The folks at MSI seem to be particularly fond of puzzles at this point in time, for no discernible reason. I say so because they've been giving us snippets of an upcoming high-end motherboard, which we have previously covered. At the time, we posited it would fall somewhere along the X299-end of the spectrum, considering the huge amount of PCIe x16 ports on-board.

It would seem those suspicions were founded, since MSI's other GODLIKE branded motherboards (which means they have all the bells & whistles available on time of their release) were X99-based, so it would follow that the new GODLIKE would usher in their footsteps as well. From the new piece of the puzzle, we can glean that this motherboard will offer, in addition to its 4x PCIe x16 ports and 3x M.2 slots over the X299's 44 PCIe lanes, 3x Ethernet connectors, 6x USB 3.1, and 2x Wi-Fi antennas. Expect this motherboard to be one of the most feature-packed offerings for Intel's expected ninth coming (of their Core i9-branded HEDT processors, that is.)

Recent reports mentioned Intel's moves to bring forward the launch of their Basin Falls HEDT platform, which succeeds their X99 platform. Intel is doing this in hopes to hold the blue flag against AMD's upcoming X399 Ryzen-based HEDT platform (there's seemingly a war in numbers here), pitting 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12-core CPUs against AMD's expected 12-core and 16-core processors.

As such, it's only natural motherboard makers would also have to expedite their work on X299-based motherboards, and it would seem that MSI has done just that, simultaneously advancing their marketing campaign. A teaser image from the company showcases an as-of-yet unreleased motherboard (not just any motherboard, but the "Best. Motherboard. Ever") which boasts of a trio of M.2 slots (with MSI's M.2 Shield thermal solution), and four PCIe x16 slots. Are you still counting the number of PCI lanes needed to drive all these slots? Well, it just so happens Intel's Basin Falls is expected to deliver up to 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes, so those should be enough to at least make this ridiculous amount of slots worthwhile... For some use cases. There's also an additional power-supply connector on top of the first PCIe slot, which should increase power delivery for these. It's almost open season on these HEDT platforms, kind sirs.

We got whiff of NVIDIA working on the GeForce GT 1030 close to a month ago. The smallest implementation of the "Pascal" GPU architecture is NVIDIA's answer to the AMD Radeon RX 550, and targets the entry-level graphics segment. It looks like product launches of the GeForce GT 1030 are just around the corner as pictures and specifications of various GT 1030 cards were leaked to the web. Below you'll see pictures of a selection of GIGABYTE and MSI GT 1030 graphics cards.

According to VideoCardz, the GT 1030 are based on the GP108-300 ASIC, featuring 384 CUDA cores, 24 TMUs, 8 ROPs, and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 64-bit wide memory bus. With a TDP of just 35W, the GPU can power low-profile and completely fanless graphics cards, although for those who prefer their cards with elaborate fan-heatsink cooling solutions, there will be full-height cards as well.

It would seem like companies MSI and SteelSeries are reaching a somewhat strategic partnership when it comes to lighting up your PC and peripherals of choice. As you are all well aware, most companies now offer products with RGB lighting, from motherboards to AIOs and RAM. We covered SteelSeries' own QcK Prism mouse mat some days ago, and you would think the folks at MSI were impressed by SteelSeries' RGB "savoir-faire."

MSI is allowing you to control LED lighting on only one of their motherboards for now - the Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon. This looks like a tentative partnership, for now, but could soon be expanded to more RGB-equipped MSI motherboards. SteelSeries' Engine 3 (SSE3) is the application, developed by SteelSeries, that will allow you to sync your motherboard's lighting with that of your other SteelSeries peripherals, ensuring a single "LED lighting language" across your desk space. The two main lighting features of SSE3 are PrismSync and GameSense. PrismSync controls all the lighting effects in the usual "choose your own color" metric, while GameSense dynamically adjusts lighting effects according to what's happening on your games of choice, like syncing colors to your in-game health or other metrics. This is yet another step towards the integration of LED lighting in our daily computing lives. At least now you can control all LED lighting from different manufacturers (well, just two manufacturers, really) through a single application. Exciting times.

MSI today introduced its flagship GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, the GTX 1080 Ti SeaHawk EK X. Unlike the GTX 1080 Ti SeaHawk series, which come with factory-fitted AIO liquid cooling solutions, the SeaHawk EK X comes with a factory-fitted full-coverage water block made by EK Water Blocks, which you plumb to your own liquid cooling loop. In theory, this card can have superior cooling to its AIO liquid cooling siblings. The underlying PCB between the two cards is different, too. Whlie the SeaHawk EK X comes with the same PCB as the GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Plus, the SeaHawk comes with a slightly shorter PCB that's derived from NVIDIA reference PCB, found on the company's GTX 1080 Ti Aero series.

Interestingly, the MSI GTX 1080 Ti SeaHawk EK X comes with the same factory-overclocked speeds out of the box, as the SeaHawk series - 1544 MHz core, 1657 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 11 GHz (GDDR5X-effective). The "OC Mode," enabled using the included MSI Gaming app, runs the card at 1569/1683 MHz core/boost, with 11.12 GHz memory. The company didn't reveal pricing, although we expect this card to be priced around $850.

In this issue of the Ryzen BIOS update digest, we have last week's latest updates. Our BIOS update digest lets you keep track of crucial BIOS updates that improve stability of your AMD Ryzen machine. Our usual format has undergone some tweaks, but it's for the better. For one, we list beta BIOSes as well now. We also only list BIOSes now that have been updated since the last digest, to avoid redundancy.

MSI today introduced its entry-level gaming-grade socket AM4 motherboard, the A320M Gaming Pro. This board is based on the same exact PCB as the A320M Grenade, but tops it up with slightly more premium black capacitors, a pitch-black PCB (compared to brown on the A320M Grenade) and MSI's signature dragon red color scheme for some of the slots and connectors. The board could be priced slightly above the A320M Grenade. The feature-set of the two boards, however, appears to be identical.

Built in the narrow micro-ATX form-factor, the A320M Gaming Pro draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and conditions it for the SoC using a 6-phase VRM. Expansion slots include one reinforce PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, and two PCIe gen 2.0 x1. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot. USB connectivity includes six 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 ports. 6-channel HD audio (Realtek ALC887 controller) and gigabit Ethernet (Realtek RTL8111H controller) make for the rest of it. The board features red LED illumination and RGB LED headers, which can be controlled using the Mystic Light app. Expect a sub-$80 price.

In what could be the first of many such bundles by motherboard manufacturers, MSI is preparing special SKUs of its motherboards that include Intel Optane cache SSDs. The drives won't be free, but the bundle would be slightly cheaper compared to buying the board and the drives separately. These bundles will be demarkated as variants of existing motherboards, and will come with the drives pre-installed on the boards' M.2 slots. MSI announced two such SKUs for now, the B250M Bazooka Opt Boost, and the Z270 Tomahawk Opt Boost, which come with 16 GB Intel Optane memory pre-installed and configured.

The 16 GB Intel Optane memory offers burst speeds that are 14X those of regular hard drives. The latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver, when configured for Optane caching, juggles "hot" data (most frequently accessed data) in and out of the drive from your main storage (HDD or even SSD), thereby boosting performance. MSI did not reveal pricing of the two SKUs, but they are expected to be nominally cheaper than purchasing the boards and drives separately.

MSI, a world leader in gaming hardware, continues to innovate its critically-acclaimed gaming laptops with the announcement of the new GP62X GP72X Leopard series. MSI continues to redefine gaming performance in a portable gaming laptop with a 120Hz 5ms screen, a NVMe M.2 solid state drive that breaks the current bandwidth limitation, and updated SteelSeries RGB keyboard with Silver Lining print.

Screen tearing and jitters are a thing of the past with the all new full HD 120 Hz panel with 5ms response time. The ultra-fast refresh rate lets you react instantly to your game, giving you a true MSI gaming experience. The GP62X and GP72X Leopard series gaming laptops use a NVMe solid state drive so gamers can experience full performance potential of the latest SSD technology with extreme read speeds up to 2,200MB/s. The line includes an Intel 7th Generation KabyLake processor, one stick of 16GB DDR4 RAM (upgradeable to 32GB) and up to a GeForce GTX1060 graphics card.

Someone got lucky with an early purchase of an MSI Radeon RX 570 Gaming X graphics card, ahead of its April 18th launch, and wasted no time in posting pictures of it, before selling it off on eBay for $329. Pictures reveal the card to look not much different from the RX 470 Gaming X, given that it features the same TwinFrozr VI cooling solution. This particular card features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. While the box doesn't reveal clock speeds, it highlights "3rd gen FinFET 14" technology, proving that AMD is building the RX 570 and RX 580 chips on a newer, more advanced 14 nm FinFET node than the one it built Polaris 10 "Ellesmere" on.

MSI, world leading in motherboard design, launches five new ATX GAMING motherboards based on the AMD AM4 X370 and B350 chipset. These new GAMING models are positioned in the Performance GAMING segment, a series all about Gaming In style. Its new flagship is the X370 GAMING PRO CARBON AC with Mystic Light RGB, to fully customize its looks, but now also available with Intel WIFI AC. The new X370 and B350 GAMING motherboards all support the upcoming AMD RYZEN Series processors and 7th Gen A-series / Athlon Processors and are ready to fully utilize performance on AM4 with the exclusive MSI A-XMP feature, maximizing DDR4 speed & stability.

MSI today introduced the B350 Gaming Plus, a gaming-grade socket AM4 motherboard based on the mid-range AMD B350 chipset. Built in the ATX form-factor, the board is based on the same PCB as the B350 Tomahawk, and draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and conditions it for the AM4 SoC with a 6-phase VRM. The AM4 socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory; and one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, with a metal reinforcement brace. The second x16 slot is electrical x4, and wired to the B350 chipset. Two each of PCIe x1 and legacy PCI make for the rest of the expansion area.

Storage connectivity on the MSI B350 Gaming Plus includes four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot with NVMe booting support. USB connectivity includes eight USB 3.0 ports (six on the rear panel including a type-C port, and two via headers). Display outputs include one each of DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. The onboard audio solution combines a Realtek ALC892 8-channel HD audio CODEC with ground layer isolation, and audio-grade capacitors. Gigabit Ethernet is handled by a Realtek RTL8111H controller. We expect the board to be priced around the $120 mark.

MSI today introduced the A320 Grenade, an entry-level yet gaming-grade socket AM4 motherboard based on AMD's basic A320 chipset. Built in the narrow micro-ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors. A simple 5-phase VRM conditions power for the AM4 SoC. The socket is wired to a pair of DDR4 DIMM slots, and a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. Two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slots make for the rest of the expansion area.

Storage connectivity includes four SATA 6 Gbps ports, from which two are wired to the SoC, and one 32 Gbps M.2 slot. USB connectivity includes four USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two via headers). Gigabit Ethernet (driven by Realtek RTL8111H controller) and 6-channel HD audio (Realtek ALC887 CODEC), make for the rest of it. We expect it to be priced around the $75 mark.

Vendor lists for RX 500 series cards keep popping up, and this time, it's Sapphire and MSI's time. And it would seem that Sapphire has just seen the entirety of its RX 500 series lineup leaked (sans the still absent in battle RX 560.) Apparently, Sapphire will launch a new PULSE line of graphics cards, in addition to its already known NITRO series. This new PULSE line of graphics cards will likely carry previous-gen Polaris 10 chips, judging from the difference in pricing between the top of the line RX 580 PULSE (20G) model and its NITRO (40G) counterpart: a 40€ premium can't really justify a differentiation in overclocking alone. A similar situation is seen in regards to the RX 570 cards, with a NITRO-branded, 8 GB RX 570 (40G) being priced higher than a 4 GB, PULSE-branded RX 570. Looking at the model numbers, it would seem differentiation between the Polaris 10 chips and the Polaris 20 XTX and XL is done by the last characters in the product number, with the "40G" products carrying a hefty premium over the "20G" parts.

If the PULSE series are based on the Polaris 10 chips, and the NITRO are based on the newer, freshly confirmed Polaris 20 XTX, the expected difference in clock speeds (with overclocked variants of the RX 500 reaching 1500 MHz) and the newer, as-of-yet-unconfirmed LPP fabrication process would go a long way towards justifying such a premium. This could speak for an approach on clock-speeds towards differentiating the multiple RX 580 price-points, akin to the 7970's GHz Edition - likely, top-of-the line Polaris 20 XTX and XL chips will board higher-tier graphics cards, marketed at exceedingly high clock-speeds.

MSI now has three "X370 Gaming Pro" motherboards. The first one is the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon, which the company launched its socket AM4 lineup with, then the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC, released earlier this month, which is its variant with 802.11ac WLAN; and now we have the X370 Gaming Pro (without the "Carbon" moniker). This board is based on a different PCB, and has a lighter feature-set than the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon series. The board features the same 10-phase CPU VRM as the Pro Carbon boards. The expansion slot layout is identical, too, with two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated) wired to the CPU, a third x16 (electrical x4) slot wired to the X370 chipset, and three other x1 slots.

The differences kick in with the storage options. You get six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, but just one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot with MSI M.2 Shield (the Pro Carbon boards have two M.2 slots). Another major difference is the lighting. The chipset heatsink, audio ground-layer isolation strip, and various other areas on the board have red LED illumination, in place of RGB LED on the Pro Carbon boards. You can still control the brightness and illumination of these red LEDs using the Mystic Light Sync software. Another area of cost-cutting is the gigabit Ethernet. This board features a Realtek RTL8111H controller, while the Pro Carbon boards feature Intel I211AT controllers. The rest of the board's feature set is the same as the Pro Carbon, including two USB 3.1 ports (with one typc-C port), VR Boost USB ports. The MSI X370 Gaming Pro goes on sale on the 11th of April, at a price we expect to be around USD $150.

MSI announced its flagship GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk Gaming graphics card. The card is characterized by a modified version of the company's lateral-flow Aero series cooling solution, with an all-in-one liquid cooling loop over the GPU and a base-plate cooling its surrounding memory. This liquid-cooling component has been designed by Corsair. The loop features a pump+block under the card's cooler shroud, plumbed to a 120 mm x 120 mm radiator, with an included fan.

The MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk Gaming comes with factory-overclocked speeds of 1493 MHz core, 1607 MHz GPU Boost, and 11016 MHz (GDDR5X-effective) memory, out of the box, compared to NVIDIA reference speeds of 1480/1584/11010 MHz, which isn't a big difference. The MSI Gaming app gives you the OC Mode preset that runs the card at 1506/1620/11018 MHz. The card draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors; display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4 besides one each of HDMI 2.0 and DVI connectors. The company didn't reveal pricing.

MSI today introduced the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC socket AM4 motherboard for AMD Ryzen processors and 7th generation A-series APUs. A variant of the X370 Gaming Pro Carbon the company launched its X370 motherboard lineup with, this board includes support for 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth 4.2 using a PCI-Express x1 add-on card. The card features an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 controller, which supports Dual Band 2x2 802.11ac and MU-MIMO Rx, and a maximum bandwidth of 867 Mbps. The card takes up a PCI-Express slot on your motherboard, and has a small riser cable that plugs into your motherboard for low-level wake-on-LAN functions, and the Bluetooth connection. The included MSI Gaming LAN app lets you run your machine with two Internet connections (one over the WLAN card, and the other over the wired gigabit Ethernet port), and lets you assign specific applications to the two connections. The rest of the board's feature-set is identical to that of the original X370 Gaming Pro Carbon.

With Intel launching its new Optane memory technology boosting HDD and SSD performance, MSI introduces a new feature to support its speed enhancing capabilities to the maximum. Optane Genie is an easy and smart installation tool found in the latest BIOS, which enables the use of Optane memory with just 1-click, while normally users would have to go through several challenging steps to successfully configure and enable Optane memory boosting. Just click Optane Genie and follow the instructions to finish the easy setup, making Optane easy to use for anyone. All MSI 200 series motherboards already support Intel Optane Memory but we strongly recommend updating to the latest version for the best performance regarding Optane and inclusion of the new and exclusive MSI Optane Genie feature.

MSI has been doing the round with its Trident line of "console-sized" PCs. After upgrading its original model to a Kaby Lake-based platform, the new, limited Arctic edition of the Trident 3 features a bolster to its GPU computing power, RGB lighting - and a price hike to boot. MSI has also included an HDMI port on the front of the Trident 3 Arctic, gearing it up towards the VR market.

The new Arctic variant features a GTX 1070 graphics card in an ITX format, which is fed by a Core i7-7700, on the H110 chipset. The memory subsystem delivers 16GB of 2400MHz DDR4, expandable up to 32GB. A 256GB M.2 SSD (SATA) and a 1TB spinning HDD handle storage. MSI claims the system only reaches 32dB at full load, taking power off a 330W adapter. For the hardware specs and the neat, icy, small-sized package (346.25 x 232.47 x 71.83 mm), MSI is asking for a neat $1500.

MSI today launched the two other custom-design GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards apart from its Gaming X series, the GTX 1080 Ti Armor series, and the GTX 1080 Ti Aero series. Both lines further have variants that are factory-overclocked, and ones which stick to NVIDIA reference clock speeds. The GTX 1080 Ti Aero will be MSI's cheapest GTX 1080 Ti offering, which could sell on-par with NVIDIA's $699 Founders Edition SKU. It features a lateral-flow cooling solution that pushes hot air out of the case, much like the reference-design cooler. MSI improved upon the drab black plastic cooler shroud design of previous Aero series products with streaks of NVIDIA's favorite shade of green, which lends the card a Quadro-like appearance. The base GTX 1080 Ti Aero sticks to NVIDIA-reference clocks of 1480/1582/11000 MHz (core/GPU Boost/memory), while the OC variant ticks at 1506/1620 MHz, leaving the memory untouched.

The GTX 1080 Ti Armor series is a little more exciting. Part of MSI's Arsenal Gaming family, the Armor series cards are positioned between the Aero series and the Gaming X series. These cards feature an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of fans that spool down to zero when the GPU is idling. The card also appears to be using the same PCB as the GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X. The GTX 1080 Ti Armor sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds, while the Armor OC variant does 1531/1645 MHz (core/GPU Boost) out of the box, which is a little behind the 1569/1683/11200 MHz the Gaming X ships with.

MSI's top of the line take on the GTX 1080 Ti - The GAMING X - has just been detailed by the company, building upon the previously-released teasers. The GAMING X features MSI's two-and-a-half slot TWIN FROZR VI dual-fan cooling solution with Torx 2.0 fans, which have the ability to completely turn off in low-load scenarios through their Zero Frozr feature. The card comes with a custom PCB, equipped with dual 8-pin power connectors and 8+2 phase design.

As the world's leading GAMING graphics card vendor, MSI is proud to announce a full line up of graphics cards based on NVIDIA's new flagship gaming GPU with fierce new looks and supreme performance to match. Building on the monumental success of MSI's award winning GAMING X series, the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X 11G uses the full force of the TWIN FROZR VI cooler, allowing for higher core and memory clock speeds for increased performance in games.

The famous shapes of the eye-catching TWIN FROZR cooler are intensified by a fiery red GAMING glow piercing through the cover, while the MSI GAMING dragon RGB LED on the side can be set to any of 16.8 million colors to match your mood or build. A completely new custom 10-phase PCB design using Military Class 4 components with two 8-pin power connectors enables higher overclocking performance to push your graphics card to the max. The classy matte black solid metal backplate gives the card more structural strength and provides a nice finishing touch.

In news that would have been very well received some 5 years ago (but is still relevant today), MSI has announced an approximation (of sorts) of Intel's XMP Profiles. Named A-XMP (how clever), MSI has essentially adapted Intel's XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile) for the AM4 platform. A-XMP enables support for higher rated DDR4 memory kits, enabling them to work without any hassle. You are probably reminded of AM4 and Ryzen's peculiarities when it comes to memory support. A-XMP aims to at least mitigate those issues, whilst allowing for increased performance in a platform which is particularly sensitive to memory performance.

MSI is calling A-XMP "the world's first 1-second DDR4 performance and stability feature", and has announced the feature will be rolled out in soon to be available BIOS updates for all MSI AM4 motherboards.

In addition to the X370 Krait Gaming, MSI announced two other white-themed socket AM4 motherboards, with the B350 Tomahawk Arctic, and the B350M Mortar Arctic. As their names suggest, the two MSI Arsenal Gaming series motherboards are nearly identical to the original B350 Tomahawk and B350M Mortar, respectively, except for the white PCBs, silvery white VRM/chipset heatsinks, and white PCI-Express and DDR4 DIMM slots. The two are also studded with white LEDs that put up a bright colored light-show, and which can be controlled with the MSI Mystic Light application (brightness, lighting programs, etc.). The two could hence be sold at tiny ($15-20) premiums over the originals.

That some M.2 SSDs throttle their speeds because of increased operating temperatures has already been demonstrated. Some companies, like Plextor, have even launched M.2 SSDs with specifically-developed heatsinks to reduce operating temperatures and thus reduce performance degradation. Other companies, Like MSI, have started incorporating M.2 heatsinks on their motherboard design, looking to attract more customers on the prospect of increased SSD performance - though some say the merits of MSI's approach are debatable.

Now, SilverStone has announced a more cost-effective - and compatible - way of improving thermals of your M.2 SSD of choice, by introducing its TP01-M2 thermal pads. These pads are colored blue (because blue means cool, see?), and the company claims their usage on a Samsung SM951 SSD brought about improvements of around 15ºC in the operating temperatures, down to 71ºC from the 86ºC sans thermal pads. These go for around 5€ a pack, which comes with two 20 mm (W) x 100 mm (D), one with 0.5 mm thickness, and another with improved cooling capabilities but a greater 1.5 mm thickness.