Hardware Reviews. One MegaHertz at a Time

Your computers power supply is the heart of your system and should be given as much thought as any other component in your build. Overclocking with a substandard power supply can be frustrating and systems can even be damaged by overtaxing lowe quality power supplies. When choosing power supplies we always look for at least a 25% excess capacity and with the new mega core CPU's and overclocking reaching 5GHz on a routine basis nows the time to think about your PSU choices. We like watt monster power supplies in the 1000W or higher range and planning for the future so we tend to go high on wattage. SilverStone was kind enough to send us one of their 1500W monster power supplies to look at and we have the SilverStone Silver Strider ST-1500GS 80+ Gold power supply on the bench today.

Taken from the ancient Roman and Greek word for owl, Strix means the keenest hearing and sharpest eyesight. The ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming brings the very best Audio and Gaming features, along with overclocking and cooling innovations to Intel’s 8^Th generation platform to dominate your game. With silver accented heatsinks and aesthetics inspired by the sharpest blades, you can look great while decimating your digital foes. 

The ASUS Republic of Gamers (aka ‘ROG) is a family of premium gaming products ranging from video cards to motherboards to peripherals, but every enthusiast knows the foundation of any build is the motherboard. If you look up the definition of ‘Hero’ and ignore the bit about a sandwich, you are left with “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities”. ASUS has plenty out outstanding achievements, and the ROG line is about as noble as you can get in the PC world, so can the Maximus X be the Hero of your next gaming build?

With new CPU chips commonly capable of 5GHz and chips with anywhere up to 18 cores capable of 4.5GHz or more CPU cooling is a whole new ballgame!  With the Z170, Z270, Z370 and  X399 chipsets on the market and sporting super fast and mega multi-core designs AIO (All In One) water cooling is all the rage and becoming more the norm for enthusiasts and high-end platforms. EVGA is in the water cooling arena and hit it with a 120mm (Single Radiator one 120mm fan), 240mm (Dual Radiator two 120mm Fans), and a 280mm (Dual Radiator two 140mm Fans) and we have all three on the test bench.

This past January, Gigabyte officially replaced their G1-Gaming line up with the AORUS brand with the launch of Intel’s Z270 chipset. Originally designated for their high-end laptops, the AORUS name is now branded on Gigabyte’s graphics cards and motherboards. Now, less than a year later, Intel has launched their 8th generation of Core processor’s and their all new Z370 chipset. Although the Z370 chipset is still sporting the same LGA 1151 socket, the Z370 chipset only supports the new 8th generation of Core processors. So, if you plan to upgrade to the 8th generation, it will require a new motherboard.

Today Intel releases their new 8th generation Core Processors, known as Coffee Lake-S. While socket LGA 1151 is retained for this generation, Intel has tweaked so much to deliver the ultimate mainstream desktop experience, 8th gen CPU’s can only function on new 300 series motherboards. Intel’s mainstream offerings have topped out at 4 cores for many generations now, but 8th generation CPU’s give that a 50% increase to 6 cores on Core i5 and i7 offerings. Eighth generation Core i3 CPU’s see doubling of the core count to quad-core, and all three segments offer fully unlocked SKU’s for maximizing performance. Technologies such as Hyper-Threading and Turbo-Boost remain, but several new features make their appearance in this segment as well.