Intel's next-generation NUC (next unit of computing) compact desktop, believed to be based on the company's Core "Broadwell" processor, was spotted on the company website. Pictures reveal that the next NUC could be pocketable, yet have the computing power of a full-blown desktop. The NUC system board features some of the newer connectivity, such as DDR3L SO-DIMM slots, M.2 slots, an mPCIe slot, an additional SATA 6 Gb/s port, and processors from the Core i3 and Core i5-5000 series. Intel could unveil the next-gen NUC in January 2015, likely at CES 2015.

In what is a repeat of the design issues Intel faced with its previous X79 Express chipset, over its integrated storage controller, leading to motherboard vendors redesigning their products with fewer SATA/SAS ports than the platform is capable of, the company is facing design troubles with its already-launched X99 Express chipset, which drives its latest Core i7-5xxx "Haswell-E" HEDT platform. Intel X99 Express is based on a common silicon, on which the company's enterprise C610 chipset is also based. On paper, it features as many as ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The storage controller has its own exclusive Rapid Storage Technology driver, marked "RSTe" on Intel's Download website.

Intel withdrew version 4.1.0.1046 of its RSTe drivers (even from the list of older drivers), and made its motherboard partners do the same. Replying to German publication Heise.de, ASUS explained that the driver was withdrawn because it doesn't support ATA TRIM command for SSDs striped in a RAID 0 array. The latest driver makes only six out of ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports visible to the operating system, and you can create RAID arrays using on these six ports. The other four ports become visible as part of a separate controller, only when a device is plugged into them. This controller is recognized by Windows' internal Standard AHCI controller driver. This also means that the four ports don't benefit from the SATA power management features the first six ports do, nor can they be part of a RAID array with drives plugged to the first six ports. Intel did not respond to the Heise article.

More details emerged, of Samsung's next mainstream SSD, the 850 EVO. The drive will launch in five capacities, starting with 120 GB, and including 250 GB, 500 GB, 750 GB, and 1000 GB variants. Built in the 7 mm-thick, 2.5-inch, form-factor, with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, the drive will be based on Samsung's next-generation 3-bit 3D V-NAND chips, with an updated in-house made controller. The drive is now expected to launch some time in January, 2015. It will offer lower price-per-GB than the 850 Pro series, and slightly lower performance; targeting the mainstream market.

Patriot's upcoming line of performance 2.5-inch SSDs, the Patriot Torch, got listings on Amazon, ahead of its launch. These 7 mm-thick, 2.5-inch drives, with SATA 6 Gb/s interfaces, come in two capacities (for now), 120 GB and 240 GB. Under the hood, they feature 16 nm synchronous MLC NAND flash, and Phison PS3110 controllers. The 240 GB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 555 MB/s reads, with 535 MB/s writes; while the 120 GB variant offers 545 MB/s reads, with 430 MB/s writes. The 240 GB variant is priced at US $106.11, while the 120 GB variant goes for $66.63.

Corsair gave its SSD family a much needed shot in the arm, with the Neutron XT line of performance SSDs. Built in the 7 mm thick, 2.5-inch form-factor, with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, these drives combine a Phison PS3110 quad-core controller, with modern 19 nm Toshiba A19 MLC NAND flash chips, over an 8-channel interface. The PS3110 brings innovations to the table, such as SmartFlush, which pushes inbound data to the flash, minimizing the chance of data-loss, in the event of a power failure. Other features include native 256-bit AES encryption, with TCG Opal 2.0 compliance.

Corsair Neutron XT comes in three capacities, 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB. The 240 GB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 564 MB/s reads, with up to 547 MB/s writes. The 480 GB and 960 GB variants, on the other hand, offer up to 562 MB/s reads, with up to 542 MB/s writes on the 480 GB variant, and up to 532 MB/s on the 960 GB one. All three are rated with write endurance of 124 TB. Corsair also updated its SSD Toolbox software, with a refreshed user interface. It lets you manually optimize performance, update firmware, tweak overprovisioning, clone, erase, and monitor SMART status of the drive. Corsair didn't finalize pricing.

Gigabyte rolled out the Z97-HD3P, its entry-level socket LGA1150 motherboard based on Intel Z97 Express chipset, and built in the ATX form-factor, with a width of just 19 cm. The board goes easy on overclocking-grade features, but doesn't leave out connectivity that makes the Z97 a successor to the Z87. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, and conditions it for the CPU, with a simple 4-phase VRM. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, and a single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. Other expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), and two each of PCIe 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI.

Storage connectivity on the Z97-HD3P includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, one SATA-Express port (drawing out two 6 Gb/s ports), and an M.2 10 Gb/s slot. Display outputs include one each of D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI. The audio solution is basic, 8-channel Realtek ALC887 driven, but features audio-grade electrolytic capacitors, and PCB ground-layer isolation, to reduce electrical noise. Modern connectivity includes six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two by header). Legacy ones include COM and LPT by header, and PS/2 mouse/keyboard combo port. Expect a $100-ish price.

Apacer rolled out the AS710 TurboIII line of dual-interface SSDs in the 2.5-inch form-factor. This 128 GB drive features a conventional SATA 6 Gb/s interface, to be used as an internal drive. It can also be pulled out, its SATA interface covered with a rubber cap, and be used as an external SSD, with its USB 3.0 interface, with a single cable handling both power and host connectivity. Over SATA 6 Gb/s, the drive offers sequential transfer rates of up to 550 MB/s reads, with up to 530 MB/s writes; over USB 3.0, those speeds are up to 420 MB/s reads, with up to 380 MB/s writes. Its Random access speeds are up to 70,000 IOPS writes, with up to 50,000 IOPS reads. The drive is Windows2Go (WTG) certified, and can be used as a plug-and-play bootable device over its USB 3.0 interface. Apacer didn't announce pricing.

ECS launched the Z97I-DRONE and H97I-DRONE mini-ITX, socket LGA1150 motherboards, which it first unveiled at Computex 2014. The two are identical to each other, with the only difference being the chipset. The Z97I-DRONE supports CPU and memory overclocking. Drawing power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, the board features a 5-phase CPU VRM. The CPU socket is wired to a lone PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, and two full-length DDR3 DIMM slots. The only other expansion slot is an mPCIe 2.0 x1. Storage connectivity includes five SATA 6 Gb/s. Display connectivity includes one each of dual-link DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. Six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two by headers), 8-channel HD audio with TOSLINK SPDIF output, and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of them.

Gigabyte announced a new G1.Gaming series socket LGA1150 motherboard for gamers who don't plan on overclocking their CPUs, the G1.Sniper B6. Retaining the classic black+green color scheme, which should go well with reference-design GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards, the G1.Sniper B6 is based on Intel B85 Express chipset, and comes with out of the box support for Core "Haswell" and "Devil's Canyon" CPUs. On the flip-side, while the board features two long PCI-Express x16 slots, only one of the two is gen 3.0 x16, and wired to the CPU. The other is electrical gen 2.0 x4, wired to the PCH, instead. The board hence lacks NVIDIA SLI support.

Drawing power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, the board features an 8-phase CPU VRM. Other expansion slots include two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI. Storage connectivity includes an M.2 10 Gb/s slot, and four SATA 6 Gb/s and two SATA 3 Gb/s ports. Gamer-grade features include AMP UP onboard audio featuring an EMI-shielded 115 dBA SNR CODEC, ground-layer isolation, audio-grade electrolytic capacitors, and a user-replaceable headphones amp; and Intel gigabit Ethernet. Expect this board to be priced under $120.

WD, a Western Digital company and world leader in storage deployed for modern datacenters, today announced its innovative WD Ae line of hard drives designed for the unique operating characteristics of the emerging archive tier within web-scale datacenters. Built on a platform to achieve optimal total cost of ownership (TCO), WD Ae hard drives utilize the lowest possible power consumption and a Progressive Capacity model to enable a new tier of storage for large-scale cloud infrastructures.

"Modern datacenter customers came to us with a need for an HDD solution designed specifically for ever-expanding cold-data repositories," said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president and general manager, storage technology, WD. "Now in our third generation with over 700 petabytes deployed, WD is bringing the WD Ae drive to the broader market, representing another vital component of WD's capacity storage portfolio, which delivers features and product attributes optimized for the rapidly evolving storage market."

Samsung and the world's second solid-state drive based on 3D vertical-NAND flash technology, the 850 EVO, was spotted on marketing material, ahead of its launch. Closely trailing the company's flagship 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s drive, the 850 Pro, the 850 EVO will have lower price per GB. The drive will be based on Samsung's 3-bit (TLC) 3D V-NAND chips, and Samsung's updated triple-core processor. Given how Samsung is offering a stunning 10-year warranty with the 850 Pro, this drive could come with a similar warranty. The 850 Pro, for example, is rated with a TBW ceiling of 150 TB, double that of its predecessor.

ASUS will address the socket LGA2011-3 motherboard market with three of its brands, the gamer and overclocker-centric ROG (Republic of Gamers), the durable TUF (The Ultimate Force) brand, and its mainline brand, which features a balanced feature-set between the two. Its flagship motherboard will be the X99-Deluxe. Pictured below, this ATX motherboard is one of the most feature-rich ever built by ASUS. It draws power from 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase VRM, and the memory by a 4-phase one. The socket is flanked by eight DDR4 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16, one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), and an additional PCI-Express 2.0 x4.

Storage connectivity on the ASUS X99-Deluxe includes twelve SATA 6 Gb/s ports, one SATA-Express 10 Gb/s port, and a "standing" M.2 slot with PCI-Express 2.0 x4 physical layer. There are 14 USB 3.0 ports in all (ten on the rear panel, four by headers). Network connectivity includes two gigabit Ethernet interfaces (both driven by Intel-made controllers), 802.11 ac WLAN, and Bluetooth 4.0. The 8-channel onboard audio, dubbed Crystal Sound 2, features a high SNR DAC, audio-grade electrolytic capacitors, a headphones amp circuit, and ground-layer isolation.

AMD today announced its Radeon R7 line of mainstream solid-state drives. Built by OCZ, the drives feature Toshiba-made MLC NAND flash, and OCZ's Indilinx Barefoot 3 M00 processors. Built in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor, the drives feature SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and are available in three capacities, 120 GB, 240 GB, and 480 GB.

All three offer sequential read speeds of up to 550 MB/s; while the 120 GB variant offers up to 470 MB/s of sequential writes; the 240 GB and 480 GB ones offer up to 530 MB/s. Their 4K random read performance numbers are up to 85,000 IOPS, up to 95,000 IOPS, and up to 100,000 IOPS, respectively; while the 4K sequential write performance for all three are rated at up to 90,000 IOPS. The Radeon R7 is essentially an OCZ Vector 150 with lighter processor clocks, and could be priced accordingly.

ASRock unveiled a pair of new motherboards based on Intel's new Pentium J2900 quad-core "Bay Trail" SoC. These include the Q2900-ITX (mini-ITX) and the Q2900M (micro-ATX). Both feature the 10W J2900 chips cooled by a fan-less chunky aluminium heatsink. The J2900 features four cores, nominal clock speeds of 2.40 GHz, with 2.66 GHz Turbo Boost, 2 MB of cache, 688-896 MHz Intel HD Graphics, and a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller.

The Q2900-ITX offers two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots, a single PCI-Express 2.0 x1, a miniPCIe 2.0, two-each of SATA 6 Gb/s and SATA 3 Gb/s ports, four USB 3.0 ports, display outputs that include DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI; 8-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet. The Q2900M, on the other hand, features much of the same features, except full-size DIMM slots, an additional PCI-Express 2.0 x16 and PCIe 2.0 x1 slots; and 6-channel HD audio instead of 8-channel.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today launches the industrial grade ISSS312 2.5" SATA III (6 Gb/s) Solid State Drive. It features low power consumption, industrial grade S.M.A.R.T. and power loss protection (PLP) for excellent performance and reliability. It also provides MLC, A+ SLC, SLC grades and wide temperature to meet the upgrade requirements of industrial equipment and enterprise devices.

MLC/A+ SLC/SLC solutions for various applications
Since storage applications are rapidly changing, the concepts of consumer digital lifestyles and the Internet of Things (I.O.T.) are developing, and web applications and technology are growing sharply, the industrial equipment and enterprise platforms need more powerful data computing capability, real-time transfer rate and high I/O throughput to cope with future trends.

Gigabyte rolled out its latest entry-level socket LGA1150 motherboard in the mini-ITX form-factor, the H81N-D2H. Based on the Intel H81 Express chipset, the board takes in Core "Haswell" and "Devil's Canyon" processors (minus the overclocking support). The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU power connectors, with a 3-phase VRM conditioning power for the CPU. The CPU socket is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, and a legacy PCI slot. Storage connectivity includes two each of SATA 6 Gb/s and SATA 3 Gb/s ports. Display outputs include one each of dual-link DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. PS/2 on the rear panel, LPT and COM (by headers), make up legacy connectivity. Two USB 3.0 ports, and four USB 2.0 ports make up modern connectivity. 6-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of it. The board is driven by UEFI BIOS.

ADATA Technology Co., Ltd., is honorably invited by Intel as a strategic partner to the Grantley New Platform Workshop. During the 4 day event taking place on June 24th & 25th in Hillsboro, Oregon and July 9th & 10th in Hudson, Massachusetts, ADATA will proudly demonstrate the latest DDR4 server DIMMs, DDR3 LR-DIMMs, and complete product line of 2.5" SSDs and PCIe SSDs. One of the primary showcases will be server grade DDR4 R-DIMMs supporting the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 series with the features of up to 16 GB density, 1.2V low power consumption, and maximized 2133 MHz high speed transmission. ADATA's DDR4 product line includes DDR4 RDIMMs, VLP R-DIMMs, LR-DIMMs, and ECC SO-DIMMs.

In-memory computing stores data on memory chips rather than hard drives removes any performance bottleneck caused by traditional storage. ADATA DDR3 LR-DIMMs 64GB and R-DIMMs 32GB (with Invensas DFD technology) support In-memory computing with high capacity and outstanding performance. In Intel New Platform Workshop, ADATA will demonstrate DDR3 LR-DIMMs, which deliver up to 64GB capacity for Intel Xeon processor E5 V2 family-based servers, and increase total memory capacity by up to 1.5 TB to fulfill In-Memory Computing application.

The consumer SSD market could witness a price-war, with leading manufacturers spooling up production, according to industry sources. NAND flash chip supplier Micron Technology reportedly reduced supplies of its chips to other manufacturers, in a possible bid to increase production of consumer SSDs bearing its own channel brand, Crucial Memory. The company plans to double shipments of Crucial-branded SSDs quarter-over-quarter. Elsewhere, Kingston Digital ramped up SSD shipments to 600,000 units a month, to step up competition against SanDisk and Samsung.

SSD makers are likely to take advantage of the entry of M.2 standard in the consumer space, with the introduction of Intel's 9-series chipset. M.2 offers 10 Gb/s of interface bandwidth (physical layer PCI-Express 2.0 x2), and some non-standard implementations are wired to offer even 20 Gb/s (physical layer PCI-Express 2.0 x4). M.2 slots feature SATA 6 Gb/s wiring in some onboard implementations, which could pave the way for M.2 replacing 2.5-inch SATA as the highest selling SSD form-factor, in the near future.

Alongside an updated desktop CPU roadmap, Intel posted an updated consumer SSD roadmap at its 3D Revolution 2014 presentation in Rome. It reveals the company's next-generation consumer SSD series, codenamed "August Ridge," and branded SSD 750 series. Targeting both the "consumer" and "professional" (≠ enterprise) market segments, the SSD 750 series comes in three form-factors, 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb/s, mSATA 6 Gb/s, and M.2 (likely PCIe 2.0 x2 link layer). The series will sell in most popular sub-terabyte capacities, and will be based on the company's 20 nm MLC NAND flash. We have no reason to believe Intel will discontinue using SandForce-made processors in its consumer SSDs. Intel's SSD 750 series "August Ridge" is slated for Q4-2014.

The Pentium brand is so important for Intel, that it continues to exist, and the company celebrated its 20th anniversary by launching a special edition dual-core socket LGA1150 Pentium chip that comes with unlocked multipliers. Trouble is, people who buy it would have to opt for expensive motherboards just to overclock it, and would rather balance their expenses with Core i3 and cheaper motherboards, instead. To address that, and bring a bottle to Intel's celebrations, ASRock launched the Anniversary series, with the ATX Z97 Anniversary, and the micro-ATX Z97M Anniversary. As their names suggest, the two are based on Intel's overclocking-ready Z97 Express chipset. The idea behind the two could be to combine the Z97 chipset with a basic VRM that's just about enough to push the Pentium Anniversary Edition chip to its limits.

The Z97 Anniversary is a highly space-optimized ATX motherboard. It draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and 4-pin Molex power connectors. It uses a 5-phase VRM to condition power to the CPU, cooled by a heatsink. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, and the lone PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. Three PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and two legacy PCI make for the rest of its expansion. Storage connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Networking is care of an Intel-made gigabit Ethernet controller. The onboard 6-channel HD audio is handled by an ALC887 CODEC, but backed by electrolytic capacitors. HDMI is its only display output.

Galaxy unveiled its Captain line of mSATA and M.2 SSDs. Both the Captain-mSATA and the Captain-MAC (M.2) are based on a JMicron-made controller, with Intel-made MLC NAND flash. Both the Captain-mSATA and Captain-MAC come in capacities of up to 256 GB, offering sequential speeds of up to 520 MB/s reads, with up to 275 MB/s writes. Their 4K random read performance is rated at 72,000 IOPS, and 4K random writes at 70,000 IOPS. It's important to note here, that the Captain-MAC may feature an NGFF interface, but runs on a SATA 6 Gb/s link layer. It's one of the many examples of M.2 SSDs that have crept into the industry, with such an interface.

After its Chaintech deal, Coloful acquired a great deal of ingredients need to build a motherboard lineup. The company took the battle to the top (high-end), by launching three new high-end socket LGA1150 motherboards, all based on Intel's latest Z97 Express chipset. The lineup begins with the Battle Axe Z97 X5; moves on to the Battle Flag Z97 X5; and is led by the iGame Z97 Ymir.

The Battle Axe Z97 X5 offers a 9-phase CPU VRM, four DDR3 DIMM slots, one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, one PCI-Express 2.0 x4 (physical x16), two legacy PCI, and a PCIe 2.0 x1 making up the expansion area; five SATA 6 Gb/s, and one M.2 making up the storage connectivity; four USB 3.0 ports; DVI + D-Sub + HDMI display connectivity; 8-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet. The Battle Flag Z97 X5 tops that up with a similar CPU VRM, but two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 when both are populated), six SATA 6 Gb/s, an M.2 in addition to an mSATA 6 Gb/s; and 8-channel HD audio with ground-layer isolation. Leading the pack is the iGame Z97 Ymir, with a strong 17-phase CPU VRM, three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x8/x4/x4 when all three are populated), eight SATA 6 Gb/s and one mSATA, but a surprising lack of M.2; Killer E2200 NIC, and 8-channel HD audio.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices, today announced that its SM2246EN SATA (6 Gb/s) client SSD controller now supports Micron's 16 nm 128 gigabit (Gb) MLC NAND flash, ideal for high performance, high capacity SSD solutions up to 1 Terabyte.

SM2246EN offers the best performance and power combination of four channel SATA 6 Gb/s client SSD controller in the market, delivering even better performance than most 8-channel SSD controllers with substantially lower power consumption. Using Micron's 128 Gb 16 nm MLC NAND, the SM2246EN delivers up to 538 MB/s sequential read performance and 450 MB/s sequential write, as well as up to 67,000 random read IOPS and 65,000* random write IOPS. In addition, with Micron 128 Gb 16 nm MLC NAND, the SM2246EN delivers ultra-low power consumption, equating to about 30% lower than the average power consumption of other SSD controllers.

ECS showed off its newest mini-ITX socket LGA1150 motherboards based on Intel's 9-series chipset, and branded in its 1337 series, the Z97I-DRONE and H97I-DRONE. Based on a common PCB, the two differ with just the Z97-based one supporting CPU overclocking. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, conditioning it with a 6-phase CPU VRM. Expansion includes one PCI-Express 3.0 x16. Storage connectivity includes five SATA 6 Gb/s, and one M.2 (up to 60 mm). 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, and display outputs including dual-link DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort, make for the rest of it.

MSI unveiled its first socket AM3+ motherboard bearing its coveted Gaming Series badge, the 970 Gaming. Based on AMD 970 chipset with SB950 southbridge, the board offers most modern gaming features for the AM3+ platform. It supports FX "Vishera" eight-core processors. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, and features a strong 8-phase CPU VRM that's cooled by a massive heatsink. The AM3+ socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2400 MHz memory.

Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both are populated), and two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI. Storage connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. There are four USB 3.0 ports on offer. Things get interesting with its Qualcomm Killer E2200 gaming-optimized wired NIC, the same one featured on its flagship Z97 Gaming 9 AC; and Audio Boost HD audio, which features a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, ground-layer isolation, a 600Ω headphones amp, electrolytic capacitors, and gold-plated jacks. MSI didn't disclose pricing.