AMD

Revolutionizing the Components Space

CHRISTIAN ASSAF, SALES MANAGER, AMD, ELABORATES HOW THE COMPANY HAS BEEN A GAME-CHANGER IN THE REGIONAL COMPONENTS MARKET THROUGH ROBUST CHANNEL PARTNERSHIPS.

“THE OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION, HONESTY,

TRANSPARENCY AND SYNERGY WITHIN THE ASBIS AND AMD

RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN A KEY FACTOR IN DRIVING THE

BUSINESS IN MENA.”

Can you share the biggest milestone for AMD within the region over the past 12 months? The MENA region has always shown great potential and we’ve invested resources and marketing to support the growth that the industry expects in the market. We’ve seen the successful introduction of both the 3rd Generation of Ryzen processors and the latest graphics cards with our RX5700 series. We’ve increased our focus in Levant, Egypt, KSA & UAE while also expanding our reach to North Africa and other countries within GCC.

Can you elaborate on the trends in the regional components market and how it has evolved in the past two years? The components market has always been a key business for the MENA region. The market has seen this trend, particularly around DIY systems and the Esports gaming category continue to grow and we’re really excited to be part of that journey.

How has the regional IT channel market enabled you to build your business? With the components market as a catalyst, particularly with the renewed interest in Esports, AMD is proud to deliver our newest AMD Radeon graphics cards and AMD Ryzen processor products to create the ultimate PC gaming platform with leadership performance at every price point. AMD is committed to driving innovation and competition across the computing and graphics markets to give PC enthusiasts, gamers and creators incredible experiences and unmatched value.

How is AMD empowering channel partners to expand their business? The MENA region has always been important to AMD and we will continue to support our distribution partners, retail and e-tail partners to bring AMD products to the market. What are the key elements that your partners need to prioritize in order to successfully grow their operations? Innovation, competition and scalability are key to grow in such a fast-moving industry and AMD remains dedicated to bringing pioneering products to market to give PC enthusiasts, gamers and creators incredible experiences and unmatched value.

What are the market drivers for your growth? The AMD portfolio is broad, bringing competitive, innovative and scalable products to each major segment. From the introduction of our EPYC CPU for servers, Ryzen to the component channel and consumer finished product space, Ryzen PRO for commercial notebooks and desktops or the vast Radeon portfolio for both professional applications and gamers alike. What kind of success have you seen in the gaming market? Can you share any plans that the market can expect in this space going forward? We’ve already seen some amazing partnerships this year. With games such as Gears of War 5, Borderlands 3, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Tom Clancy’s The Division® 2, Resident Evil®2 and the partnership with Microsoft for their recently announced Project Scarlett it’s fair to say that AMD is enjoying some exciting times in the gaming space. How has your data center business evolved? What opportunities do you see in the region? With the introduction of the 2nd Generation AMD EPYC™ processors, AMD provides datacenter customers with a leadership CPU. Holding 100 world records while delivering an estimated 25% to 50% lower TCO than competitive offerings. Twitter is using the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC to improve the TCO of its datacenters by 25% and HPE, Lenovo and Dell have announced availability of new platforms. What is the key messaging from AMD at GITEX? Which product lines will be highlighted during the show? The AMD portfolio is broad, bringing competitive, innovative and scalable products to each major segment and we are looking forward to GITEX to share these success stories with our partners. Can you elaborate how your partnership with ASBIS Middle East has developed AMD business in the region? How do you aim to strengthen this relationship? The open lines of communication, honesty, transparency and synergy within the ASBIS and AMD relationship has been a key factor in driving the business in MENA. It is my belief that this unique partnership between AMD and ASBIS has been the “special formula” to our success and I’m excited to see the results from our partnership as we move forward as one team to drive the business further.

Can you share your business objective and market plans for the next few months? Having our broad portfolio, enthusiastic partners across distribution and retail / e-tail alike will lead us to exciting few months. I would ask that if you’re a partner to AMD, please take advantage of the excellent marketing tools available to you on www.amd.com/partner and to please come and talk to either me or your ASBIS account manager if you’d like to be part of this journey. You can reach me at Christian.assaf@amd.com – I look forward to working with you.

GITEXEDITION | 11

Seagate Firecuda 510 SSD

Product Review

Seagate is known for manufacturing strong performing solid storage solutions. And the Seagate FireCuda 510 is no exception.

The Seagate FireCuda 510 is an M.2 NVMe SSD designed specifically with professional gamers in mind. That being said, it also adequately caters to any user seeking fast and durable storage for large number of files.

FireCuda 510 SSD provides the fastest PC gaming storage speeds so users spend less time loading levels and maps, fewer seconds respawning, and reduced stuttering in open-world gaming.

The SSD is out-of-the-box compatible with the latest generation of powerful AMD Ryzen processors — which are all about more cores, more cache, more tech and more I/O, according to Seagate.

Users can pair a 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Desktop Processor with the FireCuda 510 PCIe NVMe SSD for the ultimate PC gaming combination. FireCuda 510 SSD delivers durable speed for extended periods and is equipped with a 5-year limited warranty.

The FireCuda 510 is available in two capacities – 1TB and 2TB. Having reviewed the 1TB version, we found the drive to stand out in the SSD market and truly offer customers an ideal solution for saving huge files and accessing them quickly.

The drive is powered with Seagate's SeaTools software, which is equipped with smart features to handle regular functions such as health checkups and drive partitioning tasks. Through the Advanced tab in the software, customers can also avail detailed jobs such as SecureErase, updates, master boot record deletion or reconstruction tools. While Seagate has not unveiled too many products in the M.2 NVMe SSDs space in the recent past, the latest addition brings them at par with the market.

GITEXEDITION | 13