ASUS unveiled the Republic of Gamers Maximus V Formula motherboard, at CeBIT. Its latest bad boy is based on Intel Z77 chipset, and supports "Ivy Bridge" and "Sandy Bridge" Core processors in the LGA1155 package. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 12-phase Digi+ VRM, which takes power from one 8-pin EPS, and one 4-pin ATX, apart from the 24-pin ATX, and an optional 4-pin Molex. The VRM area of this motherboard is cooled by a heatsink that is embedded with a liquid-cooling channel that lets you plug it to your water-cooling loop. With the Ivy Bridge platform motherboards, it's really just the CPU and CPU VRM that need liquid cooling for extreme overclocking, since the Z77 PCH is just a glorified southbridge that doesn't get hot enough to break your OC.

The CPU is wired to four DDR3-DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2600+ (by OC). Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both are populated), one open-ended PCI-Express 2.0 x4 (wired to the PCH), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, also wired to the PCH), and three PCI-Express 2.0 x1. ASUS deployed a PLX PCIe 2.0 bridge chip to create more PCIe lanes for onboard devices. The board features ThunderFX audio, which consists of high-grade DAC and AMP circuitry that's ground-isolated from the rest of the motherboard. On the connectivity side, there's gigabit Ethernet and a dual-band WiFi module. Several ROG-exclusive features can also be found.

With launch of Intel's 7-series chipset a little over a month away, there's hectic activity in the PC motherboard industry, a section of which is wooing the PC enthusiast community. Among this, is ASUS, which has its Republic of Gamers Maximus V series of motherboards ready. In all likelihood, these motherboards are based on Intel's Z77 chipset, and could include three variants, Extreme, Formula, and Gene (micro-ATX). Full pictures, and previews of these motherboards are lined up for a little later this week.

Rampage IV GENE continues the legacy of Republic of Gamers motherboards by delivering gamers with enhanced performance that places a premium on fidelity and speed. SupremeFX III EMI-shielded audio guarantees better in-game sound, Intel Ethernet LAN and ROG GameFirst technology boost online multiplayer performance, while ROG Extreme Engine Digi+ II digital voltage regulation promotes improved overclocking.

The board further uses Black Metallic capacitors and NexFET Power Block MOSFETs for added durability and heat resistance. Unlike budget micro ATX boards, it supports 2-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX.

ASUS displayed its latest sound card, the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Phoebus. This card is designed for multichannel gaming audio. While it might not pack any fancy DSP that doesn't already exist, its AMP circuitry is so designed to give the best positional audio that could come handy with competitive online gaming. With this card, ASUS also brought to the fore C-Media's latest audio chipset, the CMI 8788DH Oxygen Express, which packs native PCI Express support. All PCI Express sound cards launched by ASUS so far feature OxygenHD and ASUS-rebadged AV-100 chipsets, that use legacy PCI, and hence depend on PCIe-to-PCI bridge chips by PLX to function on PCI Express.

The primary DAC for headphone/front-out channel of the ROG Phoebus is TI-BB PCM1792A, with stellar signal-noise ratio (SNR) of 127 dBA. Other main channels are handled by Cirrus Logic, probably the CS5381, with SNR of 120 dBA. There's also a tertiary Realtek ALC889 (110 dBA) CODEC that probably handles an independent set of audio channels, or handles the digital outputs, since it's licensed with a few Dolby technologies. On the AMP side, we spy bleeding-edge OPAMPs, a Texas Instruments 6120A2(?) AMP chip (for the headphones channel), etc.

Two in every three socket LGA2011 motherboards based on the Intel X79 chipset, globally, are ASUS. The company has amassed 70% global market share of X79 motherboards, according to the latest sales data given out by the company. That's not all, the same data claims ASUS globally holds 50% of the Z68 motherboard market, and 60% of the P67 motherboard market. ASUS' X79 motherboard lineup includes four models in the P9X79 series: the P9X79, P9X79 Pro, P9X79 Deluxe, P9X79 WS; three models in the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Rampage IV series: the Rampage IV Extreme, Rampage IV Formula, and Rampage IV Gene; and Sabertooth X79.

Republic of Gamers and Sabertooth aren't the only special client motherboard product lines of ASUS apart from its mainline, there's also the WS (workstation) series, that consists of motherboards fit for mission-critical environments, and which are filled to the brim with features. These motherboards are often based on chipset from Intel's client product lines, rather than enterprise ones. Intel's Sandy Bridge-E 1P platform will get a similar treatment with the P9X79WS.

Based on the ATX form-factor, the P9X79WS uses a typical X79 motherboard layout. The socket LGA2011 is powered by a 10-phase Digi+ VRM, which is cooled by a heatsink that shares its heat with a VRM heatsink cluster over the memory VRM, and the one over the X79 PCH. There are eight DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting quad-channel DDR3 memory. All expansion slots are PCI-Express long-type, though the exact lane configuration is not known. The board is advertised with 4-way NVIDIA SLI and CrossFireX support, so at least four of those slots could be wired to the CPU.

A couple of weeks ahead of its worldwide launch, Intel's much talked about "Sandy Bridge-E" Core i7 processors and compatible motherboards are beginning to surface on an online store in China. Listings include all three of the Core i7 LGA2011 processors Intel will launch in November, that includes the quad-core Core i7-3820, six-core Core i7-3930K and six-core Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition (details on the three here. Apart from these, a few compatible motherboards such as the ASUS ROG Rampage IV Extreme and MSI X79A-GD65 8D, were also listed.

Before getting into the pricing, it's important to note that prices of components in mainland China, in general, are more or less consistent with those in the US. The top-of-the-line Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition is priced at RMB ¥7,800 (converts to US $1,227). The next best LGA2011 offering, Core i7-3930K, is priced at ¥5,800 (US $912). The most afforable of the three, Core i7-3820, goes for ¥3,500 (US $550).

Here is ASUS' top of the line LGA2011 motherboard targeting the gamer-overclocker market, the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Rampage IV Extreme. This board offers all the expansion room and connectivity you'll ever need, plus a wealth of nifty features that help overclockers and ease incremental upgrades. To begin with, the Rampage IV Extreme employs a strong digital PWM circuitry that supports heavy voltage-assisted overclocking with Vdroop control.

The LGA2011 socket is wired to eight DDR3 DIMM slots (two per channel). CPU and memory VRM areas are located along three sides of the socket, all cooled by heatsinks that are connected by heat pipes. These VRM heatsinks share heat with the one over the X79 PCH, which is actively cooled by a fan.

ASUS is ready with a new PCI-Express 3.0 compliant socket LGA1155 motherboard, adding to its recently-launched line of Intel Z68 chipset-based boards that feature Gen 3.0 PCI-Express x16 slots. This latest one is part of the elite Republic of Gamers (ROG) family, and is built on the compact micro-ATX form factor, called Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen 3. This is the second modification of the Maximus IV Gene, the original was based on Intel P67 chipset, the Gene-Z replaced the chipset with Intel Z68 that supports Smart Response technology, while the Gene-Z/Gen 3 adds PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots.

The board uses a 12-phase Digi+ VRM for the CPU, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting DRAM speeds of up to DDR3-2200 MHz with overclocking. The socket is wired to two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots over Gen 3 compliant switches and electrical components, the slots configure to PCI-Express 3.0 x8/x8 when both are populated. PCI-Express Gen 3 support requires next-generation 22 nm Ivy Bridge Core processors, which will be launched next year. The only other expansion slot is an open-ended PCI-Express 2.0 x4, wired to the Z68 PCH. NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFire are supported.

Here are the first pictures of ASUS' latest gaming desktop under its premium Republic of Gamers banner, the ROG CG8565. This black beauty is sculpted with the typical "edgy" design that has been found on recent ROG products. The case has no windows, but its design is enough to be an eyeball-magnet at LAN parties. The case looks well-ventilated with its intricately-designed vents on its top and sides. The front door slides down revealing the front panel, with two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, audio, multi-format card reader, a Blu-ray ROM + DVD-RW combo drive, and a 3.5-inch SATA hard drive hot-swap bay. The ROG logo glows red when the system is powered on.

Under the hood, the ROG CG8565 is a Sandy Bridge-powered system. It is driven by an Intel Core i7-2600K quad-core processor, that's overclocked out of the box at 4.20 GHz. There are two higher OC presets that's selectable using the ROG panel, OC1 runs the CPU at 4.40 GHz, and OC2 runs it at 4.60 GHz. The CPU makes use of liquid cooling. In all likelihood, the motherboard is an ROG Maximus IV-class. There's 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1600 MHz memory.

The new ROG MARS II picks up where previous graphics card powerhouses from ASUS ROG left off, and continues the legacy of the finest hardware for hardcore gamers. The limited-edition card is built on twin NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPUs and a mammoth 3GB of GDDR5 video memory, with a proprietary ROG design that combines extreme cooling and extensive tuning facilities that cater to the most demanding power user. It also offers colossal pixel-pushing output that is unmatched by any graphics card.

Seagate has shipped its one millionth solid state hybrid drive for laptop PCs after launching the product - Momentus XT - in spring 2010. Major computer makers including Alienware, ASUS, Dell, Sony and Toshiba now offer laptops powered by the 2.5-inch drive that blends performance rivaling solid state drives with the enormous capacity and much lower cost of hard disk drives.

The Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive, a 7200RPM drive with up to 500GB of capacity, boots up to 50 percent faster than traditional 5400RPM drives and sets new benchmarks for real-world system performance for laptops and gaming systems. Seagate's Adaptive Memory technology is key to the drive's speed, optimizing its performance by moving frequently used information into the 4GB of onboard solid state memory for faster bootup and application access.

Gigabyte released pictures of G1.Sniper 2, the company's first socket LGA1155 motherboard in the G1.Killer series of motherboards designed for gamers with overclocker alter-egos (the same market ASUS Republic of Gamers targets). The board is based on the Intel Z68 Express chipset without any additional PCI-E bridge chip such as NVIDIA nForce 200. The board supports 2nd generation Core "Sandy Bridge" LGA1155 processors. The first G1.Sniper was a LGA1366 motherboard based on Intel X58 chipset.

Apart from being yet another high-end 2-way SLI/CrossFire Z68 motherboard, which Gigabyte's mainline Z68X series motherboards already achieve, the G1.Sniper 2 packs two extremely gamer-specific onboard devices: the Bigfoot Killer E2100 low-latency, high-offload PCI-Express network controller with its of dedicated memory; and Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi hardware audio with CA20K2 PCIe processor and 64 MB XRAM, backed by a high-grade Cirrus Logic DAC and OPAMP circuit, driving signal-noise ratio easily above 105 dBA with punchy bass.

TechPowerUp released the latest version of GPU-Z, our popular graphics hardware information and monitoring utility. Version 0.5.4 packs a large number of changes, beginning with faster start-up, support for the entire line of NVIDIA GeForce 500M series GPUs, new models of Intel Sandy Bridge processor graphics, a number of AMD Radeon HD 6000M series GPUs, improved support for AMD APUs, and a number of bug fixes.

GPU-Z has overcome the slow start-up issue on AMD Radeon GPUs, it loads slightly faster on NVIDIA GPUs, too. ROP count reading on AMD Radeon HD 6790, Turks & Whistler was fixed; along with sensor count on Caicos, Whistler, Turks. OpenCL detection on some NVIDIA drivers was fixed. The ability to read UMA-shared memory on AMD APU systems was added. GPU-Z has better ability to detect and warn of spurious graphics cards with faked IDs. GPU-Z 0.5.4 is available in both its standard form and the ASUS Republic of Gamers themed variant.DOWNLOAD: GPU-Z 0.5.4 | GPU-Z 0.5.4 ASUS ROG Themed

A complete list of changes with this version follows.

Continuing the success of its popular ROG MATRIX Series graphics cards, ASUS today launches the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Series. Based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU, the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Series combines a dual-fan DirectCU II thermal design and 19-phase Super Alloy Power components with instant hardware overclocking tools; TweakIt, ProbeIt and an innovative Safe Mode button. Together, with the new GPU Tweak software overclocking utility, both gamers and overclockers can now gain an undeniable performance advantage over the competition.

Recently, ASUS released the Maximus IV Extreme-Z, a variant of the Maximus IV Extreme motherboard, based on Intel Z68 chipset. The original is based on Intel P67. ASUS' premium micro-ATX motherboard, the Maximus IV Gene got the same treatment, with Gene-Z. Back when ASUS was designing its Republic of Gamers lineup for socket LGA1155, P67 was the premium discrete-graphics chipset, which was later dethroned by Z68, which gives you everything P67 does, plus access to the processor's integrated graphics (letting you use Intel QuickSync), and Intel Smart Response SSD caching technology.

The Maximus IV Gene-Z uses a design very similar to its predecessor. The LGA1155 socket is powered by an impressive 12-phase Digi+ Extreme Engine VRM, 2-phase VRM for the dual-channel DDR3 memory, supporting speeds as high as DDR3-2000 MHz. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8), supporting NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFire; and an open-ended PCI-E x4. ASUS managed to pack in two SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and connectivity that includes SupremeFX X-Fi 8-channel audio, eSATA, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and HDMI 1.4a (the lone display connector). ASUS nearly all ROG-exclusive features such as consolidated voltage measurement points, iROG, ROG UEFI, etc.

The Republic of Gamers MARS II, detailed earlier, is a new custom dual-GF110 based graphics card in the works at ASUS. Here are some of its first pictures, revealing a monstrosity that's about as long as a Radeon HD 5970, a couple of inches higher, and three slots thick. Its cooler sticks to the black+red color scheme in use with ASUS ROG products for a while now, and uses an intricate cutout design.

The shroud suspends two 120 mm high-sweep fans that blow air on to two heatsinks with highly dense aluminum fin arrays to which heat is fed by copper heat pipes. The card draws power from three 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. The card uses two NVIDIA GF110 GPUs with the same core configuration and clock profile as GeForce GTX 580, effectively making MARS II a dual-GTX 580, which also provides the overclocking headroom of a GTX 580, something impossible on a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590.

Here are the first pictures of ASUS' Republic of Gamers (ROG) MATRIX GTX 580 graphics card, this triple-slot single-GPU monstrosity is designed to humble every other air-cooled GTX 580 graphics card in the market. The card packs a NVIDIA GF110 graphics processor with high out of the box clock speeds. It is ready for overclocking and easy voltage modifications. The card features redundant BIOS ROM chips to provide a fallback if flashing the BIOS fails. Apart from one-touch BIOS selection, there are buttons on the card itself that gives you on-the-fly fan control.

The ROG MATRIX GTX 580 comes with out of the box clock speeds of 816/1632/4008 MHz (core/CUDA cores/memory effective), and packs 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory over a 384-bit wide memory interface. The card features a number of ROG-exclusive features such as iROG and fancy illuminated MATRIX logo. The card is powered by a large 19-phase VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. The beast is cooled by a large triple-slot fan-heatsink that uses two large fans to ventilate a complex heatpipe-fed heatsink. Display connectivity includes two DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. There's no word on the availability.

Here is the complete socket AM3+ motherboard first-wave of ASUS, the M5A series, short and sweet. Based entirely on AMD 9-series chipset, including 9-series southbridge chips, the first-wave caters to gamer, performance, and enthusiast market segments, and only includes those chipset models that rely on discrete graphics (leaving out AMD 980G, 990GX). The lineup even includes models from ASUS' gamer/enthusiast-oriented Republic of Gamers (ROG) family, and The Ultimate Force (TUF) family.

The lineup starts with three models based on AMD 970 + SB950 chipset, which is a single discrete graphics card platform. The M5A97 is the entry-point, it bases itself entirely on what the chipset offers, plus two USB 3.0 ports. Moving up is M5A97 Pro, which has everything its little sibling has, plus a stronger 6+2 phase Digi+ VRM, and two eSATA ports. The M5A97 EVO, which was pictured a little while ago. This has everything the Pro variant has, plus two front-panel USB 3.0 ports, and FireWire.

TechPowerUp in association with ASUSTek, today unveiled a special Republic of Gamers (ROG) edition of GPU-Z, our popular graphics hardware information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility. GPU-Z gives you a quick glance on the graphics hardware installed in your machine, and lets you monitor its vital stats such as clock-speeds, fan-speeds, voltages, and even fine details such as graphics memory usage on supported GPUs. The new GPU-Z ROG Edition is based on GPU-Z version 0.5.3, and includes a vast database of discrete GPUs.

GPU-Z is backed by our expansive video card BIOS database, and Overclock Validation system, making up for a nifty, portable application that is every GPU overclocker's companion. TechPowerUp is happy to be associated with one of the most renowned brands in the PC enthusiast industry, ASUS Republic of Gamers. ASUS Republic of Gamers is a fine selection of enthusiast motherboards and graphics cards from one of the biggest names in the hardware industry.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z ROG Edition v0.5.3

It could be curtains down for NVIDIA nForce SLI chipset for AMD platform, as the GPU giant formally announced its intentions to license NVIDIA SLI technology for use on AMD chipset-based motherboards starting from AMD's upcoming 9-series chipset. Rumors about this development started trickling in around late March. NVIDIA's public release confirms most of what was outlined in the leaked company slide in the older article, that licenses will be only offered to 9-series (and later) chipset-based motherboards, and that only those motherboard manufacturers that are licensed by NVIDIA for SLI on their Intel platform motherboards will be given licenses. NVIDIA specifically mentions ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, and MSI as qualifying partners.

The more interesting part of the release, however, was the box-art of ASUS' upcoming high-end socket AM3+ motherboard, the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Crosshair V Formula. Its salad of product logos is what is most fascinating. For one, it confirms the product name and logo of AMD's new high-end desktop processors to be "FX", as revealed by the box designs. The next logo is of Phenom II, and as we know, AM3+ gives backwards compatibility to older AM3 processors. Next up is the AMD 9-series chipset logo, another Radeon-like logo by AMD. Next to it is the logo of the moment: NVIDIA SLI, and lastly ATI CrossFireX. There is a newer rectangular logo of "AMD CrossFire" that succeeds the ATI CrossFireX logo, but maybe ASUS, like many, found it too hideous. You can probably make a better one on MS Paint.

ASUS unveiled a number of new gaming products at CeBIT in March this year, including Republic of Gamers (ROG) notebook PCs, high-performance motherboards, graphics cards, 3D monitors, router and headsets. All hold true to the ASUS promise to provide choice for everyone and complete its line-up of immersive gaming products.

The new Republic of Gamers (ROG) G Series notebooks lead the charge. Designed for hardcore gamers who want to be able to play anywhere, the G74Sx uses the latest Intel 'Huron River' Core i5 and i7 processors for outstanding performance with any application, while the latest NVIDIA enthusiast level graphics card ensure class-leading 3D performance. NVIDIA 3D Vision is supported as standard too, as is big-screen 3D output via HDMI 1.4 to a compatible display.

ASUS announced a new stereo headset for gamers under its reputed Republic of Gamers (ROG) series, the ROG Vulcan ANC (active noise cancellation). The ROG Vulcan ANC is styled with a monolithic band design, using tough plastic and high-quality leather. The signature black+red color scheme is used in combination with the ROG logo on a carbon fiber (lookalike?) plate. The headset uses around the ear cushioning which provides a level of noise reduction. This is bolstered with active noise cancellation of up to 30 dB.

The headset also packs a noise-canceling microphone. Sound is delivered by 40 mm drivers. A clip-on volume control and mic-mute gives you quick access to volume and helps keep in-game chatter clean. ASUS' ROG Vulcan ANC headset will be available soon. The company didn't give out pricing.

Leading professional gamer Fatal1ty has branded all kinds of PC hardware, including peripherals, headsets, sound cards, graphics cards, and even motherboards made by erstwhile Abit. Motherboards with the Fatal1ty branding are making a comeback, this time under the charge of ASUS. It is reported that a new manufacturer is designing some socket LGA1155 motherboards based on the Intel P67 chipset using the Fatal1ty branding. The company will show off its latest motherboards at CES 2011, which will also be the time when Intel unveils its 2011 Core processor family. Socket LGA1155 processors, coupled with Intel P67 platform is the key segment that targets gamers.

UPDATE: The board in question is made by ASRock, it's called Fatal1ty P67. It features a high-end VRM, 3-way NVIDIA SLI/CrossFire capability, a high-grade 16-phase digital CPU VRM, a unique USB port that automatically steps up polling rate of gaming mice, THX audio, four SATA 6 Gb/s, and two USB 3.0 ports. Fatal1ty detailed the board himself, in the TweakTown article linked below.

Gigabyte surprised us earlier this year, when it broke its tradition of sticking to a blue colored PCB for every motherboard it sells, by unveiling high-end socket LGA1155 motherboards with black PCBs. The next logical step is to build a premium motherboard brand targeting high-end gaming PC builds. Gigabyte does have a formidable high-end lineup, but they're known more for overclocking and tons of connectivity options.

The new brand by Gigabyte is competitive with ASUS' Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand, MSI's XPower. One of the first products is referred to as the "G1-Killer", and all but an outline of an ATX motherboard. The product range is said to start at US $299, some of the first products will be unveiled at the upcoming CES event held in January, 2011.