Area, a Japanese hardware retail company, has voiced its intentions to release four new expansion cards with SATA III interface and USB 3.0 ports. The announced products are called to present additional expansion facilities to PC systems. According to the present-day data, the release will include four models: PE4U3E-3E1 Sport Quattro, D-EP34U3R-S3, SD-PEU3R-2T2IL, and S-PESA3ES2L.



The first model, codenamed PE4U3E-3E1 Sport Quattro, will be based on Etron EJ188 controller. It will accommodate four USB 3.0 ports, three of which are external and the other one – internal. This expansion card will employ PCI Express 2.0 x2 bus for the connection to the PC interface.


The second model, codenamed D-EP34U3R-S3, will operate under the supervision of Renesas D720202 controller. The model will include two external and two internal USB 3.0 ports. The third model, SD-PEU3R-2T2IL, will employ Renesas D720201 controller as the basis and will contain also four USB 3.0 ports (two …

LEPA is ready to release a new series of entry-level power supply units entitled MX-F1. The series counts three models of 400 W, 500 W and 600 W capacity: N400-SA-EU, N500-SA-EU and N600-SA. In addition, the company has expanded its MaxGold line with a flagship 1000-watt model. It corresponds to Intel ATX12V 2.4 standard and employs an optimized hardware design.



To begin with, MX-F1 PSUs offer 87% of ultimate efficiency. Operating at 20%/50%/100% loading, they are able to achieve 82%/85%/82% efficiency correspondingly. Nonetheless, the models cannot receive 80Plus Bronze certificate, since they feature limited voltage input range. All the models within the series employ a single +12V rail and boast a non-modular design.


This promotes for the connection of middle-efficiency components. They support Active PFC and a wide spectrum of protective functions (over-voltage, over-current, over-power, short-circuit). Cooling of internal components is ensured by a single 120 mm fan. …

Recently, the main chipmakers offer three types of system logic for their platforms, which include top-end solutions for production systems designed also for extreme overclocking, average ones for most gaming systems and budget options for office PCs or undemanding users. At AMD, the chipsets X370, B350 and A320 now meet these criteria.


Soldering mid-level hub does not affect the capabilities of the board overclocking. Much greater restrictions are imposed by the schemes of power regulators and the chosen way of their implementation, and only then one may complain about the possibilities available in the UEFI environment. So, let’s get acquainted with the senior board represented by the ASRock company, in the structure of which B350 is included (there are five of them at the time of this review witing). Nominally, it belongs to the gaming series, which means that the user has the right to expect special bonuses.


Features


Chipset: AMD B350

Processor socket: AMD …