Forum Spotlight: Computex 2019, New Intel and AMD Chips
Welcome to the NotebookReview Forum Spotlight, a biweekly series where we highlight the hottest and most important topics in our forum. The NotebookReview forum is the largest Internet forum dedicated to the discussion of notebook computers, including Macs and tablets. You can sign up for free by clicking here.
MSI GT76 Titan Packs Desktop Power
MSI unveiled its new flagship gaming notebook, the GT76 Titan, at Computex 2019. This 17.3-inch-screened monster isn’t thin or light, but it does feature up to an Intel Core i9 desktop processor. This notebook is a direct competitor to Clevo-based gaming notebooks with desktop processors, along with the Alienware Area-51m. 
The GT76 Titan has generated a large discussion thread. The comments are mostly sunny; the GT76 emphasizes cooling performance, something that’s mandatory given its desktop CPU. Other pros include a revised connector for its power supplies and updated overall design. On the downside, it trades the wonderful mechanical keyboard of the GT75 Titan for a membrane version, probably to keep its thickness in check.
The GT76 Titan will become available for purchase over the summer. Expect prices to start north of $3,500, and top out around five grand.
AMD Announces Third-Gen Ryzen Chips
AMD unveiled its third-generation Ryzen processors at Computex 2019. Only the desktop chips have been announced for now. If we can believe AMD’s marketing hype, there’s plenty get excited about. The chips seem to be reasonably priced for their performance; for example, the Ryzen 7 3800X is an 8-core/16-thread chip that runs up to 4.5GHz for $399. AMD also unveiled a surprise chip, the Ryzen 9 3800X, undoubtedly to compete with the Intel Core i9 chips. It’s a 12-core/24-thread chip that can boost up to 4.6GHz. The new Ryzen chips are based on a 7nm process technology, which is even smaller than Intel’s upcoming 10nm process.
Most of the speculation from our forum members has been positive, especially around the claimed performance increase per clock. The discussion starts about here in our big Ryzen discussion thread.
The third-generation Ryzen desktop chips should go on sale on July 7. Read AMD’s blog post here, and see the full specs for the new Ryzen chips here.
Make Your Notebook Run Cooler
Heat is a problem that plagues all notebooks, not just gaming machines. One of our forum members reported unusually high temperatures with a ThinkPad E470’s processor and graphics card. The initial attempts at bringing down the temperatures failed; these included cleaning the fans and undervolting the processor. One solution that worked was limiting the processor’s power draw (TDP), which traded performance for lower temperatures. The best solution I saw, which hadn’t been tried yet, was to remove the laptop’s heatsink and reapply the thermal paste.
Bizarre Computer Repair Stories
I started a thread asking about wild and crazy computer repair stories. Here are some of the replies:
- A stuck “Delete” key that turned out to be a bad keyboard controller, requiring a motherboard replacement.
- Fixing constant BSODs by replacing a notebook’s battery.
- Freezing issues caused by a thermal pad contacting the pins on an M.2 SSD.
- Freezing issues caused by an optical drive overloading the power supply.
- A faulty processor that caused the computer to be unable to use certain components.
Fixing Problems With External Hard Drives
This doesn’t quite belong in the bizarre repair category, but it’s close. A forum member reported an external hard drive not being recognized in a PC after being put in a new enclosure. It turned out the wires used to supply power weren’t strong enough for the job.
(The pictured product is a Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive – which, thankfully, doesn’t have a power supply issue.)
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