Asus has announced its first-ever ROG Apex motherboard for AMD CPUs. The ROG Crosshair X870E Apex is Asus' all-new extreme overclocking-focused motherboard, aimed at CPU overclocking and extreme DDR5 memory overclocking. Overclocker Safedisk has already achieved eight world records with the Apex by overclocking two G.Skill DDR5 memory sticks to over DDR5-10000.

The new board has an E-ATX form factor and supports all AM5 Ryzen-based CPUs: the Ryzen 7000 series, Ryzen 8000 series (APUs), and Ryzen 9000 series. The defining trait of the Apex series is the DIMM slot count, which drops from four to just two. This maximizes DDR5 overclocking potential, as fewer DIMM slots enable board makers to improve the traces connecting each slot to the CPU.

Asus advertises a "minimum" overclocking window of "8200+ MT/s" for Ryzen 9000 CPUs, "9600+MT/s" for Ryzen 8000 CPUs, and "8000+ MT/s" for Ryzen 7000 CPUs for CPUs and memory kits listed in the board's CPU/Memory support list.

The board features all the bells and whistles of an Asus extreme overclocking motherboard featuring 18 110A, two 110A, and two 80A power stages with MicroFine alloy chokes and premium SMD capacitors. Asus' plethora of CPU overclocking-focused technologies, such as Dynamic OC Switcher, Core Flex, and Asynchronous clock, are also present, on top of AMD's overclocking features courtesy of Precision Boost Overdrive.

Operating on the X870E chipset, the new Crosshair Apex has a robust assortment of I/O and PCIe connectivity. The board comprises dual PCIe 5.0 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 slot, and one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. Three M.2 slots are on the board, running at PCIe 5.0 speeds. I/O consists of dual USB4 (40Gbps) Type-C ports, six USB 10Gbps ports, five Type-A connectors, and one Type-C connector. Rounding out the rear I/O USB ports are two USB Type-A 5Gbps ports.

The front I/O is almost as numerous, consisting of dual USB 20 Gbps ports, one of which features 60W power delivery and Quick Charge 4+ support, two USB 5Gbps headers supporting four additional USB 5 Gbps ports, and two USB 2.0 headers supporting up to four additional 2.0 ports. There is also a Wi-Fi 7 card (with Bluetooth 5.4 support) for internet connectivity and a single Realtek 5 Gbps Ethernet port.

Like other ROG boards, the Apex has a black finish with RGB LED accents. Covers cover most of the board, including the PCIe slots, M.2 slots, and the rear I/O area.

Professional overclocker Safedisk achieved eight new records with the Crosshair X870E Apex paired to a Ryzen 9 9950X and a 48GB DDR5 G.Skill memory kit overclocked to DDR5-10200 on air cooling. Safedisk scored 17,0757 points in Geekbench 3 multi-core, 324,364 MIPS in 7-Zip, 9,372 points in R15, 23,585 points in R20, 60,868 points in R23, a time of 17s 498ms in GPUPI for CPU 1B, 316.969 FPS in HWBot x265 benchmark at 1080p, and 78.319 FPS in HWBot x265 benchmark at 4k.

Crosshair X870E Apex will be available in the first quarter of this year. Pricing, however, remains a mystery.

Asus’ ROG Maximus Z790 Apex is a board dedicated to overclockers. You get one of – if not the – most powerful VRM solutions in Z790, optimized memory configuration (read: two DIMM slots instead of four), and a slew of integrated buttons and switches, dubbed the Overclocker’s Toolkit, to help push compatible processors to their limits. Priced at $649.99 on the Asus website, you not only get arguably the best made-for-overclocking motherboard with the AI Tools (DIMM Flex, Ai OC, Differential Sensing, and Condensation Detection). It’s also good at gaming and productivity, with a high-quality audio solution, ample storage options (including five M.2 sockets), and the premium ROG appearance. Overall, it’s a well-rounded board that will do well in almost any situation.

While this board can do everything, if overclocking to the CPU limits isn’t something you’ll do, there are plenty of other Raptor Lake refresh boards up the product stack and below. If you need 14th-gen support out of the box, there’s the Z790 Dark Hero ($649.99), the Z790 Formula ($749.99), our Z790 Apex Encore, and some mid-range offerings like the ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming Wi-Fi II ($499.99) and Z790-F Gaming Wi-Fi II ($429.99). None of the MicroATX or ITX-size boards seem to get updates. However, several have the BIOS Flashback feature and could already be using a BIOS with support for the new processors.

The Z790 Apex Encore performance was average to above average in most tests, just like the Z790 Formula we recently reviewed. The increased power limits/duration let the processor run free (power-wise) for a time before the system limits the processor to around 250W. You’re usually limited to what your cooling system allows, anyway.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see how it performs against other refreshed Z790 motherboards. While it won’t make the best motherboards list, this board is still easy to recommend for the hardcore overclocker, especially those planning sub-ambient cooling methods. But before we get into those details, we’ll start by listing the specifications from Asus.

Specifications: Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Apex Encore

Inside the Box of the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Apex Encore

Along with the motherboard, Asus includes many accessories to help get you started. You get the basics, plus a DDR5 fan holder, and more. Below is a complete list of the included accessories.

• ROG DIMM.2 with Heatsink
• M.2 pad for ROG DIMM.2
• (2) M.2 screw package for ROG DIMM.2
• Thermal pad for M.2
• ROG Memory Fan Kit
• ASUS WiFi Q-Antenna
• Q-connector
• ROG VIP card
• (3) M.2 Q-Latch packages for M.2 backplate
• (3) M.2 backplate Rubber Packages
• USB drive with utilities and drivers 
• Quick start guide

Design of the Z790 Apex Encore

The Z790 Apex Encore’s appearance oozes premium ROG vibes, with black-on-black, oversized VRM heatsinks and tastefully done accents. The ROG symbol on the M.2 and chipset heatsink is unique, with the three different ‘finishes’ to make the whole. But if you don’t like the look, it will be covered by your video card anyway if it’s installed directly in the top slot, anyway. This standard-size ATX board may not have all of the shrouds similarly (or more expensive) priced boards do, but it’s made for overclocking, and shrouds can get in the way.

For those who want RGB lighting, you’re in luck, as just under the left heatsink is a RGB lighting area that glows through the base. It’s not terribly bright, but the colors are saturated, and it looks good. Either your BIOS or the Aura RGB application in the Armoury Crate software controls the patterns you see.

At the top of the board, in the left corner, we’re greeted by the two Dual Procool II 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor. Surrounding them are two heatpipe-connected VRM heatsinks cooling the VRM bits below. On the left is the sole RGB element shining through the miter-cut heatsink. On top are the ROG letters and the board name. To the right, the socket area is clean using the flat (possibly Tantalum POSCAP) capacitors in this area, ready for sub-ambient insulation.

Just past this, we run into the two DRAM slots, reinforced with Asus’s Safe DIMM design. At the time of this writing, the website lists support up to 92GB. However, it actually supports 128GB, as this page wasn’t updated after the March announcement of increased capacity. Memory speeds are listed as incredibly fast to DDR5-8400 - one of the fastest on the Z790 platform. But, like any board, your mileage may vary. To push those speeds, pray your CPU’s integrated memory controller (IMC) can handle it as, currently, a tiny percentage can. The Apex Encore also comes with the ROG Memory Fan Kit designed to keep the warmer running (particularly when overclocked) DDR5 memory in its optimal temperature range.

To the right is Asus’s unique DIMM.2 slot, designed to be used with the included DIMM.2 add-in card for additional M.2 storage. The ROG DIMM.2 card supports two PCIe 4.0 x4 modules up to 80mm, adding to the three M.2 sockets in their more traditional locations on the motherboard. 

Above these slots on the board's top edge are two (of seven) 4-pin fan/pump headers. All headers support PWM and DC-controlled devices with the CPU and Chassis fans, each Q-Fan controlled. The FS and AIO headers all output up to 12W, while the W_PUMP+ is a whopping 36W - plenty for most aftermarket watercooling pumps. The 3-pin EF_FAN header is used with the ROG Memory Fan Kit.

Also above the DIMM slots on the top edge are two RGB headers - in this case, two (of three) 3-pin ARGB headers. Along the bottom edge, you’ll find another ARGB header and another 4-pin RGB header. Control over the integrated RGB feature and any devices attached to the headers is handled through the Aura RGB section in the BIOS or the Aura application in the Armoury Crate software.

Below these is a strip of seven ‘dummy’ LEDs (on or off). The first four on the left are your Q-LEDs. These LEDs, CPU/DRAM/VGA/Boot, light up during the POST. And if a problem arises, the offending area’s LED remains lit, showing users, generically, where the problem lies. When used with the 2-character Q-Code display below, these should help you better understand what went wrong. The three LEDs on the right, labeled CPU, DRAM, or PCIe, are part of the Condensation Detection for the extreme overclocker. When the sensors detect moisture in these areas, the corresponding LED remains lit, just like the Q-LEDs.

Moving down the right edge, we run into several buttons, switches, and a voltage read point area. There’s quite a bit of functionality here, but it’s most useful for those pushing the envelope using sub-ambient cooling methods. The first items we run into is the small Safe boot button below the large Start and Flex Key buttons, and a set of three switches for the Overclocker, including Pause and Slow Mode (the third is reserved for Asus). Also, for the hardcore overclocker, the BCLK +/- buttons to adjust BCLK on the fly, along with a retry button. The strip of dots along the edge is the ProbeIt section that allows users to connect a multimeter to read the voltages off several different areas. Last but not least for the hardcore overclocker is the LN2 mode jumper. Enabling this remedies the cold-boot bug during POST. Below that, we run into the standard 24-pin ATX power connector and, finally, the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C connector.

Power delivery on the Z790 Apex Encore consists of 26 phases, with 24 dedicated to Vcore. Power flows from the EPS connector(s) onto a 20-channel Renesas RAA229131 PWM controller. From there, it moves to the 24x 105A Renesas RAA22010540 SPS MOSFETs for the processor. The 2,520A available to the processor is one of the most we’ve seen on Z790, and will handle overclocked flagship-class processors like our Intel i9-14900K, even pushing the limits with sub-ambient cooling. You’ll run out of cooling capacity before the power delivery gets in the way. There’s nothing to worry about here!

On the bottom half of the board, we’ll start with the audio section on the left, mostly hidden under shrouds and heatsinks. Asus uses the premium Realtek ALC4080 codec, but unlike the Formula, it does not come with an integrated DAC. I like Asus’ choice to go with the modern audio codec. It’s not a flagship-class solution, but it still has high-quality audio that’s perfect for gaming or other uses.

In the middle of the board, we’ll start with the M.2 sockets. In this case, three are on the board, along with the two from the DIMM.2 module. Onboard, all integrated sockets support up to 80mm modules. Both M.2_1 and M.2_2 connect through the processor, while the top M.2_1 runs up to PCIe 5.0 x4 speeds (128 Gbps), while the lower slot runs up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). M.2_3 connects through the chipset (as does the DIMM.2 device) and runs up to PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA modes. If you want additional speed or redundancy, the Z790 Formula supports RAID0/1/5/10 modes for NVMe drives. Just note that when you use the PCIe 5.0-capable M.2, the second full-length PCIe slot is disabled, and the primary slot runs at PCIe 5.0 x8.

For PCIe slots, there are a total of four. Two full-length slots connect through the CPU, and two x4 size through the chipset, which is an update from the Z790 Apex. The top full-length slot, primary for graphics cards, uses Asus’ Q-slot reinforcement and sports the GPU-swapping-friendly Q-Release button. The bottom full-length reinforced slot connects through the CPU and runs up to PCIe 5.0 x8 speeds. But as noted above, you’ll lose this slot when M.2_1 is populated. With bandwidth the same between 5.0 x8 and 4.0 x16, you won’t lose performance on existing graphics cards. Finally, the two x4 slots above and below the full-length slots connect through the chipset with PCIe 4.0 x4 lanes available.

Moving to the edge of the board, a lot is happening here, too. You have the standard SATA ports (4) and front panel USB (3.2 Gen 1, 5 Gbps), but you also have an 8-pin PCIe power connector to support the quick charging (QC4+) capability. Just below is a fan header and a lightbar header for RGBs.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, like additional USB ports, RGB headers, a header for temperature and water flow probes, and a BIOS switch, and a switch to adjust PCIe generations on the fly. Below is a complete list from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• 4-pin RGB header
• 3-pin ARGB headers
• (3) System Fan headers
• Reserved and V_Latch switches
• PCIe Alt Mode switch
• Thunderbolt header
• USB 3.2 gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector
• Water Flow in/out headers
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• 2-pin temperature sensor
• Front panel header

The Rear IO plate on the Z790 Apex Encore comes preinstalled, as you’d expect from high-end boards these days. It uses a black background with white labels on the ports for easy reading. There are a total of 10 USB ports: One USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C, Five USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports in red, and five USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports in blue. On the left are the BIOS Flashback and CMOS reset buttons, next to legacy PS/2 ports that are especially useful for extreme overclocking. For networking, you have the 2.5 GbE port, along with the Wi-Fi 7 Q-Connector. Lastly, the audio stack comprises five 3.5mm analog plugs and an SPDIF output.

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Firmware

Asus’ BIOS on the Z790 Formula remains unchanged. The BIOS sports the familiar black, red, and yellow ROG theme that’s easy to read. Asus starts in an Easy Mode that displays high-level information, including CPU and memory clock speeds, temperatures, fan speeds, storage information, etc. Advanced Mode has several headers across the top that drop down additional options. The BIOS is one of my favorites, as almost everything you need isn’t buried deep within menus.

A unique feature of Asus BIOS is the integrated Memtest functionality. As the name implies, Memtest86, a memory testing application, is in the BIOS ready to use. This is most useful to the tweaker and overclocker, but even those who ‘just’ set XMP can find it useful.

Software

Armory Crate for the Formula is the same as other ROG-based boards and follows the ROG-inspired theme. Several applications exist for various functions, ranging from RGB lighting control, audio, system monitoring, overclocking, etc. We’ve captured several screenshots of the applications below. Here’s a look at Ai Suite 3, Armoury Crate, Sonic Studio, and the Realtek Audio application.

Also worth mentioning is the included software. When buying Asus motherboards, you get a year of AV software (McAfee, not a trial). You also get a full 1-year license of AIDA64 - a good application for stress and performance testing.

Test System / Comparison Products 

 We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of mid-October 2023. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but have updated the driver to the latest, keeping our games, F1 22 and Far Cry 6, the same. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public using ‘optimized default’ settings, except for the memory (XMP). The hardware and drivers we used are as follows: 

Test System Components

 Benchmark Settings 

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Benchmark Results and Final Analysis

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. The Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) for baseline testing so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

The Z790 Apex did well for the synthetic benchmarks, running slightly faster than average across several tests. The power policy allows the CPU to run free but is eventually limited to around 250W and your cooling capacity, like most boards. There is nothing out of the ordinary in this set of tests.

Timed Applications

Starting with Handbrake in the Timed tests, the Z790 Apex Encore was on the faster side of average, completing the tests in 82 and 229 seconds, respectively. The timed tests are good also!

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 4, we shifted our test games from F1 21 to F1 22 while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

For gamers, the Z790 Apex Encore did well in the synthetic tests and was average overall in games. It was tied for the slowest by around 7 Frames Per Second in Far Cry 6 (a few percent slower) but was on the average in F1 2022. It’s a competent gamer, though.

Overclocking

Generation after generation, overclocking headroom has been shrinking with both Intel and AMD processors, with motherboard partners pushing the limits to set themselves apart from the plethora of options available to the consumer. With the overclocking headroom all but gone now, we’ve left things at stock for cores, but will push the integrated memory controller (IMC) for faster RAM.

The Apex (and several Asus boards) offer AI Overclocking for those who don’t want to tinker manually. AI OC is a hardware-based design (it needs a microcontroller on the board) that’s specific to your system, reading the VF curve and silicon information, among other things, to gauge overclocking capability. You can engage this feature from the Armoury Crate or within the UEFI. Users can also define a temperature target. For example, if your fans or pump fail/degrade (or ambient rises), AiOC downclocks your overclock to meet the target, whereas manual overclocking leaves it in place throttling. Additionally, if you increase your cooling capacity, it adjusts up as well.  Asus claims you can get an additional 300-600Mhz on the P and E cores. But what you’ll gain varies wildly (depending on silicon quality, cooling, etc.). We stuck with pushing the RAM.

We tested all three of our memory kits, and all three worked, even our fastest DDR5-8000 kit from Klevv. Setting XMP worked on the DDR5-6000 and 7200 kits. However, we needed to raise the System Agent voltage a small amount (from 1.21V to 1.275V) in the BIOS to pass our 30-minute stability test. If you’re into pushing memory and the high-end ITX boards don’t tickle your fancy, the Apex is the way to go. Just ensure you have a CPU that runs those high memory speeds (rare) and a kit that’s on the memory QVL.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to using only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts. Since the system uses every available degree Celsius, unless you’re using a sub-ambient cooling solution, you’ll use more power and generate more heat using default settings.

Idle power consumption on the Apex Encore was one of the lower values, settling at 59W at the wall. Load wattage peaked at a stunning 466W for the system during stress testing, the highest value we’ve recorded. However, this is just a peak, as the PL2 limit drops to 253W after some time. You can change this behavior in the UEFI through canned settings or adjust it yourself.

VRM temperatures are well within specification. The oversized, heatpipe-connected heatsinks keep the high-end MOSFETs running in their sweetspot. Like the X790 Forumula, the Apex Encore handled our Intel Core i9-14900K without issue using ambient cooling and will do so even when sub-ambient cooling methods are used.

Bottom Line

Asus’ Z790 Apex Encore is a curtain call for the original Apex. While there aren’t a lot of changes between them, the updated Encore presents users with the best Asus has to offer for the extreme overclocker. You get an updated, improved aesthetic, Wi-Fi 7 instead of Wi-Fi 6E, native 14th-gen support, and higher memory speed support (among other things). I also like the black-on-black look of the Encore better than the white. Priced at $649.99 on the Asus website (more expensive in many other places), you get the full gamut of features the Z790 platform offers, as well as all of the Asus exclusives, including DIMM Flex, AiOC, and the slew of “Q” features (Q-Latch/Release/Antenna/Code/LED). Asus does an excellent job of adding useful extras, which brings additional value to the product, and the Apex Encore is no different.

As far as the competition goes, that’s tough as there is only one direct competitor in the Z790 Tachyon X, which is also focused on overclocking. The Tachyon is rated higher with memory speeds but doesn’t have Wi-Fi 7, uses a last-gen (though still quality) audio solution, and is also E-ATX versus the Apex Encore at ATX. The other problem is finding a Tachyon at a reasonable price. No MSRP was listed, and a quick look around the web shows the updated Tachyon X version costs over $1,000 from a third-party seller. We imagine the MSRP is much lower, but that’s how much you’ll have to pay now.

In the end, we like what the Asus Apex Encore offers for those who want to push the limits of their processor and RAM, especially those using sub-ambient cooling methods like liquid nitrogen. Extreme overclocking aside, the board is also suitable for daily computing. Be it productivity, content creation, or gaming, the Apex can handle it with aplomb. It also looks like a premium motherboard. The black-on-black look with a tasteful RGB implementation looks good on a test bench or inside your case. If you don’t plan on pushing your RAM or processor to the limits, plenty of options within the Asus product stack cost less, perform similarly, and look as good without some of the bells and whistles for overclocking.

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Seby9123, one of the world's top professional overclockers, set a new DDR5 SDRAM data transfer record of 11,240 MT/s at G.Skill's overlocking competition at Computex last week. Using premium hardware, liquid nitrogen, and a lot of magic, he has managed to increase the stock speed of G.Skill's DDR5-7800 module by 44%.

The new world record of 11,240 MT/s set by Seby9123 is just slightly higher than the second-highest result of 11,233 MT/s set by Hicookie on the same day. Meanwhile, the third highest result is noticeably higher than 11,130 MT/s set by lupin_no_museme back in October 2022, so the progress made in a few months by DDR5 is more or less obvious.

To set his memory overclocking record, Seby9123 used Asustek's ROG Maximus X790 Apex motherboard, Intel's Core i9-13900KS processor with only two cores enabled (albeit working at 5.0 GHz), a lot of liquid nitrogen, and a 16 GB G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DR5-7800 memory module in a single-channel mode. The actual frequency was 5620.1 MHz, and timings were set to CL62 126-126-127-127-2. 

Unfortunately, there is no word about DRAM voltage for the memory, but we suspect it is even higher than 1.45V, which is already over 30% higher compared to the standard DDR5 voltage set by JEDEC.

In addition to setting the DDR5 speed record, the world's top extreme overclockers assembled by G.Skill at its contest set several other overclocking records at Computex.

Sabrent's Rocket 4 Plus SSD is one of the best SSDs around. Now imagine glomming 21 of these PCIe 4.0 SSDs together, because that's precisely what Sabrent has planned for the company's next product. The upcoming Sabrent Apex X21 Destroyer will arrive with 21 Rocket 4 Plus 8TB drives to offer unprecedented storage capacity and transfer speeds.

Sabrent is still conducting in-house testing on the Apex X21 Destroyer. However, the company said it easily achieved sequential read and write speeds of 31 GB/s. Sabrent's results even surpassed Apex Storage's figures, which rate the X21 with a sequential performance of 30.5 GBps reads and 28.5 GBps writes.

If you look at the brand's past products, such as the Sabrent RocketQ Battleship, Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus Destroyer, or Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus Destroyer 2, it's easy to see that Sabrent has a sweet tooth for big storage solutions. However, the Sabrent Apex X21 Destroyer is on an entirely different level. Previous solutions saw Sabrent assembling a crew of eight SSDs. Now, the Sabrent Apex X21 Destroyer has enough landscape for 21 drives, offering almost three times the storage and significantly more performance.

Sabrent's Apex X21 Destroyer is based on the X21 from Apex Storage. While Sabrent's prior AICs leverage the HighPoint SSD7540 PCIe 4.0 x16 RAID card, the Apex Storage X21 doesn't feature a RAID controller. Instead, it utilizes a pair of unnamed PCIe 4.0 switches. This allows consumers more freedom to set up the AIC to suit their needs. Nonetheless, the Apex Storage X21 is bootable and supports RAID arrays through software or third-party hardware solutions, like the ones from GRAID.

The X21 features a passive cooling design because the riser card's primary target is the server market. However, when deployed inside a regular system or even a workstation, the X21 will require some form of active cooling assistance. This is because so many PCIe 4.0 SSDs packaged together will output a fair amount of heat. Apex Storage recommends at least 400 LFM of airflow for the X21. In addition, given the considerable number of drives on the X21, the AIC needs two 8-pin PCIe power connectors to feed the entire lot of SSDs. It's basically like a high-end graphics card when fully loaded, at least from the power requirements perspective.

It's worth pointing out that maximum performance ends up being limited by the x16 PCIe 4.0 connection to the card. A single Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 8TB can hit peak transfer rates of just over 7,000 MB/s in our testing, so 21 of them in aggregate could theoretically deliver 147 GB/s. However, an x16 PCIe 4.0 slot tops out at 16 GT/s per lane, and with 128b/130b encoding you're limited to at most 31.5 GB/s of actual throughput.

Sabrent hasn't established a price tag for the Apex X21 Destroyer yet, and there's no estimated time frame for when the AIC will release. Considering that each Rocket 4 Plus 8TB SSD currently retails for $1,099 (down from an official MSRP of $1,999 at launch), it would be foolish to think that the Apex X21 Destroyer will sell for less than $23,000. Moreover, the X21 sells for $2,800, so we have to factor that into the pricing. Even if Apex Storage offers discounts on volume purchases, the X21 still costs an am and a leg.

Apex Storage, a newcomer to the storage game, has launched the X21, an AIC (add-in-card) that accommodates up to 21 PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs. With the X21, consumers can use the best SSDs to build configurations with capacities of up to 168TB and experience speeds up to 31 GBps.

Apex Storage has its headquarters in Utah and focuses on AIC products. Mike Spicer and Henry Hill appear to be the team behind Apex Storage. You may have heard of Spicer as he kickstarted the Storage Scaler expansion card in 2021 that houses up to 16 M.2 SATA drives. The X21, the only listed product on Apex Storage's website, seems to be the jacked-up version of the original Storage Scaler. But, strangely, Apex Storage opted for PCIe 4.0 on the X21 since PCIe 5.0 SSDs are already available on the retail market.

The X21 sticks to a double-width full-height full-length (FHFL) form factor with a single-slot PCI design. The AIC, which measures 274.2mm long, communicates through a standard PCIe 4.0 x16 expansion slot. It's backward compatible with PCIe 3.0, but performance will take a significant hit. Apex Storage essentially bonded two PCBs in a sandwich with the X21, which is why the AIC can handle up to 21 M.2 SSDs putting rival options like the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus Destroyer 2 to shame. The concept takes us on a trip down memory lane, for sure. If you're old enough, it's the same concept Nvidia used for the prehistoric GeForce 7900 GX2.

There are 10 PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots and a massive heatsink that covers the unspecified controller in the X21's interior. We suspect a PCIe switch is under the heatsink, likely making the X21 tick. The remaining 11 PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots are located on the exterior of the PCBs.

Given the vast number of SSDs the X21 can support, the AIC can't get all the power from the single expansion slot. Therefore, Apex Storage implemented two regular 6-pin PCIe power connectors to provide auxiliary power. This configuration allows for up to 225W. Although the X21 features a passive cooling design, the manufacturer does recommend a minimum airflow of 400 LFM for optimal operation.

The X21 photographs show the AIC with Samsung 990 Pro SSDs and the card only supports M.2 2280 drives. It also accepts Intel's Optane M.2 SSDs, like the H20; not like there are a lot of Optane drives floating around now that Intel has axed its Optane business. Apex Storage doesn't reveal the inner details of the X21. However, the manufacturer confirmed that the X21 offers 100 PCIe lanes, suggesting the presence of a PCIe switch.

In a single-card configuration, the X21 delivers sequential read and write speeds up to 30.5 GBps and 28.5 GBps, respectively. The random performance on the AIC consists of 7.5 million IOPS reads and 6.2 million IOPS writes. The X21 shines even more in a multi-card setup. According to Apex Storage, consumers can enjoy up to 107 GBps sequential reads and 80 GBps sequential writes. The random performance also gets a substantial boost. The X21 flaunts over 20 million IOPS reads and 10 million IOPS writes in a multi-card arrangement. The AIC has an average read and write access latency of 79us and 52us, respectively.

With 8TB SSDs, such as the Corsair MP400 or the Sabrent Rocket Q, the X21 can supply up to 168TB on a single card. It also supports higher-capacity drives. Once future 16TB M.2 SSDs hit the market, consumers can have up to 336TB of storage on the X21. Regarding the feature set, the X21 supports RAID configurations in Windows and Linux environments. However, Apex Storage didn't expose the type of RAID arrays. The X21 also flaunts "enterprise-grade reliability," NVMe 2.0 support, advanced EEC, data protection, and error recovery.

Apex Storage didn't reveal the pricing or availability for the X21.

Rising inflation and a weakening global economy had forced many, if not most, chipmakers to lower aggressive expansion plans set when demand for chips exceeded supply. Nonetheless, even with the semiconductor industry's decreased capital expenditures (CapEx), the 2022 forecast stands at $181.7 billion, a new record high, according to IC Insights.

Capital expenditures of semiconductor manufacturers have been increasing since 2020 due to strong demand for everything digital, from smartphones and PCs to giant televisions and self-driving cars. The report claims that CapEx budgets increased by 35% in 2021 to $153.1 billion and are poised to grow 19% in 2022 to $181.7 billion.

But now that companies like Intel and Micron are reviewing their CapEx plans for 2023, IC Insights revises its forecasts and believes that the industry's spending will drop by 19% in 2023 to $146.6 billion. This is just 4.25% lower than the $153.1 billion in 2021 and is significantly above capital spending in 2020.

Meanwhile, IC Insights believes that the memory industry will suffer more than the logic industry as major producers will reduce their capital expenditures by 25%. Also, Chinese semiconductor companies will have to cut their budgets by around 30% as the U.S. sanctions against the People's Republic's chip sector will inevitably affect their ability to procure new production tools.

Anyhow, a 19% decline in capital spending year over year is the steepest decline since the global financial crisis in 2008 – 2009, notes IC Insights.

Indeed, semiconductor industry CapEx spending dropped 40% year-over-year in 2009 but only grew to 107% in 2010 when the global economy showed signs of a rebound. Given how quickly semiconductor CapEx budgets have increased in recent years, we would not expect them to grow by around two times from $146.6 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, virtually all makers of chips (including logic and memory chips) expect demand for their products to rebound in 2024 ~ 2025. As a result, they think they need expanded production capacities to meet that demand in the middle of the decade. As a result, spending on new fabs will grow significantly in 2024 ~ 2025.

Fabs already being constructed or equipped, including those in the U.S. by companies like Intel, Micron, Samsung Foundry, TSMC, and Texas Instruments, will come online on time, as delaying such projects is expensive.

Interestingly, IC Insights does not believe that funding U.S. semiconductor suppliers as part of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act will give a significant boost to their spending in 2023 as they will use the money they are going to receive in grants in a bid to replace their own money they would have spent on their new fabs.

"In other words, the CHIPS and Science Act money is not expected to be 'additive' funding to planned semiconductor industry spending, but instead is likely to replace the money a semiconductor producer was going to budget if CHIPS and Science Act funding was unavailable," wrote Bill McClean, the president of IC Insights.

As demand for PCs and smartphones slumps, so does demand for 3D NAND and DRAM memory. As a result, companies like SK Hynix suffer from dropping revenue and dramatic declines of profits. According to reports via Reuters and Nikkei Asia, in a bid to balance the books, SK Hynix plans to halve its capital expenditures next year and focus on the manufacture of more expensive types of memory. The company also plans to assess the future of its fab in China.

SK Hynix Cuts CapEx Due to Major Profits Fall

Just like other semiconductor companies, the memory maker believes that demand for chips will be sluggish for several quarters and supply will exceed demand, which means tiny profits amid lowering revenue. To that end, SK Hynix will reduce its CapEx investment next year by more than 50% year-over-year. The company does not disclose how much will it spend on new fabs and tools in 2023, but only says that it would be 'at the upper range of 10 – 20 trillion won ($7 billion – $14 billion). 

SK Hynix has good reasons to cut down its expenses. This week the company posted a 10.983 trillion won ($7.741 billion) revenue, which was down 7% compared to the same quarter a year ago. A 7% YoY drop is hardly significant, but the company also reported operating profit of 1.656 trillion won ($1.167 billion) in operating profit (a 60% year-over-year decline), and net income of 1.103 trillion won ($777.396 million) in the second quarter of 2022 (a 67% YoY decrease).

Reduce Production, Focus on Premium Segments

In addition to reducing its CapEx, SK Hynix will increase production of its premium products, which includes 238-layer 3D NAND memory that can be used to power the fastest SSDs with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface. Also, the company intends to boost production of memory using its 1a-nm fabrication technology in general as well as premium DDR5, LPDDR5, and HBM3 for high-end applications like servers, AI, and analytics accelerators. 

In addition, the company intends to lower production of commodity 3D NAND and DRAM memory in a bid to balance supply and demand on the market. Meanwhile, the company does not disclose how significantly it plans to cut its output.

Fab Dilemma

Back in September SK Hynix began to construct its $11 billion fab in South Korea that is set to come online in 2025. It remains to be seen whether the company will be able to build the new production facility on time with its reduced CapEx budget, but it looks like it might face a dilemma with its spendings on new manufacturing capacity. 

Building a brand new fab is by definition more expensive than upgrading existing production facilities. SK Hynix has fabs in China and South Korea. The Chinese fabs may be cheaper to operate (and the company needs to cut costs now) and can even be upgraded with new tools produced in the U.S. in the next 12 months as the company has a waiver to ship new equipment from America to China for a year. But if the company's partners fail to get an export license from the U.S. Department of Commerce to ship new tools and spare parts to SK Hynix's facilities in Wuxi and Dallian (which is formally controlled by SK Hynix's subsidiary Solidigm), these fabs will become obsolete in a couple of years (i.e., 2025 – 2026). 

Given the risks associated with its Chinese fabs, it might make sense for SK Hynix to focus on investments in its all-new fab in South Korea. At present the company is considering several contingency plans for the facilities, some of which include transferring equipment to South Korea, reports Nikkei. 

"As a contingency plan, we are considering selling the fab, selling the equipment or transferring the equipment to South Korea," said Kevin Noh, chief marketing officer for SK Hynix, at the earnings call this week. "It's a contingency plan. We want to [continue to] operate without facing this situation. We expect to extend it each year, but it is not for sure. It is very uncertain."

A couple of months ago, SteelSeries launched the Apex Pro Mini — an ultra-compact, highly-customizable gaming keyboard. And while it may be one of the best gaming keyboards on the market, it’s also, frankly, more than a little too compact and too customizable for the majority of gamers. The brand dials it back a little (but just a little) with the launch of its Apex 9 series.

The Apex 9 series comes in two layouts — TKL (tenkeyless) and Mini (60 percent); this review will focus on the Apex 9 TKL, but the keyboards are largely identical (minus layout). The Apex 9 TKL and Apex 9 Mini are both wired keyboards sporting SteelSeries’ new hot-swappable OptiPoint linear optical switches. These switches have 2-point actuation, which means they have two points of actuation (1mm and 1.5mm) — like the Apex Pro Mini’s adjustable actuation, only with two preset points that you can toggle between, instead of per-key adjustability to the nearest 0.1mm.

The SteelSeries Apex 9 TKL and Apex 9 Mini are available now, for $140 and $130, respectively; these keyboards aren’t nearly as customizable as the Apex Pro Mini, but they’re also not nearly as expensive. At the moment, the Apex 9 TKL and Apex 9 Mini are only available with linear switches; SteelSeries plans to offer both clicky and tactile versions of its OptiPoint switches in the future as accessory packs, but at the moment we have no information on how much these will cost or whether the company will offer the keyboards with clicky/tactile switches included in the future.

Specs

Design and Construction of the Apex 9 TKL

The Apex 9 TKL sports a tenkeyless layout, with navigation keys and arrow keys but no number pad (the Apex 9 Mini has a 60 percent layout — no number pad, navigation keys, or arrow keys). The keyboard is sturdily built, with a “Series 5000” aircraft-grade aluminum metal frame and top plate (though the chassis itself is plastic) and double-shot PBT keycaps.

The Apex 9 series has the same minimal, elegant chassis design we first saw on the Apex Pro Mini. In fact, the Apex 9 Mini is visually identical to the Apex Pro Mini.

The Apex 9 TKL has slightly more room and includes a multifunction media button and a textured, clickable metal volume roller in the upper right corner.

On the back of the Apex 9 TKL, you’ll find two pairs of flip-out feet for height adjustment, as well as an orange plastic SteelSeries keycap puller stored under a silicone flap. The keyboard is wired via detachable USB-C cable (it comes with a 7-foot braided USB-C to USB-A cable) and has a USB-C port in the upper left corner. I know SteelSeries is trying to keep the chassis streamlined, but it would be nice to see a passthrough port or two (or even multiple USB-C input ports for cable management).

Typing and Gaming Experience on the Apex 9 TKL

The Apex 9 comes with SteelSeries’ new OptiPoint optical switches, which are hot-swappable and feature 2-point actuation (not to be confused with dual-actuation, which is a feature that currently only exists on the Apex Pro Mini).

While the Apex 9 does have hot-swappable switches, it’s only compatible with optical — not mechanical — switches. The company also says the keyboard only officially supports its own OptiPoint switches; while third-party optical switches will fit in the board, those with black bottom housings absorb too much light to operate accurately (OptiPoint switches have white bottom housings).

The Apex 9’s switches feature 2-point actuation, which means they have adjustable actuation with two levels — 1mm (“gaming mode”) and 1.5mm (“typing mode”). You can toggle between these two modes using SteelSeries’ GG software or with a keyboard shortcut (the SteelSeries key + I/O). I was initially concerned that these two actuation points didn’t vary enough in distance, but using the keyboard in both modes (for both typing and gaming) put that to rest.

Typing on the Apex 9 feels pretty good, considering it has linear optical switches instead of my preferred clicky mechanical switches. The Apex 9’s switches have both a lighter actuation force (35g) and a shorter travel distance (3.4mm) compared to the standard Cherry MX Red mechanical switches, so typing on the Apex 9 does feel a little too fluttery, and will take some getting used to — especially if you’re coming from a heavier, non-linear, mechanical switch background.

Gaming on the Apex 9 felt better than typing — unsurprisingly, since linear switches, optical or not, usually offer a better gaming experience than typing experience. According to SteelSeries, the switches have a response time of 0.2ms and zero debounce, and they certainly felt very speedy, especially in gaming mode, which allows for very light, quick keypresses.

Features and Software of the Apex 9 TKL

The Apex 9 TKL works with SteelSeries Engine, which is part of the SteelSeries GG software suite. The keyboard comes with preset shortcuts, however, for switching between gaming and typing mode (SS key + I/O), switching between on-board profiles (SS key + F9), recording macros (SS key + F10) and adjusting the brightness of the per-key RGB (SS key + F11/F12), so the software isn’t critical.

Using SteelSeries Engine, you can remap the keyboard’s primary and secondary (SS key) bindings, and set up the keyboard’s five on-board profiles. Almost every key can be remapped, including the SteelSeries function key, except for — curiously — the multi-function media key and clickable volume roller. Also, you can’t adjust each key’s actuation point individually (like you can on the Apex Pro Mini);you can only toggle the entire keyboard between gaming mode and typing mode.

You can also change up the Apex 9’s lighting in SteelSeries Engine. Each key can be customized individually with different colors and effects, for three different layers (active, reactive, and idle). While you can save different lighting profiles in SteelSeries Engine, you can’t link them to onboard profiles.

The Bottom Line

The SteelSeries Apex 9 TKL is actually a pretty attractive offering for anyone interested in optical switches with adjustable actuation — but who doesn’t need the over-the-top 0.1mm per-key adjustment offered by the Apex Pro Mini. The Apex 9 TKL’s larger layout is definitely a plus for anyone who finds a 60 percent layout too small — for those who don’t, the Apex 9 Mini is also available. The keyboard’s hot-swappable PCB is interesting but not nearly as versatile as it sounds, given that it’s only truly compatible with SteelSeries’ own yet-to-be-released optical switches.

Both the Apex 9 TKL and the Apex 9 Mini are significantly cheaper than the Apex Pro Mini, but that doesn’t mean they’re cheap. If you don’t need the Apex 9’s 2-point actuation hot-swappable optical switches, you may want to look for something cheaper, such as the TKL Redragon Vishnu K596 or the 60 percent Corsair K65 RGB Mini.

A PCB diagram of a high-end AM5 Asus motherboard has been shared online, according to a report by TechPowerUp (originally shared in a Tweet by @harukaze5719, which has since been removed). This motherboard appears to be an AMD version of the high-end overclocking Apex boards, based on its distinctive twin slot memory setup and beefy power delivery system.

If this is indeed an AM5 version of Asus' Apex motherboards, it's the first AMD AM5 board we've seen — the Apex brand has been Intel-only since its inception.

The leaked PCB diagram shows an impressive motherboard setup, the most prominent feature being the power delivery system. The entire VRM set is large, and wraps around nearly half the entire board, with a length nearly as long as the DDR5 memory slots on the left side. 

But what's most impressive about this VRM is the number of phases on the board — 27. We can't be sure if Asus is using doublers, but the number is impressive regardless. For some perspective: the Crosshair X570 Extreme has "just" 20 phases, and that board is Asus' flagship AM4 overclocker.

As a result, we can expect this next generation AM5 Apex to pack some serious power under the hood — with enough power delivery to support any type of overvolting and overclocking done on AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7000 series processors. 

These chips are expected to be noticeably more power-hungry than their Zen 3 predecessors, with a rumored peak power target of up to 230W and a max TDP of 170W. So the extra phases will probably be required for high-end overclocking.

The defining trait of the PCB design is the dual-slot DDR5 memory configuration on an ultra high-end ATX motherboard — a trait only found on overclocking-exclusive boards. This design choice alone suggests this board is an Apex model, since all Apex boards feature this unique memory design.

Switching down to dual memory slots can improve the board's memory overclocking capabilities substantially in many cases. Bringing down the slot count from four to two reduces the complexity of the board's traces and shortens them which improves signal integrity.

We don't know how this will impact DDR5 memory performance, but it should enhance this board's overclocking capabilities compared to current DDR5 motherboards on the market. Asus' Z690 Hero peaks at a maximum official supported frequency of 6400MT/s. 

We could see this new Apex board featuring support well into the 7000MT/s range, if not 8000MT/s. Prototype DDR5 memory modules have been known to hit well beyond 10,000MT/s in preliminary tests.

Other features worth noting are the triple PCIe x16 slots visible on the motherboard — the top two will probably be Gen 5 models, as AMD's AM5 platform has been confirmed to support the Gen 5 standard. But the secondary slot can clearly be seen as wired to just 8 lanes, due to lane limitations, on the CPU. Finally the third slot can also be seen as a physical x16 slot, but wired for 8 lanes. This slot should be wired into the chipset, and will feature Gen 4 or Gen 3 speeds.

Speaking of the chipset, this board undoubtedly features AMD's higher-end X670 chipset with the dual physical dies present on the PCB layout. AMD's new X670 and X670E chipsets use a "CrossfireX/SLI" setup consisting of two smaller chipsets (instead of one bigger chipset like in previous designs). 

But we cannot confirm whether this board will use the mid-range X670 chipset or the flagship X670E chipset. We assume it will use X670E, since this board looks to be a flagship overclocking platform in Asus' lineup.

We don't know for sure if this is going to be an Apex board, but the evidence points towards it being an Apex board for AMD CPUs. Hopefully we'll get more news about this mysterious motherboard as we get closer to the release date of AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors.

Asus ROG has announced that one of its motherboards has been used to achieve the DDR5 memory frequency world record. Overclocker Lupin No Musume achieved DDR5-10552 memory speeds using a system based around an Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Apex motherboard.

In the video below you can see Lupin No Musume verify the world record memory clocks in CPU-Z. To the left of the monitor display, you'll see the overclocker artfully kept the liquid nitrogen topped up to keep the system from overheating. To the right, an oscilloscope adds a further layer of verification to the memory clock achieved. We have seen overclockers add this kind of video evidence recently, to prove there is no frequency over-reporting software bug being exploited.

With Lupin No Musume's DDR5-10552 achievement firmly at the top of the table on HWBot, the top three positions  with DDR5-10K+ scores, come from Asus, MSI and Gigabyte, respectively. Check the table below to see the respective system configurations used for the top three records.

It's cool to see that three major motherboard brands can all achieve record-breaking performance, and no particular brand is dominant here. We just need to see DDR5-10K+ from an ASRock motherboard based system for a full-house. (Though ASRock has an entry at position 8.)

Another interesting point to see in the tabulated results, is that each overclocking expert took a slightly different tack with their processor configuration. You can see that sometimes performance cores were used, while others used efficiency cores, and at a range of clock speeds.

The newest and highest scoring DDR5-10552 world record score saw Lupin No Musume use four active Alder Lake processor P-cores, running at 3692.25 MHz. The single Asus ROG 16GB memory stick had a JEDEC rating of DDR5-4800, a lot slower than the record achieved.

We previously reported on DDR5 world records by both Hicookie, and Koven Yang, both from April this year. Both have improved on those scores in the meantime, but Lupin No Musume enjoys quite a clear lead as of this writing.

If you're motivated to get some higher-performing RAM now, check out our list of the  best RAM for gaming.

SteelSeries recently introduced its first ultra-compact, 60-percent form factor keyboards, the Apex Pro Mini and the Apex Pro Mini Wireless. 

SteelSeries’ Apex Pro line notably features the brand’s OmniPoint adjustable actuation switches, and these new mini keyboards are the first to sport the next generation, OmniPoint 2.0. In addition to adjustable actuation, OmniPoint 2.0 introduces dual actuation — a feature that lets you set two actions, triggered at different actuation points, in a single keystroke. 

As innovative as this all might sound, switches with adjustable actuation and dual actuation aren’t unique to SteelSeries. Razer’s Analog Huntsman keyboards, including both the full-size Huntsman V2 Analog and the 60-percent Huntsman Mini Analog (which dropped in March 2022) have switches with adjustable actuation points and dual-step actuation. 

Still, since the Analog Huntsman keyboards are, well…analog, the Apex Pro Mini Wireless seems to be the first wireless keyboard with dual actuation. But it doesn’t come cheap: SteelSeries’ Apex Pro Mini costs $180, while the Apex Pro Mini Wireless costs $240 — more expensive than almost every keyboard on our list of best gaming keyboards. 

Specifications

Design and  Construction of SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini 

The Apex Pro Mini is a 60-percent keyboard, which is the smallest standard keyboard layout you’ll commonly encounter (smaller layouts, such as 40-percent aren’t mainstream). The 60-percent layout is actually fairly popular, despite lacking a number pad, navigation keys, a function row, and arrow keys. This ultra-compact layout leaves you just enough keys for basic typing, and is great for traveling as well as reclaiming desk space. 

The Apex Pro Mini has a simple, elegant design — maybe it’s a little too simple, but, hey, there’s not a lot of room for creativity on a 60-percent board. It has a dark gray (or maybe “light black”) chassis, plastic with an aluminum alloy backplate, and black double shot PBT keycaps. On the back are two sets of flip-out feet for adjusting tilt; each set adds approximately 4mm (0.16 inches) in height, though, so it’s not a large adjustment. 

The keyboard is 11.53 inches wide, 4.02 inches deep, and 1.59 inches tall (at its tallest), which makes it a little taller than, but otherwise almost identical in size to, Razer’s Huntsman Mini.

SteelSeries’ branding is nicely understated as usual, with the full logo on the back of the board in dark silver, and just a small SteelSeries logo on the front left corner (well, and the logo on the dedicated SS function key).

Both the wired and wireless versions have a USB-C port in the back left corner and come with a seven-foot-long detachable, braided USB-C to USB-A cable. The wireless version has a power switch that toggles between 2.4 GHz wireless and Bluetooth, and comes with a 2.4-GHz wireless USB-C dongle as well as a USB-C to USB-C adapter.

The back of the wired version features a silicone flap that lifts up to reveal an orange keycap puller. The wireless version also comes with a keycap puller — just no place to store it thanks to the 30-hour battery. Both versions of the keyboards are the same size, but the wired version is a touch heavier — 1.34 pounds versus 1.2 pounds.

Both the Apex Pro Mini and the Apex Pro Mini Wireless will come in US English, French, German, Japanese, Nordic, and UK English layouts, but the US English layout is the only layout available at launch.

Typing Experience on the Apex Pro Mini

The Apex Pro Mini is the first keyboard outfitted with the company’s new OmniPoint 2.0 switches, which — like the original OmniPoint switches — have a linear feel. Pressing a key is smooth and seamless, with no tactile bump or resistance. 

Although the switches themselves are silent, typing on this keyboard produces some pretty loud clacking, as well as some slightly hollow-sounding thunks as you bottom out against the aluminum backplate. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing — I kind of liked the way this keyboard sounded. Like many writers, I prefer switches with tactile feedback for typing. But what I really like are clicky switches. The Apex Pro Mini is nowhere near as loud as a keyboard with clicky switches, such as my current daily driver, the Razer BlackWidow v3 with Razer Green switches, but it’s loud enough and clicky enough that the sound alone nearly made up for the lack of tactile feedback (nearly). 

The switches’ adjustable actuation doesn’t change how the keys feel, but it does change the overall typing experience. You can adjust the actuation from 0.2mm, which is so shallow that a stiff wind will trigger a keypress (seriously — at 0.2mm, I was able to type with some well-aimed blasts of canned air), all the way up to 3.8mm. If you really want to get into customizing the experience, you can adjust each key’s actuation point individually. 

I liked typing on the Apex Pro Mini, but I didn’t love it. I liked the way the double shot PBT keycaps felt — their slight texture helped keep my fingers from stray too far from the keys. That said, linear switches will always feel a little spongy to me, and the lack of tactile feedback did affect my typing speed and accuracy.

For reference, I tend to average around 120 words per minute (wpm), with around 98% accuracy, on a keyboard with tactile feedback. On the Apex Pro Mini, my fastest typing speed was 106 wpm with 96.3% accuracy — slower than my norm, though not by a lot. These results were achieved when I had the actuation set to the lowest (0.2mm). 

I also tested the keyboard with the actuation set to 1mm (103 wpm, 97.1% accuracy), 2mm (104 wpm, 96.8% accuracy), and 3.8mm (92 wpm, 89% accuracy). As you can see, my speed and accuracy dropped at the highest actuation setting — it appears I don’t usually type with full, 3.8mm-deep keypresses, and so I kept missing letters when the actuation was set higher.

Gaming Experience on the Apex Pro Mini

The Apex Pro Mini might not be my first pick for typing, but it’s much more attractive for gaming — which is what it’s made for, anyway. Both the Apex Pro Mini and the Apex Pro Mini Wireless are compatible with Windows, PlayStation, Xbox, and Mac OSX (though not all software features are supported on OSX). 

I had trouble getting used to secondary keybinds while I was using the Apex Pro Mini for writing, because they just didn’t feel intuitive to me (and the legends on the sides of the keys were hard to read, especially with the board’s bright RGB). When I’m typing, I expect the arrow keys to be…roughly where the arrow keys are on a full-size keyboard, not as secondary keybinds on W, A, S, D. 

Gaming, however, was a totally different story. The secondary keybinds were much more intuitive-feeling to me when I was gaming. And it didn’t matter which game — I went through my Steam library and played everything from Subnautica: Below Zero to Euro Truck Simulator 2 to Elden Ring (though I personally think Elden Ring is still best played with a controller). As a keyboard for typing, the 60-percent layout of the Apex Pro Mini is, honestly, just a little too small. But as a keyboard for gaming, it’s pretty good — I even adapted pretty quickly while playing Elder Scrolls Online, and I basically need two full keyboards’ worth of keys to feel satisfied in an MMO.

SteelSeries is really pushing the dual actuation on its new OmniPoint 2.0 switches. And it’s an interesting feature, once you figure out…what it is. 

It sounds relatively simple: Dual actuation — or, rather, dual action keypresses — lets you set two different actions, which are activated at different actuation points, for a single keypress. SteelSeries says this will let you do things like “walk and then run” or “pull out a grenade and then throw it.” 

It’s not quite as intuitive as it sounds, though. Dual action keypresses are not the same as function keys/secondary keybinds — you can’t activate the second action without activating the first. They’re also not just macros (though you can assign macros to either — or both — actions), because they work in a very specific order and the actions influence each other. 

Basically, there will definitely be a bit of a learning curve as you try to figure out exactly how to best implement dual actuation. I tried implementing the feature using SteelSeries’ example: Walk and then run. In Elder Scrolls Online, you walk (okay, default speed is more of a jog) using W, A, S, D, and you sprint by holding down Shift at the same time. I first attempted to put a second action (Left Shift) on the W key, thinking I could lightly press W to ‘walk’ and then hold it down to ‘run.’ This didn’t work, though, because the two actions are separate — the first action (W) doesn’t stay pressed when the second action actuates.

SteelSeries does give you some options for how the second action works, though — instead of just a single keypress, you can set the second action to play several times, repeat while pressed, toggle auto-repeat, or toggle hold. I first tried “repeat while pressed,” which didn’t work because repeating a key isn’t the same as holding a key (and pressing Shift five times in a row tries to activate Sticky Keys). But it also didn’t work because the first action also actuates on key release. This makes sense now that I think about it, but it wasn’t intuitive. You can choose whether the second action actuates on the key press or the key release, but because you’re passing the first actuation point twice, you’ll always get two actions. 

This is probably a little confusing, so here’s a straightforward example: Let’s say I bind a second action (‘K’) to the ‘O’ key, with the default action type (play once, on key press). If I press the ‘O’ key lightly and only actuate the first action, I will type ‘o.’ If I press the ‘O’ key harder, activating both actions, I will type ‘oko.’ This is because I actuate the first action twice, once on the way down and again on the way back up. I can change the second action type to play once, on key release, and now if I press the ‘O’ key hard, I’ll type ‘ook’ — the first action still actuates twice. 

The good news is that SteelSeries’ dual actuation feature is extremely customizable — in addition to keypresses, you can also assign device functions, media buttons, mouse buttons, and macros as the second action on a dual actuation key. I appreciate that SteelSeries allows you to create macros using numpad keys, which work even without a numpad (this is surprisingly difficult to find on TKLs). The OmniPoint 2.0 switches are also precise enough that I was able to press lightly and only actuate the top action with decent accuracy.

Features and Software on the Apex Pro Mini

To customize and configure the Apex Pro Mini, you’ll use SteelSeries GG, the brand’s software suite for all of its products. was able to test out an official update to the software, which is robust — though not perfect — and allows for extremely detailed fine-tuning of the keyboard. 

The Apex Pro Mini has onboard memory that allows up to five different onboard profiles in which you can customize all 61 primary keybindings, 60 secondary keybindings, adjust the actuation and dual actuation of all 61 keys individually, and program dual actuation keybinds — of which a maximum of eight are permitted. The GG platform makes this all pretty easy, and even lets you live-preview things like actuation level (which works…most of the time). 

The 60-percent layout means that just about every key does double-duty, and most of the Apex Pro Mini’s keys have preset secondary (or “Meta”) keybinds that are printed on the side of the keycaps that faces the user. They’re printed in white but do not allow for shine-through, which probably looks better overall but makes it difficult to see the functions. All keys except for the dedicated SS function key can be assigned a custom secondary keybind. 

Pressing the SS function key causes the keys with assigned secondary keybinds to light up in SteelSeries’ signature orange — a nice touch…even if it’s less useful in practice, when almost all of the keys have secondary keybinds.

You can adjust the actuation point of each key individually in SteelSeries GG using a slider or by typing in your desired actuation level. There are 37 levels, from 0.2mm to 3.8mm. The Apex Pro Mini’s keys have a total travel distance of 4mm, so 3.8mm is basically a full keypress. For reference, all Cherry MX and Kailh switches (except low-profile versions) have an actuation point of 2mm. SteelSeries helpfully points out that the switches on Razer’s Huntsman Mini Analog keyboard only have an adjustable actuation range of 1.5 - 3.6mm.

The Apex Pro Mini’s wider range does allow for more flexible customization when it comes to dual actuation, however. You can adjust the second actuation level of each individual key in the SteelSeries GG software as well, although this isn’t that useful, because you can only program a maximum of eight dual actuation keybindings at once. You can program these dual actuation keybinds on any key except for the SS function key.

Actuation point can also be adjusted manually using the keyboard (the default secondary keybinds are I and O; I increases actuation distance, O decreases it). You can set 10 different actuation levels, which you’ll see on the keyboard — numbers 1 through 0 will light up to indicate actuation level (1 is the shortest, 0 is the longest). This method trumps custom per-key actuation levels and adjusts all keys at once.

SteelSeries GG also lets you customize the keyboard’s per-key RGB. The software allows you to adjust each key’s lighting individually, with custom effects using multiple colors and different animation patterns. The software includes several presets with names such as “Prism” (rainbow), “West Coast” (blue-yellow-orange), and my favorite “Vapor Dreams” (pink-purple-blue-teal). I’m a sucker for the vaporwave aesthetic.

Okay, what I should say is that the software will allow you to do all that…hopefully, in the future. The illumination section of SteelSeries GG is sort of broken at the moment — I was able to adjust some of the per-key RGB on the Apex Pro Mini Wireless before it froze and left me with a blank screen, and I wasn’t able to do anything except cycle through presets on the Apex Pro Mini. SteelSeries also says it will allow you to set reactive lighting in addition to active lighting, but this feature isn’t yet available.

Bottom Line

SteelSeries’ Apex Pro Mini packs a lot into a tiny package. A lot. Maybe too much. Do you really need to be able to adjust the dual actuation point for each individual key, especially when you can only program eight dual-action keypresses at a time? 

While I’m not a big fan of the 60-percent layout, I’ll be the first to admit that this keyboard surprised me with how relatively intuitive and easy-to-use it was to use for certain activities, such as gaming. Gaming on the Apex Pro Mini was so seamless, I didn’t miss my function keys or navigation keys at all. (I did miss the numpad — though not while gaming — because I have an unhealthy dependency on the Alt code for the em-dash.) 

The Apex Pro Mini definitely feels like a bigger keyboard than it is, and that’s pretty impressive considering it is very, very small. It’s not my favorite keyboard for typing, but that wasn’t a surprise — linear switches are never going to be the writer’s favorite switch — and the clacky sound and lightly-textured keycaps do make it feel better. 

But if you’re not feeling all of the Apex Pro Mini’s many, many features, there are some very similar small form-factor keyboards that are much cheaper. Razer’s Analog Huntsman Mini even has adjustable actuation switches with dual-action keypresses — and if you don’t care about changing your actuation point, the HyperX Alloy Origins 60 has a very similar look and build for less than half of what the Apex Pro Mini costs. If you want something customizable — but on the hardware end, the Mountain Everest 60 has hot-swappable switches and can be purchased with a detachable numpad.

All that said, my biggest criticism about the SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini is that it gives you too many options and too many layers of customization…and that doesn’t really seem all that bad on such a limited layout.

PC components stalwarts NZXT and Alphacool have launched new thermal pastes. NZXT's new paste — its first-ever thermal paste — is dull-but-descriptively named NZXT High-performance Thermal Paste ($9.99/3g, $19.99/15g). Alphacool claims its new thermal paste, called Alphacool Apex Thermal Paste (€14.99/4g), is the best non-liquid metal thermal paste. Both thermal pastes are electrically non-conductive and are touted as easy to apply, with long-term stability.

The thermal compound that you put between your CPU and cooler (or in re-pasting your GPU, or laptop) can make a significant difference to cooling performance, so it's worth considering carefully when you build or maintain a PC. We tested over 90 different pastes (thermal and non — we even tested toothpaste) in our exhaustive round-up of the best thermal pastes, published earlier today. However, NZXT and Alphacool's new products have somewhat spoiled the comprehensiveness of our coverage — we'll have to test them once we get our hands on them.

Over recent years there have been some esoteric pastes made with materials such as diamond and liquid metal (which can be hazardous due to electrical conductivity and chemical reactions with aluminum). These new pastes from NZXT and Alphacool are more traditional: non-electrically conductive, non-corrosive, and easy to apply and clean off.

For a better handle on the new thermal pastes and how they compare, take a look at the specs.

The new Alphacool Apex thermal paste has a much higher claimed thermal conductivity value, and its marketing material asserts it is "one of the best performing thermal pastes on the market," which is only beaten by liquid metal alternatives. Meanwhile, the slightly cheaper (much cheaper if you buy it in bulk) NZXT High-performance Thermal Paste has thermal conductivity on a par with PC-builder-favorite Arctic MX-5 — so its performance is by no means poor.

NZXT says its paste uses zinc oxide, liquid polymer, and aluminum material. Alphacool isn't as forthcoming with its ingredients, and instead says that its thermal paste is formulated using "a nano-powder with a very low thermal impedance." So, it looks like Alphacool's new paste relies on nanotechnology-boosted thermal conductance.

If you're not sold on NZXT's first foray into the market or Alphacool's nanotech-infused secret sauce, we suggest going for one of the picks in our best thermal pastes round-up (not toothpaste).

The SteelSeries Apex 3 RGB gaming keyboard offers plenty of options for gamers who like customizable features and multi-platform compatibility. This wired gaming keyboard has a variety of specs to take advantage of ranging from customizable LEDs to the ability to program and save custom macros into separate profiles. The going rate for this keyboard is $49, but right now it’s listed at just $34.

According to SteelSeries, the Apex 3 is an IP32 water-resistant keyboard which also gives it an extra level of protection against dust. The Apex 3 is full-sized with a numeric pad off to the side. While its keys aren't mechanical, they are rated to 20 million keypresses.

The Apex 3 gaming keyboard is capable of saving custom macro combinations to individual profiles and has a key dedicated to swapping between these profiles on the keyboard. There is also a dedicated multimedia button alongside a volume rotary encoder for media.

Rather than per-key lighting, the SteelSeries Apex 3 has 10-Zone RGB LED support. These zones can be programmed with custom colors or effects and saved to individual profiles. The brightness of the backlight LEDs can also be adjusted. It has a magnetic wrist rest that can be easily removed and reattached.

Visit the SteelSeries Apex 3 gaming keyboard product page at Amazon for more details and purchase options and remember to take a look at our list of Amazon promo codes. If you’d like to see what else the market has to offer right now, check out our list of Memorial Day deals and other various tech deals. We’ll be updating these lists as the day progresses so be sure to check back regularly to get an idea of what else is available throughout the holiday sale.

Being the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC is the largest beneficiary of the ongoing semiconductor boom. The company expects its sales to continue growing for many years to come, so it plans to raise its capital expenditures (CapEx) by 33% — 46% this year all the way to $40~$44 billion — to support continued growth. This level of spending will be particularly useful as the company prepares to start making chips using its N3 (3nm class) and N2 (2nm class) processes in the coming years.

Preparing N3 Ramp

TSMC's 2021 revenue reached an unprecedented $56.82 billion, up 24.1% year-over-year due to extraordinary demand for semiconductors in general, and chips made using leading-edge fabrication technologies in particular. In addition, TSMC projects demand for its services to accelerate going forward because the company is the largest foundry in the world, and it is the leading provider of mature, advanced (FinFET), and leading-edge (7 nm-class and below) nodes. Therefore, to boost its capacities for all types of manufacturing processes (including the upcoming N3), the company intends to increase its CapEx from $30 billion in 2021 to $40 – $44 billion in 2022. To put that number in perspective, TSMC's CapEx budget in 2019 totaled $14.9 billion. 

Approximately 70% – 80% of TSMC's $40 to $44 billion CapEx will be allocated to building new fabs and expanding capacities for the latest and upcoming nodes, including N2, N3, N5, and N7. For example, TSMC spent quite a fortune building up capacity for its N5 nodes (including N5, N5P, N4, N4P, N4X) last year. This year it will spend billions on building N3 and N2-capable fab(s).  

TSMC will also spend 10% to 20% on specialty technologies and another 10% on facilities for advanced packaging and mask making.  

Since the industry is in the midst of several major megatrends (5G, AI, HPC, digitization, etc.), TSMC and other foundries are enthusiastic about future growth. Moreover, since TSMC is arguably the most competitive contract maker of semiconductors, it is not surprising that the company is particularly optimistic about landing orders both from existing and new customers with its N5 and N3 nodes.

Leading Nodes Account for 50% of Revenue

TSMC's N7 and N5 nodes accounted for about 50% of TSMC's $15.74 billion wafer revenue in Q4 2021 (a 24.1% increase year-over-year and up 5.8% sequentially), based on the numbers provided by the company. The two fabrication technologies also accounted for 50% of TSMC's $56.82 billion wafer revenue for the whole year. In 2020, they accounted for 41% of TSMC's $45.51 billion revenue. 

As far as applications are concerned, sales of smartphone chips dropped from 51% of TSMC's revenue in Q4 2020 to 44% in Q4 2021. Meanwhile, revenue share of CPUs, GPUs, accelerators, and SoCs used in such applications as PCs, servers, supercomputers, and game consoles (which TSMC calls high-performance computing (HPC) applications) upticked from 31% in Q4 2020 to 37% in Q4 2021.

"Our fourth quarter business was supported by strong demand for our industry-leading 5-nanometer technology," said Wendell Huang, VP and Chief Financial Officer of TSMC. "Moving into first quarter 2022, we expect our business to be supported by HPC-related demand, continued recovery in the automotive segment, and a milder smartphone seasonality than in recent years." 

TSMC charges a premium for its N7 and N5 production because these technologies require advanced tools and provide substantial transistor density, power, and performance benefits. As fabless designers of chips adopt the new nodes, it is not surprising that the revenue share contributed by these nodes increases, just like TSMC's earnings in general. Meanwhile, TSMC's revenue growth is also fueled by price increases for the production of trailing nodes.  

TSMC expects its Q1 2022 revenue to be between $16.6 billion and $17.2 billion (up sequentially and year-over-year) and its gross profit margin to be between 53% and 55%.

More Orders for Leading-Edge Nodes Incoming

Last year, TSMC said it would spend $100 billion over the following three years on new manufacturing capacities and research and development (R & R&D). If the company keeps increasing its CapEx in 2023, then TSMC's investments in CapEx and R&D will exceed $100 billion in the 2021 – 2023 period quite significantly. But there are good reasons behind this move. 

While the share of advanced and leading-edge nodes in TSMC's revenue has been increasing in recent years, it is noteworthy that two large customers — Nvidia and Qualcomm — began to outsource a significant portion of their sophisticated chips to Samsung Foundry in 2020. Yet it does not look like either are particularly happy with the outcome, which is why both are rumored to be returning to TSMC in 2022 with their upcoming designs. 

Considering that Intel is also beginning to outsource some of its most advanced components to TSMC, it is evident that the foundry is on track to significantly increase production using its N5 fabrication process in 2022 and then N3 manufacturing technology in the 2023 – 2024 period. In addition, while there are rumors that AMD and MediaTek plan to adopt a multi-foundry/dual-source approach with some of their products going forward, both companies are already on long-term agreements (LTAs) with TSMC (with some prepayments made), so they are not reducing their orders to the No. 1 foundry in the foreseeable future. 

N5 will be a very long-lived node for TSMC both because of decent yields and ample capacity as well as various performance and die size-optimized versions of the process. Industry observers believe that N3 will be another win for the contract manufacturer as Samsung Foundry's plan to adopt gate-all-around transistors for its 3GAE/3GAP nodes adds uncertainties. It also remains to be seen how competitive Intel Foundry Services will be in 2024 – 2025.  

"The return of Nvidia Qualcomm to adopt N3 in 2023 – 2024 speaks volumes about TSMC as the only credible advanced node foundry, in our view," Szeho Ng, an analyst with China Renaissance, wrote in a note to clients. "We believe that Nvidia will start sole sourcing some of its N5 products (next-generation HPC server GPU – 'Hopper' H100 signifying its foray into MCM/multi-chip module design) from TSMC this year. […] The next generation gaming GPU (GeForce RTX 40-series) may, however, still be dual-sourced from TSMC and Samsung on N4/5 for diversification purposes, in our view."

Summary

While TSMC's plan to spend up to $44 billion on new capacities seems bold (since this is the largest sum ever spent on new fab capacity by one company in a year), TSMC has a lot of motivations to be optimistic about future demand to expand its capabilities. 

The ongoing megatrends (5G, AI, HPC, digitization, etc.) will drive demand for all types of semiconductors quite significantly in the coming years. Furthermore, there are three major customers — Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm — that intend to adopt TSMC's advanced and leading-edge nodes for their high-volume products in the 2022 – 2024 timeframe. Finally, TSMC's existing top customers (Apple, AMD, MediaTek) that have been increasing their market shares quite steadily in recent years will require more capacity in 2022 – 2023 to support their growth. 

Samsung spent tens of billions of dollars annually on its various chip businesses for several years now. On Thursday the company announced that its renewed semiconductor investment plan includes spending $150 billion on R&D and CapEx for its LSI and foundry businesses by 2030.  

$15 Billion per Year 

About two years ago Samsung announced plans to spend $115 billion through 2030 (i.e., $9.51 billion a year) on its LSI and foundry businesses, which includes R&D of new process technologies and materials, chip design, and actual fabs. $9.51 billion a year is a lot of money, but from now on the company is committed to spending $15 billion a year on its LSI and semiconductor production operations. The increase is motivated by the growing demand for chips and semiconductor fabrication services driven by megatrends like 5G, AI, and HPC.

Samsung Electronics has been outspending all other semiconductor producers in the world in recent years. Just last year it invested around $28.1 billion in production facilities that are used by its Samsung Foundry and memory (3D NAND, DRAM) businesses. With an increased commitment to foundry business, Samsung will almost certainly increase the general CapEx of its semiconductor division to well beyond $30 billion a year.

“The entire semiconductor industry is facing a watershed moment and now is the time to chart out a plan for long-term strategy and investment,” said Dr. Kinam Kim, Vice Chairman and Head of Device Solutions Division at Samsung Electronics. 

Samsung P3: A Fab for DRAM and Logic 

In an interesting turn of events, Samsung also announced that it had begun construction of its new P3 fab near Pyeongtaek, South Korea, that will be used to produce both DRAM and logic chips using process technologies that rely on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Normally, Samsung uses different fabs to make DRAM and logic chips, but it looks like with next-generation EUV tools it makes sense to use one fab for both types of products.

Samsung's P3 is expected to be completed in the second half of 2022. Initially, it will produce chips using Samsung's 14 nm technology for DRAMs as well as 5 nm node for SoCs. Looks like leading-edge fabrication technologies, including 4nm and 3nm, will continue to be initially used at Samsung Foundry's V1 fab near Hwaseong, South Korea.

“For the memory business, where Samsung has maintained its undisputed leadership position, the company will continue to make preemptive investments to lead the industry,” said Dr. Kinam Kim. 

TSMC this week published its financial results for the first quarter and shared some of its expectations regarding the ongoing chip shortage. The company believes that chip shortages will continue well into 2022 and will only ease in 2023. Meanwhile, TSMC will provide some additional allocation for automakers shortly to boost supply to the clients that are important for the economies of counties like the U.S. and Germany. Also, TSMC intends to increase its capital expenditures beyond the planned $28 billion in 2020.

Supply Crisis to Ease in 2023

TSMC operated at an "over 100% utilization" during the quarter, though it could not fulfill all of its customers' orders. When asked about expectations when the shortages were going to end, the management responded that it expected the deficit to persist throughout 2021 and into 2022. It is impossible for TSMC to quickly respond to growing demand as it has to buy land, prepare the sites, construct new fabs, procure manufacturing equipment, install these tools, and ramp up the facilities. All of these steps take a long time, and TSMC expects its supply abilities to improve tangibly only in 2023. 

"We see the demand continue to be high," C. C. Wei, CEO of TSMC, told analysts and investors during the company's earning's call. "We have acquired land and equipment, and started construction of new facilities. We are hiring thousands of employees and expanding our capacity at multiple sites. […] In 2023, I hope we can offer more capacity to support our customers. At that time, we'll start to see the supply chain tightness release a little bit." 

To support the expansion, TSMC increased its CapEx budget from the previously planned $25 – $28 billion to around $30 billion in 2020. 

Revenues Hit $12.92 Billion, Demand for HPC Up

TSMC reported revenue of NT$362.41 billion ($12.92 billion), up 25.4% year-over-year, and net income of NT$139.69 billion ($4.932 billion) for the first quarter that ended on March 31, 2021.  

TSMC's N7 lineup of manufacturing technologies accounted for 35% of the company's earnings, whereas the N5 node and N16 family of processes accounted for 14% each of TSMC's revenue. N28 technologies continued to be fairly popular, so the node was responsible for 11% of TSMC's revenue. 

It's noteworthy that N5 dropped from 20% of TSMC's consolidated revenue in Q4 2020 to 14% in Q1 2021, whereas N7 increased from 29% to 35%. This happened because Apple lowered orders for its 5 nm chips for smartphones and tablets, whereas companies from PC and server spaces (which TSMC collectively calls HPC) increased their orders for APUs, CPUs, GPUs, network processors, SoCs, and other components. 

Multiple Megatrends Ahead, Automakers Get a Preference

TSMC has multiple growth opportunities ahead of it. Obviously, demand for PCs and other client devices is rising, so traditional customers like AMD, Broadcom, Nvidia, and Qualcomm are increasing their orders to the foundry. Also, there are impending 5G, AI, HPC, IoT, and edge computing megatrends that will further spur demand for semiconductors as all of these applications require brand-new chips produced using fairly advanced process technologies.  

Cars are among the applications set to get smarter, as they now use rather sophisticated chips and are set to use even more complex SoCs as they become autonomous. Automotive applications accounted for about 4% of TSMC's revenue in Q1 2021, perhaps not a big deal for the company. But the absence of chips made by TSMC essentially stops car manufacturing in Europe and the U.S., which hits not only automakers but also hundreds of their subcontractors and economies in general. Given the importance of automakers, TSMC vowed to increase its allocation for automotive chips next quarter.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. via Yahoo Finance / Bloomberg today said it would invest $100 billion over the next three years in new manufacturing capacities as well as research and development (R&D). The investments in advanced fabs will increase TSMC's lead over rivals and will ensure that the company introduces new fabrication technologies in a predictable cadence. 

"TSMC is entering a period of higher growth as the multiyear megatrends of 5G and HPC are expected to fuel strong demand for our semiconductor technologies in the next several years," a statement by TSMC reads. "In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic also accelerates digitalization in every aspect. In order to keep up with demand, TSMC expects to invest $100 billion over the next three years to increase capacity to support the manufacturing and R&D of advanced semiconductor technologies. TSMC is working closely with our customers to address their needs in a sustainable manner."

Earlier this year TSMC announced plans to radically increase its capital expenditure (CapEx) budget to $25 ~ $28 billion, an increase of 45% ~ 62% year-over-year from $17.2 billion in 2020. Last year the company spent about $3.72 billion on R&D, or about 8.2% of its revenue. 

Gradual increases of R&D and CapEx budgets at leading makers of semiconductors are generally in line with expectations. New process technologies are getting more expensive to develop, whereas new fabs are getting larger and more expensive to build. For example, a 3nm/5nm-capable fab costs around $20 billion. Therefore, announcing a three-year $100 billion investment plan is not particularly surprising for TSMC as in the coming years it will have to build a 2nm-capable fab (or two). 

TSMC says that demand for chips is so high that it has been running its fabs at full load for about a year and supply is still falling short of the increased demand, which is why it needs additional fabs and new employees. To support its capacity expansion, the company intends to suspend wafer price cuts for a year from the start of 2022, reports Bloomberg citing a letter from TSMC's CEO to the company’s clients.  

Meanwhile TSMC is announcing its intention to pour in $100 billion in chip development and manufacturing just a week after Intel outlined its Integrated Device Manufacturing 2.0 plan under which the largest CPU maker in the world plans to become a competitor for TSMC. So far, Intel has announced plans to spend $20 billion on two production facilities in Arizona and said it would invest in expansion of chip manufacturing in other parts of the world.

It is well known that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Foundry dominate the market of contract chip production. They are the only companies to offer leading-edge process technologies and have the largest capacities. Meanwhile, TSMC and Samsung Foundry are on track to become the dominant manufacturers of advanced chips as nobody, including Intel, can match their capital expenditures.

TSMC: Big Can Only Get Bigger

Founded in 1987, TSMC was the world's first pure play foundry that manufactured chips for others. In 34 years of its history, the company has grown from a small entity with one fab to a multi-billion corporation with five 300mm fabs, seven 20mm fabs, and one 150mm production facility. Having developed dozens of process technologies throughout its history and having installed vast production capacities, TSMC can offer services to almost any fabless chip designer with almost any requirements. At present, TSMC serves over 460 customers.

As the demand for leading-edge fabrication processes and volumes from its large customers (such as Apple, HiSilicon, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and AMD) have grown in recent years, TSMC intensified building of new GigaFabs — production facilities with a capacity of more than 100,000 300-mm wafer starts per month (WSPM). Each costs around $20 billion, and TSMC also increased its research and development (R&D) budgets. The strategy has paid off and today TSMC has not only left Intel and Samsung Foundry behind with its manufacturing technologies, but it also has more leading-edge capacity than other makers of semiconductors. This is largely because because it serves virtually all fabless designers that require advanced technologies. 

This year the company decided to radically increase its capital expenditure (CapEx) spending to $25 billion ~ $28 billion, an increase of 45% ~ 62% year-over-year from $17.2 billion in 2020. IC Insights believes that TSMC will "begin what is likely to be a huge multi-year ramp of spending," and expects the company to boost its CapEx budget in 2022 and 2023 once again. 

Being the leading maker of semiconductors both in terms of volumes and in terms of technology leadership has its advantages. First, it's easier to get the fab tools when you buy them in high volumes. Second, it's easier to set up your own production and supply chain standards, something that is tremendously important in an industry that is all about standardization. 

Samsung Foundry: Closing the Gap with TSMC, Widening the Gap with Intel?

Samsung Electronics has been the world's largest maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash for quite a while and has been in the semiconductor business for decades. Furthermore, it has produced various chips for its own needs. The company started to offer foundry services in mid-2000s, as it realized that only the largest chipmakers will survive in the long term. Samsung Foundry has been trying to catch up with TSMC for years, and while the gap is closing, it is still not quite there yet.

Samsung Foundry's largest customer is still its parent company Samsung, which strives to make the world's best smartphones, televisions, PCs, displays and other electronics. To that end, SF's design decisions at times resemble those of an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) that makes money on actual products rather than on manufacturing services.

Samsung realized early enough that demand for chips (all chips, including DRAM, 3D NAND, SoCs, etc.) will only grow, so its corporate semiconductor CapEx spending exceeded $10 billion for the first time in 2010. Having spent $93.2 billion on expanding production capacities over the 2017–2020 period, the company significantly closed the gap with TSMC from a capacity point of view.

Samsung Foundry is still about three times smaller than TSMC in terms of wafer starts per month (and also in terms of the number of nodes it offers), but the gap between the two has been closing. So far, Samsung has not unveiled its 2021 semiconductor CapEx budget, but analysts believe that it could spend at least as much as it spent last year — around $28.1 billion.

Cumulative CapEx of Samsung and TSMC will total approximately $55.5 billion this year, according to IC Insights. A significant part Samsung's funds will of course be used to buy equipment for Samsung's memory businesses, but these two companies will be able to influence development of fab production tools and supply chains.

Should Intel Worry?

Intel traditionally spends tens of billions of dollars on CapEx (it spent about $14.3 billion last year), so it will remain a leading maker of processors. Yet, its spending on fabs will be about half that of Samsung and TSMC this year. Furthermore, since Intel will not start production of chips using a node that relies on EUV, it will not have an immediate significant influence on development of the industry and supply chains.

Historically, Intel had several competitive advantages that set it apart from all of its direct and indirect rivals:

1. Intel's CPUs were the fastest in the industry. 
2. Intel's microarchitectures and CPU designs were scalable for all market segments.
3. Intel had enough power to ensure that its architectural innovations were supported by software makers.
4. Intel had the best process technologies, which could offset certain imperfections of its microarchitectures or design.
5. Intel could produce CPUs in volumes unachievable by any of its competitors.
6. Since Intel was the de facto leader of the semiconductor market both financially and technologically, it set standards for the rest of the industry, which further ensured its leadership position.
7. While Intel competed against most companies in the semiconductor industry, it could build alliances or partnerships that strengthened it (e.g., with Microsoft, Dell, HP, Apple, and ATI Technologies) and helped it to better compete.
8. Intel spent hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing and advertising, usually more than all of its rivals combined. 

So far, Intel has lost at least three out of eight advantages. These days Intel's CPUs are not the undisputed leaders, and in many cases competing products from AMD are unchallenged. While Intel's 2nd generation and 3rd generation 10nm fabrication technologies are competitive against TSMC's N7, the company's nodes cannot offer the same transistor density as TSMC's N5. Finally, Intel no longer spends as much as its rivals on fabs and no longer has technological leadership.

If/when AMD becomes TSMC's second largest customer, it could ask its production partner to customize the nodes it uses in a bid to gain performance and/or lower power consumption. Meanwhile, we still know nothing about Intel's outsourcing plans other than the fact that some of its products will be made at TSMC in 2022.

Intel remains a driving force behind many industry initiatives, and no technology can get widespread in the PC world without Intel's support. Yet, there are no more Wintel-like initiatives and Intel is no longer an exclusive CPU supplier for companies like Apple.

Meanwhile, Intel has extremely capable x86 CPU architectures that offer higher single-thread performance when compared to those from AMD. Intel also produces more processors than any other maker, and it can supply its partners with volumes of chips not available from anyone else. Given Intel's market share and volume leadership, virtually all of its initiatives are supported by the software industry. Furthermore, the company knows how to advertise its products and promote its brand.

In general, Intel has many things to worry about, as it no longer can compete against all of its rivals on all fronts successfully. Hopefully, the company's new CEO will shed some light on the chip giant's future plans next week in a live chat.

Could Countries Compete Against Dominant Makers of Semiconductors?

Now that TSMC and Samsung spend around $28 billion each on manufacturing facilities and billions on R&D, it is extremely hard for a commercial company to catch up with these chipmakers. Even Apple, with its massive earnings and cash reserves, is hardly willing to invest tens of billions on chip manufacturing. In the recent years, the governments of the EU, US, and China started to talk about local semiconductor production industries and expressed willingness to assist chipmakers. 

IC Insights deems that it is close to impossible to catch up with TSMC and Samsung. Keeping in mind the two leading makers of semiconductors are way ahead of the industry both in terms of R&D and CapEx, analysts believe that "governments would need to spend at least $30 billion per year for a minimum of five years to have any reasonable chance of success." The Chinese corporation SMIC has received a lot of help both from local authorities and Chinese government over the years, but the company is still about five years behind GlobalFoundries, Samsung Foundry, and TSMC. 

Summary

Both TSMC and Samsung Foundry started to use EUV tools to produce chips using their leading-edge process technologies several years before Intel, so they have been gaining experience with new tools and supply chains for quite a while now. 

Both TSMC and Samsung will invest two times more in their production facilities than Intel will in 2021. Arguably, Intel does not need to spend as much as TSMC and Samsung on CapEx since it only produces chips for itself, whereas its peers offer foundry services. Yet, previously Intel's technological leadership was enabled by massive spending on fabs and R&D.

In theory, governments could stimulate development of the local semiconductor industry using direct help, tax breaks, and incentives. However, their total spending over the next five years would need to exceed $150 billion, and chances of success are not high.

Asus has listed the ROG Maximus XIII Apex on its website, implying that the successor to the ROG Maximus XII Apex may be closer than we think. The new iteration to the Apex series has been engineered to tame Intel's 11th Generation Rocket Lake processors.

Built around the new Z590 chipset and existing LGA1200 socket, the ROG Maximus XIII Apex comes equipped with an 18-phase power delivery subsystem. Each power stage, which can manage up to 90 amps, is accompanied by a MicroFine Alloy choke that can do 45 amps. Asus revamped the power design on the ROG Maximus XIII Apex completely by getting rid of the phase doublers. The motherboard also employs 10K Japanese black metallic capacitors that can take a beating. The VRM area is properly cooled with thick, aluminum passive heatsinks. The ROG Maximus XIII Apex feeds Rocket Lake chips through a pair of 8-pin EPS power connectors.

The overclocking toolkit on the ROG Maximus XIII Apex includes a double-digit debug LED, voltage read points, and a plethora of buttons and switches to aid in overclocking. There are also three condensation sensors that are placed strategically across the motherboard to notify you when condensation occurs around the processor, memory or PCIe slot. In total, the ROG Maximus XIII Apex has five temperature sensors, five 4-pin fan headers, two full-speed fan headers, and an assortment of headers for watercooling setups.

Like previous Apex motherboards, the ROG Maximus XIII Apex only provides two DDR4 memory slots. While memory capacity is limited to 64GB, the motherboard supports memory frequencies above DDR4-5000 with ease. The ROG Maximus XIII Apex sports Asus' OptiMem III technology, featuring an optimized memory tracing layout to improve memory overclocking.

The ROG Maximus XIII Apex offers numerous options for storage. It provides eight SATA III ports and up to four M.2 slots. The M.2 slots on the motherboard are PCIe 4.0 ready and come armed with an aluminium heatsink and embedded backplates to provide passive cooling. The other two M.2 slots reside on Asus' ROG DIMM.2 module that connects to the motherboard through a DDR4-type interface beside the memory slots. The DIMM.2 module accommodates M.2 drives with lengths up to 110mm.

The expansion slots on the ROG Maximus XIII Apex consist of two PCIe x16 slots and one PCIe x8 slot. Wired and wireless networking come in the shape of a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity with support for up to 6GHz bands. The audio system on the ROG Maximus XIII Apex uses Realtek's ALC4080 audio codec complemented with a Savitech SV3H712 amplifier and high-end Nichicon audio capacitors.

In regards to USB ports, the ROG Maximus XIII Apex has four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, five USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and one USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port at the rear panel. There's an additional USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 header on the motherboard. The ROG Maximus XIII Apex doesn't supply any display outputs so it's mandatory to pair it with a discrete graphics card.

ROG motherboards have a very rich software suite. On this iteration, Asus has directly implemented MemTest86 into the ROG Maximus XIII Apex's firmware so overclockers can test memory stability without any hassles. Additionally, a one-year AIDA64 Extreme subscription is also included.

The pricing for the ROG Maximus XIII Apex is currently unknown. The previous Z490 version retailed for $356.99, so we can expect the Z590 followup to be price around that range if not a little bit higher.

If you're a fan (*cough*) of cool hardware, the Apexgaming AC-120Ti should be right up your alley. The AC-120Ti isn't your ordinary case fan as it actually features what the brand calls a "nano photocatalyst air purification" system that purifies the air that goes into your computer case.

Apexgaming's description of the AC-120Ti is a bit overwhelming for those of us that didn't pay more attention in our chemistry classes. The AC120Ti comes with a front filter, which basically acts as a dust filter, to help block large dust and other external materials from entering the fan. According to Apexgaming, the filter mesh comes with a coat of titanium dioxide (TiO2), whose purpose is to serve as a photo-oxidation catalyst. The filter can be easily cleaned by just washing it with water.

But the purification doesn't stop there. The fan includes an ultraviolet lamp that's the key component in the entire purification process. It essentially shoots ultraviolet rays at the catalyst to form hydroxyl radicals that absorb stuff like bacteria, odorous cells, and pollutants to decompose them into carbon dioxide and water molecules. The final product, at least according to the company, is air that's free of unpleasant smells, formaldehyde, germs, viruses, and allergens.

Apexgaming has all the certifications that prove that its UV LED is safe for human eyes and skin. The company is also touting an impressive baterial elimination rate up to 95.56%. For optimal operation, Apexgaming recommends installing the AC-120Ti in the front of your case as an intake fan.

The fan checks in with dimensions of 120x120x25mm and draws power from a standard 4-pin connector. Its sleeve bearing can spin at up to 1,000 RPM.  The fan boasts an airflow and air pressure up to 34 CFM and 0.9 mmH2O, respectively. The maximum noise level is around 16 dBA. Apexgaming rates the AC-120Ti with a lifespan of 40,000 hours at 25 degress Celsius.

Apexgaming sells the AC-120Ti for $29.99 via the company's online store. We doubt the AC120Ti is going to help you get more FPS out of your games, but if you want to turn your PC into an air purifier, the AC120Ti is the fan for the job. At the very least, it might keep your PC from catching a virus.

But please: No one get any ideas about building an SFF with one of these fans and strapping it to your face. If you want to mix your love of gaming with the ability to feel a bit safer around others, maybe hold out to see if Razer ever brings a version of Project Hazel mask to market. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said this week that it would significantly increase its capital expenditures this year as it needs to build and equip new fabs to ramp up its existing and next-generation leading-edge process technologies. Demand for advanced fabrication nodes is on the rise. In Q4 2020, revenue for N5 (5 nm) and N7 (7 nm) technologies accounted for nearly half of TSMC's revenue, so it makes a great sense for the manufacturer to continue investing in leading-edge capacities. Furthermore, as Apple and Intel plan to increase orders to TSMC, the foundry will also need more capacity.

TSMC to Spend Up to $28 Billion on Production Facilities in 2021

TSMC's management plans to spend from $25 billion to $28 billion on capital expenditures in 2021, the world's largest contract maker of semiconductor announced this week. 

If TSMC's board approves all the investments proposed by the management, then TSMC's CapEx will rise by 45% ~ 62% year-over-year from $17.2 billion in 2020. The lion's share of TSMC's capital budget will be spent on expanding production capacities for the company's N5 and N7 nodes as well as equipping a leading-edge fab for its N3 (3 nm) node that will be used starting from the second half of 2022. 

"Out of the $25 to $28 billion CapEx for 2021, about 80% of the capital budget will be allocated for advanced process technologies, including 3 nm, 5 nm and 7 nm," said Wendell Huang, chief financial officer at TSMC, during this week's earnings call with analysts and investors. "About 10% will be spent for advanced packaging and mask making and about 10% will be spent for speciality technologies." 

"The 2021 CapEx is largely for N5 expansion (at least 2x its current 55-60k WPM capacity), and N3 build is limited to pilot line/initial production (+10-15k WPM, though we expect N3’s capacity to be similar to N5’s upon full ramp-up)," Szeho Ng, an analyst with China Renaissance Securities, wrote in a note to clients on Friday.

 Production of semiconductors is an extremely capital-intensive business and as process technologies get more advanced and manufacturing tools get more expensive, chipmakers have to increase their CapEx budgets to build fabs that cost as much as $20 billion or even more. Because of increasingly high R&D and fab costs, numerous contract makers of semiconductors had to pull out from the leading-edge and focus on specialized technologies in the recent years.

N5 & N7 Accounted for 49% of TSMC's Revenue in Q4 2020

But with a number of rivals out of the game, TSMC now has more clients than ever. And considering the fact that there are a number of ongoing megatrends — such as 5G, AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and edge computing — that require advanced chips produced using the most sophisticated technologies possible, demand for TSMC's higher-end production services is on the rise today and will continue growing in the coming years.   

In the fourth quarter, sales of wafers processed using N5 accounted for 20% of TSMC's total wafer revenue, whereas sales of N7 and 12 nm/16 nm accounted for 29% and 13% respectively. In general, leading-edge N5 and N7 nodes commanded 49% of TSMC's wafer revenue, whereas advanced nodes (N5, N7, N12/N16) accounted for 62% of the company's total wafer revenue. 

TSMC's N5 process technology in Q4 2020 was primarily used by Apple, which uses it for its A14 system-on-chips for smartphones and tablets as well as M1 SoCs for its latest PCs. The company's N7 is used more widely by companies like AMD, Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Xilinx, whereas N12/N16 is used by dozens of companies for all kinds of applications.  

"Our fourth quarter business was supported by strong demand for our industry-leading 5 nm technology, driven by 5G smartphone launches and HPC-related applications," said Mr. Huang. "Moving into first quarter 2021, we expect our business to be supported by HPC-related demand, recovery in the automotive segment, and a milder smartphone seasonality than in recent years." 

TSMC's N5 is a major improvement over N7 node that enables a 15% higher performance (at the same power and complexity) or a 30% lower power consumption (at the same frequency and complexity), and an up to 1.8X higher transistor density (not for all structures). In addition, N5 uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography on more than 10 layers to reduce mask count to 81 as well as reduce or even avoid usage of multipatterning, which optimizes yields and costs. Considering all the advantages that N5 has over N7, the majority of TSMC's clients that use N7 now will migrate to N5 over time. 

Later this year TSMC will offer its customers a performance-enhanced version of N5 that is called N5P. The latter is projected to enable a 5% performance gain and/or a 10% power reduction over N5 while staying generally compatible. Yet, N5P will be used by select chip designers only as next year TSMC will offer N4 that will provide further PPA (power, performance, area) enhancements while being compatible with N5 on design rules, IPs, and SPICE levels. TSMC's fabs that currently process wafers using its N5 technology will also be able to use N5P as well as N4, so any investments going there will be used for years.

N3 Could Be More Successful Than N5 and N7

TSMC's next major step after N5 will be N3 (3 nm). This technology promises an up to 15% performance gain (at the same power and transistor count), or an up to 30% power reduction (at the same speed and transistor count), along with an up to 20% higher SRAM density as well as an up to 70% higher logic density. This technology is still in development and will be used starting from the second half of 2022.

TSMC says that it sees more interest in N3 from potential clients in the HPC (TSMC considers 'HPC' all CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, non-mobile SoCs, special-purpose accelerators, etc.) and smartphone spaces than it did with N5 and N7 when they were at a similar stage of development. 

"We are seeing a much higher level of customer engagement for both HPC and smartphone application at N3 as compared with N5 and N7 at a similar stage," said C. C. Wei, Chief Executive Officer of TSMC. "Risk production is scheduled in 2021, and volume production is targeted in the second half of 2022." 

TSMC does not disclose any actual numbers that would quantify interest for N3 from its clients, but since many new applications are going to emerge in the coming years, it is not surprising that more players with more designs will be opting for a leading-edge process technology in 2022 ~ 2025 than they did several years ago. Furthermore, since N3 continues to rely on FinFET transistor structures with predictable performance and costs, the fabrication process will be a very long node as its successors will move to GAAFETs (gate-all-around field effect transistors), which is going to have a significant impact on design costs. For example, TSMC's 28 nm node that relies on planar transistors accounted for 11% of its wafer revenue in Q4 2020, nine years after the fabrication process was introduced.  

"We note the bold expansion reflects N3-5 as long- lasting big nodes with expected robust future demand beyond the initial wave from key clients," Szeho Ng, an analyst with China Renaissance Securities, wrote in a note to clients on Friday. 

While eventually dozens of companies will use TSMC's N3 and N5, there are two customers that are going to have a significant impact on TSMC's CapEx budgets in the coming years: Apple and Intel.

Apple: More Chips Needed

Traditionally, the bulk of Apple's orders to TSMC have been its SoCs for smartphones and tablets. Many of its suppliers produce their chips at TSMC as well, but those semiconductors are not made under Apple's orders and are not made exclusively for the company. As Apple transits its PCs to its own SoCs, starts to use its own modems inside its smartphones and tablets, and increases sales of its accessories that rely on its own system-in-packages (SiPs), it will significantly increase its orders to TSMC.

Apple is the world's No. 4 PC supplier that shipped 23.102 million computers last year and commanded about 7.6% of the PC market. Sales of PCs in 2020 totalled 302.6 million units, according to IDC. Once the technology giant completes transition of Macs from Intel CPUs to its Apple Silicon SoCs, it will need at least 23.102 million fairly big chips (the M1 is at 120 sq. mm, which is 26 sq. mm smaller compared to Intel's Tiger Lake-U) every year assuming that the market stays flat and Apple stops gaining market share (something that it has been doing for years). 

Apple was also the third largest supplier of smartphones in 2019 with 191 million units shipped, based on IDC's data. When the company ceases to use third-party 5G modems (which happen to be made using a leading-edge process technology) and transits to its own, it will increase its orders to TSMC by another ~200 million of chips every year.  

Apple's transitions to its PC SoCs and modems will be completed within the next couple of years. While it is hard to quantify Apple's orders to TSMC in terms of wafers today, it is safe to say that the addition of ~25 million PC SoCs and ~200 million modems to around ~200 million smartphone SoCs that TSMC produces today will significantly increase the number of wafers that the foundry processes for Apple.

Intel: A Wildcard

Intel already outsources manufacturing of multiple products to TSMC and has confirmed officially and unofficially that it would produce Atom and Xeon SoCs as well as GPUs at TSMC. What nobody knows at this point is whether Intel intends to make client and server CPUs at TSMC and if it has such plans, what percentage of its CPUs will be made at TSMC. 

Since Intel's outsourcing plans are unclear and perhaps are even undecided, it is not  good business to make too many assumptions at the moment. Yet, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Intel sells hundreds of millions of processors and chipsets for client PCs every year and even if the company decides to outsource 10% ~ 15% of its client CPU/chipset output to TSMC, it will still be tens of millions of units added to Intel's existing orders to the foundry. 

Intel traditionally uses advanced nodes, so to land its orders, which are going to be significant, TSMC will need to have enough capacity to serve the CPU giant along with other customers.

Summary

 TSMC's management plans to increase its 2021 CapEx budget by 45% ~ 62% year-over-year to record $25 billion ~ $28 billion in a bid to expand its leading-edge production capacities and prepare to ramp up production using its N3 process technology in the second half of 2022. 

The company sees the ongoing megatrends like 5G, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing (HPC), and edge computing as the main drivers for advanced semiconductors demand in the coming years. 

Apple, which is already TSMC's main customer for advanced nodes, will likely significantly increase its orders to the foundry in the coming years as it transits to its own Apple Silicon SoCs for PCs and in-house designed modems, which will further drive demand for TSMC's leading-edge manufacturing technologies. 

Intel is also going to outsource more of its products to TSMC in the coming years, which will be another factor that will increase demand for the foundry's sophisticated fabrication processes. 

If you’re after a high-end gaming experience that rivals the upcoming Xbox and PlayStation while keeping things compact and living room-friendly, Maingear’s brand-new Turbo desktop might be just what you’re looking for.

At 12.3 x 6.7 x 14.4 inches (HxWxD), the Turbo should fit on just about any desk and won’t dominate your living room space either. Designed in partnership with AMD, the desktop will ship exclusively with Ryzen CPUs (sorry Intel fans), including the brand-new Ryzen 3000XT models, topping out with the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900XT. But if you need even more CPU cores, the new desktop can also support the 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X, alongside AMD graphics cards, like the RX 5700 XT, or Nvidia cards up to the Titan RTX. 

Cooling happens vertically in this compact chassis, with cool air coming in at the bottom and expelled out the top. The company’s gorgeous Apex liquid cooling system is also available with the Turbo, which chills the processor and graphics card with the help of a reservoir carved out of a solid block of acrylic, custom tubing and a quiet pump. There’s also a PWM fan controller on board to make sure the spinners don’t make any more noise than they need to.

As this is a custom system, there are loads of component choices available with the Turbo, including up to 16TB of storage and 64GB of RAM, as well as Windows 10 Home or Pro (with a “zero bloatware guarantee”). 

Customizable artwork is also an option with this system, although you’ll have to pay more than the $1,499 starting price if you want to get fancy with the exterior. 

The Maingear Turbo compact desktop is available today directly from Maingear. 

German manufacturer Schenker has revealed the company's latest XMG Apex 15, as per a ComputerBase report. The system aims to be one of the best gaming laptops by offering desktop-type performance in a mobile format.

The XMG Apex 15 measures 14.2 x 10.2 x 1.3 inches (361 x 258 x 32.5mm) and weighs up to 5.7 pounds (2.6kg). The device flaunts a robust exterior, including a metal lid and a display frame, top and bottom case made of resin. 

The XMG Apex 15 utilizes AMD's B450 chipset to house the flagship AMD Ryzen 9 3950X desktop CPU. The processor brings nothing less than 16 CPU cores, 32 threads and a whopping 64MB of L3 cache. However, a few sacrifices had to be made to make the Ryzen 9 3950X more mobile-friendly. The XMG Apex 15 operates the Ryzen 9 3950X in its Eco-Mode, which forces to chip to stick to a 2.6 GHz base clock and 4.2 GHz boost clock to run within the 65W envelope, as opposed to its native 3.5 / 4.7 GHz. 

Schenker's gaming laptop features a 15.6-inch IPS panel at 1080p resolution and a 144 Hz refresh rate. To push the high-refresh rate display, the company allows you to choose between the an RTX 2060 or RTX 2070. These aren't the mobile or Max-Q variants either, so you'll get full desktop-level performance from either of the graphics cards.

The laptop comes with two SODIMM DDR4 RAM slots and can hold up to 64GB of memory total. 

There are three storage options. The machine has two M.2 2280 ports. One utilizes the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, and the other uses PCIe 2.0 x4. There's also space for a 2.5-inch hard drive or SSD with a maximum height of 0.3 inch (7mm).

The XMG Apex 15 has one USB 2.0 Type-A port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, one headphone out and one microphone-in jack. Display outputs include one Mini DisplayPort 1.4 output with support for Nvidia G-Sync and one HDMI 2.0 port with HDCP 2.2. There's a Realtek Gigabit Ethernet port for internet connectivity, as well as Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 functionality.

The laptop's other features consist of a backlit keyboard with a numeric keypad that offers 15 different color options, stereo speakers, Microsoft Precision Touchpad with two buttons, integrated microSD card reader, HD webcam that's compatible with Windows Hello and a fingerprint reader.

The XMG Apex 15 is equipped with a 62 Wh Li-ion battery. Being the powerhouse that it is, the gaming laptop draws power through a 230W power brick.

The base configuration, which features the RTX 2060, 8GB of DDR4-2666 Corsair Vengeance RAM and a 250GB  Samsung 860 Evo M.2 SSD starts at €1,337 (~$1,470). 

Nvidia today released the GeForce Game Ready 442.50 WHQL driver with improved support for The Division 2: Warlords of New York, ARK: Genesis and Apex Legends. The driver also brings support for three more G-Sync Compatible monitors.

Warlords of New York is a paid expansion for The Division 2 that introduces new areas, a higher level cap and multiple gameplay changes. Nvidia's latest Game Ready Driver is supposed to offer improved performance when the expansion debuts on March 3.

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ARK: Genesis introduces "all-new mission-based gameplay" with "beautiful yet lethal new worlds filled with exotic creatures, craftable items and weapons unlike anything seen before on the ARK," Nvidia claimed. It's now available on all platforms.

Unlike the other games, the improvements for Apex Legends introduced with the latest Game Ready Driver weren't prompted by new content. Instead, Nvidia merely said the driver "includes a fix for the crash that has affected some players."

The driver also brought support for three new G-Sync Compatible gaming monitors: the AOC AG271FZ2, AOC AG271F1G2 and Asus PG43U. A full list of G-Sync Compatible monitors is available on Nvidia's website. 

You can download the GeForce Game Ready 442.50 WHQL driver via Nvidia's website or the GeForce Experience companion app. Additional details about the changes made with this driver are available in the full release notes (PDF).

Nvidia today released a new GeForce Game Ready 442.19 WHQL driver with support for the fourth season of Apex Legends, the Sam's Story expansion to Metro Exodus, Zombie Army: Dead War 4, as well as three additional G-Sync Compatible displays.

Those displays are the Dell AW2521HF, Asus VG259QM and LG 34GN850. Nvidia already said that the gaming monitors would be joining the G-Sync Compatible program; now it's made good on that promise by officially supporting them with G-Sync.

Nvidia said that it also improved the Max Frame Rate and Variable Rate Super Sampling (VRSS) features that the CES 2020 Game Ready Driver introduced in January. Max Frame Rate now supports values between 20 and 1,000 frames per second. VRSS, meanwhile, can now be easily activated in every game that supports it.

 Apex Legends Season 4 starts on February 4, which is the same day Zombie Army: Dead War 4 is set to debut. Metro Exodus: Sam's Story arrives on February 11. Now people with Nvidia graphics cards should be ready for those games at launch.

The GeForce Game Ready 442.19 WHQL driver is available for download via the GeForce Experience software and Nvidia's website. More information about the driver is in the full release notes (PDF), and Nvidia accepts feedback via its official forums.

Keyboard manufacturers seem convinced that people want more information at their fingertips -- literally. Das Keyboard made notifications via RGB lighting a central aspect of its Q devices (like the Das Keyboard Q5), and SteelSeries decided to do Das one better with the Apex 7, which features an OLED Smart Display in the top-right corner. This monochromatic panel is supposed to represent the future of keyboards. The problem is that the feature isn’t compelling enough to make up for the Apex 7’s shortcomings.

SteelSeries Apex 7 Specs

OLED Smart Display Disappoints

SteelSeries released the Apex 7 alongside the Apex Pro (as well as tenkeyless versions of both keyboards) earlier in 2019. Much of the company’s attention went to the Apex Pro, which features new OmniPoint switches that offer customizable actuation points, with the Apex 7 offering a similar design with traditional switches for people willing to sacrifice customizability for affordability.  But without those OmniPoint switches, the Apex 7 relies on the OLED Smart Display to stand out.

The display is a monochrome rectangle that displays a SteelSeries logo by default. It can be customized to display a 120 x 48 pixel image, too, for anyone who’d like to add a little bit of personal flair to the device. Otherwise, it’s primarily used to navigate menus involving the board’s RGB lighting, macro keys, and other settings, which makes it easier to customize the Apex 7 without having to install the companion software offered by SteelSeries.

SteelSeries offers several apps for the OLED Smart Display. Most use it to display additional information: One previews messages received via Discord, another displays in-game details about ongoing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches, and SteelSeries said one showing the currently playing Spotify song is “coming soon.” Those details could prove useful, but might not be enough to convince someone to Alt-Tab out of a game so they can view them on their monitor.

But the OLED Smart Display simply hasn’t made a difference in my day-to-day usage of the Apex 7 in the weeks I’ve spent with the keyboard. Its positioning means it’s unobtrusive, but it also makes the display hard to notice while the keyboard’s in a comfortable position. The number pad’s keys block at least half of the display even when the built-in legs underneath the Apex 7 are set to their lowest position. Steeper angles fare slightly -- but not significantly -- better.

I’ve had similar problems with other keyboards that were supposed to offer at-a-glance information. It’s an interesting concept, but it’s never managed to become core to my computer usage, despite repeated attempts to understand what the hype is about. I learned to touch-type specifically so I wouldn’t have to stare at my keyboard while I’m using my PC. Why break that habit--and ruin my posture--to look at the keyboard when there’s a monitor right in front of me?

Design

At 403 x 139 x 17mm (15.9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches), the Apex 7 isn't a small keyboard. It's not a behemoth, either, but it takes up considerably more space on my desk than I would like. That's especially true when the wrist rest is attached--suddenly the number pad, thick USB cable, and wrist rest have become more than the sum of their parts. This led to some uncomfortable moments, which I'll discuss later, but it generally meant that once I put the Apex 7 down I was determined not to move it again. But the sizing issue is really a matter of preference--and price, since the Apex 7 TKL (sans the number pad) costs $30 less than its full-sized counterpart--in the end.

SteelSeries constructed the Apex 7’s case with an “aircraft grade aluminum alloy” that gives it a satisfying heft. I like the brushed metal--it’s a nice change of pace from the plastic cases I’ve encountered on most keyboards. Combined with the keycaps, which don’t rely on typographic monstrosities to convey the Apex 7’s status as a gaming keyboard, the frame makes it clear that the Apex 7 is supposed to be a premium device that wouldn’t look out of place in the office.

Like I mentioned earlier, the Apex 7 features two built-in legs that allow the back of the keyboard to be angled for more comfortable typing. There are only two settings--the legs are either tucked in or pulled out--which might disappoint anyone looking for more precise angling options, but plenty of keyboards employ a similarly limited setup. The included wrist rest can help make up for the limited adjustability, though, and its magnetic attachment makes it easy to type on the Apex 7 without worrying about it sliding around.

The Apex 7 connects to your PC through a USB cable that occupies two USB slots if you use the USB passthrough. I’m not particularly fond of this setup, largely because it can be hard to integrate into the hodgepodge of peripherals I already have connected to my system, but to each their own. A cable management tray helps keep things relatively neat, though, so long as you can ignore the thick cable protruding from the back of the keyboard.

Gaming Experience

SteelSeries offers three switch types for the Apex 7: linear Red switches, tactile Brown switches, and clicky Blue switches. All three feature 2mm actuation points and have been rated to withstand 50 million keypresses. My review unit featured the Red switches, which are often marketed to gamers because they’re supposed to be a bit easier to press than their counterparts, and quieter, too, so as not to annoy everyone in voice chat with a bunch of clacking sounds.

I didn’t mind the switches themselves, even though I usually prefer tactile switches. The switches were a bit louder than the Romer-G switches found on my Logitech G Pro, but not as loud as other keyboards I’ve used. Unfortunately there did appear to be some problems with key presses not registering during particularly hectic moments in games like Overwatch when I had to quickly switch between keys.

The Apex 7 offers N-key rollover, so those moments should not have posed any problems. But I noticed that inputs were regularly ignored during frantic moments--which is exactly when gamers expect their keyboards to perform flawlessly. A quick example of a common scenario: grappling into the air as Wrecking Ball, using the WASD keys to reposition, pressing Q to drop a bunch of mines, pressing Ctrl to slam into the opposing team, and then pressing E to activate shields.

That paragraph might read like a bunch of gobbledygook to people who don’t play Overwatch, but the gist is that I’m doing a bunch of things at once to make sure my mech-piloting hamster doesn’t turn into so much roadkill. Yet I would regularly find that my bombs didn’t drop (so the Q didn’t register) or shields didn’t activate (which means the E didn’t) while using the Apex 7. I didn’t have any problems performing similar maneuvers on the Logitech G Pro after multiple attempts.

Some errors are to be expected when playing an online game. But with everything else about my setup being stable--the Apex 7 is literally the only thing I changed--the problem is most likely the keyboard’s fault. If the OLED Smart Display’s relative uselessness makes it hard to justify the Apex 7’s price, missing inputs makes it hard to justify using the keyboard while playing competitive games, period. That makes it hard to recommend to most gamers these days.

Typing Experience

That said, these problems didn’t affect the Apex 7 during everyday use. I wrote most of this review on the Apex 7 and didn’t have any more typos than I usually do. That might have resulted from me being particularly cautious, though, or actively gauging how the keys felt while I was writing just to make sure my initial impressions weren’t clouding my final judgment. Sometimes it takes a little while to get used to a keyboard. So I turned to the Aesop’s Fable test at TypingTest.com.

The results confirmed what I'd already suspected about the Apex 7, which was that I was typing faster but also making more mistakes. TypingTest scored me at 101 words per minute (wpm) after taking 10 typing errors into account. I usually score around 103 wpm on the Logitech G Pro and Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard, with fewer errors on each, so I'm clearly hitting keys faster on the Apex 7. I just also happen to be hitting more keys by accident in the process.

Having the included wrist rest made typing on the Apex 7 more comfortable as well--at least until I had to reach for my mouse. Having to accommodate the number pad after getting used to using tenkeyless keyboards meant I was putting more stress on my shoulders by spreading them further apart. I mostly noticed this while I was gaming, so on the whole the typing experience was fine, but anyone who doesn't need the number pad should consider the TKL model of the Apex 7 rather than the full-sized keyboard.

RGB Lighting and Controls

The Apex 7’s RGB lighting is controlled with the same SteelSeries Engine 3 software as the Apex Pro. I’m not as keen on RGB lighting as some of our other writers and editors--I’m content to let all the pretty lights cycle through colors of the rainbow in the default “Coast” setting. I could use SteelSeries Engine 3 to keep the RGB lighting in sync for my headset and mouse, both of which are also from SteelSeries, but I can’t see the lights on my ears or under my palm so I left ‘em alone. (Yes, I’m aware that this makes me the outlier in an age when RGB lighting is finding its way into almost everything, but that’s just fine by me.)

For anyone who’s more interested in customizing their setup than I: SteelSeries Engine 3 makes it easy to create individual profiles that automatically start in certain programs and games. There isn’t as much customizability with the Apex 7 as there is the Apex Pro, thanks to the missing OmniPoint switches, but different lighting profiles can help set the mood based on what’s on-screen. The software also simplifies the assignment and function of macro keys. Built-in color profiles also make it easy to choose a new lighting scheme with as little fiddling as possible.

My relative disinterest in advanced RGB lighting controls somewhat ironically helps me justify the OLED Smart Display. The built-in display can be used to cycle through five built-in lighting schemes (Vapors, Coast, Haze, Prism and Orange) or navigate a Custom setting. Is this as convenient as using SteelSeries Engine 3? No. The options are limited and the menus aren’t easy to navigate. For anyone who only has a passing interest in RGB lighting, though, not having to install additional software could be the best justification for the OLED Smart Display. Gamers who frequently move their keyboards between multiple PC will also appreciate this.

Bottom Line

It’s not hard to see why SteelSeries made the Apex 7. We liked the Apex Pro, but most people aren’t willing to spend $200 on a keyboard, regardless of what kind of switch it uses. Relying on its existing switch options gives SteelSeries an easy way to take advantage of all the design work that went into the Apex Pro--including the OLED Smart Display--but with a lower price meant to help those design elements reach more people. Other companies have done similar things.

But we concluded our Apex Pro review by saying that the OmniPoint switches and their per-key customization options helped make up for the keyboard costing more than competitive products that were actually more comfortable to use. Without the advantage of those OmniPoint switches, the only thing the Apex 7 really had going for it was the OLED Smart Display, and that simply isn’t a compelling enough gimmick to make up for the product’s other shortcomings.

There’s no denying that the Apex 7 is an attractive keyboard--it’s certainly easier on the eyes than most “gaming keyboards” on the market--but I don’t think that’s worth the $160 asking price. And if the problem I had with missed inputs affects more than just our review unit, then this keyboard is even more problematic.

In short, the Apex 7 is a middle-of-the-line keyboard with a relatively high price that only seems low because its higher-end sibling costs even more. Most people would be better served by competing products that either have more substantive features, or ditch them in pursuit of a lower price.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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If you want a mechanical gaming keyboard you can finetune to be truly “you,” the SteelSeries Apex Pro ($199 as tested, $179.99 for the tenkeyless version) is it.Anyone can appreciate its striking design and attractive RGB lighting. But hardcore gamers and finicky typers will appreciate unprecedented customization brought by unique switches that allow you to individually set the actuation point (how far you have to press for a key to register) for nearly every key. A screen and other bonuses solidify and rationalize the keyboard’s high price.

But the Apex Pro’s linear keys still feel mushy, regardless of the actuation point. If you’re more of a typer than a gamer, you’ll want to consider other (and likely cheaper) gaming keyboards.

SteelSeries Apex Pro Specs

The Apex Pro can store 5 custom profiles and uses a 32-bit Arm processor. The keys are guaranteed for 100 million presses, which is twice the average of typical mechanical gaming keyboards, thanks to SteelSeries’ OmniPoint switch (more on that in the section below).

The keyboard also supports 104-key rollover and 100% anti-ghosting, meaning you can press 104 keys at once and they’ll all register. While I hardly have any reason (or the physical ability) to strike all 104 keys at a time, simply smashing of as many keys as possible on an online n-key rollover test, proved that it can register at least 32 keys simultaneously. 

Design

Before getting into the customizable actuation, I can say that the Apex Pro is an impressive keyboard from looks alone. It’s built on a Series 5000 aluminum alloy frame which SteelSeries says is aircraft-grade. The matte finish almost feels like plastic, and the dark build makes a great foreground for the RGB lighting.

As expected for a mechanical keyboard, the Apex Pro connects to your PC via the attached USB Type-A cable. More surprising is the cable management system. The back of the keyboard has a long channel for snapping in the keyboard’s cable and extending it outwards from one of three locations. Whether your PC’s port is to the right, left or center of the keyboard, you can still keep things tidy. Although, with the cable so long (about 7 feet), I wish there was even more space. The bottom also has 3 rubber pads that keep the keyboard in place atop your desk.

The flip-out feet add a small amount of height at the back, though some might wish for a greater boost. But what it lacks in height, it makes up for with a soft-touch magnetic wrist rest, which snaps on and off in a second. The deliciously smooth wrist rest feels amazing, especially when sliding across the keyboard, and helps deliver the type of experience you should demand from a $200 keyboard. It’s not as thick and plush as a fabric one, like the HyperX wrist rest, but it should be durable and long lasting without having fabric to wear down, and its 8 rubber feet add even more stability.

The keyboard’s screen is OLED, but with its tiny size and black-and-white display, OLED is all about readability. What makes it special is the customization it enables. You activate its menu by double-tapping the button to its right that brings up a menu (Illumination / Macros / Actuation / Profiles and Settings) which you can navigate with the audio wheel and press in. It’s nice that you can navigate these things without downloading the free Steelseries Engine 3 companion software -- especially if you’re going to use the keyboard on multiple computers. Of course, the slick audio wheel also controls your PC’s volume.

Up top, next to a subtle SteelSeries logo, is a USB 2.0 Type-A passthrough port, like many mechanical keyboards have. To use it, plug one of the keyboard cable’s two-pronged USB connectors into your PC. This virtually takes one USB port from your PC, which may be pushed against a wall or trapped by cables and moves it to a more accessible spot--perfect for plugging in your mouse or a Bluetooth dongle. The USB passthrough port shines bright white when it’s ready for use.

At 2.14 pounds and 17.2 x 1.9 x 4.4 inches, the Apex Pro is smaller than other 104-key keyboards, such as the Hexgears Impulse (2 pounds, 17.25 x 6 inches) or Patriot Memory Viper V765 (2.5 pounds, 18.4 x 6.4 inches). If desk space is extremely tight, this may be worth considering, but of course a tenkeyless keyboard will take up much less space.

OmniPoint Switches: Adjustable Actuation

All of the Apex Pro’s keys have a linear feel, with the keys traveling straight down and lacking any tactile sensation or bump until you hit the bottom, much like Cherry MX Red switches. The majority of the keys use OmniPoint switches for adjustable actuation points, but the numpad, macro and arrow keys use traditional MX Red switches.

To let users set varying actuation points, SteelSeries invented OmniPoint switches that feel like familiar Red mechanical switches, but work in a totally different way. Your press actuates normal mechanical switches by making two pieces of metal touch. However, when you press an OmniPoint switch, you’re pushing a magnet down its stem and closer to a sensor. Using the “Hall Effect,” or magnetic fields, the keyboard can tell the distance between the sensor at the base and the magnet’s stem, so you can tell it which distance equals a key press. Without any physical contact causing degradation, these switches promise longer durability.

With the SteelSeries software or the menu in the OLED screen, you determine at which distance a press is registered --10 steps from 0.4-3.6mm -- for each of the 61 main keys. At 0.4mm, you barely have to press a button for it to register. For comparison, note that Blue and Green-style switches actuate at 2mm, while Kailh Box White actuates at 1.8mm. At 0.4mm, there’s opportunity for special uses, such as speed-driven first-person shooters, while lower actuation points should help with accuracy.

Unfortunately, both the software and OLED screen let you set actuation on a 1-10 scale instead of using actual measurements. But through the screen, you can test it out in real time, as a bar fills up as you press to show you far the key has traveled and when it actuates.

As mentioned, not every key has an OmniPoint switch. When SteelSeries first teased the keyboard in January, they told us that this is because the OmniPoint switches are expensive to make. Considering how expensive the peripheral already is, omitting the keys which are least-likely to be used in games is a smart move.

The Omnipoint switches are a bit different from those used in the Cooler Master MasterKeys MK850 and Wooting One analog keyboards, which work like an analog stick on a console controller and read how much pressure you’re applying. The Cooler Master’s Q, W, E, R, A, S D and F keys can sense a press across 4mm of travel but need calibration every time the pressure sensitive tech is reactivated. Like the Wooting One, its analog keys leverage optical sensors, which use a sensor and light to detect the distance between each press, but only the Wooting One lets you set your actuation point. Similarly, Razer’s Opto-Mechnical switches, used in the Razer Huntsman Optical, tap optical sensor tech, but you can’t customize the actuation point and they’re not pressure-sensitive.

Typing Experience

With the Omnipoint switches’ linear feel, pressing a key is smooth, with the keys going straight down without any bump or click and rising up with your finger as it lifts. You’ll hear a clacking noise as you type, and if you’re extra aggressive, you may notice the echoey ding of the aluminum frame. It’s much louder than the Razer Cynosa Chroma Pro I’m currently using with a plastic build and “mecha-membrane” switch (3.5mm of travel that feels a bit short). If you prefer tactile switches, this keyboard will feel spongy to you. Without a tactile sensation or much resistance, my fingers felt more tired, sort of like they were typing through water, particularly during long sessions.

Because of the adjustable switches, you get newfound control over the typing experience. Do you want extra sensitive keys? Or do you want the keyboard to demand firm, confident typing to help you avoid accidental presses and typos?

I quickly noticed the difference when changing the overall actuation. While a light touch--I’d call it more of a tap than a press--a press registered if actuation was set to 1. At 10, I needed a truer press and could see letters taking longer to appear on my word processor than with actuation set to 1.

To see how this affected my typing accuracy I tried the 10fastfingers with all OmniPoint switches set to the lowest, highest and middle actuation points.

I hit quicker speeds with actuation set to 1 (116 wpm)  versus 10 (110 wpm) but the same speed with it set to 5. Ironically, I got my best accuracy with actuation set to 1 (99.48%) and lowest at 10 (96.33%), but the difference is small. In general, my accuracy rate is usually around 98%, and I don’t usually accidentally hit keys, which the high actuation point would theoretically help me prevent. For me, accuracy was hurt by adjusting to the amount of space between each of the keys and perhaps, based on the numbers, assuming a key was actuated earlier than it truly was.

Gaming Experience

Compatible with PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the Apex Pro’s adjustable actuation shines when gaming, where you can strategically program actuations for different action. The general experience is responsive and comfortable, especially with the wrist rest.

When I switched from a middle actuation setting to the highest for Middle-earth: Shadow of War no longer was I accidentally hitting a button that made me wander to the left and wonder what happened. With less sensitive keys,I had to deliberately press a key to make it happen. Playing Battlefield V and Grand Theft Auto V at the most sensitive setting, the keyboard was reliable and quick. However, I didn’t notice automatically become a better gamer: Hardcore gamers who need a lot of repetiive presses, like in a MOBA game, may disagree.

RGB Lighting and Controls

The RGB lighting against the Apex Pro’s midnight gray frame not only pops, but brilliantly illuminates the chassis. The lights burst from beneath the raised keycaps, emanating a can’t-miss glow across the keyboard. Even from a few feet away, the RGB makes a beckoning call, although if you don’t like that much attention, you can shut the RGB off or turn down the brightness.

But if you’re an RGB glutton like me, you’ll love the configurability. You get the most customization options by downloading SteelSeries Engine 3 software for free. But if you don’t want to add more software to your PC, you can toggle through pre-set profiles with the OLED screen. The display will show huge letters as you try five different designs: Vapors, Coast, Haze, Prism and Orange.

Unlike other RGB keyboards, these aren’t just a flashing rainbow or breathing between two colors. These profiles are advanced. For example, Vapors has the rows transition between a rave-ready theme of indigo, purple, fuchsia, pink and teal that sends a wave of white across the row of each button pressed. Coast is similar, with colors going from blue to yellow, orange and then red as you look from left to the right, and with each press, the buttons turn blue before fading back to their original hue. Even without the software, you can enjoy mesmerizing RGB lights.

Also in the OLED screen’s Illumination menu is a Custom section. The menu options here let you make the lights all one color with a white ripple effect with each keypress, breathe a color with a white ripple effect, breathe in 1 of 2 multi-color schemes, or have the lights off. The custom menu also has a Reactive section, for picking from 4 different reactions to keypresses (including none). The Custom menu’s AFK (away from keyboard) section controls what happens when you’re away from the keyboard (such as turning the lights off). Meanwhile, Timeout ranges from 5 seconds to 2 hours / never).

Navigating all this without software can be challenging. Besides having to get used to the clicking in the wheel and pressing the OLED button to enter and exit menus and submenus, without software it seems turning off the reactive mode or selecting an AFK mode replaces any of the preset options you already have. But you can still get away with not using the software--so long as you don’t mind having a reactive affect with your RGB.

Those who do download the software will be greeted with a very robust system.

You can customize the 5 on-board profiles, including the effects and its speed and wave, the reactive layer and when AFK effects start taking place. As with setting actuation, the software has tools to select each key individually, select all groups with the same setting, select all keys and undo. You’re also free to create a whole new config from scratch but won’t be able to activate it with the keyboard’s screen (but you could just replace the preset profiles with your own).

You can have a profile autolaunch with a certain app or game. Perhaps you want a toned down, non-reactive RGB with Microsoft Word and rainbows and white ripples everywhere with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). Remember, your profiles also store actuation, so that Microsoft Word-ready profile might also have higher actuation for help with accuracy, while your gaming one has low actuation points for speedy movements.

Programming macro keys is a similar situation, with a low level of control possible via the OLED screen and much more available in the software, The OLED screen lets you record and delete macro keys (the screens show you the key combination to enter to stop recording). With the software, all keys are available for setting keybindings, and there’s Macro Editor that pops up in its own window.

OLED Screen

In addition to letting you quickly change you RGB lighting, macro keys, overall actuation point, the OLED screen also holds a Profiles and Settings menu (timeout, brightness and lock indicator, which’ll display icon(s) on the screen if in num/caps lock, and about section.

The screen can also share info with you if you play CS:GO (see things like your current KDA and money), Discord and Spotify. But don’t think you’re getting a second display like you do with a dual-screen laptop. For example, the screen won’t tell you what song/ artist you’re playing on Spotify but can pause, play and change the song.

When not showing off a menu, the Apex Pro’s screen can depict your favorite 120 x 48 pixel image. If you don’t have one, SteelSeries graciously offers you 2 of its logos (black on white or white on black) or lets you draw one. As if the per-key RGB and actuation weren’t enough customization, I opted to make this keyboard even more me by inscribing my name.

I opted to embellish the keyboard with my own signature. Although it's OLED, perhaps that tech’s biggest gain is its high contrast. But rest assured all text is legible and sharp from normal viewing distance, although you can spot individual pixels if you peer closely.

Bottom Line

With the SteelSeries Apex Pro, you can have a keyboard that’s truly you, from the screen to the S key. With innovative adjustable actuation points, a screen sufficient for mainstream users to enjoy the keyboard without software and a welcoming wrist rest, it starts earning its $199 MSRP. Configurable profiles, including 5 on-board ones, let advanced users design profiles with per-key lighting and switch settings and easily pick one for their current app.

Although SteelSeries’ linear switches are groundbreaking, others are comfier during long typing sessions, including the Wooting One, which also has customizable actuation for keys with more clatter and a tactile bump. It’s also cheaper ($140), but actuation is not per-key and switching profiles is far less seamless. You also get eight pressure-sensitive keys with the Cooler Master MasterKeys MK850 ($175, also linear Red switches) but can’t customize actuation.

Unless you want high-level customization for individual keys, you can find a better typer for less money. But the Apex Pro’s per-ley adjustable switches make a noticeable difference, especially for competitive gaming, and are integrated more seamlessly than competitors. If you’re okay with linear switches and want a keyboard that you can really make your own, count on the Apex Pro.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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From Beer, to the Iron Throne and Pork Ramen

As we visited the many tech booths at Computex in Taipei this week, we didn’t stop to smell the roses; instead we paused to gawk at the coolest case mods. With nostalgic references, moments of zen, nods to athletes and enough RGB to satisfy the most gluttonous color addicts, here are the mods we loved the most.

It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere

A beer is always welcome, but a beer on a busy showfloor like Computex’s is like a gift from above. This mod from Taiwanese modder Karens XU, aka K Mod Studio, features an Intel Core i7-8700K, booth host G.Skill’s Trident Z Royal RGB RAM, MSI Meg Z390 Godlike motherboard, Zotac Gaming RTX 2080 AMP Extreme graphics, a Plextor M9PeGN 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD, Cooler Master’s MasterFan MF121R RGB and Bitspower water cooling. But more importantly, it was dispensing real cups of Heineken.

“Scorpio”

As a menacing scorpio myself, I couldn’t resist the poisonous lure of Suchao Modding Design’s Scorpio mod. Lurking around Colorful’s iGame booth, it had an i3-8350K, iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Vulcan X OC, Z390 Vulcan X and 8GB DDR4-3200 RAM, plus a 1TB Colorful SL500 SSD.

“Quasar”

We found this out-of-this-world md over at PSU vendor Seasonic’s modding showcase. The modder was inspired by popular science fiction, and boy does it show. Naturally, it uses a Seasonic power supply.

Steampunk Typewriter

The ASRock booth took us back to a simpler, clickier time with this retro-looking build. Coming from Mark’s Fabrication, components include the Trident Z Royal, ASRock’s Z390 Taichi motherboard and lots of vintage style.

Lotus Flower

Sometimes you need to get a little zen. And for tech geeks, that can require 3D printing your own lotus flower case and custom CPU cooler. Filipino modder Samca worked full force with T-Force, using its XCalibur RGB DDR4-3600 (8GB) memory, Delta R RGB SSD (250GB), plus EVGA’s H370 Stinger motherboard, RTX 2060 XC Gaming and Supernova 650 GM PSU and an i5-9500.

The Iron Throne

With HBO’s Game of Thrones officially over, who doesn’t want their own Iron Throne to cope? Bitspower had one at their booth from YJ Mod, who used an Intel CPU, Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming board, OCPC X3treme Aura DDR4-3600 RAM and zero spoilers for this timely build.

Apex Legends Loot Tick

The Philippines' JPModified repped battle royale fans with this mod for G.Skill. Those who can find and destroy this Loot Tick will score an i7-8700K, ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming, RTX 2070 Founder’s Edition, Trident Z Royal RAM, G.Skill Ripjaws S3 SSD and Silverstone SX700-LPT PSU. But please don’t destroy JP’s mod; neither shipping it to Taipei (it took four different sections in one crate) nor 3D printing those feet were easy. 

Olympic Stadium

Tokyo will host the Olympics in 2020, but in 2019, it’s Bitspower’s Computex booth that held the Olympics, mod that is. Ice Freeze’s gold medal-worthy build uses an i7-8700K, ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming, Klevv Cras X RGB DDR4-3466 and WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD (250GB).

War Machine

This PC looks like something you shouldn’t pick a fight with. The monstrosity is a mod of an Acer case, which modder Jengki Wmp filled with an i7-8700K, Acer motherboard, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, Plextor 512GB SSD and FSP Hydro G 850 W PSU and kept cool with Bitspower water cooling.

RGB Monster Truck

This monster truck better not enter any rallies because we’d just cry if it got covered in dirt. Instead, we found it safely at the iGame booth, rocking the vendor’s RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC, Z390 Vulcan X, Vulcan U 3000 DDR4 RAM and an i9-9900K.

“ElmorLabs Ice Cube”

ElmorLabs kept it cool with its mod for G.Skill with the chillest looking build on the Computex showfloor. It includes Trident Z RGB RAM and and ROG Maximus XI Apex motherboard.  Liquid nitrogen (LN2) cools it to -50 degrees Celsius, great news for its i9-9900K.

“Best Pork Ramen Store”

Adorable or scary? You decide. We don’t know why these pigs would want to hang out so close to a place that cooks pork, but we do know Vietnamese modder Amber Spider outfitted this surreal creation with an i7-9700K, MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC and RTX 2060 Ventus 6G OC, HyperX Predator DDR4 RGB RAM, Bitspower Paris cooling and an FSP Dagger Pro 650W PSU.

"I Choose You"

Kanto meets Reynolds in Stefan Ulrich’s Pokémon themed mod. This year, Thermaltake’s booth featured mods of its case Level 20-series cases. Uniting the original three Pokémon choices Professor Oak gives you (both in display and in coolant color) in the video game with nods to the new Detective Pikachu movie, there’s nothing for a Pokémon fan (new or old) not to enjoy. 

Ready, Aim, Fire

Despite using the same style case as the other mods at Thermaltake’s Computex booth, the one belonging to Mike Samsin, from the Philippines, looks like it could physically obliterate the others. Let’s just be grateful that thing isn’t loaded.

“Cyberbike”

If you’re looking for a less combative form of transportation, perhaps the Cyberbike is more your style. Displayed by Enermax, it uses the firm’s Revolution SFX 550W PSU, Liqfusion 240 CPU cooler and Trident Z Royal RAM.

“Mini TV”

AMD PC mod inception. Found at Alphacool’s booth, it’s an AMD Ryzen 5 2400G-based system on an ASRock A300M-STX board with a Plextor M9Pe SSD, chilled by an RGB Alphacool Eisblock XPX CPU block and accompanying pump and radiator, all housed in a modded version of AMD’s first-generation Ryzen Threadripper box. For authenticity, we hope you need to use the Torx screwdriver included in the Threadripper packaging to get to what’s inside.

“Mortar V2”

Speaking of things we hope aren’t loaded, this mortar-inspired mod, spotted at the AITC booth, was another one of the few AMD mods. It hosts an AMD Threadripper 1900x CPU, AITC’s Rapidez RGB RAM, an Asus Prime x3999 motherboard, Corsair 1600W PSU and Bykski cooling.

Team Blue

No question what brand CPU this Vikingdom’s mod uses. No matter your CPU team preference, you’ve got to admit this is a sweet rendition of Intel’s unique 9th Gen packaging.

Fittingly, it taps an i9-9900K and Intel’s 750P 512GB SSD, plus Trident Z Royal memy, ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming and GTX 1080 Ti O11G Gaming and ROG Thor 1200W PSU.

Traditional China

Ni hao! Inspired by traditional Chinese culture and respect for the environment (as per PSU vendor FSP’s philosophy), Zhengzhou 90IT computer studio’s mod depicts a delightful scene, especially with its bridge and tiny fisherman and koi pond.

In addition to an FSP Dagger Pro 650W PSU, traditional China is sitting atop an i9-9900K, ROG Strix Z390-F Gaming and RTX 2080 08G Gaming, Trident Z Royal RGB, Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD (500GB) and Bitspower Paris water cooling all packed into Thermaltake’s Core P5 case.

Tall Glass of Water

G.Skill actually had to lower their platform for MP Customize’s mod, a meter-tall sight to be seen featuring an i9-7900K, Asus ROG Rampage Extreme motherboard, Zotac RTX 2080 Ti ArticStorm, Samsung NVMe SSD 960 PRO (512GB), Bitspower cooling and impressive cable management thanks to Cablenaut.

“Cap-Ten’s” Ship

German modder Cap-Ten made us want to watch sci-fi with his creation. He took off with an Intel CPU (unspecified), MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC motherboard, Trident Z Royal memory, MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Aero and Crucial SSD M.2 525GB with power supplied by the Enermax Revolution SFX 550W.

Skull Mountain

We found AI-Mask’s frightening mod at G.Skill’s booth, but it’s presumably from the depths of Hell. It houses an i9-9900K, ROG Maximum XI Gene and all the bones of our ancestors.

I’ve Come From the Future

Looking like something from a distant and way more shiny future, we found this over at Bitspower’s booth. Modder Nguyen Dinh Ban modded a case by fellow modder nhenhophach. It has an i9-9900K, Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme board, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3200, Nvidia’s RTX 2080 Ti, Samsung 970 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD and FSP Hydro PTM+ 850W power supply.

Whether you're typing or gaming, your keyboard experience is all about the switches. You can get switches with a low-actuation point that triggers when you barely press or ones with a high actuation point that makes you push the key nearly all the way down to the bottom before it registers. But with a few special exceptions like the analog Wooting One keyboard, you can't adjust the actuation on a keyboard.

Enter SteelSeries' new OmniPoint switches, which let set their actuation point in 10 different positions, ranging from a light 0.4mm to a hard 3.6mm. So, if you want a light touch for blasting enemies in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you can set it to 0.4mm and rapid fire practically just by breathing on the key caps. Then, when you're writing a report, you can go for a more reasonable actuation point of 2mm so that you avoid accidental keypresses.

These switches are SteelSeries' own design and are exclusively available in its upcoming Apex Pro keyboards. I had a chance to go fingers-on with an Apex Pro here at Computex Taipei and I was impressed not only with the technology, but also with the keyboard's features and design.

Apex Pro's Other Features

Due out in a few weeks for $199 (or $169 for the tenkeyless version), the Apex Pro has some neat extras you don't find on every premium keyboard. A black and white OLED screen sits in the upper right corner of the keyboard with a dial and a button next to it. You can use these navigational controls to set everything, from the lighting configuration to the macros and the actuation level, without installing any software on your PC. You can also configure all these options through the SteelSeries app in Windows where you can upload an animated GIF to display on the screen if you want.

The Apex Pro comes with a comfy, detachable soft-touch wrist rest, which in my brief experience, felt much better than the cheap plastic units you get with most gaming keyboards. However, it's not padded or filled with gel so it's not going to be quite as comfy as our favorite keyboard accessory, the HyperX Wrist Rest.

The back surface of the Apex Pro has a USB Type-A pass-through so you can attach a mouse or another peripheral to it. Rather than acting as a hub, the keyboard has a built-in cable that splits into two USB Type-A ports, one for the Apex Pro and another for the pass-through port. The port itself has a white backlight to help you find it in the dark. There's also a cable routing tunnel in the bottom.

How OmniPoint Switches Work

The OmniPoint switches have a linear feel that's very similar to the Cherry MX Red switches you'll find on so many other keyboards, but they work in a way that's different from normal mechanical switches. Where a normal mechanical switch actuates when two pieces of metal make contact during the key press, these OmniPoint switches use magnets and sensors that don't need to touch.

As you press the key down, you're moving a small magnet in its stem closer to the sensor, which uses the "Hall Effect" to determine the exact distance between the base and the stem. When it hits the actuation point you configured in software, the system registers a key press. 

Aside from their configurability, "Hall Effect" switches have a couple of advantages over regular mechanical switches. Because there's no physical contact, there's less wear and tear on the mechanism so the switches last longer. More importantly, the debounce time -- the delay the system waits between presses to make sure it doesn't register the same stroke twice -- is just 0.7 ms as opposed to 6 ms on a regular switch. Combine that with an incredibly shallow actuation point and you can fire your in-game weapon more quickly.

Using a demo that's built into the keyboard, I was able to adjust the actuation point just by rotating the dial. Then, I watched the OLED screen which measured how far I depressed the key and lit up to show when it had actuated. With a 0.4mm actuation point, the system registered a key press, just from me resting my fingers on the home row, a potential horror show for typing. At 3.6mm of travel, I had to practically bottom out to register my key press.

The slider in the app lets you choose among 10 different actuation points. For typing, I'd probably go with the middle point or just one notch below whlie, for gaming, I think I'd choose something a little deeper than 0.4mm.

But the good news is that you don't have to pick just one actuation point for the whole keyboard. You can configure different actuation points for different keys. If you are jumping too often because you accidentally tap the space bar, you can give it a deeper actuation point so you have to really hit it hard to register. And you can configure the actuation points to change for every application on your computer. So, your favorite game could have one profile and Microsoft Word could have another.

Because the OmniPoint switches cost more to manufacture than regular switches, the keys in the function row, the number pad, the arrow keys and other keys outside the main letter / number block use standard red mechanical switches that SteelSeries makes in partnership with Gateron. 

The Apex Pro and the OmniPoint switches that power it have the potential to really change the way we think about gaming keyboards. We look forward to testing these more thoroughly when they get closer to launch.

Features and Specifications

Fractal Design's Define series has long been a favorite in the enthusiast community for its high-quality construction and class-leading performance. That said, the company had fallen a bit behind when it comes to lighting options--until now. The Define S2 Vision bundles classic Fractal Design styling with integrated addressable RGB (ARGB) lighting and enough tempered glass to show it all off. But at $280 (£215), there might be other options out there.

Specifications

Constructed of tempered glass, plastic, and steel that’s painted black inside and out, the Fractal Design Define S2 Vision RGB measures 21.4 x 9.2 x 18.3 -inches (543 x 233 x 465mm) and weighs almost 26.5 lbs (12kg). This $280 (£215.22) chassis comes with a two-year limited warranty.

Aside from its performance and build quality, the case’s biggest selling points are the added tempered-glass panels and ARGB lighting. The Fractal Design Define S2 Vision RGB incorporates the company's latest AR-4020 ARGB LED lighting strip, the Adjust R1 RGB controller, and four Fractal Design Prisma AL-14 PWM ARGB fans. A non-RGB 'blackout" version of this chassis is also available for about $90 less.

The entire front panel and the majority of the top panel are tempered glass, attached to a plastic exterior frame. The front features filtered vents running down both sides, and three of the case’s Prisma AL-14 PWM ARGB fans are mounted behind it.

Two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a single USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, headphone and microphone jacks, power and reset buttons and a hard drive activity light are embedded in the leading edge of the top panel. The top of the chassis is equipped with a strip of LED lights and can be configured in two ways: either with a glass panel that has an unrestricted view of the interior, or with an included cooling bracket and filter set built for fans, radiators and all-in-one coolers up to 360mm. 

Much like Cooler Master and NZXT, Fractal Design has also ditched the use of rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews, opting instead for a tempered-glass panel bonded to a metal frame. This assembly attaches to the chassis via push pins. The opposite side panel is also made of tempered glass. Both side panels are secured in the rear with metal thumbscrews.

The rear of the chassis has a fairly standard layout; here you'll find seven standard expansion-card slots (plus two vertical for showing off your graphics card), a motherboard I/O area, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, and a 120mm/140mm exhaust-fan mount with slotted screw holes that let you adjust the position of the fan to fine tune airflow or make room for system components.

A large removable plastic mesh filter cover is the entire length of the bottom of the case. The large, rubber-coated feet keep the case approximately one inch off the ground to facilitate air intake to the power supply.

Filters cover every intake fan mounting location. And although the filters mounted in the edges of the front panel are less than ideal, the full-cover bottom filter slides out from the front for quick and easy cleaning.

As mentioned earlier, there’s an optional top panel that is essentially one big filter. Removing the top panel is a simple matter of pressing a large button in the rear of the chassis. 

Although the visual appeal of a case is subjective and will vary from person to person, we believe most people will find the introduction of ARGB lighting to the handsome design of the Fractal Design S2 Vision RGB extremely attractive.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Hardware Installation and Test Configuration

Accessories for the Fractal Design Define S2 Vision are in separate cardboard box that contains various screws, zip ties, a plastic vented top panel, a metal panel for fans and radiators, an RGB controller and a printed manual.

Test Configuration

Drivers and Settings

Interior

Four large holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray, two smaller holes in the top of the PSU tunnel, and an additional three cable pass through holes with rolled metal edges provide a total of nine pass throughs for cable management. The smaller holes at the upper edge of the motherboard tray are partially blocked when a motherboard is installed, but this does not interfere with fan cables or the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable.

Thanks to the PSU cover and lack of traditional hard drive racks, the component compartment is extremely spacious and well laid out. The Define S2 Vision can be equipped with CPU coolers as tall as 180mm. A large hole behind the CPU socket area facilitates heat sink changes without removing the motherboard. A total of seven (plus two vertical) expansion slots can accommodate multi-GPU set-ups up to 440mm (17.3 inches) in length.

The Define S2 Vision can accommodate up to three 3.5-inch hard drives and/or a total of five 2.5-inch SSDs (three convertible from the 3.5" drive racks) in the secondary compartment behind the motherboard tray.

Color change and basic RGB effects are selectable from the included Adjust R1 RGB controller, which is located behind the motherboard tray.

Cooling

Mounting locations for up to nine fans include three 120 / 140mm fans on both the front and top panels, two 120 / 140mm in the bottom, and a single 120 / 140mm in the rear. The Fractal Design Define S2 Vision ships by default with a total of four Prisma AL-14 PWM ARGB fans, three in the front and one in the rear.

The rear fan mount supports radiators and all-in-one coolers up to 140mm, while the front and top support 280mm and/or 360mm, max.

We test fit power supplies up to 220mm in length without any issues. Fractal Design lists support up to 300mm in length. 

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Benchmark Results and Conclusion

We brought in the Cougar Panzer EVO RGB, the Cooler Master MasterCase H500M, Thermaltake's A500TG and the Apexgaming X-Mars Junior to our comparison charts, to give you a solid idea of where the Fractal Design Define S2 Vision RGB stacks up against competitors with similar sizes and feature sets.

Triple 140mm intake fans coupled with the 140mm exhaust fan provided more than enough airflow to keep our test system cool and comfy. CPU temperature leveled off at 58 degrees Celsius over ambient. These results put the Define S2 Vision ahead of the Cooler Master MasterCase H500M and dead even with the Cougar Panzo EVO RGB.

GPU temperatures maxed out at 47 degrees Celsius over the ambient room temperature, better than all the other cases used for comparison.

We took sound pressure level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. With the fan speed set at 1,400 rpm, our test system registered just 29.9dBA at idle. With the test system under load, sound output increased to 32.1dBA, right in the middle of the pack. It should be noted that, although the chassis is fairly quiet, there was an audible "whooshing" sound made by the air being drawn through the front vents. This noise was nothing we considered annoying, but it was present nonetheless.

Cooling efficiency and noise levels are both ways to measure performance. Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value. Solid thermal performance, combined with a low noise output, make the Define S2 Vision a great candidate for a wide variety of system builds.

Bottom Line

Considering everything the Define S2 Vision brings to the table, we feel that price is its only drawback, even though it is more or less in line with the competition. Waiting for a sale is always an option, or you can pull the trigger on the Define S2 Black Out version that is almost identical to this chassis (minus RGB fans), priced at $190 (£147), which gives you the option to add RGB lighting as your budget allows. Many cases with similar features, performance and RGB lighting are competing for your hard earned money. Fractal delivers an excellent case when all is said and done, but we'd love to see it priced a bit lower.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Bitspower has released a new monoblock for their Sobek Z390 range. This SKU is designed exclusively for the Asus ROG Maximus XI Apex motherboard (product number BP-MBASMXIA). The monoblock is configured to cool both the CPU and VRM simultaneously, along with a unique look that includes RGB LEDs. 

The top of the block is made of acrylic, is completely transparent, showing the path of the liquid through its innards. The clear top looks to give off a nice glow when the RGB LEDs are turned on. The Digital RGB LEDs plug into a 4-pin RGB or 3-pin digital RGB header and supports Asus Aura Sync software to control the lighting.

The block itself is constructed of C1100 copper with fine microchannels used to cool the CPU. The copper is coated with what Bitspower says is a high durability nickel finished in silver. The monoblock uses a direct water injection design, where the CPU is first cooled using the water, followed by the liquid being directed over the VRMs. A larger channel is used to route the water to the VRMs then out of the block. 

Bitspower's Sobek Z390 line of monoblocks offer a few different blocks to support other boards, including the MSI MEG Z390 Godlike, MSI Z390M Gaming Edge, Asus ROG Maximus XI Extreme and Asus ROG Maximus XI Hero (Wi-Fi), in case you do not happen to own the Asus ROG Maximus XI Apex.

The block is TWD 4,805 or around $155 and is available now through the Bitspower website.

Features and Specifications

Although the styling is somewhat of a throwback to the late 90's, the X-Mars Junior has all the features a modern high-end PC requires including E-ATX motherboard support, USB 3.1 Type-C, VR support, RGB lighting, brushed aluminum and dual 4mm-thick tempered glass side panels. Sporting a premium price tag of $190 (£146.20), this chassis needs only the builder’s choice of fans to bring it up to performance expectations.

Specifications

With large vents, bulging panels and features that often incorporated the name of the chassis into the design, the bold styling of Apexgaming's X-Mars Junior reminds us of gaming cases from decades past. Measuring 238 x 535 x 552mm (WxDxH) and tipping the scales at more than 24 lbs, the X-Mars Junior seems rather large for a mid-tower until we consider that its top panel protrudes roughly three inches out and away from the frame, as does the front panel.

Constructed of steel, aluminum, plastic, and tempered-glass, the X-Mars Junior painted black inside and out. Directly under the brushed aluminum top panel is space for three 120mm or 140mm fans, which are covered by a large removable magnetic filter.

A 2” x 8" (~50x200mm) section of the top panel is home to one USB 3.1 Type-C and two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI for VR, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED and an RGB, reset and power buttons.

Two large brushed aluminum bars form the shape of a large X across the entire plastic front panel from top to bottom. RGB lighting strips are embedded into the base of the front plastic, and mounting locations for three 120mm or two 140mm fans are behind it.

The full-coverage tinted tempered glass side panels have cut outs at the top, bottom and both sides. The rear of the tempered glass side panels are raised approximately an 1/8th of an inch away from the frame. This, as well as the gaps at the top of the TG side panels, allows for dirt and dust to completely bypass the filtration system. The X-Mars Junior uses rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews to secure the panels to the frame.

The rear of the chassis is home to seven card slots, a motherboard I/O area, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, and an exhaust-fan mounting location for 120mm fans.

The bottom of the X-Mars Junior has a power supply dust filter and four rubber-coated feet. The front feet elevate the chassis almost a full inch while the feet in the rear measure just under a half an inch.

Overall, the fan filtration system on the X-Mars Junior does a decent job in terms of its ability to prevent dirt and dust particles from entering your system...with a caveat. When the system has positive air pressure, the filters work as intended. The system as it ships from the factory with a single exhaust fan, negative case pressure allows dust and dirt to be drawn into the system from the rear and upper edge of the tempered glass side panels.

The filter on the top of the case is attached by magnetic seals around its edge. Dual-layer metal mesh built into the front panel acts as a filter for front fans, so that cleaning and maintenance is best done with the entire panel removed. Removing the nylon filter that covers the opening for the power-supply fan from the case's rear often requires moving your entire system to gain access.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Hardware Installation and Test Configuration

A small ziplock bag containing zip ties, a variety of screws, and a USB extension cable is located in one of the open 3.5" drive bays. The case manual can be found in the PSU area.

Test Configuration

Drivers & Settings

Interior

Three large holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray, a smaller hole in the top of the PSU tunnel, and an additional four cable pass through holes with rolled metal edges provide a total of eight pass through holes for cable management.

The small hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable.

Those of you using E-ATX chassis should note that the main cable passages with rubber grommets are blocked when an E-ATX board is installed. 

The component compartment is extremely clean, and has more than enough room for a variety of different system builds. The X-Mars Junior can be equipped with CPU coolers as tall as 200mm. A large hole behind the CPU socket area facilitates heat sink changes without removing the motherboard. A total of seven expansion slots and can accommodate multi-GPU set-ups up to 432mm in length.

The X-Mars Junior can accommodate up to two 3.5-inch hard drives and/or a total of five 2.50-inch SSDs (two convertible from the 3.5" drive racks) in the secondary compartment behind the motherboard tray and under the power supply shroud.

The X-Mars Junior comes with a built in RGB controller located behind the motherboard tray that allows for color change and basic RGB effects such as breathing, fading and pulse, which are selectable from the button on the front of the case.

Cooling

There are mounting locations for up to seven 120 or four 140mm fans, including three 120 or two 140mm fans on both the front and top panels, and a single 120mm in the rear. The X-Mars Junior ships by default with a single 120mm exhaust fan in the rear.

It should go without saying that, unless you want to cook your components, we recommend installing one or more intake fans in any chassis that is equipped with a single 120mm exhaust fan. The factory-installed 120mm exhaust fan simply does not provide enough airflow to keep the components in our test system cool.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the front and rear of the X-Mars Junior. The rear mount supports 120mm radiators while the front and top support 280mm and/or 360mm, max.

We tested power supplies up to 220mm in length without any issues. That said, we recommend using a modular PSU because of the lack of space between the power supply and hard drive racks.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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Benchmark Results and Conclusion

We tested the Apexgaming X-Mars Junior with our new Intel i9-7900X test platform. For comparison, we used the Cooler Master MasterCase H500M, Lian Li Lancool One Digital, Cougar Panzer EVO RGB, and Bitfenix Enso Mesh to give you a good idea where this case stands against other cases that are of similar size and feature sets.

The X-Mars Junior's temperatures are, by a large margin, higher than all the other cases we used for comparison purposes. This is obviously due to the fact that the chassis' single 120mm exhaust-fan isn't able to provide the airflow needed for even basic cooling, even though its panels have adequate ventilation. These results would improve with the addition of extra cooling fans, but the as-shipped results are abysmal.

We take sound level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. With the fan at default speed (1,000 rpm), our test system registered a whisper quiet 28.2dBA at idle. The sound output barely changed under load up to just 30.1dBA, which is lower than that of all the other comparison cases. These results of course are a bit misleading because end users will no doubt be adding additional fans for cooling.

Cooling efficiency and noise levels are both ways to measure performance. Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Bottom Line

This chassis'  $190 (£146.20) asking price puts it squarely into the middle of the pack when it comes to pricing. Of course the cost of additional intake fans will somewhat skew the overall value of this chassis, but we feel we feel that the $190 (£146.20) asking price is reasonable overall considering what you get for your money. Those concerned about price should wait for this chassis to go on sale and spend the extra money for additional intake fans.

Image Credits: Tom's Hardware

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A few months ago it would have been hard to imagine anything challenging Twitch and Fortnite's dominance of the streaming market. According to a new report from Streamlabs and Newzoo today, however, both have faced increasing competition from the likes of YouTube Live and Apex Legends. Neither comes close to beating their counterpart, but their rapid ascension shows that even the streaming market can be subject to upheaval.

Let's get this out of the way at the start: Streamlabs offers numerous tools meant to help streamers broadcast their gameplay, interact with their audiences and make some money while doing so. It used this report to share details about its growth over the last year, but we're going to skip over that information to focus on the data about the streaming market as observed by Newzoo researchers.

Those findings show that streaming hasn't even reached the limits of its potential. People are said to have watched roughly 2.69 billion hours of streaming on Twitch, 651 million hours on YouTube Live and 89.4 million hours on Mixer during the first quarter of 2019. The rising popularity of YouTube Live and Mixer doesn't appear to have come at Twitch's expense; the number of hours watched on Twitch actually rose 7 percent last quarter.

Much of that increase probably went to Twitch's most popular streamers. According to the report, the average YouTube Live streamer has more viewers (52.2) per stream than Twitch (26.1), even though the latter is far more popular. That's likely because it's easier to become a big fish in a smaller pond--YouTube Live has only 1.23 million unique channels compared to the 1.44 million of Mixer and 5.71 million of Twitch. So, even though more people are spending time on Twitch--the service's concurrent viewer count is also quadruple that of YouTube Live's and 30 times higher than Mixer's--it's harder to get noticed on that platform. 

Feeling like it's all but impossible to "make it" on Twitch now could very well send more streamers over to the service's competitors, which could help reduce the gap between Twitch and YouTube Live in the long term.

Fortnite didn't weather increased competition as well as Twitch did. Epic Games remains the most-streamed game publisher, according to the report, but the company's battle royale title lost 10 percent of its viewers between Q4 2018 and Q1 2019. The report said that decline can probably be attributed to the rise of Apex Legends, which attracted more than 50 million players shortly after its February debut. Many of those players stream Apex Legends, watch other people stream it, or both. The report named Apex Legends the second most popular title streamed on Twitch last quarter, with Fortnite being the most popular and League of Legends ranking third.

The numbers change a bit when it comes to viewing--League of Legends overtakes Apex Legends in that regard--but the free-to-play battle royale still stays in the top three.

Times are changing. Suddenly it's much easier to think Twitch might not always be the only streaming platform that matters, or that Fortnite isn't destined to dominate over every other title in existence. Barring some kind of catastrophe, neither is at risk of losing the lead any time soon, but at least that lead doesn't seem impossible to overcome.

Respawn's take on the Free-to-play Battle Royale genre is conquering the hearts of millions of gamers, dethroning Fortnite as twitch's top game after almost year of total domination. But what if you want to play it and you don't have a discrete GPU? With some tweaks, it's more than possible.

The official minimum requirements for Apex Legends are very low., but they only mention discrete graphics, albeit very-old discrete graphics. The required CPUs are also ancient.

So if we are trying to play this game on an integrated GPU, such as the Intel UHD 620 on a thin ultrabook, some we'll need to do more than just use the standard low settings. And lucky for us, there are a fair amount of possible tweaks for Apex Legends . . . if you know where to look.

The Apex Legends Settings Screen

We started our testing by using Apex Legends' lowest allowed settings and 720p, which is the lowest 16:9 resolution in the menu.

The settings screen for Apex Legends makes it easy to see which options are lowest, or can be disabled. The Texture Streaming Budget setting can cause some confusion, but in general, it is better to have it set to a value close to or under the GPU's VRAM to avoid stuttering. For Integrated GPUs, it is better to turn Texture Streaming Budget off.

The Test Laptop

For testing, we used a Dell XPS 13 laptop with an Intel Core i7-8550U with Intel UHD 620 Graphics and 8GB of ram. Both the RAM and CPU should be enough to play the game on the lowest settings but the Integrated Intel graphics will need some help.

We used the training map of the game as a quick way of comparing the performance across different settings. The overall performance of this map is not representative of the performance of the full game (especially during combat) but its high degree of consistency makes it very useful for our purposes.

At 720p with the lowest settings our test laptop with Intel UHD graphics achieved an average of 28 FPS in the area just after the cave on this map. That's on the edge of playable, but less than the 30 fps minimum we like to see.

Reaching the configuration file

Apex Legends runs on the same engine as Titanfall 2, a heavily modified version of Source, the same engine running games such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive. The graphical settings for this file are stored in the Saved Games folder in the user folder.

C:UsersYOURUSERSaved GamesRespawnApexlocalvideoconfig.txt

There are a couple of things in this file that we can improve.

Removing shadows

Apex Legends utilizes Cascade Shadow Maps that can be disabled by setting the csm_enabled variable to 0.

"setting.csm_enabled" "0"

This removes a lot of the shadows in the game, but does not dramatically affect other graphical aspects.

On the exact same area of the training map, removing shadows provides a modes boost to 29-30 FPS. During a few benchmarks of the game in motion, we noticed a 5-6 overall boost in FPS averages, so this is a great starting point if all you need is a small increase to get to your target performance.

Low-poly models

The variable r_lod_switch_scale controls the distance at which normal game models are substituted by low poly models in order to save on computing resources. Setting this variable to 0 basically forces the game to use its lowest poly models at all distances.

"setting.r_lod_switch_scale" "0"

This causes very dramatic changes in almost every element of the game, which is especially noticeable when looking at characters up close.

However, it can have a very positive impact on game performance, climbing the test scene from 28 fps to 34 fps on our test laptop.

Combined with the removal of shadows, going to low poly causes the test scene to climb to a grand total of 37-38 fps.

Custom Lower Resolutions

As previously mentioned, the lowest 16:9 resolution in the game's menu is 720p, and even with a 4:3 aspect ratio, the lowest resolution allowed is 1024x768. However, you can use lower resolutions by changing the "setting.defaultres" and "setting.defaultresheight" values in the configuration filed to the desired resolution.

"setting.defaultres" "960""setting.defaultresheight" "540"

To use an uncommon resolution, such as 960x540 (16:9) we will need to add it as a custom resolution in the Intel UHD Graphics Control Panel.

How much sacrifice will be needed to play this game on the test laptop? To find out I ran a match with different combinations of these tweaks to measure the effect.

Testing: A match with shadows disabled

As could be expected from the training test, even without the shadows a regular match regularly drops under 30 in any open area, specially when there are many other players around or while under fire. Apex Legends is a particularly fast game, so that level of low performance was very detrimental to the experience.

Testing: A match with shadows disabled and low poly models enabled

As we mentioned before, the low poly models have a very strong positive impact on performance but a destructive effect on image quality.

With low poly enabled and shadows disabled, a lot of the drops we previously experienced when exiting buildings and loading bigger open areas went away.

However, the frame rate dropped precipitously when we were under fire, which made navigating combat situations tricky.

Testing: Resolution set to 960x540 with shadows disabled, but no low poly

This is a good compromise for those seeking to avoid the extreme effects of the low poly models. The drop in resolution provides a lot of breathing room for the GPU, and the lack of shadows does not otherwise affect graphics that much. This allowed for over 30 FPS, even while in combat.

If performance closer to 60 fps is a priority then all the tweaks will be needed.

Testing: Resolution set to 960x540, shadows disabled, low poly models enabled.

So, on 960 x 540, with shadows disabled and low poly models at all distances, we got some interesting results. As tends to be the case, the initial drop from the ship did cause some drops in performance (since the whole map must be loaded) but after hitting the ground, the game stabilized to an average of 50 fps, even while in combat.

The lack of shadows is easy to forget in the heat of a fight, and the low resolution does not affect visibility as much as you would expect, as the game remains readable with no issue.

The low poly models are a mixed bag. Most of props and characters retain the same basic silhouette, which makes it easy to quickly identify important elements and enemy players at any distance.

However, guns, in particular, can be difficult to identify on their lowest models which adds a new level of effort (and time) when selecting a weapon to pick up while trying to fend off an enemy team.

So if your playing style involves immediately jumping to the nearest rare loot points and fighting other players for guns, it will require a bit of extra practice to learn to identify the best weapons. But on the other hand the extra fps might be just what you need to play at a performance level that you find comfortable.

The Bottom Line

While Apex Legends does not have the bizarre levels of optimization of Fortnite, the fast-paced Battle Royale can work very well on an Integrated GPU, using some small tweaks to the configuration file.

Disabling shadows can provide an easy boost in performance without heavily affecting the visual of the game. Forcing the low poly models at all distances has a drastic effect on all props and characters, but the game remains essentially readable (the big exception: guns). Lowering the resolution to 960 x 540 has a dramatic affect on performance and tends to work very well due to Apex's excellent visual design.

MORE: Battlefield 5 on Integrated Graphics? How it Plays on Different GPUs

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Tyler Blevins, renowned Fornite streamer, was reported (Reuters) to have been paid $1 million (£750,000) to stream Apex Legends on launch. Although EA refused to comment on the exact amount, an inside source confirmed to Reuters that the sum Tyler received was that $1 million jackpot, almost double the streamer’s average monthly income (reported to be around $500,000 a month, split between YouTube, Twitch and sponsorship deals).

For that, EA netted streamed gameplay up to Midday on February 5th and a bunch of tweets surrounding the game, anything after that was organic. A bevy of other large streamers were recruited by Electronic Arts to play the new game on launch as well, although again no confirmation on just how much they money received.

For EA however, this money is essentially short change, after Apex launched, the company’s stock price skyrocketed by a staggering 16%, increasing the company’s overall value by $4 billion (£3.02 billion). Apex Legends is a hit new free-to-play battle royale style game, that garnered over 25 million users, and 2 million consecutive players within a week of launching.

Apex Legends has more than 50 million active players just over a month after its debut. Many people are keen to know what Respawn Entertainment has planned for the game, and @RealApexLeaks on Twitter offered up plenty of sneak peeks over the last few days.

@RealApexLeaks offers tidbits of info gleaned from data mining through Apex Legends game files. The account claimed to have found references to a flamethrower, remote turret, and non-player characters; it also offered details about a battle pass.

The addition of new weapons makes sense--continually introducing new ways to kill other players helps battle royale titles avoid feeling stagnant. But the references to NPCs is interesting; most games like Apex Legends revolve entirely around their players.

There are exceptions. Epic Games has introduced several types of NPC enemies in Fortnite, which sets a precedent for Respawn to do something similar in Apex Legends. The studio's previous titles, Titanfall 1 & 2, also relied heavily on NPC enemies.

Neither Respawn nor Electronic Arts, the game's publisher, have announced plans for an Apex Legends battle pass. But it too would fit with genre conventions--or at least the business model that's proven so lucrative for Epic Games with Fortnite.

@RealApexLeaks shared evidence that Apex Legends will show its battle pass on a separate page in the main menu, offer a free version to reward players for remaining active, and of course, reward people who purchase it with exclusive in-game cosmetics.

All of those details are common to other battle passes. EA has to monetize Apex Legends somehow--neither game development nor the servers needed to support 50 million players are cheap--and a battle pass would let the game remain free-to-play as well.

None of these details have been confirmed. Even if they are based on game code, there's a chance that some of the features will never be introduced. Still, at least there are hints about what Respawn might have planned for Apex Legends in the short term.

Nvidia released today new GeForce Game Ready 419.35 WHQL drivers to improve performance in Apex Legends and the upcoming Devil May Cry 5 and Tom Clancy's The Division 2. The new drivers also add support for newly certified G-Sync Compatible monitors from Acer and BenQ.

Apex Legends has 50 million players, so it was an obvious game for Nvidia to optimize. Meanwhile, Devil May Cry 5 arrives this spring, and Tom Clancy's The Division 2 just held an open beta from March 1-4 and is set to debut March 15.

Nvidia said it also improved performance in Metro Exodus, Anthem and Battlefield V. But that note was mostly to highlight its new GeForce RTX Triple Threat Bundle, which offers all three games with the purchase of an RTX 2080 or RTX 2080 Ti.

That bundle is apparently part of Nvidia's efforts to inflate RTX sales after some disappointing results in the previous financial quarter. The cards are simply too expensive for many gamers, especially when features like ray tracing support aren't fully utilized by the vast majority of games. 

In addition to the optimizations for these games, the 419.35 WHQL drivers add support for three new G-Sync Compatible monitors, displays previously lacking G-Sync that Nvidia newly certified as G-Sync capable, a practice the vendor started in January (partially to throw shade at AMD FreeSync for, according to Nvidia, not actually working as advertised). Those monitors are the Acer ED273A, Acer XF250Q and BenQ XL2540-B (also known as the Zowie XL LCD). That brings the total count of G-Sync Compatible monitors from 12 to 15.

Nvidia tests each monitor before certifying them as G-Sync Compatible.

"This means there’s no blanking, pulsing, flickering, ghosting or other artificating during VRR [variable refresh rate] gaming," Nvidia said in a statement accompanying today's announcement. "And that they can operate in VRR at any game framerate by supporting a VRR range of at least 2.4:1 (e.g. 60Hz-144Hz), in addition to offering a seamless experience by enabling VRR by default when the driver is installed and the monitor plugged in."

The GeForce Game Ready 419.35 WHQL drivers are available now from Nvidia's website and the GeForce Experience app. They should include the  security patches Nvidia revealed on March 1, which protect against eight vulnerabilities across its product lines.

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To say that Apex Legends, the new battle royale developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts, has been popular would be an understatement. The free-to-play game hit more than 1 million players in less than eight hours, and reached 10 million in just 72 hours. Apex Legends seems poised to be the biggest thing to happen to the battle royale genre since Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

That popularity is all but guaranteed to inspire people to learn as much as they can about what Respawn and EA have planned for the game. Which is exactly what happened over the weekend when data miners went through Apex Legends' code and discovered hidden references to new game modes. Others had previously found references to a ranked mode that could emulate those found in games like Overwatch and League of Legends. There's no guarantee these features will debut, but where there's smoke, people assume fire.

The new game modes are simple enough: they offer solo play and two-person groups. Those additions would bring Apex Legends more in line with other battle royale titles; right now it's limited to squads of three players. (That itself an oddity, because most of these games offer solo, duo and four-person modes.) They would also make it easier to enjoy the game when someone doesn't feel like playing with strangers but none of their squad mates are free.

The possibility of a ranked mode is also intriguing. Fortnite players have been clamoring for something a bit less casual for months. Epic Games capitulated a bit with public tournaments, but those aren't always available, and people just like to watch their skill ratings go up. That's part of the reason why people stick with games like League of Legends despite their toxicity--nobody wants to lose their rank. It's a powerful motivator, and if it is implemented, it could give people a reason to keep playing Apex Legends.

Neither Respawn nor EA have responded to these reports. Like we said at the top, there's a chance these features are never implemented in Apex Legends. Code is never immaculate; references to scrapped features can be found in pretty much any game. But with this particular title's rising popularity--and its need to monetize those millions of players--we wouldn't be surprised if we saw new features announced sooner than later.

AMD today released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.2.1 driver with improved support for APEX Legends, The Division 2’s private beta and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

The highlight for this release is support for APEX Legends. Electronic Arts released the free-to-play battle royale developed by Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind the Titanfall series, on February 4. It already has 1 million players between PC and consoles.

But the improved support for the other titles will probably be welcome for those who don't want to play yet another battle royale title. The improved performance in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is particularly interesting. AMD said this new driver offers up to a 5 percent improvement to performance in the game on RX Vega 64 graphics cards.

The Adrenalin 19.2.1 driver is also said to have fixed a graphics issue in Battlefield V, a crashing problem in Anthem and various issues in Radeon Settings, among other things.

It also has its own problems, of course, so check out AMD’s release notes to see if any of the known issues outweigh the benefits of installing the latest driver for you.

AMD also reminded consumers that the Adrenalin 19.2.1 driver isn't meant to be used in Apple Boot Camp systems.

For everyone else, the driver can be installed by via these links: Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 19.2.1 Driver for Windows 10 64-bit and Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 19.2.1 Driver for Windows 7 64-bit.

DRAMeXchange has predicted that NAND flash manufacturers will continue to reduce their capital expenditure (capex) by 2 percent in 2019. The reductions are mostly expected to come from South Korean flash manufacturers, but the research group said that U.S. manufacturers will probably reduce their capex as well, despite global capital expenditure already declining by a reported 10 percent between 2017 and 2018.

The reason for these reductions is simple: there continues to be an oversupply of NAND flash memory. DRAMeXchange said this will probably continue to be the case despite manufacturer countermeasures, simply because "demand outlook for notebooks, smartphones, servers, and other end products remains weak." Tech companies probably aren't going to buy a bunch of memory to put in products they're struggling to sell.

Flash manufacturers have already felt the effects of these problems. The most notable example is Samsung, which revised its earnings guidance for the most recent financial quarter because of lower-than-expected demand for its memory and its smartphones. DRAMeXchange said that Samsung represents 30 percent of the market, so if it's struggling to reach its goals, odds are good that the other NAND flash manufacturers are as well.

Samsung and other flash manufacturers will slow down their memory production throughout 2019 to combat these issues. (Hence the reduced capital expenditure.) Production was already expected to fall as companies switched to 92 and 96-layer 3D NAND products due to the need for more space in the fab. But now it's less "our bit output growth will fall because we're making new products!" and more "we need to cut costs."

Their loss could be our gain. DRAMeXchange said that it "expects a quarterly decline of 20% in 1Q19, higher than [the] previous forecast of 10%, and a further decline of nearly 15% QoQ in 2Q19" and that "for 2H19, the price decline may be slightly moderated considering the coming of peak season, but prices would continue to fall by around 10% each quarter." All told, the group's predicting a 50-percent drop in NAND flash prices over the coming year.

Previous estimates put the drop in memory pricing in 2019 anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent. (Depending on the type of memory.) Watching the higher of those figures double over the course of a few months indicates that NAND flash manufacturers aren't likely to recover from their oversupply woes any time soon. But hey, at least from a consumer's perspective, who doesn't like it when prices fall?

Maingear’s coolest CES announcement concerns water cooling. The company has added RGB to its Apex integrated cooling system, dubbing it Apex Spectrum. It uses an addressable LED controller to connect directly to motherboards and can be controlled by software. For now, Apex Spectrum is only available on Maingear’s F131 Superstock and the new limited-run Rush Omega Edition desktop.

Maingear tells me that it went with a controller that goes direct to the motherboard to avoid ecosystem lock-in. I was told that it works with every RGB standard, though it was demoed for me using Asus Aura Sync.

The company wouldn’t describe the engineering behind it, but it’s definitely integrated in the tube, and you can slightly see some LEDs from the right angles.

And I’ll say this: it looks awesome. I saw it in an all-rainbow configuration in the F131, but in a more muted purple in the Rush Omega Edition, which made for a classier, more subtle look. And if you change your mind, you can always make it more or less vibrant with software.

Right now, Apex Spectrum only work with the company’s hardline Apex cooling, and there’s no word about if it will eventually come to softline models or if you’ll see it outside of Maingear’s system.

The Rush Omega Edition, one of the two desktops that currently support Apex Spectrum, is a limited run desktop with RTX graphics cards, Intel's top end Core i9 CPUs, up to 64GB of RAM, Apex cooling (including failsafe dual pumps, pressure regulated parallel cooling, temperature sensing and more) and will be available in a mindnight slate color starting at $9,999.

Apexgaming was founded at the tail end of 2017 to offer products for the gaming community. We caught up with the company at Computex 2018 to see what it has in store for its first birthday and beyond, and even though it's only been around for less than a year, Apexgaming's portfolio already includes power supplies and adapters, cases, height-adjustable desks, gaming chairs, and other gear.

Apexgaming recently won a Red Dot award in the product design category for its Hermes and X-Mars chassis. The Hermes is a budget E-ATX mid-tower chassis with a $70 MSRP, while the X-Mars is a prototype, handmade, E-ATX full-tower chassis with an MSRP of $1,000. Apexgaming informed us that this product most likely won't reach to mass production but a more affordable version of it, called X-Mars junior, will do.

The X-Mars junior is a mid-tower chassis that will cost $190 once it becomes available later this month. In the first of the photos above you can see the X-Mars junior side-by-side with its larger, and much more expensive, brother.

Apexgaming will also enter the gaming chair market with the GC5000 and GC6000. Both chairs use Napa leather, which is soft to the touch and quite expensive, so we don't expect the chairs to be affordable. The backrests come with embedded lumbar support, the armrests are 4D adjustable, and the backrest can recline at up to 180 degrees, satisfying those who want to nap or just relax during gaming (or work) sessions.

We have already tested an Apexgaming PSU, the AG-850M, and it left us with mixed feelings mostly because of its noisy operation. All Apexgaming PSUs are based on Solytech's platforms and the newest line is called AP. It consists of three members, with capacities ranging from 850W to 1200W. All are 80 PLUS Platinum certified but they haven't yet received a Cybenetics certification for efficiency and noise.

According to Apexgaming, the PSUs will offer silent operation, however the double ball-bearing fan they use doesn't leave much room for high expectations. All three AP units are fully modular and exclusively use Japanese caps, while their dimensions are compact enough with 160mm depth. Unfortunately there is no information on the PSUs' release date or their MSRPs.

Two desks with (electrically) adjustable height caught our attention in Apexgaming's booth, the Elite 60" and the ZT series EDR-3612. The first is a standing desk with a height adjustment of 29-48" and a stiff MSRP of $580. We tried it for a short period and its operation was smooth while the build quality looked solid. The ZT EDR-3612 is more affordable at $270 and can be adjusted from 5.7-18.1", so it's not a stand-up desk.

The ideal accessory for the stand-up desk is an anti-fatigue mat. Our video presenter loved this product from the moment she tried it. It is made of PU with a PVC surface, its dimensions are 32 x 20 x 0.625" and it will be available in three colors: red, brown, and dark brown. With a $25 MSRP this mat is quite affordable. We couldn't test it for a long enough time to see if it truly works as advertised, however, during the show.

Apexgaming also released a number of wireless chargers. With more phones adopting the Qi standard, it is nice to have lots of options in wireless chargers.

Features & Specifications

Solytech has been in the PSU business for a long time, manufacturing mostly low-end and mid-range models that typically get relabeled and sold under other brands. Apexgaming's AG-850M is the first Solytech-made power supply to make its way through our lab though, so we're eager to see what it can do.

So far, Apexgaming's AG line consists of six members ranging from 650W to 850W. Three sport fully modular cabling (the AG-M series), while the rest employ a semi-modular configuration (AG). All Apexgaming PSUs sport a 10-year warranty, demonstrating Solytech's faith in its platform. But as we've mentioned previously, we're not necessarily fans of such long guarantees because they open the door to other issues, particularly with cryptocurrency mining being as popular as it is.

Again, Apexgaming's flagship AG-850M is our subject today. Besides 850W of capacity, it employs a single +12V rail and is 80 PLUS Gold-certified. On the Cybenetics scale, it achieves ETA-A- efficiency, but fails to earn a badge for acoustics since it outputs more than 45 dB(A). Frankly, it's weird to encounter such a noisy 850W PSU. This is a major weakness that'll no doubt affect sales. Apparently, the fan profile is badly tuned. In combination with a powerful fan, we end up suffering through loud operation in every situation.

Specifications

The sleeve bearing fan is unnecessarily potent for an 850W power supply with 80 PLUS Gold efficiency. However, given Apexgaming's long warranty and the secondary side's capacitors, an aggressive fan profile is probably a good idea. 

According to Apexgaming's claims, the AG-850M includes all necessary protection features and is rated for full, continuous output at 50°C. On paper, if this PSU's noise wasn't so bad it'd stand a good chance of competing against compelling alternatives like Corsair's RM850x, Seasonic's Focus Plus Gold 850, and EVGA's 850 G3.

Power Specifications

The minor rails are more powerful than they need to be for a modern PC, reminding us of older times when the +5V rail was heavily used instead of the +12V rail.

Speaking of the +12V rail, it's able to output 70A, easily supporting enthusiast-oriented gaming systems. And the 5VSB rail offers up to 15W capacity. That's usually plenty for today's needs.

Cables & Connectors

There is only one EPS connector, which we consider to be a shame for an 850W PSU. The number of PCIe connectors is enough though, and there are plenty of SATA connectors as well. All of the cables are sufficiently long. However, the distance between connectors (especially the four-pin Molex ones) is too small. Finally, Apexgaming also provides a floppy disk adapter that still might come in handy for some folks.

The AG-850M's cables are shown in the photos below.

Power Distribution

Since this PSU features a single +12V rail, we do not have anything to say about its power distribution.

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Unboxing Video

The following video shows us unboxing the AG-850M.

Additional photos of the AG-850M and its accessories are shown in the photos below.

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Teardown & Component Analysis

Before proceeding with this page we strongly encourage you to a look at our PSUs 101 article, which provides valuable information about PSUs and their operation, allowing you to better understand the components we're about to discuss.

The AG-850M employs a modern platform based on an LLC resonant converter and specially-designed main transformer. The bulk caps' quality is pretty good, while the opposite is true for the secondary side. Solytech uses cheap Chinese caps not known for their reliability. In our opinion, no such capacitors belong in an 850W PSU selling for more than $100. This makes it even stranger that the AG-850M is covered by a 10-year warranty. We would like to see a higher quality fan as well.

At least the main PCB's soldering quality is a pleasant surprise, though it should be combined with better filtering caps.

The photos above show the PSU’s major parts.

The following video shows the AG-850M’s internals.

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Load Regulation, Hold-Up Time & Inrush Current

To learn more about our PSU tests and methodology, please check out How We Test Power Supply Units. 

Primary Rails And 5VSB Load Regulation

Load Regulation testing is detailed here.

Hold-Up Time

Our hold-up time tests are described in detail here.

The hold-up time we measure is less than 17ms. However, the power-good signal is accurate. Still, we'd like to see a >17ms hold-up time, as the ATX spec requires.

Inrush Current

For details on our inrush current testing, please click here.

The inrush current readings that our equipment measures are very low with both voltage inputs.

Load Regulation And Efficiency Measurements

The first set of tests reveals the stability of the voltage rails and the AG-850M’s efficiency. The applied load equals (approximately) 10 to 110 percent of the PSU's maximum load in increments of 10 percentage points.

We conducted two additional tests. During the first, we stressed the two minor rails (5V and 3.3V) with a high load, while the load at +12V was only 0.1A. This test reveals whether a PSU is compatible with Intel's C6/C7 sleep states or not. In the second test, we determined the maximum load the +12V rail could handle with minimal load on the minor rails.

Load regulation is average on the +12V rail, fairly loose on the minor rails, and very loose at 5VSB.

More troubling perhaps is the fan profile, which is the most aggressive we've ever encountered in an 850W PSU. Apexgaming and Solytech need to improve this as soon as possible, since the combination of a powerful fan spinning quickly is a killer when it comes to noise.

Efficiency-wise, the 80 PLUS Gold spec's requirements are met at 20% load. Under 50% load, the PSU falls just shy of the 90% threshold. At full load, however, it's more than 1% away from the needed 87% mark. But we test at very high ambient temperatures, whereas the 80 PLUS organization only tests at 23°C (±5°C).

Finally, the PSU switched off at the end of our overload test. More than likely, over-temperature protection kicked in. After a few minutes, we switched it back on and didn't encounter any problems.

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Efficiency, Temperature & Noise

Efficiency

Our efficiency testing procedure is detailed here.

Using results from the previous page, we plotted a chart showing the AG-850M’s efficiency at low loads, and loads from 10 to 110 percent of its maximum-rated capacity.

Under normal loads, the AG-850M follows Corsair's RM850x. With light loads, the difference between those two power supplies is large.

Efficiency At Low Loads

In the following tests, we measure the AG-850M's efficiency at loads significantly lower than 10 percent of its maximum capacity (the lowest load the 80 PLUS standard measures). The loads we dialed were 20, 40, 60, and 80W. This is important for representing when a PC is idle, with power-saving features turned on.

The fan profile is out of this world; even under 20W of load, the blades spin at 1780 RPM, making a ton of noise. Stranger still is that, in the next two tests, the fan speed drops a bit, increasing again by the fourth test.

In general, this PSU's efficiency is low under light loads. It's only during the third test that the AG-850M exceeds 80%. Surely a high fan speed plays a significant role. After all, a few watts have a big impact on our efficiency calculation when the power supply isn't doing much otherwise.

5VSB Efficiency

The ATX specification, along with CEC, ErP Lot 3 2014 and ErP Lot 6 2010/2013, states that 5VSB standby supply efficiency should be as high as possible, recommending 75 percent or higher with 550mA, 1A, and 1.5A of load. The PSU should also achieve higher than 75% efficiency at 5VSB under full load, or with 3A if its max current output on this rail is higher than 3A.

We take six measurements: one each at 100, 250, 550, 1000, and 1500mA, and one with the full load the 5VSB rail can handle.   

The 5VSB rail demonstrates decent efficiency.

Power Consumption In Idle And Standby

In the table below, you'll find the power consumption and voltage values of all rails (except -12V) when the PSU is idle (powered on, but without any load on its rails), and the power consumption when the PSU is in standby mode (without any load, at 5VSB).

This PSU's power requirements in standby mode are low.

Fan RPM, Delta Temperature, And Output Noise

Our mixed noise testing is described in detail here.

The first chart below illustrates the cooling fan's speed (in RPM), and the delta between input and output temperature. The results were obtained at 36°C (96.8°F) to 45°C (113°F) ambient temperature.   

The next chart shows the cooling fan's speed (again, in RPM) and output noise. We measured acoustics from one meter away, inside a hemi-anechoic chamber. Background noise inside the chamber was below 6 dB(A) during testing (it's actually much lower, but our sound meter’s microphone hits its floor), and the results were obtained with the PSU operating at 36°C (96.8°F) to 45°C (113°F) ambient temperature. 

The following graph illustrates the fan's output noise over the PSU's operating range. The same conditions of the above graph apply to our measurements, though the ambient temperature was between 30°C (86°F) to 32°C (89.6°F).  

An overzealous fan profile is this PSU's most obvious flaw. Even in normal ambient conditions, the fan starts with over 30 dB(A) of noise and quickly enters the 35-40 dB(A) range. With higher than 140W load it exceeds 40 dB(A), and above 320W it passes the 45 dB(A) mark.

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Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features. Our protection features evaluation methodology is described in detail here.

We didn't find over-current protection on the +12V rail as we would have expected, though the minor rails' OCP triggering points are normal.

The 5VSB rail registers very high ripple. But this is a problem that we notice under lower loads as well. We did test a second AG-850M and found it to have lower ripple at 5VSB, so something may have been wrong with the first sample.

Over-power protection is set at a reasonable level, and the over-temperature protection is a bit low compared to other PSUs rated for full output at 50°C.

Finally, there is short circuit protection on all rails, the power-good signal is accurate, and we find surge/inrush current protection (though there is no bypass relay to support the NTC thermistors).

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Cross-Load Tests & Infrared Images

Our cross-load tests are described in detail here.

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through our custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. The load regulation deviations in each of the charts below were calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V, and 3.3V) as point zero. The ambient temperature was between at 30°C (86°F) to 32°C (89.6°F).

Load Regulation Charts

Efficiency Chart

The efficiency sweet spot is between 180W and 510W load at +12V, with load on the minor rails staying below 70W.

Ripple Charts

Infrared Images

We applied half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover and cooling fan removed before taking photos with our modified FLIR E4 camera that delivers 320x240 IR resolution (76,800 pixels).

The DC-DC converters, which aren't cooled by heat sinks, get pretty warm. The sink responsible for cooling the +12V daughterboard doesn't get particularly hot, but that's not the case for the secondary side's caps located close to the DC-DC converters. Those reach temperatures in excess of 60°C. Given their low quality, hot operating temperatures are a problem, and probable cause for the aggressive fan profile.

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Transient Response Tests

Advanced Transient Response Tests

For details on our transient response testing, please click here.

Ιn these tests, we monitor the AG-850M's response in several scenarios. First, a transient load (10A at +12V, 5A at 5V, 5A at 3.3V, and 0.5A at 5VSB) is applied for 200ms as the PSU works at 20 percent load. In the second scenario, it's hit by the same transient load while operating at 50 percent load.

In the next sets of tests, we increase the transient load on the major rails with a new configuration: 15A at +12V, 6A at 5V, 6A at 3.3V, and 0.5A at 5VSB. We also increase the load-changing repetition rate from 5 Hz (200ms) to 50 Hz (20ms). Again, this runs with the PSU operating at 20 and 50 percent load.

The last tests are even tougher. Although we keep the same loads, the load-changing repetition rate rises to 1 kHz (1ms).

In all of the tests, we use an oscilloscope to measure the voltage drops caused by the transient load. The voltages should remain within the ATX specification's regulation limits.

These tests are crucial because they simulate the transient loads a PSU is likely to handle (such as booting a RAID array or an instant 100 percent load of CPU/GPUs). We call these "Advanced Transient Response Tests," and they are designed to be very tough to master, especially for a PSU with a capacity of less than 500W.  

Advanced Transient Response at 20 Percent – 200ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20 Percent – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20 Percent – 1ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50 Percent – 200ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50 Percent – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50 Percent – 1ms

The +12V rail's transient response is very good. The 5V and 5VSB rails demonstrate decent performance, while the 3.3V rail is just bad. In every test, its voltage levels drop below 3.2V. One test even sees it fall below the ATX spec's 3.14V limit.

Here are the oscilloscope screenshots we took during Advanced Transient Response Testing:

Transient Response At 20 Percent Load – 200ms

Transient Response At 20 Percent Load – 20ms

Transient Response At 20 Percent Load – 1ms

Transient Response At 50 Percent Load – 200ms

Transient Response At 50 Percent Load – 20ms

Transient Response At 50 Percent Load – 1ms

Turn-On Transient Tests

In the next set of tests, we measured the AG-850M’s response in simpler transient load scenarios—during its power-on phase.

For our first measurement, we turned the AG-850M off, dialed in the maximum current the 5VSB rail could output, and switched the PSU back on. In the second test, we dialed the maximum load the +12V rail could handle and started the 850W supply while it was in standby mode. In the last test, while the PSU was completely switched off (we cut off the power or switched the PSU off), we dialed the maximum load the +12V rail could handle before switching it back on from the loader and restoring power. The ATX specification states that recorded spikes on all rails should not exceed 10 percent of their nominal values (+10 percent for 12V is 13.2V, and 5.5 V for 5V).

Turn-on transient response is very good on all of the AG-850M's rails!

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Ripple Measurements

To learn how we measure ripple, please click here.

The following table includes the ripple levels we measured on the AG-850M’s rails. The limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V, and 5VSB).

The first sample we tested had a problem with its 5VSB rail, where ripple was clearly out of control. Since we had a second sample at our disposal, we tested its ripple and measured significantly better performance. The following table shows the second AG-850M sample's ripple results.

The second sample fares much better in our 5VSB measurements. But that's not the case for all rails, particularly the always-critical +12V one.

Ripple Oscilloscope Screenshots

The following oscilloscope screenshots illustrate the AC ripple and noise registered on the main rails (+12V, 5V, 3.3V and 5VSB). We usually set 0.01 V/Div (each vertical division/box equals 0.01V), but in some cases we use a smaller setting as well, if the registered ripple is very low.

Ripple At Full Load

Ripple At 110-Percent Load

Ripple At Cross-Load 1

Ripple At Cross-Load 2

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EMC Pre-Compliance Testing

EMC, EMI & EMS Acronyms

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC): The ability of a device to operate properly in its environment without disrupting the operation of other close-by devices.

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI): This represents the electromagnetic energy a device emits, which can cause problems in other close-by devices if it is too high.

Electromagnetic Immunity (EMS): Tolerance to electromagnetic emissions.

Equipment & Standards

To properly measure the EMI that a device emits, you need special equipment defined by the CISPR 16-1-1 specification. To learn more about our EMI testing equipment, please check out How We Test Power Supply Units.

In order to minimize EMI noise, some standards have been established. The corresponding standards for Information Technology products are CISPR 22 and its derivative EN 55022. In the EU, every product featuring the "CE" marking has to comply with EN 55022. Both CISPR 22 and EN 55022 divide devices into two classes, A and B. B-class equipment is for domestic environments, so its allowed EMI emissions are significantly lower than for A-class devices.

EMI Results - Average Detector

EMI emissions in the AVG detector test are low.

EMI Results - Peak Detector

With the Peak detector active, our results are very good. This unit's transient filter does a superb job.

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Performance, Value, Noise & Efficiency

Performance Rating

The following graph shows the AG-850M’s total performance rating, comparing it to other units we have tested. To be more specific, the tested unit is shown as 100 percent, and every other unit's performance is shown relative to it.

According to our results, Apexgaming's overall performance is not high compared to the other PSUs in our chart. Much of that is attributable to the AG-850M's modest load regulation and mediocre ripple suppression on the minor rails.

Performance Per Dollar

The following chart may be the most interesting to many of you because it depicts the unit's performance-per-dollar score. We looked up the current price of each PSU on popular online shops and used those prices and all relative performance numbers to calculate the index. If the specific unit wasn't available in the United States, we searched for it in popular European Union shops, converting the listed price to USD (without VAT). Note that all of the numbers in the following graph are normalized by the rated power of each PSU.  

Although the AG-850M's $110 price tag isn't high (given its specifications, at least), weak performance keeps the PSU's value score down toward the bottom of our comparison.

Noise Rating

The graph below depicts the cooling fan's average noise over the PSU's operating range, with an ambient temperature between 30°C and 32°C (86°F to 89.6°F).

Noise is a big problem for Apexgaming, as you can see.

Efficiency Rating

The following graph shows the PSU's average efficiency throughout its operating range, with an ambient temperature close to 30°C.

We would like to see over 88% overall efficiency. With a little tuning and some component upgrades, this platform could easily hit the 88% mark.

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Final Analysis

Apexgaming is trying to enter the higher-end PSU space with its new AG family. Of course, we're happy to see another contender. Tougher competition helps encourage innovation and lower prices, after all.

But the PSU market is unforgiving. Several OEMs have a lot of experience making very compelling platforms, and a lot of those sell for similar prices as the AG-850M. Although Solytech is a well-established manufacturer, it doesn't seem to be aware of the priorities that matter to enthusiasts as they shop for their next PSU.

Noise, for example, is immensely important to builders, and power supplies often play a big part in a PC's overall noise output. When it comes to the AG-850M, no attention was paid to optimizing the fan profile. We suspect this wasn't entirely overlooked. Rather, a super-long warranty necessitates aggressive cooling, so perhaps the loud fan is deliberate. You see, it'd be almost impossible for the secondary side's Chinese capacitors to last 10 years under tough conditions. Powerful cooling is the only remedy.

In any case, despite Solytech's cranked-up fan profile, we are not optimistic about that the Su'scon and Elite caps will make it through the AG-850M's warranty period. To make matters worse, the fan itself might not last that long, since it uses a sleeve bearing. In a PSU that costs $110, we'd expect higher-quality components and not Chinese capacitors.

On the other hand, we have to say that the platform employs a nice, clean design with very good soldering quality. Moreover, some of the parts are of high quality, while necessary protection features are present and working.

At its current price, the AG-850M will have a really hard time competing against compelling incumbents. Apexgaming needs to make the AG-850M less expensive, and at the same time push Solytech to fix its fan profile and replace the secondary side's electrolytic caps with higher-quality ones. We're not demanding Japanese capacitors (their prices are much higher these days), but even Teapo caps would be an improvement. Those are some of the best non-Japanese alternatives.

The AG-850M's load regulation is decent at +12V. The ripple suppression of our first sample was good enough on every rail except for 5VSB, and that's where we noticed a problem. This forced us to look at a second sample, which performed much better on the 5VSB rail but was worse on the other rails. To make matters worse, a single EPS connector is not ideal for a 850W PSU. High-end motherboards often require two EPS connectors, and the AG-850M should have been able to play in that space.

At $110, we cannot recommend the AG-850M. If you want a quiet PSU, definitely stay away from it. Hopefully Apexgaming and Solytech consider our findings and decide to improve this platform. We don't want to discourage fresh faces in a category already dominated by a handful of OEMs. However, we expect any newcomer to do its research before stepping onto the scene with a product that doesn't match up. Otherwise, it won't see the sales needed to cover its expenses.

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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics, and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Purch Media, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.

LAS VEGAS, NV -- Maingear went to CES 2018 armed with a new flagship F131 desktop gaming PC that has been redesigned from the ground up to be the “Apex” of custom liquid cooling.

New Design, Same Premium Options

The new Maingear F131 looks similar to its previous version, but with a taller and slimmer chassis, a new PSU shroud, and a solid front panel (the former F131 had a ventilated front panel). You can still equip the F131 with Intel Z370, X299, and AMD B350 microATX motherboards (Maingear uses an Asus Strix Z370G Gaming, EVGA X299 Micro, and MSI B350M Gaming Pro motherboard, respectively), along with all of their respective top-dog processor (the Intel Core i7-8700K, i9-7980XE, and AMD Ryzen 7 1800X). Memory and storage options remain mostly intact from the previous model, and you can still load the F131 with up to dual GeForce Titan Xp graphics cards. However, AMD GPUs are no longer available in the new F131, which Maingear explained was due to waterblock compatibility issues. Although the F131 can be equipped with air-cooled Nvidia cards, Vega GPUs (and their thicker coolers) have also been problematic for the new chassis, so the company stopped offering it.

Tempered glass panels showcase a variety of customizable configurations, including soft (Stock) and hard-tube (Super Stock) custom liquid cooling loops for the CPU and GPUs (which are also still oriented vertically at the bottom of the window). However, there are a few visible differences with the new design--the redesigned chassis offers more USB connectivity, with a USB 3.1 Type-C and four USB 3.0 ports on the front panel. The previously exposed PSU is now shrouded by a metal panel that sports three 2.5” drive bays that showcase your choice of storage more prominently. The top exhaust vents can now also accommodate up to a 420mm radiator, which could give a custom liquid cooling loop even more thermal dissipation power.

Apex ICS

Maingear didn’t redesign the F131 on a whim; the new chassis was built in conjunction with a new custom cooling device called the Apex Integrated Cooling System (Apex ICS). The company engineered the acrylic reservoir/pump combo in partnership with Bitspower in an effort to create a unique do-it-all cooling device for a monster of an open-loop liquid-cooled gaming PC. We were impressed by the sheer ambition of Apex – we’re not aware of any other major custom PC shops offering a completely custom-designed and integrated open-loop cooling system in one of their gaming systems.

“The launch of our new F131 desktop sets a new benchmark in gaming desktops" said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of Maingear. "While most manufacturers add liquid cooling to a system as an afterthought, the new F131 and APEX where designed together to provide unparalleled performance."

The Apex reservoir is two inches thick and has an RGB LED strip inside, which is controlled via remote (along with other RGB LED interior lights) and illuminates the clear acrylic in the color of your choice. The two pumps each run on low power but produce a high flow rate—enough to push liquid through a CPU, two GPUs, and a 420mm radiator comfortably—and they are powerful enough to run the loop individually if one of them happens to fail down the line. The drain port and pressure release are strategically placed to makes maintenance for the open loop easy. Temperature and flow rate sensors are built right into the Apex, and the PWM connectors let you control and monitor the Apex’s functionality in the OS environment via the motherboard vendor’s respective software.

When mounted in the new F131 chassis, each screw hole in the Apex reservoir lines up perfectly with the crossbars and mounts of the case. The massive cooling device spans the entire vertical length of the case from the top to bottom, occupying the majority of the right side of the tempered glass window (and covering the PSU shroud). Apex and the new F131 are available with both soft tubing open-loop cooling and Maingear's Superstock Hardline open-loop cooling, which sports crystal-clear acrylic or metal tubing.

The F131 could be considered the most-custom custom shop gaming PC in the world with the Apex ICS, simply because you likely won’t find this level of custom design and craftsmanship on a mainstream level anywhere else.

New Custom Paint, Too!

Maingear also announced two new additions to its automotive paint finishing services – Spectrum Chameleon and MARC II. The Spectrum Chameleon finishes are exactly as they sound -- the visible colors appear to be constantly shifting within the desired base color spectrum (get it?). If you’ve ever seen a newer car with a lustrous, hard-to-distinguish, yet definitively eye-catching automotive finish, that’s what Maingear has accomplished with its Spectrum Chameleon paint options.

The MARC II finish looks like it could be a graphic wrap, but it's not. The seven-step painting process takes customized artwork (your own, or from a choice of Maingear designs) and immortalizes it on the exterior chassis of your custom gaming PC in a high-gloss automotive finish.

Pricing And Availability

The new Maingear F131 custom desktop gaming PC is available now from the company’s website, starting at $1,599. Spectrum Chameleon and MARC II automotive finishes also launch today, starting at $749 and $149, respectively.

Update, 10/30/17, 6:55am PT: You know how sometimes you see a keyboard and think, "That would be cool if only it was available in a tenkeyless form factor"? SteelSeries is offering just that. The tenkeyless version of its Apex M750 keyboard is the aptly named Apex M750 TKL. It has all the same features as its larger sibling, including the linear QX2 switches, but without the numpad. It costs $120, making it $20 cheaper than the full size M750.

Original article, 8/15/17, 10:30am PT:

SteelSeries’ newest keyboard, the Apex M750, is the vehicle by which the company debuted its latest switch.

QX2 Switches

One of the oft-overlooked features of some of SteelSeries’ keyboards is the fact that the company has its own switches. For example, there’s the Apex M800, which is loaded up with the SteelSeries QX1 switch. The QX1 sports shallow travel (3mm) and actuation (1.5mm), and it’s a light switch at just 45gf. They also were topped by low-profile keycaps.

The next generation of the company’s switch, the QX2, is quite a bit different. On the Apex M750, the keycaps are standard height, for example, and the QX2 switches offer 2mm actuation and 4mm total travel.

The switch housings are clear, so the LEDs shine all over the backplate. That particular design feature is the same as the QX1, but whereas the QX1 has a centered LED for more uniform lighting, the QX2 has its LEDs positioned at the top of the switch housing.

Basically, whereas the QX1 was unique and innovative, the QX2 is a clone of the Cherry MX RGB switch, from the specs to the design.

Both the QX1 and QX2 are linear switches, and the QX2 maintains the same 45gf as its predecessor.

Software Fun

Other than the new switches, it seems that the defining characteristics of the Apex M750 are all around the new software capabilities in SteelSeries Engine (SSE). For example, it now offers Discord integration, so the keyboard’s backlighting will offer you notifications. It also lets you sync lighting between the Apex M750 and other SSE-supported peripherals, and the GameSense feature offers up reactive effects to in-game events and needs such as low ammo and health. Specifically, it’s integrated with a game called Gigantic, which SteelSeries said delivers “real-time, in-game reactive illumination and haptic feedback across all SteelSeries-compatible devices.”

There’s of course complex lighting features available via the PrismSync feature. You can enable numerous active effects (Wave, Breathing, ColorShift, Rippling, Firework, etc.) and reactive effects (Fade, Hexagon, Ripple, Runout, etc.). And through the software, you can bind keys and create and edit macros.

The keyboard also can serve as a music visualizer, which is to say it flashes its lights in various colors in response to your music. You can also load up any animated GIF, and the lights will replicate it as a customized lighting effect.

Wait, what was that? GIFs? Yes, GIFs. You can download one and play it back on the keyboard’s backlighting. In the pantheon of worthless but awesome product features, this one has a special place. It’s something that you can share with basically no one, unless someone is peeking over your shoulder, and it serves absolutely no purpose but to entertain you.

We were eager to test out the feature to see how delightful it may be, but alas, the app is not yet available. So it goes.

We believe it’s coming with the next SSE update, though. We noticed that the most recent version that’s available is SSE v.3.10.12, but the spec sheet for the M750 states that the software that has all these features is v.3.11+, which means the company hasn’t pushed the final update yet.

All of the above features are app-based; that is, you have SSE itself, but you can plug in various “apps” that offer additional functionality. There aren’t many just yet--SteelSeries is clearly hoping the community will make and share more--but what is available, you can find here.

New Look

In terms of the look and feel of the chassis, the Apex M750 is a bit of a departure from the M800. Both are full-size keyboards, have the teardrop-shaped sides, are all black, and feature black backlit keycaps, but there are key differences. For example, whereas the M800 has a more traditional “bowl” design, with the switches mounted onto a backplate with a top panel over it, the M750 sports the top plate-mounted design that’s become so popular.

Further, the M800 has an extra chunky spacebar; the M750’s is normal-sized. And, of course, there’s the aforementioned keycap height difference.

The M750’s top panel is “Series 500” aluminum alloy. Notably, it’s not brushed metal, and it’s not that matte finish that you see on Razer keyboards. Rather, it’s a slightly textured, sparkly finish--but it doesn’t appear to hide fingerprints any better than any other metallic finish.

The Apex M750 costs $140, which is a fairly good deal compared to other gaming keyboards with similar specifications and features. For another $15, you can get a wrist rest to go with it. The Apex M800 was $200, but it’s dropped down to $170.

Asus released more details about two of the high-end X299 motherboards, the ROG Rampage VI Apex and Extreme, that it revealed at Computex 2017.

The boards share a few common features outside of the X299 chipset. Asus said in a press release that both are designed for overclocking, feature the RGB LED support that seems all but mandatory these days, and come equipped with reinforced "SafeSlots" meant to support "heavy GPU coolers and rough handling." You'll also find built-in support for Intel's gigabit Ethernet and Optane storage technologies. (More on the latter here.)

The Rampage VI Apex made headlines earlier this year when it reached a record 7.56GHz on all four cores and eight threads with Intel's Core i7 7740K. (Others vied for the overclocking crown, too, with Gigabyte's X299-SOC Champion reaching a flat 7.5GHz with the same CPU.) Asus said in May that the board is "purpose-built for setting records at sub-zero temperatures—not just with LN2, but also with more exotic liquid helium."

It also has one DIMM slot per channel to improve memory stability and performance, and the DIMM.2 slots are positioned to "exploit airflow from off-the-shelf memory coolers, preventing thermal throttling from slowing your storage during record attempts." Asus cut the Rampage VI Apex in a way that should make it easy to manage cables, too, which is vital if you're trying to make sure nothing gets in the way of your overclocking.

The Rampage VI Extreme, as you might expect from the name, kicks things up a notch. The motherboard features 10Gb LAN support, 802.11ad Wi-Fi, and support for up to 128GB of memory, versus the Apex's gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac wireless, and support for up to 64GB of memory. (We do feel compelled to note that the Apex should be the high-end model in the series, given that its name means "the highest or culminating point," but hey.)

Besides the expanded specs, the Rampage VI Extreme boasts a reinforced backplate with a separate GPU holder and a LiveDash OLED screen that can be used to monitor fan speeds, system temperatures, and frequencies as well as custom messages and graphics. Dual flow headers allow coolant data monitoring, and a special connector "lets water blocks designed for the Extreme provide flow, temperature, and leakage data."

Asus said the ROG Rampage VI Apex and Extreme will debut "shortly" at "leading resellers" in North America for $430 and $650, respectively.

In addition to the search for a new home for the races of the Milky Way galaxy, Mass Effect: Andromeda lets you participate in APEX Missions, which are story-based variants of the game’s multiplayer mode. In the middle of the July 4 festivities yesterday, the team at Bioware teased some new content for the missions, which include a higher difficulty setting and new foes.

The 11-second trailer briefly showed the icon for a new difficulty level in APEX Missions. At launch, you can choose from Bronze-, Silver-, or Gold-level difficulties for each sortie. With the latest update, which arrives tomorrow (July 6), you’ll get an even tougher challenge with Platinum-level missions. Successfully surviving multiple waves of enemies at the Platinum level provides you with some high-end rewards to use in the single-player campaign.

You can also try the new difficulty level against a familiar enemy from the original Mass Effect trilogy. The main attraction of the teaser trailer was the four-eyed batarian. These aliens were known in the Milky Way as drug smugglers and slave traders. Some of the more reputable alien races, such as the salarians and turians, have their own ships on the way to the Andromeda galaxy, and it’s possible that the batarians illegally hitched a ride and are looking for new customers or slaves in the uncharted galaxy.

The batarians and the introduction of the Platinum difficulty are the latest in Bioware’s additions to the Mass Effect: Andromeda multiplayer experience. Right after launch, the studio added the first of its APEX Missions to the game, and subsequent chapters, which relate to Andromeda’s new species, came out on an almost-weekly basis. It’s safe to say that the developers will continue to implement more features to the multiplayer, but the addition of new content to the single-player story is still in the air. Unlike most games today, Mass Effect: Andromeda did not include a Season Pass for additional downloadable content, which casts the arrival of additional stories or characters in the main campaign in doubt.

EK Water Blocks is on another product announcement kick. The last few weeks have seen an assortment of full-cover GPU water block releases. This week, EKWB appears to have its focus on monoblocks. On Monday, we saw the first monoblock for AMD’s new platform. Today, EKWB’s sights are back to Intel, with a block for Asus’ ROG Maximus IX Apex.

EK Water Blocks is one of the few water cooling companies that builds monoblock parts, and it builds a lot of them. The company has a wide range of monoblock motherboard coolers for Intel X99, Z170, and Z270 motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. And EKWB is starting to embrace AMD’s X370 chipset as well.

Most people with water-cooled PCs use a universal CPU block to cool their processor. CPU water blocks are direct replacements for the heatsink and fan setup you find in most computers, which deliver the cooling performance most people desire. But EKWB knows its most enthusiastic customers aren’t “most people,” so it offers motherboard monoblocks as a premium solution for those who demand the best performance. When you’re pushing your CPU to its limit, it puts extra stress on the voltage regulation hardware (VRMs), which increases their heat output and potentially introduces instability. Monoblocks offer superior cooling performance because they make direct contact with the CPU and the VRMs.

EKWB designed its latest monoblock for one of Asus’ top Z270 boards. The EK-FB Asus M9A Monoblock fits Asus’s Maximus IX Apex, which is a board meant for overclockers and a worthy recipient of a monoblock cooler. The Apex includes advanced features such as dual BIOS chips, LN2 mode, and built-in headers for water cooling. It also features dual 8-pin EPS 12V ATX power plugs, which means the VRMs on this board work hard. Extra cooling for the voltage components could be a big help for the Maximus IX Apex.

The EK-FB Asus M9A Monoblock is built from nickel-plated electrolytic copper and features a clear acrylic top. EKWB doesn’t offer it’s monoblock coolers with bare copper bases or black Acetal tops like it does for the universal CPU coolers and typical full-cover GPU blocks. The EK-FB Asus M9A Monoblock is also curiously missing an RGB light strip. Asus offers Aura Sync lighting and two additional headers on the Maximus IX Apex, and EKWB offers RGB strips on some of its monoblocks, such as the X370 Crosshair block that launched this week. It’s unclear why EKWB neglected to install an RGB kit on the Apex monoblock.

The EK-FB Asus M9A Monoblock is available now for $137 through the EK Webshop and the company’s global reseller network.