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AMD Ryzen 4000 “Renoir” desktop APUs are having quite a month in the Twitterverse. First, an unidentified desktop Renoir APU was spotted by TUM_APISAK on UserBenchmark touting 8 cores, 16 threads and a base clock of 3GHz. And now, tipster @_rogame has leaked another chip bearing the Ryzen 7 4700G moniker.

Spotted from an Ashes of the Singularity benchmark, the Ryzen 7 4700G is shown to have the same 8 cores and 16 threads as the previous APU, though we urge you to take this with a grain of salt. 

If this processor is real, it’s expected to utilize the same Zen 2 architecture and 7nm process that made the mobile Renoir chips a staggering success. More importantly, it could double the core count of the current Ryzen 3000 APU line and its flagship, the Ryzen 5 3400G, which only has four cores.

UserBenchmark has seen fake submissions before, so this is hardly proof that a 8-core, 16-thread Renoir desktop APU is definitely coming. However, it’s worth noting that AMD’s Ryzen 7 chips typically sport 8 cores, so if this rumored APU does in fact have 8 cores, the name is certainly fitting. 

If the AMD Ryzen 7 4700G is real and on its way, it would be the very first APU to carry the Ryzen 7 branding.

Here’s what Ryzen 7 4700G could look like

Not much else is revealed about the Ryzen 7 4700G in this leak, unfortunately. But, that hasn’t stopped anyone from speculating before.

As reported by Tom’s Hardware, if this chip and the previously leaked desktop Renoir APU are actually one and the same, then the Ryzen 7 4700G will have a base clock of 3GHz, with 3.95GHz boost. On the other hand, _rogame did argue that there are currently two 8-core Renoir APUs being tested, one with a 3GHz base, the other running at 3.5GHz. 

In any case, these are decent numbers that could potentially be higher in the final production units.

Tom’s Hardware expects the processor to support DDR4-3200 memory modules out of the box, though perhaps not PCIe 4.0 as the mobile Renoir processors only offer PCIe 3.0 support. Still, the Ryzen 3000 desktop chips are on the PCIe 4.0 interface, which means that it’s also possible for the desktop Renoir APUs to take after them.

It further speculates that the Ryzen 7 4700G could take after the Ryzen 9 4900H’s iGPU design, which will give it eight Compute Units (CUs) and up to 512 Stream Processors (SPs). Since current flagship Ryzen 5 3400G has up to 11 CUs, this could be a downgrade. However, AMD may offset that with a higher graphics clock.

Obviously, there’s no word yet on the pricing. But seeing as the Ryzen 5 3400G sells for $149 (£139, AU$240), the price tag on Ryzen 7 4700G – again, if it does exist – is expected to stay competitive, especially with AMD’s ethos of offering powerful components for less than the price of the competition.

Late last week, I attended a private briefing regarding the Lenovo Duet Chromebook. My review unit arrived that same day: I have the $299 model which is priced $20 higher than the base model and doubles the amount of local storage from 64 GB to 128 GB.

As of Monday this week, you can officially purchase your own Lenovo Duet Chromebook, which comes with the keyboard and fabric back cover, which is also a kickstand. And as of Monday, reviews were allowed to go live.

Regular readers know I don’t like to review a device over just two or three days solely to meet an artificial deadline. I ran into this same situation with the Pixelbook Go, only getting the device shortly before the review embargo.

Having said that, I can share some first impressions on the Lenovo Duet Chromebook from using it over the past few days. Expect a full review when I’m satisfied that I’ve tested it enough in the coming days. Also: If there are specific things you’d like to see tested, let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to address them.

Build quality and display are excellent

The first Chrome OS tablet, the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, was very plasticy and felt like a low end device. That’s not the case with the Lenovo Duet Chromebook: This is a well-designed and built piece of hardware, complete with an aluminum frame.

The form-factor and build reminds me of my iPad Pro 11, with similar materials and nicely rounded corners. Put another way, some tablets look cheaply made. This isn’t one of them. It’s the kind of device that looks more expensive than it costs.

The 1920 x 1200 display is also a standout so far. It’s sharp, although a little blueish, and plenty bright enough, topping out at 400 nits on the spec sheet. I’m perfectly fine using this device with brightness between 40 and 60 percent in most cases.

The full package is chunkier than I expected

The Lenovo Duet Chromebook is 7.35 millimeters (0.29-inches) thick by itself and easy to tote around. Once you add the keyboard and the fabric backed kickstand though, you’re up to 18.2 millimeters thick (0.71-inches). That’s pretty thick and more than I anticipated. Indeed, it’s slightly thicker than the Google Pixel Slate with its keyboard:

You could reduce the thickness by not attaching the magnetic fiber backing but then the physical keyboard becomes useless. Why? Because the kickstand needed to hold up the display when using the keyboard built in to the tablet; it’s part of the fabric attachment. So you’re really looking at just a thin tablet alone without a keyboard or the full, thick package.

You also go from a 0.99 pound tablet to a 2.03 pound device with the keyboard and kickstand part. It feels dense in the latter case because that roughly two pounds isn’t spread out over a wide area: This is a 10.1-inch tablet with relatively small screen bezels.

Early performance indicators are what I’d expect at this price

So far, this $300 Chrome OS tablet performs as I’d expect: Like most other Chromebooks in this price range. That is to say the MediaTek Helio P60T Octa-Core behaves to me like a recent Intel Celeron processor. Perhaps like a new Pentium. That’s not a bad thing because my expectations were set early on: I didn’t think we’d see Intel Core i3-like performance from this device.

I’ve said many times in the past that I’m not a fan of benchmarks, or at least not as the “end-all, be-all” metric to look at.

However, people always ask for them and as long as you see them as an indicator of general performance, they can be a useful data point. So here you go, with all tests run after a reboot and in Guest Mode. In all cases, higher numbers are better.

Again, these aren’t performance numbers that can compete with a Chromebook powered by an Intel Core m3 or better processor and double the memory. But again, this is a $300 package, so you can’t expect to perform like a Chromebook that costs $500 or more.

For example, benchmarks from various devices that cost nearly triple illustrate my point: Triple the cost can mean triple the performance. Keep that in mind as you think about purchasing the Lenovo Duet Chromebook: This may be better suited for most people as a secondary device instead of a primary Chromebook, depending on your needs.

For general browsing, the Lenovo Duet Chromebook performs fine. I do see the occasional lag from time to time, which I suspect is partly due to the 4 GB of memory. But I think I’d be happy using this as a small browser or part-time productivity device based on the performance.

I haven’t yet tested any Android apps, so I’ll focus on them during my full review. The new pinned tabs for Chrome OS tablets that arrived in Chrome OS 81 are useful and I don’t see any performance issues with them.

About that keyboard

On the briefing call, Lenovo said that most $300 devices have some compromise. You might get good performance but bad battery life. Or you might sacrifice on the display or not get a keyboard. So the company says this is a tablet that can also be a laptop, hence the included keyboard and the inclusion of the word “Chromebook” in the product name.

First up, I’m thrilled that Lenovo is including the keyboard at no extra cost. A USI stylus is optional and will cost you; Lenovo plans to debut one in the coming months but any USI stylus will work with the Lenovo Duet Chromebook.

Having said that, there is some compromise in this keyboard. It’s not backlit, for starters. I’m actually OK with that but others may not be. And there are some keys that aren’t full-sized. That’s a design challenge when you only have so much space to work with on a keyboard to fit a 10.1-inch display so it’s not unique to Lenovo.

For perspective, being around 5′ 5″ tall, I have relatively small hands. Here’s what one looks like with this keyboard.

Aside from those two observations, the keyboard is good, provided you can get used to the overall size and spacing. Even after a few days of use, I feel a bit cramped when typing. That’s why I don’t think I could use this as a full-time device for productivity. Give me an hour of productivity tasks though and the experience is good. The same can be said for the trackpad: It’s small but that’s a design constraint in a device with this size. However, it’s very responsive so far.

I should note that the Lenovo Duet Chromebook keyboard suffers in a fashion similar to the Google Pixel Slate Keyboard: It twists and flops a little when using the Duet on your lap. That’s because the top end of the keyboard has flexible fabric between it and the magnetic base that attaches to the screen. It’s actually not as a bad as the Pixel Slate keyboard because this device isn’t as a wide. But, you’ll likely notice it.

Overall first impressions are favorable

For $300, I’m generally impressed by the Lenovo Duet Chromebook, although I kept my expectations in check based on the specification sheet. Battery life so far seems to be what Lenovo has claimed, the screen is really nice while the speakers are adequate but not outstanding. Performance seems to be on par with other devices at this price point.

Obviously, I have more to test such as the aforementioned Android apps. And I’m sure folks will want to see how Linux works on this device although I don’t see that being a primary use case for a 10.1-inch tablet, even when connected to an external monitor. You’re limited to Linux apps compiled for ARM processors to begin with and you’re still looking at running Linux on what’s essentially a smartphone processor.

On that note, let me know what you’d like to see tested or if you have any specific questions. Again, I’ll address as many of them as I can.

Microsoft has officially ended the support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020, and you can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free. The original free upgrade offer to Windows 10 officially expired years ago, but the loophole is still working in May 2020, according to our testing.

It means that if you own a valid license of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you can get Windows 10 without paying $120 for the upgrade. It also appears that Microsoft knows of the loophole and the company will not block users from upgrading to Windows 10 even if that means it wouldn’t make money from the upgrades.

To get Windows 10 for free, you need to download and run Windows Media Creation Tool on Windows 10. Once downloaded, you need to choose the upgrade path where you keep your files.

In the Windows Media Creation Tool, you just need to follow the prompts and complete the upgrade. When the upgrade is complete and the device is connected to the Internet, the digital license of Windows 10 would be activated.

You can verify the activation status by going to Settings > Update and Security > Activation.

We have also heard from users that a fresh install will work with the free Windows 10 upgrade, but you’ll be asked to enter your Windows 7. However, an alleged Microsoft employee said that you may lose the ability to upgrade to Windows 10 for free if you choose to do a fresh install.

Windows 10 is also available for free if you’re a student or you have an alumni email account. If you can prove it, you might be able to score a free copy of Windows 10 Education, which is very similar to Windows 10 Enterprise.

According to the latest market share report, Windows 10’s desktop share is 56%, down from 57.34% and Windows 7 market share is 25.59, which also dropped from 26.3%.

Intel was poised to be bravo six, going dark. Their covert GPU development program was confirmed. It took one burst for them to capture nearly a dozen industry specialists from other companies. They hunkered down. They went radio silent for a year. Then, they hired a marketing team.

That marketing team flipped the paradigm and introduced an unprecedented level of transparency into the development process. (I’m personally grateful to Intel’s marketing team for giving me so much to write about.) Their ploy has often worked. Early promises of ray tracing and a 10nm production node extinguished concerns based on Intel’s CPU strife. An early leak promising a GPU with 4096 cores quickly impressed; only last week photos of the largest GPU in development sparked a wave of new curiosity. But promises made years ago are quickly forgotten and intangible specifications raise concerns over accuracy.

It’s been five months since their last press event. In that period, we’ve seen only one Intel GPU make the rounds. Designed with software developers in mind, the Xe DG1 SDV won’t impress consumers. As the only visible product, however, and given that it has plenty of RGB, that role has fallen upon it. Yesterday’s SiSoftware leak dispelled rumors suggesting it would have 128 EUs, but rather 96 EUs (the difference was an error in counting the CPU’s integrated graphics as part of the discrete solution). That’s a mediocre 768 shaders/cores. The database entry also showed that it was operating at 1.5 GHz, and that it was paired with 3GB of memory.

That’s by no means an insufficient performance bracket for a device intended for developers. Released as the right consumer-oriented product, in laptops, say, as Intel demonstrated back in January, it may be perfectly competitive. But I will pose this question to Intel’s marketing team: why should anyone care?

A year ago, when this device was leaked alongside three Xe HP (high performance) GPUs with stunningly beautiful core counts, the leak as a whole was a good sign. That only the least impressive of the products has manifested is not a great sign. I’d almost say that last week’s photo of what turned out to be the largest of the previously leaked GPUs was an attempt to distract from that fact. What was very promising five months ago doesn’t look so rosy anymore.

Intel, choose: stop putting RGB on your developer cards and pretending gamers have something to look forward to soon, or outright give us something to be hopeful for.

Huawei’s Honor had surprised everyone with the Honor 9X. The premium mid-range smartphone has been of the greatest hits of the company and now it seems that the company is gearing up to launch a successor for this highly-succesful handset. Now, the company is gearing up to launch the Honor 9X Pro in India, three months after its global launch. This comes in a moment when the first news about the next entry in lineup dubbed Honor X10 is taking the headlines. But let’s keep our focus in the 9X Pro.

According to a tweet from Honor India, there is a new product coming for India with a Kirin 810 chipset. Moreover, the company is reported to have accidentally confirmed the name in a tweet that has since been deleted. Unfortunately, the company didn’t reveal the launch date. However, a report from IANS states that it will be launched on May 12 and will be available on Flipkart.

HONOR 9X PRO SPECIFICATIONS

The Honor 9X Pro is powered by the AI-driven Kirin 810 Octa-Core SoC. It comes paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM and 256GB of Internal Storage. These specifications are built around a 6.59-inch IPS LCD display with FHD+ resolution. It has a triple-camera setup on the back comprising a 48MP main + 8MP Ultrawide + 2MP depth sensors. The handset is a truly bezel-less thanks to a motorized 16MP pop-up camera solution.

The phone draws power from a 4,000mAh battery and includes Honor’s Magic UI 3.0 based on Android 10. According to rumors, it will cost between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 in India. In Europe, for instance, it retails at 249 Euros and you get the 6GB RAM + 256GB storage model.

YouTube celebrity Linus Sebastian recently reviewed a very peculiar Intel B150 motherboard from Chinese motherboard manufacturer Zeal-All. The ZA-SK1050 knits Intel’s LGA1511 socket with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti onto the same PCB. The manufacturer has never made our best motherboards list, but Zeal-All has been offering this type of product for a while now and the ZA-SK1050 seems to be its latest creation.

The ZA-SK1050 measures 235 x 197.5mm so it doesn’t really belong to any established form factors. If we had to classify the motherboad, it would fit in between the FlexATX and microATX categories. The upper half of the ZA-SK1050 is everything you would expect from a pocket friendly motherboard from 2017.

Zeal-All built the motherboard around Intel’s budget B150 chipset and LGA1151 socket. Consequently, it can support both 6th and 7th Generation Core processors that belong to the Skylake and Kaby Lake families, respectively. The motherboard doesn’t have any power connectors though as all power comes through the single 19V DC port. Finally, a pair of SODIMM DDR4 memory slots are present to offer housing up to a maximum of 32GB of DDR4-2133 memory.

Instead of using expansion slots, Zeal-All has implemented an embedded approach. The manufacturer has slapped a discrete GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card onto the ZA-SK1050 by soldering the GPU and memory chips onto the motherboard’s PCB itself. A heatsink with an accompanying cooling fan actively keeps the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti’s operating temperatures in check.

The ZA-SK1050 comes with a pretty uncommon I/O interface design as well. The motherboard comes with four SATA III ports in total. Curiously, two of them are placed on the rear panel. There’s a mSATA interface for accommodating SSDs of the same nature. Additionally, the motherboard supplies a mPCIe port for adding a wireless module further down the line. The remaining cocktail of internal connectors includes two USB 2.0 headers, one USB 3.0 header, four 4-pin fan connectors, two LVDS headers, two SATA connectors, LPC port (which looks like an HDMI port) for factory debugging, speaker header and the usual front panel connector.

The motherboard’s rear panel is home to a clear CMOS button, one HDMI port that outputs images at a 2K resolution, four USB 3.0 ports and one JSATA connector. The Gigabit Ethernet port is based of Realtek’s RTL8111E Ethernet controller. The ALC662 audio codec is also from Realtek and powers the two 3.5mm audio jacks.

The ZA-SK1050 supports various types of hardware monitoring, such as temperature, voltage and system power management. The list of supported operating systems consists of Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Zeal-All sells the ZA-SK1050 motherboard on Alibaba for between $345 and $365. Admittedly, B150 motherboards are very hard to come by nowadays. But when they were available, the motherboards generally costed around $50 to $150. The cheapest GeForce GTX 1050 Ti on the market starts at $150. A B150 motherboard and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti combo would set you back $200, which is way cheaper than rolling with Zeal-All’s offering. However, the ZA-SK1050’s real value would likely lie with some type of AIO PC, an embedded system or a PC for cyber cafes, which are extremely popular in China.

OnePlus is one of the best companies when it comes to providing software updates for its devices. The company not only prioritize newer devices but keeps good support for the old handsets as well. Today, the company is rolling out a new OxygenOS Open Beta 13 update for the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro are getting Open Beta 3. The new Open Beta builds bring April 2020 security patch and other bugfixes.

It’s interesting to point out that the Open Beta 13 for the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro replaces the buggy Open Beta 12 that had to be rolled back. Users that are still running the Open Beta 11 will get the newer update via OTA. Apart from the newer security patches, the camera lens dirt detection feature is also making way for the last year’s devices. The changelog is pretty much the same for the four smartphones.

OXYGENOS OPEN BETA 13 FOR ONEPLUS 7 AND 7 PRO / OPEN BETA 3 FOR OP7T AND 7T PRO

SYSTEM

Optimized the volume adjustment to improve user experience

Added the missing recording icon in-call screen

Updated Android security patch to 2020.04

Fixed known issues and improved system stability

PHONE

Added the ringing duration info for missed calls

Now you can switch your mobile data on phone calls supported with VoLTE

CAMERA

Added a feature that can now detect dirt on the camera lens, prompting a quick cleanup for better image and video quality.

Microsoft has revealed some of the first third-party games that will be optimised for its next-generation console, the Xbox Series X.

The Xbox livestream featured previously unseen footage of the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.

But many viewers complained too little gameplay was displayed.

Both Microsoft and PlayStation-maker Sony have promised to deliver their latest consoles in time for Christmas 2020.

Typically, Microsoft holds an annual showcase of games at the E3 show in Los Angeles.

But this year’s conference was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead, the gaming giant showcased a series of upcoming games developed by third-party studios in a livestream.

They included:

racing game Dirt 5, which will let players drive around in ultra-high definition 4K at 60 frames per second (fps) or switch down to a lower resolution for even smoother gameplay at 120fps

mystery-horror game The Medium, which will take advantage of the Xbox Series X’s ray-tracing capabilities, to deliver advanced lighting effects

Second Extinction, in which players work as a team to take down large groups of mutated dinosaurs

Speaking during the livestream, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla creative director Ashraf Ismail – from developer Ubisoft – said the new console offered significant improvements for players.

“Assassin’s Creed has always been committed to new technology in order to push the most immersive experience that we possibly can.” he said.

“To have incredibly fast loading times means we can remove some of the friction from the immersion.

“Norway and dark-ages England are breathing, living worlds.

“So to be able to push them further is really wonderful for us.”

Several of the new games will be part of Microsoft’s “smart delivery” deal, which lets people play games they have purchased on any compatible Xbox console they own.

For example, a player who buys a game on the Xbox One S and then upgrades to an Xbox Series X will not have to buy the game again, if it is part of the deal.

However, many viewers complained Microsoft had promised to show off “gameplay” but the stream had mostly featured trailers and pre-rendered cinematic game footage.

“Where was the gameplay?” asked one viewer on YouTube.

“Do they know the difference?” asked another.

Microsoft said it would host another stream in July, revealing games from its own studios.

That will include Halo Infinite, a new game from the hugely successful Halo franchise.

Productivity and gaming laptops are distinct categories, but sometimes the lines get blurred. That’s the case with Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 3 laptops. Microsoft accurately bills the Surface Pro 3 as its “most powerful laptop ever,” and while it still comes dressed in productivity attire, it has some optional gaming chops—though at a higher price than many laptops that are purpose-built for gaming.

The Surface Book 2 that these new configurations replace also had some gaming options, but this time around, discrete GPU options are based on Nvidia’s latest generation Turing architecture. Buyers with the requisite funds can optionally make the leap from integrated graphics to a GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 memory on the 13.5-inch model, while the 15-inch model comes standard with a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q GPU with 6GB of GDDR6.

Max-Q variants mean you ultimately give up some performance to keep things cooler, which makes it possible to jam higher end GPUs into a thin and light form factor. However, both discrete GPUs are far and way better suited for gaming than integrated graphics.

To that end, Microsoft says “people who love to game” will find that the 15-inch model packs “enough power to play the top Xbox Game Pass for PC titles at 1080p in a smooth 60 frames per second.” In other words, Microsoft has gamers in its sights. Developers as well, who can opt for a model with a Quadro RTX 3000.

While the Surface Book 2 also shipped with a discrete GPU option (based on Pascal), the Surface Book 3 promises to be better suited for gaming, and not just in raw power. The Verge notes the Surface Book 2 it tested last year had trouble holding a full charge when plugged in and gaming because the AC adapter was under powered. For the Surface Book 3, Microsoft’s Robert Seiler told the site the charger’s been upgraded from 102W to 127W to address that very issue.

“When you max out the power you will not get it plugged in and not charging,” Seiler explained. “We’ve tested for it, it was one of the key things we wanted to address this time around.”

On the CPU side, the Surface Book 3 gets a bump to Intel’s 10th generation Ice Lake processors (10nm). There are two CPU options, both with 4 cores and 8 threads: a Core i5 1035G7 (1.2GHz to 3.7GHz, 6MB L3 cache) and a Core i7 1065G7 (1.3GHz to 3.9GHz, 8MB L3 cache).

Buyers can also outfit the Surface Book 3 with up to 32GB of RAM, twice as much as before, and what Microsoft claims is “the fastest SSD we have ever shipped.” Microsoft didn’t provide any performance figures, but we do know it’s using NVMe drives that shuttle data over the PCIe bus. Capacities max out at 1TB in the 13.5-inch model, and 2TB in the 15-inch model.

The caveat to all this is pricing. Here’s the breakdown:

13.5-inch w/ Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD—$1,599.99

13.5-inch w/ Core i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, GTX 1650 Max-Q—$1,999.99

13.5-inch w/ Core i7, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD, GTX 1650 Max-Q—$2,499.99

13.5-inch w/ Core i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, GTX 1650 Max-Q—$2,699.99

15-inch w/ Core i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q—$2,299.99

15-inch w/ Core i7, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD, GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q—$2,799.99

15-inch w/ Core i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q—$2,999.99

15-inch w/ Core i7, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q—$3,399.99

You’re looking at two grand to wade into discrete GPU waters, and a few hundred dollars more if you want the bigger model with the faster 1660 Ti.

Part of the premium pricing goes to the display. These are touchscreen panels with a 3000×2000 resolution on the 13.5-inch model, and 3240×2160 resolution on the 15-inch model, each with a high 1600:1 contrast ratio.

Other amenities include Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) connectivity, a 5MP front-facing camera and 8MP rear-facing camera, two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports, a single USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port (with power delivery), a 3.5mm headphone jack, full-size SDXC card reader, and two proprietary Surface Connect ports.

These are slick laptops, and with Turing GPU options now available, the gaming angle is legit. It’s also a pricey proposition, if gaming is your primary (or only) goal. 

We’re starting to see some compelling gaming laptops based on AMD’s Ryzen 4000 mobile series, like the Asus TUF Gaming A15 with a GeForce RTX 2060 GPU for $1,300. And as we highlight in our roundup of cheap gaming laptop deals, MSI’s GF63 Thin with a GeForce GTX 1650 can be had for $699. And at the high end, a $3000 MSI GE66 Raider will include an RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, whereas for the same price you get a GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q in a Surface Book.

ASRock announced its luxurious Intel Z490 Aqua motherboard on Tuesday. It stands out with built-in water cooling, PCIe 4.0 support, overclocking proficiency and a jaw-dropping design. The catch? Like the AMD-powered X570 Aqua motherboard from last year, the company’s only making 999 units.

Newegg lists the ASRock Z490 Aqua for a hefty $1,099.99 with a May 20 release date. That’s $100 over the AsRock X570 Aqua released for AMD CPUs last year, but such is the life for Intel devotees. ASRock advertises this as its new flagship motherboard, but the limited quantity and high price tag make it clear — this is a status symbol.

The Z490 Aqua is as much a statement piece as it is high-end equipment. Featuring copper PCBs, PCIe 4.0 and “up to 95% VRM efficiency,” the key feature here is the built-in Aqua Cooling Armor water cooling heatsink.

Encased in a white aluminum shell to evoke glaciers, the Z490 Aqua also has programmable RGB lighting that follows and highlights the water flow. 

Tucked alongside the I/O shield’s internals is an OLED display for reading motherboard stats, like fan speed and CPU temperature, which users can configure in the BIOS. There’s also what looks to be an extension of the armor on the bottom right of the motherboard over the Z490 chipset that’s fully decked out in RGB.

A metal backplate covers most of the motherboard’s backside, while a similar metal plate surrounds the PCIe slots, three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots that are PCIe 4.0-ready (and, therefore, will be limited to performance of the PCIe 3.0 interface) and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots.

A PCIe 4.0 external base clock generator also aids in overclocking, while a PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD slot helps boost SSD speeds. Two M.2 SATA slots provide additional storage, and you get four DDR4 RAM slots.

With a board this elite, the connectivity options keep coming. You get a USB 2.0 header (two ports) and two USB 3.2 headers (four ports total), giving the back I/O shield eight USB Type-A connections total. Two Thunderbolt 3 ports bring USB Type-C connectivity. A front USB 3.2 Type-C header provides a data transfer rate of to 10 Gbps. 

The Z490 Aqua can also help you bring Wi-Fi to your PC build with Intel 802.11ax WiFi and two Ethernet connectors with varying speeds.

Besides its strong specs, visual appeal is clearly a chief motivating factor here, so we recommend your best PC case with a transparent panel for this motherboard.