Not sure how many of you saw this coming, but word's come in that VIA have pulled the plug on making motherboard chipsets for third-party CPUs, at least for the foreseeable future.

VIA's vice president of marketing Richard Brown says 'Intel provides the vast majority of chipsets for its processors and, following its purchase of ATI, AMD is also moving very quickly in the same direction.

AMD's R700 Spartan, the Radeon HD 4870 X2, is all set for launch tomorrow. In midst of all the excitement, some SKUs based on the dual-RV770XT powered behemoth, just couldn't resist letting slip a day early for some mouth-watering shots.

Firstly, courtesy of TechConnect Magazine, we have some images of one of MSI's R700 SKUs.

Last month, we briefly reported on information pertaining to AMD's RV770 successor, the RV870, which is expected to debut sometime in 2009.

Fudzilla has, today, shared some more information pertaining to the RV870 GPU itself.

Further to this recent story, Intel has subsequently confirmed, that it will be ushering in desktop Nehalem microarchitecure derived CPUs, using its 'Core i7' branding.

Santa Clara, CA based Intel, declares that the first products in its Nehalem family, including Extreme Edition SKUs, will be branded using the 'i7' identifier, yet that we should also expect several new identifiers to be established, as different derivatives launch over the next year.

We've been introduced to a number of non-reference AMD graphics card solutions, in this past week. In no particular order, we reported on solutions from Gainward, Sapphire and Palit.

Now, non-reference doesn't necessarily mean that AIBs only have to engineer new, improved features or functionality in to their SKUs. They could also, in some cases, combine this with more attractive pricing or, perhaps realising higher margins, use this motivation as the main focal point.

A desire to play the field may be a costly exercise, on the part of motherboard manufacturers, pondering the implementation of SLI support into their, upcoming, Intel X58 powered solutions according to this report, from Fudzilla.

It is claimed that NVIDIA, is going all out to ensnare motherboard manufacturers into producing only X58 SKUs which include SLI support, courtesy of the company's nForce 200 chipset.

Intel's Nehalem microarchitecture derived CPUs, kicking off with the eagerly anticipated Bloomfield SKUs, have been given a new identity, or so this article from Expreview, would have us believe.

The all important branding which, it is claimed, will forge the way for Intel's latest and greatest, will be Core i7. Core 2 is, so yesterday, after all.

Good ole' Chieftec are back with a few new enclosures aimed at the HTPC crowd. Their latest Hi-Fi series certainly look the part and carry with them a few bells and whistles not seen in entry-level HTPC enclosures. Being Chieftec, it's assumed the pricing on these will be very competitive as well, though that information hasn't yet been disclosed.

Available in black or silver anodized aluminum, other features across the new range include 2x front USB, IEEE1394, HD audio, 56-in-1 card reader and iMON integration with large volume knob, VFD and remote control.

Some more titbits of information concerning AMD's dual-RV770XT GPU powered flagship, the Radeon HD 4870 X2, have been offered in this article from Fudzilla.

Without disclosing its sources, the report indicates that the initial driver software has allegedly been ready since July 25th, with reference cards having been sent out almost two weeks ago.

ASUS is getting trendy and upmarket with its Eee portfolio.

Aiming to now tap in to a more sophisticated segment of its intended marketplace, the Eee PC S101 has now been, revealed, thanks to HKEPC.