The former is likely to be a feature on upcoming Intel motherboards, whereas the latter will be a very interesting addition to the BRIX mini-PC range.
The former is likely to be a feature on upcoming Intel motherboards, whereas the latter will be a very interesting addition to the BRIX mini-PC range.
The build-up towards Computex 2017 has begun and component manufacturer GIGABYTE‘s social media team are teasing a couple of innovations due to be shown off at the event. It’s still early days so the really meaty reveals have yet to come, but both of these are still worth talking about.
First is an improvement being made to the M.2 storage provision on upcoming AORUS motherboards, what GIGABYTE are calling an M.2 Thermal Guard (shown above). Similar to MSI’s M.2 Shield, the idea is to act as a removable heatspreader for hot M.2 SSDs that will serve to reducing throttling on especially fast models.
One criticism of similar solutions has been poor performance due to two factors, only one of which is in the control of the manufacturer: prevalence of dual-sided M.2 SSDs, and the location of the M.2 slot preventing adequate air flow over the heatspreader. GIGABYTE are addressing the latter by positioning it close to the bottom-right of the motherboard below the PCH, well away from typically cramped locations between PCI-E slots (and toasty GPUs). The design is also significantly more bulky, resembling more of a heatsink than simple heatspreader thanks to multiple fins on the surface. No doubt they will also advise that users stick to single-sided SSDs when using the Thermal Guard.
The second piece of technology to be teased is the GIGABYTE BRIX VR. An umbrella brand for GIGABYTE’s small form factor mini-PC’s, the BRIX range has become significantly more powerful since it debuted with a Intel Ivybridge CPU and on-die GPU many years ago. It appears that this latest model will come equipped with some very powerful hardware including an NVIDIA GTX 1060 GPU, allowing it to operate as a desktop system driving a VR HMD. If they can do this and keep noise under control it could be a very interesting product indeed.
More information about GIGABYTE’s Computex2017 lineup will no-doubt be forthcoming in the very near future. Computex 2017 begins on May 30th and is located in Taipei, Taiwan.
