Page 6 - Computer Power User - February 2017

IBuyPower’s Snowblind Now Online

IBuyPower is now taking pre-orders for Snowblind N450
systems on its website. The Snowblind system was first revealed
at the Computex trade show last June, and it was on display
again at the CES trade show in January. The system uses an
LCD panel as a side window in a white iBuyPower Noctis
chassis. IBuyPower says it collaborated with Intel in designing
the Snowblind, and Rainmeter, the desktop customization
company, also created special widgets for the system. The
widgets can be used as skins for aesthetic purposes or to show
pertinent system information. The customization possibilities
are endless, but when the LCD panel used in Snowblind is
turned off, the case simply appears to have a regular clear side
panel. You can outfit the Snowblind with various components,
and iBuyPower currently has three variations available for
pre-order: Snowblind ($1,499), Snowblind Pro ($1,799),
and Snowblind Extreme ($2,499). Buyers can customize
components on all three models.

HARDWARE MOLE

ASUS Announces First ROG

Router, The Rapture GT-AC5300

ASUS has upgraded its RT-AC5300 router with several new
features and a sharp-looking Republic Of Gamers logo. The
new ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 router is the first router to
carry the ROG brand name. Like the RT-5300, the ROG
version is a tri-band router operating with two 5GHz bands
and one 2.4GHz band, and it has a total bandwidth of
5,334Mbps. It has eight antennas in a 4 x 4 MIMO setup.
The ROG Rapture GT includes twice as many gigabit LAN
ASRock Refreshes Mini PC Line ports as the RT unit (eight, compared with four in the
With DeskMini RX/GTX Systems RT), and it has two USB 3.0 ports compared with the RT’s
one. It also comes with a 1GHz quad-core 64-bit processor
ASRock has been hard at work on its new mini PC systems. and a gigabyte of memory. ASUS has not yet announced
The company announced at CES that it will refresh its availability or pricing.
small-form-factor computer lineup with new barebones
systems based on its microSTX motherboard. The new
motherboard is slightly longer than the Mini-STX board
the company released a few months ago, and it features
three ultra M.2 sockets and support for Intel’s latest
7th-Generation Core processors. ASRock says the new
DeskMini RX/GTX is the “world’s first” system based on
a microSTX form factor. The DeskMini RX Micro STX
comes with an Intel i7-7700K processor and AMD RX470
MXM graphics card. The case for the system is just 2.7 liters
in size. Pricing has not been released.

6 February2017 / www.computerpoweruser.com