EVGA designed an enthusiast segment AMD X670E chipset motherboard for the Socket AM5 platform, which never made it to the mass market. It had even planned to give the board its coveted Classified brand, and sell as the X670E Classified. Prototypes of this board fetched over $1,300 in auction. The board is built in the E-ATX form-factor like most of the EVGA Classified series motherboards; and packs a powerful CPU VRM, besides several overclocker-friendly features, such as top-oriented DDR5 memory slots, side-facing I/O (including power inputs), and in general, a decluttered layout that won't get in the way of extreme cooling solutions.

There were four such prototypes with Jiacheng Liu, a hardware enthusiast, each of which went under the hammer. The only trouble with these prototypes is that they're bare—they don't include heatsinks for the CPU VRM or the chipset, let alone heatsinks for the two M.2 Gen 5 NVMe slots that don't eat into the Gen 5 x16 PEG. Another problem with these boards is that they're not supported by EVGA, and only come with their initial BIOS that supports Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" processors, but not the upcoming Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5." We doubt if these even support the Ryzen 7000X3D series, which is probably the main reason the boards didn't fetch way more than $1,300 a piece at the auctions. Enthusiasts might still figure out a way to BIOS-mod and encapsulate the latest AGESA.

Currently, only Phison offers widely available performance PCIe 5.0 NVMe controllers for consumer SSDs, although the competition is heating up and Chinese SSD controller makers MaxioTek and InnoGrit, as well as Taiwanese Silicon Motion either have or will be releasing competing controllers this year. However, it also looks like Taiwanese Realtek will be joining the fray, albeit a tad late, as their upcoming RTS5782 PCIe 5.0 NVMe controller, but the company didn't reveal a release schedule. Although Realtek is known as a more budget friendly chipmaker, regardless of the product segment, the RTS5782 will be an 8-channel controller with support for 3600 MT/s NAND, and it will have a dedicated DRAM cache using either DDR4, LPDDR3, LPDDR4 or LPDDR4x memory. It's said to deliver sequential read speeds of up to 14 GB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 12 GB/s, with random read and write IOPS hitting 2500K.

Realtek is also working on a pair of new DRAM-less models, the PCIe 4.0 RTS5776DL and the PCIe r5.0 RTS5781DL, both having support for 4-channel flash, but still supporting NAND speeds of up to 3600 MT/s. Engineering samples of the RTS5776DL are expected to be available before the end of this year, and it's said to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 7400 MB/s and random read and write IOPS of 1200K. The RTS5781DL will enter the engineering sample stage in the beginning of 2025 and will up the sequential read and write performance to 10 GB/s and the random read and write IOPS to 1400K. In addition to the new NVMe controllers, Realtek also had its RTS5736DL on display at Computex, which the company claims is the world's lowest power DRAM-less SATA SSD controller, that also supports size of up to 8 TB. Realtek claims the RTS5736DL is an ideal solution to pair with a USB 3.x bridge chip for external drives.

At Computex last week, we got a first look at Gigabyte's new TRX50 AI TOP motherboard—where TOP stands for trillions of operations per second—designed for AMD's Threadripper and Threadripper Pro CPUs. Now the company has released the full specifications of the TRX50 AI TOP and the board is packed to the brim with features. The E-ATX board is home to four PCIe x16 slots, all of which can operate in PCIe 5.0, but one can be limited to PCIe 4.0, depending on your choice of CPU. There's also four NVMe M.2 slots, with CPU dependent functionality. Other features include eight DIMM slots, but these are again CPU dependent, two 10 Gbps Ethernet interfaces via a pair of Marvell AQtion AQC113C controllers, WiFi 7 via a Qualcomm QCNCM865 module and dual audio chips, one for the rear ports and one for the front panel audio.

As this is a 2024 model, USB4 is of course also part of the package, but only one of the two USB4 supports DP Alt-mode, due to there only being one DP input. The board also has an internal USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) header for a case mounted USB-C port, a further six rear 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports, plus a pair of internal headers for a further four 5 Gbps USB Type-A ports. The board also has four SATA ports, a 16+8+4 power phase design, a 14-layer PCB, a debug display and the now common easy release features for the M.2 drive heatsinks and the graphics card. The TRX50 AI TOP also sports what Gigabyte calls "UC BIOS" which has a "User-Centred intuitive UX with Quick Access function", but there's currently no details of how this differs from previous UEFI releases from Gigabyte. There was no word on pricing.

Silicon Motion's SM2508 was first revealed in August last year at the Flash Memory Summit 2023, but after that things went pretty quiet. However, the company was demoing the SM2508 up and running at Computex this past week and it's set to edge out Phison's E26 Max14um in the battle of fastest NVMe SSD controller. We're not talking about any massive gains here, but the reference drive from Silicon Motion was shown running CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 at the show and if we do a rough comparison to a Phison E26 Max14um, the SM2508 beats Phison by about 800 MB/s in sequential read performance and 500 MB/s in sequential write performance.

This might not seem like a whole lot, but the SM2508 is built on TSMC's N6 node which results in a 3.5 Watt peak power consumption, or 7 Watts for the entire SSD at load. A typical Phison E26 based SSD draws in excess of 11 Watts of power at full load, which is a big difference in a mobile device. This should obviously also lead to lower thermals and we should finally see PCIe 5.0 drives that don't need massive heatsinks or active cooling. In fact, 7 Watts power draw is very similar to Phison's E18 PCIe 4.0 based SSDs. Silicon Motion is still working on fine tuning the firmware for the SM2508, so performance might yet improve to reach the promised 14 GB/s write performance. Currently the random performance is also looking a bit on the weak side compared to Phison. According to Tom's hardware, we should see the first drives with the Silicon Motion SM2508 appear in the market sometime in Q4 this year.

Fueling the next wave of AI innovation, Western Digital today introduced a six-stage AI Data Cycle framework that defines the optimal storage mix for AI workloads at scale. This framework will help customers plan and develop advanced storage infrastructures to maximize their AI investments, improve efficiency, and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their AI workflows. AI models operate in a continuous loop of data consumption and generation - processing text, images, audio and video among other data types while simultaneously producing new unique data. As AI technologies become more advanced, data storage systems must deliver the capacity and performance to support the computational loads and speeds required for large, sophisticated models while managing immense volumes of data. Western Digital has strategically aligned its Flash and HDD product and technology roadmaps to the storage requirements of each critical stage of the cycle, and today introduced a new industry-leading, high-performance PCIe Gen 5 SSD to support AI training and inference; a high-capacity 64 TB SSD for fast AI data lakes; and the world's highest capacity ePMR, UltraSMR 32 TB HDD for cost-effective storage at scale.

"There's no doubt that Generative AI is the next transformational technology, and storage is a critical enabler. The implications for storage are expected to be significant as the role of storage, and access to data, influences the speed, efficiency and accuracy of AI Models, especially as larger and higher-quality data sets become more prevalent," said Ed Burns, Research Director at IDC. "As a leader in Flash and HDD, Western Digital has an opportunity to benefit in this growing AI landscape with its strong market position and broad portfolio, which meets a variety of needs within the different AI data cycle stages."

Handheld gaming devices are a dime a dozen these days and more and more companies are joining the fray on almost a weekly basis. At Computex, XPG was showing its upcoming handheld gaming device—currently known as the NIA—and it has several interesting features that most of their competitors haven't mentioned so far. The potentially most interesting feature that XPG has implemented is an LPCAMM2 module with support for up to 64 GB of LPDDR5x memory. XPG didn't list how much RAM the NIA will ship with, but 16 or 32 GB seems like the logical choices.

The device will be powered by AMD's Phoenix APU, but no details were given. XPG has implemented support for foveated rendering, which the company claims is an exclusive feature. This is courtesy of a front-facing camera with eye tracking, but it's unclear how exactly it'll work, since it won't be exactly the same as in a VR headset. The NIA will ship with an XPG Gammix S55 SSD, which is an M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive with sizes of up to 2 TB. XPG also claims that the NIA is built for a "circular computing product lifecycle" whatever that means, but we're guessing it has something to do with using recycled materials and being recyclable. The screen size of the 1080p, 120 Hz display wasn't mentioned, but the screen can be tilted for better ergonomics and is supposed to deliver up to 500 nits brightness. The NIA also has a built-in kickstand.

On June 4th, COMPUTEX 2024 was successfully held at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. Mnemonic Electronic Co., Ltd., the Taiwanese subsidiary of Longsys, showcased industry-leading high-capacity SSDs under the theme "Embracing the Era of High-Capacity SSDs." The products on display included the Mnemonic MS90 8TB SATA SSD, FORESEE ORCA 4836 series enterprise NVMe SSDs, FORESEE XP2300 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs, and rich product lines comprising embedded storage, memory modules, memory cards, and more. The company offers reliable industrial-grade, automotive-grade, and enterprise-grade storage products, providing high-capacity solutions for global users.

High-Capacity SSDs
For SSDs, Mnemonic Electronic presented products in various form factors and interfaces, including PCIe M.2, PCIe BGA, SATA M.2, and SATA 2.5-inch. The Mnemonic MS90 8 TB SATA SSD supports the SATA interface with a speed of up to 6 Gb/s (Gen 3) and is backward compatible with Gen 1 and Gen 2. It also supports various SATA low-power states (Partial/Sleep/Device Sleep) and can be used for nearline HDD replacement, surveillance, and high-speed rail systems.

M.2-2280 SSDs are always smaller than they look in pictures, a quarter of the size of a DIMM, but we've come across some huge cooling solutions. One of the most interesting of these is the T-Force Dark Airflow 06 magnetic-stacked cooling solution. An extruded aluminium heatsink with its fins positioned sideways, has two flattened surfaces, one of which makes contact with the SSD, the other is equally flat, and can make contact with another such heatsink.

A 20 mm fan pushes airflow sideways through the heatsink. The heatsink is magnetized to help with the stacking. The Dark Airflow 05 is a more conventional fin-stack heatsink that isn't expandable, it uses a simple aluminium fin-stack to which heat is fed by two copper heatpipes. The T-Force GE Pro Gen 5 is an M.2-2280 drive that leads Team Group's gaming SSD lineup. It comes in capacities of up to 4 TB, with transfer speeds of 14 GB/s reads, with up to 11 GB/s writes. The T-Create I54 Ai Gen 5 is not far behind, with a 4 TB, and up to 14 GB/s sequential speeds on tap, with a large amount of SLC caching that should benefit AI workloads.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that KIOXIA PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs have been successfully tested for compatibility and interoperability with the Xinnor, Ltd. ("Xinnor") RAID solution and achieved up to 25x higher performance running PostgreSQL than software RAID solutions with the same hardware configuration. This solution will be demonstrated in the KIOXIA booth at COMPUTEX TAIPEI, which is being held from June 4 to June 7. PostgreSQL (with the pgvector extension) and vector databases are becoming more important for generative AI and RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) systems than before, and these results demonstrate the performance gains utilizing Xinnor's xiRAID Opus and KIOXIA PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs solution for a generative AI and RAG application.

New servers with the PCIe 5.0 interface and corresponding high-speed SSDs are in demand for high performance applications, such as generative AI, and the importance of PCIe 5.0-compatible SSDs to support this demand is increasing. The Kioxia and Xinnor high performance software RAID solution maximizes the performance of PCIe 5.0 SSDs for AI, Machine Learning (ML), and data analytics applications in on-premises enterprise data centers. KIOXIA CM7 Series SSDs successfully completed compatibility testing performed by both parties.

At Computex 2024, we paid a visit to the Patriot booth and found a few new product announcements from the company. From record-shattering DDR5 memory speeds to next-generation Gen 5 SSDs, the company has prepared it all. Headlining the showcase is the Viper Xtreme 5 DDR5 memory series, achieving regular speeds of up to 8,200 MT/s and an astonishing 11,500 MT/s when overclocked. Patriot is also launching something for professional workstations with its overclockable ECC RDIMM modules, offering error correction, larger capacities, and the ability to exceed industry specifications through overclocking.

Zotac took the plunge into the emerging market of Windows-based gaming handhelds that a lot of PC hardware brands are getting into off late. The device has a 7-inch 1080p AMOLED multi-touch display, but you can connect an external display using over DisplayPort. At the heart of the Zotac ZONE is the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U "Hawk Point" processor, with its Radeon 780M graphics. This chip is wired to 16 GB of LPDDR5X-7500, and a 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD. The device features an M.2-2280 Gen 4 slot, so you are spoiled for choice with SSD upgrades.

The Zotac ZONE handheld console uses Windows 11 Home, but with its first-party One Launcher UI that organizes your games across DRM platforms, lets you configure input, tweak performance or battery life, and much more. The star attraction with this device's connectivity is its two USB4 type-C ports, one of which has DisplayPort passthrough), and PD 3.0. There's also a microSD UHS-II reader. A 4-pole 3.5 mm headset jack handles analog audio. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Powering it all is a 48.5 Wh battery. The device measures 310 mm x 135 mm x 40 mm, and is expected to weigh under 700 g.

The subsidiary of MiTAC Holdings Corp, MiTAC Computing Technology and its server brand TYAN, the leading manufacturer in server platform design worldwide, unveil their new server systems and motherboards optimized for today's AI, HPC, cloud, and enterprise workloads at COMPUTEX 2024, Booth # M1120 in Taipei, Taiwan from June 4 to June 7. Harnessing the power of the latest Intel Xeon 6 processor and 4th and 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, these solutions deliver cutting-edge performance.

"For over a decade, MiTAC has worked with Intel at the forefront of server technology innovation, consistently delivering cutting-edge solutions tailored for AI and high-performance computing (HPC). The integration of Intel's latest Xeon 6 processors into our MiTAC and TYAN server platforms transforms computational capabilities, significantly enhancing AI performance, boosting efficiency, and scaling cloud operations. These advancements empower our customers with a competitive edge through superior performance and optimized total cost of ownership," said Rick Hwang, President of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation.

MSI also brought plenty of SSD products to the Computex 2024 show, including the new SPATIUM M560 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD based on the Phison E31T controller and Kioxia's 218-layer BiCS 3D TLC NAND, the new SPATIUM non-metal Vapor Chamber SSD Thermal Solution, and a couple of SSD accessories, including the DATAMAG Magnetic Portable SSD and the DATAVAULT SSD Enclosure.

As said, the new SPATIUM M560 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD will use the Phison 7 nm E31T controller paired up with Kioxia 8th generation 218-layer BiCS 3D TLC NAND and offer transfer rates of up to 10,000 MB/s. The controller, according to MSI, should bring up to a 15 percent reduction in power consumption as well as "maximize bandwidths and link efficiency". It will be available in 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, and MSI will probably have a version that will include the new SPATIUM non-metal Vapor Chamber SSD Thermal Solution which has been also showcased at the Computex 2024 show. MSI says that this is yet another world's first, which uses "a two-phase flow transition of gas and liquid with minimal signal interference, ensuring rapid and silent heat exchange." According to MSI, the new SPATIUM non-metal Vapor Chamber SSD Thermal Solution should provide up to 11 degrees lower temperature compared to a standard aluminium heatsink.

Lexar puts up on display two new M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMe SSDs at Computex, the NM1090 Pro and NM990. Both are capable of achieving up to 14 GB/s read, and 12 GB/s write performance. This makes it nearly twice as fast as PCIe Gen 4. A test system featuring the Lexar NM1090 Pro 2 TB model was available for live testing to support read/write performance claims. Alongside these two, we spotted another model of the Lexar NM1090 featuring a large heatsink with RGB lighting and 8 TB capacity to further extend existing family.

Lexar NM1090 Pro and NM990 are going to be available in Q4 2024 with 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities respectively.

Getac today announced the launch of its brand-new AI-ready S510 rugged laptop, enabling organizations across industries such as utilities, public safety, manufacturing and automotive to utilise the power of edge AI on a daily basis. The new S510 enables workers to capitalise on the significant productivity benefits of AI-based applications. An Intel Core Ultra 5/7 processor with Intel AI Boost and Intel Graphics put powerful performance at users' fingertips, while a dedicated Microsoft Copilot key quickly awakens AI capabilities whenever needed.

The S510 combines this innovative feature set with MIL-STD-810H and IP53 certifications, alongside 3ft (0.9 m) drop and vibration resistance, giving users the peace of mind they need to work with confidence. The S510 also boasts a 15.6-inch display with 1,000 nits of brightness and Getac sunlight readable technology for optimal versatility in a variety of light conditions. In addition, the device provides robust connectivity options including WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 as standard, with optional 4G-LTE and 5G Sub-6 capabilities to keep users connected.

Acer today debuted two new premium Chromebook Plus laptops - the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 and Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE - that combine versatile designs with a 2x faster Intel Core processor and up to double the memory and storage, giving people the power to do even more all at once.

As Chromebook Plus devices, the two new models support enhanced generative AI features for connectivity, creativity, and collaboration, such as a "help me write" feature available with just a right click, Google Photos' Magic Editor, Gemini, and more. The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is a slim convertible optimized for on-the-go productivity and connectivity with a 360-degree hinge that allows it to be used in myriad ways and places, and the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is a next-generation cloud-gaming Chromebook with the latest gaming-centric hardware to stream and play AAA games with NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Boosteroid, Amazon Luna and more.

BoostR is an Indiegogo crowdfunded project that seeks to integrate a multi-functional I/O dock with an external GPU. It's a rather brilliant idea—the dock draws connectivity from a USB4 (40 Gbps) connection, which it uses to connect an AMD Radeon RX 7600M GPU, an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD slot, a 1 GbE networking interface, an SD 4.0 card reader, and a bunch of USB 3.2 downstream ports.

The device comes with a power brick, and by default draws 100 W for all its functions, including the eGPU. You can boost the power limit to 120 W, which should improve the GPU's performance. The GPU puts out a couple of HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.0 connectors. BoostR was briefly available on Indiegogo at an early-bird price of $499, at which it would undercut the Ayaneo OneXGPU, a similar contraption of an eGPU+M.2+port dock that's priced at $699. One area where the BoostR has an edge over the OneXGPU is its 120 W mode that give the GPU improved boost frequency residency. It remains to be seen what the regular price of BoostR will be, but the company is offering a 5% discount on the final price if you sign up for their newsletter.

The Sabrent USB-C Enclosure for M.2 2230 PCIe NVMe SSDs is a simple and easy solution for managing your short-form factor drives. Need to prepare your M.2 2230 SSD for installation into your Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, Surface Pro 9, or other portable device? Pop it into this enclosure and secure the latch, plug it in via USB-C, and off you go. The enclosure supports all major operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and anything built on Linux. The experience is simplified with an integrated cable and plug-and-play operation, as it is bus-powered with no drivers required.

The enclosure specifically supports M.2 2230 PCIe NVMe SSDs, not SATA, so be sure to check your drive beforehand - drives like our Rocket 2230 and Rocket Q4 2230 are a perfect pairing for this enclosure.

IRDM, a European brand of computer memory dedicated to gamers and enthusiasts, owned by Wilk Elektronik SA, proudly introduces the latest addition to its product range—the SSD IRDM PRO NANO. This revolutionary data storage device, designed with cutting-edge mobile technologies in mind, offers unmatched performance parameters and the highest reliability in an extremely compact M.2-2230 format, making it an ideal solution not only for professionals and new technology enthusiasts, but also for gamers using handheld consoles and ultrabooks.

Featuring branded components and PCIe NVMe Gen. 4 x4 technology, the IRDM PRO NANO SSD delivers an unparalleled read speed of up to 7300 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6000 MB/s! Such performance enables lightning-fast game and application loading, enhancing overall system smoothness. Both gamers and professionals will appreciate reduced downtime and faster data processing, crucial when working with large files and demanding applications.\

JMicron Technology Corporation, in collaboration with Vinpower, Inc., have developed the first of its kind Enhanced 10Gbps Portable SSD (PSSD), using the collaboratively developed iVP817 IC Chip, that's compatible with Apple iOS devices supporting the iPhone iAP2. The PSSD offers super-fast Read/Write (R/W) data transfer speeds and is the first of its kind to provide Secure, High Powered, High-Speed backup and storage across all computing platforms, which includes the Apple iOS platform, as well as Android, PC, MacBook, Chromebook and more. While the R/W transfer speeds for USB flash storage devices compatible with smartphones and tablets typically range from 20 MB/sec to 80 MB/sec, the enhanced PSSD achieved verifiable R/W transfer speeds at more than 800 MB/sec with an iPhone 15Pro and 15Pro Max. That means, when using the enhanced PSSD with Vinpower's iAP2 based App, one could backup a 10 GB video, from an iPhone 15Pro or 15Pro Max, in around 12 seconds. On top of that, the PSSD will accommodate a range of NVMe SSD with varying form factor lengths and capacities up to and exceeding 8 TB of secure storage.

JMicron is a leading IC design company specialized in high-speed data and signal interfaces bridge controllers including NVMe to USB bridges, while Vinpower is a leader in designing IC chip firmware, circuit design, and manufacturing Apple iOS backup and storage devices and related Apps. The two companies recognized the enormous untapped market potential for a new solution that can perform smooth, fast, and secure data transfer and backup for portable mobile devices, especially for the Apple iOS platform, such as iPhones and iPads.

BIWIN is a rather large OEM of consumer NAND flash and DRAM products for some of the largest PC brands, including HP and Acer, among several others. It is based out of Shenzhen, China, and trades as 688525 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The company has been making retail overclocking PC memory; high performance M.2 NVMe and SATA SSDs; as well as portable SSDs and USB flash drives for several years now. We've reviewed several of these including. BIWIN now wants to break cover, and sell these products under its own brand in the retail channel. BIWIN is planning to make a big splash at the 2024 Computex next month, where it will showcase not just the products it's making for the big PC brands, but also those it plans to directly market under its own marquee.

From what we gather, BIWIN will continue to be an OEM for the big ticket brands it's serving, but will also run a first-party product stack. This would give its product managers freedom to come up with original product designs and specifications for their products, and choose where and how to sell them. The company in its LinkedIn post announcing this move, also posted teasers from its upcoming Computex booth, showcasing BIWIN-branded PC overclocking memory, portable SSDs, USB flash drives, memory cards, and M.2 NVMe SSDs. We'll be sure to give you a detailed tour of this booth from Computex.

Acer today launched its first Copilot+ PC with the Swift 14 AI laptop, in collaboration with Microsoft and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., ushering in a new AI era with brand new user experiences and AI capabilities on Windows 11. The Swift 14 AI has multiple device models, powered by Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus platforms, and both feature one of the world's fastest NPUs for laptops to enable on-device AI processing. Users can streamline everyday tasks with smarter PC functions and tackle complex workloads more effectively.

"Engineered for AI from the inside out, the Swift 14 AI is the first among many Acer Copilot+ PCs to come," said Jerry Kao, COO, Acer Inc. "These next-generation AI PCs see significant leaps in AI processing power, unlocking brand new experiences that we know users will love."

Courtesy of ASUS Vietnam (via @rquandt on X/Twitter), we now have an idea of what ASUS' first Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite notebook will look like, but also what the main specifications are. It will share the Vivobook S 15 OLED branding with other notebooks from ASUS, although the leaked model carries the model number S5507QA-MA089WS. At its core is a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 SoC which is the base model from Qualcomm. The SoC consists of 12 Oryon cores, of which eight are performance cores and four are energy efficient cores. A peak, multi-threaded clock speed of 3.4 GHz and 42 MB of cache, as well as a 75 TOPs AI engine rounds off the SoC specs. The SoC is also home to a Qualcomm Adreno GPU, but so far Qualcomm hasn't released any useful specs about the GPU in the Snapdragon X Elite series of chips.

ASUS has paired the SoC with 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory of an unknown clock speed, although Qualcomm officially supports speed of up to 8,448 MT/s in a to PC users unusual configuration of eight channels at 16-bit wide, for a bandwidth of up to 135 GB/s. For comparison, Intel's latest Core Ultra processors max out at LPDDR5X 7,467 MT/s and up to 120 GB/s memory bandwidth. Other features include a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, a glossy 15.6-inch 2,880 x 1,620 resolution, 120 Hz OLED display with 600 nits peak brightness and a 70 WHr battery. It's unclear what connectivity options will be on offer, but judging by the screenshot below, we can at least expect an HDMI out as well as a pair of USB Type-C ports, a micro SD card slot and a headphone jack. As far as pricing goes, Roland Quandt is suggesting a €1,500 base price on X/Twitter, but we'll have to wait for the official launch to find out what these Arm based laptops will retail for. ASUS Vietnam has already removed the page from its website.

Corsair today announced the launch of the Corsair ONE i500 PC, a compact powerhouse packed with cutting-edge components and boasting high-end performance for content creators, AI-savvy professionals, and gamers. The sleek, space-saving design houses up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card and Intel Core i9-14900K processor—both liquid cooled. Combined with next-gen DDR5 memory and 2 TB of NVMe SSD storage, the Corsair ONE i500 delivers the speed, storage, and reliability you'd expect from a high-end PC.

The Corsair ONE i500 PC is 30% smaller than a full-sized desktop PC but doesn't compromise on power. Modern liquid cooling delivers top-tier thermal efficiency, minimizing CPU and GPU temperatures while achieving faster performance, all while being noticeably quieter than traditional cooling. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 and 4080 SUPER graphics cards power a quantum leap in framerates and AI-powered graphics, while Intel 14th Gen CPU architecture makes sure you game and multitask without compromise.

Radxa is a Chinese manufacturer of various Arm based devices and something of a minor competitor to the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The company has just launched its latest product which is called the ROCK 5 ITX. As the name implies, it's a Mini-ITX form factor motherboard, which in itself is rather unusual for Arm based hardware to start with. However, Radxa has designed the ROCK 5 ITX to be a NAS motherboard and this is the first time we've come across such a product, as most Arm based boards are either intended for hobby projects, software development or routers. This makes the ROCK 5 ITX quite unique, at least based on its form factor, as it'll be compatible with standard Mini-ITX chassis.

The SoC on the board is a Rockchip RK3588 which sports four Cortex-A76 cores at up to 2.4 GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8 GHz. This is not exactly cutting edge, but should be plenty fast enough for a SATA drive based NAS. The board offers four SATA 6 Gbps connectors via an ASMedia ASM1164 controller, each with an individual power connector next to it. However, Radxa seems to have chosen to use fan-header type power connectors, which means it'll be hard to get replacement power cables. The board also has a PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 slot for an NVMe drive. The OS boots from eMMC and Radxa supports its own Roobi OS which is Debian Linux based.