LGA1155
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Shuttle rolls out bantam XH61 barebones PC, dares you to throw a Sandy Bridge at it
It's been a hot minute since we've seen anything compelling from the folks at Shuttle, but there's nothing like a Sandy Bridge-enabled, three-liter PC to get us back on the bandwagon. The XH61 is barely seven centimeters high, and supports second-generation Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors for the LGA1155 socket. You'll get a pair of memory banks (up to 16GB of DDR3 can be thrown in), a foursome of SATA 3Gbps slots, six USB 2.0 ports, HDMI / VGA ports and room for a laptop-sized 2.5-inch HDD / SSD. The 90-watt power supply provides all the juice this little guy needs, and the €146 ($184) price tag actually includes little more than that; being a barebones system and all, it's on you to pick out the particulars.
Rock-steady Gigabyte G1.Sniper2 Z68 motherboard gets a nod of approval
Not enticed by all that Sandy Bridge E havoc that hit the PC market today? Good for you, because there's still plenty of life left in the first-gen LGA1155 Sandy Bridge processors and Gigabyte has put out another high-end Z68-based motherboard to prove it. The G1.Sniper2 just won itself a HotHardware recommendation, and if you look past the violent branding and color scheme you'll see why: the $360 premium card has the full gamut of ports and connections and delivers rock solid stability even when overclocked right up the limits of an i7-2600K CPU. Rack up that Wiz Khalifa tune and then click the source link for more.
HotHardware surveys the Cougar Point motherboard horizon, spots a winner
There's an ocean of possibilities when it comes to choosing the right Socket LGA 1155 board to mother your Sandy Bridge processor. But a roundup review at HotHardware funnels it down to just five rivals within a $179-$267 price bracket and based on Intel's P67 chipset: two offerings from Asus, plus one each from ASRock, Gigabyte and MSI. The reviewers found clear favorites depending on what you're looking for: The ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional and MSI P67A-GD80 can both bring serious aesthetics to your super rig, and the former has a particularly good bang-for-buck ratio. The Asus P8P67 WS Revolution stands out with four full-length PCI Express lanes for crazy graphics, while the more conservative Asus P8P67 Professional has the lowest idle power consumption of the lot. Click the source link now if you'd prefer to discover the overall winner for yourself. Otherwise, all we can say is, viva la Revolution.
MSI reveals mad Sandy Bridge motherboard with eight PCIe slots, eight USB 3.0 ports, and three BIOS chips
Straighten up and salute the Big Bang Marshal, MSI's attempt at redefining the term "overkill." This XL-ATX board packs a total of eight PCI Express lanes (though it only has the bandwidth to simultaneously feed four x16s or eight x8s -- relevant if you're crazy enough to think about using more than four GPUs), three separate BIOS chips, extra 8-pin and 6-pin 12V power intakes, and a thoroughly excessive set of power regulation components. The less extremely minded among you will appreciate having a full array of eight USB 3.0 ports on the back, though we can't get over the measly four DIMM slots on offer. Word is that features might change before the Marshal goes to market in the first quarter of next year, so let's hope more room for your RAM sticks is among the tweaks between now and then.
Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs and motherboards now on sale in Malaysia, what Consumer Electronics Show?
Let us all warmly greet the Core i5-2300, the i5-2400, and the Core i7-2600, three desktop-bound members of Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge CPU brigade. You'll note that all three are fully dressed in their retail attire in an image coming from Malaysian electronics store Compuzone, which also has a full pricing and speed breakdown for these central processing units. The 3.4GHz Core i7 part costs 939RM ($301), followed by 609RM ($195) for the 3.1GHz 2400, and 585RM ($188) for the 2.8GHz 2300. It seems like Intel's up to its old tricks again, letting some stock roll out early in distant Asian locales. At least this should mean there'll be plenty to go around once the CES 2011 launch of these chips is out of the way. Hit the source for more details and to scope out pricing for the new LGA1155 motherboards. [Thanks, Melantha]
ASUS' Sandy Bridge motherboards are pretty, come with Bluetooth and USB 3.0 as standard
We already got an early glimpse at what ASUS is bringing to Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge party, now how about some glamor shots of the actual hardware? The Taiwanese company has taken the shroud of mystery away from its latest range of motherboards and the first thing that stood out to us was the TUF-looking Sabertooth P67 above. It comes with an extended five-year warranty, "military-grade" electrical components, a litany of thermal sensors, and of course that Tactical Jacket up top. Beyond its obvious visual appeal, the Jacket serves to channel airflow throughout the board, aiding the cooling of more peripheral components. On the more diminutive front, ASUS is showing off a Mini-ITX board, the P8P67-I, that fits everything but full-sized RAM slots within a minuscule footprint. Check it out after the break. Oh, and ASUS is sticking USB 3.0 and Bluetooth connectivity on almost all its future boards. Yay!
