PC water-cooling specialists Swiftech presented its newest CPU water block, the Apogee XT. A result of extensive competitive testing, the Apogee XT comes across as a completely redesigned block that goes beyond redesigning the retention mechanism alone. The block is made entirely of copper and brass, and has a brass housing with black chrome plating. The cold plate surface is topographically mapped to provide an optimized TIM contact with socket LGA 771, 775, 1156 and 1366 compatible processors. The inlet plate which is at the center of the block, is detachable. It supports high flow 1/4" BSPP x 1/2" fittings. Supporting Intel sockets LGA-1366, LGA-1156, and LGA-775, the Apogee XT water block sells for US $79.99.

Traditionally, a specialists in aluminum/copper fin 'ring' type CPU coolers, Zalman maintained a performance leadership till aluminum fin tower type CPU coolers took over as the better performing design. Zalman was forced to keep up with the trend, which it did with the introduction of its CNPS-10X series coolers, namely CNPS-10X Quiet, and CNPS-10X Extreme. The third one in the series, which Zalman recently made available to European stores, is the CNPS-10X Flex. This is basically a tower-type heatsink that uses a block of 56 aluminum fins (some of which are anodized black), to which heat is conveyed by five copper heat-pipes. While it does not include a fan of its own, it gives you the flexibility of using your own 120 mm fan, and allows for two fans in all. The retention module supplied supports all current CPU sockets, including LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, and AM3/AM2+/AM2. Priced at €40, it is €10 cheaper than the CNPS-10X Quiet, enough price difference to allow you to buy a decent-quality 120 mm fan of your choice, be it performance-oriented, or quiet.

Cooling specialist Xigmatek announced its latest CPU cooler, the Balder SD1283. The Balder maintains a design similar to most other tower coolers. The design consists of a base from which three heat pipes of 8 mm diameter making direct contact with the CPU, convey heat to a dense array of aluminum alloy fins. The CPU base has a mirror finish to ensure better surface contact.

The main unit measures 120(W) x 50(D) x 159(H) mm, and weighs 700 g with fan. The 120 mm fan spins at speeds between 1000 ~ 2200 rpm, with a maximum noise output of 28 dBA. The Xigmatek Balder supports all current sockets, including LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, and AM3/AM2+/AM2. The package includes a bolt-thru kit for the LGA sockets, and enough rubber rivets to let you attach two fans. It is priced at 32.90 EUR.

Cooling solutions OEM Akasa's newest offering is the AK-968 X4 CPU cooler. This value offering is designed to oust your stock CPU cooler for better performance at a low price. Measuring 135 (H) x 109 (W) x 90 (D) mm, and weighing 458 g, the AK-968 X4 resembles similar coolers in its category such as the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro. Its design involves a copper base plate from which three u-shaped copper heatpipes pass, conveying heat to an aluminum fin array, which is actively cooled by a 92 mm PWM-controlled fan that spins at speeds between 600 ~ 2500 rpm pushing up to 47.7 CFM of air, with a noise output of 17.0 ~ 29.5 dBA. It supports all current desktop CPU sockets, including Intel LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, AMD s939, and AM3/AM2/AM2+. It is currently listed for £20 at a popular British etailer.

Tuniq introduced its newest CPU cooler, the Tuniq Propeller 120. This release follows the launch of the Tower 120 Extreme. Measuring 128(L) × 127.5(W) × 145(H) mm, and weighing at 590 g without the 120 mm fan, The cooler sports an unconventional design. From the CPU base pass four 8 mm nickel-plated copper heat-pipes that make direct contact with the CPU. The two ends of these heat-pipes pass through two blocks of aluminum fins. The fins are somewhat triangular in shape and are pitted for added surface area.

The bundled 120 mm MFDB fan comes with a fan-speed control knob, and spins at speeds between 1000~2000 rpm, pushing up to 90.65 CFM of air, with noise levels of 16~20 dBA ± 10%. The fan blows air onto the motherboard, passively cooling other components. The Propeller 120 also packs a tube of the company's newest Tuniq TX3 thermal compound. Supported sockets include LGA-1366, LGA-775, and AM3/AM2+/AM2. It comes in two variants, CR-PRO120-BK with black colored fins, and a blue LED-lit fan, and CR-PRO120-SV with normal (chrome) fins and an opaque black fan. The Propeller 120 should start selling this October.

GlacialTech today launched its mid-range F101 CPU cooler. Unveiled back at Computex, the F101 extends support for all new sockets, while not leaving out any current ones. Its design makes use of two dissimilar-sized aluminum fin blocks that just about cover a 120 mm fan. Heat is conveyed to these using five heatpipes. The cooler measures 143 x 86 x 148 mm (L x W x H), and weighs 750 g (~1.66 lbs). It comes in two variants - F101 Silent and F101 PWM - depending on the kind of fan bundled. The former packs a 1100 ±200 rpm fan that pushes about 40 CFM of air with a noise output of 21 dBA, while the latter packs a more powerful 800~1700 rpm PWM-controlled fan, that depending on its speed, can push up to 70 CFM of air being as loud as 32 dBA. Both carry a tube of IceTherm thermal compound. As mentioned before, it supports all current CPU sockets including LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, AM3, and AM2(+). Pricing is not known, though expect fairly acceptable prices.

Noiseblocker is said to be designing its newest tower-design CPU cooler for sockets LGA-1156 and LGA-1366, called Twintec. An early drawing shows its design, with a base from which two heatpipes pass, that conduct heat to the peripheral parts of the 46 aluminum fins, while from its center emerges a 25.5 mm thick 'super-conductor' heatpipe that conveys heat to the central parts of the fins. Bundled with this heatsink is the MF12-P 120 mm fan which has a maximum noise output of 29 dBA. It should be available later this month, priced at around 64.90€.

Paired with the day's launch of the GeForce GTX 285 Classified, EVGA rolled out its newest motherboard monstrosity, the EVGA X58 Classified 4-Way SLI (170-BL-E762-A1). This is one of the first motherboards based on the XL-ATX form-factor, with the board measuring 13.58 x 10.375 inches (L x W), which makes it as wide as an E-ATX motherboard, only longer. For use inside a chassis, the company recommends one with at least 10 expansion slots. It is based on the Intel X58 + ICH10R chipset supporting socket LGA-1366 processors, and might be making use of NVIDIA nForce 200 bridge chips to support its seven PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, with adequate spacing to support four of its newest GTX 285 Classified graphics cards.

It has every feature its predecessor the X58 Classified 3-way SLI does, including a 10-phase digital PWM power design for the CPU that can provide up to 600W of power to the CPU for extreme overclocking. The pins in the LGA-1366 socket have 300% more elemental gold for better conductivity. The power is further conditioned by low-ESR film capacitors. A much larger monolithic heatsink cools the chipset. The portion over the northbridge features a fan for active cooling. Other features include support for up to 24 GB of triple-channel DDR3 memory, 9 SATA 3 Gb/s connectors, 8 channel audio, dual gigabit Ethernet, and Firewire. The X58 Classified 4-Way SLI has been listed on the company store, placed on pre-order for US $449.99.

Nearly an year away from launch, Intel's 6-core Gulftown processor is creating buzz in the media. The new processor which has already been sampled, and tested, some of its first documentation has been leaked to the media in the form of a slide that lists out some details. To begin with, Gulftown will be the first high-performance processor built on the 32 nm second-generation HKMG process. Intel's first commercial 32 nm based processors are dual-core chips which will sell alongside the much larger 45 nm CPU lineup. Next of-course, is that it has six processing cores with HyperThreading enabling 12 logical CPUs. With TurboBoost, the processor powers down inactive cores and overclocks the active ones, thus boosting performance on single/few-threaded apps while reducing power consumption.

Next up is its integrated memory controller supporting DDR3-1066 memory. The same standard is listed for current Core i7 processors, though they are proven to work at higher memory bus speeds. The part that perhaps matters the most is that the processor is seamlessly compatible with the X58 chipset, is based on socket LGA-1366, and has the same TDP rating as Core i7 900 series processors: 130W. Existing motherboards that handle Core i7 processors are technically capable to handle Gulftown. The processor will only be available in the high-end (enthusiast) category, and according to the latest roadmaps, is slated for Q2 2010.

NVIDIA's SLI multi-GPU technology served as the biggest selling point of nForce series chipsets, as it was exclusive to it. With the advent of LGA-1366 processors and the Intel X58 chipset, NVIDIA allowed the Intel chipset to support the technology, as it soon became clear that it isn't going to be easy for NVIDIA to come up with an LGA-1366 chipset. Users of the older LGA-775 however still have the option of buying nForce 700 series based motherboards to use SLI, and hence no real attempt was made to ensure the technology is available to Intel chipsets. Until now.

A member of Expreview's Chinese enthusiast community has successfully enabled SLI on an Intel chipset based LGA-775 motherboard, the first feat of its kind since much older attempts on i975 platforms using much older GeForce hardware. Firewings_[CCG] successfully ran SLI of GeForce 8600 GT and GeForce GTX 260 cards on his Intel X38+ICH9R chipset based ASUS Maximus Formula motherboard. The feat is headed by software he modified, details of which will surface soon. The mod was validated by Expreview staff, who used the software to run GeForce GTX 260 SLI on a more recent P45+ICH10R based Maximus II Formula motherboard. "By installing the software that Firewings [CCG] provides us, we managed to enable SLI configuration in Directory Services Restore Mode. Due to some 'small problems' according to Firewings [CCG], the SLI configuration can't be realized in normal mode for now, but he says this will be fixed soon," commented Expreview. With SLI enabled, the multi-GPU setup was able offer performance scaling that proves the mod works.

Tuniq today announced its newest CPU cooler, the Tower 120 Extreme. With this release Tuniq introduced what it calls a radical design change, that increases heat dissipation surface area, and brings about turbulence that helps cooling. To do so, each aluminum fin has "wave-design" edges on two sides. Every neighbouring fin has an alternating wave-pattern, that helps provide turbulence. A 120 mm, PWM-controlled, LED-lit fan is nested inside the fin block, that circulates air. Five nickel-plated copper heatpipes convey heat to the fins, which make direct contact to the CPU at the block.

The cooler measures 131(L) x 112.31(W) x 150.7(H), and weighs in at 775 g without the fan (around 850 g with it). The fan spins at speeds between 1000~2000 rpm, pushing up to 90.65 CFM of air, with a maximum noise output of 20 dBA. Out of the five heatpipes, three are 8 mm in thickness, and two 6 mm ones. The package includes a 1g tube of Tuniq's recently announced TX-3 thermal compound. In Tuniq's own tests, the Tower 120 Extreme emerged at least 10% more efficient at cooling than its predecessor, the Tower 120. It is compatible with most current CPU sockets, including LGA-1366, LGA-775, and AM3/AM2+/AM2. Expect it to be priced close to that of the Tower 120 when it hits stores soon.

Some of Arctic Cooling's biggest claims to fame are the Freezer series CPU coolers that offered good levels of cooling performance for mainstream prices. The company then had Intel and AMD specific versions of the cooler in the form of Freezer 7 Pro (Intel) and Freezer64 Pro (AMD). In a move to unify the two designs as far as CPU socket compatibility goes, Arctic Cooling released the Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2, which sports support for both Intel and AMD sockets.

Measuring 104 L x 58 W x 126.5 H mm and weighing 520 g, the Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 has essentially the same design of the predecessors, except for its retention mechanism that holds various different kinds of sockets, including Intel LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, AMD AM3/AM2+/AM2. The cooler has a 92 mm 45 CFM PWM-controlled fan that cools a 42-fin aluminum fin array to which three copper heat-pipes convey heat from a copper CPU block. The cooler has a cake of the MX-2 thermal compound pre-applied. The Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 is priced at US $28.90 or 20.90 Euro.

Intel's posterboy processor for the 32 nm Westmere architecture, the six-core Gulftown is now living, breathing silicon. The company seems to have already dispatched samples of the chip. Gulftown is based on the LGA-1366 socket. Featuring 6 cores and 12 threads with HyperThreading enabled, it holds 12 MB of L3 cache to support the additional data load over the QuickPath Interconnect.

A noted enthusiast has two Gulftown processors running in a dual-socket setup. This 12 core, 24 thread monstrosity uses 24 GB of DDR3 memory using 4 GB modules (perhaps 2 x 3 modules). The processors are running at 2.40 GHz (18 x 133 MHz). The machine was put through WPrime multi-threaded benchmark. It crunched WPrime 32M in a little over 6 seconds, and 1024M in 145.6 seconds. Going by older information, Gulftown should be implemented in a commercial product in Q1 2010, when Intel plans a host of other important product launches. When released as Core i9, the processor will target the premium enthusiast market.

Zalman rolled out its newest CPU cooler, the CNPS9900A LED. This cooler is near-identical to the CNPS9900 LED, with the same dimensions of 94(L) x 131(W) x 152(H) mm, weight of 730 g (1.61 lbs), and an all-copper heat dissipation components design. The differences between the two are that CNPS9900A LED packs a Zalman RC33P resistor cable, and a tube of Zalman's ZM-STG2 thermal compound.

The construction involves a copper CPU contact base from which three heatpipes dissipate heat two two circular copper fin rings on either sides of a blue LED-lit 120 mm fan. Without the RC33P cable, the fan spins at 1000 rpm ~ 2000 rpm, with noise levels of 19.5 dBA ~ 38.0 dBA. But when the RC33P is installed, the speeds and noise outputs are reduced, at 800 rpm ~ 1300 rpm, with noise levels between 18 dBA ~ 28.5 dBA. The ZM-STG2 thermal compound has a thermal conductivity of 4.1 W/mK. 3.5 g of this compound is supplied in a tube. The CNPS9900A LED is compatible with all major sockets including Intel LGA-775, LGA-1156, LGA-1366, and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3, 939/940, 754. It is expected to be priced at US $64.

Motherboard mogul ASUS is ready with a new premium motherboard for the LGA-1366 platform. The P6X58 Premium breaks away from the "P6T" nomenclature the company used for its Intel X58-based motherboards, and flashed "X58" in the model name. This motherboard brings two new connectivity standards to the platform: USB 3.0 "SuperSpeed", and SATA III 6 Gbps. It uses additional controllers onboard to expand the chipset's feature-set.

The board looks similar to the P6T Deluxe series at a glance, but uses a different layout of its expansion slots, rear-panel, and connectors in general. Unlike with the P6T Deluxe, the three PCI-Express x16 are spaced-out, with the first two (blue) slots providing full x16 lane bandwidth, with the third (white) one sharing 8 lanes with the second slot (x16, x8, x8, when all three slots populated). The chipset+VRM cooler is nearly identical to the one on the P6T Deluxe. The CPU is powered by a 16-phase circuit.

Zalman is readying another CPU cooler in its 10 series, a successor to CNPS-9900. The company broke away from the trademark copper-fin ring design it used for CNPS-9300, 9500, 9700, and until lately, 9900. After the introduction of the CNPS-10X Extreme, the company disclosed the CNPS-10X Quiet. The differences between the two lie in the construction. The CNPS-10X Quiet uses lesser number of aluminum fins, a good 33% of which are anodized with the Zalman blue theme colour, and holds a simpler PWM controlled fan. The cooler measures 135 x 100 x 160 mm, and weighs 750 g. The 120 mm fan attached to it uses a simpler clip-based retention mechanism, it spins at speeds between 700 and 1400 rpm, with a maximum noise level of 26 dBA. The cooler constuction involves a pre-lapped copper CPU contact block, from which five copper heatpipes convey heat to a vertical aluminum fin array - the design standard of today. Its retention module consists of a bolt-through kit. The package includes a tube of Zalman's ZM-STG2 thermal compound. The cooler is compatible with all standard desktop sockets of today, including Intel LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, AMD AM3/AM2+/AM2, and 939. The cooler will hit stores at an estimated price of under 50 Euro.

Having released the 120 mm copper monstrosity, the CNPS9900, Zalman is looking to give the NVIDIA-branded CNPS9700-NT an update, only this time, there's no NVIDIA branding to be seen. The CNPS9900-NT is decked with nickel-plated copper, which gives it the chrome appearance. Between the two copper-fin blocks, is nested a 120 mm green LED lit fan, which gives the same illumination as the older NT versions of Zalman's coolers. It measures 94 x 131 x 152 mm (LxWxH), and weighs in at 730 g. The fan spins at speeds between 1000 and 2000 rpm. The cooler supports all current CPU socket types, including LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, and AM3/AM2(+). It packs a tube of the company's ZM-STG2 thermal compound. When released in Europe, it is expected to sell for 70 EUR.

Last week, Intel sketched out its strategy in dealing with its client processor brand Core, and placing its different kinds of processors in series of markers (such as "i3", "i5", and "i7"), on the merit of performance and features they offer, and not necessarily a segregation based on core type and socket type. This raised a big debate in our forums, on who is really going to benefit from this kind of branding.

Chinese website INPAI.com.cn sourced information which explains what factors go into determining which brand marker a processor gets. The table elaborates on how different kinds of Intel processors (determined by core and socket types) cross different lines, with a few features toggled or enhanced. It is sure to throw up some surprises.

ASRock has yet another socket LGA-1366 motherboard up its ranks: the X58 Extreme. This model is distinct from the X58 SuperComputer and X58 Deluxe, which shared the same PCB. It has three PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots, from which only two are routed to the X58 northbridge. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase circuit, similar to the other ASRock models. The blue PCI-E x16 slots are connected to the northbridge with full 16-lane bandwidth, while the third orange slot is wired to the southbridge with 4-lane bandwidth. The package bundles only the 2-way SLI bridge, and 3-way SLI is not advertised, although 3-way CrossFireX is. The ICH10R southbridge provides 6 SATA ports, while an additional controller provides IDE and eSATA connectors. ASRock's InstantBoot feature is supported. Looking at the features on offer, we expect this board to sell for a lower price than the X58 Deluxe, which is on the brink of entering the sub-$200 segment.

Water-cooling specialist Swiftech expanded its lineup with the Apogee GTZ Ci7 CPU water block. From its name, one can infer that it specifically supports the Intel LGA-1366 socket (Core i7 and Xeon 5500 series). The frame that holds the block has the appropriate mount holes for LGA-1366. A bolt-through retention mechanism is bundled. The block itself is near-identical in specifications to the original Apogee GTZ. The CPU copper contact base is lapped, and has a matrix of 225 micron copper pins to boost surface area of heat dissipation. The housing is Delrin-made. Options for 1/2" and 3/8" hose barbs are provided. A tube of Arctic Silver Ceramique is bundled. It is priced at US $69.99.

Thermaltake showed off some of its upcoming CPU coolers at the ongoing Computex event. A star attraction was the Thermaltake Frio (pictured below, first to the left). The design is of the popular perpendicular aluminum fin array type. The cooler ships with one 120 mm fan, although it can hold one fan on either side. It measures 130mm x 92mm x 160 mm. The cooler packs retention modules to support almost every current CPU socket type: LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, AM3/AM2+/AM2, s939, etc. Another cooler spotted was the SpinQ VT. This cooler is near-identical to the SpinQ in terms of its features, except for that the aluminum fins propagate perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard, while the fan blows air on to the motherboard.

Water-cooling specialist Koolance released its first liquid-nitrogen evaporator. An LN2 evaporator, sometimes called "LN2 pot" is a metal flask that makes direct contact with a heat source, and conveys its heat to liquid nitrogen that the user pours into the flask. The heat instantly evaporates nitrogen, and some extremely low temperatures are brought about. Koolance CPU-LN2 measures 6cm x 20 cm x 6 cm (WxHxD) without the support bracket, and weighs in at 1.58 kg (around 3.5 lbs). It is built using nickel-plated copper, with acetal to shroud its upper portion. It supports the entire range of current CPU sockets, that include Intel sockets LGA-1366, LGA-775, LGA-771, s603/4, s478, and AMD sockets AM3/AM2+/AM2, s939/940, and s754. It is available at the company website for US $144.99.

There is a new X58 "SuperComputer" motherboard, this time not from ASRock, but from ASUS. The company is ready with a new LGA-1366 single-socket workstation motherboard that concentrates quite heavily on its PCI-Express expansion slots. THe motherboard packs seven full-length PCI-Express slots. To support these, ASUS used a clever design: two 16-lane PCI-Express channels from the X58 northbridge provide connectivity to an NVIDIA nForce 200 (BR-03) chip each. Each of these chips in turn broadcast the connection to two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots (blue slots). The blue slots with a neighbouring black slot further have PCI-E switching logic that can divert 8 lanes to the black PCI-E x16 slots, when populated. As a result, it has seven slots worked out in all. The board supports ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI.

A large heatsink cools the lower cluster of chips that include the board's ICH10R southbridge, and the two nForce 200 chips. Heatpipes distribute heat to an elaborate array of heatsinks over the northbridge and the board's VRM areas. The board features six DDR3 memory slots for supporting up to 24 GB of memory. Storage is care of the southbridge and an additional controller to provide extra internal SATA ports along with the eSATA connectivity. 8-channel audio, and two gigabit Ethernet controllers, and an ASUS-exclusive system diagnostics card make for the rest of the equation. The P6T7 SuperComputer is yet to hit stores.

Japanese PC cooling specialist Scythe has a new CPU cooler up its shelves: Zipang 2. The cooler-design comes across as an evolution of that of Scythe Kabuto, and consists of a base that doubles up as a heatsink. From here, arise six 6 mm copper heatpipes, that convey heat to six blocks of aluminum fins. It measures 145x149x106 mm, and weighs 715 g (around 1.57 lbs). The 140 mm fan spins at around 1000 rpm, and pushes 51.43 CFM of air, with a noise output of 22.74 dBA. The cooler supports all current sockets from Intel and AMD, including Intel LGA-1366, and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3. Its pricing and availability are yet to be disclosed.

A seemingly new gun in the PC cooling town is Cogage. The company sources its produce from Thermalright, a company well-known for its CPU coolers. Taking its name from the Thermalright Ultra Edition (popularly abbreviated as TRUE), the company has readied the True Spirit cooler, which even ends up looking like the cooler it's trying to impersonate. This cooler is built exclusively for Intel LGA-1366 socket processors. It measures 133x156x38 mm, and weighs 670 g (1.47 lbs). It packs four copper heatpipes that convey heat to 48 aluminum fins. Active ventilation is care of a 120 mm fan that rotates in speeds between 1000 and 1500 rpm, with rated noise levels of 19.6 to 37.4 dbA.

The other cooler in the works, MST-140, sports a design where the a fan of similar specifications as the one bundled with the True Spirit, blows air perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard, rather than parallel. This cooler supports both LGA-775 and LGA-1366 sockets. It measures 144x147x70.2 mm and weighs 410 g (0.9 lbs). From its base, arise four "U"-shaped heatpipes that convey heat to two dense aluminum fin arrays (40 fins each). The pricing and release dates of these coolers are yet to be known.