Can Ryzen maintain the magic with four cores? More cores, more threads, and more performance for less money. That’s the killer proposition for AMD’s new Ryzen CPU. Suddenly, most of Intel’s desktop processor range looks overpriced and short on punch. But does that thinking extend to this, the new Ryzen 5 1500X, with its mere … Read more
Taking AMD’s new hexa-core hotness for a spin. When AMD pulled the wraps off its radical new Ryzen CPU, it was all about those eight awesome cores. Count ’em, Intel. The first Ryzen 7 chips blew the market for CPUs wide open. But not everybody can unload that kind of money on a processor, especially … Read more
Core frills to add to the thrills. Afew Aorus motherboards have passed through the labs over recent issues, and this month, the Z270X-Gaming 8 joins the Gaming 9 at the top of Aorus’s Z270 stack. A few core features differentiate the two — namely the motherboard based CPU VRM watercooling solution, the networking setup, multiGPU … Read more
The Goldilocks of AMD’s new Ryzen CPU range? RYZEN IS HERE AT LAST and it’s good. You can find out exactly why on page 34. But let’s assume you buy into the broader proposition offered by AMD’s hot new CPU. You then need to decide between the three eight-core models available from day one. While … Read more
In recent months, we’ve reviewed a number of the high-end motherboards GIGABYTE released this summer, including the G A-Z170X-U11 ra Gaming, GA-X99-Ultra Gaming, and the GA-Z170X-Designaire. For those who haven’t kept up, the thing these boards all have in common is support for up-and-coming technology, such as devices that connect via U.2, USB 3.1 Type-C, … Read more
MSI Z370 Godlike Gaming Review – Coffee Lake perfection when coffee lake first launched, it’s fair to say we were fairly apprehensive of the azure juggernaut’s response to Ryzen. After all, it came out of the blue. Kaby Lake officially launched in January 2017, and a meager nine months later, we gained its hex-cored successor. And there … Read more
It ticks all the boxes on paper, but how well is Ryzen supported, and how well does it perform, on Linux? Jonni Bidwell fires up the APC test bench. AMD being competitive with Intel once again is an exciting prospect. Free market economics says that should mean better performance and prices for everyone, after all. … Read more
Intel Core i7-8700K – Day-old coffee, or freshly brewed espresso? IT’S BEEN ONE HELL OF A YEAR for processor launches: Kaby Lake, Ryzen, Thread Ripper, Skylake-X, Kaby Lake-X, and now Coffee Lake as well. That’s six different SKUs in less time than it takes to spit, each housing a plethora of fantastic advances for the computing … Read more
Old faithful AM4 motherboard made manifest Asus is a behemoth of a company, split into different divisions dealing with graphics, peripherals, monitors, mobile devices, and everything else, with divisions upon divisions upon divisions, each with the aim of producing and maintaining products aimed at its own target audience. Take the motherboard division, for example. Inside … Read more
Carbon fiber all the things. Gigabyte’s Gaming 5 series has generally always been the value king, but it might need to rethink its game plan with the likes of MSI dropping this sweet little number on to the AMD playing field. It may not have as clean a look as Gigabyte’s mighty Aorus lineup, but … Read more
Outstanding value for money This board is the perfect example of what an incredible value proposition Ryzen can be. Chuck this together with a R7 1700, overclock it to R7 1800X levels, and you’ve got a platform that will outperform an Intelbased system that will set you back. AMD has always been known for outstanding … Read more
LGA 2066 MOTHERBOARD 4/5 VERDICT The ROG Strix X299-E Gaming is a versatile and reasonably priced X299 motherboard, though it’s best served with Skylake-X ONCE AGAIN, WE have a new collection of CPUs that also demand a new motherboard. This time it’s Intel with its simultaneously released Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processors, the shared LGA … Read more