<div><span style="font-size: small;">The AMD Kaveri launch was a bit of a m&ecirc;l&eacute;e &ndash; two weeks to test a dozen processors in our new benchmarking suite, both in terms of CPU and IGP performance, with the big write up at the end. At the time I used the FM2A88X Extreme6+ motherboard, and in order to avoid complications I put on some rock solid air cooling and it sailed through the process. When I removed the extra cooling, a heat-related issue started to occur. I noticed the VRM heatsink getting hot, and as a result the system was reducing frequencies after extended workloads. After checking everything in the software side was OK, I got an infrared thermometer to probe some of the components. When the VRM heatsink showed 88C after 5 minutes of encoding work, and 97C after an hour, I had found the culprit of the issue. 88C is a rather high temperature, despite these components are usually rated to 105C. Since I finished testing the motherboard, ASRock has launched several new BIOSes, which I tested after consulting ASRock. The final result was that the system till reached 80C after 10-15 minutes of hard CPU work (normal work rather than a power virus) and 92C after 25+ minutes.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;">This might be seen a stern start to a motherboard review, especially one that has won awards elsewhere and performed well in our high-end air cooled testing. The FM2A88X Extreme6+ is a full sized ATX motherboard using the A88X chipset, supplanted with an 8+2 power phase design. From the chipset we have eight SATA 6 Gbps ports (7 regular + 1 eSATA), 6 USB 3.0 ports, an x8/x8 + x4 PCIe layout and support for up to 64GB DRAM from four memory slots. ASRock's website states that this motherboard can be part of a system that supports 4096x2400 at 60 Hz via DP 1.2. &nbsp;Other video outputs are present as well (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI).</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></div> <div> <div><span style="font-size: small;">ASRock&rsquo;s additions to the base chipset include support up to DDR3-2600 on the memory, a Realtek ALC1150 audio codec (rated at 115dB SNR) with a TI NE5532 headset amplifier, a Qualcomm Atheros AR8171 network interface, six fan headers, power/reset buttons, a two digit debug, an ASMedia ASM1042 for two additional USB 3.0 ports and the ASRock BIOS/Software ecosystem that is ever improving.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;">In our performance testing, the motherboard and CPU combination trades blows with another FM2+ motherboard we are currently testing, winning in a few CPU and gaming tests. The system scores under 10 seconds for a Windows 7 POST time, although the DPC Latency is matching that of our Intel 8-series results oddly enough.</span></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><span style="font-size: small;">ASRock is often very aggressive on pricing, and the FM2A88X Extreme6+ comes in at $105, near other motherboards from ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI. ASRock is continually building an ecosystem around the BIOS utilization and software functionality in order to make their products more desirable, though additional cooling on this model might be recommended.</span></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><a href="http://anandtech.com/show/7865/asrock-fm2a88x-extreme6-review" target="_blank">Read more...</a></div> </div>

<div><span style="font-size: small;">Liquid-cooling is nothing new in the world of computers; enthusiasts first started creating custom water cooling setups back in the 80486 era, and even prior to that some mainframes used liquid-cooling. Due to their cost and complexity however, such cooling solutions often do not appeal to a large portion of users. With the advent of of closed loop, ready-to-run liquid-cooling kits from Asetek and CoolIT a few years back, however, liquid-cooling is now significantly less costly and complex. Today, the cooling solutions of both these two OEMs are being marketed by several brands and are becoming increasingly popular among all classes of users.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;">Despite the low cost and ease of installation however, these closed loop systems entirely lack the one thing that a custom liquid-cooling solution has: versatility. All of the closed loop liquid-cooling kits currently available in the market are designed be installed on a single CPU, without the possibility of any expansion, whereas custom setups could potentially cool all of the critical components in a system. Until recently, those who purchased any closed loop liquid-cooling kit were limited to cooling their CPU only, leaving their high-end graphics cards running on air. NZXT came up with a very simple and effective solution to this problem: a metallic bracket called the Kraken G10 that allows the installation of any Asetek-based liquid-cooling kit on most modern graphics cards.&nbsp;</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br type="_moz" /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://anandtech.com/show/7719/nzxt-kraken-g10-review-liquid-cooling-for-your-gpu" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></div>

<div><span style="font-size: small;">The G1 series from GIGABYTE has seen a recent expansion of late &ndash; from the previous socket to new chipset releases, GIGABYTE is now attempting to provide a model at almost every reasonable price point in the market. &nbsp;The purpose of this is to provide a gaming platform for any budget, using gaming features such as OP-AMP, USB-DAC.UP and Gain Boost. &nbsp;At the mid point of the spectrum is the G1.Sniper Z87, which we are reviewing today.</span></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><span style="font-size: small;">As we have discussed in previous publications on AnandTech, attempting to decipher the benefit of an audio solution can be a difficult task. &nbsp;On a recent post where we asked for our reader input, there were substantial numbers in all three categories &ndash; (i) Onboard audio is good enough, no need to test it; (ii) Keep going with similar tests, it is good to see some data; and (iii) These tests show almost nothing about the audio that audiophiles care about. &nbsp;So when GIGABYTE is supplying us with their gaming motherboard that has a frontal focus on audio, trying to quantify the audio gains as such can be difficult. &nbsp;Luckily, the focal points of GIGABYTE&rsquo;s audio engineering additions are actually tangible that we can play with, rather than merely &lsquo;part of the design&rsquo;.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br type="_moz" /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://anandtech.com/show/7762/gigabyte-g1sniper-z87-review" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></div>

<p><span style="font-size: small;">As the GPU company who&rsquo;s arguably more transparent about their long-term product plans, NVIDIA still manages to surprise us time and time again. Case in point, we have known since 2012 that NVIDIA&rsquo;s follow-up architecture to Kepler would be Maxwell, but it&rsquo;s only more recently that we&rsquo;ve begun to understand the complete significance of Maxwell to the company&rsquo;s plans. Each and every generation of GPUs brings with it an important mix of improvements, new features, and enhanced performance; but fundamental shifts are fewer and far between. So when we found out Maxwell would be one of those fundamental shifts, it changed our perspective and expectations significantly.</span></p> <div><span style="font-size: small;">What is that fundamental shift? As we found out back at NVIDIA&rsquo;s CES 2014 press conference, Maxwell is the first NVIDIA GPU that started out as a &ldquo;mobile first&rdquo; design, marking a significant change in NVIDIA&rsquo;s product design philosophy. The days of designing a flagship GPU and scaling down already came to an end with Kepler, when NVIDIA designed GK104 before GK110. But NVIDIA still designed a desktop GPU first, with mobile and SoC-class designs following. However beginning with Maxwell that entire philosophy has come to an end, and as NVIDIA has chosen to embrace power efficiency and mobile-friendly designs as the foundation of their GPU architectures, this has led to them going mobile first on Maxwell. With Maxwell NVIDIA has made the complete transition from top to bottom, and are now designing GPUs bottom-up instead of top-down.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;">Nevertheless, a mobile first design is not the same as a mobile first build strategy. NVIDIA has yet to ship a Kepler based SoC, let alone putting a Maxwell based SoC on their roadmaps. At least for the foreseeable future discrete GPUs are going to remain as the first products on any new architecture. So while the underlying architecture may be more mobile-friendly than what we&rsquo;ve seen in the past, what hasn&rsquo;t changed is that NVIDIA is still getting the ball rolling for a new architecture with relatively big and powerful GPUs.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br type="_moz" /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;">This brings us to the present, and the world of desktop video cards. Just less than 2 years since the launch of the first Kepler part, the GK104 based GeForce GTX 680, NVIDIA is back and ready to launch their next generation of GPUs as based on the Maxwell architecture.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><br type="_moz" /> </span></div> <div><a href="http://anandtech.com/show/7764/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-750-ti-and-gtx-750-review-maxwell" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Read more...</span></a></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div>