CES 2013 provided room for Intel to show all its might and recent achievements in PC hardware industry. Hence, the company unveiled a series of new motherboards intended at the overclocking of Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 CPUs of the second and third generation. Model, codenamed Intel DZ75ML-45K, is a bright representative of this series, being a large-scale entry-level solution. It is developed in micro-ATX form-factor and features 226x216 mm dimensions.



Motherboard Intel DZ75ML-45K is based on Intel Z75 chipset and employs Socket LGA1155 CPU slot. Power supply subsystem is designed according to 4+2 scheme, where 4 phases are responsible for CPU management. The board accommodates four DIMM slots for the integration of two-channel DDR3 RAM; its overall capacity might achieve 32GB. Besides, Intel has taken care about wide memory facilities that manifest themselves is various operational frequencies (from 1066 MHz to 2400 (OC) MHz).


All expansion facilities are provided by …

Transcend has introduced a series of new 2.5'' solid-state drives, codenamed SSD320. The new product supports SATA III 6 Gb/sec standards, and is notable for the outstanding data transfer speed, as well as, reliability. SSD320 is based on SandForce SF-2281 controller of the second generation which adds to the overall performance.



Transcend SSD320 series will include drives of various volume capacities, starting from 64 GB and finishing with 256 GB. These models employ MLC NAND flash-memory chips. In addition, those SSDs support error correction technology. Transcend has taken care of its new series and promoted for the unmatched performance and showings. SSD320 ensures quick download of programs and practically instantaneous system response while working with complicated graphic material or multimedia applications. The devices are capable to achieve the maximal reading speed of 560 Mb/sec, and the maximal writing speed of 530 Mb/sec. Random writing speed (4K) equals to 87000 …

Intel’s Z-series chipsets have been recently supplemented by a new Z97 Express companion. Its release coincides with the launch of an updated Haswell Refresh CPU line for LGA 1150 socket. The new platform is thought to support PCI Express M.2 interface that substitutes an old-fashioned mSATA one. It is also supposed to support SATA Express interface and the forthcoming Intel Core 5th generation CPUs. What are the real differences between Z97 and preceding chipsets? Let’s find it out through the example of Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard.



Basic Specifications


— form-factor: ATX, 305x244 mm dimensions;

— chipset and CPUs: Intel Z97 Express, 4th/5th gen Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors for Socket LGA 1150;

— interface: DMI 2.0, 20 Gb/sec;

— memory: 4x DIMM slots, DDR3 standard, two-channel, 64 GB ultimate capacity, 1066 MHz-3300 (OC) MHz frequencies;

— multi-GPU support: AMD CrossFireX, Nvidia SLI;

— expansion slots: 3x PCI-e 3.0 x16, 4x PCI-e 2.0 …