In this week’s edition of the release roundup, we have news from Biostar, Gigabyte, Scythe, and Thermaltake:

“Biostar brings out Hi-Fi Z97WE mainboard, with Intel Smart Technologies.” 9-series motherboards are popping up left and right lately. Among the latest arrivals is Biostar’s Hi-Fi Z97WE, which features dual Gigabit Ethernet, an M.2 slot, and Biostar’s Hi-Fi mojo, which uses high-quality audio components and isolates the audio circuitry in order to enhance sound quality.

“Gigabyte launches full range of 9 series Z97 and H97 motherboards.” See what I mean about 9-series boards? I’m not going to outline the whole range of Gigabyte’s additions, mostly because Geoff already covered some of them two weeks ago—and there are 30 of them in all, from top-of-the-line Z97 offerings to more mainstream H97 ones. You’ll find links to product pages with full specifications at the bottom of Gigabyte’s press release.

“Scythe presents Kaze Master Flat II fan-controller with many functions.” This 5.25″ fan controller from Scythe features four fan channels and four temperature monitoring channels. Both three- and four-pin PWM fans are supported, and each one can draw a maximum of 36W. Monitoring is done via the controller’s vacuum-fluorescent display, and the controls comprise four touch-sensitive buttons placed in each corner of the front panel. Asking price: €26, which works out to $36 after a straight-up currency conversion.

“Draconem aluminum mouse pad, tough enough for the hardest of battles.” Woo, fancy mouse pads! This new specimen from Thermaltake measures 14.2″ x 11.8″ and has a choice of two surfaces: low-friction on one side and “high-control” on the other. The rubber pads straddle the corners to make flipping painless. The Draconem also comes with a mouse bungee, for those of us with wired mice. Price tag: $39.99.

Stay tuned for more reviews of 9-series motherboards. For now, you can check out Geoff’s review of the Asus Z97-A.