CeBIT 2012 news roundup of the day

Most times modern technology will launch under strict guidelines from manufacturer. Bigger launches have more rules and the possibility of serious consequences for flaunting them. All mainboard vendors were showing Z77 designs at CeBIT this week, but only MSI boards seem to have been reviewed or sold. We investigate.

ZOTAC were kind enough to invite our CeBIT 2012 team into a closed door session today to view some of the new products the firm have waiting in the wings for release later this year. Unfortunately much of what was seen and heard will be under NDA for some time, but we were able to smuggle out a few images of a new pre-release ZBOX we spotted with two others officially unveiled today.

Alpenföhn are held in very high regard by us at Vortez, and we were eager to see the high performance CPU coolers they would be bringing to the table in the coming year. Suffice it to say that when the time came for us to meet them at CeBIT 2012, they didn't disappoint.

If ASUS is not a familiar name to you then you have indeed been living in a cave. That being said, if you have not yet seen the coming motherboards based on the cross platform LGA 1155 socket supporting both 2nd Generation and 3rd Generation Intel Core processors, then we have a treat for you.

Following on from existing story about the early launch of Z77, a reader suggested that we also look for signs of the lower cost H77 chipset boards. We look and to our surprise, find. But this time, MSI must look to market the new board without review support it seems.

Powercolor continue to impress with their range of innovative graphics cards and still have more to come. Expected late March/early April we will see the HD 7970 Vortex II. A custom made PCB design shipping with a core speed of 1050MHz and is cooled by a heatsink with 4x 8mm heatpipes and twin removable fans.

ASRock had an enormous booth at CeBIT 2012 and were keen to display their full range of products. One particular highlight was showing the overclocking potential with the new X79 Professional with overclocking superstars Nick Shih and 'Smoke'.

The Vortez team were lucky enough to see GIGABYTE's new range of Z77 motherboards at CeBIT this year, and as you would expect were treated to some great looking new technology. We also have an exclusive video interview!