Not so long ago AMD held a private presentation for investors and partners dedicated to the strategic plans for 2013. Its PDF-version has recently appeared online and immediately called attention of all interested parties. The most unexpected news concerned the long-awaited Steamroller micro-architecture. According to AMD, the debut of an advanced architecture will be accomplished in the current year, not in 2014 as it was informed earlier. Steamroller will be incorporated into an updated series of AMD Opteron server processors which are to ensure an improved efficiency level on parallel data processing operations.


The other promising piece of news touches upon the launch of a new APU series already this year: AMD Kabini and AMD Temash. Kabini is going to replace Brazos platform employed in small-sized multimedia systems and other hand portable solutions. In its turn, Temash is going to be implemented into highly-efficient tablet PCs, running under Windows 8 OS platform.
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Quite a loud name, isn’t it? Let’s have a look at the specifications to have the first impression.



Specifications

Socket — LGA 1151

Chipset — Intel Z370

Form Factor — “EATX” (10.7” x 12” actual size)

Voltage Regulator — 18 Phases

USB Ports — 10Gbps: (1) Type-C, (1) Type A, 5Gb/s: (6) Type A

Network Jacks — (3) Gigabit Ethernet (1x PCIe share), (2) Wi-Fi Antenna

Audio Jacks — (6) Analog, (1) Digital Out

Legacy Ports/Jacks — (1) PS/2

Other Ports/Jacks — CLR_CMOS, I/O-Panel Buttons

PCIe x16 (4) v3.0 ( x16/x0/x0/x4*, x8/x0/x8/x4*, x8/x4/x4/x4*), (*Excludes 3rd M.2, 3rd Ethernet, PCIe x1 slot)

PCIe x1 — (1) v3.0 (Shared with 4th PCIe x16 slot)

CrossFire/SLI — 4x / 2x

DIMM Slots — (4) DDR4

M.2 Slots — (3) PCIe 3.0 x4^ / SATA*, (1) M.2 Key-E (filled), (*Excludes ports 1, 3, 5, ^5-6 [M.2-3])

U.2 Ports — (1) PCIe 3.0 x4 (Consumes 2nd M.2)

SATA Ports — (6) 6Gb/s (SATA M.2s take pt 1, 3, 5, PCIe M.2-3 pts 5-6)
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All graphics solutions represented in the market can be divided into three main groups: high-end cards that are destined for inveterate gamers and professionals, mainstream products for ordinary needs of average customers, and budgetary items for basic PC needs. Each of the segment is constantly replenishing with new products to satisfy the rising demands of consumers. Graphics solutions from Nvidia are widely represented in all three groups and enjoy popularity due to their advanced facilities. The company's latest adapter GTX 660 Ti doesn't have its own reference model, so each graphics card manufacturer is able to adjust it exactly to the individual model. Hence, Palit released its own card on the basis of Nvidia GTX 660 Ti adapter and codenamed it JetStream.



Integration


Palit GTX 660 Ti JetStream design is much alike the design implemented in Palit GTX 670 model. The new graphics card is based on a rather short circuit board that makes the cooling system unusually …