HWBot.org blanket-banning benchmark submissions from Windows 8 machines sent ripples across the PC enthusiast community. Overclocker Christian Ney from OCaholic.ch spent some time trying out different combinations of hardware and operating system to check if Windows 8 RTC (realtime-clock) bug affects benchmarks consistently, on all hardware platforms. His findings are interesting, and one can draw the inference that only Intel processor-based machines could be affected by the bug, not AMD-based ones.

Ney observed the Windows 8 RTC bug to affect benchmark results only on Windows 8 machines running Intel LGA1150 "Haswell," LGA1155 "Ivy Bridge," and LGA1155 "Sandy Bridge," and not AMD AM3 and FM2 platforms. The issue didn't surface on any system running the older Windows 7 operating system. With it, it's clear that it's not just Microsoft that has to do some troubleshooting, Intel has to, as well. HWBot.org may have just saved itself time and pointless "bias" debates by blanket-banning Windows 8.

German PC maker Deltatronic announced Silentium, a completely fanless all-in-one desktop. Its designers took advantage of the space behind the main body to deploy a large heatsink that passively cools its various hot components, like the chipset and CPU, which isn't a wimpy low-TDP Atom fare, but full-fledged a Core i7-3770T "Ivy Bridge" quad-core, backed by Intel Q77 Express chipset. The i7-3770T runs at a manageable 45W TDP. It features a 24-inch screen with 1920 x 1080 pixels native resolution, handled by Intel's integrated graphics. Other specs on the Silentium include 4 GB of DDR3-1600 memory, 128 GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD, a DVD writer, a 4-in-1 card reader, a 0.3 MP webcam, 6W stereo speakers, and connectivity that includes Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 b/g/n WLAN, and gigabit Ethernet. The desktop uses a 120W external power brick. Available now, Deltratronic Silentium starts at 990 EUR.

As black and white have become the new trend colours in PC market, many end users are looking for suitable components to complete their colour-coordinated system configurations. In response to the increasing demand, Enermax now launches two special editions of the very popular ETS-T40 CPU cooler series. The black or white finish of the heat sinks is based on an innovative, thermo-conductive coating which does not affect the cooling performance. Along with the in-house developments for an optimized air stream conduction (Stack Effect Flow, Vortex Generator Flow and Vacuum Effect Flow), the thermal resistance of the new coolers could be reduced to sensationally low 0.085°C/W. That way, the ETS-T40 "Black Twister" (ETS-T40-BK) and ETS-T40 "White Cluster" (ETS-T40-W) with their relatively compact heat sink are able to keep pace with many high-end coolers.

ZOTAC International, a global innovator and manufacturer of graphics cards, mainboards, mini-PCs and accessories, today infuses the small ZBOX nano with 3rd Generation Intel Core processors for desktop-class performance. The new ZOTAC ZBOX nano with Intel Core processors injects the palm-sized nano form factor with an extra dose of CPU and GPU performance that delivers an excellent mini-PC computing experience.

"Our engineers have done a phenomenal job combining the raw CPU power of Intel Core processors and Intel HD Graphics 4000 into our tiny ZBOX nano platform. The performance and customizability available in these palm-sized ZBOX nano is unmatched by any of our competitors," says Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International.

Given that Intel's 4th generation Core "Haswell" family is based on existing 22 nm manufacturing processes, a market-scale transition between 3rd generation Core "Ivy Bridge" and it, is not as cumbersome as transition between two generations spanning across different processes. Intel plans to retire some of its best selling Core and Pentium LGA1155 parts by the end of September, to make room for Core and Pentium "Ivy Bridge" and "Haswell" parts in their place.

To begin with, a large number of Pentium and Celeron parts, namely G860, G645, G645T, G550T, G555, G645, G630, G620, G622, G870, G860T, G640, G630T, G640T, G550, G540T, G460, G530, and G530T, will be marked "EOL" (end of life), and will no longer be available to distributors and OEMs. From its Core i3 "Sandy Bridge" lineup, Core i3-2100, i3-2125, i3-2130, i3-2120T, and i3-2102 get the axe. From its Core i5 "Sandy Bridge" series, the i5-2390T gets marked EOL.

A system built with thousands of Intel processors and co-processors was just named the most powerful supercomputer in the world in the 41st edition of the Top500 list of supercomputers. The system, known as "Milky Way 2," includes 48,000 Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors and 32,000 Intel Xeon processors and operates at a peak performance of 54.9 PFlops (54.9 quadrillion floating point operations per second) -- more than twice the performance of the top rated system from the last edition of the Top500 list in November 2012. This is the first exclusively Intel-based system to take the top spot on the list since 1997.

Intel also announced the expansion of the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors portfolio and revealed details of the second generation of Intel Xeon Phi products code named "Knights Landing." The new products and technologies will continue to radically increase the energy efficiency and performance of supercomputers worldwide.

We know from older reports that Intel will refresh its socket LGA2011 HEDT (high-end desktop) product family with three new parts, based on the new 22 nm "Ivy Bridge-E" silicon. A table detailing their clock speeds was leaked to the web. In addition, we got details of what Intel's entry-level Core i3 "Haswell" line of dual-core processors would look like, specs-wise. The Ivy Bridge-E silicon, is to a large part an optical shrink of the Sandy Bridge-E silicon, with a few improvements. The chip is fabricated on Intel's 22 nm node with tri-gate transistors, the IMC natively supports DDR3-1866 MHz, the PCI-Express root complex is gen 3.0 certified, and the CPUID features the new RdRAND instruction set. Aside from these clock speeds are increased across the board, although TDP isn't lowered from the previous 130W.

Leading the Core i7 "Ivy Bridge-E" pack is the Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition, with its 3.60 GHz core, 4.00 GHz maximum Turbo Boost, unlocked base-clock multiplier, and 15 MB L3 cache. This six-core chip will command a four-figure price. Next up, is the Core i7-4930K, with 3.40 GHz core, 3.90 GHz maximum Turbo Boost, unlocked base-clock multiplier, and 12 MB L3 cache. This chip could be 30-40 percent cheaper than the i7-4960X. The cheapest of the lot, though, is the Core i7-4820K. This quad-core part, interestingly, features unlocked base-clock multiplier, unlike its predecessor, the i7-3820. Perhaps Intel didn't want a repeat of Core i7-3770K cannibalizing the i7-3820. The i7-4820K features 3.70 GHz core, 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost, and 10 MB of L3 cache. The chip may be priced in the same range as the i7-4770K. All three parts feature quad-channel DDR3 integrated memory controllers, with native support for DDR3-1866.

According to CPU World staff, who, by appealing to an unnamed secondary source, managed to confirm the validity of an earlier leak, we are now looking at Intel's desktop roadmap for the following twelve months. The slides reveal the Q3 launch of Intel's Ivy Bridge-E chips, the Core i7-4820K, i7-4930K and i7-4960X comprising the lineup. The new Extreme chips will make use of the existing X79 platform. Also in Q3 the Premium line will receive a new product, the Core i7-4771, which we do not know in what way differs from the currently available Core i7-4770, but a judicious appeal to wild speculation could point out an upgraded IGP.

The mid segments will get a platform upgrade in the form of a new H81 chipset, and six new processors, the Core i3-4130, i3-4330, i3-4340, as well as three new Ivy Bridge based Pentium chips, the G3220, G3420 and G3430. Celeron processors are in the pipelines for Q1 2014, while Q2 will follow with the Haswell refresh and the accompanying new platform based on the Z97 and H97 chipsets.

ZOTAC International, a global innovator and leading manufacturer of graphics cards, mainboards and mini-PCs, today supercharges the ZBOX mini-PC with desktop Intel Core i5 and i3 processors for outstanding performance that can match and outpace larger full-size desktop PCs. The new 3rd Generation ZOTAC ZBOX with Intel Core Processors ushers in a new era of performance to the mini-PC form factor.

"Users demanded the same performance as larger desktop PCs from our ZBOX but the small size made it virtually impossible to deliver the same performance as desktop PCs. After many months of engineering and fine tuning, we came up with a solution that enables us to install desktop LGA1155 socket Intel Core i5 and i3 processors without sacrificing size, noise or power consumption that will make our end users very happy," says Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International.

Intel may be a couple of months away from launching its Core "Haswell" processor family, and the 8-series "Lynx Point" family of chipset to back it, but is already talking to partners about the platform's successor, slated for the second quarter of 2014. Core "Haswell" introduces the industry to socket LGA1150 motherboards, and Core "Broadwell" could, in all likelihood, provide continuity to it, much in the same way "Ivy Bridge" did to "Sandy Bridge." Intel could introduce a new chipset to tag along with "Broadwell."

According to a roadmap slide seen by VR-Zone, Intel's 9-series chipset will include at least two models, the Z97 targeting enthusiasts, and the H97 targeting mainstream consumers. These chipset could drive socket LGA1150 motherboards going into the second half of 2014, and could support both "Haswell" and "Broadwell," in the same way today's 7-series chipset support "Sandy Bridge" and "Ivy Bridge." Intel could introduce a major feature with 9-series, SATA Express.

At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2013 event held in Beijing last week, the company ran two separate seminars related to "Haswell," one related to the micro-architecture itself, and the other overclocking it. The company detailed improvements to the ways in which you can overclock these chips, without necessarily having to shell out dough for the base clock multiplier unlocked "-K" parts.

To begin with, tweaking Core "Haswell" processors will be similar to tweaking Core "Sandy Bridge-E" high-end desktop (HEDT) platform. Naturally then, overclocking "non-K" parts will be similar to overclocking the Core i7-3820. The chips ship with a base clock speed of 100 MHz. As with "Ivy Bridge," not just CPU cores, but also certain uncore components rely on this frequency. Also, as with "Ivy Bridge," overclockers will be given 5 to 7 percent headroom for tweaking this frequency, but it doesn't end there.

Just in time to meet the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises and home users to store large amounts of data, the Giada technology company has launched the GIADA N70E-DR motherboard, perfect for building entry-level NAS servers. With a NAS server built upon the Giada N70E-DR, customers can achieve a low-cost implementation for file sharing, data backup and media server functionality all while enjoying professional server functions, high-capacity, high-reliability, and high performance data security. The compact and powerful Mini ITX board design, takes up only 17x17cm in space and sports a Rich component interface.

With the powerful integrated architecture of Intel's Ivy Bridge, the Celeron C1007U processors feature performance with power consumption at only 17W. The motherboard's chipset supports native RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, with data security protection. Dual high-performance Intel 82583V Gigabit Ethernet ports ensure efficient network channel operations. Intelligent hardware monitoring and management capabilities allow customers to keep abreast of the health of the system. With a TPM module one can effectively prevent various scenarios of illegal data access.

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to introduce the EK-Supremacy PreciseMount Add-on Naked Ivy. This product is world-first of it's kind - it is the mounting mechanism upgrade for existing cooling device, designed to support delided 3rd Generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Ivy Bridge CPUs. This product is the perfect upgrade for all those EK-Supremacy users who want to use their delided 3rd Generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPU safely and squeeze the last megahertz out of their processors.

EK-Supremacy PreciseMount Add-on Naked Ivy is an add-on for EK-Supremacy PreciseMount universal mounting mechanism that offers error-preventing, tool-less installation. The result is a perfect installation which results in perfect performance every time. It is compatible with EK-Supremacy series water blocks only! All enclosed screws are made of high-quality nickel plated brass. EK recommends the normal orientation of EK-Supremacy water block for optimal results! Using the water block rotated by 90° may result in less than optimal cooling.

FinalWire announced AIDA64 v2.85, the popular system diagnostic and benchmarking suite is updated with 64-bit benchmarks optimized for AMD's "Richland" APUs, improved support for "Kaveri," "Kabini," and "Temash" APUs; and Intel "Haswell" and "Valleyview" CPUs; early support for AMD "Beema" APU, Intel "Avoton" SoC, "Crystalwell," "Ivy Bridge-E," and "Haswell-E" CPU, "Haswell-ULT" SoC; preliminary support for DDR4 and GDDR5 system memory types; and GPU support for AMD Radeon HD 8000 series and NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan.DOWNLOAD: FinalWire AIDA64 v2.85 Installer (EXE), Archive (ZIP)

Intel's upcoming performance desktop processor Core i7-4770K, based on its next-generation "Haswell" micro-architecture, got its first formal performance preview by Tom's Hardware, which compared it to its two predecessors, the Core i7-3770K "Ivy Bridge" and Core i7-2700K "Sandy Bridge." The three were put through a battery of synthetic and real-world tests, including SiSoft SANDRA, real-world media transcoders, MSVS code compilation, and 3DSMax 2012.

In some tests, the i7-4770K offers as much of a performance upgrade over the i7-3770K, as it does over the i7-2700K, in others, it's less than linear. In its conclusion, Tom's Hardware notes that it found the i7-4770K on average, 7 to 13 percent faster than the i7-3770K in today's multi-threaded workloads, which is roughly consistent with what the i7-3770K offered over its predecessor, the i7-2700K. Find the entire preview in the source link below. Intel's Core "Haswell" line of desktop processors are expected to launch in June, 2013.

GIGABYTE rolled out the C1007UN-D mini-ITX motherboard, for entry-level desktops. It ships with an Intel Celeron 1007U BGA processor hard-wired to the board, with a compatible fan-heatsink pre-installed. Based on the 22 nm "Ivy Bridge" micro-architecture, the 1007U is a dual-core chip, clocked at 1.50 GHz, with 2 MB of L3 cache, and 17W TDP. Backing the chip on this motherboard is Intel's NM70 chipset.

The C1007UN-D from GIGABYTE features two DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 16 GB of dual-channel memory. Storage interfaces consist of one SATA 6 Gb/s and two SATA 3 Gb/s internal ports, and an eSATA 3 Gb/s port. Legacy PCI makes for the lone expansion slot. Connectivity includes two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, 6-channel HD audio, six USB 2.0 ports, an RS232 COM port, LPT (by header), and PS/2. Display outputs include D-Sub (VGA) and HDMI. GIGABYTE did not release pricing information, but considering the CPU itself is priced around $90, we expect this board to be priced around $150.

LucidLogix (Lucid) today announced the next generation of its GPU Virtualization software, Virtu MVP 2.0, is now available for direct sale to all gamers, videophiles and PC enthusiasts who own Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge motherboards, with an NVIDIA or AMD discrete graphic card, by download on the Lucid online shop.

"Virtu MVP allows our customers to get the maximum multimedia experience from their dual core system, while preserving energy consumption," said Offir Remez, president of Lucid. "With MVP 2.0, games simply look better and respond quickly, video encoding is faster and multi-screen computing is more manageable."

Touting the innards of a gaming notebook, MSI's Gaming Series AG2712 is a prominent exhibit at the company's CeBIT booth. It features a 27-inch 1080p matte display (which isn't a touchscreen), various Intel Core i5/i7 "Ivy Bridge" processor choices (with chance of a near-future Core "Haswell" refresh), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX as standard equipment, HDMI and D-Sub display outputs, USB 3.0, multi-format card reader, and what appears to be a THX-certified sound-bar lining its bottom.

Russian tech publication OCLab.ru, which claims access to Intel's next-generation Core "Haswell" processor engineering-sample (and an LGA1150 8-series motherboard!), wasted no time in running a quick clock-for-clock performance comparison with the current Core "Ivy Bridge" processor. In its comparison, it set both chips to run at a fixed 2.80 GHz clock speed (by disabling Turbo Boost, C1E, and EIST), indicating that the ES OCLab is in possession of doesn't go beyond that frequency.

The two chips were put through SuperPi 1M, PiFast, and wPrime 32M. The Core "Haswell" chip is only marginally faster than Ivy Bridge, in fact slower in one test. In its next battery of tests, the reviewer stepped up iterations (load), putting the chips through single-threaded SuperPi 32M, and multi-threaded wPrime 1024M. While wPrime performance is nearly identical between the two chips, Haswell crunched SuperPi 32M about 3 percent quicker than Ivy Bridge. It's still to early to take a call on CPU performance percentage difference between the two architectures. Intel's Core "Haswell" processors launch in the first week of June.

MSI rolled out the S30 13.3-inch notebook, which misses Ultrabook fame by, well, a centimeter (thickness). Measuring 324 x 227 x 22.8 mm (LxWxH), it weighs 1.4 kg. Its 13.3-inch screen packs 1366 x 768 pixels resolution. Under its hood is an Intel Core i3/i5 "Ivy Bridge" dual-core processor (various options), up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory (options), and Intel HD graphics. A 500 GB HDD is standard issue, but a 64 GB mSATA SSD can also be opted for. Connectivity includes USB 3.0, HD web-cam, THX TruStudio Pro audio, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, SD/MMC card reader, and HDMI display output. Windows 8 comes pre-installed. The S30 is expected to occupy a sub-$700 price-point.

Eurocom, is shipping its new Uno 3.0 All-One-PC with 21.5" FHD Optional Multi Touch Display, TPM 1.2 and an integrated battery pack that is fully optimized for enterprise computing. "The EUROCOM Uno 3.0 All in One Desktop computer is ideal for a wide range of commercial applications," Mark Bialic, Eurocom President "with the plethora of connectivity ports, Multi Touch interface, internal battery, TPM 1.2 and VESA mount the Uno 3.0 will fit perfectly into any workspace."

The EUROCOM Uno 3.0 is designed primarily for corporate customers, the Eco-Friendly 120 Watts, 7.5kg (16.5lbs) easy to move around All in One PC allows companies to improve overall productivity, reduce downtime caused by power interruptions and greatly reduce energy costs.

Keeping up with an updated launch roadmap for Q1 2013 posted last November, Intel rolled out entry-level Celeron and Pentium dual-core processors based on its 22 nm "Ivy Bridge" silicon. All of the seven desktop and four mobile chips announced occupy price-points under $100. The desktop lineup begins with the Celeron G1610 (2.60 GHz, dual-core, 55W TDP), priced at US $42; Celeron G1610T (2.30 GHz, dual-core, 35W TDP) at $42; followed by Celeron G1620 (2.70 GHz), priced significantly higher at $52; Pentium G2010 (2.80 GHz, dual-core, 55W TDP) and G2020 (2.90 GHz), and G2020T (2.50 GHz, 35W TDP) at $64; and Pentium G2130 (3.20 GHz, dual-core, 55W TDP) at $86.

Intel has two kinds of Celeron mobile processors, targeting the mainstream and Ultrabook-like notebook form-factors. Among the mainstream notebook processors are the Celeron 1000M (1.80 GHz, dual-core, 35W TDP) and Celeron 1020M (2.10 GHz, dual-core, 35W TDP). Among the Ultrabook-like form-factor models are the Celeron 1007U (1.50 GHz, dual-core, 17W TDP), and Celeron 1037U (1.80 GHz, dual-core, 17W TDP). Interestingly, all four mobile Celeron "Ivy Bridge" CPU models are priced at $86, in 1000-unit tray quantities.

In addition to the industry's first fully-patterned 450 mm wafer, Intel announced that its 14 nanometer silicon fabrication node at three of its fabs will begin this year. The next leap forward from 22 nm, on which two of the company's CPU generations "Ivy Bridge" and "Haswell" are based, the 14 nm node will eventually facilitate production of the company's 5th generation Core "Broadwell" processors, which are due to arrive in 2014. Given the pace at which the 14 nm node is being developed, some of the first Broadwell Core chips, at least engineering samples, will be released to the industry within 2013. Among the three Intel facilities with 14 nm nodes are D1X, located in Oregon; Fab 42, located in Arizona; and Fab 24, located in Ireland.

At its 2013 International CES booth, Intel exhibited a side-by-side comparison of two systems, one running its next-generation Core "Haswell" processor's integrated graphics, the HD 4500 GT3 (all components enabled), and the other a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 GPU. A highly forgiving DirectX 11-generation title, DiRT 3, was made to run on both GPUs. Visitors noted that even if not as smooth as the GTX 650, Intel's Haswell iGPU did produce playable frame-rates.

Sources close to the company have been claiming a significant, in fact, 100 percent performance lead of the Haswell iGPU over previous-generation HD 4000 iGPU featured in today's Core "Ivy Bridge" chips. If true, Intel's graphics may have come perilously close to, or even caught up with, AMD's A-Series "Trinity" line of APUs, which feature the fastest integrated graphics processor ever made.

With Intel's 2011-launched Core "Sandy Bridge" processors, Intel CPU overclocking as we know it changed. No longer could you overclock the CPU by stepping up BClk (base clock), a frequency that processors use to time various components, including the effective clock speed, and in some cases, memory, and uncore. Sandy Bridge left consumers with only one effective way of overclocking, stepping up an unlocked BClk multiplier, a feature only available with a handful expensive models.

According to a Hardcoreware report, when Intel took up the "one BClk to rule them all" approach with Sandy Bridge, it may have overlooked the possibility of the integrated GPU waking other components up from lower power states to use the L3 cache, affecting the chip's overall energy efficiency, which carried on to successive Core "Ivy Bridge" silicon. "Haswell" may present Intel with an opportunity to split core and uncore from sharing the same base clock, and as such it could be possible to crank up CPU clock speeds using BClk, without destabilizing the uncore. The author admits this is speculation on his part, but quite likely.