Daily Reviews Summary 04/18/12

SSF / MicroATX cases are typically smaller than typical ATX towers. This means that although the same standard hardware is supported, it is supported in lower quantities. Typically these boxes are used as a suitable HTPC home (home-theater personal computer), but with the looks the GIGAS offers, it would make a great gaming system as well as even lengthy graphics cards, ( up-to 320mm (12.5 inches) can be installed.

Continuing its tick-tock release cycle, Intel plans to unveil a new CPU microarchitecture at the end of April. Codenamed Ivy Bridge (tick), the update will bring a 22nm die shrink of current 32nm Sandy Bridge technology (tock), bringing greater efficiency and allowing Intel to cram more into the same size die.

Although backwards compatibility with 6-series motherboards will be a lailable, Intel couldn't resist the opportunity to accompany its latest architecture with a fresh round of chipsets. Codenamed "Panther Point," the new 7-series chipsets include half a dozen parts, with the Z77 being Intel's new flagship.

When the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 launched in March we were incredibly impressed with the performance and technology that the GPU was able to offer while also being power efficient. Fast forward nearly a month and we are still having problems finding the card in stock - a HUGE negative towards the perception of the card and the company at this point.

Still, we are promised by NVIDIA and its partners that they will soon have more on shelves, so we continue to look at the performance configurations and prepare articles and reviews for you. Today we are taking a look at the Galaxy GeForce GTX 680 2GB card - their most basic model that is based on the reference design.