In its latest installment of the MSI Insider Show, MSI has shared the pricing for its complete stack of B560 and H510 motherboards. The budget-friendly offerings are designed for consumers to squeeze every bit of performance out of Intel’s imminent 11th Generation Rocket Lake-S processors.
MSI is pricing the new B560 and H510 motherboards very closely to their counterparts from the previous generation. Rocket Lake-S will bring PCIe 4.0 support to a mainstream Intel desktop platform. The processors are backwards compatible with 400-series motherboards, but you will miss out on the PCIe 4.0 feature, which might bne the only reason users upgrade ro Rocket Lake. At any rate, it’s good to see that the PCIe 4.0 tax doesn’t have a huge impact on MSI’s budget motherboards.
Designed to compete with the best motherboards, the MAG B560 Tomahawk WiFi will retail for $189, which is the same price tag that’s on the current MAG B460 Tomahawk. Other motherboards, such as the MAG B560M Mortar WiFi, B560M Pro-VDH WiFi or MAG B560M Mortar will even be $10 less expensive than the current models.
MSI B560, H510 Motherboard Pricing
Motherboard
MSRP in $ (excl. VAT)
MSRP in € (incl. VAT)
MPG B560I Gaming Edge WiFi
159
159
MAG B560 Tomahawk WiFi
189
189
MAG B560 Torpedo
169
169
MAG B560M Mortar WiFi
179
179
MAG B560M Mortar
159
159
MAG B560M Bazooka
139
139
B560M Pro-VDH WiFi
149
149
B560M Pro-VDH
129
129
B560M Pro WiFi
129
129
B560M Pro
109
109
B560M-A Pro
99
99
H510M Pro
95
95
H510M-A Pro
89
89
The MPG B560I Gaming Edge WiFi, which costs $159, will likely be a very enticing option for SFF builders who don’t have to make the jump to a Z590 motherboard. The Tomahawk series has always been popular with budget performance eekers, and we don’t expect that to change for this generation.
Borrowing the power delivery subsystem from the MAG Z490 Tomahawk, the MAG B560 Tomahawk WiFi leverages the same 12+2+1 design. That’s only two CPU phases less than on the premium Z590 Tomahawk WiFi. The MAG B560 Tomahawk WiFi also comes with support for memory speeds up to DDR4-5066, three M.2 slots, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-Fi 6E networking.
At $89, the H510M-A Pro arrives with only the strickly necessary feaures for the really tight budgets. You’ll still get access to the PCIe 4.0 goodness through the motherboard’s sole PCIe 4.0 x16 expansion slot. Unfortunately, the M.2 slot is still locked to PCIe 3.0 x4. To get acces to a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot, you’ll have to upgrade to the B560M-A Pro, which commands a $10 higher price tag.
Razer’s Tomahawk takes an excellent case as foundation and bolts on some basic design flaws, ruining a case design that could otherwise have been brilliant
For
Absolute tank of a chassis
Heavy, quality materials
Quiet operation
Great looks
Against
Restricted front intake
Air doesn’t flow through front intake filter
Only includes one fan
Thermally abysmal
Features and Specifications
When Razer announced its Tomahawk ATX chassis, the first thing that stood out to me is that it appeared to carry the same internals as the Lian Li Lancool II Mesh, a case that we awarded full marks. As such, the Tomahawk ATX is off to a good start, but there’s one big elephant in the room that we must address before we continue: this Razer chassis, despite the same foundations, costs a mighty $200 – twice the price of Lian Li’s excellence.
Therefore, when Razer offered to send a sample, I was very curious to find out where the added $100 went. So without further ado, let’s find out whether the Tomahawk ATX is actually worth its price tag and deserving of a spot on our Best PC Cases list, or whether you should save yourself some money and opt for the excellent Lancool II Mesh instead.
Specifications
Type
Mid-Tower ATX
Motherboard Support
Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATX (280 mm)
Dimensions (HxWxD)
18.7 x 9.3 x 19.5 inches (475 x 235 x 494 mm)
Max GPU Length
15.1 inches (384 mm)
CPU Cooler Height
6.9 inches (176 mm)
Max PSU Length
8.3 inches (210 mm)
External Bays
✗
Internal Bays
3x 3.5-inch
2x 2.5-inch
Expansion Slots
7x
Front I/O
2x USB 3.0
3.5 mm Headphone
3.5mm Mic
Other
2x (Removable) Tempered Glass Panel
Chroma RGB Controller
Front Fans
None (Up to 2x 140mm, 3x 120mm)
Rear Fans
1x 120mm (Up to 1x 120mm)
Top Fans
None (Up to 2x 140mm)
Bottom Fans
None (Up to 2x 120 mm on PSU shroud)
Side Fans
✗
RGB
Yes, Razer Chroma
Damping
No
Warranty
1 Year
Features
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Circling around the outside of the chassis, it’s clear that Razer opted for a very clean and blocky style. It’s quite appealing really, as paired with the extremely dark-tinted glass panels, the chassis has a heft, power, and mystery to it. This thing does look like a $200 case.
But don’t miss me when I say heft – this is a chonky 30-pound (13.5 kg) boy. I’m not kidding when I say it was a challenge to take out of the box.
Okay, so maybe I’ve been away from the gym too much in this pandemic, but all the 0.8mm thick steel and oceans of tempered glass do give the case a quality feel. It’s built like an absolute tank and that goes a long way toward justifying the price point.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Both the tempered glass panels swing outwards to open up. First, you press them once to click them out, after which you can pull the door away from the magnet – or if you don’t want to get fingerprints on them, just grab the panels from below to pull them out. After opening all the way, you can lift both panels off their hinges.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
And with the hinges, Razer went the extra mile. Whereas the Lancool II has hinges on the outside that kind of look a little cheap, Razer designed a hinge that sits on the inside of the case, giving a much cleaner appearance on the outside – even if it’s at the back of the case.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Front IO comprises USB-C (something that’s an optional extra on the Lancool II Mesh), two USB 3.0 ports, and discrete headphone and mic jacks.
Internal Layout
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Turning to the inside of the chassis, on the motherboard side we find space for up to 280 mm wide E-ATX motherboards, though you’ll have to remove the cable management cover to fit such boards. Standard-width ATX boards fit best. GPUs can be up to 15.1 inches (384 mm) long and CPU coolers up to 176mm tall.
The PSU shroud has a door that’s also magnetically held in place and can flip down for access. Here you’ll find a trio of 3.5-inch caddies that slide out toward you. There’s plenty of space here for large PSUs too, with supported lengths of up to 8.3 inches (210mm).
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Behind the motherboard tray on the other side of the case you’ll find two 2.5-inch drive bays. These can be moved to the top of the PSU shroud if you want to show off pretty SATA SSDs. You’ll also find the cable management space here with three Velcro straps and the Chroma RGB hub. This hub connects to and is powered through an internal USB 2.0 header.
Cooling
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
When it comes to cooling, I suspect things are going to get interesting with the Tomahawk ATX – and I don’t mean that in a good way.
Starting with the good stuff, the case has plenty of room for fans and radiators. You can fit up to two 140mm spinners at the top, two 140mm spinners at the front (or three 120mm units in both cases), two 120mm fans on top of the PSU shroud, and one 120mm spinner at the rear exhaust location. There’s also lots of radiator space in here.
Where things go sour is in the intake design and the included fans – or rather, lack thereof. From the factory, Razer only includes a single 120mm fan, and it isn’t even PWM controlled, nor does it feature any RGB. This isn’t the kind of skimping you expect to see on a $200 case.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
That being said, we’ve proved in the past that cases can get away with a single fan, right? Well, yes, but only if the intake is open mesh – which it isn’t here. As you can see in the images above, the front intake for the Tomahawk ATX is severely restricted, with an attempt at filtration behind the already tight perforation on the front edges.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To make matters worse, the case also has a shortcut that air can take around this intake – at the bottom handhold to pull the front panel off. As such, the Tomahawk ATX doesn’t have any real airflow path, nor proper intake filtration – this system will get dirty on the inside faster than other cases.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Fortunately the power supply does have a good air filter, so you won’t need to tear it apart for cleanup jobs.
What’s the best mining GPU, and is it worth getting into the whole cryptocurrency craze? Bitcoin and Ethereum mining are making headlines again; prices and mining profitability are way up compared to the last couple of years. Everyone who didn’t start mining last time is kicking themselves for their lack of foresight. Not surprisingly, the best graphics cards and those chips at the top of our GPU benchmarks hierarchy end up being very good options for mining as well. How good? That’s what we’re here to discuss, as we’ve got hard numbers on hashing performance, prices, power, and more.
We’re not here to encourage people to start mining, and we’re definitely not suggesting you should mortgage your house or take out a big loan to try and become the next big mining sensation. Mostly, we’re looking at the hard data based on current market conditions. Predicting where cryptocurrencies will go next is even more difficult than predicting the weather, politics, or the next big meme. Chances are, if you don’t already have the hardware required to get started on mining today (or really, about two months ago), you’re already late and won’t see the big gains that others are talking about. Like the old gold rush, the ones most likely to strike it rich are those selling equipment to the miners rather than the miners themselves.
If you’ve looked for a new (or used) graphics card lately, the current going prices probably caused at least a raised eyebrow, maybe even two or three! We’ve heard from people who have said, in effect, “I figured with the Ampere and RDNA2 launches, it was finally time to retire my old GTX 1070/1080 or RX Vega 56/64. Then I looked at prices and realized my old card is selling for as much as I paid over three years ago!” They’re not wrong. Pascal and Vega cards from three or four years ago are currently selling at close to their original launch prices — sometimes more. If you’ve got an old graphics card sitting around, you might even consider selling it yourself (though finding a replacement could prove difficult).
Ultimately, we know many gamers and PC enthusiasts are upset at the lack of availability for graphics cards (and Zen 3 CPUs), but we cover all aspects of hardware — not just gaming. We’ve looked at GPU mining many times over the years, including back in 2011, 2014, and 2017. Those are all times when the price of Bitcoin shot up, driving interest and demand. 2021 is just the latest in the crypto coin mining cycle. About the only prediction we’re willing to make is that prices on Bitcoin and Ethereum will change in the months and years ahead — sometimes up, and sometimes down. And just like we’ve seen so many times before, the impact on graphics card pricing and availability will continue to exist. You should also be aware that, based on past personal experience that some of us have running consumer graphics cards 24/7, it is absolutely possible to burn out the fans, VRMs, or other elements on your card. Proceed at your own risk.
The Best Mining GPUs Benchmarked, Tested and Ranked
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
With that preamble out of the way, let’s get to the main point: What are the best mining GPUs? This is somewhat on a theoretical level, as you can’t actually buy the cards at retail for the most part, but we have a solution for that as well. We’re going to use eBay pricing — on sold listings — and take the data from the past seven days (for prices). We’ll also provide some charts showing pricing information from the past three months (90 days) from eBay, where most GPUs show a clear upward trend. How much can you make by mining Ethereum with a graphics card, and how long will it take to recover the cost of the card using the currently inflated eBay prices? Let’s take a look.
For this chart, we’ve used the current difficulty and price of Ethereum — because nothing else is coming close to GPU Ethereum for mining profitability right now. We’ve tested all of these GPUs on our standard test PC, which uses a Core i9-9900K, MSI MEG Z390 ACE motherboard, 2x16GB Corsair DDR4-3600 RAM, a 2TB XPG M.2 SSD, and a SeaSonic 850W 80 Plus Platinum certified PSU. We’ve tuned mining performance using either NBminer or PhoenixMiner, depending on the GPU, with an eye toward minimizing power consumption while maximizing hash rates. We’ve used $0.10 per kWh for power costs, which is much lower than some areas of the world but also higher than others. Then we’ve used the approximate eBay price divided by the current daily profits to come up with a time to repay the cost of the graphics card.
It’s rather surprising to see older GPUs at the very top of the list, but that’s largely based on the current going prices. GTX 1060 6GB and RX 590 can both hit modest hash rates, and they’re the two least expensive GPUs in the list. Power use isn’t bad either, meaning it’s feasible to potentially run six GPUs off a single PC — though then you’d need PCIe riser cards and other extras that would add to the total cost.
Note that the power figures for all GPUs are before taking PSU efficiency into account. That means actual power use (not counting the CPU, motherboard, and other PC components) will be higher. For the RTX 3080 as an example, total wall outlet power for a single GPU on our test PC is about 60W more than what we’ve listed in the chart. If you’re running multiple GPUs off a single PC, total waste power would be somewhat lower, though it really doesn’t impact things that much. (If you take the worst-case scenario and add 60W to every GPU, the time to break even only increases by 4-5 days.)
It’s also fair to say that our test results are not representative of all graphics cards of a particular model. RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 can run high GDDR6X temperatures without some tweaking, but if you do make the effort, the 3090 can potentially do 120-125MH/s. That would still only put the 3090 at third from the bottom in terms of time to break even, but it’s quite good in terms of power efficiency, and it’s the fastest GPU around. There’s certainly something to be said for mining with fewer higher efficiency GPUs if you can acquire them.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
Here’s the real problem: None of the above table has any way of predicting the price of Ethereum or the mining difficulty. Guessing at the price is like guessing at the value of any other commodity: It may go up or down, and Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies are generally more volatile than even the most volatile of stocks. On the other hand, mining difficulty tends to increase over time and rarely goes down, as the rate of increased difficulty is directly tied to how many people (PCs, GPUs, ASICs, etc.) are mining.
So, the above is really a best-case scenario for when you’d break even on the cost of a GPU. Actually, that’s not true. The best-case scenario is that the price of Ethereum doubles or triples or whatever, and then everyone holding Ethereum makes a bunch of money. Until people start to cash out and the price drops, triggering panic sells and a plummeting price. That happened in 2018 with Ethereum, and it’s happened at least three times during the history of Bitcoin. Like we said: Volatile. But here we are at record highs, so everyone is happy and nothing could possibly ever go wrong this time. Until it does.
Still, there are obviously plenty of people who believe in the potential of Ethereum, Bitcoin, and blockchain technologies. Even at today’s inflated GPU prices, which are often double the MSRPs for the latest cards, and higher than MSRP for just about everything, the worst cards on the chart (RTX 3090 and RX 6900 XT) would still theoretically pay for themselves in less than seven months. And even if the value of the coins drops, you still have the hardware that’s at least worth something (provided the card doesn’t prematurely die due to heavy mining use). Which means, despite the overall rankings (in terms of time to break even), you’re generally better off buying newer hardware if possible.
Here’s a look at what has happened with GPU pricing during the past 90 days, using tweaked code from:
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti: The newest and least expensive of the Ampere GPUs, it’s just as fast as the RTX 3070 and sometimes costs less. After tuning, it’s also the most efficient GPU for Ethereum right now, using under 120W while breaking 60MH/s.
Radeon RX 5700: AMD’s previous generation Navi GPUs are very good at mining, and can break 50MH/s while using about 135W of power. The vanilla 5700 is as fast as the 5700 XT and costs less, making it a great overall choice.
GeForce RTX 2060 Super: Ethereum mining needs a lot of memory bandwidth, and all of the RTX 20-series GPUs with 8GB end up at around 44MH/s and 130W of power, meaning you should buy whichever is cheapest. That’s usually the RTX 2060 Super.
Radeon RX 590: All the Polaris GPUs with 8GB of GDDR5 memory (including the RX 580 8GB, RX 570 8GB, RX 480 8GB, and RX 470 8GB) end up with relatively similar performance, depending on how well your card’s memory overclocks. The RX 590 is currently the cheapest (theoretically), but all of the Polaris 10/20 GPUs remain viable. Just don’t get the 4GB models!
Radeon RX Vega 56: Overall performance is good, and some cards can perform much better — our reference models used for testing are more of a worst-case choice for most of the GPUs. After tuning, some Vega 56 cards might even hit 45-50MH/s, which would put this at the top of the chart.
Radeon RX 6800: Big Navi is potent when it comes to hashing, and all of the cards we’ve tested hit similar hash rates of around 65MH/s and 170W power use. The RX 6800 is generally several hundred dollars cheaper than the others and used a bit less power, making it the clear winner. Plus, when you’re not mining, it’s a very capable gaming GPU.
GeForce RTX 3080: This is the second-fastest graphics card right now, for mining and gaming purposes. The time to break even is only slightly worse than the other GPUs, after which profitability ends up being better overall. And if you ever decide to stop mining, this is the best graphics card for gaming — especially if it paid for itself! At around 95MH/s, it will also earn money faster after you recover the cost of the hardware (if you break even, of course).
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
What About Ethereum ASICs?
One final topic worth discussing is ASIC mining. Bitcoin (SHA256), Litecoin (Scrypt), and many other popular cryptocurrencies have reached the point where companies have put in the time and effort to create dedicated ASICs — Application Specific Integrated Circuits. Just like GPUs were originally ASICs designed for graphics workloads, ASICs designed for mining are generally only good at one specific thing. Bitcoin ASICs do SHA256 hashing really, really fast (some can do around 25TH/s while using 1000W — that’s trillions of hashes per second), Litecoin ASICs do Scrypt hashing fast, and there are X11, Equihash, and even Ethereum ASICs.
The interesting thing with hashing is that many crypto coins and hashing algorithms have been created over the years, some specifically designed to thwart ASIC mining. Usually, that means creating an algorithm that requires more memory, and Ethereum falls into that category. Still, it’s possible to optimize hardware to hash faster while using less power than a GPU. Some of the fastest Ethereum ASICs (e.g. Innosilicon A10 Pro) can reportedly do around 500MH/s while using only 1000W. That’s about ten times more efficient than the best GPUs. Naturally, the cost of such ASICs is prohibitively expensive, and every big miner and their dog wants a bunch of them. They’re all sold out, in other words, just like GPUs.
Ethereum has actually tried to deemphasize mining, but obviously that didn’t quite work out. Ethereum 2.0 was supposed to put an end to proof of work hashing, transitioning to a proof of stake model. We won’t get into the complexities of the situation, other than to note that Ethereum mining very much remains a hot item, and there are other non-Ethereum coins that use the same hashing algorithm (though none are as popular / profitable as ETH). Eventually, the biggest cryptocurrencies inevitably end up being supported by ASICs rather than GPUs — or CPUs or FPGAs. But we’re not at that point for Ethereum yet.
Commell has unveiled one of the industry’s first Pico-ITX motherboards featuring Intel’s Tiger Lake-UP3 processor with built-in Iris Xe graphics core. Not designed to compete with the best motherboards for PCs, The tiny LP-179 board is aimed primarily at embedded systems, yet it can enable everyone to build an ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) desktop featuring a decent quad-core CPU with an advanced GPU.
Commell’s LP-179 motherboard will initially be available with Intel’s Core i7-1185G7E (4C/8T, 1.80/4.40GHz, 12MB cache, 96 EU, 15W) or Celeron 6305E (2C/2T, 1.80GHz, 4MB cache, 48 EU, 15W) processor addressing premium and entry-level markets. The SoC may be accompanied by up to 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory using one SO-DIMM module, an M.2-2280 SSD featuring a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface, and one SATA drive.
The tiny LP-179 — which measures 100×72 mm — has a rather decent connectivity department that includes an M.2-2230 slot for a Bluetooth + Wi-Fi adapter, two GbE ports (2.5 GbE Intel I225-LM, GbE I219-LM), two display outputs (one DisplayPort, one HDMI) and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports. Being aimed at embedded systems, Commell’s internal headers for USB 2.0, RS232, audio (controlled by the Realtek ALC262 chip), SMBus, a battery, and an LVDS or VGA.
(Image credit: Commell)
Motherboards from companies like Commell are rarely available in retail, but it is still possible to get them from stores like Alibaba, usually together with Pico-ITX cases. In addition, LP-179 boards will likely find themselves inside various UCFF PCs from second and third tier makers.
Pricing of Commell’s LP179 motherboards has not been announced.
Parties that need a midrange 11th Generation Core SoC, can opt for Core i5-1145GRE/1145G7E and Core i3-1115GRE/1115G4E, yet these boards will be built-to-order.
It’s well documented that Intel’s 11th Generation Rocket Lake processors are not compatible with H410 and B460 motherboards. A new report from a Chinese forum (via momomo_us) claims that the upcoming 14nm chips might not even work on all Z490 motherboards.
The author has shared some compelling evidence why this is the case. In summary, the reasons boil down to the lack of support on a chipset and BIOS level, but more importantly, the design of the motherboard’s power delivery subsystem.
Chipset Segmentation
Intel Chipset (Image credit: Chiphell)
The first reason for the incompatibility resides in the chipset. Intel’s desktop 400-series family consists of six chipsets: Z490, W480, Q470, H470, B460 and H410. In a pre-Comet Lake leak, we learned that Intel had segmented the 400-series chipsets into two classifications. The Z490, W480, Q470 and H470 formed the Comet Lake PCH-H group, while the B460 and H410 chipsets belonged to the Comet Lake PCH-V group. While we never really found out the meaning for the suffix, we had presumed that the “H” represented High-Performance and the “V” meant Value. Now that we look back at the categories, it starts to make sense why the B460 and H410 chipsets don’t support Rocket Lake.
As the author explained, each processor possesses a CPU_ID that the chipset utilizes to identify the chip. Logically, the processor will not work if the chipset doesn’t recognize the CPU_ID. Apparently, the workaround is simple and consists of disabling the CPU_ID in the Intel Management Engine (ME) section of the BIOS. Motherboard vendors, such as Gigabyte, found a more elegant solution that consists of silently slipping a different chipset into its H410 motherboards.
Zero BIOS Support
ASRock Z590 Taichi BIOS (Image credit: Chiphell)
The BIOS also plays an important role in processor support. If the processor’s microcode isn’t in the database, the chip will obviously not work on the motherboard. Here’s where a bit of speculation comes in.
It’s possible that Intel had already decided that Comet Lake PCH-V chipsets will not support Rocket Lake so the processors weren’t taken into consideration during the development of the BIOS. Again, the answer is as easy as extracting the microcode from the Z590 BIOS and implanting it into the target motherboard. This isn’t a new practice either as motherboard vendors have been doing it for ages. For example, Soyo created an H310 motherboard that supported the previous generation of Intel processors behind the chipmaker’s back.
Inadequate Power Supply
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B460 vs Z590 (Image credit: Chiphell)
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ASRock Z590 Pro4 (Image credit: Chiphell)
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ASRock Z590 Pro4 (Image credit: Chiphell)
The last and probably the most important reason why Rocket Lake processors are locked out from 400-series motherboards has to do with the power delivery subsystem. The power delivery subsystem’s job is to convert the 12V and 5V voltages down to lower voltages that the processor can use. In this case, we have voltages, such as the Vcore (core), Vgt (core display), VCCSA (system agent), VCCIO (input and output), VCCM (memory), VCCST (maintenance voltage), VCCST_PLL (clock maintenance voltage), just to mention a few.
According to the author’s investigation, Comet Lake-S and Rocket Lake-S processors didn’t experience any changes in the Vcore and Vgt. The VCCSA and VCCIO voltages, however, has reportedly undergone a shift.
In an example, the forum user dissected the ASRock Z590 Pro4 motherboard to find a Reneas RAA229001 controller that controls the VCCSA voltage. The previous VCCSA controller, which operated in fixed mode, featured a single-phase PWM with a single-phase MOS and sometimes shared with the VCCIO.
With Rocket Lake-S, Intel seemingly changed the power delivery mode of the VCCSA to SVID. The author explained that the power supply voltage is the same as Vcore, therefore, the processor directly controls it. As a result, it’s not possible to share the power delivery or use another PWM. By force, you need a PWM IC that complies with Intel’s IMVP8 specifications. Motherboards the lack a SVID PWM controller cannot accommodate Rocket Lake-S chips.
On the topic of VCCIO, the review provided two circuit diagrams that contrast the B460 and Z590 motherboards. Based on his observations, the VCCIO for Rocket Lake-S is split into three parts: VCCIO_0, VCCIO_1_2. As you can see from the B460 motherboard, there is no connection lines to the VCCIO_1_2. It seems that Intel sets aside the RSVD pins in the LGA1200 socket to connect to the VCCIO_1_2. For reasons, which probably have to do with cost reduction, the RSVD pins for B460 and H410 motherboards are epty so there’s no power going to VCCIO_1_2, which feeds the PCIe and other interfaces.
The reviewer provided a list of Z490 motherboard that he thinks won’t support Rocket Lake chips. MSI’s Z490 S01 and Z490M S01 motherboards as well as ASRock’s Z490 Phantom Gaming 4, Z490 Pro4, Z490M Pro4, Z490M-ITX/ac and B460M Steel Legend are part of his list.
GELID has created a new CPU protection bracket for AMD Ryzen processors that safely insures your processor won’t get yanked out of its socket when disconnecting your CPU cooler, and it costs just $1.50. The new bracket addresses a long-held problem with some AMD CPUs: Sometimes the bond of the thermal paste is strong enough that the CPU pops out of the socket when you remove your CPU cooler.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a bracket like this; a version of this bracket has been on sale for months now in Asia, and it does the exact same thing: Protecting a Ryzen CPU from being ripped out of its socket when you remove the CPU cooler. GIELD is the first company to bring this bracket to the United States, and as you can see in the image below, the bracket completely surrounds AMD’s AM4 processors to keep them firmly locked into the socket.
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(Image credit: Gelid)
Fortunately, ‘sticky’ Ryzen chips usually aren’t a huge problem. In fact, you can completely circumvent this problem by ensuring your thermal paste is warm before taking your CPU cooler off. This can be done by simply leaving the system on for a few minutes. Also, giving the cooler a slight twist as you remove it tends to solve the issue.
In the event your CPU cooler does get ripped out of its socket, that won’t damage the CPU or motherboard. However, if you don’t realize the CPU is still attached, you could damage the chip if you set the cooler down on a table or something else.
The bracket is perfectly optional, but it can give you some extra insurance to avoid a potentially costly mistake. The bracket works with all of Gelid’s AM4 mounting kits and is available now.
In recent years, several representatives from PC case companies have told us that mini-ITX cases are a niche, without enough interest to be worth heavily investing in. Yet oddly, over that same period, more and more companies seem to be churning out these compact small form-factor (SFF) chassis.
The latest entry into the mini-ITX case space is the Meshlcious, from Ssupd (Sunny side up design), a new spinoff brand from Lian Li. As you might guess by the name, the Meshlicious is all about mesh–or nearly, as the case ships with one tempered-glass side panel, which can be attached to either the GPU or CPU side of the case. It will also be available in either black or white. Our review unit arrived dressed in black.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
At 14.17 x 9.65 x 6.55 inches, the Meshlicious is similar in size to the Jonsbo A4 case we used for the
RGBaby build
last year (the A4 is 13.39 x 10.75 x 6.65 inches), and much smaller than the last ITX case I built in,
Asus’ ROG Z11
(20.9 x 7.6 x 15.2 inches) pictured above. At $119 (MSRP) the Meshlicious is also much cheaper than either of those cases, while offering up lots of versatility (within the confines of its 14.67 liter volume), as well as a riser cable for showing off your graphics card. To help keep your components cool, it has mesh covering four of its six sides (or five if you spend $30 on a second mesh side panel to replace the glass side that ships in the box). As I found during testing, though, you’ll probably want to add at least one front intake fan.
Despite its small size, the Meshlicious supports graphics cards up to 12.6 inches and four-slots thick, thanks to a motherboard tray that can be slid forward or back to make room for thick cards. Just note that, as with all cases this small, there are a whole lot of limitations due to space constraints. Installing a long graphics card limits space for SATA storage, for instance. And while you can use a full-size ATX power supply, you may want to opt for a modular SFX PSU just so that there’s less excess cabling to hide. There’s really nowhere to hide excess bulky power cables.
Specifications
Type
Mid-ITX Tower
Motherboard Support
Mini-ITX
Dimensions (HxWxD, vertical orientation)
14.17 x 9.65 x 6.55 inches (360 x 245 x 166.4mm)
Max GPU Length
12.6 inches (320 mm)
CPU Cooler Height
2.87 inches (73mm) with 3-slot GPU, 2.09 inches (53 mm) with 4-slot GPU
External Bays
✗
Internal Bays
Up to 2x 3.5-inch and 3x 2.5-inch with SFF GPU, or 3x 2.5-inch with full-length GPU
Expansion Slots
1x
Front I/O
1x USB 3 Type-A, 1x USB-C
Other
Tempered Glass Side Panel
Front Fans
None (2x 120/140mm supported)
Rear Fans
None
Top Fans
None
Bottom Fans
None
Weight
8.16 pounds (3.7 kg)
Warranty
?
Panels Galore
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Working in the Meshlicious is fairly easy for an SFF chassis, thanks to its easily removable panels. Every side save for the bottom has one, and by default, all are mesh except for one side which is tempered glass with a moderate tint. As noted earlier, you can pop that glass side on either the motherboard side or the graphics card side, depending on which you want to show off.
Metal push pins hold all the sides on, and they stay on snugly and pop off with ease. This is a mechanism I wish more case makers would use, though I’m sure it works much better with small panels than it would with large full-ATX towers. The case and side panels are all steel (save for the glass panel) and reasonably thick and rigid. Nothing feels cheap or flimsy, which is nice given the case’s relatively low price for an ITX chassis.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
With the side panels off, the Meshlicious becomes a minimal shell, housing a PCIe 3.0/4.0 riser cable for vertically mounting your graphics card, and a few cables for the top-panel connections. (The $119 version we tested has a PCIe 3.0 cable, but a $159 version with a PCIe 4.0 cable will also be available.)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Speaking of the top ports, things are fairly minimal (like the rest of the case’s design), with one USB 3 Type-A port and one Type-C. There’s no real need for an audio jack in a case this small, given that the audio ports around back are inches away from the front, and will generally deliver better audio than external ports would anyway.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The included accessories are also minimal, and include a bracket for mounting SATA drives, which you’ll need to leave in the box if using a long graphics card — as I did for this build. Also included is an angled HDMI cable, which you’ll need if using a full-size graphics card, as the Graphics card ports are at the bottom in this layout. The cable I got was quite short at just over three feet (not quite enough to make it to my arm-mounted test monitor), but a company rep told me Ssupd would make a change to include a longer cable (and larger zip ties) on future shipments, although initial versions will likely include what you see above. The zip ties included aren’t nearly big enough to wrangle the excess mess of power cables I encountered with my ATX power supply.
The silver aluminum bar above is a shorter mount for the motherboard tray. You’ll use this if installing a four-slot graphics card, to shift the tray more toward the motherboard side. Keep in mind that doing this also minimizes the cooler clearance, which is also quite limited to begin with. You get 2.87 inches of CPU cooler clearance as standard, which shrinks to 2.09 inches if you make room for a thicker card. That means if you’re using a 4-slot card, there will even be some AIO coolers you’ll need to avoid. As I used a slim Noctua air cooler (more on this below), the limited space here wasn’t an issue.
The 2.5-slot Zotac RTX 2080 Amp Extreme I used fit without adjusting the motherboard tray, but left little room between the side panel and the case fans. So I’d recommend either opting for the mesh panel on the GPU side or moving the motherboard back. 240 or 280 mm radiators (or just 120/140mm fans) are supported in the front for cooling your CPU. But note if adding a fan and radiator, things will likely get very tight, since this is also where your excess power cable slack also needs to go. Even if you just install intake fans here, you may have issues with cables pushing up against your fan blades. So you’ll need to take extra care to keep this from happening.
The case supports either SFX or larger ATX power supplies, although the bracket of an SFX power supply comes pre-installed. And I’d recommend using one of these smaller supplies if at all possible, since it will give you extra space and you’ll likely have less cable slack. I used a modular ATX Seasonic Focus PSU and wound up with a big ugly bundle of cables zip-tied together and no place to hide them.
The Meshlcious supports basically two distinct component layouts, each with a mini-ITX motherboard. You can either use a small-form-factor graphics card mounted horizontally, up to 8.3 inches (or less with a front radiator), or a longer full-sized GPU up to 12.6 inches mounted vertically (which is what I installed). With the former, you can also install a drive rail system for 3.5 or 2.5-inch drives. With averically mounted longer GPU you’re limited to mounting two 2.5-inch drives on the bottom of the case. Rather than go over the full details of possible layouts, here are a couple of diagrams, direct from Ssupd.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The build scenario I went with was a combination of these two, using an air cooler like in the image above, left with a long GPU (below, right).
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Building in the Ssupd Meshlicious
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
With the four sides popped off in a matter of seconds, building in the Ssupd Meshlicious was fairly straightforward, at least at first.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
For the sake of simplicity, I carried over the core components from the Asus ROG Z11 case story, including an ROG Strix B550-I Gaming motherboard, an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU, a low-profile Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 chromax.Black CPU cooler, and the aforementioned Zotac RTX 2080 graphics card. We would have loved to upgrade to a Rzyen 5 CPU and a 30-series graphics card. But in case you haven’t noticed, both have been extremely scarce since launch, and for our purposes here, the existing parts work just fine.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I dropped the motherboard in first, complete with the cooler and RAM. Next I tried to jam the ATX power supply in before realizing the SFX bracket comes pre-installed. I removed that via four screws, then slotted in the Seasonic ATX PSU in the area to the right in the image above. That went without issue, until I realized the GPU riser cable wasn’t fully extended on the other side, and was stuck behind my power supply. So I had to remove the PSU momentarily and secure the PCIe slot near the bottom of the case for the vertical RTX 2080. For smaller cards mounted horizontally, the cable gets mounted near the top.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
That done, I was ready to install the graphics card and the sole SATA SSD for this build, an attractive Team Group T-Force Delta Max RGB model that added some extra RGB to this case that ships without lighting or fans. In this configuration, another 2.5 inch drive can be mounted on the bottom, in a tight spot below the power supply. But for that you’ll need remove the PSU, or install it and connect the cables before installing the power supply. Again, for those who want to install more than two 2.5-inch drives here, you’ll need to use the drive bracket, which necessitates you also use a much shorter graphics card, mounted horizontally. But given many ITX motherboards include two M.2 slots (one often hidden on the back like with our Asus board), plus the ability to install two 2.5 inch drives on the floor of the Meshlicous, that should suffice for most setups. If you’re looking to install lots of storage drives, you probably aren’t also looking for a super compact case.
With everything installed in the Meshlicious,it was instantly clear that I had a bunch of excess cabling, mostly from the power supply, but some from the SATA drive (which also requires a USB cable for its light show). And given that the case is so small, there was no place to effectively hide the mess. Had I installed a radiator and fans in the front and used an SFX PSU with shorter cables, perhaps I could have hidden the cables along the back edge of the radiator. But of course the radiator, pump and fans would have introduced more cabling and taken up a fair amount of space itself.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
For the sake of hitting the launch day on this case, I bunched the cables together hastily with a few zip ties and velcro straps and called it a day. I clearly could have been a bit neater, but with the cables near the CPU/motherboard side of the case, they aren’t all that visible with either the tinted tempered-glass side over the GPU area, and even less so if you opt for using the mesh panel here.
Gaming and Conclusion
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Given that most of the sides on the Meshlicious are mesh, you could get away without adding intake fans for plenty of builds, as I did here. But adding at least one in the front would be a good idea. Either that, or if you’re using a large and powerful GPU, you might want to consider buying a second mesh side panel to replace the glass one — even if just during long gaming sessions. The panel can be popped off and replaced in just a few seconds.
After about a half hour of playing Borderlands 3 at high settings with the glass panel on, the panel got surprisingly hot, which isn’t exactly surprising given how close the fans are to the un-vented side panel. And while you could swap the side panels and put mesh in front of the graphics card, that would mean your glass panel is going to sit right up against the intake of your power supply. I don’t have to tell you that restricted airflow like that — at the very least — isn’t great for the longevity of your PSU.
Moving the motherboard tray back nearly an inch, as noted earlier, could alleviate this issue somewhat, but not if you’re using a graphics card that’s 3 slots or more thick. It would have been nice if Ssupd had included at least one fan to mount in the front, but I can also see why the company didn’t. Most people will likely either want to install a front radiator (which will come with a pair of fans on its own) or use specific fans, be they RGB or, say, quiet and efficient Noctua spinners.
And again, for many more modest builds with graphics card TDPs south of 200 watts, you could likely get by without any added fans. After all, the Meshlicious gets its name from the fact that three of its sides are all mesh by default. Opt for a fourth mesh side panel for an extra $30 and your CPU and GPU coolers shouldn’t have an issue dissipating heat themselves.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Just don’t expect the Meshlicious to be any quieter than your components of choice, especially if you opt to put the mesh panel in front of your graphics card. Just as small cases like this involve tradeoffs in terms of component support, a mesh-covered case is going to trade some noise for better thermal dissipation. You should always choose your components wisely. But if building in this Ssupd case is your aim, you’ll want to spend extra time making sure your parts will … mesh well with the Meshlicious.
Home/Component/CPU/Intel H410 and B460 motherboards won’t support 11th Gen Intel Core processors
João Silva 2 hours ago CPU, Featured Tech News, Motherboard
Intel has confirmed that the entry-level H410 and B460 motherboards won’t support 11th Gen Intel Core processors. The remaining Intel 400-series motherboards will support these processors when using an updated BIOS.
This information came from Intel itself, on a support page to help people that may not be able to boot the system when using a Z490 or H470 motherboard paired with an upcoming 11th Gen Core processor. On this page, there’s a note stating that “motherboards based on Intel B460 or H410 chipsets are not compatible with upcoming 11th Gen Intel Core processors.”
In the case of Intel Z490 and H470 chipset-based motherboard, a BIOS update will be required to support 11th Gen CPUs.
Intel 11th Gen Core processors are expected to launch next month, right after Intel Z590 motherboards.
KitGuru says: Do you own an H410 or B460 chipset-based motherboard? Were you hoping to upgrade your CPU to one of the upcoming Intel Rocket Lake-S processors?
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darkFlash has released a new mini-ITX case with RGB lighting for compact DIY PC builds. Despite its small size, this case supports 240mm radiators and 320mm long graphics cards without sacrificing airflow thanks to the meshed panels of the case.
Available in pink, black, white, and neomint, the darkFlash DLH21 is made of 0.8mm SECC metal. The case consists of 5x meshed panels with pre-installed magnetic dust filters to prevent dust from getting into the system. Moreover, this case was designed to offer a trouble-free disassembly of the case through easily detachable side panels and a magnetically connected top panel.
The RGB LED strip on the bottom of the case has 13x different lighting effects to cycle between using the LED button on the top I/O panel, but users can also synchronise it with other components through motherboard RGB software.
The DLH21 case features 2x expansion slots and supports mini-ITX motherboards, up to 2x 2.5-inch drives or a single 3.5-inch drive, and SFX/SFX-L power supplies (125mm long). CPU tower coolers can’t be more than 134mm tall and GPUs can’t exceed 320mm in length and 147mm in width. Radiator and fan support is a bit limited, allowing users to mount a 120m/240mm radiator on the side, a 92mm fan on the back, and 2x 120mm fans on the side. The top I/O panel has 2x USB-A ports, a USB-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The darkFlash DLH21 ITX chassis is available now starting at $189.99.
KitGuru says: Have you ever built a mini-ITX system? What’s your opinion on the darkFlash DLH21 case?
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Someone on AliExpress is selling a rather unique processor you won’t find anywhere else: a Comet Lake mobile processor with a built-in interposer that allows support for LGA 1151 desktop motherboards. If you want to run an efficient 10th Gen mobile CPU on your desktop, now is your chance!
The processor itself is listed as QTJ2, and is a hyperthreaded Hexa-core chip with a base frequency of 2.4GHz and a boost clock of 4.3GHz. We aren’t sure exactly what it is, but it appears to be a production sample that never got produced. The QTJ2 mostly resembles an underclocked Core i7-10750H, for comparison.
The chip is no slouch when it comes to performance, mostly resembling gaming performance to that of a Core i7-8700K from a few years ago. One YouTuber tested the chip out and it had no problems handling a GTX 1080 in Shadow of The Tomb Raider.
Unfortunately, compatibility with this chip is not as straightforward as we would like it to be. Due to the QTJ2’s mobile nature, the chip isn’t compatible with LGA 1151 motherboards without a BIOS modification. Luckily, the seller of the chip will happily take in your motherboard’s BIOS and customize it for you, so the mobile Comet Lake chip can support your board.
There are other limitations worth mentioning. For cooling, you have to ensure the CPU cooler you use has a flat surface. This means coolers with heat pipes that directly contact the CPU are not an option (like the Hyper 212 EVO), because the QTJ2 CPU does not have an IHS. You need a cooler with a perfectly even surface to ensure the die is cooled properly.
Another issue is chipset limitations. For some reason, the Comet Lake chip can only be supported on select 100 series, 200 series, and 300 series boards (for example Z390 is not supported). So be sure your chipset can support the chip before you make your purchase.
Still, it’s cool to see a mobile Comet Lake chip working on a desktop computer. Ironically, this is the ONLY way to get a proper Intel 10nm based chip inside a desktop at this current time.
Desktop variants of Comet Lake and upcoming Rocket Lake chips are still running on Intel’s older 14nm process. So if you’re desperate to get 10nm working on desktops right now, this is your only option. Just beware this configuration is officially unsupported by Intel and is only supported by third parties, so make sure you know what you’re getting into.
Motherboard vendors are reportedly releasing revised H410 and B460 motherboards with the H470 chipset to provide Rocket Lake support. This tactic allows them to circumvent Intel’s new rules, which only allow support for Rocket Lake chips on Z490 motherboards while not allowing support on H410 and B460.
Intel’s incoming 11th-Gen Rocket Lake processors continue to use the LGA1200 socket and are backwards compatible with some, but not all 400-series chipsets. Owners of Z490 and H470 motherboards can access Rocket Lake with a simple firmware upgrade provided by the vendor. Lamentably, H410 and B460 owners are out of luck, and it’s not because Intel decided to maliciously lock out Rocket Lake support for the two budget chipsets.
The reason why H410 and B460 do not support Rocket Lake processors is that the chipsets are based on a different and older 22nm process node. To circumvent the limitation, motherboard manufacturers would basically have to sneak in the H470 chipset into their H410 and B460 motherboards to provide Rocket Lake compatibility although they will continue to market the products as H410 and B460.
Gigabyte appears to be one of the motherboard vendors that will use the tactic. The company has already listed the H410M DS2V V2 and H410M S2H V2 that leveraged the H470 chipset, which is ironic. Since Gigabyte has already prepared the motherboards, we assume that Intel doesn’t have a problem with vendors doing this. However, if the tactic isn’t expressly approved by Intel, it wouldn’t be the first time that motherboard vendors have bent the rules, as we saw when MSI enabled overclocking on locked SKUs in the past.
PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) is an interface standard for connecting high-speed components. Every desktop PC motherboard has a number of PCIe slots you can use to add GPUs(aka video cards aka graphics cards), RAID cards, Wi-Fi cards or SSD (solid-state drive) add-on cards. The types of PCIe slots available in your PC will depend on the motherboard you buy.
PCIe slots come in different physical configurations: x1, x4, x8, x16, x32. The number after the x tells you how many lanes (how data travels to and from the PCIe card) that PCIe slot has. A PCIe x1 slot has one lane and can move data at one bit per cycle. A PCIe x2 slot has two lanes and can move data at two bits per cycle (and so on).
(Image credit: Erwin Mulialim/Wikimedia Commons)
You can insert a PCIe x1 card into a PCIe x16 slot, but that card will receive less bandwidth. Similarly, you can insert a PCIe x8 card into a PCIe x4 slot, but it’ll only work with half the bandwidth compared to if it was in a PCIe x8 slot. Most GPUs require a PCIe x16 slot to operate at their full potential.
PCIe Generations Compared
Bandwidth
Gigatransfer
Frequency
PCIe 1.0
8 GB/s
2.5 GT/s
2.5 GHz
PCIe 2.0
16 GB/s
5 GT/s
5 GHz
PCIe 3.0
32 GB/s
8 GT/s
8 GHz
PCIe 4.0
64 GB/s
16 GT/s
16 GHz
PCIe 5.0
128 GB/s
32 GT/s
32 GHz
PCIe 6.0
256 GB/s
64 GT/s
32 GHz
Current PCIe Generations
PCIe standards currently come in three different generations: PCIe 1.0, PCIe 2.0, PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0. Bandwidth doubles with each generation.
How do you know what performance you’ll get with a PCIe expansion card? Your PCIe card will run at the lowest generation present. So if you put a PCIe 2.0 card in a PCIe 3.0 slot, you’ll get PCIe 2.0 performance.
PCIe 4.0
The PCIe 4.0 standard debuted in 2017 and offers 64 GBps of throughput. It’s available for enterprise-grade servers, but only became usable with SSDs in 2019. The AMD Ryzen 3000-series CPUs that debuted in July 2019 were the first desktop CPUs to support PCIe 4.0 x16 out of the box. For full support, users will need new motherboards running theX570 chipset.
To learn more about PCIe 4.0, check out our article What We Know About PCIe 4.0 So Far.
Future PCIe Generations: PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 6.0
PCIe 5.0
The official PCIe 5.0 standard came out in May 2019. It will bring 128 GBps of throughput. The specification is backwards compatible with previous PCIe generations and also includes new features, including electrical changes to improve signal integrity and backward-compatible CEM connectors for add-in cards. The first PCIe 5.0 devices are expected to debut in for enterprise customers in 2022, with consumer offerings to follow.
PCI-SIG, which defines PCIe standards, expects PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 to co-exist for a while, with PCIe 5.0 used for high-performance needs craving the most throughput, like GPUs for AI workloads and networking applications. So, PCIe 5.0 will mainly be used in data center, networking and high-performance computing (HPC) enterprise environments, while less-intense applications, like those used by desktop PCs, will be fine with PCIe 4.0.
PCIe 6.0
PCIe 6.0 spec (Image credit: PCI-SIG)
In June 2019, PCI-SIG said it will release the standards for PCIe 6.0 in 2021 (the spec is currently in revision 0.7) . We don’t expect to see products until at least the end of 2022, if not 2023.
PCIe 6.0 will double the bandwidth of PCIe 5.0 to 256 GB/s among the same maximum number of lanes, 16. Data transfer rate will hit 64 GT/s per pin, up from PCIe 5.0’s 32 GT/s. PCIe 6.0 is also expected to be backwards compatible with previous PCIe generations.
This article is part of the Tom’s Hardware Glossary.
Further reading:
Dissecting the Modern Motherboard: Connectors, Ports & Chipsets Explained
ASRock has used a gear pattern as part of the design on its flagship Taichi motherboards for a few generations, but as you can see in the video below, now the gear actually spins on the Z590 iteration of the motherboard.
As Chinese publication XFastest demonstrated in its Z590 Taichi review, the gear on the I/O cover rotates in a clockwise fashion. ASRock even added a special option inside the motherboard’s firmware so you can control the spinning interval. Surprisingly, ASRock doesn’t brag about this little design detail on the Z590 Taichi’s product page, so it could just be a gimmick for the review unit. As far as we can tell, the gear serves no practical purpose, and it certainly isn’t going to help you hit higher overclocks.
Either way, at least ASRock is thinking outside of the box and doing something truly different other than simply adding more Christmas lights to the motherboard. The Z590 Taichi also has a set of gears on the passive heatsink for the Z590 PCH – maybe those will be next in line for some spinning action.
The new Z590 Taichi brings a couple of improvements over the Z490 model. Although the Z590 Taichi has lost a power phase in its power delivery subsystem (14 phases vs 15 phases), the new power chokes are rated for 90A instead of the 60A ones on the Z490 Taichi.
Of course, there’s also the PCIe 4.0 M.2 ports and PCIe x16 expansion slots on the Z590 Taichi and the upgraded Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity that aren’t present on the Z490 Taichi.
The Z590 Taichi hasn’t landed at retailers yet, since Intel’s 11th Generation Rocket Lake-S processors aren’t out either. Nevertheless, the Z590 Taichi is expected to debut with a $429.99 price tag. For comparison, the Z490 Taichi normally sells for $369.99. Therefore, ASRock slaps on a $60 premium for the Z590 Taichi compared to the previous motherboard. In reality, considering the feature set, ASRock’s pricing for the Z590 model isn’t asking too much.
And, of course, there’s the spinning gear. As you would imagine, it probably doesn’t serve a practical purpose, but it might be appealing to enthusiasts that like to show off their rigs.
I would like to thank ICY DOCK for supplying the sample.
ICY Dock is known for its products geared towards workstation, enterprise, and government users. The ToughArmor series is their higher-end product tier focusing on a metal material mix and interfaces usually niche to their target audiences. The MB840M2P-B Is a PCIe adapter for M.2 NVMe drives and unique in that the installed drive is packed onto a sled accessible through the rear of the system.
Packaging
This device ships in simple brown packaging that seems to have undergone a few last minute changes. To better illustrate some of its advantages, corresponding icons have been put on the front. On the opposite side, you will find the product name in several languages, alongside a specification table in English. The PCIe card inside an anti-static bag has been placed in a foam cutout within the box.
The unit may also be used in low-profile enclosures as ICY DOCK provides a smaller backplate for such a scenario. On top of that, there is a single screw to secure the card. A basic but effective manual has also been included.
A Closer Look
The MB840M2P-B is essentially a souped up PCIe 3.0 x4 to M.2 NVMe interface card. This means you get all the same advantages of plugging the SSD directly into an appropriate slot on the motherboard. That said, ICY DOCK has engineered a housing and sled, which allows you to quickly pull out the drive and place another one. The PCB itself comes with a cutout, which is an interesting choice as I see no immediate benefit to the cutout besides a potential thermal angle.
Taking a closer look at the end of the device, you will find the classic M.2 PCIe connector and an LED that acts as an activity indicator. On the corner is also a dual-pin header for your case’s hard-drive activity LED, for example.
To unlock the sled, press the solid side of it down, which pops out the little handle—both of these parts are made out of steel. Once unlocked, you may just pull the whole thing out of the expansion card.
The sled also acts as a heatsink, and the whole contraption weights just over 50 grams, most of which is the actual heatsink itself. That means you should see a tangible temperature drop for your drive.
Assembly and Use
To add a drive to the sled, you do not need any tools. Simply press down on the metal cover to pop it off, which reveals a similar mounting mechanism as with other ICY DOCK products: a sliding bar that secures the M.2 NVMe drive. A thermal pad along the whole interior comes pre-applied, and the sled is long enough to accommodate even the extra-long 110 mm drive formats, which is important as enterprise-level units go beyond the standard 80 mm for consumer drives.
Corsair was kind enough to provide us with one of their MP400 SSDs to use inside the MB840M2P-B, which matches the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface perfectly. The retail package of the drive is bright yellow and has an image on the front and additional details on the back.
The MP400 itself comes with a branding sticker and memory ICs on only one side of the PCB. This benefits our current usage scenario as the filled side will attach to the thermal pad.
Installing the SSD is easy once the housing has been opened. Simply align the interface gap with the metal pin in the housing and slide the lock into place to keep the drive firmly in place and touching the thermal pad. Once done, you may put the steel cover back in place, which leaves only the contact pins of the drive exposed.
Sliding the drive in works as expected, and the sled locking mechanism for the expansion card functions the same way as with other ICY DOCK products—by pushing the lever down until it snaps into place.
When turned on, the green LED on the end of the card lights up to denote read/write activity, with its green glow funneled to the back of the system, next to your drive. There may be scenarios where you want a full tower with seven or eight of these in the PCIe slots, so having individual activity LEDs are certainly helpful.
Performance
As the card is essentially an interface of the same PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth between two physical formats, we expected the drive to perform just as it would when installed directly inside the system, and the numbers almost exactly match those advertised on the MP400 retail packaging.
For thermals, we ran DiskSpd on a 30 minute loop to generate sustained drive activity and were never able to push it beyond 48°C. As our test system was not mounted within a case, you should expect it to be a few degrees higher if the unit is sandwiched between other expansion cards, but even so, it is far from the 80°C threshold where most SSDs tend to throttle.
Conclusion
As with most of the brand’s products, the ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB840M2P-B is not meant for the mass market. If you are just an enthusiast who wants good cooling, simply go for a heatsink on your bare drive, for example. This is further underlined by the MSRP of US$84, as the MB840M2P-B is not cheap compared to the many simple, bare PCIe 3.0 x4 to M.2 NVMe adapters that sell for around US$15.
The MB840M2P-B is meant for those users who need quick access to their drives in a high-density environment while keeping their units cool under heavy, sustained loads. Eight of these could be paired with a workstation/server motherboard and appropriate 22110 length NVMe drives, for example. All while allowing for portability between multiple compatible infrastructures and ease of access for maintenance or emergencies. For those types of scenarios, the price for each of these is a no-brainer in the grand scheme of things.
Gigabyte’s Z590 Aorus Tachyon has yet to debut in the U.S. market, but the overclocking-oriented motherboard has already emerged at overseas stores. Tto Austrian retailers, (as spotted via momomo_us), have listed the Z590 Aorus Tachyon for €509 (~$612.59).
Deducting the 20% VAT rate would bring the price down to $510.49, which is around the pricing that we can expect in the U.S. market.
Gigabyte hasn’t uploaded the product page for the Z590 Aorus Tachyon, so a bit of mystery still engulfs the motherboard. Built with overclocking in mind, the Z590 Aorus Tachyon flaunts an overpowered 12+1-phase power delivery subsystem. Gigabyte has confirmed that each phase offer up to 100A, bringing the total power delivery to a whopping 1,300A. The design in addition to the twin 8-pin EPS power connectors will feed even the most power-hungry Intel Rocket Lake-S processors, including the flagship Core i9-11900K.
Adhering to the E-ATX form factor, the Z590 Aorus Tachyon has more than enough landscape to accommodate the tools needed to help elite overclockers break world records. There’s an array of buttons and switches to directly modify the installed processor’s operating frequencies, as well as voltage readouts to get precise measurements.
The Z590 Aorus Tachyon, like other offerings seeking to compete with the best motherboards for overclockers, only comes equipped with two DDR4 RAM slots. However, the slots are placed as close as possible to the CPU socket, allowing for minimum signal noise and interference. This should allow overclockers to hit higher memory frequencies.
The available storage options on the Z590 Aorus Tachyon include six SATA III ports and one or two M.2 ports. We’re unsure about the latter because the huge passive PCH heatsink covers the ports in photos.
As for expansion, the motherboard offers four PCIe x16 expansion slots. Without the specification sheet, however, it’s unknown of they all adhere to the PCIe 4.0 standard, which is one of selling points for Rocket Lake-S CPUs.
The Z590 Aorus Tachyon’s rear panel exposes two buttons. One’s for flashing the motherboard’s firmware, but the function of the other button is unknown.
There are seven USB ports in total, including on USB Type-C port. The motherboard also provides one Ethernet port, as well as wireless connectivity. Keeping it old school, the Z590 Aorus Tachyon even supplies two PS/2 ports for ancient motherboards and mice. For audio, the motherboard has six 3.5mm audio jacks and one optical S/PDIF out connector.
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