It's been a busy past 48 hours at EVGA, with the launch of the B360 Micro motherboard, unveiling of the NVLink bridges, and now a teaser of what could very well be the company's Z390 DARK motherboard, targeted at professional overclockers. K|ngp|n shared this teaser image of the board on social media, revealing a socket LGA1151 motherboard that's laid out like an LN2 overclocker's dream - memory slots north of the CPU sockets, CPU VRM to its west and south, and power drawn from a combination of 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS connectors angled away toward the east. A cluster of 7-segment LED displays put out diagnostic codes. The designers seem to have opted for an expensive 8~10-layer PCB that's rich in copper. We'll hear more about this beauty as the Z390 platform launches later this month.

When ASRock teased something new from their new Phantom Gaming brand on social media with a photo that said 2.5x fast, people were quick to speculate this was referring to an AMD Radeon GPU. After all, the Phantom Gaming brand came about very recently with ASRock's debut as an AMD AIB (add-in board) partners for Radeon GPUs, with TechPowerUp giving a review treatment to one that you can read here. Was Vega holding back with some sandbags? Or was it perhaps the rumored Polaris GPU?

As it turned out today, ASRock was instead teasing about motherboards joining the Phantom Gaming brand and the "2.5x fast" instead was referring to these board having an integrated 2.5 Gigabit onboard LAN port, as opposed to the 1 GigE ports on most enthusiast motherboards today. Suffice to say that led to disappointment for many owing to this misunderstanding, but this is still news in that ASRock has deemed the importance of having a higher-tier brand that can be marketed as a competitor to the ASUS ROG, Gigabyte Aorus and more. This motherboard may end up not being AMD-exclusive either, as we do not expect a prosumer socket from AMD until next year, and the timing suggests it may well be an Intel z390 socket board instead. The teaser video is embedded below, although there is not much else to glean from it at this point.

MSI is ready with seven new socket LGA1151 (300-series) motherboard models based on Intel's upcoming Z390 Express chipset, which the company recommends to make the most out of its upcoming 8-core processors. Among MSI's new motherboards are the MEG Z390 GODLIKE, the MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon, MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Edge, the mini-ITX MPG Z390I Gaming Pro Edge, Z390 Gaming Plus, MAG Z390 Tomahawk, and the Z390-A Pro. MSI probably feels that everyone and their aunt are selling motherboards with the Gaming moniker it perfected, and wants to throw in more brand extensions to differentiate its products. The MEG brand, abbreviating "MSI Enthusiast Gaming," is top of the line, and debuted recently with the MEG X399 Creation. The MPG (MSI Performance Gaming) series is a notch below MEG, and covers the upper mid-range. The MAG (MSI Arsenal Gaming) covers the entry-mid range gaming-grade motherboards, including the popular Tomahawk and Mortar brands.

MSI positions the MEG Z390 GODLIKE as your go-to board to max out the Core i9-9900K with connectivity and features packed to the brim, combined with a strong CPU VRM setup to overclock the living daylights out of the 8-core chip. Clad in aluminium+ABS, including a back-plate, this board offers connectivity for up to five M.2 PCIe SSDs (including a riser card), a U.2 port, an HDMI streaming card that offloads your CPU for streaming, a massive 18-phase VRM that delivers HEDT-levels of current to your LGA1151 processor, and a monochrome LED display.

BIOSTAR, a leader in crypto mining motherboards, introduces two new BTC series professional crypto mining motherboards - TB360-BTC Expert and TB360-BTC PRO. Fully optimized for professional crypto mining, the TB360-BTC Expert and TB360-BTC PRO support 17 x PCI-E 3.0 and 12 x PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots respectively. Packed with features for scaling up professional mining operations of any size, the TB360-BTC Expert and TB360-BTC PRO ensure a rock-solid mining system with improved mining performance. The BIOSTAR TB360-BTC series is also the first crypto mining motherboards based on the B360 and H370 chipset, which can support 8th generation Intel Core processors.

Raijintek today announced the Ophion and Ophion EVO cases. The Raijintek Ophion and Ophion EVO are two impressive M-ITX cases that are not only affordable at just £119.99/£129.95, but more importantly offer a range of features not often seen in small form factor cases.

The Ophion and Ophion EVO can accommodate a full size 330mm GPU alongside a standard ATX power supply, with the Ophion EVO even supporting top mounted 240mm AIO coolers in a case that's just 17.4cm wide. The case itself has a brushed aluminum front panel alongside two tool-less tempered glass side panels; It also includes a full speed PCIe 16x Riser Cable.

BIOSTAR introduces the H310MHC2 and H310MHD PRO2 entry-level motherboards with a new BOS for improved performance in gaming and VR with Windows 7 compatibility. Powered by the Intel H310 chipset, the motherboards offer gamers a well-balanced set of premium features typically found in higher-end motherboards such as a high-speed 10Gb/s M.2 support (H310MHD PRO2 only), ultra-fast USB 3.1 Gen1 ports, immersive 7.1 high-definition audio and HDMI connectivity at an affordable price range.

MSI, the world-leading motherboard manufacturer, announces that MSI MEG X399 CREATION is on shelf now. MSI MEG X399 CREATION is the ultimate motherboard for creators, with design inspired by the concept of element explosion and packed with exclusive features to unleash the overall performance for incredible 32 cores CPU. This time, MEG X399 CREATION also creates incredibly OC records to highlight its maximum performance, with stunning NO.1 records on 9 benchmarks, as table shown below.

Cryptocurrency mining rig motherboards have, until now, mostly been based on the Intel platform because Intel chipsets put out more PCIe lanes than AMD ones, and because Intel's sub-$100 Pentium/Celeron chips don't have narrower PCIe connectivity from the CPU. ASRock apparently has a lot of unsold AMD X370 chipset inventory, and with the possible introduction of sub-$100 Ryzen chips that have 28 PCIe lanes from the CPU, a use-case has emerged for a mining motherboard based on this platform. We hence have the X370 Pro BTC+. The board features an AM4 socket, with out of the box support for "Pinnacle Ridge" processors. The socket is wired to just one DDR4 DIMM slot, but all eight PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots.

The topmost x16 slot runs at electrical gen 3.0 x4, while the remaining seven slots are gen 3.0 x1, taking advantage of PCIe segmentation of the X370 platform. The board draws power from three 24-pin ATX, 8+4 pin EPS, and a number of Molex outputs, although most of these power connectors are optional. A point to note here is that the D-sub/HDMI display outputs only work if an A-series "Bristol Ridge" or Ryzen "Raven Ridge" APU is used (which have fewer PCIe lanes), so you're bound to take display output from one of the 8 graphics cards. A 1 GbE interface and two USB 3.0 ports make for the rest of it.

GIGABYTE introduced an Aorus-branded, quasi-premium mini-ITX motherboard based on AMD B450 chipset, for socket AM4 processors, the B450-I Aorus Pro WiFi. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS, conditioning it for the SoC with a lean 4+2 phase VRM. The AM4 SoC is wired to two DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory; and the board's lone PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot.

Storage connectivity on the B450-I Aorus Pro WiFi includes an M.2-2280 slot with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gbps wiring; and four SATA 6 Gbps ports. USB connectivity includes six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two by headers); and two USB 3.1 gen 2 (both on the rear panel). With just 6-channel jacks, the onboard audio solution may look cheap, but is redeemed by Realtek ALC1220 CODEC. The Intel 9260 adapter is at the helm of wireless networking, with 802.11ac + Bluetooth 5.0, while GbE is handled by Intel i211AT. There's also some RGB LED fun to be had, with two 4-pin ARGB headers, and a small 8-pixel diffuser behind the PCB. GIGABYTE could price this board around $120.

The X299 MICRO ATX 2 is a reimagined mATX board designed to support the power, performance, and cooling necessary to power Intel's i5/i7/i9 CPU's for the X299 Chipset. With a 14 Phase power design, a thick VRM heatsink/fan, two 8 pin EPS power connectors, an additional 6 pin PCIe power connector, and external BCLK, this motherboard was born for the enthusiast desiring maximum power in a small form factor. The X299 MICRO ATX 2 supports current storage standards, including M.2 NVMe, Intel Optane, Intel VROC and SATA 6Gb/s to give you a blazing fast access to your data, while Intel Dual-Band WIFI/BT and an Intel i219V Gigabit NIC Keeps you connected.

MSI today announced the MEG X399 Creation, its flagship socket TR4 motherboard, with out of the box support for 2nd generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2000 processors. The company showed off this board at the 2018 Computex, held this June. Although built in the ATX form-factor, this board is recommended only for EATX-capable cases. The highlight of this board is its gargantuan 19-phase CPU VRM that's optimized for overclocking event the 32-core Threadripper 2990WX. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and an optional 4-pin Molex. Heat drawn from the CPU VRM MOSFETS is dissipated not just by a large heatsink that spans almost the entire width of the board, but also a secondary heatsink cooling the SoC phases, via a heat-pipe. The huge chipset heatsink cools not just the X399 chipset, but also three M.2-NVMe slots (two M.2-22110 and one M.2-2280). You get 4 more M.2-2280 slots over the new M.2-Xpander Aero, which is a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 riser card that converts the slot to four M.2-2280 slots with x4 wiring, ventilating them with a 100 mm fan. It ends up looking like a graphics card in doing so.

Expansion includes eight DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 2048 GB of DDR4 ECC memory; four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (full-time x16/x8/x16/x4), and an x1. Storage connectivity includes 7 M.2-NVMe slots (3 onboard, 4 via the included M.2-Xpander Aero accessory); and eight SATA 6 Gbps ports. Connectivity includes MSI's highest-grade onboard audio solution combining an ALC1220 with a headphones amplifier, and audio-grade capacitors; and two 1 GbE interfaces driven by Intel i219-V controllers (10 GbE is a notable absentee); and 802.11ac + BT 5.0 WLAN. You get 10 USB 3.1 ports on the rear panel (including a type-C port), and four USB 3.1 ports via front-panel headers). RGB LED diffusers dot the rear I/O shroud, the chipset heatsink, and the reverse side of the PCB. The board is expected to be priced around $500.

Via its support pages, AsRock has spilled the beans on at least five of their upcoming motherboards based on Intel's upcoming Z390 chipset in their Live Update & App services. The naming scheme of these motherboards is in-line with previous ASRock lineups, and there shouldn't be any confusion as to their tiering. The motherboards hence confirmed are the Z390 Extreme4, Z390 Pro4, Z390 Taichi, Z390 Taichi Ultimate, and the Z390M Pro4.

GIGABYTE has announced via a news post on its official website that it will be offering BIOS updates for its motherboards which bring support for Intel's upcoming 9000-series CPUs. Much like MSI did, GIGABYTE's engineering teams have developed BIOS updates for the Z370, H370, B360, H310 motherboards to provide the best support for Intel's next-gen CPUs - again, with no information on core-count support at all.

The newest BIOS updates are now available on the official GIGABYTE website for users to download and upgrade their systems. GIGABYTE has pledged to continue to release new BIOS updates for the best system performance and stability.

To cope better with AMD 2nd generation Ryzen Threadripper processors, which come with up to four active dies on the MCM (multi-chip module), ASUS is giving away free Cooling Kits to owners of its socket TR4 motherboards, such as the ROG Zenith Extreme, ROG Strix X399-E Gaming, and Prime X399-A. The kits include a fan bracket that lets you strap a 40 mm fan onto your CPU VRM heatsink, and a so-called "SoC heatsink," designed to cool the SoC power phase MOSFETs (which now have to cope with the load of four SoC dies). The kit for the Zenith Extreme also includes a 10 mm-thick 40 mm fan, which plugs into one of your 4-pin PWM headers. The kit will neither be included with current or upcoming inventories of unsold X399 motherboards by ASUS. Customers who need it will have to contact their local ASUS office, which will verify the purchase of their ASUS X399 motherboard, and ship their kit for free.

GIGABYTE today announced its flagship socket TR4 motherboard for AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors, with out-of-the-box compatibility with 2nd generation 32-core Threadrippers. The new Aorus X399 XTREME board is part of a new breed of X399-TR4 motherboards launched/unveiled in the past few months, with reinforced VRM to cope better with the upcoming 250W TDP 24-core and 32-core processors, such as the MSI MEG X399 Creation. A brochure of this board was leaked to the web last month, and now we see it in the flesh. Technically still an ATX board, the Aorus X399 Xtreme is slightly broader, and is recommended to be installed in EATX-capable cases. Power is drawn from a 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and an optional 6-pin PCIe power. A 10-phase VRM powers the CPU.

Expansion includes four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC/x16/NC or x16/NC/x8/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8), and an x1 slot. Storage connectivity includes three M.2 slots with gen 3.0 x4 wiring, each; and six SATA 6 Gbps ports, from which four come directly from the CPU. The onboard audio is top of the line, with an ESS Sabre DAC working the main stereo out, and a Realtek ALC1220VB handling the other 8 channels. The Sabre is slaved to the ALC1220VB, so the system only sees one audio controller. There are four network interfaces - a 10 GbE driven by an Aquantia-made controller, two 1 GbE pulled by Intel i219-V, and an 802.11ac driven by an Intel 9260 WLAN card, which also handles Bluetooth 5.0. There are 10 USB 3.1 ports at the integrated rear panel (eight running at 5 Gbps, and two at 10 Gbps, one of which is type-C). Four other 5 Gbps ports are wired internally. Of course there's the full-shebang of RGB lighting and control. Available from 8th August, the board will be priced at USD $499.99.

MSI has put up a news item announcing support for Intel's 9000 series CPUs on their Z370 motherboards. The announcement has, in the meantime, been promptly pulled, for whatever reason. Alongside the announcement for MSI's Z370 motherboards being "Optimized for Intel 9000 processors", the company released a list of 15 motherboard models in its lineup that sport the Z370 chipset which will receive BIOS updates to bring them up to speed, support-wise, with Intel's 9000 series.

Of course, there's a small hitch here: the wording in the promotional image isn't quite clear-cut in regards to exactly up to which core counts will actually be supported. The promo image speaks of "next-gen six-core CPU support", which may mean that only up to six-core, i5-tier Intel 9000 series CPUs will be supported, with the 8-core, 16-thread i9 lineup being a premium, Z390-only product. That would certainly play into Intel's usual way of doing things - they do have to justify the introduction of a new chipset, anyway. We'll have to wait and see - likely for some time, if the latest Intel roadmaps are any indication.

ASUS today announced that the ROG Strix, Prime and TUF Gaming series motherboards built on the AMD B450 chipset and supporting the latest AMD Ryzen processors are now available. AMD's Ryzen platform offers an incredible desktop compute experience with multithreaded horsepower plus accessible overclocking and gaming prowess. Earlier this year AMD launched the second-generation Ryzen family with the updated X470 chipset designed to further enhance the performance of higher-end gaming and content creation rigs. Now, AMD is launching the B450 chipset for a new generation of affordable motherboards.

The B450 is streamlined for straightforward builds and smaller form factors, and ASUS has a complete collection available now. ROG Strix B450-I and B450-F Gaming elevate the platform with signature features for serious gamers, TUF B450-Plus and B450M-Plus Gaming focus on essentials and durability, and Prime B450-Plus, B450M-A and B450M-K put a more professional face on the platform.

BIOSTAR debuts two mATX motherboards for the 1st and 2nd generation AMD AM4 Ryzen processors with the BIOSTAR B450MHC and BIOSTAR B450MH. Both BIOSTAR B450 motherboards include features found in higher-end motherboards to take full advantage of the 2nd Gen Ryzen processors. The BIOSTAR B450MHC and BIOSTAR B450MH support DDR4-1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667/ 2933/ 3200(OC), 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, 2x PCIe 2.0 slots, 4x SATA III connectors, 1 x M.2 (B450MH only), 6x USB 3.1 Gen1 (5Gb/s) ports (4 on rear I/Os and 2 via internal headers) 6x USB 2.0 ports (2 on rear I/Os and 4 via internal headers) and more.

The BIOSTAR B450MHC and BIOSTAR B450MH are built with higher-end features to keep up with gamer demands. The B450 chipset gives gamers the option to overclock the CPU to take full advantage of the full graphic settings (not usually found in mid-range motherboards). The chipset has an efficient idle power to draw less than 2W, saving power and reducing heat when not in use. The B450 also has enhanced VRM and memory routing specifications, a featured originally introduced with the X470 design.

The leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, proudly introduce the new motherboard lineup for AMD's B450 chipset, the new products improves in almost every way on its already powerful predecessor, the B350. ASRock is bringing all those improvements - and more - to users with this powerful new AMD B450 motherboard range.

ASRock's B450 motherboards are able to provide 4Kx2K (4096x2160) @ 60Hz video output via onboard DisplayPort. This means high-end monitor support will never be a problem. These boards are perfect for high resolution movie playback with movie theater quality. With 4K video, you get more vibrant, vivid detail on even the largest screens, putting you right into the action - it's almost better than being there.

GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced the release of the new B450 AORUS Motherboard series. These new models support the full spectrum of AMD Ryzen processors and boast innovative technologies including AMD StoreMI as a way to accelerate traditional HDDs to speed levels only found in SSDs. Excellence in computer experience is achieved through the use premium details such as the integrated I/O shield, next-gen Wi-Fi and USB Type-C connectivity. A new armor design highlights the contours of the AORUS falcon while providing an advanced cooling solution for one of the most critical areas of the motherboard.

With this launch, GIGABYTE is also introducing a new naming scheme for the AORUS models. It better represents model hierarchy using terminology more familiar to gamers with B450 AORUS PRO and B450 AORUS ELITE as the top options based on the B450 chipset from AMD. True optimization for all 2nd Gen Ryzen CPUs requires a robust power design and to meet all power requirements with the utmost quality, the motherboards utilize solid pins inside the power connectors.

MSI, the leading motherboard manufacturer, is proud to announce that MSI B450 motherboards are on shelf now. To satisfy all kinds of gamers and users, MSI has prepared motherboards in Performance GAMING, Arsenal GAMING and PRO Series. With more MSI exclusive features and hardware improvements, MSI B450 motherboards allow users to maximize performance and gain better gaming experiences.

According to MSI OC Lab, we are proud to achieve CPU frequency up to 5.7 GHz with three of MSI B450 motherboards. With highly optimized design and premium layout and MSI exclusive feature, Core Boost, the B450 GAMING PLUS, B450 TOMAHAWK, and B450M MORTAR all push AMD Ryzen 2600X CPU frequency rate over 5.7 GHZ by using LN2, with 5781 MHz, 5752 MHz, and 5771 MHz respectively. This is an incredible result to show that MSI B450 motherboards are perfect with higher performance.

ASUS is ready with a staggering 19 motherboard models based on Intel's upcoming Z390 Express chipset. This chipset, as you'd recall, is a re-branding of the Z370 Express with a stronger reference CPU VRM design, to cope with overclocking Intel's upcoming 8-core "Whiskey Lake" processors better. This time around, ASUS lineup is more exhaustive than its Z370-based lineup, with its top-tier ROG Maximus XI series including nearly all extensions including the Maximus XI Hero (and its WiFi sub-variant), Maximus XI Code, Maximus XI Apex, Maximus XI Formula, and Maximus XI Extreme (no Gene, though). The upper-mid tier ROG Strix series includes three ATX models: Strix-E, Strix-F, Strix-H, and the mini-ITX Strix-I, but again curiously, no micro-ATX Strix-G.

The company's mainline Prime series is relegated to just three models: Prime Z390-A, Prime Z390M-Plus, and Prime Z390-P. The cheap entry-level TUF Gaming lineup swelled to five modes: TUF Z390M-Pro Gaming, TUF Z390M-Pro Gaming WiFi, TUF Z390-Plus Gaming, TUF Z390-Plus Gaming WiFi, and TUF Z390-Pro Gaming. There's also the Z390 Dragon, designed for gaming i-cafes. Intel is reportedly launching its first 9th generation Core "Whiskey Lake" processors as early as 1st August, 2018.

Legendary soft-modder Regeneration released a vast collection of motherboard BIOS updates for socket LGA1366 motherboards based on Intel X58 Express chipset, because motherboard manufacturers have abandoned the 10-year old platform (yeah, it's been a decade since "Nehalem"!). The BIOSes have been made by transplanting the latest micro-code updates by Intel, which run all the way back to the 1st generation Core micro-architecture.

These are unofficial BIOSes which you use at your own risk, but they've been made by a person with more than two decades of fanfare in the PC enthusiast community, famous for unofficial, performance-enhancing NGO VGA drivers from his now defunct blog NGOHQ.com. Find the links to the BIOS of your X58 motherboard in this thread on TechPowerUp Forums (hosted externally).

ASUS introduced a pair of new workstation motherboards based on the new C246 chipset, designed for Xeon E-2100 series socket LGA1151 processors. These include the WS C246 Pro (ATX form-factor) and WS C246 M Pro (micro-ATX). Both boards also support 8th generation Core, Pentium, and Celeron "Coffee Lake" processors. The cornerstone of both boards is a zero-bling design that focuses on features relevant to workstations. The WS C246 Pro draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and an optional 6-pin PCIe power. An 8-phase VRM conditions power for the CPU, which is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory with ECC support. Expansion slots include two reinforced PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated), two additional x16 slots that are electrical gen 3.0 x4 and wired to the PCH; and two gen 3.0 x1 slots.

Storage connectivity on the WS C246 Pro includes eight SATA 6 Gbps, an two M.2 slots with PCIe gen 3.0 x4 wiring, each. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 gen 2 (one each type-A and type-C), and four USB 3.0 ports on the rear panel. Two USB 3.0 ports are put out as internal headers. There's also an internal type-A USB 3.0 port meant for USB TPMs and security keys. Display outputs include one each of D-Sub, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. There are two 1 GbE interfaces, both driven by Intel-made controllers. 8-channel HD audio makes for the rest of it.

A new BIOS Update is available now for the EVGA X299 DARK Motherboard which features several brand new exclusive features. This new update is further proof of EVGA's commitment to the enthusiast community, and these new features will also be standard on all future EVGA enthusiast motherboards.

Key Features of the New EVGA GUI BIOS:

• Built in CPU Stress Test - Test your CPU overclock with the click of a button from directly in the BIOS! No reboot needed.
• EVGA OC Robot - Automatically test and find a stable overclock for your system.
• Gamer Mode - Set a conservative overclock in seconds.