Toms Hardware

Sharp has announced its next-generation ultra-large display featuring an 8K resolution, advanced backlighting with 2048 local dimming zones, and an HDMI 2.1 input. Given its dimensions, the Sharp 8M-B120C is designed primarily for commercial applications, but users with large homes and deep pockets can certainly use it for gaming and home entertainment. The Sharp 8M-B120C is based on a 120-inch UV2A II LCD (presumably IPS/IGZO) panel featuring a 7680×4320 resolution, 600 nits typical brightness (i.e. peak brightness in HDR mode is considerably higher), a 3500:1 contrast ratio, a 6 ms GtG response time, an up to 120 Hz refresh rate (albeit only for…

Adata’s XPG SX8200 Pro has long been our pick for the best SSD for most people (who have an M.2 slot). You can get the 1TB model today at Amazon for the lowest price ever, according to PCPartPicker. Make sure to clip the coupon under the price, and this speedy drive can be yours for just $120. The M.2 NVMe XPG SX8200 Pro delivers excellent performance, with rated sequential read / write speeds of 3,500 and 3,000MBps, respectively. And it also boasts excellent power efficiency, a five-year warranty, and an endurance rating of 640TBW.Adata XPG SX8200 Pro: was $135, now $120…

Viper 4 Blackout (Image credit: Patriot)Keeping with the times, Patriot has expanded its Viper 4 Blackout series with a trio of high-speed memory kits. The new dual-channel memory kits announced this week come in DDR4-4133, DDR4-4266 and DDR4-4400 flavors.The new memory kits continue to leverage the sleek and RGB-less exterior that’s emblematic of the Viper 4 Blackout series. The design will surely be make for some of the best RAM for performance enthusiasts that haven’t bought into all this RGB business. The memory modules feature a black PCB with a matching aluminum heat spreader. Coming in at 42.6mm, the Viper…

(Image credit: Shutterstock)The Raspberry Pi community discovers some fascinating hacks. One useful hack was recently shared by a Jeff Geerling, a Raspberry Pi aficionado we’ve had the pleasure of featuring in the past and have interviewed on our weekly Pi Cast show. This week, the maker shared an awesome breakdown of how to enable TRIM on an external USB SSD using a Raspberry Pi.What Is TRIM?Let’s get this out of the way for anyone new to using TRIM. In short, TRIM is an ATA interface command that tells an SSD which parts of the drive are no longer being used.When…

We’ve done an unboxing of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, but it looks like someone’s already popped the RTX 3090 into a PC case. In a recent forum post on Chiphell.com, a user posted an image of what looks like the RTX 3090 Founders Edition installed into some unknown computer chassis.Considering how huge the RTX 3090 looks inside the chassis, the case appears to be a standard ATX tower. In the picture, the card is long enough to use the adjacent HDD cage as an anti-sag device. I’m sure whoever made this computer chassis never intended the cage to be…

When most of our readers think about pie, it’s probably Raspberry Pi or RetroPie. This maker, known as nx_2112, had ApplePie on the mind and decided to make it a reality! This project features a full RetroPie setup housed inside of an old iMac machine.Don’t worry, no working iMacs were sacrificed for this build. Nx_2112 managed to buy this broken model for just $60 USD. When adding additional hardware costs, the whole project ran a total of around $350.(Image credit: nx_2112) The ApplePie project is designed to use the original screen and to connect it to the Raspberry Pi 4, he…

Xbox Series X (Image credit: Xbox)Following up yesterday’s leak / announcement of the Xbox Series S, including its $299 price tag, Microsoft is today giving us a detailed look at the specs behind the upcoming console. The result? It seems pretty similar to the Xbox Series X…except for the GPU. Xbox Series X vs. Xbox Series S Specs  Xbox Series XXbox Series SCPU8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.8 GHz (3.6 GHz w/SMT)8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.6 GHz (3.4 GHz w/SMT)GPUAMD RDNA 2 GPU 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHzAMD RDNA 2 GPU 20 CUs @ 1.565 GHzGPU Power12.15 TFLOPS4…

After what seems like an eternity, AMD finally came out of the woodwork and officially announced launch dates for its highly anticipated CPUs and GPUs. The Zen 3 keynote will be on 10/8/2020 at 12pm PT, and the RX 6000 “Big Navi” keynote is on 10/28/2020 at 12pm PT. What does this mean for AMD? On the CPU side of things, Zen 3 is rumored to be an absolute monster of an architecture. Based on what we already know, Zen 3 will be based on an enhanced 7nm node from TSMC (either N7P or N7+), and focus significantly on increasing…

After months of waiting, Microsoft finally revealed the price for the Xbox Series X today via Twitter and blog post. Let’s not beat around the bush — the Xbox Series X is $499. That’s $200 more expensive than the Xbox Series S, which Microsoft revealed yesterday. It’s also the same as the Xbox One’s price at launch, and only $100 more expensive than the original Xbox 360’s launch price.  This is the tweet…Xbox Series X: $499 (ERP)Xbox Series S: $299 (ERP)Release date: November 10Pre-order starts September 22: https://t.co/Dz5bRsAuwQ | #PowerYourDreams pic.twitter.com/MadZl4OOKJSeptember 9, 2020For that $500, you’ll get a 12 Teraflop…

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (Image credit: Nvidia)There is no doubt that Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series (codename Ampere) will be some of the best gaming graphics cards that money can buy. However, Chinese crypto miners (via @momomo_us) have apparently found another use for Ampere: mining Ethereum (ETH).According to one miner’s claims, the GeForce RTX 3080 reportedly boasts a hashrate that is 3 to 4X that of the GeForce RTX 2080’s hashrate, which is generally between 30 and 40 MH/s, depending on the vendor. Even the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti requires a lot of effort to break the 50 MH/s mark.For the…

Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and 3090 GPUs are launching soon, with the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 founders edition cards coming out later this month. But don’t forget about aftermarket cards from Nvidia’s AIB partners. A recent twitter post from @momomo_us revealed full pricing for RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 aftermarket cards from Caseking.de, a German retailer site. The retailer lists full pricing on several SKUs from Gigabyte, Asus, Zotac INNO3D, PNY and Asus. Only some SKUs from each manufacturer were listed, with the exception of INNO3D, which has its entire lineup listed. Here’s a look at pricing for each aftermarket…

4X4 BOX-4000 (Image credit: ASRock Industrial Computer)ASRock Industrial Computer’s latest 4X4 BOX-4000 series of Mini PCs is here to disrupt the small form factor (SFF) market. Available with three different processor options, the 4×4 BOX-4000 series targets both home and business users.The 4X4 BOX-4000’s plastic enclosure has a 4.3 x 4.6 x 1.9-inch (110.0 x 117.5 x 47.9mm) footprint and weighs just 2.2 pounds (1kg). The mini PC can sit comfortably on your desk or you can mount it behind your screen, thanks to the included VESA mounting bracket. The 4X4 BOX-4000 employs AMD’s latest Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir) APUs that…

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (Image credit: Nvidia)Nvidia might have already announced its GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards, but the Ampere rumor mill never rests. Hardware insider @kopite7kimi, who was spot on with Ampere’s specifications before launch, just revealed alleged specifications for another undetermined SKU that could well earn a spot on our Best Graphics Cards list.According to the tweet, the leaker doesn’t know if the card in question is the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti or GeForce RTX 3060 Super. In either case, the graphics card will reportedly leverage the GA104 silicon, similar to the the one that’s confirmed to be…

Here’s something to chew on: Razer’s getting into gum for gamers. Available today through the Razer website, the company’s teaming up with 5 Gum to bring its fans three new flavors of sugar-free, “Respawn by 5” gum that it claims will help chewers “maintain focus and reaction time while gaming.” The company backs these claims by saying it’s infused B vitamins and green tea extract into every piece. It sounds like a long shot, but we haven’t had the chance to test the gum for ourselves. That said, there is a bit of science behind this thought process. Chewing gum tends…

Western Digital was recently under fire for not disclosing that certain drives use slower SMR tech, and now there’s another issue uncovered by the community. As it turns out, the company’s 5400 RPM drives may not necessarily spin at 5400 RPM, as discovered by Amoroko on Reddit.The Redditor ran tests with various WD drives, and found that 5400 RPM drives often spin much faster, at 7200 RPM, based on acoustic testing. The drives affected include a range of WD Red drives and WD elements drives, though the test sample wasn’t exactly wide.As it turns out, WD isn’t labeling the drives…

The world of high refresh rate monitors was long dominated by a TN panels, but lately we’re seeing other panel types compete with some of the best gaming monitors by pushing fast speeds of their own. Enter the Gigabyte Aorus FI25F. Announced today, this is a 24.5-inch monitor with an impressive 240 Hz refresh rate and 0.4ms response time all in an IPS package.   Gigabyte has pulled off a great engineering feat with this display. Many IPS monitors have  weak grey-to-grey and black-to-black response times, which can cause blurriness. But a 0.4ms response time puts the FI25F on par…

Crucial Ballistix Max DDR4-5100 (Image credit: Crucial)Crucial today shared details on its Ballistix Max DDR4-5100 RAM geared toward gaming. While the vendor is just putting out its annoncement today, this memory kit already holds the current world record for fastest memory at DDR4-6666 (6666.6 MHz) on HWBot.The Ballistix Max DDR4-5100 (BLM2K8G51C19U4B) memory kit competes with the best RAM in the market and comes in a dual-channel package with a density of 16GB. The two 8GB memory modules run at 5,100 MHz with CAS latency timings configured to CL19-26-26-48. Like any other high-speed memory kit, the Ballistix Max DDR4-5100 requires a…

With the launch of the Nvidia Founder’s Edition RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 cards, one of the. This waterblock covers the memory, VRM circuitry, and GPU, accommodating for the V-shaped cutout., and one ‘standard’ reference design that features a more ordinary rectangular shape. Watercooling company EKWB is making waterblocks for the latter version, but thus far there has been no sign for a block for the Founder’s Edition cards. Until now. Manufacturer Bykski has outed a waterblock for the FE cards, as listed at ezmodding.com. This waterblock covers the memory, VRM circuitry, and GPU, accomodating for the V-shaped cutout.(Image credit: Nvidia)Of…

The TUF B550M-Plus Wi-Fi ($179.99) resides in the low-/middle-end of the B550 range. For this price, you’ll get a MicroATX board sporting an 8+2 phase VRM, dual M.2 slots, integrated Intel WiFi 6 and even a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port. Several years ago, the Asus TUF series of motherboards meant heavy cladding (Asus often called it armour) for protection, ample features, and a mid-range price point. Fast forward to today and the TUF brand, particularly in the laptop space, has shifted focus to lower-end gamers. Things have changed in the motherboard realm as well. Gone is the armor, and we get…

There have long been rumors about two types of Xboxes, with one flagship console and one smaller variant. Now that Microsoft has already revealed the Xbox Series X, it’s time for the Xbox Series S.👀 Let’s make it official! Xbox Series S | Next-gen performance in the ˢᵐᵃˡˡᵉˢᵗ Xbox ever. $299 (ERP). Looking forward to sharing more! Soon. Promise. pic.twitter.com/8wIEpLPVEqSeptember 8, 2020In a rather unusual fashion, Microsoft revealed the tiny console in a tweet, stating that it’s the smallest Xbox ever and that it’s coming in at a price of $299. At this time, the company isn’t sharing any further…