Renowned overclocker Duck set a new record 3DMark Vantage. The record was set at an event apparently conducted by Galaxy Tech. The record now stands at P75324 points. Duck used four Galaxy GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards in 4-way SLI to achieve the feat. It appears as if at least one, if not all, use an ASUS BIOS, perhaps to avail the VoltageTweak feature. Apart from the graphics cards, Duck's bench consisted of two Intel Xeon E5680 Westmere-EP 6-core/12-thread processors clocked at 5368 MHz, EVGA Classified SR-2 dual-LGA1366 motherboard, 6x 2 GB Corsair DDR3-2000 MHz CL7 memory, multiple 1200W PSUs (Corsair AX1200W + SilverStone Strider Gold SST-ST1200G), and Intel X25-M 80 GB SSD. In the cooling department, there are Duck's own JCA Water Bear Pot WB02A and K|ngp|n F1 cooling the two processors, K|ngp|n Tek9 4 and 5.0 cooling the GPUs, a custom heatsink cluster cooling the GPU VRM, and gobs of insulation.

After showing off a monstrous DirectCu II cooled Radeon HD 6970 at CES, ASUS released pictures of another card which probably couldn't make it to Vegas. The GeForce GTX 580 DirectCu II from ASUS is just as beastly as its Radeon cousin. It uses a completely in-house design, with custom PCB that uses a strong VRM; and a triple-slot cooler which uses copper heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. The PCB uses an 8-phase GPU and 2-phase memory VRM. Whereas the reference design draws all memory power from the slot, the ASUS version has shifted one memory phase to external for improved overclocking. The VRM makes use of high-grade components, including an NEC-made proadlizer to condition power for the GPU.

The DirectCu II cooler uses a large aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by five heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. Two 100 mm fans are in charge of ventilation. The rear panel consists of two DVI, and one each of DisplayPort and HDMI. The card is bound to have factory overclocked speeds, with room for more overclocking. The cooler, though large and with two fans, is tested by the company to be quieter than NVIDIA's reference design cooler. The GeForce GTX 580 is NVIDIA's flagship DirectX 11 GPU. It packs 512 CUDA cores, and connects to 1536 MB of memory over a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface.

ASUS announced a new stereo headset for gamers under its reputed Republic of Gamers (ROG) series, the ROG Vulcan ANC (active noise cancellation). The ROG Vulcan ANC is styled with a monolithic band design, using tough plastic and high-quality leather. The signature black+red color scheme is used in combination with the ROG logo on a carbon fiber (lookalike?) plate. The headset uses around the ear cushioning which provides a level of noise reduction. This is bolstered with active noise cancellation of up to 30 dB.

The headset also packs a noise-canceling microphone. Sound is delivered by 40 mm drivers. A clip-on volume control and mic-mute gives you quick access to volume and helps keep in-game chatter clean. ASUS' ROG Vulcan ANC headset will be available soon. The company didn't give out pricing.

It seems like Bigfoot Killer, the family hardware-accelerated latency-chopping network controllers is really taking off after garnering interest from the motherboard industry. First, it was MSI announcing a strategic partnership with Bigfoot to bundle NICs using Killer 2100 and the probability of integrating it onto its motherboards, then Gigabyte beating MSI to that by unveiling not one, but three LGA1366 motherboards under the G1.Killer series with integrated Killer controllers, that leaves us with ASUS.

ASUS' first encounter with the Killer NIC is in the form of a multifunction addon card called ASUS ThunderBolt. Multifunction addon cards aren't new to ASUS. Recently, it released U3S6, a card that integrates USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s controllers with two ports of each kind. The ThunderBolt, on the other hand, integrates Bigfoot Killer 2100 network controller and ASUS Xonar sound. So in one package, it gives gamers access to a more responsive network and clearer audio.

ASUS displayed a huge new graphics card based on the AMD Radeon HD 6970 GPU. The EAH6970 DirectCu is perhaps the largest among the company's graphics cards that use a "direct-copper" GPU cooler in which heat pipes make direct contact with the GPU die. Such is the size of the cooler, that the card requires three expansion slots in your system. To make optimal use of the expansion brackets, ASUS wired out all TMDS links from the GPU, yielding a display connectivity consisting of two DVI and four full-sized DisplayPort 1.2 connectors.

The GPU cooler makes use of a large aluminum fin array which uses at least three 8 mm thick copper heat pipes. The aluminum fins are cooled by the airflow of two 120 mm fans. The card uses 2 GB of high-speed GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface, it packs 1536 VLIW4 stream processors. The card also seems to be using a 9-phase VRM that allows software voltage control. Power is drawn in from two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors.

At a time when everyone including ASUS is cramming the AMD Fusion E-350 APU into netbooks and mini-ITX motherboards to get rid of Atom; the motherboard major saw "bigger" prospects for the E-350, and designed a micro-ATX motherboard based on it. The E35M1-M Pro from ASUS uses AMD Fusion E-350 APU that embeds a dual-core x86-64 processor based on the "Bobcat" architecture with an AMD Radeon HD 6310 DirectX 11 compliant GPU. The processor is backed by the brand new Hudson M1 single-package chipset. The E35M1-M Pro is intended for everything from office PCs to home PCs, and HTPCs. It draws power from conventional 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU power connectors, and uses a 3+1 phase VRM.

The CPU and chipset share a heatsink. The CPU is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, one PCI-E x1, and two PCI slots. Storage expansion includes five internal SATA 6 Gb/s and one eSATA 6 Gb/s. Connectivity includes 6-channel HD audio with optical SPDIF output, 7.1 channel audio over HDMI, gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports, FireWire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. ASUS added a bunch of exclusive features that can let you squeeze out the most performance, and manage power consumption.

NVIDIA announced the GeForce 500M series of notebook graphics processing units (GPUs), designed to power laptops featuring next-generation Intel Core CPUs (Sandy Bridge). GeForce 500M GPUs are expected to power some of the industry's best notebooks in 2011. The GPUs feature category-leading performance in media-rich HD, 3D, Web, and Gaming applications, as well as enhanced battery life, courtesy of NVIDIA Optimus technology. NVIDIA Optimus technology enables extra long battery life by switching on and off the GPU so that it runs only when needed.

Only NVIDIA GPUs support NVIDIA Optimus technology, which enables extra-long battery life by automatically switching on and off the GPU so that it runs only when needed. Introduced less than a year ago, NVIDIA Optimus is now designed into over 80% of 500M Series notebooks across leading OEMs.

Closely trailing other, ASUS also made its AMD Brazos platform motherboard public. The E35MI-I Deluxe from ASUS is filled to the brim with features, its most significant being a completely silent passive heatsink design that keeps the system cool without eating into precious mini-ITX board space. A large monolithic heatsink covers the central portion of the motherboard, cooling both the AMD Fusion E-350 dual-core processor and the Hudson M1 chipset. It uses a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is supplied from its base by heat pipes.

The processor is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, the lone expansion slot is a PCI-Express 2.0 x16. There are five internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and an eSATA 6 Gb/s. The rear panel is an equally crowded place. There's 6-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 (two rear + two internal) and a number of USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n, optical SPDIF, and display connectivity that includes DVI and HDMI. Featuring Turbo Key II, the board can overclock the processor at the turn of a small switch. ASUS is also readying a "lite" version of this motherboard, which is likely to lack some features, such as WiFi.

ASUS' much talked about tablet, the Eee Slate EP121 was officially unveiled at CES. The 12-inch tablet features hardware specifications which aren't very "Eee", so to speak. To begin with, it's not based on the Atom Pine Trail platform, but instead uses a relatively powerful Core i5-470UM dual-core processor clocked at 1.33 GHz (1.86 GHz Turbo Boost), with 3 MB L3 cache, HyperThreding, and Intel HD 2000 graphics. The CPU is backed by 2 or 4 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory. Storage is care of 32 or 64 GB SSD.

The Eee Slate EP121 runs Windows 7 Home Premium x64 with all its touch-input features enabled. The 12.1" multi-touch screen sports a screen resolution of 1280 x 800. Apart from directly touching the UI, users can also use the provided digitizer pen that can let you write in your handwriting, which the software tries to make sense of and converts to text. Connectivity includes USB 2.0 ports, WiFi b/g/n, and Bluetooth 3.0. Other features include 2-channel HD audio, mini-HDMI display output, 3-in-1 card reader, and built-in stereo speakers. Prices start at US $1000, and goes up depending on memory amount and SSD size opted for.

With the entire PC motherboard industry concentrated in Taiwan and China, it is valid to say that PC prices are pretty-much pegged to Taiwan's economy. Following a wave of labor-reforms in China and Taiwan coupled with deficit of skilled labor, and inflation added to the mix; key motherboard manufacturers are finding it difficult to cope with competitive motherboard pricing. A much smaller contributor to this is Intel's decision to phase out cheap G31 chipsets, making manufacturers buy slightly costlier G41 ones for the most common motherboard models.

Industry sources told Digitimes that the big three in the motherboard industry - ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, will be hiking prices of their motherboards shortly, to cope with increasing raw-material, labor, and component costs. The price-hike is likely to increase prices by 10% on average in the next three months. Some higher-end models could increase by as much as 20%, if labor costs in China continue to rise. Another factor here is bulk manufacturers of printed circuit boards (PCBs), who have hiked their prices following increase in price of high-grade copper by a whopping 50% (from US $6000 /ton to $9000 /ton).

ASUS rolled out its second AMD Radeon HD 6870 graphics card, and its first non-reference design one: the HD 6870 DirectCu. The card features two features that make it supposedly better than the reference design, the Direct Cu GPU cooler, and a refined PCB design that make use of high-grade components. To begin with, the DirectCu GPU cooler combines a GPU base in which copper heatpipes make direct contact with the GPU die, conveing heat to a dense aluminum fin array which is cooled by a quiet fan.

The PCB makes use of "Super Alloy" voltage regulation components, such as Super Alloy chokes, Super Alloy capacitors, and Super Alloy MOSFETs, that not only increase durability, but also result in a cooler operation. The card is also factory-overclocked slightly, with the GPU running at 915 MHz but memory staying at 4200 MHz GDDR5 effective. Display connectivity includes two DVI, and one each of DisplayPort and HDMI. Other features include Super Hybrid Engine (which manages clock speeds based on load), and Voltage Tweak (which allows adjustment of voltages). ASUS' new card is yet to be priced.

ASUS is designing a new GeForce GTS 450 graphics card that is factory overclocked, and makes use of some innovative new features. To begin with, the card is clocked at 810 MHz for the core, 1620 MHz CUDA cores, and 902 MHz (3608 GDDR5 effective) for memory. It makes use of a 4-phase VRM with POSCAP capacitors, an EMI shield, and GPU Guard technology that increases durability. On the other side of the coin ofcourse, there's the VoltageTweak feature that lets you adjust voltages to optimize an overclocked speed profile. Display outputs include one each of DVI, D-Sub, and full-sized HDMI, The GTS 450 is based on the GF106 GPU, it features 192 CUDA cores and connects to 1 GB of memory over a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface.

ASUS unveiled its new workstation-grade socket LGA1155 motherboard that supports 2011-series Core i3/5/i7 processors, as well as, upcoming Xeon LGA1155 processors, the P8P67 WS Revolution. It is packed to the brim with features. To begin with, the CPU is powered by a 16+2 phase digital VRM, the socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, supporting speeds of over DDR3-2200 MHz. There are four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, supporting 3-way SLI/CrossFireX, probably using a bridge chip such as the NVIDIA nForce 200, and three PCI-E x1.

Storage features include four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and four SATA 3 Gb/s. Connectivity features include two Intel GbE controllers, 8+2 channel HD audio, two USB 3.0 ports, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. Other features include a system diagnostics card, EPU energy-efficiency processor, TurboV Processing Unit (TPU), and Quick Gate instant-on OS. ASUS will announce pricing when it most probably releases this board in January.

Leading professional gamer Fatal1ty has branded all kinds of PC hardware, including peripherals, headsets, sound cards, graphics cards, and even motherboards made by erstwhile Abit. Motherboards with the Fatal1ty branding are making a comeback, this time under the charge of ASUS. It is reported that a new manufacturer is designing some socket LGA1155 motherboards based on the Intel P67 chipset using the Fatal1ty branding. The company will show off its latest motherboards at CES 2011, which will also be the time when Intel unveils its 2011 Core processor family. Socket LGA1155 processors, coupled with Intel P67 platform is the key segment that targets gamers.

UPDATE: The board in question is made by ASRock, it's called Fatal1ty P67. It features a high-end VRM, 3-way NVIDIA SLI/CrossFire capability, a high-grade 16-phase digital CPU VRM, a unique USB port that automatically steps up polling rate of gaming mice, THX audio, four SATA 6 Gb/s, and two USB 3.0 ports. Fatal1ty detailed the board himself, in the TweakTown article linked below.

The successful Fermi series from NVIDIA continues to expand with the new GTX 580, featuring 512 CUDA cores and achieving the most impressive DirectX 11 performance ever fielded by a single NVIDIA GPU. ASUS has added its own exclusive Voltage Tweak to the GTX580 for significant output gains on demand. The hardcore performance of the ASUS GTX580 offers full HD NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround gaming and movie watching on up to three screens, and CUDA parallel computing that puts the great power of the GPU at the disposal of the CPU for overall system enhancement.

NVIDIA today announced the latest consumer GPU based on the NVIDIA Fermi architecture, the GeForce GTX 580, which has been reengineered from the transistor-level up to deliver increased power efficiency and performance over previous generation products.

The GeForce GTX 580 GPU delivers the world's fastest performance for DirectX 11 (DX11) games, and support for NVIDIA 3D Vision, Surround, PhysX, SLI and CUDA technologies, further entrenching GeForce-based PCs as the most robust gaming platforms in the world. The combination of an innovative vapor chamber thermal solution and new architectural enhancements make the GTX 580 the fastest and quietest GPU in its class, delivering an increase of up to 35 percent in performance per watti, and performance that is up to 30 percent faster than the original GeForce GTX 480.

ASUS showed off its high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard lineup in London, including from its two top brands, ROG and Sabertooth TUF. The ROG Maximus IV Extreme, TUF Sabertooth P67, P8P67 Deluxe and P8P67 were on display. All four models are based on the Intel P67 Express chipset, designed to support upcoming Sandy Bridge architecture derived LGA1155 processors, or the 2011 Core processor family. Leading the pack is the Maximum IV Extreme. This board is literally bursting with features and is geared for extreme overclocking. There are no less than four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, possibly driven by a PCI-E bridge chip, which allows 3-way and 4-way SLI/CrossFireX; four each of USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and ROG-exclusive features such as ROG Connect, and redundant BIOS.

Next in line is the TUF Sabertooth P67. Keeping in tune with the TUF series' main feature of providing very high durability, the Sabertooth P67 uses ceramic heatsinks and high-grade components. For the first time, we're getting to see a protective scaffolding covering most of the board's area on its obverse side (we've seen it on the reverse side on older models). ASUS is calling it "tactical vest". This board only supports two PCI-E x16 devices, 2-way SLI/CrossFireX.

No, it's not a mini-disc music player, it's not a powder compact either, but a new wireless mouse by ASUS, which intends to take on Apple's Magic Mouse, which gives users a touch surface apart from being a pointing device. ASUS' WD-XL, as it's called, sports a perfectly round shape, with a slight tilt when placed on its tracking surface. One of its lead designers is Danish design house David Lewis, which also worked on ASUS' NX90 designer notebook.

Measuring 80 (L) x 80 (W) x 31.5 (H), its top holds a circular touch surface with a few feather-touch media keys, with two mouse buttons to its north. As a pointing device, the WD-XL has a 1200 dpi laser sensor. It connects to the PC over a common 2.4 GHz RF wireless connection. The touch surface gives users access to several touch-based UI features of Windows 7, without having to crane your arms to a touchscreen display. It is said to be priced at US $79. The company pitches this product as an "All Round Mouse Perfection".

ASUS is giving its stylish Eee PC 1015PW that makes use of the company's Seashell chassis with "purple rain" livery some dual-core power, equipping it with an Intel Atom N550. The netbook is available in two other liveries - "gold dust" and "angel skin". The 10-inch netbook features a 1024 x 600 pixels display, with storage options of 250 or 320 GB, and connectivity that includes 10/100 Ethernet, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi b/g/n; and other features that include a VGA web camera and a multi card reader. On the software side, ASUS is bundling its own ExpressGate instant-on OS, and apart from the local storage, 500 GB of cloud-based storage. Pricing is not known.

Featuring even more processing power than the successful EAH5000 Series of graphics cards, the new ASUS EAH6800 Series continues to serve PC enthusiasts with cutting-edge technology and a range of exclusive performance-boosting improvements to the AMD reference design.

Both the EAH6850 DirectCU/2DIS/1GD5 and EAH6870/2DI2S/1GD5 cards feature AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, AMD HD3D technology and DirectX 11 support. In addition, exclusive Voltage Tweak overclocking technology offers a 50% performance boost over the reference design. The EAH6850 DirectCU and EAH6870 also ship with factory overclocked cores set to 790MHz and 913MHz.

AMD today introduced the next generation of PC gaming, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series, designed to be "perfect graphics cards" for gamers by delivering unprecedented game performance starting at $179 SEP. The new AMD Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards provide more than 30 percent greater game performance than competing products, harnessing AMD's second-generation Microsoft DirectX 11-capable architecture, best-in-class energy efficiency, and an unmatched feature set, including AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology. The AMD Radeon HD 6800 series is available immediately from etailers worldwide.

"AMD is the market share leader by a landslide in DirectX 11 graphics," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. "Through our sweet spot strategy and our open, industry standards approach, we've worked to deliver the best possible experience for gamers. Today, our laser focus on gamers continues with the introduction of what we think is far and away the best graphics card series today, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series. With exceptional game performance, an unrivaled feature set including breathtaking DirectX 11 gaming, AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing, and more, the AMD Radeon HD 6800 series will have all gamers wanting to get Radeon in their systems."

ASUS is ready with its first non-reference design Radeon HD 6850 graphics card, making use of the company's proven DirectCu cooler design. The EAH6850 DirectCu also makes use of a non-reference design PCB by the company that makes use of high-quality components, and the VoltageTweak feature, which lets users control voltages using software. To support this, and provide an out of the box overclock, the card draws power from two 6-pin power connectors, unlike the reference design that needs just one. The DirectCu cooler features nickel-plated copper heat-pipes that make direct contact with the GPU, conveying heat quickly to the heatsink. Display connectors include two DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort. The exact clock speeds are not known. ASUS will most likely release this card on the 22nd of this month.

ASUS announced a trio of full-HD (1920 x 1080 resolution) 27-inch monitors. The VK278Q and VE278Q have LED-backlit illumination with dynamic contrast ratio (DCR) of 10,000,000:1, and the third model, VE276Q, with common CCFL illumination with 100,000 DCR. The VK278Q features a 2 megapixel webcam. All three models give you 2 ms response time GTG, 3W stereo speakers. The VK278Q and VE278Q, and VE276Q are priced at €359, €339, and €329, respectively.

ASUS has announced the latest addition to its Fermi series of DirectX 11 graphics cards with ENGT430/DI/1GD3 (LP). Powered by the NVIDIA GeForce GT430 graphics processor, the ASUS-designed PCI-Express 2.0 ENGT430/DI/1GD3 (LP) card is ideal for home theatre enthusiasts and casual gamers. Built using a specially designed low profile PCB (printed circuit board), the ASUS ENGT430 includes NVIDIA PureVideo engine that accelerates even Blu-ray 3D media. Its use of the highest quality components, including ASUS Dust-Proof fan, GPU Guard, and Fuse Protection ensures that the ASUS ENGT430 remains stable and reliable for long-term use.

When we first saw the ASUS ROG Crosshair IV Extreme back in March, it seemed like just a beefier version of the Crosshair IV Formula with four well spaced out PCI-E x16 expansion slots, a stronger VRM, and a few more ASUS-exclusive goodies thrown in. Later in May, we learned that the Crosshair IV Extreme is different from its smaller, more popular sibling, in featuring the LucidLogix Hydra Engine chip that lets the users pair graphics cards across the lineups and GPU vendors, whichever way they want to upscale performance or add features. After quite some wait which led some of us to fear that ASUS shelved the product as Crosshair IV Formula seems to have been well received, the company surprised us by finally releasing the beast to the market.

The Crosshair IV Extreme that we see today is slightly different from the older iterations in featuring a different heatsink assembly design. It features bulkier, more groovy-looking heatsinks over the north-west cluster that houses the CPU VRM and AMD 890FX IOMMU, while the south-east cluster has a sleeker heatsink that cools the Lucid Hydra chip and the AMD SB850 southbridge. Most other features remain the same: expansion slots that include five PCI-E x16, one PCI; support for dual-channel DDR3-2000 MHz memory; a six-port SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller, 2 SATA 3 Gb/s ports, two eSATA 3 Gb/s; connectivity that includes gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 8-channel SupremeFX X-Fi audio, USB 3.0; and a boat-load of OC-friendly features including ROG Connect, redundant BIOS, on-board voltage-measure, PCI-E gating and OC controls, etc. It is priced around 300 EUR.