Xigmatek announced availability of its Nebula cubical mini-ITX chassis. Unlike other monolithic cubical cases with bluntly rounded edges, the Nebula features a few interesting design bits. You'll find the case seated on a chrome bottom-tier, and an equally suspended top-tier. The black panels feature a piano-black finish. One of its edges is sliced into with the case's power LED glowing in amber/orange. Front panel connectivity includes a pair of USB 3.0 ports (standard header) and HDA front-panel jacks.

Under the hood, the Xigmatek Nebula features room for a normal-sized mini-ITX motherboard, with room for up to 200 mm long dual-slot graphics cards (an ASUS DirectCU Mini will make it). There's also room for CPU coolers that are up to 80 mm tall. Its storage area has room for two 3.5/2.5-inch drives, with no optical drive slots on offer. There's room for a standard ATX/EPS power supply. The case passively draws in air from bottom vents, a 120 mm Xigmatek XOF PWM-controlled fan pushes hot air out from the rear.

Corsair, a worldwide designer of high-performance components for the PC hardware market, today announced the new Graphite Series 230T mid-tower PC case. Available in three colors, Battleship Grey, Rebel Orange, and Black, the new case combines dramatic, angular styling and the builder-friendly features, expandability, and flexibility that Corsair cases are known for.

The Graphite Series 230T case features a sculpted, aggressively styled steel exterior with color coordinated LED intake fans and a tinted side panel window. Inside, the matte black interior has plenty of room for multi-GPU configurations and mass storage with seven expansion slots along with four 2.5", four 3.5", and three 5.25" drive bays. The case also includes dual 120mm LED front intake fans and a rear 120mm exhaust fan, and has mounts to add two 120mm or 140mm fans on the top and a 120mm or 140mm fan on the bottom.

NZXT is well known manufacturer, specializing in computer cases for real gamers with nice unique and stylish design. Today they release new model with codename Source 530 which has black exterior/interior and a chic NZXT logo, highlighted in white. Next to it we can find two fast USB 3.0 ports and also audio in and out. Front panel is made from special mesh, which helps to keep quiet and efficient airflow inside your PC. As one of the first models on the market, the Source 530 has place to install inside extra fan with pivot feature, which can be rotated manually towards CPU more or on graphic cards, depending on the needs.

At the front cover there are three external 5.25" bays, which can be used to install for example Blu-Ray burner and dual water cooling reservoir. Below them we can find six bays in cages for 3.5" HDDs, where we can install also 2.5" SSD. All the cages all fully modular, what gives the possibility to install even four two-slot graphic cards with maximum length of 444mm. In this situation we can still use one 2.5" slot behind mainboard tray. NZXT Source 530 is not big tower type, but it can still fit all the latest motherboards like E-ATX, ATX, microATX and Mini-ITX. Like it would not be enough, there is also a space to mount water cooling radiators, including the biggest 360mm at the top.

After releasing the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe full cover block in August, Bitspower is currently working on a second full cover motherboard block, this time around designed for ASUS' latest mITX marvel, the Maximus VI Impact, arguably the top Haswell mITX motherboard currently available. The block, like it's previously released sibling, is what Bitspower calls a U.S.C design (Unibody Style Construction Design), which is a concept Bitspower uses to define a single solid block that covers all the major heat generating parts on a motherboard. In this case, the Z87 chipset, the CPU/socket and the vertical VRM.

Bitspower uses C1100 Copper for the block's base and hi-quality acrylic for the top cover. The base comes in two versions, Nickel plated or bare Copper, while the top can be had in ICE Black of Clear acrylic, making possible a total of four chromatically distinct versions of the block. The product package will include a thermal pad, a 2.5 grams syringe of Arctic Matrix thermal compound, a backup o-ring and the usual assortment of mounting screws and accessories.

Thermaltake's next big cubical enthusiast PC case, the Armor A30i, builds on the iconic Armor A30 the company launched way back in 2010. Measuring 291 x 456 x 266 mm, this case opens up from four sides - top, sides, and rear. The rear panel pulls out with the motherboard tray, which seats micro-ATX and mini-ITX motherboard types. Made mostly of steel and ABS plastic, the case weighs in at 5.9 kg.

Apart from the motherboard tray and rear panel, the other detachable components are the PSU bay, and the drive cage, which can hold two 5.25-inch drives, two 2.5-inch drives, and one 3.5/2.5-inch drive. A secondary 3.5-inch cage adds room for another couple of 3.5/2.5-inch drives. Ventilation includes a 200 mm top exhaust, a 90 mm front intake, and a pair of 60 mm rear exhausts. Front panel connectivity includes two USB 3.0 ports (standard header), and HDA audio jacks. The case will be available in two trims - all-black, and red with a dash of black.

Axiomtek announced PICO822, which is extreme-compact Pico-ITX motherboard designed to support the newest ultra low power Intel Atom processor E620T 600 MHz and E680T 1.6 GHz with the Intel Platform Controller Hub EG20T. The PICO822's compact size and ultra low power consumption make it a perfect fit for space-limited and power saving environments. Moreover, its onboard 1 GB DDR2-800 provides more reliability of vibration. The SATA connector with 3Gb/s and optional SATA SSD meet storage requirements with ease. Considering to the various demands and networking requests, the tiny embedded board comes with expansion interface. It allows connecting with SDVO, PCIe, UART, SMBus, and USB. Intel GMA 600 graphics core provides VGA and 18/24-bit single channel LVDS in dual view support. Furthermore, the pico-ITX mainboard has one Gigabit Ethernet, HD audio, four USB 2.0, one client USB 2.0, and two of RS-232 COM ports which provide excellent connectivity.

Alas! We've all been through this before, through the everlasting pain and beset by the agony of waiting forever and ever. Beneath years of tears and doubt, it takes patience to wait for that special silver lining, and so is the long anticipated AMD FM2+ series. Although the new FM2+ "Kaveri" APUs will not be available until next year, AMD fans can still get the latest ASRock FM2+ motherboards that also support FM2 APUs first right now, and then wait for the upcoming FM2+ APUs, but don't hold your breath.

ASRock's first FM2+ motherboard, FM2A88X Extreme6+ is based on AMD's most high end A88X chipset, and as aforementioned, the socket will support both FM2+ and FM2 APUs. Major improvements for this next generation AMD motherboard includes support for PCIe Gen 3.0 with FM2+ APUs, Quad Monitor from the onboard DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, DisplayPort connectors, Dual channel DDR3 DIMMs that can reach up to 2600+MHz. And then there's also AMD Radeon HD 8000/7000 Series graphics with DX11.1, Japan made premium gold capacitors, Digi Power and 8+2 power phase design.

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.).

ASUS today announced Maximus VI Impact, a mini-ITX gaming motherboard based on Intel Z87 chipset for the latest 4th generation Intel Core processors. Maximus VI Impact is the first ROG mini-ITX motherboard to be fully loaded with exclusive gamer-pleasing innovations and proves size is no longer an indicator of performance. It features the SupremeFX Impact discrete sound card for best-in-class 115 dB SNR audio and Impact Power digital power-management technology for the same renowned overclocking control as ROG full-size ATX motherboards. Maximus VI Impact also takes connectivity to the next level with onboard 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Maximus VI Impact has undergone hundreds of rigorous tests to ensure compatibility with popular mini-ITX cases and processor coolers. So if something's made for mini-ITX, it's made for Maximus VI Impact.

ASUS announced six new entry-level motherboards based on the Intel H81 chipset in ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX form factors. Designed for 4th generation Intel Core processors, the ASUS H81 Series features exclusive ASUS 5X Protection technology for superior reliability and is available in a range of specifications that cater for a variety of PC needs.

The ASUS H81 Series comprises the H81-Plus ATX motherboard; the H81M-Plus, H81M-A, H81M-C and H81M-E Micro-ATX motherboards; and the H81I-Plus Mini-ITX motherboard. All models feature two DDR3 (1600MHz) DIMM slots for up to 16GB RAM, one PCI-Express x16 (@x16) slot and two SATA 6Gbit/s ports. All models also include the latest ASUS UEFI BIOS, Realtek 7.1 audio and USB 3.0 with USB 3.0 Boost technology for data transfer rates up to 1.7 times faster than ordinary USB 3.0 with industry-standard UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) devices.

Cubitek Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce a completely aluminum, silent Mini-ITX chassis with minimalistic aesthetics - the Mini Center. Its minimalistic styling, compact size and passive cooling, make the Mini Center an unobtrusive addition for any nook or cranny in the living room as an HTPC or as an elegant office PC.

ASRock unveiled the H87E-ITX/ac, its first mini-ITX motherboard featuring 802.11ac WLAN. Based on Intel's H87 Express chipset, the board seats Core "Haswell" processors in the LGA1150 package. It draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, conditioning it for the CPU with a 4-phase VRM. Up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory is supported through a pair of conventional 240-pin DIMM slots. A PCI-Express 3.0 x16 makes for the board's lone expansion slot, aside from the mPCIe that's populated by the WLAN card.

Connectivity on the H87E-ITX/ac include 802.11ac WLAN, based on Intel's i217V chipset, offering up to 867 Mbps of wireless bandwidth, gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth 4.0. It makes use of all SATA channels of the H87 PCH, offering five internal SATA 6 Gb/s, and an eSATA 6 Gb/s. 8-channel HD audio based on Realtek ALC1150 CODEC, with optical SPDIF, four USB 3.0 ports, a pair of USB 2.0/1.1 ports; and display connectivity that includes one each of DVI, DisplayPort, and HDMI, make for the rest of it. ASRock will begin shipping the board a little later this week.

SilverStone unveiled Raven Mini-ITX, a new compact SFF case fit for mini-ITX gaming PC builds. The case feature signature Raven series styling, and bears design elements from its recently launched sibling, the Raven RV-04. The case is designed to look great in both tower-type (vertical) and rack (horizontal) orientations, with its slot-in slimline optical drive bay, discrete-looking air vents, USB and audio jacks.

Internally, the case is nothing short of an engineering marvel, you can install a high-end, dual-slot, full-height graphics card, and a 240 x 120 mm radiator for your liquid cooling loop. It works using a PCI-Express x16 riser that lets you install the graphics card along the plane of the motherboard, with enough room to spare underneath for the radiator. On the storage front, you get a slimline slot-in optical drive bay, and a number of 3.5/2.5-inch drive bays. An SFF PSU bay appears to be located towards the front. The Raven mini-ITX is still under development, SilverStone will formally announce the case later.

Streacom showed off a unique aluminum-built cube-shaped mini-ITX case, the DB4. Measuring 250 x 250 x 250 mm (excluding the two angled feet), and made mostly of aluminum with a tinted acrylic top, the case seats a mini-ITX motherboard vertically, right along the center, and in such a way, that its rear-panel ports stick out from the case' bottom. The four main sides of the case are made of ridged 2 mm-thick aluminum, which double up as a CPU heatsink. Six 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes conduct heat from the CPU to the body, where it's dissipated. The case can handle thermal loads from the CPU, of up to 65W. Internally, the motherboard tray splits the case vertically into two compartments, one of which is dedicated to drives. The case uses an external power brick. The DB4 should look great in corner offices and living rooms.

Nanoxia, of the DeepSilence fame, unveiled a string of new yet-unnamed cases. One of them is this box-type mini-ITX beauty. Roughly the size and shape of a micro-ATX tower, this is definitely one for those with an ITX itch, or at least those who prefer a smaller motherboard, with rest of the case' room better spent accommodating drives and cooling. The case gives you a horizontal mini-ITX motherboard tray with two expansion slots for double-slot graphics cards, and room for CPU coolers as much as 170 mm tall. The case' lone 5.25-inch drive bay creeps into the motherboard tray just a little, but shouldn't obstruct CPU coolers. The bottom half of the case gives you a vertically-oriented PSU bay, a drive-cage that gives you three 3.5-inch bays that each convert to a couple of 2.5-inch ones; and room for a 140 x 280 mm radiator. The case appears to be made of SECC steel, ABS, and aluminum highlights and feet. Ventilation includes two 140 mm front intakes, 120 mm and 140 mm rear exhausts, and provision for a 140 mm top exhaust.

EVGA is planning a lineup of pre-built mini-ITX gaming desktops, which take advantage of its Z87 Stinger socket LGA1150 motherboard, various choices of 4th generation Core "Haswell" processors, and of course, EVGA-branded graphics cards. These desktops are built into a case custom designed by EVGA called miniBOX, featuring a windowed side-panel, a glossy black front, and a 1U SFF power-supply bearing FSP-Fortron markings. One of the two desktops was fully assembled, running a Z87 Stinger motherboard with Core i7-4770K CPU, a GeForce GTX TITAN, and an SSD. Interestingly, these systems completely lack optical drives, so EVGA will target only those markets in which digital downloads of games (over Steam, Origin, UPlay, etc.,) are prevalent. UPDATE: Actually this units bundle with an 550W FSP PSU and a slimline optical drive which ejects to the side of the case. Currently a DVD-RW is planned, but EVGA is looking to do a BluRay version as well.

While Sapphire's LGA1150 motherboard lineup came across as a little lukewarm, the company more than made up for that with its fleet of motherboards that take advantage of AMD's newest A-series and E-series APUs and SoCs. First, there's the PGS A320M, a micro-ATX motherboard that ships with a FirePro A320 socket FM2 APU pre-installed. Largely identical to an A10-5800K, and based on the "Trinity" micro-architecture, the A320 features FirePro-branded professional graphics that's certified for most modern 3D productivity applications, and can give display output at resolutions as high as 4096 x 2160. The board features one each of DisplayPort 1.2, dual-link DVI-I, and D-Sub display outputs. Other features include eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four USB 3.0, gigabit Ethernet (Broadcom controller), and 8-channel HD audio.

Things get interesting with a contraption called IPC-FS1r2A75. This board comes in a proprietary IPC form-factor, features an FS1 rev 2.0 socket, which seats R-series APUs, an embedded AMD Radeon E6000 series GPU based on the Graphics CoreNext arhitecture, with its own dedicated GDDR5 memory on-package, and AMD A75 FCH chipset. The board offers six mini-DisplayPort and four HDMI outputs, two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots, an open-ended PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slot, four mPCIe slots (in stacks of two), five SATA 6 Gb/s ports, six USB 3.0 ports, two gigabit Ethernet connections, and 6-channel audio.

Rosewill's Neutron case is designed for those with an itch for mini-ITX gaming PC builds. The case gives you adequate room for footlong graphics cards, tall CPU coolers, and a number of internal drives. Pictured below, Rosewill Neutron orients the motherboard horizontally, with two expansion slot bays for dual-slot graphics cards. A detachable drive cage with four 3.5-inch/2.5-inch bays is right under the motherboard tray, the PSU bay is positioned towards the bottom-front, with an AC cable and receptacle running back. A 5.25-inch bay takes position where it's supposed to. The idea here is to use the PSU's cooling fan as an intake. Other fan vents include a 120 mm rear exhaust above the motherboard tray, a 92 mm exhaust behind the bottom drive cage, a 120 mm top exhaust, and various vents on the side panels. Utility connectivity include two USB 3.0 ports (standard header), two USB 2.0/1.1, and HDA front-panel jacks. The case is made of 0.8 mm steel and ABS.

MSI rolled out a trio of socket LGA1150 motherboards in the mini-ITX form-factor, Z87I, H87I, and B85I, based on Intel Z87, H87, and B85 chipsets, respectively. Pin-compatibility between the three chipsets means that the three boards are based on a common design. The three feature a 4-phase CPU VRM, two full-size DDR3 DIMM slots, a PCI-Express 3.0 x16, and a combination of 24-pin and 4-pin power connectors.

The Z87I and H87I are nearly identical, with VRM cooling, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0. The Z87I edges past the H87I with support for CPU overclocking, and a second gigabit Ethernet connection. The B85I lacks a VRM heatsink, and the wireless connectivity card. Instead, it gives you a vacant mPCIe slot. It offers 6-channel HD audio, instead of the 8-channel solution, on the other two. All three feature at least one gigabit Ethernet connection, DVI and HDMI display outputs, six USB 3.0 ports, and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports.

In addition to the G1.Sniper A85X, GIGABYTE also showed off what could go on to become an HTPC builder favorite, the F2A85XN-WiFi mini-ITX motherboard. The board draws power from conventional 24-pin ATX + 4-pin ATX connectors, and uses a 6-phase VRM to power the APU. Built with the Ultra Durable 4 Plus construction, the board uses high-grade PowIRstage driver-MOSFETs and VRM controllers, made by International Rectifier. The FM2 socket is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2133 MHz memory, and a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot. On the connectivity front, the F2A85XN-WiFi offers four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four USB 3.0 ports, dual-link DVI and two HDMI display outputs, 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports.

GIGABYTE unveiled the first mini-ITX motherboard based on Intel's upcoming Z87 Express chipset, ready for 4th generation Core "Haswell" processors in the LGA1150 package. The Z87N-WiFi from GIGABYTE takes advantage of the smaller package size of the Z87 PCH, to cram in every feature you'll need, on the space constrained form-factor. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin and 4-pin ATX connectors. It uses a 4-phase power supply for the CPU, which is wired to a pair of DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel memory, and a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. The only other expansion slot is an mPCIe, populated by the board's WiFi card. Storage connectivity on the Z87N-WiFi includes four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, all from the PCH. A pair of HDMI connectors, and dual-link DVI make for its display connectivity. Two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, 8-channel HD audio with optical SPDIF, six USB 3.0 ports (four rear, two by header), and 802.11ac WLAN make for the rest of it. The Z87N-WiFi could be part of the first wave of LGA1150 motherboards by GIGABYTE.

Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd, today announces a new brushed aluminum Mini-ITX chassis ? PC-Q13. With its curve-shaped design and large acrylic front window the fully aluminum PC-Q13 allows users to show off their systems, and is sure to be the talking piece of any room. Whether in the living room, bedroom, or office, the PC-Q13 with its curve-shape and brushed aluminum finish takes visual command without being ostentatious. Additionally, DIY builders can put their stylized internal components and intricate builds on full display ? as they should not be hidden from sight.

Thanks to the two expansion slots on the top of the chassis, the PC-Q13 supports graphics cards up to 200mm (7.8"). For storage, up to four 2.5" hard drives or SSDs can be mounted in the removable hard drive cage at the bottom of the chassis. A 140mm fan in the rear of the chassis expels hot air, while ventilation on the top and side allows for cool air to enter. A small form factor power supply up to 125 mm (4.9") is placed on rubber pads in order to reduce vibrations.

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components, today announced the Obsidian Series 350D High Performance Micro ATX PC case. Available with a solid or windowed side panel, the Obsidian Series 350D brings unprecedented expansion and cooling options to smaller, more portable, high-performance PCs.

Like larger cases in the premium Obsidian Series line, the Obsidian Series 350D sports a clean, black, brushed-aluminum styling. The case is also designed for fast and neat builds with tool-free access and drive installation as well as an innovative cable routing system. The Obsidian Series 350D case supports both Micro ATX and mini ITX motherboards and has plenty of interior space for liquid CPU cooling, dual 3.5" hard drives, dual 2.5" SSDs, dual 5.25" drives, and dual full-length graphics cards. It also has five expansion slots and five fan mounting points with room for two 240mm radiators. The front panel provides convenient access to USB 3.0 and audio connectors.

Noctua today announced the availability of an alternative mounting option for its NH-L9a low profile heatsink. The new option does not make use of a backplate and thus now permits to install the NH-L9a on AMD mainboards that have components in the area at the rear side that is reserved for the backplate in the AMD specifications. The new mounting parts will be provided to NH-L9a users free of charge.

"The SecuFirm2 mounting system of the NH-L9a complies strictly to the AMD specifications and guarantees 100% compatibility with mainboards that follow these specifications", explains Mag. Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "We've been overwhelmed with the great press and customer feedback on this cooler, but unfortunately, some mini-ITX mainboards do not follow the AMD specifications, so the NH-L9a could not be installed on these. We have now designed an alternative mounting option and will provide the new parts to customers who need it free of charge."

Lian-Li Industrial Co., Ltd. today announces two new brushed aluminum Mini-ITX chassis: PC-Q27 and PC-Q28. These two compact cases feature Lian Li's new railing mount motherboard tray design, and allow for the Mini-ITX platform to be combined with traditional full-sized components.

In addition to the new motherboard tray, both of Lian Li's new Mini-ITX chassis have a new side panel removal design. After removing a single screw, the side panel easily slides off with minimal effort.