Today marks the simultaneous launch of three XPC cubes on the market on the European continent. The "XPC" series from the Taiwanese Mini-PC manufacturer has been impressing users since 2001 with its compact design and wide range of possible applications. The SH570R6, SH570R6 Plus and SH570R8 models are based on the Intel H570 chipset, which is suitable for Intel Core processors of the 11th generation (Rocket Lake) and 10th generation (Comet Lake). Shuttle states that the current top-performing model is the Intel Core i9-11900K with 125 Watt TDP, 8 cores, 16 threads, 16 MB cache and a turbo frequency of 5.3 GHz.

To match the comprehensive processor support, up to 128 GB of RAM, spread across four slots, can be installed. There are also very few upper limits when it comes to suitable mass storage devices. Fast NVMe SSDs can be fitted in the M.2-2280 slot and, thanks to the four SATA ports, so can the corresponding number of hard drives or SSDs. The R6 chassis provides space for two 3.5" data carriers (one internal, one external) and a 5.25" drive; the R8 model, by contrast, can be fitted with four internal 3.5" data carriers - with a corresponding adapter 2.5" formats are of course also suitable.

With the launch of its 500 series chipsets, Intel has officially laid the groundwork for the launch of its Rocket Lake-S CPU lineup. And with the new platform, there are some new features to be expected. The surprising news today is that Intel has enabled memory overclocking on a non-Z chipset like the upcoming H570 and B560 chipsets designed for mid-range motherboards that provide a budget option compared to the Z series that is designed for overclocking. The H570 and B560 chipsets now only lack the support for CPU overclocking, however, with Intel's history of limiting any overclocking exclusively to Z chipsets, this represents good progress nonetheless. However, for any frequencies above 2666 MHz, you need to use a Core i5 processor and above. The Core i3 and Celeron models are not going to support any higher speeds than 2666 MHz.

Intel will debut its 500-series desktop motherboard chipset series with its 11th Gen Core "Rocket Lake-S" desktop processors. A leaked alleged roadmap slide possibly from a presentation targeting an Intel ecosystem partner, reveals that the 500-series chipset will debut no sooner than March 2021, which could also mean "Rocket Lake-S" chips themselves could launch around that time, since Intel tends to launch new processor generations alongside new chipsets that are compatible out of the box. Even the 9th Generation "Coffee Lake Refresh" was accompanied by new Z390 and B365 chipsets. That said, Socket LGA1200 motherboards based on the existing 400-series chipset are expected to be compatible with "Rocket Lake-S," with BIOS updates. 500-series chipset motherboards might also support older 10th Gen Core "Comet Lake-S" processors.

The roadmap slide reveals that "Rocket Lake-S" could debut with strictly client-segment chipsets, such as the Z590 targeting overclockers, H570 targeting premium desktops, B560 targeting mid-range desktops, and H510 for entry-level desktops. Later in April, Intel could debut the Q570 chipset for commercial desktops, and W580 for workstations. What sets the 500-series chipset apart from the 400-series, appears to be a standardization of PCI-Express Gen 4, at least for the main PEG slot. Certain premium 400-series chipset motherboards already come with preparation for PCIe Gen 4 PEG. The "Rocket Lake-S" processor sees the first IPC increase by Intel on the desktop platform in five years, as the 14 nm chips are expected to feature new "Cypress Cove" CPU cores, which are a back-port of "Willow Cove" for the older 14 nm process. The chips could also feature a Gen12 Xe iGPU.