Xigmatek is on the verge of launching its new series of chassis, codenamed Alfar. The series consists of three models which differentiate from each other by the color of insertions on the frontal grid (black, white and orange). The casing itself is made of steel and painted totally black. All three enclosures are designed in mid-tower form factor and are ready to accept motherboards of mini-ITX, micro-ATX and ATX dimensions.



Xigmatek Alfar houses seven PCI expansion slots, can accept CPU coolers of up to 160 mm in height, graphics cards of up to 320 mm in length, and a standard power supply unit. The chassis are furnished with three external 5.25-inch drive bays, four internal 2.5-inch bays, and analogous number of bays for 3.5-inch drives. Interface panel is located on the top board and accommodates a couple of USB 3.0 ports and standard 3.5 mm audio sockets.


The nominal delivery set of Xigmatek Alfar contains two 120 mm fans, located on the frontal and rear boards; …

Several days ago Nvidia has introduced its most effective consumer graphics card, namely GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. It is GP102 GPU based and holds 3,584 CUDAs. This device resembles the Titan X sample. Its graphics engine is the same, however, the number of ROP units (96) is higher, the memory bus (384 bits) is wider, the memory volume (12 GB) is bigger, frequencies are higher, and the price is much lower!



As it turned out, GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is produced with a PC-board of its high-end counterpart, but there are differences in electronic components. Thus, the power subsystem has been refined due to the duplicated quantity of MOSFET transistors. Now it is possible to overclock the adapter to higher frequencies. GTX 1080 Ti has got nine extra solid capacitors. The absence of a DVI port provides more vents on the back panel.


In general, for public users this product almost copies the more expensive Titan X model and at the same time can be more productive in games.

Asus is the one to introduce the largest assortment of graphics adapters based on a fresh Nvidia Maxwell GPU. The range of suggested products involves two models from Asus GeForce GTX 750 series and three models from Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti series. All five new-comers are differentiated by an ameliorated PCB design with the incorporation of Super Alloy Power components.



The GTX 750 series consists of GTX750-PH-1GD5 and GTX750-PHOC-1GD5 cards. Both of them come with an integrated Nvidia GM107-300 GPU, equipped with 512 CUDA cores. The first model operates at 1020 MHz/1085 MHz (nominal/boost) frequency, whereas its companion runs at 1059 MHz/1137 MHz. They employ 1 GB of GDDR5 memory, demonstrating 1252 MHz/5010 MHz (nominal/efficient) frequency. The cards also have an identical video interface panel that embraces one HDMI, one D-Sub, and one DVI-D port.


The GTX 750 adapters accommodate analogous cooling system with a single Dust-Proof Fan. The latter is called to keep the …