NZXT, a leading developer of software-powered hardware solutions for PC gaming, today announces three new pre-built options for its custom PC building service, BLD, that are designed for content creators and budding PC gamers. The NZXT Starter PC serves as the perfect entry-level PC for a first-time PC gamer starting at $899. This build can game in 1080p with no compromises with its AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660. For users who want a little more power, the NZXT Starter PC Plus includes a one terabyte Intel 660p M.2 SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti for added performance for $999.

The final pre-build is the NZXT Streaming PC built for users who are looking to start their streaming and content creations careers. Gamers can easily stream and play their favorite games using its AMD 2700x and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 for $1,499. All NZXT Starter and Streaming PC systems purchased from BLD before 11 am PST, Monday through Friday, will be shipped that day allowing for users to start gaming as soon as possible.

European PC enthusiasts continue to see value in choosing AMD Ryzen processors over Intel Core, as the latest public data by German retailer Mindfactory.de, which ships across the EU, shows AMD processors outselling Intel 2:1. Although earlier Intel would have the upperhand in revenue despite lower volumes, this time around, AMD shored up revenues on the backs of high-margin products such as the Ryzen 7 2700X and the HEDT Ryzen Threadripper series.

The 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 2600 is the most popular processor offering high value under the 200€-mark. It is followed by the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 2700X. Buyers prefer the 2700X to the cheaper 2700 non-X. The Ryzen 5 2600X is another strong seller. Over in the Intel camp, the Core i9-9900K and Core i7-9700K are strong sellers, followed by the i5-9600K and the newly released i5-9400F. Pricing graphs show Intel processor pricing steadily rise over 2018, while AMD chips remained largely flat. These numbers are not indicative of the overall market, since Mindfactory caters to DIY PC gamers and enthusiasts only.

A number of retailers across Europe are coming up with early pricing of Intel's 9th generation Core-K processors, codenamed "Whiskey Lake" or "Coffee Lake Refresh." One such set of pricing, compiled by Czech publication Alza.cz confirms that our suspicions that Intel will establish a new $500-ish price-point in its MSDT (mainstream desktop) segment. We are not counting the anomalous / limited-edition Core i7-8086K in our assertion. The current Core i5-8600K is a $250-ish product, while the current platform flagship Core i7-8700K remains around $350. The upcoming Core i5-9600K (6-core/6-thread) and Core i7-9700K (8-core/8-thread) will succeed the two at nearly identical price-points. We expect Core i9-9900K to have a premium price around the $500-mark.

Intel arrested the growing popularity of AMD's Ryzen 5 1600 earlier this year, with its 8th generation Core i5 processors. The 2nd generation Ryzen 5 series only trade blows with Intel's competing offerings, with the Ryzen 5 2600X at best edging past the i5-8600K with a wafer-thin margin, in price-performance and absolute-performance. The Ryzen 7 2700X has more merits over the 6-core/12-thread i7-8700K, besides a slightly lower price, creating a competitive uncertainty that works to AMD's advantage; and which Intel hopes to plug with the 8-core/8-thread i7-9700K. The 8-core/16-thread i9-9900K could be double-digit percentage faster owing to HyperThreading and larger cache, and Intel could look to monetize that with a premium price.

In his latest Youtube video, famous overclocker der8auer has delidded his AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor for the sole purpose of evaluating whether the benefits justify the risk. Since the IHS in the new Pinnacle Ridge processors is soldered directly to the die with Indium, delidding the processors is a tricky but not impossible task. Everything melts when it gets warm enough, and indium starts melting around 156.60 °C. Therefore, der8auer had to use a modified version of his popular Delid Die Mate 2 tool by replacing the acrylic pieces with aluminum while also removing the rubber washer. After baking his Ryzen 5 2600 chip in the oven between 170 °C to 180 °C, Der8auer removed the IHS easily with his delidding tool. For his testing, he replaced the indium solder with Thermal Grizzly liquid metal thermal compound. As expected, the results weren't very impressive. With the Ryzen 5 2600 overclocked to 4.1 GHz with 1.35V, the difference was a mere 4 °C under load. So, there you have it. Don't delid your Pinnacle Ridge processor. It's not worth the effort.

Ahead of its 19th April formal launch, AMD opened up pre-orders to its 2nd generation Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" processors, and compatible motherboards based on AMD X470 chipset. AMD is launching this series with four SKUs, the Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 7 2700 eight-core chips, and Ryzen 5 2600X and Ryzen 5 2600 six-core chips. The pricing of the four is surprisingly lower than expected. The top-dog 2700X has an SEP price of just USD $329, while the 2700 (non-X) goes for $299. The six-core parts aren't too far behind. The Ryzen 5 2600X has an SEP price of $229, and the Ryzen 5 2600 is $199. Pricing of the chips in the EU is along expected lines. The Ryzen 7 2700X is priced at 319€, followed by the Ryzen 7 2700 at 289€, Ryzen 5 2600X at 225€, and the Ryzen 5 2600 at 195€.

Based on the new 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" silicon, the Ryzen 7 2700X comes with higher clock speeds than the previous-generation flagship 1800X, with 3.70 GHz core, 4.30 GHz boost, and XFR boosting frequency beyond the max boost frequency. You get 8 CPU cores, and SMT enabling 16 logical CPUs, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The 2700 is clocked at 3.20 GHz, with 4.10 GHz boost. The 2600X and the 2600 are 6-core/12-thread parts, with the full 16 MB L3 cache available on-die. The 2600X is clocked at 3.60 GHz with 4.20 GHz boost and XFR; while the 2600 is clocked at 3.40 GHz, with 3.90 GHz boost. All four models include stock cooling solutions, including the 2700X and the 2600X. Availability in brick and mortar stores will commence on the 19th, it's also the day the first pre-ordered chips will start getting delivered.

Ahead of their mid-April launch, AMD's second-generation Ryzen 7 2700X, 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600X processors allegedly began surfacing in Russian brick-and-mortar stores, with enthusiasts already being able to buy them, and put them through popular benchmarks online. This thread on Russian PC enthusiast community Overclockers.ru shows several users claiming to have retail 2700X and 2600X chips, and are putting them through benchmarks such as Cinebench R15, AIDA64 benchmarks, etc. Increased performance aside, these benchmark screenshots seem to confirm that AMD has reworked its cache and memory sub-system to be faster on 2nd generation Ryzen chips, with users reporting lower CPU cache and DRAM latencies on AIDA64 latency and bandwidth tests.

Not sure whether intentional or an error, SiSoftware posted a review of the Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 5 2600 processors on their website. The creators of the popular Sandra benchmark suite has taken down the review for the meantime. Luckily, our good old buddies at VideoCardz have ninja reflexes and downloaded the graphs before SiSoftware removed them. In their review, SiSoftware pitched the upcoming Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 5 2600 processors against AMD's previous Ryzen 7 1700X processor and Intel's Core i7-6700K Skylake processor.

The SiSoftware team evaluated CPU performance using a plethora of synthetic benchmarks. Unfortunately, they didn't evaluate gaming performance. Nevertheless, their review gave us a taste of what we can expect from the Ryzen 2000 series. The Ryzen 2000 series (or Zen+) officially supports DDR4 frequencies up to 2933 MHz which should help improve its performance. Similar to its predecessor, Zen+ processors possess the most cores and threads. Therefore, performance improvements depend hugely on IPC and clock speeds. While we're on the subject of clock speeds, Ryzen 2000 series' base clock is 9% higher while the Turbo/Boost/XFR frequency is 11% higher when compared to previous Ryzen chips. In terms of CPU performance, we can expect at least a 10% improvement in CPU-heavy benchmarks. All of this comes at a cost though. The TDP for Zen+ (105W) is 11% higher than the first-generation Ryzen processors (95W). Beefy cooling solutions are highly recommended especially if you plan to overclock these CPUs. Although Zen+ based processors' L1, L2, and L3 caches suffered no changes, latencies should show some improvement. AMD may launch the Ryzen 2000 series on April 19, so we won't have to wait long to get our hands on the new processors.

Ahead of its launch product roadmap of AMD's next-generation performance-thru-enthusiast segment socket AM4 processors, was leaked to the web. It indicates that AMD could launch its next-generation Ryzen 2000-series "Pinnacle Ridge" processors with no more than four SKUs initially. These include the top-dog Ryzen 7 2700X, followed by the Ryzen 7 2700; the Ryzen 5 2600X, and the Ryzen 5 2600. Both Ryzen 7-series SKUs are 8-core/16-thread chips, while both Ryzen 5-series SKUs are 6-core/12-thread. There's also pricing for each of the four. The clock-speeds are also revealed below.

The Ryzen 7 2700X is being launched at a SEP of USD $369, and positioned against Intel Core i7-8700K. This is followed by the Ryzen 7 2700 being priced at $299, and fielded against Intel's multiplier-locked Core i7-8700. The Ryzen 5 2600X is, obviously, positioned against the Core i5-8600K, and priced at $249; while the Ryzen 5 2600 is priced at an attractive $199, and looks to disrupt several of Intel's Core i5 6-core SKUs around its price-point. Unlike many of Intel's SKUs, all AMD Ryzen chips feature unlocked multiplier, SMT, and a cooling solution. That's right, even the top-dog 2700X and 2600X include coolers, as opposed to their predecessors. The 2700X includes AMD's new Wraith Prism, while the 2600X and the other two SKUs include a Wraith Spire.

SiSoft's hardware database is a fountain of information for soon-to-be-released hardware if you have the patience to go through all the entries. On this occasion, we get a glimpse of AMD's future Ryzen 5 2600 processor. Similar to its predecessor, the Ryzen 5 2600 is a 65W six-core processor with twelve threads. However, this new model features a 3.4 GHz base clock which is 200 MHz faster than the Ryzen 5 1600 that we reviewed last year. It will also come with 6 x 512 kB of L2 cache and 2 x 8 MB of L3 cache. Being an engineer sample and all, take these specifications with a pinch of salt. According to the entry, the processor was tested on an ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero motherboard that sports AMD's X470 chipset. Unfortunately, we don't have any more details at this time.