The picture of a bare PCB of an upcoming GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming series socket AM4 motherboard is doing rounds on the web. The picture reveals the bare PCB of the motherboard with all its traces and printed markings, but at a stage before surface-mount components can be soldered onto it. One can still make out quite a bit about the board. AMD X370 is the company's upcoming high-end desktop chipset, which will be launched alongside the company's Ryzen 8-core processor, some time in February, 2017.

To begin with, the AX370-Gaming K3 is built in the ATX form-factor. Its AM4 socket supports both Ryzen "Summit Ridge" CPUs and 7th generation A-series "Bristol Ridge" APUs. The board draws power from 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a 7-phase VRM. The AM4 socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, a second gen 3.0 x16 slot that's electrical x4, and three other gen 3.0 x1 slots. Storage connectivity appears to include at least eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot. 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.1 (including type-C) ports, appear to make for the rest of the connectivity. GIGABYTE's signature Dual-UEFI is featured.Many Thanks to TheLostSwede and Tomas H. for the tips!

PNY announced the CS2030 line of high-performance SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. The drives take advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4 (32 Gb/s M.2 slots), and the NVMe protocol, and are available in two capacities - 240 GB and 480 GB. Combining a Phison PS5007 controller with MLC NAND flash memory, the drives offer sequential transfer-rates of up to 2,750 MB/s reads, with up to 1,500 MB/s sequential writes. 4K random access performance is rated by the manufacturer at up to 210,000 IOPS reads, and up to 215,000 IOPS writes. Backed by 3-year warranties, the 240 GB variant is priced at US $179.99, and the 480 GB variant at $329.99.

Here are some of the first pictures of ASRock Z270 Extreme4, the company's mid-range socket LGA1151 motherboard based on Intel's upcoming Z270 Express chipset, with out of the box support for 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processors, and support for Intel Optane 3D X-point solid-state storage. Built in the ATX form-factor, the Z270 Extreme4 draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a 12-phase VRM.

The CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory; and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated). The third PCIe 3.0 x16 slot is electrical x4 and wired to the PCH. Three open-ended PCIe 3.0 x1 slots make for the rest of the expansion area. Storage connectivity includes eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots. Display connectivity includes one each of D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI. You get a total of eight USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel four by headers), and two USB 3.1 ports (one each of type-A and type-C, both on the rear panel). Eight channel HD audio and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of the connectivity.

ASUS today announced the Republic of Gamers (ROG) XG Station 2 external graphics enclosure. A successor to the pioneering XG Station by the company, which launched way back in 2007, this box has the connectivity to drive high-end graphics cards, and expand connectivity of your machine. The enclosure features a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, and two 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors, with which it can supply the card with up to 500W of power. Its power supply can further provide up to 100W of power to recharge your notebook. The internal power supply meets 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating.

The ROG XG Station 2 connects to your notebook or desktop using Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps). It uses this bandwidth to drive not just the graphics card, but also a gigabit Ethernet controller, and a 4-port USB 3.0 hub. You can supplement the main Thunderbolt connection's bandwidth with an additional USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) connection to your host machine. This isn't necessary, but ASUS claims it will improve performance. The enclosure opens up at a vertical seam like an oyster, letting you easily install your graphics card. The walls of the enclosure are perforated, but a trio of 70 mm fans actively ventilate it. The enclosure also features RGB LED lighting, which can be managed using ASUS Aura software. ASUS plans to sell the ROG XG Station 2 from Q1-2017.

Intel's next high-end desktop (HEDT) platform to succeed the current "Broadwell-E" LGA2011v3 will be the X-series "Basin Falls" platform. This consists of the "Skylake-X" and "Kaby Lake-X" processors, and a chipset derived from Intel's upcoming 200-series. Just as Intel changed sockets for its previous three HEDT platforms (LGA1366 for "Nehalem" and "Westmere/Gulftown," LGA2011 for "Sandy Bridge-E" and "Ivy Bridge-E," and LGA2011v3 for "Haswell-E" and "Broadwell-E,") the company will launch a new socket, the LGA2066.

As with its HEDT predecessors, "Skylake-X" and "Kaby Lake-X" will be multi-core processors devoid of integrated graphics, with double the memory bus width and up to triple the PCIe lane budgets as the desktop ("Skylake-D," eg: Core i7-6700) processors. In an interesting move, Intel will launch both "Skylake-X" and "Kaby Lake-X" in quick succession, with a catch - "Skylake-X" will come in 6-core, 8-core, and 10-core variants; while the "Kaby Lake-X" will initially only be offered in quad-core. The "Kaby Lake-X" chip will further only feature a dual-channel memory bus, and the LGA2066 motherboard will have half its DDR4 DIMM slots disabled, besides a few PCIe lanes.

Samsung is giving finishing touches to a new line of PCI-Express solid-state drives (SSDs) that offer performance that matches or beats the current SSD 950 Pro series, at lower price-points, the 960 EVO. These drives leverage the company's 48-layer 3D-VNAND flash memory, and the new "Polaris" SSD controller by Samsung, to serve up performance that beats the 950 Pro. Samsung could transfer some of the cost-savings in using the inexpensive flash standard to the consumer, highlighted by the company's decision to brand these drives "EVO."

Tom's Hardware discovered that the Samsung PM961 drives are analogous to the 960 EVO, featuring identical components - the "Polaris" controller, and 48-layer TLC 3D-VNAND flash chips . These drives come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB, with sequential transfer rates of up to 3000 MB/s reads, with up to 1150 MB/s writes; up to 360,000 IOPS 4K random-read, and up to 280,000 IOPS 4K random-write. The 960 EVO will ship in M.2 NGFF-2280 and PCIe add-on card form-factors, with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 bus interfaces. The drives will support the NVMe protocol.

ASUS today unveiled the X99-E 10G WS workstation motherboard. Although based on the X99 Express chipset, this board supports Intel Xeon E5-1600 and E5-2600 (v3 and v4) processors, besides Core i7 "Haswell-E" and "Broadwell-E" processors in the LGA2011v3 package. The board's eight DDR4 DIMM slots support up to 128 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory. The board is built in the SSI-CEB form-factor (305 mm x 267 mm). The board features seven PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, and uses PLX PEX-8747 x48 bridge chips to provide either two x16 slots with direct wiring to the CPU, or four x16 slots running at full x16 bandwidth, or seven x16 slots in x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8 configuration.

Storage connectivity includes one 32 Gb/s U.2 port, a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, and a total of ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The board derives its name from support for 10 Gbps Ethernet, and features a pair of 10 Gbps connections driven by an Intel X550-AT2 controller. Other modern connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (of which one is type-C), eight USB 3.0 ports, and 8-channel HD audio with a 115 dBA SNR CODEC. The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX, a 6-pin PCIe, and two 8-pin EPS connectors, and uses an 8-phase VRM to condition power for the CPU. ASUS didn't reveal pricing.

MSI unveiled the X99A-SLI motherboard. This is not to be confused with the X99A-SLI PLUS the company launched in its first wave of socket LGA2011v3 motherboards, in 2015. The new board features a few modern connectivity features, such as 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, a U.2 connector, and USB 3.1 with type-C. The board also comes with support for Core i7 "Broadwell-E" processors, out of the box. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, and uses an 8-phase VRM to condition it for the CPU.

Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 3.0 x16, and two PCIe 2.0 x1. Storage connectivity includes one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, a 32 Gb/s U.2 port, one 10 Gb/s SATA-Express connector, and a total of twelve SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Among the USB connectivity are two 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 ports, from which one is type-C, and eight other USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, four by headers). 8-channel HD audio, and an Intel controller-driven gigabit Ethernet connection make for the rest of it. This could be one of MSI's more affordable socket LGA2011v3 boards.

MSI today announced the X99A Tomahawk motherboard. This socket LGA2011v3 motherboard is based on the Intel X99 Express chipset, and supports Intel Core i7 "Broadwell-E" processors out of the box. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and uses an 8-phase VRM to power the CPU. The board supports up to 128 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory. Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, and two PCIe 3.0 x1.

Storage connectivity on the X99A Tomahawk includes one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, one 32 Gb/s U.2 port, one 16 Gb/s SATA-Express, and eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (one each of type-A and type-C), eight USB 3.0 ports, and eight USB 2.0/1.1 ports. Network connectivity includes two gigabit Ethernet interfaces driven by Intel-made controllers.

ADATA showed off its flagship M.2 PCIe SSD lineup, the SX8000NP. These drives will target a price-performance sweetspot between the fastest SATA drives, and the enthusiast M.2 ones. They're driven by a Silicon Motion SMI2260H processor, wired to 3D (stacked) MLC NAND flash memory. This drive takes advantage of PCI-Express 3.0 x4, and the new NVMe protocol, to serve up sequential transfer rates of up to 2,000 MB/s reads, with up to 800 MB/s writes. ADATA put up its own CDM performance numbers for a 480 GB variant of this drive.

GALAX is preparing an onslaught for the enthusiast consumer SSD space, with the new Hall of Fame (HOF) NVMe Series. Spanning three key enthusiast form-factors, namely 2.5-inch with 32 Gb/s U.2 interface; 32 Gb/s M.2, and PCI-Express 3.0 x4 add-on card; the lineup sees the company use a very powerful custom controller to churn up sequential transfer rates of 2.5 TB/s. To begin with, the 2.5-inch with U.2 form-factor drive comes in 512 GB and 1 TB sizes, offering speeds of up to 2500 MB/s reads, with 1200 MB/s writes, 300,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and 250,000 IOPS 4K random writes.

The M.2 lineup comes in two module lengths - the more common M.2-2280, and the longer M.2-22110. The M.2-2280 drive comes in capacities of up to 512 GB, and offers slightly higher write-performance of up to 1350 MB/s, while the M.2-22110 drive comes in capacities of up to 1 TB, offering the same transfer rates as the U.2 drives. Then there's the PCIe add-on card form-factor drive for those without either M.2 or U.2, which comes in sizes of up to 1 TB, and has the same performance as the U.2 drives. There's also a 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s drive in this series, but its specs don't hold our attention for too long.

MSI announced its second Gaming Titanium socket LGA1151 motherboard after the Z170A XPower Gaming Titanium, the Z170A MPower Gaming Titanium. This board features a slightly lighter feature-set than its XPower sibling. It retains the silvery white color-scheme of the PCB, with silver/chrome heatsinks and heatspreaders; and even features a white back-plate on its reverse side. The rather minimalist-looking board features a 11-phase CPU VRM; and features reinforcement braces along its four DDR4 DIMM slots, and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC/x4 or x8/x8/x4). Other expansion slots include three PCIe 3.0 x1.

Storage connectivity includes two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, one 32 Gb/s U.2 port, and six SATA 6 Gb/s. Among its modern connectivity options are two USB 3.1 ports (one each of type-A and type-C), seven USB 3.0 (including one internal type-C port), AudioBoost 3 onboard 8-channel audio, and one gigabit Ethernet connection (driven by an Intel controller). The company didn't reveal pricing or availability.

At its PAX East booth, GIGABYTE showed off three of its upcoming socket LGA2011v3 motherboards, which it plans to launch alongside Intel's Core i7 "Broadwell-E" processors. The three include the X99-Designare EX, the X99 Phoenix SLI G1, and the X99 Ultra Gaming (pictured in that order). The running theme on these boards, apart from their design-language that's similar to GIGABYTE's Z170-series motherboards, is 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, even U.2 slots in some cases, reinforced PCIe - and in some cases even memory - slots, and USB 3.1, besides out of the box support for the latest CPUs.

The X99-Designare EX features five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, from which three can function at x16 speed and two U.2 ports. GIGABYTE is probably betting on NVMe SSDs with U.2 connectors heavily. The X99 Phoenix SLI G1 appears to be a slightly more toned down board in terms of features. It features just four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, wireless networking, and just one U.2 connector. Unlike the Designare, which is slotted in the company's mainline Ultra Durable lineup, this board is the company's new G1 Gaming offering for this platform. Then there's the X99 Ultra Gaming. This board is based on the same PCB as the X99 Phoenix SLI G1, lacks wireless networking, but features reinforced memory slots. The three boards could launch alongside Intel's new CPUs.

Need a graphics card for very basic desktop usage and absolutely nothing else? ZOTAC has you covered. The company launched a new GeForce 710 based graphics card with a PCI-Express 3.0 x1 bus interface. The card is passive-cooled, and puts out the three most common display outputs. It can drive resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600, and is backed by a proper WDDM 2.0 compliant driver (the GeForce drivers). Its GPU is clocked at 954 MHz, and 1 GB of DDR3L memory at 1600 MHz.

If you have a machine with your primary x16 slots occupied with something important (think heavy-hitting fiber-channel cards, enterprise HBAs, etc.,) you can use this card on one of your obscure PCIe x1 slots and have yourself a display-head that's slightly more functional than what your IPMI chip's integrated display controller can conjure up. Or you could just use a USB DisplayLink dongle, but shush!

ECS introduced the H110I-C4P value mini-ITX motherboard based on the Intel H110 Express chipset, and designed for 6th generation Core, Pentium, and Celeron processors, in the LGA1151 package. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU power connectors; conditioning it for the CPU with a simple 4-phase VRM. The CPU is wired to a pair of DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR4-2133 memory.

Expansions slots include a PCI-Express 3.0 x16, and an M.2 2242 slot with 20 Gb/s bandwidth. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 6 Gb/s connectors. Display connectivity includes one each of DisplayPort and HDMI. Other modern connectivity includes four USB 3.0 ports (two on the rear panel, two by headers), 6-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet. Expect a sub-$80 price-tag.

In the run-up to Intel's big Core i7 "Broadwell-E" launch, GIGABYTE announced its latest socket LGA2011-3 motherboard, the X99P-SLI. Positioned in the company's "mainline" brand, the board is built in the ATX form-factor, and draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors. The CPU socket is wired to eight DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 128 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory; and four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 connectors (x16/NC/x16/NC or x16/NC/x8/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8, depending on how they're populated, on CPUs with full-featured PCIe root-complexes).

The star-attractions here are its 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 port, and two 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 type-A ports. The Thunderbolt port features a DisplayPort passthrough, letting you wire your discrete graphics card's DisplayPort output through the board's Thunderbolt port. Storage connectivity includes ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports, one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot with NVMe boot support, and one SATA-Express 10 Gb/s port. 10-channel AMP-Up! onboard audio, with a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, EMI shielding, ground-layer isolation, audio-grade capacitors, and an OPAMP; and an Intel-driven gigabit Ethernet interface, make for the rest of it.

GIGABYTE unveiled a new high-end socket LGA1151 motherboard, the X170-Extreme ECC. Positioned as a workstation motherboard for the high-end desktop crowd, this board is based on Intel C236 chipset, and comes with support for Intel Xeon E3-1200 V5 processors in addition to 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors. It also supports DDR4 ECC memory, which partly lends it its name. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x8/x8 with both populated), a third PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical gen 3.0 x4, wired to the PCH), and three other PCIe 3.0 x1 slots.

A star attraction here is GIGABYTE's choice of an Intel-made 2-port USB 3.1 controller, which connects to the PCH over PCI-Express 3.0 x4, compared to most other USB 3.1 controllers in the market, which connect over PCI-Express 3.0 x2. This ensures consistent 10 Gb/s bandwidth dedicated to each of the two ports, without any bandwidth loss to overhead. The board offers one each of type-A and type-C ports, wired to this controller. The board offers an additional four USB 3.0 ports from the chipset and a Renesas-made hub chip. Also on offer is a 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 port, with DisplayPort 1.2 passthrough.

ASRock introduced the A88M-ITXac socket FM2+ motherboard. As its name suggests, the board is built in the mini-ITX form-factor, and is based on AMD A88X chipset, supporting the latest socket FM2+ APUs and CPUs. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, conditioning it with a 5-phase CPU VRM. The socket is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2400 memory; and the board's lone expansion slot - a PCI-Express 3.0 x16.

Storage connectivity on the A88M-ITXac includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and an M.2 PCIe port (on the reverse side of the PCB). Network connectivity includes 802.11ac WLAN (up to 433 Mbps), Bluetooth 4.0, and gigabit Ethernet. Display outputs include one each of HDMI 1.4a, dual-link DVI, and D-Sub. The board supports AMD Dual-Graphics, which lets you run the APU's onboard graphics in tandem with a select Radeon discrete graphics card, for added performance. Four USB 3.0 ports, and 6-channel HD audio make up the board's modern connectivity. The company didn't announce pricing.

ASUS announced the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Maximus VIII Hero Alpha. This socket LGA1151 motherboard, based on Intel Z170 Express chipset, is what the company claims to be the first with native support for multi-color RGB LED headers. The board features an RGB LED controller with a Windows app that lets you set RGB color lighting across two independent 4-pin headers (typically connected to RGB LED strips). The ROG "eye" logo on the PCH heatsink features an RGB LED, too, and the app lets you set even that. ASUS' reference LED strip for this board, named AURA, can be purchased separately.

The rest of the board's feature-set is similar to the original Maximus VIII Hero. You get a powerful 10-phase CPU VRM, four DDR4 DIMM slots, and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots feeding in and out of the CPU socket. The storage connectivity does away with bulky SATA-Express connectors, replacing them with two U.2 16 Gb/s connectors, sitting next to six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB 3.1 10 Gb/s ports, including type-C and type-A ports, sitting next to 802.11 ac WLAN, are a highlight in the feature-set. Expect the board to be priced slightly higher than the original Maximus VIII Hero.

Intel's tick-tock product development cycle is disturbed. The cadence of launching a new CPU microarchitecture on a given silicon fab process, miniaturizing it to a smaller fab process, and then launching an even newer micro-architecture on that process; is about to change with the company's 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processor. When launched, it would be the third microarchitecture built on the company's 14 nm process, besides "Skylake" (current new architecture) and "Broadwell" (miniaturization of "Haswell" to 14 nm.) Some of the very first documents related to Kaby Lake began to move about, making news along the way. The architecture is scheduled to launch along with its companion 200-series chipset some time in 2016.

To begin with, Core "Kaby Lake" will continue to be built on the LGA1151 package, and will likely be backwards compatible with existing 100-series chipset motherboards with a firmware update. From what we get to understand from leaked material, it will not be a vastly newer architecture than Skylake, at least not of the kind Skylake was to Broadwell. There are still CPU performance enhancements on offer, an "enhanced full-range BClk overclocking," which could mean improved overclocking on chips with upwards-locked multipliers (although we won't get our hopes too high and call it a return of the BClk overclocking era). A bulk of the R&D will fall into improving the integrated graphics, to support multiple 5K displays, 10-bit HVEC and VP9 hardware-acceleration; platform-integrated Thunderbolt 3, and platform interface support for Intel Optane (3D XPoint memory).

Compact desktop maker Shuttle is giving final touches to its XPC SH170R6 compact desktop barebones system. Designed to support 6th generation Intel Core "Skylake" processors, the SH170R6 gets you started with a custom-design motherboard based on the Intel H170 Express chipset, with two expansion slots (one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 and one PCI-Express 3.0 x4); four DDR4 DIMM slots, a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, four SATA 6 Gb/s ports; a heat-pipe based CPU cooler, and an 80 Plus Bronze rated 300W power supply.

The case itself offers room for a 5.25-inch optical drive, and two 3.5-inch drives (one of which is an externally accessible bay). The system board offers external connectivity of two DisplayPort 1.2 connectors (supports one Ultra HD display), an HDMI port, six USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA 6 Gb/s port, gigabit Ethernet, and 8-channel HD audio. There's provision for an mPCIe WLAN card. Slated for release later this month, the SH170R6 is expected to be priced at 258€ excluding VAT (around 307€ with 19% VAT).

Ahead of its launch, ASUS showed off its flagship socket LGA1151 motherboard, the ROG Maximus VIII Extreme. Based on the Intel Z170 Express chipset, this board offers the largest feature-set from ASUS' stable, for the enthusiast crowd. Built in the ATX (almost E-ATX wide) form-factor, the board retains the styling of its series siblings, such as the Maximus VIII Hero, but does away with the red+black for a more contemporary golden orange+black scheme, which made its debut with the GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum graphics card (also pictured here).

The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and 4-pin ATX power connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a 16-phase VRM. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16, from which three are wired to the CPU, and one to the PCH. All four are PCIe gen 3.0. Storage connectivity includes an SFF-8639 U.2 32 Gb/s connector, an M.2 32 Gb/s slot, two SATA-Express 16 Gb/s, and eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Networking includes 802.11 ac WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, and gigabit Ethernet (all Intel controllers). The new SupremeFX onboard audio solution borrows a lot of tech from ASUS' discrete sound cards, and comes with an 5.25-inch front-panel bay with rotary controls, and front-panel jacks. The board features a boat-load of overclocker-centric features, including dual-BIOS.

At the 2015 Flash Memory Summit, Samsung announced the fruition of its swanky new 48-layer 3D V-NAND chips, the PM1633a. Built in the 2.5-inch form-factor, and featuring a SAS 12 Gb/s interface, this drive offers an unformatted capacity nearing 16 TB (15,360 GB to be precise). The drive relies on ten 48-layer stacks of 256 Gb 3-bit NAND flash dies, making up 15,360 GB of unformatted capacity. Samsung showed off a system with 48 of these drives, making up 720 TB of total storage.

Besides the largest SSD, Samsung also showed off the fastest. The PM1725 SSD, designed for servers with high-traffic databases, where throughput is the king, is built in the 2.5-inch form factor (up to 3.2 TB) and HHHL form-factor (up to 6.4 TB). It features a PCI-Express 3.0 host bus, and talks to the OS over the modern NVMe protocol. The two offer random access throughput of up to 1,000,000 IOPS.

Here are some of the first pictures of GIGABYTE's flagship socket LGA1151 motherboard targeted at professional overclockers, the Z170-SOC Force. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, this board offers strong CPU and memory VRM, and yet offers a connectivity loadout that's in league with "gaming" class motherboards. To begin with, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, 4-pin ATX, and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. A 24-phase VRM powers the CPU, its heatsink features preparation for liquid cooling. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots (supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory).

Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x16/NC/NC/x4 or x8/NC/x8/x4 or x8/x4/x4/x4); and three PCI-Express 3.0 x1. Storage connectivity includes three M.2 slots (32 Gb/s), three SATA-Express 16 Gb/s ports, and a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (two type-A, from which one converts to type-C if it's populated), eight USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, four by header), and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports, including two type-A ports near the SATA ports (could help serve as "front-panel" ports in bench-type case setups). Display outputs include one each of DVI, HDMI and mini-DisplayPort (which likely also means availability of Thunderbolt 20 Gb/s). Gigabit Ethernet and GIGABYTE's latest generation Amp-Up audio solution make for the rest of it. A plethora of onboard OC control options are available. Find more pictures at the source.

For those looking to build a gaming rig on a shoestring budget, yet want a "gamer-centric" motherboard that has good onboard audio, GIGABYTE launched just the thing - the P85-Gaming 3. This socket LGA1150 motherboard is based on Intel B85 Express chipset, and derives the "P" in its model name from the fact that it has minimal connectivity for its integrated graphics (just one HDMI port), since its target buyers use discrete graphics cards anyway. The board is built in the slim (190 mm wide) ATX form-factor, and draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors. The CPU is powered by a basic 4-phase VRM.

Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, a second x16 slot that's electrical gen 2.0 x4 and wired to the PCH; and two each of PCIe 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 6 Gb/s and two SATA 3 Gb/s. Its onboard audio solution features a Realtek ALC892 CODEC, backed by audio-grade electrolytic capacitors, a headphones amp, and ground-layer isolation. Gigabit Ethernet, and four USB 3.0 ports (two on the rear panel, two by headers), make for the rest of it. Expect an attractive sub-$100 price tag.