SGI, the trusted leader in technical computing, today announced that it is continuing its march toward exascale computing with the integration of the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family into all of its high performance compute (HPC) server and storage platforms and product families. Full support for the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family in the SGI Rackable, SGI ICE X HPC and SGI Modular InfiniteStorage (MIS) platforms is also now available.

SGI has been shipping Rackable servers to its public cloud customers since September 2011, and is shipping 26.73 teraflops per rack this month in its ICE X platform. The MIS server platform represents the densest storage server platform in the industry today, and is based solely on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family. As the most flexible, high-performance computing platform in the industry, the SGI Rackable line takes advantage of the new Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family to drive the most dramatic performance improvements in a typical product generation - in some cases up to 2X¹ and beyond the performance of the previous generation for high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.

AMD has really went on a slashing spree this week as in addition to making the FX-6100 and FX-8120 cheaper, it also updated (read lowered) the pricing of nine Phenom II processors. As seen in the chart below, the Phenom cuts range from 2% to 15%, the biggest drop being seen on the Phenom II X4 965 which went from $135 to $115.

Double-digit cuts were also made for the X4 955 (10.3%), X4 975 (11.4%) and X4 980 (10.8%) while the X6 1055T and X6 1075T went down by 6.1% and 8.8%, respectively.

Japanese cooling expert Scythe is going to show brand new products at the famous CeBIT trade show in Hannover (Germany) from 6th until 10th March 2012. Scythe booth will be located in the planet reseller hall 15 at the booth number F44, which is organized in a cooperation with its partner Wave Computersysteme GmbH. Interested visitors will be able to discover brand new Scythe products.

Soon to be release Katana 4 CPU Cooler is providing a first outlook into future Scythe product designs. Katana 4 is Scythes this year's exhibition highlight, introducing the innovative fin structure design called A.T.F.S. (Aero Tuning Fin Structure). A.T.F.S. tilted structure utilizes the intake holes for additional precise airflow, maximizing the Katana 4 CPU Cooler's efficiency. In addition, Katana 4 is equipped with the brand new mounting clip set by the name N.G.C.S. (New Generation Clip System). Hence allows the 480 grams cooler to be mounted on latest sockets, providing maximum socket compatibility.

Noctua today presented its new NH-L12 low-profile cooler for Small Form Factor cases and HTPC environments. The NH-L12 features a flexible NF-F12 (120 mm) / NF-B9 (92 mm) dual PWM fan setup that can be configured either for full performance in dual fan mode or extra-low profile (66 mm) with the top fan removed.

"The industry trend towards Small Form Factor and Home Theatre PCs is well-established, but there's still a lack of suitable high-quality quiet CPU coolers", explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "Building a powerful PC always requires a capable CPU, which in return demands a competent cooling solution. But who wants his HTPC to sound like a jet engine? This is precisely where the NH-L12 steps in."

Before the end of this quarter AMD is set to introduce a bunch of fresh FX Series chips, including three boasting a 95 W TDP, the FX-4150 quad-core, the FX-6120 hexa-core and the FX-8140 octo-core.

The FX-4150 features a base clock of 3.9 GHz (4.1 GHz Turbo) and 12 MB of cache (4 MB L2 + 8 MB L3) while the FX-6120 has its cores set to 3.5 GHz (4.1 GHz Turbo) and packs 14 MB of cache. As for the FX-8140, it's clocked at 3.2 GHz (4.1 GHz) and has 16 MB of cache. All three models have an AM3+ package and are made using 32 nm process technology. No word on pricing yet.

MAINGEAR, an award-winning custom PC builder offering custom desktops, custom notebooks, pc and workstations, is excited to announce their next innovation from MAINGEAR EPIC Labs; the MAINGEAR EPIC T1000 CPU thermal solution for their entire desktop lineup.

The MAINGEAR EPIC T100 is an ultra-high performing phase change metal alloy thermal interface material (TIM) offering the most effective solution to transfer heat from the CPU to the heatsink with high bulk conductivity. The MAINGEAR EPIC T1000 deploys into all the surface micro-asperities on the CPU lid and heat sink in a way that traditional paste solutions simply cannot.

Phanteks introduces PWM external adaptor for its award winning PH-TC14PE Premier CPU cooler for free! In order to optimize our products with thermal possibilities and capabilities, Phanteks includes a PWM external adaptor for its PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler. The PWM external adaptor will convert the PH-F140 fan into a PWM controlled fan. Now you can achieve silent or maximum performance automatically and give you a piece of mind.

The new PWM external adaptor can be requested free of charge here, for all current Phanteks owners. Only a proof of purchase is required. All new shipment of PH-TC14PE series will be included with PWM adapter.

iBUYPOWER, a leading innovator in gaming PCs, is excited to announce the availability of new Intel Core i7 3820 3.6 GHz processor. New processors are available in new iBUYPOWER systems, including the Chimera 4, Paladin XLC (extreme liquid cooling) and Erebus Custom Liquid Cooling systems.

iBUYPOWER systems running Intel 3820 are faster not only in clock speed compared to the x58-based CPUs they replace, but they're also faster clock-for-clock, and more efficient with power. This translates into a smoother gaming experience and faster load times to get gamers back into the action quicker. Additional advantages include quad channel memory, more PCIE lanes for improved multi-GPU performance and faster hard drive transfer speeds.

To finish off the week in style Thermalright announced the Silver Arrow SB-E, a new, high-end CPU cooler based on the Silver Arrow model introduced back in 2010.

The Silver Arrow SB-E features a dual tower/dual fan design and has eight (nickel-plated) 6 mm copper heatpipes (the old Arrow comes with four 8 mm pipes), a tweaked heatsink, two TY PWM fans - one 140 mm and one 150 mm (the SA packs two 140 mm spinners), and a mounting kit offering support for Intel LGA 2011 / 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 775 and AMD AM2(+) / AM3(+) / FM1 processors.

The Silver Arrow SB-E also makes use of some more 'discrete' fan clips that won't interfere with taller memory modules. The cooler is expected to become available at the end of this month. No price tag was announced but we found it on pre-order at about $103 / 78 Euro.

Antec, Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components, announces the One, the latest addition to their Gaming Series. The One is an excellent option for mainstream gamers, new PC builders and seasoned system integrators alike, as it provides user-friendly cooling and convenient features at an affordable price.

Performance Cooling Advantages - The One's cooling system includes top & rear 120 mm exhaust fans with four additional 120 mm fan mounts. Perforated mesh construction yields additional airflow through the front of the chassis.

AMD may be busy building up hype for its Trinity-generation APUs (accelerated processing units) but it's still churning out new chips, the latest releases being the rather low-profile Athlon II X4 641 and X4 638. Both of these models are made on 32 nm technology, have an FM1 packaging, and boast four 'Stars' x86 cores just like those found in Llano APUs (but unlike Llano, these Athlons don't have integrated graphics).

The Athlon II X4 641 comes with a core clock of 2.8 GHz, 4 MB of L2 cache, and a 100 W TDP, while the Athlon II X4 638 features a 2.7 GHz clock, 4 MB of L2 cache, and a TDP of 65 W. Both CPUs are priced at $81 (pricing is for 1000-unit tray quantities).

G.Skill, the worldwide leading high performance memory designer and manufacturer, has announced the brand new Ares series low profile performance DDR3 memory. Featured with low profile heat spreader design (3.2cm in height), G.Skill Ares series DDR3 memory modules are the perfect choices for building high performance PCs with large CPU coolers, small form factor desktop computers or any other systems with more restricted space.

Xigmatek is celebrating a first with the Gigas Micro-ATX Cube, as it is their first Aluminum chassis. Even with its compact dimensions, the Gigas Cube manages to fit high-end Hardware, allowing one to easily build a potent HTPC or Gaming system. USB 3.0, space for up to 4 fans, along with a fan controller round up the list of features.

The word "Gigas" is part of the Greek language and means "giant". In the modern language, the prefix "giga" can be found in many different areas to quantify the sheer size. Gigabyte or Gigawatt are such examples and the new chassis from Xigmatek carries the name "Gigas" for good reason.

Titan Technology unveiled its latest Siberia CPU Cooler, the TTC-NC55TZ(RB). The cooler has an asymmetric aluminum fin tower design, which cools other hot components on the motherboard along with the CPU. The design consists of a nickel-plated copper base, from which five copper heat pipes pass. One end of these heat pipes pass through an aluminum fin stack that propagates along the plane of the motherboard, while the other passes though a stack that propagates perpendicular to this plane.

The stack that's along the plane of the motherboard is the larger of the two, and is ventilated by a 140 mm fan. The perpendicular stack is ventilated by a smaller 120 mm fan. The 140 mm fan spins at 700 ~ 1,800 RPM, pushing 34.78 ~ 89.43 CFM of air, with a noise output of 8.3 ~ 28.8 dBA. The 120 mm fan, on the other hand, spins at 800 ~ 2,200 RPM; pushing 24.23 ~ 66.2 CFM, with 15.0 ~ 35.0 dBA noise output. Both fans have 4-pin plugs and support PWM control. The heatsink itself measures 200 x 130 x 162 mm (WxDxH), weighing 755 g. All current sockets, including LGA2011, LGA1366, LGA1155/LGA1156, AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2, and FM1 are supported. It is priced at 6,980 JPY (US $91.6).

We have previously reported on the super cheap ARM-based Raspberry Pi hobby computer that's been under development from the Raspberry Pi foundation. However, it's now going into production and is generating a lot of interest, so gamesindustry.biz interviewed its founder, Eben Upton, about it (free registration required).

The computer's primary purpose is as a computer science teaching aid in schools and colleges and also for home brew use by enthusiasts who want to tinker with it and make specialized solutions out of it. However, it seems that enthusiasts will have a nice surprise in that the onboard GPU is surprisingly good. The actual ARM implementation is a Broadcom BCM2835 System on Chip (SoC) containing an ARM 11 CPU and a custom graphics core, which has been designed by the Raspberry Pi team, including Upton. In the interview, Upton claimed that it can double iPhone 4S performance and handily beats NVIDIA's Tegra solution, because of its tile mode architecture.

Antec announced today that it is giving away free socket LGA2011 brackets for existing owners of its Kuhler H2O 920 and Kuhler H2O 620 closed-loop CPU water coolers. The two were released before Intel launched its new socket, and so there are large stocks in the market that lack LGA2011 brackets. To avail this offer, existing owners have to write to Kuhler.eu@antec.com with a proof of purchase of their product, and shipping address. Antec also announced that it has started bundling the LGA2011 bracket with all fresh batches of Kuhler H2O 920 and Kuhler H2O 620, which will start shipping from its factories in February.

Making silicon chips is not easy, requiring hugely expensive fabs, with massive clean-room environments and at every process shrink, the complexity and difficulty of making the things goes up significantly. It looks like TSMC and GlobalFoundries are both having serious yield problems with their 28 nm process nodes, according to Mike Bryant, technology analyst at Future Horizons and this is causing a rash of non-working wafers - to the point of having nothing working with some chip designs submitted for production. It seems that the root cause of these problems are to do with the pressures of bringing products to market, rather than an inherent problem with the technology; it just takes time that they haven't got to iron out the kinks and they're getting stuck: "Foundries have come under pressure to release cell libraries too early - which end up with designs that don't work," Bryant said. In an effort to try and be seen to treat every customer equally, TSMC is attempting to launch ten 28 nm designs from seven companies, but it's not working out too well: "At 45-nm, only NVIDIA was affected. At 28-nm any problems for TSMC will be problems for many customers" said Bryant.

Last week we brought you news of Ubisoft's hard three machine activation limit on Anno 2070 and how it scuppered a review by Guru3D when they swapped out graphics cards. Guru3D's post then went viral on the web and it appears that this has put sufficient pressure or 'heat' on Ubisoft to relax the restrictions just a tiny bit, since they weren't going to use any more Ubisoft games for benchmarks. So what have they done? Allowed an unlimited number of graphics card swaps. That's it, everything else stays the same, so if other components such as the CPU, motherboard etc are changed, then one will still run into this frustrating brick wall and have to get in touch with customer support to reset the activations.

TechPowerUp also published the latest version of ThrottleStop, a nifty utility that lets you monitor the CPU clock speed throttling scheme used by your notebook, and provides you with options to override or change it. This is particularly useful for noteboook users facing performance issues even when the notebook is plugged in, despite enabling Windows "high-performance" power scheme. The application's main window lets you perform both monitoring and tweaking, its left pane provides you with tweaking your CPU's power scheme using three methods, while its right pane lets you monitor the way in which your OS is throttling the CPU, down to the level of logical CPUs (threads).DOWNLOAD: ThrottleStop 4.0

Anno 2070's Draconian DRM: Guru3D's Graphics Card Review Killed Off (UPDATED)

Hilbert Hagedoorn of well-known PC tech review site guru3d.com recently bought a copy of Ubisoft's Anno 2070 and wanted to use it in one of his graphics card reviews. However, he became badly unstuck. This game comes on the Steam platform and the store page states: "3rd-party DRM: Solidshield Tages SAS 3 machine activation limit". Unfortunately for Guru3D, they found out exactly what this means, which resulted in just one performance graph, an aborted review, an unplayable game - and bad publicity for Ubisoft once again. They have published an article about their experience, pledging not to use their titles again because of this DRM.

Like with the Frio Snow Edition, Thermaltake's higher-end CPU air cooler, the Frio OCK, also has a Snow Edition variant. As a variant, its specifications are otherwise identical to the original, except that the black+red colored plastic parts (such as shrouds, fan frames, and impellers), are replaced with white+blue colored ones. The blue, of course, is an "icy" shade of it. The top shroud is black, to offer a nice contrast with the white+blue colored fan frame. Measuring 143 x 136.8 x 158.4 mm (LxWxH), the cooler weighs about 1.1 kg. It uses a slightly larger heatsink than the one found on the Frio, to which heat is conveyed by six 6 mm-thick heat pipes. The heatsink is ventilated by two 130 mm fans in "push-pull" configuration. The new variant also provides out-of-the-box support for LGA2011 socket.

Responding to the market's new-found love for white colored components, Thermaltake announced a few "Snow Edition" products, including the Frio Snow Edition, pictured below. This cooler uses the same exact design as the original version, but replaces the black+red plastic parts of it with white+blue, including a white colored fan impeller. It is a typical aluminum fin tower-type heatsink with two pre-fitted 120 mm fans in push-pull configuration. It measures 139 x 98 x 165 mm (LxWxH), weighing a little over 1 kg. Another feature of this cooler is out-of-the-box support for socket LGA2011.

Arctic showed of two nearly-identical CPU coolers, the Freezer i30 and Freezer A30. The two are identical till the point where the i30 is designed for Intel sockets only (LGA2011, LGA1155/1156), while the A30, for AMD sockets only (AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2). The two share a tower-type aluminum fin-stack heatsink design, capable of handling thermal loads of up to 320W.

The heatsink uses four 8 mm thick exposed-copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the CPU at the base, and pass through the heatsink, which is then ventilated by a 120 mm PWM-controlled fan with a fancy-looking frame. Rubber standoffs attach the fan to the heatsink dampening vibrations. The retention clips come attached to the heatsink out of the box. A 0.5g syringe of Arctic MX-4 compound is included, while the coolers' base don't come with the compound pre-applied.

AMD has been slapped with a lawsuit by Quanta for allegedly selling faulty CPUs & GPUs that were unfit for purpose, since they didn't meet specified heat tolerances and subsequently failed. Taiwan-based Quanta may not have a name that the general public immediately recognizes, however they are actually the world's largest contract manufacturer of notebooks, so this lawsuit is a big deal. They claim that the faulty parts were used in notebooks made for NEC. The lawsuit was filed in a district court in San Jose, California and in the filing, Quanta claims they have "suffered significant injury to prospective revenue and profits". As Bloomberg reports, "the lawsuit also claims breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation, civil fraud and interference with a contract."

If you thought the overclocking and benchmark feats we reported on a few days ago here and here were impressive, wait until you see what four cards can do. Overclocking champion Shamino over at Kingpin Cooling has set four 3DMark and one Unigene benchmark record: