The PC Report

Asus axed its last attempt at a USB 3.0 motherboard in July “not for any particularly interesting reasons.” It looks like Asus is having another crack at a USB 3.0 motherboard with the P7P55D-E, which will be supporting SATA 6Gbps alongside USB 3.0 like the cancelled P6X58. Sadly though, the motherboard only carries two USB 3.0 ports, unlike the 10 USB 2.0 ports. SATA 6Gbps is also lacking with only 2 of those ports vs. 6 SATA 3Gbps.

Other than the USB/SATA, the motherboard is designed for the latest Intel i5 and i7 (and upcoming i3) processors with its LGA1156 socket and P55 chipset. It also carries both CrossFire X and SLI with its two PCI-E slots, and can support DDR3 RAM up to 2200MHz. The motherboard will be hitting retailers early next month for US$299.

In a scoop by Times Online it looks as if the next entrant to the Asus Eee series will be the “World’s cheapest” e-book reader. The device’s design is clearly designed to resemble a traditional book, with the two touchscreens representing two pages and will be unveiled by the end of this year.

The Eeebook will offer many features other ebook readers on the market today don’t have. It will have features of a typical laptop too, including speakers, a webcam and a microphone. Asus plan to release a budget version and a premium version of the Eeebook, with the budget version thought to be targeted to be around 100 pounds or US$160. Note that the closest competiting ebook reader currently on the market is nearly double this price.

Asus do what they did with netbooks, and manage to make e-book readers common. Coming from someone who bought an EeePC 701 in the same week it was released, I can’t wait to check this out.

If you looked in our forums a while back you would have noticed the announcement of the Asus MARS GTX 295 graphics card (now known as the Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) MARS GPU). This card is set to be packing two GTX 285s in the one graphics card, along with 4GB of onboard memory, making it 23% faster than the standard GTX 295.

HotHardware has stated that the card is on it’s way to shelves, but of course you’ll need to be quick to get one, as only 1000 units are being manufactured, each with a custom number on them. Asus has stated that the time and place where you can get these shall be announced via the Asus Official Twitter page. Get your wallets ready though, as it’s going to cost a small fortune.

You might have heard or seen info on the ASUS Eee Keyboard and it’s release date for later this month, but one modder on eee-pc.ru just couldn’t wait to get his hands on one, so he made his own out of an EeePC 900

He stripped down the netbook and shoved all the parts into a wooden casing under the keyboard, minus the screen and battery. His Eee Keyboard features the 900 MHz processor, 1GB RAM and 20GB SSD + WiFi found in the netbook, and while the real Eee Keyboard offers some more beefier specs, this is still a great effort on the part of the modder. Check out some more pics after the break.

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We showed off not so long ago ASUS’s P6X58 motherboard that included USB 3.0; the first motherboard we’ve seen to include it. But now, according to The Inquirer the motherboard has been completely cancelled by ASUS.

The board was a premium model featuring an X58 chip, LGA 1366 socket for i7s, SATA 6gbps and the major selling point of USB 3.0. The board was apparently pulled “not for any particularly interesting reasons.” This could be because of the Marvell SATA 6gbps chip or it could be because USB 3.0 performance wasn’t up to scratch. We don’t really know

Fortunately, the lack of USB 3 products means that we’re not really missing out on much. However, it would still be good to see some sort of USB 3 motherboard in the future.

Digitimes is saying that two of the biggest companies netbook wise are halting their development of new netbooks until the first quarter of 2010. Both companies are stopping making new netbooks with the Atom N200 series and are waiting on the next-gen portable CPU – Intel’s Pine Trail said to be released around early 2010. Acer is also postponing its dual-boot XP/Android machine because “demand for an Android netbook is not strong enough”

Still, both companies will keep releasing thin ultraportables between now and then, with ASUS planning new 12/14 inch models for August and Acer developing “models featuring discrete graphics cards and an optical drive based on market demand.” We’ll just have to wait to see how that goes

Now we have it: an actual motherboard that comes equipped with USB 3.0 – the new standard in USB that will allow up to 5 Gbit/s transfers. The new board packs 2 blue USB 3.0 ports along with 4 USB 2.0 ports on the rear I/O panel, as seen in the above picture courtesy of Xfastest. Other features include the LGA 1366 socket and X58 chipset, 6 DDR3 slots in triple-channel, the usual array of PCI and PCI-E slots, several SATA 6 Gbps ports and an awesome heatpipe display (check it out after the break).

Like most products these days, ASUS has refrained from giving us a price or release date, but we expect it to be soon. Unfortunately, Xfastest, who got their hands on the motherboard, cannot test and benchmark the USB 3 capabilities because of the… well… lack of USB 3 products at the moment.

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To coincide with the release of the new mid-range Core i5 platform by Intel, ASUS has given AnandTech a preview of their new P7P55D EVO motherboard. The board is based on Intel’s P55 chipset (for the Core i5) and is to be one of a few mid-level boards in ASUS’s P55 range. The board is expected to market for around US$120 at launch.

The board is one of the first I’ve seen to include a SATA 6Gb/s chip on it but unfortunately ASUS has chosen to use the chipset that is ridden with driver issues. The board also uses the new LGA 1156 CPU socket that will be the standard for all Core i5 processors. More specifications after the break.

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