ASRock (via momomo_us) has carved up a new motherboard for cryptocurrency miners. The H510 Pro BTC+, which arrives with the LGA1200 socket and H510 chipset, is ready to power your mining operations with the latest Comet Lake or Rocket Lake processors.
The H510 PRO BTC+ measures 50.1 x 22.4cm (20.1 x 8.8 inches) so the motherboard doesn’t adhere to an official form factor. It shouldn’t matter anyways, since the H510 PRO BTC+ is more than likely going on to a rack rather than inside a conventional computer case.
The motherboard’s greatest trait comes in the shape of six PCIe 3.0 x16 expansion slots. However, only the primary PCIe 3.0 expansion slot offers x16 speeds, while the remaining expansion slots are capped at x1. The motherboard allows you to connect up to six graphics cards to mine cryptocurrency. An additional USB mining port bumps the number up to seven.
The steel expansion slots on the H510 PRO BTC+ make sure that your multiple graphics card sit neat and tight on the motherboard. ASRock equipped the H510 PRO BTC+ with not one but three 24-pin power connectors and four Molex power connectors so the motherboard will get all the juice that it needs to feed each and every graphics card.
H510 Pro BTC+ (Image credit: ASRock)
If we leave the expansion slots aside, the H510 PRO BTC+ is really an austere motherboard. It features a very modest four-phase power delivery subsystem, but the motherboard does boast 50A power chokes. It only has one DDR4 memory slot, though. You’re limited to 32GB of total memory and memory speeds up to DDR4-3200 on Rocket Lake and DDR4-2933 for Comet Lake. However, there is support for ECC memory modules if that’s your thing.
You only have two options for storage. The SATA III port will accept any ordinary hard drive or SSD, while the M.2 slot houses SATA-based drives up to 110mm in length. There’s no audio chip onboard the H510 PRO BTC+ so you’ll have to rely on the HDMI 1.4 port.
The H510 PRO BTC+ provides a single Gigabit Ethernet port, which is based on the Intel I219V controller. The rear panel also holds a combo PS/2 port, one HDMI 1.4 port, two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports. One USB 2.0 header is readily available to deliver two more USB 2.0 ports.
Newegg has the H510 PRO BTC+ up for pre-order at $279.99. The H510 PRO BTC+ officially launches on July 18, and purchase is limited to two motherboards per customer.
Montech’s Air 100 offers a tidy Micro-ATX package with lots of RGB, but it could use a bit more refinement.
For
+ Great Looks
+ Compact Size
+ Includes 4 A-RGB Fans
+ Affordable
Against
– A few unsightly details
– No PWM support
– No intake air filtration
– Tight cable management space
Features and Specifications
Montech is a newcomer to the US PC parts market, having recently asked us to take a look at its new Air 100 ARGB chassis. While its design is fairly standard, and its Micro-ATX size means its appeal is limited, when we heard about the price, we were happy to heft this compact tower onto our test bench.
The Air 100 chassis comes in Lite and ARGB variants, with the latter on deck today carrying a price tag of $70 for the black version. Going white will cost about $5 to $10 extra, and cutting the RGB drops the base price down to about $52.
Without further ado, lets find out if this surprisingly affordable chasis deserves a spot on our Best PC Cases list.
Touring around the outside of the chassis, it’s clear that this is a case with very simple, straightforward design language, and I quite like it. There’s no fuffing about with extravagant shapes, just clean and simple, with three intake fans as the most aggressive design feature – but they look quite good.
Around the top of the case you’ll find the exhaust for the top fans or radiators, along with the IO. The exhaust isn’t recessed for a sleek finish once fans are installed, and although a filter is included to place over it, this top area doesn’t look particularly refined.
IO is very complete though, with two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, dedicated microphone and headphone jacks, and power and reset switches – though the reset switch is wired to the RGB controller from the factory to control the lighting. I’ve been hard on cases for doing that before, but because it’s not actually marked as a reset switch on the outside of the chassis here, I see no reason why that would be a problem with this case.
The case’s panels all come off quite easily – the glass panel has a handle to easily swivel it out, after which you can lift it off its hinge, and the front panel is held in with magnets, so it comes off with just a light tug — a bit too light though, the magnets aren’t very strong.
The panel on the right side of the chassis comes off by removing two thumbscrews, though they don’t stay fixed to the panel like many other cases do.
In the main compartment of the chassis, you’ll find room for up to Micro-ATX motherboards and GPUs up to 12.9 inches (330mm) long. Other than that, there’s not much going on here that’s worth mentioning, though I do appreciate the rubber cable grommets for keeping things tidy.
Along the rear side of the chassis we spot room for the ATX power supply, a single 3.5-inch hard drive and two 2.5 inch SSDs, though you can secure another drive to the top of the drive cage.
At this point we haven’t reached testing yet, but cooling should be one of the Air 100’s strengths – it comes with four 120mm RGB fans, has room for CPU coolers up to up to 6.3 inches (161mm) tall, and can fit up to a 240mm radiator at the top or a 360mm unit at the front (the spec sheet lists a 280mm max, I don’t see why a 360mm radiator wouldn’t fit), albeit at the sacrifice of some GPU space. The fans come with a 1x 3-pin to 4x 3-pin splitter so that you can connect all fans up to a single header.
In the latest installment of the MSI Insider show, MSI has revealed the brand’s Z590 Pro 12VO motherboard that employs Intel’s 10-pin ATX12VO power connector. Besides the motherboard’s feature set, the vendor also shared the benefits of the ATX12VO power connector.
Despite Intel promoting the ATX12VO power connector as far back as last year, the standard hasn’t really caught on. A handful of motherboards on the market utilize the ATX12VO specification, but it’s far from mainstream. As its name implies, the ATX12VO only uses the 12V rail. Therefore, motherboards will have to come with buck converters to translate voltages down to 5V and 3.3V for hardware that still relies on one of the aforementioned voltages.
In addition to improving power efficiency, the ATX12VO power connector is also smaller since it only comes with 10 pins. This is beneficial in compact systems since the footprint is smaller. However, the ATX12VO power connector has yet to prove its worth on ATX motherboards.
Take MSI’s Z590 Pro 12VO, for example. While the motherboard doesn’t have that chunky 24-pin power connector, it has gained a 6-pin PCIe power connector and up to three additional 4-pin power connectors. Evidently, the ATX12VO standard does little for cable clutter in a full-sized desktop system, but again, its advantages reside in power saving.
MSI Z590 Pro 12VO Power Consumption
The Z590 Pro WiFi is the mainstream counterpart of the Z590 Pro 12VO, so naturally, the MSI representatives used the former for comparison. They took out the wireless module from the Z590 Pro WiFi so that both motherboards had a level playing field. The hosts employed the same Core i9-11900K (Rocket Lake) processor, memory and SSD for both tests. There were a lot of fluctuations in the measurements and the tests were short, so take the results with a grain of salt. For easy comprehension, we’ve rounded off the values in the tables below.
Z590 Pro WiFi
Z590 Pro 12VO
Power Reduction
System Idle Consumption
42W
38W
10%
Average CPU Package Power
17W
14W
18%
System Idle Consumption (C10)
N/A
24W
N/A
Average CPU Package Power (C10)
N/A
8W
N/A
The Z590 Pro 12VO drew 10% less system idle power consumption than the Z590 Pro WiFi. There was also an 18% reduction in average processor package power.
The MSI representative went inside the Z590 Pro 12VO’s BIOS and changed the “Package C State Limit” option from Auto to C10. If you’re not familiar with C-states, they are low-power modes that a processor can come into when it’s idling. C10 is the deepest state, wherein the chip effectively turns off.
With C10 enabled, the Z590 Pro 12VO dropped its system idle power consumption from 38W to 24W, a 37% decrease. The average processor package power, on the other hand, decreased from 14W to 8W, representing a 43% power saving.
OEMs are held to stricter environmental standards, which is why you’ll likely find the ATX12VO power connection inside a pre-built system. DIY users, on the other hand, don’t have to abide by environmental regulations.
The ATX12VO standard only thrives in idle or low-load scenarios, which begs the question of how many of us leave our systems idling for prolonged periods of time. Only time will tell if the ATX12VO ever becomes a widely accepted standard. With the rumor that Intel is allegedly giving the specification a hard push with its next-generation Alder Lake-S processors, the 10-pin power connector may be more common on upcoming LGA1700 motherboards.
The Inland Performance Plus offers up very fast Gen 4 performance at a lower price than its competition, making it a compelling value for those on the hunt for a new high-performance M.2 NVMe SSD.
For
+ Appealing aesthetics
+ Competitive performance
+ 5-year warranty
+ Keeps cool under most workloads
+ Heatsink is easily removed
Against
– Lacks AES 256-bit encryption
– Lacks supporting software
Features and Specifications
Inland’s Performance Plus is a high-performance PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD that rivals the best SSDs you can buy, but at a cheaper price point. Plus, it comes with a huge heat sink to keep this SSD cool under intensive workloads. You might not recognize the Inland brand, but it’s been a staple at Micro Center for years, and is available via Amazon as well.
Inland’s Performance Plus is one of a few of the company’s recent speedy SSDs we have slated for review. Many (if not all) of Inland’s SSDs look to be powered by Phison-branded SSD controllers, which gives us an idea of what to expect when it comes to performance and reliability. While the brand isn’t as large as say Samsung or Crucial, with the help of Phison, the company is able to remaining surprisingly competitive in the storage arena, against many much-larger rivals.
Available at Micro Center
(Image credit: Micro Center)
Direct Pricing $399.99
Hardware-wise, Inland’s performance Plus is similar in design to that of the Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000s, Corsair MP600 Pro, and Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus. It leverages the same E18 NVMe SSD controller and Micron’s 96L TLC flash as these alternatives, along with a sleek heatsink, but it undercuts them in price in most cases. The Inland Performance Plus makes for a solid value for those on the hunt for fast Gen4 SSD.
Specifications
Product
1TB
2TB
Pricing
$189.99
$399.99
Capacity (User / Raw)
1000GB / 1024GB
2000GB / 2048GB
Form Factor
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
Interface / Protocol
PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4
PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4
Controller
Phison PS5018-E18
Phison PS5018-E18
DRAM
DDR4
DDR4
Memory
Micron 96L TLC
Micron 96L TLC
Sequential Read
7,000 MBps
7,000 MBps
Sequential Write
5,500 MBps
6,850 MBps
Random Read
350,000 IOPS
650,000 IOPS
Random Write
700,000 IOPS
700,000 IOPS
Security
N/A
N/A
Endurance (TBW)
700 TB
1,400 TB
Part Number
1TB NVME PERF
2TB NVME PERF
Warranty
5-Years
5-Years
Inland offers the Performance Plus in 1TB and 2TB capacities, priced at $190 and $400, respectively. In terms of warranty coverage, Inland backs the Performance Plus with a five-year warranty or up to 700TB of writes per 1TB in capacity, whichever comes first.
Each capacity can dish out up to 7 GBps in read performance, but both differ in write potential. The 1TB model can write at up to 5.5 GBps, while the roomier 2TB model can sustain writes at up to 6.85 GBps thanks to having double the number of the NAND dies. Additionally, random read performance scales much higher on the 2TB than the 1TB model. The 1TB Performance Plus is rated to deliver up to 350,000/700,000 random read/write IOPS while the 2TB model can manage up to 650,000/700,000 random read/write IOPS.
A Closer Look
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Inland includes a well-designed heatsink, similar to that of the Corsair MP600 Pro, but with a few more cuts to add surface area for taming the heat under sustained workloads. However, measuring 14.5 x 23 x 70mm, Inland’s Performance Plus is very thick and can interfere with GPU placement, depending on the M.2 slot you attempt to install it in. If it gets in the way or you just want to use your motherboard’s heat sink, it is easy to remove, though.
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At the heart of the Performance Plus is a Phison PS5018-E18 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.4 SSD controller. Along with features such as S.M.A.R.T. data reporting, secure erase capability, and TRIM, it also features ASPM and APST support for low power consumption at idle.
Unlike Phison’s previous-generation E16, the E18 is built from the ground up tp offer greater performance capability for PCIe 4.0 drives. It leverages a tri-core primary Arm Cortex R5 architecture, along with a dual-core co-processor, which results in very fast sustained write speeds. Furthermore, there are two 8Gb SK hynix DDR4 DRAM ICs on our 2TB sample, in order to accelerate access to the logical to physical mapping tables, ensuring responsive reads.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
As for the bulk storage, we find eight packages of Micron’s 96L TLC. There are 32 dies in total on our 2TB sample, each 512Gb in density. This flash is not quite as fast as Micron’s recently tested 176L TLC, but with it operating at 1200 MTps over the controller’s eight NAND channels, it’s fast enough to keep up with the likes of the best in many cases.
Noctua is known for making mighty quiet PC fans, and now it has a CPU cooler that doesn’t need a fan at all. Two years after announcing a passive heatsink potent enough to keep a Core i9-9900K CPU in check, the dead-silent Noctua NH-P1 (via VideoCardz) has finally gone on sale today for $110. It’s an absolute unit at 1.2 kilograms (2.6 pounds).
According to the company’s delightfully ASMR build video below (via PC Gamer), the final product’s six soldered heatpipes and thick fins are good enough to run a Core i9-11900K near its TDP of 125W, and even give you a slight overclock to 3.6GHz, though it’ll heavily depend on your case and other components that might also generate heat. The company has a whole set of setup guidelines, a CPU compatibility list, and even a list of recommended cases so you know what you’re getting into and start off on the right foot.
Assuming you’ve got those things in check, you shouldn’t have too much trouble fitting it to your motherboard: it appears to be compatible with all modern desktop CPU sockets and has “100% RAM clearance on LGA1200 and AM4,” with a note that you might want to avoid tall RAM modules if you’re using an LGA2066 motherboard.
The company also has a quiet (12.1dB) new 120mm fan, the NF-A12x25 LS-PWM, if you really want an extra burst of cooling on occasion. It’s set to come to a dead stop at 0 percent PWM, so your fan controller can only turn it on when you need it.
Popular memory maker G.Skill just announced its first PC case ever, the Z5i, a mini-ITX enclosure that features dual tempered glass side panels and a vertical form factor, with enough room to fit a triple slot RTX 3090. So, not-so-mini-ITX I guess.
G.Skill’s first go at building an ITX chassis looks very competitive against other rivals in the market. The layout of the case is both conventional and rather unique. The chassis functions on a dual-chamber design, with one chamber dedicated to the mini-ITX motherboard and SFX PSU, and the other is completely dedicated to a discrete graphics card.
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(Image credit: G.Skill)
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On both sides of the case, you have angled tempered glass side panels that are 4mm thick. They swing out like doors when opened and can easily be taken off their hinges by pulling them upward. The rest of the case is made out of a single piece of brushed aluminum. The front I/O is made up of dual USB 3.0 ports and a single 3.1 Type-C port.
For cooling, there are two 140mm intake mounts for dual 140mm fans or a single 280mm radiator, depending on your configuration. Again, not so mini-ITX in practice, but it’s a nice option for people that want a powerful PC in the most compact form factor possible. The intake is aluminum but features a lot of triangle-like holes, so airflow shouldn’t be a problem. At the top is a full mesh opening, allowing hot air to escape.
For storage, the Z5i has three 2.5-inch slots for SSDs or smaller HDDs. The first two are located directly behind the intake fans and sit in between the two chambers, the final one is located inside the graphics card chamber.
The case also includes a G.Skill logo with RGB lighting, as well as an RGB light bar that bounces light off your desk. All told, it’s an attractive looking take on a large ITX case.
Pricing and availability are unknown at this time, but we’ll see about reviewing one when they become available.
Thermaltake’s Argent H5 Stereo boasts solid build quality, clear sound and a no-nonsense approach that will either meet your needs or leave you wanting more.
For
+ Very comfortable, snug fit
+ Affordable
+ Excellent sound out of the box
+ Attractive, minimalist design
Against
– 3.5mm only
– Mic doesn’t filter out background noise well
– No way to adjust mic volume levels on the fly
– Hi-res performance could be better
The Thermaltake Argent H5 Stereo is a no-frills headset aimed squarely at gamers on a budget who want to just plug in and play instead of spending time tweaking settings. It looks to compete with the best gaming headsets with a detachable 3.5mm cabling and a detachable mic for easy portability. With an MSRP of $65, the Argent H5 is also an affordable way to experience hi-res audio with great speakers and an impressively wide frequency response.
The Argent H5 Stereo’s sleek, minimalist, stealthy aesthetic does a great job of communicating a commitment to simplicity, and these cans are also very comfortable for long gaming sessions. The question, then, is whether or not this alone is enough to satisfy your needs.
Thermaltake Argent H5 Stereo Specs
Driver Type
50mm neodymium
Impedance
32 Ohms
Frequency Response
Speakers: 20 Hz – 40 KHz
Mic: 100 Hz – 10 KHz
Microphone Type
Bidirectional, detachable
Connectivity Options
3.5mm (single TRRS and split TRS)
Cables
6 feet (2m) 3.5mm cable
Weight (with mic)
0.8 pounds (370g)
Lighting
None
Software
none
Design and Comfort
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Thermaltake Argent H5 Stereo is fairly large in size and decked out in sleek, matte black. It’s a stealthy pair of cans, save for the Thermaltake logo in white on the outside of each earcup. The metal frame is stained a matching black, and the leatherette headband shows off the stitching, where it meets the memory foam padding underneath. The detachable mic matches the stark black finish of the rest of the unit, completing a minimalist overall look that will be at home in a wide variety of gaming setups and won’t look out of place in a professional setting.
The cabling is, likewise, very simple. A single cable that houses the headset controls and ends in a single 3.5mm TRRS plug attaches to the headset via a mini USB connector. Thermaltake also includes an adapter that splits into two 3.5mm TRS connectors for devices that don’t support audio input and output through a single TRRS jack. The controls consist of a single volume wheel and a switch that turns the microphone on and off.
Despite its imposing appearance, the Argent H5 may weigh less than you think at just 0.8 pound. There are lighter wired cans in this price range, and I have a couple of them on hand. The HyperX Cloud Core + 7.1 is 0.7 pound, and SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless is 0.6 pound, but the Argent H5’s weight still allows it to be comfortable to wear for long periods of time. The earcups swivel, letting you rest the headset on your neck when not actively in use. Adjustments to the headband are easy to make too, as the Argent H5 employs the industry standard push/pull mechanism.
The headband and the earcups both feature soft memory foam padding, with the latter offering just the right amount of depth to ensure that your ears are cradled but not crushed against the drivers. Ultimately, the Argent H5 has a tight, comfortable fit. It took minimal adjustment to get it to sit just right on my head, and its grip is firm but not suffocating. The Argent H5’s mic also features a flexible boom arm that’s easy to bend into the optimal position.
I came away from my time with the Argent H5 impressed by how comfortable it was for long gaming sessions. Simplicity seems to be the word used most often during the Argent H5’s design process, and this yielded good results from a comfort and useability standpoint.
It’s unfortunate, however, that Thermaltake opted for 3.5mm connectivity alone. While this does cut down on the amount of cables and adapters that have to be used with the headset, it also limits the overall utility of the device. It would be nice to also have USB connectivity, considering most phones have dropped the 3.5mm headphone jack entirely and gamers with a full sound system hooked up to their PCs will need to unplug some cables to be able to use the headset with the mic if their PC doesn’t support audio input and output via a single 3.5mm cable.
Audio Performance
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Argent H5 boasts oversized 50mm drivers that support hi-res audio with an impressively wide frequency response of 20 – 40,000 Hz. For comparison, HyperX’s Cloud Core is specced for 15 – 25,000 Hz, and SteelSeries’ Arctis 1 Wireless for 20 – 20,000 Hz.
For testing purposes, I loaded up 24bit .WAV (I also tested with some of my own mixdowns that were exported as 32bit .WAV files at 96K) and .FLAC files with sample rates of 96K and 192K and listened side by side using both the Argent H5 Stereo and the Steelseries Arctis 1 Wireless, which doesn’t support hi-res audio. I also did side-by-side comparisons with in-game audio and movies. I immediately noticed a much clearer, brighter frequency response. The Argent H5 definitely makes the jump to hi-res audio noticeable, especially if you’ve never experienced that type of audio before.
But when it came to other, pricier hi-res headsets, the Argent H5 Stereo couldn’t quite compete. Hi-res performance wasn’t in the same league as the HyperX Cloud Mix ($197 as of writing) or Asus ROG Theta 7.1 ($290 as of writing) in terms of richness and fullness of tone. And it can’t compete with the Asus ROG Delta S, our favorite hi-res gaming headset, which is more beefed out with a Quad DAC and MQA renderer. That said, the Argent H5 Stereo still sounds markedly cleaner than many headsets in its price range.
Compared to many gaming headsets, the Argent H5’s audio is very well-balanced, lacking the overwhelming bass that is de rigueur in the field. There’s a tightness to the bass response that enhances clarity, alongside a well-defined midrange and clean treble frequencies. The overall frequency response is natural and flat, with good separation between lows, mids and highs that allows audio mixes to sound as they were intended. The drivers do a great job of retaining clarity when they are pushed. Maxing out the volume didn’t produce any notable distortion, and these cans get quite loud.
Gaming audio gets high marks. The flat default EQ curve of the Argent H5 Stereo made sure that details weren’t lost in frantic firefights in FPS titles, like Doom Eternal and CS:GO, while more claustrophobic aural experiences, like Outlast, dripped with menacing atmosphere. True to its namesake, this headset does not offer virtual surround sound natively.
If you insist on surround sound, you’d have to enable Windows Sonic or some other third-party software. While the Argent H5 Stereo does play nice with Windows Sonic, thanks to it being outfitted with speakers that are up to the task, gamers who focus on competitive play may balk at not having native positional audio out of the box.
Music, meanwhile, pops through these speakers with excellent clarity, even at high volumes. The Argent H5 stereo rendered dense material, like Opeth’s Blackwater Park album, and more sparse, punchy mixes, like Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, equally well . At no point during my testing did low end overwhelm the mix, which can be a problem with gaming-grade headphones.
Movies likewise played well over the Argent H5 Stereo. The Battle of Helm’s Deep in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Helm’s sounded thunderous without sacrificing clarity, and the sparse, subtle and eerie mix of The Witch shined.
The overall audio performance of the Argent H5 Stereo is impressive and with no way to tweak it natively, that’s a good thing. Gamers who like to adjust audio settings, however, may be turned off by the lack of options.
Microphone
The Argent H5 Stereo’s bi-directional mic is serviceable but not great. The frequency response is a respectable 100 – 10,000 Hz, cutting out boomy lows and shrill highs. But the mic doesn’t do a very good job of filtering out ambient noise. During gameplay and test recordings using OBS, the sound of my air conditioner was clearly audible, despite it being on the far opposite side of my room. Keyboard chatter was much louder than it should be too.
Additionally, the mic level by default is on the quiet side — about 3-5dB short of where I want it to be, based on my measurements of other headset mics I have on-hand in OBS software. Because of this, my teammates in competitive titles had trouble hearing me. Unfortunately, there’s no way to adjust the mic level on the headset itself. The inline controls only function as a means to adjust the headphone volume and turn the mic on and off. Adjusting the mic volume would require you to play with settings in Windows or the audio software supplied by your laptop or motherboard vendor.
Features and Software
Unlike many gaming headsets today, there’s no software for the Argent H5 Stereo. This is great for gamers who just want to plug in a headset without installing software to adjust settings. Most importantly, by default, the headset’s audio is mostly good enough to not require any further tweaking. This does cut both ways, however.
The mic volume is not adjustable via the inline controls and will require third-party software to manipulate. The mic itself is also unremarkable – clear enough to prevent complaints but not good at filtering out room noise.
Bottom Line
(Image credit: Thermaltake)
Thermaltake’s Argent H5 Stereo is a solidly built, attractive and great sounding headset that hits the mark when it comes to simplicity and ease of use. It also scores highly when it comes to comfort. These cans provide ample padding and have a snug fit that is free of wobble without feeling constrictive. The Argent H5 Stereo retails for only $65, so it’s also a great value.
Unfortunately, the minimalist approach the Argent H5 Stereo exemplifies also means sacrifices. Connectivity is limited to either a single 3.5mm TRRS or dual, split 3.5mm TRS plugs. Of course, many smartphones have ditched 3.5mm, and it’ll be an annoyance if your system’s 3.5mm jacks are already taken by your 5.1 setup. Without an adapter, you’d have to unplug your external audio system to use the headset.
And tweakers will want to look elsewhere, as there’s no native software for the headset. If you want more control over EQ and mic levels in the same price range, consider the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless or the HyperX Cloud Core instead, which also offer more connectivity options. But you’ll have to forego hi-res audio.
The Argent H5 Stereo’s hi-res abilities make it a nice introduction for those new to the format, but for those serious about hi-res, it’s worth investing in something like the Asus ROG Delta S or the more affordable HyperX Cloud Mix.
But if you’re looking for a gaming headset that looks and sounds great out of the box for a very fair price, the Argent H5 Stereo is easy to recommend.
Asus Z590 WiFi Gundam Edition (Image credit: Asus)
In a collaboration with Sunrise and Sostu, Asus announced last year a special lineup of PC components inspired by the Gundam anime series. While the products were originally specific to the Asian region, they have now made their way over to the U.S. market.
Asus introduced two opposing Gundam series. The Gundam series is based on the RX-78-2 Gundam, while the Zaku series borrows inspiration from the MS-06S Char’s Zaku II. The list of components include motherboards, graphics cards, power supplies, monitors and other peripherals. Specification-wise, the Gundam-and Zaku-based versions are identical to their vanilla counterparts.
For now, there’s not a lot to choose from. Newegg only currently sells four Gundam-themed products from Asus. On the motherboard end, we have the Z590 WiFi Gundam Edition and the TUF Gaming B550M-Zaku (Wi-Fi). The U.S. retailer also listed the RT-AX86U Zaku II Edition gaming router and TUF Gaming GT301 Zaku II Edition case.
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The Z590 WiFi Gundam Edition, which retails for $319.99, is a LGA1200 motherboard that supports Intel’s latest 11th Generation Rocket Lake-S processors. The motherboard supports up to 128GB of memory and memory frequencies up to DDR4-5133 without a sweat. The Z590 WiFi Gundam Edition also offers PCIe 4.0 support on both its M.2 ports and PCIe expansion slots as well as Wi-Fi 6 connectivity with added Bluetooth 5.0 functionality.
The TUF Gaming B550M-Zaku (Wi-Fi), on the other hand, leverages the B550 to accommodate multiple generations of Ryzen processors up to the latest Zen 3 chips. The microATX motherboard also supports the latest technologies, such as PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6 and USB Type-C. Newegg has the TUF Gaming B550M-Zaku (Wi-Fi) up for purchase for $219.99.
The RT-AX860U Zaku II Edition is one of Asus’ most recent dual-band Wi-Fi 6 gaming routers. The router, which sells for $299.99, offers speeds up to 5,700 Mbps and 160 MHz channels. A quad-core 1.8 GHz processor and 1GB of DDR3 powers the RT-AX860U Zaku II Edition.
Lastly, the TUF Gaming GT301 Zaku II Edition is a $119.99 mid-tower case for ATX motherboards. It offers generous support for radiators up to 360mm and a tempered glass side panel to show off your hardware. There’s also a convenient headphone hangers to keep your heaphones safe and at hand.
MSI is a brand that needs no introduction. They produce so many products in the PC gaming space that you likely own or have owned something from them, be it a desktop, laptop, motherboard, graphics card, or something else. Suffice it to say, MSI is one of the major players in the PC enthusiast market. This is why it doesn’t surprise that they have been branching out into other areas in recent years, such as the PC cooling space.
In today’s review, I will be looking at MSI’s MPG CORELIQUID K240 all-in-one liquid cooler. Unlike the vast majority of designs on the market, this offering does do things a bit differently. First, it has an LCD screen on the pump and a fan that adds some airflow to the area around the socket. Of course, it has everyone’s favorite feature: ARGB lighting. Other than that, it is your standard mixed metal closed loop comprised of a 240 mm aluminium radiator, two 120 mm fans, and a copper CPU block with a pump. That having been said, while not revolutionary, that doesn’t mean it is not a good performer. However, before praising the unit itself, let’s take a closer look.
Specifications
Manufacturer:
MSI
Model:
MPG CORELIQUID K240
Socket Support:
Intel: LGA1200, LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA1366, LGA2011, LGA2011-3, and LGA2066 AMD: AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2, FM2+, FM2, and FM1
CPU Block:
Base Material: Copper
Pump:
RPM: up to 2800 (+/- 300)
Radiator:
Dimensions: 272.5 x 120 x 27 mm Material: Aluminium
Fans:
Model: PLA12025B12H Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 25 mm Fan Speed: 0–2500 RPM (+/-10%) Fan Airflow: 77.4 CFM Fan Noise: 39.9 dB(A)
Features:
60 mm Water Block Fan LCD can function as a hardware monitor LCD can display custom graphics Independent fan control Torx fan 4.0 for maximum airflow Customizable ARGB lighting control
An overclocked named Yosarianilives has published a cool 5.6GHz overclock result for the all-new Ryzen 3 5300G, AMD’s first quad-core Zen 3 chip to date. Paired with the 5300G were an Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming motherboard and 16GB of DDR4 RAM running at 4600MHz, with very low timings of 16-16-16-38.
The Ryzen 3 5300G is part of AMD’s first rollout of Zen 3 based APUs, which are already trickling into pre-built desktops and all-in-ones. The higher-end models are expected to hit retail in early August. Similar to the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X, the 5300G is a quad-core part with SMT (8 threads) and the addition of Vega integrated graphics.
Thanks to the lower core count, the 5300G also has the highest base clock of any Ryzen CPU in existence right now, at a flat 4.0GHz, but is countered by a somewhat lackluster boost clock of 4.2GHz.
We don’t know what type of cooling the overclocker used to push his 5300G to 5.6GHz. But it is definitely in the realm of exotic cooling, as hitting those higher frequencies is impossible with ambient cooling. We’d guess the overclocker was using liquid nitrogen.
The overclocker didn’t post any gaming or synthetic benchmarks, but we’d imagine the 5300G with a 5.6GHz and an ultra-high memory frequency of 4600MHz really shines in single-threaded workloads. That said, assuming you’d need extreme cooling to hit frequencies close to this, it’s not like you’re going to be gaming or other real-world workloads with clocks this far above stock.
The researcher who brought to attention an abnormal SSD wearout indicator on Apple M1-based Macs earlier this year believes that the company has resolved the issue with the release of its macOS 11.4 operating system. Apple has never acknowledged the problem, so the company hasn’t provided any official information on the matter. Meanwhile, those who worry about their drives (which can only be replaced by swapping out the whole motherboard) can now update to the new operating system for some additional peace of mind.
In February, some owners of the latest Apple M1-powered Macs discovered that SSDs in their systems observed a higher-than-expected wearout rate, at least based on the SMART data that tracks SSD endurance. Some users reported 1% of wear after a few months of use, while others reported 3% after two months in use. In both cases, that means that abnormal levels of wear could potentially shorten a drive’s lifespan to a few years.
Hector Martin, a technology researcher and a developer who ports Linux to Apple Silicon computers, attracted attention to the issue and did some additional investigation which demonstrated that endurance ratings were proportionate to drive size, but that was still bad news for Apple M1 owners.
Apple has neither confirmed there was a problem nor denied the issue. Furthermore, a source at Apple unofficially told AppleInsider that there were no problems with the SSD itself or its firmware (which in the case of Apple’s latest PCs is a combination of a controller inside the M1, a couple of 3D NAND memory stacks, and custom firmware), but there was ‘a data reporting error’ within the SMART Monitoring Tools program used to discover SSD wear. In fact, not all M1 Mac users could replicate the issue.
This week Hector Martin said that the ‘endurance issue’ has been fixed in macOS 11.4, which is now available for download.
“Update on the macOS SSD thrashing issue: It seems the issue is fixed in 11.4,” Martin wrote in a Twitter post back in May. “It is going to be interesting diffing the XNU kernel source once it drops and seeing what the bug was.”
Whether or not the initial reports about the issue were overblown anyway (as many users could not replicate it), updating the operating system is typically a normal part of using your system, so any ‘fix’ will work its way out into the ecosystem in due course.
I would like to thank Lamptron for supplying the sample.
Lamptron has been around since the early 2000s and is well known for its slew of fan controllers. In recent years, with the disappearance of external 5.25″ slots, Lamptron has started to expand the line-up to internal components for both fan and RGB control, as well as several LCD monitors and RGB accessories. In this article, we will take a quick look at the Lamptron ATX201 RGB Frame, which, as the name implies, is a unique RGB lighting element to give your motherboard that extra visual appeal. Lamptron also offers mATX and ITX variants.
Packaging and A Closer Look
The ATX201 frame comes packaged in a brown cardboard box with a sticker of the frame in action on front, so you know exactly what you are receiving.
The frame itself is as simple as can be. In essence, it is a translucent plastic frame with a black cover on one side. There are cutouts around where the motherboard standoffs for an ATX form factor would be, and a 5 V 3-pin RGB cable comes out of the corner for you to connect to your controller or straight to your motherboard.
The connector is completely traditional, so you should run into no problems when interfacing it with any modern header on a board or generic controller. If you look closely at the translucent side of the frame, you can see the LEDs on a strip that essentially wraps all the way around inside the frame. The black layer is then glued on to keep everything in place.
Frame in Use
Installing the Lamptron ATX201, if you can call even call it an installation, simply means placing the frame into the case before installing your motherboard. As you can see in the first picture, the ATX201 aligns nicely with the mounts. Once we dug up an open-frame case, we were also able to take a shot of the frame sandwiched between the chassis and the motherboard.
We connected the frame to the MSI Z390 and Zalman Z3 Iceberg’s generic 5 V RGB controller, which was in turn plugged straight into the motherboard. Using the MSI Dragon Center software, the board’s dim backlight was turned off to showcase the ATX201 as an add-on for those with a board without that feature in the first place. While I am not a fan of RGB, the indirect lighting is actually pretty nifty in my opinion. As you can see, the frame emits quite the potent glow all around the motherboard, with nicely diffused illumination—all while syncing up with the rest of the components just fine.
To showcase some basic colors, we went through the RGB set—red, green and blue. Naturally, you have a lot of creative freedom when utilizing software, and the MSI Mystic Light app offers a variety of animations and multi-color settings as well, all of which comes across very nicely on the Lamptron ATX201.
We also shot a quick 10 second video of a full-on RGB animation to give you a real-world sense of what to expect.
Conclusion
The Lamptron ATX201 is a really simple, yet pretty darn nifty RGB add-on to your system. It adds lighting to an area in your system you will have a hard time illuminating otherwise; that is, unless your motherboard already has rear-mounted LEDs. For those who do not have that luxury, the ATX201 is a potent and super simple element that just works and does so extremely well.
That is it. There really is not much else to be said about a product that is made out of a plastic frame and an embedded LED strip. All the ingenuity is in the shape of the frame itself and, thus, its placement. Quite honestly, I am fine with that since it is, in turn, affordable, and the end result is pretty stunning.
From a pricing perspective, things are currently not very clear. Lamptron mentioned an MSRP of $39, which seems quite high for a product that utilizes such a simple list of materials. We suggested a $20–$25 price tag, so hopefully, it will be more affordable once it hits retail.
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The new Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition is a slight undoing of progress, depending on how you look at it. As many gaming laptops are going thinner, this one is heavier and thicker than previous generations. Its design has been tweaked slightly in ways both good and bad, and it has fewer ports than before, too.
Despite all of that, it’s a cause for a small celebration because of the Ryzen processor it uses, marking AMD’s return to Alienware products after a 14-year gap when the brand exclusively used Intel CPUs. And it’s a welcome return, even if this laptop won’t appeal to everyone. AMD’s high-end mobile processors have been a boon to gaming laptops for the last couple of years, bringing long battery life and fast performance that sometimes outpaces and undercuts laptops that have competing Intel processors.
The Ryzen 7 5800H processor brings that magic to the M15 R5 Ryzen Edition, and gaming performance with its RTX 3060 doesn’t struggle to get above 60 FPS in graphically-demanding games — all thanks to being a high-wattage component. This R5 that I tested has 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD for a total cost of about $1,616 currently, which isn’t cheap despite being close to the most affordable version that Alienware makes. If money isn’t an issue, it can be upgraded to the more powerful Ryzen 9 5900HX with Nvidia’s RTX 3070 and more storage and RAM for $2,379.
The high price is something that I couldn’t ignore while reviewing this laptop, especially since Dell (Alienware’s parent company) makes a $1,225 G15 Ryzen Edition that has similar GPU specs that should come close to what this pricier M15 R5 can do. And, if you can settle for a slightly lesser processor, there’s a $900 model in the works that has the RTX 3060, but it isn’t available yet.
The value doesn’t fare well outside of Dell’s world either. Asus is currently the go-to brand for excellent AMD-based gaming laptops that are easier to recommend for people who want something more portable and feature-packed, without sacrificing battery life. Compared to a similar M15 R5 configuration, the ROG Zephyrus G15 offers a QHD display, more storage, a better processor and a powerful RTX 3070 (albeit a lower-powered GPU than you’ll find in the M15 R5) for a few hundred dollars less. The new Strix G15 Advantage Edition looks more garish next to Alienware’s laptop, but it also has fast gaming performance and high-end features for a lower price. Neither of these models feature a webcam, but that might be something you can live without.
The M15 R5 is 19.25mm (0.75 inches) thick for most of the machine (thinner at the front, but slightly thicker in the back) and it weighs 5.34 pounds. Some configurations weigh more, going up to 5.93 pounds. Its heft is jarring if you’ve picked up an ultrabook recently, but it’s an asset in helping its high-wattage RTX 3060 graphics chip (125W maximum graphics power, 1,702MHz boost clock) to perform similarly to a low-wattage RTX 3070. Compared to thinner laptops that have a low-powered 3070, like Asus’ TUF Dash 15, Alienware’s laptop makes up for the difference in CUDA cores with sheer power. It will likely be a solid performer well into the future — perhaps longer than some lower-powered 3070s — despite having a technically lesser component. It’ll just be more of a chore to lug around.
The M15 R5 Ryzen Edition fared well while running some demanding games at their highest settings. Red Dead Redemption 2 managed to reach 63 frames per second. Shadow of the Tomb Raider ran at about 80 frames per second with its ray tracing shadows feature and DLSS switched on. Horizon Zero Dawn ran at an average of 68 frames per second. None of them came close to fully taking advantage of the default 1080p display’s 165Hz refresh rate, but most people likely have older games in their library that should be able to display at very fast frame rates on this laptop.
It didn’t take long for this laptop to make a good impression with gaming performance. It took even less time to learn that it gets warm to the touch even while idling with no apps, and that when games (especially graphically-demanding ones) are running, it can get very loud. A fast and quiet gaming laptop is an oxymoron, and the M15 R5 is really just one of many offenders. But I didn’t notice signs of thermal throttling after long periods of gaming, nor did I encounter unexplainable slow-down. You just might want to wear some headphones while gaming. The speakers shoot sound out of the sides of the laptop. It’s serviceable for YouTube videos or video calls, but it doesn’t deliver enough depth or bass for entertainment purposes.
This Ryzen-based gaming laptop can handle any sort of casual browser-based workflow with ease. It shouldn’t have surprised me that the M15 R5 has great battery life, since AMD’s processors have proven to bring efficiency to other gaming laptops, but it still did. This one’s 86Wh battery lasted for about seven hours of mixed use, through sustained use of Microsoft Edge with 10 or so tabs, Spotify, Slack, and some video calls. That’s great for an Alienware laptop. The M15 R3 that I reviewed last year clocked in at just one hour. Though, other AMD-based gaming laptops have the M15 R5 beat. The Strix G15 Advantage Edition lasted over nine hours for my colleague Monica Chin.
One area where the Ryzen Edition got a little hung up is with a video export test in Adobe Premiere Pro. Our video team’s five-minute, thirty-three second 4K file took just over seven minutes to finish exporting. That’s not a bad result, but it’s not going to be fast enough for creators to quickly turn around projects and not nearly as fast as laptops with Intel processors can manage.
The M15 R5’s design is different from earlier models in minor ways. Sometimes, it’s for the better. For instance, this newer model is matte-textured all around, including on its screen bezels, which looks better than the glossy bezels used in previous generations. Some people might like the M15 R3 and R4’s two-toned color design, but the R5 comes in a gunmetal silver color that is striking, and the black plastic covering the keyboard is relatively free of distractions, aside from the backlit keyboard and illuminated Alienware logo. One of my favorite changes is inside of the laptop: Alienware lets you easily upgrade the RAM and storage if you want. Some previous models had RAM soldered onto the motherboard, but this one’s more futureproof.
Alienware shuffled around the keyboard layout, though, and it’s worse off than before. The M15 R5’s keys are still enjoyable to type on, but I make more typing mistakes because the volume keys have been delegated to the right side of the keyboard instead of the top. Also, the arrow keys were previously positioned a little lower than the rest of the keyboard to make them easy to find, but those have been shoved up in this model, resulting in a smaller right shift key. This might not be a problem once you get accustomed to typing on the M15, but it still feels like a step backwards.
The port selection isn’t as generous, either. The Ryzen Edition features three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, an HDMI 2.1 port (capable of 4K output at up to 120Hz), a headphone jack, and a 2.5Gbps ethernet port. It’s not a bad lineup, but it could be better.
Missing from this model, and all other new models that Alienware recently unveiled, is the proprietary amplifier connector for its external GPU enclosure, which has been officially discontinued. Intel-based versions of Alienware’s newest laptops, like the M15 R6, X15, and X17, will support Thunderbolt eGPUs, but the M15 R5 won’t because it lacks a Thunderbolt port. So, you’re just stuck with the GPU that’s inside. Thankfully, the graphics performance is great by default, but there’s a lot of unused space on the R5’s rear where that amplifier port used to be. It would have been nice if Alienware had filled it with an SD card reader and an extra USB-C port.
The M15 R5’s performance didn’t come into question during my testing. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing the great battery life AMD’s processors bring, and it’s great that this GPU can hold its own next to pricier components like the RTX 3070.
But as a whole, Alienware missed the landing when it comes to value. If you want more features for your money, even if it involves swapping some of the M15 R5’s power for a QHD screen and better portability, you should look elsewhere. The M15 R5 isn’t the jaw-dropping value that it needed to be (and that I’d hoped it would be) to steer everyone away from the 2021 gaming laptop frontrunner (so far), the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15.
A California man has filed for a class action lawsuit against PC manufacturer Dell, claiming that the company “intentionally misled and deceived” buyers of its Alienware Area 51-m R1 gaming laptop, which was advertised to be more upgradeable than other gaming notebooks.
The plaintiff, Robert Felter, who is based in San Francisco, alleges that Dell misleads customers to believe that the laptop would be upgradeable, possibly into future generations of components. The case, Felter v. Dell Technologies, Inc. (3:21-cv-04187) has been filed with the United States District Court in the Northern District of California.
The Alienware Area 51-m was announced at CES 2019 and launched soon after. (The complaint claims the announcement was made in the summer of 2019, which is incorrect.). Among the Area 51-m’s biggest touted innovations were a user-replaceable CPU and GPU.
At media briefings, Alienware representatives told the press that the CPU could be upgraded as long as it used Intel’s Z390 chipset. The laptop used Intel’s 9th Gen Core desktop processors, up to the Intel Core i9-9900K. Dell developed separate proprietary Dell Graphics Form Factor (DGFF) modules for the Nvidia graphics.
The lawsuit, however, claims that consumers were told that “core components” (meaning the CPU and GPU) could be replaced beyond the current generation of hardware.
“Dell’s advertisement to the public didn’t place any restrictions on the upgradeability of the laptop,” lawyer David W. Kani said in an email to Tom’s Hardware. “They also never disclosed that those with the highest spec CPU and/or GPU that their device would not be upgradeable.”
Dell did not respond to a request for comment prior to publishing. This article will be updated if and when it does.
The complaint reads that “Dell’s representations of the upgradability of the Area 51M R1 also extended to units that were equipped with the fastest, most advanced Core Components available to the market, thus creating a reasonable expectation with consumers that the upgradability of the Area 51M R1 extended to yet to be released INTEL CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs, and did in fact create such expectations with consumers.” Several times, the complaint refers to Dell’s claims of “unprecedented upgradeability.”
Those words indeed live on Dell’s web page for the Alienware Area-51M R1.
“Gamers have made it clear that they’ve noticed a lack of CPU and GPU upgradability in gaming laptops,” it reads. “The Area-51m was engineered with this in mind, finally allowing gamers to harness power comparable to even the highest-performance desktop… CPU upgrades can be done using standard desktop-class processors, while GPU upgrades can be done with GPU upgrade kits available on Dell.com or with the Alienware Graphics Amplifier.”
(Image credit: Dell)
Upgrade kits for the graphics card finally launched in November of 2019 and included options for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080. Those were the GPUs in the earliest sold Area-51m units, though later ones launched with the weaker RTX 2060 and GTX 1660 Ti. Those with an RTX 2070, could, in theory, upgrade to an RTX 2080, and those with lesser GPUs could move up the chain.
But in May of 2020, Alienware released the Alienware Area-51m R2, a refresh that added support for 10th Gen Intel Core desktop processors and a wider range of GPUs from the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti up to the newer Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super and an AMD option, the Radeon RX 5700M.
In June, Alienware laid bare the limits of the upgradeability of both machines. Like the earlier laptop that only supported 9th Gen Intel processors, the new one would only support Intel 10th Gen. The top-end RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2070 Super would be the end of the line of GPUs.
It’s the release of the second-generation Area-51m that is the crux of Felter’s argument.
“The Area 51M’s CPU was not upgradeable to the new INTEL 10th generation CPU, nor was its GPU upgradeable to the new NVIDIA RTX SUPER 2000 series,” the complaint states. “In fact, the only way Plaintiff could own a laptop with these newly released upgraded Core Components was to spend several thousand dollars more than what an upgrade would cost to purchase the then-newly released Alienware Area 51M R2 or a similarly equipped laptop from another manufacturer.”
In other words: To further upgrade the laptop, Felter would have to buy a new model.
Additionally, the plaintiff and his attorneys claim that because Dell includes Intel and Nvidia components in its machines and has roadmaps in advance, that the company knew the laptop could not be upgraded.
The case is an interesting one in the enthusiast space. At its essence, this boils down to a motherboard with Intel’s Z390 chipset as well as the proprietary graphics cards. Motherboards are upgraded at a regular cadence to work with the latest processors, though occasionally new processors will work on older boards. This could potentially set a sort of precedent about how far out a motherboard needs to support a CPU. In desktops, GPUs typically work for years, as long as it’s not using an outdated standard. But Dell’s graphics were in a proprietary form factor.
Felter is seeking damages, relief and attorneys fees for himself and those in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state who purchased the laptop on their own since its release in 2019. He is represented by attorneys Brian H. Mahany of Mahany Law and Steven I. Hochfelsen and David W. Kani of Hochfelsen & Kani, LLP. He is asking the court for a jury trial.
It appears that Intel’s 600 series chipset — built for Alder Lake — will not support the Gen 5.0 standard, per a report from HardwareTimes. According to a PCI-SIG certification, Intel’s future Alder Lake-supported chipsets will max out at Gen 4.0 speeds running in an x4 configuration, meaning the only Gen 5.0 support Alder Lake will see is through the CPU lanes alone.
We don’t know why Intel cut Gen 5.0 support from the 600 series chipsets, whether the it’s cost issues or capability issues. Either way, this could be a positive strategy for Intel to keep Alder Lake motherboard prices at a minimum.
When Gen 4.0 first came out, we saw a large jump in motherboard prices due to the motherboards requiring much higher quality materials and far more PCB layers. These are both required to ensure Gen 4.0 speeds are stable. This is especially true of AMD’s X570 platform which has full Gen 4.0 support on both the CPU lanes and chipset lanes. We can only imagine the same thing will happen with Gen 5.0, and probably be worse, since Gen 5.0 is significantly faster than Gen 4.0.
But with Intel supporting Gen 5.0 only on the CPU, motherboard prices may not be as expensive as they could be. It’s much easier for motherboard manufacturers to build boards around one or two Gen 5.0 PCI-e slots than to build the entire board to support Gen 5.0.
Plus, most consumers and prosumers are rarely saturating Gen 4.0 speeds right now, even on Gen 4.0 NVMe SSDs, and we don’t expect this to change over the next few years. So this Gen 5.0 issue shouldn’t be a problem for most buying into the Alder Lake platform next year.
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