Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, announced today the new Crucial MX100 solid state drive (SSD). Available in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB capacities with respective MSRPs of $79.99, $109.99, and $224.99, the new Crucial MX100 offers powerful speeds and advanced features at a low cost per gigabyte.

The Crucial MX100 256 GB and 512 GB drives utilize Micron's new 16 nanometer (nm) 128 Gb NAND, in addition to a SATA 6 Gb/s controller and custom firmware, to deliver up to 90,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS). With true 550/500 MB/s sequential read/write speeds on both compressible and incompressible data, the Crucial MX100 allows users to boot up almost instantly, load programs in seconds, and accelerate demanding applications. Furthermore, at up to 89 percent more efficient than a hard drive, the new MX100 SSD allows users to run systems longer, using less power.

Gigabyte may have struck a superb price-features sweet-spot with the Z97X-SLI, which the company unveiled at its Computex wall. This board, we're hearing, will be priced around $125, and has a feature-set to rival boards much pricier. To begin with, the socket LGA1150 board is based on Intel's Z97 Express chipset. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and conditions it using a simple 4-phase VRM, that uses 60A chokes. The VRM area is clad with heatsinks all around. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory, and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, which run at x8/x8, when both are populated. This is also among the few motherboards in its price bracket to support NVIDIA SLI, apart from AMD CrossFire.

Apart from the two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, three PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and a couple of legacy PCI slots make up the expansion area. Its storage area is where the package gains tons of value. You get six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, from which two can convert into a SATA-Express 10 Gb/s port; and an M.2 slot. The board features high-grade audio, including a Realtek ALC1150 HD audio CODEC, which offers SNR as high as 115 dBA; with ground-layer isolation, and a headphones amp. Networking is care of an Intel-made GbE controller. Display outputs include dual-link DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. Legacy connectivity includes LPT and COM (by headers), and PS/2. AMI Aptio UEFI BIOS, backed by dual-UEFI redundancy, is at this board's helm. For around $125, you can't get this board's feature-set wrong.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today launches three new SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs - the Premier Pro SP900 M.2 2242 and 2282 for Ultrabooks and desktop PCs, and Premier Pro SP910, which is suitable for gamers and video editors. No matter the computer, users can find the best solution to upgrade and experience the optimized performance of an SSD.

The Premier Pro SP900 M.2 2422 and 2280 are the latest and smallest SSDs in the market with extremely slim designs and small dimensions (22x42 mm, 22x80 mm), which meet the M.2 standard from Intel. They are smaller than the typical 2.5" SSD and mSATA, but come with bigger capacities, including 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB. The two SSDs are not only suitable for Ultrabooks, but also for new motherboards in the next generation of PC upgrades.

Marvell today announced its game-changing fifth generation serial advanced technology attachment (SATA 6 Gb/s) solid-state drive (SSD) controller. The industry-leading Marvell 88SS1074 SATA SSD controller deploys Marvell's third generation NANDEdge error-correcting, low-density parity check (LDPC) technology, facilitating use of 15 nm triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash in client and enterprise SSDs. The advanced SATA SSD controller significantly improves total storage system cost and delivers unparalleled performance with lower power consumption.

The KINGMAX SME Xvalue super value SSD has become the first choice for entry-level users after it was released. In response to the continued increase of market demands for SSD, KINGMAX has again released a new product - the Full Capacity SMG Titan. KINGMAX is a manufacturer of memory-related products; products are sold globally and it has over 200 dealers around the world. The opening of new capacities for NAND Flash on the market, drove prices of the SSD down to the sweet spot, which helped increase the permeability of SSDs into the market. KINGMAX SSD products series are also expected to benefit from this.

There are many brands available on the market. The problem of capacity vacuity is frequently seen, which causes consumers to be suspicious. KINGMAX has always paid extra attention to the problem of specifications. The SATA 6 Gb/s Full Capacity SSD released this time comes in four capacities for consumers to choose from: 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB. The SMG Titan also used a SandForce control chip with high speed NAND Flash kernels and the standard SATAIII 6GB/s interface; it uses flash memory to store data and has a maximum reading speed of 550 MB/s while the writing speed can also reach 520 MB/s.

Gigabyte launched the GA-9SISL, a unique micro-server board in the mini-ITX form-factor. At its center is an Intel Atom C2750 "Avoton" processor. This chip embeds an eight-core "Silvermont" x86-64 CPU clocked at 2.40 GHz, with 2.60 GHz Turbo Boost, a dual-channel memory controller that supports up to 64 GB of memory, 4 MB of L2 cache, and a 6-port SATA AHCI/RAID controller with two 6 Gb/s and four 3 Gb/s ports. Its TDP is rated at just 20W, and so a tiny fan-heatsink is deployed to handle it.

The GA-9SISL from Gigabyte draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors. The Atom C2750 SoC is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of DDR3-1600 memory. Its lone expansion slot is a PCI-Express 2.0 x16. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 3 Gb/s and two SATA 6 Gb/s ports. An ASPEED AST2400 chip provides remote management capabilities, and its integrated video, over a D-Sub connector. An Intel N354 network controller offers four 1000 Mbit Ethernet connectors, while a 5th one is wired to the management chip. Gigabyte didn't announce pricing, but given that the SoC itself is priced at US $170 a piece in 1000-unit quantities, home NAS builders may not get excited.

At Computex 2014, we're expecting the proverbial Noah's Flood of new SSDs in the M.2 form-factor, which overcome the bandwidth limitation of SATA 6 Gb/s, and aren't as messy when installed as SATA-Express. The first generation of M.2, at its physical layer, is PCI-Express 2.0 x2, with a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 1000 MB/s per direction. Among the first such drives is the XP941 from Samsung. The drive went into mass production way back in June 2013, but it's only now hitting the stores, as the first motherboards with M.2 slots launched, with the advent of Intel's 9-series chipset.

What sets this drive apart from conventional M.2 drives is it follows a draft specification that mandates PCI-Express 2.0 x4 interface. When installed on slots with x4 wiring, the drive offers sequential read speeds of up to 1,170 MB/s, and up to 930 MB/s maximum writes. It also offers 4K random read performance of up to 122,000 IOPS, and 4K random write performance of up to 72,000 IOPS. The only 9-series motherboard with such a slot is the Z97 Extreme6 by ASRock. You could also try using PCI-Express 2.0 x4 add-on cards such as the one Plextor's M6e comes with. The 512 GB variant of the drive is priced at 79,800 JPY including local taxes (US $780).

MSI launched its Intel Z97 chipset-based Gaming series lineup with three ATX motherboards, the Z97 Gaming 3, the Z97 Gaming 5, and the Z97 Gaming 7. The company now made a high-end addition, with the Z97 Gaming 9 AC. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, the board is filled to the brim with features targeted more toward high-end gaming PC builds, than professional CPU/memory overclocking. It still offers a decent overclocking feature-set. To begin with, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS connectors, and uses a 16-phase VRM to condition power for the CPU, which is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x4/x4 when all three are populated, x8/x8/x0 when two are, and x16/x0/x0 when one is. 3-way SLI and CrossFire are supported.

An EMI shield covers the rear-panel I/O, while another shields the entire onboard audio circuitry, and the NICs. Audio is care of a 100+ dBA SNR DAC, which an external headphone amp circuit, ground-layer isolation, audio-grade capacitors, and EMI shielding. Wired connectivity is handled by Broadcom's newer Killer E2205 gigabit NIC. Wireless connectivity is handled by an Intel-made chipset that offers 802.11 ac WLAN, and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. Storage connectivity is devoid of SATA-Express, but features eight SATA 6 Gb/s, and an M.2 slot. Overclocking features include voltage measurement points, and POST LED display. Expect this one to go for over US $200.

ASRock rolled out the Q1900DC-ITX, a low-power computing motherboard based on Intel Celeron J1900 "Bay Trail" SoC. The chip embeds a quad-core x86-64 CPU clocked at 2.00 GHz, with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 2.42 GHz. The board is designed to draw power from an external power brick, over 2-pin DC-in. It uses a chunky fan-less heatsink to cool the SoC, which is wired to two DDR3L SO-DIMM slots. Expansion includes one PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and an mPCIe. Storage connectivity doesn't let down, and includes two each of SATA 6 Gb/s and SATA 3 Gb/s. The board offers legacy connectivity such as LPT and COM over headers. Display outputs include DVI, HDMI, and D-Sub. 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, two each of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0/1.1, and PS/2 mouse/keyboard connectors make for the rest of it.

Over the weekend enthusiasts couldn't find AMD's Catalyst software suite 14.4 WHQL on the company's Game portal. The company reposted it a little later, with a cautionary note about why they had to pull the download. Apparently, the AMD motherboard chipset drivers included in the suite were later found to be unstable on some systems, particularly the southbridge AHCI driver. The issue seems to affect only certain southbridges, the SB700, SB710, and SB750. There's no word on newer generations of southbridges with SATA 6 Gb/s controllers and FIS switches, such as SB850, SB950, and A-series FCH chipsets, being affected. Our SB950-based motherboard isn't showing any signs of instability. AMD rebuilt the suite without the affected driver when it re-posted the suite later on Monday.

Here are some of the first pictures of the Z97 WS from ASUS, its first workstation motherboard based on Intel's new 9-series chipset. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, the board offers a boat-load of enterprise-relevant connectivity, and out of the box support for not just Core "Haswell" Refresh processors, but also Xeon processors based on the "Haswell" silicon. The board draws power from 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS connectors, with an optional 6-pin PCIe power input to stabilize power supply to add-on cards. It features an 8-phase CPU VRM, with additional heatsinks to dissipate heat from the MOSFETs.

The LGA1150 socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, and a PLX PEX8747 PCI-Express gen 3.0 x48 bridge chip. This chip wires out four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, which auto-configure between x16/NC/x16/NC, x16/NC/x8/x8, and x8/x8/x8/x8, depending on how you populate the four slots. Other expansion slots include two PCIe 2.0 x1, and one PCIe 2.0 x4, wired to the PCH. Storage connectivity includes eight SATA 6 Gb/s, from which four convert to two SATA-Express ports, and one M.2 slot. Display outputs appear to include DisplayPort and HDMI. There are two gigabit Ethernet interfaces on offer, both driven by Intel-made controllers. 8-channel HD audio, several USB 3.0 ports, and legacy ports by headers, make for the rest of the connectivity. Its feature-set include Ai-Suite III, reinforced power connectors, and the ability to log system events onto USB flash drives.

ASUS demonstrated its first SSD, the HyperXpress. As its name might give away, the drive is co-developed by HyperX, the enthusiast memory and storage brand of Kingston. Built in the 9.5 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor, the drive features SATA Express interface, which will hit the consumer space this May, with the arrival of Intel's Z97 Express chipset, and Core "Haswell Refresh" processors. Internally, there's not much to this drive. It's a host-agnostic RAID 0 array of two mSATA 6 Gb/s SSDs, wired to a host controller made by ASMedia. To the host machine, it will look like a single drive. The sample demoed to the press, ASUS claims, is a very early prototype, and future iterations could run two M.2 SSDs instead of mSATA, for even higher throughput. The drive was tested to offer sequential transfer rates as high as 778 MB/s. At Computex 2014, flash memory manufacturers are expected to launch legions of new SSDs in the SATA-Express and M.2 form-factors.

GIGABYTE is giving final touches to its next G1.Killer series motherboard, the G1.Gaming Z97. Branded in an uncanny way to MSI's Gaming series, the G1.Gaming is a mid-range ($150 - $200) socket LGA1150 motherboard based on Intel's Z97 Express chipset, which can run Core "Haswell" Refresh processors out of the box. The board features most of the stuff you've come to expect from "gaming" grade motherboards. To begin with, its draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and uses an 8-phase VRM to condition power to the CPU. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory; and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated). Three PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and two legacy PCI make for the rest of its expansion area.

Display connectivity on the G1.Gaming Z97 includes DisplayPort and HDMI. Storage connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s, and likely one M.2 slot. A total of six USB 3.0 ports are on offer, four on the rear panel, two by header. The board features 7.1-channel Creative Sound Core3D audio with user-replaceable OPAMPs, a 115 dBA DAC, audiophile-grade electrolytic capacitors, and ground-layer isolation. The wired networking on this board is equally special, a Broadcom-Killer E2100 PCIe NIC with packet prioritization that's optimized for multiplayer gaming. For those with USB headsets that come with their own DACs, GIGABYTE is offering a special USB 2.0 port with extra power output, and electrical noise filter. GIGABYTE's dual-UEFI BIOS is at the helm of this board.

MSI is ready with its Gaming series socket LGA1150 motherboards based on Intel's next-gen 9-series chipset, which are ready for Core "Haswell" refresh processors. The series includes three boards in the ATX form-factor, the 9-series Gaming 9 AC, 9-series Gaming 7, and 9-series Gaming 3; and one in the mini-ITX form-factor, the 9-series Gaming. The 9-series Gaming 9 AC is loaded with features, including a 12-phase CPU VRM, four DDR3 DIMM slots, three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC/NC or x8/x8/NC or x8/x4/x4), eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, a PCI-Express x2 M.2 slot, Killer E2200 NIC, 802.11 ac WLAN, and more.

Next up, is the 9-series Gaming 7, which offers the same 12-phase CPU VRM as the 9-series Gaming 9 AC, same three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, four PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and an identical storage connectivity. The 9-series Gaming 3 is the most affordable of the lot, with a 6-phase CPU VRM, one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), two PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and three PCI; six SATA 6 Gb/s, one M.2, and Killer E2200 NIC. Lastly, there's the 9-series Gaming ITX, which offers a decent 6-phase VRM, single PCI-Express 3.0 x16, 802.11 ac networking, Killer E2200 NIC, and AudioBoost audio. The three should launch in the run up to the mid-May release of Intel's new processors.More pictures follow.

MSI rolled out a new mid-range, socket FM2+ motherboard in the ATX form-factor, the A88X-G41 PC Mate. As its name suggests, it's based on the A88X FCH chipset by AMD. Drawing power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, the board uses a 5-phase VRM to condition power for the FM2+ socket, which is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, that support up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz memory; and a single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. The second x16 slot is electrical PCI-Express 2.0 x4, and wired to the FCH.

Storage connectivity on the A88X-G41 PC Mate includes just six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, even as the A88X FCH offers eight. The board offers a total of four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel, two by header. Also on offer are ten USB 2.0 ports, four on the rear panel, six by headers. There's quite some legacy connectivity on offer, such as LPT and COM, by headers. Display outputs include a dual-link DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI 1.4a. 6-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of it. The A88X-G41 PC Mate is driven by AMI UEFI BIOS. Expect this board to be priced around the $100 mark.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it is now shipping the world's fastest 6 TB hard disk drive (HDD) - the Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4. Boasting industry-leading performance, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 is an important step forward in scale-out data infrastructures delivering supersize storage and enterprise reliability to meet the explosive growth of corporate and cloud-based data centers.

"Unstructured data growth is doubling exponentially and will propel the digital universe to reach 16 Zettabytes of data by as early as 2017. This will cause cloud service providers to look for innovative ways to store more within an existing footprint while lowering operational costs," said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. "Seagate is poised to address this challenge by offering the fastest 6 TB enterprise capacity HDD based on our proven, reliable platform meeting this never-ending demand in both private and public cloud data centers."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today announced the launch of the Premier Pro series SP920 solid state drive (SSD). Designed to meet the high-performance requirements of multimedia file transfers, the SP920 comes in a 2.5" form factor, and is equipped with the latest generation Marvell controller implementing the SATA 6 Gb/sec specification.

SSD continue to become mainstream storage selections for a cross-section of user types, largely due to the higher demands placed on primary system disks by operating systems, games, and high definition media. The SP920 is designed for high performance across a wide range of demanding applications, but it is especially fast in the transmission of multimedia files (uncompressed data). 4 KB random read / write speeds are as high as 98,000/88,000 IOPS, with sequential read and write speeds of up to 560 MB/s and 500 MB/s, respectively. In addition to these impressive numbers, the SP920 maintains consistently high read and write speeds even when the disk is 90% full. This is in contrast to some solid state drives that suffer performance degradation as the drive nears capacity.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices, today introduces new additions to its Ferri portfolio with single-package Ferri-eMMC and ultra-high performance SATA 6 Gb/s FerriSSD embedded memory solutions supporting industrial and commercial grade temperatures. Silicon Motion will be showcasing and demonstrating these new products at the upcoming EE Live! Conference and Expo in San Jose, CA from April 1 to 3.

Ferri-eMMC is designed for a wide range of embedded applications and is fully compliant with JEDEC-standard eMMC 4.5 protocol. With a 100-ball 1.0 mm pitch BGA package, Ferri-eMMC provides for more flexible PCB design and low-cost manufacturing. Ferri-eMMC delivers market leading data integrity and protection capabilities featuring Silicon Motion's advanced NAND management technologies including error correction, bad block management and NAND health monitoring.

Here's what the first wave of Intel 9-series chipsets will look like. It will consist of upper-mainstream chipsets for the LGA1150 platform, and the sole chipset for the LGA2011-3 HEDT platform. LGA1150 will get two new chipsets based on a common silicon, the Z97 Express, and the H97 Express. The Z97 will be the next top-end chipset for the platform, supporting current Core "Haswell" and upcoming "Haswell refresh" and "Devil's Canyon" processors. Motherboards based on the Z97 chipset, like the ones based on the Z87 and Z77, will feature up to three PCI-Express 3.0 slots wired to the CPU, in configurations of x16/NC/NC, x8/x8/NC, and x8/x4/x4. It will support overclocking, something its sibling the H97 Express will lack. The H97 will also lack the PCIe configurations that the Z97 supports.

Both Z97 and H97 will introduce support for PCI-Express M.2 storage, which offers 66.6% higher bandwidth than SATA 6 Gb/s, and the same bandwidth as SATA-Express. Its introduction will spur up development and launches of a new generation of high-performance client SSDs in 2014-15. Apart from M.2, the two chipsets offer six SATA 6 Gb/s ports with AHCI and RAID support. Rapid Storage Technology (RST) and Smart Response Technology (SRT) are common for both chips, however, the Z97 also features Dynamic Storage Accelerator (DST), something the H97 will lack. H97 will exclusively offer Small Business Advantage (SBA), instead. Both chips will feature 8-lane PCI-Express gen 2.0 root complexes to drive onboard devices, and 14 USB ports, including six USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports.

ASUS' choice of decking its mainline motherboards in black and gold is coming to bite it, as the company unveiled one of the first of its "Gamer" line of motherboards. Simply put, these are boards from its mainline Z87 and B85 series products, but with black and red color scheme, and not many of the goodies that its expensive ROG (Republic of Gamers) series comes with. It's the idea of making entry-level and mid-range products more appealing to gamers that ASUS appears to have aped MSI on, even if MSI isn't the original "black + red" motherboard maker. That said, the B85-Pro Gamer isn't just a B85-Pro with fancy heatsinks. Its PCB resembles rather closely with that of the Z87-A.

To begin with, this slim ATX motherboard uses an 8-phase VRM to condition power to the LGA1150 socket. It's wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, and a single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. The other long x16 slot on this board is physically PCI-Express 2.0 x4, and wired to the B85 PCH. Three legacy PCI, and two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 make up the rest of the expansion area. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 6 Gb/s, and two SATA 3 Gb/s. Display outputs (which we doubt gamers would use), include DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. ASUS worked on the networking and audio of this board. It features a rather premium Intel I217V GbE controller, and SupremeFX audio, with a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, electrolytic capacitors, a TI-made 300Ω headphones amp, and ground-layer isolation.

Crucial announced its M550 series of performance SSDs, succeeding its existing M500 series. Built in 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch SATA, mSATA, and M.2 form-factors, the M550 series offers higher sequential transfer rates, and comes in higher capacities near existing price-points, over its predecessor. It also introduces a handful new features, such as NWA (native write acceleration), RAIN (redundant array of independent NAND), adaptive thermal protection (ATP), and hardware encryption. The drives appear to be based on a Marvell-made controller platform, with Micron-made MLC NAND flash. The mSATA 6 Gb/s and M.2 models come in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB; while the 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s models include 1 TB capacity. The drives offer sequential reads as high as 550 MB/s, with up to 500 MB/s of sequential writes. They're backed by 3-year warranties, and should eventually replace the M500 series from their existing price points.

With Intel's "Haswell Refresh" CPU lineup around the corner, motherboard makers are giving final touches to their next-gen socket LGA1150 lineups based on Intel Z97 Express chipset. MSI, which practically reinvented itself in the DIY hardware scene with its Gaming Series of motherboards and graphics cards, is readying three products based on the chipset, the mid-range Z97 Gaming 3, the premium Z97 Gaming 5, and the high-end Z97 Gaming 7. With it, MSI is ditching the "G45," "GD55," and "GD65" brand extensions. In addition to M.2 slots, some of the three will include SATA-Express add-on cards, which let you plug-in drives with a staggering 10 Gbps of bandwidth.

MSI unveiled early versions of the top of the line Gaming 7 and the mid-range Gaming 3 at this year's CeBIT event. The Z97 Gaming 7 offers a 12-phase CPU iVR, three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, four PCIe x1 slots, eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, an M.2 slot, and possibly an included SATA-Express add-on card; in addition to a wealth of connectivity. The Gaming 5 could be based on the same PCB, but with a lighter feature-set. The Gaming 3, on the other hand, is based on a lighter PCB, with a 6-phase CPU iVR, a lack of the M.2 slot, legacy PCI slots, yet retaining the ground-layer isolated on-board audio, and Killer NIC. The "Haswell refresh" Core processor lineup, along with motherboards based on the Z97 Express chipset, could be launched around the same time as Computex.

MSI announced its first socket AM1 motherboard, the AM1I. Built in the mini-ITX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU power connectors. The socket is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 16 GB of DDR3-1600 MHz memory; a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot, and an mPCIe slot. Connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports, 6-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, display outputs that include HDMI, DVI, and D-Sub, and legacy PS/2. MSI didn't reveal pricing or availability information.

ASRock announced a trio of socket AM1 motherboards for AMD's "Kabini" series APUs, Athlon and Sempron-branded CPUs, in the FS1b (AM1) package. The lineup includes the AM1B-M, a compact micro-ATX model; and two mini-ITX ones, the AM1H-ITX, and the AM1B-ITX. The AM1B-M draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 4-pin ATX connectors, and uses a 3-phase VRM to power the APU. A PCI-Express 2.0 x16, and a PCIe 2.0 x1 make for its expansion slots. Connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports (rear), D-Sub display output, gigabit Ethernet, and 6-channel HD audio.

The AM1H-ITX, and the AM1B-ITX appear to be based on a common PCB design, but differ with connectivity. The former is gear towards modern connectivity options. It draws power from either a 24-pin ATX, or a 2-pin external DC input. The board is loaded with features, including HDMI and DVI display outputs, four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four USB 3.0 ports, PCI-Express 2.0 x16 and mPCIe slots, and 8-channel HD audio. The latter is geared more towards essential/legacy connectivity. It features the same display outputs, but chucks out 2-pin power input, and 8-channel HD audio to make room for a parallel LPT port.

Israel-based system builder Compulab announced the fourth generation Fit-PC, the Fit-PC4, which builds on the proven nettop platform. Fit-PC4 comes in two main variants, the $299 Fit-PC4 Value, and the $380 Fit-PC4 Pro. The Value variant runs an AMD A4-1250 APU, with a manageable 8W TDP to speak of. The Pro variant, on the other hand, runs a peppier AMD GX-420CA quad-core SoC, with Radeon HD 8400E graphics.

Both variants feature two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots, which can hold up to 16 GB of memory; an internal 2.5-inch drive bay with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, an mPCIe+mSATA 6 Gb/s slot, and a micro-SDXC card slot, wrapping up the storage department. Display outputs include two HDMI 1.4a ports on both variants, with 7.1-channel digital audio streams. 7.1-channel digital audio is also given out by TOSLINK SPDIF, on both variants. Analog audio outputs include just the stereo headset jacks. Networking includes two gigabit Ethernet interfaces on both variants. While the Value variant offers 802.11 b/g/n WLAN with Bluetooth 3.0, the Pro variant tops that with 802.11 ac and Bluetooth 4.0. The Pro variant measures 16 cm x 19 cm x 3.7 cm; while the Value variant is more compact, at 16 cm x 16 cm x 2.5 cm.