Based on the design, the case it truly intended to be use with either a 120mm or 240mm AIO (all-in-one) liquid cooler. While AIO’s are fairly common in the current day, enthusiast are more often turning to creating custom loops in their build to maximize space efficiency. The “dream” CPU block from Barrow, that combines the pump, CPU plate, reservoir, is just 2mm too tall to fint into this case, which is a shame.

The biggest offender though, is the cable management. Or lack there of. With the case being so small, planning and routing cables is a the only way to be successful and that takes a lot of time. This is definitely not a case for the unitiated or faint of heart. It can be made into a beautiful build, but you’ll need to bring your A-game.

What are you’re thoughts? Is this your next ITX case or are the issues a deal breaker for you? Sound off in the comments here or in the YouTube comments section.

Check out the other Jonsbo case I’ve looked at, the late Jonsbo VR1

At $699 for the base model, I could not resist pulling the trigger on the Mac mini and essentially beta testing Apple’s M1 chip. What that amount of cash gets you is an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and an eyebrow-raising 16-core Neural Engine which is basically a ramped up version of the Neural Engine we’ve seen in iPhone’s and iPad’s since the mobile A11 processor.

I initially thought the 8GB’s wouldn’t be enough to handle my workflows and was actually planning on testing this for a week and then exchanging for a 16GB model but that hasn’t been the case. While I’m not doing any heavy rendering or encoding, I am doing a good amount of video and audio editing and development without any hiccups. Final Cut Pro, GarageBand, and Xcode are all snappy and more responsive on the M1 Mac mini, which only has a quarter of the memory on my 16 inch MacBook Pro. In all fairness however, these are all Apple Native apps, so it’s expected that these applications would be optimized for the M1 chip.

That’s not to say that Apple has abandoned X86 based apps. Instead Apple has released Rosetta 2, which is its own translation/emulation software. When you first install an intel X86 based app, a pop up appears stating Rosetta 2 needs to run. This is largely due to Apple’s Ahead-Of-Time compiler when compared to the old Just-In-Time complier (AOT vs JIT). The AOT compiler like its name states compiles the entire app during installing so it’s ready before you even open it.To be completely honest Rosetta 2 demolishes Windows on ARM emulation. Microsofts method of emulation isn’t up to par when compared to Rosetta 2 and something Microsoft needs to address.

This is not to say it’s all good in the hood with the M1 Mac mini. The Apple silicon has its limitations when it comes to I/O. You lose 2 of the 4 Thunderbolt ports that come with an Intel based Mac mini. You’re also limited to 1Gb Ethernet (RIP 10Gb for now). Other than that the configuration doesn’t change, with two USB-A ports and one HDMI 2.0 port.

To most this isn’t a big deal, but for content creators that have various devices they need to connect this does pose an issue without the introduction of docks, adapters, or dongles. And to be clear, a good Mac mini dock isn’t cheap, pair that with an external storage solution if you go with the base model which only has 256GB of storage space and you’re spending an extra $200-300 dollars on top of the $699. It’s also disappointing that there isn’t an internal expansion bay for an M.2 drive or a SSD inside the Mac mini. There are many teardown videos on the internet show that there’s clearly enough space for one. It seems like a very Apple like omission.

This Mac mini doesn’t look like it, but it’s actually quite capable. I benchmarked it against my 16″ MacBook Pro that has 32GB of RAM and running an 8-core Intel Core i9 processor, and the results were a bit jarring. I really expected the 16 inch pro to step on the Mac mini, but that wasn’t the case in test that didn’t require dedicated graphics.

I’ve opened about 12 applications at once and a dozen or so chrome tabs trying to bring this Mac mini to a crawl but wasn’t able to. I had several YouTube videos going, a few twitch streams, Initially there was some terrible performance from Google Chrome (what a surprise!), but that was quickly remedied when Google launched the Apple Silicon version of the application. Sadly a little too late, as Safari is my new browser of choice because of how fast the M1 optimized version is, during my test I saw less memory usage when opening the same 12 tabs on Safari and that was enough for me to make the switch. It’s akin to how welly optimized the iPhone is compared to better specced phones.

The CPU score against the 16 inch MacBook Pro is when I realized how much optimization went into Big Sur. Take a look Geekbench scores below the Mac mini thrashes the i9 processor much like in the previous scores above.

It’s truly a terrific processor, that I think over time will be one of the most impactful decisions in Apple’s history as it’ll remove Apple’s dependency on intel and move its entire production in house. This initial offering is a bit gimped by it’s I/O limitations and the lack of all apps being optimized that I don’t think professionals should rush to buy an Apple silicon Mac just yet. I had issues with Docker which was not supported at all at the time of writing, Adobe CC isn’t yet fully optimized for Apple computers sporting the M1 chip but under Rosetta 2 it does run well. Adobe will eventually release an Apple Silicon version of the Adobe Creative Suite.

If you’re more of a hobbyist and aren’t dependent on your current workflows as a source of income you can’t go wrong with one of the new M1 Macs. If you’re just starting out as a content creator and don’t have a defined set of apps you rely on, These new M1 Macs are definitely a great buy. But if you have a specific workflow or apps you depend on, I’d recommend doing a bit of research before purchasing one of the new Macs, I’d even go as far to say to wait until Apple Silicon is more widely adapted and matured across Apple’s product stack. These new M1 Macs are great showcases of what’s to come from Apple.

With all that said unless you’re in dire need of a new machine and don’t heavily rely on a specific work flow or having multiple monitors and attachments. This is an easy purchase. But I highly recommend waiting for next generation. Apple is onto something special.

In case you can’t remember what Lian Li had in their suite this year, (and I honestly wouldn’t blame you, given the state of the world) here’s a refresher.

The LANCOOL 215 is a solid looking ATX mid-tower case with two very large assets in the front that are hard to miss, namely two 200mm ARGB fans. Both of the massive fans are of the high static pressure variety to get air over a front-mounted radiator that can be up to 360mm in length. In front of the fans on the exterior is a fine mesh to keep dust out while allowing the fans to pull in air. Inside the case, radiator compatibility is up to a 360mm rad on the front and a 240mm radiator on top. Both of these locations have enough clearance to have a set of fans installed on them. This is nice, as it sets up for a push-pull config on the front is you’re building a case with either an AIO or custom loop.

The LANCOOL 215 also offers plenty of cable management grommets and Velcro straps. I do appreciate that the front I/O is on top of the case and directly above the cable tie-downs, which should make cable management, well, more manageable. Right next to the tie-downs is a fan and RGB hub. Even though it isn’t a PWM fan hub, it is surprising to see it in a case at this price point. The hub can accommodate up to six fans and three 5V+ RGB devices. Of those six fans that the hub can support, half of those spots are occupied by the included fans. Just in case you’re keeping track, there’s also a single 120mm fan pre-installed in the rear as an exhaust.

In case you’re getting excited by the vertical GPU in the product shots shown, note that the LANCOOL 215 doesn’t come with the kit needed to make a GPU vertical. Rather, that bracket and an RGB strip, which were both built for the LANCOOL II, can be purchased separately.

Speaking of purchases, the LANCOOL 215 is available for pre-order from Lian Li via Newegg for the affordable price of $69.99 now. No date has been given for the actual release, but I would assume it’s sometime in the near future.

The combination charger and hub are smaller than you might expect, at just about the size of a stack of index cards. With a size of 5.4 inches width by 2.8 inches length and by 0.7 tall, the POWME GaN charger is smaller than most of the battery packs that we carry around. Or at least use to when we were allowed to travel, but that’s a story for another day.

On the sides of the POWME, there’s a surprising amount of things going on. Down one side you have two USB 3.1 ports with one have quick-charging capabilities, a 30W USB Type-C for charging your laptop, and an HDMI port that is capable of 4K resolution at 60Hz. There is no mention as to which HDMI spec this is, either 1.4 or 2.0

Along the opposite side, there’s one SD card slot and a Micro SD card slot just above that. Also, there’s another Type-C port for data transferring, power via a battery bank, and most interestingly, power-sharing between laptops. POWME doesn’t say whether the feature has some kind of auto-shutoff after both laptops reach an equal battery charge or if the POWME keeps draining the charged laptop until the lower charged one is full.

Also, maybe I’m just cynical, but I can’t imagine anyone being kind-hearted enough to drain their laptop battery to charge someone else’s without being told to do so. I hope that I’m wrong, honestly. What I can see as a more plausible situation is two laptops charging off the Type-C ports simultaneously. I don’t know if the POWME can handle that, but it seems like a more common scenario.

Not to leave out any of the devices that we care about on a daily basis, or even hourly depending on who you ask, the POWME also has two forms of wireless charging on the top side. Closest to the AC plug is an Apple Watch charger and then further down is a 7-10W QI charger. There’s truly enough connectivity on this one device to replace just about every kind of charger that most of you would carry.

While the POWME has plenty of functionality, that doesn’t mean that it wont match your aesthetic. There are ten different color options for the top including black, silver, green, blue and purple and more. If the solid colors weren’t doing it for you, there are also three rock patterns, including two Agate and a marble pattern.

Although there’s been n official word on pricing or release date, looking back at the recent funding Kickstarter campaign does give us some insight. Backers of the campaign have a tentative delivery time of May this year and the highest pricing for a single unit was $108. That would lead me to think that general availability will be during the summer after the backers have received their units. As for the general public price, it’s really anybody’s guess. I hope that it stays less than $150, but only time will tell.

All puns and Dad jokes aside, we always welcome the unusual around here. For those of you that aren’t up to date on what even the STRIMMER PLUS is, allow me to explain. The STRIMMER PLUS is a system of RGB LED cable extensions. It’s an update to the original STRIMMER that was released a few years back.

New to the STRIMMER PLUS is addition of a dual 6+2 8pin PCIe cables. The two cables come as a set and work just like the larger 24pin cable set.

The STRIMMER PLUS is an upgrade to the original STRUMMER in a number of ways. The most prominent would be the LED wires themselves. In the original version, the wires were just left exposed on all sides which gave the appearance of a light-up wire sitting on top of the power cables. In the new STRIMMER PLUS, the LED wires have been given sides, a concave underside. and paired off. This does a few things. Giving the LED wires sides and pairing them off gives the look of complete extension cables rather than the floating look of the first generation. The same goes for adding concave indentations to run the sleeved power cables. It all adds to the cohesive feel as it makes the cables look like one set of cables that light up instead of some lights added to the top of your PSU cables.

Previously, the STRIMMER used a rear-accessible PCI slot cover with a few buttons to control the lighting. With this upgraded version, the STRIMMER PLUS now hosts a break-out box of sorts. This controller box allows you to plug in the cables that come from the extensions and either control the lighting from the box itself or plug into an RGB header on your motherboard and use your computer’s RGB management software to handle the color lights and effects. While the physical buttons of the older versions are nice, I’m sure it’ll be much easier to deal with software lighting control. The controller only comes with the 24pin cable.

Surprisingly, the 24-pin cable is much shorter than the 8-pin. While both have adequate length, the 8pin comes in a full 100mm longer at 300mm for the cables. The end connectors make up the difference in length by a little. The 24pin is 273mm in total while the 8pin is 364mm long.

While the available colors of the 120 LEDs in the 24pin ( 108 LEDs in the 8pin cable) cable aren’t the full gamut of the RGB spectrum, there are some very interesting animations modes that were noted including the “Snooker” and “Cha Cha” I have no idea what either of these mean in terms of light animations, but I’m very interested to find out.

Both are available now from Newegg and other online retailers. The 24pin is retailing for $49.99 while the 8pin is available for $39.99.

Let’s talk about the design. If there’s anything that the original case had, it was polarizing looks. I would venture a guess that within 10 seconds at looking at a single full-case shot of the original, anyone would know if they loved or hated it. And that seems like it will be a tradition for this series of cases. Before you have time to decide whether Intel or AMD is better, you’ll know whether this is a case that could end up next to your desk or getting removed from the cart (if it ever even got there to begin with).

Like so many things that are popular now, retro is king and the CONQUER has a very unique vibe to it. I would describe it as 80’s-mecha-anime. There are a number of boxy- long-faced robots that I would say match it, but the two that come to mind first are the Proto-Garland from Megazone 23 and the titular Gundam from Gundam Zeta. Both have faces that are much longer than wide and mostly blocks from above the jaw. While the Gundam doesn’t sport the mono-eye look, the Proto-Garland does and this case bears more of its continence.

This is all of course from the front. When viewed from the side, we treated to copious angled side panels. They are very reminiscent of sportbike fairings, but with a less aggressive forward angle, like a lean-back version of the Antec TORQUE. They are all removable which should make building, and modding, much easier.

Speaking of removable, there’s an orange handle on the back of the case that looks very much like an ejection handle. And it is. Sort of. The handle is to “eject” the entire subframe of the case. And by subframe, Cougar actually means the box part where all the components go. It actually makes the case even more mech like as this is basically like the cockpit. Where we see this being an issue isn’t in the removal of the subframe. but rather putting it back together. There doesn’t seem to be any indication that the rear of the subframe has any way to hold down cables so that they don’t snag on some random angled bit on their way back in.

Just like any good sequel, the CONQUER 2 is bigger and can hold more. What was once a mid-tower design has been expanded upon to a full-tower case that supports motherboards from CEB down to Mini-ITX. There is one 120mm RGB fan pre-installed in the front and the case can support up to two 120mm fans in the front and three on the top. Radiator support is as expected given the fan accommodation, up to a 360mm radiator on the top and a 240mm unit in the front. No word on thickness clearances.

As of writing, there has been no word on release date or price. Given the cost of the last CONQUER, we wouldn’t be surprised if this was in the same range. Which is about $350 MSRP. That sounds like a lot of money for a case, but at least it’s not the company’s GEMINI X or a limited edition case from In Win.

Edit: Cougar has responded to our query of availability. As of December 23rd, the case is available in the USA market for $329.00 MSRP via Altex.com

This little clicker is what’s known as a 60-percent layout. As in, it has 60% of the keys found on a more traditional 104-key device. Even though it’s missing more than 40 keys, this little “keeb” as mechanical keyboards are affectionately called, has nearly all of the functionality you could want from a keyboard and then some.

To see my full thoughts on the Anne Pro 2, check the video below

Oh, wait. There is and it’s called the THREADRIPPER 1920X.

Amazon is blowing out he 12-core chip from the first generation THREADRIPPER like they really need that shelf space. Currently, the THREADRIPPER 1920X is going for $199.99. Just let that sink in.

One could argue that even though this is a significant price drop, there’s still the premium cost of TR4 socket motherboards to contend with. And our rebuttal to such hypothetical arguments is that most TR4 motherboards are still going to be cheaper than an X570 board right now.

We have no idea how long this deal will last, so if you have the cash that you can spare, we definitely suggest jumping on this deal. You can find the processor here – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CBJHCT/?coliid=I3J5LL15QH6WMB&colid=2AV8Q70OPCXZ&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

There seem to be two distinct camps when it comes to ITX case design. One side, small form factor or SFF crowd, is mainly concerned with size management and getting the entire system as small as possible. The other side, which doesn’t have a name as far as we know, is more interested in seeing what kinds of layouts are possible given the smaller components like the motherboard and PSU.

Antec has released the new Striker ITX case that it clearly in the second camp.

The open air chassis that is the Antec Striker does a number of things differently than most cases, but its most unique feature is front-mounting the GPU. That’s right, where most box style cases have front intake fans and glass, the Striker has a bracket to mount the GPU with connection terminals pointing down. And glass. In order to accomplish this, the motherboard is also rotated -90 degrees to have its I/O facing down and a riser cable is run between the two.

With this case being made up of separate planes with a series of bolts that holds the together, ala InWin H-Frame, there’s no top mounting for fans or radiators. That being said, there is still mounting for four 120mm fans or a pair 240mm radiators. One pair of fans and or a radiator is off the rear of the case, while the other set is behind the motherboard tray.

Also on the back side of the motherboard tray is a bracket that can hold two 2.5 inch SSDs. This tray also helps hide the wiring. The bottom quarter of the case is covered by two white shrouds that hide the PSU, Which is, of course, SFX.

Pricing for the Antec Striker is set at an eye-blnkingly-high $249 when it releases on October 14 of this year.

But all this outdoor recreation poses a time-honored problem – how does one keep all of the snacks and drinks cold when we are among the great outdoors? Normally it means a stop at either a grocery or convenience store to purchase a multi-pound bag of ice, or telling someone else to bring the ice on their way. GoSun believes that there’s a better and drier way to keep picnic and BBQ items cool. Enter, the GoSun Chill.

Outdoor tech has seen quite a boom in the last few years. What was once just bringing out folding chairs, a small grill, and some coozies has turned into ruggedized and waterproof speakers, chairs that can automatically recline, and grilling experience that’s closer to stating at home in your fully stocked kitchen.

Now GoSun has launched, albeit on Indiegogo, their take on how to make outdoor recreation a bit easier. The Chill is a liquidless cooler that runs off either a 30w solar array, an included li-on battery, or AC wall outlet and DC in a vehicle. There’s also a 60w solar array built into a sold separately table.

It’s easier to think of the Chill less like a cooler used for picnics and more like a mini fridge on wheels. The idea of how the Chill works is much closer to a fridge with a condenser and evaporator coil wrapped around an insulated cavity.

Temps within the Chill can range quite a bit, from 50°F (10°C) down to a freezing 20F (-5C), which is cold enough to make ice.  I was wondering if it can get to those kinds of low temps, how long does it take for water to freeze and where is the ice coming from? Ice trays? The temperature will directly affect how long the battery pack lasts as it takes more energy to keep temps lower. At best, GoSun is claiming the battery will keep the interior of the Chill at 50 for 14 hours and 3 hours at 20F in 80F ambient temps.  

It wouldn’t be a proper tech gadget if the included battery didn’t power everything else. The power bank has three USB ports to charge phones and 15A DC to power other devices.

This is a crowdfunding product, so use your best judgment when it comes to backing the Chill or not. As of writing, there are 9 days left in the campaign and funding has reached over 3500% of the goal, so it seems like people really want to be able to take their beverages to the beach without having to lug around soggy bags of ice. The lowest backing option will net you the Chill and Powerbank battery and will set you back a quintet of Benjamins. Adding the smaller solar panel will add another $100 and the larger solar table is an extra $150.

If you’re interested, the campaign can be viewed here – https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gosun-chill-a-solar-cooler-that-doesn-t-need-ice