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ASUS Shows Off its X570 Motherboard Lineup: ITX Included

ASUS at a private pre-Computex event gave us a closer look at a treasure of upcoming products. The star-attractions, however, were its AMD X570 motherboard family that's spread across nearly every brand: ROG Crosshair, ROG Strix, TUF Gaming, Prime, and for the very first time for the AM4 platform, the WS series. The crown jewel of course is the mini-ITX form-factor product, the ROG Strix X570-I Gaming. This board is quite an engineering feat considering the ≥15 Watts TDP of the X570 chipset, which requires active cooling in most cases. An intricate network of heatsinks suspended along heat-pipes leading up to a dense aluminium fin-stack ventilated by a 30 mm fan, cools both the chipset and CPU VRM. ASUS designed this board to handle even the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X, but we don't expect too much overclocking headroom.

AMD Announces Radeon RX 5700 Based on Navi: RDNA, 7nm, PCIe Gen4, GDDR6

AMD at its 2019 Computex keynote today unveiled the Radeon RX 5000 family of graphics cards that leverage its new Navi graphics architecture and 7 nm silicon fabrication process. Navi isn't just an incremental upgrade over Vega with a handful new technologies, but the biggest overhaul to AMD's GPU SIMD design since Graphics CoreNext, circa 2011. Called RDNA or Radeon DNA, the new compute unit by AMD is a clean-slate SIMD design with a 1.25X IPC uplift over Vega, an overhauled on-chip cache hierarchy, and a more streamlined graphics pipeline.

In addition, the architecture is designed to increase performance-per-Watt by 50 percent over Vega. The first part to leverage Navi is the Radeon RX 5700. AMD ran a side-by-side demo of the RX 5700 versus the GeForce RTX 2070 at Strange Brigade, where NVIDIA's $500 card was beaten. "Strange Brigade" is one game where AMD fares generally well as it is heavily optimized for asynchonous compute. Navi also ticks two big technology check-boxes, PCI-Express gen 4.0, and GDDR6 memory. AMD has planned a July availability for the RX 5700, and did not disclose pricing.

AMD Announces 3rd Generation Ryzen Desktop Processors

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su at her 2019 Computex keynote address announced the 3rd generation Ryzen desktop processor family, which leverages the company's Zen 2 microarchitecture, and are built on the 7 nm silicon fabrication process at TSMC. Designed for the AM4 CPU socket, with backwards compatibility for older AMD 300-series and 400-series chipset motherboards, these processors are multi-chip modules of up to two 8-core "Zen 2" CPU chiplets, and a 14 nm I/O controller die that packs the dual-channel DDR4 memory controller and PCI-Express gen 4.0 root complex, along with some SoC connectivity. AMD claims an IPC increase of 15 percent over Zen 1, and higher clock speeds leveraging 7 nm, which add up to significantly higher performance over the current generation. AMD bolstered the core's FPU (floating-point unit), and doubled the cache sizes.

AMD unveiled three high-end SKUs for now, the $329 Ryzen 7 3700X, the $399 Ryzen 7 3800X, and the $499 Ryzen 9 3900X. The 3700X and 3800X are 8-core/16-thread parts with a single CPU chiplet. The 3700X is clocked at 3.60 GHz with 4.40 GHz maximum boost frequency, just 65 Watts TDP and will be beat Intel's Core i7-9700K both at gaming and productivity. The 3800X tops that with 3.90 GHz nominal, 4.50 GHz boost, 105W TDP, and beat the Core i9-9900K at gaming and productivity. AMD went a step further at launched the new Ryzen 9 brand with the 3900X, which is a 12-core/24-thread processor clocked at 3.80 GHz, which 4.60 boost, 72 MB of total cache, 105W TDP, and performance that not only beats the i9-9900K, but also the i9-9920X 12-core/24-thread HEDT processor despite two fewer memory channels. AMD focused on gaming performance with Zen 2, with wider FPU, improved branch prediction, and several micro-architectural improvements contributing to a per-core performance that's higher than Intel's. The processors go on sale on 7/7/2019.

Gigabyte Teases World's First PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD With Speeds up to 5000 MB/s, Other Computex Announcements

Who would have thought that Gigabyte - who don't manufacture controllers, nor memory - would be the first company to tease a PCIe 4.0-based M.2 SSD. In a blog post on its website that serves as a warm-up for the upcoming Computex, the company says that they'll be announcing the world's first PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD - with speeds up to 5000 MB/s at "low temperatures" - I guess that means that thermal throttling will become much more common with these new SSDs.

Any other details are currently unknown; however (and we're just speculating here), we know that Phison was preparing a PCIe 4.0 NVMe controller in the form of the E16. At the time (back in January of 2019), Phison paired their E16 controller with Micron's 96-layer TLC flash, but improvements in controller development as well as changes in the flash memory used could have brought up their - then - performance figures of expected 4.8/4.4 GB/s of read/write throughput on Toshiba's BiCS 4 flash. We'll just have to wait for Computex and see, but oh my - new PCIe 4.0 SSDs, new up-to 16-core CPUs on the 7 nm process, new 7 nm GPUs... Isn't this a great time to be a PC enthusiast? Read after the break for the rest of Gigabyte's Computex tease.

ASUS Teases Collage of Upcoming AMD X570 Motherboards

With AMD expected to launch its 3rd generation Ryzen processor family at the 2019 Computex, the show is expected to have unveilings of several compatible motherboards based on the new AMD X570 chipset. ASUS posted a collage picture that teases its upcoming X570 lineup. This appears to include boards from pretty much all of ASUS's brands, including the high-end ROG Crosshair, the upper mainstream ROG Strix, the mainstream TUF Gaming, and the sober Prime series. From this, the ROG Strix board appears to be the first one we've come across that doesn't use a fan-heatsink to cool the 15W TDP X570 chipset. The Ryzen 3000 "Matisse" processor and X570 chipset make up AMD's "Valhalla" desktop platform.

MSI Readies Commemorative RTX 2080 Ti Lighting Z 10th Anniversary Edition

Can you believe it's been 10 years since MSI launched its flagship Lighting brand of graphics cards? Turns out we reviewed our first MSI Lightning card more than a decade ago! An MSI Lightning card has always been the indicator that a flagship GPU by NVIDIA or AMD has succeeded in winning the hearts, minds, and wallets of gamers, lest MSI wouldn't bother with one. MSI already released the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lighting Z, and we reviewed it. Sources tell us that the MSI could be working on a second Lightning product based on the RTX 2080 Ti, which isn't a variation of the original, such as the RTX 2080 Ti Lighting Z with a water-block bolted on.

Named something along the lines of RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z 10th Anniversary Special Edition, the card will look significantly different than the RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z, and will ship with an on-card OLED display that puts out real-time monitoring data of the card's temperatures, clock-speeds, fan-speeds, voltages, memory utilization, or pretty much whatever you program it to. The card's cooler will also feature a more richly detailed RGB LED embellishment all around, and will be designed like a piece of jewelry. MSI may also touch up the card's electricals, BIOS, and overclocking-headroom to rival EVGA RTX 2080 Ti KINGPIN. MSI will unveil this card at the 2019 Computex exhibition.

Sapphire Reps Leak Juicy Details on AMD Radeon Navi

A Sapphire product manager and PR director, speaking to the Chinese press spilled the beans on AMD's upcoming Radeon Navi graphics card lineup. It looks like with Navi, AMD is targeting the meat of the serious gamer market, at two specific price points, USD $399 with a "Pro" (cut-down) product, and $499 with an "XT" (fully-fledged) product. AMD has two NVIDIA products in its crosshairs, the GeForce RTX 2070, and the RTX 2060. In the interview, the Sapphire rep mentioned "stronger than 2070", when talking about performance numbers, which we assume is for the Navi XT variant - definitely promising. The $399 Navi "Pro" is probably being designed with a performance target somewhere between the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070, so you typically pay $50 more than you would for an RTX 2060, for noticeably higher performance.

Sapphire also confirmed that AMD's Navi does not have specialized ray-tracing hardware on the silicon, but such technology will debut with "next year's new architecture". They also suggested that AMD is unlikely to scale up Navi for the enthusiast segment, and that the Vega-based Radeon VII will continue to be the company's flagship product. On the topic of Radeon VII custom designs, Sapphire commented that "there is no plans for that". On the other hand, Sapphire is actively working on custom designs for the Navi architecture, and mentioned that "work on a "Toxic" version of Navi is complete, and it is watercooled". Many people have speculated that AMD will unveil Navi at its Computex keynote address on May 27. Sapphire confirmed that date, and also added that the launch will be on 7th of July, 2019.

AMD Ryzen 9 3000 is a 16-core Socket AM4 Beast

AMD is giving finishing touches to its 3rd generation Ryzen socket AM4 processor family which is slated for a Computex 2019 unveiling, followed by a possible E3 market availability. Based on the "Matisse" multi-chip module that combines up to two 8-core "Zen 2" chiplets with a 14 nm I/O controller die, these processors see a 50-100 percent increase in core-counts over the current generation. The Ryzen 5 series now includes 8-core/16-thread parts, the Ryzen 7 series chips are 12-core/24-thread, while the newly created Ryzen 9 series (designed to rival Intel Core i9 LGA115x), will include 16-core/32-thread chips.

Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK confirmed the existence of the Ryzen 9 series having landed himself with an engineering sample of the 16-core/32-thread chip that ticks at 3.30 GHz with 4.30 GHz Precision Boost frequency. The infamous Adored TV leaks that drew the skeleton of AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen roadmap, referenced two desktop Ryzen 9 parts, the Ryzen 9 3800X and Ryzen 9 3850X. The 3800X is supposed to be clocked at 3.90 GHz with 4.70 GHz boost, with a TDP rating of 125W, while the 3850X tops the charts at 4.30 GHz base and a staggering 5.10 GHz boost. The rated TDP has shot up to 135W. We can now imagine why some motherboard vendors are selective with BIOS updates on some of their lower-end boards. AMD is probably maximizing the clock-speed headroom of these chips out of the box, to preempt Intel's "Comet Lake" 10-core/20-thread processor.

AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" BIOS Analysis Reveals New Options for Overclocking & Tweaking

AMD will launch its 3rd generation Ryzen 3000 Socket AM4 desktop processors in 2019, with a product unveiling expected mid-year, likely on the sidelines of Computex 2019. AMD is keeping its promise of making these chips backwards compatible with existing Socket AM4 motherboards. To that effect, motherboard vendors such as ASUS and MSI began rolling out BIOS updates with AGESA-Combo 0.0.7.x microcode, which adds initial support for the platform to run and validate engineering samples of the upcoming "Zen 2" chips.

At CES 2019, AMD unveiled more technical details and a prototype of a 3rd generation Ryzen socket AM4 processor. The company confirmed that it will implement a multi-chip module (MCM) design even for their mainstream-desktop processor, in which it will use one or two 7 nm "Zen 2" CPU core chiplets, which talk to a 14 nm I/O controller die over Infinity Fabric. The two biggest components of the IO die are the PCI-Express root complex, and the all-important dual-channel DDR4 memory controller. We bring you never before reported details of this memory controller.

Intel to Refresh its LGA2066 HEDT Platform This Summer?

Intel is rumored to refresh its high-end desktop (HEDT) platforms this Summer with new products based on the "Cascade Lake" microarchitecture. Intel now has two HEDT platforms, LGA2066 and LGA3647. The new "Cascade Lake-X" silicon will target the LGA2066 platform, and could see the light of the day by June, on the sidelines of Computex 2019. A higher core-count model with 6-channel memory, will be launched for the LGA3647 socket as early as April. So if you've very recently fronted $3,000 on a Xeon W-3175X, here's a bucket of remorse. Both chips will be built on existing 14 nm process, and will bring innovations such as Optane Persistent Memory support, Intel Deep Learning Boost (DLBOOST) extensions with VNNI instruction-set, and hardware mitigation against more variants of "Meltdown" and "Spectre."

Elsewhere in the industry, and sticking with Intel, we've known since November 2018 of the existence of "Comet Lake," which is a 10-core silicon for the LGA1151 platform, and which is yet another "Skylake" derivative built on existing 14 nm process. This chip is real, and will be Intel's last line of defense against AMD's first 7 nm "Zen 2" socket AM4 processors, with core-counts of 12-16.

No AMD Radeon "Navi" Before October: Report

AMD "Navi" is the company's next-generation graphics architecture succeeding "Vega" and will leverage the 7 nm silicon fabrication process. It was originally slated to launch mid-2019, with probable unveiling on the sidelines of Computex (early-June). Cowcotland reports that AMD has delayed its plans to launch "Navi" all the way to October (Q4-2019). The delay probably has something to do with AMD's 7 nm foundry allocation for the year.

AMD is now fully reliant on TSMC to execute its 7 nm product roadmap, which includes its entire 2nd generation EPYC and 3rd generation Ryzen processors based on the "Zen 2" architecture, and to a smaller extent, GPUs based on its 2nd generation "Vega" architecture, such as the recently launched Radeon VII. We expect the first "Navi" discrete GPU to be a lean, fast-moving product that succeeds "Polaris 30." In addition to 7 nm, it could incorporate faster SIMD units, higher clock-speeds, and a relatively cost-effective memory solution, such as GDDR6.

AMD 3rd Generation Ryzen Confirmed for Computex 2019

In a development that could explain why Intel is frantically stitching together 10 cores with the "Comet Lake" silicon, a slide leaked from a private event hosted by motherboard major GIGABYTE reveals that AMD's third generation Ryzen desktop platform could launch as early as Computex 2019 (June). The platform will include AMD's first client-segment processor based on its "Zen 2" microarchitecture, codenamed "Matisse," and its companion chipset, the AMD X570.

3rd generation Ryzen with X570 is expected to be the world's first mainstream desktop platform to feature PCI-Express gen 4.0. AMD could maintain the processor's backwards compatibility with older 300-series and 400-series chipset motherboards by shaping its PCI-Express implementation to use external re-drivers based on the motherboard. This could make 500-series motherboards slightly pricier than current AM4 motherboards. Backwards compatibility could mean that unless you really need PCIe gen 4.0, you should be able to save money by opting for older motherboards.

BIOSTAR Announces M500 Series M.2 NVMe SSDs

BIOSTAR today introduced the M500 line of solid-state drives in the M.2-2280 form-factor, with PCI-Express 3.0 x2 interface. These were first shown off at Computex 2018. The drives take advantage of the NVMe 1.2 protocol. Available in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB; the drives feature DDR3L DRAM caches of 256 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1 GB, respectively. Sequential performance numbers put out by the company are up to 1,700 MB/s reads, with up to 1,100 MB/s writes.

The drives pack a couple of handy innovations, beginning with the integrated metal heatspreader, which wraps around three sides of the drive. Near the end of the drive are two indicators - one is a green link/activity LED and the other is an RGB LED that indicates real-time temperature measured at the controller, with red being the hottest, green being the coolest, and yellow~amber indicating typical/normal temperature. The company didn't reveal pricing.

MSI Announces the MEG X399 Creation Motherboard

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.

Raijintek's Air Cooling Solutions at Computex 2018

Raijintek at Computex 2018 showcased two true tower coolers and a low profile solution that stood smaller besides them. The MYA RBW and the Delos RBW stood tall in their RGB tower greatness, while the Pallas Micro stood true to its name, showcasing compact cooling performance in tight quarters.

The MYA RBW is Raijintek's coup-de-grace in the tower cooler camp, and features a 6x 6 mm heatpipe design with the usual radiator fin design, which feature specially-designed grooves to virtually increase turbulence and heat dissipation area. Raijintek say the MYA RBW can handle up to 250 W TDPs with its dual-fan-supporting design, and should be compatible with all AMD and Intel systems.

Lian-Li Strimmer 24-pin ATX Extension Cable with ARGB LED Up for Pre-order

Today Lian-Li launches the Strimer a 24 Pin cable extension including full addressable RGB lighting module created in collaboration will world renowned overclocker and modder Der8auer. The innovative 24-pin ATX extension cable was honoured with the Computex design and innovation award for being the first of its type.

The two layer cable design comes with a PCI bracket controller through which users can change through 10 different RGB pre set modes as well as a digital RGB addressable header for those with the compatible motherboards.

Steacom DA2 and Canvas: Hands-on

We recently went hands-on with two of Streacom's latest creations unveiled this Computex. The Streacom DA2 is bigger than it looks in the images, yet small enough for a build sized just right for an executive's desk. The case is airy because of the gaps between the side panel and the top and bottom panels that aid convection; and the perforated side panel lets you suspend a 240 mm x 120 mm radiator. This is easier to show in a render where you can easily crop the length of an AIO liquid cooler's coolant tubes to be just right. The real-world demo build had a fairly tall top-flow air cooler. The SFX-L power supply mounted towards the front of the case, with its inlet facing the right side panel unclutters the interiors, and lets you mount a fairly long 2-slot graphics card into the ITX motherboard's sole PCIe slot.

SilverStone Intros New Precision and Sugoi Series Cases

At Computex 2018, SilverStone showed off additions to its premier case lines - Precision and Sugoi. The Precision series is expanded by the new PS07-E (working title) and PS15 micro-ATX cases. The PS15 features a refreshingly simple layout - the motherboard and PSU bays are accessible from the left side, while the drive cage from the right. This way your drive cable clutter, and unused PSU cables are tucked away on the left side, taking advantage of the crawlspace behind the motherboard tray. You get familiar design elements from SilverStone, including a meshed front panel, a large top vent with removable filters, and a tempered glass right side panel. There are five fan bays in all, of which three are 140 mm capable, all 120 mm capable. The case measures 190 mm x 365 mm x 351 mm (WxHxD).

Next up, is the PS07-E micro-ATX tower. This case features a solid brushed metal front unlike the PS15, and a characteristic "hump" up top, which slides down along rails to reveal a 5.25-inch drive bay, three USB 3.0 ports, and HDA jacks. The Sugoi TJ08-Pro is practically identical to this case, but has a meshed front fascia. Inside, both cases feature an upside-down (BTX-style) micro-ATX motherboard tray, bottom-mounted PSU bay, three 3.5-inch drive bays, and two additional 2.5-inch mounts; and a staggering four 140 mm fan mounts, in addition to the 120 mm rear exhaust.

Akasa Unveils a Range of Fanless Cases for "Dawson Canyon" NUC Desktops

Akasa at Computex, unveiled a wide range of fan-less aluminium cases for the 7th generation "Dawson Canyon" NUC boards. The company had alreadly launched the Pascal MD late-2017. Among the new cases are the Newton S7D, Newton D3, and the Plato X7D. The Plato X7D is the largest of the three, and is characterized by a lattice of aluminium ridges that work like heatsinks for the SoC and chipset of the NUC, and diamond-cut edges along the front panel. Front-panel connectivity includes two each of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports. Besides rear I/O holes for "Dawson Canyon" series NUC boards, the case offers a stub for an RS232 (COM) port at the back. All three cases feature VESA mounts, so you can strap the NUCs behind your monitor and reduce clutter on your desk.

The Newton D3 is the most compact case of the three, and supports fewer NUC board models, namely the NUC7i3DNBE, NUC7i3DNKE, and NUC7i3DNHE (all of which have are low-TDP SoCs and fewer connectors). You still get a 2.5-inch drive bay, mount holes for your WLAN card's antennae, two USB 3.0 front panel connectors, an IR window, and an RS232 serial port provision at the back. The Newton S7D is its larger sibling, with more metal to the bone, to cope with higher TDP SoCs, and hence supports NUC boards based on Core i5 and Core i7 SoCs.

EKWB's R&D Team Shows New Concepts for PC Cooling

EKWB were full of updates at Computex this year, as seen in our other news post, but this did not stop them from unveiling wholly new concepts as it comes to the company. These are ideas that their R&D thinktank decided to explore beyond the norm, and first up is the creation of a new brand under the EK Special Projects (Spec) team that is tentatively named König, after their founder Eduard König. As we found out in person, Eddy has a passion for woodworking in addition to managing a company, and decided to combine the two. The new König brand intends to offer a personalized, made-to-order experience wherein they will work with the end user to design and manufacture products to match a lifestyle. This is currently built around solid wood of multiple varieties, three Slovenian version of which were shown at their suite, but they are open to working with other materials including carbon fiber, anodized aluminum, leather and so on. They shared some images of some example products as it pertains to watercooling (CPU block top covers, GPU blocks and backplate, fittings and so on) as well as modded cases with wooden panels as seen below. Be sure to also click on the story to read more on an entirely different concept from the company.

EKWB at Computex: New Blocks, AIO, Coolants, Fans and Servers

EK Waterblocks had been the subject of more than one article over the recent months here at TechPowerUp, wherein we broke news about top management (at the time) having parted ways with the company and this in turn led to speculation about how this would affect the indubitable leader in market share when it comes to DIY watercooling today. Perhaps they felt as much, and had an entire suite full of products to show off at Computex this year. The products showcased here, and in another separate news post upcoming, are a mixture of updates to existing product lines as well as expansion of said lineups to offer customers more options from the company than before.

We began our look with the new Velocity CPU block. Those who kept up with the subject would remember EK recently admitted they could have, and should have, done better with their offering for AMD's sTR4 socket (Threadripper platform) and had recently shown off a new cold plate design to improve on thermal performance. The new Velocity sTR4 takes advantage of this new cold plate and is available in three different top offerings of acetal with a frosted plexi lining to diffuse lighting by the side, a polished plexi top, and a full nickel-plated brass metal top- all of which use the same nickel-plated copper cold plate. Indeed, the Velocity tagline is now used for their entire range of new CPU blocks that share a similar ID for the smaller CPU sockets as well, with a cold plate that looks similar to that of the older Supremacy EVO but we will definitely take a closer look in upcoming reviews. EK did tell us that the new Velocity CPU blocks are one-piece blocks not meant to be taken apart and customized for different socket types. There are a lot of smaller aesthetic changes here including beveled edges, corner cutouts and arrows to indicate the recommended plumbing layout. One other interesting thing to point out here is that EK also designed a cold plate variation to be used with delidded Intel mainstream CPUs via a small circular section jutting outwards as seen in the images below. All of the new Velocity CPU blocks also come with a new mounting plate that supposedly improves on both looks and material strength. Oh, all of these also have RGB lighting incorporated even with the metal top version- the revised EK badge on these blocks is backlit after all.

AZIO Adds More Exotic Material Peripherals to Their Portfolio

AZIO Corp underwent a massive makeover in their product line the last few years, focusing on their typewriter-style mechanical keyboards and then doubling down on it to give their products a different look than most others. Their Retro Classic line from last year introduced vegetable-tanned genuine leather to the keyboards, and then there was a special edition that made use of genuine wood trim as well. At Computex this year, AZIO showed more of the same being applied to other products, as well as hinting towards the use of more such unique materials in the future.

The Retro Classic full-size keyboard was shown in a new orange leather color, which went well with an entire system a wrist rest and mouse pads as well. This was next to another wood option, this time a lighter tone that went well with the white keycaps as opposed to the darker grain wood and black keycaps from the previous version. AZIO also showed off more mouse pads under the R.C. Mouse Pad name in two sizes (medium and XL) and multiple genuine leather color options to match the rest of their portfolio.

Vortexgear Joins in With More Wireless Mechanical Keyboards

Vortexgear, which is more commonly referred to simply as Vortex, has a close collaboration with iKBC when it comes to their product line and this year at Computex was no different. Indeed, it was evident that Vortex were joining in the fray of making 2018 the year of wireless mechanical keyboards now that RGB is a done deal, with every single new product having that option.

We began our look at the Vortex section of the giant Mistel/iKBC/Vortex booth with the new members to their popular Poker series of keyboards- a 60% form factor keyboard that offered onboard layers and programmability at a time when this was just a dream for even keyboard enthusiasts. The Poker IV is scheduled to work with their new software driver, thus finally allowing end users the freedom to customize layers and keys to a larger and easier extent than before. The two-tone keycap color scheme we saw with their recent keyboards carries over here, as does a thick plastic case to hit a wallet-friendly price point. On the back is a toggle for the power alongside a battery tray for two AAA batteries. New this year to the Poker series is also the so-called Poker Vol. 2 that trades in for a thick metal case and a split space bar. Images for the new Poker keyboards are seen below, and there is more to go after the break.

Mistel Shows off New Keyboards and Power Supplies at Computex 2018

Mistel Keyboard has impressed us before with their MD870 SLEEKER keyboard before, and another of their products is being tested as we speak. They did not simply rest on their laurels this year, as they introduced a whole slew of new keyboards and even stepped out of their comfort zone with a new power supply range as well. Beginning with the keyboards, Mistel first showed us their take on the Cherry ML low profile switch- not to be confused with the new Cherry MX RGB Low Profile switch that debuted this year. Indeed, Mistel tells us they prefer the Cherry ML paired with their wire-style stabilizers and the new MD650L comes in multiple color options as well as a handy accessory that ties the two pieces together at a point to add a pivot function for ergonomics to those who do not prefer a fully split keyboard. Images of the keyboard are seen below, and lots more to follow after the break.

VARMILO Presents a Plethora of Unique Keyboards at Computex 2018

Continuing on our coverage of Computex 2018, now we take a closer look at the VARMILO brand, a subsidiary of Shenzhen Zhihaihe technology co., LTD. based out of China. They shared a large booth space with Ducky Keyboard, and there were more than a few interesting products to be seen here- some previously released, some released very recently, and others announced for the first time at the trade show.

Beginning with products that were new is the VARMILO V Motion. This is a $170 keyboard with an optical sensor at the top left corner on the front which detects hand motion such that the keyboard backlighting can be effectively controlled by a simple motion of your hands. The rest of the keyboard, which can be easy to ignore given this revelation, features a standard 104-key US ANSI layout in a metal frame and thick plastic case. A video, courtesy the brand, is past the break so you can see better how the V Motion works.
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