Lenovo is putting finishing touches on the Yoga Slim 7 14 2024, one of the first non-reference laptop to feature Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X processor. Leaked images circulating on X (formerly Twitter) reveal a sleek and stylish design, with a 14-inch or 14.5-inch display encased in a slim and portable form factor. Qualcomm has previously showcased eye-catching demo reference systems in a striking red color scheme, but Lenovo's Yoga Slim 7 14 2024 marks the first time a significant laptop manufacturer with actual product images incorporating the Snapdragon X chip. The Yoga Slim 7 14 2024 is part of Lenovo's popular Slim laptop lineup, including models powered by Intel and AMD processors. The latest "Gen 8" iteration featured options for AMD Ryzen 7040 series and Intel 13th Gen Core i and Core Ultra series CPUs.

One notable addition to the Snapdragon X-powered model is the inclusion of a dedicated Microsoft Copilot button. Qualcomm has heavily touted the Snapdragon X's Neural Processing Unit (NPU) performance and its ability to directly accelerate various AI and machine learning algorithms on the device. There have been a few comparison points between Meteor Lake with Intel's NPU and Snapdragon X Elite with Qualcomm's NPU. The chipmaker's X Elite and X Plus laptop offerings are expected to arrive soon, and there are strong indications that this may happen during the Computex trade show.Update 17:28 UTC: X user WalkingCat has posted images of Lenovo Thinkpad T14s laptop, which can be seen below.

Last October, Qualcomm introduced Snapdragon X Elite as its most powerful computing processor for PC, but the ARM-based mobile solution is still months away from launch—officially mid-2024. Company leadership has indicated that their custom Oryon CPU—for the "thin-and-light notebook market"—could be hitting retail at the same time as Microsoft's heavily rumored "Windows 12" inauguration. Several PC news outlets have picked up on a mysterious Qualcomm "ZH-WXX" platform appearing on Geekbench Browser—the February 22 entrant seems to be a prototype notebook that sports a "Snapdragon X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm Oryon CPU," and 32 GB of LPDDR5x memory.

There are no next generation operating system revelations here—the system was running a 64-bit install of Windows 11 Insider Preview. Overall Geekbench 6.2.2 tallies are 2574 (single-core), and 12562 (multi-core)—positioning the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite engineering sample just above AMD's Ryzen 9 7940HS top-end mobility-focused "Phoenix" APU in terms of performance. Geekbench Browser's "CPU Information" section identifies the alleged high-end Snapdragon X Elite processor as a "ARMv8 (64-bit) Family 8 Model 1 Revision 201" part. Average clock speeds were listed as 4.01 GHz (base frequency). Cluster 1 seems to contain eight Nuvia-designed Oryon processor cores, while Cluster 2 receives the remaining four units.

During a January 31 Earnings Call, Cristiano Renno Amon (President and CEO of Qualcomm) discussed the upcoming launch of his company's Snapdragon X Elite processor—an ARM-based SoC that is built "for AI" on next generation tablets, notebooks and ultra-slim laptops. The twelve onboard custom Oryon cores are part of a package that will become (in marketing terms): "the most powerful, intelligent, and efficient processor ever created for Windows in its class. With cutting edge responsiveness, navigate demanding multi-tasking workloads across productivity, creativity, immersive entertainment, and more..." Amon and his executive colleagues are targeting a middle-of-2024 launch of Snapdragon X Elite-powered devices, he also mentioned a next-gen version of Microsoft's operating system in the same sentence: "We're tracking to the launch of products with this chipset tied with the next version of Microsoft Windows that has a lot of the Windows AI capabilities. We're still maintaining the same date, which is driven by Windows, which is mid-2024, getting ready for back-to-school."

The rumor mill has "Windows 12" marked down for a summer 2024 launch period—last December, Taiwan's Commercial Times reported on a number sources within the PC manufacturing industry—alluding to a June release date. Intel Chief Financial Officer Dave Zinsner relayed a similar schedule to a Citi interviewer (reported by PC Gamer): "We actually think '24 is going to be a pretty good year for client, in particular, because of the Windows refresh. And we still think that the installed base is pretty old and does require a refresh and we think next year may be the start of that, given the Windows catalyst. So we're optimistic about how things will play out beginning in '24."

Microsoft is preparing a big update for its Windows operating system. Currently at version 11, the company is gearing up for the launch of Windows 12, which is supposed to bring a monumental shift in the tectonic plates of the regular PC user experience. Enhanced by AI, the Windows 12 OS should utilize many features like generative AI, large language models, some GPT integration, and many other tools that could benefit AI, like photo editors. The confirmation for the Windows 12 launch coming in 2024 is sourced from the Taiwanese Commercial Times, which analyzed comments from Barry Lam, the founder and chairman of PC contract manufacturer Quanta, and Junsheng (Jason) Chen, the chairman and chief executive of Acer.

Both of them underscored the importance of AI and that AI PCs are coming with the next version of Windows. Supposedly, the launch date for Windows 12 is set for June 2024. In that timeframe, hardware vendors should roll out their SoCs embedding AI processing elements at every silicon block. Qualcomm is set to debut its Snapdragon Elite X SoCs in mid-2024, aligning with the alleged release schedule of Windows 12. With more players like NVIDIA, AMD, and others planning to utilize an Arm instruction set for their next-generation PC chips, we expect to see Windows 12 get full-fledged support for Arm ISA and treat it like a first-class citizen in the OS.

During the Q3 2023 earnings call, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger was answering some questions from analysts regarding the company's future and its position on emerging competition. One of the most significant problems the company could face is the potential Arm-based chip development not coming from x86 vendors like Intel and AMD. Instead, there could be fierce competition in the near future with the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite X, possible NVIDIA Arm-based PC processor, and in the future, even more Arm CPU providers that Intel would have to compete against in the client segment. During the call, Pat Gelsinger noted that "Arm and Windows client alternatives, generally, they've been relegated to pretty insignificant roles in the PC business. And we take all competition seriously. But I think history as our guide here, we don't see these potentially being all that significant overall. Our momentum is strong. We have a strong roadmap."

Additionally, the CEO noted: "When thinking about other alternative architectures like Arm, we also say, wow, what a great opportunity for our foundry business." If the adoption of Arm-based CPUs for Windows PCs becomes more present, Intel plans to compete with its next-generation x86 offerings like Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake, and even Panther Lake in the future. As stated, the CEO expects the competition to manufacture its chips at Intel's foundries so that Intel can provide a platform for these companies to serve the PC ecosystem.

Thanks to the information from Windows Report, we have received numerous details regarding Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon Elite X chip for laptops. The Snapdragon Elite X SoC is built on top of Nuvia-derived Oryon cores, which Qualcomm put 12 off in the SoC. While we don't know their base frequencies, the all-core boost reaches 3.8 GHz. The SoC can reach up to 4.3 GHz on single and dual-core boosting. However, the slide notes that this is all pure "big" core configuration of the SoC, so no big.LITTLE design is done. The GPU part of Snapdragon Elite X is still based on Qualcomm's Adreno IP; however, the performance figures are up significantly to reach 4.6 TeraFLOPS of supposedly FP32 single-precision power. Accompanying the CPU and GPU, there are dedicated AI and image processing accelerators, like Hexagon Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which can process 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS). For the camera, the Spectra Image Sensor Processor (ISP) is there to support up to 4K HDR video capture on a dual 36 MP or a single 64 MP camera setup.

The SoC supports LPDDR5X memory running at 8533 MT/s and a maximum capacity of 64 GB. Apparently, the memory controller is an 8-channel one with a 16-bit width and a maximum bandwidth of 136 GB/s. Snapdragon Elite X has PCIe 4.0 and supports UFS 4.0 for outside connection. All of this is packed on a die manufactured by TSMC on a 4 nm node. In addition to marketing excellent performance compared to x86 solutions, Qualcomm also advertises the SoC as power efficient. The slide notes that it uses 1/3 of the power at the same peak PC performance of x86 offerings. It is also interesting to note that the package will support WiFi7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Officially coming in 2024, the Snapdragon Elite X will have to compete with Intel's Meteor Lake and/or Arrow Lake, in addition to AMD Strix Point.

Just over a month ago, Gigabyte launched a pair of white motherboards for Intel CPUs and now the company has quietly released a pair of white models for AMD CPUs. The two models are the B650 AORUS Elite AX Ice and the B650M AORUS Elite AX Ice, the main difference being the form factor, as the latter is a microATX board. Besides the white PCB, all of the heatsinks are silver/white in colour, although all the connectors on the boards are black, just as with the Intel boards. The rear I/O shield has also been given the white treatment to better fit into a white case.

However, the Ice boards are not identical in terms of specs to their older siblings, as Gigabyte has done a few minor changes that aren't noticeable at first look. Gigabyte has shifted away from using MTK/AMD and Intel WiFi cards and is now using the Realtek RTL8852CE on these new boards. We should mention that Gigabyte are using the RTL8852CE on later revisions of the black versions as well. It's currently unknown when these new boards will be available and how much they'll retail for.

The advent of PCIe 5.0 SSDs with Phison's E26 controllers has been a double-edged sword. While these SSDs offer impressively high data throughputs, they come with a significant drawback: severe overheating issues that can cause the SSDs not only to throttle down but to shut off entirely. TechPowerUp first noted this issue back in May, in our Corsair MP700 review, where the uncooled drive shut down after 86 seconds of reads and after 55 seconds of writes. Regarding criticism from tech reviewers, Corsair has released a firmware update (version 22.1) for its MP700 SSD to ensure that it throttles down rather than shutting off when overheated. Yet, many other SSDs like the Crucial T700, Seagate FireCuda 540, Gigabyte Aorus Gen 5 10000, and ADATA Legend 970 still suffer from temperature issues.

However, it's crucial to note that these extreme overheating problems occur only when the SSDs run without any cooling. While some manufacturers have planned firmware updates to address the issue, Corsair is the only company that has taken tangible action so far. Crucial has released a new firmware (PACR5102), but the ComputerBase report indicates that the SSD continues to shut off at high temperatures. The problem, though, can generally be mitigated with proper cooling. Whether using the included cooler or placing the SSD under a motherboard cover, temperatures usually stay below the critical limit, thus avoiding a complete shutdown. When we tested the SSTC Tiger Shark Elite 2 TB with Phison E26 (with updated firmware) without adequate cooling, the SSD continued to operate and throttled down, indicating that the remaining SSDs using this controller need a proper firmware update that throttles the SSD instead of shutting it down.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today launched the GeForce RTX 4060 series graphics cards powered by NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture, including DLSS 3 neural rendering and third-generation ray tracing technologies at high frame rates. The cards will be available on June 29. GIGABYTE's GeForce RTX 4060 Series includes five models with the WINDFORCE thermal solution, the AORUS GeForce RTX 4060 ELITE 8G, the GeForce RTX 4060 AERO OC 8G, the GeForce RTX 4060 GAMING OC 8G, the GeForce RTX 4060 EAGLE OC 8G and the GeForce RTX 4060 WINDFORCE OC 8G graphics cards. All the models provide gamers with diverse choices to enjoy the AAA gaming experience. All graphics cards from GIGABYTE are perfectly tuned with powerful performance, low temperature, and quietness at once, bringing gamers an ultimate gaming experience.

AORUS GeForce RTX 4060 ELITE 8G
AORUS GeForce RTX 4060 ELITE 8G graphics card stands out for the powerful cooling capabilities and outstanding performance, it's the top-tier gaming graphics card pursued by gamers and fans. The AORUS graphics card features the famous RGB Halo which takes advantage of the persistence of human vision to create exclusive lighting effects via rotating fans. The exquisite and colorful illumination RGB, favored by AORUS fans and DIY enthusiasts, allows gamers to customize its colors through the GIGABYTE CONTROL CENTER software with ease.

GIGABYTE quietly rolled out the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti AORUS Elite graphics card. The company had debuted the AORUS Elite value-oriented graphics card custom-design with the RTX 3060 AORUS Elite, followed closely with the Radeon RX 6700 XT AORUS Elite. This is the third AORUS Elite card, and the second AORUS Gaming card based on the RTX 3060 Ti, the other being the over-the-top RTX 3060 Ti AORUS Master.

The GIGABYTE RTX 3060 Ti AORUS Elite measures 29.6 cm in length and the cooling solution design is similar to that of the other cards in the brand. A plastic cooler shroud holds a trio of 90 mm fans with ARGB LED diffusers along the bore of the intakes. The PCB only makes up two-thirds the length of the card, which means much of the airflow from the second and third fans flow through large cutouts on the card's backplate. The card draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It comes with factory overclocked speeds of 1785 MHz (compared to 1665 MHz reference, 1800 MHz of the RTX 3060 Ti AORUS Master, and 1770 MHz of the Gaming OC). The card comes with dual-BIOS, with a "silent" BIOS running it at closer-to-reference clocks, and a more aggressive fan-curve. The company didn't reveal pricing, but we expect the card to be positioned between the Gaming OC and AORUS Master.

The PC has never been more essential, so this year at CES 2021, HP Inc. is launching computing innovations essential to how and where people experience work and life. HP today unveiled new devices and solutions designed to power hybrid work environments and growing personal creative studios.

With half of the global workforce still working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new use cases for the PC are emerging for both consumers and employees remaining at home. Since COVID, there has been a seven hour increase in time spent on personal PCs. In some cases, this has resulted in an increase in everyday creativity - with photography, writing stories or articles, and live streaming being the top three activities among consumers. But working and staying at home isn't always simple, with only 30% of people having a space where they can shut the door. Yet 72% of knowledge workers want a hybrid remote-office model moving forward and 48% of Gen Z are considering an expansion of their freelance business in the future, requiring solutions with enhanced collaboration and micro-mobility features.

OWC a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company and one of the world's most respected providers of hard drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions and performance upgrade kits, today announced the latest edition of its legendary Mercury Elite Pro external storage system for Mac, PC, Linux machines, Smart TVs, and PS4 and Xbox consoles. The 3.5-inch USB 3.2 5 Gb/s hard drive system is a modern day workhorse, delivering real-world performance up to 283 MB/s and capacities up to 16 TB to keep pace with the demands of everything from video editing projects, critical business data, and irreplaceable personal content to expanding PS4/Xbox One game storage and enjoying music/video content via a Smart TV.

The Essential External Storage Solution for Everyone
The Mercury Elite Pro kicked off OWC's rich, storied history of storage solution innovations nearly 20 years ago, and it has successfully stood the test of time by continuing to offer an incomparable blend of performance, quality, and value in a single HDD storage solution.

Sharkoon appeared quite ready to take a bite out of the competition at Computex 2019. They came to the show with a full assortment of cases, keyboards, mice, gaming chairs and even a mini USB DAC for gamers which was quite nice to see as it was unexpected and unique coming from Sharkoon. Dubbed the Gaming DAC Pro S, it packs a powerful high-resolution gaming DAC with TRRS microphone input. It can also act as a USB soundcard with headphone Amp for an immersive crystal clear audio experience. It is worth noting that it is compatible with Android on top of the Windows and macOS.

The EVGA Associates Program offers a simple way for EVGA ELITE Members to allow others to purchase an EVGA product with a discount on www.EVGA.com - and lets you earn a percentage of the purchase back in EVGA Bucks!

First, share your Associate Code with someone interested in purchasing an EVGA product. Next, once they get to EVGA.com, they will need to make a purchase from one of the Product Types listed on the Dashboard. Finally, the buyer must use your Associate Code during checkout to receive the discount.

After purchase, you will receive a percentage of the net purchase back as EVGA Bucks that can be used to buy any products at the EVGA store! The EVGA Associates Program is the best way to Get Discounts and Earn Rewards at the EVGA store!

Learn more and sign up now at www.evga.com/associates/
Update: Currently only available to consumers in the Continental U.S., Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Canada

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual display products, announces a new sub-brand of professional gaming monitors. ViewSonic Elite gaming products are specifically engineered with a sleek and minimalist aesthetic, while boasting practical gamer-centric designs. With decades of display technology experience and heritage, ViewSonic Elite will deliver next-level gaming products that fit the needs of today's multifaceted gaming community.

"Gamers are defined by many factors, one being their gaming setup. With ViewSonic Elite, we want to represent maturity in style and high-performance gaming, as the industry continues to evolve," said Kevin Chu, Global Gaming Marketing Manager. "The ViewSonic Elite line of gaming monitors provides users with the latest spec requirements, and are designed to fulfill the diverse needs of gamers."The XGR240 is on the left, XG350R-C on the right.

Corsair at CES 2019 unveiled two new innovations, the Slipstream wireless interface, and Capellix high-density aRGB LEDs. The company implemented the two across its upcoming gaming peripherals. These include three new mice, and a new keyboard. Among the mice is the new 2019 Harpoon Wireless RGB, detailed in our older article, M65 RGB Elite mouse, Ironclaw RGB, and a new variant of its K68 keyboard that implements both Slipstream and Capellix.

The M65 RGB Elite is a claw-friendly packs a PMW-3391 sensor with 18,000 dpi resolution, 97-115 dpi adjustable weights, and an improved side button cluster. This mouse is expected to be priced at $59.99. The Ironclaw, despite its name, is optimized for palm grips, with the same PMW-3391 sensor as the M65 RGB Elite, 105 g fixed weight, and the same $59.99 price-tag. The K68 RGB Elite Slipstream is a variant of the K68 that's been refined with two of Corsair's latest innovations, although Corsair didn't mention price.

HP Inc. today unveiled a bold new lineup of premium notebooks, desktops and displays designed to empower wherever work and life takes you. The latest HP Elite 1000 and HP ENVY portfolios feature visually stunning design, powerful performance and maximum versatility to securely connect, create and collaborate from anywhere, anytime.

With 81 percent of people working during their personal time and more than half multi-tasking personal activities at work, C Space Primary Proprietary Research with online communities, 2015 , using a device that can straddle the realities of each environment is more important than ever. HP's new premium lineup includes various form factors that meet an individual's personal style and specific computing needs.

Jabra, an acoustic-focused brand, took to CES 2018 to showcase their latest developments in the world of sound-delivering straight to your eardrums. The company makes a model for every type of user, and every ergonomic taste, really. The company took the opportunity to showcase some particular sound drivers though. On one hand, there were the wireless, fitness-oriented Elite Sport earbuds, which even carry a heart rate monitor function, and have a specially-designed ergonomic outline that serves both form and function.

Their Jabra Elite 65T true wireless earbuds, on the other hand, leave ergonomics a little to the side (while still being comfortable to use, naturally) to focus more on signal quality, bringing premium sound and call quality with its unique 4-microphone technology. The 15-hour battery on these will certainly appeal to power users; those that really like to shut off from the world around them.

In its ongoing commitment to elite players on every platform, leading gaming headset and audio accessory maker Turtle Beach Corporation (NASDAQ: HEAR) today announced the global availability of the all-new Elite Pro-PC Edition. This new headset is a key expansion that brings PC gamers into the groundbreaking line-up of Elite Pro Tournament Gaming Headsets.

"PC gaming continues to be one of the most competitive and demanding segments in all of Esports," said Juergen Stark, CEO, Turtle Beach Corporation. "The Elite Pro represents the pinnacle of our design and engineering efforts and we could not be happier to have PC players now able to compete and win in all their gaming endeavors using our new Elite Pro - PC Edition."

At Computex 2017, Teamgroup put on a show with their products, hoping to place itself in consumers' eyes as having all the latest technologies they could possibly want. Starting with their SSD, there's the heatspreader-equipped M.2 NVMe SSD T-Force Cardea, an MLC SSD (so, a dying breed) with either 240 or 480 GB capacity, which includes a beefy red heatsink to reduce throttling possibilities.

NZXT today announces the S340 Elite Hyper Beast Limited Edition, a monstrous psychedelic evolution of the popular S340 Elite mid-tower. Following up on last year's highly sought after H440 Hyper Beast, NZXT and graphic artist Brock Hofer have again joined forces to deliver a case crafted for the dedicated CS:GO player. This new chassis features the breathtaking Hyper Beast weapon skin found on CS:GO's infamous AWP sniper rifle.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its new AMD PRO A-Series APUs, delivering rich computing experiences to commercial PCs. The innovative processor technology from AMD will enable a new class of powerful, sleek and sophisticated commercial Windows PCs that integrate seamlessly into an existing IT environment. With impressive performance, the latest AMD PRO A-Series APUs with HSA features unlock true business computing performance and deliver outstanding reliability and manageability. The AMD PRO A-Series APU is one of the processors being offered in new HP Elite 700-Series notebooks.

"With the new AMD PRO A-Series APUs, AMD is looking to revolutionize commercial computing. Built around a solid offering of increased performance over our consumer products, increased product longevity and software image stability, AMD PRO processors give customers choice and affordability to meet their specific business needs," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Products. "And since every AMD PRO processor packs the latest Radeon Graphics, we are raising the bar for visual performance in business PCs."

ADATA Technology has launched the company's second foray into wireless storage, announcing the release of the DashDrive Air AE800. Incorporating a wireless HDD that can serve data to multiple mobile devices, the AE800 delivers the added functions of power bank and wireless hotspot, simultaneously meeting the most common needs of smartphone and tablet computer users.

Mobile devices continue to surge in popularity, bringing forth a new set of data storage and transmission requirements. The AE800 packs a robust 500 gigabytes of storage, and can stream data to iOS & Android mobile devices through the freely downloaded DashDrive Air Elite App (Apple App Store and Google Play). Wireless enabled desktop computers as well as notebooks can also read and write data easily, providing fast and secure storage either with or without the use of a transmission cable. In wireless mode, up to 3 users can simultaneously stream 1080P video, and up to 5 users can simultaneously stream 720p video.

AMD today launched three new additions to its 2013 A-Series and E-Series Mobile Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) lineup -- delivering solutions ideally positioned to address today's evolving PC market with dramatically increased performance and power efficiency, as well as a portfolio of unique user experiences, and superior gaming and graphics:

• The 2013 AMD Elite Mobility APU (formerly codenamed "Temash") -- the world's first 28nm, quad-core x86 system-on-a-chip (SoC) APU designed for touch small form-factor notebooks, tablets, and hybrids 13-inches and below;
• The 2013 AMD Mainstream APU (formerly codenamed "Kabini") -- the first and only quad-core x86 SoC solution for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks;
• New, low power versions of the 2013 AMD Elite Performance APU (formerly codenamed "Richland") -- offer the best graphics and compute in a performance APU for premium ultrathin notebooks.

EK-Supremacy Elite, the premium bundle containing the best CPU water block on the market and the best thermal interface on the market - the EK-TIM Indigo Xtreme - is now finally shipping. Please note that due to high demand this product may be shown as out of stock at the time of purchase. These water blocks are therefore manufactured on daily basis to ensure adequate supply and daily re-stock.

EK-Supremacy Elite is the premium bundle containing the best CPU water block on the market - the EK-Supremacy - Full Nickel - and the best thermal interface on the market - the EK-TIM Indigo Xtreme. EK-Supremacy is a universal CPU water block that fits all modern CPU sockets with a universal mounting mechanism that offers error-preventing, tool-less installation. The result is a perfect installation which results in perfect performance every time. EK-Supremacy is truly the best product for performance seeking enthusiasts.