Intel on Thursday was hit by a massive data-breach, with someone on Twitter posting links to an archive that contains the dump of the breach - a 20-gigabyte treasure chest that includes - but not limited to - Intel Management Engine bringup guides, flashing tools, samples; source code of Consumer Electronics Firmware Development Kit (CEFDK); silicon and FSP source packages for various platforms; an assortment of development and debugging tools; Simics simulation for "Rocket Lake S" and other platforms; a wealth of roadmaps and other documents; shcematics, documents, tools, and firmware for "Tiger Lake," Intel Trace Hub + decoder files for various Intel ME versions; "Elkhart Lake" silicon reference and sample code; Bootguard SDK, "Snow Ridge" simulator; design schematics of various products; etc.

The most fascinating part of the leak is the person points to the possibility of Intel laying backdoors in its code and designs - a very tinfoil hat though likely possibility in the post-9/11 world. Intel in a comment to Tom's Hardware denied that its security apparatus had been compromised, and instead blamed someone with access to this information for downloading the data. "We are investigating this situation. The information appears to come from the Intel Resource and Design Center, which hosts information for use by our customers, partners and other external parties who have registered for access. We believe an individual with access downloaded and shared this data," a company spox said.

A new rumor suggests that Square Enix is preparing to release a Tomb Raider game bundle, the supposed leak claims that the bundle won't just include the modern games but also classics from the 90s. The package is supposedly set for release on Steam, Stadia, Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch, the promotional image also carries an August 27th release date so if these rumors are true an announcement from Square Enix can be expected in the coming weeks. The rumor is backed up by a recent extension to the "T.R.U.E. TOMB RAIDER ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE" trademark filed by Square Enix in 2018.

If true this bundle could contain over 15 Tomb Raider games released during the last 24 years from various consoles. What do you think of the leak and trademark extension, a sign of imminent release, or just hopeful thinking and some Photoshop skills?

Thanks to a discovery by TweakTown, we have obtained game footage pictures of the Ubisoft Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. While TweakTown does not share any video links due to respect for Ubisoft developers, we still get to see the medieval-themed Assassin's game. It is mostly resembling a Witcher 3 vibe, which is a good thing. Combining the gameplay of classic Assassin's Creed game with stunning visuals, the game is set to be a hit. Right off the bat, the game starts in a bloody and chaotic battle. On the battlefield, there is lots of equipment you can interact with, like a siege engine and battering rams. Being that the setting is a medieval one, there are of course castles that you need to overtake. Ubisoft may officially launch game footage at its Forward event on July 12th, when we could take a closer look at the upcoming game. For now, please check out the pictures below.

Prices of Sony's various PlayStation 5 components just hit the web, thanks a Cowcotland report citing IronManPS5, a source with high reliability with PlayStation 5 leaks. To begin with, the standard PlayStation 5 console, which includes one Dual Sense controller, is priced at 499€. This console includes a Blu-ray disc drive so you could keep a physical library of all your games. Additional Dual Sense controllers can be bought for 59€ a piece. The PlayStation 5 Digital edition, which lacks an optical drive and makes you rely entirely on your Internet connections to get games, is priced a whopping 20% less, at 399€.

Other hardware accessories include an elegant recharging station for the Dual Shock controllers at 29€, which can recharge up to two controllers at a time; a wireless Media Remote accessory that lets you use your PS5 as a streaming entertainment device for your TV, priced at 29€, and an HD stereo web-camera for 59€. One accessory that stands out is the Pulse 3D wireless gaming headset for the PS 5, by Sony, which uses a high quality audio setup from Sony, priced at 179€. The PlayStation 5 family is expected to be available from November 14, 2020.

According to The Verge, source code for the original Xbox and Windows NT 3.5 has leaked online. The leak reportedly contains the kernel for the original Xbox OS, build environments, testing emulators, and internal development documents. This leak may help further emulation efforts for the original Xbox which as of now can only play ~40 of the over 900 games released for the console. This isn't the first time Microsoft has suffered a source code leak, with partial Windows 2000 and NT 4 source code leaking back in 2004 but given the age of the software this is unlikely to be of much significance. A Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge that "We're aware of these reports and are investigating".

A comprehensive review of the Intel Core i9-10900K 10-core/20-thread processor by Chinese tech publication TecLab leaked to the web on video sharing site bilibili. Its testing data reveals that Intel has a fighting chance against the Ryzen 9 3900X both in gaming- and non-gaming tasks despite a deficit of 2 cores; whereas the much pricier Ryzen 9 3950X only enjoys leads in multi-threaded synthetic- or productivity benchmarks.

Much of Intel's performance leads are attributed to a fairly high core-count, significantly higher clock speeds than the AMD chips, and improved boosting algorithms, such as Thermal Velocity Boost helping the chip out in gaming tests. Where Intel loses hard to AMD is power-draw and energy-efficiency. TecLab tested the three chips with comparable memory- and identical graphics setups.More charts follow.

Software source-code and hardware schematics of the feverishly popular Nintendo Wii console leaked to the web. These include detailed Verilog design files, firmware, PCB- and chip designs, and practically everything else needed for a small company with qualified embedded systems engineers, to recreate a fully-functional Wii clone. Nintendo consoles have, in the past, sparked many clone revolutions, the most famous of which has been the NES clone and bootleg cartridge cottage industry that spread video gaming to markets that Nintendo had no presence in. The leak apparently originated when servers of BroadOn, a company Nintendo contracted during the development of Wii, were hacked.

As part of our services towards making the world a better place, we bring you two pieces of news regarding one of the most hotly anticipated video games in the last years. CD Projekt Red's upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 is expected to be one of the games of the decade, much like their previous The Witcher 3 was. And now, we have some additional information on what we can expect in-game when it comes to the maturity of its world. While the game hasn't yet been rated by the ESRB or PEGI, Brazil's game ratings board has apparently already given it their own, and it's 18+. The one 18+ rating the game has received is that of "Cruelty"; check out the leaked list on the image below to see exactly what we're looking at, though it seems obvious that CD Projekt didn't pull any punches in making this game an accurate representation of a cyberpunk world.

The second piece of news here is the release of an 8K, AI-enhanced version of the 15-minute gameplay video that CD Projekt Red released back in 2019. YouTube user Ani HVX has uploaded the video to YouTube, with the AI helping in image clarity, artifact removal, and overall pixel density over the originally-released video. Yes, it's uploaded on YouTube, so that will again degrade quality on its own; that's why a 16 GB uncompressed video of the same 15 minutes is also available for download (expect to hit download limits on Google Drive though). This 2019 build of the game doesn't feature ray tracing (which the game will support), and it still features the old female V design. Quality of the final product can be better than this build (or, *trembles in fear*, worse).

In a recent driver update for the Oculus Quest references to the upcoming "Oculus Jedi" controllers were discovered by Gerald McAlister. The "Oculus Jedi" controllers are expected to complement the next-generation "Del Mar" standalone VR headset. In an analysis of the drivers UploadVR discovered several key changes in the new design.

When the new "Oculus Jedi" drivers are compared to the existing Oculus Touch controller firmware it is revealed that new controllers will retain the original inputs and layout of the Touch controllers with a thumbstick, index trigger, grip trigger, A/X button, B/Y button, and a system/menu button. The Jedi controller may receive a tracking update with faster controller polling and a new ICM-426-series TDK chip. The updated IMU should greatly reduce noise and improve resolution of tracking to allow more precise positioning of the controller. Other improvements may include updated an updated haptics driver and analog finger sensing like what is found on the Valve Index.

Source Code of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 got leaked today. It seems like Valve hasn't been careful with control of its output, and a few leaks came out. All of the licensees of the Source Engine, a multi-platform game engine used in all Valve's games like Dota 2, Half-Life, and CS: GO, have been empowered by Valve with access to the source code of 2017/2018 versions of CS: GO and Team Fortress 2. Someone down the line, however, took that opportunity and access to leak the source code. The original news source is the SteamDB Twitter account, so we don't have any link to the actual source code.

This pretty big news since CS: GO can be considered as the most popular game on the Steam platform, and IP that Valve holds on it is very valuable. The 2017/2018 version that is leaked is probably outdated by a mile now, but it still represents an act of theft and should be treated as such. We are yet to see the response from Valve and how they will handle this situation.

An Amazon listing was discovered for a limited edition Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One controller by KitGuru, however it has since been taken down. Cyberpunk 2077 was originally intended to launch April 16th but is now delayed until September, however many branded products were ready for this April release as seems the case with this controller. The Amazon listing for the controller listed a release date of May 4th and had no pre-order or pricing information.

We can expect the controllers release to be pushed back four months to coincide with the September game launch. The controller itself takes many design cues from the game in its own design, the controller features a rugged grey and black metallic design with red accents. The texture gives a worn look to the controller and the words "no future" are scratched into the handle. The box features the now iconic yellow backdrop found in most marketing for the game.

Listings for Intel's Comet Lake-S desktop processors have been found on DirectDial a Canadian PC retailer. Comet Lake-S is the next generation of chips using Intel's 14 nm process and will feature up to 10 cores and 20 threads. The leaked prices reveals a significant fall in per core pricing from Coffee Lake chips however Ryzen 3000 will continue to dominate in pricing if this leak is correct, especially considering the lack of including cooling with the new Intel chips. Below are the leaked prices with direct conversions to USD.

• Core i9-10900 (10 cores / 20 threads, 2.8 GHz to 5.2 GHz): $679 CAD = $486 USD
• Core i7-10700K (8 cores / 16 threads, 3.8 GHz to 5.1 GHz): $585 CAD = $419 USD
• Core i7-10700 (8 cores / 16 threads, 2.9 GHz to 4.8 GHz): $506 CAD = $362 USD

(Update, March 4th: Another NVIDIA graphics card has been discovered in the Geekbench database, this one featuring a total of 124 CUs. This could amount to some 7,936 CUDA cores, should NVIDIA keep the same 64 CUDA cores per CU - though this has changed in the past, as when NVIDIA halved the number of CUDA cores per CU from Pascal to Turing. The 124 CU graphics card is clocked at 1.1 GHz and features 32 GB of HBM2e, delivering a score of 222,377 points in the Geekbench benchmark. We again stress that these can be just engineering samples, with conservative clocks, and that final performance could be even higher).

NVIDIA is expected to launch its next-generation Ampere lineup of GPUs during the GPU Technology Conference (GTC) event happening from March 22nd to March 26th. Just a few weeks before the release of these new GPUs, a Geekbench 5 compute score measuring OpenCL performance of the unknown GPUs, which we assume are a part of the Ampere lineup, has appeared. Thanks to the twitter user "_rogame" (@_rogame) who obtained a Geekbench database entry, we have some information about the CUDA core configuration, memory, and performance of the upcoming cards.

Another day, another speculative execution vulnerability found inside Intel processors. This time we are getting a new vulnerability called "CacheOut", named after the exploitation's ability to leak data stored inside CPU's cache memory. Dubbed CVE-2020-0549: "L1D Eviction Sampling (L1Des) Leakage" in the CVE identifier system, it is rated with a CVSS score of 6.5. Despite Intel patching a lot of similar exploits present on their CPUs, the CacheOut attack still managed to happen.

The CacheOut steals the data from the CPU's L1 cache, and it is doing it selectively. Instead of waiting for the data to become available, the exploit can choose which data it wants to leak. The "benefit" of this exploit is that it can violate almost every hardware-based security domain meaning that the kernel, co-resident VMs, and SGX (Software Guard Extensions) enclaves are in trouble. To mitigate this issue, Intel provided a microcode update to address the shortcomings of the architecture and they recommended possible mitigations to all OS providers, so you will be protected once your OS maker releases a new update. For a full list of processors affected, you can see this list. Additionally, it is worth pointing out that AMD CPUs are not affected by this exploit.

Not content to let AsRock call out all of the enthusiast's attention for today, XFX has (perhaps not so inadvertently) leaked their upcoming interpretation of the AMD RX 5600 XT. Named the THICC II PRO STAGING (that's somewhere between a mouthful and two), it apparently features the same cooling solution as the RX 5500 XT THICC II PRO as well as a similar color scheme - black and bronze. According to XFX, the RX 5600 XT does indeed feature 2304 Stream Processors and 6 GB of 12 Gbps GDDR6 in a 192-bit memory configuration.

The graphics card isn't actually that bad of a looker with its rounded edges and almost full-black industrial design. XFX are quoting a game clock at 1460 MHz, which is higher than what has been leaked as the AMD reference. Video output includes 1x HDMI and 3x DisplayPort. XFX offers a three year limited warranty on the graphics card.

The folks over at Videocardz managed to snag some impressive information on AMD-s upcoming Threadripper lineup - their launch dates. According to the tech publication, a source within AMD provided information regarding previously-set dates for paper and hardware launches that stand at November 5th for the formal announcement of the next generation HEDT CPUs, followed by lifted embargos on reviews and actual product availability come November 19th. Apparently, AMD will only launch the Threadripper 3960X and 3970X come November 5th (remember remember the 5th of November), with a product announcement for the Threadripper 3990X which will only be launched in January 2020.

AMD will also formally unveil their next-gen Threadripper TRX40 platformon November 5th (which won't be compatible with previous-gen Threadrippers). This makes sense - CPUs without a platform to pin them onto doesn't seem like a conscientious business decision. No information was available on clockspeeds and core counts at this time, though the Threadripper 3960X, the base of the new lineup, is expected to sport 24 cores and 48 threads of Zen 2 goodness.

Intel's development of their Core architecture in the post-Ryzen world has been slow, with solutions slowly creeping up in core counts with every new CPU release - but much slowly than rival AMD's efforts. Before Intel can capitalize on a new, more scalable and power-efficient architecture, though, it has to deliver performance and core count increases across its product line to stay as relevant as possible against a much revitalized rival. Enter Comet Lake-S: the desktop parts of Intel's new round of consumer CPUs, which will reportedly see an increase in the maximum core count to a 10-core design. This 10-core design, however, comes with an increase in power consumption (up to 135 W), and the need, once again, for beefier power delivery systems in a new, LGA 1200 package (with 9 more pins that the current LGA 1151).

The move to a new socket and the more stringent power requirements give Intel the opportunity to refresh its chipset offerings once again. If everything stays the same (and there's no reason it should change), new Z470 and Z490 chipsets should be some of the higher tier offerings for builders to pair with their motherboards. The new Comet Lake-S CPUs will still be built in the now extremely refined 14 nm process, and allegedly keep the same 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes as current Coffee Lake Refresh offerings. The new CPU offerings from Intel are expected to roll out in Q1 2020.

EK the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer is releasing the EK-Leak Tester. A fast and safe way of testing for possible leaks in your liquid cooling loop. While traditional leak testing works, it requires hours before very small leaks are detected and then things can get messy. The EK-Leak Tester does the job way better!

The main body is a solid piece of CNC machined aluminium. One end is fitted with a revolvable male G1/4" connection port so it can be directly screwed onto any standard port in your liquid cooling loop. The gauge is custom made for liquid cooling loop testing purposes, which clearly marks the safe pressure for testing. The other side of the tester is hooked up with a valve that will make sure no air is escaping through the tester unit. The small pump for pressurizing the loop is also included. However, for a maximum safety effect, EK suggests reaching a pressure you want for testing and leaving the tester on for at least 15 minutes. If no pressure drop occurs and the gauge remains on the same spot, you're good to go.

As we draw closer to the launch of NVIDIA-s upcoming, RTX/less GTX 11660 Ti graphics card, which is pegged to offer performance comparable to that of their previous generation GTX 1070, more and more partner cards - with their custom designs ready to go - are popping up. This time it's ZOTAC and its AMP and Twin Fan graphics cards, though there's not much more information.

The pictures offer some, though, as do ZOTAC's previous launch decisions when it comes to their AMPD and Twin Fan graphics cards. Both SKUs for the GTX 1660 Ti offer a dual-fan, single-slot solution, with a single 8-pin connector guaranteeing enough juice for both nominal and overclocked operation. A different PCB design is seemingly used between both cards, as the leaked renders seem to point towards. The AMP series will offer somewhat overclocked values for higher performance, and sports a lighter gray on the shroud, compared to the Twin Fan solution. Expect these to launch alongside NVIDIA's announcement, coming in just a few days.

Intel's Next Unit of Computing (NUC) systems have always offered a great deal of performance in a tiny form factor. Their current lineup which consists of Hades Canyon features Intel's 8th generation of processors and depending on model can also feature an AMD Radeon RX VEGA M graphics processor, that said, the vast majority of units utilize Intel's integrated graphics. The most potent these configuration is Intel's 100W 4c/8t i7-8809G with Radeon RX Vega M GH graphics. It delivers exceptional performance for the size, allowing users to play AAA games at high settings with stable frame rates.

Thanks to a member of the PC EVA forums we now have access to what appears to be a leaked Intel roadmap showcasing their Ghost Canyon X NUC systems. Set to debut in 2019/2020 Intel will be pushing multiple new CPUs for these systems including a 45W 8c/16t i9-9xxxH, 45W 6c/12t i7-9xxxH, and 45W 4c/8t i5-9xxxH. All three feature UHD graphics by Intel, however, what is most interesting there provisions for a single PCIe X16 slot. Now, in reality, the inclusion of a proper PCIe slot is unlikely, I would speculate due to the size that it is, in fact, an MXM slot which limits options to discrete mobile graphics processors which tend to be far more expensive for consumers. Still, more information is required before making any serious judgments one way or the other at this time.

We might need more than the fingers on our hands to count the number of times upcoming products have been inadvertently been leaked by a reseller, and CORSAIR is the latest to have joined this list when not one, but two separate Reddit users shared details of the upcoming SF750 80 Plus Platinum SFX form factor power supply. For those who came in late, CORSAIR began their venture into the SFX form factor for PSUs with the 80 Plus rated SF600 and SF450, at 600 and 450 W respectively, and with a relatively large 92 mm fan that resulted in an efficient, quieter-than-average small form factor PSU. This was followed up by the SF600 and SF450 80 Plus Platinum rated PSUs, and now we have word of the third entry to this series.

CORSAIR, Silverstone, and a few others have been trying to one-up each other in the PSU power density metric, and the leaked SF750 will definitely be among the leaders there. The leak came up via an error in the publication of user manuals, as confirmed by Jon "Jonnyguru" Gerow himself, and the product appears to follow the trend of the series with a zero RPM mode at low loads, and plenty of cable outputs. Interestingly, there appear to be two 8-pin EPS connectors for those wanting to go with an SFF build with an Intel or AMD HEDT platform as well. The SFF market never really got the boom it was promising, so time will tell whether this will be a positive boost or not.

Via its support pages, AsRock has spilled the beans on at least five of their upcoming motherboards based on Intel's upcoming Z390 chipset in their Live Update & App services. The naming scheme of these motherboards is in-line with previous ASRock lineups, and there shouldn't be any confusion as to their tiering. The motherboards hence confirmed are the Z390 Extreme4, Z390 Pro4, Z390 Taichi, Z390 Taichi Ultimate, and the Z390M Pro4.

According to a report from WCCFTech, Intel is prepping the release of the Z390 chipset and is gearing up to bring their Core i9 branding series to the mainstream desktop platforms. Apparently, Intel's renaming scheme serves as a way to add the required "branding impact" to the fact that the i9 series of processors is finally hitting the mainstream - but don't be deluded. As we've previously covered, Intel's Z390 chipset may well become a rebrand of sorts from the current Z370 chipset, after Intel found insufficient capacity at its 14 nm node (which has to cope with the vast majority of Intel silicon production, following the smattering of delays hitting its 10 nm process). Basically, Intel's Z390 chipset will bring forward features that weren't built on the Z370 chipset at its inception, but have since become part of Intel's lineup (read, for example, its H370 chipset): Intel Wireless-AC 802.11 AC and Bluetooth 5.0; Intel Wireless-AC Adapter; and up to 6 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Ports.

According to WCCFTech, there's only confirmation of an 8-core, 16-thread CPU (Intel Core i9-9900K); a 6-core, 12-thread one (Intel Core i7-9700K) and a six-core, six-thread part (Intel Core i5-9600K ). No confirmation on an i3 part has been had yet, but it's very unlikely Intel has shelved that part of their lineup. A 4-core CPU is simply too important - from a yield perspective, mainly - for Intel to shelve it - and there's still enough demand for these, even with AMD's many-core democratization push.

The folks over at Videocardz have gotten their hands on some renders of Corsair's upcoming RGB Pro memory, which takes RGB lighting up to eleven. Expect an announcement at or around Computex. For now, no specs have been revealed but we're giving you the opportunity to gasp, in awe, at the design of these RGB-tastic sticks.

It's been a while since Corsair pushed the upper end of its Obsidian series high-end PC cases. The Obsidian 900D has held the fort since 2013, but could be getting dated in the wake of newer standards such as tempered glass, RGB lighting, newer connectors, etc. Corsair is careful not to just make a mash of glass and RGB lighting; when designing its upcoming flagship case, the Obsidian 1000D super-tower (model: CC-9011115-WW), which leaked to the web thanks to an eager Amazon listing, in which it's priced at USD $500. The Obsidian 1000D retains the "for grownups only" styling of the series, with a beautiful combination of curved tempered glass, matte black aluminium, and subtlety in the amount of RGB LED lighting elements on use. The feature-set of this full-tower will blow any high-end case out of the water.

The front, sides, and top panels are made of curved tempered glass with aluminium inserts, and enough discrete air inlets for the countless fan mounts inside. The front-panel features four USB 3.1 type-A, and two type-C ports; in addition to audio jacks. Connectors are framed by RGB lighting diffusers. The case is highly modular, and you can either choose between storage-heavy configurations, or cooling-heavy configuration that frees up room for multiple liquid cooling loops. The rear I/O can be configured to be perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard with 8+2 slots, or parallel to its plane, with 5+2 slots. You can install E-ATX and everything smaller, but longer 10-slot form-factors such as HPTX and XL-ATX are a notable exclusion.