Details are out on yet another Z77 based board coming to market; the Z77H2-A3 from ECS which caters to the more budget focused crowd. A couple "Black Extreme" series boards in the Z77H2-AX and Z77H2-A2X were spotted from the vendor at CeBIT yesterday, but the Z77H2-A3 is trimmed down in features and price to nestle into the sub-$150 bracket.
With CeBIT getting underway in Germany, manufacturers are taking the wraps off of their Z77 motherboards. MSI are preparing to release their boards, one of which is the Z77A-GD65 which we are going to preview today.
Last November, NVIDIA announced CUDA on ARM during the unveiling of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, which is powered by combination of ARM based Tegra 3 SOC and the CUDA GPUs (prelude of Project Denver). Today, the company launched a developer kit based on this combination named CARMA.
At the launch of the 7-series chipset Asus is expected to have three different P8Z77-V models ready, the P8Z77-V, P8Z77-V Pro and P8Z77-V Deluxe. The differences between the three models are fairly subtle, yet there's enough difference that any potential buyer will have to pick carefully to get the right board.
As far as going after niche markets, Asus' TUF series is one of those peculiar products that isn't necessarily selling towards its intended target market, nor does the product range really fit in as it sits on its own as a side-line to many of Asus' other board ranges. The latest addition is the Sabertooth Z77 which builds on previous TUF boards and then adds a few features of its own.
As far as motherboard sub-brands go, Asus' R.O.G. series of motherboards are part of what must easily be the most recognized series of motherboards. The latest mATX addition to the series is the Maximus V Gene based on Intel's Z77 chipset and it brings with it a couple of interesting features that made us scratch our heads a little.
Although not available at the launch of Intel's new 7-series chipset, we can see a lot of Asus R.O.G. fans waiting to upgrade until Asus releases the Maximus V Formula. Not only has the company brought back water cooling to the R.O.G. platform, but there's plenty of other features on offer, some that were weren't even told about at the preview event we attended.
If you're a fan of mini-ITX motherboards, then Asus' upcoming P8Z77-I Deluxe is likely to blow your mind. We've seen a few high-end mini-ITX motherboards in the past from Zotac, but so far no-one has come up with anything like what Asus has created with the P8Z77-I Deluxe.
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Despite more and more features being integrated into the CPU, motherboard prices haven't exactly gotten any cheaper, although at least part of the reason for this is increased costs for the motherboard makers. However, Gigabyte has come up with an interesting board for those that are looking for something for a small business computer or similar in the shape of the GA-B75M-D3V which offers a well-rounded feature set without costing a fortune.
After the gaming boards, we're moving slightly further down Gigabyte's new range of 7-series motherboards to the GA-Z77X-UD3H and GA-Z77X-UD5H. The Z77X-UD5H will for the time being at least be Gigabyte's high-end non-gaming specific model and the Z77X-UD3H is a slightly more wallet friendly version.
So far, all of Gigabyte's G1 series gaming motherboards have used the ATX or XL-ATX form factor, but with the introduction of its 7-series boards the company decided to launch a much requested mATX model, the G1.Sniper M3. It shares some of its features with the G1.Sniper 3, but as it's a smaller board; some compromises had to be made.
Earlier today we swung by Gigabyte's office for an update ahead of Cebit and we were pleasantly surprised when the company told us that we could post pictures of its near final revision motherboards as of today. Due to the fact that Gigabyte has several new boards, we'll be breaking this down in a few articles so we can take a closer look at the various models, starting with the G1.Sniper 3.
Come Cebit next week we'll get the first sneak peeks of what should be the final motherboard designs based on Intel's upcoming 7-series chipsets for Ivy Bridge, but details of ASRock's upcoming motherboards have made their ways online via a range of different sources, including pictures and specs of some of the models we can expect at the show. The pictures are of a pair of Fatal1ty branded models as well as of an Extreme board which all are the high-end modesl in ASRock's new line-up.
If you thought the Apple fan boys (and girls) were silly for queuing up ahead of new product launches, then the craziness going on around the Raspberry Pi launch would have you flabbergasted. Not only has the $35 computer managed to crash the servers of both the retail partners, but people got up at daybreak to get their orders in as soon as the order pages went live.
Intel's excuse that it's a manufacturing issue that has delayed its launch of Ivy Bridge is highly exaggerated, but we'll leave you – our dear readers – to figure out the real reason so that no-one gets in trouble for us posting it here. Details of the new launch schedule have now made an appearance online and it confirms what we already knew, but couldn't post about.
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