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Gigabyte H55 Mini-ITX motherboard and Silverstone SG07 used to build (almost) perfect gaming toaster
We know you've seen Mini-ITX motherboards before, but how many have managed to fit in a PCI Express x16 lane, two full-sized DIMM slots, and Intel's LGA1156 socket? Gigabyte has done just that with its H55 circuit slab, squeezing the basic requirements for a gaming rig into a 6.7- x 6.7-inch footprint, and the lads over at Tech Report have taken notice. Pairing that tiny rig with a Silverstone SG07 small form factor case, they set out to discover if the PC craze of the Naughties -- SFF computing, mostly sparked off by Shuttle's efforts -- can be resurrected with more modern gear. What they found was that the SG07's 600W PSU stood up to the power demands of a GeForce GTX 470, all parts were somehow maintained in an acceptably cool state without making the enclosure sound like a wind tunnel, and gaming performance was highly satisfactory. Of course, there were some compromises and flaws to both the motherboard and case, but overall it turned out to be "one heck of a midget gaming system." Hit the source link for all the build details.
Guest Post: Building an epic-level computer
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider. Today's post is the third of a three-part series on preparing your computer for Cataclysm. In our first post, we covered upgrading your current system; last week, we discussed how to assemble a hot gaming rig. Today, we'll look at building a high-end system that will last. Today, I will cover building a high-end system for under $2,000 that will last you many expansions into the future. In this article, I will be listing specific parts as opposed to making general suggestions. Computer geek opinions vary drastically; this is just my two cents. When you're considering a rig that will last you for years to come, you need to consider key components including the case, the power supply, the motherboard, a processor, heatsinks, hard drives the video card and more.
Guest Post: How to assemble a hot gaming rig for Cataclysm
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to our pages. Today's post is the second of a three-part series on preparing your computer for Cataclysm. Last week, we covered upgrading your current system. Today, we'll look at building a system that will play WoW at max settings without breaking the bank. I like my cases how I like my women -- lightweight and protective. A computer case has three purposes in life: to house all the components, to protect them and to provide good airflow to them. Owning the most epic set of plate mail ever created does you no good if you cannot move or breathe in it. However, running around in your auction house tux is also a bad idea if you're the main tank. It's important to find a happy middle ground between the two. When it comes to computer cases, first, pick out something you like. A case should be an expression of its owner! Pick out a few different cases you like and then narrow down the search by the number of fans the case supports. Modern systems will require at least one 120mm front intake fan and one 120mm rear exhaust fan. A top exhaust fan is a nice bonus, since (as everyone knows) heat rises. You should be able to find a decent enough case for around $50 with free shipping.
MSI replacing BIOS with UEFI firmware interface sometime this year?
The Unified EFI Forum is a trade group that includes Microsoft, Apple, Intel, and ARM. The goal? To develop and implement UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). The specification replaces BIOS as the software interface between your computer's hardware and OS, doing away with several limitations of the BIOS firmware interface in the process. Unlike the old, dependable BIOS, however, UEFI comes with a flashy-mouse driven interface; and instead of being written in assembly, it's written in C -- which means that it needs more resources, although it's also a lot more flexible. According to an article on THINQ.co.uk, MSI will introduce the spec on Sandy Bridge motherboards "towards the end of this year." Also according to THINQ, Seagate has stated that UEFI is "an essential requirement" for PCs with boot drives larger than 2TB. That said, it doesn't look like the classic text-based firmware is disappearing any time soon: most existing motherboards simply don't have the overhead to support its flashy successor. Besides, manufacturers have spent too much time developing their own custom BIOS and hardware features to throw 'em away just yet. Update: Of course, this is but a brief introduction to the topic. Special thanks to Brian Richardson for pointing out this post at Intel that goes into much greater detail.
Bigfoot Networks reveal GPU / NIC combo card, talks up motherboard integration and WiFi
What do you get when you combine a gaming-centric NIC with a GPU? Truthfully, the world's still trying to figure that out, but Bigfoot Networks and TLU (responsible for the PowerColor brand) are jonesing to see what exactly will happen here at Computex. The two have joined forces on Bigfoot's first-ever integration effort -- the heretofore unnamed network card / graphics card hybrid combines a Killer 2100 with an ATI Radeon HD 5000 series GPU, and the prototype board on hand here in Taipei boasted a pair of DVI ports, an HDMI output and a gigabit Ethernet jack. The company's hoping that gamers will be eager to upgrade their GPU with one that also helps lower ping times and give them more control over which programs get priority when sharing bandwidth, and while pricing remains up in the air, the outfit's CEO told us that buying the combo card would obviously be cheaper than buying each one on its own. If all goes well, the first PowerColor / Bigfoot Networks card will be out and about in a few months, which led us to pry a little deeper into the outfit's plans. We asked if it had any other integration tactics coming up, and they didn't hesitate to mention that mainboards are next on the mishmash block. Convincing motherboard makers to swap out the tried-and-true NIC for one of Killer's modules would obviously be a boon for a company that still describes itself as a "startup," and it's yet another avenue to get into a gamer's home that wouldn't traditionally buy a standalone network card. When we asked how long it would take for Killer cards to start showing up within gaming laptops, he seemed rather confident that it would happen in the not-too-distant future, and given their existing relationship with Alienware, we wouldn't be shocked in the least to hear of the M15x and M17x nabbing it first. Furthermore, Bigfoot's intently looking into getting its name on the wireless side sometime "next year," essentially providing WiFi users the same ping lowering, network controlling tactics that it currently does over Ethernet. Finally, we were told that there's nothing at all stopping the Killer 2100 from being integrated into more cards from more vendors, and if the right offer came along, you could definitely see a combo NIC / GPU with an NVIDIA core rather than ATI. Needless to say, the little-networking-company-that-could looks to be ramping things up in a big way, and while we never were much on buying standalone add-ins, we're duly intrigued by these integrated solutions. %Gallery-94244%
ASUS showcases ROG CG8490 gaming desktop: Core i7-980X, dual OC'd Radeon HD 5870s
ASUS' ARES line of gaming PCs has been kicking for a few years now, but regardless of how many iterations we see, we're still a wee bit terrified when approaching a chassis this gargantuan. Just after the outfit's press conference in Taipei, we daintily hurried over to the newest member of the family in order to snag a few shots and get the low-down on what users could expect when it ships between now and next century. Aesthetically, we're told that the CG8490 was inspired by "ancient and modern armor of both Eastern and Western cultures," likely a politically correct statement with no actual meaning. Regardless, this monster can overclock itself by as much as 20 percent without boiling over, and the six-core Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition CPU is suited for slicing up even the most complex of tasks. There's also 12GB of DDR3 memory, 2TB of hard drive space, a standard DVD burner and a pair of overclocked ATI Radeon HD 5870 GPUs to handle DirectX 11 and Eyefinity duties. Mum's the word on a price or release date, but we're going with "too much" and "not soon enough." Oh, and be sure to peek the limited edition ARES GPU as well as the company's Rampage III Extreme motherboard in the gallery below. %Gallery-93980% %Gallery-94008%
Driver updates for charging iPad on PCs
If you're one of the many iPad customers having issues with charging, there may be relief in sight. A few popular PC motherboard manufacturers have released new drivers for their mobos that supposedly enable (or help with) iPad charging. If you have an ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI motherboard, you can try hitting those links, downloading and installing the new drivers, and see if that helps. Unfortunately, this is still a YMMV situation -- there are a ton of different factors that go into the kind of power that can come off of a USB port, and even if you have the right software for the right motherboard manufacturer, there's no guarantee it'll work exactly right. Still, if you've been craving a little extra power while charging your iPad on a PC, and know your way around a motherboard software update (which can be quite a task in itself, let me tell you from experience), attempting an update might be worth it. If you get it working and see an improvement in your iPad's charging capability, be sure to let us know in the comments. [via Engadget]
Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI deliver driver software to allow iPad charging from the PC
You one of those unlucky folks who found out about the iPad's dislike of low-powered USB ports on standard PCs after you'd already pulled the trigger? Well, you can stop crying yourself to sleep nights and finally do something about it: Gigabyte, MSI, and ASUS have all come out with software that hops up their respective, fairly interchangeable motherboards and delivers extra juice to an iPad-plugged USB port. Of course, they built these softwares for their own hardware, but there's a video after the break of a reckless user putting the ASUS software to work on a myriad of non-ASUS (mostly Sony) machines. Your mileage may vary, but if you wanna play it safe we'd say look into who built your motherboard before installing: we're not scientists, but we hear extra electricity "does stuff." [Thanks, Jeff F.]
Rumor: Image of 3DS motherboard submitted to FCC leaked
A recent Federal Communications Commission filing made by Nintendo has been the source of no small amount of speculation over the past few days. The seemingly innocuous entry on the FCC's site was submitted to get the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi card approved for U.S. distribution -- however, the image submitted alongside the filing (which has since been removed) is believed by some to give a few hints about the internal composition of the Nintendo 3DS. Digital Foundry has a great breakdown of the image, which appears to exhibit the motherboard of a DS test kit or development kit. The tech site points out that one of the screens adheres to the 4:3 aspect ratio of current DS models, while one screen appears to be substantially wider. If this is a stripped-down version of the 3DS, this could indicate that only one of its two screens uses 3D display technology. Also worth noting is the "CTR" designation the hardware is given in the FCC listing. As Digital Foundry points out, each model of the DS has had a three-letter codename for internal use: The DSi was called "TWL," the DSi XL was called "UTL," and so on. CTR is a whole new callsign, which may indicate that this is a whole new piece of hardware. We've contacted Nintendo to see if we can get a comment on the filing -- at the very least, we should learn the accuracy of this speculation during Nintendo's E3 press conference on June 15.
ASUS CrossHair IV Extreme mainboard supports mix-and-match GPU setups
Scouting a new mainboard for that fancy new Phenom II X6 CPU you just picked up? You might want to hold off a minute, particularly if you're also planning on shopping for a few new GPUs as well. Hot Hardware has managed to get their paws around an upcoming motherboard from ASUS, the CrossHair IV Extreme. Much like the Maximus III Extreme that we spotted last November, this one also ships with the RoG Connect feature, enabling a secondary Bluetooth device (like a netbook or smartphone) to tweak overclocking settings from the sidelines. What really makes this one stand out, however, isn't the compatibility with all Socket AM3 Phenom and Athlon CPUs, nor the fancy new 890FX chipset. No -- it's the inclusion of Lucidlogix's nearly-forgotten Hydra solution, which allows users to mix-and-match GPUs (makes and models are no matter here) in order to create the most from whatever graphics cards you have sitting around. There's no mention of when this fellow will ship, but we'll be keeping an eye out at Computex just in case.
Sid Meier's life, career and a 48-hour game design contest packed into documentary short
Regardless of whether or not you've played any of Sid Meier's games, or whether or not you find yourself curious as to how he became a gaming luminary, or whether or not you've got 24 minutes to kill -- you've got to watch Motherboard's latest documentary. Its focus is on the history of Meier's game development career, as well as his participation in the 7th Annual Wolverine Soft 48 Hour Game Design Contest held at his Alma Mater, the University of Michigan. More importantly, this short film contains all the requisite components of a gripping piece of cinema: hardship, confrontation, self-improvement, triumph, and the imbuing of a lingering desire to go back and play all of the Civilization games again. Seriously, go check it out.
ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, Intel and MSI do battle for P55 motherboard throne
Look, we know you've got choices, and when it comes to motherboards, you've got options galore. If you've been eying a new Core i5 or Core i7 rig to replace that aging Pentium 4 486 system of yours, but aren't quite feeling the pre-fabricated thing, a whole slew of mobo makers have pushed through new boards to support Intel's P55 Express chipset. The gurus over at Hot Hardware -- gluttons for pain no like other, it seems -- rounded up mainboards from ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, Intel and MSI in order to see which ruled the roost, and more importantly, which was right for you. Options ranging from $140 to $340 were taken into account, and while the top-end EVGA P55 Classified obviously performed well under pressure, just about every single contender had a little something special to offer. There's no cut and dry "winner" when it comes to something like this, only detailed explanations as to which board suits what kind of buyer. Tired of paging through Froogle without actually knowing what you're looking for? Tap that source link and get some enlightenment.
ASUS cramming USB 3.0 into Eee PC line, N Series laptops, loads more
USB 3.0 is slowly but surely popping up on more and more new machines, but finding a rig with SuperSpeed support is still a chore. ASUS is working hard to make sure that finding the good stuff is easy when looking at its wares, and judging by the support it has already shown for the protocol, we actually have reason to believe 'em. The company has just issued a rather gloat-filled press release extolling the virtues of supporting USB 3.0 in every facet of their product line, but it's the breakdown that really has us interested. We already heard that the Eee Box 1510U and 1210U would support the format, along with the N Series of laptops and Eee PC 1018/1015/1016. There's also a full slate of mainboards that have joined the party, and we get the impression that every Eee PC from here on out will do the same. Imagine that -- the company credited with sparking the netbook revolution, now sparking the USB 3.0 netbook revolution. Fitting, no?
Leaked Xbox 360 'Valhalla' motherboard analyzed by Ben Heck
Sure, you might've seen the purported Xbox 360 Valhalla motherboard leaked yesterday... but have you ever really seen it? There's a subtle difference, one that requires you gaze through the ocular receptors of our dearest old friend (he hates when we call him that) Ben Heck. Joystiq sat down with him to deconstruct the pictures and get his take on all the hardware nuances. First and foremost, there appears to be no connectors that "look remotely like a Xbox 360 memory card reader," which lends credence to the thought process they might be going the way of the dinosaur. WiFi is still missing in action, and as for Project Natal integration, Heck's highly doubtful that's in the cards, though he shares our mindset that a bundle would make sense. The big question is size reduction, and to that our game console laptop guru suggests that, given the constraints due to a DVD drive, the best we can expect is a one-inch drop in height (standing console), 0.5 inches in depth, and just "slightly thinner." Sorry folks, looks like even in your wildest dreams, it'll still tower over the Nintendo Wii. A great read, don your thinking cap, give yourself 15 minutes, and hit up the source.
EVGA Classified SR-2 fits two Xeon CPUs for 24 threads, exemplifies overkill
Remember EVGA's seven-GPU motherboard monstrosity, the W555? That experimental beast of a board just got declassified -- and given immediate launch orders. Under the new "Classified SR-2" callsign, the board's layout has hardly changed since CES (though the heatsinks certainly got a makeover) but the big news here is that each of its two CPU sockets will support those fancy new six-core Xeon processors. As you're well aware, two times six is twelve -- and since each of the Xeon 5600's cores can handle 2 threads, you're looking at the basis for a 24-threaded powerhouse for mondo multitasking performance. Factor in enough slots for 4-way SLI, CrossFireX and 48GB of RAM, and it's not hard to figure out why the red-and-black HPTX (15- x 13.6-inches!) creation commands a $600 price point. The only questions are how much a full system will deplete your wallet, and how many fuses your house will blow after pressing the power button. Correction: Just a note that Intel's Core i7-980X isn't supported here, but the new Xeon 5600 CPUs are. %Gallery-88469%
Rumor: Slimmed-down Xbox 360 motherboard images leaked
Last week, speculation surrounding a pending announcement of the oft-rumored, slimmed down "Valhalla" model of the Xbox 360 was kicked into high gear, thanks to a Microsoft hiring notice for a motherboard engineer, and Steve Ballmer's reference to "more form factors" for the hardware. Earlier today, a Chinese tech forum purportedly posted a pair of pictures of the newly remodeled motherboard, which has undergone a massive size reduction from the current iteration of Xbox 360 hardware. A few noteworthy changes in the motherboard (full pictures of which can be found after the jump) are a consolidated GPU/CPU (one of the rumored features of the Valhalla chipset), an extra SATA port, and a much smaller heatsink. Though the design could just be a mock-up from an extraordinarily talented modder, it certainly looks like professional-quality work. We've contacted Microsoft to see if they'll comment on the skinny-fied hardware.
Xbox 360 'Valhalla' motherboard leaked on Chinese forum?
Been to the gym lately? If not, then let this be your new motivation. What we're looking at here is a purportedly forthcoming Xbox 360 motherboard redesign that takes aim at slimming down the portly figure of Microsoft's console. Sure, there's a small chance that this diet could be the work of a scarily talented console modder, but it'd still be a near-impossible task to work in what appears to be a CPU / GPU combo chip (pictured after the break) under that greatly reduced heatsink. Note that there's also an extra SATA port at the top left corner. Perhaps this is the "Valhalla" revision that we've all been waiting for? On a related note, Microsoft is currently hiring a Motherboard Design Engineer for the Xbox 360 Console Development team, with such saucy tasks as "specifying, designing, implementing and verifying the mother-board and other various sub-system boards that make up the XBOX 360 product line." Feel free to sign up if you think you can hack out a better motherboard.
You could design the next revision of the 360 motherboard
A Microsoft job listing reveals that the company is looking for staff to design a new Xbox 360 motherboard. From the sound of it, the new "Motherboard Design Engineer" will be helping to design further revisions of the existing Xbox 360 architecture, rather than the hardware for a next-next-generation system. "The responsibilities of this position are focused on specifying, designing (schematic capture, PCB layout, BOM, cost analysis), implementing and verifying the mother-board and other various sub-system boards that make up the Xbox 360 product line," the job description reads. If you're a qualified electrical engineer and want to do work that may cast you as a hero in the eyes of many, many gamers, this is your chance. Please fix the Xbox 360 motherboard once and for all! [Thanks @GameAddict!]
EVGA's W555 motherboard gets a once over, can hold seven GPUs
Think CrossFireX is nifty? We're betting you're a big fan of SLI, huh? For those who grew up bragging about their "dual Voodoo" setup, there's nothing in the world that can stop you from lusting over this bad boy. Quietly introduced at CES, the EVGA W555 is just now being shown to the world in proper (prototype) form, and aside from being crafted to hold two overclocked processors and a dozen DDR3 DIMM slots, there's also space for seven PCI expansion slots. In other words, you could theoretically run seven GPUs in this thing. Of course, you'd need some serious software hacking skills to drive all that horsepower into a single display, but we get the feeling you like challenges, anyway. Hit the source link for more of the madness, but don't expect any units to hit retail until later in the year.
Via's teeny tiny Mobile-ITX EPIA-T700 system board demonstrated twice (video)
We've been hearing of Via's Mobile-ITX technology for quite some time now, but it only became officially official last month and now we're seeing the thing in the silicon for the first time. The company has put together a little demo video that we've included below, showing off its minuscule 6cm x 6cm system board, about half the size of a Pico-ITX. But, there are two problems. The first is that this current Mobile-ITX board (the EPIA-T700) has no I/O connectors on it, meaning it must be mounted onto a larger carrier board if you want to do anything with it -- but hopefully that can be integrated into mobile devices and shrunk. The second problem? That the presenter flubbed the demonstration and someone forgot to edit the first take out of the video. See the frustration for yourself at the 1:15 mark after the break.
