Intel has officially added support for Rocket Lake in its latest graphics driver. Previously, the same driver did not support Xe-LP integrated GPU in the desktop 11th Generation Core processors.
Last week, we reported that Intel had not uploaded a Rocket Lake-supporting Xe-LP graphics driver to its website, whereas motherboard makers had only made outdated drivers available for their latest Rocket-Lake supporting platforms. There was an easy workaround for early Rocket Lake adopters, but it took Intel some time to enable official support in the current driver over the weekend.
Intel did not really issue a new driver but just enabled official support of the Xe-LP integrated GPU in the Rocket Lake in its latest 27.20.100.9316 driver, which is available on Intel’s website. At this point, we do not know whether it is WHQL certified for Rocket Lake.
For the gaming-oriented Rocket Lake audience, the lack of a graphics driver is hardly a problem since they would rarely use the integrated GPU. Meanwhile, the Rocket Lake family includes processors with a 35W and a 65W TDP, which are used for PCs that actually rely on integrated graphics, making the update important for a broad cross-section of users.
Lisa Pierce, the Intel vice president responsible for graphics drivers, said in a Twitter post that the company had supplied Rocket Lake-supporting graphics drivers to OEMs, which are the largest consumers of 35W and 65W processors.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has determined that Amazon retaliated against two activist employees when it fired them in April of last year, as first reported by The New York Times.
The determination is part of the board’s ongoing response to a labor complaint against Amazon, although it’s not a legal ruling in itself. Still, the determination indicates the NLRB is prepared to accuse Amazon of unfair labor practices in connection with the case, and that puts the company under significant pressure to settle the case with the fired employees.
The two employees at the heart of the case, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, organized the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group in 2020 to protest the company’s partnerships with the oil and gas industry. The group went public with an open letter that January, undersigned by more than 350 employees.
Amazon fired Cunningham and Costa three months later, after they used the same Medium account to raise concerns about coronavirus protections at Amazon warehouses. At the time, Amazon said the women had been fired for “violating internal policies.”
It is unclear how the Seattle case will be resolved, but both women are being encouraged to settle with the company by the NLRB.
“It’s a moral victory,” Cunningham told the Times, “and really shows that we are on the right side of history and the right side of the law.”
The new determination is part of a growing pattern of labor violations at Amazon, which has been accused of violating workers’ rights to protest labor conditions in a growing number of cases. In March, the NLRB made a similar determination about retaliation against organizers at a warehouse in Queens, as well as a separate retaliation case connected to a warehouse in Chicago. Six Pennsylvania warehouse workers are also pursuing a retaliation case against the company in federal court. An NBC News analysis counted 37 separate labor rights cases against Amazon filed with the NLRB since February 2020.
Amazon has exacerbated the issue by publicly feuding with a number of prominent progressive lawmakers, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). On Friday, the company publicly apologized for a series of tweets denying that Amazon drivers are sometimes forced to pee in bottles, a phenomenon subsequently confirmed by multiple Motherboard reports.
“This was an own-goal,” Amazon said in its apology. “We know that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes.”
Personal data from 533 million Facebook accounts has reportedly leaked online for free, according to security researcher Alon Gal. Insider said it verified several of the leaked records.
“The exposed data includes personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, including over 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in India,” according to Insider. “It includes their phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and — in some cases — email addresses.”
If that 533 million number might sound familiar to you, that’s because this information is apparently from the same dataset that people could pay for portions of using a Telegram bot, which Motherboard reported on in January. Now, though, it appears that those who want to get their hands on the data won’t have to pay anything at all.
Details include:
Phone number, Facebook ID, Full name, Location, Past Location, Birthdate, (Sometimes) Email Address, Account Creation Date, Relationship Status, Bio.
Bad actors will certainly use the information for social engineering, scamming, hacking and marketing.
— Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) April 3, 2021
Facebook told Insider that this data was scraped because of a vulnerability that it fixed in 2019. The company gave a similar answer to Motherboard in January. “This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019,” Facebook told BleepingComputer. “We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.” Facebook has not replied to a request for comment from The Verge.
Troy Hunt, the creator of the Have I Been Pwned database, said on Saturday that “I haven’t seen anything yet to suggest this breach isn’t legit.” In the data, he found only about 2.5 million unique email addresses (which is still a lot!), but apparently, “the greatest impact here is the phone numbers.” Here’s what that might mean, in Hunt’s words:
But for spam based on using phone number alone, it’s gold. Not just SMS, there are heaps of services that just require a phone number these days and now there’s hundreds of millions of them conveniently categorised by country with nice mail merge fields like name and gender.
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) April 3, 2021
If you can, I strongly recommend taking a couple minutes to read Hunt’s full Twitter thread about the breach.
Hunt has already loaded the leaked email addresses into Have I Been Pwned, meaning you can check to see if yours was included as part of the dataset. He is still considering whether or not to make the leaked phone numbers available through the service.
Should the FB phone numbers be searchable in @haveibeenpwned? I’m thinking through the pros and cons in terms of the value it adds to impacted people versus the risk presented if it’s used to help resolve numbers to identities (you’d still need the source data to do that).
Thermaltake’s Divider 300TG is attractive, but lacks the quality and performance needed to stand out in today’s market. It didn’t perform well thermally or acoustically in our testing, making it tough to recommend.
For
+ Unusual, but fresh design
+ Complete front IO
Against
– Thermally disappointing
– Intake fans have little effect on temps, are noisy, and speed cannot be controlled
– Material quality lacking
– Glass frame is closer to turquoise than white
– 5.7-inch max CPU cooler height
– Difficult to remove sticker on glass side panel
– Frustrating side panel installation
– No support for top-mounted radiators
Features and Specifications
The vast majority of new ATX cases these days come with large slabs of tempered glass as side panels. The alternative seems to be a solid steel panel, but what if you want something in the middle?
That’s the idea behind Thermaltake’s Divider 300TG. Specifically, today on our test bench is the Divider 300TG ARGB Snow Edition. This chassis has both tempered glass and steel for its side panel, creatively slicing both in half for a fresh look. Pricing is set at $115 for this Snow Edition (or about $5 less for the black model) with all the bells and whistles, which sets expectations high.
So without further ado, let’s dig in to find out whether it’s worthy of a spot on our Best PC Cases list.
Thermaltake Divider 300TG Specifications
Type
Mid-Tower ATX
Motherboard Support
Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX
Dimensions (HxWxD)
18.7 x 8.7 x 18.1 inches (475 x 220 x 461 mm)
Max GPU Length
15.4 inches, 14.2 with front radiator (360 mm, 390 mm without front radiator)
CPU Cooler Height
5.7 inches (145 mm)
Max PSU Length
7.1 inches, 8.7 inches without HDD cage (180 mm, 220 mm)
External Bays
✗
Internal Bays
2x 3.5-inch
5x 2.5-inch
Expansion Slots
7x
Front I/O
2x USB 3.0, USB-C, 3.5 mm Audio + Mic
Other
2x Tempered Glass Panel, Fan/RGB Controller
Front Fans
3x 120 mm (Up to 3x 120mm)
Rear Fans
1x 120mm (Up to 1x 120mm)
Top Fans
None (Up to 1x 120mm)
Bottom Fans
None
Side Fans
Up to 2x 120mm
RGB
Yes
Damping
No
Warranty
3 Years (2 years for fans)
Thermaltake Divider 300TG Features
Image 1 of 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 3 of 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 4 of 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Touring around the outside of the chassis, two things immediately stand out: One is of course the slashed side panel, but on the other side you’ll spot an air intake. As we’ll see later, you can mount two extra 120mm fans here or mount an all-in-one liquid cooler.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
However, while all may look okay in the photos, the quality of the materials is quite disappointing. The sheet metal is thin, and the glass’s frame isn’t actually white – it’s closer to turquoise, which is a bit odd given that the chassis is named ‘snow edition,’ and it’s not a great look contrasting with the actual white of the rest of the chassis.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The case’s IO resides at the top, cut through the steel panel. Here you’ll spot two USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C port, and discrete microphone and headphone jacks – a complete set that’s much appreciated. You’ll also spot the power and reset switches. But as we’ll find out later, the reset switch doesn’t serve as a reset button.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To remove the case’s paneling, you first remove the steel part of the slashed side panel, and then the glass. The steel part is removed by undoing two thumbscrews at the back, after which it awkwardly falls out of place. The same goes for the side panel on the other side; undo two screws and it falls out of the chassis – and re-installation is just as clunky, as the screws don’t line up nicely with the threads. The glass panels are clamped in place by a handful of push-pins, so de-installation and re-installation is as easy as pulling the panels off or pushing them back into place.
Thermaltake Divider 300TG Internal Layout
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
With the chassis stripped down, you’ll spot a fairly standard layout with room for up to an ATX-size motherboard. The only unusual thing about the main compartment is the cover on the right, which either houses three 2.5-inch drives or can be removed to make space for two extra intake fans and an AIO.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Switch to the other side of the chassis, and you’ll spot the fan bracket we spoke of, along with two 2.5-inch SSD mounts behind the motherboard tray. In the PSU area there is also room for two 3.5-inch drives.
Thermaltake Divider 300TG Cooling
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
While there wasn’t much to talk about regarding the case’s general features, there is plenty to discuss when it comes to cooling. From the factory, the chassis comes with a total of four fans installed, which seems quite lavish. The front intake fans are three 120mm RGB spinners, while the rear exhaust fan is a simple 3-pin spinner without any lighting features.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
But, behind the motherboard tray there is also a fan controller hub, where you can spot the reset switch header plugging in at the bottom. All four fans can be plugged into this hub, though the front trio come plugged in from the factory with very unusual connectors. As we’ll detail further on later, the RGB is controlled through the reset switch, and the fans offer no speed control.
The hub is powered by SATA power. There is an LED-out header on the hub, and an M/B-in header for connecting the RGB up to your motherboard with the included cable. The RGB effects included with the chassis’ controller are quite jumpy with infrequent changes, so it’s nice to see it tie into your motherboard’s control system.
The exhaust fan can be plugged into the motherboard, as it’s a 3-pin spinner but other than that, it’s safe to say that the chassis’ intake fan speeds cannot be controlled, which is a real let-down as they’re quite noisy.
Graphics cards can be up to 14.2 inches (360mm long), or 15.4 inches (390 mm) without a front radiator in place. This is plenty, but the space isn’t very wide: CPU coolers can only be up to 5.7 inches (145 mm) tall due to the side panel design, which isn’t much. Our Noctua cooler barely fit, so you’ll want to be careful with wide GPUs and tall CPU coolers.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
For liquid cooling, it’s tight, but there is space for a front-mounted 360mm radiator or a side-mounted 240 mm radiator–but you’ll have to pick between one or the other. Also, be careful with side-mounted radiators, as they’ll likely bump into long GPUs. Most standard-length GPUs shouldn’t have an issue here, but if you’re using a bigger GPU, you’re probably better off using the front mount, as counterintuitive as that might seem.
For some very awkward reason, Intel has not posted a version of its Xe-LP graphics driver for its Rocket Lake processors on its website. The drivers are also not available from Intel’s motherboard partners, which causes quite some confusion as this essentially renders the new Rocket Lake’s Intel UHD Graphics featuring the Xe-LP architecture useless. However, there is a workaround for those who need it.
Intel’s main angle with its Rocket Lake processors for desktops is gaming, which is why it praises its Core i9-11900K and Core i7-11700K CPUs with a 125W TDP. Such systems rarely use integrated graphics, so enthusiasts do not really care about the availability of Xe-LP drivers for their chips. But the Rocket Lake family also includes multiple 65W and 35W processors that are designed for mainstream or low-power machines that use integrated GPUs.
For some reason, there are no drivers for Rocket Lake’s Intel UHD Graphics integrated GPU based on the Xe-LP architecture on Intel’s website, as noticed by AdoredTV. Intel’s motherboard partners do offer different versions of Intel’s Graphics Driver (which adds to the confusion) released in 2021, but none of them officially supports Rocket Lake’s integrated graphics, according to VideoCardz.
The absence of the Xe-LP drivers for Rocket Lake processors from official websites is hardly a big problem as there is an easy workaround for the problem. Instead of using an automatic driver installation wizard that comes in an .exe format, you can download a .zip file with the same driver (version 27.20.100.9316 at press time), then install it using Windows 10’s Update Driver feature with a Have Disk option, then hand pick the Intel Iris Xe Graphics.
Since Rocket Lake’s integrated GPU is based on the same architecture as Tiger Lake’s GPU, the graphics core will work just as it should. This option will work with experienced DIYers, but it might be tricky for an average user.
Unlike do-it-yourselfers, OEMs and PC makers will not use a workaround as the latest official driver has never been validated for the Rocket Lake family. Fortunately, at least some OEMs have access to ‘official’ Rocket Lake graphics drivers.
“We have drivers flowing to OEMs for a while now,” said Lisa Pierce, Intel vice president and director of graphics software engineering, in a Twitter post on April 2. “The delay was in a public posting with our unified graphics driver flow and we will work it post ASAP.”
She did not elaborate on when exactly the driver will be posted to Intel.com and whether it needs to pass WHQL validation before that. Meanwhile, on April 1 Pierce said that Rocket Lake drivers were several weeks away.
Amazon has issued a rare public apology — but not to its workers, and with no real admission of guilt.
Over a week ago, the company was caught publicly lying to Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) that its workers never feel the need to pee in water bottles (which is, in fact, a well-documented issue at Amazon because of how it robotically tracks and fires its laborers).
Now, late on the Friday evening before Easter weekend, when few (hat tip to GeekWire) are paying attention, the company is apologizing to Pocan — and no one else. Amazon only apologizes for not being “accurate” enough, too — not for actually creating and contributing to situations where workers pee in bottles.
In fact, Amazon goes so far as to suggest the whole pee bottle thing is simply a regrettable status quo, pointing out a handful of times when other companies’ delivery drivers were also caught peeing in bottles, as well as embedding a handful of random comments on Twitter that happen to support Amazon’s views. You can almost hear Jeff Bezos saying “Why aren’t these people blaming UPS and FedEx? Let’s get more people thinking about them instead.”
The blog post also strongly suggests that this is only an issue for delivery drivers, not Amazon’s warehouse workers — even though a 2018 expose from an undercover reporter found Amazon warehouse workers were also forced to skip bathroom breaks, and a worker who spoke to journalists just last week suggested bathroom breaks were still an issue in 2021. “You’re sitting there and you have to go take a piss, but you don’t want to rack up ‘time off task,’” she told Motherboard.
Amazon is currently facing a lawsuit over missed lunch breaks as well. And most importantly, all of this is happening in the shadow of an Amazon union vote in Bessemer, Alabama that could help shape the future of labor in the United States, let alone at Amazon.
Amazon’s apology to Pocan is the kind of memo that deserves to be annotated, line-by-line, partially because one of its lines is actually fairly good — “Regardless of the fact that this is industry-wide, we would like to solve it. We don’t yet know how, but will look for solutions” — but because it’s past 1AM here and it turns out The Verge’s blockquote tool doesn’t let me embed tweets, I’ll just give you the primary guts for now:
On Wednesday last week, the @amazonnews Twitter account tweeted the following back to Representative Mark Pocan:
This was an own-goal, we’re unhappy about it, and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan.
First, the tweet was incorrect. It did not contemplate our large driver population and instead wrongly focused only on our fulfillment centers. A typical Amazon fulfillment center has dozens of restrooms, and employees are able to step away from their work station at any time. If any employee in a fulfillment center has a different experience, we encourage them to speak to their manager and we’ll work to fix it.
Second, our process was flawed. The tweet did not receive proper scrutiny. We need to hold ourselves to an extremely high accuracy bar at all times, and that is especially so when we are criticizing the comments of others.
Third, we know that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this has been especially the case during Covid when many public restrooms have been closed.
This is a long-standing, industry-wide issue and is not specific to Amazon. We’ve included just a few links below that discuss the issue.
Regardless of the fact that this is industry-wide, we would like to solve it. We don’t yet know how, but will look for solutions.
We will continue to speak out when misrepresented, but we will also work hard to always be accurate.
We apologize to Representative Pocan.
You can read the full version here. When you’re finished, perhaps check out Motherboard’s interview with six female Amazon delivery drivers, for whom the pee situation is obviously much worse.
Although Louqe’s Raw S1 lacks a few basic amenities, it’s a stunning display of ITX minimalism, design, and craftsmanship.
For
+ Stunning minimalist design
+ Excellent Thermal Performance
+ Very compact, even by Mini-ITX standards
+ Oozes quality from every corner
+ Easy Mini-ITX
+ PCIe 4.0-Capable Riser Cable
+ No RGB
Against
– No front IO or air filtration
– Expensive
Features and Specifications
Easy mini-ITX? Who would ever have thought you’d hear those words strung together? Not me, that’s for sure, and a lot of the PC building community would be inclined to agree. But despite that, the folks from a small Swedish company called Louqe have just conjured a new chassis that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It is, above all else, minimalist, elegant, beautiful, and to my surprise, possibly the easiest Mini-ITX case the world has ever seen, all while also being incredibly compact and thermally capable.
But there’s a lot missing in this equation for simple perfection too. For example, there’s no watercooling or radiator support, and nor air filtration. Heck, there’s not even any front IO beyond a USB Type-C port – and that’s at one of the back corners of the chassis. And it’s expensive, carrying an MSRP of $329.
The Louqe Raw S1 is, in that way, not a versatile case. There’s only one layout. But in not trying to be everything at once, I believe the Louqe Raw S1 may have come close to mini ITX perfection, fitting for our Best PC Cases list. Let’s get to know it, shall we?
As you tour around the Louqe Raw S1, it’s immediately obvious that there’s not much to this chassis. It’s incredibly compact at just 14.9 inches tall, 6.8 inches wide and 7.5 inches deep. In ITX terms, this chassis has a volume of 12 liters, which is indeed very small – for context, very, very few cases achieve a volume below 10 liters, and any that do have to make significant sacrifices to pull it off. Even the small Meshlicious case from Lian Li spinoff Ssupd is noticeably larger at 14.67 liters.
Coming back to the Raw S1’s outer shell: It’s made from a single piece of milled, bead-blasted, etched and anodized aluminum in a classy ‘Rhodium Gray’ color. Along its sides are large cutouts from the milling process, creating a mesh-like intake with a playful, yet strong industrial look.
This design, paired with the thick shell makes the Raw S1 ooze quality like few other cases do. It might not come with filtration, but the ‘Raw’ part of its name is very appropriate. It’s aggressively open on the sides, allowing for plenty of fresh air intake.
Circle to the rear of the chassis, and you’ll spot the same mesh pattern, but only at the top. This is the exhaust location. The top of the chassis is almost entirely closed off, but with an assisted exhaust at the rear, I don’t think this will be a problem.
You’ll notice that there is no immediately visible front IO. This is because the Raw S1 basically doesn’t come with any, other than the Type-C port at the back. Of course, this isn’t really an issue, as the system is light and it’s easy to tip over to access the full-glory IO at the bottom, but it’s something to keep in mind when planning a desk setup.
Placing the Raw S1 between my trusty first-gen NCase M1 (I know it looks a little worse for wear, it has served me well) and the Phanteks Evolv Shift 2, it’s clear that the footprint of the Raw S1 is smaller than both these cases. It’s also significantly more expensive than the other two, with the NCase M1 currently costing about $210 and the Evolv Shift 2 just $100. But the materials quality of the Raw S1 is miles ahead of both these alternatives, so I wouldn’t say that the $330 price is unjust for what it is.
To open up the chassis, you start by laying it upside down on a cloth. Then, you undo four securing screws on the outside of the chassis and undo the locking mechanisms on the USB Type-C port and power button and budge these out of place.
Then, using the handle in the middle, you simply pull the core out from its outer shell.
The case’s core is built with a red spine to house the sandwiched layout system. On its left side you’ll spot room for an ITX motherboard and the SFX power supply at the top, and the right of the spine is where you’ll install the graphics card.
But there’s room for a little more. At the top, behind the power supply, you’ll be able to install a cooling fan, and underneath the PSU there’s room for a 2.5-inch drive – though chances are you’ll want to use an M.2 drive, as space is a scarce commodity here. You can install a 140mm fan at the top exhaust, but it will require taking apart the top of the outer shell to reach the mounts. And connecting the cable will be challenging, as it would be the only component that’s not fixed to the main core of the chassis itself.
In designing this chassis, Louqe also wanted to ensure native PCI-Express 4.0 support, which is why that blue ‘ribbon’ cable looks as funky as it does. Traditional PCIe Riser cables generally have a lot of issues with PCIe 4.0, and even those claiming to support Gen 4 often don’t. Louqe claims that this is one that really does support PCIe Gen 4, but because I don’t have a Gen 4 GPU nor a Gen4 ITX motherboard & CPU on-site to test with, the best we can do is take their word on it.
What you see here is the entirety of the box and contents of the accessory bag. You get the chassis, four screws to secure the PSU, and eight (mine included one too many) more general-use screws for securing the motherboard is all you get. But chances are you won’t need even half of them – I only needed four.
With a robust design and major improvements to nCache 4.0, WD’s Black SN850 is among the most responsive drives we’ve seen. If you’re after the absolute best performance, we pick the 2TB WD Black SN850 over the 2TB Samsung 980 Pro.
For
+ Competitive performance
+ Large, fast-recovering dynamic SLC cache
+ Attractive design
+ Software package
+ 5-year warranty
Against
– Can get hot under heavy load
– High idle power consumption on desktops
– Lacks AES 256-bit hardware encryption
Features and Specifications
April 1, 2021 Update: We’ve updated this article with new testing for the 2TB WD Black SN850 M.2 NVMe SSD on page 2.
Original Review published December 11, 2020:
Boasting bleeding-edge PCIe Gen4 performance and available in up to 2TB of capacity, WD’s Black SN850 is a beast of an SSD that rival’s Samsung’s 980 PRO for the best SSD. If you got the cash, it is a great choice for gamers and enthusiasts looking for top-tier, quality storage.
WD’s Black product line has adapted quite a bit over the years. When it came to the company’s mechanical HDD line, Black traditionally meant uncompromising performance and reliability. Still, when it comes to the company‘s SSDs, WD’s Black product line emphasizes gaming above all. However, that doesn’t mean that the company forgot about those that need consistent prosumer storage for their applications.
The last WD Black SN750 was a data-writing powerhouse, with sustained write speed that could make nearly any other SSD jealous, making it perfect for video editors and those who often move large data sets around. But its read performance lagged most of its competition in most of our application benchmarks. The new WD Black SN850 aims to put on a much better showing this time around, with much of the company’s focus on optimizing the new SSD’s read speed as much as improving its already-strong write speed.
Specifications
Product
Black SN850 500GB
Black SN850 1TB
Black SN850 2TB
Pricing
$149.99
$229.99
$449.99
Capacity (User / Raw)
500GB / 512GB
1000GB / 1024GB
2000GB / 2048GB
Form Factor
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
Interface / Protocol
PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4
PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4
PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4
Controller
WD_BLACK G2
WD_BLACK G2
WD_BLACK G2
DRAM
DDR4
DDR4
DDR4
Memory
BiCS4 96L TLC
BiCS4 96L TLC
BiCS4 96L TLC
Sequential Read
7,000 MBps
7,000 MBps
7,000 MBps
Sequential Write
4,100 MBps
5,300 MBps
5,100 MBps
Random Read
800,000 IOPS
1,000,000 IOPS
1,000,000 IOPS
Random Write
570,000 IOPS
720,000 IOPS
710,000 IOPS
Endurance (TBW)
300 TB
600 TB
1,200 TB
Part Number
WDS500G1X0E
WDS100T1X0E
WDS200T1X0E
Warranty
5-Years
5-Years
5-Years
With peak sequential performance up to 7/5.3 GBps of sequential read/write throughput and upwards of 1,000,000/720,000 random read/write IOPS, the WD Black SN850 delivers top-tier performance over the PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.4 interface. WD’s Black SN850 is available in capacities of 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB with street pricing listed at $150, $230, and $450, per respective capacity. If you want the model with a heatsink, it will cost an extra $20.
WD’s Black SN850 features a revamped SLC caching implementation, nCache 4.0. It now comes with a hybrid SLC caching that’s similar to Samsung’s TurboWrite but larger in capacity, much like we’re accustomed to with SSDs powered by Phison’s latest controllers. The total dynamic SLC capacity spans roughly one-third of the available capacity (300GB on our 1TB sample) with a small and quick-to-recover static SLC cache (12GB on our 1TB sample) that’s designed to provide the most performance and endurance.
With a multi-gear Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) ECC engine, RAID like protection for full multi-page recovery, internal SRAM ECC and end-to-end data path protection in its ECC scheme, along with the company over-provisioning the SSD by 9%, WD’s Black SN850 comes equipped with plenty of mechanisms to ensure your data is safe on the flash. WD backs the Black SN850 with a five-year warranty and rates it to endure up to 300 TB of writes per 500GB of capacity, or up to 1.2PB writes on the 2TB model.
We were able to quickly and securely wipe WD’s Black SN850 by initiating a secure erase from within our Asus X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) motherboard’s UEFI. But, while it supports secure erase, the SSD lacks a now-common security feature that Samsung has supported on its drives for years – hardware-accelerated AES 256-bit full drive encryption. The Black SN850 does support both Trim and S.M.A.R.T. data reporting as well as Active State Power Management (ASPM), Autonomous Power State Transition (APST), and the PCIe L1.2 power state for low power draw at idle on mobile platforms, drawing only <5mW.
Software and Accessories
Image 1 of 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 3 of 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 4 of 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
WD supports the Black SN850 with WD Dashboard, the company’s SSD toolbox that includes analysis tools, a firmware updater, and RGB lighting control on the heatsink model. WD also provides customers with Acronis True Image WD Edition for cloning and data backup.
A Closer Look
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
WD is tightlipped when it comes to revealing information about the hardware that powers the Black SN850 and didn’t divulge many details about its next-gen controller when questioned. Still, we could deduce a few things based on the scraps and crumbs we were given.
From our external analysis, we can see the drive comes in an M.2 2280 single-sided form factor with an NVMe flash controller, a DRAM chip, and just two flash packages because of the large size of the controller package, measuring 17 x 17mm, taking up most of the PCB space.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To power the SSD, WD uses a proprietary Arm-based multi-core eight-channel PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD controller that leverages a Micron DDR4 DRAM chip to deliver responsive performance. WD references the controller as its WD_BLACK G2. Outfitting the WD Black SN850 with a faster Gen4 PHY is great for performance, but with such fast bandwidth, power draw and heat output were a concern at 28nm. Thus, like the controllers from competing manufacturers, WD opted to build the WD_BLACK G2 on a newer process node to better control those variables with TSMC’s 16nm FinFET technology.
WD paired the second-generation controller with the company’s newer Kioxia BiCS4 96L TLC flash operating at Toggle DDR3.0 speeds of 800 MTps. Both the 500GB and 1TB models leverage 256Gb dies while the 2TB leverages 512Gb dies. This flash has two planes (regions of independent access) for better performance than just a single plane, but it’s not quite as fast as the company’s next-generation quad-plane BiCS5 112L flash that we will see become more prevalent next year. The new flash has twice the performance along with a Circuit Under Array (CUA) implementation.
Image 1 of 1
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
In contrast to BiCS3, BiCS4 flash is not only faster thanks to a string-based start bias control scheme and smart Vt -tracking for improved reads, but has the benefit of improved efficiency over its predecessor with a low-pre-charge sense-amplifier bus scheme and sips down just 1.2V instead of 1.8V. WD’s Black SN850 leverages even-odd row decoding and shielded BL current sensing with this flash to enhance read throughput, too.
To scale the flash to new heights, the manufacturing process includes string-stacking two 48 wordline layer arrays on top of one another. While this is an easy way to increase cell array size, inefficiencies stem from additional circuitry, and wasted dummy layers. Concurrently, there is a risk of low yield due to stack misalignments. Scaling up to 96 wordline layers means using a total of 109 layers, including dummy gates and selectors in this instance, which is less efficient than Samsung’s V-NAND, which has yet to leverage string-stacking at up to 128 worldline layers (136 total layers).
Through its GeForce 465 driver update, NVIDIA formally introduced the PCI-Express Resizable BAR feature to its GeForce RTX 30-series “Ampere” graphics cards. This feature was invented by PCI-SIG, custodians of the PCI-Express bus, but only became relevant for the PC when AMD decided to re-brand it as “AMD Smart Access Memory” (which we separately reviewed here) and introduce it with the Radeon RX 6000 series RDNA2 graphics cards. That’s probably when NVIDIA realized they too could implement the feature to gain additional performance for GeForce.
How Resizable BAR Works
Until now, your CPU could only see your graphics card’s memory through 256 MB apertures (that’s 256 MB at a time). Imagine you’re in a dark room and have a tiny pocket flashlight that can only illuminate a small part of a page from a book to you. You can still read the whole page, but you’ll have to move the flashlight to where you’re looking. Resizable BAR is the equivalent of illuminating the whole room with a lamp.
This becomes even more important if you consider that with modern APIs, multiple CPU-to-GPU memory transfers can be active at the same time. With only a single, small aperture, these transfers have to be executed in sequence—if the whole VRAM is mapped, they can operate in parallel. Going back to our reading in the dark example, we now assume that there are multiple people trying to read a book, but they only have one flashlight. Everyone has to wait their turn, illuminate the book, read a bit of text and then pass the flashlight on to the next person. With Resizable BAR enabled, everybody can read the book at the same time.
The 256 MB size of the aperture is arbitrary and dates back to the 32-bit era when address space was at a premium. Even with the transition to x86-64, the limit stayed as newer 3D graphics APIs such as DirectX 11 relied less on mirroring data between the system memory and the video memory. Perhaps the main reason nobody bothered to implement Resizable BAR until now was that modern GPUs come with such enormous video memory bandwidths that the act of reading memory through apertures had minimal performance impact, and it’s only now that both NVIDIA and AMD feel the number-crunching power of their GPUs has far outpaced their memory bandwidth requirements.
To use Resizable BAR, a handful of conditions should be fulfilled. For starters, you need a modern processor that supports it. From the AMD camp, Ryzen 3000 “Zen 2” and Ryzen 5000 “Zen 3” processors support it. On the Intel camp, hardware support technically dates back to the 4th Gen “Haswell,” but most motherboard vendors for whatever reason restricted their Resizable BAR enabling BIOS updates to the 300-series chipset, or 8th Gen “Coffee Lake” (and later) architectures, along with X299, or 7th Gen “Skylake-X” HEDT (and later). You’ll also need a compatible graphics card—NVIDIA RTX 30-series or AMD RX 6000 series. Lastly, your PC must boot in UEFI mode with CSM disabled for UEFI GOP support. With these conditions met, you’ll need to enable Resizable BAR in your motherboard’s UEFI setup program.
There are multiple methods to check if Resizable BAR is enabled. The easiest is to use GPU-Z, which now shows the Resizable BAR status on its main screen. The other options are using NVIDIA’s Control Panel and Windows Device Manager.
In this review, we will be testing four NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30-series Ampere models—RTX 3090, RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti, all Founders Edition cards. Each of these will have Resizable BAR enabled and disabled, across our entire test-suite of 22 games with a rich diversity of game engines and APIs.
After almost a decade of total market dominance, Intel has spent the past few years on the defensive. AMD’s Ryzen processors continue to show improvement year over year, with the most recent Ryzen 5000 series taking the crown of best gaming processor: Intel’s last bastion of superiority.
Now, with a booming hardware market, Intel is preparing to make up some of that lost ground with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors. Intel is claiming these new 11th Gen CPUs offer double-digit IPC improvements despite remaining on a 14 nm process. The top-end 8-core Intel Core i9-11900K may not be able to compete against its Ryzen 9 5900X AMD rival in heavily multi-threaded scenarios, but the higher clock speeds and alleged IPC improvements could be enough to take back the gaming crown. Along with the new CPUs, there is a new chipset to match, the Intel Z590. Last year’s Z490 chipset motherboards are also compatible with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors, but Z590 introduces some key advantages.
First, Z590 offers native PCIe 4.0 support from the CPU, which means the PCIe and M.2 slots powered off the CPU will offer PCIe 4.0 connectivity when an 11th Gen CPU is installed. The PCIe and M.2 slots controlled by the Z590 chipset are still PCI 3.0. While many high-end Z490 motherboards advertised this capability, it was not a standard feature for the platform. In addition to PCIe 4.0 support, Z590 offers USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 from the chipset. The USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 standard offers speeds of up to 20 Gb/s. Finally, Z590 boasts native support for 3200 MHz DDR4 memory. With these upgrades, Intel’s Z series platform has feature parity with AMD’s B550. On paper, Intel is catching up to AMD, but only testing will tell if these new Z590 motherboards are up to the challenge.
The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita is a recent addition to ASRock’s arsenal. The Phantom Gaming Velocita targets the gamer market with Killer Networking for both wired and wireless connectivity and even an option to route the network traffic straight from the Killer LAN controller to the CPU. The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita features a dependable 14-phase VRM that takes advantage of 50 A power stages from Vishay. The ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita has all the core features for a great gaming motherboard. All that is left is to see how the ASRock Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita stacks up against the competition!
1x Killer E3100G 2.5 Gb/s LAN 1x Intel I219V Gigabit LAN 1x Killer AX1675x WiFi 6E
Rear Ports:
2x Antenna Ports 1x HDMI Port 1x DisplayPort 1.4 1x Optical SPDIF Out Port 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port 6x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A Ports 2x USB 2.0 Ports 2x RJ-45 LAN Ports 5x 3.5 mm HD Audio Jacks
Famous overclocker Hicookie has achieved the highest frequency overclock so far on Intel’s new flagship Core i9-11900K. With 5 of the processor’s 8 cores deactivated, he was able to use that extra headroom to hit a whopping 7.314-GHz on the first core with help from liquid nitrogen cooling and a high-end Aorus motherboard.
Hicookie is sponsored by Gigabyte, which issued a press release a few hours after the record posted to HWBot, stating that he used the Z590 Aorus Tachyon motherboard to reach this clock speed. Intended to compete with the best motherboards, the Tachyon launched last month but it doesn’t appear to be for sale yet in the U.S., with B&H Photo listing it as a pre-order for $529.
Gigabyte’s motherboard carries a premium price because it’s designed with and for extreme overclocking. The Tachyon has features such as a 12+1 phase power delivery system and Vishay Sic840 power stages that are rated for 100 amps, allowing for a full 1,300 amps of juice in total.
The Core i9-11900K is Intel’s new flagship CPU sporting the Rocket Lake architecture with 8 Cores, 16 threads, and a maximum boost frequency of 5.3GHz. (Check out our Core i9-11900K review for more details.)
(Image credit: HWBot)
It didn’t take long for someone to break the 7-GHz barrier on Rocket Lake. A few days ago we covered two overclockers who achieved some impressive results with the 11900K as one overclocker hit 6.5 GHz, another managed a flat 7 GHz.
What’s even more unique about Hicookie’s overclock is the configuration he used to achieve 7.3 GHz. First, five cores were disabled, allowing the remaining cores to soak up the extra power and cooling capabilities of the system. As a result of the disabled cores; 11900K’s core voltage was also vastly reduced to just 1.305v, a voltage that is very safe to run on Intel’s 14nm parts.
Hicookie also used a combination of CPU multiplier and BCLK overclocking to reach the 7.3 GHz core speed. This is something you rarely see, but in some cases boosting your BCLK (base clock) can result in higher core frequencies, depending on the CPU architecture.
However, Intel’s older Comet Lake architecture still beats out Rocket Lake on the CPU-Z validation list when it comes to world record overclocks. Maybe soon, we’ll see a Rocket Lake chip break the 7.5 GHz barrier like many of Intel’s older CPUs are capable of doing.
It’s true that nothing lasts forever, but Nvidia’s anti-mining limiter on the GeForce RTX 3060 didn’t last long at all. Cryptocurrency miners have circumvented the algorithm in a little over one month since the official announcement.
Intentional or not, Nvidia played a huge role in helping cryptocurrency miners crack the anti-mining limiter. The chipmaker released a GeForce beta driver that partially disabled the algorithm, and everything just went downhill afterwards. Some may argue that it was just a matter of time before cryptocurrency miners figured out a solution, but the driver was pivotal for bypassing the limiter.
Nvidia had immediately removed the GeForce driver, but it’s the Internet so nothing really disappears for good. With the GeForce driver in hand and some cheap HDMI dummy plugs, mining on multiple GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards was possible once again. Figuring a way to mine with more than four graphics cards was the last piece to the puzzle.
To make a long story short, the anti-mining mechanism essentially runs two checks: if the GeForce RTX 3060 is running on a PCIe 3.0 x8 expansion slot and if a display is connected to the Ampere graphics card. Since you can fool the latter with HDMI dummy plugs, the only thing missing is to find a motherboard with a generous amount of PCIe 3.0 x8 expansion slots.
GeForce RTX 3060 (Image credit: Quasar Zone)
A user from Quasar Zone successfully put together a 7-way GeForce RTX 3060 mining rig. Collectively, the seven Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Twin Edge OC were delivering a hash rate up to 337 MH/s. According to the user, his setup was pulling around 1,020W of power from the wall. It’s impossible to install more than four graphics cards on a motherboard. Therefore, the user employed PCIe 3.0 x16 riser cables to connect the graphics cards to the motherboard, while mounting them on a rack. The owner didn’t reveal which motherboard or processor he’s using for his mining operation.
Contrary to popular belief, many motherboards offer a plethora of PCIe 3.0 x16 expansion slots, since the usage of PLX chips is pretty common nowadays. Just to name some examples, the Asus P9X79-E WS, X99-E WS and ASRock X79 Extreme11 are equipped with seven PCIe 3.0 x16 expansion slots. Or, if you want more modern offerings, the Asus WS X299 Sage and Gigabyte X299-WU8 are valid options as well.
Cryptocurrency mining doesn’t require one of the best CPUs, which is why miners favor old-gen platforms that are dirt cheap. The biggest challenge now is finding these outdated motherboards. Of course, there’s also the alternative where you can pick up an enterprise motherboard with a cheap Xeon chip and call it a day.
If you’re interested in mining, check out our list of best mining GPUs and our advice on how to optimize your GPU for Ethereum mining.
I would like to thank MSI for supplying the review sample.
The MSI MPG Gungnir 110M is one of several variations MSI offers. The chassis we are reviewing today comes with fixed-mode LED fans in the front and a partial mesh-front-panel design. Those who want may also opt for the 110M variant sporting the same exterior design but with three ARGB fans that may be motherboard-controlled, for the same price. Lastly, there is the 110R, which is equipped with a mostly solid front using some glass, three ARGB fans in the front, and a built-in controller to adjust it all with the built-in button, all for a $10 premium. Thus, this review of the MSI MPG Gungnir 110M should give you a good sense of what to expect from any of these enclosures, no matter which one you may pick.
Specifications
MSI MPG Gungnir 110M
Case Type:
Mid-Tower
Material:
Steel, plastic, and tempered glass
Weight:
7.9 kg
Slots:
7
Drive Bays:
2x Internal 2.5/3.5″ 2x Internal 2.5″
Motherboard Form Factors:
Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, and ATX
Dimensions:
215 (W) x 430 (D) x 450 (H) mm
Front Door/Cover:
N/A
Front Fans:
3x 120 or 2x 140 mm (3x 120 mm Auto RGB fans pre-installed)
Rear Fans:
1x 120 mm (1x 120 mm fan pre-installed)
Top Fans:
2x 120 or 140 mm (optional)
Bottom Fans:
N/A
Side Fans:
N/A
Front Radiator:
360 mm / 280 mm
Rear Radiator:
120 mm
Top Radiator:
240 mm
Bottom Radiator:
N/A
Side Radiator:
N/A
I/O:
1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C 2x USB 3.0 1x Headphone 1x Microphone
April Fools’ Day jokes are usually lame and lack any real effort, but 20-year-old Kasper Andersen has risen to the occasion for 2021 to deliver Nvidia’s RTX 4090. The Danish hardware enthusiast loves to create homemade replicas of retro graphics cards, but his latest RTX 4090 project imagines a future where Nvidia’s card uses 1,000 watts of power, has a 12-fan design, and includes 48GB of VRAM.
The video is a work of art, with subtle details like two power cords, RGB lighting, or the ridiculous GPU benchmarking tool that records more than 23,000 frames per second. My personal favorite is when the whole PC powers on and the desk starts wobbling, a Pepsi Max can tumbles by, and then the test rig swings around by itself and crashes into the monitor. It’s pure chef’s kiss.
If that’s not enough, wait until Andersen unveils the RTX 4090 Ti flagship with eight GPUs in SLI that “only takes up four PCIe slots.” Andersen has also created a similar video for Intel’s Xe gaming GPU. It includes a GPU to CPU switch on the top, “which allows you to use the card as a motherboard.” There are plenty more fun videos and projects over at Andersen’s Captain’s Workspace site.
Andersen’s shenanigans won’t make the RTX 4090 any more real than the constantly out-of-stock RTX 3080. But if you’re still trying to snag a new GPU, hopefully this video puts a smile on your face while you battle scalpers, stock notifications, and GPU prices that are utterly out of control.
Performing as well as premium air cooling and costing less than expensive 360 AIOs, the IceGiant ProSiphon Elite makes for an interesting alternative for high-end performance builds. Standing tall as a monstrous, monolithic cooling solution with a commanding presence, the IceGiant ProSiphon Elite shows that big air really doesn’t get any bigger than this.
For
Retail version designed for HEDT for both Intel and AMD (incl. Threadripper)
Great cooling performance
Four fans allow for push+pull
Against
Huge and heavy
Premium price
Features and Specifications
Back in 2019 we were one of the few media outlets to get an early look at the prototype IceGiant ProSiphon, an innovative CPU-cooling behemoth that uses natural convection of warmer and cooler states of coolant to effectively ‘pump’ the energy-rich evaporated vapor through the cooler. The months since have brought us to the final version of the IceGiant ProSiphon Elite, and while it still maintains its massive stature, it is noticeably thinner due to a redesigned condenser, which improves upon the original prototype.
The new and improved IceGiant doesn’t break any records, but it does provide a great alternative for system builders who want big and bold, yet still opt to avoid large AIO liquid cooling. Currently available for order from the IceGiant website, it will soon be available for purchase at MicroCenter retail stores as well as available at e-tailers Amazon and Newegg.
Ice Giant Prosiphon Elite Specifications
Height
6.5″ / 165.1mm
Width
9.88″ / 251mm
Depth
2.0″ / 50.8mm (4.0″ / 102mm w/ fans)
Base Height
1.75″ / 44.5mm
Assy. Offset
1..0″ / 25.4mm up
0.75″ / 19.1mm forward
Cooling Fans
(4) 120 x 25mm
Connectors
(4) 4-pin PWM
Weight
70.8 oz / 2007g
Intel Sockets
1366, 115x, 1200, 2011, 2066
AMD Sockets
AM4, TR4, sTR4x
Warranty
10 years
Web Price
$170
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The IceGiant ProSiphon Elite includes mounting hardware to accommodate current processor models for both Intel and AMD, including high-end desktop (HEDT) variants like Intel’s i9 Comet Lake chips and the multi-core behemoths that are AMD’s Threadripper processors. The IceGiant makes use of four 4-pin 120mm cooling fans to allow for push+pull airflow configuration out of the box.
Mounting brackets, backplates and supports are incredibly over-engineered to account for the 2-kilogram (4.42 pounds) mass they must support. In fact, just about everything about the IceGiant feels industrial-grade, down to the syringe of high-performance Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal compound included.
IceGiant covers the ProSiphon Elite with an unprecedented 10-year warranty, which includes the cooling fans.
For those who might have missed our original definition of how the IceGiant ProSiphon Elite thermosiphon cooler differs from a traditional heatpipe cooler, please allow us to gratuitously plagiarize our own coverage of the original ProSiphon Elite Protopype:
Heatpipe coolers rely on the boiling and evaporation of a liquid (typically distilled water) within each individual heatpipe, which travels up the hollow center of the pipe, begins cooling and then fully condenses further up the cooling tower, while dissipating thermal energy in the process. Once that liquid has fully converted back to liquid form, a sintered wicking material along the heatpipe walls then draws the liquid back down to the base to begin the process once again.
A thermosiphon works on similar principles, as it also requires the boiling, evaporation and condensation of a liquid–in this case, a dielectric fluid. A thermosiphon instead makes use of natural convection of warmer and cooler states of coolant to effectively ‘pump’ the energy-rich evaporated vapor through the cooler. Using large, flat condenser cores, the IceGiant ProSiphon Elite utilizes greater surface area to effectively transfer thermal energy out of the fluid vapor, into the cooling fins and away from the cooler.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The primary heat exchanger features three condenser cores, which dissipate heat provided from the evaporator in the cooler’s base. The original ProSiphon prototype featured only two condenser cores, allowing the newer retail version of the cooler to have a thinner overall profile when compared to the original. Retention hardware is engineered into the cooler’s base pedestal, which provides an anchored mount once the cooler is installed.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The ProSiphon Elite makes use of four 120mm, 4-pin PWM fans rated up to 2300 RPM for push+pull operation. The front pair push cool, ambient air into the heat exchanger and over the condenser cores, while the rear fans pull the warmed air out and away from the cooler. This provides the IceGiant plenty of fresh air in which to breathe (or rather, cool) freely.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The entirety of the IceGiant ProSiphon is made of high-grade aluminum, including the precision-milled pedestal base and mounting contact which is large enough to fully cover an AMD Threadripper CPU. Tension screws are permanently affixed to the primary tension bar on the cooler base, which ultimately adds to your advantage later during the installation process.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The base of the ProSiphon Elite is milled perfectly flat; we are unable to see any residual light peeking beneath the face of a steel rule.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The thermal paste contact patch from our i9-10850k is dwarfed by the untouched backdrop of clean, remaining aluminum of the mounting base.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
By comparison, the thermal compound patch from our Threadripper 2990WX consumes the entire canvas of the cooler base.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Remember those tidbits about the rugged mounting hardware and the tension screws mounted into the cooler base? Once the backplate and brackets are secured, the cooler base centers itself neatly into position atop the CPU, which aligns the tension screws with their sockets. Both Intel and AMD/Threadripper mounts benefit from this design.
To secure the IceGiant ProSiphon Elite, the front fans are removed and the tension screws torqued into place. Once secure, the front fans are added back and connected via PWM pigtail splitter to the other fans of the cooler to be managed by your favorite fan controller or motherboard header.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
We’ve tested some large coolers before (including the prototype predecessor to the current IceGiant), yet it always manages to bring a bit of a smirk to our faces seeing such a large piece of cooling hardware in operation. The base height of the IceGiant does allow for relatively tall memory modules to be used. But as usual, check for clearances for specific hardware as needed.
Current page:
Features and Specifications
Next PageTest System Setup
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
