The leak train for Intel's latest and greatest mainstream CPU platform is showing no signs of stopping before hitting the final stop when Intel formalizes it officially. Yesterday, we had MSI do a long preview video with everything but the Z390 branding visible, and today we got word of Newegg Canada deciding it could do better. Indeed, searching for "Z390" on their website shows up, at the time of this post, 15 Z390 motherboards from MSI and Gigabyte alike.

Noting that these are in Canadian dollars, the respective Z370 offerings from the same website are priced 30-40% lower at this time where applicable courtesy of some sales but also a direct MSRP-to-MSRP comparison. Keep in mind also that the features may not be identical, and that may contribute also to the pricing strategy we see employed here. These do not look to be placeholders either, given the precision down to two decimal points, but we will have to wait for USD prices to know if this is price gouging from a retailer or a blanket increase worldwide. In anticipation of these links being taken down sooner than later, we just saved a web archive of the page that can be seen here.

In a recent live stream, MSI gave a sneak peek at their next generation of motherboards. The first one shown was a new red and black themed Gaming Plus model reminiscent of the early days in the MSI Gaming brand. It features a few quality of life improvements one of which is an enlarged PCIe latch making GPU removal a bit easier in cramped environments or when you happen to have a beefy air cooler. Keep out zones were also highlighted on the back of the motherboard giving users a visual cue to make sure other components, standoffs, screws etc do not come into contact with those particular regions. Furthermore, they also included an angled slot in the board's design for easier access to both the SATA ports and USB 3.0.

MSI today rolled out the SeaHawk line of liquid-cooled graphics cards based on GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080 graphics processors. The lineup includes two key sub-variants - SeaHawk X and SeaHawk X EK. The former features a factory-fitted all-in-one closed loop liquid cooler; while the latter features a factory-fitted full-coverage water block by EK Water Blocks, which you plumb to your own liquid cooling loop. Custom-designed for MSI, this block features a nickel-plated copper primary material, mated to an acrylic top with MSI branding all around. Both come with aluminium back-plates.

The RTX 2080 Ti SeaHawk X and SeaHawk X EK are factory-overclocked with a GPU Boost frequency of 1755 MHz (vs. 1545 MHz, or a 13.5% OC). The RTX 2080 SeaHawk X and SeaHawk X EK series, on the other hand, ship with 1860 MHz boost clocks (vs. 1710 MHz, or an 8.8% OC). The cards could attract $200-250 premiums over SEP prices.

MSI, a world leader in gaming hardware, has partnered with ESL for its MSI Gaming Arena (MGA) 2018 World Championship and as the exclusive gaming sponsor of the ESL One 2018 Grand Finals at the Barclays Center in New York on September 29 and 30.MGA 2018 World Championship
Before the Grand Final, MSI Gaming Arena (MGA) 2018 will host the world's top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams fighting for the coveted MGA Trophy and $60,000 prize pool on September 30 at the Barclays Center in New York. After the regional qualifiers, the four remaining teams will secure their spot in the MGA 2018 CS:GO Grand Finals.

MSI is ready with seven new socket LGA1151 (300-series) motherboard models based on Intel's upcoming Z390 Express chipset, which the company recommends to make the most out of its upcoming 8-core processors. Among MSI's new motherboards are the MEG Z390 GODLIKE, the MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon, MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Edge, the mini-ITX MPG Z390I Gaming Pro Edge, Z390 Gaming Plus, MAG Z390 Tomahawk, and the Z390-A Pro. MSI probably feels that everyone and their aunt are selling motherboards with the Gaming moniker it perfected, and wants to throw in more brand extensions to differentiate its products. The MEG brand, abbreviating "MSI Enthusiast Gaming," is top of the line, and debuted recently with the MEG X399 Creation. The MPG (MSI Performance Gaming) series is a notch below MEG, and covers the upper mid-range. The MAG (MSI Arsenal Gaming) covers the entry-mid range gaming-grade motherboards, including the popular Tomahawk and Mortar brands.

MSI positions the MEG Z390 GODLIKE as your go-to board to max out the Core i9-9900K with connectivity and features packed to the brim, combined with a strong CPU VRM setup to overclock the living daylights out of the 8-core chip. Clad in aluminium+ABS, including a back-plate, this board offers connectivity for up to five M.2 PCIe SSDs (including a riser card), a U.2 port, an HDMI streaming card that offloads your CPU for streaming, a massive 18-phase VRM that delivers HEDT-levels of current to your LGA1151 processor, and a monochrome LED display.

MSI is looking to introduce their Trident pre-built desktop systems paired with was is going to be (at least for a while) the world's highest-performance gaming graphics cards. The Trident X revisits MSI's "console-sized" PC take, packing seriously powerful innards in what can only be thought of as insultingly small quarters (10 liters in volume, anyone?).

Of course, the Trident X features MSI's "Silent Storm Cooling" system to allow for this hardware to be cooled without a hassle. The Trident X will follow on previous Trident iterations with a front HDMI port for VR aficionados. Expect pricing to be substantially higher than previous iterations of the Trident, though - just remember the RTX 2080 Ti's retail pricing for a punch in the gut and a throwback to reality land.

If the previously reported bundle of ASUS ROG products with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was not to your preference, perhaps this news coming out of MSI will interest you. As part of a promotion lasting from September 7 through 30, 2018 (or till stocks last), MSI is offering a Steam key to the upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider game, as well as the season pass to the game (the latter being in more limited quantities) upon verified purchase of select Optix MAG and MPG series gaming monitors.

The eligible monitors are the MAG24C, MAG241C, MAG241CR, MAG27C, MAG27CQ, MAG271C, MAG271CR (Optix MAG series) as well as the MPG27C and MPG27CQ (Optix MPG series), thus providing a decent set of options catering to different monitor sizes, resolutions and refresh rates alike. This is also not a global promotion, and there are more terms and conditions that can be found here. Note that verification of purchase and redemption of the game key may take up to 14 days, so if you were in a hurry to get playing then you might want to hold off. Others may also want to keep an eye for discounted offers for the game accordingly, as tends to be the case with such game bundles.

MSI, a world leader in high performance computing hardware, today announces its new notebook designed specifically for content creators and professionals, the P65. The P65 is a powerful system with a stylish design featuring high-end specs, beautiful thin-bezel display and long-lasting battery life. MSI will have the P65 on display at IFA 2018 at Booth number 107.

The P65 provides everything a content creator or business professional needs to work quickly and efficiently. Creators are constantly on the move and need to have desktop-grade power in a form factor they can easily carry around. With a potent processor and dedicated graphics, the P65 gives users more than enough power to edit raw HD or 4K video, create motion graphics and fly through complicated spreadsheets on the go. The P65 also features a full suite of ports including an SD card reader, USB Type-C, USB Type-A, HDMI, micro-DisplayPort and an ethernet jack. The P65 will be available this September.

MSI, the world-leading motherboard manufacturer, announces that MSI MEG X399 CREATION is on shelf now. MSI MEG X399 CREATION is the ultimate motherboard for creators, with design inspired by the concept of element explosion and packed with exclusive features to unleash the overall performance for incredible 32 cores CPU. This time, MEG X399 CREATION also creates incredibly OC records to highlight its maximum performance, with stunning NO.1 records on 9 benchmarks, as table shown below.

Hardwarebot has graced us with the confirmed feat of an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX reaching almost 6 GHz across all of its cores. The overclocking effort, supported by an extreme overclocking setup with liquid nitrogen - and as such, worth more for the sheer PR and "fun tech factor" associated with it. Overall, the overclock up to 5.955 GHz on all cores amounts to a practically 100% increased clockspeed over its base, all-core 3 GHz base clocks.

The overclocking effort was achieved bu user IvanCupa on MSI's X399 MEG Creation motherboard paired with 8 GB of single-channel DDR4 memory (easier on the CPU to support than if more channels were populated). We'll see whether this chip can be taken even closer to the stratosphere than this - remember it's only been a few days since the chip's release to the wild. "Tinkerers be tinkering still."

MSI, a world leader in high performance computing hardware, today announces its new WS65 mobile workstation. The WS65 shows MSI's continued investment in its workstation lines with a commitment to users searching for sophisticated products that blend performance and portability. Additionally, the PS42 professional laptop and Optix MAG241C and MAG271C gaming monitors are now available. MSI will have the WS65 on display at Siggraph 2018 at the NVIDIA Booth number 801.

MSI's new WS65 mobile workstation features a similar chassis to the GS65 Stealth Thin, with attractive styling and 15.6-inch, ultra-thin bezel display. With up to Intel's 8th Generation Core i9 processor and up to NVIDIA Quadro P4200 graphics, the WS65 is up to 40 percent faster than the previous generation. While it was designed for portability, the WS65 also features an 82Whr battery for up to eight hours of battery life.

MSI today announced the MEG X399 Creation, its flagship socket TR4 motherboard, with out of the box support for 2nd generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2000 processors. The company showed off this board at the 2018 Computex, held this June. Although built in the ATX form-factor, this board is recommended only for EATX-capable cases. The highlight of this board is its gargantuan 19-phase CPU VRM that's optimized for overclocking event the 32-core Threadripper 2990WX. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and an optional 4-pin Molex. Heat drawn from the CPU VRM MOSFETS is dissipated not just by a large heatsink that spans almost the entire width of the board, but also a secondary heatsink cooling the SoC phases, via a heat-pipe. The huge chipset heatsink cools not just the X399 chipset, but also three M.2-NVMe slots (two M.2-22110 and one M.2-2280). You get 4 more M.2-2280 slots over the new M.2-Xpander Aero, which is a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 riser card that converts the slot to four M.2-2280 slots with x4 wiring, ventilating them with a 100 mm fan. It ends up looking like a graphics card in doing so.

Expansion includes eight DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 2048 GB of DDR4 ECC memory; four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (full-time x16/x8/x16/x4), and an x1. Storage connectivity includes 7 M.2-NVMe slots (3 onboard, 4 via the included M.2-Xpander Aero accessory); and eight SATA 6 Gbps ports. Connectivity includes MSI's highest-grade onboard audio solution combining an ALC1220 with a headphones amplifier, and audio-grade capacitors; and two 1 GbE interfaces driven by Intel i219-V controllers (10 GbE is a notable absentee); and 802.11ac + BT 5.0 WLAN. You get 10 USB 3.1 ports on the rear panel (including a type-C port), and four USB 3.1 ports via front-panel headers). RGB LED diffusers dot the rear I/O shroud, the chipset heatsink, and the reverse side of the PCB. The board is expected to be priced around $500.

MSI has put up a news item announcing support for Intel's 9000 series CPUs on their Z370 motherboards. The announcement has, in the meantime, been promptly pulled, for whatever reason. Alongside the announcement for MSI's Z370 motherboards being "Optimized for Intel 9000 processors", the company released a list of 15 motherboard models in its lineup that sport the Z370 chipset which will receive BIOS updates to bring them up to speed, support-wise, with Intel's 9000 series.

Of course, there's a small hitch here: the wording in the promotional image isn't quite clear-cut in regards to exactly up to which core counts will actually be supported. The promo image speaks of "next-gen six-core CPU support", which may mean that only up to six-core, i5-tier Intel 9000 series CPUs will be supported, with the 8-core, 16-thread i9 lineup being a premium, Z390-only product. That would certainly play into Intel's usual way of doing things - they do have to justify the introduction of a new chipset, anyway. We'll have to wait and see - likely for some time, if the latest Intel roadmaps are any indication.

MSI, the leading motherboard manufacturer, is proud to announce that MSI B450 motherboards are on shelf now. To satisfy all kinds of gamers and users, MSI has prepared motherboards in Performance GAMING, Arsenal GAMING and PRO Series. With more MSI exclusive features and hardware improvements, MSI B450 motherboards allow users to maximize performance and gain better gaming experiences.

According to MSI OC Lab, we are proud to achieve CPU frequency up to 5.7 GHz with three of MSI B450 motherboards. With highly optimized design and premium layout and MSI exclusive feature, Core Boost, the B450 GAMING PLUS, B450 TOMAHAWK, and B450M MORTAR all push AMD Ryzen 2600X CPU frequency rate over 5.7 GHZ by using LN2, with 5781 MHz, 5752 MHz, and 5771 MHz respectively. This is an incredible result to show that MSI B450 motherboards are perfect with higher performance.

EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer is releasing a new AM4 socket based monoblock tailor-made for the MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard. The EK-FB MSI X470 Pro Carbon RGB Monoblock has an integrated 4-pin RGB LED strip and it offers unparallel aesthetics alongside with superior performance! The RGB LED in the monoblock is compatible with MSI Mystic Light Sync, thus offering a full lighting customization experience.

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for the MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard that supports the second generation of AMD Ryzen and 7th Generation A-series/Athlon processors.

With Intel frantically working on an 8-core socket LGA1151 processor to convincingly beat the 8-core AMD Ryzen 2000 series processor, AMD could be working on the next cycle of core-count increases for the mainstream-desktop platform. Motherboard maker MSI may have dropped the first hint that AMD is bringing >8 cores to the socket AM4 mainstream-desktop platform by mentioning that its upcoming motherboards based on the AMD B450 chipset support 8-core "and up" CPU in a marketing video.

AMD will get its next opportunity to tinker with key aspects of its CPU micro-architecture with "Zen 2," being built on the 7 nm silicon fabrication process. If it decides to stick with the CCX approach to multi-core processors, the company could increase per-CCX core counts. A 50 percent core-count increase enables 12-core processors, while a 100 percent increase brings 16-cores to the AM4 platform. MSI video confirms that these >8-core processors will have backwards-compatibility with existing 400-series chipsets, even if they launch alongside newer 500-series chipset.The video follows.

A variety of motherboards based on Intel Z370 Express chipset began receiving the first BIOS updates that add compatibility with upcoming Intel 8-core processors. The updates are flagged "beta" by the manufacturers. Given that only Z370 (and not other 300-series chipset models) have such updates, it's possible that Intel could restrict the first socket LGA1151 8-core processor SKUs (which could be unlocked "K" variants with higher TDP) to Z370 chipset, as the chipset has stronger VRM requirements than other chipset models that don't support CPU overclocking.

To support the upcoming processors, the BIOS needs to include the latest 06EC microcode revision. Various motherboard manufacturers, such as ASUS, ASRock, and MSI, have released beta BIOS updates with this microcode, as confirmed in AMI Aptio inspection tool screenshots. The 06EC microcode, detailed in this slide-deck from Intel, hardens the machine against newer variants of the "Spectre" vulnerability. Older revisions of this document also mentioned support for Intel Core "9000 series" processors, before Intel scampered to redact it.

EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer is releasing a new AM4 socket based monoblock tailor-made for the MSI X470 Gaming M7 motherboard. The EK-FB MSI X470 M7 RGB Monoblock has an integrated 4-pin RGB LED strip and it offers unparallel aesthetics alongside with superior performance! The RGB LED in the monoblock is compatible with MSI Mystic Light Sync, thus offering a full lighting customization experience!

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for the MSI X470 Gaming M7 socket AM4 motherboard that supports the second generation of AMD Ryzen and 7th Generation A-series/Athlon processors.

EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer is releasing a tailor-made monoblock liquid cooling solution for the MSI Intel X299 Chipset based MSI X299M GAMING PRO CARBON AC motherboard that supports new Intel Core X-series LGA-2066 socket processors. The EK-FB MSI X299M GAMING PRO CARBON RGB Monoblock has an integrated 4-pin RGB LED strip which makes it compatible with MSI Mystic Light, thus offering a full lighting customization experience.

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for MSI X299M GAMING PRO CARBON AC motherboards that supports Intel Core X-series LGA-2066 socket processors.

MSI showcased their upcoming overkill solution for users that want to have a dedicated PCIe x16 expansion card - and one that brings the true and final cooling solution to end all thermal throttling. Basically, the company appropriated its Aero cooler, which is used for some of their graphics cards, and applied it to a 4x M.2 expansion card. The result? Up to 50 W of cooling capability with this solution - which can go up to 75 W if users connect the additional 6-pin power connector for the fan to go into overdrive.

It's almost as if MSI was giving users a "yes we can" shout on designing this cooling solution, with the amount of overkill this has. No amount of thermal throttling should occur here - ever. Maybe overcompensating for the M.2 Shield debacle? Whatever the reason, this is certainly a competent cooling solution, and it will be included inside their Threadripper X399 MEG Creation motherboard - an outrageous motherboard, with an outrageous M.2 cooling solution. Balance is brought back to the world. Naturally, the company also has plans to offer their expansion M.2 card as a standalone product.

Razer , the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced that its award-winning lighting technology Razer Chroma will begin allowing select partners to connect their devices into the ecosystem, bringing full-spectrum beauty to even more gamers. Razer Chroma is the world's only immersive lighting platform with over a hundred natively integrated games such as Overwatch , Fortnite, Quake Champions , Diablo and other popular games.

Razer Chroma also enjoys integration with Philips Hue smart lights, giving gamers a full-blown in-room ambience that can be fine-tuned down to each individual light bulb, completely transforming the way they play. Until now, a common experience for many gamers today is that the lighting effects on third-party devices such as PC cases, motherboards, and cooling fans are not fully in sync, producing an experience that is not in line with Razer devices.

MSI, world's leading brand in gaming hardware, has lifted the curtain for its two brand new laptops at Computex 2018, the GF63 and the PS42. Respectively tailored for gamers and professionals, both models feature the ever-so-popular thin bezel design. The near edge-to-edge aesthetics are not only lighter in weight but also smaller in dimension. Together with the previously-announced GS65, MSI has set a new standard for portability with the "Thin Bezel Gaming" genre.

GF63: Bringing thin and light gaming to the mainstream.
The brand new GF63 debuts in Computex with its 15.6" ultra slim footprint and thin bezel with measuring less than 2 kg in weight. Continuing MSI's gaming DNA and powerful performance, the GF63 carries up to 8th Gen. Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics, while lasting over 7 hours in battery life. The GF63 provides gamers a new choice of "portable gaming firepower!"

MSI showed off two of its latest socket AM4 motherboards based on AMD's upcoming B450 chipset, the B450 Tomahawk and B450-A Pro. The Tomahawk is slotted in MSI's minimalist yet gamer-grade Arsenal Gaming series, and has a clean look, with a feature-set that doesn't exceed that of the chipset by much. Slick new VRM and chipset heatsink designs which debuted with Intel 300-series Tomahawk boards, make their appearance here. There's just one M.2-22110 slot. The B450-A Pro is part of MSI's mainline motherboard lineup, and targeted at system-integrators, with a similar feature-set to the Tomahawk, though slightly built to a cost.

CORSAIR , a world leader in PC gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today launched its new CORSAIR iCUE software, unlocking a new level of system lighting across a huge range of CORSAIR products.

For the first time from CORSAIR, iCUE unifies dynamic lighting control, cooling control, system monitoring and command customization within a single intuitive interface, supporting literally thousands of CORSAIR products. From keyboards and mice such as the K70 RGB LUX and M65 PRO RGB, to Hydro Series PRO liquid CPU coolers and AXi Series power supplies, iCUE brings your entire system together with stunning synchronized lighting and powerful system control.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, announces that it has overclocked its XPG SPECTRIX D80 RGB DDR4 memory module to 5531 MHz in a liquid-nitrogen-cooled configuration. The milestone was achieved through the joint effort of ADATA's XPG team and MSI's OC team. The result was confirmed by HWBot, and reaffirms ADATA's strong R&D capabilities and the outstanding performance offered by the XPG SPECTRIX D80 RGB memory module.

XPG SPECTRIX D80 DDR4 RGB is the world's first RGB DDR4 memory with a hybrid liquid-air cooling system. Utilizing the combination of a liquid heatsink, an aluminum heatsink, and thermally conductive materials on the PCB, the SPECTRIX D80 offers comprehensive thermal cooling capabilities and delivers outstanding performance.