Items tagged with Asus
Yesterday, we reported on a rather alarming security exploit which took advantage of a weakness in the ASUS Live Update utility installed on millions of PCs. Operation ShadowHammer took advantage of Live Update to gain a backdoor to users’ PCs and download malware in the background. ASUS was initially notified of Operation ShadowHammer by Kaspersky Lab on January 31st, but Motherboard reported that the company, “has been largely unresponsive since then and has not notified ASUS customers about the issue.” Well, after widespread coverage of the backdoor yesterday, ASUS has finally issued an official response on its website. The company downplays any widespread...
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If you have an ASUS computer that is running the company’s Live Update utility, it’s possible that your system was susceptible to backdoor intrusions during the latter half of 2018. The folks at Kaspersky say that they first discovered the existence of Operation ShadowHammer on January 29th, and has been performing forensic analysis on the security exploit ever since. According to Kaspersky, ASUS Live Update, which is preinstalled on ASUS systems, was compromised, allowing Operation ShadowHammer to propagate between June 2018 and November 2018. ASUS Live Update is intended to allow users to easily update a system’s BIOS/UEFI, drivers and OEM apps. But holes in the software gave...
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AMD is expected to launch its Ryzen 3000 desktop processor family this summer. Otherwise known as Matisse, the upcoming chips are based on AMD's 7-nanometer Zen 2 architecture, which yields faster clockspeeds and an improved IPC for better overall performance. The new chips will also be accompanied by a new X570 chipset, and we are starting to see motherboard models based on that chipset leak out. If you plan on building a PC around a Ryzen 3000 series processor, an X570 motherboard makes the most sense—the upcoming chipset is said to offer PCI Express Gen 4 support and will likely include other goodies not found on the current batch of X470 motherboards. That said, Ryzen 3000 processors...
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If the rumors are correct, NVIDIA will be launching the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti tomorrow. We tend to believe that rumor considering how many branded cards have leaked out of the woodwork over the past few weeks. Just yesterday got a glimpse at a couple of GeForce GTX 1660 Ti cards from Zotac. Today, it's ASUS' time to show us the [leaked] goods, and we have three variants. There's the ROG Strix Gaming model with a triple fan setup, a Dual OC card with... you guessed it... dual cooling fans. Finally, there's a Phoenix OC variant with just a single fan and a much shorter printed circuit board (PCB) for small form factor (SFF) builds. As we've mentioned before, the GeForce GTX 1660...
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ASUS in January announced new TUF Gaming FX505DY and FX705DY laptop lines built around AMD's Ryzen 3000 series of mobile processors with Vega graphics, and now a little over a month later, those new systems are starting to show up in retail. The ones we have seen so far are in Europe, though we imagine a US launch is not far behind. As far as we can tell, these are the first laptops to use AMD's Ryzen 3000 series processors. Only recently announced themselves, the Ryzen 3000 line combine AMD's newest-generation Zen CPU cores with Vega graphics. AMD unveiled half a dozen Ryzen 3000 CPU models, plus an Athlon chip. Here's a look at the full lineup: Click to Enlarge The new TUF Gaming laptops from...
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Intel recently announced its Xeon W-3175W processor, a beastly workstation chip based on Skylake-SP with 28 physical cores and 56 threads of computing muscle. It's big, it's burly, and of course it's expensive—$2,999 when buying in bulk (that's the price per chip in 1,000-unit trays). What about an accompanying motherboard? ASUS launched its ROG Dominus Extreme, and as you might imagine, it's not cheap either. "The W-3175X normally runs at 3.2GHz with a Turbo frequency of 4.3GHz. However, during our overclocking exploits, we successfully pushed the CPU to a stable 6.5GHz on all cores using LN2. ROG is one of only two companies selected to work with Intel on motherboards for this monstrous...
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If you head over to the graphics card section on ASUS's website, you'll notice a couple of new product listings based on NVIDIA's latest Turing GPU architecture—the TUF GeForce RTX 2060 OC Edition (TUF-RTX2060-O6G-GAMING) and TUF GeForce RTX 2060 (TUF-RTX2060-6G-GAMING). As the model names imply, these new cards have been given the "TUF" treatment, which means they're built with a bit more durability in mind than non-TUF cards. Part of that entails the use of dual-ball fan bearings, which ASUS claims can last up to twice as long as sleeve-bearing designs. IP5X dust resistance is also part of the package. "Dust is enemy number one for fans. It's easy to clean the blades, but taking the housing...
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The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, is one of the biggest events in the Tech space each year. We typically see a dizzying array of new products launch during the week of CES; more than we are likely to see in the following few months. Not all products are block-buster standouts though, and some of these technological spectacles inevitably shine brighter than others. After sifting though all the products we saw last week, we've compiled a list of the best products that we got time with at CES 2019. And with that, we'll just dive right in... Asus ProArt PA90 Asus's ProArt PA90 is a cylindrical mini-PC that packs a surprising amount of power into it a compact enclosure. These systems...
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ASUS is on hand at CES 2019, and it has unveiled a slew of new gaming gear that runs the gamut from keyboards to all-in-one CPU coolers, GeForce RTX 2060 graphics cards, and routers. ASUS has three new GeForce RTX 2060 graphics cards including the ROG Strix RTX 2060, ASUS Dual RTX 2060, and Turbo RTX 2060. The Strix RTX 2060 has Aura Sync RGB lighting with "almost limitless color customization" and is aimed "showpiece builds" according to ASUS. It has three patented Wing-blade fans for increased cooling efficiency and better overclocking. The card also features a unique metal brace to reduce tension on the PCB and FanConenct II headers to allow hybrid fan control. ASUS' Dual RTX 2060 is...
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Well, this is definitely a break from the norm. ASUS has just announced its new Republic of Gamers (ROG) Mothership, which is a desktop-replacement gaming notebook that manages to pack quite a bit of hardware into a truly unique form-factor. At first glance, the ROG Mothership looks somewhat like an all-in-one desktop, as the display sits upright and is propped up by a rear-mounted step-less kickstand. However, you'll then see that it also includes a keyboard that can be attached or used wirelessly. When attached to the ROG Mothership, the keyboard is fully extended and sits at an incline. However, once detached, the keyboard can be folded (basically doubling its height) allowing you to position...
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ASUS is adding a pair of new TUF Gaming models to its extensive laptop line. The new models include the 15.6-inch FX505DY and 17.3-inch FX705DY, both powered by AMD's Ryzen 5 3550H processor with Vega graphics, and up to 32GB of RAM. Never heard of the Ryzen 5 3550H? That's because until now, it did not exist. The Ryzen 5 3550H is one of several new Ryzen 3000 H-series mobile APUs from AMD. This particular model is a 4-core/8-thread chip with a 2.1GHz base clock and 3.7GHz boost clock, with 6MB of combined L2 and L3 cache. On the graphics side, it is powered by eight Vega GPU cores clocked at 1,200MHz. These new TUF Gaming laptops are the ones to feature the chip. Both laptops sport Full HD 1080p...
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ASUS is introducing a handful of Chrome OS devices at the Consumer Electronics Show, including its first Chrome OS tablet. The Chromebook Tablet CT100, as it's called, runs the same version of Google's Chrome operating system that is available on Chrome OS laptops and Chromebox desktops, but "fitted into a recognizable form factor" for younger kids. In other words, ASUS is under the impression that kids are more interested in tablets (and smartphones) than laptops and desktops. ASUS also acknowledges that tots and pre-teens can be clumsy with electronics, and so the CT100 sports a rubberized chassis to "withstand life in the hands of children." To account for smaller paws, ASUS kept the thickness...
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ASUS's new RT-AX88U WFi router is now available from purchase from major retailers in the United States. This router supports the new 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard, which enables ultra fast data transfer speeds and is set to become the new standard for high-end networking devices. The new RT-AX88U is the latest addition to ASUS's wireless router product line, and its design closely follows that of its predecessors such as the RT-AC86U and RT-AC88U. It has four large external antennas that support AIRadar beamforming technology that helps to strengthen the connection to devices at longer distances. Built with a new Broadcom chipset to support the new RT-AX88U network protocols, this router is able to...
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It looks as though ASUS is trying to beat the CES 2019 rush by announcing some of its upcoming products a little bit early. Such is the case with the new Mini PC ProArt PA90, which is a compact, cylindrical tower that houses a host of high-end hardware. The ProArt PA90 is a workstation-class PC, and as such includes the option for an Intel Core i7-9700K or Core i9-9900K processor to handle extreme workloads that you may throw its way. Keeping the processor cool is an all-in-one liquid cooler which operates at incredibly low noise levels (36 percent quieter than comparable systems according to ASUS). And then, there’s this rather innovative trick: An innovative ventilation system also helps...
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