Asus improves board warranty: Memory OC and beta BIOS covered

Recently, a controversy has flared up on the web surrounding Asus motherboards. It is related to the issues of Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs killed by excessive VSoC voltage, which was previously set too high by Asus boards (not just Asus ones though). Asus received further complaints after providing a fix as a beta BIOS update that was not officially covered by warranty. The company has now responded by changes that should improve things quite a bit. Read more “Asus improves board warranty: Memory OC and beta BIOS covered” »

ROG Strix SCAR 18 or a test of RTX 4090/Core i9-13980HX combo

Processors and graphics cards of the latest generations are already available in laptops nicely together, side by side, which also applies to the Asus model series – SCAR 18. We are talking about powerful hardware, or the most powerful, as far as the configuration we tested is concerned. This one features both a top-notch CPU and GPU . Meanwhile, the Scar 18 is a relatively compact laptop considering its high performance. Read more “ROG Strix SCAR 18 or a test of RTX 4090/Core i9-13980HX combo” »

A620 chipset specs in detail: a PCIe Gen4 uplink surprise

Last Friday, the last day of Q1, low-cost AM5 boards for Ryzen 7000 processors based on the low-end A620 chipset were released by all the manufacturers in a coordinated fashion (we’ve put together an overview of the models here), but AMD itself didn’t make any announcements at first, so we didn’t have exact specs. These have been published now and include one surprising thing which makes the A620 better than expected. Read more “A620 chipset specs in detail: a PCIe Gen4 uplink surprise” »

Cheap A620 AM5 boards are out, starting at $85. Here’s the models

In the last few days, inexpensive A620 chipset-based AM5 motherboards for Ryzen 7000 started leaking. We’ve already seen photos of one model and it seems that AMD has timed the unveiling and release for the last day of March (maybe they wanted to formally make it before the end of the first quarter). And now, boards with this chipset were launched from all the usual manufacturers, with the cheapest ones going as low as $85. Read more “Cheap A620 AM5 boards are out, starting at $85. Here’s the models” »

RTX 4080 Noctua Edition is out. Great cooler, what about the coils?

You already know the non-reference graphics cards with Noctua coolers from the Nvidia Ampere generation (GeForce RTX 3000), but now comes the first design with an Ada Lovelace GPU, on the RTX 4080. The main improvement of the cooler lies in the use of the Vapor Chamber and the cooling efficiency seems to be really top-notch. But we know less about the coils – nobody was really concerned with them in tests, but we did get some information from Noctua. Read more “RTX 4080 Noctua Edition is out. Great cooler, what about the coils?” »

Asus TUF Gaming TF120: Cheap, lighted and efficient fan

Asus’s efforts in the field of standalone PC fans are on the rise. After the premiere in the form of the ROG XF120, there is now the half-price TUF TF120, which also gives more attractive results in some applications. And that’s even compared to other, similar fans with ARGB LEDs. The geometry of the TF120 is quite sensible, which is why it often beats its competitors in its price range. Read more “Asus TUF Gaming TF120: Cheap, lighted and efficient fan” »

Vapor chamber by Noctua: Premiere to take place in Asus RTX 4080

Just before the end of last year, we wrote about Noctua’s involvement in the development of Asus RTX 4000 graphics card. Now we know for sure that there will be an RTX4080-O16G-Noctua model. While at first glance this card’s cooler will be the same as the last one, it is supposed to be significantly more effective with the implementation of a vapor chamber, which Noctua has never used before, not even with their own CPU coolers. Read more “Vapor chamber by Noctua: Premiere to take place in Asus RTX 4080” »

In-depth analysis of Asus ROG Strix B760-A Gaming WiFi D4

After the Z790 motherboards for the Intel LGA 1700 platform, models with cheaper B760 and H770 chipsets are also coming out. In this test, we’ll take a detailed look at the Asus ROG Strix B760-A Gaming WiFi D4 motherboard, which takes full advantage of what the new chipset (B760) brings. You’ll also get a general idea of how the Core i9-13900K processor performs with DDR4 memory compared to the faster DDR5 modules. Read more “In-depth analysis of Asus ROG Strix B760-A Gaming WiFi D4” »

Asus and Noctua are collabing on GeForce RTX 4000 cards as well

Asus graphics cards with Noctua coolers wasn’t just a one-season affair. On the contrary, it seems that this could be a tradition that will now continue in the Ada Lovelace GPU generation. Information is extremely scarce so far, but we did hear something from the ones in charge and some details are clear. However, we can only speculate about most of it until CES 2023, where the official unveiling of these graphics will take place. Read more “Asus and Noctua are collabing on GeForce RTX 4000 cards as well” »

Breakthrough overclocking record: Raptor Lake achieves 9 GHz

Intel’s Raptor Lake processors brought one surprise: breaking the absolute extreme OC record. There were doubts it would ever happen, as today’s CPU architectures are not optimized for the high clock speeds at all costs like the past record holders Pentium 4 and AMD FX. But Raptor Lake and Intel 7 Ultra manufacturing process have shown they are capable of even more and have conquered a milestone never-beaten before, now. Read more “Breakthrough overclocking record: Raptor Lake achieves 9 GHz” »

Even more features. Asus ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi test

New motherboards for Intel Raptor Lake processors are again a bit more expensive in the same class than the previous generation Z690, but they are also better equipped. This also applies to the ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi, which now has more M.2 slots than SATA ports. What’s also neater is the mechanism for removing graphics cards from underneath the big tower coolers and overclocking the CPU using machine learning. That’s also an option. Read more “Even more features. Asus ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi test” »

Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero: Elite board with extreme VRM

An expensive but a very effective motherboard. Thus, the high purchase price of the Maximus Z690 Hero can be gradually returned in lower operating costs after fine-tuning. First and foremost, however, it is a proper support for the most powerful processors, which can be safely overclocked well beyond the capabilities of the most powerful coolers. The board also comes with an SSD expansion card, unusually. Read more “Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero: Elite board with extreme VRM” »

Winner of the HWC competition for mobo, CPU and cooler

Over the past week you have sent us many encouraging messages, but you have not been afraid of constructive criticism either. All suggestions have been extremely useful feedback for us. We know what you are missing and we can gradually respond to these things and incorporate them into the site. Thank you! Traditionally grimmer is the announcement of only one of our readers, decided by a random number generator. Read more “Winner of the HWC competition for mobo, CPU and cooler” »

Win a Core i5 on Asus mobo (B660) with SilentiumPC cooler

It’s been quite a while since you had a chance to win something, so let’s make up for it a little bit now. With a three-in-one package where one of you gets half of a working PC – Intel Core i5-12400 processor with integrated graphics, Asus TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4 motherboard and SilentiumPC Spartan 5 cooler. These are all attractive components that have been awarded the Smart buy! award in our tests, which we don’t give out “just like that”. Read more “Win a Core i5 on Asus mobo (B660) with SilentiumPC cooler” »

We tested three available Asus routers. Pick your favourite

The Asus Networking Division offers routers for just about every application and environment. Whether you’re looking for an affordable WiFI router or as an avid gamer, you can’t do without RGB LED lighting. The same is true if you need to cover a larger area, for example a house, for which Mesh solutions are already needed, and it is the AiMesh function that is one of the main strengths of this manufacturer’s routers. Read more “We tested three available Asus routers. Pick your favourite” »

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