AMD today launched new thermal solutions, including the flagship AMD Wraith Cooler, as well as the new AMD A10-7860K and new AMD Athlon X4 845 desktop processors. Designed for the consumer who cares about how their desktop PC runs, sounds, and looks, AMD now offers new thermal solutions that generate less than one-tenth the noise of their predecessors -- running at a near-silent 39 decibels, about as quiet as a library.

The new AMD Wraith Cooler combines near-silent operation with unique styling via a sleek fan shroud and LED illumination. Providing superb cooling, the new design delivers 34 percent more airflow and 24 percent more surface area for heat dissipation than its predecessor.

Intel's first 5-gigahertz CPU will bear an unlikely brand - Xeon. The company's upcoming Xeon E5-2602 V4 quad-core chip based on the 14 nm "Broadwell-EP" silicon, is rumored to ship with a staggering 5.10 GHz clock speed out of the box. Getting there won't be easy for this socket LGA2011v3 chip. Despite being a quad-core chip, with just four out of ten cores on the "Broadwell-EP" silicon bring physically enabled, the chip's TDP is rated at 165W. Other features include 10 MB of L3 cache, and a quad-channel DDR4 memory interface.

AMD demonstrated a new reference air-based CPU cooling solution. Called the AMD Wraith, the cooler addresses the noise problem affecting AMD's stock CPU cooler, particularly on 95W-125W CPUs and APUs; and is more easy to deal with, than the company's liquid cooling solution. AMD Wraith could either be sold standalone, or as part of premium bundles with certain current or upcoming CPUs/APUs.

In its demo, the AMD Wraith is shown to be significantly quieter than AMD's stock cooling solution at maximum speed. Much like the stock cooler, the AMD Wraith is a top-flow aluminium fin-stack cooler, but with a larger heatsink, and a bigger fan. A groovy LED backlit AMD logo decks the black cooler shroud.The video presentation by AMD follows.

Mercury Research published its market analysis for PC Graphics, for the second quarter of 2015 (April-June), this is an important quarter as this is when people tend to buy or upgrade their PCs for the summer break. According to the numbers posted by Mercury Research, NVIDIA hit a new record in discrete GPU market share. In the assessment period, 76.4 percent of desktop discrete GPUs were NVIDIA, up from 63.8 percent in Q2-2014. AMD, the only other desktop discrete GPU maker, saw its share drop to 23.6 percent.

The mobile discrete GPU figures were slightly better for AMD, with the company making up 34.6 percent, slightly up from 33.2 percent in Q2-2014. NVIDIA slipped proportionately down to 65.4 percent, from 66.8 percent in Q2-2014. When being a "discrete" GPU is no longer a criteria, and Intel is added to the mix, i.e. every CPU with graphics Intel sold, and every APU AMD sold (including the ones it sold to Microsoft and Sony), NVIDIA makes up 15.7 percent, AMD 14 percent, and Intel a whopping 70.1 percent. The big-picture isn't looking good. PC graphics shipments declined by 8 percent over the quarter, and down 21 percent from the same time last year. This is the worst on-year decline since the 2008 Financial Crisis.

Intel's upcoming Core "Skylake-U" low-power processors, for ultra-portable notebooks, tablets, convertibles, and fan-less desktops, is where the fruition of Intel's 14 nm process takes shape. These dual-core chips, spanning all five brand extensions - Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, Pentium, and Celeron, offering TDP as low as 7.5W, and no more than 15W. The lineup is kept slim, with no more than 2 SKUs per extension. All three Core extensions feature Intel HD 520 graphics, clocked around 350 MHz, with 1000 to 1050 MHz boost, while the Pentium and Celeron models feature slimmer HD 510 graphics, ticking at 300/900 MHz.

The lineup is led by the Core i7-6600U and i7-6500U. Besides HyperThreading enabling 4 logical CPUs, these two chips feature 4 MB L3 cache, 1050 MHz iGPU boost frequency, and the highest CPU clock-speeds in the series. The Core i5 chips differ from their Core i7 counterparts with sub-3 GHz CPU clock speeds, 3 MB L3 cache, and maximum iGPU boost frequency of 1000 MHz. The Core i3 parts are almost identical to their Core i5 counterparts, except they lack CPU Turbo Boost. The Pentium processors feature very low CPU core speeds, and are almost identical to Core i3, but feature lower 950 MHz iGPU boost frequency, and 2 MB L3 cache. Celeron parts lack HyperThreading. Some of these parts will launch in 2015, others in 2016. Find the exact clock speeds for each SKU in the table below.

They've done it! After building the first LGA2011v3 motherboard in the mini-ITX form-factor, letting you cram up to 8 "Haswell" cores into a lunchbox-sized PC, albeit having to make do with just dual-channel memory; ASRock developed the first mini-ITX motherboard with not just LGA2011v3, but also its full quad-channel memory interface, called the EPC612D4I. There's just one rider, which shouldn't really be a dealbreaker - this is a server-grade motherboard, and is bound to be expensive.

The EPC612D4I achieves its quad-channel memory chops by using smaller DDR4 SO-DIMM slots instead of standard-sized DIMM slots. Availability of aftermarket DDR4 SO-DIMM memory is close to non-existent, but that could change with 6th Generation Core processor notebooks hitting the shelves by Holiday 2015. As an enterprise board, it also supports Xeon E5-1600 V3 and E5-2600 V3 processors.

In what is a confirmation that AMD has killed socket AM3+ and its 3-chip platform, a leaked slide that's part of a larger press-deck addressing investors, tells us that the company is planning to launch a high-performance desktop processor targeting enthusiasts, based on its next-generation "Zen" architecture, in 2016. Our older articles detail the Zen CPU core design, and the way in which AMD will build multi-core CPUs with it. This processor will be codenamed "Summit Ridge," and will be a CPU, and not an APU as previously reported. In AMD-speak, what sets a CPU apart from an APU is its lack of integrated graphics.

AMD "Summit Ridge" will be an 8-core CPU built on the 14 nanometer silicon fab process. It will feature eight "Zen" cores, with 512 KB of L2 cache per core, 16 MB of L3 cache, with 8 MB shared between two sets of four cores, each; a dual-channel integrated memory controller that likely supports both DDR3 and DDR4 memory types; and an integrated PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex, with a total of 22 lanes. We can deduce this from the fact that "Summit Ridge" will be built in the same upcoming socket FM3 package, which the company's "Bristol Ridge" Zen-based APU will be built on. "Summit Ridge" will hence be more competitive with Intel's 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors, such as the i7-6700K and i5-6600K, than the company's "Broadwell-E" HEDT platform.

European PC cooling specialist Alpenföhn announced two additions to its popular Matterhorn CPU cooler series, the Matterhorn White Edition, and Black Edition. This tower-type cooler features a monolithic fin-stack with trapezoid fins, to which heat drawn from the CPU is fed by six 6 mm thick copper heat pipes. Measuring 138 x 100 x 158 mm, the heatsink weighs a little over 1.06 kg. The heatsink is ventilated by an included Alpenföhn WingBoost 2 fan. This 120 mm spinner takes in 4-pin PWM-controllable power, spins between 500 and 1,500 RPM, pushes up to 106 m³/h of air, with a noise output ranging between 18 and 20 dBA. Available now, the two are priced at 52.90€.

SilentiumPC announce the Spartan PRO-B HE924 CPU cooler. Spartan PRO-B HE924 is a compact titan in the field of processor cooling from SilentiumPC. It owes its high efficiency to 4 heat pipes (6mm) a unique heat sink unit structure and HE (high efficiency) technology - direct heat pipe contact with the processor. Along with the heat sink unit there is a 100mm fan including the automatic rotation regulation function PWM. The fan rotation modes have been diligently selected to suit both those who cherish peace and quite and also overclockers. With the latter in mind the accessory box includes fastenings for a second fan.

The mounting system utilizes backplate, this makes Spartan PRO-B HE924 a perfect solution for system integrators. Wide compatibility includes LGA 775/1150/1155 /1156/1366 and AMD AM2 /AM2+ /AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2/FM2+. Spartan PRO-B HE924 fits into virtually all midi tower cases. The set also includes an advanced thermal conductive paste (4.1 W/mk).

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards is proud to announce today the addition of 4 new high performance motherboards to their comprehensive Intel X99 chipsets offering with the X99 Champion series. The new motherboards consist of the X99-Gaming 5P, X99-UD4P, X99-UD3P and the already famous X99-SOC Champion.

DDR4 memory modules are available at a stock frequency of 2133 MHz, but memory vendors encode XMP profiles which can automatically modify the frequency and timings of the supported memory modules to work in par with your CPU. With the X99 Champion Series, GIGABYTE is offering a tested and proven platform that ensures proper compatibility with profiles up to 3200 MHz, and exclusively 3400 MHz for the X99-SOC Champion.

ORIGIN PC announced today their new ORIGIN PC EON17-X and EON15-X high-performance laptops for gamers, artist, professionals and enthusiasts. The EON17-X and EON15-X feature blazing fast Intel desktop processors on the latest Z97 chipset while almost 40% thinner and 30% lighter than the previous generation. For unrivaled performance, the EON17-X and EON15-X support ORIGIN PC's award winning CPU overclocking to run today's processor hungry games and applications. Reinforced with NVIDIA's next-gen Maxwell-powered 970M or 980M graphics cards, the EON17-X and EON15-X deliver hyper-realistic gameplay with support for 4K resolutions at smooth frame rates on your favorite 4K external display.

ORIGIN PC has also announced an all-new EON15-S thin and light laptop for gamers and professionals. The new EON15-S is now 36% thinner and 25% lighter than its predecessor yet continues deliver incredible performance thanks to Intel's latest i7 mobile CPU's and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980M graphics card. Gone are the days where lugging around heavier and thicker laptops was the only option for mobile performance. Customize and upgrade to ORIGIN PC's latest EON thin and light laptops today.

Nintendo is working on a next-generation gaming console to succeed even the fairly recent Wii U. The company is reacting to the plummeting competitiveness of its current console to the likes of PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. Reports suggest that Nintendo would make a course-correction on the direction in which it took its game console business with the Wii, and could come up with a system that's focused on serious gaming, as much as it retains its original "fun" quotient. In that manner, the console could be more NES-like, than Wii-like.

Nintendo could ring up AMD for the chip that will drive its next console. It's not clear if AMD will supply a fully-integrated SoC that combines its own x86 CPU cores with its GCN graphics processor; or simply supply the GPU component for an SoC that combines components from various other manufacturers. The Wii U uses IBM's CPU cores, with AMD's GPU, combined onto a single chip. There's no word on when Nintendo plans to announce the new console, but one can expect a lot more news in 2015-16.

Thermal Solutions specialist GELID Solutions unveils its latest CPU cooler "SnowStorm". The cooler contains an optimized compact heatsink with 3 power heatpipes and a 92mm fan with PWM function. The cooler is a product of GELID Solutions SILENT product line.

In comparison to other mid-end CPU coolers the "SnowStorm" is built with a unique fin architecture which distributes air flow equally into the heatsink. Thanks to the 3 power heatpipes with Direct Touch Technology (HDT) this compact cooler achieves unexpected cooling performance. Its compact heatsink size makes it light and with the metal back plate the mount is much secure than with the traditional mounting. The 92mm fan contains an intelligent PWM fan control which ensures a silent operation at low CPU temperature and a fan speed acceleration when the CPU temperature climbs higher.

Intel Corporation today introduced the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600/1600 v3 product families to address the requirements of diverse workloads and the rapidly evolving needs of data centers. The new processor families include numerous enhancements that provide performance increases of up to 3x over the previous generation, world-class energy efficiency and enhanced security. To facilitate the explosive demand for software defined infrastructure (SDI), the processors expose key metrics, through telemetry, which enable the infrastructure to deliver services with the best performance, resilience and optimized total cost of ownership.

The processors will be used in servers, workstations, storage and networking infrastructure to power a broad set of workloads such as data analytics, high-performance computing, telecommunications and cloud-based services, as well as back-end processing for the Internet of Things.

Intel's Ivy Bridge purge continues as the Santa Clara-based company announced its plans to retire five more chips based on the aging architecture, the Core i3-3110M, i3-3120M, i3-3130M, i3-3217U, i3-3227U. These mobile CPUs were released between Q2 2013 and Q1 2013 and are set to 'survive' until Q2 2015 as May 22nd is the last day of shipments. Intel is still taking orders for these processors but that will stop November 21st.

DeepCool signed off Computex with its first liquid CPU cooling solution. The unnamed cooler is branded with the company's GamerStorm badge, and features a base+pump assembly, which is connected to a 120 x 240 mm radiator, which is ventilated by a pair of GS120 fans. It's OEM is Asetek, no surprises here. DeepCool could launch the cooler later this year, with support for LGA115x, AM3+, FM2+, and LGA2011-2 (Haswell-E HEDT).

Intel answered the burning question some of us had about what the desktop chipset that succeeds the 9-series will be named. For now, Intel is referring to it as "100-series," on early internal roadmap documents scored by VR-Zone. Much like the current 9-series, 100-series will consist of a single PCH silicon, from which several variants will be carved out by toggling features.

There will be four primary kinds of "Skylake" packages, SLK-S, which will be socketed LGA; SLK-U, which will likely be compact, ultra-low power BGA, for Ultrabooks; SLK-Y, which will probably be mainstream BGA for compact desktops and all-in-ones; and SLK-H, which will likely be mainstream BGA for conventional notebooks. This generation of CPUs and PCHs, will also be accompanied by four kinds of wireless network controllers, depending on the target form-factor, "Snowfield Peak" Wi-Fi + Bluetooth, "Douglas Peak" WiGig + Bluetooth, "Pine Peak" WiGig, and XMM726x 4G LTE controllers; and "Jacksonville" GbE wired Ethernet controller. Thunderbolt standard will undergo an evolution with the company's "Alpine Ridge" controller.

Without any real fanfare Intel has now kicked off sales and shipments of processors part of 'Haswell Refresh' line. An official launch for the updated Haswell offering, complete with motherboards based on the 9 Series LGA1150 chipsets, is reportedly planned for next month but since the CPUs got the go-ahead you can expect them to reach stores shortly.

A total of 44 chips have been introduced by Intel, 27 of which are for desktops while the rest are for mobile devices. There's nothing really new about the CPUs as they are still based on the Haswell architecture (which debuted last year) but they do have slightly higher (100 MHz in most cases) frequencies than the models they aim to replace (speed bump at no added cost).

AMD today added a major new milestone to its list of seminal developments in server technology. The company displayed a comprehensive development platform for its first 64-bit ARM-based server CPU, fabricated using 28 nanometer process technology, the first from an established server vendor. AMD also announced the imminent sampling of the ARM-based processor, named the AMD Opteron A1100 Series, and a development platform, which includes an evaluation board and a comprehensive software suite. In addition, AMD announced that it would be contributing to the Open Compute Project a new micro-server design using the AMD Opteron A-Series, as part of the common slot architecture specification for motherboards dubbed "Group Hug."

The AMD Opteron A-Series processor, codenamed "Seattle," will sample this quarter along with a development platform that will make software design on the industry's premier ARM-based server CPU quick and easy. AMD is collaborating with industry leaders to enable a robust 64-bit software ecosystem for ARM-based designs from compilers and simulators to hypervisors, operating systems and application software, in order to address key workloads in Web-tier and storage data center environments. The AMD Opteron A-Series development platform will be supported by a broad set of tools and software including a standard UEFI boot and Linux environment based on the Fedora Project, a Red Hat-sponsored, community-driven Linux distribution.

Intel's processor portfolio has just been expanded to include no less than ten new mobile offerings including five Core i7 models, four Core i5s and one Celeron chip. At the head of this new wave is the Core i7-4940MX which features 4 cores clocked at 3.1 GHz and bears a price tag of $1,096. This model takes the top spot in Intel's mobile line-up, pushing aside the 3.0 GHz i7-4930X.

This latest release wave also includes three ultra-low voltage CPUs, the Core i5-4360U, i5-4310U and the Celeron 2980U, the ladder being the cheapest of the lot, costing $107. The rest of the processors are found in the table below.

Be quiet!, market leader of power supplies in Germany for seven consecutive years* , announces three new CPU coolers with high cooling capacity from 160 to 250 watts and a extremely low noise level. The German company has extended its portfolio with a third generation of the Dark Rock Series. The new coolers feature optimized aluminum fins and Silent Wings PWM fans. This has increased the performance by up to 5° C compared with the predecessors. In addition, be quiet! has announced the Shadow Rock Slim, which offers a high compatibility to large RAM heat spreaders and is ideal for compact systems.

Acer announces the support for the latest Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 series processor across its line of high performance Altos servers and Veriton Workstations starting September 2013. With up to 50% more cores per processor, lower thermal design power (TDP), and improved clock speeds, the new line of Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors offers extraordinary performance for companies and researchers alike. "Our professional line up of Altos servers is a cornerstone of our renewed focus on the commercial marketplace," stated Evis Lin, AVP of Commercial Products and Solutions Management at Acer. "Now with complete support of Intel's high-performance Xeon E5-2600 v2 CPUs, the Altos line is positioned perfectly to capitalize on channel and data center markets."

Acer's Altos line of professional server products offers robust functionality, best-in-class time to market, and scalable performance to meet a wide range of customer demands. Not only performance minded, the Altos servers can be configured based on customer demands with form factors that emphasize density and power savings, as well as other form factors to meet data-intense demands. Acer also offers its own management software, Acer Smart Server Manager, free of charge, enabling customers to simultaneously manage and rollout updates across multiple systems.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a new addition to its 2013 Elite Mobility processor family, expanding the options available for anyone seeking crystal-clear HD entertainment, power efficiency, and accelerated performance in small screen touch notebooks, tablets, and hybrids. The AMD Elite Quad-Core A4-1350 accelerated processor is the second quad-core accelerated processing pnit (APU) in this category, with an estimated average power at or below 3 watts for many common use cases. The new APU is expected to begin shipping to customers in October, 2013. Other AMD Elite Mobility APUs are available in systems today, including the HP Pavilion11 TouchSmart and the Acer Aspire V5.

"Following the tremendous reception from customers to the launch of our 2013 Elite Mobility APUs, we are excited to strengthen our portfolio with the addition of the A4-1350," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president, AMD Client Business Unit. "With quad-core performance, AMD Radeon HD graphics and long battery life, the A4-1350 is an ideal solution for new form factors like hybrid and convertible PCs."

Japanese manufacturer Scythe, famous for its innovative and market leading cooling concepts and accessories, introduces a new edition of the popular Mugen 4 CPU cooler. In the past, Mugen series was modified in cooperation with the experts from the Ger-man Computer Magazine "PC Games Hardware". Latest Scythe Mugen 4 CPU cooler was tested by the professional editors and received some optimizations for silent operation.

In result of this cooperation, the improved version by the name "Mugen 4 PCGH Edition" has been created. Main heatsink was considered great and was not modified. Scythe newly developed the T-M.A.P.S. (Threedimensional Multiple Airflow Pass-Through Structure) fin structure for Mugen 4, which increases the airflow inside the cooling heatsink. Furthermore, Mugen 4 PCGH Edition is highly fine tuned for performance with ultra low noise.

In addition to releasing 17 desktop chips, Intel also made available a dozen new (Haswell) mobile CPUs - one quad-core and eleven dual-cores. This fresh batch includes four Core i7 models, five Core i5s, and three Celerons. More details can be seen in the table below.