We have already discussed the two largest CPU vendors, now it’s time for slightly smaller IT players, in random order.
Thermaltake presented a new watercooling system, not All-In-One (AIO) but custom, nicely named Pacific C240 and C360. It is an advanced CPU cooling solution, sold as a complete setup. Who knows – perhaps that’s the setup you will find in our next ACTINA Monster? ;-). There was also something new for those who are not so well versed in water use in PCs: an AIO setup (a cooler with permanent tubing connections to a pump block + fans), with a less friendly item name: The Water 3.0 ARGB Sync Edition. Its characteristics include the use of fans with addressable LEDs, for very attractive lighting and illumination changes. To remain in the water environment – how about RAM watercooling? Thermaltake says: yes, publishing a video on YouTube to preesnt their product.
In Las Vegas, CoolerMaster presented its new cases, some of them developed (with stickers?) together with Asus. Specifically, these were the following products: MasterBox Q500L/P, MasterBox NR400/NR600, MasterBox Q300L TUF Edition, MasterBox K500 Phantom Gaming Edition and, for example, MasterCase H500P Mesh Phantom Gaming Edition. The pricing range was quite attractive, starting at 45$, and the products are expected in stores in February (some models) and in the second half of the year (most of them).
Apart from CM’s cases, we will also see new cooling systems (air cooling – the MasterAir line, water cooling – the MasterLiquid line) and fans branded as MasterFan.
Corsair presented visually attractive RAM sticks from its Dominator Platinum RGB line, with the new Capellix LED lighting, and new mice for gamers.
Seagate, which had (finally) announced its BarraCuda SSDs at Computex, came to CES with BarraCuda 510, a very speedy NVMe M.2 drive, capable of reaching 3400MB/s read speed. Some serious competitors are growing for WD Black and Samsung 970 Pro drives. Look for these drives in our most agile ACTINA PC models. With the Barracudas, some new SSDs for NAS were presented – the IronWolf line, storage capacity of 240GB to 3.84TB.
Phison, manufacturer of SSD controllers (its controllers are installed by a number of drive manufacturers, including our local GoodRAM), presented a working prototype of an SSD controller setup PS5016-E16, compatible with the most recent PCI-Express 4.0. This setup is expected to reach 4000MB/s data read and write speed. These speeds can now be achieved by top running NVMe drives arrayed into RAID 0. Just a reminder: actual data transfer rate for classic SATA SSDs is around 520MB/s…
FSP (one of the largest manufacturer of all types of power supply units for hardware, branded as Fortron, for example) presented a complete portfolio of its power supply range (why not?), including the latest Hydro PTM+ line, offering top rated (1000W) models with watercooling option. Those with a preference for less extreme products can choose from new powerful compact SFX components.
