Home Release roundup: Virtu on AMD, SSD cache drives, and more
News

Release roundup: Virtu on AMD, SSD cache drives, and more

Cyril Kowaliski
Disclosure
Disclosure
In our content, we occasionally include affiliate links. Should you click on these links, we may earn a commission, though this incurs no additional cost to you. Your use of this website signifies your acceptance of our terms and conditions as well as our privacy policy.

This week in the roundup, we bring news from ASRock, Cooler Master, Corsair, and MSI:

  • ASRock introduces motherboard supporting Lucid Virtu Universal MVP Technology. There’s a nice self-explanatory headline to kick things off. ASRock’s new A75 Pro4/MVP motherboard combines an A75 chipset, an FM1 socket ripe for A-series processors from AMD, and of course, Lucid’s Virtu Universal MVP technology. That means users can benefit from Lucid’s unfortunately named (but nonetheless exciting) HyperFormance feature, which works as a sort of virtual vsync to keep frame latencies consistent. Check out Scott’s writeup for more details.
  • Cooler Master kicks off March Madness sales event. This announcement is rife with tenuous basketball references, but the nugget of news within should make some folks smile. Right now, Cooler Master is offering 1050W and 1300W Silent Pro Hybrid power supplies bundled with free cases and 5.25" fan controllers. The cheapest bundle costs $309.99 (or $249.99 after a mail-in rebate) and includes the 1050W modular PSU and an HAF 922 enclosure. You can also get the 1300W model and a fancier HAF 932 case for $359.99, or $299.99 after rebate.
  • Corsair announces availability of Accelerator Series solid-state cache drives. Corsair’s Accelerator SSDs are cheap and have small capacities—the company charges $69, $84, and $99 for the 30GB, 40GB, and 60GB models, respectively. The idea isn’t to store your entire operating system on them, but to use the drives as cache for a mechanical hard drive. That’s why Corsair bundles Nvelo’s Dataplex caching software with the SSDs. Corsair says users "may see an improvement in read/write speeds of up to 5x their current hard drive performance"—and there’s no need to reinstall your operating system or image your hard drive, either. Just put in the drive, install the software, and you should be good to go.

  • MSI announces all new MSI R7800 Twin Frozr Series. These MSI graphics cards are just two of the many tricked-out Radeon HD 7800-series variants we’re sure to see from AMD’s partners (once the 7800 series becomes available on March 19, that is). Still, they look pretty slick, with Twin Frozr III dual-fan coolers and higher-than-normal clock speeds. MSI claims the R7870 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC runs 15°C cooler and 9 dB quieter than the reference AMD card, despite the fact that it’s clocked 50MHz above the reference speed. Meanwhile, the R7850 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC is clocked at 900MHz, up from the default 860MHz.

It’s nice to see companies like MSI slapping their own coolers on the new Radeons. As good as the reference Radeon HD 7870 is, the blower-style cooler is a little noisy for my taste.

Latest News

Apple Might Join Hands with Google or OpenAI for Their AI Tech
News

Apple Is Reportedly Planning to Join Hands with Google or OpenAI to License Their AI Tools

YouTube Launches New Tool To Help Label AI-generated Content
News

YouTube Launches a New Tool to Help Creators Label AI-Generated Content

YouTube released a tool that will make creators clearly label the parts of their content that are generated by AI. The initiative was first launched in November in an attempt...

Ripple Dumps 240 Million XRP Tokens Amid 17% Price Decline
Crypto News

Ripple Dumps 240 Million XRP Tokens Amid 17% Price Decline

Popular crypto payment platform Ripple has released 240 million XRP tokens in its latest escrow unlock for March. This comes at a time when XRP’s price has declined significantly. Data from...

Crypto Expert Draws A Links Between Shiba Inu And Ethereum
Crypto News

Crypto Expert Draws Link Between Shiba Inu And Ethereum

The Lucrative FTX Bankruptcy Trade and Ongoing Legal Battle
Crypto News

The Lucrative FTX Bankruptcy Trade and Ongoing Legal Battle

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Set to Enter “Danger Zone” – Time to Back-Off or Bag More Coins?
Crypto News

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Set to Enter “Danger Zone” – Time to Back-Off or Bag More Coins?

SNB to Kick Off Rate Cut Cycle Sooner Than Expected
News

SNB to Kick-Start Rate Cut Cycle Sooner Than Expected