News about the forthcoming release of the updated motherboard Sabertooth 990FX was voiced by Asus earlier this year. Nevertheless, the release of long-awaited motherboard has been delayed till mid August, and these days the product can be already found in the market. Primarily, Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 is notable for the availability of OS Windows 8 conformance certificate.



The updated motherboard is compatible with AM3 and AM3+ processors and boasts a bunch of advanced solutions. Among the most striking innovations implemented by Asus, the substitute of old-fashioned JMicron JMB362 controller by a more progressive controller from ASMedia added to the board's functionality. In addition, the manufacturer supplemented the layout with one more ASMedia ASM1042 controller that allowed to integrate USB 3.0 interface. The implemented in earlier version micro scheme Realtek RTL8111E has been also substituted by RTL8111F scheme; at the same time, IEEE 1394a interface has been totally …

First seen at CeBIT exhibition, CPU cooler SlimHero from Gelid has turned into an off-the-shelf product. The new-comer joined Gelid Silent cooler series and is already available for customers at the price of around $32. The major distinctive peculiarity applied to the cooler is its framework: it features only 59 mm height that is quite appropriate for the installation into small-sized mini-ITX/mini-Tower PC cases or into advanced HTPC systems.



At the same time, SlimHero is equipped with four copper heat pipes, a range of aluminum ribs, and 120 mm fan. The employment of copper in the design of heat pipes is to significantly increase heat transfer to the ribs. Moreover, their original shape ensures low resistance to airflow, resulting in a more efficient cooling process.


Gelid SlimHero demonstrates wide compatibility with a lump of present-day desktop platforms: AMD Socket FM1, FM2, AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, as well as Intel LGA 775, 1150, 1155, 1156, 1366. According to Gelid …

Plextor is currently preparing a new SSD series, codenamed M5P. According to the forecasts, this series will be differentiated by high-performance characteristics and Serial ATA 3.0 interface. M5P will be represented by three models of 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB volume capacities. All the model lines are developed with the utilization of 19 nm technological process. In addition, all SSDs will be equipped with NAND flash-memory (MLC Toshiba) and Marvell 88SS9187 controllers.



Three models differ from one another by the flash-memory volume. Thereby, 128 GB models accommodates 256 MB of DDR3 cache-memory, 256 GB model – 512 MB, and the last one, 512 GB model – 768 MB. Those SSDs support SATA 6 Gb/sec.


The manufacturer claim that the maximal consecutive reading and writing speeds will achieve 540 Mb/sec and 340 Mb/sec correspondingly (with 128 GB model); 256 GB and 512 GB models will achieve 540 Mb/sec in reading and 450 Mb/sec in writing mode. At the same time, M5P series …