Steam is about to update (and probably has for some) and includes some very nice tweaks which results in downloads being sped up considerably. The new tricks involve caching at the ISP level, more firewall-friendly protocols (downloads will be coming through HTTP) and probably the best feature; a system that gives incremental patch downloads instead of having to re-download big parts of the game if they become corrupt, etc.

Let's say an individual file on your hard drive was to be modified by a game update, your client would require to download the entire file. The new system supports delivering only the differences between the old and new files, meaning game updates are considerably smaller and much, much quicker. The new content system will also allow Valve to build several new features that users have asked to be included.

These features will be things like download scheduling, bandwidth throttling and prioritizing which games get downloaded first. You'll also be able to download an update to a game, while you're playing that game. Steam will apply any updates downloaded once you exit the game.

A report from a meeting between GameStop and financial research firm Baird is suggesting that (sob) Battlefield 3 will not be making its way to Steam. According to Develop, the key quote from the report that comes directly from the GameStop executives is "the upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam."

This is on top of the news from a little while ago now that EA published a list of retailers for Battlefield 3 in which Steam was missing. Other digital download sites such as Gamersgate, Direct2Drive and EA's own Origin were on the list. Another GameStop executive also told Develop that Battlefield 3 will be coming to digital retailers other than GameStop. This look as though Steam is just being ignored.

Remember, Crysis 2 was removed from Steam which was apparently due to a hissy fit over a DLC exclusivity agreement with Direct2Drive. EA also announced just recently that Mass Effect 3 will get its own Origin-exclusive pre-order bonuses as well as Star War: The Old Republic only being available through EA's Origin.

The first three models of Intel's upcoming next-gen "Sandy Bridge-E" Core i7 processors has been made available. We're still going to see an Enthusiast and Performance release, Performance including BClk multiplier-unlocked six-core chips as well as locked quad-core chips. The new series is set to include the 3000 series of processor model numbering, this means that the new processors will be part of Intel's 3rd generation Core processors, even though they're based on the Sandy Bridge architecture.

Leading the CPUs will be the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition, six-core (12 threads with HTT) has a stock clock speed of 3.30GHz with 3.90GHz Turbo Boost, features 15MB of L3 cache. This chip is expected to have a four figure price tag. This will of course have its BClk multiplier unlocked for some insane overclocking. Next we have the Core i7-3930K which is again a 6 core, 12 threaded chip with a stock clock speed of 3.20GHz and Turbo Boost speed of 3.80GHz, inclusive of 12MB of L3 cache and features an unlocked BClk multiplier.

The most affordable LGA2011-based CPU will be the Core i7-3820 which is a quad-core, 8 threaded chip with a stock clock speed of 3.60GHz and Turbo Boost of up to 3.90GHz. With just 10MB of L3 cache, it is definitely the smaller sibling in the family. This chip has its BClk multiplier locked.

We've seen some impressive overclock results out of our in-house A8-3850 sample with Shane kicking it into high gear at around 3.7GHz without too much effort - this using a trusty Corsair AIO water cooling solution on a GIGABYTE A75-UD4H.

But if you think that's pretty impressive, try this on for size :-

That aint no photoshop folks. What you can see there is 4906MHz, not too far off the magic 5GHz mark with an A8-3850 CPU. Of course, though, this couldn't have been achieved without the help of :-

Doing what they do best, CPU World has fished out some fresh details on an expansion to Intel's range of mobile processor offerings. A new ULV (ultra low voltage) 32nm Celeron M model has just been released, The Celeron 787, and also four new Core i7 chips.

The Celeron 787 is just a little single core chip which clocks in at 1.30GHz with a single thread, 1MB of L3 cache, a 17W TDP and carrying a price of $107.

As for the four new Core i7s, these are scheduled to debut in Q4, comprising three quad-core variants and a dual-core one. The quad core models include the i7-2960XM Extreme Edition, i7-2860QM and i7-2760QM, with the dual-core being the i7-2640M.

Our first tid bit of news on AMD's next generation of GPUs, the HD 7000 series has come out today with word that these will be the first PCI-Express 3.0 compliant graphics cards to hit the scene.

Using the PCI-E 3.0 x16 bus interface, they will of course be backwards compatible with the PCI-E 1.0 and 2.0/1 bus standard. It it not known at this time as to when AMD plans to launch this next generation of discrete graphics cards, so it's hard to speculate as to whether or not there will be any native PCI-E 3.0 support from AMD or Intel at the time, but as we just learned recently, there are some 3rd party vendors already gearing up with PCI-E 3.0 using their own methods.

Still, as we've known from many times in the past, there is a big difference between 'compliancy' and actually harnessing the additional power on tap. With that said, it is most probable the HD 7000 series (with perhaps the exception of some super duper dual GPU monster at the top of its line-up) won't even use beyond the limits of our current Gen 2 standard, but at least it helps pave the way for the inevitable future where masses of bandwidth will be required.

It was only a few weeks ago that reports were out that Intel's next-gen Sandy Bridge-E and Waimea Bay platform had been delayed until 2012 but new information has popped up and is suggesting that Intel is trying very hard to get the new platform onto the market this year. This means that Intel will have to make some compromises on a lot of the platform features.

According to sources, Intel is having issues with the platform in the form of issues with storage, PCI Express problems and even CPU revisions. This sounds like bad news for a company wanting to launch their next-gen enthusiast platform. There are various platform SKUs coming in the form of Patsburg -A, -B, -D and -T. The X79 chipset is known as Patsburg-X and was meant to be similar to what Patsburg-D brings to the table.

Patsburg-D is set to offer not only four additional SATA/SAS 6Gbps via the SCU but also a PCI-Express 3.0 uplink to the CPU where Patsburg-T gains another RAID level but other than that is identical to the Patsburg-D. Patsburg-X was meant to obviously come with the features of the -D version but since Intel has run into various issues, they've decided to downgrade the feature set and it will be more in line with the Patsburg-B flavor of chipset. What does this mean? Prepare for tears.

MacRumors have picked up on a number of non-posted images from Apple.com, showing Apple having a $999 display. In the pics, the display has a new part number (which is in the URL), and a newer background to match the default wallpaper of Mac OS X Lion which is being released next week. What makes this interesting is the below pic which shows two of the newer displays, with one plugged into the other.

Maybe Apple are allowing mirrored or extended displays through USB, but most likely this is Thunderbolt-powered and it's down with the latest-generation iMacs which share many design similarities with the LED cinema display. If Apple wants to push Thunderbolt, this would definitely be the way to go about it. On something like a MacBook Pro, using the Thunderbolt port just to power a monitor would use up the port, but daisy-chaining them like this would allow a user to use the Thunderbolt I/O on the MBP, then daisy-chain something directly into the Cinema Display.

Thunderbolt is capable of daisy chaining up to seven Thunderbolt-equipped devices together, whilst retaining full speed across ever single one of them, this is thanks to the existing DisplayPort and PCI-Express data protocols to open up what you can do with a single port into multiple uses and at high speeds.

Alienware is putting on quite a song and dance in Australia at the moment with its world first Live Dimension Reality experience which took place in Melbourne on July 7th and its Area-52 tour which is scheduled to begin at Sydney's Circular Quay when it opens its doors on July 19, operating there until July 21.

As you can see from the piece of video coverage of the event last week, a great deal of effort has gone into this show, combining stunts, pyrotechnics, projection mapping and other special effects to demonstrate the power of Alienware. world renowned Melbourne based special effects studio, Boffswana were the powers that be to help reel the audience in to what was clearly quite an impressive performance indeed.

As for the Area-52 tour, this involves a fully decked out trailer they call the Area 52 Airstream, geared up with the latest in Alienware goodies and gives members of the public the chance to be a part of pop-up gaming events based on the street level presence of the Area 52. In all, it allows the public the chance to get some hands-on time with the latest from Alienware as well as win prizes through gaming competitions, all the while allowing Alienware to boost market presence as being the optimal choice to meet the needs and desires of gamers.

Adobe has released a beta version of Flash 11 for Windows, Mac and Linux. Adobe have also announced the availability of the Adobe AIR 3 beta which is available for Windows and Mac, but has been killed on Linux in favour for Adobe to focus on mobile instead. Adobe says this is this first beta is a desktop release with mobile on it's way soon. 64-bit support is now included which is a pretty big step since the preview of it back in September of 2010.

Adobe have also listed a bunch of features and performance enhancements included in both the Flash Player 11 and AIR 3:

Captive Runtime for AIR - this popular feature from AIR for iOS will now be available on AIR for desktop. Simplify the app installation process, reduce testing and certification cost by encapsulating the AIR runtime in your Windows, Mac, andAndroid apps.