GIGABYTE made the next headlines recently regarding its upcoming GK-K8000 which claims to be the world's first mechanical gaming keyboard.

It is mechanical in the sense that it uses non-click Cherry MX-linear keys which is said to guarantee a life cycle of up to 60 million keystrokes. Do the math on that!

Word is in today that Palit is about to start shipping its GeForce 9600GT graphics card under the Sonic naming scheme with a grand total of 1GB of onboard RAM.

It uses 1024MB of DDR3 memory which is clocked at 2000MHz DDR - it is an improvement over a regular 9600GT reference card that has a memory clock speed of 1800MHz DDR. The core comes clocked at a factory overclocked speed of 700MHz which is 50MHz faster than standard.

Digitimes has posted a story claiming that Nvidia has been in serious talks with VIA at a possible merger or acquisition. The three possible strategies discussed included a strategic alliance, or segmented acquisition, or a complete buyout of VIA.

Apparently, according to the source, VIA priced itself out of the bargain, but may after carefully reconsidering its worth, join the bargaining table again.

Somebody over at G.Skill must be going a little crazy - they have just started shipping not only 8GB but also 16GB DDR2 memory kits.

The 8GB kit includes two 4GB DDR2-800 modules and the 16GB kit includes four 4GB DDR2-800 modules. The RAM works at 1.8 volts on a 6 layer PCB at timings of 5-5-5-15 and are designed for Intel P35, X38 and X48 based Intel motherboards.

First pictures of Intel's codenamed 45nm Bloomfield high-end desktop processor based motherboard recently appeared online.

It is an Intel Desktop Board brand motherboard which is quite different to anything else we have seen in the past. It is a very early sample so the design and layout will probably change throughout the year until the first Nehalem processors are due to launch sometime in the Q4 timeframe.

S3 Graphics today announced its new graphics card into the US market, the 65nm based Chrome 430 GT.

Before you get too excited, it won't contend with the latest bad boys from Nvidia and AMD but it does offer DX10.1 support at only $60 USD. It includes 256MB onboard DDR2 memory and using its ChromotionHD Video Technology it has hardware acceleration for H.264, MPEG-4, VC-1, WMV-HD and AVS at 1080p meaning it should playback Blu-ray movies just fine.

The folks over at SlySoft have probably just made a lot of people really happy.

They have just released version 6.4.0.0 (dated 19th March) of their AnyDVD HD software and the major update includes the option to enable or disable protection from Blu-ray discs.

G.Skill has announced another DDR3 kit to the market. This time, it's called the DDR3-1800 CL7 comprising of two 1GB modules in the kit.

The memory is guaranteed to maintain a clock speed of 1800MHz (PC3-14400) at the low latency settings of 7(CL), 7(TRCD), 7(TRP), & 18(TRAS). The components also come with a lifetime warranty.

ASUS launched the much anticipated Striker II motherboard designed for enthusiasts of games, as well as overclockers. Supporting Intel LGA 775 processors and DDR3, the nForce 790i Ultra motherboard has all the bells and whistles typical of the ROG series.

According to the press release it has a Fusion Block system that can be connected to a water cooling unit. This will enable enthusiasts to hook up water pumps to keep the chipset super cool. While not everyone does this, the forward thinking guys at ASUS have seen the niche and filled it. Certainly some of you will be happy, whereas others, it won't effect at all.

Corsair were not the only company to announce new super l33t fast RAM specifically for the Nvidia nForce 790 platform today - OCZ also got in on the action!

OCZ's PC3-16000 NVIDA SLI-Ready Edition memory also includes EPP 2.0 for optimal performance and carries rated timings of 9-9-9-28 when clocked at 2000MHz DDR at 1.9 volts. It also comes in a 2GB dual channel pack and will probably cost you one leg and half an arm.

We did a quick check online for pricing but could not see anything as yet but it will be interesting to see which is cheaper - OCZ or Corsair. We will endeavor to get both kits in for testing on a 790i motherboard and see which one does best.