I always get a little excited when I see a manufacturer move into "the next level". ECS is one of these companies that everybody remembers from their OEM motherboards, initial purple colored withfairly 'average' build quality as everythign was budget.

ECS however has been growing steadily in the retail market, and especially the Black series motherboards started to make a difference a year or two ago. But still, we always stumble into something that leaves room for improvement adn ECS always listnen. With next years chipset I tell you, ECS will become an even more important player into the market as the upcoming lineup looks fantastic.

On the short term though (end of June) they will be launching the P55H-AK motherboard. This motherboards supports full speed SLI and Crossfire by way of the included NVIDIA NF200 chipset that provides additional PCI Express lanes, up-to 3-way SLI will be supported in a 16:8:8 PCIe lanes configuration. Adding to the gaming side, ECS also uses the Realtek ALC899 chip for audio and that's then tied into a Creative Labs suite somehow, as the board supports a new feature called Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 -- opening up EAX and the Creative software suite.

 

On this motherboard ECS added not one, but two NEC USB 3.0 controllers providing four USB 3.0 ports

After two month of Beta development, MSI & Guru3D happily announce Afterburner 1.6.0 Final version. Thanks for all the feedback from you guys during the Beta period.

In this version, Afterburner is world first utility to support over-voltage of GeForce GTX 480/470/465, it also implements screen capture function for DX10 and DX11 games and monitor history function. Also, built-in benchmark Kombustor has a lot of improvement. MSI encourage all graphics card users to try it, even you don't have a MSI graphics card. (but they highly recommend you to buy one!)

We plan to announce our next major Afterburner revision in coming month, we can assure you the best will be EVEN BETTER in next version! Stay tuned!

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[Afterburner v1.6.0 Changelog]

• Added NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 series graphics cards support (including voltage control!)
• Added voltage control for MSI N240GT Low Profile series graphics cards
• Changed marketing name for MSI R5670-PD512 in hardware database
• Added basic screen capture support by means of built-in screen capture engine of MSI On-Screen Display server. Now it is possible to assign the hotkey for capturing screenshots in BMP,PNG or JPG formats on desktop, in DirectX or in OpenGL applications
• Added hardware monitoring history logging support. Now MSI Afterburner is able to save history in native RivaTuner Hardware Monitoring Log file format. The log files captured with MSI Afterburner can be viewed in any text editor like Notepad or in graphics form in RivaTuner's HML file viewer (RivaTuner must be installed for viewing log files in graphics form)
• Added new safety option allowing forcing constant voltage on some cards with voltage regulators supporting programmable dynamic voltage management (e.g. VT1165 or uP6266). New safety option may improve stability on some systems a well as provide power state independent voltage control on the systems with non-standard voltage control implementation
• Screen capture and On-Screen Display hotkey events are now being processed via direct connection to the On-Screen Display server instead of command line. Due to this change Screen capture and On-Screen Display visibility control hotkeys are being processed faster now
• MSI On-Screen Display server has been upgraded to version 3.7.1. New server gives you a lot of improvements including:
• DirectX11 On-Screen Display and screen capture support
• DirectX screen capture engine is no longer using DirectX runtimes to capture and compress screenshots. Screen capture and compression to PNG/JPG formats in DirectX applications is now handled by own more effective LIBPNG/JPEGLIB based library
• PNG and JPG screen capture support for desktop and OpenGL applications
• Adjustable JPG screen capture quality for experienced users
• Screen capture support for DirectX10 and DirectX11 applications using multisampled antialiasing or non-standard frame buffer formats (e.g. sRGB)
• Optional On-Screen Display 3D rendering mode. New mode uses 3D accelerated DirectX functions to emulate previously used 2D framebuffer access functions and render 2D text. New rendering mode provides On-Screen Display support in DirectX10 and DirectX11 applications using multisampled antialiasing and can also drastically reduce OSD related performance hit on the systems with badly optimized 2D acceleration in display drivers
• Simplified On-Screen Display coordinate space settings. Rarely used desktop and window coordinate space modes have been merged into single framebuffer coordinate space mode
• Now the server automatically selects framebuffer coordinate space instead of viewport coordinate space when viewport is not accessible (e.g. if pure Direct3D8 device is in use)
• Improved application notification scheme during runtime profiles adjustment. Now runtime changes in OSD application profiles (e.g. OSD zoom ratio change on the fly) are reflected in affected application almost immedaitely instead of approximately 1 second delay in the previos versions
• Reduced runtime skin engine memory footprint due to dynamic skin storage unloading
• Improved race condition protection system for multithreaded 3D engines (e.g. Age of dragons : Origins and ArmA II)
• Improved race condition protection system for the systems running multiple OSD applications simultaneously (e.g. OSD server, FRAPS and STEAM In-Game Chat)
• Improved floating injection address hooking technology. Due to more advanced built-in code analyzer hooks can be injected deeper into 3D application code if stealth mode is enabled. These changes improve stealth mode compatibility with third party tools using similar stealth injection technologies (e.g. FRAPS v2.9.8 and newer)
• Now stealth mode cannot be toggled during 3D application runtime to reduce the risk of crashing 3D application
• Removed single screen capture per second limitation
• Updated profiles list
• Now MSI Afterburner distributive includes original 128x128 PNG application logo (stored in .\Graphics folder) for dockbar applications like RocketDock or ObjectDock
• It is no longer necessary to close the application to save monitoring window attachment state
• [Stop the task if it runs longer than 3 days] option is no longer set in the task settings when using alternate startup mode via the task scheduler under Windows Vista / Windows 7
• Full list active of On-Screen Display server clients is now displayed in window instead of the most recent client
• Floating tooltips help system is now reinitialized properly after runtime skin switching
• Added Ukrainian localization

[Kombustor v1.0.10 Changelog]

• Bugfix: when PCB1 temperature was enabled in Afterburner OSD, the PCB temperature was copied in GPU temperture.
• Bugfix: in ATI cards indexing. The sorting is now the same than Afterburner.
• Bugfix: config file was not properly loaded when Kombustor is launched from Afterburner.

HIS today unleashes new budget GPU. based on the Radeon HD 5550 and Radeon HD 5570, both cards make use of GDDR5 memory.

The cards will be placed onto the market in both 512 MB and 1 GB versions all clocked at at 1000 MHz (4 GHz effective). The 5500 series is based on the 40 nm Redwood core and packs 320 stream processors on the HD 5550. The card has a a 128-bit wide memory interface that normally holds GDDR3 or DDR2 memory for the HD 5500 series SKUs. HIS upped it a notch by using GDDR5. The HD 5570 has GPU operating at 650 MHz, while on the HD 5550, it runs at 550 MHz. The low-profile cards are also silent, with a passive cooler that occupies a single expansion slot doing the job of cooling the memory and GPU.

The HD 5550 512 MB GDDR5 card sells at 89 EUR, while the 1 GB variant at 99 EUR. Pricing of the HD 5570 cards are to be announced.

Corsair F100 Force SSD review

Thus far we have tested a handful of SandForce based products, and though the first series with the initial SF-1500 controller did bite us a little in the toosh, the SF-1200 controller based products where showing really interesting gains in performance.

The SandForce based products by all means are not little wonders and miracles in each and every segment, but on some levels they make a distinct difference oppose to JMicron and Indilinx products. So today the turn goes to Corsair. To fall into clich

Thermaltake Technology, leading DIY computer components and power supply brand, today announced the latest addition to the popular "Toughpower" line of high-end PC power supply units, the Toughpower Grand Series. Its grandiose looks with a classy black finish make a clear statement through sheer appearance: this is quality pure. The proprietary 14cm dual-ball-bearing flower-shaped fan provides optimized ventilation for the inside components of the Tougherpower Grand unit. Being 80 PLUS Gold certified users don't just get a guaranteed eco-friendly PSU with more than 90% efficiency at 50% load and a 0.95 active power factor correction (PFC), but the electricity bill will noticeably drop as well. By virtue of their high-efficiency, the Toughpower Grand 650W (750W peak) and 750W (850W peak) models are ideally suited for high-end gaming and enthusiast PCs powering multi-core processors in combination with multi-GPU setups.

For demanding mission-critical environments and applications, industrial-grade components are indispensible and are being tested 24/7 at 50

The Asus O!Play HD2 supports the playback of a wide array of multimedia formats and is the world's first media player to support USB 3.0 for ten times faster data transfers compared to current USB 2.0-based players.

It is equipped with a large capacity 3.5" hard disk drive and NAS support, allowing it to store and stream multimedia files without any hassle. The O!Play HD2 also comes preinstalled with Opera browser, delivering live online streaming of over 20,000 radio stations. Users can now perform Google searches, visit Facebook, news websites such as CNN.com and BBC.co.uk, and download photos from Picasa/Flicker

Last week we showed you that Galaxy is working on vapor chamber based cooling for a GTX 480, this week you can add Inno3D to that list as well.

The vapor chamber cooler that Inno3D plans on taking advantage of will, predictably, take up two PCI slots, will boast five or six heatpipes and will be equipped with a ball bearing fan with a rotary speed between 1000RPM and 4200RPM (rotations per minute). All in all, it should weigh about 420 grams. The first product to feature it is reportedly going to be a special version of the GeForce GTX 465, dubbed GTX 465 VapourX. There is no telling when this device shows up though, but it will be interesting to see how much lower the operational temperatures actually drop.

 Unfortunately, that product's pricing and availability details are just as unknown, though the fact that a working prototype is already on display seems to suggest a possibly shorter time of arrival to market.

Hehe,  a brave student endeavour is being billed as a prank, but who wouldn

Gigabyte confirmed Intel's USB 3.0 chipset will be delayed until 2012. There's no reason given. It claims to have shipped one million USB 3.0 boards already. Other USB 3.0 chips are coming on the market, cheaper than NEC's.

There are some very unhappy vendors here in Old Taipei these days and it's the chip giant Intel that they're blaming. A large number of the local manufacturers are launching USB3.0 peripherals in the halls of the Computex show but they have a bit of a problem.

The first problem is that there are only a few motherboards that support USB 3.0 - Asus has plenty, Gigabyte has quite a few, and so does Asrock.

But Intel is unlikely to release a chipset capable of supporting USB 3.0 until the end of this year, and that's creating such frustration amongst some of the manufacturers that they're contemplating taking matters into their own hands and attempt to put together some kind of standard that will cover most eventualities.

See the new IBM System x3650 M3 ExpressIf, for example, you're the maker of a case you need to be in a position to be sure just where the gubbins in the case is going to go and what it's going to do. The uncertainty has one certainty to it at least. It's going to cost quite a few peripheral and case makers a lot of grief which translates, here in Old Taipei, to money

Eidos has released the E3 trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The game is being developed at Eidos' recently formed Montreal studio for unspecified consoles, though PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 editions are likely.

Warner Bros has released the E3 trailer of F.E.A.R 3. The game is scheduled for release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this fall.

I'm working on the Phoenix review as we speak, G.Skill is releasing the Phoenix Pro.

The Phonix Pro manages an impressive 285MB/s and 275MB/s when reading and writing, respectively. Such transfer rates are possible because of a custom firmware and the very popular SandForce SF-1200 SSD controller. Essentially the most widespread among solid state drives, this controller enables 4KB random writing performance of up to 50,000 IOPS. This comes in addition to TRIM support.

The G.Skill Phoenix Pro SSD is made out of MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips and will, at the very least, come in a 120GB version sometime this month.

More motherboard news from Computex, DFI let us know that they have stopped developing the enthusiast class LANparty motherboards.

LANParty motherboards are known and reputed for their high class style and tweakabilty. it seems that in 2009 the LANParty division made a rather substantial loss resulting in closing down that segment. DFI's focus will be more profitable motherboards from now on.

It will certainly be a loss for the industry, then again it will create more headroom for other companies.

Two days ago we reported that there was a rumor that EVGA had "dismissed its entire Taiwan motherboard team," and this would signal "no more motherboards coming from EVGA." Talking to Joe Darwin on this topic he laughed it off and told that EVGA had not dismissed its motherboard team.

More facts have now gathered an we now know for a fact that three employees within eVGA's motherboard R&D team have left eVGA. Now the spicy thing here is that Sapphire hired these guys. Not at all classy. Sapphire will be utilizing the new employees to design motherboards for AMD's upcoming Fusion APU.

We have no idea how big eVGA's internal design team really is, that it is a big blow to their head is obvious though. Peter Tan, otherwise known as Shamino (hardcore overclocker) still is with eVGA and continues to lead the design team. Hopefully eVGA can pick up where they left odd real soon, as they absolutely make brilliant motherboards for the enthusiast crowd.

NiBiTor (short for NVIDIA BIOS Editor) received its latest update. Version 5.5 of the program includes support for new GPUs and limited experimental support for new unknown GPUs. Apart from supporting new GPUs, the new version also includes its usual load of minor bug fixes that improve stability and usability.

Changes in this Version:

• Added GeForce GTX 480
• Added GeForce GTX 470

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ASUS GeForce GTX 480 Voltage Tweak edition review

To compensate the deficits that NVIDIA enforced on the GTX 400 series, the ODM and AIBs had to be creative, they need to be on the lookout for some new features that make this product more interesting, we call that creating incentive.

ASUS though, stuck to the reference design. They figured .. let's heat it up a little more. And as such they have released their ENGGTX480 series GeForce GTX 480 cards, with GPU voltage control. And the end result is quite interesting with 850 MHz on the core. Interesting ? Read all about it in this article.

Read the full Guru3D review right here.

Guru3D afficionado, David from the USA is one of these true Guru's who's spending a lot of time, effort, blood, sweat and dough on his hardware. Yesterday I received an email from him showing the intense kit he bought this time arround.

Check this out, he was able to secure a SR2 board from eVGA, popped two Xeon 5680 processor on there, got himself a little bit of high frequency memory and then added four GeForce GTX 480 cards which he equipped with Koolance LCS blocks.

Really, the only thing you can say here is .. holy bejeezzzus, (click on thumbnail please).

Later on yesterday he contacted us again, his CPU's where already purring steadily at 4 GHz and he made thius little video which I wanted to show you guys.You have NEVER seens Cinebench render that fast with 24 threads, Amazingf stuff David! Check out the video.

ECS P67H2 Motherboard specifications. You can click on the thumbnails to see full sized photo's by the way:

• Support 32nm LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge processor
• support DDR3-2600 memory
• provide quite a few overclocking features
• USB 3.0 ports
• two SATA 6.0 Gbps
• four SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 7.1 channel audio
• debug LED

We also spotted the recently introduced H55H-I actually already introduced  here at Guru3D.com, a great mobo with excellent features at a very fair price.  Mini-ATX, this little motherboard has it, it's packed and loaded with features. Pop on a Clarkdale based processor like the Core i3 or Core i5 series and you can use it's HDMI, DVI of DSUB graphics connector. Audio ? No worries the embedded Realtek ACL 8982 eight channel audio codec will happily output to analog or coaxial or optical TOSLINK S/PDIF connectors, need USB ? Well, the rear panel has six of them, need SATA2 ? Here we spot four ports and one eSATA, dual channel memory ? Yep supported, up-to 1600 MHz and in the end if you do not want to use the embedded graphics from the processor, then you can even pop in a full x16 PCIe graphics card and make a wicked gaming rig out of this incredibly handy H55H-I motherboard.

This very cute lady here is holding a P55H-AK motherboard from the Black Series. A new model board part of the P55 family that supports Intel Socket LGA-1156 processors with thanks to the Intel P55 Express chipset. The P55H-AK will be ECS' top gaming board with lots of bells and whistles to boost performance.

It supports full speed SLI and Crossfire by way of the included NVIDIA NF200 chipset that provides additional PCI Express lanes. Adding to the gaming side, ECS also uses the Realtek ALC899 chip for what they call excellent audio and they have also worked with Creative to add in Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 support.

ECS added not one, but two NEC USB 3.0 controllers providing four USB 3.0 ports