Gadgetory

last year we predicted that the industry would go crazy with RGB LEDs and tempered glass but we never thought had be to the extent that it is today now that we've had a full year to watch the industry get completely obsessed with this trend we're revisiting new trends in computer hardware in a post coffee tax 2017 world RGB LEDs have now gone a step further than previously but companies are also starting to go crazy over copper heatsinks hinged case panels vertical GPU mounts curved and shaped tempered glass and more before getting to that this coverage is brought to you by Corsairs new at t1 race chair which is a $350 gaming targeted chair using a bucket style race seat the chair arms have four directional movement for configuration to your liking and has a bonus they use rollerblade wheels learn more at the link in the description below the first time to talk about relates to cases as do the next two we'll discuss this year we noticed a more enhanced case doors than we've ever seen before this was somewhat popularized on the 760 t in 2014 and has slowly sprawled outward since then this year we saw hinge doors grow in popularity as a way to improve case side panel mounting the hinge doors that were present on the Thermaltake v 91 TG which fold out like suicide doors on a car on the level 20 GT which uses 5 millimeter glass panels on hinges the 40 pound Corsair concept slate the coolermaster H 500 p and the Coolermaster C 700 p and all of these cases are moving to hinge doors that swing outward and can be easily removed by lifting them up tempered glass is also more frequently being shaped or curved and bent for cases now which increases cost but fits it well with the hinged doors all of these a per mentions cases use some form of tempered glass with their hinged doors making for something of a combo trend combo tray and vertical GPU mounts are also big for this year vertical GPA mounts are featured in many of the previously mentioned cases as well and are a continuing trend of a further commoditized PC hardware market that is driven heavily by looks these days the cases with vertical GPU mounts make them optional for showcasing video in the most part as there's little functional gain from it some case manufacturers like silverstone will use odd form factor motherboards of ninety degree Bend PCIe slots to eliminate the need for riser cards others use inverted layouts a good riser cable like the common 3m solution has a cost of twenty dollars from the manufacturer alone that's cost that's huge it's rare to find a good riser cable with these vertical orientations but hopefully some of the manufacturers will start making those purchases and including them with their cases it feels weird to be talking about airflow as a trend in cases since it's sort of something you need but the final trend in cases this year seems to be a light return and air flow as a consideration by case manufacturers almost sadly so the last two years it seems like the entire industry moved to closed off front panels but we're starting to see some manufacturers revert back to mesh front panels for better airflow among these in Wynne who have learned from their infinity and now placed the 806 with wood paneling on a list of cases that have more space between the front panel and the chassis for breathability we also see this trend continued with the Silverstone cases coming out this year at least some of them thermal takes cases like the G 21 TG and some of Kuler masters cases where they compensate by using a wider mesh side intake and two 200 millimeter fans in the H 500 P this of course means that marketing materials can now boast innovative intake designs even though many of these designs were in vogue just a few years ago that's really a typical cycle just like phones where they go bigger and then smaller and everyone claims that it's the next big thing back in the world of aesthetics Digital RG B's are the next combo a trend merging the past years RGB craze with highly controllable LEDs the new digital RGB LEDs can often accommodate seven bits of color per channel using a PWM that allows brightness and colors to be fine-tuned through software or pre-configured by the vendor the PWM controllers also easy to deploy once it's configured making this a more cost friendly option than numerous RGB LED controllers across the same board for each strip of light Digital LEDs will be prevalent on motherboards and video this year at the show alone we saw digital LEDs on nearly every gigabyte motherboard on the asus motherboard and also on MSI is 1080i Lightning card which place them all over the back side and permitted configuration via a lighting center digital LEDs make for a smoother transition between colors and don't have the same hard edge as other LED strips that we commonly see where you can make out the individual bulb on the strip the digital LEDs look more like a smoothed out diffused color so whether this is good or not really just depends on taste but that is the next major trend copper heat sinks are the next major item hardware trends are all about what marketing language that gets you the most sales and it seems like the marketers of the world have decided that conference price is now affordable enough to start using it as a badge of honor these badges come shaped in fins as companies like Lian Li and cryo reg are now moving back to a world of copper heat sinks typically we see copper for the cold plates for its conduction properties and then aluminium for the fins which is cheaper lighter and it doesn't really impact cooling in a meaningful way in most situations copper fins haven't been popular since almond did it about ten years ago right before the price of copper skyrocketed but it looks like they're going to be making a return on things other than just liquid cooling radiators and so it's coming back although it will no doubt offer some benefit so this is largely a marketing move under steady state consumer conditions copper isn't going to be that much cooler than aluminum particularly considering the solder joints are the weak link between them anyway it might be one to to see cooler between identical devices when at steady state but that's about it assuming it's tested properly ramp up and ramp down speeds are slower with copper because of its greater density which helps with thermal consistency when cooling components that experience sudden temperature spikes this is similar in behavior to a liquid cooling radiator which can handle a high amount of power throughput or wattage and heat and soaks the temperature changes better copper is also very expensive compared to aluminum and given that it's more limited in quantity and as much heavier copper is mostly impacting the cooling systems where there's more thermal mass but for most consumer applications we're dealing with parts that are often below 100 watts so that difference is mostly going to be felt in the Wallace Department not as much in the performance Department finally we also saw a trend in use of international rectifier power components on at least half of the motherboards at the show including gigabytes entire lineup and what is likely on their ex 399 board in addition to ax 299 boards and the MSI is lineup for X 299 boards the ir35 2:01 voltage controller appears to be popular right now given its price and capabilities as it can serve up to eight total phases for the power design this is often an eight plus zero or six plus two configurations but the versatility of the controller makes it easy to buy in bulk and then configure across a wide range of motherboards at various prices this is often bundled with IR three five five six fifty amp hour stages that seem to be very popular with Computex 2017 and we'll have more info on all of these as build Zoids at PCB breakdowns get uploaded to our channel that recaps the major trends from combi tax 2017 and those which will largely define the industry over the next year just like tempered glass and RGB did last year let us know what you think of these in the comment section below which do you like which don't you like and what do you want to see next post that down below as always you can get a patreon.com slash gamers nice to stop that directly stored our cameras next to sign up for a shirt or subscribe for more thank you for watching I'll see you all next time you