With the annual Consumer Electronics Show right around the corner and the industry’s marketing efforts going into overdrive, what is it that we will likely see next week?

It’s a safe bet that if will be a week of opposites.

From hardware going to both larger and smaller designs, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) G-Sync versus AMD (NYSE: AMD) FreeSync, small displays with massive resolution, and gaming notebooks of both massive and diminutive sizes.

Small form factor hardware as is one of the fastest growing areas in the hardware segment, and no doubt there will be a lot of it on display at CES.  With hardware becoming so powerful and small we are seeing a lot of really powerful builds that can be done.  With even MATX X99 boards we are seeing that there is a move toward making things small and potent.  On the other side there is a lot of huge pieces of hardware showing up on the market, namely 4K and ultra wide monitors.  They are becoming even more prolific and the ultra wide monitors are drawing a lot of interest from gamers and power users who were once planning on going for a 4K monitor or two.  There will be a lot of talk this CES about AMD’s FreeSync for enthusiast gaming monitors as it is the newcomer challenging Nvidia’s established G-Sync.  FreeSync will draw the attention of monitor manufacturers since it is less costly to implement and license than the G-Sync solution.  The LG 34UM67 will be a curved ultra wide monitor that will feature AMD’s FreeSync, and should definitely steal a lot of the spotlight next week.

The mobile computing segment is also something to watch next week as we will see a lot of small notebooks with very high resolution displays.  It is easy to say that there will be a number of notebook models that will feature 3K and 4K screens, even at the 15.6-inch sizes.  There will also be a movement with ultraportable gaming notebooks of small size that can be docked with a desktop graphics card for superior gaming ability while at a desk.  With the shrinking of parts that make up computers we will be seeing a drastic reduction in size and weight of these ulta portable notebooks.  Not only will they be smaller but they will be potent and even come equipped with quad-core Intel i7 processors and decent graphics.  On the other hand you will also see that there is a move to the opposite extreme as there will be new 18″ gaming notebooks that will be the true embodiment of the “desktop replacement” name.  Some of these huge notebooks will even sport gaming grade mechanical keyboards featuring Cherry MX Brown switches.

Be sure to check back throughout next week as CES 2015 kicks off in Las Vegas.

The post PC Enthusiats: What Can We Expect to See at CES 2015? appeared first on VR World.

Galax has brought out its own addition to add to the growing lineup of small form factor GTX 970s.  The new GTX 970 Black Edition is only 19cm long and packs as much power as a standard sized GTX 970.

Today Galax (aka Galaxy) announced a brand new videocard in its GTX 970 lineup, the GTX 970 Black Edition.  The card is meant to be a small form factor that will be compact enough to fit in many small form factor(SSF) cases.  The card is only 19cm long and has a very nice custom cooler employing twin 80mm fans sitting atop a aluminum fins fed by three heat-pipes.  The card come factory overclocked with a base clock of 1126MHz and a boost clock of 1266MHz.  Galax decided to leave the memory alone as it is running the standard 7GHz memory clock.  The card will be available very shortly for about €320 from a variety of retailers and etailers.

The Nvidia GTX 970 is currently the “it” card of the moment as it is quite frankly the model that provides the best price to performance ratio.  The GTX 970s have been in a constant state of in-stock and out of stock from various sellers due to the popularity.  This has created a lot of frustration for consumers who are wanting to upgrade only to find that it is constantly out of stock, and it becomes a game of check the store for availability.  The fact is that these cards are so powerful and so energy efficient that to be able to build a small form factor build with one of these new cards would be just as powerful as a full sized system.  The small form factor builds are becoming increasingly popular amount enthusiast and with the Intel X99 motherboards coming out in mATX sizes users can now create powerful rigs that take only a fraction of the space as they used to while being more powerful.

The post Galax Brings Out The New GTX 970 Black Edition appeared first on VR World.

When looking to build a mATX PC there are more and more case options coming on the market.  BitFenix has a lot of choices for mATX and Mini-ITX cases and the Prodigy M is the big brother to the Prodigy case that is for Mini-ITX.  The BitFenix Prodigy M is one of the more popular mATX cases on the market now and  after testing we found out why that is.  The case is a bit unique with the power supply being relocated to the front of the case while using an extension to allow the power cord to plug into the rear of the case.  This design allows for more open space around the motherboard and components when everything is installed.  The downside we found was that depending on the size of the power supply used there can be interference with installed GPUs or longer add-in cards.

Specifications

Model: BFC-PRM-300-KKXSK-RP

Type: MicroATX Mini Tower

Color: Midnight BlackCase

Material: Steel / PlasticWith

Power Supply: No

Power Supply Mounted: Bottom

Motherboard Compatibility: Micro ATX, Mini-ITX

Cooling: 2x 120mm Fans

Front Ports: USB 3.0 / Audio

Dimensions: 250 x 404 x 359mm

Expansion

External 5.25″ Driver Bays:1

Internal 3.5″ Drive Bays: 4

Internal 2.5″ Drive Bays: 5

Expansion Slots: 5

Features

Cooling Top: 120mm x 2 (optional)

Cooling Bottom: 120mm x 2 (1 included) or 200mm x 1(optional) or 230mm x 1 (optional)

Cooling Rear: 120mm x 1 (included) or 140mm x 1 (optional)

FyberFlex handles, SofTouch surface treatment, heat shield

The next page will cover Packaging and Case Design

The post BitFenix Prodigy M: High Quality In A Small Size appeared first on VR World.