support for most ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI and ASROCK Z390 and Z370 motherboards as well as giving enthusiasts the room to push their systems to the limit without exception. The 3600 MHz 16GB (8 GB x2) CL16-18-18-36 1.35 V DDR4 kits meets the memory needs for any gaming system using the latest Intel platforms and is an excellent solution for first time overclockers. The 3200 MHz 16 GB (8GBx2) CL14-14-14-34 1.35 V DDR4 kits are compatible with both Intel and AMD AM4 platforms and feature a low latency design to enhance performance and offer the most affordable upgrade option for users.

ASUS has a new premium display about to be released: the 32-inch ASUS ROG Strix XG32VQR is already listed on its website, and it is an evolution of its existing ROG Strix XG32VQ. Both share 1440p resolution, VA panel, 4ms grey-to-grey response time and 1800mm curvature. The difference between both is the HDR support: the new XG32VQR has both DisplayHDR 400 and FreeSync 2 HDR certifications. The latter offers improvements in usability but also in gaming scenarios that are not covered in the VESA DisplayHDR specifications.

The peak brightness of the new monitor also goes further than its predecessor and goes from 300 to 450 nits. The display has support for a range of FreeSync refresh rates ranging from 48 to 144 Hz, which allow it to work seamlessly with Low Framerate Compensation (LFC) technology from AMD. Company spokepersons clarified a few weeks ago the confusion with the FreeSync 2 certification, and explained that "it is possible for a display to meet the FreeSync 2 HDR requirements but fail the DisplayHDR 600 minimums. Such a display may have the DisplayHDR 400 logo and the FreeSync 2 HDR logo, but it would be exceeding the minimum requirements of DisplayHDR 400".

It has been confirmed by Seasonic that their FOCUS PLUS power supplies are experiencing potential conflict with a select number of graphics cards. In regards to NVIDIA, the compatibility issue is currently limited to the ASUS GeForce GTX 970 STRIX. In limited instances, this particular graphics card can encounter a black screen under heavy load. Testing by Seasonic has determined that the issue is caused by higher than normal ripple when the GPU is heavily stressed. They also determined that solving the problem simply required using modified PCIe cables that feature enhanced shielding.

When it comes to AMD GPUs things are a bit more problematic. Both of AMD's Vega 56 and Vega 64 series of graphics cards with serial numbers before January 2018, can experience system shutdowns when paired with a FOCUS PLUS power supply. The issue is caused by higher than normal peak current being emitted by these graphics cards when under heavy load. This results in the power supply's internal protection safety being triggered. Considering Seasonic's popularity the fact these power supplies are encountering problems is likely going to be a hit to their brand image. At least they are stepping up to the plate having admitted to the problem while also investigating the root causes. They are also encouraging anyone that is encountering issues to contact them for assistance.

With multi-GPU on the decline, AMD Ryzen platform buyers are drawn to the mid-range AMD B450 chipset-based motherboards as the chipset still offers CPU overclocking features not available on its Intel counterpart, the B360 Express, helping buyers save money over X470-based products. Motherboard vendors, seeing a potential for enthusiasts seeking out B450, have each launched quasi-premium motherboards based on the chipset, such as the GIGABYTE Aorus B450 Pro, MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon, and ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming. ASUS is taking this concept further with the better-endowed new ROG Strix B450-E Gaming. This product is interesting, because ASUS hasn't yet launched a Strix-E SKU based on the AMD X470. The company included a mention of the product in its launch reveal for its AMD B450 motherboard series, and is beginning to roll the product out.

The ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming features a more premium CPU VRM than even the Strix X470-F, with a "12-phase" (likely blind-doubled 8-phase CPU with either blind-doubled 4-phase vSOC or 2+1+1), compared to the B450-F, with its 8-phase (4 CPU + 4 SOC) design. The component quality is a step up from the Strix B450-F, and so are the VRM heatsinks. ASUS added metal reinforcement for two of the board's three PCI-Express x16 slots, although the second and third slots are x4. You also get two M.2-2280 slots, one of which comes with SSD heatsink. Intel i211-AT wired 1 GbE and Intel 9260 802.11ac + Bluetooth 5 WLAN, take care of networking. The onboard audio solution is unchanged from the Strix B450-F. The ROG Strix B450-E Gaming is priced around 149.99€.