Optical disc drive specialist Lite-On shipped its internal DVD Writer drives featuring the LabelTag Technology. The Lite-On iHAS524 is touted by the company to be a high-speed burner with speeds of 24x for DVD+R/DVD-R discs, 12x for double-layer DVD+R/DVD-R, 8x for DVD+RW, and 6x for DVD-RW. The center of attraction is its LabelTag Technology, which inscribes labels onto the data-side of single-layer DVDs or CDs. The labeling is quick and easy since it's done while burning the discs. It features the SATA interface, and comes with Nero 8 OEM bundled. It is priced at 49 EUR.

OCZ Technology has perhaps the most diverse solid-state drive portfolio, which includes 1.8" and 2.5" internal SATA 3 Gb/s SSDs - with SLC, and MLC NAND flash technologies; 3.5" SSDs, bootable PCI-Express SSDs, and even eSATA based ones. While SSDs utilizing SATA 6 Gb/s are very predictable in the near future, the company already has plans to unveil an external, portable SSD that utilizes the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface, at the upcoming CES 2010 event. With over 4 Gb/s of interface bandwidth at its disposal, it can also be expected of the drive to be powered entirely by the USB port. A concept design is already in place.

Come Q1 2010, and Intel will be expanding its socket LGA-1156 platform with dual-core processors, and processors with on-die graphics. Along with these, Intel will be releasing the H57 Express chipset which supports the Flexible Display technology which handles the connectivity for the processors' on-die graphics. Motherboard vendors seem to be ready well ahead, and the second such company with a product on display is MSI, with its H57M-ED65. This motherboard is based on the micro-ATX form-factor, and builds on the chipset's features, while also appearing to be enthusiast-friendly.

The CPU is powered by a lavish 10-phase VRM with elaborate heatsinks over the DrMOS chips. It completely does away with PCI, and features only PCI-Express slots. There are are two PCI-Express x16 slots (electrical x16, x4), and two PCI-Expres x1 slots. Apart from the six SATA 3 Gb/s ports the chipset provides, an additional storage controller provides two more SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and an IDE connector. The board makes full use of the Flexible Display technology, providing DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort as display connectivity options. A number of USB ports, PS/2, gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel audio with optical SPDIF, eSATA, and FireWire make for the rest of the rear-panel. Its enthusiast-friendliness is further vindicated by the presence of the OC Genie feature, on the fly base clock controls, and power/reset buttons onboard. Expect this to feature in the company's first wave of H57 motherboards.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced the availability of the newly designed SimpleDrive desktop external hard drive with capacities of up to two terabytes (2TB). In addition, the company announced that all of its 3.5-inch retail drives are now available in 2TB capacities, featuring the Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000, the industry's first 2TB 7,200 RPM hard drive that blends performance and high capacity with low power features. New, upgraded solutions include the Hitachi SimpleTech Pro Drive; the two-drive, RAID 0/1 Duo Pro Drive; and the Hitachi Internal Hard Drive Kit for the do-it-yourself (DIY) computer-upgrade market. All products are now available.

"Hitachi continues to build its channel presence with an expanded portfolio of 2TB storage solutions for business users, consumers or virtually anyone who needs additional capacity to manage the growing number and size of their digital files," said Azmat Ali, vice president of marketing, Branded Business, Hitachi GST. "Even though people are inundated with digital content daily, many are not taking the necessary precautions to safeguard their content. Our external drives, together with consistent backup practices, will help people keep their digital memories, entertainment and business documents safe."

Businesses rely on data every day and how this data is stored is of critical importance. Data has to be accessible at all times, but it also needs to be fast enough to keep up with the speed of modern business. Today, Thecus is proud to launch its latest 2U rackmount NAS device - the N8800PRO. With outstanding performance, rock-solid stability, and complete flexibility, the N8800PRO sets a new standard in enterprise storage.

To enable businesses to access their data as quickly as possible, the N8800PRO features a multitude of performance enhancements. Powering the N8800PRO is an Intel Core 2 Duo processor coupled with a full 4GB of DDR2 800 memory for lightning-quick system response and increased concurrent connections. All of this technology allows the N8800PRO to achieve data transfer speeds of over 300MB/s! And to ensure compatibility with future technologies, the N8800PRO even comes with an internal PCI-e slot. which enables users to install a 10Gbit PCI-e NIC for greatly increased throughput. In terms of storage, the N8800PRO comes equipped with eight 3.5" SATA hard disk bays for a maximum of 16TB of storage. System admins that require more storage can actually attach up to five different N8800PROs to it and manage them all using one master device using the stackable feature, or use the N8800PRO with iSCSI initiators. The N8800PRO even supports iSCSI thin provisioning! Expandable and flexible, the N8800PRO can grow along with your business.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced its collaboration with SandForce on OCZ's next generation of mainstream and enterprise solid state drives (SSDs). Based on the highly-anticipated SandForce SSD Processor family, OCZ's new line of SSDs will be the pinnacle of storage options designed to optimize complex IT infrastructures as well as the computing experiences of everyday consumers.

To accommodate a wide range of consumer and enterprise storage applications, OCZ's impending solutions will feature various configurations of SandForce's innovative SF-1500 and SF-1200 SSD Processors and multi-level cell (MLC) and single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory, all with the objective of providing best-in-class storage with exceptional performance, reliability, endurance, and power efficiency. The SandForce-based SSD line will be available in multiple interfaces including 3Gb/s SATA and 6Gb/s SAS in capacities ranging from 50GB to 400GB, addressing an assortment of storage and infrastructure requirements.

The Japanese cooling expert Scythe Co., Ltd. expands its product portfolio to external enclosures for 2.5" Hard Disks. Kamazo 2 series are available in three different versions.

Kamazo 2 IDE (KMZ2-25IDE) and the Kamazo 2 SATA (KMZ2-25SATA) can be connected via USB to your PC, and can connect an IDE or SATA HDDs. Both devices are compatible to the USB 2.0/1.1 standard and don't require any additional power source. For more versatility, the e-SATA Version (ESATA-KMZ2-25) is compatible with "the" e-SATA Standard as well as "the" USB 2.0/1.1 standard. Operating Kamazo 2 over the e-SATA Interface use of supplied Power-over-USB connector is required in order to properly supply the power to HDD. All three versions are made of solid aluminum which is covered by black paint and require little space which makes this product to be a compact and space saving design.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and endangered species series USB drives, today released a new line of Windows 7 compatible SaberTooth S4 SATA Mini PCIe SSDs that achieve sequential read speeds up to 130MB/sec. Available now in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities, these drives are guaranteed compatible with many models of Asus Eee PC including 900, 900A, 901 and 1000 models.

The company posted a detailed Benchmark Report on the SaberTooth S4 tested on an Eee PC 1000 under Windows XP here. The benchmark results show the S4 soaring to read speeds over 120MB/sec, nearly four times faster than the default SSD in the Eee PC 1000. "We optimized the SaberTooth S4 for exceptional read performance", explained Active Media Products Vice President of Sales, Jerry Thomson. "But it also runs circles around the default SSD in write speeds, scoring about 2X faster than the default SSD in write tests."

Icy Dock is out with its newest single-drive enclosure that converts 2.5 inch HDDs or SSDs into 3.5 inch drives, to properly fit into PC cases with 3.5 inch bays. The Icy Dock MB882SP-1S-2B provides enclosure and ventilation for 2.5 inch drives, while connecting them to the SATA interface (data and power) in accordance with the standards, so it could be easily inserted into desktop HDD docks that use a 'cartridge-load' mechanism. Measuring 145 x 101 x 25 mm, it is the size of a the typical 3.5 inch HDD. It weighs 163 g, and is made of plastic. The unit also has a simple slide-open lid that makes handling it (installing/uninstalling 2.5 inch drives) tool-less. The Icy Dock MB882SP-1S-2B is priced at $17.

ENERMAX is proud to announce launch of NAPPA; its latest enclosure series. Other than making it full aluminum or steel, NAPPA goes with different approach for producing enclosure no other alike. Its inner 1.1mm thick aluminum body is bounded in 0.8mm thick PU leather by a patented technique. It results in extraordinary heat dissipation with a great look and touch.

There are two colors available, black and brown. EB210S is with SATA I/II to USB 2.0. EB210S features ultra-compact dimensions of 128 x 80 x 14mm and supports 2.5" HDD of 4,500 to 7,200rpm. It also does not require any external power supply. Supported operating systems are Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7; Mac OS 9.x or higher. Additional accessories Include in the retail pack are a water-resistant carry bag and a mini screw driver.

A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., the worldwide leader in DRAM memory and Flash application products, announced today its industry-leading SSD S596, a 2.5" SATA 3 Gb/s SSD designed specifically for PC enthusiastic, multi-task and heavy-graphic users to perform assorted applications five times faster.

Delivering sequential read and write speed up to 250 MB/sec and 180 MB/sec, the S596 eases the bottleneck conventional HD causes. The S596 utilizes the next generation of Flash technology and DDR2 SDRAM cache buffer to provide an amazingly fast boot-up time at 20 seconds on platforms running Windows 7, a 40% performance improvement compared to platform equipped with ordinary SSD.

Power Quotient International Co., Ltd. (PQI) announced a new 2.5" portable hard drive, the H560. Breaking traditional rectangular plastic / metallic looks, PQI H560 utilizes special rubber material and unique internal shock-absorption suspension technology; it provides the hard drive with the ultra protection. H560 has endured US military grade drop test, MIL-STD-810F 516.5 procedure IV (transit drop test), proving its durability and sturdiness. PQI H560 has a 2.5 inch SATA interface hard drive, compatible with USB2.0 specifications and is backwards compatible with USB 1.1.

PQI H560 comes with a convenient design where the USB cable is attached and can be stored as one with the drive. It saves the user from always having to bring a USB cable with the drive to establish connection.

HighPoint Technologies - an industry pioneer of innovative SATA and SAS RAID host adapter manufacturing, today unleashes the Rocket 600 series - the industry's first SATA 6 Gb/s host adapter based on PCI-Express 2.0 technology. The Rocket 600 series delivers the next generation of SATA performance with robust SATA connectivity and will be available at the beginning of November 2009.

The Rocket 600 series brings a new level of cost effective pricing and will help drive mass adoption to the next generation of SATA 6 Gb/s technology. They are fully industry standard AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) compliant and deliver Out-of-Box Ready installation for the majority of operating systems. The Rocket 600 series are backward compatible to PCI-Express 1.0 technology and (SATA 3 Gb/s & 1.5 Gb/s) devices. They use the same cable and connectors as previous SATA generations to ease integration.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of the Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB Accelerator Drive, the latest addition to its SSDNow V 'Value' family of solid-state drives (SSD). The Kingston SSDNow V Series 40 GB Accelerator Drive is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to accelerate any desktop's start up, shutdown and application load times.

"The SSDNow V Series 40GB Accelerator Drive offers instant performance enhancement and lower power consumption on existing systems at a fraction of the cost of a new system," said Ariel Perez, SSD business manager, Kingston Digital. "In real-world numbers this means that by upgrading with an SSDNow 40GB drive, you can speed up open and close times of web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, and programs like iTunes or Photoshop by almost 4 times over existing regular desktops hard-disk drives*".

pureSilicon Inc. is now shipping Renegade R2, its latest generation of ruggedized solid-state drives (SSD), designed to deliver uncompromised performance in the harshest conditions. Renegade R2 Series SSDs offer enhanced read and write speeds (sequential read: 255 MB/s; sequential write: 180 MB/s), improved IOPS (random read: 18,000 IOPS @ 4K; random write: 1,200 IOPS @ 4K) and proprietary SiPher data security technology. The drives are available immediately in a wide range of densities (4GB, 8GB, 16 GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB) with SATA II configuration, in a low profile (9.5mm height) 2.5-inch form factor. 256GB, PATA, 1.8-inch form factor, and encryption versions will start shipping in Q1 2010.

"pureSilicon is dedicated to providing high-performance, rugged storage solutions to the defense, military, industrial, and government markets," said Jason Breakstone, founder and CEO of pureSilicon. "While many SSD manufacturers are focusing their efforts on the mass consumer markets, pureSilicon is committed to designing and delivering technologies that will provide significant benefits to our customers such as full-disk encryption and data declassification methods. Renegade R2 is designed to operate in the harshest conditions."

NZXT expanded its Classic Series of PC cases with the Gamma. This all-black ATX mid-tower intends to provide the essentials of casing the PC of today, while attempting to be creative with its bezel design to the extant possible. It measures 190 X 449 X 508 mm (W x H x D), and weighs 6 kg. The case material is steel, including a dash of meshed steel in the front-panel. The front-panel includes four 5.25" drive bays, audio, USB, and eSATA connectors, and perforated steel to cover the front intake fan.

The interiors are all-black, with seven internal 3.5" drive bays. Apart from openings that help in cable management, the motherboard tray has an opening that makes working with CPU coolers with back-plates easier. The ventilation system provides a lot of room for expansion: a 120 mm intake fan, two side 120 mm fans, a rear 120 mm, and another two 140 or 120 mm fans on top. Ports for water-tubing are included. It is available in Europe, for a price of 39.90 EUR.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and innovative USB drives, today announced imminent arrival of a line of Predator-X7 2.5-inch SATA-II 3Gbps Windows 7 compatible SSDs built with the new Jmicron JM612 controller.

Predator X7 SSDs will be offered in capacities from 32GB to 256GB. At the heart of these SSDs is the JMF612 controller, which boasts numerous advances in features and performance. The 8-channel flash controller combined with 128MB of DRAM cache achieves sequential read speeds up to 230MB/sec and sequential write speeds up to 180MB/sec. "One big advantage of this controller is its support for a USB 2.0 port, which can be used for cloning the contents of your old hard drive onto the Predator X7. The mini USB port makes installation and setup a lot faster and easier." stated Active Media Products' VP of Sales, Jerry Thomson.

Gigabyte is readying a new socket LGA-1156 motherboard, the GA-P55A-UD4. Bearing resemblance with the GA-P55-UD4, the motherboard features upgraded connectivity, with support for USB 3.0, and SATA 6 Gb/s. The new model also features an upgraded CPU VRM, with a 12+2 phase design compared to the 8+2 phase design on the GA-P55-UD4. USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s features are provided using additional controllers on board. A Marvell-made SATA 6 Gb/s two-port controller replaces the familiar Gigabyte GSATA2 controller, while an NEC-made controller provides two USB 3.0 ports on the rear-panel. The USB 3.0 ports are color-coded blue, and share the port cluster with the lone gigabit Ethernet connector, while the SATA 6 Gb/s connectors are color-coded white, next to the usual six SATA 3 Gb/s ones the P55 PCH provides.

The rest of the feature-set remains largely same, with four DDR3 DIMM slots to support up to 16 GB of memory, two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrically x8 when both are populated) supporting ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI, Dolby Home Theater supportive onboard audio, among other standard issues. The Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 will not replace GA-P55-UD4 from the market, it will coexist, albeit priced higher. It remains to be seen if this is the only "P55A" motherboard Gigabyte sells.

"ZOTAC is the leader when it comes to performing mini-ITX platforms. With the addition the new ZOTAC ION ITX Synergy Editions, we have the largest line up of high-performance mini-ITX motherboards with over a dozen different models," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "We see the demand for small form factors increasing and the future of computing will be mini-ITX platforms."

The new ZOTAC ION ITX Synergy Editions bring a full high-performance experience and features that has won the ZOTAC ION ITX platforms many awards, including the NVIDIA ION graphics processor with NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology for full HD 1080p Blu-ray video playback and high-performance video processing and editing capabilities with NVIDIA CUDA technology.

Acer, the third largest vendor in the worldwide PC market, today announced the Acer Aspire Z5610-U9072, a truly elegant, no-compromise all-in-one desktop PC featuring intuitive multi-touch technology and Windows 7 Home Premium. A powerful entertainment hub for the home, the Z5610 packs first-class performance and feature-rich functionality in a striking design. It will be available this holiday season at online retailers for an attractive price of $899.99.

Engineered to eliminate clutter and maximize workspace, this practical all-in-one streamlines the home or office with a flash of style and offers a unique blend of features and architecture. Boasting a stunning 23-inch HD display, ATI Mobility Radeon graphics and Intel Pentium Dual Core processing, the Aspire Z5610 offers world-class digital prowess.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today expanded their Turbo NAS lineup with the addition of the TS-210 desktop NAS server targeted specifically at the SOHO and Prosumer market segments. The TS-210 supports up to 2 3.5" SATA hard drives with up to 4TB of total capacity (using 2TB drives) and features a Marvell 800MHz CPU and 256MB DDRII memory which provides sustained high performance with low power consumption. The TS-210 can be configured to RAID 1 for high data redundancy. The TS-210 also supports iSCSI Target service with Thin Provisioning and a Gigabit LAN port, features generally found on much higher end NAS servers. The TS-210 is equipped 3 USB ports (1 front, 2 back panel) for expanding the storage capacity, printer sharing, or data backup to an external storage device.

The TS-210 is a smart choice for installation in home or home-based business as it is fully compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and UNIX networks. It features a built-in UPnP/ DLNA media server (with TwonkyMedia enabled) supporting a wide range of DLNA media players such as Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming consoles. By installing the DLNA/ UPnP application on your iPhone or iPod touch, users can access the TS-210 on the home network and play the videos, music, and photos from the server over the network. In addition, the high-speed PC-less Download Station with the unique QGet utility enables users to manage the BT/ FTP/ HTTP download tasks remotely over the local network or the Internet. The TS-210 can perform centralized backups of all computers attached to the network to protect valuable paid downloaded music and video content, digital pictures, and documents.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced the Z-Drive m84, a PCI-Express Solid State Drive (SSD) designed to offer the performance of OCZ's Z-Drive product line to enthusiasts for a more affordable price point and availability in the mainstream market segment versus the enterprise channel. The Z-Drive m84 is the answer to the demand from end-users to have access to this state-of-the-art storage solution.

"The OCZ m84 Z-Drive is the newest addition to our line of PCI-E solid state drives and is designed to offer consumers a high performance yet aggressively priced solid state solution," said Eugene Chang, Vice President of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group. "While the previously released p84 and e84 Z-Drives were intended specifically for enterprise applications, the m84 delivers much of the same performance but at a price point that is competitive with standard SSD drives. This is the first time that such a high performance PCI-E based SSD that is optimized for media editing, gaming, and workstation productivity, has been so within the reach of power users."

Combining a high-performance NVIDIA ION graphics processor with a choice of energy-efficient dual-core Intel Atom 330 or single-core Atom 230 processors, the ZOTAC MAG delivers an eco-friendly computing experience that still packs a performance punch in a compact 186mm x 189mm x 38mm package.

"As users start equipping every room in their house with computers for a true networked digital home experience, space and power conservation becomes an issue, especially for larger houses," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "With the ZOTAC MAG series, we're providing users with a system suitable anywhere inside a house. The compact size, performance and energy efficiency makes the ZOTAC MAG perfect for all computing uses."

The internationally-renowned championship gaming team Fnatic.MSI has traversed the globe competing and winning competitions with a dominant weapon－MSI G Series notebooks. The newest fully-evolved G series extreme gaming notebook, the GT740, is the latest in the series to feature the newest Intel Calpella platform, the advanced Intel Core i7 quad core processor as well as Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 7. With a 17" cinema grade display, the nVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M 3D discrete graphics card (DDR3 1GB VRAM) and 5 Hi-Fi speakers with authentic SRS Premium Sound, gaming, watching video, and listening to music are all exciting and true-to-life experiences.

The GT740 runs on Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system and uses the latest-generation Intel Core i7 processor. The high grade nVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M 3D discrete graphics card (DDR3 1 GB VRAM), and the GT740's outstanding software specifications provide gamers with highly efficient operations and the world's strongest gaming notebook computer.
Through a complete hardware evolution, the GT740 offers Intel's advanced Intel Hyper-Threading technology, which gives its quad core processor the ultimate in processing power. When used in conjunction with Turbo Boost technology, flexible distribution of system resources in concert with the Windows 7 operating system deliver smooth execution and efficiency. With a simple user interface and the nVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M 3D discrete graphics card's high performance video processing capabilities, this notebook is the ultimate representative of high-speed performance and a specialized, must-have weapon for gamers!

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today expanded their Turbo NAS lineup with the addition of the TS-410 desktop NAS server targeted specifically at the SOHO and Prosumer market segments. The TS-410 features 4 hot-swappable SATA hard drives with up to 8 TB of total capacity (with 2TB drives) and supports 2.5" or 3.5" hard drives, giving users more flexibility in selecting drives for installation. The TS-410 features a Marvell 800MHz CPU and 256MB DDRII memory which provides sustained high performance with low power consumption. The TS-410 can be configured for RAID 0/1/5/6/5+ spare, and JBOD with online RAID capacity expansion and online RAID level migration for high data redundancy. The TS-410 also supports iSCSI Target service with Thin Provisioning and dual Gigabit LAN ports, features generally found on much higher end NAS servers. The TS-410 also features 4 USB ports (1 front, 3 back panel) and 2 e-SATA ports for expanding the storage capacity or backing up the TS-410.

The TS-410 is a smart choice for installation in home or home-based business as it's fully compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and UNIX networks and features a built-in UPnP/ DLNA media server (with TwonkyMedia enabled) supporting a wide range of DLNA media players such as Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming consoles. By installing the DLNA/ UPnP application on your iPhone or iPod touch, users can access the TS-410 on the home network and play videos, music, and photos from the server over the network. In addition, the high-speed PC-less Download Station with the unique QGet utility enables users to manage the BT/ FTP/ HTTP download tasks remotely over the local network or the Internet. The TS-410 can perform centralized backups of all computers attached to the network to protect valuable paid downloaded music & video content, digital pictures, and documents.