Over the past weekend, members of the Chiphell discussion board started posting truly NDA-busting photo material—one example made headlines a few days ago. A fairly convincing list of next-gen NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series graphics cards appeared online just over a month ago; only a smattering of physical specimens have emerged since then. As pointed out by interested Chiphellers, Leadtek Chinese language websites have started listing a small selection of upcoming "Blackwell" generation professional SKUs.

The previously leaked PCB design was linked to Leadtek/NVIDIA's "blower-style" RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition 96 GB model. A brave Chiphell forumite has shared shots of another alleged internal component; a shorter PCB design has come to light—in VideoCardz's expert opinion, this stubby unit is destined to be contained within the Leadtek-made (non-Max-Q) RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition enclosure. Official Team Green promotional renders have already presented this darker alternative to existing Founders Edition gaming-oriented siblings. According to VideoCardz, Team Green's Professional Blackwell series review embargo is still in effect and official launch window information is still not a publicly-known quantity. The freshly leaked bare PCB seems to borrow design elements—namely a dual-sided GDDR7 memory module mounting setup—from NVIDIA's familiar GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition model.

Late last week, ASRock introduced its opening wave of Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 graphics card models; in Taichi, Steel Legend and Challenger guises. Official press material only alluded to an intriguing "gray" spin-off of the Taiwanese manufacturer's (traditionally) white-hued mid-tier product family. ASRock's brand-new Radeon RX 9070 XT Steel Legend Dark 16 GB model is listed on their website, but it has received little fanfare since February 28. Appropriately, this "Dark" variant rolls out with the familiar Steel Legend shroud and backplate designs—albeit, with a two-tone (black/gray) aesthetic.

As expected, the ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Steel Legend Dark card shares identical specifications with its standard white sibling—in both cases, we are looking at non-overclocked SKUs. The AMD board partner has not prepared a non-XT Steel Legend Dark card for launch (on March 6), but an expanded lineup could emerge in the near future. ASRock graphics card enthusiasts have noted a mildly disappointing absence of RDNA 4-based Phantom Gaming options—past Radeon product generations have hit global markets with this sub-brand. Looking at a typical past example—ASRock's Radeon RX 7800 XT Phantom Gaming OC card—we see a gray/black design with a smattering of RGB lighting zones. We could surmise that ASRock has created a similar-ish modernized equivalent—in the shape of Steel Legend Dark (non-OC)—to fill a (temporary?) Phantom Gaming-sized gap.

HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND - Some people are afraid of the dark. Here on Drop, more than a few are friends with it. If you lean away from the light in your own personal aesthetic, you've come to the right keycap set. Meet MT3 Darkness: a truly shadow-infused typing statement, with an ultra-satisfying profile you won't find anywhere else. A study of the dark in all its shapes, shades, and forms, this set features charcoal, almost-black keycaps with slightly lighter, dark-gray legends.

It's a look that gives depth to Darkness - supported by a profile that gives it height, too. That's thanks to our tall, vintage-inspired MT3 profile, which features scooped keycap tops and a sculpted shape between rows to create a retro typing feel with a modern flourish. This exclusive feel is actualized with durable, doubleshot ABS construction for exceptional texture and legends that last. This is Darkness that doesn't quit.

3DMark Fire Strike Hall of Fame is where overclockers submit their best hardware benchmark trials and try to beat the very best. For years, one record managed to hold, and today it just got defeated. According to an extreme overclocker called "biso biso" from South Korea and a part of the EVGA OC team, the top spot now belongs to the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card. The previous 3DMark Fire Strike world record was set on April 22nd in 2020, when Vince Lucido, also known as K|NGP|N, set a record with four-way SLI of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPUs. However, that record is old news since January 27th, when biso biso set the history with AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU.

The overclocker scored 62389 points, just 1,183 more from the previous record. He pushed the Navi 21 XTX silicon that powers the Radeon RX 6900 XT card to an impressive 3,147 MHz. Paired with a GPU memory clock of 2370 MHz, the GPU was probably LN2 cooled to achieve these results. The overclocker used EVGA's Z690 DARK KINGPIN motherboard with Intel Core i9-12900K processor as a platform of choice to achieve this record. You can check it out on the 3DMark Fire Strike Hall of Fame website to see yourself.

EVGA Z690 motherboards paired with 12th Gen Intel Core Series processors bring unprecedented overclocking performance and an unparalleled experience to PC gaming. The Intel Z690 Chipset supports the latest DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen5 standards, making these motherboards ready for the next generation of hardware. EVGA Z690 motherboards further elevate your system with a powerful digital-VRM design, multiple PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe options, right-angle power connectors, an award-winning BIOS, and overclocking world-records.

EVGA DARK motherboards blaze the trail for other boards to follow, and the Z690 DARK K|NGP|N is no exception. The ability to destroy world records is insignificant next to the power of a 21-phase VRM and a 10-layer PCB - capable of driving the most powerful 12th Gen Intel Core processors. With DDR5, PCIe Gen5, and PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe support, a new DARK age of overclocking will rise as quickly as new hardware becomes available. Multiple USB options, 8x SATA 6 Gb/s ports, 2x 2.5 Gbps NICs + Wi-Fi 6E / BT 5.1, 7.1 HD audio, 3x M.2 Key-M slots, and 2x pump headers exclusively built for CPU AIO cooling help round out everything else you need in a premium motherboard. The Z690 DARK K|NGP|N is today's choice for the future of overclocking and gaming.

The EVGA Z590 DARK once again strikes fear into the hearts of other Z590 motherboards by combining every ounce of power available to the Intel Z590 chipset and fine-tuning it to perfection. This armed and fully-operational motherboard is born from a 10-layer PCB and powered by a 21-Phase VRM. With support for PCIe Gen4 graphics cards and M.2 NVMe SSDs, overclockers have nothing to fear when shooting for the highest scores in any benchmark.

For everyone else, the Z590 DARK is loaded with over a dozen USB options, eight SATA ports, two 2.5 Gbps NICs + WiFi 6/BT 5.1, 7.1 Channel HD Audio, three M.2 Key-M slots, and two fan headers dedicated to AIO CPU Coolers. As a wise overclocker once said, "Once you start down the DARK path, forever will it dominate your destiny." and with the EVGA Z590 DARK, that destiny is sure to be filled with shattered records and countless victories on the battlefield.

Here's the first picture of EVGA's very first AMD chipset-based product, the EVGA X570S DARK motherboard! "The red pill," said Vince "K|ngp|n" Lucido, sharing this picture on Facebook. Designed for leaderboard-topping overclocking through and through, this board sets its intentions with the 90° rotated CPU socket that's optimized for extreme cooling, 1 DIMM per channel memory (two memory slots), a PCB that looks like it's at least 10-layer, and a high-grade CPU VRM. Power inputs appear to include a 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and one 6-pin PCIe power. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 4.0 x16 (x8/x8 with both populated, spaced 2 slots apart); and just the one x1 slot. Connectivity includes two wired Ethernet interface, Wi-Fi + Bluetooth, 20 Gbps USB 3.2 x2, and 8-channel HD audio.

To meet the burgeoning demand for higher performance parts in the booming PC gaming market, TEAMGROUP's gaming brand T-FORCE launches the DARK Z FPS Gaming Memory and Cardea IOPS Gaming PCIe SSD at the end of 2020. Players who upgrade with these powerful new components will experience superior performance and be able to dominate the digital arena.

The T-FORCE DARK Z FPS, as its name implies, was created to improve frames-per-second. It is tastefully designed with a plated T-FORCE logo in the center, matching lines extending to the edges, and armor-like metal that surrounds the board to give the product a striking, futuristic look. The DARK Z FPS features RAM speeds of up to 4000 MHz and a low CAS latency of CL16. After undergoing rigorous testing with one of the world's most popular shooters, PUBG, T-FORCE developed this gaming RAM that provides up to 20%1 more FPS than normal memory. A significant FPS advantage can be felt when it processes high-speed movements and changes to in-game scenery. This faster performance allows players to enjoy more satisfying gunplay and gives them an edge in the battlefield where every second counts.

EVGA today announced its flagship socket LGA1200 motherboard, the Z490 DARK, aimed at PC enthusiasts and professional overclockers. The company also announced its Z490 FTW and Z490 FTW WiFi motherboards targeted at high-end gaming PC builds. The Z490 DARK leads the pack with a 90° CCW rotated compute stage, which sees its memory area moved to the northern side of the PCB; and the CPU VRM to its west and south, cooled by elaborate heatsinks. There is only one DIMM slot per memory channel, so you don't bother about memory slot topology affecting your memory overclock.

The LGA1200 package is wired to two reinforced PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated). Storage connectivity includes two M.2 NVMe slots, and one U.2 port (some lane sharing involved). The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and a 6-pin PCIe power connectors. The EVGA Z490 FTW (and its WiFi) variant feature a more conventional ATX layout, and targeted at conventional gaming PC builds. A premium 11-phase VRM powers the processor, which is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, and a pair of PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots. Both boards offer dual-BIOS, and elaborate onboard diagnostics.

The DARK rises again. Not content to merely shatter records and competition in the consumer market, the EVGA SR-3 DARK merges two extreme performance lines of EVGA motherboards to bring balance to the force with exceptional performance and engineering. Featuring the Intel C622 chipset, hexa-channel memory support, 23 phase power design, 16-layer PCB, dual-10 GbE LAN ports, a waterblock to passively or actively cool the DARK's VRM, and so much more, this board is packed with everything and is still compact enough to fit in a full E-ATX form factor.

With the EVGA SR-3 DARK, you don't need to see its identification to know that the next evolution of the X299 and Z390 DARK motherboards features the latest improvements for performance and enthusiast needs.

EVGA X299 motherboards immediately set the bar for performance, cooling and stability. Since then, EVGA has improved the cooling, reinvented the modern motherboard BIOS, and continued to shock the enthusiast world with the EVGA X299 DARK. And these boards are only just getting started. With the release of Intel's Core X-Series 10000 Processor Family, EVGA X299 Motherboards are ready and waiting for them. Current owners need only update the motherboard BIOS for full compatibility; new owners can boot into the motherboard BIOS and update the BIOS with their brand-new CPUs.

TEAMGROUP releases new T-FORCE gaming products gamers around the world have long been waiting for, which included the industry's first T-FORCE DELTA MAX RGB Solid State Drive and T-FORCE's latest gaming memory DARK Z. T-FORCE DELTA MAX RGB Solid State Drive uses its magnificent RGB mirror design to offer the largest visual proportion of the lighting effects. The magnificent mirror surface displays a transparent effect like a magic mirror, which is the first in the industry. The all-new T-FORCE DARK Z DDR4 Gaming Memory is designed with armor for complete protection and enhanced heat dissipation. Using only selected IC chips, these two new products can offer high performance, low power consumption, easy upgrade and completely satisfy the needs of the gaming market.

The latest generation of T-FORCE DELTA MAX RGB Solid State Drive has an innovative full mirror design which is a design breakthrough of the traditional solid state drive. It offers the largest proportion of luminous area in the industry and the largest area of color lighting effects. The densely arranged ARGB LED lighting effect design can offer a colorful light feast. The minimalist design mirror can present a magic mirror like reflection effect when the lighting is off. The advanced 3D NAND delivers up to 560 MB/s in read speed and 510 MB/s in write speed. It also supports motherboards with 5 V 3-pin ARGB Addressable LED header. T-FORCE DELTA MAX RGB Solid State Drive's lighting modes and effects can be customized via software of each brand's motherboard to light up consumers' storage devices. Maximum 2 TB of capacity is the most magnificent storage expansion you can get and the mirror design is creating a trend in the tech world. Currently applying for exclusive patents in three regions, including Taiwan/China/USA.

EVGA at its Computex 2019 booth showcased its flagship HEDT motherboard, the SR-3 DARK. This socket LGA3647 motherboard based on Intel C621 chipset, is purpose-built for squeezing the most out of the Xeon W-3175X 28-core HEDT processor Intel rolled out last year to challenge the Threadripper WX. The SR-3 DARK competes with only two other motherboards of its kind, the ASUS ROG Dominus Extreme, and GIGABYTE C621 Aorus Xtreme. EVGA deployed many of the innovations it introduced with the Z390 DARK that make it arguably the best LGA1151 motherboard for record-seeking overclocking.

For starters, the CPU socket is oriented sideways, just like the Z390 DARK, to position the DDR4 memory slots north and south of the socket. There's only one slot per memory channel, so you don't have to worry about multi-slot topology hindering your memory OC in any way. The CPU VRM is located east of the socket, directly next to the board's angled power inputs that include one 24-pin ATX and four 8-pin EPS inputs! There are additional inputs such as two SATA power, and one 6-pin PCIe, to stabilize the other power domains. The VRM area, along with the C621 PCH, are liquid cooled by a monoblock embedded into an aluminium heatsink. This block has a clear-acrylic top, and its coolant channel runs over the CPU VRM first, before guiding the coolant through a fin-lattice over the PCH, and then onto the outlet.

"The EVGA Z390 DARK is a 3rd generation model built exclusively for ultimate performance with improved and upgraded component selections, VRM, NVMe I/O, and PCB layout, compared to the flagship X299 DARK."- Illya "TiN" Tsemenko

The power of the DARK side of EVGA's Z390 motherboards is now available! After setting the bar with the X299 DARK, EVGA went back to work to design the next generation of motherboards designed exclusively for the world's top overclockers... or those looking to become one of the world's top overclockers. No effort was spared to improve the power design, layout, or features of the Z390 DARK.

EVGA has already started teasing their Z390 Dark motherboard back in December, showing off its overclocking capabilities. It's not a coincidence that it set the CPU benchmark - the motherboard is built to be EVGA's top-of-the-line offering, with a 17 phase VRM planted on a 10-layer PCB, an EVGA-embedded wireless solution, 3x reinforced PCIe x16 slots, 150% reinforced socket gold content... it's all in for this one.

There are a multitude of connectors on this motherboard, and it has everything you'd expect a high-end motherboard to pack in an E_ATX form-factor, including 3x M.2 key slots (2x 110 mm and 1x 32 mm), an integrated Creative Sound Core3D Quad-Core Audio Processor, 8x SATA 6 Gbps ports, a multitude of USB ports... And it even smiles for the camera.