Cooler Master, a leading provider of PC components, gaming peripherals, and tech lifestyle solutions, today announced the winners of the 2024 Case Mod World Series. This popular event celebrates the world’s top PC modders, whose creativity and craftsmanship embody Cooler Master’s spirit of “Make It Yours.” The competition provides a unique platform for builders to personalize, innovate, and bring their most ambitious designs to life.

The Case Mod World Series 2024 invited participants to showcase their talent in two categories: Scratch Build of the Year, which features custom-built mods created from the ground up, and Tower Mod of the Year, where competitors reimagine and elevate existing Cooler Master cases.

This year’s winning Scratch Build, “Taiwan Five Timber” by Kuan-Sheng, Wu from GsStudio, merges nature with technology. Inspired by Taiwan’s cultural heritage, Wu’s design utilizes five types of Taiwanese timber, highlighting environmental sustainability and engineering ingenuity. Runner-ups included Stefan Ulrich, whose “ED-209” build brought RoboCop’s iconic ‘80s movie character to life, and Webhallen Config’s “W-frame,” a beautiful water-cooled gaming PC.

In the Tower Mod category, Explore Modding earned top honours with “RETROFUTURE,” an artistic transformation of the Cooler Master QUBE 500 Flatpack. Second place went to Timpelay’s “STAGE,” built on the Cooler Master Masterframe 700, followed by Rúben’s futuristic creation “BOX-37”, which modified the Masterbox 5 case.

The Cooler Master judging panel, including Pedro from PCMR, praised the creativity and technical skill displayed this year. “We’ve seen some of the most impressive builds to date,” said Pedro. “These modders bring technical expertise and a deep passion for design, making it an honour to witness their work. It truly solidifies how PC building can also be an art’”.

“At Cooler Master, ‘Make It Yours’ is more than a tagline – it’s our commitment to providing a personalized product lineup that serves the diverse needs of our community,” said Jimmy Sha, CEO of Cooler Master. “The Case Mod World Series showcases the creativity and dedication of our PC-building community, and this year’s winners truly exemplify the spirit of innovation that drives us.”

The winning builds will be featured across Cooler Master’s digital platforms, showcasing their achievements and inspiring the next generation of PC builders and modders.

Intel is gearing up to launch its next — and potentially final — lineup of desktop graphics cards in just 10 days. Announcing the budget-friendly Arc B580 at $249 and Arc B570 at $219, Intel has positioned these cards as the “best-in-class performance per dollar” in the GPU market. The B580 is set to ship on December 13th, while the B570 will follow on January 16th.

The new cards are built on Intel’s Xe2 “Battlemage” GPU architecture, the same technology found in Intel’s Lunar Lake laptop chips, but significantly enhanced for desktop performance. With more than double the graphics cores, up to 12GB of dedicated video memory, and up to 190W of power, the B580 boasts the capability to outperform Nvidia’s $299 RTX 4060 and AMD’s $269 RX 7600 in certain benchmarks, though it still faces stiff competition.

Intel’s benchmarks show the B580 running 10 percent faster on average than the RTX 4060 across various games at 1440p and ultra settings when paired with Intel’s high-end Core i9-14900K CPU. Titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Returnal, and The Witcher 3 achieve an average of over 60fps with this setup, surpassing the RTX 4060’s performance. However, Nvidia’s card still leads in games such as Starfield, Gears 5, and certain Assassin’s Creed titles, demonstrating the competitive landscape of GPU performance.

Compared to the previous generation A750, which originally retailed for $289 but is now available for $180, the new B580 runs 24 percent faster on average. This performance boost is more evident in scenarios where memory constraints are an issue, thanks to the B580’s 12GB of video memory compared to the 4060’s 8GB. For instance, in Forza Motorsport, the Nvidia card outperforms the Intel one, 86fps to 77fps, but with ray tracing enabled, Intel’s B580 takes the lead with 64fps to 57fps.

Intel’s own Arc B580 Limited Edition card will feature two fans, and a single 8-pin power connector, and promises “whisper quiet” performance. Additionally, manufacturers such as Acer, ASRock, Gunnir, Sparkle, Maxsun, and Onix will produce their versions of the card.

In addition to the new hardware, Intel is rolling out upgrades to its XeSS technology. The new XeSS 2 will offer frame generation, significantly boosting frame rates by creating new frames between existing ones, and an Xe Low Latency mode aimed at eliminating the latency penalty of frame generation. This new technology will be integrated into various upcoming games, including F1 24, Marvel Rivals, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and more.

Intel’s budget-friendly approach with the Arc B580 and B570 is a refreshing addition to the GPU market, providing more memory and bandwidth at competitive prices. However, the future of Intel’s discrete graphics cards remains uncertain, following recent comments from former CEO Pat Gelsinger. For now, Intel’s latest offerings are set to make a significant impact in the market as they roll out in the coming weeks.

CORSAIR has announced the immediate release of the MP700 ELITE series of PCIe 5.0 SSDs. These new drives bring the next generation of storage technologies to mainstream markets, offering incredible performance and reliability at a more affordable price point.

The MP700 ELITE boasts incredible sequential read speeds of up to 10,000MB/sec and sequential write speeds of up to 8,500MB/sec, powered by the cutting-edge PCIe 5.0 x4 controller. This leap in performance ensures users can experience faster boot times, quicker game loads, and seamless file transfers, taking their overall computing experience to new heights.

Featuring High-Density 3D TLC NAND, the MP700 ELITE series provides the perfect blend of performance and endurance, keeping your system running smoothly for years. With support for Microsoft DirectStorage, these drives can communicate directly with your graphics card, significantly reducing load times for compatible games and enhancing gameplay.

Utilizing the compact M.2 2280 form factor, the MP700 ELITE is available both with a heatsink for desktop motherboards, and also without a heatsink for use with integrated motherboard cooling and in compatible laptops. Moreover, backward compatibility with PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 3.0 platforms ensures that a wide range of users can benefit from this advanced technology. A PCIe 5.0 platform, such as Intel’s 800-series or AMD’s 800-series is required for the highest throughput.

With a comprehensive five-year warranty and the CORSAIR SSD Toolbox software for advanced drive management, the MP700 ELITE series stands as a testament to CORSAIR’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction. The CORSAIR MP700 ELITE series is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities.