Computex 2017: Plextor Announces M9Pe SSD Packed With Toshiba's 64-Layer 3D TLC NAND and RGB Lightings

After announcing its M8Se SSD lineup just a few weeks ago, Plextor decided to showcase its upcoming M9Pe SSD lineup during its launch event at Computex 2017. 

The M8Se announced earlier features Toshiba's TLC NAND flash from the 15nm NAND node that is capable of sequential read/write access speeds of up to 2,450/1,000 MB/s and random read/write speeds of up to 210,000/175,000 IOPS. 

If you noticed the heat sink design, Plextor has introduced a new design with streamline aesthetic design for the M8Se SSD lineup, except for the M8SeGN. According to Plextor, the new heat sink design is able to cool down the NAND flash more efficiently than the previous heat sink  design used on the M8Pe SSD(s) for the optimal performance.

As for the upcoming M9Pe SSD(s), you can expect for the same streamline heat sink design as the current M8Se with a red emblem instead of blue, and will come available with RGB lighting to meet the market's demand. 

Aesthetics aside, the M9Pe SSD will be featuring Toshiba's 64-Layer 3D TLC NAND, Marvell controller to deliver performance of up to 3100 MB/s sequential read and 2300 MB/s sequential write. The M9Pe are expected to be available by the end of the year and will be available in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB configuration.

Computex 2017: be quiet! Showcases New CPU Coolers, SFX Power Supplies

This year at Computex 2017, be quiet! showcased quite a few interesting new products which include a new wire-free premium power supply series, Straight Power 11, as well as the company’s first SFX L power supply, and a limited edition of the award-winning Dark Base Pro 900 PC chassis in white. 

New revision of the Shadow Rock Topflow, the Shadow Rock TF 2 CPU cooler and the new Silent Loop 360mm All-in-One water cooler that is equipped with a 55mm thicke 360mm will also make appearances at this year’s Computex, following their recent reveals at CeBIT 2017.

Bigger Radiator For More Cooling Performance - Silent Loop 360mm

With its innovative whisper-quiet reverse-flow pump and high-quality build, Silent Loop’s debut in 2016 made an impressive impact in the All-in-One water cooling market. be quiet!’s portfolio expands with the introduction of its 360mm Silent Loop variant. Silent Loop 360mm is compatible with be quiet!’s Dark Base 900, Dark Base Pro 900 and Pure Base 600 chassis. 

Three Pure Wings 2 120mm PWM fans with airflow-optimized fan blades help handle cooling, both silently and efficiently, while Silent Loop 360mm’s nickel plated copper cooling block improves synergy with different kinds of thermal grease.

Limited Edition White Colored Dark Base Pro 900

To thank its fans for the success of its Dark Base Pro 900 in 2016, be quiet! is releasing an eye-catching limited edition of its flagship PC case in white. Each piece will be unique, boasting the same features that made the Dark Base Pro 900 popular, including its outstanding cooling capabilities and versatility, E-ATX and XL-ATX motherboard support, preinstalled SilentWings 3 fans, panels with installed sound proofing, attractive LED light strips, wireless charging for Qi enabled devices, a large tampered glass side window and much more. The Dark Base Pro 900 White Edition is limited to 2,000 pieces, each coming with a numbered aluminium badge.

New Wire-Free, Fully-Modular Power Supply - Straight Power 11

The Straight Power 11 is rated at 80PLUS Gold with efficiency up to 93%. This latest Straight Power power supply features a completely redesigned PCB with an innovative wire-free design on the DC side. By being wire-free, this means having less cables inside the power supply will improve airflow and cooling as well as resulting in less signal disturbance and a longer component lifecycle. In the end, with its upgraded LLC + Synchronous Rectifier + DC-to-DC technology, the signal quality of Straight Power 11 is lifted to a higher level. 

To make sure the power supply stays cool, be quiet! uses a 135mm version of its own high-end SilentWings 3 fan. The funnel shaped frame, fluid-dynamic bearings and 6-pole motor guarantee Straight Power 11’s excellent reliability and virtually inaudible cooling. Straight Power 11 integrates the full suite of current protection circuits (OCP, OVP, UVP, SCP, OTP and OPP) and only uses 105°C rated Japanese capacitors. To further improve security and stability, the 12V rails are divided into four separate rails. Straight Power 11 line will be available with full cable management and rated from 450W up to 1,000W.

New Air Cooler - Shadow Rock TF2

Designed for PCs with limited space, the 112mm (including fan) height Shadow Rock TF 2 is the ideal top flow cooler, offering powerful cooling and great performance at a reasonable price. With a TDP rating of 160 W, the Shadow Rock TF 2 is powerful enough to handle all current processors while reaching significantly lower CPU temperatures than its predecessor.

be quiet!’s innovative design improvements include a completely redesigned heat sink with small diagonally arranged fins that guide cool air to all components surrounding the CPU socket. 

The direct connection between baseplate and cooling fins supports five 6mm copper heat pipes, making for a faster heat transfer. Shadow Rock TF 2 is compatible with all Intel and AMD sockets, including AM4.

Fully-Modular, Small Form Factor PSU - SFX L Power

SFX L Power is the ideal PSU for Mini-ITX systems. With its compact SFX-L form factor and ATX adapter bracket, it fits in most chassis, leaving more than enough room for a larger and quieter temperature-controlled high-quality 120mm fan. 

Without giving up cooling performance, the fan operates silently and at a lower speed than 80mm fans commonly used in SFX power supplies. With the SFL Power, users do not need to compromise on silence when it comes to powering their compact gaming or media system. 

Available in either 500W or 600W models, SFX L Power includes 80PLUS Gold certification with a rating of up to 92% efficiency, full cable management, four PCI express connectors for multi-GPU configurations and is rounded off with the full suite of protection circuits (OCP, OVP, UVP, SCP, OTP and OPP).

Noctua Unveils The Next Generation 120mm A-Series Fan - The New King Has Arrived?

Noctua is one of the few brands that have solid fans and CPU coolers across the board. It's NH-D15 CPU cooler for example, can easily put a generic AIO liquid cooler to shame. After years of waiting - 4.5 years to be exact, Noctua's next generation A series fans which has been showcased back in Computex 2016 will soon be available by 2017 Q4.

Unlike any of its previous fans i.e NF-P12, NF-F12 and NF-S12A that uses PBT material for its impellers, the upcoming A series 120mm fan are made of Novel Sterrox liquid crystal polymer (LCP) compound as well as far-reaching structural modifications that help to reduce tensions in the plastic after injection moulding. 

Unlike any traditional fans made with conventional materials, the Sterrox LCP has an ordered, rod-like molecular alignment when it is in its melt state, and solidifies into a highly oriented and extremly rigid chain structure. As result, the impellers are extremely rigid and doesn't deform easily under heat and the centrifugal force over long hours of operation. 

This allows Noctua to achieve its goal of having a mere 0.5mm clearance between the fan's frame and its impeller, which greatly minimize the air leak and improves the overall static pressure that the fan can deliver.

Of course, extreme rigidity isn't the only traits these Sterrox LCP impellers has. Thanks to its elasticity modulus and dampening properties that is ideal for reducing resonance and vibration phenomena, smoother acoustic profile can be achieved. Good news for the silent freaks!

Unlike any of the existing Noctua fans that are specially designed for a certain, specific applications, the new A-series fan are more like a all-rounder fan that falls in between the high static pressure NF-F12 and high airflow NF-S12A.

Based on the performance curve as shown above, the new A-series fans are shown capable of delivering better performance with a balanced static pressure and airflow than both the NF-F12 and NF-S12A in real world performance. 

If the numbers alone aren't convincing enough, Noctua has a thermal simulation setup to demonstrate its performance in real life. The new A-series fan are put to test With both station having the same amount of heat to dissipate and the same CPU cooler. 

Other than having a much better acoustic profile, the setup with a single new A-series fans also performs slightly better than the one with a dual fan setup. From the current performance observed, we believe that the new A-series fan will do even better than the existing static pressure optimized NF-P12 fans and could potentially be the next king of radiator fan after the long reign of the current king, Scythe's Gentle Typhoon AP-15?

Computex 2017: ASUS Republic of Gamers unveils a series of gaming gears

One of the most exciting announcements during the ASUS ROG's "Join the Republic" press event is no other than the ultra-slim gaming laptop - the ROG Zephyrus. Still, that doesn't mean that the world's leading PC gaming brand is not showcasing any innovations for their other products. Also announced are the Strix SCAR and Strix Hero ROG laptops, Swift PG35VQ gaming monitor, Strix Fusion gaming headset, Rampage VI Extreme and Apex motherboards.

ROG Zephyrus

The world’s slimmest gaming laptop powered by a 7th Generation Intel Core i7 (Kaby Lake) processor and the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics. Zephyrus features the unique Active Aerodynamic System (AAS) that increases the efficiency of the airflow through the laptop. Hence allowing the laptop to pack a punch yet remains the super slim form factor.

ROG Strix SCAR & ROG Strix HERO

The ROG Strix SCAR Edition is a brand-new gaming laptop engineered to give FPS players a vital edge, with Intel Core i7 processors, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 Series graphics, and an ultrafast 120Hz, 5ms display.



The ROG Strix HERO Edition is a new gaming laptop made for MOBA gamers, with Intel Core i7 processors, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 Series graphics and a 120Hz wide-view display with rich colour fidelity.

ROG Rampage VI Extreme & ROG Rampage VI Apex

Rampage VI Extreme, a flagship motherboard for dream X299 systems with custom liquid cooling and next-level customization.



ROG Rampage VI Apex, an all-new X299 motherboard designed for record-breaking overclocking and sub-zero cooling.

ROG Swift PG35VQ

ROG Swift PG35VQ, a 35-inch 3440x1440 HDR curved panel monitor with a 200MHz refresh rate and NVIDIA G-SYNC™ technology.

ROG Strix Fusion

ROG Strix Fusion, the world's first gaming headset with exclusive headset-to-headset RGB-lighting sync and mobile app control.

ASUS Aura SDK beta program

ROG also officially launched the ASUS Aura SDK beta program. The SDK is an evolving developer toolkit based on the most comprehensive full-system-lighting solution which furthers the capabilities and benefits of the Aura illumination technology.

With the release of the ASUS Aura SDK, developers are now able to fully exploit the capabilities of the ASUS Aura Sync gears such as real-time lighting synchronisation or any custom lighting possibilities.

Computex 2017: Kingston HyperX Showcases Alloy Elite RGB Mechanical Keyboard and PulseFire FPS Gaming Mouse

In this year's Computex, Kingston HyperX showcases its upcoming gaming peripherals specially tailored for FPS gamers, the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB mechanical keyboard and HyperX PulseFire FPS gaming mouse.

HyperX PulseFire FPS

HyperX has teamed up with professional gamers, gathered their feedback and requirements to create a gaming mouse that is truly meant for FPS games. Thus, the HyperX PulseFire FPS is created.

The PulseFire FPS features a lightweight design, weighing a mere 95g, for swift action, comfortable right-handed ergonomics with slip resistant grips and a pair of extra large mouse skates to ensure that FPS gamers are able to perform at their peak performance in each play.

It also features the PixArt PWM 3310 optical sensor (identical to the renowned Avago 3310 optical sensor), adjustable DPI at the range of 400 to 3200, and the widely used D2FC-F-7N Omron switch for the best control and responsiveness needed in every action.

HyperX Alloy Elite RGB

Up next is the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB, the latest mechanical keyboard from HyperX that is made for all type of gamers. Like most RGB mechanical keyboards out there, the Alloy Elite RGB is capable of 16M colors, USB pass-through design,  as well as the NKRO feature to meet the current market's demand.

Instead of going for the lower cost Cherry MX alternatives, HyperX decided stick with the original Cherry MX switches to ensure the best quality and experience are delivered to the end users.

Instead of having the function keys row (F1 to F12) for media controls, the Alloy Elite RGB features a set of dedicated media keys for easier control of media playback.

It also comes with set of Gunmetal Textured keycaps for gamers to easily identify the commonly pressed clusters with the sense of touch.

The included detachable wrist rest has a pretty good angle to provide extra comfort for long hours of usage, which is actually an added plus to the keyboard itself.

Both the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB Mechanical Keyboard and HyperX PulseFire FPS Gaming Mouse will be available starting from the 3rd week of June, 2017.

Computex 2017: Kingston Announces the Availability of Its KC1000 NVMe SSD

Kingston showcases its upcoming Enterprise-class SSD, the DCP1000 PCIe AIC SSD and DCU1000 PCIe U.2 SSD, previously made its appearance back in CES 2017, during our brief visit to Kingston's booth. 

On the left is the DCP1000 that features capacity of up to 4TB and it utilizes, the PCI Express 3.0 x8 interface which is capable of delivering a staggering 7GB/s performance. The DCU1000 which is located on the right, features a 2.5 form factor enclosure with a PCI Express x4 U.2 interface to enable spped of up to 3..6GB//s.

Available on display at Kingston's booth, both the SSD can be configured for RAID mode to achieve a number of close to 2000000 IOPS, for enterprise level users with high demand for data transfer rate.

No information on both its availability and pricing was given during our visit to Kingston's booth, but we will update the details here as soon as we manage to get our hands on the news.

Moving on to the KC1000 NVMe SSD, the KC1000 is available in 230GB, 480GB and 960GB, capable of delivering up to 290,000 IOPS and is backed by a 5-year limited warranty from Kingston.

Kingston's high-performance NVMe SSD for the consumer market which was announced a week ago will be available starting from the 3rd week of June 2017, but Kingston has yet to reveal any information regarding to its price.

Computex 2017: AMD Demonstrates the Ryzen Threadripper & Radeon Vega

During the AMD press conference today at Computex Taipei, the company had showcased a series of upcoming product timeline and demonstrations. AMD also took the chance and invite top global OEM partners to showcase their new systems based on Ryzen processor.

EPYC Launch

The new EPYC processor lineup is AMD's latest high-performance processors for cloud-based and traditional on-premise data centres. Previously codenamed Naples, the new EPYC processors will deliver the "Zen" x86 processing engine that scales up to 32 physical cores. The first EPYC processor-based servers are scheduled to launch on 20th June 2017.

Ryzen Mobile

AMD also demonstrated publicly for the first time a Ryzen mobile APU in an ultraportable reference design, bringing 4 cores, 8-threads and “Vega” architecture-based graphics into a sub-15mm thickness notebook design. The demo featured the Ryzen mobile-powered notebook playing HD video content.

Ryzen Momentum

Consumers are expected to see more Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 systems from OEMs. During the product showcase, Acer, ASUS, Dell and Lenovo has brought us a wide variety of PC systems ranging from All-in-one, towers and laptops.

• Acer Aspire GX-281 Desktop
• ASUS G11DF Desktop
• ASUS Republic of Gamers Strix GL702ZC desktop replacement – the world’s first 8-core gaming notebook
• Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop
• Dell Inspiron 27 7000 Series AIO – Computex d&i award winner
• Lenovo IdeaCentre 720
• Lenovo IdeaCentre 510

Ryzen Threadripper

Targetted at the world's fastest ultra-premium desktop systems, the Ryzen Threadripper was announced and scheduled for release in Summer 2017. AMD has demonstrated the power of Threadripper's processing raw power with an ultra fast live rendering of the Ryzen logo. The team also demonstrates the live rendering of a 3D scene with the help of the Threadripper and the Vega-based GPU.

*PS, hey, it supports 64 PCIe 3.0 lanes.

Radeon “Vega” Updates

AMD also announces that the first "Vega" architecture-based graphics card will be called the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition - a premier solution for both machine learning and advanced visualisation. It is expected the card to be available for sale starting 27th June 2017.

Then the highly anticipated Radeon RX Vega graphics card did not make its debut here in Computex Taipei 2017, but the AMD team manage to showcase the graphic quality with a brief gameplay of "Prey". Dr Su mentions that the card is expected to launch at SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles, California.