AIO - Rondea

PowerColor Lists Reference RX 6900 XT Liquid Cooled Card

(Image credit: Kabum)

It appears that PowerColor has joined Sapphire in ‘leaking’ the unannounced RX 6900 XT Liquid Cooled reference card. As tweeted by @momomo_us, PowerColor has officially listed a new reference RX 6900 XT LC card on its site, but with no pictures at this time. (Note: The picture above is the Sapphire version.)

This information comes just 9 days after Sapphire spilled the beans on AMD’s liquid-cooled version of the RX 6900XT. This all-new liquid-cooled reference design for the RX 6900 XT remains very similar to the air-cooled model, but it replaces the triple-fan cooling system with a single 120mm AIO, that presumably cools the entire card, including memory.

Another interesting feature is the addition of 18Gbps memory, a noticeable upgrade over the current 16Gbps ICs used on the air-cooled 6900 XT. This would bump up the card’s memory bandwidth from 512GBps to 576GBps. That would also be the fastest shipping GDDR6 memory we’ve seen, as Nvidia moved to GDDR6X for the 3080 and above. However, that could simply be a typo, so take it with a grain of salt. Still, we’ve successfully overclocked the VRAM on the other RX 6000-series GPUs to 17.2Gbps, so it’s possible the extra cooling allows for even higher stock clocks.

So far, PowerColor and Sapphire are the only AMD AIB (add-in board) partners that have revealed this new version of the RX 6900 XT. Assuming these are actual reference designs that have leaked early, we suspect more partners will join the party once we get the official announcement of the card from AMD. Once that happens, we’ll also get official specs and details on pricing and ‘availability’.

AMD’s Liquid-Cooled Radeon RX 6900 XT Arrives Flexing High Clocks

Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT LC
(Image credit: Kabum)

AMD’s liquid-cooled Radeon RX 6900 XT appears to be making its way to the retail market. VideoCardz has spotted a Sapphire listing over at a Kabum, a Brazilian retailer.

Speculation around the graphics card world is that the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC could very well be the incarnation of the rumored Radeon RX 6900 XTX. The latter was expected utilize the Navi 21 XTXH silicon, which allegedly brings the highest clock rates out of AMD’s RDNA 2 army. Although we’ve already see the graphics card in the wild, AMD hasn’t formally confirmed the existence of the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC.

The Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT LC, which should employ the Navi 21 XTXH die, comes with 80 Compute Units (CUs) for a total of 5,120 Stream Processors (SPs). Along with those 5,120 SPs, you’ll also find 80 ray accelerators for ray tracing workloads. The Radeon RX 6900 XT LC arrives with a 2,250 MHz game clock and a boost clock up to 2,435 MHz. The vanilla Radeon RX 6900 XT has a 2,015 MHz game clock and 2,250 MHz boost clock. Therefore, Sapphire’s rendition is offering up to 11.7% and 8.2% higher game and boost clocks, respectively.

Besides the uplift in clock speeds, Kabum’s specification table also shows an increase in memory speed for the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC. Apparently, the liquid-cooled version sports 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips as opposed to the 16 Gbps ones on the Radeon RX 6900 XT. It may be a human error, but it’s certainly feasible, considering that Samsung produces 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips. If accurate, the extra frequency on the memory chips bumps the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC’s maximum theoretical memory bandwidth up to 576 GBps, a 12.5% improvement over the regular version.

AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LC Specifications

	Radeon RX 6900 XT LC*	Radeon RX 6900 XT
Architecture (GPU)	RDNA 2 (Navi 21)	RDNA 2 (Navi 21)
CUDA Cores / SP	5,120	5,120
RT Cores	80	80
Ray Accelerators	80	80
Texture Units	320	320
Base Clock Rate	?	1,825 MHz
Game Clock Rates	2,250 MHz	2,015 MHz
Boost Clock Rate	2,435 MHz	2,250 MHz
Memory Capacity	16GB GDDR6	16GB GDDR6
Memory Speed	18 Gbps	16 Gbps
Memory Bus	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	576 Gbps	512 GBps
ROPs	128	128
L2 Cache	4MB	4MB
L3 Cache	128MB	128MB
TDP	?	300W
Transistor Count	26.8 billion	26.8 billion
Die Size	536 mm²	536 mm²
MSRP	?	$999

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

The Sapphire-branded Radeon RX 6900 XT LC (21308-02-10G) shares the same design as the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC that recently popped up inside a gaming PC over in China. Although listed as a Sapphire SKU, there are no signs of the Sapphire logo or any type of third-party marketing on the graphics card itself.

It stands to reason that the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC likely conforms to an AMD reference design where the chipmaker’s partners are free to slap their name beside the Big Navi graphics card. It flaunts a dual-slot design with aluminium plates on both sides of the graphics card. For comparison, the Radeon RX 6900 XT reference edition conforms to a 2.5-slot design. Evidently, there are no cooling fans so the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC’s only method of staying cool is the included 120mm AIO liquid cooler.

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Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT LC (Image credit: Kabum)

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Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT LC (Image credit: Kabum)

Despite coming with a significant factory overclock, the Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT LC still uses a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It’s uncertain if the liquid-cooled variant still abides by the 300W TDP (thermal design power) limit as the normal Radeon RX 6900 XT, though. One would expect a more generous TDP, given the higher clock speeds on the Radeon RX 6900 XT LC.

The display outputs on the Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT LC, on the other hand, remains unchanged. Like AMD’s reference design, the liquid-cooled variant retains support for four monitors. It offers the standard HDMI 2.1 port, two DisplayPort 1.4 outputs and one USB Type-C port.

Kabum has the Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT LC up for preorder at $4,662.40 or $3,368.41 in a single cash payment. Don’t pay attention to the pricing since it probably includes VAT (value-added tax) and a huge retailer markup. Kabum claims that it’ll start shipping Sapphire Radeon RX 6900 XT LC orders on June 30 so we could see an proper announcement from AMD very soon.

Liquid-Cooled Radeon RX 6900 XT Surfaces With Puny 120mm AIO Cooler

AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LC
(Image credit: Tmall)

User from the Chiphell forums has spotted an interesting Radeon RX 6900 XT over in China. The Big Navi graphics card, forms part of a pre-built gaming PC on Tmall, features an exterior that’s very similar to AMD’s reference design, but with added liquid cooling.

The merchant listed the graphics card as the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LC, claiming that it’s a special edition SKU. The “LC” likely stands for liquid cooling. Although the seller didn’t mention the manufacturer, he did claim that this variant offers 10% higher performance than your typical Radeon RX 6900 XT. The statement lends credence to the suspicion that this liquid-cooled Radeon RX 6900 XT could be leveraging the Navi 21 XTXH silicon that has been specially binned for high clock rates.

The RDNA 2 graphics card’s shroud exhibits two sleek, aluminium plates on both sides, implying that this is probably a strict liquid-cooled design rather than one of those hybrid setups that AMD’s partners are so fond of. The illuminated Radeon logo still hands on the side, but it’s accompanied by what appears to be a RGB LED bar for added eye candy.

AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LC (Image credit: Tmall)

The single 120mm AIO radiator certainly raises an eyebrow, though. Graphics card vendors have released the custom Radeon RX 6900 XT models with 240mm and 360mm radiators. Furthermore, the The Radeon RX 6900 XT is a 300W graphics card so we doubt the Radeon-branded 120mm radiator will suffice. The cooling solution will probably have to work hard to keep the graphics card’s temperatures under control and may end up being very noisy.

Whether the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LC is employing the Navi 21 XTXH or not, the graphics card only commands a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. A 700W power supply is still the minimum capacity recommended to feed the RDNA 2 graphics card.

The jury is still out on whether we’ll see the Radeon RX 6800 XT LC outside of the Asian market. Nevertheless, the odds are that this SKU could be exclusive to OEMs or system integrators.

ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 Ti STRIX LC Liquid Cooled Review

Introduction

The ASUS ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the company’s flagship custom-design RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, characterized by its factory-fitted, all-in-one liquid cooling solution. The cooler combines an AIO liquid cold-plate to pull heat from the GPU and memory; while a set of heatsinks and lateral blower provide additional cooling. Interestingly, this cooler debuted with the Radeon RX 6800 XT Strix LC, which along with the RX 6900 XT, are believed to have triggered product-stack updates among NVIDIA’s ranks, to begin with.

The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti replaces the RTX 3080 as NVIDIA’s new flagship gaming product. The RTX 3090 is still positioned higher, but that SKU is more of a TITAN-like halo product, with its massive 24 GB memory favoring certain professional use-cases when paired with Studio drivers. The RTX 3080 Ti utilizes the same GA102 silicon, maxing out its 384-bit memory interface, with 12 GB of it. There are more CUDA cores on offer—10,240 vs. 8,796 on the RTX 3080, and proportionate increase in Tensor cores, RT cores, and other components. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is based on the new Ampere graphics architecture, which debuts the 2nd generation of NVIDIA’s path-breaking RTX real-time raytracing technology, combining 3rd generation Tensor cores, with 2nd generation RT cores, and faster Ampere CUDA cores.

As mentioned earlier the ASUS ROG Strix LC lugs a bulky all-in-one liquid cooling + air hybrid solution, without coming across as ugly and tacked on. ASUS appears to have taken a keen interest in adding to the industrial design of the card and radiator. The cooler also ends up supporting a major factory-overclock of 1830 MHz, compared to 1665 MHz reference. This puts its performance way above even the RTX 3090, while also costing higher than its starting price. In this review we show you whether it’s worth just picking this card over an RTX 3090 if one is available.

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Market Segment Analysis
	Price	Cores	ROPs	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Memory Clock	GPU	Transistors	Memory
RTX 3060 Ti	$1300	4864	80	1410 MHz	1665 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT	$1000	2560	64	2424 MHz	2581 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti	$1400	4352	88	1350 MHz	1545 MHz	1750 MHz	TU102	18600M	11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070	$1300	5888	96	1500 MHz	1725 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800	$1400	3840	96	1815 MHz	2105 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT	$1700	4608	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080	$1500	8704	96	1440 MHz	1710 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RTX 3080 Ti	$2000 MSRP: $1200	10240	112	1365 MHz	1665 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	12 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
ASUS RTX 3080 Ti STRIX LC	$2200 MSRP: $2100	10240	112	1365 MHz	1830 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	12 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
RX 6900 XT	$2100	5120	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090	$2900	10496	112	1395 MHz	1695 MHz	1219 MHz	GA102	28000M	24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit

All the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti Cards Announced So Far

(Image credit: Asus)

With Nvidia announcing the all-new RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti at Computex this year, AIB partners have wasted no time in announcing custom variants of the two GPUs. There are seven AIB partners so far that have listed custom variants of the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti, with more to come.

The RTX 3080 Ti is Nvidia’s new gaming flagship for the Ampere generation, featuring 10,240 CUDA cores, 12GB of GDDR6X, a 1,395MHz base clock, and 1,695 Boost Clock. It’s just a hair slower than the RTX 3090, with the biggest tradeoff (between the two SKUs) being the VRAM capacity, which is shaved down from 24GB to 12GB.

The RTX 3070 Ti, is Nvidia’s new mid-range SKU that will slot in-between the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080. The 3070 Ti features 6,144 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6X at 19Gbps, a base clock of 1,440 MHz, and a Boost frequency of 1,710MHz. Expect performance to lean more towards an RTX 3070 rather than the more powerful 3080, as the 3070 Ti uses the GA104 core, though the 35% boost in memory bandwidth should help.

Asus

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Asus is bringing out three custom models for the RTX 3080 Ti as well as two custom SKUs for the lower end RTX 3070 Ti. At the top end will be the ROG Strix LC RTX 3080 Ti, featuring a 240mm AIO cooler to keep temperatures as cool as possible, the card is also decked out in a brushed metal finish, with the Strix language design, as well as a fully lit RGB shroud and fans.

For air cooling, Asus is dishing out the ROG Strix treatment to the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti. For the RTX 3080 Ti ROG Strix, the cooler looks identical to the RTX 3090 variant, with a large triple-slot design, and triple 8-pin power connectors. Styling hasn’t changed either, with a fully lit RGB light bar on the side, and brushed aluminum finish all around the card.

Asus’ lowest-end offering, for now, will be the TUF series, which you will see on both the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti. Similar to the ROG models, the RTX 3080 Ti TUF is identical in looks to the RTX 3090 TUF. So we wouldn’t be surprised if Asus simply installed the RTX 3090 cooler onto the RTX 3080 Ti cards since both the 3090 and 3080 Ti share the exact same GPU core.

Unfortunately, we don’t have pictures of the custom Asus RTX 3070 TI SKUs at this moment, however, we guess that the cards will be using a beefed-up cooler from the RTX 3070 class of cards, given the RTX 3070 Ti uses the GA104 core instead of GA102. We also don’t know what frequencies these cards will have but be sure these custom RTX 3080 Tis and RTX 3070 Tis will have higher frequencies than the reference specification.

Gigabyte

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(Image credit: Gigabyte)

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Gigabyte’s offerings are very minimal for now, with the company currently offering the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti in the Gaming OC SKU. The Gaming series in Gigabyte’s lineup represents the more budget-friendly level of SKUs rather than its top-end Aorus branded cards.

The RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC design is identical to that of the RTX 3090 Gaming OC, with no changes to the shroud or cooler (what we can see of the cooler) at all. The card features a matte black finish with silver accents to add some extra styling to the shroud. The 3080 Ti Gaming OC features a factory overclock of 1710MHz.

Surprisingly the RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC appears to have either a brand new cooler or an altered variant of the RTX 3070 Gaming OC. The heatsink has a different design with two heatsinks joined together by copper heat pipes, rather than three separate heatsinks found on the vanilla RTX 3070 variant, connected by two sets of copper heat pipes.

The RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC also features a large copper base plate that covers the GPU and all the GDDR6X memory modules. This is a big upgrade compared to the RTX 3070 Gaming OC which only has four copper heat pipes making direct contact with the GPU, paired with a metal base plate covering the memory modules.

Aesthetically, the card has also been noticeably altered. The Gigabyte logo that was at the rear of all Gaming OC cards is now near the front, and the “GEFORCE RTX” logo has its own silver badge on the top of the card. The silver accents on the shroud have also been switched, with silver accents to the top front and bottom rear of the card. With other Gaming OC cards, this was reversed. The RTX 3070 Ti also features a factory overclock of 1830MHz.

EVGA

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So far, EVGA has the most custom SKUs announced for the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti, with 8 custom models confirmed.

The RTX 3080 Ti alone will come in six flavors, the FTW3, FTW3 Hybrid and FTW3 Hydro Copper. The FTW models represent EVGA’s flagships, so expect robust power delivery and excellent performance from these models.

The remaining three consist of the XC3, XC3 Hybrid and XC3 Hydro Copper. These are EVGA’s budget and mid-range offerings, which should offer the best overall price to performance.

The RTX 3070 Ti will only come in two flavors for now, the FTW3 and XC3. Unfortunately, we don’t have specs or detailed pictures of any of EVGA’s SKUs at this time.

MSI

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Similar to EVGA, MSI is announcing a ton of SKUs for both RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti. The models will consist of the Suprim, Gaming Trio, and Ventus variants. Each variant also gets a vanilla and factory overclocked model.

Overall the RTX 3080 Ti Suprim, Gaming Trio, and Ventus are identical to the RTX 3090 models with very very minor changes to the aesthetics of the card. The Suprim will be the top tier model, the Gaming Trio represents the mid-tier, and the Ventus is your ‘budget’ friendly RTX 3080 Ti.

The RTX 3070 Ti will also receive Suprim, Gaming Trio, and Ventus variants, but unfortunately, product pages for those cards are not available at this time.

The same goes for clock speed specifications on all of MSI’s RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti SKU, so we’ll have to wait until those become available.

Zotac

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Zotac will feature five different SKUs for the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti combined, consisting of the Trinity and Holo series. The RTX 3080 Tis are mostly identical in every way to the RTX 3090s, especially when it comes to the Trinity, where Zotac appears to have put the RTX 3090 cooler directly onto the RTX 3080 Ti.

For the RTX 3080 Ti Holo, there are a few things to note. The RTX 3080 Ti only has a single Holo SKU, while the RTX 3090 had two, the Core Holo and Extreme Holo. The RTX 3080 Ti holo seems to be its own SKU, with a slightly different aesthetic than any of the RTX 3090 Holos. The RTX 3080 Ti Holo features an elegant-looking RGB lightbar on the card’s side that goes from the top to almost the bottom of the card, with a grey color theme for the whole shroud.

The RTX 3080 Ti Trinity will receive a 1665MHz Boost clock (reference spec), the Trinity OC variant features a 1695MHz boost clock, and the Holo features the highest clock at 1710MHz.

The RTX 3070 Ti will also come in the Trinity and Holo flavors but will come with the same triple-fan cooling configuration as the RTX 3080 Zotac Trinity and Holo. This is very different from the vanilla RTX 3070 which maxes out at a twin-fan design.

We are not sure if the RTX 3070 Ti uses the RTX 3080 coolers from the Trinty and Holo series, but aesthetically they look nearly identical, making us believe this is probably true.

The RTX 3070 Ti Holo will come with a 1830MHz boost clock. and the Trinity will have an 1870MHz boost.

Colorful

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Colorful has the fewest amount of cards out of all the AIB partners so far, with only three SKUs announced, and only one of those being for the RTX 3080 Ti.

The only RTX 3080 Ti SKU Colorful has announced is the Vulkan OC-V, featuring a triple fan heatsink and a black and metal finish. Giving the card a very stealthy or ‘batman’ like appearance. The card will feature a base clock of 1365MHz along with a 1710MHz Boost Clock.

The first RTX 3070 Ti SKU announced is the 3070 Ti Advanced OC-V, a big chunky card measuring beyond two slots in thickness, and coming in with a rather unique color design consisting of a silver shroud, accented by purple and black, along with a red ringlit RGB fan in the middle. The card will come with a 1575MHz base clock and a 1830MHz boost clock.

Finally, the last SKU announced is the RTX 3070 Ti NB 8G-V, which appears to be the company’s budget-friendly 3070 Ti. The card features a dual-slot cooler, with a very boxy appearance. The shroud is covered in a matte black finish, accented by both glossy black and matte red finishes. The card will come with a 1575MHz base clock and a 1770Mhz boost clock.

PNY

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Last but not least is PNY with four new SKUs planned for the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti for now. The RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti will both come in Revel and Uprising editions. What we have pictured are the RTX 3080 Ti Revel Epic X, 3080 Ti Uprising Epic X and the RTX 3070 Ti Revel Epic X.

The RTX 3080 Ti Revel Epic X carries a two-toned design to the shroud, with a matte black covering the actual shroud, as well as a uniquely designed metal fan protector with a silver finish. Between the fans lies rings of RGB lighting. The same apparently goes for the RTX 3070 Ti as well, but the 3070 Ti is slightly smaller.

The RTX 3080 Ti Uprising Epic X features a grey finish with RGB accents near the middle of the fan. From what we can tell from the pictures, the card is absolutely gigantic, with a very wide heatsink, along with a length that is hard to describe. For perspective, the heatsink stretches out from the main PCB a good 4 inches, and the PCB isn’t compact at all. So this card is going to be a challenge for some PC cases.

ssupd Meshlicious Review – Doubling Down on Mesh

Introduction

I would like to thank ssupd for supplying the review sample.

ssupd is a sister brand of Lian Li, and their first case, which we get to review here, is the Meshlicious. ssupd stands for “sunny side up design” because “nothing beats the feeling of cooking the perfect sunny side up egg and the warm feeling and satisfaction you feel after eating it. We hope building PCs will bring the same warm feeling”.

This case doesn’t hide its core functional design aspiration as it comes with fine mesh panels on all but a side, which allows for a compact ITX case with excellent cooling potential while still offering as much dust filtration as possible. You may pick from either white or black, and ssupd also offers the black variant in a bundle with a PCIe 4.0 riser cable.

Specifications

ssupd Meshlicious
Case Type:	SFF ITX Chassis
Material:	Steel, fine mesh and tempered glass
Weight:	N/A
Slots:	3 (up to 4 wide)
Drive Bays:	3x 2.5″ SSD (2x with full-ATX PSU) 2x 3.5″ HDD or 4x 2.5″ SSD (with Small Form Factor GPU)
Motherboard Form Factors:	Mini-ITX
Dimensions:	245 mm x 166.4 mm x 360 mm, 14.67 L
Front Door/Cover:	N/A
Front Fans:	2x 120 or 2x 140 mm (1x 120 mm fan pre-installed)
Rear Fans:	N/A
Top Fans:	N/A
Bottom Fans:	N/A
Side Fans:	N/A
Front Radiator:	up to 280 mm
Rear Radiator:	N/A
Top Radiator:	N/A
Bottom Radiator:	N/A
Side Radiator:	N/A
I/O:	1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C 1x USB 3.0
Fan/LED Controller:	N/A
Compatibility:	CPU Cooler: Up to 73 mm height with 3-slot GPU / 53 mm height with 4-slot GPU Full length GPU: Up to 334 mm length & 155 mm tall Small Form Factor GPU : Up to 211 mm length PSU: 170 mm SFX, SFX-L or ATX PSU (with front fans) / Up to 160 mm ATX PSU (with traditional AIO position)

ASRock’s AMD X300TM Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard Has USB-C & COM Ports

(Image credit: ASRock)

In a world where the vast majority of all-in-one and small form-factor PCs rely on proprietary motherboards, the Thin Mini-ITX form-factor is not particularly widespread, making it difficult for PC shops and DIY enthusiasts to build AIO and SFF computers. However, Thin-Mini-ITX motherboards are not going the way of the dodo, and ASRock’s recently announced AM4 X300TM-ITX is a good example of continued interest in the platform.

The ASRock X300TM-ITX platform combines compatibility with AMD’s Ryzen APUs (up to Zen 2-based Ryzen 4000-series) with an expansive feature set, including a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C connector, a COM port, and an LVDS header, all of which are rather exotic for what are typically inexpensive Thin Mini-ITX motherboards.

Furthermore, the COM port and LVDS header make this platform useful for commercial systems that actually need these types of connectivity. ASRock doesn’t officially position the motherboard for business or commercial PCs, but it does support AMD Ryzen Pro APUs, so you can certainly use it to build a PC with Pro-class features.

As the name suggests, ASRock’s X300TM-ITX motherboard is based on a rather dated AMD X300 chipset that was originally designed for entry-level systems aimed at overlockers, but it still supports the vast majority of AMD’s APUs with an (up to) 65W TDP (except the upcoming Ryzen 5000-series processors). The board also supports up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 memory across two SO-DIMM memory modules, an M.2-2280 slot for SSDs with a PCIe 3.0x or a SATA interface, and one SATA connector.

(Image credit: ASRock)

ASRock aims the X300TM-ITX motherboard at thin entry-level systems that don’t typically use discrete graphics cards, so it doesn’t have a PCIe x16 slot for an add-in card. Instead, the platform uses AMD’s integrated Radeon Vega GPUs. Meanwhile, the LVDS header supports resolutions of up to 1920×1080 at 60Hz, whereas the HDMI 2.1 connector supports HDCP 2.3. There is no word about DisplayPort support over the USB Type-C connector, and you should be aware that HDMI-to-DisplayPort adapters may not work with all displays.

ASRock’s X300TM-ITX has an M.2-2230 slot for a Wi-Fi card along with a GbE port. It also has USB Type-A connectors as well as a 3.5-mm audio input and output.

The platform is already mentioned on the manufacturer’s website, so it should be available for purchase soon. Unfortunately, ASRock didn’t touch on pricing in its press release.

Watercool Heatkiller Rad 360-S
Color:	Black, white, or stainless steel frame with a black core
Material:	Copper and brass core, steel frame
Radiator Size:	3×120 mm
Dimensions:	398 (L) x 119 (W) x 30 (H) mm
Fan Compatibility:	Square frame 120 mm
Fin Type:	Copper with paint coat, ~14–15 FPI serpentine and louvered type fins
Ports:	2, BSP G1/4″ threaded
Screw Type:	M3 threading
Warranty:	Two years

Model	Aorus Model X	Aorus Model S
Platform	X570	B550
CPU	AMD R9 5900X	AMD R9 5900X
RAM	32GB DDR4-3600 RGB	32GB DDR4-3600
GPU	RTX 3080	RTX 3080
PSU	850W 80 Plus Gold	750W 80 Plus Gold
Storage 1	M.2 2280 Gen4 1TB	M.2 2280 Gen4 1TB
Storage 2	M.2 2280 NVMe 2TB	M.2 2280 NVMe 2TB

Model	Aorus Model X	Aorus Model S
Platform	Z590	Z590
CPU	Intel Core i9-11900K	Intel Core i9-11900K
RAM	16GB DDR4-4400 RGB	32GB DDR4-4000
GPU	RTX 3080	RTX 3080
PSU	850W 80 Plus Gold	750W 80 Plus Gold
Storage 1	M.2 2280 Gen4 1TB	M.2 2280 Gen4 1TB
Storage 2	M.2 2280 NVMe 2TB	M.2 2280 NVMe 2TB

Our Verdict

Although Thermaltake’s The Tower 100 isn’t the most practical case, it’s joyfully weird and doesn’t cost much.

For

+ Unique new case design
+ Showpiece from all angles
+ Easily accessible top IO
+ Reasonable thermal performance
+ Affordable

Against

– Cheap build quality
– Lacking cable management
– Impractical build process
– Limited cooling potential

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Features and Specifications

Thermaltake’s The Tower 100 is a new ITX chassis that comes with a totally different design from what we’re used to. It places the motherboard along the back wall of the chassis, GPU directly into the PCIe slot, rear IO at the top under a cover, and a large ATX power supply in the basement. It’s bigger than most ITX cases, but it’s got a unique design that may appeal to those who want to show off their hardware, thanks to the glass on three sides.

But although it’s a small showcase, it does limit practicality somewhat by favoring form over function. Without further ado, let’s dig a bit deeper and find out if the case is good enough for a spot on our Best PC Cases list.