ASUS dabbled with cases from time to time, and its latest creation is the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix Helios, an ATX mid-tower to go with your other ROG Strix-branded hardware. Built with brushed-metal finished steel and tinted tempered glass, the Strix Helios features an elaborate aRGB LED illuminated front embellishment that includes the ROG logo, which can be directly plugged in to the 3-pin aRGB header of your motherboard. It also comes with four USB 3.1 front-panel ports, one of which is type-C, all of which plug into your motherboard's standard USB 3.1 headers. You also get LED and fan-controls.

Although marketed as a mid-tower, the ROG Strix Helios is large, measuring 249 mm x 564 mm x 592 mm (WxHxD), and supports E-ATX motherboards in addition to smaller form-factors. Inside, you get a horizontally partitioned layout. Storage areas include two 3.5-inch/2.5-inch trays, and four additional 2.5-inch mounts. Among the cooling features are three 140 mm front intakes, which come with three factory-fitted fans, two 140/120 mm top vents that are vacant, and a 120 mm rear exhaust, which has a factory-fitted fan. In addition to 8 expansion slots, you get 2 vertically oriented slots so you can show off your graphics card better (PCIe riser cable not included). The company didn't reveal pricing.

Years after year, MSI dominates the memory frequency record to show the strength on overclocking performance. Just in the beginning of 2019, MSI's in-house overclocker, Toppc, pushes the DDR4 speeds to 5.6GHz, setting another barrier using Kingston memory and the MSI Z390I GAMING EDGE AC motherboard by liquid nitrogen cooling. Undoubtedly, this is a revolutionary breakthrough for the Intel 9th generation processors for the first time. This world record not only shows MSI's dominant position on performance for Intel 9th generation processors by using MSI MPG Z390I GAMING EDGE AC and MSI's unique and patented DDR4 Boost technology, but also reveals team-up power with Kingston DDR4 memory.

More information on the record can be found here.

While at CES 2019 we had the opportunity to check out Riotoro's new flagship case the Morpheus which uses a new convertible design making it an actual departure from traditional cases. Out of the gate, it sets itself apart with support for 2x USB 3.0 Type-C and 2x USB 3.0. The inclusion of USB Type-C was a nice change of pace considering the adoption of the new connector has still been a bit slow. That said they maintained the status quo in other ways by including headphone and microphone jacks along with RGB controls for good measure. Obviously, the final features and hardware support will depend entirely on the end users configuration of the chassis as it can be resized depending on user choice. The case itself is a dual chamber design that uses perforated mesh on all sides for superior cooling, with support for up to 240 mm liquid coolers. Motherboard support includes everything mini-ITX all the way up to EATX with the entire chassis offering tool-less assembly. It also provides support for up to 2x 3.5-inch drives and up to 4x 2.5-inch drives. Out of the box it comes with 2x 120 mm red LED intake fans, and a single 80 mm exhaust fan. The case is available now with a price tag of $189.99 directly from Riotoro.

LucidSound, the fastest growing gaming headset brand, announced today shipping of the LS41 Wireless Surround Headset, a premium surround sound, multi-format headset and a new flagship model for the Company. Available now via Amazon and other leading gaming retailers, the LS41 features wireless audio when used with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and can also be used with Nintendo Switch and other mobile devices via the 3.5mm wired connection.

Rapoo, a leader in Wireless peripheral technology, announces the launch of its advanced '8000 Wireless Mouse and Keyboard Combo', exclusive to those who are on the go.

The slim keyboard isn't just sleek; but truly compact and on the go! Experience the high-level architecture, meshed with customizable Multimedia Keys that supports 1000 DPI High-Definition Tracking Engine which brings responsive and smooth cursor control. The pocket -size keyboard features a familiar key shape, size, and feeling. It comes with a palm rest and adjustable tilt legs to keep you comfortable all the time.

Cooler Master, a global leader in designing and manufacturing innovative gaming peripherals and computer components, today announces the launch of its new gaming mouse, the MM830, making it the second product within the M800 series to hit the market following the MP860 dual sided RGB mousepad.

The MM830 is Cooler Master's first MMO mouse weighing at 162g. It features dynamic four zone RGB lighting effects and is designed with a top-of-the line 3360 Pixart optical sensor for accuracy and speed, with up to 24,000 DPI. Its durable PBT chassis reduces wear and tear, while Omron switches provide a 20M click reliability. Located in the thumb-rest area, the hidden D-Pad grants fast access, especially useful in MMOs. Its OLED screen permits further customization. Users can program the screen to display graphics, track APMs, reflect DPI settings and more.

Manli Technology Group Limited, the major Graphics Cards and other components manufacturer, today unveiled the new GeForce RTX 2060 family - Manli GeForce RTX 2060 with three solutions: blower style fan, twin cooler design and overclocking version. Manli GeForce RTX 2060 family is powered by the NVIDIA Turning GPU architecture and delivering ray tracing technology. Moreover, it is built-in 1,920 CUDA Cores which has increased up to 50% compared with previous generation, and the core frequency is at 1365 MHz which can boost up to 1680 MHz.

Manli GeForce RTX 2060 Gallardo & Manli GeForce RTX 2060 with Twin Cooler: Manli GeForce RTX 2060 Gallardo & RTX 2060 are both built with dual 8 cm fan and three copper heatpipes which provide effective heat dissipation. Specially, Manli GeForce RTX 2060 Gallardo is features of up to 5% more overclocking clock compared with standard version.

NVIDIA today released its latest version of GeForce software. Version 417.71 WHQL is the first public driver to add support for the new GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card. More importantly, it makes good on CEO Jen-Hsun Huang's promise to make NVIDIA GPUs, "Pascal" and "Turing," compatible with VESA Adaptive-Sync (AMD FreeSync) monitors. NVIDIA maintains this repository of monitors it has tested to support Adaptive Sync, although any compatible monitor meeting the cable requirements can be made to run G-Sync. The only feature only supports single-displays for now, and NVIDIA plans to add multi-display Adaptive-Sync support later.

NVIDIA also addressed a number of issues. To begin with, it fixed the problem of the GeForce GTX 1080 not dropping down GPU clock-speed to idle when three displays are connected. Also addressed is a black-screen noticed on monitors connected via DisplayPort, when resuming from S3 sleep. Also fixed is black screen noticed on BenQ XL2730 when the refresh-rate is set to the monitor's advertised 144 Hz. A Windows 7-specific error in which game frame-rates drop when both G-Sync and the in-game V-sync are enabled. Multiple apps throw up artifacts on Windows RS5 when resolution is changed, on machines with RTX 2080, which NVIDIA fixed with this release. An occasional crash on "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" with the game running in DirectX 12 mode was fixed.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 417.71 WHQLThe change-log follows.

ASUS today announced that its Z390 motherboards will support a maximum DRAM capacity of 128GB via a UEFI BIOS update that's being rolled out from today on the ASUS support site. ASUS will bring this increased memory support to all Z390 motherboards via additional BIOS updates that will be available soon.

Previously, support for 128GB of DRAM was available only on high-end desktop (HEDT) motherboards with eight DIMM slots, such as the Intel X299 platform. Intel recently updated its memory reference code (MRC), enabling the memory controller in 9th Gen Intel Core processors to increase the supported capacity of each DIMM from 16GB to 32GB, resulting in a total system memory capacity of 128GB when populated with two DIMMs per channel (2DPC) on both memory channels. This increased memory support gives users more flexibility for running memory-intensive applications and tasks.

Akasa unveiled the Vegas RAM Mate, the company's entry to the lucrative RGB memory heatspreader market. Borrowing a lot of design ideas from G.Skill's Trident-Z series, this heatspreader consists of two brushed aluminium plates that sandwich a silicone RGB LED diffuser at the top, with eight diodes. The RGB setup supports both 4-pin RGB and 3-pin addressable-RGB connectors. The heatspreader itself supports both VLP 18.3~18.7 mm-tall, and standard 30 mm-tall memory modules, which could be anything DDR1-thru-DDR4, as long as it's standard width (and not SO-DIMM). Akasa appears to be selling these in single-unit quantities, as opposed to some other companies selling their products in 2-piece kits. We expect it to be priced around USD $20-25.

If you had not heard of Sonarworks prior to this or the press release that went out last week, you may not be alone. The Latvian company is a little over 6 years old, and has since already managed to grab attention of some of the largest players in the audio market, including car makers interested in stereos, DJs, music producers, and of course more typical headphone and speaker makers. Their True-Fi desktop program claims to calibrate headphones to where everyone is able to hear the same sound no matter where they are- provided you use a supported headphone. This makes use of software sound processing and filtering, and the process works well enough to where they say over 30,000 recording studios worldwide currently use their technology.

At CES 2019, Sonarworks demonstrated the mobile version of their True-Fi program, currently in the Apple and Google Play stores as unreleased versions that will remain free until ready, following which it will cost $3.99/month or $99 for a lifetime license (the desktop version costs $79 by itself at this time). I was able to try out the app at their suite, and then also at home on my own phone, and came out impressed with the changes made. I did happen to have one of the ~300 currently-supported headphones though, and Sonarworks say they are working on adding more all the time. Users can also specifically request support to their own headsets if not on the list, although that might involve round trip shipment to Latvia. Read past the break for more, including their equally exciting personalized audio feature coming later this year.

China-based Hisense came out at CES 2019 with quite an ingenious new display solution that has (speculatively) a much better chance of faster PC monitor integration that OLED. OLED's implementation in PC monitors has been excruciatingly slow despite recent developments of the technology - mainly due to some underlying problems for PC's mostly fixed-image use-cases with its UI elements. As a result, display technology in the monitor space has been somewhat stagnant. Hisense, with its dual-panel ULED XD solution, whoever, could have a much cheaper and easier to implement solution that could bring another technology player to the PC monitor market.

The ULED XD solution basically crams two panels in front of the LED array. One is a 4K, RGB VA panel. This is your run-of-the mill implementation. However, there's a second panel sandwiched between the RGB and LED array in the form of a greyscale, 1080p resolution panel. What does this particular implementation offer, you ask? Well, it just so happens that different lighting conditions across the same RGB image are expanded upon by the grayscale monitor, even if it works at a lower resolution - it only serves to increase contrast if high and low luminosity areas, with black areas being supported by the blacks of the grayscale monitor. And even at that resolution, look at these as local dimming zones - over 2 million of such across a single panel.

Whether Activision-Blizzard's split from Destiny and Destiny 2 developer Bungie was caused by an overzealous grip on Bungie's creative vision or not is something that will likely never be clarified. But one thing is for certain: in the stock market, it doesn't really matter how something happened, but really what the effects are of it happening. And Bungie splitting from Activision-Blizzard means that the industry behemoth now finds itself with one less IP under its belt, thus constraining its revenue sources to a couple of high-profile IPs. Less sources of income = less versatility and resilience to market fluctuations, and that is something Activision-Blizzard was immediately hit back for from investors.

The company's stock decreased by as much as 11% in the wake of the Bungie split, from a high of $51.35 down to a low of $45.19, as investors reduced their trust in the company's profit volume and momentum. It has since recovered, but is still some 9% down. Whether Activision actually expected this much of a fall or not only the company knows. It'll be interesting to see the company's next financial report, though.

While adoption of NVIDIA's RTX ray tracing technology has been slow, the potential for the technology is undeniable. Games like Battlefield V have shown us how some increased optimization work can bring interesting, improved visuals at even the lowest setting of the technology. More games will eventually come out with NVIDIA's RTX technology - Metro: Exodus being one of the most hyped, high-profile one, but one other gem was presented when NVIDIA announced their RTX series: Atomic Heart.

At CES 2019, developer Mundfish outed another trailer that shows off the ray tracing capabilities embedded in this China Miéville-esque game. An FPS game with USSR inspirations, NVIDIA's RTX will be used for accurate reflections and deeper shadows, much like in Remedy's also upcoming Control. The game is still ways, ways off, though - Jensen Huang does say this is what "next-generation gaming will look like"; and it's expected that the developer will only release a closed beta for the game come 4Q 2019. That's a lot of time between it being showcased as an NVIDIA RTX title and its actual release. Still, take a look at the video below for some more renditions of NVIDIA's RTX tech and what ray tracing can bring to the table.

Display specialist AOC is proud to announce the arrival of the curved AG273QCG (Nvidia G-SYNC) and AG273QCX (AMD FreeSync 2 HDR) monitors of the third AGON generation. AOC's revamped and redesigned premium gaming monitor series is available starting from January 2019.

Designed for hardcore gamers, the AGON 3 models carry on with features of the past AGON displays such as refresh rates of up to 165 Hz, a high responsiveness of 1 ms, and now includes latest technologies such as AMD FreeSync 2 HDR and a refreshed sleek design, which in case of the AG273QCG has contributed to winning the "Red Dot Design Award 2018". Thanks to very high refresh rates of 165 Hz (AG273QCG) and 144 Hz (AG273QCX), very fast response times and variable refresh rate technologies both monitors are suited for fast-paced games.

AMD's upcoming Radeon VII high-end consumer graphics card lacks full FP64 compute capabilities available to the company's other products targeting the enterprise-compute market, such as the Radeon Instinct MI60. Radeon VII offers an FP32 peak compute throughput of 13.8 TFLOP/s single-precision, which, given its hardware resources, should normally work out a double-precision throughput of 6.7 TFLOP/s. However, with the feature disabled for the Radeon VII, the FP64 throughput will be closer to 860 GFLOP/s. Disabling FP64 capabilities for client-segment graphics cards is a common practice among both AMD and NVIDIA.

For gamers, PC enthusiasts, and even creative professionals, double-precision floating-point performance of a graphics card remains completely irrelevant. The disabling of DPFP ensures gamers have access to Radeon VII, lest every cloud compute provider and their dog would soak up Radeon VII inventory owing to its $699 list price, had it offered 6.7 TFLOP/s rivaling compute accelerators 10-15 times more. Radeon VII is the world's first consumer graphics processor built on the 7 nm silicon fabrication process, with company-claimed performance rivaling NVIDIA's RTX 2080. It will be available from February 7.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is excited to announce a new memory specification of DDR4-3466 CL18-22-22-42 with 32GB (4x8GB) capacity configuration at 1.35V for the high performance AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor and X399 platform. This memory kit will join the G.SKILL "Trident Z RGB (for AMD)" series, also known as the TZRX models.

Previously, the highest DDR4 speed available for the AMD X399 platform from G.SKILL was DDR4-3200. G.SKILL is now expanding the specifications to DDR4-3466 under the quad-channel configuration. This kit has been validated with the ASUS ROG ZENITH EXTREME ALPHA motherboard and AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X processor, as shown in the screenshots below.

HTPC case maker HDPLEX unveiled the DC-ATX 800W, a nano-ATX form-factor power-converter. This accessory, roughly as big as a power brick, takes in 6-pin PCIe, 8-pin PCIe, and 8-pin EPS connectors from your main rig, and depending on how many connectors you plug-in, puts out up to 800 Watts of power through a 24-pin ATX, and three downstream PCIe/EPS connectors, with the unit itself handing DC-to-DC switching of 12V to 5V and 3.3V voltage domains. This accessory is ideal if you have a high-Wattage power supply with multiple vacant EPS and PCIe connectors, and want to power a second mini-ITX machine, while saving a lot of space on the side. It uses some pretty high-grade components to ensure 24x7 operation, including Sanyo Japan-made solid-state capacitors, Infineon-made MOSFETs, Würth Elektronik inductors, and controller chips supplied by National Semiconductor and MPS. Available in the coming weeks, the DC-ATX 800W is priced at $190.

After checking out MSI's newest graphics cards, we took a closer look at their laptops including the 17.3-inch GS75 Stealth which just so happens to be their most potent ultra-thin gaming notebook. It comes packing up to an 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q to deliver the best possible gaming performance. In order to facilitate that MSI also used a 144 Hz 1080p display. The system also supports up to 32 GB of DDR4-2666 memory and has 2x NVMe M.2 / SATA-SSD combo slots and 1x NVMe M.2 SSD slot. It also features MSI's Cooler Boost Trinity+ technology which improves cooling for maximum performance. Meanwhile, the touchpad has a 35% larger surface area features a glass surface, and it also has support for multi-touch gestures. The keyboard is by SteelSeries and offers per-key RGB illumination, while sound is handled by Dynaudio using a passive radiator design. All in all, it has some beefy specifications for an ultra-thin to say the least.

The Vive Cosmos was not the only major announcement coming out of HTC's Vive business unit at CES this year. While that has massive mainstream appeal, the company was quick to let us know that it was still to early to comment further than what has already been covered in the aforelinked news post. Instead, they invited us to their suite to take a closer look at the Vive Pro Eye- one of the few things that really stood out for us at the trade show.

The Vive Pro Eye is, as the name would suggest, a new SKU with integrated eye tracking in the Vive Pro HMD. Working together with Tobii, the Vive Pro Eye allows for a more natural control mechanism within VR via eye controls, which in turn means a revamped menu navigation system is possible. This allows for increased accessibility to end users with disability, more optimization on VR performance, and detailed analysis of VR experiences for both the client and the businesses alike. Read past the break for a breakdown of our experience with the Vive Pro Eye, and the various demos on hand to showcase the feature.

MSI showed off their GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning at CES 2019. This latest and greatest offering from them is built around overclocking with the graphics card having been designed with a 19-phase power delivery subsystem and 3x 8-pin power connectors. It offers a dual BIOS support with the default BIOS coming with a factory overclock of 1770 MHz while the second BIOS is configured for LN2 and comes with NVIDIA's reference clock speeds but offers a boosted power limit of 350-watts. Display connectivity options consisted of 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI and 1x USB Type-C output for VirtualLink.

We were invited to take a look at the Kanto Audio suite at CES by their PR firm, and the brand itself has been on my mind for a while now- offering good quality powered monitor speakers at various price points. This year they are bringing out their new high-end TUK powered speakers, which were first shown off last year, and the entire spec sheet reads like a must-have for many audio enthusiasts, including yours truly. The TUK comes in white or black color schemes, is rated at 130 W RMS for the pair, and features AMT tweeters with 5.25" aluminium concave cone drivers coupled with an on-board DSP and a Class D amp.

I/O includes Bluetooth 4.2 with Qualcoom AptX HD and AAC codec support for those who need it, but most will end up using one of the several wired options encompassing optical TOSLINK, RCA and Phone inputs, a USB DAC for us PC users, subwoofer out, and a headphone jack. So if you fancy connecting a turntable to it to play some old vinyls, go for it! Oh, it also has a USB charger to use with portable media players as well. Read past the break for more on the TUK and other Kanto Audio products we saw this past week.

Razer a dominant player in the PC peripherals market is looking to make their mark when it comes to monitors with their all-new Razer Raptor gaming monitor. Its a 27-inch display featuring an IPS panel with a resolution of 2560x1440. It comes with support for FreeSync and has a refresh rate of 144 Hz. Response times are listed as 7 ms typical and 4 ms with Overdrive. The contrast ratio is 1000:1 and the screen has a max brightness of 420 nits. It also offers 95% of the P3-D65 color gamut, and yes it has support for HDR. Connectivity consists of 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB Type-C with power delivery and 2x USB 3.0.

The design features a wide stand that offers excellent stability while also providing channels for cable routing giving the system a clean and unique appearance especially with those bright green cables. As expected of Razer the Raptor monitor also supports Chrome-powered lights in the base which will sync with the rest of Razer's Chrome gear including, mice, keyboards and even laptops and speakers. In regards to availability, no date has been set just yet; however, Razer said it would be made available later this year with an MSRP of $699.99.

Hexgears is, in their own words, "a global gaming brand with influences from the USA, Germany, and China". We briefly covered them before thanks to their first adoption of the new Kailh Sun switches, and at CES 2019 they had a booth on the showfloor for this very keyboard and other products. The GK760 from Hexgears is still the only keyboard announced to use those new Sun switches, which effectively allows for a central backlighting similar to Omron switches, while still retaining Cherry MX keycap compatibility. The GK760 is a full-size keyboard with 104 keys and ABS plastic keycaps, which also appear to be low in profile even though the actual switches are not necessarily so. There is an entire column of programmable G-keys (macro keys), as well as a dedicated volume scroll wheel and a thick plushy wrist rest. Read past the break to know more about the products they showed off at CES.

Mad Catz Global Limited, leading gaming hardware innovators for nearly 30 years, announced an all-new line of S.T.R.I.K.E. professional gaming keyboards, including a S.T.R.I.K.E. with ultra-reliable mechanical keys, ideal for the Esports community. Expected to begin shipping from Spring 2019, the S.T.R.I.K.E. range is a perfect addition to the Company's recently announced range of G.L.I.D.E. gaming surfaces and R.A.T. mice., forming part of a complete PC eco-system. With two S.T.R.I.K.E. keyboards to choose from, gamers can pick the keyboard that suits their preference and budget.

Armed with Cherry mechanical switches, the S.T.R.I.K.E.4+ is the gamers' new secret weapon. Tested to withstand at least 50 million hits, the Cherry switches provide perfect travel and precision every time. With anti-ghosting featuring on every key, gamers can combine with the powerful F.L.U.X. software, which allows for staggering customization and control over every aspect of the keyboard including individual key lighting and control over the USB report rate. Chameleon RGB Lighting baths the keyboard in 16.8 million colors, fully adjustable and customizable via the F.L.U.X. software and creating a new standard in keyboard lighting.

Dongguan City Kaihua Electronics Co., Ltd, more familiarly known for the Kailh brand, had their own booth at CES in the design and source section far away from the rest of the consumer-centric show floor. Indeed, this section was more for brands to get B2B relations onboard but that did not stop us from visiting the switch maker that is now responsible for providing switches to more brands than any other today. Kailh had not one, but four new switches under the so-called China style moniker. These are limited edition switches that presumably were made with certain specific customers in mind already, possibly to specific requests to be used with limited edition keyboards as well. The China style BOX switches include the linear Chinese Red switch rated at 45 gf actuation, the tactile and clicky Noble Yellow rated at 65 gf actuation, a lighter weight tactile and clicky Glazed Green switch at 50 gf, and a much heavier linear Ancient Gray switch at all of 95 gf actuation. All four switches have interesting names in common, along with a rated 1.8 mm actuation distance and 80 million keystroke lifetime.

CES may have officially ended but our coverage from the trade show continues. Bitspower had invited TechPowerUp to come visit their suite, mentioning there would be something new and unexpected, and that indeed was the case. Our tour began with the customary showcase of the new GPU water blocks compatible with reference, and board partner designs, for the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 and relatively new AIC RTX 2070/80(Ti) cards as well. These feature integrated RGB lighting compatible with all major motherboard lighting solutions for control, and adopt the split central-inlet flow design as well.