Chinese New Year 2020

Update 2020-03-02: Orders are now processed as usual  Update: Due to the COVID-19 outbreak order shipments are stalled indefinitely. Due to Chinese New Year holidays from Jan 23rd to 31st, no orders will be shipped out during those dates. Surrounding days will also experience delays. Please take this into considering before placing your order.

Intel Core i9-10980XE: 5 GHz on 18 cores

With Intel’s 10 nm products not yet being ready for the desktop market, they’ve had to get creative with their product releases. In a third processor update for the X299 platform they present us with Cascade Lake-X. It arrives with promises of increased performance through frequency bumps, courtesy of another advancement in 14 nm process technology.

AMD Threadripper 3000: 30% faster at 30% lower power

After releasing Zen 2 for mainstream desktop as Ryzen 3000 and for server as EPYC 7002, AMD is following up with a 7 nm update to the Threadripper platform. While desktop users are mostly concerned with performance over power, improvements to energy efficiency usually allows for higher overall performance. The release of second generation Threadripper processors in 2018 increased the peak core count from 16 to 32 resulting in escalated power consumption. This article takes a look at how Zen 2’s improved energy efficiency translates to raw performance for high-end desktops.

Ryzen 9 3950X Cinebench R15 - Single benchmark

A look at the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X

Since it was first discovered the latest product line of AMD mainstream desktop processors would be configured with up to two CCD (Core Complex Dies) there has been anticipation for a 16-core model. With the release of the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X, the highest available core count in this segment has doubled in the past…

VRM Load-Line Visualized

Many like to tinker with their motherboard load-line settings to achieve better overclocking results. But how does this setting really work and how does the voltage output change with it? Check below to find out. What is Load-Line? The load-line setting, normally in mΩ (milliohms), determines how much the output voltage decreases when loaded. This…

AMD Ryzen 3000 Investigated

This is an investigation of AMD Ryzen 3000 with the aim to highlight changes to memory and fabric behavior on Zen 2 (Matisse). As you’ve probably seen, Ryzen 3000 is capable of much higher memory speeds than previous generations. The main reason for this is added circuitry on-chip that allows running the memory clock (MCLK)…

EVC2 Status Update

The EVC2 is soon ready for release and should be available in mid-June. It’s estimated to cost 35 USD without the OLED display which will be a 5 USD add-on. Quick specs 3x I2C headers working at 3.3-5.0V 1x UART header, TX 3.3V RX 3.3-5.0V 1x SPI header with on-board supply (0.8-3.6V) VMOD header for…

Product Mailing List

Many have contacted me asking when planned products will be available. Progress has been slow but fear not, things are moving forward! In order to improve communication I’ve created a product mailing list through Mailchip (below). Don’t delay, subscribe today!

P80DB1L and P80DB2 LPC Port 80 Debug Card

The P80DB1L card allows you to display motherboard debug information, even if there’s no such display on your motherboard. It uses an Altera/Intel Max V CPLD which decodes data sent to port 80 on the LPC bus, which is accessible on many motherboards using the TPM header. Newer SPI TPM headers are not compatible. Pinouts…

Radeon RX 480 Running 1700 MHz Core

After working out some quirks I finally got around to test the RX480 full out on LN2. It’s not incredible but not all bad. This specific card was not the best clocker to begin with so I think we can see up to 1800 MHz on a better sample. The highest validated result was done…