Asustek, the world's top motherboard brand has allegedly cut its board production for Q1 from the 'usual' 5 to 6 million units to about 3 to 3.5 million. The Taiwanese company apparently has about 1 million motherboards 'left over' from Q4 (2011) so the priority is to clear out inventory before putting production lines back into full gear. Of course Asus also has to worry about the hard drive shortages as they do affect PC sales. Plus, Q1 is usually a slow sales period.

The lower production plan also means Asus will be buying fewer chipsets this quarter. The order for Intel chips is said to reach 2.5 to 2.8 million units, while that for AMD silicon is supposed to be of 500,000 to 700,000 units. Board production at Asus should return to normal in Q2.

ASUS unveiled a designer variant of its N45SF entertainment notebook, dubbed N45J Mystic Edition. The N45J is ASUS' tribute to its homeboy, singer-songwriter Jay Chou. He starred in the action flick The Green Hornet. The notebook aesthetically has a big transition from its black+silver color scheme in its N45SF avatar. It's decked in white overall, with a dash of blue (the right shade, that misses being dubbed baby-blue by a whisker). On its lid is some urban art, which could have been adopted by the album-art of Jay Chou's label. There are also his autographs on the lid and the palm-rest.

That aside, this 14-incher packs a 1600x900 pixel display, is driven by 2nd generation Core processors (options include Core i7-2670QM/2630QM, Core i5-2430M/2410M, and Core i3-2330M/2310M), up to 8 GB of dual DDR3-1333 memory, NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M graphics with 1 or 2 GB VRAM, and a variety of storage options, including SSDs, high-capacity slow HDDs, or lower-capacity faster (7200 rpm) ones. DVD SuperMulti, BD-ROM, or BD-RW can be opted for. The audio is backed by punchy Bang & Olufsen ICEpower speakers. 720p web-camera, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, and 3 -in-1 card reader, make for the rest. We don't have the pricing info. It will most likely only be launched in Taiwan and Greater China region, where Jay Chou is likely to have a big following.

Facing a two-front competition from other netbook manufacturers and the ARM tablet industry, ASUS, one of the pioneers of the netbook form-factor, is readying a new line of fashionable-looking netbooks under the EeePC Flare series. Press pictures of these netbooks got leaked to the web by Notebook Italia, which reveal EeePC Flare series to be a colorful bunch of machines that are so designed to look curvy and fashionable, breaking the "compact" design mold of today's netbooks. They will be shows at the upcoming CES event, next week.

EeePC Flare will be available in two sizes, 12-inch and 10-inch. Among these, the 12-inch 1225B will be driven by AMD Fusion platform (likely E450), while the 1225C will be driven by Intel's new "Cedar Trail" Atom platform (N2600 or N2800). The 10-incher 1025 will stick to Cedar Trail. ASUS will pack these netbooks with features such as 500 GB of storage, LED backlit 720p displays, chiclet keyboards, etc.

A Japanese overclocker achieved a 96% CPU clock speed increase and 121% GPU clock speed increase during a "suicide-run" using a retail AMD A8-3870K Black Edition processor. The feat was conducted by OverclockWorks, a tech-community and store for Japanese overclockers. A CPU clock speed of 5,875 MHz was achieved using a base clock speed of 125 MHz, and multiplier of 47.0x, and a brutal core voltage of 1.872V. The integrated Radeon HD 6550D GPU was overclocked to 1,327 MHz from its default 600 MHz. The overclocker claimed that his feat is "probably the world's best", though, like some of the most unstable suicide-runs, the system was too unstable to run benchmarks. Apart from the A8-3870K, the test-bench consisted of ASUS F1A75-V Pro motherboard, G.Skill RipjawsZ memory, and a certain SilverStone PSU.

ASUS has announced two new USB sound products, the MS-100 compact USB stereo speaker set, and HS-W1 wireless USB headset. Both are designed with sharp, striking looks, fantastic audio quality and a pure Plug 'n Play design, but with a minimal size that's easily packed and to traveled with.

MS-100 USB Speaker

The MS-100 is a compact stereo USB speaker set, powered entirely by a USB 2.0 (or 3.0) port, yet still capable of providing punchy sound without distortion. Its minimalist and strong Art Deco cone design mimics the classic speaker shape, making them a perfect feature for any home or office environment. Meanwhile inside, its large 54 mm speaker drivers can generate up to 93 dB of sound with less than 3% distortion for its rich highs, thumping mids and full low tones.

No additional software driver is required on Windows Vista or Windows 7 machines, making it suitable for any desktop or laptop that needs an immediate sound boost!

Intel notified its partners in the PC industry that its Thunderbolt 10 Gbps interconnect will enter the PC ecosystem in April, 2012. Around that time, Intel will launch its third-generation Core processor family, and waves of new motherboards are likely to launch. It is likely that Thunderbolt will be the defining feature of many of these motherboards. Along with PC motherboards, the technology is likely to feature on pre-built desktops, and notebooks. The propagation of Thunderbolt is limited for a variety of reasons. First, its host controller costs more than $20, second, there already an established ecosystem of USB 3.0, a slower, yet competitive interconnect that maintains backwards compatibility with its older versions, and third, Intel has restricted the technology to Apple.

The cost of adoption, starting with host controllers, is expected to drop in the second half of 2012, and so the technology should standardize gradually in the future. 10 Gbps might be more than plenty of bandwidth for now, but the demand for faster device interconnects will only rise. Among the companies that have come forward with plans to adopt the technology, Sony is expected to adopt it among many of its product lines; ASUS into its high-end notebooks, and so will Gigabyte. Gigabyte will also embrace the technology for its motherboards in April, in a bid to increase competitiveness against ASUS and ASRock. Thunderbolt will be the next "features USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s" marketing label for motherboard vendors.

Welcome to the TechPowerUp 2011 PC technology Christmas special. We hope that you will enjoy reading it while tucking into your turkey, Christmas presents and a little too much wine... In this article, we go through the technology of 2011 that has had the most significance, the most impact and was generally the most talked about. It's not necessarily the best tech of 2011 which is the most significant though, since lemons can be just as significant as the ground-breakers in how they fail to deliver - and the backlash that goes with it.

January: Intel Sandy Bridge i5 & i7

Released on January 9th, the new Intel Core i5 & i7 processors were based on Intel's second generation Core architecture built on a 32 nm production process (HEXUS review). They included an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) physically on the same piece of silicon along with HyperThreading. These new dual and quad core processors soundly beat all previous generations of Intel processors in terms of processing performance, heat, power use, features and left AMD in the dust. Therefore, Intel badly needed some competition from AMD and unless you have been living under a rock, you will know how that turned out in October with the launch of Bulldozer. Sandy Bridge was a sound win and is generally considered to be the only architecture worth considering at this point. The i5-2500K is currently at the sweet spot of price/performance. It comes at a stock speed of 3.3 GHz, but typically overclocks to an amazing 4.5 - 5 GHz with a decent air cooler and without too much difficulty in getting there. Models in the budget i3 range were released at various times later. See this Wikipedia article for details.

Intel notified its partners among OEMs and ODMs, price cuts of processors based on the "Sandy Bridge" architecture, by 10 to 15 percent, according to sources in the notebook industry. The company hopes that reduced prices will stimulate market demand, and help quicker digestion of inventories as it gears up to launch its new generation of Core processors based on the 22 nanometer "Ivy Bridge" silicon, in April 2012.

Major notebook vendors such as Lenovo, Acer, and ASUS, have already brought prices of their models based on the popular Core i5-2430 below US $659 (NTD 20,000), and those based on cheaper Core i3 models under NTD 13,000 (US $430). Intel's upcoming Core i5-3450 and Core i7-3370, which will be found in Intel's mid-thru-performance lineup of new-generation Core processors, are expected to be just about $10-$15 costlier than the chips they're about to displace. The two are expected to be priced in the range of US $184-332. It is expected that notebook vendors will convey these fresh price cuts to the end-user, resulting in slightly more affordable notebooks.

Shipment delays aside, Asus now has another problem involving its Tegra 3-powered Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablet, a trademark lawsuit. Last week US-based toy maker Hasbro has filed a complaint with the Los Angeles federal court through which it accuses Asus of violating its uber-popular 'Transformers' trademark.

Hasbro is obviously annoyed with the name of Asus' tablet which combines two important brands - Transformers and Optimus Prime. To 'make things right', Hasbro is asking for monetary damages and a temporary injunction that would prevent the sale of the Transformer Prime in the US.

Asus didn't respond to the lawsuit but it's probably taking action to ensure nothing disrupts Transformer Prime sales.

Previously showcased at CeBIT (in March) and Computex (in June), Asus' 27-inch ET2700 all-in-one PC has now been launched in the US where it's set to go head-to-head with the Apple iMac.

The ET2700 is equipped with an LED-backlit Full HD (1920 x 1080) MVA panel offering 178/178 degree viewing angles (and, depending on model, 10-point multi-touch) and features a Sandy Bridge processor (Core i3-2120, i5-2400S, i5-2405S or i7-2600S), up to 8 GB of RAM, Intel HD integrated graphics or an NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 1/2 GB card, up to a 2 TB hard drive, and either a DVD writer, a Blu-ray combo drive, or a Blu-ray burner.

Today ASUS announced that they will be outsourcing a portion of their motherboard manufacturing to Cal-Comp Electronics. The total amount is estimated to be around 5 or 6 million motherboards out of a total shipment forecast of 24.5 million units for 2012. This is somewhat a surprise move by ASUS as they originally outsourced its motherboard orders to Pegatron and other smaller ODMs in Southern China.

The reasons for the shift are unknown. Cal-Comp currently has production bases in Thailand, China, Malaysia, Brazil and Mexico and is mainly manufacturing PC peripherals and components such as printers, external hard drive and printed circuit board (PCB) as well as communication products such as set-top box (STB), handsets and Bluetooth earphones.

TechPowerUp today released GPU-Z version 0.5.7, the latest version of our popular graphics system information and diagnostic utility. This release of GPU-Z comes just in time for the launch of AMD's Radeon HD 7000 series. It packs tested support for Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7350. It packs an updated PCI Express 3.0 detection routine, with better detection reliability. It fixes a bug related to "APIC counter broken" on AMD Fusion APU platforms. Detection is improved for some rare GPUs, such as HD 6450A, HD 6470M, and the more popular HD 5570.

Several reliability updates were introduced. This includes fixed (improved) fillrate calculation on Fermi architecture, fixed ROP count on GT 420, GT 520, HD 5450, HD 6450; fixed random values showing as default clocks on some NVIDIA cards; fixed random value showing as shader clock on NVIDIA cards without shader clock; and addition of process size, die size, transistor count for Radeon E6760.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.7 and TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.7 ROG-Themed

Dutch online retailer Comcom.nl couldn't hold its rocks, and listed the upcoming Radeon HD 7970 on its site. Listed, was an ASUS-branded card (with no pictures, of course), so it could be a paper listing for pre-orders. Comcom is asking €482.11 for this card before applicable taxes, about €573.71 with them. Disturbing as the pricing looks, it endorses speculated North American pricing of US $550 (pre-tax) for these cards. In its listing the retailer mentions the card's model number as HD7970-3GD5, and as having 3 DVI connectors, 1 HDMI, and two mini-DP.

Windows (PC) will make its first transition to a machine architecture other than x86 in decades with Windows 8 Windows on ARM (WOA), and Microsoft wants to make absolutely sure that it has a well-oiled ecosystem in place to propel its growth. Currently, Microsoft picked three potent players among ARM processor vendors, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments (that have experience and can ship in Zerg volumes), and NVIDIA (which has demonstrated a lot of engineering potential with its latest Tegra products).

Microsoft reportedly asked the three ARM players to pick two notebook vendors each (one major, and one minor) with which they will work to develop some of the first WOA portable computing devices. Qualcomm selected Samsung and Sony, Texas Instruments chose Toshiba and Samsung, while NVIDIA chose Acer and Lenovo. Among these, Samsung, Toshiba, and Lenovo are the major partners. Surprisingly, Taiwan-based companies have an insignificant role in this ecosystem. ASUS, which has thus far been the largest client of NVIDIA for Tegra processors, has been left out. Now that downstream partners are selected, upstream ODMs such as Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron and Pegatron Technology, which manufacture for those companies, are getting their R&D teams in shape to compete for the next-generation platform. The finishing line of ARM's marathon run to get into PCs is in sight.

NVIDIA released its newest graphics card model specifically for the winter shopping season, the limited edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores. Not only is this a limited edition launch, but also targeting only specific markets in North America and Europe. This includes the United States and Canada in North America; and the UK, France, Germany, Russia, and the Nordics in Europe. The new card is based on the 40 nanometer GF110 GPU instead of the GF114 that the regular GTX 560 Ti is based on. This allows NVIDIA to add 64 more CUDA cores (448 vs. 384), 25% more memory (1280 MB vs. 1024), and a 25% wider memory bus (320 bit vs. 256).

The new limited edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 cores features clock speeds identical to those on the GeForce GTX 570, at 732 MHz core, 1464 MHz CUDA cores, and 950 MHz (3.80 GHz effective) GDDR5 memory. Since it's based on the GF110 board, this new card is also capable of 3-way SLI, something the regular GTX 560 Ti isn't. The card draws power from two 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs typically include two DVI and a mini-HDMI. Add-in card vendors are free to design their own graphics cards based on this chip, and so expect most GTX 560 Ti 448 core cards to look similar to non-reference GTX 570 ones. ZOTAC, Inno3D, EVGA, Palit, Gainward, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI will have graphics cards based on this chip. Prices should typically start at US $289.

Love 'em or hate 'em, Apple has a habit of trend setting. When Apple released their original iPad, it had a meager low resolution 1024 x 768 resolution display which was scoffed at by many, yet it didn't stop it from being a runaway success. And the iPad 2 didn't improve on it, either - perhaps surprisingly, since the original formula worked so well. However, in early 2012 Apple plans to introduce its new Retina display equipped next generation iPads, offering a very high 2048 x 1536 resolution. On the 9.7" screen of an iPad, this would make the pixels all but invisible to anyone, except for those with the sharpest of 20-20 vision, giving the screen superb clarity and wow factor. These will be incorporated into its next generation iPads, which is expected to push the PC notebook market to use higher resolution displays too in order to remain competitive.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced a range of HyperX Genesis memory in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB kits to support the new Intel Sandy Bridge-E X79 quad-channel processors and X79 Express-based motherboards. Kingston HyperX Genesis is the perfect solution for enthusiasts who require 4x raw performance increases afforded by quad channel over single channel solutions.

For extreme users who require both the fastest memory and largest capacity, Kingston's 2400MHz and 2133MHz will soon be available in both 8 GB and 16 GB kits of four modules. Other HyperX Genesis memory for X79 systems include 1866 MHz and 1600 MHz frequencies in kits of four and eight, with capacities ranging from 8GB to 32GB. All of Kingston's HyperX kits have achieved Intel XMP certification and are compatible with the latest X79 motherboards from vendors such as ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI and ASRock.

NVIDIA today announced that system builders worldwide are now shipping the fastest PC gaming platforms ever built, thanks in part to NVIDIA SLI technology and the just-released Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processors and X79 chipset-based motherboards.

The combination of NVIDIA SLI technology -- which allows for multiple GPUs to run on a single PC -- and new X79-based motherboards allow gamers to customize their PC experience with up to four NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPUs, including the GeForce GTX 580 and GTX 570, the world's fastest DX11 GPUs. Licensed by the world's leading motherboard manufacturers -- including Intel, ASUS, ASRock, EVGA, Foxconn, Gigabyte and MSI, SLI technology is crucial for playing this year's hottest graphics-intensive games, such as the recently released Battlefield 3 and upcoming Batman: Arkham City with detail, resolution and immersion settings cranked up.

This week, ASUS, along with the rest of the PC motherboard industry, launched its socket LGA2011 board lineup, with its three main lines: P9X79, ROG Rampage IV, and TUF Sabertooth X79. The ROG line included the Rampage IV Extreme, which ended up being ASUS' flagship socket LGA2011 motherboard for the platform's launch. It's filled to the brim with all the features gamers and overclockers will ever need. But as with most ROG lines, Rampage IV will have a complete triad: Extreme (already launched), Formula (a notch below Extreme, but still offers great features), and Gene (Micro-ATX, stuffed with features).

Press shots and presentation slides of the Rampage IV Formula started making waves today. Pictures reveal the board to be standard ATX. Unlike the Extreme, Formula has just four DDR3 DIMM slots (one slot per memory channel), yet it supports all the DRAM multipliers Extreme does. The CPU is powered by a 11-phase Digi+ VRM. It is wired to four PCI-Express 3.0 (capable) x16 slots, among which two are PCI-Express 3.0 x16 capable, and all four are x8 capable, depending on the way they are populated with addon cards. Apart from these long slots, there are two PCI-E 2.0 x1. 4-way SLI and CrossFireX are supported. Storage connectivity includes four SATA 3 Gb/s (black), four SATA 6 Gb/s (red, two from the PCH, two from third-party controller), and two eSATA 6 Gb/s (also from a third-party controller).

Digital Storm, the predominant name in computer system integration and engineering, proudly announces the flagship system in its award-winning line of ODE gaming computers - ODE Level 4. This new system takes the pre-built and fully customized concept to the next level by integrating Intel's X79 chipset, Core i7 3930K six-core CPU, and overclocking it to 4.6GHz. ODE Level 4 gaming PCs are packed with lightning fast components that have been optimized to deliver unparalleled performance, while not breaking the bank.

Based on Intel's X79 chipset, ODE Level 4 boasts blazing fast speed that creates unrivalled gameplay. Digital Storm engineers have also taken advantage of the quad-channel memory controller on the new X79 chipset by designing a luxurious 16GB configuration of DDR3 memory that delivers an even more responsive user experience. Additionally, a configuration of three NVIDIA GTX 570 1.2GB video cards, in triple SLI, generates fluid smooth graphics, creating an immersive gaming experience.

ASUS, maker of the world's best-selling and most innovative motherboards, is excited to release a wide range of new X79 motherboards. All feature the new Intel X79 Express Chipset, with support for 2nd generation Core i7 processors in the new LGA 2011 Socket. The complete lineup includes P9X79 Series motherboards with total performance tuning and control, the enthusiast-centric ROG Rampage IV Extreme, the ultra-reliable TUF SABERTOOTH X79, and the professional P9X79 WorkStation Series supporting NVIDIA 4-way SLI and AMD CrossFireX.

All motherboards feature ASUS Dual Intelligent Processor 3 technology with the latest ASUS DIGI+ Power Control design providing three digital voltage controllers onboard, one for the CPU and two for DRAM. ASUS' class-leading Digital Power designs result in better performance, greater stability, and enhanced overclocking for all users. All of the new motherboards ship with multi-GPU support, PCI Express 3.0 capabilities*, exclusive ASUS UEFI and up to 64GB of quad-channel DDR3 support via 8-DIMM slots.

Republic of Gamers and Sabertooth aren't the only special client motherboard product lines of ASUS apart from its mainline, there's also the WS (workstation) series, that consists of motherboards fit for mission-critical environments, and which are filled to the brim with features. These motherboards are often based on chipset from Intel's client product lines, rather than enterprise ones. Intel's Sandy Bridge-E 1P platform will get a similar treatment with the P9X79WS.

Based on the ATX form-factor, the P9X79WS uses a typical X79 motherboard layout. The socket LGA2011 is powered by a 10-phase Digi+ VRM, which is cooled by a heatsink that shares its heat with a VRM heatsink cluster over the memory VRM, and the one over the X79 PCH. There are eight DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting quad-channel DDR3 memory. All expansion slots are PCI-Express long-type, though the exact lane configuration is not known. The board is advertised with 4-way NVIDIA SLI and CrossFireX support, so at least four of those slots could be wired to the CPU.

AMD today announced AMD Ready Solutions for servers, a collaborative effort with leading server platform manufacturers to provide a broad portfolio of ready-to-market AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor-based motherboards worldwide through authorized AMD distributors the day of the launch. Because the upcoming AMD Opteron processors will drop into the existing socket infrastructure, leading motherboard manufacturers such as ASUS, Supermicro and TYAN are able to bring fully validated and rigorously tested platforms to market even more quickly. These new platforms address market demands and customer requirements for a wide range of server workloads, including high-performance computing (HPC), cloud computing, virtualization, enterprise and database applications and Web/email servers.

"With AMD Ready Solutions for servers, our customers can find complete and verified server platforms in the channel the day of launch," said Paul Struhsaker, corporate vice president and general manager, Commercial Business at AMD. "The combination of the existing socket infrastructure already in place with AMD Ready Solutions will enable faster and easier upgrade paths to new levels of server performance and scalability."

ASUS began bundling copies of Battlefield 3 (not Limited Edition) and an ASUS-Battlefield 3 themed Lanyard with GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP graphics card and Xonar D2X PCI-Express 7.1 channel sound card. You can buy either of those and get a Battlefield 3 coupon that can be redeemed on Origin.

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti TOP will allow you to play Battlefield 3 at 1080p resolution with quite some eye-candy turned on. Its core is overclocked to 900 MHz (from NVIDIA reference speed of 820 MHz), and memory at 1050 MHz (4200 MHz GDDR5 effective). The DirectCU II cooler, ASUS claims, keeps the card 20% cooler than the reference heatsink. There is 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. This GTX 560 Ti is based on the 40 nm GF114 silicon, packing 384 CUDA cores.

A couple of weeks ahead of its worldwide launch, Intel's much talked about "Sandy Bridge-E" Core i7 processors and compatible motherboards are beginning to surface on an online store in China. Listings include all three of the Core i7 LGA2011 processors Intel will launch in November, that includes the quad-core Core i7-3820, six-core Core i7-3930K and six-core Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition (details on the three here. Apart from these, a few compatible motherboards such as the ASUS ROG Rampage IV Extreme and MSI X79A-GD65 8D, were also listed.

Before getting into the pricing, it's important to note that prices of components in mainland China, in general, are more or less consistent with those in the US. The top-of-the-line Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition is priced at RMB ¥7,800 (converts to US $1,227). The next best LGA2011 offering, Core i7-3930K, is priced at ¥5,800 (US $912). The most afforable of the three, Core i7-3820, goes for ¥3,500 (US $550).