Intel on Monday rolled out the first public release of AI Playground, an AI productivity suite the company showcased in its 2024 Computex booth. AI Playground is a well-packaged suite of generative AI applications and a chatbot, which are designed to leverage Intel Arc discrete GPUs with at least 8 GB of video memory. All utilities in the suite are designed under the OpenVINO framework, and take advantage of the XMX cores of Arc A-series discrete GPUs. Currently, only three GPU models from the lineup come with 8 GB or higher amounts of video memory, the A770, A750, and A580; and their mobile variants. The company is working on a variant of the suite that can work on Intel Core Ultra-H series processors, where it uses a combination of the NPU and the iGPU for acceleration. AI Playground is open source. Intel put in effort to make the suite as client-friendly as possible, by giving it a packaged installer that looks after installation of all software dependencies.

Intel AI Playground tools include an image generative AI that can turn prompts into standard or HD images, which is based on Stable Diffusion backed by DreamShaper 8 and Juggernaut XL models. It also supports Phi3, LCM LoRA, and LCM LoRA SDXL. All of these have been optimized for acceleration on Arc "Alchemist" GPUs. The utility also includes an AI image enhancement utility that can be used for upscaling along with detail reconstruction, styling, inpainting and outpainting, and certain kinds of image manipulation. The third most important tool is the text AI chatbot with all popular LLMs.

DOWNLOAD: Intel AI Playground

Fractal Design has released the 3D printing files for their highly sought-after Raspberry Pi case, dubbed Project: North Pi. The tiny case, which caused a sensation at this year's Computex trade show, can now be produced by anyone with access to a 3D printer. The Project: North Pi case first caught the public's eye during Fractal Design's product launch at Computex, where it was used as a playback device alongside a mini computer. Its diminutive size and sleek design, reminiscent of the company's North series, quickly captured the imagination of attendees and media alike. The case's popularity even threatened to overshadow Fractal Design's other new products, including the Mood ITX case, Refine office chair, and Scape headset. Following the overwhelmingly positive response, Fractal Design has decided to share the case's design with the public.

The company has published a dedicated product page containing free downloadable files and comprehensive instructions for 3D printing the case at home. The Project: North Pi case consists of 17 components (11 unique parts) and measures a compact 105 × 50 × 96 mm size. Despite its tiny nature, the case includes space for up to two 40 mm fans behind its front panels, ensuring adequate cooling for the Raspberry Pi. This move by Fractal Design caters to the DIY community and represents a shift in how companies might approach product distribution in the future. By embracing 3D printing technology, Fractal Design has effectively turned its customers into manufacturers, potentially changing the way enthusiasts interact with and customize their tech accessories. As the 3D printing community eagerly begins to produce their own Project: North Pi cases, we wait to see different color combinations and use cases from enthusiasts.

During Computex 2024, Intel announced the next-generation compute platform for the notebook segment in the form of the Core Ultra 200V series, codenamed Lunar Lake. Set for release in September 2024, these processors are generating excitement among tech enthusiasts and industry professionals alike. According to the latest leak by VideoCardz, Intel plans to unveil nine variants of Lunar Lake, including Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 5 models, with a single high-end Core Ultra 9 variant. While exact specifications remain under wraps, Intel's focus on artificial intelligence capabilities is clear. The company aims to secure a spot in Microsoft's Copilot+ lineup by integrating its fourth-generation Neural Processing Unit (NPU), boasting up to 48 TOPS of performance. All Lunar Lake variants are expected to feature a hybrid architecture with four Lion Cove performance cores and four Skymont efficiency cores.

This design targets low-power mobile devices, striking a balance between performance and energy efficiency. For graphics, Intel is incorporating its next-generation Arc technology, dubbed Battlemage GPU, which utilizes the Xe2-LPG architecture. The leaked information suggests that Lunar Lake processors will come with either 16 GB or 32 GB of non-upgradable LPDDR5-8533 memory. Graphics configurations are expected to include seven or eight Xe2 GPU cores, depending on the model. At the entry level, the Core Ultra 5 226V is rumored to offer a 17 W base power and 30 W maximum turbo power, with performance cores clocking up to 4.5 GHz. The top-tier Core Ultra 9 288V is expected to push the envelope with a 30 W base power, performance cores boosting to 5.1 GHz, and an NPU capable of 48 TOPS. You can check out the rest of the SKUs in the table below.

Legendary overclocker Vince Lucido, aka KINGPIN, has reportedly partnered with PNY to develop next-generation GPUs for extreme overclocking. KINGPIN, known for his unparalleled expertise in pushing hardware to its limits, revealed the partnership during a recent interview with Gamers Nexus at Computex 2024. The move comes as welcome news to enthusiasts who have been eagerly awaiting KINGPIN's next venture since EVGA's departure left a noticeable gap in the high-end GPU segment. Previously, he was the leading engineer of EVGA's high-end KINGPIN designs aimed at pushing the GPU to its limits. However, since EVGA decided to leave the GPU business, KINGPIN was looking for a new company to work on the next-generation GPU designs.

This time, the company of choice for KINGPIN is now PNY. While he has been in contact with many companies like GALAX and ASUS, he claims that it would be very crowded to work there as there are "too many cooks in the kitchen" with these companies already having in-house overclockers. He has also been talking with MSI, but the company wasn't interested in making GPUs for extreme overclocking. However, PNY has been very interested in shaking up the high-end GPU market. KINGPIN claims that there is a massive hole in the high-end GPU market, and he hopes to fill it with a collaboration with PNY. Next-generation GPU designs assisted by KINGPIN will reportedly arrive for the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 series of GPUs when we hope to see the legacy EVGA left to continue at PNY.

At Computex, Realtek was showing off a new 5 Gbps switch platform which is set to bring much more affordable high-speed Ethernet switches to the consumer market. At the core of the new switch platform sits Realtek's RTL9303 which is an eight port 10 Gbps switch controller. This was released a few years ago as a low cost 10 Gbps switch IC, but as it still required third party PHYs, it never really took off. The RTL9303 is built around an 800 MHz MIPS 34Kc CPU and supports up to 1 GB of DDR3 RAM as well as 64 MB of SPI NOR Flash for the firmware.

When combined with Realtek's RTL8251B 5 Gbps PHY, the end result is a comparably low-cost 5 Gbps switch. According to Ananadtech, Realtek is expecting a US$25 price per port, which is only about $10 more per port than your typical 2.5 Gbps switch today, even though some are as little as US$10 per port. When combined with a Realtek RTL8126 PCIe based 5 Gbps NIC which retails from around US$30, 5 Gbps Ethernet looks like a very sensible option in terms of price/performance. Admittedly 2.5 Gbps Ethernet cards can be had for as little as $13, but they started out at a higher price point compared to what 5 Gbps NICs are already selling for. Meanwhile, 10 Gbps NICs are still stuck at around US$80-90, with switches in most cases costing at least US$45 per port, but often a lot more. 5 Gbps Ethernet also has the advantage of being able to operate on CAT 5e cabling at up to 60 metres and CAT 6 cabling at up 100 metres, which means there's no need to replace older cabling to benefit from it.

TechPowerUp and Team Group brought you the 2024 Computex Giveaway, giving our readers from around the world a chance to grab some of Team Group's finest pieces of hardware from across its T-Force and T-Create brands. The T-Force brand caters to bleeding edge gaming PCs and overclocking enthusiasts; while the T-Create brand makes life easy for creative professionals choosing the right memory products to go with their line of work. Up for grabs were some of the top memory and storage products from both brands. Without further ado, here are the winners!

• Daniel from Germany wins a T-Force Xtreem DDR5-7600 32 GB (2x 16 GB) memory kit
• Eugene from the United States, wins a T-Create PD20M Mag 2 TB portable SSD
• Brennan from the United States, wins a T-Create Expert Smart 1 TB SDXC Card + R31 Card Reader
• Marjan from Croatia, wins a Team Group C222 1 TB USB 3.2 flash drive

Currently, only Phison offers widely available performance PCIe 5.0 NVMe controllers for consumer SSDs, although the competition is heating up and Chinese SSD controller makers MaxioTek and InnoGrit, as well as Taiwanese Silicon Motion either have or will be releasing competing controllers this year. However, it also looks like Taiwanese Realtek will be joining the fray, albeit a tad late, as their upcoming RTS5782 PCIe 5.0 NVMe controller, but the company didn't reveal a release schedule. Although Realtek is known as a more budget friendly chipmaker, regardless of the product segment, the RTS5782 will be an 8-channel controller with support for 3600 MT/s NAND, and it will have a dedicated DRAM cache using either DDR4, LPDDR3, LPDDR4 or LPDDR4x memory. It's said to deliver sequential read speeds of up to 14 GB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 12 GB/s, with random read and write IOPS hitting 2500K.

Realtek is also working on a pair of new DRAM-less models, the PCIe 4.0 RTS5776DL and the PCIe r5.0 RTS5781DL, both having support for 4-channel flash, but still supporting NAND speeds of up to 3600 MT/s. Engineering samples of the RTS5776DL are expected to be available before the end of this year, and it's said to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 7400 MB/s and random read and write IOPS of 1200K. The RTS5781DL will enter the engineering sample stage in the beginning of 2025 and will up the sequential read and write performance to 10 GB/s and the random read and write IOPS to 1400K. In addition to the new NVMe controllers, Realtek also had its RTS5736DL on display at Computex, which the company claims is the world's lowest power DRAM-less SATA SSD controller, that also supports size of up to 8 TB. Realtek claims the RTS5736DL is an ideal solution to pair with a USB 3.x bridge chip for external drives.

Leader in PC gaming components, products and pre-builts, NZXT, has unveiled a new line of products that refine the PC-building experience for gamers. Revealed at Computex 2024, NZXT's new products further highlight its commitment to help gamers obtain a gaming PC in the simplest way possible. Whether gamers decide to build it from scratch, upgrade their existing rig, or purchase a pre-built custom gaming PC, NZXT has them covered. The innovative F-Series RGB Core single-frame fans lead the lineup, a reimagined NZXT H7 Flow and high-performance C-Series ATX 3.1 power supplies converge to make this product reveal one of the best of the year in gaming PC hardware.

As a simpler alternative to modular fan connections and daisy chains, the new F240, F280, and F360 RGB Core single-frame fans combine multiple high-performance fans into a seamless, all-in-one design. The RGB Core single-frame fans simplify installation by reducing the number of cables and screws needed, streamlining the building process and cleaning up the overall look. The single 8-pin cable combines RGB and PWM connections, which can be directly managed via the new NZXT Control Hub (available Q3 2024) or connected to any 5 V ARGB and fan port on a motherboard using a splitter for flexibility.

The race is on for memory manufacturers to bring the next generation GDDR7 graphics memory into mass production. While rivals Samsung and Micron are aiming to have GDDR7 chips available in Q4 of 2024, South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix revealed at Computex 2024 that it won't kick off mass production until the first quarter of 2025. GDDR7 is the upcoming JEDEC standard for high-performance graphics memory, succeeding the current GDDR6 and GDDR6X specifications. The new tech promises significantly increased bandwidth and capacities to feed the appetites of next-wave GPUs and AI accelerators. At its Computex booth, SK Hynix showed off engineering samples of its forthcoming GDDR7 chips, with plans for both 16 Gb and 24 Gb densities.

The company is targeting blazing-fast 40 Gbps data transfer rates with its GDDR7 offerings, outpacing the 32 Gbps rates its competitors are starting with on 16 Gb parts. If realized, higher speeds could give SK Hynix an edge, at least initially. While trailing a quarter or two behind Micron and Samsung isn't ideal, SK Hynix claims having working samples now validates its design and allows partners to begin testing and qualification. Mass production timing for standardized memories also doesn't necessarily indicate a company is "late" - it simply means another vendor secured an earlier production window with a specific customer. The GDDR7 transition is critical for SK Hynix and others, given the insatiable demand for high-bandwidth memory to power AI, graphics, and other data-intensive workloads. Hitting its stated Q1 2025 mass production target could ensure SK Hynix doesn't fall too far behind in the high-stakes GDDR7 race, with faster and higher-density chips to potentially follow shortly after volume ramp.

At Computex 2024, we discovered in Sharkoon's booth, among many other products, the latest additions to its keyboard portfolio: the Sharkoon SGK50 PBT Wood series. These newly announced mechanical keyboards have one particular thing - they are made of wood (body, baseplate, palm rest). To quote Sharkoon, "they are the world's first wooden mechanical keyboards to be mass-produced," so we can expect decent prices for something that was previously considered a premium, limited-edition product. They do look really nice and we already can see them fit to those who appreciate classic, elegant design with a touch of wood.

The keyboards come in three sizes: a 60% model, the SGK50 S2 PBT Wood; a 75% one, the SGK50 S3 PBT Wood; and the full-size 96% format known as SGK50 S4 PBT Wood. The primary difference lies in their size, as the internal components are the same - based on Sharkoon's SGK50 with Gateron G Pro 3.0 Yellow switches and a hot-swap PCB for 3-pin and 5-pin switches. Interestingly, each keyboard is unique in appearance, as the base is CNC-milled from a single piece of wood, giving them slight visual differences. We don't have an exact date for when these wooden mechanical keyboards will be available in stores. However, the prices seem to range from €149.9 to €169.9.

Xigmatek made huge strides in the case design game this year at Computex. The pillarless left-corner has been a recurring theme with cases this year, but Xigmatek took things up a notch or two. Firstly, it incorporated the seamless pillarless design element, where two separate glass panels don't meet at the pillarless corner creating a glass seam, but rather a single glass panel curves around the edge. Secondly, some of its case designs have clear glass top-panels. The Pano series is a great place to start our coverage. The Pano and Pano Arctic, are black and white trims of the baseline Pano case, with its seamless-pillarless design. You still get a panoramic view of your build, but the top panel metal, with a 3x 120 mm fan/radiator mount.

The vertically partitioned case sees the right compartment end just before the side-facing fan-vents, which are recessed, so even with a thick radiator and fans, nothing gets in the way of a long graphics card. The left compartment has at least 10 cm of crawl space, because the PSU is mounted sideways. This means ample room for motherboards with backside connectivity. The Pano Ultra is 25% larger in volume than the Pano, and has the same layout, except the top panel is now glass, and the bottom panel is designed such that a radiator installation there wouldn't interference with an add-on card installed in the last slot of the motherboard—so there's a compartment down there, you can install a few 3.5-inch drives if you don't have a radiator.

Thermalright brought several new CPU and M.2 SSD coolers to the 2024 Computex. Our tour of the Thermalright Computex booth began with the HR10, a high-performance active cooling solution for M.2-2280 SSDs. Its design involves an aluminium base from which two heatpipes draw heat from the drive, pushing it through an aluminium fin-stack, which is ventilated by a 40 mm fan. The cooler comes in two trims—black and silver/chrome. The Frozen Infinity 360 is the company's flagship AIO liquid CPU cooler. It features a 360 mm radiator, a cube-shaped pump-block which features an infinite-reflection ARGB ornament. Each of the three included 120 mm fans has infinite reflection ARGB diffusers along their sides. The cooler comes in black- and white trims.

The Thermalright Royal Lord is a thick single fin-stack (U-type) CPU cooler. It features a large CPU base that supports HEDT processors, seven 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heatpipes, fully soldered construction, and a high static-pressure 120 mm fan with a fluid-dynamic bearing. This cooler supports large CPU sockets such as the Intel Socket E, or AMD sTR5. The Thermalright Burst Assassin 120 EVO, much like the Royal Lord, is a single fin-stack heatsink, but with a narrower fin-stack, a brushed metal 2-tone top-plate, and two 120 mm fans in push-pull configuration, instead of just one. This cooler uses six 6 mm-thick heatpipes, and has dark powder-coating along all its metal bits.

Valkyrie brought an exhaustive lineup of CPU coolers to the 2024 Computex. This is also the only manufacturer we've come across that put a color display on top of a tower-type CPU cooler, a feature that've we've seen catch on with nearly every AIO liquid CPU cooler manufacturer. There are air coolers with displays on top, but those are LED segment displays putting out basic information such as temperature readings from ACPI. The company displayed an aluminium fin-stack cooler with a large top-plate that has a color display embedded in it, under its Loki brand. The top-plate is wider than the heatsink, but matches the width of the cooler when you install a 120 mm fan. So for those squeamish about liquid cooling, here's a neat alternative.

The Valkyrie Loki series also includes air coolers without this display, replaced by anime art and ARGB LED diffusers. We've seen single fin-stack coolers with dual-fan ventilation (push-pull), and dual fin-stack coolers under the Loki, Merlin, and Mist brands. Switching gears to the liquid cooling lineup, and we see the all-black Valkyrie Dracula, characterized by high static-pressure fluid dynamic bearing fans, and a concealing side mounts for the fans that give the three individual fans the appearance of a compound fan. The model shown at Computex featured a 360 mm x 120 mm radiator.

MAXSUN's brand and products might not be well-known in the West, however, in Asia and China they have built a solid reputation over the years. It offers products such as motherboards and graphics cards that strike a good balance between price, performance, and build quality. MAXSUN might lack the capacity to manufacture in large volumes, however some of their products are perfectly capable of performing on par with similar mid-range models from top-tier brands like Gigabyte or ASUS, all at a lower price, making them an option to consider for users on tight budgets.

At this year's Computex, MAXSUN showcased a diverse range of motherboard models in various form factors for both Intel and AMD platforms. Our attention was drawn to four models supporting Intel CPUs: the unique MS-Terminator B760BKB D5, MS-Terminator H770YTX D5 WIFI, the surprisingly beautiful MS-iCraft B760M CROSS, and what seems to be one of the MS-Terminator Next-Gen motherboard for Intel Arrow Lake-S.

Silicon Motion's SM2508 was first revealed in August last year at the Flash Memory Summit 2023, but after that things went pretty quiet. However, the company was demoing the SM2508 up and running at Computex this past week and it's set to edge out Phison's E26 Max14um in the battle of fastest NVMe SSD controller. We're not talking about any massive gains here, but the reference drive from Silicon Motion was shown running CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 at the show and if we do a rough comparison to a Phison E26 Max14um, the SM2508 beats Phison by about 800 MB/s in sequential read performance and 500 MB/s in sequential write performance.

This might not seem like a whole lot, but the SM2508 is built on TSMC's N6 node which results in a 3.5 Watt peak power consumption, or 7 Watts for the entire SSD at load. A typical Phison E26 based SSD draws in excess of 11 Watts of power at full load, which is a big difference in a mobile device. This should obviously also lead to lower thermals and we should finally see PCIe 5.0 drives that don't need massive heatsinks or active cooling. In fact, 7 Watts power draw is very similar to Phison's E18 PCIe 4.0 based SSDs. Silicon Motion is still working on fine tuning the firmware for the SM2508, so performance might yet improve to reach the promised 14 GB/s write performance. Currently the random performance is also looking a bit on the weak side compared to Phison. According to Tom's hardware, we should see the first drives with the Silicon Motion SM2508 appear in the market sometime in Q4 this year.

XIGMATEK brought a huge selection of cases to the 2024 Computex, but they also unveiled several new CPU coolers and power supplies, which we'll cover in this article. The Loki M L750 and Loki M L850 are mainstream full-modular PSUs. These meet ATX 3.1 and PCIe Gen 5.1 specs, and put out a modern 12V-2x6 power connector. Under the hood, these feature a single +12 V rail design with DC-to-DC switching, active PFC, and 80 Plus Bronze efficiency. Cooling these PSUs are 120 mm fans tuned for low-noise.

XIGMATEK showed us three models of AIO liquid CPU coolers, the Frozr-O III, and the Frozr Connect Arctic series. The Frozr-O III come in sizes of up to 360 mm x 120 mm, with addressable RGB LEDs for the fans, and the pump-block. This comes in white and black. There is a premium variant of this cooler with a softer lighting diffuser on the pump, some tubing combs, higher static-pressure fans, and what looks like a thicker radiator.

While cases dominated the Zalman booth at Computex 2024, the company also had several cooling and power solutions to show off. We begin our tour with the TGR Lena, an ergonomic keyboard with a Split Alice tenkeyless layout. This TKL layout isn't exactly 80%, as the keyboard lacks a function key row. To the left of the QWERTY cluster is a set of macro keys, the keyboard on display had keycaps from Zalman's Rubrehose collection. The TGR Jane V3 Rubrehose Edition is a limited production run keycap set meant for buyers of the GMK Rubrehose Edition TKL keyboard.

Switching gears, and the only new cooling product we could spot at Zalman's Computex 2024 booth, are the new ZM-AF120 series case fans. These come in black and white trims, both with frosted white impellers, and addressable RGB LED illumination. The fan takes in 4-pin PWM for its main function, turns between 600 and 2,000 RPM, pushing 69.12 CFM of airflow, at a maximum noise output of 29.7 dBA. It takes in 3-pin ARGB for the lighting. The fans feature hydro-dynamic bearings, which are generally rated for high endurance.

It's all about power supplies and more in Super Flower's booth at Computex 2024, where we've seen their newest power solutions alongside products like liquid and air coolers, fans, and PC cases. The Leadex VII PSU series receives two new models. The Zillion family gets two cases (Direct and Insight) and a small form factor, 1000 W PSU. On the cooling solutions side, Super Flower introduced a new 420 mm AIO, a new Cooldex CPU air cooler, and the Megacool 120 mm reverse fans.

The two new PSUs from Leadex VII series come as 1200 W 80 Plus Platinum and 1300 W 80 Plus Gold models. Both are ATX 3.1 and PCIe Gen 5.1 ready featuring a compact size with 125 mm length, full japanese capacitors and patented Universal Super Connector, this allows you to plug CPU, PCI-E and peripherals freely in any of the 9-pin PSU sockets. The Zillion SFX 1000 W 80 Plus Platinum PSU come with standard SFX dimension.

Zalman Z10 DS Black is quite the eye-catcher at the 2024 Computex. The HYTE Y70 Touch built a whole new niche of cases that utilized its 5th side (front-left corner edge) to have a touchscreen that spanned the height of the case. The Zalman DS Black takes things up a notch. While it may not be a 5-sided case like the Y70, it uses the front-facing glasshouse to position a 15.6-inch display with 16:9 aspect ratio, and 1080p resolution. This display connects to your graphics card, and can be used as a second monitor, ideally dedicated to displaying widgets, gadgets, monitoring tools, or visualizations. Unlike the display in the Y70 Touch, Zalman's display isn't a touchscreen. If you don't need the monitor inside the case, Zalman provides a kit with which the panel can be turned into a regular desktop monitor, and get replaced in the case with a regular mesh intake.

The Z10 DS Black is an ATX mid-tower that measures 474 mm x 220 mm x 488 mm (LxWxH), with clearances for graphics cards up to 39.5 cm in length, and CPU coolers up to 17.3 cm in height. The horizontally partitioned case features 8 fan mounts, three 120 mm along the top, two side-facing, two along the bottom, and one at the rear. The Zalman P40 Snow White is a design evolution over the pillarless cases we've come across this year. While most such cases tend to have glass panels along the front and left side, without a pillar between them, the P40 Snow White even does away with the metal top panel, so you have glass on three sides, without pillars where they meet each other. It's just that the top-left corner has a trigonal metal joint for the three panels to align.

NuPhy is a bespoke gaming and studio keyboard brand, which brought several popular keyboard models from its lineup to Computex 2024. The HE-series is the most cyberpunk-looking of the lot, with its aluminium handle, alloy body, a metal programmable scrollwheel and a few physical knobs. Every functional aspect of the keyboard is configurable, including the keycaps, custom-sized buttons, knobs, and the key switches themselves. The keyboard features a massive 4000 mAh battery, and electronics that support 8000 Hz interface polling rate. 2.4 GHz is the faster wireless interface, Bluetooth is the more convenient albeit slower interface, and then there's always USB.

The Neon series is an interesting disaggregated 85% format keyboard. The 60% portion of it is disjointed from the Numpad that has a knob. Both portions connect to the PC as two separate keyboards. The Halo series is a 65% keyboard meant for high-comfort productivity and gaming. The example shown has a UK ISO layout, but you can order the keyboard with US ANSI, or any popular international layout. The Gem series are compact Tenkeyless keyboards with an aluminium body, and matching keycaps. The NuFolio is a compact 55% keyboard meant to be paired with tablets, such as the iPad Pro. The Halo 75 V2 is built on the same essential design philosophy as the Gem, but in a 75% layout.

Kailh is probably the most popular mechanical keyboard switch manufacturer after Cherry in terms of design wins. The company has a formidable lineup of keyboard switches across all popular form-factors, and technologies. We begin our tour of their Computex 2024 booth with the Chocolate switch. The casing of this switch appears like the trapezoid pieces of a chocolate bar. This switch is typically meant for low-profile keyboards. There are three variants of these switches based on actuation force, actuation point, and key travel.

Kailh brought both Hall Effect switches and Magnetic (Reed) switches to Computex. They're both analog key switches that let you configure actuation point, and have several applications to the analog input, but have different mechanisms from each other. Kailh has several variants of both kinds of switches based on tactile feedback. Next up, are Kailh's digital (regular) key switches, which include Box-type conventional mechanical switches, and optical keyboard switches. The optical switch has the least latency among all key switches. The box type switches use a mechanism that converts electrical contact a spring-loaded switch to actuation.

ssupd, Lian Li's sister brand, is making an appearance at Computex 2024 with the launch of its newest FANTACY fan series and the XHUTTLE ATX case. The FANTACY fans are ssupd's first foray into the system fan market, and they come packed with a few features. Utilizing a magnetic series connection system, up to seven FANTACY fans can be daisy-chained together, minimizing cable clutter. While seven fans can be connected, SSUPD recommends using a maximum of six for optimal performance. One of the standout features of the FANTACY fans is their double-sided annular halo design. Each fan has two independently controllable LED rings, allowing users to create unique lighting effects on the front and back of the fans. The fans' matte and transparent sides ensure that the lighting effects are visible from all angles.

At Computex 2024, the GAMDIAS booth had many new things to show. Leading the charge is the NESO P1 PRO Dual Chamber Full-Tower Case. This case boasts three built-in 120 mm ARGB PWM fans, providing top-notch cooling performance and mesmerizing visual effects. Its magnetic modular pedestals offer versatile orientation options, while the user-friendly motherboard assembly design simplifies upgrades and maintenance. With support for the latest RTX 40 series GPU and a rotatable PCIe slot, the NESO P1 PRO allows builders to choose their desired component rotation for the showcase.

Complementing the impressive case lineup is the ATLAS Series, which includes the P, M, and E Series in both black and white color options. These cases feature customized monitors that display real-time system information and ambient temperatures, keeping you always informed. Three built-in 120 mm ARGB PWM fans ensure optimal cooling, while panoramic tempered glass panels showcase your build's beauty.

At Computex 2024, GAMDIAS had a booth showcasing their newest cooling solutions. First up, the BOREAS P2-82L Dual-Tower Air Cooler combines high-end cooling performance with a touch of modern flair. Boasting a dual-tower heatsink with eight copper heat pipes and a copper base plate, it ensures efficient heat dissipation from even the most demanding processors. However, what truly sets this cooler apart is its integrated LCD monitor, which allows users to monitor system temperatures and enjoy animated displays, adding a touch of personalization to their setups. Wrapped in a sleek all-black finish, the BOREAS P2-82L is designed for CPUs with high TDPs cooled by air.

Not to be outdone, the GAMDIAS CHIONE M4 ELITE Series LCD Liquid Cooler has also appeared with an exciting design. This liquid cooler is available in 360 mm and 240 mm black/white variants and features an upgraded fluid running system that delivers exceptional thermal performance. Designed with a patented PWM pump and hydraulic PWM fans, the M4 ELITE promises whisper-quiet operational efficiency while maintaining a clean, clutter-free aesthetic thanks to its hidden cable routing. However, the true standout feature is the 3.4-inch LCD on the CPU pump/block combo, which can be customized using the ZEUS CAST software with real-time monitoring data and personalized backgrounds.

Varmilo's Computex 2024 booth was a keyboard enthusiast's dream, showcasing an array of mechanical keyboards and accessories from various series. Among the highlights was the Varmilo FK2, a unique keyboard/game controller hybrid featuring rapid triggers and the ability to change actuation points that caught our eye. Resembling an oversized mousepad in thickness, it features 14 large buttons (Cherry MX Multipoint Silver switches) designed for ambidextrous or one-handed control, making it ideal for gaming or specialized applications. Recently launched in Japan and receiving positive feedback, the FK2 represents Varmilo's innovative approach to input devices.

Noteworthy was the VA 100 series, which stands out with its magnetic front and backplates for quick customization and ample storage space on the backplate. These keyboards come equipped with Kailh Prestige switches, Cherry PBT keycaps, and an impressive 8000mAh battery. For those who prefer a more minimalist aesthetic, Varmilo offers the Minilo Pro 98%, a refined version of the original Minilo series with a slightly reduced footprint, catering to users who value compact design and functionality.More images follow: