Taiwanese PC enthusiast Coolaler has a new Ivy Bridge LGA1155 dual-core engineering sample to play with, and wasted no time in putting it through some tests. The sample has two cores, four threads with HyperThreading enabled, clock speed of 1.80 GHz, 256 KB L2 cache per core, and 4 MB shared L3 cache. It is running on an Intel P67 chipset-based motherboard with 8 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz memory. At 1.80 GHz, it may not be game for absolute performance figures since it's unlikely that Intel will release a chip with that clock speed unless it has unreal performance:clockspeed gains over Sandy Bridge; but it's good enough for clock-to-clock performance comparisons between Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge. A Core i5-2400 was clocked at 1.80 GHz with 18x BClk multiplier, and put through a single-threaded benchmark, and a multithreaded one.

The cache and memory benchmark that measures bandwidth and latency of caches and memory was unable to measure bandwidth, but measured some latencies. The L1 cache at 2.2 nanoseconds (ns), and L2 at 2.9 ns. Next, the Ivy Bridge DC, and the Core i5-2400 (@ 1.80 GHz) testbeds were put through CPUMark 99, where Ivy Bridge DC scored 278 points, and Core i5-2400 clocked at 1.80 GHz scored closely followed at 276 points. Moving on to multithreaded performance, the two were put through Cinebench 11.5 64-bit. The Ivy Bridge DC chip scored 1.81 points; while the Core i5-2400 clocked at 1.80 GHz, scored 2.61 points. Coolaler promises more benches.

G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and high performance solid-state storage, has released its latest SATA 3 6gbps SSD, Phoenix II Pro, based on the latest SandForce SF-2200 controller with the whopping random write speed up to 60K IOPS, and numerous ultra high performance memory series designed for the latest released platforms at Computex 2011.

G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and solid-state storage with solid quality, today announces the world's fastest 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3 memory, rated at 2300MHz CL9 with only 1.65V voltage. This ultimate memory kit will join G.Skill award winning Ripjaws-X family and will be available soon via G.Skill global authorized distribution partners.

Since the demand of big capacity memory has grown dramatically, G.Skill R&D team has been dedicated to develop the fastest and best performing products based on 4GB memory sticks continuously. Following the marvelous achievement of DDR3 1900MHz 48GB and DDR3 2200MHz 16GB kits, G.Skill once again pushed the memory speed further and developed the industry leading memory kit. The DDR3 2300MHz CL9 kit has passed a series of rigorous tests and guarantees the best stability and performance.

After quite some lull, a new motherboard by EVGA is taking shape, the EVGA P67 FTW B3. As the name suggests, it is a top-tier motherboard by the company, based on the Intel P67 B3 chipset. The P67 FTW ("for the win", in gamer jargon) supports LGA1155 Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors, and is geared for extreme overclocking of CPU and GPUs, and is particularly laid out for supporting 3-way and 4-way NVIDIA SLI. The board uses an NVIDIA nForce 200 bridge chip over the processor's PCI-Express 2.0 x16 link to give out two x16 links, which are further configured as four x8 links, if four x16 slots are populated with graphics cards. The board uses a 12-phase CPU VRM with split heatsinks, the CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel DDR3.

Storage connectivity includes two internal SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s; other connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, USB 3.0, and a number of USB 2.0. There are several overclocker-friendly features, such as support for EVGA EVBot, an external overclock control and monitoring module, jumpers to toggle specific PCI-Express slots, consolidated voltage measurement points, onboard power/reset buttons, and LED POST diagnostic readout. A strong VRM and feature-rich BIOS should top it up. The new board is priced at a juicy US $200, and should be available soon.

Many had speculated that OEM giant Foxconn's own motherboard channel-brand is being closed down as the silicon conglomerate has enough on its plate. That turned out to be untrue, as the company released a new high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard based on Intel P67 (B3) chipset, the Quantum Force Rattler. The Rattler combines high-grade components with plenty of overclocker-friendly features. The CPU is powered by a 14-phase digital PWM power circuitry, and the memory by a 2-phase VRM. An OS-independent clock speed control with its own controls add to the numerous OC features.

Expansion includes two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8/x8 with both populated), three PCI-E x1, and one PCI. In the storage department, there are four SATA 3 Gb/s, two SATA 6 Gb/s wired to the P67 PCH, while a 3rd-party controller drives two eSATA 3 Gb/s and the lone IDE connector. Connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio with optical/coaxial SPDIF outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, a number of USB 2.0 ports, dual gigabit Ethernet, and PS/2 keyboard. OC-friendly features includes diagnostic LED, redundant BIOS, OC tuner, consolidated voltage-measure points and onboard power/reset buttons. Pricing/availability is not known.

Kingston Technology Europe Ltd, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced a new look to its Kingston HyperX Genesis enthusiast memory. The new look accentuates the traditional blue color with a military/ballistic trim along the top, similar to the Genesis Special Edition Grey modules made especially for the Intel P67 Sandy Bridge platform.

Kingston has begun transitioning all skus in the Genesis family - which range from 1333MHz to 2133MHz frequencies and are available in various single, dual and triple channel configurations - to the new look heatspreader. All part numbers will remain the same. For more information and a look at the new Genesis please visit this page.

Intel seems to have fast-tracked its Cougar Point chipset flaw rectification. The silicon giant claims that it will be in a position to start shipping B3 stepping of Cougar Point chipsets (Intel P67, H67, etc,) from 14 February, to OEM partners. According to the latest PCN (product change notification), number 110456-00 dated 2/9/2011, Cougar Point B3 will carry the following changes/features:

• Revision ID will change from 04h to 05h
• BIOS Update (Revision 1.1.4 of the BIOS Specification Update and Reference Code)
• B3 stepping package is pin compatible with B2 stepping package
• Minor metal layer change from B2 to B3 improving lifetime wear out with no changes to functionality or design specifications

Of the above, the last bullet point affirms that the SATA 3 Gb/s port defect issue, which caused physical parts of the chipset to wear out abnormally fast, degrading performance, is resolved.

ECS ELITEGROUP USA branch office has worked with Intel and has been made aware of a design flaw in its newest generation Intel 6 Series Express Chipsets (codenamed Cougar Point, B2 Stepping) which could, under normal operation, experience an issue with SATA ports 2-5 that may result in these SATA ports experiencing a functional issue over time.

ECS USA, along with all motherboard manufacturers, is working closely with Intel (who has identified the problem) on containing the distribution of the B2 Stepping of this product on its motherboards. ECS USA takes pride in its products' quality and is passionate about offering the best possible customer experience. ECS USA stands by its products and is committed to its customers by offering the following:

MSI has been informed by Intel about the design issues in the Intel 6 series chipsets. According to Intel the performance of some of the Intel SATA ports on Intel 6 series products can degrade over time. MSI takes the quality of our products very serious, so at this moment we are investigating product batches that may be affected and, meanwhile, have stopped all shipments to our distributors and resellers. Additionally, we asked resellers to hold sales of the Intel 6 series based MSI products to customers until the issue can be resolved.

As of the 31st of January MSI informed all our distributors, retails and reseller to stop directly the sales of Intel 6 series based products of MSI and to hold any products pending shipments to customers. No need to worry in the case that you purchased an Intel 6 series based product form MSI after the 31st of January because we will take care for you. Consumers can check the section "How to get serviced".

As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix. In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives. The chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest Second Generation Intel Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.