NZXT has been always differentiated by an extraordinary design of PC chassis. This time the company decided not to drift off the course and introduced a revolutionary mini-ITX case. The Manta features 450x426x245 mm dimensions only, but it can accommodate an advanced system with quite powerful components. Exterior (black-and-white or black-and-red coloring) is notable for salient shapes and a stylish transparent window.



NZXT Manta offers enough internal space to build up a record-breaking mini-ITX system. It is ready to house a two-slot videocard of 363 mm in length, standard ATX power supply unit as well as a typical CPU cooler of 160 mm in height. The case boasts two expansion slots and promotes for brilliant opportunities to build a voluminous storage subsystem, consisting of two seats for 3.5-inch drives and three seats for 2.5-inch drives.


The connection of external peripherals is realized via two USB 3.0 ports & a couple of 3.5-mm audio ports.


Cooling system …

At the announcement stage of new auxiliary components, AMD specialists emphasized the full readiness for overclocking the motherboards based on the B350 middle bridge, and not only for the top solution – X370. Its main simplification is the refusal to support NVIDIA SLI, that is, sixteen PCI-E processor lines cannot be divided equally. Also, the number of supported devices with SATA and USB interfaces is reduced.


In the field of the processor power regulator there is a decent radiator, a thorough approach to designing the device also allows to fully understand the possibilities of such products. At the same time, there are no additional controllers here, so this fact inevitably affects the price.


A distinctive feature of the gaming boards is the increased attention to the sound and network subsystems, as well as to backlighting. Given not the highest rank of the product, the audio codec here is not equipped with an auxiliary op-amp, and the cFosSpeed utility is the bonus …

Thrifty enthusiasts willing to build up an efficient gaming system are given a chance to enjoy the privileges of a new motherboard from Asus: the B85-Pro Gamer. The model employs an affordable set of components, although it is highly competitive with more powerful solutions. This ATX board is based on Intel B85 Express chipset for Socket LGA1150 platform and supports Core i3/i5/i7, Celeron and Pentium (Haswell gen.) CPUs.



Asus B85-Pro Gamer comes with 4x DIMM slots that are ready to welcome up to 32 GB of DDR3-1600 MHz memory modules (two-channel). Storage section is represented by six SATA ports, four of which support 6 Gb/sec standard. Expansion of functional facilities might be realized due to three PCI slots, two PCI-e 2.0 x1, and two PCI-e x16 slots. The delivery of power supply is organized by means of 1x 24-contact socket and 1x 8-contact socket.


The hardware base also embraces network gigabit Intel I217V controller with an integrated GameFirst II technology; the …