PC Zenith v4

When it comes to add-in board vendors, EVGA is probably the most faithful company in the business. Ever since the company launched, Nvidia was the only name EVGA wanted to hear about. But, things are about to change. Here are the facts:
1)    EVGA does not want to miss the Core i7 train
2)    Nvidia is not making a chipset for Intel Core i7
3)    EVGA poached excellent engineering team from now-defunct EPoX and does not want that team to do nothing until MCP8-series show up
Well, those facts end with a really simple result. EVGA is preparing to launch its first non-Nvidia based motherboard, but it will still have Nvidia chips on it. You’ve guessed it right – X58+nForce 200 bridges for full Triple-SLI capability. Read more @ TheoValich blog.

While ATI has been releasing a constant stream of new GPUs based on their new RV770 foundation chip, NVIDIA has instead chosen the path of the dark side, taking the easy way out and renaming and rehashing old products. At the time of writing, we’ve just received a working sample of ATI’s soon-to-be-released Radeon HD 4830 that we suspect will go head-to-head with the GeForce 9800 GT. As of now, the gap between the HD 4850 and HD 4670 is simply too wide, leaving NVIDIA free rein that area with their 9800 GT and 9600 GSO models. In view of that, in order to stand up to the oncoming onslaught that is the Radeon HD 4830, ASUS needs their EN9800GT Matrix to be something special, but sadly, it isn’t. It showed a lot of promise, with some very nifty features such as the automatic throttling of GPU clockspeeds and memory voltages, but we discovered, much to our dismay, that it didn’t work as well as it should. More puzzling however is the disappointing performance put in by the card. Admittedly a 12MHz overclock might not be much, but we were taken aback by how it time and time again was bettered by the reference clocked Gigabyte 9800 GT. We expected it to be at least on par. ASUS EN9800GT Matrix @ HardwareZone

ASUS, the world´s leading producer of motherboards, today unveiled the most advanced and highest performing enthusiast motherboard at present: the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Rampage II Extreme. In keeping with ROG´s commitment to producing cutting-edge, boundary-redefining products for the serious gaming and overclocking community, the ROG Rampage II Extreme incorporates the latest innovations and components into its architecture, such as the latest Intel chipset and SLI/CrossFireX on Demand—delivering blistering performance through its support for the new range of Intel processors and multi-GPU technologies such as 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX. To enable users to push the capabilities of the new platform to the limit, the ROG Rampage II Extreme features ROG Extreme Engine, a true multi-phase power management system—16 phases for the CPU and 3 phases each for QPI/DRAM, the Northbridge and memory—with premium Multilayer type Polymer Capacitors (ML Caps) that keep the power supply stable even under the most demanding loads. Read full press release @ TechPowerUp!