It's impossible to outrun technology, though updated drivers, software, and firmware can keep your gear current for as long as possible. That typically means you have to rely on hardware manufacturers to play ball, and Gigabyte 6 Series motherboard owners will be happy to know Gigabyte is keeping them in the game with significant BIOS updates for its entire 6 Series mobo line.

Gigabyte is finally showing socket 1155 system builders some weapon themed love with the launch of the G1.Sniper2 motherboard, the 1155 version of the socket 1366 G1.Sniper and little brother to the G1.Assassin we reviewed in the June 2011 issue of Maximum PC (and by "little," we mean it doesn't require a honking XL-ATX chassis, a standard ATX case will do just fine).

As the primary supplier of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad touch devices, as well as making products for high-profile companies like Acer, Asus, Dell, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, and others, life is good for Foxconn (or Hon Hai Precision, if you prefer), which collected $59.3 billion in revenue in 2010. Foxconn can afford to go on a spending spree, and in addition to buying one of Cisco's manufacturing facilities in Mexico, the electronics maker is now setting its sights on Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS).

Without giving anything away, we can say you won't find VIA's EPIA-M900 mini-ITX motherboard in this year's Dream Machine. Where it will end up is in small form factor (SFF) embedded devices like ATMs and home automation systems, to give just two examples. The main draw here, and one VIA is highly touting, is that the EPIA-M900 is the world's first motherboard to sport a 64-bit Nano X2 E-Series dual-core processor (clocked at 1.6GHz).