AMD has emerged as the clear winner in this year's Black Friday motherboard sales, securing an impressive 87.36% of unit sales and 86.5% of revenue share. Thanks to the nicely compiled data from TechEpiphany, we see that German retailer Mindfactory sold 3,800 AMD-socketed motherboard units compared to Intel's 550 units during the shopping event. The success story is particularly evident in AMD's newest AM5 socket platform, which accounted for 2,730 units sold, representing nearly 72% of AMD's total sales. This strong adoption rate of the AM5 platform suggests consumers are increasingly investing in AMD's latest technology despite the typically higher platform costs associated with newer generations. The older AM4 socket maintained a relevant market presence, with 1,070 units sold.

Meanwhile, Intel's sales were primarily driven by their LGA 1700 socket, which moved 490 units, with minimal movement in their newer LGA 1851 and older LGA 1200 platforms, selling just 40 and 20 units, respectively. The average selling price (ASP) comparison reveals an interesting dynamic, with Intel commanding a slightly higher ASP at $183 compared to AMD's $170. However, AMD's substantially higher sales volume resulted in a total revenue of $644,584 (about 86.5%), dwarfing Intel's revenue of $100,564 (13.5%). This sales distribution reflects AMD's successful strategy of offering competitive performance across various price points while maintaining strong platform compatibility and future support. The overwhelming preference for AMD's AM5 platform also indicates consumer confidence in the company's future upgrade path and platform longevity, which AMD also delivered with AM4.

Akasa, a leading provider of active CPU cooling solutions has recently produced a new low-profile CPU cooler, capable of taming some of the most powerful CPUs on the market. The SOHO H6L and Alucia H6L are both rated at 130 W TDP, making them the perfect choice for high-performance, small form factor PC builds. 67.2 mm. Akasa's newest coolers are made up of premium heat sinks with six heat pipes to help disperse the heat from the processors. This allows for an efficient transfer of heat; the small and mighty coolers can handle up to 110 W TDP CPUs (such as Intel i9 12900T, and AMD's Ryzen 9 5900). Complete your Mini-ITX or thin Mini-ITX motherboard builds using these high-performance coolers.

Compatibility is not an issue for the SOHO and Alucia H6L coolers, as mounting kits are included inside each package for LGA 1700, AM5, and almost all previous socket sizes (LGA 1200 and 15XX, and AM4). The mechanism is easy to install, simply follow the instructions in the manual to set up the cooler for each socket type. The SOHO AR fan included with SOHO H6L has an iconic, minimalist, neon-style aRGB ring, with over 16 million lighting combinations. The aRGB connects using a three-pin 5 V header, seamlessly controlled using all major RGB control software such as Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light, ASUS AURA, ASRock Polychrome and Razer Chroma RGB. Akasa also provides aRGB controllers if the motherboard does not include them, which are an excellent addition to any colorful build (for example, product code AK-RLD-04).

EK-Quantum Velocity², the successor of the highly popular EK-Quantum Velocity, expands to Intel LGA 1200 socket. The water block showcases the EK-Matrix7 initiative, a standard where increments of 7 mm manage the height of products and the distance between ports. This product uses a socket-specific cooling engine to ensure the best performance and optimal flow with low restrictions on every platform.

his new water block kept the name "Velocity" because it retained the ability to be responsive and agile in the world of liquid cooling. Embedded in the Velocity² is a next-generation EK CPU water block cooling engine that is socket-specific. A combination of mounting pressure and cold plate geometry, tailored for the IHS and die layout of Intel LGA 1200 socket processors, is used to achieve low hydraulic flow restriction and high performance. Thе lathe-turned cold plate is made with precision to cover the IHS effectively and put optimal pressure on the die area.

SilentiumPC, the European manufacturer of CPU coolers, Power Supply Units and PC cases, announces the fifth generation of Fera CPU Cooler series, which has received a complete re-design from ground up. Fera 5 is the first CPU Cooler from the SilentiumPC lineup to receive the Synergy Cooling Technology treatment and a brand-new asymmetric heatsink design. Yet another novelty is the debut of the Fluctus 120 PWM axial fan, which features the revamped bearing, new fan blades and anti-vibration dampers. The Fera 5 is available in standard variant with one Fluctus 120 PWM fan and the high-performance Fera 5 Dual Fan version with two Fluctus 120 PWM in the desired push-pull setup! The R&D team at SilentiumPC was able to significantly improve the performance of the Fera 5 over the last generations, while fine-tuning the fan to match the desired heatsink characteristics and lowering the psychoacoustic noise levels.

Fluctus 120 PWM case fan series debuts as the new companion of Fera 5 CPU Cooler. Users have the choice between the standard Fera 5 model with one Fluctus 120 PWM or the Fera 5 Dual Fan version with two of these stunning fans. The unique fan blades with serrated edges serve both aesthetic and functional purposes, creating high static pressure required for a dense heatsink, high airflow, excellent acoustic performance and psychoacoustic noise reduction. Fluctus 120 PWM is equipped with a modern, long-life FDB bearing (MTBF 100 000 h) and rubber vibration dampeners in all the corners of the fan frame.

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, and MSI, a world-leading gaming brand, have partnered up once again to launch the next-gen MSI CARBON motherboard and EK-Quantum monoblock combo. The brand new MPG Z590 Carbon EK X is expected to be available for pre-order on February 22, 2021. Based on the latest Z590 chipset and still supporting Intel 10th CPUs, this motherboard offers unparalleled cooling for the VRM section and the upcoming Intel 11th Gen Core series CPUs thanks to the purpose-designed monoblock.

MSI's world-class engineering team and EK's industry-leading thermal engineers worked together to improve the previous-gen solution and bring even more benefits to the newest Intel platform. The MPG Z590 Carbon EK X allows maximum performance without the noisy environment, providing you with countless hours of uninterrupted gameplay while monitoring the flow in your loop via the integrated flow indicator. And to top it all off, it also comes with an included EK-Leak Tester and a coupon code voucher for the EK webshop.

Biostar has recently confirmed that their Z490 motherboards will support Intel's upcoming 11th generation LGA 1200 Rocket Lake processors. Biostar also confirms this on their product listing pages which now list support for 10th and 11th generation Intel processors. Select ASRock Z490, W480, and H470 motherboards will also support the upcoming processors after a BIOS update. We expect more manufacturers to announce support for the new Rocket Lake processors in the days to come.

These upcoming Rocket Lake processors will allegedly bring double-digit IPC increases and should represent a significant performance improvement. The Intel Core i7-11700K eight-core processor recently appeared on Geekbench in a Gigabyte Z490 motherboard and showed very impressive scores outperforming the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X in single-core performance. These new processors from Intel are entering mass production and should be available to purchase in January.

NZXT, a leading designer of intuitive software, hardware, and services for the PC gaming community, today announces an expansion of the Kraken X-3 RGB and Kraken Z53 expanding their existing line of AIO liquid CPU coolers. The NZXT Kraken X-3 family will introduce a new variant that will include NZXT AER RGB 2 fans for builders wanting to maximize RGB in their build. The Kraken X-3 series includes the improved iconic RGB infinity mirror design with an enlarged ring size. The cap is upgraded to be rotatable to ensure the correct orientation of the NZXT logo, accommodating more builders. With the newest 7th generation pump for Asetek, the Kraken X-3 RGB series has industry-leading cooling performance for your CPU.

The NZXT Kraken Z-3 series will now include the NZXT Kraken Z53 240 mm AIO in addition to the previously released 280 mm and 360 mm options. The NZXT Kraken Z-3 series is the perfect addition to any gaming battlestation. A beautiful 2.36"(60 mm) LCD screen provides unlimited visual customization, and is capable of displaying vital system health data as well as any custom image or animated GIF via NZXT CAM. With unparalleled aesthetics and performance, the Kraken Z-3 series is built with the 7th generation Asetek pump and provides builders the opportunity to express themselves in an all-new way while keeping their CPU temps cool.

TechN unveils the most powerful CPU water coolers for three platforms at once. AMD's AM4 sockets and the Intel sockets LGA 1200 and 2066 will each receive their own high-end water block with the most advanced cooling technology and sophisticated manufacturing - Made in Germany.

Superior performance and build quality
A compact, reduced design language, the high-quality material mix and hidden mounting elements form the puristic character of the high-performance cooling blocks. Both the mirror-polished acrylic and matte anodized surfaces demonstrate the highest level of care. The perfection in manufacturing achieves a flush composition for a modern industrial look, which incorporates the extensive technological innovations of the TechN CPU water coolers.

Antec Inc., the leading provider of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade, and Do-It-Yourself market, is happy to announce that all current 115x compatible CPU water blocks and air coolers are also compatible with the new Intel LGA 1200 socket, utilized on motherboards supporting the 10th generation of Intel Core processors. The new socket was very recently launched along with the Z490 motherboards that support the latest Comet Lake-S Intel processors.

LGA 1200 was designed as a replacement for the LGA 1151. The LGA 1200 has 1200 protruding pins to make contact with the pads on the processor. It uses a modified design of LGA 1151 with 49 extra pins on it, improving power delivery and enabling support for future incremental I/O features. Pin 1 position remains the same as it was in previous generation processors.

In response to the new Intel LGA 1200 socket, CRYORIG announces that LGA 1200 socket would be compatible with all existing LGA115x supported models. The supported models include: A series liquid coolers, R1 Ultimate/Universal, C1, H5 Ultimate/Universal, H7 Series, M9I, M9 Plus, and C7 Series. As the mounting mechanism of LGA1200 is identical to LGA115x socket, users with LGA115x supported models would not require any extra upgrade kits.

The 10th generation Intel Core desktop processor family was launched recently along with its companion motherboards based on the Intel 400-series chipsets. The new processors (codename "Comet Lake-S") utilize the LGA 1200 socket which shares the same mechanicals and has the identical 75x75mm spacing of mounting holes as the older LGA 1151 and other 115x sockets. All current GELID CPU coolers that support LGA 115x are also compatible with the new LGA 1200 socket, no additional mounting kits or accessory upgrades are required.

And especially, our latest Phantom, Phantom Black and Sirocco CPU Coolers also fully support overclocking capabilities of the top unlocked Core i9-10900K, Core i7-10700K and Core i5-10600K processors enabling boosted performance and enhanced cooling for your power-hungry gaming rigs.

The Japanese cooler specialist Scythe confirms the compatibility of its cooler line-up to the upcoming LGA 1200 socket based Intel 10th Gen "Comet Lake-S" Desktop CPU. All Scythe CPU cooler models, which are offering compatibility to sockets LGA 1150, LGA 1151, LGA 1155 and LGA 1156, can be installed on motherboards with the new socket LGA 1200. No additional mounting clips are required and users are able to use the supplied LGA 115X clips, when installing the compatible Scythe CPU coolers on the new socket. The updated manuals are available for download on Scythe website.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced the new RACING Z490GTA and the RACING Z490GTN motherboards which powers the new 10th Gen Intel Core processors. Geared Towards power efficiency and flawless performance, the BIOSTAR RACING Z490GTA and the RACING Z490GTN motherboards have been built to last, with its stylish RACING DNA carried down from their premium flagship motherboard the RACING Z490GTA EVO.

Much similar to their elder sibling, BIOSTAR's RACING Z490GTA and the RACING Z490GTN motherboards are built around the new LGA 1200 socket designed to support the high power requirements of the new 10th generation of Intel Core processors with their new microarchitecture Z490 chipset, and BIOSTAR has taken extra steps to ensure that their products are designed and tuned to perfection to run these processors on blazing fast boost speeds with some radical new features such as the Super Hyper PWM system that delivers stable power with 100% fixed voltage and offers excellent precision, performance and reliability.

Intel's upcoming Rocket Lake-S desktop platform is expected to arrive sometime later this year, however, we didn't have any concrete details on what will it bring. Thanks to the exclusive information obtained by VideoCardz'es sources at Intel, there are some more details regarding the RKL-S platform. To start, the RKL-S platform is based on a 500-series chipset. This is an iteration of the upcoming 400-series chipset, and it features many platform improvements. The 500-series chipset based motherboards will supposedly have an LGA 1200 socket, which is an improvement in pin count compared to LGA 1151 socket found on 300 series chipset.

The main improvement is the CPU core itself, which is supposedly a 14 nm adaptation of Tiger Lake-U based on Willow Cove core. This design is representing a backport of IP to an older manufacturing node, which results in bigger die space due to larger node used. When it comes to the platform improvements, it will support the long-awaited PCIe 4.0 connection already present on competing platforms from AMD. It will enable much faster SSD speeds as there are already PCIe 4.0 NVMe devices that run at 7 GB/s speeds. With RKL-S, there will be 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes present, where four would go to the NVMe SSD and 16 would go to the PCIe slots from GPUs. Another interesting feature of the RKL-S is the addition of Xe graphics found on the CPU die, meant as iGPU. Supposedly based on Gen12 graphics, it will bring support for HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4a connectors.

As we gear up for another Intel CPU launch with their 10th Gen Comet Lake-S CPUs with up to 10 cores, motherboard manufacturers have to go through the process of getting their products approved through various regulatory requirements. The Eurasian Economic Commission is one which constantly gives little snippets towards the future, and now, MSI motherboards based on Intel's Z490 chipset and LGA 1200 socket have shown up.

Knowing MSI's usual staple of motherboards for each product generation, there aren't many surprises here. The entries refer to these MSI motherboards: Z490-A PRO (Standard ATX); Creator Z490I (Mini-ITX); MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK (Standard ATX); MPG Z490M GAMING EDGE WIFI (Micro-ATX); MPG Z490 GAMING; CARBON WIFI (Standard ATX); MPG Z490 GAMING PLUS (Standard ATX); MEG Z490I UNIFY (Mini-ITX); MEG Z490 UNIFY (Standard ATX); MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE; WIFI (Standard ATX); MEG Z490 ACE (Standard ATX); MEG Z490 GODLIKE (E-ATX). You can expect the GODLIKE to be so in both features and price, as usual, topping out MSI's lineup.

Reports are flooding the web regarding Intel's total lack of reference to their upcoming Comet Lake family of CPUs, which will be branded under the Intel Core 10000 series. As reports would have it, motherboard makers had stock of LGA 1200 motherboards ready to showcase at CES, but were told to pull them in what is equivalent to a logistical "last minute". It seems that both Intel's lack of commitment to Comet Lake on its CES presentation and absence of ecosystem showcase at this year's CES might have something to do with, well, close to shame on Intel's parts.

Comet Lake will increase the maximum core count for their desktop CPUs up to 10 cores and 20 logical threads. But being built on the same 14 nm process as previous Intel generations since Skylake, there isn't much that can be done to offset increased power consumption. This is why industry sources are claiming Intel decided to skip Comet Lake at this CES - a difficulty to rein in the processors' power consumption in time for the event, with power consumption hitting 300 W. And with Intel's Core i9 10900K being configured with a PL2 (Power Level 2) of 250 W, a maximum 300 W under full load seems more than plausible.

BIOSTAR have left out a teaser trailer for a new motherboard, which seemingly packs an improvement to the company's RGB design on the heatsinks surrounding the CPU area. While this could simply be a new product announcement for an already existing motherboard lineup, we know fully well that Intel is gearing up for the announcement of their Comet Lake-S family of CPUs, which have already been broadly approached in this publication. It makes sense for motherboard companies, who are certainly already privy to the new Intel platform specifications, to start teasing the new features they've come up with to accompany a new generation of motherboards.

Intel's Comet Lake-S family will introduce builders to the new Intel LGA 1200 socket (some things never do change). The new 10000 series CPUs should see another core bump through the lineup, with the top of the line Core I9-10900K CPU sporting a reported 125 W TDP running through its 10-core, 20-thread design. Considering the number of leaks and additional information that has been recently coming to light regarding Intel's latest CPU launch, it seems plausible that the company is gearing up to an announcement, and as such, motherboard makers are also flexing their marketing muscles to get in the first wave of sales.

Intel's development of their Core architecture in the post-Ryzen world has been slow, with solutions slowly creeping up in core counts with every new CPU release - but much slowly than rival AMD's efforts. Before Intel can capitalize on a new, more scalable and power-efficient architecture, though, it has to deliver performance and core count increases across its product line to stay as relevant as possible against a much revitalized rival. Enter Comet Lake-S: the desktop parts of Intel's new round of consumer CPUs, which will reportedly see an increase in the maximum core count to a 10-core design. This 10-core design, however, comes with an increase in power consumption (up to 135 W), and the need, once again, for beefier power delivery systems in a new, LGA 1200 package (with 9 more pins that the current LGA 1151).

The move to a new socket and the more stringent power requirements give Intel the opportunity to refresh its chipset offerings once again. If everything stays the same (and there's no reason it should change), new Z470 and Z490 chipsets should be some of the higher tier offerings for builders to pair with their motherboards. The new Comet Lake-S CPUs will still be built in the now extremely refined 14 nm process, and allegedly keep the same 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes as current Coffee Lake Refresh offerings. The new CPU offerings from Intel are expected to roll out in Q1 2020.