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Friday, July 28th, 2017
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| 8:00a | Samsung Galaxy S8 Showdown: Exynos 8895 vs. Snapdragon 835, Performance & Battery Life Tested The Samsung Galaxy S8’s headline features are its edge-to-edge Infinity Display and striking new design. Of course it still comes packed with the latest hardware and technology like previous Galaxy phones, including iris recognition, wireless charging, and a flagship SoC. Actually, there are two different SoCs for the S8 and S8+. Most regions around the world will get Samsung's Exynos 8895, while regions that require a CDMA modem, such as the US and China, will get Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835. Both SoCs are built on Samsung's 10nm LPE process and are paired with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of UFS NAND. While no market receives both types of phones through official channels, with the wonders of modern shipping, anyone with a bit of time and patience would have little trouble tracking down the out-of-region version of the phone. Consequently, for the nerdy among us, we simply have to ask: how do these dueling SoCs compare? Which SoC – and consequently which phone – is better? Today we’ll delve into the performance differences between the Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895 to help answer those questions. We'll also see how well they work with the Galaxy S8’s other hardware and software when we evaluate its system performance, gaming performance, and battery life. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:00a | Corsair Announces White Color Option for RM750x and RM850x Power Supplies
Corsair has announced a new color option for the RMx series power supplies, Arctic White. Readers with a watchful eye may remember that a while ago the company brought out a special edition of the RM1000i PSU in white. Now by popular demand, Corsair has made this a standard option for two of their PSUs, the RM750x and RM850x. The newly redecorated power supplies are otherwise identical to their existing black-painted counterparts. This means they have fully modular cabling which can minimize the amount of wires users need to use, and see, in their cases allowing for a cleaner look. The cables come already individually sleeved in white with black connectors using three layers of paracord for each. Also something of note, one will find in-line capacitors on the ATX, EPS12V, and PCIe cables which Corsair says helps reduce ripple and noise, and improve voltage regulation.
Features of the RMx series include a Zero RPM Fan Mode, where the rifle bearing 135mm fan sit idle during light to medium loads, only spinning up with heavy loads or at a specific temperature. On top of that The RMx line carries an 80 Plus Gold certification for efficiency, uses 100% all Japanese capacitors rated to 105C, and provides owners with a long 10 year warranty.
Gallery: Corsair RMx white
   The Artic White versions will fetch a $10 premium over the traditional charcoal/black RMx models. They are priced at $149.99 for the RM750x and $169.99 for the RM850x at the Corsair Website. Finally, Corsair is also stating that at least for now, this is it for white RMx PSUs; there are no plans to produce the lower wattage RMx series power supplies in white. Related Reading: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12:00p | Silverstone Announces New SFF Chassis: RVZ03 With RGB Light Strip
Silverstone, a familiar face in several enthusiast markets, has announced a new Small Form Factor (SFF) case, the RVZ03. Nestled in its Raven "extreme enthusiast chassis" line, the RVZ03 is an update from their existing RVZ01 chassis from both a styling perspective and the addition of integrated RGB LEDs, giving the lineup its first RGB fix. Silverstone says the Raven Series RVZ03 “...redefines SFF computing with flair.”
The front panel styling differs in appearance versus its predecessor by reshaping the front fascia to give it a more angular shapes as compared to the more plain panel of the RVZ01. The “flair" Silverstone was talking about comes in the form of the RGB LED strip on that front panel. They mention it has the same interior room, supporting Mini-ITX and Mini-DTX motherboards, a standard ATX(PS2) power supply up to 150mm (Silverstone recommends 140mm with flat cables), space for large graphics cards up to 13” (330mm) x 5.88” (149mm) wide, and has “superb air cooling performance”. There is room for up to four 2.5” SSDs or HDDs internally for storage needs. Further, the case can be laid flat or standing up as to fit in whatever space buyers may have.
Looking at the restyled front panel, it holds two USB3.0 ports, 7mm audio and microphone jacks, power/reset buttons, and a drive activity light. The added RGB LED visual is a line running through the front panel of the case, parting the USB/Audio jacks and the Power/Reset buttons on either side. The RVZ03 includes Silverstone's LSB01 RGB light strip control box for allowing expansion and control over additional RGB strips. RGB LED regulation can be done in two ways. First. via the control box itself allowing to swap between several modes (single color, breathing, gradient, and a rotation of those). The second method is by using motherboard RGB software including AURA Sync, AUR RGB LED, RGB Fusion, and Mystic Light. Below is a complete list of specifications:
The RVZ03 comes with two 120mm, 1500RPM, 18dB(a) fans on the top and bottom of the case with space for an additional 120mm fan. Both included fans are bringing fresh air in the case setting up a positive pressure environment. Silverstone says this is to help prevent dust buildup inside the chassis and quietness. The maximum height of the CPU cooler must be 83mm or less. There is also support for using AIO solutions as well. Gallery: Silverstone RVZ03
      The RVZ03 is available in Europe starting today with pricing set at 97.50€ (about $114) excluding VAT. Pricing and availability for the US market was not available at the time of publication. Related Reading: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2:00p | Thermaltake Releases New Smart RGB Power Supply Series
The Thermaltake Smart lines of power supplies have been in the market for a few years now. Since its inception, the line expanded and updated with the introduction of the Pro and White lines, all suitable for a wide range of opreations. Capacity of these lines range 500W to 1000W which cover the vast majority of users needs. One item these lines initially did not address were consumers appetite for RGB lightning - even on a power supply. While the Smart Pro line already came out with RGB offerings several months ago (around the perimeter of the cooling fan), the regular Smart line had not. Cue the recent release of the Smart RGB series from Thermaltake. The RGB nomenclature added to the product name quite obviously implies the use of RGB LEDs somewhere on these power supplies. In Smart RGB product stack, Thermaltake moved the RGB LEDs from the outside of the cooling fan to the fan hub illuminating the entire fan in the process. The 10 RGB LEDs come pre-installed on the 120mm fan and support 256 colors with 15 lighting modes ( Pulse Red/ Green/ Blue/ Yellow/ Purple/ Light Blue/ White, 256 color RGB cycle, Solid Red/ Green/ Blue/ Yellow/ Purple/ Light Blue/ White, and a LED Off). Each different mode is selected by pressing the RGB lightning button. These cannot be controlled via software. Outside of the RGB LEDs, Thermaltake Smart PSUs use an “Ultra quiet” 120mm fan with intelligent RPM control. The fan cruve ramps up fairly slowly until you reach around 60% load where it ramps up a bit more aggressively. Thermaltake shows these fans under full load reaching a maximum of 28.6dB (700W model – a bit less for the 500W). As far as efficiency goes, the Smart Line is certified at a basic 80 Plus.
All models in the series use a single 12V+ rail eliminating the opportunity for system limitations due to multi-rail power caps. The Smart and Smart RGB lines can also be found in 230V form for those located in Europe and other areas which have higher voltage at the wall. Pricing and availability were not on hand at the time of publication. But we can expect the RGB version to fetch a bit more than the non-RGB versions. Related Reading: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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