The MSI Arsenal Gaming lineup of mainboards has been recently replenished by a new model: the Z370M Mortar. The greenhorn is designed in micro-ATX form-factor, featuring 243x243 mm dimensions. The heart of the item is Intel Z370 chipset, aimed at Intel Coffee Lake family processors (LGA1151 socket). Thus, it’s an ideal choice for compact gaming systems.



The MSI Z370M Mortar employs a 6-phase VRM with Military Class 5 component base. Memory subsystem includes four DIMM slots with support for up to 64 GB of GDDR4-4000 MHz modules (dual-channel). The latter offer DDR4 Boost technology for trouble-free overclocking.


The connection of graphics cards as well as other expansion units might be realized via two PCIe 3.0 x 16 slots & a couple of PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Storage is represented by four SATA III (6 Gb/sec) ports and a pair of M.3 Socket 3 ones.


To continue, MSI has incorporated into its Mortar motherboard an advanced 7.1-channel audio subsystem, based on Realtek …

At the cusp of an official release of Intel’s fourth generation processors each hardware designer tries to elaborate new Haswell-compatible components. Motherboard manufacturers are probably the ones to introduce the lion’s share of such products. ECS is not an exception. According to the data provided by a reputable source, ECS is soon going to release its newest prime-class board codenamed Z87H3-A2X Extreme. The first meeting with the new-comer is planned within the boundaries of Computex 2013 exhibition taking place in June.



As seen from the codename, ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme is based on Intel Z87 Express chipset covered by a black-and-red heatsink. The model employs full-sized printed circuit board, Socket LGA1150, and 12-phase VRM for CPU power supply with gold-plate solid-state capacitors. Power subsystem elements are cooled down by a voluminous CoolTech V heatsink. This heatsink is connected with a chipset one by means of a nickel-plated copper heat pipe.


To …

Gigabyte presented a new overclocking model of video card Tahiti XT, designated as GV-R797TO-3GD. In comparison to the current Radeon HD 7970 OC (GV-797OC-3GD), the newcomer has some advantages. In particular, it is known that the graphic adapter is based on the graphics chip Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition that is selected. The clock frequency of the accelerator is increased from 1000/5500 MHz (core / memory) to the 1100/6000 MHz, comparing GV-797OC-3GD. Standard values, recall — 925 MHz GPU with chip and 5500 MHz with GDDR5 microchip.



Externally the video adapter has no changes: the PCB soldered 3 GB of memory, which combines with the GPU on a 384-bit brace. The number of stream processors is unchanged — 2048 units. The design of printed circuit board includes electrical components Ultra Durable VGA. High-effective WindForce 3X cooler consists of a copper base, a few copper heat pipes and three 80-mm fans.


Unlike its predecessor, Gigabyte GV-R797TO-3GD has a gold plated …