Last weekend ASUS ROG started to tease a handheld gaming system, called the Ally. On April 1 the company uploaded an expensive looking trailer, that bordered on being a total spoof in the latter half. People were quick to dismiss the announcement as an April Fool's Day prank, but since then the company has continued to post preview material and has even highlighted a Best Buy interest page. The ROG Ally has been confirmed to be an entirely real bit of gaming hardware that runs via Windows 11. AMD has been revealed as collaborating with ASUS on a custom Ryzen APU for the handheld system, which is advertised as the "fastest AMD APU yet" in the reveal trailer. Exact specifications for this chipset have not been listed, so expect those details as part of a future announcement.

ASUS ROG looks to be pitching the Ally as potential alternative to the Steam Deck, but it is too early to speculate about its exact method of operation (always online, local vs. cloud, etc.). Games journalists and gaming communities have also compared the Ally to the AYANEO 2 and GPD WIN 4. ASUS has informed various web influencers that it is promising "competitive pricing" for the upcoming handheld gaming system. The ROG Ally features a Full HD display and a dual fan cooling system tuned to operate quietly via the ROG Intelligent System. A new version of Armoury Crate offers the user access to various games library sources (including Xbox Games Pass) and custom-mapping of control inputs. Extra graphical grunt can be provided by the external and proprietary ROG XG Mobile eGPU platform.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the second project in its ongoing collaboration with ACRONYM, a leading technical apparel company, to create the ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM RMT02 - bringing together the world of fashion, art, tech, Web3 and gaming in a powerful tablet.

Available for sale worldwide starting April 3, 2023, the device features pro-level specs, including an Intel Core i9-13900H processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. Containing that outsized power is a tablet-sized chassis that's designed to encourage portability and real-world use. The beautifully intricate, custom-machined aluminium creates rigidity. An ingeniously designed integrated carry system uses a versatile strap that lets the device become its own transport system and allows use in multiple modes. Rubber holds are inset to provide grip in every orientation, and the corners are reinforced to keep the machine safe from accidental bumps or drops.

ASUS ROG has started selling its RTX 4090 XG Mobile external graphics card in China and Japan this week. Japanese customers are being charged a cool $3000 for the pint-sized powerhouse external GPU, and Chinese buyers are getting a slightly better deal at $2700. It should be noted that this eGPU is the (GN21-X11) mobile variant of the GeForce RTX 4090, and not the full fat desktop version. The newly updated XG Mobile enclosure can only be connected to an ASUS Flow laptop, which limits the scope of compatibility to an already very expensive range of devices. The proprietary connection standard will keep customers in the ASUS ROG mobile hardware ecosystem - but their higher end laptop models can be configured with the very capable GeForce RTX 4070 mobile GPU, so the RTX 4090 XG Mobile seems to appeal to a very small buying niche.

The XG Mobile interface uses the PCIE Gen 3 x8 standard of connection, and the GPU has access to a dedicated 63 GB/s of bandwidth. This beats the Thunderbolt 4 standard of 40 Gb/s, by a 57% margin. The enclosure acts as a docking station - its features include an up to 2.5 Gbit Ethernet, a single HDMI 2.1 port, one DisplayPort 1.4 with G-Sync support and three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (3x Type-A + 1x Type-C). ASUS ROG has engineered the docking station/enclosure to be as compact as possible (21.7 cm x 16.5 cm x 3.26 cm), when compared to competing products from other manufacturers. The whole package weighs in at 1.3 kg, which will ensure decent portability for gamers on the move.

The 12-core/24-thread AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX "Dragon Range" mobile processors for enthusiast-segment notebooks, are capable of performance that matches the desktop Ryzen 9 7900X, with an easy 130 W power limit enabled along with Precision Boost Overdrive 2 (PBO2), with the "Enhanced" performance mode set on certain ASUS ROG laptops. The 7845HX is capable of drawing up to 110 W of power in its stock settings, which sees it offer a single-threaded boost frequency of 5.25 GHz, and 4.70 GHz all-core, and around 25000 points in Cinebench R23 multi-threaded. The Enhanced mode, which can be set via software on ASUS ROG laptops, raises the power limits, which makes the 7845HX draw up to 130 W of power, hitting temperatures of up to 93 °C, vastly improving boost frequency residency.

The 7845HX is "unlocked," and the UEFI setup program of ASUS ROG laptops offer several manual overclocking controls on par with the desktop platform. Manual overclocking along with PBO2, Curve Optimizer, and Maximum Boost Technology, yields up to 5.45 GHz single-threaded boost, and 5.10 GHz multi-threaded boost, yielding a 14 percent improvement over the stock frequency Cinebench R23 score, hitting 28542 points, which is on-par with that of a desktop Ryzen 9 7900X—a processor with 170 W TDP and 230 W PPT.

It was only Monday this week that ASUS announced the official launch of the ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM, but now retailers have started to put the display up for pre-order and it looks like for once, ASUS hasn't priced its products higher than the competition. In the US, it appears that the PG27AQDM will retail for US$999, which is the same price that LG is asking for its equivalent Ultragear OLED 27GR95QE-B. ASUS does claim to have higher typical brightness at 450 cd/m² vs a mere 200 cd/m² for the LG, yet somehow also claim to have half the power consumption.

A swift jump over the pond and the PG27AQDM looks a little less exciting, with it coming in at £1,098.95 in the UK and €1,299.99 in Germany and as much as 14,990 kr in Sweden, which puts all three nations at well over US$1,100 excluding any local VAT. That makes LG's Ultragear OLED the far more attractive option in Europe, as it's cheaper in all three countries by the equivalent of around US$100. For those still interested, the bad news is that the display won't arrive in retail until sometime in mid or end of April, depending on the country you live in.

While Intel 600- and 700-series chipset motherboard already support non-binary memory modules and kits, such support has yet to be implemented on AMD's AM5 motherboard, but, judging from screenshots posted on ASUS ROG forums, AMD motherboard partners are working on it and it should be just around the corner.

The screenshot from ASUS Tech Marketing person, named Raja, which was posted on ASUS ROG forums, shows the ASUS ROG STRIX X670-E motherboard running 192 GB of DDR5 memory. These are four 48 GB Corsair modules running at 2600 MHz (5200 MT/s). The post includes both CPU-Z and task manager screenshots, confirming it boots into Windows. Earlier, it has been reported that AMD motherboards can't boot into Windows with non-binary memory modules and kits, although the motherboard successfully recognizes it. There have also been rumors that AMD is working on an AGESA update that will fix this issue, and now, it looks like it could be coming sooner than we expected.

AMD has announced the immediate availability of its Ryzen 7045 HX-series (Dragon Range) processors for high performance laptop devices. In a Youtube video released on March 10, AMD's Jason Banta has announced the availability of the world's most powerful mobile processor, the Ryzen 9 7945HX. He listed the OEM partners who have integrated the 7945HX into flagship level laptop models. He also declared that this range topping CPU is a competition beater. Gaming benchmark tests have demonstrated that the Ryzen 9 7945HX beats Intel's Raptor Lake Core i9-13950HX by an average margin of 10%.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading brand of performance overclock memory and PC components, is announcing an extreme performance DDR5 memory kit based on the latest 24 GB module capacity, with a specification of DDR5-8000 CL38-48-48 at 48 GB (24 GB x2) under the flagship Trident Z5 RGB series, and setting a new bar for extreme overclocked memory with 24 GB capacity modules.

Over the past month, memory manufacturers started releasing DDR5 memory modules of 24 GB and 48 GB densities, which make up 48 GB (2x 24 GB), 96 GB (2x 48 GB or 4x 24 GB) and even 192 GB (4x 48 GB) capacities. There's only one catch—these modules only work with 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" and 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processors, as their memory controllers support a maximum of 192 GB of memory, and 24/48/96 GB DIMM densities. MEGAsizeGPU decided to find out what happens when one of these kits is installed on an AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" platform.

A Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5600 48 GB (2x 24 GB) memory kit was installed on a machine consisting of an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X processor, and an ASUS ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming motherboard (BIOS version 1222). It turns out that the machine POSTs, and is able to start the UEFI setup program. Here, the program is able to display the correct 48 GB memory amount, and the memory density of each of the two modules. The trouble is, Windows would not boot, and does not go past the Boot Manager. It halts with an error message that indicates a hardware problem.

Eiswolf 2 AiO - now also for custom designs of RTX 4080/4090 and RX 7900XT/XTX GPUs! Alphacool presents additional innovative solutions for cooling Nvidia's Geforce RTX 4080 and 4090 and AMD's RX 7900XT/XTX graphics cards.

The enormous waste heat of the new graphics card generation is excellently dissipated with these coolers. The very good water flow and the large cooling surface are due to the particularly filigree fin structure. The jet plate with revised inflow engine also distributes the water perfectly on the cooling fins. The complete chrome plating of the cooler not only provides resistant protection against acids, scratches and damage, but also achieves a beautiful homogeneity and remarkable shine. The Aurora design of the cooler is kept visually calm and simple. This is evident not only in the cooler's design, but also in the wonderfully even lighting achieved via digitally addressable RGB LEDs.

I've been using the ASUS ROG Z690 Formula motherboard in all my recent CPU water block reviews, and also detailed it here for a specific EK VRM bridge block article. While the board has reached end-of-life status at ASUS internally, the company's customers are only just starting to face problems. The board's unique selling point is that it comes with an optional CrossChill EK III hybrid VRM thermal solution, which is effectively a waterblock for your VRMs to keep them cool at all times. Based on ASUS's official advertisement of "nickel-plated" and EK's involvement, everybody assumed that the material used is nickel-plated copper, but it turns out it's something different, most probably nickel-plated aluminium.

This is not the first time that ASUS has failed the material mix in their watercooling products. The first generation ROG Formula motherboard VRM blocks used plated-aluminium that introduced corrosion when added to a watercooling loop that has copper/brass/steel components elsewhere. Mixing metals in a watercooling loop is a bad idea and will result in galvanic corrosion from the different electrochemical potential of the metals. This can result in the block etching off and flakes/chunks getting in the loop to create an increasingly worse reaction with the coolant used. This can lead to blocked channels and even pump failure due to the corroded materials jamming the impeller.

AMD's high-end X670E motherboard chipset combines two Promontory 21 chips working together to deliver a single solution. With regularly-sized ATX motherboards, having two chips to form a chipset is fine, as there is much room on the PCB. However, with Mini-ITX motherboards, packing two Promontory 21 chips is difficult as the PCB area is limited. To combat this, ASUS introduced an interesting solution to solve the problem and allowed the company to ship the high-end X670E chipset inside a Mini-ITX form factor. Thanks to UNIKO's Hardware's findings, we look at the exciting solution ASUS used to solve this problem.

Instead of two Promontory 21 chips side by side, one is placed on the motherboard directly, while the other stands vertically attached by M.2 PCIe slot. Below, the chipset's pictures and the highlight show how it looks disassembled.

It may be small, but it's fast! The new ROG Swift Pro PG248QP is a 24.1-inch planar gaming monitor with a measly Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution, but an at an incredible 540 Hz refresh rate, making it the world's fastest E-Sports display. This display is so quick, and ASUS set up a 144 Hz display next to it for comparison, and one could tell the difference. The monitor also features NVIDIA G-SYNC, and NVIDIA Reflex Analyzer, along with a USB 3.2 hub, so you can plug your Reflex-compatible gaming mouse to the monitor, and the monitor itself to an upstream USB 3.2 source, besides the DisplayPort connection. Another interesting aspect about this monitor is that ASUS has integrated a high-end USB audio DAC sourced from ESS, so you can plug your analog headset to the display and get audio quality on par with a high-end onboard audio solution, or even a mid-range discrete sound card.

Elsewhere across the ASUS ROG booth, we caught the ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQDM-OLED, the company's fastest gaming monitors to use an OLED panel. This 27-inch monitor offers WQHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution, with 0.03 ms response time, and 240 Hz refresh rate, besides 1,000 nits peak brightness, and 99% DCI-P3 coverage. The panel features an anti-glare micro-coating. OLED displays tend to produce more heat than backlit LCD displays, and so this monitor packs a series of thermal innovations to prolong the lifespan of the OLED panel. It supports AMD FreeSync Premium,

ASUS ROG showed off a slender lineup of gaming input devices at the 2023 International CES. These included the ROG Azoth wireless keyboard, and the ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition wireless mouse. Both of these are being offered as tournament-grade peripherals for e-sports professionals, implementing the ASUS ROG SpeedNova ultra low-latency wireless technology. The ROG Azoth is a slick compact wireless keyboard with an 81-key set (not including the volume rocker). It is characterized by an monochrome OLED display that can be programmed to display real-time HUD information from the game, hardware monitoring, or just about anything.

The ASUS ROG Azoth features hot-swappable, ROG NX mechanical switches that are factory pre-lubed; along with ROG keyboard stabilizers, and PBT doubleshot keycaps. The keyboard features a gasket-mount design with 3-layer dampening. The switches can be re-lubricated, a starter kit is included with the keyboard. The ROG SpeedNova wireless module supports RF, Bluetooth, as well as USB direct connection. The ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition is a 54 g ultra-lightweight wireless gaming mouse with a 3+2 button set, along with Aim Lab Settings Optimizer. Under the hood is a 36,000 dpi ROG Aimpoint sensor, and the ROG SpeedNova wireless tech. The mouse offers up to 90 hours of playtime in its 2.4 GHz RF mode (with the lighting turned off).

At the 2023 International CES, ASUS ROG announced several of its upcoming gaming notebooks across several form-factors. ASUS was one of the very few gaming PC brands to show off upcoming products based on an AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors besides those based on 13th Gen Intel Core processors. The star-attraction is the ROG Flow Z13 (GZ301-2023), an ultraportable gaming tablet that folds into a notebook—a very rare device. It packs a 13-inch 16:10 ROG Nebula display with 2560 x 1600 pixels resolution, 165 Hz, 3 ms response time, and NVIDIA G-SYNC. Under the hood, the ROG Flow Z13 rocks an Intel Core i9-13900H 6P+8E processor, GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU with Advanced Optimus. The device puts out a 170° kick stand, and a detachable full-size keyboard.

The 2023 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is the company's fastest gaming notebook to be powered by an AMD processor. The 14-inch conventional form-factor notebook packs a 2560 x 1600 pixels mini-LED display with 165 Hz refresh-rate, 3 ms response time, 100% DCI-P3 coverage, and G-SYNC. The main muscle is an AMD Ryzen 7000 series processor (very likely from the "Phoenix Point" Ryzen 7045 series), and a GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU. While not an AMD Advantage laptop, ASUS has given this its own in-house ROG Intelligent Cooling system that incorporates vapor-chamber base plates and liquid-metal TIM.

ASUS showed us its GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua Edition graphics card that it formally announced yesterday. To call this card thick would be an understatement, as it's possibly the first graphics card that is 5 slots thick! The card easily overshoots what constitutes 4 slots, and is technically 4.2 to 4.3 slots; but then expansion slot counts are whole numbers rounded to the next digit despite what marketing says.

This card combines an ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4080 PCB with an air-based cooling solution designed by Noctua. The cooler has two large aluminium fin-stacks that have been skewered by eight 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heatpipes, and ventilated by a pair of Noctua's top-of-the-line NF-A12x25 120 mm fans that feature fluid-dynamic bearings. The fan-tuning for this card is a Noctua-ASUS collaboration, and promises to make this the quietest air-cooled RTX 4080 you can buy.

Last year it felt like DDR5-6000 to DDR5-6400 was the top of the PC memory food-chain, and in a year, this has been pushed up to DDR5-8000. Platforms such as the 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" can already handle such high memory speeds, and ADATA has designed such a memory module that includes an Intel XMP 3.0 profile that enables the advertised DDR5-8000 speed at the click of a button. The new ADATA XPG Caster RGB DDR5-8000 features a chunky aluminium heatspreader that's crowned by a silicone addressable RGB LED diffuser. It's been tested for compatibility with both Intel and AMD platforms, however only an XMP 3.0 profile is included.

Elsewhere across the ADATA booth, we also came across the company's latest SD 8.0 memory card that uses PCI-Express 3.0 x2 physical layer and NVMe 1.3 protocol layer, to offer sequential speeds of up to 1600 MB/s reads, with up to 1300 MB/s writes, including LDPC ECC. The card comes in 256 GB and 512 GB capacities, and is backwards-compatible with UHS-I devices. Back at the memory section, we found an XPG + ASUS ROG co-branded Lancer ROG DDR5 memory that comes at speeds of up to DDR5-6600. Lastly, there's the ACE-6400, a mid-range DDR5-6400 memory module targeting creators, that runs at DDR5-5600 native (JEDEC), and its advertised DDR5-6400 using an XMP 3.0 profile.

ROG Rapture GT-BE98 is the world's first quad-band WiFi 7 gaming router. Leveraging the full potential of WiFi 7 with 320 MHz channel support in the 6 GHz band, it delivers up to 160% faster speeds than the previous generation. In addition, with 4K QAM modulation that can pack more data into transmissions, peak data rates are up to 20% higher, delivering incredible speeds of up to 25,000 Mbps. Furthermore, two additional revolutionary features, Multi-Link Operation and Multi-RU Puncturing, allow the GT-BE98 to deliver more efficient and reliable wireless connections.

Multi-link operation simultaneously transmits across different bands and channels to increase throughput to the device, lower the latency, and improve reliability. Multi-RU puncturing segments a wide channel bandwidth into smaller units, enabling puncturing to eliminate interference for the remaining bandwidth and increase efficiency. Gamers can enjoy up to 10X-faster data-transfer speeds for bandwidth-demanding tasks with one 10 Gbps WAN/LAN port and two 10 Gbps LAN ports. In addition, for gamers who live in larger homes, the exclusive ASUS RangeBoost Plus improves signal range and overall coverage. And, ROG-exclusive triple-level game acceleration offers fantastic gaming experiences.

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing a new Intel LGA 1700 socket-based monoblock, the EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Maximus Z790 Hero D-RGB - Plexi. This monoblock is engineered specifically for the ROG MAXIMUS Z790 HERO motherboard from ASUS with the included I/O cover making the Polymo Lighting Display integration a breeze. The addressable D-RGB LEDs on the monoblock are compatible with ASUS Aura Sync RGB control and offer a full lighting customization experience for every single diode at any given time. This Quantum monoblock is also EK-Matrix7 compliant.

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for Intel's 13th Generation Raptor Lake processors. It is compatible with the LGA 1700 socket on the ROG Maximus Z790 Hero motherboard. The monoblock is also fully compatible with the previous generation of Intel Core processors (12th Generation Alder Lake) as well as ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard. This monoblock uses the latest generation Velocity² cooling engine to ensure the best possible CPU cooling without reducing flow to other components. It directly cools the Intel Raptor Lake CPU, VRM section, and LAN controller.

More performance for GeForce RTX 4090! With the Eisblock Aurora, Alphacool presents new, innovative coolers for active water cooling of Gigabyte, ASUS, Palit as well as Gainward graphics cards. In order to dissipate the enormous waste heat of this graphics card generation as effectively as possible, numerous optimizations have been made to the water cooler compared to the previous models. The fin structure has been adapted and allows a very effective water flow while simultaneously increasing the cooling surface. The modified jet plate with improved inflow engine ensures optimum distribution of the water on the cooling fins.

The fully chrome-plated copper base is resistant to acids, scratches and damage. Additionally, the chrome plating provides homogeneity and shine that cannot be achieved by nickel plating. The illumination from the digitally addressable RGB LEDs is even better distributed throughout the cooler thanks to the chrome plating. The Aurora design of the GeForce RTX 40XX Eisblock Generation is visually quiet and sleek because only one O-ring runs around the entire cooler. Also, the design around the cooling fins and jetplate makes for a cleaner look.

The most expensive custom-design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 will be priced at $1,550, putting it just $50 short of the $1,600 baseline MSRP of the much faster RTX 4090, according to a pricing leak of custom-design cards on popular PC components retailer MicroCenter. The most interesting takeaway from this leak is that there will actually be RTX 4080 cards at the NVIDIA-set baseline MSRP of $1,200. These include the GIGABYTE Eagle, ZOTAC Trinity, ASUS TUF Gaming, and PNY XLR8 Verto. NVIDIA appears to be telling its partners to sell at least one custom-design RTX 4080 SKU at the baseline price.

Most factory-overclocked custom-design RTX 4080 SKUs are within $125 of the $1,200 baseline, with the GIGABYTE Eagle OC priced at $1,240, GIGABYTE Gaming OC at $1,280, MSI Ventus 3X OC at $1,280, and the premium MSI Gaming X Trio at $1,325. The top-tier custom-design cards start here, with the GIGABYTE AORUS Master priced at $1,350, the MSI SUPRIM X (air-cooled) at $1,400, the ZOTAC AMP Extreme AIRO at $1,400, ASUS TUF Gaming OC at $1,500; and the ASUS ROG Strix OC at $1,550, which is just $50 short of the cheapest RTX 4090 (baseline-spec). Will anyone pick the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4080 O16G over the cheapest RTX 4090 (assuming availability of both)? That's a social experiment to watch out for.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading brand of performance overclock memory and PC components, is thrilled to showcase extreme memory bandwidth performance of high-frequency DDR5-8000 32 GB (16 GB x2) & DDR5-7800 32 GB (2x 16 GB) overclocked memory kits on the latest Intel Core i9-13900K Processor and ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX motherboard. Working in close partnership with the ASUS motherboard team, a single G.SKILL memory module was overclocked to a staggering DDR5-10000 under air cooling.

Dedicated to developing the fastest possible DDR5 memory on the latest 13th Gen Intel Core processor and Intel Z790 chipset, G.SKILL showcases the high memory bandwidth performance of DDR5-8000 32 GB (2x16GB) memory kit on the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX motherboard. The following screenshots show the DDR5-8000 CL40 32 GB (2x16GB) and DDR5-7800 CL38 32 GB (2x 16 GB) memory kits validated on an Intel Core i9-13900K processor and ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX motherboard (BIOS 0702) platform, with the DDR5-8000 CL40 32 GB (2x16GB) memory kit reaching memory bandwidth read speed of over 124 GB/s and write speed of over 120 GB/s on the AIDA64 memory benchmark.

Danish online retailer Proshop.dk jumped the gun with listing its stock of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 "Ada" graphics cards. These include custom-design cards from ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE, and Inno3D. While pictures of GIGABYTE and Inno3D cards weren't up, the site put out pictures of ASUS ROG Strix, TUF Gaming; and MSI Gaming X and Ventus 3X models. Prices range between 12,190 Danish Krone (US $1,626) to 14,590 Krone ($1,946), including taxes. The pictures give us our first look at MSI's new cost-effective Ventus 3X custom-design, which will be positioned close to NVIDIA's baseline MSRP (of $1,199 for the RTX 4080). The ASUS ROG Strix, TUF Gaming, and MSI Gaming X designs appear identical their RTX 4090 siblings. These listings appear at least 16 days ahead of when these cards are expected to be available from.

Phanteks announces the release of the new Glacier G40 ASUS GPU block, designed specifically for the ASUS STRIX/TUF RTX 4090/4080 Series cards. The Glacier G40 ASUS GPU Block brings the ultimate cooling performance with unique water block features to build stunning water-cooled systems. Phanteks' Glacier G40 ASUS GPU Block provides a high-performance water-cooling solution custom-designed for the latest ASUS GeForce RTX 4000 series cards. A transparent acrylic jet plate is positioned directly over the GPU die to ensure optimal heat transfer. The backplate is included with all models to provide a smooth integrated look while providing additional cooling to the back of the PCB. In addition, the full-cover copper cold plate directly cools all memory and power delivery components on the PCB with high-quality thermal pads.

The Glacier G40 ASUS GPU Block also introduces some new features, such as a new fitting location to allow for better tube routing, even in the most compact chassis. To improve stability, a GPU support bracket is added to connect the water block to the rear PCI bracket so that the GPU is mounted more securely. Like all Phanteks' Glacier products, the Glacier G40 ASUS GPU Block is made in Taiwan using only 100% copper, cast acrylic, anodized aluminium covers, and extremely durable Viton O-rings known from the automotive and aerospace industries. The integrated D-RGB lighting beautifully complements the water block and can synchronize with Phanteks' D-RGB accessories and compatible motherboards.

Intel Core i9-13900K processor has just been launched, and overclockers worldwide got their hand on a few samples to make history. According to the HWBot submission, a Swedish overclocker named "elmor" has pushed Intel's top-end consumer SKU to a fantastic 8.812 GHz. For more than eight years, the record for the single-highest overclocking speed was held by AMD FX-8370, from the now-bygone era of AMD Black Edition processors. The overclocking attempt was performed using liquid nitrogen (LN2) that cools the chip using its −195.8 °C temperature. Pushing core voltage to 1.850 Volts and VCCIN to 2 Volts, multiplier set to x88, and a bus speed of 100.15 MHz. In addition to the Core i9-13900K CPU, elmor used ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 APEX motherboard and 32 GB DDR5 GSKILL memory running at 4808 MT/s.

As a reminder, the FX-8370 CPU was holding the number one sport for eight years with a speed of 8.722 GHz. Beating the FX-8370 by just 90 MHz, it will be interesting to see if any of the upcoming CPU SKUs can match this overclocking record, and we are curious if any contender will come to beat elmor's current record.