To the delight of all gamers the ASUS Co. introduced its latest mother card, called ASUS EX-A320M-GAMING. The novelty is built on the AMD A320 chipset (the Socket AM4 platform). It is also expected to be a perfect base for constructing cyber cafe gaming systems, as far as it has shown 144 hours of steady operation.



ASUS EX-A320M-GAMING, produced in the microATX (244 х 244 mm) format, offers four DIMM-slots for up to 64 GB of the DDR4 memory (2,666 MHz), one PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot for a graphics accelerator, the M.2 Socket 3 interface, four SATA 6 Gb/s ports for the drive subsystem, the gigabit Realtek RTL8111H LAN controller, as well as an 8-channel Realtek ALC887 audio codec. External interface solutions contain a DVI-D, an HDMI, an RJ45, two PS/2, four USB 3.1 Gen 1, a couple of USB 2.0 connectors and three audio jacks.


Among other peculiarities of the specialty customers may distinguish the exquisite stylish card design, the presence of protective …

The novelty from ASUSTeK Computer – the TUF X299 Mark 2 motherboard – is based on the Intel LGA2066 socket and the X299 logic set. Manufactured in the ATX form factor, this card is equipped with long-life electrical assemblies.



ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2 features eight slots for the DDR4-4133 RAM (up to 128 GB capacity), three PCI Express 3.0 x16 interfaces, supporting multi-GPU configurations according to the x16/x16/x8 scheme (on top Skylake-X processors), a single PCI-E 3.0 x4 and a couple of PCI-E 3.0 x1. Drives can be linked via six SATA 6 Gbps ports and two M.2 (32 Gbps) connectors.


On the rear panel one can see four USB 2.0, four USB 3.1 Gen1, two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, a PS/2 connector, a gigabit network RJ45 interface and a few audio jacks. The audio subsystem is built on the Realtek ALC S1220A audio codec. Like many other boards by this Taiwan vendor, TUF X299 Mark 2 ia supplied with the Aura Sync LED backlighting.


The ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2 motherboard costs around …

Arsenal Gaming is a specific lineup of motherboards in MSI’s portfolio. It embraces 7 different models, joined under military-style codenames. The units are targeting primarily gaming community, although the Z170A Tomahawk is a universal solution at an affordable price. As distinct from the comrades, it features a set of controllers & sockets which are considered to be remnants of the past. Let’s find out what kind of advantages this board offers.



CPU & Memory


Motherboard MSI Z170A Tomahawk is developed on Intel Z170 Express chipset. It supports LGA1151-compatible CPUs of the 6th generation (Skylake): Intel Celeron/Pentium/Core i3/Core i5/Core i7. The hardware rests on a 4-layer dark PCB (304x224 mm, ATX) with red PCI-e and RAM slots. The rear panel is differentiated by the availability of a backplate for the CPU socket. The integrated ISL95856 controller is accountable for the providing power to the CPU (3+5 VRM).


The board comes with four DIMM slots for the …