The EMEA traditional PC market has some good news for Q2 2019-- shipments return to growth after 2 consecutive quarters of Y-o-Y declines, thanks to strong demand for PC refresh from the commercial segment.

Said refresh demand comes ahead of the January 2020 Windows 7 end of service (EOS) date. Thus, despite ongoing shift towards mobile computing solutions, strong desktop performance supported the overall results for the quarter. Further boosting Q2 2019 is the fulfillment of order backlogs brought about by the Intel CPU shortage from earlier in 2019.

The PC market also sees growth on a global perspective, as Q2 2019 shipments total 64.9 million units, a "notably higher than expected" 4.7% Y-o-Y increase brought about by a combination of supply shortage easing and looming trade tensions.

"Supply for Intel's processors improved markedly during the quarter, allowing most PC vendors to fulfill old orders while also shipping a healthy supply of new PCs into the channels," IDC says. "Additionally, the threat of increased tariffs led some PC makers to ship a surplus of desktops and notebooks, thereby artificially propping up the PC market during the Q2 2019."

Gigabyte launches a pair of Aorus-branded liquid-cooled GeForce RTX 2080 Super graphics cards-- the Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Super Waterforce 8G and Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Super Waterforce WB 8G.

While the names make the cards sound pretty similar, there is a fairly significant difference between the two. The Super Waterforce 8G features a hybrid closed-loop cooling system that is ready out of the box, while the Super Waterforce WB 8G carries a pre-installed water block designed for use with custom-built liquid cooling systems.

Both cards are based on the Nvidia TU104 GPU with 3072 cores clocked at 1615MHz (base mode) and up to 1860MHz (boost mode). Gigabyte promises the GPUs have been picked using a "Gauntlet" sorting technology, and a 12+2 power phase design allows for "extreme overclocking." Both cards also improve on the reference design by featuring 7 outputs, as opposed to 5, and the cooling helps keep temperatures of the GPU, memory and VRMs down.

Taiwanese PC component maker Biostar announces the H310MHP-- a micro-ATX form factor motherboard with support for the latest 9th and 8th generation Intel Core, Pentium and Celeron processors.

Described as the "little motherboard that can" by the company, the H310MHP is aimed at customers wanting something a little less flashy compared to a flagship product. It supports up to 32GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM, GbE LEN and HDMI, and offers up to x6 USB ports for the connection of multiple devices. A 5-phase power delivery system and an 8-pin CPU power connector ensure even high-end CPUs get stable power.

Germany's be quiet! announces the System Power 9 CM series PSUs-- a range aimed at more price-conscious customers featuring semi-modular designs together with the promise of both performance and quietness.

The entry-level PSU series consists of four models in 400, 500, 600 and 700W, and features 80PLUS Bronze level efficiency up to 89%. The 400 and 500W PSUs include x2 PCIe connectors, while the 600 and 700W models offer x4 connectors. All support multiple GPUs, and carry a 120mm fan the company claims is both quiet and temperature controlled.