XDA PC Hardware Coverage Update — End of August 2017

(These updates, while not on a regular basis, are being posted in the hopes of helping people understand what often is done behind the scenes, even before an article/video is published or photos even taken. Please, make sure to thank and support those who provide content that you enjoy.)

After coming back from SIGGRAPH the logjam is finally broken and there’s been a lot of time spent outside the day job to get more than just the “behind the scenes” activity moving forward. What can you look forward to? Well, just the GIGABYTE B350N-GAMING Wifi review and rebuild of the Fortress Z (including a memorial for the Ryzen 7 1700) is ready to go. Benchmarks are done for the i7–7700k review — this will be an interesting review, to say the least. I’ll be writing that up and putting it in line to post shortly after the former goes live. We also have some eGPU testing in Linux to do.

Another thing coming up took a bit to make happen but happy to share more details on it finally. While the final specs are not locked in yet (will depend on GPU) a Ryzen desktop build running fully on Linux is on the board for September. It’s either going to go Vega/1800X as a high end system or 480/1600X as a slightly lower system. If all the parts are coming as requested, it should be a very sexy (red) build when all is said and done.

We’re also going to use this as one of our first forays into including some video coverage. T.K. Bay from our video team is offering me guidance to start getting him video that he can use on the YouTube channel. On my side I think I’m going to try and do some streaming, such as on Twitch. This will be a lot less formal but another way for us to show what all is going on.

Benchmarks and a review are only the beginning of covering a particular hardware and topic. When we set out to do this we said we don’t want to do just that — we want to show developers what you can actually do with that. After finishing the benchmarks for the 7700k review I already started on a project that will double as a review: The AKiTiO Node and eGPU support.

It became relevant discussion again when questions arose during SIGGRAPH on whether or not eGPU support was fully enabled in Linux yet. In a bit of a surprise, the initial answer appears to be yes. After getting it set up in a temporary, yet necessary, install of Windows the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is seen by Linux. Now the question will be whether or not I can utilize it and what, if any, barriers still remain.

Other projects are honestly waiting on parts/samples — like the lofty goal I mentioned of trying to make a multi-user gaming system using AMD’s Threadripper. After seeing all of the things available on Linux for content creation at SIGGRAPH — all of it free for non-commercial use — I also want to do a second system design showing how developers can use a HEDT for more than just development and fun. Linux is a great platform for exploring and trying new things. I can do some of these in small scale now with the Ryzen 7 1700X and 1800X — and so I’ll work on that while we sort out the sourcing.

Regarding XDA covering Threadripper, Intel Core X and Coffee Lake, Radeon RX Vega — the above very much applies here. As many know the release reviews went out for AMD’s recent launches. It may bear reminding that globally only an estimated 245 full review kits went out. There were a lot of people who didn’t get it and while we hoped, expectations were fairly set at the onset of the discussions for both. The Threadripper review kit, alone, was probably over $3,000 in retail prices. That’s a huge investment in a site that just started coverage. We’re still working towards trying to source samples — I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I wasn’t.

XDA might go the route of buying it but that’s a discussion that has just barely started. If we have to go that route, this will mean holding off on Vega until prices get a lot closer to MSRP. It’s a matter of principle — player(s) in the distribution chain to the reseller are inflating prices now far above the reach of its audience. XDA buying one at that price, while offering a timely solution, only encourages that. More than likely the first thing up would be Threadripper. Because we’re still green and reaching out to OEMs and building those relationships, this will likely be a fluid situation for at least the next few months.

On XDA you will see more changes coming beyond adding video. We’re working now to finalize a new layout for forums to accompany this coverage. We have a wealth of resources at XDA and it’s high time to put them to use. Let’s continue the discussions on our forums and allow us to share thoughts like this within our friendly confines. This, in turn, helps generate ad revenue to support our efforts on this new venture. A lot of outlets rely on this to be able to purchase hardware when samples are not available — XDA is no different. The more readers support us here, the more we’ll be able to do.

Finally, I’d like to give a shout out to the companies that are working with us. If you like the content we’re working on, please offer them your support. These are companies that have already offered us something for review or have stated an intent to work with us.

If you see a company not on this list and would like to see them working with us, please reach out to them and offer my contact information. To avoid bot detection I’ll just say the mail address is my Twitter ID and the provider is Google.

And please — just like I post in my signature on XDA to support developers that bring you great solutions to your Android device, please offer support to the outlets and content creators that you enjoy. A lot of blood, sweat and tears are given before the audience even sees or reads something. Make sure they know that you appreciate them spending that time.

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Garwynn (Daniel Moran)

Written by

IT Professional & Programmer and lover of most things tech. Can find more of my writing at XDA-Developers.com (More possibly soon!)

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