Asetek claims to bring liquid-cooled GPUs to space-constrained PC cases with the Rad Card, a radiator card customers can simply fit into the motherboard PCie slot, just like any other add-in card.

Described as an industry first by the company, the Rad Card enables a liquid-cooled GPU in a smaller chassis while allowing enough space for a liquid-cooled CPU in the same case. The result, Asetek says, is superior cooling over an air-cooled system, ensuring GPU stability and limiting thermal throttling. In addition, the design eliminates the clutter of tube routing, making for a clean and sparse system environment.

W. European PC sales are up by 17.5% Y-o-Y in Q1 2020, Context reports, as a March 2020 surge in demand for remote-working hardware further pushed PC growth. Said surge comes through, of course, the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the analyst, PC sales are up by 7.6% Y-o-Y in January, 13.2% Y-o-Y in February and 31.8% Y-o-Y in March. Such numbers show when stricter measures to contain the spread of the virus across Europe lead to a "dramatic" increase in remote working. The full quarter sees a greater increase in business-targeted products, as sales for the segment are up by 22.8% Y-o-Y, compared to the 9.5% Y-o-Y growth of consumer-targeted PCs.

MSI launches a pair of motherboards based on the Z490 platform-- the MEG 490 Unify and the MEG Z490I Unify, both featuring a stripped-down all-black aesthetic without "redundant" LEDs in a choice of ATX and mini-ITX form factors.

The MEG Z490 Unify is the ATX motherboard. It includes a 16-phase power delivery with Intersil 90A power stages controlled by an ISL69269 PWM operating in an 8+0 configuration. It is PCIe Gen 4 ready, and includes three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, three full-legnth PCIe 3.0 slots working at x16, x8/x8 and x8/x8/+4, and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. The six SATA ports support RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays, and the board supports up to 128GB of DDR4-4800 RAM across four slots.

Taiwanese PC component maker ASRock launches the Z490 Aqua, a limited edition flagship motherboard featuring a built-in water cooling monoblock within a 16-power phase design promising up to 95% VRM efficiency.

Built out of aluminium-plated copper, the monoblock should keep VRMs and CPUs cool even during heavy loads or overclocking. The package even includes a set of appropriate accessories in the shape of a pack of hardline water cooling fittings, all set nicely in a presentation box. An OLED display allows customers to easily check system stats, such as CPU voltages, temperatures system and POST statuses.