German case, cooler, & PSU manufacturer "Be Quiet!" made an appearance at CES this week, where they spotlighted two new air coolers and the Silent Base 800 enclosure we previously wrote about.

Be Quiet! expanded its cooler line with the Dark Rock TF -- a black monolith with two top-down fans -- and the Shadow Rock LP. The Dark Rock TF (TF initializes "Top Flow" air direction, or top-down) is the larger, more powerful cooler rated for 220W TDP. It sports six nickel-plated copper pipes with a two-tiered aluminum fin design. The CPU block is not direct contact, but does appear solid and well-machined with its smooth coldplate.

During our visit to the MSI Suite at this year’s CES, we were pleased to find two things that we’ve been waiting on for a long time: USB 3.1 and the USB 3.1 type-C interface. The latter appeared on a soon-to-be available Z97A Gaming 6 motherboard. The receptacle is small and close in size to a micro USB connector.  Its contacts are inside, mounted on a central piece of molded plastic. The difference between these contacts and those of a micro USB receptacle is that they appear on both sides of the central piece of plastic. This means that when you connect the cable to the receptacle, it works the first time, every time.

AMD's combinatory APUs (CPU + IGP) just received a price drop, according to an email we received from the company today. In a press release, AMD noted that its flagship A10-7850K APU – equipped with R7 graphics – would be dropping to $143 MSRP from roughly $180. Other price drops include the A10-7700K at $123.

The new prices in AMD's Kaveri-generation APUs are as follows:

Using an Occulus Rift headset, a 3D-printed bracket, and a Creative 3D camera (shown previously), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are taking another step in the right direction. SoftKinetic, a company that specializes in 3D depth-sensing and gesture recognition, allowed us to use our hands for what they called "natural interaction in a convincingly smooth 3D demonstration." In other words, furthering of perceptual input technology and movement away from traditional input devices.

SoftKinetic's demo had us manipulating building blocks in 3D space with our hands as input devices.

Before getting too deep in this post, you might be interested to learn about the history of virtual reality & augmented reality, which we recently explored with companies Oculus VR, Sixense, and Virtuix.

Among Antec’s offerings at CES 2014 is one large case that we believe many enthusiasts will covet. The company brought along a total of four new cases: two gaming-targeted enclosures, a mini-ITX offering (with Steam Machine possibilities), and a more discrete mid-tower. We just posted a sales round-up including the Nineteen Hundred priced at nearly $100 off of MSRP, so go check that out if you're in the market for a big case.

Antec's case mod & custom one-off line of art-ified products in their suite.