TechPowerUP NEWS

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Mobvoi, a global leader in AI interaction and hardware, and Olares, the innovator behind the Personal AI Cloud, today announced a partnership designed to redefine the modern workflow. By integrating Mobvoi's TicNote Pods with the computational power of Olares One, the two companies are introducing a flexible ecosystem that offers users an unprecedented choice between subscription-based cloud services and private, local processing.

The partnership centers on the TicNote Pods, a device that has already garnered significant industry acclaim as the world's first 4G-enabled AI note-taking earbuds. Unlike traditional wearables that rely on a tethered smartphone, TicNote Pods operate autonomously. Whether in a boardroom, a lecture hall, or on a run, these earbuds capture high-fidelity audio and instant voice memos, ensuring that no critical information or sudden flash of inspiration is ever lost.
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Colloidal quantum dot (QD) light-emitting diodes have great potential in display applications. However, their commercialization remains a challenge due to the difficulty in achieving high-resolution patterning of QDs without degrading their optical properties. To address this, researchers have developed a nondestructive method for ultrahigh-resolution QD patterning. By blending QDs with a photocrosslinkable polymer, the approach preserves their optical properties and boosts efficiency and lifetime, paving the way for development of next-generation display technologies.

Over the past decade, colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as promising materials for next-generation displays due to their tunable emission, high brightness, and compatibility with low-cost solution processing. However, a major challenge is, achieving ultrahigh-resolution patterning without damaging their fragile surface chemistry. Existing methods such as ink jet printing and photolithography-based processes either fall short in resolution or compromise QD performance.
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[NextPowerUP]

Akasa, a leading provider of thermal solutions, introduced the Skyline 3 Pro, an aluminium fanless case with a skyline shaped top cover, designed for the ASUS Tinker Board 3 and 3S single-board computers (SBCs). The Skyline 3 Pro offers passive cooling in a compact form factor, making it ideal for diverse embedded applications, including digital signage, edge AI and IoT, smart retail/kiosk, medical and other enterprise systems that require maintenance-free operation in silent environments.

The Skyline 3 Pro's sandblasted, anodized aluminium body serves not only as a protective shell but also as a passive heatsink. The custom thermal module and
included thermal pads draw heat away from the SBC's "hot zones" and dissipate it into the surrounding air through the sculpted "skyline" ridged heatsink fins, which are designed to maximize surface area for effective cooling.
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Thermaltake, a leading PC DIY brand for premium hardware solutions, proudly introduces the MAGCurve 360 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO Liquid Cooler, a visual focused cooling solution that combines creative display customization with high performance thermal design. Featuring a 6.67 inch Curved AMOLED Display and integrated AI Forge function, the MAGCurve transforms the CPU cooler into a visually expressive part of the system while delivering reliable cooling for high performance builds. Available in Black and Snow editions, the MAGCurve 360 Ultra ARGB Sync is designed for builders who value both aesthetics and performance.

6.67 Inch Curved AMOLED Display with Creative Control
The MAGCurve 360 Ultra ARGB Sync is equipped with a 6.67 inch Curved AMOLED Display with a sharp 2240 x 1080 resolution delivering rich colors deep contrast and an immersive curved viewing experience. Beyond visual presentation, the display supports real-time system monitoring, time, and local weather information as well as video playback and dynamic visuals, allowing users to customize both function and appearance to match their setup.
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[NextPowerUP]

Last week, Beelink revealed a teaser for its ME Pro NAS devices and now the company has unveiled the pricing for its first two 2-bay models, which come in a total of five different SKUs. All five SKUs are based on Intel Twin Lake SoCs, with the three base SKUs being built around the Intel Processor N95 and the two remaining SKUs sporting the Intel Processor N150. The base model pairs the N95 with 12 GB of 4800 MT/s LPDDR5 and a 128 GB SSD for US$369, whereas an upgraded SKUl with a 512 GB SSD comes in at US$449 and finally the top tier SKU comes with a 1 TB SSD for US$479. The N150 SKUs include 16 GB of LPDDR5 and start at US$529 with a 512 GB SSD and tops out at US$559 with a 1 TB SSD.

The ME Pro with the Twin Lake SoCs offers three M.2 NVMe slots, one with a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface and two with a PCIe 3.0 x1 interface. There's space for a pair of 2.5- or 3.5-inch hard drives and up to 30 TB drives are supported. Around the back you'll find a 19 V DC input, a 2.5 Gbps (Intel i226-V) and a 5 Gbps (Realtek RTL8126) Ethernet jack, an HDMI 2.1 port capable of 4K60p output, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C port and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Around the front is a further USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-A port, the power switch and a reset and clear CMOS pin-hole. A neat addition is a small tool that is attached to the base of the housing. Beelink has also included Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 and it seems like the ME Pro ships with Windows 11 Home. Pre-orders are up now, with shipping said to start at some point in January.

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[NextPowerUP]

If you're in the market for a high-capacity DDR5 memory kit featuring ECC RDIMMs, this might be your lucky opportunity. NEMIX, a U.S.-based memory and storage supplier that collaborates with major tech firms and the government, has listed a 4 TB DDR5 memory kit. This kit consists of 16x 256 GB ECC RDIMMs operating at 6400 MT with a CAS latency of 52. Notably, the listing comes with a hefty price tag of $70,800, making it accessible only to high-budget hyperscalers or workstation enthusiasts. The 4 TB kit's substantial cost is striking, especially during a time of significant DRAM shortages. This translates to approximately $17.3 per GB, significantly higher than the average $10 per GB for consumer DRAM.

The nearly doubled price of these modules is justified by the advanced technology incorporated into these RDIMMs. They feature off-die error correction chips for ECC, which are not standard in regular DDR5 DIMMs. While DDR5 includes on-die ECC, it does not provide complete error correction on its own. Therefore, additional silicon is necessary for hyperscalers and workstations to achieve full error correction, which is reflected in the price premium. The 4Rx4 rank setup helps maintain smooth performance, and it operates at just 1.1 V, making it quite efficient. With registered buffering and built-in ECC, these modules show why their price point is much higher than traditional DIMMs.
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[NextPowerUP]

HP is seemingly planning to update its Omen 16L line-up of SFF gaming desktops, this time introducing Intel's Raptor Lake CPUs into the mix. This is according to a recent rumor posted by @realVictor_M on X. Supposedly, the new Omen 16L will be powered by the Intel Core i7-14650HX mobile CPU and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU, with lower tier GPU options also available. The new desktop will likely launch at CES 2026, although there is no word on an official launch or availability date.

It's unclear why HP would "update" its Omen 16L gaming PCs with an older CPU, but the Core i7-14650HX should perform similarly to the existing Arrow Lake models, thanks to its 16-core, 24-thread design. Pricing is also a mystery so far, although the current-gen HP Omen 16L, which is powered by the Arrow Lake Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and an RTX 5060, comes in at $1,559.99. It's also likely that the ongoing DRAM and storage supply issues will affect the price, so it would make sense for the new models to launch at the same price or higher prices than the old models. Alternatively, HP could be introducing the mobile CPU variants in order to cut back on costs somewhat, since you wouldn't need as powerful a PSU or cooler to keep the desktop fed and cooled.

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[NextPowerUP]

Redragon has officially announced the Wyvern K761 Pro as its latest full-size wireless mechanical keyboard, featuring both Bluetooth 5.0 and 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity. The K761 Pro is launching at just $74.99, and it features some enthusiast-grade touches, like a built-in LCD, to show keyboard information, and a knob for adjusting volume. The K761 Pro is available in two colorways—white and green and white and blue—and both feature shine-through RGB backlighting and "round" PBT keycaps, which look to be similar to OEM height, although no specific keycap profile is provided. It comes with linear Mint Mambo switches, which are 40 gf linear mechanical switches with 3.6 mm of travel, and it features hot-swap sockets, compatible with 3- and 5-pin mechanical switches. It also features a gasket mount and five-layer sound-damping in the case. The Redragon Wyvern K761 Pro is also reprogrammable and customizable on Windows with Redragon's proprietary software suite. The keyboard is charged via USB-C and features a 4,000 mAh battery, which should be more than enough, even for those who want to use RGB backlighting effects.
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[NextPowerUP]

The ongoing RAM shortage has already had knock-on effect on the consumer market, from price hikes to system integrators starting to offer "bring your own RAM" build options and smartphone makers stepping back to offering 8 GB of RAM in flagship devices. However, the latest news suggests that the RAM shortage will soon result in delayed product launches—specifically in the laptop and mobile market, according to a report out of Korean business publication, Chosun Biz.

According to the report, which quoted industry insiders and analysts, large hardware brands, like HP and Lenovo, have recently signed agreements with memory suppliers in an effort to secure RAM for the upcoming product launch cycle. Despite this, insiders are predicting that launch delays are likely as DRAM demand still exceeds supply. The alternative solutions include a price hike, which would be in the order of 30% in the premium segment—on top of an already predicted 9% industry-wide price increase—or downsizing the premium laptop segment. Whether this plays out as predicted will likely be revealed fairly soon, as CES 2026, and all of its expected product launches, is just around the corner.

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[NextPowerUP]

As a leader in innovative technology, ACEMAGIC today announced the upcoming launch of the ACEMAGIC Tank Centre series, introducing two new models, M1A PRO and M1A PRO+. Building on the success of the original TANK 03, the new lineup delivers significantly enhanced performance for gaming, AI workloads, and multi-display productivity, while retaining the series' distinctive industrial design.

As PC hardware continues to evolve, high-performance computing is becoming increasingly compact, intelligent, and energy-efficient. ACEMAGIC has been at the forefront of this shift, demonstrating that mini PCs can deliver desktop-class performance without the size or complexity of traditional systems.
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[NextPowerUP]

AMD is preparing to refresh its Ryzen 9000 series "Zen 5" desktop processor lineup with two high-end chips targeting gamers and PC enthusiasts, the 8-core Ryzen 7 9850X3D, and the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D2. The 9850X3D is a speed-bumped 9800X3D, while the 9950X3D2 comes with 3D V-Cache on both its 8-core chiplets, compared to the 9950X3D, which only has it on one of its chiplets. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D comes with a maximum turbo frequency of 5.60 GHz, a 400 MHz increase over the 9800X3D, along with a TDP of 120 W, which is expected to increase its single-thread performance by 5-7%.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 is a different beast. It comes with a maximum boost frequency of 5.60 GHz, which is a 100 MHz reduction over the 5.70 GHz that the 9950X3D comes with, but both its chiplets have 3D V-Cache, allowing for more flexible scheduling and thread migration. With a combined L3 cache of 192 MB, this chip could also be vastly preferred by the workstation and creator crowd that's working on memory-intensive workloads. All this comes at a cost, though, with AMD rumored to increase TDP to 200 W, up from the 170 W of the 9950X3D, which could mean a PPT value nearing the 250 W-mark. Geekbench and PassMark numbers of the 9950X3D2 just surfaced on the web, which show the newer chip to be 2% faster than the 9950X3D despite the marginally lower clock speed, however, the real heft of this chip will be felt in memory/cache sensitive workloads.

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[NextPowerUP]

Sapphire launched its flagship graphics card and motherboard featuring PhantomLink discreet power delivery technology. The tech sees an ASUS BTF-like GC-HPWR power-delivery slot located along the plane of the main PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot, which delivers power to the graphics card without you having to wrestle with a delicate 12V-2x6 cable on top of the card. But then there's a catch. The motherboard isn't designed on the philosophy of backside connectivity like ASUS BTF or MSI Project Zero or GIGABYTE Stealth, the connects are all still located along the obverse side of the PCB. There is a 600 W-capable 12V-2x6 input located next to the 24-pin ATX, which simply routes power to the GC-HPWR slot.

Launching today, are the Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT PhantomLink PE graphics card, and the NITRO+ X870EA PhantomLink Socket AM5 motherboard. Both products have an identical silver-white color scheme and NITRO+ design theme that pair well visually. The graphics card features an overclocked RX 9070 XT with similar specs to the regular NITRO+ RX 9070 XT from Sapphire. The motherboard comes in two color trims, white+silver and black+silver. It offers a premium CPU VRM solution, a heavy M.2 PCIe Gen 5 heatsink, reinforced PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot, premium Wi-Fi 7 and onboard audio solutions, and USB4. Sapphire is expected to showcase this along with example builds at CES next week.

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[NextPowerUP]

MediaTek, a global leader in innovative semiconductor solutions, today announced that it is working closely with DENSO, one of the world's leading automotive technology providers, to develop a custom automotive System-on-Chip (SoC) solution tailored for Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and cockpit systems. This joint effort merges DENSO's automotive-grade safety expertise and deep vehicle integration with MediaTek's technologies cultivated through the development of Dimensity AX, leveraging power-efficient, high performance SoCs and AI capabilities to offer a scalable, production-ready platform for next-generation driver assistance.
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LG announced the UltraGear EVO line of enthusiast-segment gaming PC monitors. The series includes three models, including two ultra-wides, and a conventional aspect-ratio monitor. Leading the pack is the UltraGear EVO 52G930B, a gargantuan 52-inch curved desktop monitor with 1000R curvature, 5120 x 2160 pixels resolution, 240 Hz refresh rate, and wide color gamut.

The UltraGear EVO AI 39GX950B is the star of the show. This monitor comes with in-built AI-accelerated upscaling that's native to the monitor (doesn't use any CPU or GPU resources). The display comes with 21:9 aspect-ratio, 1500R curvature, and a native resolution of 5120 x 2160 pixels at 165 Hz or 2560 x 1080 at 330 Hz, along with DisplayHDR True Black 500. The in-built AI upscaler also handles screen optimization, spatial audio, display settings, game genre-specific optimization, among a ton of other features. The display uses LG's new primary RGB tandem OLED panel technology. If you want all these features, but in a more traditional form-factor, there's the UltraGear EVO AI 27GM950B.
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Framework updated its original DRAM price hike blog post on December 24th, 2025, explaining that the company must respond to the price volatility its suppliers are experiencing. Initially, Framework announced a 50% price increase for its DDR5 memory upgrade configurations. To maintain transparency with customers, the company stated its intention to raise the price of DDR5 memory in Framework Laptop DIY Edition orders by 50%. This decision directly responds to the significantly higher costs from DRAM suppliers and distributors. As a result, the company cannot absorb all these cost increases and needs to pass some on to consumers. Therefore, another increase today is a natural response, as the company originally suggested.

FrameworkWith costs from our suppliers continuing to increase, we've had to make a further price adjustment on DDR5 memory modules. During this period of extreme memory shortages and price volatility, our priority is to make sure you can still buy a computer when you need one. With that in mind, we're setting our memory configuration prices as close as possible to the actual purchase prices we have with our suppliers and distributors. Since we're constantly sourcing additional memory and each purchase comes in at different (and often higher) pricing, we're using the Weighted Average Cost (WAC) of inventory, which currently comes to $10/GB for 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB modules, and slightly higher for 48 GB modules.

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