Acer has just announced the expansion of its Predator Helios Neo portfolio with the all-new Predator Helios Neo 16 AI and Predator Helios Neo 18 AI gaming laptops.

Powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTXTM 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, built to deliver impactful AI capabilities for players entering the next era of gaming.

50 Series Laptop GPUs bring game-changing capabilities to gamers and creators. Equipped with a massive level of AI horsepower, the RTX 50 Series enables new experiences and next-level graphics fidelity.

Multiply performance with NVIDIA DLSS 4, generate images at unprecedented speed, and unleash creativity with NVIDIA Studio. Plus, access NVIDIA NIM microservices – state-of-the-art AI models that let enthusiasts and developers build AI assistants, agents, and workflows with peak performance on NIM-ready systems.

In addition to the combination of their powerful silicon, the Predator Helios Neo AI devices showcase impressive display options. The 16-inch model offers up to an OLED panel option, while the 18-inch version features a Mini LED display. Both devices are equipped with 5th Gen AeroBlade 3D fans, ensuring smooth performance and advanced cooling under any task or challenge.

The Windows 11 Predator gaming laptops come with three months of PC Game Pass, designed for PC players, and provides access to games on day one such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Ara: History Untold, and titles from EA Play.

Acer’s Predator Helios Neo AI line focuses on delivering affordable price points by zeroing in on select key components. The Helios Neo 16 AI (PHN16-73) AI is ideal for gamers and professionals on the go, while the Helios Neo 18 AI (PHN18-72) serves as a great desktop replacement option.

Both gaming laptops are equipped with the latest technology in the market and feature subdued minimalist designs with an RGB logo on the lid and dynamic 4-zone RGB keyboards. The Predator Helios Neo laptops are extremely powerful, offering up to an Intel CoreTM Ultra 9 275HX processor that ensures ultra-smooth and responsive gameplay.

Users will experience fine- tuned game and system performance with less latency and automatic enhancements on classic titles, thanks to ongoing updates to the Intel Application Optimisation application. Additionally, these laptops come with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTXTM 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, featuring the latest NVIDIA DLSS 4, a revolutionary suite of neural rendering technologies that uses AI to boost FPS, reduce latency, and improve image quality. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPUs also enhance the laptops with ray tracing for cinematic quality visuals at unprecedented speed, enabled by 4th gen RT Cores and breakthrough neural rendering technologies accelerated with 5th gen Tensor cores.

Both models support up to 64 GB of memory and 2 TB of storage, and come with Intel Killer Ethernet E3100G and Wi-Fi 6E to deliver fast and reliable gaming sessions and internet connections.

In addition to their advanced CPU and GPU specifications, the gaming laptops offer premium displays; the Helios Neo 16 AI features an OLED WQXGA (2560×1600) display with a 240 Hz refresh rate and 1 ms response time.

The Helios Neo 18 AI includes a Mini LED WQXGA (2560×1600) panel with a speedy 250 Hz refresh rate and 3 ms response time. Both models also support NVIDIA G-SYNC technology, NVIDIA Advanced Optimus, and MUX Switch.

Gaming sessions are kept nice and cool with Acer’s 5th Gen AeroBlade technology, liquid metal thermal grease and a Vector Heat Pipe. They also include the latest PredatorSense 5.0 utility app, an AI Experience Zone and feature AI-enhanced communications such as Acer PurifiedVoice 2.0’s triple microphone array and AI noise reduction technology to filter out unwanted background sounds. Also, the Acer PurifiedView 2.0’s AI-powered webcam solution ensures vclear video and image outputs.

The Predator Helios Neo 16 AI (PHN16-73) and Predator Helios Neo 18 AI (PHN18-72) will be available from Q3, 2025, local pricing still to be confirmed. Exact specifications, prices, and availability will vary by region.

The post Acer Launches New Predator Helios Neo AI Gaming Laptops appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Lights, sound and survival.

JBL’s full sized over the head Quantum 910 gaming headphones have it all, customisable RGB lighting on the outer side of the ear cups, immersive spatial 360 sound and best of all they’re wireless.

Connecting up via bluetooth or via the 2.4GHz USB-C dongle (adaptor included for standard USB) you can literally pair up these bad boys to any gaming device.

And like all late model JBL headsets you can dual pair – meaning that you have these connected up to more than one device, which saves you from having to disconnect from one to play on another.

PS5, Xbox, PC and even mobile, and I’ll mention here how great the Quantum 910’s sound with media streaming and music.

When using these on PC you’ll experience the optimal output as the builtin JBL QuantumSphere360 with headtracking kicks in and gives a true-to-life and almost surreal 3D audio soundscape.

Honestly there’s nothing quite like being stealthy in-game and being able to hear even the most minute whisper of movement as someone tries to quietly sneak up on you.

If you’re a social gamer, JBL have you sorted here to.

The ANC (Active Noise Canceling) is second to none. To test this, I started chatting on Discord all the while slowly pumping up the volume on a Spotify stream via an Alexa device in the background.

While I was able to hear it, albeit muffled by the comfy large ear-cups, the gamer I was talking with couldn’t hear my background one person party. Impressive.

JBL have added everything to the Quantum 910. Clarity and A.I. technology for voice, the aforementioned Spatial Sound and of course the killer audio output overall.

Being wireless you will need to charge them.

I thought that a wireless headset with an RGB light-show would drain the battery real quick, if used.

Essentially it doesn’t. Overall you’ll get up to 45 hours consistent use on a full charge. That’s over one week of 8 hours a day gaming, with the RGB turned off.

But, if you’re like me and you like flashy lights it is only going to limit the battery life by roughly 39 hours.

Charging is via the supplied USB-C cable and if you’re caught short and need to game, there’s a 3.5mm socket to plug yourself in.

Testing this very generous battery life (with RGB lighting enabled) over a two week period (roughly 9 days, 5 – 6 hours of gaming), I’ve not needed to charge them up yet.

The boom mic can bend so that it’s not in your face if you’re not wanting to be chatty and you have toggle buttons for audio etc on the left ear-cup.

The JBL Quantum 910 gaming headset has well exceeded expectations, and is now my forever go-to for gaming audio.

Whatever your into (console, mobile or PC) the JBL Quantum 910’s is the best weapon to have in your arsenal.

The post JBL Quantum 910 Gaming Headset Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The latest generation of Lenovo Legion PCs has arrived, equipping gamers with a smarter class of gear with our unique blend of uncompromised engineering and industrial design.

Stylish on the outside, savage on the inside, the new Lenovo Legion generation comes with, Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 thermal management, Lenovo Legion TrueStrike keyboard, Dual Burn to optimize CPU and GPU performance together, NVIDIA Advanced Optimus, Hybrid Mode, and Rapid Charge Pro for improved battery life and world-class immersive displays optimized by Dolby Vision and OverDrive Support with optional 240Hz refresh rates and response rates of under 1ms.

Powering this exciting new suite of advancements is the latest 10th Gen Intel Core H-Series or AMD Ryzen 4000 Series mobile processors, and up to the recently announced NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti and RTX 2080 SUPER GPUs with Max-Q Design.

Among the thousands of global players surveyed by Lenovo, nearly half responded that they used their gaming PCs for everyday computing as well as gaming. Better graphics, processors and memory options are tops on their must-have list.

A key conclusion was that how people game, with whom, on how many devices, and for how long, all factored heavily when choosing a PC. When they do manage to squeeze in some hardcore gaming time with friends, it is crucial that the experience in those precious hours blows them away.

Lenovo Legion has gamers covered with powerful Windows 10 PCs packed with the following innovations:

Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0

Gamers can extract maximum performance from their rigs through the next-generation thermal efficiencies of Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0. This is the synergy of hardware and software that promotes better airflow, lower system temperatures to keep your Lenovo Legion laptop cool and quiet.

Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 features Dual Burn, which pushes the CPU and GPU to their in-game limits so that gamers can experience more predictable FPS (frames per second) without thermal throttling.

In the past, gaming laptop processors would slow down (thermal throttling) as temperatures rose and framerates would be unpredictable.

Meanwhile, the Lenovo Legion devices stay cool to the touch via an optimized cooling system of heat sinks that dissipate more heat away from the motherboard.

Also integrated into the Lenovo Legion 7i and Lenovo Legion Y740Si are Vapor Chamber Cooling Systems to dispel heat as dual liquid crystal polymer fan systems cycle air with chilling efficiency.

Finally, a multipoint sensor array works to cool down key components in anticipation of intense gameplay.

Lenovo Legion TrueStrike Keyboard

Inspired by Lenovo’s heritage in innovative keyboard technologies, the Lenovo Legion TrueStrike keyboard is precision-crafted to deliver 100 percent anti-ghosting, sub-millisecond response times, and ‘soft-landing’ switches resulting in hair-trigger accuracy.

You can feel a more tactile gaming experience due to its superior key travel via its second transition curve design.

The keyboard layout is ideal for gaming with full-sized keys and number pad, larger one-piece trackpad, arrow keys plus dedicated media keys that will illuminate in over 16 million colors with Corsair iCUE support on the Lenovo Legion 7i, and optional 4-zone RGB lighting on the other new Lenovo Legion laptop models.

Built to withstand heavy long-term use, Lenovo Legion TrueStrike keyboards feature an anti-oil coating to resist abrasion.

Improved Battery Life

Lenovo Legion gaming PCs will be first to feature the new Advanced Optimus designed in collaboration with NVIDIA to boost battery life.

Advanced Optimus dynamically switches between the use of the Integrated Graphic Processing Unit (found on the CPU) for more battery life, to the discrete NVIDIA GPU for higher frames per second. All this happens without a need to reboot the machine.

If gamers want to manually disable their discrete GPU for a longer battery life, they can do so using Lenovo Vantage software’s Hybrid Mode.

Lenovo Q-Control 3.0 also lets users switch between three settings for system voltage and fan speeds – Performance, Quiet, and Balanced.

Upshift to Performance Mode to turbo-charge past the competition with higher CPU voltage and higher FPS. When streaming esports, downshift into Quiet Mode to lower battery drain and fan noise. Or enable Balanced Mode for automatic adjustments based on which apps are open.

Other power-enhancing features include Rapid Charge Pro (from 0 to 50 percent battery in 30 minutes) and battery sip feature (instinctively releases power in small doses for more battery life consistency).

Brilliant Displays

Lenovo Legion makes the most of your display panel’s capabilities through Dolby Vision which offers deeper blacks and brighter whites without washing out color or contrast.

Lenovo Legion laptops offer panels of up to 240hz refresh rates at under 1ms response times for ultra-smooth cinematics without screen tearing.

The new Lenovo Legion laptops offer High Dynamic Range (HDR) on select panels with at least 300nits of brightness, so that dramatic shadowed scenes with high levels of black tones are reproduced vividly with more depth; 100 percent sRGB color accurate panels also offer life-like visuals.

With innovations such as Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 and Lenovo Legion TrueStrike keyboards, Lenovo delivers a level of performance that keeps it the industry’s PC leader.

These new Lenovo Legion laptops plus the refreshed Lenovo Legion Y740Si laptop offer up to the latest 10th Gen Intel Core H-Series mobile processors for powerful performance.

And for the first time in our gaming lineup, players can also opt for premium, high-performance AMD Ryzen 4000 H-Series Mobile Processors in the Lenovo Legion 5.

Lenovo Legion 7i

The Lenovo Legion 7i is the premium 15” gaming laptop that delivers unbridled performance for the most demanding users.

Featuring an all-metal exterior and available in a sleek Slate Grey hue and stylish RGB lighting accents along the base and through the cooling vents, this 2.2kg laptop packs serious punch. It is fitted with up to 10th Gen Intel Core i9 H-Series overclocked mobile processors and advanced thermal management.

Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 boosts performance of the Lenovo Legion 7i with its integrated Vapor Chamber and thermal sensor array. A dual fan system of 73 liquid-crystal polymer fan blades enhances four dedicated thermal channels to cycle air at top speeds.

The 6-point thermal sensor array rapidly predicts incoming thermal requirements to cool key components in advance for quieter and better performing gaming sessions. Dual Burn also pushes the CPU and GPU together for max performance in-game.

The Lenovo Legion TrueStrike keyboard has 100 percent anti-ghosting, sub-millisecond response times, and soft-landing switches for hair-trigger accuracy. You also get the feel of superior key travel via its second transition curve design, allowing a more tactile gaming experience. Its keys are each illuminated in over 16 million color combinations with Corsair iCUE system lighting.

Keyboards on all Lenovo Legion laptops are coated to resist abrasion and the wear-and-tear from oily fingertips. They also feature full-sized keys and a number pad, plus a larger one-piece trackpad, full-sized arrow keys, and dedicated media keys.

The Lenovo Legion 7i is precision-crafted  to showcase breathtaking visuals on its VESA DisplayHDR 400 15-inch IPS Full HD (1920 x 1080) display with up to 240Hz refresh rates with under 1ms response time with OverDrive support, 500nits brightness, 100% sRGB color accuracy.

It is also available in 144Hz with up to 100% Adobe sRGB color accuracy, 500nits brightness and optional NVIDIA G-SYNC.

Get up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GPU with Max-Q Design for ray tracing in-game, engineered to improve lighting and reflection effects for an incredible level of realism.  Then dive into the rich contrasting colors from Dolby Vision on an ultra-vivid display while Dolby Atmos Speaker System sound creates an immersive experience.

The more powerful 80WHr battery on the Lenovo Legion 7i is enhanced by a battery-sipping energy release feature for a more consistent battery life of up to 8 hours, while a slimmer power adapter keeps things moving and flexible. Power up to 50 percent in just 30 minutes with the Rapid Charge Pro4 capabilities.

Multitasking, streaming, and content creation are made easier with ample storage of up to 2TB NVMe PCIe SSD and up to 32GB DDR4 memory.

The 15-inch Lenovo Legion 7i laptop is priced from $3,999AUD.

Lenovo Legion 5Pi

The Legion 5Pi is the advanced 15” gaming laptop for gamers who desire the balance of style and adrenalin. Its minimalist design with white-backlit “Y” logo and subtle Iron Grey chassis will make you look great while battling others online.

The Legion 5Pi offers great gaming performance with the latest 10th Generation Intel Core H-series processors, up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or GTX GPUs. NVIDIA GeForce RTX offers real-time ray-tracing for greater visual fidelity in the latest games.

The laptop features a 15-inch IPS HDR 1080p display with up to 240Hz refresh rate, 500nits brightness and VESA-certified high dynamic range (VESA DisplayHDR 400). The 100% sRGB color-accurate display reproduces true-to-life images and brilliant hues for critical work in photo editing and video production. Thin bezels and Dolby Vision technology create even deeper immersion in games.

The Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 thermal system uses an array of sensors to constantly predict temperatures and optimize cooling. Silent heat dissipation is achieved with the Dual Liquid Crystal Polymer fans. This enables the Legion 5Pi to maximize CPU and GPU performance while ensuring stability, low temperatures and quiet performance.

The advanced Legion TrueStrike 4-zone RGB gaming keyboard features soft-landing switch technology for comfort and tactility with 1.5mm key travel. It is highly accurate with 100% anti-ghosting and a response time of under 1 millisecond.

The Legion 5Pi also has dedicated media controls, full-sized arrow keys, a number pad and a large one-piece trackpad with Windows Precision Drivers that makes navigation comfortable and smooth. The keyboard is also highly durable with a high-resistance coating that resists oil and abrasions.

For blazing load times, the Legion 5Pi offers up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM and up to a 1TB NVMe PCIe solid state drive. It also has Intel Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 wireless technologies, and its webcam comes with a built-in privacy shutter. The Legion 5Pi weighs 2.5kg.

Dolby Atmos together with Harman Kardon speakers make for an immersive audio experience.

The Lenovo Legion 5Pi offers up to an 80WHr battery for up to 8 hours of battery life. With Rapid Charge Pro capabilities, just use the slim power adapter to recharge from zero to up to 50 percent battery life in 30 minutes.
The 15-inch Lenovo Legion 5Pi laptop is available for $2,999AUD.

Lenovo Legion 5i and Lenovo Legion 5

The Lenovo Legion 5i and Lenovo Legion 5 are Lenovo’s mainstream Windows 10 gaming laptops offering several configuration options and next-level NVIDIA GeForce graphics.

All models across the Lenovo Legion 5i and 5 families feature Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 thermal management, Lenovo Legion TrueStrike keyboard, and improved battery life (up to 8 hours) using technologies like Advanced Optimus and Hybrid Mode.

They support faster Wi-Fi 6 and Dolby Atmos, and come in a Phantom Black hue and with Rapid Charge Pro. They also come with up to 16GB DDR4 memory and 1TB PCIe SSD storage.

Lenovo Legion 5i (15” or 17”, 10th Gen Intel Core H-Series mobile processors)

The Legion 5i is fitted with the latest 10th Generation Intel Core H-series processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or GTX GPUs.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX offers real-time ray-tracing for greater visual fidelity in the latest games.

The 15” model has a 15.6” IPS 1080p display with up to 240Hz refresh rate and VESA-certified high dynamic range (HDR 400). With the 100% sRGB color-accurate display, it reproduces true-to-life images and brilliant hues for critical work in photo editing and video.

The Intel-based 15-inch Lenovo Legion 5i will start at $2,199AUD.

Lenovo Legion 5 (15”, AMD Ryzen 4000 H-Series mobile processors)

The Legion 5 offers maximum gaming performance with the latest AMD Ryzen 7 4000 H-Series Mobile Processor with 8 cores, and up to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics for the visual fidelity of real-time ray tracing.

The Legion 5 features a 15.6” IPS 1080p display with up to 144Hz refresh rate, HDR, and 100% sRGB color accuracy. Thin bezels and Dolby Vision technology create even deeper immersion in games.

The AMD-based 15-inch Lenovo Legion 5 will start at $1,999AUD.

Y740Si Laptop and BoostStation eGPU

Lenovo Legion’s thinnest and lightest laptop, the Lenovo Legion Y740Si is just 1.7 kg.

First unveiled at CES, this refreshed laptop with up to 10th Gen Intel Core i9 H-Series mobile processors has an up to 15-inch 4K (3840 x 2160) In-plane Switching (IPS) panel display touting VESA DisplayHDR 400, Dolby Vision and 100 percent RGB color gamut.

When it’s time for fun, shift into the preferred performance mode by manually pressing your Fn+Q keys to trigger Lenovo Q-Control 2.0.

Connect the Lenovo Legion Y740Si to Lenovo Legion BoostStation, the optional external l GPU enclosure that will take your choice of NVIDIA or AMD desktop graphic cards to provide true desktop gaming prowess.

The Lenovo  Legion Y740Si laptop starts at $2,899AUD, and Lenovo Legion BoostStation eGPU can be purchased as a standalone accessory or option to bundle with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB GPU.

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i is made for the avid gamer who wants a high-performance battle station.
Push system performance to the highest settings, while staying quieter and cooler during cinematic gaming experiences with the tower’s optional liquid-cooling system. Get up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GPU for ultrafast frame rates with 4K resolution.

With cool blue LED lighting, optional RGB internal lighting and its chassis in a Phantom Black hue, gamers can choose to showcase their personality and high-power internals with transparent side panels.
Available with up to Intel Core processors, the new tower also features Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 cooling system.

The whisper-quiet Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 thermals encompass a complex system of inner-working hardware and software that allow for better airflow and  lower system temperatures. Its improved thermals have a 150-watt CPU cooler and larger intake fans, letting air circulate faster throughout its airy 28-liter volume interior.

The Lenovo Legion Tower 5 will offer the elite performance of AMD Ryzen desktop processors for the most demanding gamers as an option later this year. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5i desktop will start at $2,499AUD.
IdeaPad Gaming 3i

IdeaPad Gaming 3i

Designed to eliminate screen stuttering, slow game loads, and blistering keyboards, the 15-inch IdeaPad Gaming 3i laptop with optional 120Hz refresh rate features an up to 10th Gen Intel Core i7 H-Series mobile processor.

High-octane gaming sessions on this new laptop can last longer than before, supported by improved thermals with an extra heat pipe dedicated to the discrete GPU in its thermal array, plus dual thermal vents for better airflow.

The clear sound from speakers powered by Dolby Audio complements an up to 15-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS display with slim bezel design. Choose from an optional 120Hz refresh rate and up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU for a truly elevated experience.

This PC stands tall amongst your gaming circle outfitted with Lenovo Q-Control 3.0 for performance mode switching and up to 8 hours of battery life6 with Rapid Charge.

Available in two eye-catching colors, iridescent Chameleon Blue or Onyx Black, and weighing 2.2kg, the IdeaPad Gaming 3i features a blue backlit keyboard with 1.5mm key travel, a one-piece precision trackpad, a full-sized number pad, large arrow keys, and dedicated media keys.

The IdeaPad Gaming 3 will offer AMD Ryzen mobile processors as an option later this year.

The 15-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i laptop will start at $1,849AUD.

IdeaCentre Gaming 5i

The new IdeaCentre Gaming 5i sports cool blue ambient lighting at the front and is equipped with up to Intel Core processors and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU.

Available in an iridescent Chameleon Blue hue, the improved thermals on this tower can both cool the system and hush fan noise under heavy gaming loads. The IdeaCentre Gaming 5 will offer AMD Ryzen desktop processors as an option later this year.

The pure expandability of this tower will grow along with your  gaming needs, and rich, powerful sound from Dolby Audio is supported.

The IdeaCentre Gaming 5i desktop will start at $1,899AUD.

Lenovo Legion Y25-25 Gaming Monitor

With ample port selection on the IdeaCentre Gaming 5i, connecting to peripherals is a snap, so why not match one of the high-performance gaming towers with a great monitor made for gaming like the recently unveiled Lenovo Legion Y25-25 Gaming Monitor with 240Hz refresh rate.

Local pricing is not yet available.

Keep an eye out for more Lenovo gaming innovations to be announced real soon this year (2020).

The post Lenovo Legion Takes Gaming PCs to New Levels appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Maingear is a PC system integrator of custom gaming desktops, notebooks, and workstations and has now launched the new and improved RUSH full-tower desktop.

MAINGEAR’s most advanced gaming PC ever built is the latest addition to the ASUS ROG (Republic of Gamers) certified family of elite gaming hardware. Featuring next-generation custom APEX liquid cooling, and support for the most extreme hardware available, the MAINGEAR RUSH raises the bar for enthusiasts everywhere.

The RUSH is MAINGEAR’s new ultimate gaming PC, with a bold, premium design that supports the most powerful graphics configurations from NVIDIA and the full line of desktop processors available from Intel and AMD. Buyers can choose from a carefully curated selection of the best gaming components on the market to drive today’s hottest games at high-framerates and in 4K (or higher) resolutions.

MAINGEAR partnered with ASUS to make the RUSH ROG Certified, crafting a powerful machine for truly dedicated gamers that also sports a fully integrated RGB lighting experience customizable through ASUS’s Aura Sync software. RUSH owners have complete control over the computer’s lighting system and Aura-compatible peripherals. Paired with MAINGEAR’s own selection of custom paint finishes and MARC designs, the RUSH is a desktop that ensures each owner’s gaming battlestation makes a personalized statement.

“The MAINGEAR RUSH is a powerhouse system designed to push the limits of what hardcore gamers can achieve,” said Wallace Santos, founder and CEO of MAINGEAR. “We have married best in class gaming hardware, from today’s leading brands such as ASUS, with our custom-engineered APEX liquid cooling solution. Every element of the RUSH was designed to deliver unbelievable performance and efficiency.”

Custom RUSH systems include options to outfit the system with up to two NVIDIA TITAN RTX graphics cards, up to the latest Intel 10980XE or AMD 3990X processors, up to 128GB of DDR4-3600 RAM, a selection of top-tier ASUS ROG ATX and E-ATX motherboards, and a full range of ultra-fast NVMe Solid State Drives. A solid steel interior construction, easily accessible tempered glass side- and front panels, and exquisite aluminum exterior with multiple front-facing USB 3.0 ports and a USB Type-C port complete the expertly crafted RUSH chassis.

GM for Open Platform Business Group Americas, Margaret Chen said “We are proud to partner with Maingear on their new ROG-certified RUSH desktop PC, built for ultimate performance. ROG certified systems set the standard for elite gaming builds. With a wide range of ROG motherboards, including our Zenith II Extreme Alpha, on board, and in tandem with our ProArt monitor lineup, the RUSH will be an ideal hub for elite gaming, powerful creation, and sharing content.”

Launching alongside the RUSH is the latest revision to MAINGEAR’s own revolutionary APEX liquid cooling system. The next generation of APEX merges a custom quiet pump, pressure regulated cooling, a flow rate sensor, and a high-capacity reservoir with additional custom parallel GPU and radiator bridges for improved cooling and overclocking potential. Exquisitely machined from solid blocks of crystal-clear acrylic, APEX is the best performing and most visually stunning liquid cooling solution around and it’s available exclusively from MAINGEAR for the RUSH desktop.

The post Maingear releases Rush appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The Legion is calling on you.

Lenovo are the kings of laptops, having a range exclusive to business with their Thinkpads, their personal ones known as Yoga’s and Legion for gamers.

Recently they released their Legion Y7000, a 15.6 inch weaponized beast.

Slick in a matte black finish the 9th Gen Intel i7 processor chipset with 12MB cache crunches data at a whopping 4.5GHz without overclocking. There is a Legion Y7000 Dashboard where you can fine tune this though and prioritize cores aswell as a myriad of other settings to get the most grunt out of the laptop for gaming.

The Y7000 is built to high performance and with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with a dedicated 6GB memory included in to the horsepower under the hood no game and no graphic setting is off limits.

The Lenovo Y7000 has x2 8GB RAM DDR4 sticks for memory (upgradeable) and the model that we received has a 512GB SSD running Windows 10 Pro.

Lenovo Vantage Dashboard on Legion Y7000 laptop

Naturally this includes the Windows mixed reality platform for A.R. (Augmented Reality) and V.R. (Virtual Reality).

While Microsoft still need to come up with an affordable solution for both, the likes of HTC Vive or the latter version of Oculus (the new one is a standalone with streaming capabilities) have you sorted and the Y7000 is built for virtual gaming.

Testing out titles from my Steam library it was a beautiful thing seeing Forza 7, Gears 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Borderlands 3 able to played fluidly and smoothly without the need to water down the eye candy.

For both the professional and casual eSports gamers and streamers the Legion Y7000 is an all in one. The built in web camera records at 720p and while this is on the lower side, the recorded footage does not appear low res. With the Y7000 you’d have a extended and future proofed stronghold on the eSports battle ground, even on battery power.

Whatsmore for the content creators out there the Y7000 is about ten pumped and ready workhorses when it comes to system taxing applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Premier.

Adobe Premier can choke a PCs resources at the best of times, usually depending on how many assets your edit has and the length of it. Then there’s the outputting and rendering of your vids that will get many PCs, especially laptops’ fans going in to hyper drive.

The Y7000 remains quiet and lightning fast.

I love the look of the Y7000. Some could argue that it resembles an Alienware with its formidable red glowing ‘Y’ on the rear of the screen (top of laptop). It does to be fair, but there has been some thought placed in to the overall design.

The base features a full sized red glowing keyboard and what Lenovo have done differently is that the base  resembles a docking station that has a hinged screen mounted to it.

The Y7000 has enough ports to see you right for all of your gamer gear and external drives. The left side comes with a 3.5mm AUX and a USB 3.0 socket.

The right one USB 3.0.

It’s the back where most of your expand-ability and utilities are kept – which makes sense for cable management when using the Y7000 as a desktop PC.

There you’ll find a single USB-C, HDMI, Power and a third USB 3.0 port aswell as LAN.

Lenovo are on track with the rear placement of ports, but I also think a couple more USB sockets are sorely needed. If you add a USB cabled chat headset, a gaming keyboard and mouse you’re at full capacity.

Being that the internal SSD is 512GB and bearing in mind the data weight of games, you’re likely to need to add an external drive or pay for an SSD upgrade on this particular model that we have.

So yeah without a USB hub you’re probably going to come up short.

The Legion Y7000 is a sealed unit. The bottom cover is screwed on and so that you do not void any warranty I strongly advise that you do not remove it yourself to do any upgrades. This also means that the powerful 57W battery which can last up to 5 hours in my tests on gaming and 3.5 hours with content creation is also sealed away and is non removable.

Lenovo has done this as there is a sizeable grill for the fans on the lower casing but is also a bad thing if, say, your battery develops a cache over time.

All in all however the Lenovo Legion Y7000 is the sports car for eSports, gaming in general and content creators.

It outperforms a few of the gaming laptops we have had come through the doors at STG over the past 12 months and does not come with the same hefty price tag either.

Heed the call to join the Legion with the Y7000 as your primary weapon.

The post Lenovo Legion Y7000 Gaming Laptop Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Gaming Laptops are one of the few categories of traditional PCs that are growing, and in this niche market we are seeing some interesting experimentation in what these laptops look like.

Are they all-out behemoths meant as desktop replacements? Are they stealth machines that look like normal ultrabooks, but can connect to an external GPU when required? Are they trying for a goldilocks in the middle? That last category is the hardest to do, and it’s what the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II that I have to review sets out as its challenge. I reviewed the SCAR II with an NVIDIA GTX 1070, though there is a slightly newer version with the RTX GPUs, giving you ray-tracing, deep learning super-sampling and other Turing architecture goodies, but that version of the laptop wasn’t available at the time of review.

My review laptop was outfitted with an Intel Core i7-8750H 6 Core/12 Thread CPU with 32GB of RAM and the aforementioned NVIDIA GTX 1070 all running on Windows 10 Pro, which I updated to the latest Windows 10 October (1809) update. All testing was done on NVIDIA drivers 417.71.

The SCAR II features a bright, rich 1080p 144Hz screen surrounded by thin bezels, but unfortunately there is no Freesync, adaptive sync nor G-Sync, so while the higher hertz displays are always welcome this is an omission that will drag it down in comparison to other displays. Nevertheless, even just in normal productivity tasks a high refresh monitor makes for a better experience overall, and makes it hard to go back to “just” a 60 hertz display.

Flanking the left and right side of the SCAR II are a good range of ports, including three USB-A, one USB-C (not thunderbolt unfortunately) a standard HDMI, mini Displayport and Ethernet port. Unfortunately there are no ports on the back of the device, which is taken up almost entirely with exhausts. While there may still be a need for a port hub or dongle for specialist ports, this laptop should have you covered no matter what you wanted to connect to it.

But will you want to connect an external keyboard? The keyboard is an essential part of any laptop, and for a gaming laptop it has to be comfortable for long periods of use while being fast, responsive, and have great feedback. At the same time, it has to also be a great keyboard for everyday typing, web surfing and other uses, and in this regard the keyboard on the SCAR II was generally good if a little mushy, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the half-width number pad and arrow keys. I do appreciate ROG trying to cram as much functionality in as possible though the overall ergonomics do suffer slightly as a result.

The SCAR II was a strong performer across a range of titles, thanks to its powerful CPU, which hit around 3.9GHz under load, and its GTX 1070 married to a 1080p display. Compared to our review of the Alienware 17 R5, the games I benchmarked has been updated slightly to focus on slightly more recent releases.

As you’d expect, the SCAR II had no trouble hitting 1080p and 60 frames per second in pretty much every game or benchmark that you can throw at it. And thanks to the 144Hz screen, you’re able to make good use of any available headroom above those numbers by allowing the laptop to throw everything it’s got at putting as many frames on screen as it can. While 144FPS is still a tall order even at 1080p in many titles, feeling the benefit of huge frame rates in first person shooters such as Counter Strike: Go or Fortnite, and in racing games such as Forza Horizon 4 makes for a more fluid gaming experience, with better response time and lower input lag. I also saw strong performance in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 multiplayer and Insurgency: Sandstorm at 1080p on High settings.

In 3D action titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider the SCAR II also performed above the magical 60FPS mark (though without adaptive sync on the display it may be better to target 72FPS – half the monitor’s native refresh rate – rather than 60) and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey manages 66FPS on Ultra.

Overall, performance is strong across a range of titles, and while the NVIDIA GTX 1070 is a slightly older GPU, it still manages to perform decently in modern AAA games at the display’s 1080p display.

One of the key characteristics of gaming laptops is to put as much as in as small a form factor as possible, all while attempting to minimise thermal throttling and noise. The SCAR II attempts to have its cake and eat it too, with a light, relatively small case that was easy to carry around and slip into a backpack. And while the intake and exhaust vents are larger than on a normal laptop, it’s not so obvious that it would look out of place in a coffee shop or in a lecture hall.

For the most part thermals and noise were kept to a minimum during normal use, where it was almost inaudible. Certainly, once you opened up a demanding title running at over 100FPS the fans would kick in and the whole device heated up significantly, but that’s only to be expected, even on a large gaming desktop. I didn’t notice any particularly bad thermal throttling, though the noise coming out of the SCAR II attested to the load that it was under.

The SCAR II is a good all rounder that provides solid performance in a form factor and weight that belies what it is capable of. And if the same thermals, noise and CPU is available with the new models features the NVIDIA RTX 2070 and 2080 mobile GPUs, then the main shortcoming of this laptop in terms of its power profile will be balanced out. While some areas could be improved, such as the touch-too-gamery camo pattern on the keyboard and trackpad area, and a lack of an adaptive sync option to match the 144hz display, the SCAR II can be recommended for a gaming laptop that successfully balances, size, power and portability.

The post ROG SCAR II Laptop Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Gaming PCs are some of the most powerful personal computers on the market. With high-end CPUs, giant GPUs and an array of RGB lights, fans, flashy RAM and storage drives, they are often sights to behold. But once you take into account an ATX case, a monitor, keyboard and mouse they often dominate the room they’re in, demanding a large desk, resolutely pinned down to one location.

It’s long been the dream to take all of that power and wrap it up in a portable device. Small form factor PCs, like mITX cases help somewhat, and gaming laptops have been around for a long time now, but they have often (though not always) had compromises in terms of CPU power, noise or thermal limits.

Alienware’s 17 R5 laptop is an attempt to solve this problem, to have one’s cake and eat it too. It features a ridiculously powerful 6 core / 12 thread CPU that routinely turbos up to 4.2GHz, a Max-Q GTX 1080, up to 32GB of RAM and a gigantic 17” display. It’s a gaming and productivity workhorse, with enough power to drive almost any task you could throw at it. But does it manage to power past the compromises that have held back most gaming laptops from greatness so far? How can such a huge amount of power even work in a laptop form?

Firstly, let’s talk about the design.

There’s no doubt that the Alienware 17 R5 is a large machine. A Razer Blade Stealth this is not. Designed to be a full desktop replacement, it is portable mainly in the sense that it can be picked up and moved around easily, not that it would fit into your laptop as an everyday carry. While that may put some people off, that’s the trade off it makes for its power and large screen. It features a good (though not exactly resplendent) array of ports too, including a wide range of external display options, including USB-C, Mini Displayport, HDMI 2.0 and Thunderbolt 3 – which will be great for faster network access or for future GPU upgradability. It also keeps around two USB-A ports and the usual headphone jack. My only annoyance was that there were no USB-A ports on the rear of the device, meaning my mouse and headphone dongle stuck out from the laptop like little T-Rex arms.

But at least those stubby dongle arms will be well lit by the 17 R5’s RGB lighting, including its surprisingly small RGB trackpad. In comparison to the garishness of most modern RGB-festooned “gaming” branded equipment, the RGB lighting on the keyboard, trackpad and external chassis was thankfully limited, and restrained – this laptop won’t be mistaken for a Christmas tree anytime soon and wouldn’t look out of place at work.

The large screen is bright and vibrant, with good colour reproduction, even at angles. It is G-SYNC, which will benefit gamers stressing the GTX 1080 and help it hold up over time as games become more demanding and eventually run at sub-60FPS on the built-in display. Disappointingly, it is only 1080p and 60Hz, to me a baffling decision that means the laptop by itself fails to make the most of its huge amount of grunt. Seemingly 1440p is available in other markets, but on Dell’s Australian website I could only see a 1080p option. While 4K gaming is only just in reach of the very best 20 series NVIDIA GPUs, I would have preferred either a 1440p 60Hz or a 1080p 144Hz display. On the other hand, at the moment there will be almost no game that is able to make the 17 R5 break a sweat (as we will see later), and it will maintain above 60FPS and native resolution even in the most stressful situations.

Over a number of games, the 17 R5 proves itself, with strong results across the board. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a 2018 title finishing up the successful 2013 reboot of the franchise, the 17 R5 manages an average of 89.6FPS on Very High at 1080p. In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided the laptop completes the benchmark at 54.8 FPS in DX12, 59.7 in DX11, and with some small tweaks to shadows and running only TAA with no MSAA, you can get it running above that magic 60FPS mark at 80.7FPS.

In esports titles such as Fortnite, CS:GO and Overwatch, the R5 tears strips off these games, and you’ll have no issues running these at Max settings and high frame-rates. CS:GO averages 325 FPS, Fortnite runs at 128.8FPS and Overwatch averages over 160FPS.

Even PUBG runs at an average of 102FPS, though the moment to moment gameplay may vary from this average based on what’s happening on screen. In DOOM 2016 using Vulkan it seemed we were limited by a FPS cap of 200, which it ran at for a large portion of the the time, with even the 0.1% lows at 139.9 FPS. Other non-benchmarked games like Battlefield V also performed excellently, and of course indie titles or less-demanding games such as Cities: Skylines run great.

The 17 R5 also gave excellent scores in specialised benchmarks, with 3DMark’s Timespy giving an overall mark of 6950 and FireStrike Ultra (4K) providing a score of 5115.

The 17 R5 isn’t a cheap machine, and the larger range of tasks that you can find for it the easier it is to justify. Luckily, for productivity tasks the 17 R5 is a great mobile workstation, with excellent results in synthetic and productivity tests. Cinebench is marked at 936 on its CPU test, which is impressive given the power and thermal constraints of a laptop chip. Geekbench 4 scores are even more telling, posting 5529 for single and 20808 for its multi-core results. The single-core performance here is especially impressive, given that the R5 17 can maintain a higher clock on a single thread in its power and heat-limited environment.

So for gaming on the go or just not to have a full-sized PC tower, or engaging in some productivity tasks (with this level or performance and its screen size, this laptop would be great for working in a co-working environment for example), the Alienware R5 17 will be able to meet whatever task you throw at it. The combination of a Core i9 8950HK and Max-Q 1080 are a potent combination that will let you get your work done, and take some time off afterwards with even the most recent 3D titles.

But is performance limited anywhere else? How does the laptop deal with the limited thermal envelope of a laptop chassis? Let’s start by examining the noise. On its default “balanced” power plan setting my review unit maintained an audible use of its fans, seemingly as the clock speed of the CPU tried to maximize itself at around 4.3GHz or even 4.4GHz. Turning the power plan to “power saver” fixed the issue, running the fans at a much lower, almost silent volume and down-clocking the CPU to around 3GHz or lower – which is still plenty to play many titles and to do your usual web searches, emails or word processing. I’m not sure why this is happening, perhaps it’s an issue with the way the BIOS or Windows is handling the CPU P-States or other aspects of power management in the device, but at least there’s an easy fix.

Of course, when set to high performance in a modern AAA game or productivity app, and the CPU and GPU really stretch their legs, the laptop throws everything at trying to cool itself down. Heat pours out the back and left hand side of the laptop as the fans run at full blast. The top decibel reading I got was about 65dB, enough to hear from another room, and almost necessitating headphones to block out the noise.

But it’s hard to complain about that, given the results I have had so far, and I appreciate that I was able to make the choice between noise and performance, with one exception. Thermal performance while gaming with an unlocked frame rate was unfortunately hit or miss. Sometimes the Core i9 processor would hit the 100 degrees mark, causing some drastic drops in FPS when running at that temperature as the CPU emergency downclocks itself to prevent it from melting down. Nevertheless, with the display capped at 60FPS, for the most part this situation can be easily avoided by sticking a 60FPS cap on a game or by enabling V-Sync, and is more a symptom of benchmarking than real-world gaming use of this device. It could, however, affect some productivity workloads, though unless these workloads address both the GPU and CPU simultaneously as in gaming, it shouldn’t be as much of an issue. For example, CPU core clocks under prolonged CPU load tended to settle down at 3.1GHz, below its peak of 4.2GHz but still 200MHz above the base clock of 2.9GHz.

If you want a computer with some of the most powerful PC components, but also want to take it places – LAN parties, trade shows, your mate’s place – or to simply make it easy to put away and keep your space clean, or you don’t have the space for a full PC set up, the Alienware 17 R5 is a great choice. It’s peak portable power, though that still comes with the trade-off of heat and noise. Unfortunately this isn’t the laptop that allows you to have your cake and eat it too, heat and noise are still issues, though it does a reasonable job at managing itself.

And while I tested the top end configuration with an eye-watering recommended retail price, there are many customisation option to fit varying budgets. While its straight up parts for parts price comparison with a DIY solution won’t be flattering to the R5, you do get the entire package in something much more manageable than a tower PC, as well as extended support through Alienware. Would I buy one?

It’s tempting, to get back all that space on my desk, and to be able to play wherever I want (family holidays anyone?). If I were starting from scratch with no gaming PC to speak of, it’s a great start, and given future GPU upgradability is possible with the Thunderbolt 3 port, it’s certainly a solid option that could last you years to come.

The post Alienware 17 R5 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

When you need a killer gaming PC but don’t have desk space – Intel have got your sorted with their NUC’s.

The most recent release, Hades Canyon is such a small form factor that you hardly know it’s there.

Small but oh so vey mighty.

The black box of goodness with a light up skull emblem is about the size of a travel wallet and as slim as it can be given the amount of ports it has.

Featuring dual ethernet for uncompromised LAN and eSports gaming, two USB-C ports, dual HDMI’s, one SSD-USB type port and a whopping five USB 3.0’s which in total is probably more than you’ll ever need, proving that the Intel Hades Canyon NUC is future proofed.

Internally for the one that we had there’s a 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM and x64 BIT i7-8809G Processors clocking in at 3.10GHZ (that’s without overclocking folks).

But the NUC insides don’t stop the turbo factor there. Intel also managed to cram in a Radeon RX Vega GC (Graphics Card) conjointly with the onboard Intel HD 630. All of this tech speak means you’re set for some serious gaming time.

But not just gaming though. The Hades Canyon unit that STG was sent by Intel to try out also performed effortlessly with video and graphic production, making it the one stop mini-center of production and fun times.

The Hades Canyon NUC retains it light-weight and small size by keeping the power supply separate to the unit. The NUCs power supply is a slim power brick. Depending on what you’re putting your NUC through will depend on how much this heats up though.

While the NUC unit does have internal fans to keep everything cool in its snug arrangement, the power supply does not.

I played a couple of hours of Forza Horizon 4 and my favourite ‘testing’ game Gears of War 4, with nothing dumbed down.

The power supply get hot on Forza but only luke ‘normal’ warm on GoW4.

If you invest in one of these bad boys – this is something to be mindful of. If you have a penchant for endless hours of high resolution graphically and processor demanding gameplay on PC make sure that your external power supply is placed somewhere where it can breathe. Placing on carpet would not be ideal.

Nonetheless – I expected the power supply to warm up, they generally do on PC’s internally. So, it’s not a major providing you place everything responsibly.

The Intel Hades Canyon NUC is not a one fits all. Intel know this and supply tools to open up the box so that you can upgrade / swap out components including RAM and SSD.

I’ve always been impressed with the NUC’s. Not due to their prowess in gaming and production, as some are under spec’d if you buy a complete kit (you can also get a bare bones NUC to kit out yourself), but it is the intricate architecture and the small footprint on one’s desk, for what is essentially, if you kit it out to the max, an equivalent to a full sized gaming RIG – without the bulkiness.

Intel NUC’s in general can start at a few hundred dollars, usually for the bare bones ones, and depending on what you place in to it, will ramp up the price tag. NUC’s are designed and tailored to your budget and needs, literally.

Ideal for streamers, LAN goers or those that like to be a darkened room battling away on their MOBA or FPS of choice.

Embrace the skull, go deep within Hades Canyon and take on the big boys and girls in this slim, small form factor, highly portable , esports and VR ready powerhouse.

The post Intel Hades Canyon NUC Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Recently HP New Zealand supplied their top of the line gaming Desktop PC, the Omen X to us at Shane the Gamer (StG) for review. Last week we received the more portable version – the HP Omen 15″ Laptop!

Just like it’s much bigger brother the Omen Laptop is a force to be reckoned with.

Much like the mighty Omen X unit – the 15″ Laptop we tested was their top shelf unit with 16GB Ram and a 6th Generation Intel Core i7 processor to get that full gaming experience without any hang ups.

Very sleek in a matte dark grey finish and slenderly thin, the Omen Laptop did not fail to impress us aesthetically.

Under the hood, graphic wise there is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M with 4GB GDDR5 dedicated memory. Having this much accelerant for graphic prowess and rendering one would expect the Omen to heat up immensely when trying to push it to it’s limits.

It didn’t. The Omen infact hardly broke a sweat as we played hours of Gears of War 4, Mad Max and Dishonored 2, without anything turned down.

But gaming is not always about eye candy, it also needs to be immersive – and to do this you MUST have killer audio. HP thought of this.

The built in Bang & Olufsen with HP AudioBoost brought home the immersion that was so needed when using Gaming headphones. The Omen Laptop itself does have Dual speakers with the same audio enhancement, however, it was not a full experience until we used a headset.

The ports were interestingly stock standard, and myself I prefer to use a Xbox 360 Games Controller where possible when PC Gaming, this naturally takes up one USB Port of the three built in. In all there’s one HDMI port, two USB 3.0, unsure why but one USB 2.0 and a headphone / mic combo jack and your standard RJ-45 for ethernet.

Supplied for the OS (Operating System) is a 128 SSD and a 1TB HDD for the storage of all of your digital goodness. Being a laptop it is expected that there will be a on board web cam. There is and a very powerful HP Wide Vision HD Camera which also has a dual array digital microphone. The red accented keyboard is backlit, as we hoped for a high end gaming Laptop but without the usual options that we see from other external gaming keyboards.

Extremely light weight at only around 2KG and battery life (will always depend on usage of course) varied from 4 hours (gameplay) through to 18 – 19 hours on standby.

The actual size of the Omen Laptop is 15.6 inches. The screen, although brilliant, had a very wide and disappointing bezel to it. I felt as though HP could have made use of the available real estate here and made the screen all that much more epic than it is.

The i7 model with 16GB RAM came with Windows 10 x64 BIT pre-installed and asides from gaming (which to be fair is what the Omen series is built for) the Laptop itself can also be slated as a powerful workhorse, expertly crafted for multitasking and if you are anything like me and doing a thousand things at once, the necessary beast to have if you never, ever, ever close down applications as you work.

The Omen Laptop series will also handle VR without any compromise, much like the Desktop HP Omen X. We were interested to see how well it would do and if we could get those internal fans whirring by using a HTC Vive.

The Vive experience on this Laptop was more than pleasing. The Omen Laptop still purred like the sleeping king of the portable computing jungle that it is.

As with the Omen X it is a bit pricey, with this model being just shy of $3K (NZD) but this is not out of the norm for a good solid Gaming Laptop.

The one we are reviewing is the 15-AX010TX. There is a cheaper model with slightly lesser specs; the 15-AX003TX which would be a great contender if you are wanting to get your feet wet with PC Gaming.

The HP Omen 15-AX101TX is not just a feet wetter, it’s the full immersion.

Keep StG Independent and (mostly) Advertising Free with a Donation

The post HP Omen 15″ Laptop Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The Asus Z170-AR looks to provide gamers with an economical, feature-rich motherboard solution, perfect for overclocking and virtual reality. Shane the Gamer’s Australian Senior Editor, Darren Price, takes puts it through its paces.

Never one to miss an opportunity to pull a computer apart, Shane the Gamer’s recent acquisition of an HTC Vive VR kit provided me with the perfect excuse to build a new gaming review rig. Designed with virtual reality in mind, this new beast of a PC utilises some of the best value for money components available without going crazy.

You’ll be able to read about the full build soon. But first I want to take a more in-depth look and the backbone of the new Shane the Gamer VR PC, the Asus Z170-AR motherboard.

Asus have been delivering high-quality PC components for years, making them a tried and trusted brand with PC gaming enthusiasts. The Asus Z-170-AR provides gamers with all the tools needed to get the most out of their LGA1151 Skylake CPU.

If you are thinking of building a high-end gaming rig right now, you need to be thinking about an LGA1151 Skylake 4.0Ghz Intel i7 6700K CPU. On the surface, not much of an upgrade from my old 3.8Ghz i7 3820, but with the Asus Z170-AR, you should effortlessly get a 4.6Ghz overclock out of it.

The Z170-AR may lack the sexy of Asus’s Maximus or Pro Gaming range of motherboards, but that doesn’t mean they’ve cut corners. You get a massive bang for your buck- easily as many features as you’d expect in a board twice the price.

That’s not to say that the Z170-AR isn’t a looker, it is. With a striking white ASUS-logoed heatsink on the Z170 chipset and the white cowling over the I/O ports, this is a board that’ll look good with a bit of lighting through the window of your PC chassis.

Running Intel’s Z170 Express chipset, designed for their LGA1151 Skylake CPU range, the ASUS Z170-AR is easily capable of overclocking the i7 6700K CPU. It was this feature that was my biggest draw to the motherboard. With this board, some of the mystery surrounding the black art of overclocking is removed, allowing everybody to easily get the most out of their investment.

The easy-to-use ASUS UEFI BIOS is a far cry from the scary BIOS set-ups in the past. Easily accessed using the usual press of the DEL key, you get access to full working of your PC. Clean menus allow users to tweak voltages, ratios and fan speed to push the CPU to the max.

Or, using the EZ Tuning Wizard, answer a few questions about your likely use and set-up and get a reasonable overclock with a couple of clicks.

The great thing about the ASUS BIOS is its scaled complexity. It’s all there, your fan curves, your memory timings and other deep features, but if you just want to overclock your PC, you can- with no prior knowledge. Further down the line, with a bit of research, you can learn to use the expert settings and start your own career in overclocking using all the motherboards pro features.

ASUS PRO Clock Technology allows you to easily increase the board’s BCLK (front side bus, to us oldies) speed to gain an overclock that way. With the EZ Tuning Wizard, my i7 6700K was overclocked up to 4.6Ghz (a 15% increase) with absolutely no work. It really is incredibly easy to use.

The BIOS is packed with utilities designed to extract easy last drop of potential from your system. All your fans can be adjusted and checked at a glance, enabling you to find that perfect sweet spot between fan noise and cooling efficiency.

As well as an optimised CPU, good memory features are also a must for decent gaming PC. Again, ASUS has you covered. There are four memory sockets tucked out of the way to the right of the CPU. Very sensibly positioned so as not to interfere with your CPU cooling solution.

The board will happily take up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM running at a maximum of 3400Mhz using an XMP profile. As always, check the compatibility. There’s a physical switch on the motherboard to enable XMP. I’m having no problems with 16GB of DDR-3200 Ballistix RAM from Crucial. I wasn’t too keen about the way the memory sticks are secured with on only one side, requiring quite the push to get them in (and quite the tug to get them out), but this may be me just getting a bit cautious in my old age.

Whilst I was slotting an ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition in the machine, which is more than enough for today’s gaming needs, the Z170-AR has three PCIe 3.0 x16 sockets, for either 3-way Crossfire or 2-Way SLI (the two card SLI limit is NVidia’s recommendation, not ASUS’s).

There’s also a couple of PCIe x1 slots, one of which I’ve used to add a couple more SATA 3 devices via a third-party expansion card. For old timers, there’s even a legacy PCI slot!

The ASUS Z170-AR has got your storage needs covered and totally future-proofed. The board has four 6GB/s SATA3 sockets and one SATA Express socket- which can also be alternatively used as two more SATA3 sockets. The board also supports the new M.2 format SSDs which can also be RAID’d with a PCIe NVMe card.

There’s also USB 3.1 which utilises ASUS’s exclusive USB 3.1 boost. As well as your standard Type-A USB sockets, the board also has one of the new (and much easier to insert) reversible USB Type-C sockets. For such an unassuming motherboard, the Z170-AR offers up some impressive storage features.

The Z170-AR has on-board sound provided by a Realtek-powered Crystal Sound 3 chip. This is an 8-Channel DTS capable sound system with an optional optical S/PDIF output. You are going to get a crisp sound with no on/off popping whether you are plugging it into a home theatre system or a set of desktop speakers.

For those of you wanting to utilise the Skylake CPU’s on-board GPU, the I/O accommodates both HDMI and DisplayPort. I really can’t see why anyone would want to, but it’s there if you need it.

Ethernet capabilities are supplied via an effective, but otherwise standard Intel gigabyte LAN. eSports players may find the packaged Turbo LAN software useful for prioritising game packets over the network.

The Z170-AR boasts ASUS’s 5x Protection II, something that you hope never comes into use, but offering piece of mind, looking after your investment behind the scenes.

LANGuard provides extra protection against power surges and static electricity. Overvoltage Protection shields the motherboard’s circuitry against high-voltages from unstable of faulty power supplies. DIGI+ VRM monitors and controls power delivery to the CPU, apparently aiding system stability. The resettable fuses of the DRAM Overcurrent Protection safeguards your entire system against damage due to overcurrent and short-circuits.

I’m not sure if it’s because the inclusion of a stainless-steel I/O back plate on the 5x Protection list doesn’t really count, but there is a sixth protection. The board is apparently guarded from electrostatic discharge. This shouldn’t exempt you from wearing your anti-static wrist-strap when assembling you PC, but does at least serve as insurance when you realise that you never attached it to anything.

The motherboard comes with a suite of software that is entirely optional to install. I’m a bit of an agnostic when it comes to vendor-supplied software and tweaking programs. It’s all down to personal preference.

The ASUS AI Suite does have some useful tools to tune and monitor your PC. The Duel Intelligent Processors 5 software is just one of the ways that you can overclock your ASUS-powered system.

The software-based 5-Way optimisation checks your system and adjusts the settings based on the results. It uses the Turbo Processing Unit settings, Fan Xpert 3 to adjust fan speeds, DIGI+ VRM, the LAN Turbo App and EPU energy settings to tune your PC.

The 5-Way optimisation stress tests your system to the point of failure, in theory leaving you with a stable PC running at its peak. All these modules can be access individually to adjust your PC as you wish within the Windows environment.

There are some other utilities to auto-update the ASUS software and drivers, flash the BIOS (not from windows, people, please) and boost your USB 3.1 up to 10GB/s.

All the options in the ASUS AI Suite can be accessed from the very user-friendly ASUS UEFI BIOS. And this is worth noting if you are intending to run VR equipment with the board. There are reports that the ASUS AI suite plays havoc with your HTC Vive VR kit. I had no trouble for about a week and then the Vive lost all tracking.

This could be a conflict between the ASUS software and SteamVR or just my bad luck. I am running three monitors and an HTC Vive, so I’m asking for a bit of trouble. I’ve also got my USB slots maxed out with dongles and other peripherals. What I do now is that after uninstalling AI Suite and GPUTweak all my problems went away.

My advice to VR owners is approach AI Suite with caution. Give it a go if you must, but if it all goes wrong, AI Suite is your likely culprit. Also, be sure to update all your motherboard drivers from the ASUS website, in particular the new USB driver that improves stability with VR equipment.

The loss of AI Suite shouldn’t upset VR gamers keen to overclock their rig. There are three ways to overclock your CPU with the ASUS Z170-AR.

The first is using AI Suite from the Windows OS which, as previously mentioned, I don’t recommend unless you are just testing the waters. The second is with the BIOS, using the quick and nasty (but effective) EZ Tune.  And the third, by the old-school manual tweaking of the FSB frequency, the CPU multiplier, voltage and fan curves. I’ll leave overclocking up to you, suffice to say I’m running an i7 6700K with 103Mhz FSB with a 45x multiplier that’s giving me an easy rock-solid 4.63Ghz CPU speed.

I’ve spent the last week running using the ASUS Z170-AR to play games across three monitors and in VR on the HTC Vive. I’ve heated the CPU, overclocked from 4.2Ghz to 4.6Ghz, using 3D rendering software, with no problems- with the exception of those arising from the AI Suite. I’m pretty sure that the CPU can be pushed a lot further and I’m looking forward to using all the overclocking features of the board.

The ASUS Z170-AR packs a massive punch for such a reasonably-priced board. It has all the functionality to provide newcomers with all the tools they need to enter the world of overclocking as well as access to enthusiast-level system tweaks to get the maximum out of your components. I’m really impressed with the user-friendly UEFI BIOS and just how fully-featured it is.

Gamers wanting a VR-ready PC should seriously consider the ASUS Z170-AR over other more expensive boards. Put the money you save towards an i7 6700K or some fast DDR4, you’ll be very happy.

But remember to think twice about using the AI Suite and to update those USB drivers!

Look out for my full article on building a VR PC, powered by ASUS, soon.

The post Asus Z170-AR Motherboard Review – Getting Ready for VR! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.