ASRock is serious about breaking the 1 million motherboards-shipped mark for this year. The company is going into the emerging Intel Z87 chipset-based socket LGA1150 motherboard market with an extremely strong lineup covering a wide range of price-points. The company is preparing as many as three OC series models, two Fatal1ty series ones, and six Extreme series models. A defining feature of ASRock's lineup is the introduction of onboard 802.11 ac WLAN controllers on select models. The "/ac" brand extension denotes this feature.

Three of the company's top models based on the Z87 Express chipset include the Z87 Extreme11, Z87 Fatal1ty Professional, and Z87 OC Formula. The Z87 Extreme11, available with the /ac option, is the company's flagship socket LGA1150 motherboard, maxing out the platform's feature-set, and augmenting it with an additional PCI-Express lane budget, Thunderbolt, 802.11 ac, and a plethora of connectivity options. The Extreme series targets consumers who want the most connectivity. Other models in the series include the Z87 Extreme 9(/ac), Z87 Extreme6(/ac), Z87 Extreme 4, and the micro-ATX Z87M Extreme4.

Launch of Intel's Core i7-4770K "Haswell" processor may be a month away, but the chip has been in circulation for some time now. An overclocker going by the handle "rtiueuiurei" managed to get an engineering sample of the chip past the 7 GHz mark, 7012.65 MHz to be precise. A base clock of 91.07 MHz, multiplier of 77.0x, and a staggering 2.56V core voltage, unless CPU-Z read it wrong. A single 2 GB memory module was used; no other details were revealed. Core i7-4770K and a fleet of compatible socket LGA1150 motherboards launch around the first week of June.

With its 4th generation Core "Haswell" processors, Intel is putting in a serious effort to improve integrated graphics (IGP) performance to catch up with AMD's Radeon HD 8600 series on its latest APUs. There are three classes of Intel IGPs for Haswell, the GT1, which features 10 execution units (EUs), and will feature on entry-thru-mainstream Pentium, Core i3, and Core i5 chips; GT2, which features 20 EUs, featuring on mainstream-thru-performance Core i5 and Core i7 chips; and GT3, a large 40-EU IGP, which uses an L4 eDRAM cache. Chips with GT3 graphics are multi-chip modules (MCMs) of the CPU die and this eDRAM due, as detailed earlier. It was earlier believed that Haswell chips with GT3 graphics cores will be confined to notebook and Ultrabook-specific CPU models, but it turns out that it will make an appearance on the desktop platform as well.

At a media event held in its Taipei headquarters, GIGABYTE demonstrated its AMP-UP integrated audio solution that will feature on some of its upcoming motherboards. On that pretense, it even got to show of two of its top socket LGA1150 motherboards, built for Core "Haswell" processors, the G1.Sniper 5, and the G1.Sniper M5. Positioned in gamer-overclocker targeted G1.Killer series, the two boards are based on Intel Z87 Express chipset. The G1.Sniper 5 is the larger standard ATX motherboard; while the M5 is a compact micro-ATX offering. The pictures also confirm that socket LGA1150 retention module and bolt-spacing is identical to sockets LGA1155 and LGA1156.

The G1.Sniper 5 appears to feature a 16-phase VRM, which uses ferrite-core chokes, and the same International Rectifier PowIRstage components as Ultra Durable 5 motherboards from the previous generation. This time around, the CPU plays a greater role in voltage regulation. The driver-MOSFETs on the board are cooled by an active fan-heatsink, which also has a liquid channel running through it, so you could make it part of your CPU loop. Thankfully GIGABYTE didn't let its imagination run away with designs of the other heatsinks on the board, one of which cools the Z87 Express chipset, and the other we imagine, a PLX PEX8747 48-lane PCI-Express 3.0 bridge chip. This chip gets you 4-way SLI/CrossFireX support.

With Computex 2013 a little over a month away, alongside which Intel plans to launch its 4th generation Core "Haswell" family, motherboard manufacturers are gearing up for another summer of product launches, with compatible socket LGA1150 motherboards. Among these is MSI, which teased its flagship motherboard that targets overclockers and PC enthusiasts interested in taking the Core i7-4770K and Core i5-4670K for a spin. This motherboard falls inside the company's Big Bang series, bearing the name Z87 XPower. As the name suggests, it's based on Intel's Z87 Express chipset.

Not much is known about the Big Bang Z87 XPower, except what the teaser video (after the break) and a couple of corner-shots reveal. Expect a fancy new color scheme (probably a combination of gold and black), a new design scheme for the VRM and chipset heatsinks with a glowy "X" sign, the usual plethora of overclocking options MSI packs with its high-end motherboards, and what appears to be an mSATA or mPCIe slot, in one of the pictures.

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.

In addition to the Mugen 2, Scythe announced second-generation Grand Kama Cross CPU cooler. Grand Kama Cross 2 (model: SCKC-3000) retains the unique top-flow design of its predecessor, which uses two large aluminum fin stacks arranged along inclines in opposite directions, which are ventilated by a fan from an angle, ensuring high turbulence, and with it, heat dissipation.

With Grand Kama Cross 2, Scythe redesigned the fins to line up straight under the fan's air flow, so air is guided into the stack, and not repelled. The fins later cut an angle, increasing turbulence, improving heat dissipation. Heat from the CPU is drawn by a nickel-plated copper base, from which four copper heat pipes convey it to the two fin stacks. A 140 mm Scythe Falcon PWM fan handles air-flow. It spins at speeds ranging from 500 to 1,300 RPM, pushing 37.37 to an impressive 97.18 CFM of air. Like the Mugen 4, this cooler comes with HPMS, a new retention system that takes fewer steps to install, and supports the new LGA1150 CPU socket. Slated for April 24, it is priced at 4,980¥ (US $50).

Scythe rolled out the fourth generation Mugen CPU cooler, in its home market of Japan. Mugen 4 (model: SCMG-4000), builds on the design of its predecessor with a feature it calls TMAPS (three-dimensional multiple airflow pass-through structure), a fin stack arrangement that works to improve air-flow and heat-dissipation to the flowing air. Another abbreviation Scythe is throwing at you is HPMS (hyper-precision mounting system), a new retention module that takes fewer steps to install, and supports all modern CPU socket types, including the upcoming Intel socket LGA1150, on which desktop Core "Haswell" processors will be based.

Scythe Mugen 4 retains the unique jagged aluminum fins of its predecessor, it is an aluminum fin tower type CPU cooler, which uses six 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes to convey heat to the stack. Heat is drawn from a nickel-plated copper base. A Falcon 120 mm PWM fan guides air through the heatsink, which spins at speeds ranging from 400 to 1,400 RPM, pushing 20.7 to 79 CFM of air. Measuring 130 x 88 x 160 mm, the cooler weighs about 625 g. Slated for April 24, it is priced at 4,980¥ (US $50).

Intel reportedly began shipping its 4th generation Core processors, codenamed "Haswell," to its OEM partners (companies that sell pre-built PCs). These shipments could go into building the first batches of PCs running the chips, which will be launched alongside retail trims of the chips, in June 2013. In June, on the sidelines of Computex 2013, one of the biggest annual PC technology tradeshows, Intel is expected to launch its Core "Haswell" processors, various motherboard vendors are expected to launch compatible socket LGA1150 motherboards.

Among the Core "Haswell" chips Intel is expected to launch for the desktop platform, are the Core i7-4770K flagship quad-core part, and the Core i5-4670K, both of which feature unlocked base-clock multipliers, appealing to overclockers and PC enthusiasts. There are twelve other models on offer, with locked base-clock multipliers, a majority of which come in energy-efficient brand extensions such as -T and -S.

Intel issued a product-change notification (PCN) to partners in the motherboard industry, informing them of a new C2 stepping of the 8-series "Lynx Point" chipset. The stepping introduces a metal layers change that fixes the USB 3.0 remuneration erratum, which causes devices plugged in to USB 3.0 ports to fail to reinitialize after waking up from sleep states such as S3, requiring uses to unplug and replug them, which could get particularly irritating for people with external RAID devices that rely on USB 3.0 for host connectivity.

According to the PCN, the first socket LGA1150 motherboards in the market may not feature C2-stepping chipset. It predicts samples to be available to motherboard manufacturers by April 19, 2013; availability of qualification data (when Intel has finalized design after taking feedback from partners), by July 1 2013; customers should be ready to receive C2-stepping chips by July 31. These dates indicate that the very first batches of socket LGA1150 motherboards will still feature C1-stepping chipset that are affected by the erratum, and if you can't live with it, you should ideally wait until late-August or mid-September for the first motherboards with C2-stepping chipset to make it to the markets. Intel expects to launch its 4th generation Core "Haswell" processors and compatible LGA1150 motherboards by mid-June.

Intel's Core "Haswell" desktop processor family launch may be three months away, but retailers in Europe aren't wasting any time to hog attention or score pre-orders. The company's flagship socket LGA1150 processor, the Core i7-4770K, was listed by Dutch stores MAXICT.nl and takeITnow, for €331.13 (incl. VAT) and €352.00 (incl. VAT), respectively. Both stores are offering the chip in its tray (chip-only) packaging. The listings confirm the chip's clock speed to be 3.50 GHz, and L3 cache size 8 MB. The MaxICT listing can be found here, and TakeITnow here. Ships all over EU.

Noctua today announced that it will continue its tradition of supplying customers with its premium-class SecuFirm2 mounting kits for novel platforms free of charge. While newer Noctua heatsinks support Haswell's LGA1150 socket out of the box, older models can now be upgraded with the new NM-i115x kit at no additional cost.

"We're determined to provide the best possible support to our customers and over the years, we've sent many thousands of mounting kits free of charge to users who wanted to upgrade to new platforms", says Mag. Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "With Haswell just around the corner, we're pleased to announce that we'll extend this offer for LGA1150. Owners of older Noctua retail heatsinks that don't support LGA 115x out of the box will be able to upgrade to the new socket free of charge!"

Apart from motherboards, the only big product segment ASRock made a name for itself is with pre-built mini-PCs. The company wants to put its experience to good use by cashing in for the market's newfound love for compact (mini-ITX) gaming PCs, the ones that save precious real-estate on congested living room TV racks and dorm rooms. Pictured below is the company's first such effort, timed with the launch of Intel's next-generation Core "Haswell" processor, and supporting socket LGA1150 platform based on Z87 Express chipset.

There are three components to ASRock's creation: a unique SFF case, co-designed by BMW Design; the ASRock Z87E-ITX motherboard, and a GeForce GTX 680 graphics card. The case looks pretty slick, coming from BMW. It stays slim by using a PCI-Express riser, allowing you to install graphics cards along the plane of the motherboard. The Z87-E ITX, like most efforts by ASRock in the past, is extremely feature-rich for its size. It uses a 6-phase VRM to power the LGA1150 CPU, features two DDR3 DIMM slots, PCI-Express 3.0 x16 and mini-PCIe 2.0, for the WLAN+Bluetooth card.

Even as most motherboard vendors showed off at least half-baked versions of their socket LGA1150 motherboards based on the Intel Z87 Express chipset, supporting 4th generation Core "Haswell" processors; ASUS has been relatively mum. The company doesn't even have a motherboard booth at CeBIT, to begin with. The company did manage to release teaser pictures of three new motherboards, which lead its three consumer motherboard lines: Republic of Gamers (ROG), The Ultimate Force (TUF), and mainline (P9Z87?).

The teaser pictures reveal nothing more than the plaque printed on the center of the motherboard. The first picture below teases what could be P9Z87 Deluxe. Someone at ASUS loves M&Ms. The second picture teases TUF Gryphon Z87. It looks like ASUS had enough of the Sabertooth brand extension. The third picture, dissimilar from the others, is of a new innovation ASUS will introduce with its next ROG motherboard based on the Z87 chipset. It appears to be a device that plugs into one of the motherboard's headers. Probably an external overclocking module akin to EVGA EVBot?

The Z87X-OC may be reserved for people who seldom patronize the PC case industry; but for everyone else, GIGABYTE has three options based on Intel's Z87 Express chipset, which supports overclocking on 4th generation Core "Haswell" K-series processors (detailed here). Leading the trio is the feature-rich Z87X-UD5H, followed by the fairly well-equipped Z87X-UD3H, and trailed by the most affordable of the three, Z87X-D3H.

The Z87X-UD5H packs a massive 16-phase CPU VRM, even if it's not backed by the Z87X-OC's voltage-control/monitoring paraphernalia. The CPU is wired to three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC/NC or x8/x8/NC or x8/x4/x4), three PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and a legacy PCI. The board features a total of ten SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports, six of which are driven by the Z87 PCH, four by third-party controllers. Display connectivity includes two HDMI ports, and one each of dual-link DVI and DisplayPort. 8-channel HD audio with TOSLINK digital output, two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, eight USB 3.0 ports (six rear, two by header), make for the rest of it.

At a private media unveiling held on the sidelines of CeBIT, GIGABYTE disclosed its next-generation flagship motherboard, the Z87X-OC. Like most socket LGA1150 motherboards unveiled this week, this one is still under development, and the company is yet to finalize color-scheme and heatsinks for the PCH and VRM, so don't judge it by its looks just yet. The Z87X-OC is designed primarily for overclockers.

The LGA1150 socket is powered by an 8-phase VRM, which draws power from a combination of 4-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS, in addition to the board's 24-pin ATX connector. To stabilize the board's various power domains, you can optionally plug in a 6-pin PCIe power connector. The board gives overclockers a high degree of physical on-the-fly voltage control, and measurement points. One of the chipset's four USB 3.0 ports are wired out as a type-A port on-board, letting you install and run your Windows 7/8 installation off a USB 3.0 flash-drive.

BIOSTAR unveiled a trio of socket LGA1150 motherboards at CeBIT. Unlike ASRock's creations, its boards appear more complete, with heatsinks and finalized board color scheme. All three feature the company's Puro HiFi technology, a high-quality on-board audio with a focus on physically improving audio quality, rather than artificially. Among the boards are the HiFi-B85S2, the HiFi-Z87X3D, and the HiFi-H87S3+.

To begin with, the HiFi-H87S3+ features the micro-ATX form-factor, which still leaves room for four DDR3 DIMM slots, a simple 4-phase VRM to power the CPU, one each of PCI-Express 3.0 x16 and legacy PCI, two PCI-Express 2.0 x1; 6-channel Puro HiFi audio, DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI display outputs; a pair of USB 3.0 ports, and six internal SATA 6 Gb/s connectors. It is based on the H87 chipset. The HiFi-B85S2 features a slim ATX form-factor, is based on the B85 Express chipset, features just the two DDR3 DIMM slots, a PCI-Express 3.0 x16, a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4) wired to the PCH; two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI; six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, 6-channel Puro HiFi audio, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 ports, and a display connectivity loadout of DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI.

Here is the first selection of ASRock socket LGA1150 motherboards, pictured at the 2013 CeBIT expo being held in Hanover, Germany. Intel's 4th generation Core "Haswell" desktop processor family introduces the new 1150-pin LGA socket and Intel 8-series chipset, to form the platform. An upgrade to to "Haswell" processors should hence also involve buying new motherboards. Top-two motherboard manufacturers ASUS and GIGABYTE reportedly lack booths at CeBIT, leaving only the rest to show off their LGA1150 goods. This first compilation includes boards by ASRock and BIOSTAR. The boards are also a little rough on the edges, as their component/PCB color schemes, heatsinks, etc., haven't been finalized.

ASRock unveiled two LGA1150 motherboard models, the entry-level B85M, and the high-end Z87-Extreme6 (pictured in that order). The B85M, based on the chipset that succeeds today's small business-optimized B75 chipset, is a compact micro-ATX motherboard. It features just the two DDR3 DIMM slots, an expansion area with a PCI-Express 3.0 x16, a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), and two legacy PCI slots. Connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, 8-channel HD audio, four USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet; DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI display outputs, legacy connections such as COM/LPT over headers, and PS/2 mouse/keyboard connectors.

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.

Not too long ago, Arctic leaked a bucket list socket LGA1150 processors which aren't due for another five months. The PC cooling major now updated the GPU support lists of its Arctic Xtreme 7970 and Arctic Accelero S1 Plus to include three Radeon HD 8000 series GPUs, HD 8970, HD 8950, and HD 8870. Either Arctic is riding on the assumption that the mount hole spacing of those GPUs won't change from current HD 7000 series, or that it's catering to the various HD 8000 series desktop graphics cards in circulation by OEM desktop PCs, which are rebrands of HD 7000 series parts.

Intel decided to quit the PC motherboard business by shutting down its Desktop Board brand. To company will begin shrinking its motherboard product line with the arrival of socket LGA1150 Core "Haswell" processors, and eventually leave the market within 3 years. One can draw three distinct inferences from this move. First, Intel's Desktop Board lineup is too bloated, and the desktop form-factor is on a rapid decline in relation to the rest of the PC industry. Second, with the emergence of new high-volume brands in the motherboard industry, Intel is finding its lineup out of place.

Third, and more interestingly, this could be a move by Intel to pacify other motherboard vendors about the impending transition of a bulk of the motherboard volume from changeable CPU socket to hardwired BGA, which is bound to happen in a couple of years from now. Other vendors expressed apprehensions over the transition to BGA believing such a more could make Desktop Board put them out of business. Intel's Desktop Board team will instead spend resources in developing new form-factors such as the NUC.

ASRock joined the likes of ASUS, Gigabyte, and others, in missing its motherboard sales target for 2012. According to the latest figures with DigiTimes, the company shipped 7.5 million motherboards in 2012, which is quite a bit short of its modest target of 9 million, given its 2011 shipments of 8 million.

According to industry analysts, the Pegatron subsidiary is expected to see a flat performance at best, in 2013, despite the fact that Intel is launching a brand new socket (LGA1150), prompting higher motherboard sales. In 2012, Intel retained its LGA1155 socket from the 2011-launched "Sandy Brige" platform, and inter-compatibility between its 2nd and 3rd generation Core processors may have stunted sales of its 7-series chipset products.

It looks like Intel's Core "Haswell" processor family will miss its anticipated March-May launch window, with the company choosing Computex 2013 as its next launch-pad. According to a leaked document intended for distributors and large retailers, desktop Core "Haswell" processors will launch only after May 27, before June 7, and retailers are told to hold off advertising the launch till June 2nd.

Among the products featuring in the new May 27 - June 7 launch window are the Core i7-4770K flagship product, i7-4770, i7-4770S, i7-4770T, i7-4765T, i5-4670K, i5-4670, i5-4670S, i5-4670T, i5-4570, i5-4570S, i5-4570T, i5-4430, and i5-4430S, all of which are quad-core parts. In addition, socket LGA1150 motherboards based on Intel Z87 (flagship, OC-ready), H87, Q87, Q85, and B85 chipsets, will be launched. In all likelihood, one piece of decoration the CES venue could miss, is the wall of LGA1150 motherboards, which is usually put up by Intel.

CPU cooler manufacturer Arctic (aka Arctic Cooling) may have inadvertently leaked a very long list of 4th generation Intel Core processors based on its LGA1150 socket. Longer than any currently posted lists of Core "Haswell" processors, the leak includes model numbers of nine Core i7, seventeen Core i5, five Core i3, and two Pentium models. Among the Core i7 models are already known i7-4770K flagship chip, i7-4770S, and a yet-unknown i7-4765T. The Core i5 processor list is exhaustive, and it appears that Intel wants to leave no price-point unattended. The Core i5-4570K could interest enthusiasts. In comparison to the Core i5 list, the LGA1150 Core i3 list is surprisingly short, indicating Intel is serious about phasing out dual-core chips. The Pentium LGA1150 list is even shorter.

The list of LGA1150 processor models appears to have been leaked in the data-sheets of one of its coolers, in the section that lists compatible processors. LGA1150 appears to have the same exact cooler mount-hole spacing as LGA1155 and LGA1156 sockets, and as such upgrading CPU cooler shouldn't be on your agenda. Intel's 4th generation Core processor family is based on Intel's spanking new "Haswell" micro-architecture, which promises higher performance per-core, and significantly faster integrated graphics over previous generation. The new chips will be built on Intel's now-mature 22 nm silicon fabrication process. The new chips will begin to roll out in the first-half of 2013.

It's no secret that nearly all Intel Core processors are carved out of essentially one or two physical dies, be it the "2M" die that physically features four cores and 8 MB of L3 cache, or the "1M" die, which physically features two cores and 4 MB of L3 cache. The two silicons are further graded for energy-efficiency and performance before being assigned a package most suited to them: desktop LGA, mobile PGA, mobile BGA, and with the introduction of the 4th generation Core "Haswell," SoC (system on chip, a package that's going to be a multi-chip module of the CPU and PCH dies). The SoC package will be designed to conserve PCB real-estate, and will be suited for extremely size-sensitive devices such as Ultrabooks.

The third kind of grading for the two silicons relates to its on-die graphics processor, which makes up over a third of the die area. Depending on the number of programmable shaders and ROPs unlocked, there are two grades: GT2, and GT3, with GT3 being the most powerful. On the desktop front (identified by silicon extension "-DT,") Intel very much will retain dual-core processors, which will make up its Core i3, Pentium, and Celeron processor lines. It will be lead by quad-core parts. All desktop processors feature the GT2 graphics core.