Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) is delighted to introduce the latest Intel based mini-ITX motherboard - ECS H67H2-I motherboard, designing to support the 2nd generation Intel Core processors and redefining home theater PC of the new era.

ECS has been very experienced and professional at Research & Development of small form factors motherboards, and we have envisioned that there will be a growing trend for HTPC. At both CeBIT & Computex exhibitions in 2010, ECS H55H-I was the first HTPC platform of mini-ITX form factor; it definitely caught visitors' attention among all similar categories. ECS H55H-I motherboard has successfully fulfilled product differentiation from the origins and ECS H67H2-I motherboard definitely will break the record in 2011. ECS H67H2-I motherboard continues carrying the advantages of space-saving, power-efficiency and surely brings much more vivid 3D visual experience as it supports amazing GPU O.C capability along with features of blu-ray HD playback and 3D gaming experience.

Super Talent displayed its first consumer SSDs based on SandForce SF-2000 series controllers. To be branded under the TeraDrive FT3 and TeraDrive CT3 series, SuperTalent's new SSDs will be available in a wide range of capacities starting from 50 GB, all the way up to 480 GB. Built in the 2.5-inch form-factor, the drives use SATA 6 Gb/s interface to support read/write speeds of over 500 MB/s, and "impressively fast random read/write speeds".

MSI let its latest motherboard for the AMD Zambezi platform face the lens. The Big Bang Conqueror is based on the AMD 990FX chipset, and features the latest AM3+ socket to connect to processors based on AMD's Bulldozer architecture. The first set of processors will feature 8 cores, 16 MB cache, and dual-channel DDR3 memory with default DRAM speeds to match bandwidth provided by slower triple-channel DDR3 memory on current Intel Core i7 LGA1366 processors.

The Big Bang Conqueror uses a 10-phase VRM to power the CPU. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory. Expansion slots include three PCI-E 2.0 x16 (electrical x16/16/NC or x16/x8/x8), one PCI-E x16 (electrical x4), two PCI-E x1, and a PCI. Storage includes six internal SATA 6 Gb/s, two eSATA. Other connectivity includes USB 3.0, gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF, and FireWire. Various overclocker-friendly features are also present.

Joining the ranks of the mighty P67 Classified and P67 SLI is EVGA's third socket LGA1155 motherboard, the P67 Micro (120-SB-E672). Based on the P67 chipset, this board provides all the features of the chipset, and also provides 2-way SLI support. The CPU socket is powered by a 4+2 phase VRM, wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory. Expansion slots include two PCI-E 2.0 x16 (both electrical x8 at all times), and two PCI-E x1.

There are two SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s, two eSATA 3 Gb/s ports. 8-channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, a number of USB 2.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and Firewire make for the rest of the connectivity. Basic overclocker-friendly features include power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons on board, along with a POST diagnostic LED display. EVGA should add this motherboard to its ranks soon.

Sapphire is readying a new performance motherboard for LGA1155 Intel "Sandy Bridge" processors, driven by Intel P67 chipset. The most distinct feature here is the LucidLogix Hydra Engine chip, which takes in the lone PCI-Express 2.0 x16 link from the processor, and gives out three PCI-E x16 slots (electrical x16/x8/x8), which lets users build a variety of 3-way multi-GPU configurations, including mix-matching of GPUs of different types and makes. The fourth PCI-E x16 slot is wired to the P67 PCH, and is electrical x4. Other slots include two PCI.

The CPU is powered by an 8-phase VRM, and memory by a 3-phase VRM. Sapphire-marked self-cooled chokes and driver-MOSFETs are used. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 3 Gb/s and three SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and one eSATA. Other connectivity features include 8-channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs, two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, USB 3.0, FireWire, Bluetooth, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. Overclocker-friendly features include redundant BIOS with manual selection, debug LEDs, power and reset switches on board.

At a time when everyone including ASUS is cramming the AMD Fusion E-350 APU into netbooks and mini-ITX motherboards to get rid of Atom; the motherboard major saw "bigger" prospects for the E-350, and designed a micro-ATX motherboard based on it. The E35M1-M Pro from ASUS uses AMD Fusion E-350 APU that embeds a dual-core x86-64 processor based on the "Bobcat" architecture with an AMD Radeon HD 6310 DirectX 11 compliant GPU. The processor is backed by the brand new Hudson M1 single-package chipset. The E35M1-M Pro is intended for everything from office PCs to home PCs, and HTPCs. It draws power from conventional 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU power connectors, and uses a 3+1 phase VRM.

The CPU and chipset share a heatsink. The CPU is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, one PCI-E x1, and two PCI slots. Storage expansion includes five internal SATA 6 Gb/s and one eSATA 6 Gb/s. Connectivity includes 6-channel HD audio with optical SPDIF output, 7.1 channel audio over HDMI, gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports, FireWire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. ASUS added a bunch of exclusive features that can let you squeeze out the most performance, and manage power consumption.

Patriot Memory displayed its latest line of consumer SSDs in the 2.5-inch form factor, the Patriot Wildfire. The SSD uses the latest SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and is available in capacities of 60 GB, 120 GB, and 240 GB. Wildfire could use any of the many SATA 6 Gb/s compliant SSD controllers out there, the most notable being SandForce SF-2582 and Marvell 9174, to provide transfer speeds in excess of 500 MB/s.

OCZ's first SSDs based on the latest SandForce SF-2000 series controllers have taken shape. The Vertex 3 EX is one of the first of this kind by the company. The Vertex 3 EX is driven by SandForce SF-2582 controller. It comes in the 2.5-inch form-factor, and uses SATA 6 Gb/s interface. Available in various capacities between 64 GB and 512 GB (usable 50 GB to 400 GB), the SF-2582 churns out transfer speeds of 550 MB/s (read) and 525 MB/s (write), double that of SF-1200 driven SSDs. The drive also provides a staggering 80,000 IOPS in 4K random write. A power-loss data protection system mechanism protects the drives from loss of data in event of power failure when data is being written.

Corsair showed off the first of its Performance 3 series solid-state drives (SSDs). The drives come in the 2.5" form-factor, and use the SATA 6 Gb/s interface. The drives are said to use a powerful processor made by Marvell, to achieve speeds in the SATA 6 Gb/s domain. Drives in the series are marked as "P3-X" (X= installed flash capacity in GB). The Performance 3 series will be part of Corsair's high-end SSD offer for 2011 and beyond.

The second motherboard part of Gigabyte's G1-Killer series apart from the recently detailed G1.Guerrilla is the G1.Assassin. Also an LGA1366 motherboard based on the Intel X58 + ICH10R chipset, the G1.Assassin ropes overclockers into the equation. While the Guerrilla has more in for gamers (and support for up to 3 graphics cards in multi-GPU), the Assassin boasts of a strong CPU VRM, an arsenal of overclocker-friendly features, support for up to four graphics cards in 4-way SLI/CrossFireX, while retaining the gamer-appeal. Unlike Guerrilla, Assassin is an XL-ATX motherboard, retaining the same green+black color scheme.

It features the same 16-phase CPU VRM configuration found on the X58A-UD7 (rev 2.0). The four PCI-Express x16 slots are connected directly to the X58 northbridge, apart from one PCI-E x1 and a PCI. USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s are standard features here, too. Like the Guerrilla, it features Bigfoot Killer 2100 hardware NIC. The audio, however, is different. While Guerrilla merely uses an HD audio CODEC backed by X-Fi MB software, Assassin uses an actual CA20K2 processor that can perform hardware mixing over OpenAL in Windows 7 and Vista. The audio processor has its own 64 MB of memory, and the Killer NIC reportedly having 1 GB of DDR2 dedicated memory. A rich array of electrolytic capacitors gives the audio a more natural tone. The Assassin is also expected to have overclocking capabilities on par with the X58A-UD7/UD9 leviathans.

Gigabyte's elusive LGA1366 motherboard part of the company's G1-Killer series of motherboards targeting gamers has finally seen the lens. The socket LGA1366 motherboard by Gigabyte is based on the Intel X58 + ICH10R chipset, and is given the brand name G1.Guerrilla. To quickly run you through its styling, "Guerrilla" strikes a chord with a very "jungle warfare" color-scheme, which is black+green. This seems to be the case with the G1.Guerrilla, which goes close to looking like an NVIDIA desktop board.

The CPU is powered by an 8+2 phase VRM, wired to six DDR3 DIMM slots for triple-channel memory; the northbridge heatsink looks like a modular rifle barrel, and the southbridge heatsink like a 5.56 mm magazine. There are three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots lending 3-way SLI and CrossFireX support, the usual two-port USB 3.0 + SATA 6 Gb/s duet, but a handful of interesting gamer-specific devices, such as the Killer 2100 hardware NIC, an HD audio CODEC that uses X-Fi MB software but high-grade electrolytic capacitors. The motherboard is out and out a gamers' motherboard. Gigabyte already has motherboards for overclockers which don't look very boutique but do the job, under its existing X58A UD5, UD7, and UD9 models.

EVGA officially announced its first socket LGA1155 motherboard, the EVGA P67 SLI. The motherboard is tailored for performance segment gaming PCs with discrete graphics, running Intel Core i5 and Core i7 "Sandy Bridge" processors. It is priced at US $199.99. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated), one PCI-E x16 (electrical x4), and three PCI-E x1. NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported.

Storage connectivity includes four internal SATA 3 Gb/s, two internal SATA 6 Gb/s, and one eSATA 3 Gb/s. Other features include 8+2 channel HD audio, two USB 3.0 ports, two gigabit Ethernet connections, Firewire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. EVGA-exclusive features for overclockers include power/reset buttons on board, diagnostic display, redundant BIOS, EVBot support, and rear panel CMOS control. The company also announced that its high-end LGA1155 motherboard, the EVGA P67 Classified, will be released a little later.

Closely trailing other, ASUS also made its AMD Brazos platform motherboard public. The E35MI-I Deluxe from ASUS is filled to the brim with features, its most significant being a completely silent passive heatsink design that keeps the system cool without eating into precious mini-ITX board space. A large monolithic heatsink covers the central portion of the motherboard, cooling both the AMD Fusion E-350 dual-core processor and the Hudson M1 chipset. It uses a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is supplied from its base by heat pipes.

The processor is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, the lone expansion slot is a PCI-Express 2.0 x16. There are five internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and an eSATA 6 Gb/s. The rear panel is an equally crowded place. There's 6-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 (two rear + two internal) and a number of USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n, optical SPDIF, and display connectivity that includes DVI and HDMI. Featuring Turbo Key II, the board can overclock the processor at the turn of a small switch. ASUS is also readying a "lite" version of this motherboard, which is likely to lack some features, such as WiFi.

MSI is ready with its motherboard based on the AMD Fusion "Brazos" platform. The motherboard major announced E350IA-E45, its first motherboard based on the platform in mini-ITX form-factor. It is intended for use on most entry-thru-mid range desktop PCs, office PCs, and HTPCs. At the heart of it is the AMD Fusion E-350 dual-core processor based on the "Bobcat" architecture. It embeds an AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics processor that is DirectX 11 compliant. The processor is aided by Hudson M1 single-chip chipset.

The processor is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots and supports up to 8 GB of memory in x86-64 mode. It is powered by a 3+1 phase VRM. The lone expansion slot is a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical 2.0 x4). The chipset gives out four SATA 6 Gb/s ports supporting high-speed SSDs and HDDs. Connectivity is aplenty: 8+2 channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF connectors, two USB 3.0 ports, ten USB 2.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and PS/2 mouse/keyboard combo connector. Display connectivity includes D-Sub and HDMI 1.4a. The MSI E350IA-E45 will ship toward late January or early February.

Intel's Desktop Board division is readying two new high-end socket LGA1366 motherboards under its Extreme Series line. The company's last high-end LGA1366 motherboard, the DX58SO "SmackOver", was released more than 25 months ago in November 2008, when the first Intel Core i7 processors came to be. The new motherboards are up to date in terms of features. They use the latest Rev. 13 X58 northbridge, all solid-state capacitors, support the latest LGA1366 processors out of the box, and feature USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s support. The two motherboards consist of DX58SO2 "SmackOver II", and its "lite" variant, the DX58OG.

The DX58SO2 uses digital PWM CPU power circuit, a sporty blue heatsink cluster over the northbridge, VRM area, and southbridge, with heat spread between the northbridge and VRM using a heat-pipe. It features six internal SATA 3 Gb/s, two internal SATA 6 Gb/s, and two eSATA 3 Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports, 8-channel HD audio, and expansion slots that include three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x16/x16/NC or x16/x8/x8), two PCI-E x1, and one PCI.

OEM major Foxconn's very own channel brand is ready with its first high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the Intel P67 Express chipset, supporting upcoming "Sandy Bridge" processors. The motherboard falls into Foxconn Channel's gamer and overclocker oriented Quantum Force brand. The Quantum Force P67 from Foxconn uses bleeding-edge components such as digital PWM offering precise voltage control for the processor, multi-phase VRM for the four DDR3 memory slots, and is rich in connectivity options.

The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 14-phase digital PWM circuit using independent single-phase PWM inductors made by CPL, and memory using a 2-phase VRM. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 with both populated), three PCI-E x1, and one PCI. Both ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI are sure to be supported. Storage connectivity includes two internal SATA 6 Gb/s, four internal SATA 3 Gb/s, two eSATA 3 Gb/s, and one ATA connector supporting up to two IDE devices.

EVGA unveiled its next enthusiast-grade motherboard, the P67 Classified. The board is designed for upcoming "Sandy Bridge" processors from Intel in the LGA1155 package, and uses the Intel P67 Express chipset. EVGA's main design goes seem to be: 1. giving the processor a strong VRM that helps with overclocking; and 2. to expand the board's PCI-Express resources using an nForce 200 bridge chip. The CPU is powered by a 12-phase VRM that draws power from two 8-pin EPS connectors. Knowing EVGA, the CPU socket is of premium-grade, with higher gold content on the pins. The four DDR3 DIMM slots are powered by a 3-phase VRM. The main ATX power connector is angled for better aesthetics.

Expansion slots include six PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x16/x8;x1;x16/x8;x8;x16/x8;x8), making the board capable for 4-way SLI. A single PCI-E x1 is tucked away on top. Connectivity includes two internal SATA 6 Gb/s, four internal SATA 3 Gb/s, two front-panel and two rear-panel USB 3.0, 8-channel HD audio, two gigabit Ethernet controllers, FireWire, and eSATA. The board supports a plethora of overclocker-friendly technologies, including EVGA's EV-Bot module. One can expect more information once Intel's upcoming processors are out.

MSI is readying a new high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the Intel P67 chipset, geared for overclocking, that features the LucidLogix Hydra Engine chip, that gives out no less than eight PCI-Express x16 slots (electrical lane configurations may vary). The Big Bang Marshall is an XL-ATX motherboard, it makes use of a strong 18-phase CPU VRM that makes use of DrMOS, solid-state chokes, and POSCAP capacitors. The four DDR3 DIMM slots support dual-channel DDR3-2000 MHz memory. The PCI-E 2.0 x16 link from the processor is wired to the Lucid Hydra chip, which controls all installed graphics card, irrespective of make and generation, and creates a multi-GPU array with it. This means that you can pair AMD Radeon graphics cards with NVIDIA GeForce ones, and can even mix and match different GPUs of the same make.

That aside, the Big Bang Marshall features four SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports, dual gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel HD audio, and tons of overclocker-friendly features such as OC Genie, consolidated voltage measurement points, and a feature-rich BIOS. The board is slated for release after Intel's early-January launch of the 2011 Core processor family, which starts off with quad-core Core i7 and Core i5 processors.

Flash storage specialist RunCore is readying a new 3.5" SATA solid state drive (SSD) that provides 1 TB of storage. The drive uses two SandForce SF-1200 controllers in internal RAID 0, the internal RAID controller makes use of SATA 6 Gb/s interface with the host, giving the drive transfer speeds of up to 500 MB/s. The two SSD units inside the drive are set to run in RAID 0, which is abstract to the host. The company is yet to finalize a release date or price.

Western Digital (WD) announced a new line of Caviar Blue line of 3.5" SATA hard drives that make use of the SATA 6 Gb/s interface. Caviar Blue strikes a balance between performance and energy efficiency, it's a middle-ground between the performance-oriented Caviar Black, and energy efficiency-oriented Caviar Green. The drive uses a spindle speed of 7200 RPM. The new lineup of Caviar Blue drives also support 4K sectors, also known as Advanced Format. The drives are available in capacities of 250 GB, 320 GB, and 500 GB, which feature 16 MB cache; 750 GB and 1 TB, which feature 32 MB cache. Fairly standard pricing which are on par with prices of existing price per gigabyte of Caviar Blue drives, can be expected.

Seagate introduced new Barracuda Green 5900.3 series high-capacity, energy-efficient hard drive models, in capacities of 1.5 TB and 2 TB. As the name suggests, these drives have spindle speeds of 5900 RPM (which is where the energy efficiency comes from), other specifications include 4K sector size (Advanced Format), 64 MB cache, and SATA 6 Gb/s interface. The Seagate Barracuda Green 5900.3 is priced at US $118.9 for the 1.5 TB model, and $149.99 for the 2 TB model.

ASUS unveiled its new workstation-grade socket LGA1155 motherboard that supports 2011-series Core i3/5/i7 processors, as well as, upcoming Xeon LGA1155 processors, the P8P67 WS Revolution. It is packed to the brim with features. To begin with, the CPU is powered by a 16+2 phase digital VRM, the socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, supporting speeds of over DDR3-2200 MHz. There are four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, supporting 3-way SLI/CrossFireX, probably using a bridge chip such as the NVIDIA nForce 200, and three PCI-E x1.

Storage features include four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and four SATA 3 Gb/s. Connectivity features include two Intel GbE controllers, 8+2 channel HD audio, two USB 3.0 ports, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. Other features include a system diagnostics card, EPU energy-efficiency processor, TurboV Processing Unit (TPU), and Quick Gate instant-on OS. ASUS will announce pricing when it most probably releases this board in January.

ASRock is known to mix and match sockets and chipsets to come up with some interesting hybrids that give users access to latest features offered by the chipset. A recent example of this is a socket 939 motherboard based on the AMD 785G chipset (read here), which gives users of socket-939 Athlons access to a fast IGP and PCI-Express 2.0. The company's latest such innovation is the P67 Transformer. This is a socket LGA1156 motherboard, it supports existing Core i5/Core i7 "Lynnfield", and Core i3/Core i5 "Clarkdale" processors, but is based on the Intel P67 Express chipset. The board gives users access to some advanced features of the P67 chipset, but won't support LGA1155 processors.

So what's in it for you? Well, the P67 PCH embeds a PCI-Express 2.0 hub compared to P55/H55, which pack an older PCI-Express 1.1 hub. The older hub is known to heavily bottleneck devices such as USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s controllers that use only a single PCI-E lane (since PCI-E 1.1 has 250 MB/s per direction bandwidth, compared to 500 MB/s on the PCI-E 2.0). So significant is this bottleneck, that some motherboard designers even used bridge chips that convert the P55's PCI-E 1.1 x4 port to two PCI-E 2.0 x1, for USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s controllers. The PCI-E x16 slots however, are wired to the processor and are Gen 2. ASRock's board hence gives you two USB 3.0 and two SATA 6 Gb/s with an alleviated bus bottleneck.

AMD's upcoming "Bulldozer" architecture based processors that use a new socket type, the AM3+, are slated for Q2, 2011. To complement its launch, AMD will be launching the 9-series chipset series, consisting of four kinds of desktop chipset. The lineup starts with the AMD 990FX, the high-end 4-way CrossFireX-ready chipset, geared for high-end motherboards. Next up, is the 990X. This discrete graphics chipset is also ready for CrossFireX, but has just 16 PCI-Express 2.0 lanes to spare for graphics, platforms based on this will feature two PCI-Express x16 slots which reconfigure to electrical x8 slots when both are populated.

The third is an entry-level discrete graphics chipset that doesn't support CrossFire, but can spare one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot for discrete graphics, it's the AMD 970. Lastly, there's the 980G integrated graphics chipset, which features a DirectX 10.1 compliant IGP, which supports UVD 2.0 video acceleration. For some reason, this chipset doesn't support older AM3 processors, but only AM3+. The other chipsets in the series however, do support existing socket AM3 Athlon II and Phenom II series processors. All four northbridge chipsets support HyperTransport 3.0 processor interconnect, supporting data rates of up to 5.2 GT/s.

ASRock unveiled its socket LGA1155 motherboard lineup in grand style, showing off eight models, including four value-thru-enthusiast grade motherboards based on the Intel P67 chipset, and four essential-thru-mainstream motherboards based on the Intel H67 chipset. The series is topped by the P67 Extreme6, which packs no less than six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four external and two internal USB 3.0 ports, three PCI-Express x16 slots, 18-phase CPU VRM making use of high-grade capacitors, and a huge set of connectivity features. Next up is the P67 Extreme4, which is a notch lower than the Extreme6, but it still gives you four SATA 6 Gb/s and four USB 3.0 ports (two external, two internal via header), the same expansion slot layout as the Extreme6, and a slightly slimmer connectivity feature set.

The two Extreme boards are trailed by mid-range ones, starting with the P67 Pro3. The P67 Pro3 has a simple layout and offers not much more than the chipset's feature-set. There are two SATA 6 Gb/s and two USB 3.0 (rear) ports, expansion slots that include just one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, three PCI-E x1, and three PCI. The CPU is powered by an impressive (for this category) 10-phase VRM. Further down the line is the P67 Pro, which is further slimmed down. It does away with USB 3.0 but retains SATA 6 Gb/s. A simpler 4+1 phase CPU VRM is used. Most other features are the same as the Pro3.