Although NVIDIA's Tegra line of SoCs are among the best performing there are on the market; the high-end SoC market is dominated by Qualcomm and Samsung. These chips are built from scratch by the companies, but the underlying CPU and GPU architectures are licensed from ARM, and the likes of Imagination Technologies, respectively. Imagination's PowerVR graphics cores make up over 80 percent of the embedded GPU market-share. There's a big change of plans at NVIDIA. The company is beginning to think that its expertise in GPU is better proliferated in the mobile SoC space not by waiting for Tegra to gain a foothold, but by licencing its GPU IP (intellectual property) to whoever is willing pay up, much in the same way ARM and Imagination do.

NVIDIA spokesperson David Shannon, in a recent blog post, wrote: "our next step is to license our GPU cores and visual computing patent portfolio to device manufacturers to serve the needs of a large piece of the market... We'll start by licensing the GPU core based on the NVIDIA Kepler architecture, the world's most advanced, most efficient GPU. Its DX11, OpenGL 4.3, and GPGPU capabilities, along with vastly superior performance and efficiency, create a new class of licensable GPU cores. Through our efforts designing Tegra into mobile devices, we've gained valuable experience designing for the smallest power envelopes. As a result, Kepler can operate in a half-watt power envelope, making it scalable from smartphones to supercomputers."

According to a report from IGN, EA and AMD have entered an agreement which sees the latter benefiting from exclusive rights to optimization for games based on EA's Frostbite 3 engine. Titles like Battlefield 4, Need for Speed Rivals and Mirror's Edge 2 are subject to this rumored accord between AMD and EA, but also many other current and future EA titles. Of course, this will not completely remove NVIDIA from the Frostbite 3 table, they will simply be absent from it until the actual launch takes place, meaning that pre-launch testing and driver optimization can only be done by AMD, leaving NVIDIA at a clear disadvantage.

While still an unconfirmed rumor, AMD refused to deny it in a reply to Ryan Shrout's query regarding the story. AMD's reply below.
"It makes sense that game developers would focus on AMD hardware with AMD hardware being the backbone of the next console generation. At this time, though, our relationship with EA is exclusively focused on Battlefield 4 and its hardware optimizations for AMD CPUs, GPUs and APUs."

ASUS announced the release of ASUS VivoBook S551, a 15.6" touch Ultrabook. It offers customers much more accurate and responsive input compared to competing products, with touchscreens utilizing high-precision detection to ensure rewarding and smooth experiences.

ASUS VivoBook S551 has a stylish hairline-treated metallic design with ultra-thin dimensions, measuring just 22.5mm at its thickest point. Within, 4th generation Intel Core processors and NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M graphics ensure ample power for every application, from productivity to multimedia and gaming. Customers also benefit from an optical drive, made to fit in the compact form factor, and extended 6-hour battery life per charge, which supports longer uninterrupted computing sessions.

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the Canvio Slim II Portable Hard Drive. With a capacity of up to 1 TB and measuring only 12.5 mm thick, the Canvio Slim II remains one of the thinnest and smallest portable hard drives available on the market-now with the ability to access and share data straight from the device. This complete external backup and storage solution is ideal for customers that carry an Ultrabook or other super-mobile PC.

"The original Canvio Slim was extremely popular- especially with Ultrabooks users due to its incredibly sleek design. This time around, we challenged ourselves with making a great product even better," said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of product marketing and development of branded storage products, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "We were able to increase the capacity to 1 TB without compromising much on size and added features that allow you to access and share your data from anywhere at any time via internet - making the Canvio Slim II the ultimate mobile storage solution."

Aerocool Advanced Technologies Corp., one of the world leading manufacturers of gaming PC gear, expands its value gaming series "PGS-V" by introducing the new Vs-92 chassis. "PGS-V labeled products target gamers, who are looking for the very best possible cost to performance ratio when choosing their gears", - says Tony Lin, Aerocool Advanced Technologies CEO.

Vs-92 offers a big variety of features packed into a great looking chassis for a reasonable price. Special eye-catcher is the front panel with it's all mash-design, the yellow PGS V badge in the center, the nicely implemented I/O panel with power and reset buttons. Up to date connectivity is assured thanks to one mic, one headphone and two USB 3.0 connectors that can be conveniently plugged-in directly into the motherboard using header-pin connectors. Right below the I/O panel is a small VF-Display, which is informing the user about the current system temperature inside the PC case. Conventional air-coolers with a height of up to 158 mm can be mounted more easily thanks to the back-plate mounting area in the motherboard-tray. In addition, users with water-coolers are able to utilize the pre-drilled cable-ducts and mount radiators (2 x 120 or 2 x 140) in the top panel, or the side panel in case of the mesh edition. When choosing the Vs-92 as Window Edition, a black window is attached to the side panel, allowing insight on the built-in hardware.

The EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2 power supply is here. This power supply raises the bar with an 80 Plus Gold rating, with 1300W of continuous power, exceptional efficiency and a fully modular design. Not to mention, a first class 10 Year EVGA Warranty. The entire electrical design was engineered to be efficient, silent and optimized for the enthusiast. Take your system to the max with the EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2.

KnCMiner, a new entrant to join the bitcoin mining hardware community, are pleased to announce their range of state of the art, bitcoin mining machines. Designed in Sweden, the first 2 models, named Jupiter and Saturn, are powered by 28nm ASIC chips and will produce up to 350 GHash/s and 175 GHash/s respectively. The custom engineered ASICs have proprietary technology enabling market leading performance with low power consumption that is exclusive to the KnCMiner line of miners. Calculated with today's value of difficulty and dollar rate, the return of investment could be as short as 4 days.

"Today the bitcoin mining industry use shovels and pickaxes - We will offer them excavators", says Johan Rilegård, Head of Marketing. The interest for KnCMiner products has been truly impressive with orders arriving from all corners of the world. We are very pleased with the support from our customers and this only goes to show that KnCMiner are offering and producing devices that are exactly what the market needs. This overwhelming support proves that KnCMiner are leading the way as the most professional Bitcoin mining vendor in the market.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced a significant upgrade to its enterprise software portfolio with a new version of its FlashSoft software for Windows Server and Linux operating systems. FlashSoft 3.2 server-side solid state caching software complements and enhances the performance of existing applications, and server and storage systems.

"Solid state storage strategies are changing the economics of data management. The challenge, however, is adding enterprise flash technology without major disruptions to ongoing IT operations," said Jeff Boles, senior analyst and director of Lab Validation Services, The Taneja Group. "SanDisk's FlashSoft software efficiently integrates solid state cache into servers without changing where data is stored or the features and capabilities of a consolidated storage approach. This 'disruptionless' approach dramatically simplifies the introduction of solid state, and allows SanDisk customers to immediately address performance challenges without changing existing storage strategies."

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has announced today that all of its NAS products are fully compatible with Seagate's newly launched range of NAS hard drives. These hard drives come in 2TB, 3TB and 4TB models with their model numbers being ST2000VN000, ST3000VN000 and ST4000VN000. By supporting these hard drives, ASUSTOR is able to give its users greater flexibility and choice when configuring their network attached storage devices.

ASUSTOR NAS are the first NAS devices in the world to be designed entirely around an App-based concept. Built on a stable and high performance hardware platform, ASUSTOR NAS devices provides users with an intuitive UI that closely resembles the simplicity enjoyed on most tablet computers. After installing hard drives onto the NAS device, users will be able to set up their very own personal cloud server in just a few easy steps. Additionally, users can download any NAS Apps of their choice from ASUSTOR's App Central, expanding functionality and creating a customized device for themselves.

European price-aggregator Geizhals.at sniffed out at least two retailers listing the upcoming ASUS GeForce GTX 760 DirectCU II OC graphics card. The card is priced at 316.5€ on average, including VAT and shipping; and 264€ excluding them. While the card itself isn't pictured by either store, specifications posted by Geizhals appear to check out with Monday's leaks. The card is based on a 28 nm GK104 silicon, with 1,152 CUDA cores, 96 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface holding 2 GB of memory. The way Geizhals describes it, the card features a dual-slot DirectCU II cooler. We don't expect it to look much different from the one that cools DirectCU II versions of GTX 660 Ti or GTX 670. The 264€ pre-VAT pricing of this non-reference design, factory-overclocked card suggests that most GTX 760 cards should be priced in the neighborhood of US $250 to $300.

Genius is pleased to announce the release of the F-1000 Arcade Stick. Compatible with PC and PS3, the F-1000 Arcade Stick brings professional level arcade-control of the latest games to gamers in their living room. With an arcade-style 8-button layout, and 4-axis ball-handled joystick the F-1000 Arcade Stick, gives modern gamers the more precise control that an arcade layout provides - helping them take their gaming to the next level.

In addition to the Select and Start buttons, the F-1000 boasts 13 buttons, including a Turbo button. 12 of the buttons correspond to buttons on a standard Playstation 3 controller, and have markings showing which button they correspond to. This makes the F-1000 an excellent option for gamers who want to make the transition from a standard Playstation 3 controller to an arcade stick.

Lenovo today announced its new ThinkPad S531, a premium laptop PC featuring an ultra-thin bezel and bevelled edges, giving the illusion that the PC is floating. Optimized for Windows 8, the ThinkPad S531 offers small businesses enhanced performance and 15 per cent faster processor speed than previous generations. The ThinkPad S531 is being launched today at the Xander Zhou fashion show at London Fashion Week in conjunction with the designer's new men's fashion collection.

Lenovo's first 15-inch ThinkPad Ultrabook delivers high style and performance to image-conscious small businesses and is ideal for professionals who want a combination of design and substance. It is also a fit for small businesses that need a laptop to do it all - great performance for work tasks and an excellent experience for personal computing

Be quiet!, market leader with power supplies in Germany for seven consecutive years, introduces its brand new "Pure Power L8" power supplies. The new series ranging from 300 to 700 Watts offers unprecedented low noise levels in the entry market and takes recent customer needs into account, offering PCIe connectors already for the 300 Watt model.

Be quiet!'s Pure Power L8 with cable management is one of the most successful power supplies for the company. It offers a great set of features for a reasonable price. Now be quiet! decided to broaden this offer even more by releasing Pure Power L8 models in a version with fixed cables. Doing so, be quiet! is able to bring the fantastic feature set of these popular PSUs to an even lower price level.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that Rockchip's next-generation mobile processors are ramping to production on GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 28 nm High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology. Based on a multi-core ARM Cortex-A9 design, the RK3188 and RK3168 chips are optimized for tomorrow's high-performance, low-cost tablets that require long-lasting battery life (see product specifications in annex).

The combination of Rockchip's design and GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 28 nm HKMG process technology resulted in a mainstream tablet System-on-Chip (SoC) capable of operating at up to 1.8 GHz performance, while still maintaining the power efficiency expected by mobile device users. The chips began sampling to OEMs in early 2013 and are now ramping to support a wide range of manufacturers.

Pioneer unveiled the colorful new BDR-XS05J portable Blu-ray XL writer. Its faux-aluminum plastic body can latch on to a selection of four body panels, bushed aluminum, piano black, soft pink, and glossy white. Measuring 135 x 135 x 20.3 mm (WxDxH), and weighing in at 330 g, the drive features a slot-type disc-loading mechanism, and USB 3.0 SuperSpeed. It uses a single cable for both power and data connectivity.

Moving on to its chops as an optical drive, the BDR-XS05J can write single- and double-layer BD-R and BD-R LtH discs at up to 6X, triple- and quadruple-layer ones at 4X, and all kinds of BD-RE discs at 2X. DVDs are written at speeds of up to 8X, and CDs at 24X. Blu-ray discs of all kinds are read at speeds of up to 6X, DVDs at 8X, and CDs at 24X. Bundled software include Cyberlink PowerDVD 10, PowerDirector 10, PowerProducer 5, Power2Go 7 (for pure-read), InstantBurn 5, PowerBackup 2, LabelPrint 2, and MediaShow 6.Source: Hermitage Akihabara

AMD today publicly disclosed its strategy and roadmap to recapture market share in enterprise and data center servers by unveiling innovative products that address key technologies and meet the requirements of the fastest-growing data center and cloud computing workloads.

Additionally, AMD revealed details of its 2014 server portfolio including best-in-class Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), two- and four-socket CPUs, and details on what it expects to be the industry's premier ARM server processor. This is on the heels of announcing the general availability of the AMD Opteron X-Series processor, code named "Kyoto," which dominates the small-core server market on every performance benchmark. These forthcoming AMD Opteron processors bring important innovations to the rapidly changing compute market, including integrated CPU and GPU compute (APU); high core-count ARM servers for high-density compute in the data center; and substantial improvements in compute per-watt per-dollar and total cost of ownership.

On Friday, we published and commented on The Tech Report's FX-9000 insight and findings from their interview with an unnamed AMD official, among which was the undecided or improbable retail availability of the new processors. Today, the exact same two processors which made the object of AMD's Friday disclosure are available for pre-order from online retailers such as PCSuperStore, and while speculation on the causes or reasons of the apparent misinformation might be expected and could even be interesting, I will spare you the usual AMD bash and just point out the prices of these two new AMD processors, $ 960 for the FX-9590 and $ 576 for the FX-9370, vexing, to be blunt. Unless we're dealing with circumstantial speculation by a retailer (not unheard of), these prices would put the two new CPUs in direct competition with Intel's Core i7 Extreme processors, very unlikely targets for AMD's Vishera chips. We'll know soon enough, with retail availability imminent, it shouldn't be long before benchmark scores and charts start surfacing.Source: CPU World

A system built with thousands of Intel processors and co-processors was just named the most powerful supercomputer in the world in the 41st edition of the Top500 list of supercomputers. The system, known as "Milky Way 2," includes 48,000 Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors and 32,000 Intel Xeon processors and operates at a peak performance of 54.9 PFlops (54.9 quadrillion floating point operations per second) -- more than twice the performance of the top rated system from the last edition of the Top500 list in November 2012. This is the first exclusively Intel-based system to take the top spot on the list since 1997.

Intel also announced the expansion of the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors portfolio and revealed details of the second generation of Intel Xeon Phi products code named "Knights Landing." The new products and technologies will continue to radically increase the energy efficiency and performance of supercomputers worldwide.

Announced a little over a month ago, the SuperNova 1000 G2 is the latest addition to EVGA's SuperNova power supply series and is now available for purchase. Major European and North American retailers have listed the unit during the last few days, with prices falling inline with segment norm, around €/$ 180. The SuperNova 1000 G2 is the second high output unit of the series, after the SuperNova NEX1500 Classified, which received mixed reviews and failed to generate the desired traction for EVGA's recent PSU venture, partially because of its price (being the most expensive consumer PSU on the market at launch) and partially because of its lackluster performance for a halo product.

The SuperNova 1000 G2 is based on a leading platform from renowned OEM/ODM, Super Flower, a first for EVGA which previously collaborated with Etasis Electronics (for the SuperNova NEX 1500 Classified) and FSP (for the rest of its SuperNova lineup). While Super Flower's aformentioned platform, dubbed Leadex, is itself new, we did get to see it put through its paces by OklahomaWolf at jonnyGURU.com, where it performed exceptionally well, legitimizing expectations of similar feats from EVGA's own version of it. The SuperNova 1000 G2 also boasts superb connectivity, offering functionality superior to most competing products, and not least, a 10 year warranty period, something no other power supply offers, except for EVGA's own SuperNova NEX1500 Classified.

Z87 MPOWER and Z87 MPOWER MAX, two of MSI's top overclocker-targeted socket LGA1150 motherboards, are joined by the company's new flagship motherboard, the Z87 XPOWER. Built in the XL-ATX (345 x 264 mm) form-factor, this board gets you the best MSI has to offer, and is ideal for both CPU and VGA overclocking benches. The CPU is powered by a gargantuan 32-phase digital-PWM power supply, which draws power from two 8-pin EPS connectors, in addition to the 24-pin ATX, and an optional 6-pin PCI-Express connector.

The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-3000+ memory, and a PLX PEX8747 PCI-Express gen 3.0 bridge chip, which gives out four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, two of which are x16 capable, all four of which are x8-capable. One of the five x16 slots, the second one from top, is directly wired to the CPU, and plugging a graphics card on that slot will bypass the bridge-chip. This slot is ideal for when you have just one card. Two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slots take seat between the x16 slots, wired to the PCH. In addition to 4-way NVIDIA SLI and 4-way AMD CrossFireX, the board includes Lucid Virtu MVP 2.0 software.

During the week of Computex 2013, 6 overclocking records were shattered by professional overclockers with G.SKILL extreme performance DDR3 memory. Established in 1989 by computer hardware enthusiasts, G.SKILL is a leading memory & Solid State Drive manufacturer based in Taipei, Taiwan. The company's top priority is quality. All of the products undergo a series of the most rigorous tests and strict quality control processes. In addition to a committed, qualified IC testing house to examine the products, all G.SKILL products are 100% tested to ensure the highest yield, reliability and quality.

Giada Technology, a world famous manufacturer of compact desktop PCs, has launched one of the strongest mini-PCs on the market, the D2308. Using the latest 4th generation Intel (Haswell) Core i5/i7 CPU, with the powerful NVIDIA GTX650 enthusiast GPU, Giada has created a high-end mini computing platform that is targeted at living room computer needs and CEO-level business environments. The D2308 also features 3 antennas for maximum signal reception and wireless throughput with a maximum speed of 450 Mbps.

The D2308 is designed from the ground up for high-end home theater uses. Not only supporting Ultra HD 4Kx2K content with two HDMI outputs, the unit comes with a Bluray/DVD player. Support for the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) which provides extensive security with high levels of data encryption, allows the use of D2308-based systems in various applications in IT departments of large enterprises.

Stealth.com Inc. (Stealth Computer), a leader in the industrial computer and peripherals market has released a new 26" Panel Mount LCD monitor, featuring a high definition widescreen 16:9 format with 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080). The Stealth model SV-2600W-PM is Stealth's largest rugged industrial monitor to date. The LCD is environmentally sealed to NEMA 4/IP65 specifications providing maximum protection from dirty, wet and hostile operating environments. The SV-2600W-PM 26" panel mount monitor was designed utilizing LED backlight technology for optimal energy efficiency while delivering up to 350 Nits (Cd/m2) of brightness, a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and wide viewing angles of 178. The SV-2600W-PM is well equipped with Capacitive Touch Screen, VGA and DVI-D video input connectors.

NETGEAR, Inc., a global networking company that delivers innovative products to consumers, businesses and service providers, has shipped the NETGEAR ProSAFE Single-Band Wireless-N Access Point (WN203) to satisfy demand from small and medium-sized businesses to improve the performance and security of their wireless networks in a practical, cost-effective progression. Offering Power over Ethernet (PoE) for flexible deployment, comprehensive business-class security features, and an external antenna option, the WN203 operates in the 2.4 GHz band with up to 300 Mbps* throughput speeds. The WN203 Access Point provides a standalone configuration for easy setup of a reliable, high-performance and affordable 802.11n wireless solution.

The capabilities of networks in small offices and home offices are being stressed by the bandwidth demands of new media, voice, video and data. Networks are struggling to support the rapid increase in the number of devices accessing the network - traditional desktop computers and printers, mobile devices, smartphones and tablets, as well as IP phones and security cameras.

There are many theories doing rounds about the specifications of NVIDIA's upcoming performance-segment GPU, the GeForce GTX 760. One states that it's largely similar to the GeForce GTX 660 Ti from previous-generation, with higher clock speeds, possibly 7.00 GHz memory, and GPU Boost; while another suggests a completely new core-configuration. According to a GPU-Z screenshot leaked by a ChipHell community member, NVIDIA is attempting to give the GeForce GTX 660 a successor, rather than merely retrofitting the GTX 660 Ti.

According to leaks that surfaced on ChipHell, NVIDIA is configuring a GK104 GPU with just three out of four GPC (graphics processing clusters) enabled, while keeping the memory and raster operations untouched. This approach would give the chip 1,152 CUDA cores, 96 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The card in the GPU-Z screenshot features 1072 MHz core, 1111 MHz GPU Boost, and 7.00 GHz memory.

Patriot, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash, storage, and mobile accessories today announces an exclusive partnership with Meteor Entertainment, a leading publisher of online games, to launch a one-of-a-kind Supersonic RAGE XT promotion bundle with Meteor's online mech action game, HAWKEN. This valued-added bundle pairs the ultra-fast 64GB USB 3.0 Supersonic RAGE XT flash drive with a game changing 7-day HAWKEN Double XP Boost for the extremely popular multiplayer mech combat video game.

Providing the enhanced transfer speeds of USB 3.0 in an extra tough rubberized housing, the Patriot Supersonic Rage XT is the perfect solution for those looking for a compact design that doesn't compromise performance. The Supersonic Rage XT comes with a custom slide to connect design that provides best in class protection from wear and tear.

Today D-Link announced the pre-order availability of its most advanced Gaming Router to date, the D-Link Gaming Router with Qualcomm StreamBoost technology (DGL-5500). The D-Link Gaming Router offers AC1300 wireless speeds with unique traffic shaping and bandwidth management coupled with four gigabit Ethernet ports to deliver the ultimate in gaming performance, media streaming and network control. The Gaming Router is now available to customers in the U.S. for pre-order through newegg.com and will begin shipping Aug. 1.

"The Gaming Router represents the ultimate in high-performance connectivity to give power users the ability and control they need to do what they love online without the concern or interruption of buffering and lag," said Daniel Kelley, vice president of marketing, D-Link Systems, Inc. "Today's action role-playing games and MMOs are more competitive than ever and with limited bandwidth coming into the home, gamers need to ensure they're making the most of their connectivity to maintain an advantage. With Qualcomm StreamBoost technology, the new Gaming Router is designed to do just that - shape the network traffic to help gamers do more and lag less."

HighPoint, an industry leading Storage HBA and solutions manufacturer, has launched a new selection of cost-effective hardware RAID HBA's for PC and Mac Platforms - the RocketRAID 362x series. HighPoint's newest class of SATA RAID HBA's, the RocketRAID 362x series, represent the industry's most cost-effective 6Gb/s Hardware RAID Solution. RocketRAID 362x HBA's are ideal for large-scale configurations of 6Gb/s SATA hard drives, and were designed specifically for I/O intensive business and media applications that require a superior level of reliability, data redundancy, and consistent transfer rates.

RocketRAID 362x HBA's utilize a dedicated RAID-on-Chip processor and 512MB of DDR3 cache, which offload RAID-related processing from the host system, freeing up valuable resources and ensuring consistent, high-speed data transfer. A comprehensive management suite delivers a wide-selection of storage monitoring, maintenance and recovery features to help secure mission critical data from the risks of hardware failure. The dual Mini-SAS ports deliver true, uncompromised 6Gb/s transfer bandwidth for each of the 8 device channels. HighPoint's industry proven RAID architecture maintains reliable, high-speed transfers, even if the RAID configuration is degraded or in recovery mode.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of NAND flash storage solutions, today announces the introduction of the Ram Disk USB. With sequential read scores of up to 4041 MB/s and sequential write scores of up to 5388 MB/s, the Ram Disk is a speed demon of a drive housed in a sleek aluminum casing. The Ram Disk uses your computer's free RAM to transfer files at an amazingly quick rate. This USB also transfers the files while you are using the program, cutting down on wait time later.

"We are excited to release the RamDisk USB. This product can improve the productivity of those who work with large files and programs by harnessing the power of their system's RAM to deliver transfer speeds of over 4,000 MB/s." -Abraham Ma, CEO Super Talent Technology. The Ram Disk is as portable as a regular USB, giving the user the freedom to take their work anywhere. The Ram Disk provides the power of increased productivity through its incredible speed abilities, which can be many times faster than a SSD. This drive is especially suited for creative professionals. The Ram Disk is an ideal drive for anyone seeking a speedy drive with great performance.

AMD's new A10-6800K "Richland" APU is turning out to be quite the chip for competitive overclocking. Finnish overclocker "The Stilt" cracked the 8.00 GHz mark with the chip. Skills aside, "The Stilt" relied on liquid-nitrogen cooling that kept the chip at -185°C, a core voltage of 1.992V, a base clock of 126.99 MHz (~127 MHz), and 63.0x BClk multiplier. All four cores were enabled during the feat. Other key components of the bench include an ASUS F2A85-V Pro motherboard, and 2x 4 GB dual-channel memory of an unknown make, running at 1692 MHz (DDR) Find details and validation links here.

AMD unveiled the first batch of Athlon X4 CPUs in the socket FM2 package, based on its latest Richland silicon. These chips stop short of being labeled APUs, for they lack integrated graphics. You need a discrete graphics card. Unlike its previous generation "Trinity" silicon-based Athlon X4 CPUs, AMD unveiled a few parts with high clock speeds, some even with unlocked base-clock multipliers, targeting consumers who want to build socket FM2-based gaming PCs, but don't intend to use the integrated graphics.

At the top of the stack is the Athlon X4 760K Black Edition (AD760KWOHLBOX). This chip offers 3.80 GHz of clock speed, and 4.10 GHz maximum Turbo Core frequency. Despite its lack of the graphics core, its TDP is rated on par with the A10-6800K, at 100W. In its consumer-friendly PIB (processor-in-box) package, the X4-760K Black Edition is priced around US $135. A variant of this exact chip, which lacks unlocked BClk multiplier, is named just Athlon X4 760K (the "K" here can be misleading), and is priced around $100. AMD has other quad-core and dual-core Athlon parts based on the "Richland" silicon planned for later.

At Computex, GIGABYTE unveiled its GeForce GTX TITAN with WindForce 3X bundle (GV-NTITANOC-6GD-B), in which you get a reference-design yet factory-overclocked card, and a WindForce 3X cooling solution that you DIY install it on the card yourself. Both the card and the cooler are bundled into a single large box. The card comes factory-overclocked at 928 MHz core, 980 MHz GPU Boost, and 6.00 GHz memory. It maintains these clocks even with the reference cooler, but it could get louder than normal, and may not be able to sustain boost states as the GPU temperature jousts with the 80°C mark. With the WindForce 3X cooler installed, the card will run quieter, and the GPU will sustain boost states better.

The WindForce 3X cooler is complex aluminum fin-stack heatsink, in which two equally-sized aluminum fin stacks draw heat from the GPU, using five 8 mm-thick copper heat pipes. These are ventilated by a trio of 80 mm fans suspended on a metal shroud. Included in the add-on package are thermal pads for the memory and VRM, two syringes of TIM, screws, washers, an Allen key, and a large mouse-pad. GIGABYTE could price the card at a premium.

With its focus on on-demand entertainment at the expense of gaming prowess, Xbox One didn't impress gamers at E3, who instead flocked to Amazon to pre-order their PlayStation 4, which not only features faster hardware, that could translate to better visuals in gaming, but is also a whole 20 percent cheaper ($499 vs. $399). At E3, Microsoft tried to pull a fast one. It set up several gaming stations allegedly powered by Xbox One, where gamers could play unreleased Xbox One games using the new Xbox One controller, just to get a feel of how rich and smooth the graphics really are. Some of them fell for it, others didn't. When these peeping toms didn't find the screens wired to an Xbox One main unit, they yanked open the cupboards below, only to find a full-fledged Windows 7 gaming PC.

How full-fledged you ask? Keen observers across the forumscape made out a rig powered by an Intel LGA2011 processor, which could at least be a Core i7-3820, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 700 series reference design graphics card, which could at least be a GeForce GTX 770. Such a system would obviously give you a rich and smooth gaming experience.

Axtremex Technology is pleased to announce a MicroSSD, the new portable high performance external solid state drive with USB 3.0 interface. The MicroSSD is designed in a small form factor that is lightweight, durable and convenient to carry and use. It offers blazing fast data transfer rates and achieves a read speed of up to 420 MB/s and Write speed of up to 400 MB/s.

The device draws power directly from the USB port and requires no external power cord. It is also backward compatible with USB 2.0 ports. The MicroSSD will be available in 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB capacities. 512 GB and 1 TB capacities are being planned.