• Missed one item in the big CES news dump yesterday: AMD officially announced the new non-X Ryzen 7000 range, available Tuesday.  (AnandTech)
  
  These are low-power, lower-cost versions of the existing models.  Most notably, the twelve core 7900 is a 65W version of the 170W 7900X, costs $429 vs. $549 MSRP, and includes a pretty good CPU cooler in the box (the Wraith Prism) where the X models require you to buy your own.
  
  It will definitely be slower than the 7900X, but should still perform very well.
  
  
  
• Ordered my Kronii case - another Hololive themed custom Hyte Y60.  I haven't built anything in the Bae case yet, but that will happen in the next couple of months.
  
  I'm still trying to figure out the optimal build for these cases.  They only offer a single full-height PCIe slot - though you can fit a triple-width card in there - so anything else has to be half height.  I want 10Gb Ethernet and S/PDIF for audio, and there seems to be exactly one Ryzen 7000 motherboard that has both and it ain't cheap.  (As in, it costs more than a 7950X.)
  
  None of the cheap Intel motherboards have both of those either.  Though if I go for a cheaper Intel build I don't need to worry about it right now, because unlike Socket AM5 which will support future Zen 5 and Zen 6 chips, Intel's Socket 1700 will never see an upgrade.
  
  Also I don't actually know if the wiring in the house will support 10GbE or if I'll need to get an electrician out to rewire everything.

• The Gigabyte Aero 14 OLED includes a 2880x1800 90Hz display, a Core i7-13700H CPU, Nvidia's new RTX 4050 mobile graphics, the Four Essential Keys...  And 16GB of RAM.  (Liliputing)
  
  Dammit.
  
  
  
• The Razer Edge Android gaming tablet launches on January 26 at $399.  (Liliputing)
  
  I might get one, because while it's not ideal for me - it's 6.8" and I want something in the 8" range - there are currently zero high-resolution 8" Android tablets that don't have crippling issues - like e-ink displays that run at 1 fps, or not being sold at all outside China.
  
  
  
• Plugable's new Thunderbolt 4 hub allows you to connect up to four 4K displays to your Thunderbolt or USB-C laptop, maybe.  (AnandTech)
  
  It's complicated.
  
  If you have a Thunderbolt 4 PC and you close the lid so the internal display shuts down, you should be able to connect four 4K monitors.
  
  If you have an Apple M1 Pro or M1 Max system, you can only have two external displays, and you have to use the correct ports for this (though this is not restrictive since there are plenty of ports).
  
  If you have a regular Apple M1 or M2, you can only have one external display.
  
  If you have a Thunderbolt 3 or USB 4 PC, you can only have two external displays with the same restriction as the M1 Pro/Max models.
  
  And if you have regular USB-C you can probably connect one display.
  
  You can't connect Thunderbolt or USB-C displays, though, and you can't connect 5K, 6K, or 8K displays, though all of those would work without the dock in the middle.
  
  And that's just how it should work if everything goes smoothly.  Heaven help you if you run into a problem.
  
  
  
• Razer has new laptops with 16:10 screens.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  They still lack the Four Essential Keys though.
  
  
  
• If you want a CPU with integrated graphics that's a little more powerful than AMD's new Phoenix chips the Radeon Instinct MI300 is exactly that but also not at all what you're looking for.  (AnandTech)
  
  It has 24 Zen 4 cores, an indeterminate number of graphics cores but presumably a lot because it has 146 billion transistors, and 128GB of RAM built right on to the package.
  
  Don't expect change back from twenty grand for this one.

Burn It All Video of the Day

Years ago, TSR announced the Open Gaming License, or OGL, that permitted third-party content for D&D, including completely independent variants of the core rules like Pathfinder and Castles and Crusades.

Hasbro, which now owns Wizards of the Coast, which bought TSR back before everything turned to shit, wants to kill all of this.

They also want to kill popular podcasts and video streams like Critical Role, and basically anyone and anything that makes any money from anything that in any way resembles Dungeons and Dragons.

They also want to kill Dungeons and Dragons, of course, because they're communists.

They're giving everyone a week to completely change their business models, probably because they're on vacation right now.

Makes the idiots at Filmora look like Dale Carnegie.

Posted by: normal at Saturday, January 07 2023 06:40 AM (obo9H)

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