NVIDIA's announcement of the new RTX 3000-series cards has led to simultaneous announcement of add-in card partners with their solutions and custom takes on the same. These typically come in the form of a press release, with common specifications shared and emphasis on the cooling systems as well as other brand-specific features. EVGA was no different, and the PR shows off their new iCX3 cooling technology in it. More interesting to the enthusiasts and overclockers among us is newer information on their halo card- the RTX 3090 K|NGP|N (Kingpin)- with product management director Jacob revealing it will continue to use a hybrid AIO cooler as with the RTX 2080 Ti variant, but with a massive 360 mm radiator and three 120 mm fans for the behemoth GA102 die and accompanying power delivery solution. No word on pricing or retail availability yet, but look forward to your friendly neighborhood TPU reviews in due course of time to help make a purchase decision on your next GPU.

ZSA Technology Labs, the makers of the excellent ErgoDox EZ Shine and the Planck EZ today introduced their latest ergonomic keyboard titled The Moonlander Mark 1. The company claims this is a result of over three years of R&D, incorporating feedback from customers and the general keyboard community as a whole on what they wanted from the ErgoDox EZ and other such split, ergonomic keyboards. The Moonlander Mark 1 boasts features including a thumb cluster that can be positioned to better suit your hand size/shape, tilting and tenting of the two keyboard halves for better ergonomics, a wrist rest (on each half) that automatically angles with tilting/tenting, hot-swappable switches with Cherry MX and Kailh BOX switches to choose from out of the box, and enhanced portability with the ability to fold the wrist rest (wing) and just plug in the left half via Type-C connectivity to use as a game/macro-pad.

The Moonlander Mark 1 continues the design scheme of the ErgoDox EZ and Planck EZ in having columnar keys, is available in black or white colors, and with ten switch options at checkout. Fully open source firmware is available here as well, for both programming the keys and layers of functions and also the RGB LEDs for backlighting of every single key. There is a first-party configurator available as well, with Windows, macOS, and Linus support without any special drivers needed. The keyboard also has status LEDs on board and, as the name is befitting here, uses audio buzzers to beep out status feedback if desired. The wings and thumb clusters are optional, and come in the package that also includes a carry case. Going for a significant $365 from the dedicated product page (shipping included), the company also offers a no-questions-asked 2-year warranty to help sweeten the deal.

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced the latest addition to the growing lineup of RGB ambient lighting products in the iCUE Smart Lighting Ecosystem, iCUE LT100 Smart Lighting Towers. LT100 Smart Lighting Towers are available as a starter kit featuring two aluminium towers each equipped with 46 brilliant fully customizable RGB LEDs, as well as an optional expansion kit for adding additional towers to your setup. LT100 Smart Lighting Towers bathe your room in immersive ambient lighting that enhances your visual and audio experience, creating large-scale light shows that can be synchronized with other iCUE RGB lighting products such as LS100 Smart Lighting Strips or CORSAIR PC components and peripherals.

Each LT100 Smart Lighting Tower stands 422 mm tall and shines with 46 RGB LEDs, with a reversible orientation that can be faced forward for brighter, more vivid lighting or backward for subtler illumination that plays off the walls of your space. When connected to your PC and CORSAIR iCUE software, the towers can match and diffuse the colors at the edges of your screen in real-time, bringing the action in games and media beyond the screen. LT100 Smart Lighting Towers can also be used as an audio visualizer to bring music to life, or be customized in iCUE with a nearly limitless combination of colors and effects for your own unique lighting setup.

LG is preparing to launch its latest addition to the gaming lineup of panels and this time it goes big. Preparing to launch this month is LG's 48-inch OLED Gaming TV with 120 HZ refreshing and G-SYNC support. To round up the impressive feature set, LG has priced this panel at $1499, which is a pricey but a tempting buy. Featuring 1 ms response time and low input lag, the 48CX TV is designed for gaming and fits into NVIDIA's Big Format Gaming Display (BFGD) philosophy. Interestingly, the TV uses LG's a9 Gen3 AI processor which does content upscaling so everything can look nice and crisp. Ai is used to "authentically upscale lower resolution content, translating the source to 4K's 8.3+ million pixels. The technology is so good, you might mistake non-4K for true 4K".

The information has been circulating the industry about Apple and its plans to integrate Micro-LED technology into its products for some time now. Micro-LED is a new display technology that allows for much better characteristics of panels like higher brightness, fuller color gamut, and higher dynamic range. The technology also offers a higher refreshing rate, wider viewing angles, and lower power consumption. Being that Micro-LED display is physically thinner, it will allow for more portable devices and it will leave more room for other components.

According to the report from CENS, a Taiwanese media, Apple is investing $330 million into a new Micro-LED factory for Apple devices. A future factory located in Taiwan is seeing major investments from the company. Being that Apple plans to use Micro-LED displays in its future products like iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, it is expected to see this move from them. However, Apple isn't doing it alone. They have partnered with Epistar, Taiwan's biggest LED producer and Taiwanese LCD panel maker, AU Optronics. These two are experienced makers of panels so they should help Apple successfully launch and operate manufacturing facilities.

It was only recently that we reported on Samsung's decision to stop manufacturing all the LCD panels and focus on the production of AMOLED and QLED displays. However, it seems like Samsung will not be abandoning the LCD technology completely. According to a report from DigiTimes, we have information that Samsung will continue to offer LCD-based screens, TN-film, various kinds of VA, IPS, etc., by buying the LCD screen from a Japanese multinational company called Sharp. Sharp will be Samsung's only source of these LCD screens, so Samsung will still be able to offer products based on them. It is reported that types of panels in question are meant for the production of television devices, meaning that they are probably bigger-sized panels.

Samsung Electronics is pushing the industry another step forward with an expansion of QLED 8K SMART displays, new applications of The Wall and showcasing the new-and-improved Samsung Flip 2 digital flipchart.

"Samsung is making tomorrow's technology a reality with complete display solutions that are more immersive, collaborative and interactive than ever before. ISE is one of the best opportunities for Samsung to showcase advanced commercial applications of our industry-leading displays," said Hyesung Ha, Senior Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. "We're excited to unveil new features and expanded lineups of our digital signage with next-generation technology such as 8K, the new model of The Wall, collaborative displays and more that will provide businesses with opportunities they've never had before."

CORSAIR introduced us to their small form factor Capellix LEDs, co-developed with Primax, at CES last year and has since been utilizing them in memory and peripheral products alike. So it was just a natural next step for them to find a way to include them into their cases, and the company took to CES 2020 to show off a traditional retail case which has been covered with a film encompassing these LEDs.

The glass panels are lined with a thin, transparent film so that you are able to have a matrix of these RGB LEDs on the backside without any easily visible wires, which makes for quite a unique look. This implementation does require a lot of more complex wiring relative to a standard LED strip, tiny as it still may be spatially, which currently limits the number of LEDs that could be embedded in such a removable panel, but the result is attention-grabbing regardless. There is no concrete launch date or pricing for this, and CORSAIR is still deciding if they will include these on current cases as a special edition or for future enclosure products. That said, the implementation at CES already looked pretty clean externally and, a fun fact is, you can touch them on the backside of the glass panel and will not get zapped.

MSI at CES 2020 presented the "world's very first" laptop with a built-in display that uses Mini LED technology, called the Creator 17. Equipped with a 17-inch, 4K panel, the Creator 17 is a charming portable content creator PC. Incorporating the new Mini LED technology, this laptop's display outshines every commercial laptop screen. With a maximum peak brightness of up to 1000 nits, it beats most of the competition. Capable of displaying 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, this laptop screen is ready for displaying all of the HDR content you can throw at it.

When it comes to the Mini LED technology itself, it allows individual LEDs inside the screen to be less than 2 mm in size, which is very small and allows for some creative solutions. For example, MSI used this advantage to enable the display to have 240 local dimming zones, representing a big improvement in this size range compared to IPS. Another big improvement that Mini LED brings is that HDR content will get an upgrade as well. Due to the nature of Mini LEDs, the display can achieve a very distinguishing level of contrast between dark and bright areas. CPU support includes options of Intel's 10th generation Core i9 processor, while the GPU option is unknown. For storage, there are slots for two NVMe PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSDs and one M.2 SATA SSD slot.

Silverstone at CES 2020 took the opportunity to showcase selections of their portfolio for the media, ranging from PC cases in major form-factors, PSUs, and a range of "ease-of-life" and aesthetic-driven accessories. Accessory-wise, there's a range of SSD-related products, such as the MS09 stick, which allows conversion of an M.2 SSD to what basically amounts to a USB 3.1 pen drive; other products in this category include the MS09-Mini and the MS11, which improves support for the NVMe protocol. The ECM26 is a PCIe adapter for M.2 sticks, while the Silverstone TP02-M2 presents itself as a heatsink for installation on non-passive-cooled M.2 SSDs.

Continuing the SSD accessories galore, there are a number of other solutions, including a tool-less NMVe to PCIe adapter (ECM21-E), an ARGB powered one (ECM24-ARGB, which includes a heatsink), a simpler, non-ARGB one with a heatsink (ECM23), and my personal favorite, a docking station for a barebones M.2 drive you may have around, in the form of the TS16 station. The presence of a Power button very surely means this can't be hot-swapped - the risk of data-loss is real.

EK Water Blocks, the Europe-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer is releasing a 140 mm D-RGB version of its EK-Vardar fan - the EK-Vardar EVO 140ER D-RGB. Besides the new and advanced addressable lighting diodes, the new fan also incorporates the Extended Range (ER) of the PWM operation feature and the special Start-Stop function which brings a true 0 dB experience for the absolutely silent operation. Not only will you be able to enjoy a totally silent PC, but this feature is also very useful for preventing radiator dust buildup if your PC is idling for prolonged periods of time, and it also extends the lifespan of the fan itself.

The EK-Vardar RGB is a high-static pressure computer cooling fan, designed and built primarily for high-performance computer liquid cooling systems. The Vardar family of cooling fans carries the notorious name of a type of the cold northwesterly wind blowing from the mountains down to the valleys of Macedonia. They feature a black square frame that does not allow for the air to escape and ensuring optimal airflow through the radiator.

CORSAIR, a world leader in PC gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced the launch of the new CORSAIR iCUE LS100 Smart Lighting Strips, the first in a new ecosystem of iCUE-powered ambient RGB lighting products that vastly expand the possibilities of synchronized RGB lighting. CORSAIR iCUE software has been at the forefront of some of the world's most ambitious and spectacular-looking system builds, and now extends beyond the PC with lighting that illuminates your entire environment. Available in a comprehensive Starter Kit and two sizes of Expansion Kits, LS100 Smart Lighting Strips transform your room with vivid customizable lighting profiles, game and media integration, and audio visualization.

Experience an unprecedented level of immersion with real-time media integration - CORSAIR iCUE software analyzes your video signal and outputs matching colors from the LS100 Smart Lighting Strips on your screen's edges to the surrounding area, taking the action beyond your screen whether you're leading your team to victory on the battlefield or watching your favorite movie. Your ambient lighting setup can also turn your room into a full-scale audio visualizer that brings every beat of your music to life in real-time.

Editor's note: Our review is here, for those interested.

CORSAIR, a world leader in PC gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced a new line of PC cooling fans to elevate the aesthetics of any build: CORSAIR iCUE QL RGB PWM fans. Available in 120 mm and 140 mm sizes, every QL RGB fan features quad light loops lit by a total of 34 individually addressable RGB LEDs, creating incredible visuals from either side. Multi-fan kits of QL RGB fans are bundled with a CORSAIR iCUE Lighting Node CORE RGB Lighting Controller, capable of controlling the lighting for up to six CORSAIR RGB fans at once through CORSAIR iCUE software.

No other RGB fan comes close to the brightness and vibrancy of QL RGB. With inner and outer light loops on both the front and back of the fan, it is uniquely capable of intricate, bright, and detailed lighting effects that impress from any angle, regardless of whether it's used for intake or exhaust. A semi-transparent fan blade allows the RGB lighting to shine through, while a durable machined aluminium hub cover on either side completes the QL RGB's stunning look.

Phanteks today announced the release of the Digital RGB LED motherboard adapter. The cable offers a simple and easy solution to synchronize all your Digital-RGB products with a compatible motherboard with an addressable RGB lighting header.

The cable features two connectors, one for Phanteks' DRGB products and the other for third-party addressable RGB products allowing you to expand your lighting configuration. Expand and synchronize your lighting, all with one cable.

In times of Tempered Glass, not only the cooling performance and volume development of the PCs want to be adapted to their own and changing requirements, but also the RGB lighting suitable for the hardware. The Lamptron SM436 Sync Edition PCI RGB & Fan Controller offers not only extensive functionality, but also high compatibility. It runs up to four fans with or without PWM control and RGB products with or without digital RGB LEDs. The separate LC display can be attached to PCI slots, which can be admired by a transparent side section made of hard or acrylic glass. The control is operated by an infrared remote control.

Phanteks announced today the arrival of the new Neon Digital-RGB LED strips. The Neon Digital-RGB LED will come in three different options, M1 with 1x 1-meter LED strip, M5 with 1x 550 mm LED strips, and a combo kit that includes 2x 400 mm LED strip with motherboard adapter and extension cable.

All Neon Digital-RGB LED strips features an ultra-flexible silicone cover for durability and high-quality LEDs with a full-color range that creates a smooth and stable illumination effect throughout the LED strip. Easy to install with many mounting positions to get the perfect lighting on your hardware.

HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology, Inc., today announced new HyperX Aqua mechanical switches at Gamescom for the HyperX Alloy Origins mechanical gaming keyboard. At the show, HyperX also revealed Cloud Alpha S, the new addition to HyperX's gaming headset lineup, as well as a suite of Qi certified wireless charging products including the HyperX Cloud Flight S wireless gaming headset, HyperX Pulsefire Dart wireless gaming mouse and HyperX ChargePlay Base Qi wireless charger.

"The wireless charging ecosystem is maturing and HyperX is excited to be launching products with Qi certified wireless charging capabilities," said HyperX. "HyperX recognises the growing trend for wireless technology and wants to offer users the ultimate in gaming freedom, convenience and customization for immersive and engaging gaming experiences."

The ABKONCORE Spider Spectrum Fans 3 in 1 remote kit are a perfect addition to any PC setup because the flashy LEDs illuminate and therefore showoff the beaming powerful engine that is the chassis. Not only do the fans improve the chassis aesthetically, but improves its functionality as well. The whirring blades of the fans provide cool air inside the PC allowing other vital components of the PC to be functioning at the required optimum temperature possible, positively affecting the performance of the PC as a whole.

Having full control of your Spider Spectrum Fans with the inclusive remote controller makes personalizing the LED color/speed and fan speed of your choice so much more entertaining. Certified compatible with ASUS Aura, ASRock RGB, GIGABYTE and MSI RGB. What you don't have to worry about personalizing with the fan remote controller is the amount of noise that the Spider Spectrum Fans generates, the anti-vibration pads that are on each of the 8 corners of the fan successfully cancels out any noise caused by vibration possible creating a silent operating environment. The ABKONCORE Spider Spectrum fan kit will be available with an MSRP of €27,95 / $33,95 (including VAT).

Today Bitspower, a well know watercooling supplier, launched a full cover waterblock for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 series of graphics cards, including the new Super lineup. The waterblock features a copper base that is nickel and chromium plated to give the block a nice shiny look. It uses 0.5 mm fins over the GPU die to provide efficient heat dissipation. Waterblock's body is covering whole graphics card including the VRM power delivery area. Rest of the block is made out of acrylic that integrates digital RGB LED strip in order to provide additional color customization.

In addition to new design of the block, Bitspower is also including a GPU backplate and IO cover with it. The backplate is coated in black, while the IO cover is silver. Waterblock uses standard G1/4 inch threading and has four of the threads.

Intel China through its Weibo (Twitter-equivalent) handle put out more official-looking renders of its Xe graphics card. The Weibo post doesn't cite an author, leading us to speculate that the company's industrial design team is close to finalizing a product-design for at least the client-segment derivative of Xe. The swanky-looking card apparently has a stamped metal cooler shroud, a cooling solution that's based on a fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by three fans, and quite some LED embellishment. An interesting design detail is the exponent symbol projected on the center fan. The power inputs are located at the tail end of the card, which is where most professional graphics cards have them; and consist of a pair of 8-pin PCIe inputs. Display inputs include three DisplayPorts, and an HDMI. The first Xe graphics card bound for 2020 will be built on Intel's 10 nm silicon fabrication process, which offers comparable transistor-densities to current 7 nm nodes.

Sharkoon appeared quite ready to take a bite out of the competition at Computex 2019. They came to the show with a full assortment of cases, keyboards, mice, gaming chairs and even a mini USB DAC for gamers which was quite nice to see as it was unexpected and unique coming from Sharkoon. Dubbed the Gaming DAC Pro S, it packs a powerful high-resolution gaming DAC with TRRS microphone input. It can also act as a USB soundcard with headphone Amp for an immersive crystal clear audio experience. It is worth noting that it is compatible with Android on top of the Windows and macOS.

Zalman had their Reserator 5 all-in-one liquid coolers on display during our visit at Computex 2019. This latest liquid cooler design is definitely unique in the looks department but also features a few design elements that set it apart from competing products. First and foremost is the pump, which is the world's first patented dual water pump with dual blades for improved cooling performance. It also uses a larger diameter (8 mm) tubing for improved coolant flow. Meanwhile, the fans and pump feature RGB LEDs which can be controlled through Zalman's Z-Sync software. When it comes to sizes, the company will be offering 240 mm, 280 mm, and 360 mm versions.

All Reserator 5 based units will have fans that feature AFDB (advanced fluid dynamic bearings) and utilize a spider-leg styled open frame. The 240 mm and 360 mm versions will max out at 2000 RPM while the 280 mm unit will top out at 1500 RPM. When it comes to the pump, it has a speed of 2800-3000 RPM and has a flow rate of 3 l/min. In regards to materials, all three feature a copper block and aluminium radiator. Zalman has made sure to support every socket imaginable here as well including Intel LGA2066, LGA2011-V3, LGA2011, LGA115x, and LGA1366, along with AMD's AM4, AM3+, AM3, FM2+, FM2.

NZXT, a leading developer of software-powered hardware solutions for PC gaming, today announces the HUE 2 Ambient RGB Lighting Kit V2, powered by CAM. The updated version of the HUE 2 RGB Ambient Kit brings product improvements that make installation easier and help ensures that the included LED strips will be securely attached to your monitor. In addition, CAM provides users with numerous lighting modes including an ambient lighting mode that reacts to the images on your screen. The HUE 2 ecosystem delivers the broadest line of RGB lighting accessories for PC Builders with over 10 different accessories such as the HUE 2 RGB lighting kit, underglow kit, AER RGB 2 fans, and cable combs.

The RGB lighting theme remains a hot topic. The German manufacturer Aqua Computer is also following this trend and is expanding its product range with the new farbwerk 360.

With the farbwerk 360, Aqua Computer launches probably the most powerful RGB controller for PCs currently on the market. It is capable of controlling up to 360 addressable RGB LEDs on 4 channels. A newly developed technology that Aqua Computer describes as ALPHApx allows for the first time to freely combine effects through transparency in up to 20 levels.

Following the recently introduced AR5X PC Case, three new variants joining the SilentiumPC Armis AR5 family. Being sensible mid-tower choices, these cases provide unparalleled balance of perfect design, features, quality and fair pricing for a wide variety of PC system configurations.

Sharing the same base chassis structure and features, the variants offer different pricing and equipment:

• The base model, Armis AR5 features a solid flat side panel and two Sigma HP 120 mm fans.
• Armis AR5 TG has a tempered-glass side panel and comes with two Sigma HP 120 mm fans.
• Armis AR5 TG RGB comes with tempered-glass side panel, as well as two Sigma HP 120 mm fans, one Sigma HP Corona 120 RGB fan and Aurora Sync PRO illumination/PWM controller.