WOW ….  repost of that forum thread : http://www.ocaholic.ch/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=3959

Asus HD 7970 DirectCU II

Some time after launches of graphics cards come modified versions from partner manufacturers. ASUS now appears to be one of the first with his 7970 DirectCU II.

That’s better a little late than never …got finally retail Biostar Tpower X79 in hand

Biostar Staff made a presentation video of this board !

TPower X79 Ver. 5.x

•     Design for Intel® LGA 2011 Core-i7 32nm processors
•     Supports Quad Channel DDR3 2400+(OC)
•     Advanced 9 phases Power Phase Design
•     100 % X.D.C Solid Capacitors
•     3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 Slots, Supports AMD 4-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® 3-Way SLI™
•     PCIe 3.0 Ready
•     8 x USB3.0 , Rapid Switch2 (PWR, RST, ClrCMOS)
•     8 Layers PCB with 2oz cooper
•     BIOSTAR Puro Tone HD Audio Technology Supported THX Sound
•     uEFI Graphics BIOS

Exclusive Features

THX truStudio PRO

THX TruStudio Pro is specially designed to bring the same great audio experience found in live performances, films, and recording studios – to the PC. THX TruStudio Pro provides the latest groundbreaking technologies that are products of years of collective experience and research by Creative and THX. Together, these technologies deliver the fullest audio experience for music, movies and games, while remaining true to the source and intention of the artists who created it.

USB 3.0

Experience Fastest data transfers at 5 Gbps with USB 3.0–the new latest connectivity standard. Built to connect easily with next-generation components and peripherals, USB 3.0 transfers data 10X faster and backward compatible with previous USB 2.0 components.

9 Phase Power Design

9 phase power design enables the best delivery of power to supercharge your system, giving extreme users unparalleled overclocking ability and the lowest temperatures to reach maximum performance levels.

100% Solid Caps

With armor-plated Biostar Technology, all capacitors are placed with 100% solid capacitors that have a lasting life cycle, durability and stability for crucial components.

BIO-Remote 2

BIO-Remote2 Technology is featuring users a better Home Theater environment. Users who own either Android mobile or Apple goods are able to access and control your PC remotely; At this moment, you’re smart device became a intelligent and functional remote controller; more than that, BIO-Remote2 also includes both function of mouse pad and power point presentation mode.

Charger Booster

Charger booster is the best and efficient charger solution for apple devices such as iPad, iPhone. Basically, Charger booster Technology is able to boost the charging time to be more efficiency and faster once any apple goods connecting to our Motherboard. With charger booster technology, you are able to charge your apple devices up to 42 % faster.

Puro Tone – 110dB

Excellent multi channel surround sound audio backed by a proprietary converter that which is able to achieve a 110dB noise ratio (SNR) playback quality. This means that users will enjoy a better audio experience with lower levels of noise and hiss when enjoying the latest HD content.

2 oz Copper PCB

2 ounces of copper for both the Power and Ground layers, delivering a dramatically lower system temperature, improved energy efficiency and enhanced stability for overclocking.

8 layer PCB

Industrial standard, high quality 8 layers PCB design for maximum stability and life cycle.

Dual 8-pin EPS connectors

Dual 8-pin EPS 12v+ connectors offer maximum power resources for your daily computing.

Chipset-CPU Features

Intel X79 chipset

The Intel® X79 Express chipset continues to push innovation with capabilities designed to deliver quality, performance and headroom. The combination of the Intel® X79 Express chipset and 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor famly on the LGA 2011 socket delivers the highest desktop performance.

Intel® 2nd Generation Core™ i7 Processor

The Intel® Core™ i7 processor family for the LGA-2011 socket is the next generation of 64-bit, multi-core desktop processor built on 32-nanometer process technology. Based on the low-power/high performance Intel® Core™ i7 processor microarchitecture, the processor enables higher performance, easier validation, and improved x-y footprint.

256bit Quad channel DDR3-2133

Maximize performance with quad-channel memory support up to 2133 MHz frequency.

3 way SLI Support

The powerful 3 way SLI enhances image quality settings, maximize screen resolution, and tilt the scales in your favor with up to a 2.8X performance hike over a single-card rig with support for three GeForce GPUs.

3 way CrossFireX Support

3 way CrossFireX allows up to four GPUs to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance.

PCI-E Gen 3.0 Ready

PCI-E 3.0 is the next evolution of the ubiquitous and general-purpose PCI Express I/O standard. At 8GT/s bit rate, the interconnect performance bandwidth is doubled over PCI-E 2.0, while preserving compatibility with software and mechanical interfaces.

SATA 6Gb/s

High Efficiency of Data transfer rate

SATAIII 6Gbps provides a higher bandwidth to retrieve and transfer HD media. With this super speed data transfer, SATAIII allows an incredible data boost which is 2x faster than the SATA 3G.

eSATA

One or Two external SATA 3Gb/s ports connectivity with minimal host overhead and host to device latency.

BIOS-Software Features

BullGuard Internet Security (90 days FREE trial)

BullGuard Internet Security comes with the broadest line-up of internet security features on the market, including: a cutting-edge dual Antivirus engine, Online Backup for your precious files, PC Tune Up to speed up your system, a Game Mode for a seamless gaming experience, Parental Control, Firewall, Safe Browsing and many more. Make the most of your digital life with Bullguard!

UEFI BIOS

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a brand new framework that provides a revolutionary interface. It is a modern clear and easy-to-use graphical user interface. The UEFI comes with a colorful easy-understand icons leads users into the setup layer directly.

BIO-Flasher

Update BIOS effortlessly from a USB flash disk before entering the OS.
BIO-Flasher is a convenient BIOS update tool. Just launch this tool and put the BIOS on USB pen driver before entering the OS. You can update your BIOS with only a few clicks without preparing an additional floppy disk or other complicated flash utility.

BIO-ReLife

BIO-ReLife Technology lets you recover crashed BIOS data from a USB flash pen driver that stores new BIOS file. This practical BIOS utility can restore your system and recover from a BIOS crash situation.

T-Overclocker

T-overclocker presents a simple Windows-based system performance enhancement and utility management. It features several powerful yet easy to use tools such as overclocking for system performance enhancement, CPU and memory special enhancement, a smart-fan control for managing fan speed control of both CPU cooling fan, north-bridge chipset cooling fan, PC health for monitoring system status, and pre-set OC modes for easy OC.

Other Features

Rapid Switch 2

Engineered by BIOSTAR, the exquisite onboard switches allow you to easily shut down and restart your system.

Rapid Debug 3

Rapid Debug3 posts critical POST code information in a digital LED display. When system malfunction occurs, it auto-detects the device’s failure and translates the error codes on the digital LED. It also shows the CPU temperature on the same screen.

Intel is going to launch new revsion of their Sandybridge-E. Revison will go from C1 to C2.

Here is a picture of a new core i7 3930K C2 :

Description of Change to the Customer:
Due to limited supply, Intel is initiating a rapid C-1 to C-2 stepping conversion for the Intel® Core™ i7-
3960X Processor Extreme Edition and the i7-3930K Processors. As part of this transition the following
changes apply:
• New S-spec and MM numbers for the converting products
• VT-d erratum removed for C-2 step. Refer to Processor Sighting# 3876388 in Sandy Bridge-
EN/EP/EX Processor Sightings Report – NDA (#452856).
Customer Impact of Change and Recommended Action:
Intel anticipates no change to customer platforms designed to Intel guidelines. Customer’s boards can enable
or disable processor Intel VT-d through their BIOS if they desire. If customer chooses to enable Intel VT-d,
regression testing is recommended to ensure their board is properly enabled.

I hope it will be a good CPU to overclock !