Cooler Master, a global leader in PC component manufacturing, today, announces the launch of their new Square Fan (SF) series of PC fans. Introduced as part of the MasterFan family, the new SF series of fans are equipped not only with RGB lighting, but features designed to enhance user experience in installation and performance.

Three new fans are included in the new SF series, the MasterFan SF120R RGB, SF120R ARGB and the SF360R ARGB. All three fans feature Cooler Master's new square fan design, while the SF360R ARGB fan incorporates multiple fans in an All-In-One frame. The entire SF series features rubber pads around each point of connection to decreases vibration and reduce noise pollution. In addition, the SF series of fans are designed to be compatible with all current AIO liquid coolers and most computer cases.

Building on the enormous success of the ASRock Steel Legend motherboard series, ASRock is pleased to expand the range with the new Z390 Steel Legend. Based on the proven Steel Legend design philosophy, the Z390 provides the most in demand features, taking advantage of a wide array of materials, components and technologies to ensure stable and reliable performance.

Cooling and usability were the focal points in the Z390 Steel Legend design process. The Z390's shaped PCB design is not only attractive but also provides easier access to SATA ports. The board's large and impressive XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsinks enhance stability and overclocking potential. Dual full coverage M.2 SSD heatsinks dissipate heat efficiently to ensure your high speed drives always work at their best.

ASRock has released BIOS updates for all Z390/H370/Q370/B365/B360/H310 series motherboards to support the soon to be released new stepping 9th Generation Intel Core processors. The latest BIOS updates are available for download now from our website or simply update through ASRock APP Shop. New processors are scheduled to launch in Q2, 2019, the latest BIOS for each motherboard are listed as below. BIOS updates for more models will be added soon.

AMD X570 is the companion premium chipset option for the company's 3rd generation Ryzen "Matisse" processor family, and is expected to debut alongside the first of these processors some time in June, 2019. Unlike the X470 and X370, the new X570 will be based on an in-house chipset design by AMD, and probably manufactured at GlobalFoundries on its 14 nm node. The mid-range "B550" and lower chipset models could continue to be sourced from ASMedia. Motherboard majors ASUS and ASRock put out their first partial lists of motherboard models based on the AMD X570.

ASUS will launch as many as seven motherboard models in its Republic of Gamers (ROG) family, led by the Crosshair VIII Formula. This indicates that ASUS is placing high enough sales expectations from the "Valhalla" platform across the competitive landscape to come out with an ROG Formula product. You can expect goodies such as 8-layer PCBs, liquid-cooling preparation for the VRM heatsinks, Thunderbolt, or 10 GbE, and the most number of overclocker-friendly features. Next up, are the ROG Crosshair VIII Hero and Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi, which could be the company's second-best product offerings. For the first time on the AMD platform, ASUS will launch an ROG Impact mini-ITX product, with the ROG Crosshair VIII Impact. There will be three ROG Strix family products based on the X570, the Strix-E (premium ATX), Strix-F (mid-range ATX), and Strix-I (premium mini-ITX).

As a follow-up to our story from Monday about AMD missing out UEFI BIOS support for its Radeon VII graphics cards, AMD has come out with a quick response. The company in a statement said that it is ready with a UEFI-ready video BIOS for the Radeon VII, and has released the BIOS to its partners. This explains ASRock's timely release of its BIOS update. The company also assured those unwilling to manually update their video BIOS that it will have one-click automatic BIOS updates posted on the AMD website very soon. AMD reiterated that the older BIOS and the new one with UEFI GOP support won't have any performance differences. The new BIOS will make your machine start up faster, since your motherboard will no longer need to load CSM. AMD's full statement follows.

AMD has released a BIOS for the Radeon VII with UEFI GOP included for our AIB partners. We will also make a one click installable BIOS available to end users via AMD.com. We do not expect gaming performance differences between the non UEFI BIOS and the UEFI GOP included BIOS, although the non UEFI BIOS may experience slower boot times from cold boot.

Update: The AMD BIOS Updater is located here: www.amd.com/en/support/radeonvii-vbios-eula

In what is turning out to be a massive QA oversight by AMD, people who bought retail Radeon VII graphics cards report that their cards don't support UEFI, and that installing the card in their machines causes their motherboard to engage CSM (compatibility support module), a key component of UEFI firmware that's needed to boot the machine with UEFI-unaware hardware (such as old storage devices, graphics cards, NICs, etc.,).

To verify this claim, we put the stock video BIOS of our Radeon VII sample in a hex editor, and what we found out startled us. The BIOS completely lacks UEFI support, including a GOP (graphics output protocol) driver. A GOP driver is a wafer-thin display driver that runs basic display functions on your GPU during the pre-boot environment. Without UEFI support for the graphics card (i.e. with CSM running), Windows 10 cannot engage Secure Boot. Since UEFI Secure Boot is a requirement for Microsoft Windows 10 Logo certification, we are having doubts whether AMD can really claim "Windows 10 compatible" for Radeon VII, at least until a BIOS update is available.

The leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, ASRock, launches the flagship level product - Phantom Gaming X Radeon VII 16G graphics card, featuring AMD's world's first 7nm Radeon VII gaming GPU and 16GB 4096-bit HBM2 memory with powerful computing performance, plus full instruction set support such as DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5 and Vulkan for the latest AAA-rated games, virtual reality (VR), 3D rendering and video editing applications, and next-generation computing workloads. It provides a great experience for enthusiast gamers and professional creators.

The Phantom Gaming X Radeon VII 16G graphics card is equipped with the Radeon VII gaming GPU built on the latest 7nm process technology based on the next-generation Vega architecture, achieving a base/boost frequency of 1400/1750 MHz and with 16GB 4096-bit HBM2 memory which is twice the capacity of the previous generation Radeon RX series, while the 1TB/s maximum memory bandwidth that is 2.1 times of the previous generation. The average game performance increased by 29%, and the average content creation efficiency increased by 36% compared with the previous generation Radeon RX series.

The world leading motherboard and mini PC manufacturer - ASRock, announces DeskMini 310 supports Intel the latest 9th Generation Core series 65-watt LGA1151 processors. ASRock DeskMini 310 adopts with Intel H310 chipset, supports up to 32GB DDR4-2666MHz memory, dual 2.5-inch hard drive and one M.2 (2280) PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe SSD. ASRock provides various optional accessories of DeskMini 310, includes USB 2.0 cable, VESA mount kit, and Wi-Fi ac kit. With comprehensive accessories, DeskMini 310 can satisfy diverse demands from all users.

Sometime mid-2019, AMD will launch its 3rd generation Ryzen "Zen 2" processors with core counts of up to 16 cores in the AM4 package. These processors will launch alongside the new AMD 500-series desktop chipset family, led by the X570. AMD assures backwards compatibility of these processors with older chipsets provided motherboard vendors support their customers with BIOS updates. You'll probably need a 500-series chipset motherboard to use PCI-Express gen 4.0 connectivity, while older chipsets will limit connectivity to gen 3.0 (not that there are any GPUs that use gen 4.0).

ASRock is developing as many as nine motherboard models based on the AMD X570, according to a list scored by VideoCardz. These include the X570 Phantom Gaming X and X570 Taichi leading the top-end; X570 Phantom Gaming 6, X570 Phantom Gaming 4, and X570 Extreme4 covering the mid-range, and the entry-level of the lineup consisting of the X570 Pro4/R2.0 and X570M Pro4/R2.0.

The leading global motherboard and graphics card manufacturer, ASRock, pleasure to announce the world's first AMD based Mini STX Platform - DeskMini A300 at CES 2019. It adopts with AMD A300 chipset, not only supports AMD AM4 65W APU, but also provides up to 32GB DDR4-2933MHz high-speed memory, which leads to outstanding computing power and 3D performance. DeskMini A300 offers up to 4 storage interfaces, supports three display outputs simultaneously, M.2 Wi-Fi module and various accessories within 1.9 Liter compact size. DeskMini A300 is an ideal choice to build a home entertainment PC and mini data center.

DeskMini A300 features the brand new A300M-STX motherboard. Continuing the design of the ASRock DeskMini series, the AMD AM4 socket is able to support the Bristol Ridge and Raven Ridge's 65W APU, as well as two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots, which can support up to 32GB of capacity. With overclocking memory module, it will power up 20% of 3D gaming performance even more . Moreover, the DeskMini A300 supports three display outputs simultaneously, greatly improves the user experience.

The leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, is proud to introduce the new ASRock Steel Legend motherboard series. ASRock Steel Legend motherboards are built around the most demanding specs and features to provide a wide array of materials, components, and features that ensure stable and reliable performance. Steel Legend motherboards stand out from the crowd through its massive and luscious XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsinks, I/O Armor, PCI-E Steel Slot, Polychrome Sync (Addressable RGB LED) support, and detailed PCB print on Sapphire Black PCB for mainstream users, gamers, and professionals that choose to work and play in style. With support for the latest AMD Ryzen processors, as well as high-quality audio featuring the highest quality Nichicon golden audio caps and signal shielding integrated into the PCB.

ASRock has gone to great lengths to ensure optimum stability and protection. With ASRock Full Spike Protection on all USB, Audio and LAN ports, users are always protected from Lightning/ESD damage, which is a comforting thought when using Steel Legend motherboards in challenging environments. Use of Premium 60A Power Chokes and Nichicon 12K Black Caps means not only that the B450 Steel Legend and B450M Steel Legend will remain rock solid no matter the task, but it also keeps your system stable when overclocking, for extra performance, whether you're gaming or rendering professional content.

There's no better way to kick off 2019 with the launch of new products, the motherboards featuring Intel B365 chipset launched during CES 2019 aims mostly at mainstream market but with huge improvement on not only functionality but also aesthetics, the product line are formed by total of 5 motherboards including Mini-ITX, the ever popular PRO series and the latest Phantom Gaming motherboards, giving a wide range of selection for everyone.

As M.2 NVMe SSDs get ever more attractive through affordability, capacity and performance, it is certain that these lightning fast storage devices will soon be a must have solution for gaming or even everyday use. ASRock has seen this trend and went all out to be the first to include the M.2 heatsink as standard equipment for the mainstream motherboard, the B365 Phantom Gaming 4 even has two separate M.2 heatsink for secondary high speed M.2 SSDs.

ASRock at CEs announced what has become the world's first Mini STX PC to employ an AMD Ryzen APU. In the form of the DeskMini A300. With just 1.9 liters, it makes use of AMD's A300 chipset to guarantee support for both AMD's Ryzen (Raven Ridge) processors, as well as A-series Bristol Ridge processors with up to 65 W TDP. Take care that an integrated cooling solution isn't shipped with the A300, though - you'll have to find a cooling solution no taller than 45 mm.

2x DDR4 SO-DIMM slots allow for up to 32 GB of DDR4-2400 or DDR4-2933 memory (Ryzen or A-series). For the small form-factor, 2x M.2-2280 slots for SSDs (PCIe 3.0 x4 and x2/x4) and 2x 2.5-inch bays for SATA SSDs or HDDs sems more than plenty (RAID 0 and 1 modes are supported). No support for MXM graphics cards here - only integrated graphics can drive your displays, via 1x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x HDMI 2.0, or 1xD-Sub outputs. There's a RealtekRTL8111H GbE network connection, 2x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A and 1x Type-C port, 1x USB 2.0 Type-A connector, as well as 1x M.2-2230 slot for a Wi-Fi + Bluetooth module. Power is delivered by an external, 120 W power-brick, which should help keep in-chassis temperatures in check.

TEAMGROUP, the world's leading memory brand, today joins forces with motherboard leader ASRock and release the cobranded Phantom Gaming RGB solid state drive and RGB memory. Both of them are certified and strictly tested by ASRock Phantom Gaming and their lighting effects can be both synchronized with motherboard and officially presented in CES 2019.

The read/write speed performance of T-FORCE DELTA Phantom Gaming RGB SSD(5V) is fully evolved, you can upgrade your computer easily; T-FORCE XCALIBUR Phantom Gaming RGB luminous memory uses high quality OEM IC chips, and also has an eye-catching 120° wide angle RGB lighting range. The easy overclocking feature also receives top recommendations from gamers.

Thermaltake, a world renowned PC DIY components manufacturer announced the release of four high-quality water cooling kits today at the Venetian Hotel Veronese 2402 Suite from January 8th (Tue) to 11th (Fri), including Pacific C240 DDC Hard Tube Water Cooling Kit, Pacific C360 DDC Hard Tube Water Cooling Kit, Pacific C360 DDC Soft Tube Water Cooling Kit and Pacific C240 DDC Soft Tube Water Cooling Kit. All kits are efficient and high-quality combo kits that can sync with ASUS Aura Sync, GIGABYTE RGB, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASRock Polychrome.

Pacific C240/C360 Hard Tube Water Cooling Kit includes Pure 12 ARGB Sync Radiator Fans, a Pacific W4 ARGB CPU Water Block, Pacific PR15-DDC Pump/Reservoir Combo, Pacific C240/C360 Radiator, a bottle of T1000 Coolant Pure Clear, six C-Pro G14 PETG 16mm OD Compressions, eight V-Tubler PETG Tubes, an ARGB LED controller, and other accessories. As for Pacific C240/C360 Soft Tube Water Cooling Kit, it includes Pure 12 ARGB Sync Radiator Fans, a Pacific W4 ARGB CPU Water Block, Pacific PR15-DDC Pump/Reservoir Combo, Pacific C240/C360 Radiator, a bottle of T1000 Coolant Pure Clear, six Pacific 1/2'' ID x 3/4'' OD Compressions, two meters of V-tubler 4T 1/2''(12.7mm) ID x 3/4''(19mm) OD Transparent Tube, an ARGB LED controller, and other accessories.

Cooler Master has a formidable presence at this year's CES, with the company unveiling 7 new cases. These include co-branding iterations of existing case models with the likes of ASRock Phantom Gaming and ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance. The MasterBox Q300L from last year gets TUF Gaming Alliance bodywork, which includes variations to the front panel mesh, streaks of TUF yellow, and a matte-black (somewhat gunmetal) finish for the metal bits. The ASRock Phantom Gaming renditions of the MasterBox K500 and MasterCase H500P Mesh swap out plain silver with chrome-like shades of brighter silver metallic finish, with red accents, a few more crease lines, and ASRock's favorite shade of red illuminating the fans, out of the box. This keeps up with the design scheme of ASRock Phantom Gaming series motherboards.

The new MasterBox NR400 and NR600 ATX introduce a new direction in which Cooler Master is taking its case designs - matte black, with very few creases or accents, and a subtle contrasting gray opaque band running across the mesh. The NR600 ATX is a conventional tower with a horizontally partitioned layout. The NR400 is a micro-ATX tower with a similar layout as its bigger sibling. Lastly, there are the MasterBox Q500L and Q500P, which are stretched out variations of the Q300 series, and designed for ATX builds, while retaining the cube-like appearance of their predecessors.

Cooler Master, a global leader in manufacturing CPU coolers, computer components and peripherals, today provides an overview of the company's upcoming thermal solutions including a new All-in-One (AIO) CPU cooler, three new air coolers and a new fan series. Cooler Master will expand on the MasterAir series, with three new air coolers in varying form factors. The MasterAir MA610M will feature a dual-tower heatsink with a new SF120R fan sandwiched between the two towers for ample airflow. The six copper heat pipe design and enlarged fins work in tandem to ensure maximum heat dissipation and maintain stable CPU temperatures. The Addressable RGB lighting, decorative black top plate and black coating of the MA610M provide users with customization and an aesthetic appeal for any build.

Expanding upon the previously launched G100M, the new G100M v2 will feature the same top down cooling as its predecessor, but with an elongated and narrowed design to eliminate RAM clearance issues. The G100m v2 will utilize Cooler Master's two phase heat column technology, with a seven times larger circumference compared to standard heat pipes, for a more rapid heat transfer over a smaller surface area. Mounted atop the uniquely designed G100M v2 is an ARGB fan and ring for an added visual appeal.

Cooler Master, a global leader in PC components and gaming peripherals, today announced its upcoming arsenal of PC cases to be launched in the first half of 2019. Cooler Master plans to release a number of mini tower cases, refresh and remaster the previous N Series as well as offer three cases in partnership with motherboard manufactures, ASUS and ASRock

MasterBox Q500L and Q500P
The MasterBox Q500L applies all of the versatile features of the Q series, but with the capability of supporting a standard ATX motherboard. With the same exterior dimensions as the MasterBox Q300L, support for a standard ATX motherboard in the Q500L was made possible by positioning the PSU in the front of the chassis instead of the base. The movable I/O panel and support for vertical or horizontal orientations, seen across the entire Q series, are also featured on the MasterBox Q500L. With the exterior fully perforated, and covered by a magnetic dust filter, the Q500L offers plenty of airflow for various cooling configurations.

ASRock today launched the X399 Phantom Gaming 6, its latest addition to the popular Phantom Gaming series for AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors. Note that this board only supports up to 16-core Threadripper models, the 24-core and 32-core Threadripper WX series are not supported. The Phantom Gaming features premium components (power delivery is kept clean and stable with Digital PWM, 8 Power Phase & Dr. MOS)and a relatively subdued, black-gray-red design - and like most hardware these days, it's gamer-oriented and branded. 2.5 Gbps Ethernet is one of the key features as ASRock paints it, and there is a grand total of 3x Ultra M.2 connectors and a full-length 22110 (110 mm) slot with full-coverage heatsink.

World leading motherboard and mini PC manufacturer, ASRock, today announces the launch of new Z390 DeskMini GTX series mini PC. Supports latest Intel 9th Generation 8 Core LGA1151 processors, and up to 32 GB DDR4-4000 memory to provide extreme performance in a 2.7 Liter chassis. The new DeskMini GTX series featured with USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C and Type-A interface, delivering up to 10Gbps transfer rate. The built-in addressable RGB header allows connecting the LED strips to create unique lighting effects.

Here are some of the first pictures of ASRock Radeon RX 590 Phantom Gaming graphics card, based on AMD's upcoming "Polaris 30" silicon, which is an optical shrink of the "Polaris 20" silicon to 12 nm FinFET process, letting AMD and its partners increase GPU clock speeds. The RX 590 Phantom Gaming features a similar board design to the RX 580 Phantom Gaming X, with subtle design changes to its cooler shroud. The card still draws power from only a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. The VideoCardz article with these pictures doesn't mention clock-speeds, although going by trends, the RX 590 could be clocked well above 1500 MHz out of the box, compared to 1445 MHz of the RX 580 Phantom Gaming X in "OC mode."

ASRock today announced their Taichi family of Z390 motherboards. The new Taichi motherboards (whose branding has garnered somewhat of a cult following among PC component enthusiasts due to their build-quality and reliability) are being placed in the top of the heap for ASRock's Z390 push.

The 8th and 9th Gen supporting motherboards feature the same 12-phase power delivery design for outstanding power delivery, as well as some other features such as an integrated M.2 shield and ASRock's Polychrome RGB lighting solution. Hyper BCLK Engine II also makes an appearance on both motherboards, for higher overclocking stability and capabilities. Other added features include ASRock's Purity Sound 4 with Realtek's ALC1220 audio codec. The Taichi Ultimate, however, ups the ante by delivering an Aquantia Ethernet solution (AQtion) with 10 Gbps throughput for the ultimate experience - though you'll need to make sure your infrastructure supports these speeds, and that you have a Cat6 Ethernet cable handy.

The leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, is pleased to announce the launch of the new Intel Z390 motherboard series, and also the Phantom Gaming Motherboards, the latest addition to the company's popular Phantom Gaming line up. These versatile new motherboards support the latest 9th Generation Intel Core processors with socket 1151.

A Blazingly Fast Gaming Network Experience
Fast internet will be the trend of the future, it is certain that the old-fashioned 1 Gbps Ethernet with soon be replaced by the more advanced 2.5 Gbps LAN interface, giving network performance boost to up to 2.5x the speed of old-fashioned gigabit Ethernet. The Z390 Phantom Gaming motherboards will be the first to adopt this new industry standard and provides blazing fast 2.5 Gbps LAN, supporting next generation networking standards, for an unbeatable experience. The intelligent Phantom Gaming 2.5Gb/s LAN platform is designed for the demanding requirements of home networking, content creators, online gamers and users of high-quality streaming media. Also ASRock's Phantom Gaming network software is able to automatically accelerate critical gaming network traffic ahead of other data to provide smoother, stutter-free game performance and give gamers the ultimate competitive edge.

When ASRock teased something new from their new Phantom Gaming brand on social media with a photo that said 2.5x fast, people were quick to speculate this was referring to an AMD Radeon GPU. After all, the Phantom Gaming brand came about very recently with ASRock's debut as an AMD AIB (add-in board) partners for Radeon GPUs, with TechPowerUp giving a review treatment to one that you can read here. Was Vega holding back with some sandbags? Or was it perhaps the rumored Polaris GPU?

As it turned out today, ASRock was instead teasing about motherboards joining the Phantom Gaming brand and the "2.5x fast" instead was referring to these board having an integrated 2.5 Gigabit onboard LAN port, as opposed to the 1 GigE ports on most enthusiast motherboards today. Suffice to say that led to disappointment for many owing to this misunderstanding, but this is still news in that ASRock has deemed the importance of having a higher-tier brand that can be marketed as a competitor to the ASUS ROG, Gigabyte Aorus and more. This motherboard may end up not being AMD-exclusive either, as we do not expect a prosumer socket from AMD until next year, and the timing suggests it may well be an Intel z390 socket board instead. The teaser video is embedded below, although there is not much else to glean from it at this point.

Cryptocurrency mining rig motherboards have, until now, mostly been based on the Intel platform because Intel chipsets put out more PCIe lanes than AMD ones, and because Intel's sub-$100 Pentium/Celeron chips don't have narrower PCIe connectivity from the CPU. ASRock apparently has a lot of unsold AMD X370 chipset inventory, and with the possible introduction of sub-$100 Ryzen chips that have 28 PCIe lanes from the CPU, a use-case has emerged for a mining motherboard based on this platform. We hence have the X370 Pro BTC+. The board features an AM4 socket, with out of the box support for "Pinnacle Ridge" processors. The socket is wired to just one DDR4 DIMM slot, but all eight PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots.

The topmost x16 slot runs at electrical gen 3.0 x4, while the remaining seven slots are gen 3.0 x1, taking advantage of PCIe segmentation of the X370 platform. The board draws power from three 24-pin ATX, 8+4 pin EPS, and a number of Molex outputs, although most of these power connectors are optional. A point to note here is that the D-sub/HDMI display outputs only work if an A-series "Bristol Ridge" or Ryzen "Raven Ridge" APU is used (which have fewer PCIe lanes), so you're bound to take display output from one of the 8 graphics cards. A 1 GbE interface and two USB 3.0 ports make for the rest of it.