A member of GIGABYTE's gaming subreddit has shared a worrying HWiNFO diagnostics readout accompanied by a simple title: "X870E AORUS XTREME AI TOP Chipset with AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D—Chipset 2 (xHCI) 109.9 °C." Xabiro's initial post attracted replies that disclosed additional feedback regarding higher than expected temperature measurements. Another member—RyanOCallaghan01—exclaimed in the comments section: "damn. I am having the same problem, Chipset 2 is almost reaching 100 degrees Celcius, and I have not even got a high-powered GPU installed. I have seen your image and starting to suspect mine may be the same." The original poster proceeded to disassemble their thermally-challenged X870E AORUS XTREME AI TOP specimen, and quickly identified the root cause—affecting one of the board design's two daisy-chained Promontory 21 chipsets.

Xabiro described this problem-solving process: "I removed the heat sink and actually the top AMD chipset is not touching the heat sink no matter what I do...I didn't have any GPU installed yet, but I just solved (the temperature problem) yesterday, with thermal paste combined with Thermal Grizzly (TG) KryoSheet, just because I didn't have TG Putty Pro. Now the maximum temperature is 65 °C—also on the bottom one was just changed to TG Kryonaut, and it is under 50 °C. Quite ironically, GIGABYTE recently engaged in some public mocking of a troubled ASUS motherboard feature. Xabiro suspected that the X870E AORUS XTREME AI TOP mainboard's EZ Latch Plus GPU quick release system is preventing good contact between surfaces. They observed that: "the plastic ornament which goes from the PCIe to the release button is too high and the top part of the heat sink stays on it, and just simply cannot touch the chipset die."

CoolIT Systems (CoolIT), the world's leader in liquid cooling for computing, will showcase its latest liquid cooling technologies at NVIDIA GTC 2025. In addition to displaying CoolIT's highest-density coolant distribution units (CDUs), CoolIT's booth will feature its innovative cold plate cooling systems for next-generation AI systems.

"At GTC we are excited to reveal our next-generation AI cold plate systems that NVIDIA's server manufacturing partners can leverage to fast-track the development of their direct liquid-cooled servers," said Brandon Peterson, SVP of Business Development.

At Embedded World 2025, Congatec unveiled an acetone-based heat pipe cooling solution explicitly engineered for sub-zero operating environments. The system addresses thermal management challenges in extreme cold conditions where traditional cooling mechanisms risk freezing and component damage. Yes, even at sub-zero environments the CPU still needs a dissipation medium as its heat density is still a problem. Operating reliably at temperatures as low as -40°C, the technology utilizes acetone's -95°C freezing point to maintain thermal transfer functionality in arctic environments. The solution resolves a fundamental limitation of water-based systems, which become inoperable at their 0°C freezing threshold. Despite water's superior latent heat of vaporization (2,260 J/g), its physical properties render it unsuitable for extreme cold applications.

Acetone's thermal properties prevent ice formation and reduce condensation risks, creating a stable heat transfer mechanism for polar research, high-altitude infrastructure, cold storage, and industrial automation in harsh climates. Imagine an edge server operating in the North Pole, needing to collect and process data locally before getting it to the research/scientist team. The solution integrates directly with Congatec's Computer-on-Module (COM) portfolio, including COMe, COM-HPC, and COM-HPC mini designs, eliminating the need for custom cooling system development. An optional heat pipe adapter will be available for specialized implementations. The company clarified that acetone-based cooling is purpose-built exclusively for extreme cold environments rather than general applications, as water remains superior for conventional temperature ranges due to its greater heat dissipation capacity, lower cost, and widespread availability.

Cooler Master, a global leader in PC components and tech lifestyle solutions, today announced a new range of products that enhance cooling efficiency, offer streamlined form factors, and deliver reliable power for diverse computing needs. From the space-conscious Ncore 100 Air case to updates in the MasterLiquid and Hyper series, Cooler Master continues its focus on performance-driven, user-friendly designs.

"We're excited to introduce a fully integrated lineup that supports PC builders at every level," said Jimmy Sha, CEO of Cooler Master. "From the compact Ncore 100 Air case to our latest MasterLiquid and Hyper coolers, SickleFlow Edge fans, and the MWE Gold V3 PSU, each product underscores our goal of blending performance, reliability, and style into every build."

Thermaltake, a leading PC DIY brand for premium hardware solutions, is thrilled to introduce the new-colored additions to the CT EX ARGB Sync PC Cooling Fan and CT EX Reverse ARGB Sync PC Cooling Fan in Racing Green, Gravel Sand, Bumblebee, and Pink. Thermaltake continues to merge style and technology, offering bold and edgy color options that allow users to personalize their setups.

The CT EX ARGB Sync PC Cooling Fan series is now available in eight colors: Black, White, Matcha Green, Hydrangea Blue, Racing Green, Gravel Sand, Bumblebee, and Pink. Furthermore, it includes 120/140 mm sizes in both standard and reversed blade versions. With these diverse selections, PC builders can effortlessly create unique aesthetics that perfectly complement Thermaltake's chassis lineup.

Supply chain insiders believe that NVIDIA's "Blackwell Ultra" GB300 AI chip design will get a formal introduction at next week's GTC 2025 conference. Jensen Huang's keynote presentation is scheduled—the company's calendar is marked with a very important date: Tuesday, March 18. Team Green's chief has already revealed a couple of Blackwell B300 series details to investors; a recent earnings call touched upon the subject of a second half (of 2025) launch window. Industry moles have put spotlights on the GB300 GPU's alleged energy hungry nature. According to inside tracks, power consumption has "significantly" increased when compared to a slightly older equivalent; NVIDIA's less refined "Blackwell" GB200 design.

A Taiwan Economic Daily news article predicts an upcoming "second cooling revolution," due to reports of "Blackwell Ultra" parts demanding greater heat dissipation solutions. Supply chain leakers have suggested effective countermeasures—in the form of fully liquid-cooled systems: "not only will more water cooling plates be introduced, but the use of water cooling quick connectors will increase four times compared to GB200." The pre-Christmas 2024 news cycle proposed a 1400 W TDP rating. Involved "Taiwanese cooling giants" are expected to pull in tidy sums of money from the supply of optimal heat dissipating gear, with local "water-cooling quick-connector" manufacturers also tipped to benefit greatly. The UDN report pulled quotes from a variety of regional cooling specialists; the consensus being that involved partners are struggling to keep up with demand across GB200 and GB300 product lines.

Bitspower, KRAMBU, and XFX have joined forces to bring advanced liquid-cooling solutions to AMD's cutting-edge RDNA 4.0 architecture. As AI workloads demand ever-increasing processing power, efficient thermal management is crucial to unlocking peak performance and long-term reliability. By integrating Bitspower's industry-leading cooling technology with KRAMBU's expertise in high-performance computing and XFX's GPU innovation, this partnership delivers a powerful, scalable solution for data centers and enterprise applications.

Designed for maximum efficiency, these liquid-cooled servers support up to 20 GPUs per system, significantly increasing computing density and accelerating AI, machine learning, and data analytics workloads. At the heart of these systems is AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT, built on the 5 nm RDNA 4 Navi 48 architecture, which boasts 25% greater transistor density than NVIDIA's Blackwell GPUs—packing 53.9 billion transistors into a die smaller than GB203. By maintaining lower temperatures under heavy workloads, Bitspower's cooling solutions allow these high-density servers to operate at peak performance while reducing thermal throttling and energy consumption.

Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE Technology, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SK Telecom and SK Enmove to collaborate on advancing AI Data Center (AIDC) and high-performance computing (HPC) while accelerating the adoption of liquid cooling technology in next-generation data centers.
This strategic partnership sets the stage to nurture and develop high-performance, energy-efficient, and sustainable data center solutions.

Driving AI and Cooling Technology Innovation Together
Performance AI servers, liquid cooling technologies, and modular AI clusters to support SK's various business units, including:

• SK Telecom: Strengthening AIDC infrastructure to support next-generation data centers
• SK Enmove: Advancing liquid cooling technologies to improve energy efficiency and sustainability in data centers

SoftBank Corp., ZutaCore and Hon Hai Technology Group ("Foxconn") today announced they implemented ZutaCore's two-phase DLC (Direct Liquid Cooling) technology in an AI server using NVIDIA accelerated computing, making it the world's first implementation of ZutaCore's two-phase DLC (Direct Liquid Cooling) technology using NVIDIA H200 GPUs. In addition, SoftBank designed and developed a rack-integrated solution that integrates each component of the server, including cooling equipment with two-phase DLC technology, on a rack scale, and conducted an operational demonstration and performance evaluation at its data center in February 2025. The demonstration results indicated the solution passed NVIDIA's temperature test (NVQual), thereby confirming the compatibility, stability and reliability of this rack-integrated solution. The solution also achieved pPUE (partial Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.03 (actual measured value) per rack for cooling efficiency

With the spread and increased adoption of AI, demand for AI servers and other computing resources is expected to expand significantly, further increasing power consumption at data centers. At the same time, reducing power consumption from the perspective of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has become a pressing issue worldwide, requiring data centers to become more efficient, consume less power, and introduce innovative heat removal solutions. Since May 2024, SoftBank has been collaborating with ZutaCore, a global leader in the development and business deployment of two-phase DLC technology, to develop solutions optimized for low power consumption at AI data centers.

The SHARK Mirror RGB PWM is a powerful, RGB-illuminated fan that delivers precise performance within a speed range of 500 to 1,500 rpm. If needed, there is even a REVERSE edition available with - as the name suggests - a reversed airflow. In addition, thanks to the infinity mirror effect, the fan looks especially stylish in any PC case.

Stylish Infinity Mirror Effect
The SHARK Mirror RGB PWM has been designed with an illuminated infinity mirror effect to provide the PC case with striking highlights.

FSP, a global leader in power supply solutions, introduces the MEGA TI PSU series, engineered for gamers, content creators, and PC enthusiasts. This new lineup includes the 1350 W and 1650 W models, delivering unmatched power, efficiency, and reliability. Designed to meet the latest Intel ATX 3.1 power design guide, these PSUs support up to 200% power excursion and feature dual PCIe 12V-2x6 connectors, ensuring seamless compatibility with next-generation GPUs.

Superior Performance and Maximum Efficiency
The MEGA TI series is built for uncompromising performance, featuring Interleaved PFC topology and high-performance MOSFETs and SiC diodes from Infineon for exceptional power regulation. With FSP's proprietary Micro Tolerance Load Control (MTLC) technology, voltage regulation is maintained at an ultra-precise ±0.5%, surpassing Intel's ATX 3.1 standards. Certified with 80 Plus Titanium and Cybenetics Titanium ratings, these PSUs ensure minimal power loss, lower heat output, and near-silent operation, making them an optimal choice for high-performance systems.

MONTECH proudly presents the HyperFlow Silent, a revolutionary upgrade to our acclaimed HyperFlow series. Designed for users who demand peak performance without compromise, this All-In-One liquid cooler features a minimalist aesthetic by eliminating ARGB lighting, ensuring a clean and professional look. Perfect for competitive gaming and creative workloads, it sets a new standard for silent cooling.

Whisper-Quiet Innovation for Ultimate Focus
HyperFlow Silent redefines quiet computing by minimizing noise to near-invisible levels. Its noise-reducing pump operates at an astonishingly low 28 dBA, quieter than a soft whisper, even at high speeds of 3100 RPM. For gamers or late-night professionals, its innovative fan blades reduce wind noise to just 24 dBA, creating an ideal distraction-free environment.

Just when you thought you'd seen everything, a Taobao seller has unleashed what might be the most over-engineered power connector solution yet: a 16-pin 12VHPWR power adapter complete with its own cooling fan and real-time monitoring display. Yes, you read that right—we're now actively cooling power connectors. The $30 adapter appears as manufacturers continue struggling with melting cable problems on NVIDIA's RTX 4090 series, despite the company's claims of resolving the issue. The adapter includes an LCD screen showing real-time temperature and power consumption readings, while its 180-degree design prevents sharp cable bends that are often blamed for connection problems. However, unlike more comprehensive solutions proposed by engineering experts, it doesn't address the fundamental issue of uneven power distribution across the connector's 12 power wires.

The adapter works with RTX 4090, 4080, and 4070 graphics cards. Still, it shouldn't be used with newer RTX 50 series cards, as the sales listing doesn't mention any GeForce RTX 50 series compatibility, and the latest "Blackwell" GPU design uses an updated 12V-2x6 power connector, which still appears riddled with issues. While adding a fan to a power connector may seem excessive, an intriguing possibility is that we may soon find water-cooler power connectors for the newer 12V-2x6, so users can prevent their $2000 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs from melting their power connectors. Irony aside, power delivery safety is a growing concern, and no clear resolution exists. NVIDIA has reassured users in the past that these problems are now solved, but the issues are piling up as more users get ahold of their RTX 5090 GPUs.

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to introduce EK-Quantum Vector³, our latest line of high-performance water blocks designed to provide the ultimate liquid cooling solution for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 & RTX 5080 Series GPUs. Unmatched performance and cooling efficiency—the EK-Quantum Vector³ RTX 5090 & RTX 5080 water blocks deliver high-performance liquid cooling, premium aesthetics, and precision engineering, ensuring ultra-low temperatures and maximum performance.

Next-Gen Cooling for NVIDIA RTX 50 Series GPUs
The EK-Quantum Vector³ RTX 5090 & RTX 5080 water blocks maximize cooling efficiency with an improved structure, expanded fin array, and optimized coolant flow paths. These blocks actively cool the GPU core, VRAM, and power stages while passively cooling PCB hotspots through a custom backplate—ensuring optimal performance.

Thermal Grizzly, a high-performance cooling solutions provider, introduces a new series of thermal pads, consisting of the Minus Pad Basic, Minus Pad Advance, and Minus Pad Pro.

The non-electrically conductive thermal pads Minus Pad Basic, Minus Pad Advance, and Minus Pad Pro are based on the proven Minus Pad 8 and have been specifically optimized to significantly improve thermal conductivity, compressibility, and price-performance ratio. These thermal pads are suitable for SSDs, graphics card coolers, GPU water coolers, and electronic components such as voltage regulators and memory modules.

Thermal Grizzly, a high-performance cooling solutions provider, introduces new size of KryoSheet for the specific adaptation of GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards to a water cooling solution. KryoSheet graphene thermal pads are an excellent alternative for thermal pastes and have a conformable surface with very high thermal conductivity. The KryoSheet in the size of 44 × 37 mm comes with a Kapton Insulation Sheet.

The new size makes it suitable as a replacement for thermal paste on air-cooled RTX 5090 graphics cards, as the size of the GPU chip can lead to an acceleration of the pump-out effect. The KryoSheet, with dimensions of 44 × 37 mm, fully covers the GB202-300-A1 GPU of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and slightly extends beyond the chip's edges. This makes it necessary to electrically insulate the surrounding electronic components. For this purpose, the new size comes with the TG Kapton Insulation Sheet.

GameMax, an emerging brand of PC gaming components including gaming cases and power supply units, is thrilled to announce the FN12A-N2 Series fans featuring vibrant ARGB lighting and color options between black and white to color-match your gaming PC build. The FN12A-N2 fans supports motherboard RGB sync technologies offering full customization using the motherboard's proprietary RGB software and synchronize with the rest of the PC.

Aside from the standard version, the FN12A-N2-R (Reverse) features an inverted fan blade delivering a reversed airflow. The FN12A-N2-R is perfect for mounting at the bottom and side of cases while ensuring the aesthetic side of the fan remains visible.

Element Six (E6), a pioneer in the development of synthetic diamond advanced material solutions, will launch an innovative Cu-diamond product at Photonics West 2025. Cu-Diamond is a copper plated diamond composite material that has a high thermal and electrical conductivity. Designed to address the increasingly critical thermal management challenges in advanced semiconductor devices, this cost-effective solution enables greater performance and reliability for applications such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and GaN RF devices.

As semiconductor devices have grown larger and more powerful, managing heat dissipation has become a significant challenge for the industry. More than 50 percent of all electronic device failures are heat-related, and data centers, which today consume 3.7 percent of total U.S. power demand, are predicted to reach 10 percent by 2029. As a result, thermal management innovation is critical to enabling next-generation performance and energy efficiency.

Ventiva, the leader in thermal solutions, today announced that its Ventiva ICE9 thermal management suite is being featured in a fan-less proof-of-concept laptop design, powered by Intel Lunar Lake processors at CES. By collaborating with Dell Technologies and Intel on the PC design, this concept introduces a new level of silent productivity for sub-12 mm laptops.

"Ventiva ICE technology offers a revolutionary approach to help achieve thin, light, and silent laptop designs that offer great performance," said Josh Newman, Vice President, Client Computing Group, and General Manager, Product Marketing & Management, Intel. "Intel is excited about the result of the close co-engineering collaboration with Ventiva and Dell Technologies to help ready their technology for future Intel Core Ultra devices."

GameMax, an emerging brand of PC gaming components including gaming cases and power supply units, is thrilled to announce the Dragon Knight 2 full-tower gaming PC chassis. Designed for high-end gaming PC and workstation configurations, the GameMax Dragon Knight 2 features a massive interior with extensive hardware support.

The Dragon Knight 2 full-tower chassis supports up to an E-ATX motherboard, up to 8x HDDs, and has 8 PCIE slots for add-in-cards and expansions other than graphics cards. It has a built-in HDD hotswap bay on the top panel that's easily accessible. The Dragon Knight 2 comes with 5 pre-installed ARGB fans out of the box providing excellent cooling and good value for builders. The ARGB fans are fully customizable and can be synchronized with the rest of the system via the motherboard. With its cutting-edge features and sophisticated aesthetics, the Dragon Knight 2 is poised to captivate gamers and PC enthusiasts worldwide.

CES 2025 marked the worldwide debut of XYZ brand, a company that is not really a newcomer to the field. Actually, it was founded in 2007 by engineers and hardware experts, and in 2021 they conceived the XYZ brand with a focus on "enhancing the PC user experience to exceptional levels." The TechPowerUp team made their way towards XYZ's booth at CES where a plethora of products were on display. From PC chassis series like Atom, Quantum, Tesseract, Airwave, Trifecta, Aurorax, Airone, and Qubex, to the Thermax air coolers family, AIOs like Aquapulse, Hydrotemp and Hydraview, Vortex and Pulsar fans, to power supply units like the Phantom and Hypervolt series.

We will go over each of them in a few moments (words), but what we would like to mention straightforward is that XYZ brand arrived with a very distinct and clear lineup of products, featuring a minimalist approach that relies on white and black tones with some dashes of color from RGB lighting, doubled by straight lines and sharp edges and corners. XYZ's lineup looks unified, which makes us believe that the company has a clear vision about how they want to present themselves.

Supermicro, Inc. a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge is commencing shipments of max-performance servers featuring Intel Xeon 6900 series processors with P-cores. The new systems feature a range of new and upgraded technologies with new architectures optimized for the most demanding high-performance workloads including large-scale AI, cluster-scale HPC, and environments where a maximum number of GPUs are needed, such as collaborative design and media distribution.

"The systems now shipping in volume promise to unlock new capabilities and levels of performance for our customers around the world, featuring low latency, maximum I/O expansion providing high throughput with 256 performance cores per system, 12 memory channels per CPU with MRDIMM support, and high performance EDSFF storage options," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "We are able to ship our complete range of servers with these new application-optimized technologies thanks to our Server Building Block Solutions design methodology. With our global capacity to ship solutions at any scale, and in-house developed liquid cooling solutions providing unrivaled cooling efficiency, Supermicro is leading the industry into a new era of maximum performance computing."

xMEMS is a company that so far is best known for its MEMS—or microelectromechanical systems—based speaker drivers, but since around the middle of last year, the company has also developed a range of MEMS based cooling solutions. The xMEMS µCooling is competing with a range of new cooling solutions from several new companies and, although their current solution is unlikely to find its way into laptops today, the company has tested to cool hotter running chips using multiple MEMS µCooling modules to great success. The XMC-2400—also known as Sequoia—is the first product and it has an airflow of up to 35 cubic centimeters per second, which isn't a huge amount, but the cooler is said to be inaudible during operation and it also has the added benefit of being waterproof and the entire MEMS cooling module can be soldered in place. At an estimated power consumption of a mere 30 mW, it's also a very power efficient cooling solution. xMEMS had some demos at its booth, of which the one pictured below shows the XMC-2400 blowing or sucking air, with a small fan-wheel spinning to show the movement of the air. Another showcased the static pressure, pushing air through tubing and into a beaker filled with water. Potential applications include removing hot air from phones, although we may see some smaller SoCs getting cooled too.

Thermal Grizzly, a high-performance cooling solutions provider, introduces the Intel 1851 Delid-Die-Mate Heater V1, a tool designed to assist in removing the heat spreader from Intel Core Ultra 200 CPUs using the Intel 1851 Delid-Die-Mate V1. The heater raises the temperature of the CPU and the delidder to the required 165°C for delidding.

Delidding processors based on the Intel Arrow Lake architecture (Core Ultra, Pentium) carries a higher risk compared to older Intel CPUs. This is likely due to structural factors such as the size of the CPU die and the fact that the CPU die consists of multiple smaller dies, known as "tiles." To minimize the risk during delidding, the CPU should be heated to approximately 165°C / 330°F to soften the indium solder.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading computer brand, announced the launch of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards powered by NVIDIA Blackwell and AI, including the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5090 D, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070, at CES. The latest GIGABYTE graphics card models leverage cutting-edge cooling solutions designed for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs to enhance performance in demanding games. Accomplished with the product design concept "Evolution of Ten", GIGABYTE's GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards improve thermal performance by up to 10% and reduce overall card volume by up to 10% for a more compatible PC-building experience.

Powered by NVIDIA Blackwell, GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs bring game-changing capabilities to gamers and creators. Equipped with a massive level of AI horsepower, the RTX 50 Series enables new experiences and next-level graphics fidelity. Multiply performance with NVIDIA DLSS 4, generate images at unprecedented speed, and unleash creativity with NVIDIA Studio. Plus, access NVIDIA NIM microservices - state-of-the-art AI models that let enthusiasts and developers build AI assistants, agents, and workflows with peak performance on NIM-ready systems.