Most gamers probably have only 2 out of 4 DDR4 DIMM slots populated in their rigs, with the vacant memory slots presenting an eyesore for some. Just so you don't have to spend an additional $170+ on a second Vengeance RGB Pro 2-module dual-channel kit to make your memory area look "complete," Corsair has come up with a $40 quick-fix, the Vengeance RGB Pro Light Enhancement Kit. These are dummy modules that look exactly like real Vengeance RGB Pro, and fill up the vacant memory slots on your motherboard.

These "modules" add a grand total of 0 bits to your system memory and are clocked lower than a tuning fork, but draw power from the DIMM slots to drive the RGB LED lighting that can run in sync with your real Vengeance RGB Pro modules. Corsair is using an addressable RGB setup, so motherboard-based software can control or synchronize them with the rest of your lighting. Corsair is offering these 2-pack Light Enhancement Kits in two flavors - black and white. Both variants are priced at $39.99. If you're buying pre-built desktops with Vengeance RGB Pro, insist on finding out if they've used one of these to make a single-channel setup look like dual-channel.

Today Aqua Computer is proud to present the kryographics NEXT 2080 / Ti. These are the most sophisticated coolers Aqua Computer ever produced for graphics cards. All components are CNC machined in Aqua Computers own production facility in Germany and manufactured from the highest quality materials. The complex base plate is milled from 1.8kg raw material, the finished cooler weighs about 1.25kg - with backplate about 1.5kg.

With the NEXT generation of the kryographics series, function and design have been significantly enhanced. The desire for a full-cover cooler was taken into account and the solid copper base almost completely covers the entire card and cools all components described by Nvidia in the technical documentation as a significant heat source. The water flow in the cooler was optimized for high flow rates and direct overflushing of almost all relevant components with some areas flowing through in parallel.

Intel plans to put an 8-core "Coffee Lake" CPU into a chassis with no more than 5 liters volume. Detailed earlier this month, the "Ghost Canyon" is a high-end NUC (next unit of computing) desktop which features the company's premium "Coffee Lake-HR" SoC. This chip features an 8-core/16-thread CPU and Intel UHD 620 graphics, and a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot.

Since "Ghost Canyon" is positioned above the "Hades Canyon" NUC in Intel's product stack, Intel isn't bothering to build another MCM with an 8-core CPU and an AMD discrete GPU. It could instead let the NUC feature a faster discrete GPU over an MXM slot. FanlessTech caught the first glimpse of "Ghost Canyon," a matte black box with clear Intel Extreme branding. Apart from its star attraction, "Ghost Canyon" offers up to three HDMI 2.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, M.2-2280 NVMe storage, and either PCI-Expresss 3.0 x16 interface for graphics. FanlessTech mentions this product won't be out before early-2020.

For those doing a fresh install of Microsoft's latest Windows 10 operating system (version 1809 October 2018 Update), you may encounter an issue with NVIDIA graphics drivers. Namely, a message may pop up when you install the graphics driver, telling you "The standard NVIDIA graphics driver is not compatible with this version of Windows". The issue is caused by the operating system automatically installing the GeForce 398.36 DCH graphics driver through Windows Update, immediately after first log-on. DCH drivers are also known as "Universal Windows Driver", "UWD", "DCHU", and "Declarative, Componentized, Hardware Support App", and leverage the Windows UWP platform for driver control panels while promising simpler updates and maintainability.

If networking is available during the Windows 10 installation, the operating system will automatically look for a graphics driver on Windows Update, which is a good thing, as it simplifies the setup process for the majority of users. At this point, everything will appear to be fine, however, once you attempt to update from that driver to the newest version from NVIDIA's driver download page, the error will appear. This is highly frustrating for some users, who have been reporting the issue on several online forums, including NVIDIA's own, with little attention paid thus far from their developers. We encountered the problem ourselves today, during the setup of our 2019 SSD review benchmarking install and got motivated to investigate this further.

Anyone looking for an update to their CPU that didn't quite jump on the Coffee Lake/Zen/Zen+ bandwagon is likely paying close attention to AMD's upcoming Zen 2 CPUs. The upcoming AMD processors will finally leave the company ahead of Intel in terms of manufacturing process for the first time in years, and will bring about AMD's new vision for HCC desktop processors in a chiplet design. With the release of Zen 2 set for 2019 (probably around Computex), and its launch being of such importance to AMD, it isn't that surprising that some promotions/teases are already popping up.

The tease in question was posted by an AMD-contracted Sales agency in South Korea, which launched a campaign inviting users to guess Cinebench scores for upcoming AMD processors: namely, the Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 5 3600X - thus confirming the nomenclature for AMD's upcoming CPUs. The contest finishes on December 14th, and is basically asking users to take a gander on scores for unreleased CPUs - promising prizes of said CPUs when they launch.

Obsidian Entertainment, which was recently acquired by Microsoft in its efforts to bolster its first-party studios, has announced a new video game set for release in 2019. Titled "The Outer Worlds", it's a first-person RPG with a focus on single-player and story - it seems more Fallout than Fallout, really, which should come as a surprise to virtually no-one: this is the game studio that developed Fallout: New Vegas and that still holds the talent of some of that franchises' early creators.

The game seems to be striking a balance between Fallout and Borderlands, both in the art and setting department and overall design. If so, this could be an interesting take on the genre, though we'd hope for either a really strong storyline or some innovative mechanics to set itself apart from other offerings that are crowding this particular strata of the gaming world: Borderlands, Rage, Fallout, and now Far Cry New Dawn are all exploring stretches of this setting. We'll be here to look at what a current-gen Fallout game might be without the Creation Engine - and multiplayer focus like Fallout 76.

Ubisoft has announced the latest installment in the Far Cry series. Titled "New Dawn", the new entry will retain the New Montana setting, with a twist: we are now 17 years into the future (with the baseline being the end of Far Cry 5). An apocalyptic event (a global nuclear catastrophe, naturally) has warped humanity's capabilities and way of living, and we'll get to see an all-new, re-skinned New Montana - it seems tons of pink and purple will make a major splash in this post-apocalyptic setting. Think of how Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon swapped over to a red color scheme, and you get the idea.

Overall, the game makes some changes to the overall Far Cry aesthetic. I'm curious to see how much Hope County has changed with the events that happened in-between games, but I'm slightly suspicious of a game within the same setting and with such a short development time - it's sort of a revisit on the Far Cry Primal formula. The new game drops February 15th, 2019.

Valve has brought about an update to their eons-old competitive shooter CS:GO. The update brings the game to the modern, post-Fortnite era of multiplayer games, with a new Battle Royale mode named "Danger Zone". The "Danger Zone" Battle Royale mode cuts the number of maximum players to 18, though, which is a far cry from other market offerings - but has designed to mode so that each match lasts at most 10 minutes, which should bring about some escalating tension despite the reduced number of players compared to other Battle Royale game modes. The usual "save the hostages" mechanic has been baked into the mode as a way for players to make money, which they can use to purchase weapons, a la classic CS fashion.

The other move that Valve has made in order to boost popularity of CS:GO has been to make the game free to play, waiving the usual $15 entry fee. It just wasn't justifiable, it seems, to keep such a price on a game released back in 2012 - especially not when compared to the money-making prowess of Fortnite.

Epic Games is moving its entire collection of digitally-sold games away from Steam, and on to its own new store+DRM platform rivaling Steam, Origin, and UPlay. The new Epic Games Store plans not only to sell games published by Epic, but also other third-party publishers, to whom Epic is promising an 88% revenue share (keeping a 12% thin margin for handing DRM, unlimited downloads, and update patch distribution). For comparison, Steam rakes in a 30% margin. Epic is offering additional incentives to third-party game studios who use Unreal Engine. Epic Games titles are being pulled out from Steam store. The move does not affect people who already own Epic titles on Steam, as future re-installs and patch updates will continue.

INNO3D, a leading manufacturer of pioneering high-end multimedia components and various innovations is excited to introduce the new iCHILL Frostbite. The brains in R&D have revisited the water cooling solution segment of iCHILL and developed this water block masterpiece. It is designed around NVIDIA's GeForce RTX series 2080 Ti, 2080 and 2070, providing nothing short of excellent cooling for these powerhouse of graphics cards.

INNO3D decided it was the right time to bring back water cooling and add this to the iCHILL arsenal, befitting to the power of the new
RTX series and its need for the best cooling technology. The iCHILL Frostbite is built with top quality components for supreme functionality whilst catering to the aesthetic demands with its magnificent RGB lighting. The iCHILL Frostbite is built with pure copper and is nickel plated which completely seals the heatsink protecting it. Increased cooling performance is enabled with thin thermal pads and close proximity with radiator and component. It also has ultra-thin cooling fins at 0.6 mm thick that stand 0.6 mm between each other resulting in maximum possible cooling performance.

There could be light at the end of the tunnel for Intel's silicon fabrication business after all, as the company reported that its 7 nanometer silicon fabrication node, which incorporates EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography, is on track. The company stressed in its Nasdaq Investors' Conference presentation that its 7 nm EUV process is de-linked from its 10 nm DUV (deep ultraviolet) node, and that there are separate teams working on their development. The 10 nm DUV node is qualitatively online, and is manufacturing small batches of low-power mobile "Cannon Lake" Core processors.

Cannon Lake is an optical shrink of the "Skylake" architecture to the 10 nm node. Currently there's only one SKU based on it, the Core i3-8121U. Intel utilized the electrical gains from the optical shrink to redesign the client-segment architecture's FPU to support the AVX-512 instruction-set (although not as feature-rich as the company's enterprise-segment "Skylake" derivatives). The jump from 10 nm DUV to 7 nm EUV will present a leap in transistor densities, with Intel expecting nothing short of a doubling. 10 nm DUV uses a combination of 193 nm wavelength ultraviolet lasers and multi-patterning to achieve its transistor density gains over 14 nm++. The 7 nm EUV node uses an extremely advanced 135 nm indirect laser, reducing the need for multi-patterning. The same laser coupled with multi-patterning could be Intel's ticket to 5 nm.

Introducing the SPARTAN 716 cube tempered glass case. Version two of the SPARTAN series compact PC gamer case is here, the SPARTAN 716 all new S-MICRO ATX structure supporting a standard ATX power supply unit and MICRO ATX or MINI ITX mainboard. Looking to build your own smaller gaming system, this might just be what you are interested in. The SPARTAN 716 makes for the ideal system to carry to your friends or gaming events. With two solid metal handles on the top and bottom you can easy pickup and carry this case with you.

This cube shaped PC enclosure accommodates sufficient space for other components such as HDD/SSD x3, long video cards up to 245mm long x2, large CPU cooler up to 160mm and room for up to x3 cooling fans, one 120/140mm fan space on the front, one 80mm fan space on the bottom and one 120/140mm fan space on the top. A cool looking meshed effect on the rear side of the front tempered glass as well as tempered glass side panels on the left and right to show of LED/RGB lights. The SPARTAN 716 contains x2 USB3.0 & x1 USB2.0 and HD-AC97 audio ports on the top panel so that you can easily connect your peripherals. Backed by the 2 year warranty service from X2-gaming.

So, it goes like this: Microsoft has confirmed they will be killing of their own-developed Edge browser in favor of a Chromium-based alternative. However... The new browser will retain Microsoft's Edge nomenclature, instead of parting ways with the (likely damaged) branding. Microsoft is committing to the open-based Chromium backbone, and will be building upon its database to contribute towards a more open Internet.

The idea is to deliver more frequent updates - and of course, reducing the engineering and coding efforts to keep an in-house browser up to date and secure from all manner of Internet threats. And this will likely be achieved; whether Microsoft's efforts will bring it a higher market share than the current 4%, though, is anyone's guess. It seems to be a usual Microsoft dilemma in that the first search on its browsers is for another web browser... And it might remain especially so without a branding change. Living in Chrome just sounds better than living on Edge.

Denuvo's protection has rapidly deteriorated in the amount of time it actually is able to protect games' first sales period, which is always argued as the most important in the shelf life for any given game launch. While the first Denuvo-protected games lasted weeks and sometimes even months before ever being cracked, the latest releases have seen rapid-fire hits from pirates.

These outcomes must seriously hamper developers' expectations on Denuvo's ability to keep their games protected. Either all developers try and move towards an always-online game system (such as Destiny 2 and some other games), or it seems that both relatively old players (Denuvo) and newcomers (Valeroa) will see their marketing departments having to contort into increasingly impossible shapes to sell their product. Read our own impressions on just Cause 4 here.

EVGA has been launching a number of products in partnership with renowned overclocker KIngpIn (Vince Lucido). These are typically made for extreme overclocking scenarios, and represent the very top of EVGA's offerings in terms of materials, build quality, and scarcity of built cards. For now, there's just a simple tease, posted via Vince Lucido's Instagram account, but this serves to surprise virtually nobody: NVIDIA's Turing will also receive the KIngpIn treatment.

Past examples of KIngpIn-branded graphics cards supported features such as improved power delivery systems (increased number of phases and power connectors), as well as some of the most versatile designs ever, with both triple-slot cooling solutions and single-slot adapters. As always, expect the GPUs inside the KIngpIn RTX 2080 Ti to be cherry-picked versions out of EVGA's crops.

LucidSound, the fastest growing gaming headset brand, announced today the start of a pre-order campaign for the LS41 Wireless Surround Headset, the company's next-generation flagship model delivering advanced surround-sound and premium build quality.

Wireless when used with PlayStation4 and Xbox One, and compatible with mobile devices via the 3.5mm wired connection, the highly-anticipated LS41 is expected to start shipping in January 2019 and is available for pre-order at Amazon and other leading retailers starting today.

INNO3D, a leading manufacturer of pioneering high-end multimedia components and various innovations including the recent addition high performance gaming iCHILL Memory. Its introduction to the market has been very well received due to the various capacities that the iCHILL memory series offers including 4GB to 16GB at speeds of 2400MHz to 4000MHz and with ultra-low latencies up to 15CL.

INNO3D has done wonders with the iCHILL series over the last decade in the graphics department so wanted to apply the same principles, intricacies and devotion to creating a series of performance gaming memory with the ice cool touch. The iCHILL memory modules are equipped with a unique heat spreader design that optimizes system performance for smoother gaming experience with that extra kick to your PC.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today released the new TVS-x72XT NAS series, powered by 8th Gen Intel Core processors with both 10GBASE-T and Thunderbolt 3 high-bandwidth connectivity for tackling heavy workloads and smoothly transferring, displaying and editing 4K videos in real-time. By supporting M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs and graphics cards, the TVS-x72XT series provides the ability to boost performance and create a scalable working environment for high-speed file sharing and collaboration.

The TVS-x72XT series features quality hardware and excellent performance with multiple 10GBASE-T and Thunderbolt 3 ports to provide workstations with high-capacity and high-throughput storage," said David Tsao, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "the TVS-x72XT series is also an exceptional storage base for iMac Pro users as they can flexibly choose between Thunderbolt 3 and 10GbE connections to suit their application and device needs."

With NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 20-series having already released for desktops, it was only a matter of time until laptops got the RTX treatment as well. Current rumors are suggesting that Nvidia will officially launch their GeForce RTX 20-series mobility GPUs on January 6th at CES with the RTX 2070 and RTX 2070 Max-Q taking center stage. An embargo date of January 26th has also been set, with NVIDIA delaying their final release drivers until then. Meaning final performance results for the new mobile GPUs won't be available until after the embargo date, which should coincide with the general availability of RTX 20-series equipped laptops.

Along with the RTX 2070 and 2070 Max-Q mobility parts, the flagship RTX 2080 Max-Q which isn't expected at the show, is still in the works, with its TU104M 1eab device ID having been leaked earlier. The rest of the GeForce 20-series mobility GPUs are likely to use the GTX moniker if NVIDIA's desktop lineup is anything to go by; however, that is merely speculation at this point.

NVM Express, Inc. today announced the pending availability of the NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI ) specification. The NVMe-MI 1.1 release standardizes NVMe enclosure management, provides the ability to access NVMe-MI functionality in-band and delivers new management features for multiple NVMe subsystem solid-state drive (SSD) deployments.

NVM Express Inc., offering an open collection of NVM Express (NVMe ) specifications and resources on the benefits of non-volatile memory, completed technical work on NVMe-MI 1.1 and the specification is in the ratification process with wide availability anticipated in 60 days. The new management features offer NVMe end-users and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) more control and flexibility.

"The NVMe-MI 1.1 specification defines essential management elements requested by the growing NVMe ecosystem," said Peter Onufryk, NVMe Board Member and NVMe-MI Workgroup Chair. "For example, we didn't have a defined standard to manage NVMe enclosures, and now we have a standard that member companies can map to."

Today Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. is adding 12 TB and 14 TB models to both its N300 NAS Hard Drive and X300 Performance Hard Drive series. The new 12 TB and 14 TB models use a helium-sealed design, enabling the 3.5-inch mechanical design to deliver increased storage density with a lower hard drive operating power profile. Toshiba laser welding technology and hard drive case is designed to keep the helium securely sealed inside the drive enclosure.

The new 12 TB and 14 TB models operate at 7,200 rpm and come with an ultra-high 256MB data buffer. The N300 NAS and X300 models use Toshiba's advanced Stable Platter Technology to minimize vibrations by stabilizing the motor shaft at both ends for improved tracking accuracy and maximum performance during read and write operations.

ENERMAX, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance PC hardware products, announces the launch of a new all-in-one liquid cooler series, LIQTECH II. Responding the market demand of cooling solution for high-end CPUs, LIQTECH II can deliver enthusiast-grade cooling capacity of 500+ watts (TDP) and is compatible with both Intel and AMD sockets (except AMD sTR4).

Furthermore, certified by main motherboard makers (ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI), LIQTECH II can support the latest addressable RGB lighting synchronization with advanced motherboards featuring addressable RGB headers (pin assignment: 5V/D/-/G) to create dynamic visual effects. LIQTECH II is perfect for overclocked systems, image editing workstations, and high-end gaming machines.

Building upon the already popular EVGA GeForce RTX 20-Series cards and customizable Trim Kits, EVGA now offers a limited-edition Carbon Fiber Shroud and Carbon Trim Kit as the next step to make your EVGA graphics card stand out. Made with 100% real Carbon Fiber, EVGA is kicking off its latest RTX Accessories by giving away some Carbon Fiber Shrouds and Carbon Trim Kits to EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FTW3 and 2080 FTW3 purchasers. For a limited time, you can enter for a chance to win either a Limited Edition Carbon Shroud or Carbon Trim Kit for your EVGA GeForce RTX 2080Ti FTW3 or RTX 2080 FTW3 graphics card.