Heightened demand for high-end processor solutions and ever rising competition make AMD constantly develop its products. This usually results in the release of really outstanding items, such as already acknowledged Bulldozer and Piledriver. Therefore, according to the words of the companies technical manager, Mark Papermaster, the development of a new processor architecture, codenamed Steamroller, is already on order of AMD's business. The ready-made products are sure to be released next year. Steamroller is called to become the third edition of Bulldozer architecture that launched last year and a loyal companion of Piledriver core.



The initial data witness that processors on Steamroller architecture will be designed in correspondence with 28 nm technological process. This should favorably affect their efficiency and enlarge the performance by 15-20% at equivalent power consumption and clock frequency. At the same time, Steamroller will improve all specifications implemented in …

Today we’ll have a glance at one of the ASUS Prime series motherboards. The model having A- index has all the necessary basic features, when nothing has yet been simplified, the power subsystem seems to be good enough and there are no additional controllers of any sort.


Technical characteristics

We can see that the PCI, and SATA-E interfaces are already renounced, and the M.2 is increasing its presence. All the other main characteristics are listed below:


• Chipset – Intel Z270 • Processor socket – Socket 1151 • Processors – Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, Pentium, Celeron (Skylake-S, Kaby Lake-S) • Memory – 4 DIMM DDR4 SDRAM 2133/2400*/2666*/2800*/3000*/3200*/3300*/3333*/ 3400*/3466*/3600*/3733*/3866* (OC), a maximum of 64 GB • PCI-E Slots – 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 (x16 + x0, x8 + x8) 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 (x4)4 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 • M.2 – 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x4 (Key M, 2242/2260/2280/22110) 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x4 (Key M, 2242/2260/2280) • …

Each manufacturer which deals with CPU coolers tries to enrich its portfolio with products of various segments. SilverStone has gone ahead in this aspect, offering as entry-level so top-notch coolers. The AR06, a representative of Argon Series, is a low-profile model targeting entry-level and mainstream PC systems. Why giving preference exactly to this model? Let’s find it out.



Highlights


SilverStone AR06 features the following specifications:

— type: air cooler with active airflow;

— compatibility with motherboards: Socket Intel LGA115x, Socket AMD FM1, FM2, AM2, AM3;

— cooling performance: 95 W TDP;

— fan specs: dimensions: 92x92x15 mm, voltage – 12 V, rotational speed – 1200-2500 RPM, airflow – 68.3 m3/h, noise level – 20-28.3 dBA, bearing type – rifle, MTBF – 40.000 hours;

— heatsink specs: dimensions: 58x105x92 mm; weight – 263 mm, aluminum fins, 4x copper heatpipes, direct CPU contact;

— power supply: 4-pin connector;

…