Before I bought my first Intel branded motherboard, a DG45ID, I never understood why anyone would want to pay more for one of their (at that time) homely BIOS'd systems. After owning it, and a slew of subsequent boards, going back to a top-tier Taiwanese brand will be more than a little depressing when Intel stops making consumer motherboards after Haswell (coming in June). That's not to say that there's anything inherently wrong with those boards, it's just that they don't offer the unique mix of stability and HTPC-centric features (i.e. CIR, HTPC_HEADER & configurable LED behavior in S3) alongside one the most often overlooked must-haves on any system - an Intel NIC. Hopefully one of them will step up and fill the hole in my HTPC's heart.

Today Intel made a sobering, but not entirely unexpected announcement: over the next 3 years Intel will be ramping down its own desktop motherboard business. Intel will continue to supply desktop chipsets for use by 3rd party motherboard manufacturers like ASUS, ASRock and Gigabyte, but after 2013 it will no longer produce and sell its own desktop mITX/mATX/ATX designs in the channel. We will see Haswell motherboards from the group, but that will be the last official hurrah. Intel will stop developing desktop motherboards once the Haswell launch is completed. All Intel boards, including upcoming Haswell motherboards, will carry a full warranty and will be supported by Intel during that period.

Anandtech

If you want the biggest, brightest LCD that money can buy Sharp has just the thing for you. There are a few lines to choose a 60, 70, 80 or 90" display from, but don't expect them to top competative models from other vendors in metrics like picture quality - especially in the 70"+ sizes because as you know, unless you're sitting ridiculously far away 4K is essential to any display of that size. That said, there is still something undeniably cool about a 90" panel :).

Check out the booth gallery on the next page.

After attending NETGEAR's press conference there wasn't anything that new or surprising to see when I stopped by their suite last week, but it was great to get a more detailed look at what they were bringing out this year. I did get a chance to take a closer look at their upcoming Google TV box, and the slick little IP cameras mentioned a few days before as well as a couple other things. Take a look after the click.

There was only one display in a pitch black room at CES. That it was lined up against a VT50, arguably 2012's best TV, and making it look [literally] washed out in comparison speaks volumes about the beautiful beast of a plasma Panasonic is bringing out later this year. If I had to pick one thing that most impressed, and I could get it, it would be the Panasonic ZT60. I spent hours on the floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center last week, and each time I stopped by to have another look at the ZT it always impressed with the deepest black, and most outstanding color representation I've seen in a production ready TV.

Click through to check out some shots of the ZT and the other things of interested a Panasonic's booth.

If you follow displays, you already know that there were myriad UHD and OLED TVs at CES 2013. LG had both, but they had one over on all the other OEMs because they are the only ones that can claim to be shipping 1080p OLED displays. Now they haven't made there way over here yet (should be in March sometime), but you can buy one in Korea right now if you have the cash.