Welcome to this week’s tech news, where we break down the all the latest and greatest hardware and software news.
Hardware
LIAN LI unveils Galahad II Trinity line up. What’s new?
Image credit: Lian Li official website
During an official press release, LIAN LI have revealed their brand-new generation of All In One liquid cooling, the GALAHAD II TRINITY series. Available now when preorders went live earlier this month, there are aptly three models, called GALAHAD II TRINITY, GALAHAD II TRINITY SL-INF and the GALAHAD II TRINITY PERFORMANCE respectively.
Personalisation has been put front and centre for the Galahad series, with swappable caps for the pump block and 45-degree rotary fittings at the radiator for ease of tube orientation; RGB is also available as a pre-installation. Let’s take a quick look at each model and see what each has to offer:
GALAHAD II TRINITY
Available in black and white, the GALAHAD TRINITY is equipped with ARGB PWM fans that can be daisy chained by a single cable that is easily hidden inside the fan’s frame. Designed to be quiet with its Fluid Dynamic Bearings, this model is available in both pump block sizes of 240 and 360.
GALAHAD II TRINITY SL-INF
Equipped with the same choices of pump sizes of 240 or 360, this model is available in black, with the white model coming with the UNI FAN SL120 INFINITY pre-installed.
GALAHAD II TRINITY PERFORMANCE
With a pump block only available of in the 360 size, the TRINITY PERFORMANCE has a 130mm wide radiator that’s 32mm in thickness and has a dual wave fin design for extra heat dissipation. Features include a pre-installed Liquid Crystal Polymer fans able to be daisy-chained just like the previous models. The fan features two modes: performance orientated and noise-optimised to lessen sound.
WHAT’S NEW?
The GALAHAD series has been designed to ensure better performance. With a copper cold plate to increase skived fin spacing and preventing debris buildup, the fins are taller and thicker to make up for any loss in density. Personalisation has also been a key factor, with the aforementioned swappable caps to allow users to sync it with their existing set ups or even add a whole new layer or personalisation. Installation has also been made a lot easier, with the radiator having 45-degree rotary fittings to enable easier tube routing.
You can browse Lian Li's new GALAHAD's new range on their official website.
Cable free GPUs from ASUS are coming soon
Aren’t wires the worst thing about your set up? Even with a good cable management and cable ties, no one likes to look at them. So ASUS are taking note and are looking to go into mass production with a cable free alternative at the end of the year.
Beginning with their RTX 4070 model, the idea ASUS initially floated at Computex 2023 (which we spoke about earlier in the year), and it was met with such a positive reception that it kickstarted the company into putting the design front and centre, beginning mass production this autumn.
How does it work?
The GPU will slot right into a compatible motherboard via an additional PCIe-like interface slot, and it has its power connections at the rear. Meaning there will still be power cables, but they do not feed directly into the GPU itself. This also means that if you’re considering buying, you will have to ensure that the motherboard is compatible and supports this method of power delivery. ASUS were quick to demo a compatible Z790 TUF gaming motherboard featuring rear power connectors to entice any potential buyers. Prices are currently not available, but they are expected to be higher than existing GPUs already out.
RTX 4090 Ti cancelled?
Reports from a noted tech leaker kopite7kimi that the Nvidia RTX 4090 Ti has been cancelled – although this model was never officially announced, so reports for the leaking and subsequent cancellation of this potential chunky monkey are to be taken with a little salt and may have been nothing more than a pipe dream all along.
Early leaks in October definitely caught our attention with the rather large girth of this model’s quad-slot cooler that some of you may have seen making the rounds on social media.
However, Kopite7kimi also said in their tweet that:
some low-grade AD103 and AD106 chipds will be another versions of RTX 4070 and 4060.
This is interesting because the AD103 is at the moment only used in the RTX 4080 whilst the AD106 is running in the 8 and 16GB versions of the RTX 4060 Ti. This could mean several things, including a potential 16GB RTX 4070 making use of the 256-bit bus of the RTX 4080. However, this has not officially been confirmed.
With concerns over overheating already making its rounds, there is no official explanation why Nvidia has decided to either halt or cancel the model, but the market isn’t currently calling for a high-end GPU at the moment. Nvidia has yet to comment.
Nvidia 50 series?
It’s still a long way off, but Nvidia are heading forward with plans for the next entry in their series of graphics cards. It could be as far as two years away, but that doesn’t mean we don’t already have our nose to the ground and looking for the newest rumours to hit the internet.
It’s sensible to assume their next flagship series will be the 50 series, but as of yet, nothing has officially been confirmed or announced. Speculations from reliable leaker kopite7kimi indicate the next round of Ada Lovelace architecture will have a 512-bit memory interface. This has raised concerned of the 50 series potential price mark, which could be significantly expensive, so might be an idea to get saving now.
According to PC gamer, they speculated that if:
That was a lot of hardware news! Now into the industry and software!
Software
Twitter: new branding landing in hot water
You may have noticed the widget on your phone for Twitter looks a little different. In the newest change to the social media platform, Twitter has been rebranded to X.com, featuring a new black and white logo. But with this new branding has brought forward new problems. Indonesia has banned the URL X.com over the country’s laws on pornography, and the “X” is already trademarked by both Meta for use in social networking services and the brand name by the band X Japan, which may incite a legal battle over copyright.
Ever since the takeover by Elon Musk, the website has seen some tempestuous times, often not taken seriously by its users. Threads, released by Meta earlier this summer has driven traffic away from Twitter but is struggling to maintain its userbase as users are down by half.
Twitter is yet to comment.
Death Stranding Easter egg discovered three years after release
Image credit: Death Stranding Press Kit
Hideo Kojima has always been known for Easter eggs in his video games. From spooky pictures of the face of game devs looking like ghost pictures back on the PS1, to being able to end a fight by leaving the game for a week and so the boss dies from old age, Kojima has always driven quirky and and innovative choices in the games he creates. And it seems Death Stranding is no different.
Three years after release, it’s been discovered that during the climatic boss battle with Higgs, players can choose to engage with him as a pacifist, blocking Higgs but not fighting back will trigger an event where Higgs will grab Sam and punch him before biting his ear.
Source: Kotaku.
Pacifism routes were always optional in Kojima’s flagship series, Metal Gear Solid, where Snake or others could choose to simply tranquilise enemies (and even bosses) during their playthrough, and it seems Kojima was not ready to stop adding obscure events for players to find months or even years later.
What are your favourite Easter eggs in games? The secret photo of Rebecca Chambers that requires you to search Wesker’s desk fifty times in Resident Evil 2? The illusionary wall behind an illusionary wall before the Great Hollow in Dark Souls? Or perhaps you want to look for Easter Eggs yourself? Take a look at some of our brand-new products for the upgrade you’ve been needing.
