ASUS showed off a unique motherboard concept part of its Republic of Gamers series, the ROG Immensity. This socket LGA-1366 motherboard comes with onboard graphics, using a discrete ATI Radeon HD 5000 series GPU with dedicated GDDR3 memory. While the Intel X58 Express + ICH10R chipset are very much there, the X58 is wired to a Lucid Hydra Engine chip, which drives both the PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots. It is probably also connected to the ATI Radeon GPU, giving users the ability to stay connected to the on board GPU, while 3D graphics is accelerated from any graphics card plugged in to the PCI-E slots, of any make, and in any combination (including NVIDIA + ATI). The Hydra chip handles the load-balancing between the GPUs depending on their computation power and features available.

Apart from this unique feature, the ROG Immensity is designed for extreme overclocking, making use of an 8-phase PWM circuit with additional stabilizers and power conditioning using super-ML capacitors. Memory is powered by a 6-phase PWM circuit with its own power-conditioning super-ML capacitor. All ROG-exclusive features such as iROG and ROG-Connect are present. Connectivity features include SATA 3 Gb/s RAID, two SATA 6 Gb/s ports, USB 3.0, Bluetooth, gigabit Ethernet, and 8-channel audio. Four PCI-E x1 slots make for the rest of the expansion. For now ASUS chooses to call this a concept design, so it's uncertain whether it will release it to market any time soon.

VIA demonstrated a dual-core variant of its Nano processor. With tiny board and power footprints, Nano is designed to be a competitive processor to Intel's Atom. The processor was displayed on a working demo platform. Although the chip in the demo system was built on the 65 nm manufacturing node, the final product will be built on 45 nm. The dual-core Nano runs at 1.60 GHz, with an FSB of 800 MHz. It is paired with the VIA VN1000 Digital Media chipset, that has a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller which supports DDR3 1066 MHz memory, and S3 Chrome 520 graphics that is DirectX 10.1 compliant. The Chrome 520 claims to pack enough power for 1080p Blu ray playback, and the Aero UI, while giving multiple connectivity options that include DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.

Also located in the VN1000 is the PCI-Express 2.0 root complex, which gives out one PCI-Express 2.0 x8 and four PCI-E 2.0 x1 links. The southbridge packs all the bare essentials, including a 4-port SATA 3 Gb/s and IDE storage controller. Gigabit Ethernet and HD audio will also be part of the package. VIA expects the Nano dual-core to feature in nettops, netbooks, and ULPCs, especially for cloud computing.

EVGA is ready with a large full-tower case and power supply that's tailor-fit for the Classified SR-2 dual-socket LGA1366 motherboard, both carrying the Classified SR-2 brand markers for easy identification. The SR-2 case is larger than XL-ATX and EATX. Its motherboard tray is as wide as EATX, while being as long as XL-ATX. It has 10 expansion slots, 7 internal 3.5"/2.5" drive bay trays, 5 larger 5.25" trays, and holes punched out in the motherboard tray at the right spots to help manage CPU coolers for both the sockets better, and help with cable-management.

On its front-panel (located on the top), apart from the usual power, reset, and basic LEDs, there is also a system diagnostic LED display which takes input directly from the motherboard's system management module. A pop-up panel holds four USB, audio, FireWire, and eSATA ports.

OCZ Technology is ready with a new PCI-Express SSD that harnesses the power of SandForce SSD processors. Called the RevoDrive, the drive's design is based around placing two SF-1200 driven SSDs onto an addon card, connected to a RAID controller, which connects to the system bus over PCI-Express x4. The internal RAID 0 volume can stay abstract to the host. It is expected to be bootable.

The drive makes use of Multi Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash chips, and can churn out transfer rates of 540 MB/s read and 490 MB/s write. It will be available in capacities of 120 GB and 240 GB, which will be priced at around 433€ and 757€, respectively. Although SandForce driven SSDs are popular for their high-performance and TRIM support on Windows 7, when working in RAID, the TRIM feature is said to not work in RAID. This means that the RevoDrive is as good as any two SSDs in RAID 0.

Netstor Technology today introduces its added external PCI Express expansion box series to its product line - the TurboBox-mini NA220A, a compact external PCI Express enclosure for ease-of-adding one extra PCI Express card to a laptop, desktop PC or server. Netstor once again demonstrates its dedications in bringing complete and cost-effective PCIe expansion solutions to its customers worldwide.

The portable, aluminum housing form factor of NA220A at case size of 254x198x58 mm (D.W.H.) is designed with a PCIe x16 connector and double width space that allow users to install their single or double width standard height PCI Express cards. Netstor's host adapter is now ready for the PCIe 2.0 specification, hence offering a double bandwidth of 20 Gb/s. Backward PCIe 1.0 is also compatible for a bandwidth of 10 Gb/s.

ECS is ready with a low-cost ATX motherboard based on the upcoming AMD 880G chipset, the ECS A880GM-A2. The board uses a PCB nearly identical to that of the ECS IC890GXM-A, except for the skimpier heatsinks. The board features a simple 3+1 phase VRM which can power AM3 processors, including the Phenom II X6, with TDPs of up to 125W. Solid-state capacitors are used only for some important circuits. The 880G chipset embeds an ATI Radeon HD 4250 IGP, with 128 MB of DDR3 SidePort Memory. It supports dual-channel DDR3 memory, with speeds of up to 1600 MHz.

Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, one PCI-E x16 (electrical x4), two PCI-E x1, and two PCI. The SB850 southbridge gives out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, of which five are internal, and one eSATA. Connectivity options include 8-channel audio, gigabit Ethernet, eSATA and USB 2.0. Display connectivity includes DVI and D-Sub. It is expected to be released next week, at an affordable price.

Gigabyte's upcoming extreme high-end motherboard that made news for being the foundation of some world-record overclocking feats based on the Core i7 980X EE processor, the GA-X58A-UD9, has finally faced the lens. The picture reveals a beastly-looking socket LGA-1366 motherboard featuring a very strong VRM and full-on PCI-Express connectivity. The CPU is powered by what appears to be a 24-phase VRM, which draws power from two 8-pin connectors. It is wired to six DDR3 DIMM slots for triple-channel memory.

The heatsinks over the CPU VRM are connected to the those over the chipset with heatpipes, the heatsink over the X58 chipset has a fusion cooler which can provide water-cooling, as well as attach to a Silent Pipe heatsink block. The heatsink over the ICH10R southbridge is about as big as the ones on the UD5, Extreme, and UD7 models. We expect there to be one or two nForce 200 bridge chips over the two x16 links from the X58 chipset, giving out a total of four x16 links. All 7 expansion slots are PCI-Express x16, looking at the three blocks of external PCI-E lane switches, there indeed are three x16 links split between six slots, and the 7th being a full x16 slot. So the electrical configuration could be x16/x8, x8, x16/x8, x8, x16/x8, x8, x16, for the seven slots.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), announces the Company's plan to enter mass production of the Z-Drive R2 Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, the second rendition of the original Z-Drive family. The Z-Drive R2 builds on the existing solution but provides greater performance and design flexibility due to the implementation of a series of optimized NAND modules.

"Our 4th generation PCIe SSD, the Z-Drive R2, tackles the performance challenges facing enterprise IT professionals head-on" said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "The Z-Drive R2 is a total solution that delivers exceptional performance over a wide of range of applications due to its superior sequential performance, making it a winner in both high IOP and high-throughput environments. In addition, it is the only bootable and field serviceable PCIe SSD option on the market today, and due to an innovative interchangeable module design, it enables low cost field upgradability and capacity increases giving storage architects unprecedented flexibility."

ASUS is readying one of its first motherboards based on the AMD 880G chipset, the M4A88TD-V EVO / USB3. This model comes in two variants, with or without USB 3.0 support, designated with the -USB3 suffix in the model name. It is a socket AM3 motherboard, supporting the upcoming line of Phenom II X6 and Phenom II X4 T series processors. The CPU socket is powered by a 10-phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory. Even as ATI CrossFire is not part of the 880G's feature-set since it won't support an external PCI-Express lane switch like the 890GX, ASUS found a way around and provided a second PCI-Express x16 slot, only that this one is electrical PCI-Express 1.1 x4, wired to the SB800 southbridge chip.

The 880G embeds an ATI Radeon HD 4250 IGP with 128 MB of DDR3 sideport memory. It connects to its display with DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. The board supports ASUS' Core Unlocker feature that attempts to unlock disabled cores on some processors. Other expansion slots include one PCI-E x1, and three PCI. The southbridge gives out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, five of which are internal, and one eSATA. An additional VIA-made controller drives an IDE connector. Other connectivity options include a number of USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports on the USB3 variant, 8-channel HD audio, FireWire, and gigabit Ethernet. The new boards will be released in a few weeks' time, probably targeting the sub-$150 price points.

EVGA just released two of its most indigenous designs that marks a complete evolution from being a reference-design products vendor to an enthusiast-grade hardware giant: the much talked about EVGA Classified SR-2 dual-LGA1366 enthusiast-workstation motherboard, and power supply unit (PSU) tailor-made to suit systems based on the SR-2 motherboard. To begin with, the Classified SR-2 motherboard is a dual-LGA1366 motherboard supporting two dual-socket capable Intel Xeon E5500 series, and X5600 series quad-core and six-core processors. It is based on Intel's enterprise-grade 5520 chipset with ICH10R southbridge.

The Intel 5520 supports two QuickPath Interconnect paths to each of the sockets, which in turn can communicate with each other. Since each socket (processor) has its own triple-channel DDR3 memory controller, it has its own six DDR3 memory slots. The 5520 gives out two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 lanes which connect to two NVIDIA nForce 200 chips that give out two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 links each. With external x8 switching thrown into the mix, the motherboard manages a staggering seven PCI-Express x16 slots.

OEM major Foxconn made additions to its own channel brand of motherboards with two Digital Lifes series models based on the AMD 890GX chipset, supporting socket AM3 processors. The nearly identical Foxconn Digital Life A9DA-S and A9DA (pictured in the same order below), are ATX boards building on the features the chipset provides. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase VRM. The AMD 890GX embeds an ATI Radeon HD 4290 class IGP with 128 MB (+UMA) SidePort memory and connectivity which includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI.

Expansion slots include two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8 when both are populated), PCI-E x1, and PCI. The SB850 southbridge gives out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Other standard features include 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The A9DA-S is the more premium variant, it has a heatsink over the CPU VRM, and a VIA 2-port FireWire controller. The two should be available in stores soon.

Auzentech, Inc today announced the immediate release of the Auzen X-Fi Bravura 7.1 sound card, a full-height, custom designed PCI Express sound card built around the Creative PCI Express audio processor. The Auzen X-Fi Bravura 7.1 promises "breathtaking" audio for music and movies with DTS Neo:PC & DTS Interactive. And when it's time to unwind with your favorite PC Game, you won't be left behind with EAX 4.0.

Below are the Auzen X-Fi Bravura 7.1 sound card Key Features, Innovations, and some inside information on how Auzentech designed the card for optimal performance with both Digital and Analog audio.

HighPoint Technologies - an innovative host-based RAID controller manufacturer is introducing the RocketRAID 620 Series- the industry's first SATA 3.0 host adapters with RAID 5 capability. The 620 series will double the data rate from 3Gb/s to 6Gb/s for high bandwidth PC applications, gaming, digital video and audio, video streaming and graphics applications.

The two members of the RocketRAID 620 Series - RocketRAID 620 (MSRP $69.99) and RocketRAID 622 (MSRP $79.99) will ship mid January 2010. These premier RAID host adapters are based on PCI-Express Gen 2 host interface technology and are designed to optimize storage performance and redundancy with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD. User friendly features include hot plug and hot unplug to add or remove storage devices; and OCE/ORLM to expand storage capacities or migrate to different RAID levels.

Two of ECS' upcoming motherboards based on AMD's 890GX+SB800 chipset, supporting socket AM3 processors have been pictured: the A890GXM-A Black Series, and the IC890GXM-A. The two are ATX motherboards which build slightly on the chipset's features on offer.

The A890GXM-A Black Series is the higher-end part aimed at overclockers and performance users. It has an elaborate heatsink that covers the 890GX northbridge and CPU VRM area, which makes use of a heatpipe for uniform heat dissipation. It is marked with "Six Core CPU Support", indicating that it is ready for AMD's upcoming "Thuban" six-core desktop processor. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots to support dual-channel memory. DDR3 memory with speeds over 1800 MHz are supported by overclocking.

To build on the popularity of its NVIDIA ION based nettops, ASRock plans to release a new Intel Atom + NVIDIA ION motherboard based on the mini-ITX form factor, in 2010. The motherboard will be one of the first of its kind, with a stronger memory sub-system. The NVIDIA ION chipset will drive dual-channel DDR3 1066 MHz memory. The board makes use of dual-core Atom 330 processor which is passively cooled, while the NVIDIA ION chipset is cooled actively. The chipset embeds DirectX 10 compliant NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics. It gives out four internal SATA 3 Gb/s ports and two Power-eSATA (eSATA+USB combo) ports making use of all its ATA channels. The lone expansion slot is a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (full-bandwidth).

ASRock-exclusive features include Dura-Cap Japanese solid-state capacitors, Instant Boot, Instant Flash, OC DNA, and Night LED. Connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio with optical SPDIF driven by VIA VT2020 CODEC, gigabit Ethernet, six external and four internal USB 2.0 ports, and display connectivity which includes DVI-D, D-Sub, and HDMI. While the motherboard supports up to 4 GB of memory, the graphics processor supports full-HD display resolutions including smooth playback of HD video. It passes Windows 7 compatibility. ASRock is yet to reveal pricing and availability.

Taiwan-based company InnoDisk announced the Matador II series of PCI-Express solid-state drives. Suited for enterprise applications, the Matador II delivers read speeds of 800 MB/s with write speeds of 600 MB/s. A PCI-Express x8 interface is used to connect to the system, providing the necessary interface bandwidth. Storage capacities on offer range from 128 GB to 2 TB. The company hopes to sell as many as a million units next year, though pricing for these hasn't surfaced as yet.

EVGA expanded its lineup of socket LGA1156 motherboards, this time with the entry-level EVGA P55V. This micro-ATX motherboard provides the bare essentials for the platform, but surprisingly doesn't leave out PCI-Express external switching that provides two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots at dual x8 bandwidth, and with it, SLI support. The already lean PCB has a 4-phase (2+2) CPU VRM, with four DDR3 DIMM slots next to it. Expansion slots include two PCI-E x16 (x16, NC, or x8, x8 depending on how they're populated), and two PCI-E x1. One out of the six SATA 3 Gbps ports from the P55 PCH is assigned as an eSATA port, it neighbours the 8-channel audio connector cluster, four USB 2.0 ports, and an RJ-45 for the gigabit Ethernet. It is priced at US $120.

Vantec Thermal Technologies, a worldwide leader specializing in computer accessories announces four new products utilizing the new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface including two hard drive enclosures-one for each form factor, a PCI-Express card and an ExpressCard/34 adapter.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is the next generation bus interface offering transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps (625Mbps) and it is fully backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1. The new 2.5" and 3.5" enclosures will be based off of Vantec's popular NexStar 3 Hard Drive Enclosures and will be initially available in Onyx Black and boast a mirror finish.

ASUS slipped in no less than three value micro-ATX motherboards based on the AMD 760G + SB710 chipset. Two of these, the M4A78L-M LE, M4A78L-M use socket AM2+ to connect to existing AM3 and older AM2(+) processors supporting DDR2 memory, while a third one, the M4A78LT-M LE uses AM3 socket to support AM3 processors and DDR3 memory. All three feature ASUS exclusive features such the EPU (energy processing unit), ExpressGate instant-on OS, and a 'Turbo-key' push-button overclocking feature. All three are to an extant similar, in having two DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, one each of PCI-Express x16, x1, and two PCI, and have an ATI Radeon HD 3000 class IGP.

The differences start with the M4A78L-M LE and M4A78LT-M LE being more office-oriented, with display connectivity being confined to D-Sub, or DVI, presence of legacy serial and parallel ports, a simpler 6-channel audio, and 4-phase CPU VRM, while retaining essential connectivity of the southbridge, including six SATA 3 Gbps ports, and one IDE connector for running two ATA devices. The M4A78L-M is slightly more consumer / home-user oriented, with better display connectivity that includes D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI, 8-channel audio with optical SPDIF output, and a slightly more powerful 4+1 phase VRM. The M4A78L-M LE, M4A78L-M and M4A78LT-M LE are priced at £42.42, £47.87 and £51.68, respectively.

OCZ Technology has perhaps the most diverse solid-state drive portfolio, which includes 1.8" and 2.5" internal SATA 3 Gb/s SSDs - with SLC, and MLC NAND flash technologies; 3.5" SSDs, bootable PCI-Express SSDs, and even eSATA based ones. While SSDs utilizing SATA 6 Gb/s are very predictable in the near future, the company already has plans to unveil an external, portable SSD that utilizes the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface, at the upcoming CES 2010 event. With over 4 Gb/s of interface bandwidth at its disposal, it can also be expected of the drive to be powered entirely by the USB port. A concept design is already in place.

Come Q1 2010, and Intel will be expanding its socket LGA-1156 platform with dual-core processors, and processors with on-die graphics. Along with these, Intel will be releasing the H57 Express chipset which supports the Flexible Display technology which handles the connectivity for the processors' on-die graphics. Motherboard vendors seem to be ready well ahead, and the second such company with a product on display is MSI, with its H57M-ED65. This motherboard is based on the micro-ATX form-factor, and builds on the chipset's features, while also appearing to be enthusiast-friendly.

The CPU is powered by a lavish 10-phase VRM with elaborate heatsinks over the DrMOS chips. It completely does away with PCI, and features only PCI-Express slots. There are are two PCI-Express x16 slots (electrical x16, x4), and two PCI-Expres x1 slots. Apart from the six SATA 3 Gb/s ports the chipset provides, an additional storage controller provides two more SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and an IDE connector. The board makes full use of the Flexible Display technology, providing DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort as display connectivity options. A number of USB ports, PS/2, gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel audio with optical SPDIF, eSATA, and FireWire make for the rest of the rear-panel. Its enthusiast-friendliness is further vindicated by the presence of the OC Genie feature, on the fly base clock controls, and power/reset buttons onboard. Expect this to feature in the company's first wave of H57 motherboards.

NVIDIA Corporation today unveiled the Tesla 20-series of parallel processors for the high performance computing (HPC) market, based on its new generation CUDA processor architecture, codenamed "Fermi".

Designed from the ground-up for parallel computing, the NVIDIA Tesla 20-series GPUs slash the cost of computing by delivering the same performance of a traditional CPU-based cluster at one-tenth the cost and one-twentieth the power.

Following Intel's launch of the new socket LGA-1156 platform with quad-core Intel Core i5, Core i7 "Lynnfield", and the P55 Express chipset to drive the platform, Intel is preparing to drop another chalk in Q1 2010, with dual-core socket LGA-1156 processors that use the Core i3 and Core i5 brand identifiers. A feature unique to these processors is the integration of a graphics controller into the processor package. On the platform side, core-logic must support the Intel Flexible Display technology, which handles connectivity for that graphics controller. The chipset which will drive this would be Intel's upcoming H57 Express chipset, codenamed "Eagle Lake".

Motherboards based on the H57 chipset typically feature display connectors such as DVI, D-Sub, or HDMI. While intended to cover the mainstream segment, H57 can also be used to drive high-grade motherboards, as is shown by ASUS with its newest motherboard based on the chipset - the P7PH57D-V EVO. The ATX motherboard resembles the P7P55D Deluxe in many design aspects. It supports all the high-end features its cousin does, including support for SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 along with full-bandwidth PCI-Express 2.0 interfaces for the controllers.

ECS is jumping the USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s bandwagon with two PCI-Express expansion cards for each kind of connectivity. The cards use popular controllers NEC µPD720200 for USB 3.0 and Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 for SATA 6 Gb/s. While the USB 3.0 card provides both its ports on the rear-panel, the SATA 6 Gb/s card holds one internal SATA 6 Gb/s port, and one eSATA 6 Gb/s. Currently there is no word on the availability or price of the two. These cards follow similar offerings from the likes of ASRock and ASUS.

I-O Data released a trio of products circled around the new USB 3.0 SuperSpeed standard. The first being the HDJ-UT external hard drive that supports USB 3.0, and then expansion cards that provide USB 3.0 support to PCs, desktops and notebooks alike: the USB3-PEX PCI-Express x1 two port low-profile addon card, and USB3-EXC ExpressCard 34 card. The HDJ-UT comes in capacities of 1 TB and 1.5 TB, and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 systems. When connected using USB 3.0, it offers read speeds of up to 139 MB/s. The HDJ-UT external HDD is priced at US $231 (1 TB) and $279 (1.5 TB), while the USB3-PEX and USB3-EXC are priced at $69 and $93, respectively.