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ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ Incoming: 34" Ultrawide Curved Display with Qi Charging
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ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ Incoming: 34″ Ultrawide Curved Display with Qi Charging

ASUS has started to ship its Designo Curve MX34VQ display that was originally announced in mid-2016. At present, a number of retailers are offering pre-orders on the monitor, starting that it is “coming soon.” The monitor is based around a UWQHD-class panel and is equipped with a wireless Qi charging device as well as an audio sub-system co-developed with Harman Kardon. In addition, the display has a 100 Hz refresh rate, a feature that should appeal to gamers.

The ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ has a number of similarities with another ultrawide curved display with a Qi charger, the MX38VQ, which was introduced earlier this year. The two monitors share many design elements, such as ultra-thin bezels, a Harman Kardon-developed audio sub-system consisting of two 8 W speakers, a curved stand made of metal and plastic, and a Qi charger with acrylic elements and blue lighting. Where the two displays differ is in their panels, curvature and other specifications.

The ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ is based on a 34” VA panel with a 3440×1440 resolution (2.39:1 aspect ratio), offering a maximum brightness of 300 nits, a 3000:1 contrast ratio, a 100 Hz refresh rate, 178°/178° viewing angles, a 4 ms response time, and 1800R curvature. The panel can reproduce 16.7 million colors and appears to be a pretty typical sRGB gamut design. As for connectivity, the Designo Curve MX34VQ monitor has three HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.2 port (PiP and PBP functions are supported), and a 3.5-mm audio jack.

ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ
Panel 34″ VA
Resolution 3440 × 1440
Refresh Rate 100 Hz
Response Time 4 ms gray-to-gray
Brightness 300 cd/m²
Contrast 3000:1
Viewing Angles 178°/178° horizontal/vertical
Color Saturation 16.7 million colors (sRGB?)
Pixel Pitch 0.2316 mm
Pixel Density 110 ppi
Inputs 1 x DisplayPort 1.2 (HDCP)
3 x HDMI 2.0 (HDCP)
Qi Wireless Charging 5W/1A with aurora lighting
Audio 8 W × 2
Harmon/Kardon
Launch Price $799 (?)

The ASUS Designo Curve MX34VQ can be pre-ordered from Amazon and B&H for $799, which seems to be its official price. If that does end up being the official price then it’ll be a bit lower than I had initially expected, given the stylish design and rather decent specifications. For comparison, similar curved ultrawide monitors without Qi support have tended to retail for $899 and higher. In any case, the exact availability date is unknown, but with pre-orders opening up it’s reasonable to assume that the MX34VQ will finally hit the shelves in the coming weeks.

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The OpenPOWER Saga Continues: Can You Get POWER Inside 1U?

When we saw that Tyan made a 1U server based upon this Habanero platform, that caught our eye. The power-hungry POWER8 inside a density optimized form factor? And they feed it with a PSU of “only” 750 W? Is that really a viable option?

Today we’ll be taking a loot at Tyan’s GT75 system to find out the answer to that, and to see if a 1U configuration makes sense for a POWER8 system.

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The OpenPOWER Saga Continues: Can You Get POWER Inside 1U?

When we saw that Tyan made a 1U server based upon this Habanero platform, that caught our eye. The power-hungry POWER8 inside a density optimized form factor? And they feed it with a PSU of “only” 750 W? Is that really a viable option?

Today we’ll be taking a loot at Tyan’s GT75 system to find out the answer to that, and to see if a 1U configuration makes sense for a POWER8 system.

SilverStone Launches SST-TP01-M.2 Thermal Pads for M.2 SSDs
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SilverStone Launches SST-TP01-M.2 Thermal Pads for M.2 SSDs

In a bit of offbeat news this afternoon, SilverStone has announced a set of thermal pads for M.2 SSDs, the SST-TP01-M.2. These pads are designed to eliminate (or at least reduce) throttling of modern, high-performance drives under high loads. The pads are made of silicone and Silverstone claims they can reduce temperature of SSDs by over 10°C.

M.2 SSDs have a number of advantages over drives in traditional 2.5” form-factor: they are smaller, they are faster (because they use the PCIe interface with the NVMe protocol), they are (sometimes) cheaper to make, and so on. However, one of the main drawbacks of higher-end M.2 SSDs is the high heat dissipation of their controllers (and memory chips) despite their small form factor, which can lead to thermal throttling and reduced overall performance. Manufacturers have been aware of this for a bit now and have been addressing it in a couple of different ways. Plextor, for example, installs aluminum heat spreaders on their M8Pe drives, whereas Samsung’s latest HDDs come with other types of heat spreaders. However since not all SSD suppliers equip their products with sufficient cooling, SilverStone has developed an aftermarket thermal pad that should work with most drives.

The SilverStone SST-TP01-M.2 thermal pads are made of electrically non-conductive silicone – a material that offers decent thermal conductivity (up to 4 W/m.k) – and can fit M.2 drives that are up to 110 mm long. The SST-TP01-M.2 package includes both 0.5 mm and 1.5 mm thick pads for accommodating different setups.

According to SilverStone, usage of the thermal pads can reduce temperature of Samsung’s SM951 SSDs from 86°C to 71.4°C under high loads, thus ensuring they operate at peak performance more often. The actual performance of SilverSone’s thermal pads will heavily depend on the SSD and the surrounding system – the heat still needs to go somewhere – but there’s some potential here as silicone heatpads are by no means a new thing in PC hardware and have proven themselves to be useful.

SilverStone has already started to produce its M.2 thermal pads, and in Japan stores in the famous Akihabara district are already demonstrating them. Unfortunately, pricing has not yet been announced. But M.2 SSD owners who suffer from thermal throttling of M.2 SSDs will want to keep an eye on this.

SilverStone Launches SST-TP01-M.2 Thermal Pads for M.2 SSDs
  • Comments are Closed

SilverStone Launches SST-TP01-M.2 Thermal Pads for M.2 SSDs

In a bit of offbeat news this afternoon, SilverStone has announced a set of thermal pads for M.2 SSDs, the SST-TP01-M.2. These pads are designed to eliminate (or at least reduce) throttling of modern, high-performance drives under high loads. The pads are made of silicone and Silverstone claims they can reduce temperature of SSDs by over 10°C.

M.2 SSDs have a number of advantages over drives in traditional 2.5” form-factor: they are smaller, they are faster (because they use the PCIe interface with the NVMe protocol), they are (sometimes) cheaper to make, and so on. However, one of the main drawbacks of higher-end M.2 SSDs is the high heat dissipation of their controllers (and memory chips) despite their small form factor, which can lead to thermal throttling and reduced overall performance. Manufacturers have been aware of this for a bit now and have been addressing it in a couple of different ways. Plextor, for example, installs aluminum heat spreaders on their M8Pe drives, whereas Samsung’s latest HDDs come with other types of heat spreaders. However since not all SSD suppliers equip their products with sufficient cooling, SilverStone has developed an aftermarket thermal pad that should work with most drives.

The SilverStone SST-TP01-M.2 thermal pads are made of electrically non-conductive silicone – a material that offers decent thermal conductivity (up to 4 W/m.k) – and can fit M.2 drives that are up to 110 mm long. The SST-TP01-M.2 package includes both 0.5 mm and 1.5 mm thick pads for accommodating different setups.

According to SilverStone, usage of the thermal pads can reduce temperature of Samsung’s SM951 SSDs from 86°C to 71.4°C under high loads, thus ensuring they operate at peak performance more often. The actual performance of SilverSone’s thermal pads will heavily depend on the SSD and the surrounding system – the heat still needs to go somewhere – but there’s some potential here as silicone heatpads are by no means a new thing in PC hardware and have proven themselves to be useful.

SilverStone has already started to produce its M.2 thermal pads, and in Japan stores in the famous Akihabara district are already demonstrating them. Unfortunately, pricing has not yet been announced. But M.2 SSD owners who suffer from thermal throttling of M.2 SSDs will want to keep an eye on this.