AMD continuously makes the future look better. Their GPU architecture is taking a turn towards power efficiency, their APUs keep pulling out impressive performance for modern games, and HSA still looks like it has a ton of potential for the future of computing. The problem is when the future becomes today, the excitement can turn to disappointment. I’m at a point of no return with the expectations I have for AMD. So far, with the release of new FX series mobile APUs and an interesting new 990FX motherboard, I’m hoping for the possible release of a new AM3+ CPU. At this point, if AMD doesn’t deliver some high end by 2016, there is going to be disappointment. On the other hand, I think some good things are going to happen very soon. First, let’s look at the new release of an FX series APU. AMD hasn’t released these for full review yet, but quite few people got their hands on a few hour preview. Considering that these were being compared to mobile i7s, in most cases the results were impressive. These APUs aren’t blowing away any performance numbers, but let’s take in all considerations. First off, the FX-7600P is only a 35w chip, but the single thread performance is almost to the level of the the previous A10-5800k. That may not sound all that impressive, but the A10 is a massive 100w chip, and has a 4.2Ghz turbo compared to the measly 3.6Ghz turbo of the FX chip! Also, the graphics performance is the best yet with this APU being able...

All in one liquid cooling units are among the popular cooling solutions recently. With AIO units gaining popularity due to their cost to performance ratio, it doesn't come as a surprise. If we look back a mere 2 years ago, liquid AIO cooling units were few and far between, and only a hand of manufacturers offered this type cooling solution. However, today we find AIO units flooding the market, and selecting the right one can be a hard choice with so many readily available. Today are going to be looking at 2 units from Enermax that recently joined in on this market. We have the Enermax Liqtech 240 and Liqmax 120S AIO cooling units on the test bench. While choosing AIO units should be based on cooling performance, sometimes we find that aesthetics and software can be a deciding factor as well. Let's put both these units on our bench for testing today, but before we do that, let's talk about Enermax for just a moment.

One of the most common questions we ask when working on a new computer build is “what power supply (PSU) should I get?” Often times it can be a tricky decision, as many manufacturers make the same claims as one another. What can compound this decision-making process is the amount of space you have to work with in your rig. If you are building a smaller form-factor PC, the size of your PSU can limit the total wattage you can get in your PSU as well, which can confound you even more. SilverStone is here to tell you that size doesn’t mean everything. Enter their Strider Essential series power supply. For today’s review, we have their ST60F-ESG 600W unit on hand. It is rated with an 80 Plus Gold certification, is non-modular, and provides 600W of total power output. We’ll see if this PSU lives up to Silverstone’s legendary quality.

AMD Embeds Intelligent, Interactive and Immersive Experiences with 2nd Generation AMD Embedded R-Series APUs and CPUs New “Bald Eagle” platform delivers unmatched compute and graphics performance targeting gaming machines, medical imaging, digital signage and other embedded applications Macao, China — G2E 5/20/2014 ​​AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the 2nd generation AMD Embedded R-series accelerated processing unit (APU) and CPU family (previously codenamed “Bald Eagle”) for embedded applications. The new solutions are targeted at gaming machines, medical imaging, digital signage, industrial control and automation (IC&A), communications and networking infrastructure that require industry-leading compute and graphics processing technology. “When it comes to compute performance, graphics performance and performance-per-watt, the 2nd generation AMD Embedded R-series family is unique in the embedded market,” said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Embedded Solutions. “The addition of HSA, GCN and power management features enables our customers to create a new world of intelligent, interactive and immersive embedded devices.” The 2nd generation AMD R-series APU and CPU solutions are designed for mid- to high-end visual and parallel compute-intensive embedded applications with support for Linux, RTOS and Windows operating systems. The new solutions range from 2.2–3.6 GHz CPU frequency with max boost, based on AMD’s lates...

About a month ago, I wrote a piece titled, “The Story of Steamroller, CPU Benchmark, and FX.” Amidst the disappointment that Steamroller wasn’t coming to the FX line up, I postulated that the performance wasn’t adding up to a quality product and that AMD was going to completely overhaul their high end to be relevant again. Now, in a couple of releases from AMD, it sounds like that is exactly what is happening and AMD fans have something to look forward to again in the high end CPU market. The first bit of news that is showing this overhaul process is AMD’s decision to go back to SMT architecture from their current CMT architecture. Without going into too much detail, CMT was AMD’s own Multi-threading architecture designed to rival the more traditional SMT architecture that IBM introduced back in the 1970s. Unfortunately, as proven by Bulldozer, Piledriver and even Steamroller, this design isn’t living up to potential. Even though AMD has come out with some decent Multi-Thread performance, their single core has significantly lagged behind and even their decent performance hasn’t been enough to to stay in step with Intel’s high end. While AMD did manage to boast the first factory clocked 5 GHz CPU, the power and performance didn’t merit even the reduced cost of owning one after the price drops. That news would be interesting enough, but when Jim Keller, AMD’s top chip architect, says that they’re working...

The running trend today in top-of-the-line CPU cooling performance seems to be water cooling. If it’s not under water then most seem to think you’re doing it wrong and will never achieve properly high performance. However, there are those enthusiasts who would rather have peace of mind, knowing that they will never have to worry about one of the lines in a water cooling loop springing a leak or their pump failing on them, destroying their high performance rig. How do you gain maximum performance while minimizing the risk? Spire, a well known company for cooling products has released another member of their CPU air cooling line. It's called the X2 Spire Eclipse IV, and we are going to review it for you today.

Kingston Technologies have been in the memory business over two decades and are known for their reliable and fast memory. Today we are going to be looking at Kingston's new HyperX line called "Fury". This new Fury line from Kingston will position itself against its current mainstream HyperX Genesis and high-end HyperX Predator lines. The HyperX Fury pretty much lines up with its competitor from Corsair the Vengeance line. This will give consumers more options and widens that market share. The Fury line was not designed to be the best of the best, but is meant to meet that middle line between your beginning users and the higher-end clients. We have speeds ranging from 1333MHz to 1866Mhz which will be available in 8GB single sticks or 8GB to 16GB kits. Let's put the Kingston HyperX Furry DDR3 1866MHz kit we got for review to the test and see how well it performs.

When AMD announced the launch of the new FM2+ based socket for the up coming "Kaveri" APU Processor, manufacturers were in full force with the launch of new motherboards. Over the next few weeks we caught a glimpse of the up coming releases, and its design and aesthetics caught our attention. In the past, we have seen some nice products for the APU socket line, but the motherboards were never as fancy as some of the enthusiast boards we have come to see with the higher end chipsets and processors, like the AMD FX Series, the 990FX chipset line. With AMD's FX Series road map unclear, and AMD's APU series processors rising success, it was only a matter of time before we start to see more enthusiast style motherboards hit the market. Today, we have the pleasure of taking a look at an ASUS motherboard that sports the fancy aesthetics and brings to the table the full enthusiast experience that the APU market has missed out on before. Today we have the ASUS A88X-Pro Motherboard which runs the flagship A88X chipset. This is one of the 3 chipsets launched for the FM2+ based Kaveri APU. So, the question that most of us have today is does all this fancy aesthetic meet the demands of an enthusiast's desire? Well today we are going to put the ASUS A88X Motherboard to the test and find out.

In Win has been known to release some pretty unique PC chassis; their design team have some pretty creative ideas when it comes to its aesthetics and overall style. Of course, that's not always true. Sometimes we've seen some pretty questionable designs and wonder what they were thinking? This can be true of any manufacturer. Regardless, the are other times when we just get that WOW factor. Today, we are going to look at an In Win chassis that gave us that WOW factor at first glance. The In Win 901 mini-ITX chassis has a very sleek and elegant design. Its aluminum construction combined with tempered glass just screams sophistication. Lets break down the In Win 901 Aluminum mini-ITX Chassis and see if this classy design meets the build quality and functionality to match its initial WOW factor.

AMD's APU series market has really picked up pace over the last few years. The most recent updates to their current road map, included the new FM2+ socket A88X based chipset and the Kaveri Processor. This has really generated a great deal of interest with many of today's budget conscious consumers. However, with no updates to AMD's enthusiast FX series chip road map, AMD's APU series is really the only new technology we are seeing at the moment from its consumer line. With that said, we are excited to see that AMD is starting to put more budget friendly APU technology out in the market and we are going to shed some light on what to expect. Today we are looking at a very new low-budget APU inspired motherboard. It includes the Kabini SoC processor (which runs the Jaguar APU Cores) on a Radeon HD8000 series graphics base, and it does it all in a tight nit space. At the beginning of the year, ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems) announced this Kabini SoC processing unit which houses an AMD A6-5200 CPU. It also includes a Radeon 8400 GPU all in a small mini-ITX form factor APU combo. Today we got our nitty gritty hands on this tiny power house to put it to the test. We are excited to see what this Quad Core A6-5200 APU can do. Before we jump into the details of the ECS KBN-I/5200 motherboard, lets take a look at ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems).

After Global Foundries was formed from the Advanced Micro Devices manufacturing arm, they have flourished into one of the top semiconductor foundries on the global markets. Part of their success can be contributed to their contracts with AMD to produce a portion of their processors. Recently, Global Foundries has been looking to even further increase their size by the potential acquisition of IBM’s semiconductor fabrication facilities. AMD and Global Foundries reached an agreement increasing the amount of production done by the company. With this agreement, AMD projects that they will pay Global Foundries around $1.2 billion by the end of 2014. Their production prices will be fixed for the duration of their agreement. AMD has made this decision reflecting their projections for this year, increasing production quantities of PC semiconductors and some GPU and APU products. Between the increase of production for AMD and the prospective purchase for Global Foundries, both companies seem to be in very good shape for the future. AMD is in a very good position to increase their own sales and finally stand up against the massive Intel market. In all, Global Foundries just continues to grow in success as AMD and other companies increase their demand for semiconductor products. As Originally Written by DanielB Sources: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2014/04/04/glofo-ibm/1 http://www.amd.com/en-us/press-releases/Pages/amd-amends-wafer-2014apr1.aspx

In the past several months, the push for Home Theater PC's (HTPC's for short) has started to grow wildly. The allure of a fully modular home theater machine that does more than just play your movies or music is simply too strong for many to resist, and rightfully so. Oftentimes the question we may ask is "What platform should I build a HTPC on?" The answers vary wildly based on individual hardware preferences. AMD seems to think that one of the best choices out there for the discerning HTPC enthusiast lies with their newest Kaveri APU. While there are many choices out there of associated hardware, with more on the way, Biostar has one now that appeals directly to the audiophile: the A88W Hi-Fi 3D. Designed with both a high-end isolated audio solution and potential for tuning an unlocked APU, this motherboard looks to be a very sensible choice for those who want a little bit from every buffet of tech; the question is, "does it deliver finely tuned notes for enthusiasts of all kinds, or does it fall flat?" We're here to find out just that.

Back in January, NVIDIA leaked specs for their GTX 790, a new dual GPU card. Now, AMD is doing the same. The last time AMD and NVIDIA went rounds in this market, it was a one sided fight with NVIDIA getting the first release, and AMD getting in the ring so late that everyone had already gone home. This time around, AMD has announced a new dual GPU chip, only shortly after NVIDIA, called the R9 295 X2. As expected, the specs on both of these cards look pretty monstrous. Some frequencies have been tuned back a tad to compensate for the two chips, but what’s really interesting is the architecture choices. In spite of everyone’s excitement about Maxwell, NVIDIA chose to keep to the GK110 GPUs in the 790. While it’s obvious that Maxwell still needs some time in development, it also seems like the perfect choice with the heat and power efficiency performance seen in a dual GPU card. While it might be worth the wait, AMD has Hawaii architecture coming to their dual GPU card now. And if bitcoin miners loved the performance of the R9 290X, there is no doubt the R9 295 X2 will be an instant success. As it is, Hawaii architecture has already made great strides in the gaming market and if it wasn’t for mining inflating the prices, AMD would be the top pick for many gamers. If everyone comes to see the fight, it’s good to know both competitors showed up this time around. Another exciting thing about these releases is the future of dual GPU card...

A terrible cry of despair could be heard around the world when AMD announced they would not be developing their steamroller cores into the FX CPU line up. If that wasn’t bad enough, leaked road maps showed us no future for the flagship series making it very hard to believe that AMD cares about high end at all. This is a dark time in the CPU world in that AMD fans have lost all hope and Intel can have a monopoly on the high end. But maybe there’s a glimmer of hope which might bring vibrant competition in the future. If you haven’t heard of cpubenchmark.net, go there, and let’s take a stab at what the future might hold for hardware enthusiasts. If you ever plan to purchase a new processor and know you have a limited budget, CPU Benchmark should be the first place you go to. They have performance graphs of almost every chip on the market showing overall performance, overclocking, single thread performance and even power to performance ratio. While the website does its own testing, they also pull their benchmarks from thousands of users who buy the software to bench their own systems giving a convenient average score to help users decide on a chip. This will help you find a good range of chips to sort through, then you can look at more specific reviews to make the best decision. It was from these charts that something interesting appeared about the new Steamroller chips, specifically the A10-7850K. When compared to the previous flagship APU, (the A10-68...

DirectX hasn’t seen an update for a very long time. PC gaming on the other hand, has seen some very interesting changes over the past years, but more significantly in recent times would be the Steam Machine and AMD’s Mantle technology. These two offer a direct competition to Microsoft so it’s no surprise that they’ve had to find a way to respond and quickly. Without going into too much of the speculation that’s already out, it seems that DirectX 12 may well be a direct response to Mantle technology. The Steam Machine obviously offers competition, but it also requires that games be designed to run for a Linux based OS and is less likely to fill the niche for work at home procedures. Mantle could be much scarier for Microsoft, because if game developers design to it, there could be very little need to upgrade to a new version of Windows while still enjoying peak performance from the latest AMD graphics cards. To modestly explain why this works, Mantle allows more graphics processing to go straight to the GPU rather than having to use the CPU as the middle man. Still run Windows 7? No big deal because you have the latest AMD drivers with Mantle software. DirectX 12 hasn’t revealed details yet, but if it tries to garner the same kind of performance that Mantle does, it will be easier for Microsoft to pin it to newer versions of Windows, forcing consumers to upgrade in order to keep peak performance out of their hardware. While this all ma...