BIOSTAR is proud to announce its line-up of new motherboards based on the Intel B250 chipset as part of the 2nd-generation RACING series family of products with the announcement of the BIOSTAR RACING B250GT5 and B250GT3. Both motherboards support Intel's 7th-generation Core processors as well as native support for Intel Optane Memory technology for next-generation high-speed storage.

Cooler Master, a leader in design and manufacturing computer components and peripherals, on Tuesday announced the launch the newest addition to its power supply range, the MasterWatt Lite 230V. The Power Supply is the survival kit for reliable, affordable power. Built on simple reliability, in the box are all the essentials of a reliable engine so you don't have to think about it. Cooler Master added higher-end perks like Active PFC and PWM technology for more stability, and made sure the MasterWEatt Lite met ErP 2013 and CE ratings for safety and low energy impact, making it the survival kit for reliable, affordable power.

be quiet!, the market leader in PC power supplies in Germany for ten consecutive years, introduces its newest ATX PC case, the multi-talented Pure Base 600. Designed and developed in Germany, the Pure Base 600 is flawless in its functional design and silent cooling while delivering a quality PC case at an attractive price. Built for cooling and performance, the Pure Base 600 includes two Pure Wings 2 case fans while also offering facilities for additional cooling products, including be quiet! water cooling systems and fans. be quiet! priced its Pure Base 600 case around an intelligent cost saving design that does not compromise functionality and noise reduction.

BIOSTAR is proud to announce the full line-up for the new 2nd-generation RACING series motherboards featuring support for Intel's 7th-generation Core processors. Following the announcement last week of the flagship RACING Z270GT9, today BIOSTAR proudly announces the different level products of the new RACING series family with the introduction of the RACING Z270GT8, RACING Z270GT6 and RACING Z270GT4 motherboards featuring the latest technology from BIOSTAR inspired by the quest for the best in gaming features. The 2nd-gen RACING series Z270 motherboard lineup brings a new level of gaming experience and performance-oriented motherboards to gamers and enthusiasts.

ROCCAT is proud to announce its newest multi-platform headset, the Cross. Equipped with large 50mm neodymium magnet drivers, the ROCCAT Cross packs studio-grade sound into an elegant lightweight package, coming in at just 200 g. The earcups are made of memory foam, which adapts uniquely to each wearer, and the drivers are perfectly aligned to the ear, providing maximum comfort and top notch immersive sound experiences everywhere you go. Cross delivers superior audio quality, not only in games, but also in music, film and voice communications.

The headset comes with two interchangeable cables that are optimized for PC gaming or mobile use, with an anti-tangle deployed in both. Designed with comfort in mind, it's truly a multi-platform headset that can be taken with you everywhere. The ROCCAT Cross hits stores on December 8th and will be available for €/$69.99.

Razer, the world leader in entertainment devices and software, today announced a licensing program that provides for third-party production and sale of Razer-designed and -branded PC cases.

NZXT, a recognized leader in PC cases, was selected as a launch partner for the "Designed by Razer" licensing program based on a shared dedication to innovation. Next month, NZXT will kick-off this new Razer initiative with the "H440 - Designed by Razer." Under the terms of its agreement with Razer, NZXT will manufacture and distribute the H440 - Designed by Razer case through its retail channels.

Synopsys, Inc., a global leader providing software, IP and services used to accelerate innovation in chips and electronic systems, today announced that it has collaborated with TSMC to provide support for voltage-dependent design rules in TSMC's 16-nm Custom Design Reference Flow. As part of TSMC's custom design infrastructure, TSMC has also certified Synopsys' Laker custom design solution and circuit simulation tools that deliver new capabilities for TSMC V0.5 16-nm FinFET process layout design rules, device models, and electromigration and IR-drop (EM/IR) analysis. TSMC and Synopsys will continue to collaborate on certification of the Synopsys tool set until 16 nm FinFET reaches V1.0.

"TSMC works with Synopsys to ensure our customers have access to analog and mixed-signal design tools for TSMC's 16-nanometer FinFET process," said Suk Lee, senior director of design infrastructure marketing at TSMC. "The Custom Design Reference Flow is another milestone of the long term collaboration between the two companies."

Bitspower, the Taiwanese water cooling and modding specialist, recently launched the first water block designed for ASUS' previous generation mITX wonder board, the P8Z77-I Deluxe. While no longer the best mITX board on the market, the Haswell launch parade made sure of that, the P8Z77-I Deluxe did develop quite a following, particularly with the SFF crowd, selling in good numbers for its segment and making the rounds in a plethora of SFF projects that sprung on various enthusiast boards around the web.

The Bitspower AIZ77ITXD block makes use of high quality acrylic for the top cover and nickel plated copper for its base. The top cover comes in two versions, either transparent acrylic (Clear) or a semi-transparent black acrylic (ICE Black). The block's design approaches the full cover idea to a larger degree than any other motherboard block I've seen, accommodating all the heat generating components on the board, the CPU, the Z77 chipset and the vertical VRM as well. A design concept that Bitspower refers to as Unibody Style Construction Design (U.S.C.).

Apple finally got around to complying with a recent judgement by a UK court, which told it to make a statement asserting that Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9, and Tab 7.7 do not violate design patents claimed by Apple. In addition to linking to the court order, the statement claims that the judgement is in effect throughout the European Union, and was upheld by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, on October 18, 2012. The judgement is expected to set a significant precedent in favor of Samsung in other parts of the world where the two companies are locked in similar legal disputes.

Apple today announced executive management changes that will encourage even more collaboration between the Company's world-class hardware, software and services teams. As part of these changes, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will add more responsibilities to their roles. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.

"We are in one of the most prolific periods of innovation and new products in Apple's history," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "The amazing products that we've introduced in September and October, iPhone 5, iOS 6, iPad mini, iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPod touch, iPod nano and many of our applications, could only have been created at Apple and are the direct result of our relentless focus on tightly integrating world-class hardware, software and services."

A British court ruled that Samsung Galaxy Tab did not pose a copyright infringement of Apple iPad. Apple and Samsung are locked in design patent infringement lawsuits around the world, with the UK being an important market for both. In addition to its ruling, the court told Apple to issue a public apology to Samsung and its customers in advertisements, with a font size no smaller than Arial 14. The court of appeal upheld its judgement that and Samsung did not infringe Apple's design.

The executive overseeing Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s (AMD) relationship with videogame-console makers has left the company to join rival NVIDIA, taking with him years of experience in the competitive field. Bob Feldstein, who joined AMD when the company acquired graphics-chip maker ATI in 2006, has taken on the role of vice president of technology licensing at NVIDIA. He most recently served as AMD's corporate vice president of business development and also led the company's Boston Design Center, which focuses on design engineering for AMD's various chips.

XMOS, developer of the industry's first event-driven 32-bit embedded processor, announces the release of its third generation family. The XS1-S Family delivers up to 700 MIPS of real-time performance per core combined with integrated analog functionality, enabling the highest quality, multi-channel USB audio applications. Combined with XMOS industry standard USB audio IP, the XS1-S Family of devices deliver the lowest latency digital audio interfaces. The first two products available in the XS1-S Family are the single core device: XS1-SU1 and the dual core device: XS1-SU2.

"The XS1-S Family builds upon the predictable real-time performance of the XS1 architecture, offering increased I/O and processing capabilities together with the convenience of integrated analog peripherals," said Tom Lee, XMOS vice president of sales and marketing. "Our customers have shipped more than half a million USB audio products using XS1 devices. The higher performance, integrated XS1-S Family and its accompanying software and tools deliver the ideal solution to an even broader range of audio applications."

Thermaltake, being the industry pioneer brand with expertise in PC DIY solutions, carrying the corporate vision of "building Thermaltake Technology into a cultural brand for the enjoyment of entertainment, e-Sports, technology, and lifestyle" and continues to drive toward the corporate mission of "delivering the perfect user experience" in all market segment, have succeeded with Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition and Toughpower Grand PSU Platinum Snow Series, Tt eSPORTS THERON gaming mouse, LUXA2 BT-X3Bluetooth Stereo Headphone and H4 multi-media holder by receiving the "red dot award: Product Design 2012". In addition, the Thermaltake Toughpower Grand PSU Platinum Snow Series is the top winner which has also been honoured with the coveted iF Design Award 2012, red dot Design Award 2011 & 2012 and The Taiwan Excellence Award!

This must be the coolest high performance mouse to be seen in some time. The Level 10 M mouse designed by Thermaltake and BMW is being introduced at CES 2012. Featuring a very high tech design, the shape can be physically adjusted to fit optimally in the palm of the hand by turning a screw on the top. It also features a perforated skin, to help deal with sweaty palms better during intense gaming sessions. The release date and price are yet to be announced as are more detailed specifications such as the tracking technology used and the DPI resolution.

The mouse was exclusively shown to Tom's Hardware.

BitTorrent, a leading peer-based technology company, today announced that the company's flagship BitTorrent Mainline and µTorrent software clients have grown to over 150 million monthly active users worldwide.

In December 2011, the classic BitTorrent Mainline client boasted over 20 million users, while the legendary tiny-but-mighty µTorrent client grew to over 132 million users. The numbers represent an aggregate count of both software clients running on Windows, Mac, Android and Linux platforms.

The company also announced four new strategic "BitTorrent Certified" device partnerships at CES in Las Vegas including TVs, set-top boxes, media adapters, and Blu-ray players. BitTorrent Certified devices are designed to enable consumers to discover, play, share and move all types of personal media, regardless of size, type or format, so that they can play high-quality content in their living rooms. New certification partners include:

Western Digital, a leader in the desktop, mobile, high-capacity enterprise and consumer markets for hard drives, today announced the addition of 2.5 TB and 3 TB versions to its family of WD AV-GP SATA hard drives, serving the audio-video (AV) market. Shipping immediately, the 2.5 TB and 3 TB capacity, 3.5-inch, WD AV-GP hard drives offer 24X7 reliability, low power consumption and unrivalled storage capacity for storage-intensive AV applications such as digital video recorders, video surveillance, single-drive media servers and external multimedia storage.

"Designed to go the distance in high-temperature, always-on streaming digital AV environments, WD AV-GP drives store more hi-def audio and video than ever before with our new 2.5 TB and 3 TB versions," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and CE business units. "Combine unsurpassed capacity, power-saving WD GreenPower Technology, and performance capabilities to capture up to 12 simultaneous HD video streams with SilkStream technology and the drive choice is made clear in optimizing AV applications like PVR/DVR, IPTV and video surveillance."

NVIDIA is set to launch its next upper-mainstream GPU, the GeForce GTX 560 (not to be confused with GeForce GTX 560 Ti) on May 17. Designed to compete with AMD's Radeon HD 6790, the new GTX 560 is based on the same GPU as the GTX 560 Ti, the 40 nm GF114. It has 336 out of 384 CUDA cores enabled, while most other specifications of the GPU are untouched. The core clock speed is said to be not less than 800 MHz, making it faster than GeForce GTX 460, which otherwise has the same specifications while being based on the older GF104 silicon.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Media Players today announced the NMP-1000P Network Multimedia Player, a unique new product for audiophiles and AV enthusiasts. NMP-1000P features the latest Sigma Designs video/audio decoder that is capable of displaying ultra realistic full HD movies with advanced menu navigation, crystal clear next-generation Dolby and DTS multi-channel surround sound, high-quality lossless music, digital pictures with background music, and other multimedia content. NMP-1000P is also powered by a high performance Wolfson stereo digital to analog converter for truly outstanding audio experience.

What's more, the intuitive user interface of NMP-1000P makes it a snap to download movie covers and related information, and to discover and catalog content from any connected storage device or network drives. NMP-1000P retains Turbo NAS functionality for backup of all networked computers, convenient cross-platform file sharing among Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX, multiple user accounts and access right management, and remotely access to media files with the built-in Web File Manager and FTP. NMP-1000P even streams thousands of TV shows, news, podcasts, music, photos, and other content from Mediafly, Apple Movie Trailers, CNN, SHOUTcast, Internet radio service, Flickr, Picasa, and more.

TechPowerUp and Hightech Information Systems (HIS) present you a great opportunity to bag a Radeon HD 4890 1 GB graphics accelerator with body-graphics designed by you! The contest is pretty simple if you have the creativity and competitive spirit. We will provide you with a template and some image resources (company logos). You put your skills to work, and come up with a body-graphics design in one month's time. You get to submit as many as three candidates of your own. At the end of the contest, a panel of judges from AMD, HIS and TechPowerUp will select three of the best entries.

The winner gets his/her design printed on a special Radeon HD 4890 graphics accelerator made by HIS, and of course, the accelerator itself! The first and second runners up receive HIS Radeon HD 4850 IceQ4 512 MB, and HIS Radeon HD 4650 iSilence 512 MB respectively. For more information, contest rules, and to participate, visit this page. Good Luck!

A notable inclusion of perhaps every processor-in-box product, apart from the processor, cooler and documentation, is the case-badge for the processor. The case-badge is a small sticker that shows the company logo for the processor installed in the PC. Intel is reportedly designing new logos (in effect case-badges) for at least 14 of its products. The logos, most of which are rounded-rectangle shaped seem to have been designed to give the processor box a new look, also indicating perhaps that the company is designing new packaging material as well, that use the new logos.

Intel has large volumes of Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Xeon processors in the making, that Intel feels need new clothing. Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, get the distinct chrome-blue colour that one can find in the Core i7 (non-XE) logo. Core 2 and Core i7 logos look similar at the first glance. Core 2 Extreme gets the chrome-black colour the Core i7 XE logo has. All Centrino series badges stick to the silver-white colour scheme. The logo designs have small inlets on the top-right corner that have small portions of the die-shot. Core 2 and Centrino logos have die-shots of a portion of the Penryn core, while the Core i7 logos use those of the Bloomfield core. Interestingly, Xeon keeps its current logo, as well as a new one with chrome-slate colour, and design of the current Core i7 logo, perhaps making it clear the Xeon processor is based on the Nehalem architecture. The new logos will be effective from Q2 2009.

Flexible cable management is now available for fans. At CeBIT Sharkoon will be showcasing a new innovation in fan design: a case fan with modular cable system. The Sharkoon Silent Eagle SE features a 4 pin connector built into the fan's frame and comes with four different cables for connecting the fan to a mainboard, fan controller or power supply. The fan can be used with a CPU cooler or as a case or hard drive fan. The speed of the fan can be controlled via PWM signal or through three different cables directly connected to the power supply. Users can, according to need, choose the connection type, fan speed, and consequently the loudness and purpose for which the fan is used. Sharkoon offers the Silent Eagle SE in 80mm and 120mm.

Four cables are included with the fan, and include a 4-pin PWM cable that can be controlled by the mainboard and three cables with Molex connectors that limit the voltage to 12, 9 or 7 volts. The 30cm long cables are individually labelled and colour coded for easy reference as well as featuring a robust casing. Sharkoon also offers separately a 60cm cable for users with large cases. The Silent Eagle SE operates with an efficient, low-noise motor that provides silent operation under each connection. The 80mm fan has a maximum rotation of 2000 rpm and, depending on rotation, a noise level of between 6.5 and 22 dB(A). The 120mm fan has a maximum rotation of 1200 rpm and maximum loudness of 20.5 dB(A).

As a globally renowned manufacturer of computer peripherals and optical drives, ASUS is constantly at the forefront of cutting edge technologies, providing users with innovative solutions for everyday computing. In pursuing this philosophy, the new ASUS External Slim SDRW-08D1S-U utilizes user-centric design in the Scenario-Based Design model to better address the needs of the user. By integrating these needs into its development and creation, the ASUS External Slim SDRW-08D1S-U combines both aesthetics and practicality.

ASUS, leading producer of PC chassis, today released the new ASUS VENTO TA-U Series chassis. Targeting users who require a chassis that provides excellent functionality as well as trendy aesthetics, the VENTO TA-U Series utilizes an exquisitely handcrafted aluminum body and features exceptional ventilation for both performance and stability. It also allows users to enjoy hassle-free installation and optimized scalability-making it the best choice for gamers and power users alike.

Leading external storage manufacturer LaCie and renowned quiet cooling specialist Noctua today announced their cooperation on the development of acoustically optimized storage solutions. The recently announced LaCie 4big Quadra and LaCie 5big Network, designed by Neil Poulton, are the first LaCie four and five-bay RAID external storage solutions to feature Noctua cooling technology. Thanks to the use of Noctua's NF-P12 fan, their noise emission is reduced, on average, by 40% compared to their predecessors.