The latest 14" models in the MSI Classic series, the CX420 and CR420, boast the latest Intel Core i Series processors. The CX420 is also equipped with a built-in ATi Radeon HD5470 discrete graphics card with 1GB DDR3 memory and an external casing coated with MSI's exclusive Cross-Hatch Color Film Print patterning. With a lightweight as well as fashionable appearance, they are the best companions for next-generation audiovisual enjoyment.

MSI Notebook Marketing Director Sam Chern points out that the CX420 and CR420 represent the latest notebook models in the MSI Classic Series. They are configured with New 2010 Intel Core processor. Not only are the lid and palm rest area coated with bright, scratch-resistant Cross-Hatch Color Film Print (CFP) patterning, the models also come equipped with the Chiclet keyboard and seamless touch-pad, with the exterior utilizing MSI's exclusive "wedge" technique. These ultra-thin, 14" models weigh less than 2.2 kg, enabling users to enjoy high mobility in addition to powerful audiovisual and processing performance.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announced a powerful upgrade to the latest DirectX 11 mainstream graphics: the PowerColor PCS+ HD5670. This latest graphics solution features factory overclocking with standard core and memory clocks at 785 MHz and 1000MHz respectively. Gaming performance is boosted by the GDDR5 onboard memory that enhances data transmission rates up to 4.0Gbps.

The PCS+ HD5670 also features an ultra quite 92mm cooling fan which is made of a low-noise impeller, leading to a cool and low-noise working environment measured under 30dB at load. The card takes advantage of power efficient features, consuming less than 75 watts, enabling immersive HD gaming without an external power connection.

In light of consumers' needs for high speed data transfer, renowned memory manufacturer Walton Chaintech is launching its latest Astro Drive 266X, which delivers an incredible reading speed of 40.9 MB/s and a maximum writing speed of 25.2 MB/s. The specifications of Astro Drive 266X far exceed the performance of all existing USB2.0 flash drives currently available in the market. Featuring innovative technologies to lower the costs of production, Walton Chaintech has successfully enhanced the economic benefit for the product by a large margin. The Astro Drive 266X provide a variety of memory capacities: From the mainstream specification of 16GB to the ultra-large 64GB to cater to the needs of different user demographics while offering exceptional C/P value for the product.

With the Astro Drive 266X, consumers will notice significantly reduced waiting time for data transfer between PCs and the USB disk, especially for large audio/video/multimedia files, demonstrating the product's blazing fast performance.

MSI seems to be almost ready with a new high-end motherboard for the socket LGA-1366 Intel Core i7 platform. The new MSI Big Bang XPower motherboard is based on the usual Intel X58 Express + ICH10R chipset, and offers six PCI-Express x16 slots, which which it can support CrossFireX, SLI, and still have room for dedicated PhysX accelerators or other PCI-E devices. The XPower also features support for SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 using additional controllers.

The CPU is powered by a 16-phase DrMOS PWM, which draws power from two 8-pin power connectors. It makes use of High-C capacitors for higher durability. An additional 6-pin PCI-Express power input adds electrical stability to the PCI-Express x16 slots. The socket is wired to six DDR3 DIMM slots for triple-channel memory support, which are powered by a 3-phase VRM.

Matrox Graphics Inc., the leading manufacturer of specialized graphics solutions, today announced multiple DualHead2Go and TripleHead2Go Graphics eXpansion Module (GXM) support to drive up to four or six monitors, respectively, from a single system. A second GXM can now be connected to the secondary output of a supported dual monitor graphics card so two DualHead2Go GXMs can power up to four outputs in 2x2 or 4x1 modes, while two TripleHead2Go units can be combined to connect six displays to produce either a 3x2 or 6x1 set up.

"Multi-GXM support offers a tremendous amount of flexibility by simply having to connect the GXMs externally to your system or workstation," says Ron Berty, Business Development Manager, Matrox Graphics. "Business professionals for example, can now conveniently upgrade to a four- or six-monitor workspace to run additional applications for real-time viewing. Additionally, AV specialists can effortlessly build six-screen presentation or digital signage platforms to drive dynamic, digital messaging while benefiting from the natural synchronization of the screens being driven by a single GPU."

Razer, the world's leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, today announced the Razer Vespula, a lightweight, gaming grade mouse mat. The dual-sided design of the Razer Vespula provides gamers with the choice of a Speed Surface for faster mouse movements or a Control Surface that picks up even the most precise of mouse movements.

"The Razer Vespula was designed with gamers in mind that need a single solution for every game they play. Different genres call for different gameplays. The advanced technology in the improved dual-sided mouse mat gives gamers the choice of a smooth Speed Surface or a textured Control Surface, which delivers just that flexibility," said Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff, president, Razer USA. "The Control Surface is great for gamers that use small, precise movements, while the Speed Surface is an ideal match for gamers that prefer large, sweeping motions."

AMD's upcoming six-core desktop processor, codenamed "Thuban" is on course for a May 2010, suggests a report. The series is likely to receive the brand name Phenom II X6. There are four models planned for release within Q2, 2010. The Thuban core is AMD's desktop implementation of the Istanbul core, in the socket AM3 package, supporting dual-channel DDR3 memory. It is a monolithic multi-core design with six x86-64 cores, each with 128 KB of L1, 512 KB of L2 cache, and a 6 MB L3 cache shared between the six cores. Just as with K10 dual, triple, and quad core processors where AMD used a HyperTransport interface clock speed of 1800 MHz (3600 MT/s), or 2000 MHz (4000 MT/s), the new processor will take advantage of HyperTransport 3.x interface, with a HT speed of 2400 MHz (4800 MT/s). Thuban will be built on GlobalFoundaries' 45 nm node.

The table below lists out details of the four planned models. The model number of the top part isn't known. Most likely it is a Black Edition part, which comes with an unlocked BClk multiplier. It operates at 2.80 GHz, with a TDP of 140W. A step below is the Phenom II X6 1075T, which has an expected TDP of 125W, the 1055T is a notch below, and 1035T being the cheapest part. The exact clock speeds of the latter three models isn't known as yet. A month ahead of releasing these chips, AMD will announce the AMD 8-series chipset platform, led by 890FX (high-end, best for CrossFireX), 890GX (performance integrated graphics with CrossFire support). The AMD SB800 series southbridge chips will feature native support for SATA 6 Gb/s. Its on-die SATA controller gives out six SATA ports complete with RAID support. Some existing AM3 motherboards based on 7-series chipsets may also support Phenom II X6 with a BIOS update.

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 DataTraveler 5000 USB Flash drive. The DataTraveler 5000 is FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certified with Level 3 pending, and features 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption. It uses XTS cipher mode and also uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) algorithms to meet Suite B standards approved by the U.S. government.

"The DataTraveler 5000 delivers unsurpassed levels of security and encryption to government and enterprise customers," said Mark Akoubian, business manager, Secure USB Products, Kingston. "This portable data solution represents state-of-the-art data protection while providing end users with the simplicity of plug and play."

Apple today unveiled its latest pop gadget, poised to add to the legacy of iPod and iPhone, the iPad. Quite technically, it's a tablet computer, but Apple's implementation ensures it's a mix of the Mac, iPhone, and iPod in clever proportions. The device is half an inch thick, weighs 750 g, has a 9.7 inch IPS multi-touch display, is powered by a custom Apple-made "A4" SoC which runs at 1 GHz, and has variants based on storage and connectivity. On the storage front, on offer are 16, 32, 64 GB, and connectivity options include 3G or WiFi (pick a variant based on what your primary ISP type is).

Just like with the iPhone, an accelerometer lets you tilt the device to change between portrait and landscape modes, and also help with several application features. While the device takes text input from an onscreen touch keyboard, it also supports a real docked keyboard. Apple has released several applications with this, and has also released an SDK for developers to start building applications on. Prices start at - hold your breath - US $499 (for the 16 GB variant), and goes up $599 (32 GB), $699 (64 GB). Adding $130 to any of these models gives you the 3G feature. Let us know what you think about this new device in the ongoing Frontpage Poll (top-right on the front-page).Many pictures after the break.

AMD today released the ATI Catalyst 10.1 driver suite, this year's first. The suite provides drivers and system software for ATI Radeon products (including Radeon HD 5900, 5800, 5700, 5600, HD 4000 series), AMD 7-series chipsets, All-in-Wonder, and Theater multimedia products. The new set of drives brings in application-specific performance improvements, OS and application bug-fixes, and new features. Notable ones are listed below:

• Left 4 Dead 2 - Overall performance improves as much as 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 series products and ATI Radeon HD 5800 series products
• Crysis - Performance improves as much as 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 series products and as much as 4% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 series products

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.1 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit

For a complete list of changes specific to your OS, refer to the Release Notes document.

The LaCie Enterprise Class range is among the most sophisticated offerings on the market, and provides six data protection levels, robust performance, data encryption, superior connectivity, RAID protection, a professional backup offer, and an advanced service package

Designed for superior performance, the new product range comes with true internal SATA Enterprise Class disks, featuring 7200RPM and 32MB of cache memory. These high-quality internal disks target an ambitious 1.2 million MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) and have been optimized for RAID towers with a vibration resistance technology. Professionals will get the ability to reach more than 700 MB/s of transfer speeds through a RAID 50 array with four LaCie 4big Quadra Enterprise Class. LaCie's Enterprise Class Product range features the most advanced service package on the market, consisting of a 5-year warranty and a 5-year advance product replacement plan.

Intel's Core i7 processor in the LGA1366 package is currently leading in the performance front, some of the fastest processors for the desktop platform fall in this league. Despite lacking a directly competitive processor, the platform had its share of competition thanks to motherboard manufacturers competing within themselves. EVGA for one, is set to unveil a bleeding-edge motherboard later this year, which supports two LGA1366 processors. So far, enthusiasts working for EVGA have only disclosed that the motherboard would work with Intel's DP Xeon 5000 series LGA1366 processors, which are officially capable of working on dual-socket server and workstation motherboards.

However, a plausible rumor doing rounds has it that EVGA may attempt to make its motherboard work with Core i7 series processors - which are incapable to operate in pairs, at least from what we're led to believe. EVGA is attempting to do this by modifying the reference Intel design for the platform.

Mushkin Enhanced, a global leader in high-performance computer products, announced today the release of two new power supply series: Volta and Joule.

With an exceptional feature set and high-efficiency operation, the Volta Series PSUs offer unparalleled value. Available in 500W and 600W versions, the Volta Series are an ideal choice for enthusiasts, gamers and professionals.

Synology UK, leaders in open source network attached storage solutions announced today their most powerful NAS unit yet. Aimed at the SMB and enthusiast market, the DiskStation DS1010+ delivers superb performance, reliability, security, scalability and all the features required for modern day business needs.

"The DS1010+ is a complete out-of-the-box business solution for all networking and internet requirements, including web server, ftp access, email hosting, backup, file and printer sharing, CCTV surveillance and much more" explained Victor Chiang, Sales & Marketing Director, Synology UK. "All features can be very easily configured in minutes through Synology's intuitive Disk Station Manager 2.2 web interface".

Other World Computing (OWC) a leading Mac and PC technology company, announced today the OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD as the fastest, most reliable, and longest endurance 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive (SSD) available on the market for Macs and PCs in single or multiple drive use including all RAID configurations. Designed and made in the U.S. from imported parts, the OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD is available for immediate ordering in capacities up to 200GB priced starting at $229.99.

The new OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD is available immediately in three bare drive configurations that are compatible with Mac and PC computers that can utilize a 2.5" SATA 1.5/3.0Gb/s drive:

LSI Corporation today announced a collaboration with Seagate Technology to deliver robust, PCI Express (PCIe)-based solid-state storage (SSS) solutions for data center and cloud computing environments. Through this joint effort, LSI is expected to deliver board-level products that integrate LSI SAS and PCIe technology with Seagate solid-state drive (SSD) technology. The products are designed to provide enterprise OEMs and channel partners with new levels of performance, reliability and ease of use while addressing architectural challenges that have limited SSS adoption. Product samples are expected to be available to OEM customers in the second quarter of this year.

"LSI is uniquely positioned to execute a broad solid-state storage strategy," said Jeff Richardson, executive vice president and general manager, Semiconductor Solutions Group, LSI. "We're already deeply engaged in delivering solid-state storage technologies, from custom silicon to storage systems. Entering the emerging PCIe-based SSS market segment is a natural extension of our core competencies. By building upon the industry's most widely deployed SAS software stack, OEMs and system builders will gain a proven, lower-risk path to market and continuity across technology generations."

NVIDIA today let loose of GeForce 196.34 beta driver suite. The beta release comes after the recently-released GeForce 196.21 WHQL drivers, and corrects a severe bug which prevents GPU overclocking. It retains the rest of the feature-set of its WHQL predecessor. Being a beta release, its use is unsupported by NVIDIA, though a WHQL-signed version can be expected soon.

The GeForce 196.34 beta driver suite provides system software for NVIDIA GeForce desktop and mobile graphics processors, NVIDIA ION platform, along with Graphics Plus components such as CUDA, PhysX, 3D Vision, etc.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 196.34 BETA

ASUS is known to toy with bleeding-edge technology to give out high-end products. Earlier, ASUS put two GeForce GTX 285 GPUs into one accelerator to give out a custom-design product that outperformed NVIDIA's dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295. According to o.v.e.r.clockers.at, ASUS might be doing something similar, this time around with AMD's Cypress GPUs in its Radeon HD 5870 avatar. It is said to be working on a dual-HD 5870 graphics card, codenamed "Ares".

While the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 uses full-featured AMD Cypress GPUs (with all its stream processors and memory bus width available), ASUS will attempt to use the one disparity between an HD 5970 and two HD 5870 to its advantage: clock speeds. The Cypress GPUs in HD 5970 feature lower clock speeds (725/1000 MHz core/memory) compared to the single Cypress GPU on the HD 5870 (850/1200 MHz). Electrical constraints are probably the reason behind this. It is likely that ASUS will use stronger VRM circuitry to power the two GPUs to run at higher speeds, while also providing some overclocking headroom.

AMD in a recent conference call to the press said that it didn't expect to see custom-design HD 5970-like accelerators till Q2 2010, although we don't infer there to be any sort of restriction in place, as was the case with NVIDIA and its GTX 295. Ares is likely named after the Greek God of warfare by the name. An apt successor to Mars (which also happens to be the name of the Roman God of war), ASUS' previous attempt at an extreme high-end graphics card of its own design.

Renowned overclocker Chew* set a speed record for AMD's new value dual-core processor, the Athlon II X2 255. Based on the Regor core, the X2 255 is a monolithic dual-core chip, with just two physical cores on die, and additional L2 cache, with no L3 cache. This cuts the TDP of the chip to 65W. On the bench built by Chew*, the X2 255 reached 4800.1 MHz, with a BClk of 320.01 MHz, multiplied by 15.0. The chip's natural multiplier value is 15.5x, its stock speed is 3.10 GHz. A VCore of 1.696 Volts was set.

The processor was cooled using a Mach 1 phase cooler. The bench consisted of an Athlon II X2 255, Gigabyte GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H motherboard - another mainstream component which proved its mettle, OCZ DDR3 1600 MHz Black Edition certified memory, PC Power & Cooling 1200W PSU, and ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics. The CPU-Z validation for this feat can be found here. In the same occasion, Chew* could overclock the chip to 4050 MHz using a reference AMD CPU cooler (which comes bundled with higher-end AMD chips). More pictures at the source.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in the fourth calendar quarter of 2009 (4Q09) rose modestly, compared to 3Q09, but still achieved all-time record levels for a single quarter, according to IDC's latest PC processor study. Notably, when compared to 4Q08, shipments in 4Q09 rose 31.3%. For the full year 2009, total PC processor unit shipments grew 2.5%, while revenue declined 7.1% to $28.6 billion.

"Compared to 3Q09, the modest rise in shipments in 4Q09 indicates that the market is returning to normal seasonal patterns," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC. "Compared to 4Q08, the huge rise in shipments indicates that the market has put the recession behind it. Both comparisons indicate that the PC industry anticipates improvement in PC end demand in 2010."

Cooler Master released its new GX line of power supply units. The new series consists of three models: GX-550W, GX-650W, and GX-750W, and are targeted at mid-thru-high end PC builds. The PSUs are not modular, but offer high efficiency (up to 85%), accredited with the 80Plus Silver badge, active PFC, a single +12V rail design, and 100,000 hours of MTBF. The GX-550W, GX-650W and GX-750W come backed by a 5-year warranty, and are priced at 64.90, 74.90 and 89.90 Euro, respectively. They will be available starting next month.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in standards development for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of a family of compatible device specifications for Serial Presence Detect (SPD) EEPROMs, Thermal Sensors (TS), and combination devices with both SPD and TS in a single package. The specifications offer advanced power management features for a wide array of applications, and may be downloaded free of charge at JEDEC.org.

"These chips are being applied in a wide range of applications from handheld devices to telecommunications equipment and data servers," said Desi Rhoden, Chairman of JEDEC's JC-42 Committee for Random Access Memory (RAM). He added, "The demand for green technologies has the industry looking for new ways to measure and conserve power. This family of devices gives a way to accurately measure temperatures to less than half a degree so that systems can automatically adjust their energy usage in response to customer's needs."

Kingston quietly made an addition to the SSDNow V+ series solid state drives (SSDs), the SSDNow V+ 512 GB (SNVP325-S2B/512GB). The new drive offers 512 GB of storage in its existing 2.5" form-factor. It uses multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chips, a controller that supports SATA 3 Gb/s and USB 2.0, and offers read/write speeds of 230/180 MB/s. It is available both as packages with just the drive, and in a bundle which includes SATA power and data cables, 3.5" to 2.5" spacers, USB cable, and a 2.5" enclosure which makes it portable. The bare drive is priced at roughly $1598 (US), and the bundle at roughly $1698.

IBM researchers today announced they have demonstrated a world record in areal data density on linear magnetic tape - a significant update to one of the computer industry's most resilient, reliable and affordable data storage technologies.

This breakthrough proves that tape technology can increase capacity for years to come, which has important implications, as tape storage systems are more energy efficient and cost-effective than hard disk drive storage systems. As the physical world becomes increasingly networked with sensors, vast amounts of data are amassed in various formats from medical images to security camera feeds to supply chain sensors to financial records. All of this data needs to be archived, replicated for disaster recovery, and/or retained or regulatory compliance.

AMD is just about complete with its top-to-bottom lineup of DirectX 11 compliant GPUs, whose series is codenamed Evergreen. Under this, the company has a GPU and its derivative targeted at almost every price point, from the entry-level Radeon HD 5450, to the fastest graphics card - Radeon HD 5970. With the onset of NVIDIA's first current-generation GPU codenamed Fermi, NVIDIA might attempt to reclaim the performance crown, and infuse competition in the higher-end segment. Currently there's no news of lower-end derivatives of Fermi.

Probably in response to Fermi, AMD is readying a new GPU architecture slated for release within this calendar year, in the second half. "We are ramping the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series now and look forward to refreshing the entire lineup in the second half of next year," said Dirk Meyer, chief executive officer of AMD, during quarterly conference call with financial analysts. His reference to "next year" was of next fiscal year (FY 2010), in context of him speaking at a quarterly conference call with financial analysts for FY 2009. The new series of GPUs is codenamed "Northern Islands". At this point in time, nothing much is known about the new GPU series. TSMC, AMD's main foundry partner for GPUs and motherboard chipsets, earlier claimed that it will be ready with a 28 nm production node by the end of this year. Whether the new GPU series makes use of the new fab technology is anybody's guess.

AMD introduced as many as five new value-thru-mainstream processors in its Athlon II and Phenom II series. It starts with the energy-efficient Phenom II X4 910e quad-core, which runs at 2.60 GHz, with 65W TDP, and features 8 MB of total chip cache. It is priced at $169. Next up is the Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition dual-core which runs at 3.20 GHz, 7 MB total cache, 80W TDP, and unlocked bus multiplier. This one goes for $99.

Then there's the Athlon II X4 635 quad-core chip which runs at 2.90 GHz, with 2 MB of total cache, and 95W TDP, going for $119. Next, Athlon II X3 440 triple-core processor. This chip runs at 3.00 GHz, with 1.5 MB of total chip cache, and TDP of 95W. It is priced at $84. Lastly, there's the Athlon II X2 255 dual-core chip with clock speed of 3.10 GHz, 2 MB of cache, and 65W TDP. This one goes for $74. All chips come in the socket AM3 package, support DDR2 and DDR3 memory, and are backwards compatible with the AM2+ socket. All prices are in 1000-unit tray quantities.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and endangered species USB drives, today added a new 128GB capacity drive to their SaberTooth ZX series of 1.8-inch PATA ZIF SSDs. The new 128GB SSD is ideal for upgrading popular laptops and netbooks. With sequential read speeds up to 80MB/sec and sequential write speeds up to 38MB/sec, the new 128GB ZX delivers impressive bootup, shutdown and application load speeds that are dramatically faster than hard drives.

Measuring 70 x 54 x 5 mm, the ZX has the same dimensions as 1.8-inch HDDs. It uses a parallel ATA (PATA / IDE) ZIF interface, and supports PIO mode 6 and Ultra DMA mode 6. SaberTooth ZX is compatible with most netbooks that use 1.8" PATA ZIF hard drives. The ZX is one of the fastest and easiest ways to upgrade a multitude of mobile computers to higher performance and more local storage. The SaberTooth ZX family now includes 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models.

Gigabyte's top of the line socket LGA-1156 motherboard, GA-P55A-UD7 just got a face-lift before release to the market. The GA-P55A-UD7 was pictured in its production form as early as in November, 2009. The retail model has notable changes from the production version. To begin with, GA-P55A series motherboard are characterized with SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 support. The new GA-P55A-UD7 has four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots instead of three on the production one. The four slots are connected to an NVIDIA nForce 200 PCI-E bridge chip, which is connected to the processor. The two x16 links from this chip can be split into four x8 links for each slot. A PLX-made bridge chip provides additional PCI-Express 2.0 lanes (probably connected to the P55 PCH), to drive the USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s controllers.

The area south of the CPU socket (typically where you expect a northbridge to be located in older generation motherboards), has the nForce 200 and PLX bridge chips. This is cooled by a fusion heatsink which can be connected to a water-cooling loop. It can also offload heat from the CPU VRM and PCH heatsinks. Of the ten internal SATA ports, six are 3 Gb/s ports provided by the P55 PCH, two 3 Gb/s ports from a Gigabyte GSATA2 controller (which also gives out an IDE connector), and two 6 Gb/s ports from a Marvell-made controller. Other features include two color-coded blue USB 3.0 ports, several USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, and 8-channel HD Audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs.

Rambus Inc., one of the world's premier technology licensing companies, today announced that the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for its U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) action against NVIDIA Corp. and other respondents issued an Initial Determination finding them in violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The ALJ determined that three of Rambus' five asserted patents are valid, enforceable, and infringed by the respondents. The ALJ also determined that there was no violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 for the remaining two asserted patents. The action is Investigation Number 337-TA-661.

Any of the parties may request the ITC's full Commission to review the ALJ's Initial Determination. If the Commission grants a petition for review, it may affirm, modify, reverse, set aside, or remand all or part of the ALJ's decision in developing the ITC's final determination.

Thermaltake, leading DIY chassis and storage enclosure brand, introduces the newest series of exclusively elegant hard drive enclosures, the Silver River II series. The aluminum enclosures come in two sizes. The ST0016 and ST0017 models are designed to host 3.5" hard drives and come with a conveniently removable foot that allows to place the enclosure in various ways. The ultra-compact ST0018 model is designed for 2.5" hard drives, with dimensions of barely 79 (W) x 17 (H) x 136 (D) mm and the USB interface it is the ideal mobile storage enclosure.

All three models are bundled with all the supported data cables as well as a screwdriver, so you can start the installation right away without having to worry that you might need other accessories or tools.

EVGA released an out of the order update for its Precision overclocking software (version 1.9.1), which enables it to work with NVIDIA's newest GeForce 195.62 drivers. the workaround is applied only to 196.00 - 196.21 driver versions range in order to ensure compatibility with future fixed NVIDIA drivers. Registered EVGA users can download the software from here.

MSI has added large 15.6" and 17.3" notebook computers equipped with ATI Radeon HD 5470 discrete graphics card to its Classic Series. Lightweight and chic, the elegant CX605 and CX705 laptops are encased in lustrous, wear-resistant color film print with a timeless cross-hatch design as well as MSI's own 45-degree beveled edges.

MSI Director of Marketing Sam Chern points out that the CX605 and CX705 come with ATI Radeon HD 5470 discrete graphics card for ultimate video performance. In addition, these models boast the double advantage of both large screens and light weight-the 15.6" CX605 is a mere 2.5kg, while the 17.3" CX705 tips the scales as less than 3kg. Highly portable with MSI's fashionably classic "cross-hatch" design, these laptops are ideal for film viewing.

Verbatim is unveiling its second generation of Micro USB drives in a range of vibrant colours and capacities. The tiny drives, which are only 3 cm long and no thicker than a Euro coin, can store up to 32 GB of data, and are available in stores now.

The Micro USB drives are manufactured using System-in-Package (SiP) technology which integrates the electronic components into a robust, sealed casing, ensuring that the drives are resistant to dust, water and static discharges, making them one of the smallest and most reliable USB drives available on the market today.

ASRock has updated the BIOS of its H55M Pro socket LGA1156 motherboard to include a "Turbo 100" feature. The feature is designed to run with the entry-level Pentium Dual-Core G6950 processor, which overclocks it from 2.80 GHz to 4.20 GHz, with a turbo ratio of 100%. This, the company claims, provides a significant graphics performance boost (tabled below). The new BIOS can be downloaded from ASRock Forums' Intel section.

As an ongoing supporter of professional content creators both large and small, G-Technology by Hitachi : is aligning with today's premiere filmmakers and creative professionals as an official Leadership Sponsor of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, January 21-31, 2010, in Park City, Utah.

Making its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival is G-Tech's new G-DRIVE mobile family of portable hard drives - the G-DRIVE mobile USB : and the G-DRIVE mobile. Each is specifically designed for Apple users who strive for external storage solutions that complement their Mac lifestyle. The new G-DRIVE mobile USB is designed to match the silky white design of the new MacBook and features a USB 2.0 interface for reliable storage on the go. The new G-DRIVE mobile, with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, features a polished black and silver appearance, making it a perfect companion for the new MacBook Pro.

Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer and flash memory products, today announced that the Dominator GTX1 ultra-high performance DDR3 memory module (CMGTX1) has passed Intel's XMP-Ready certification at the blistering speed of 2333MHz, surpassing Corsair's 2000MHz modules as the fastest XMP-certified memory in the world.

Corsair Dominator GTX modules are individually hand-screened and tested to ensure unmatched performance. They are designed specifically for enthusiasts and overclockers who want to achieve the highest performance possible, and to break benchmark world records.

As we previously reported, MSI is working on a Lightning Edition of the ATI Radeon HD 5870. The card will be designed with overclockers in mind and comes with two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors for maximum power delivery. It also has easily accessible measuring points for the GPU voltages - a voltmodder's dream. Today we received several new pictures from an anonymous source in Taiwan that shows the card in all its glory.More pictures below the fold.

To meet growing demand for additional hard disk storage, Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, proudly recommends its 3.5-inch StoreJet external hard drives that feature high speed performance, vast storage space and versatile functions such as efficient cooling systems, OneTouch auto-backup, and TurboHDD USB transfer mode.

With generous storage capacities of up to 1.5TB, Transcend StoreJet 3.5-inch external hard drives provide increased storage capacity for today's space-hungry digital world. These drives give users an astonishing amount of extra space to back up or store their essential files, folders, games, documents, photos, music, and even high-definition videos. For added value, all StoreJet drives come bundled with Transcend's own StoreJet Elite software, which offers intelligent backup scheduling, Internet tools as well as advanced security options.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced a new line of TeraDrive SSDs designed specifically for high end enterprise and database server applications.

"Super Talent has a solid track record of developing leading edge SSDs. Their new TeraDrive series, incorporating SandForce technology, is an impressive advance in enterprise storage" commented Thad Omura, VP Marketing at SandForce Inc.

The new TeraDrive FT2 is a SATA 3Gbps SSD based on the advanced new SandForce SF-1500 SSD processor. It delivers sequential read and write speeds up to 250MB/sec that will not degrade over time. It also supports blazing fast transaction speeds up to 30,000 IOPS, making it a formidable storage solution for database servers where random read and write speeds are critical.

Dear community members,

We have just finished work on a brand new feature that lets registered members of TechPowerUp forums create their profile on our sister site GeneralNonsense.net in a snap.

Early last year, we decided to spin off the "General Nonsense" forum on TechPowerUp Forums to create GeneralNonsense.net, a community with a broader scope for TPU members to socialize. However, many TPU regulars complained that creating a new account there was a cumbersome process.

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Lenovo today announced that it is offering Elemental Accelerator software with select NVIDIA Quadro FX professional graphics solutions on ThinkStation S20 and D20 professional workstations. Elemental Accelerator works with NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics to add GPU-accelerated power and performance to the Adobe Creative Suite 4 workflow.

Lenovo workstations equipped with NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics and Elemental Accelerator let Adobe Creative Suite 4 users harness the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) to perform high-speed, high-quality video encoding. This combination delivers dramatic time savings over conventional CPU-only encoding solutions. By executing demanding processing tasks on the GPU, Elemental Accelerator speeds up video transcoding and frees CPU resources to perform other tasks, helping to result in a faster, more efficient video editing and production environment.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), a leading motherboard, graphics card, barebone system and notebook manufacturer, today announced the launch of the ECS U3N2 and S6M2 expansion cards as the most flexible solution for many upcoming USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps external devices.

The ECS U3N2 USB 3.0 expansion card which is powered by NEC USB 3.0 controller chip delivers a brand new standard SuperSpeed USB 3.0 performance up to 5Gbps data-transfer rate which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and at least 900mA current output for each port to easily access SuperSpeed external devices, also, the ECS U3N2 USB 3.0 expansion card provides a great flexibility with its backward compatibility to USB 2.0 and earlier devices.

Gigabyte is ready with its first motherboard based on the AMD 890GX + SB800 chipset. The GA-890GPA-UD3H supports socket AM3 AMD Athlon II and Phenom II series processors, including support for AMD's upcoming six-core processors. The CPU is powered by a 5-phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots to support dual-channel memory with speeds of over DDR3-1866 MHz by overclocking. The AMD 890GX northbridge embeds a faster DirectX 10.1 compliant integrated graphics with display connectivity including DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI (with 7.1 audio pass).

Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated), three PCI-E x1, and two PCI. The new SB800 southbridge gives out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. An additional Gigabyte GSATA2 controller gives out two SATA 3 Gb/s ports and an IDE connector. An NEC-made USB 3.0 controller further provides two external USB 3.0 ports (color-coded blue), next to a number of USB 2.0 ports. 8-channel audio with Dolby Home Theater support, and gigabit LAN make for the rest of it. The board seems to make use of the Ultra Durable 3 Classic construction. Expect the board to be out later this year.

Coolink today introduced its new Corator DS CPU-Cooler. Featuring Coolink's exclusive Gapless Direct Touch (GDT) technology that allows for an all copper contact area, the Corator DS brings the concept of direct contact cooling to the next level by further improving heat transfer. Four large 8mm heatpipes, a dual fin stack design and a PWM controlled SWiF2 120mm fan are among the features that enable the Corator DS to achieve an optimal balance between outstanding cooling performance and quiet operation.

"True to our vision of innovating instead of following, we worked hard to strengthen the advantages of direct contact cooling and to eliminate its drawbacks", explains Timothy Chu, Coolink CEO. "Thus we're proud to introduce the Corator DS today, which is our first product based on Coolink's exclusive GDT-technology. Its innovative contact surface in combination with the other features allows us to offer a complete high-performance cooling solution at an attractive price point".

Whereas NVIDIA is inching towards releasing its DirectX compliant GF100 GPU from which it has high expectations, some of its partners don't seem to give up on the two-generation old G92. Galaxy has almost finished designing a graphics card that uses two GeForce GTS 250 GPUs on one PCB, in an SLI on card setup. It refers to the card as "DualCore GTS250", and consists of a long blue PCB which holds two G92-426 GPUs (G92-426 GPUs are used on low-power variants of the GTS 250).

Each GPU is wired to 1 GB of GDDR3 memory across its 256-bit wide memory interface (total 2 GB on board). The two GPUs are connected to the system over an nForce 200 BR-03 bridge chip. The multi-GPU system is contained within the board, with no SLI fingers for expansion, even though G92 chips are Quad SLI capable.

TSMC, one of the world's major semiconductor foundries, said that it has resolved all issues pertaining to proper yields of chips built on the 40 nanometre node. During a company event on the 19th, Mark Liu, Senior VP of Operations, said that the quality of production on the 40 nm node is almost on par with the 65 nm one. Liu stated that the chamber matching problems that had impacted yield rates for the company's 40nm node have been resolved.

TSMC caters to graphics processor giants NVIDIA and AMD, with both having designs of 40 nm performance graphics processors with multi-billion transistor counts. AMD has been selling 40 nm GPUs made by TSMC since its previous generation ATI Radeon HD 4770, it currently makes all its Radeon HD 5000 series GPUs on the node. NVIDIA is poised to release its first billion transistor 40 nm GPU, the GF100, in its consumer GeForce brand later this quarter.

In addition to this, TSMC has just finished building a new factory at the Hsinchu Science Park (HSP), Taiwan, part of its Fab 12. The new facility will be able to commence volume production of 28 nm products as early as by Q3 2010.

MSI's 15.6" model X-Slim X620 has a built-in optical drive and the ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5430 3D discrete graphics card (which comes with 1GB DDR3 VRAM) and employs the high-performance Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The case is covered with MSI's exclusive textured patterning with color film print coating and has a frame design with a unique personality and exquisite appearance. Coupled with MSI's exclusive 3D Boost and ECO power-saving technologies, an ultra-long battery life of up to 11 hours is possible.

MSI Notebook Marketing Director Sam Chern points out that the X620 is the latest masterpiece in MSI's X-Slim Series, carrying on its ultra-thin and elegant traditions. Its exterior has also incorporated a number of classic elements both stylish and practical, including MSI's distinctive textured patterning with color film print coating and Chiclet keyboard. The notebook is completed with elegant silver borders. With its superior hardware and software performance and appearance, the model won the 2010 German iF product design award.

Toppan Photomasks, Inc. (TPI) and GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced that they have formed a joint venture for operation of the Advanced Mask Technology Center (AMTC) in Dresden, Germany. The joint venture will provide leading-edge photomasks to GLOBALFOUNDRIES and to TPI's European and global networks of customers.

Under terms of the venture, TPI's Dresden manufacturing facility and the AMTC will be combined into a single manufacturing facility. TPI will retain its Dresden sales, customer service and mask front-end functions. The new integrated organization builds on the AMTC's history of providing advanced masks, TPI's and GLOBALFOUNDRIES' manufacturing excellence in Dresden, Toppan's world-class mask technology development, and the extensive collaborative relationships that GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Toppan have established in the industry.

A team of overclockers Sampsa and Stummerwinter set a new world-record score for 3DMark Vantage (Performance preset). The duo set the record using a test-bed made of Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition, four ASUS ATI Radeon HD 5870 in CrossFireX mode, 6 GB of Corsair Dominator GTX2, and the upcoming ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard to seat it all.

The Core i7 975 XE processor sailed through to 5508.9 MHz (27 x 204 MHz @ 1.664V, HTT on), with the memory running at 2040 MHz DDR (7-8-7-21). The four ASUS Radeon HD 5870 cards were hand-picked from a batch of 18 pieces. Core/memory speeds of 1325 MHz / 1300 MHz, were set. Catalyst drivers version 9.12 were used for the record feat.

The team achieved a 3DMark Vantage score of P47002, with a GPU score of 53,911 points, and CPU score of 33,949. To cool the machine, F1 EE & Tek 9.0 liquid nitrogen evapourators were used for the GPUs and CPU. The duo credit their success (besides their skills), to Kinc and Christian from ASUS and Thomas from Intel.

Samsung introduced two high contrast LCD monitors - the SyncMaster 70 Series F2370H and SyncMaster 80 Series F2380MX. The latter targets the casual user, while the former targets professionals. Both are 23-inch displays with native resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD). The selling point here is a dynamic contrast ratio of 150,000:1 and static ratio of 3,000:1. Both use HDMI for input apart from the usual DVI. Both displays further feature a wide viewing angle of 178 degrees. The F2370H and F2380MX are expected to be priced at around 640€ and 675€, respectively, when the release later this month in Korea.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today the addition of a new commercial-grade product line, the E Series. Debuting for this entry-level series are the 32-inch E321 and 42-inch E421, which give corporate users an affordable option for lobbies, boardrooms and small conference rooms, while addressing the display needs of digital signage users in retails stores, waiting rooms, and health clubs.

Due in part to the continuing advancement of the display industry and breakthroughs in technology, NEC is able to offer high-definition resolution, integrated analog/digital tuner and 10W stereo speakers as standard options with this series. The E Series brings corporate and digital signage users the professional performance and looks of the latest large-screen displays in a flexible, affordable digital signage solution. Multiple source inputs allow users to work from a variety of sources and easily maneuver between desired content. These LCD displays feature brightness and contrast levels suitable for most applications, providing vivid image quality and easier viewing in areas with high ambient light such as lobbies and health clubs. Low power consumption in the E321 and E421 reduces energy costs, while the capability to adjust the backlight lowers total cost of ownership.

NEC gave its ValueStar W line of all-in-one PCs which it released last year a specifications upgrade. Variants feature Intel's new dual-core processors, with a choice between the Core i5 650 which runs at 3.20 GHz, and the Core i3 530 clocked at 2.93 GHz. Other features include 4 GB of DDR3 memory, 1 TB of storage, Blu-ray disc drive, and Intel integrated graphics. TV tuner and USB 3.0 controllers are also optional. Another major change is the Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, which takes place of Windows Vista, on the specs sheet. The PCs come with bezel colors of red, black and white. They feature screen sizes of 21.5" and 23", both with resolutions of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

EVGA finished its twentieth release of the EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch, a software that adds to the GeForce system drivers' SLI profiles specific to applications. These SLI profiles help applications take advantage of multiple GeForce graphics cards in SLI, or dual-GPU GeForce accelerators such as the GeForce 9800 GX2 and GeForce GTX 295. Version 20 (01.15.10) adds SLI profiles to Dark Void, Serious Sam HD, and Avatar (Demo). This patch is based on GeForce drivers 195.81. The latest version of GeForce drivers from NVIDIA bring SLI profiles to the latter two games. Registered EVGA users can download the software from here.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA EPIA-T700: the first product based on the recently announced Mobile-ITX form factor. Measuring a mere 6cm x 6cm, the VIA EPIA-T700 is a uniquely compact computer-on-module that is designed for a range of ultra-compact embedded devices in medical, military and in-vehicle applications.

Designed to deliver a simple modular approach to device design that precipitates greater miniaturization and portability, the Mobile-ITX-based VIA EPIA-T700 makes it easier than ever before to design and manufacture compact devices. With customized carrier boards connected using ultra low profile 3mm connectors, the VIA EPIA-T700 is in a class of its own.

Intel is continuing to keep its lineup of socket LGA 775 processors developing. The company just introduced three new models: Core 2 Quad Q9500, Pentium E6600, and Celeron E3400. The Q9500 quad-core chip runs at 2.83 GHz, with an FSB speed of 1333 MHz much like the Q9550, except that it has 6 MB of total L2 cache instead of 12 MB on the Q9550. It is priced at US $183. Next, the Pentium E6600 dual-core chip runs at 3.06 GHz with an FSB speed of 1066 MHz. It is based on the 45 nm Wolfdale-2M core, and has 2 MB of L2 cache. This chip is priced at $84. Lastly, there's the Celeron E3400, with an operating frequency of 2.60 GHz, FSB speed of 800 MHz, and L2 cache size of 1 MB. This one goes for $53.

In addition to releasing these chips, Intel reduced prices of some existing ones. The Pentium E6500 is now priced at $74, down from $84, Pentium E5400 at $64, down from $74, and Celeron E3300 to $43 from $53. All prices mentioned are for 1000-unit tray quantities per piece. The new processors are intended to keep the upgrade path within a price-range alive, and to help clear inventories of socket LGA 775 motherboards.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and innovative USB drives, has leveraged their expertise in making ultra fast, small form factor SSDs to produce a new line of 600X CF cards for professional photographers.

"Many pro DSLRs can rapid fire up to 10 frames per second, but after the buffer fills they can only shoot as fast as the memory card can write. The memory card becomes a bottleneck in shooting action sequences. These 600X Pro Series cards can write up to 90MB per second, so even in raw mode a high end DSLR will be able to shoot at or near its rated speed for sustained periods", explained Active Media Products' VP of Sales, Jerry Thomson. The new Pro Series of CF cards support 0 to 70 C operating temeratures. These cards are rugged and reliable enough to take into the field, and fast enough to keep up with the action. AMP's 600X Pro Series CF cards are available today in capacities from 8GB to 64GB through Amazon.

NVIDIA today released a new version of its GeForce driver suite. Version 196.21 is WHQL signed, and brings in a number of changes including SLI multi-GPU optimisations for several new and upcoming PC games, updates to the PhysX system software component, and a number of bug fixes as described in the Release Notes documents (for Windows 7 and Vista, and Windows XP). The GeForce 196.21 WHQL driver suite provides system software for NVIDIA GeForce desktop and mobile graphics processors, NVIDIA ION platform, along with Graphics Plus components such as CUDA, PhysX, 3D Vision, etc. A list of changes in the new version is as follows:

• Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for many top new gaming titles including Avatar Demo, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, City Bus Simulator, Dirt 2, Ferrari Virtual Race, GREED: Black Border, Mass Effect 2, Mortal Online, Ninja Blade, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Demo, Planet 51, RUSE, Serious Sam HD, and Wings of Prey.
• Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.09.1112.
• Includes numerous bug fixes.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 196.21 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today proudly announced the Calibre CUTi, a revolutionary small form factor PC providing high definition 1080p playback and digital surround sound for a variety of multimedia formats displayed right on a user's HDTV. Calibre CUTi push the envelope on thin and light design as one of the world's thinnest PC while extending the entertainment experience with support for HD video. In addition, the Calibre CUTi has excellent energy-saving features, idle power consumption is only 14 watts, lesser than an energy-saving lamp power consumption.

The world of desktops has now also taken a step up with the introduction of the Calibre CUTi. It's a computer of reduced dimensions and at a lower cost than traditional PCs which are ideal for satisfying all basic requirements of surfing the Internet, downloading and watching rich content, playing videos and games , running typical office programs or communicating with VOIP using the optional webcam. The Calibre CUTi is introduced to meet the pursuit for micro-volume, low-cost energy-saving computers from consumer. This revolutionary PC product provides an impressive all-round performance to users around the world.

Followed by Intel recent 32nm "Clarkdale" Core i5 / i3 processor launch with built-in GPU engine, it is now a brand new page and competition for all-in-one PC. BIOSTAR, a professional manufacturer of motherboards after its top-line H55 motherboards "TH55XE" being released, today we see another main stream board "TH55B HD" in the market remains high quality component design, outstanding over clocking capabilities and new colorful slots. And of course, it also offers more competitive prices.

"TH55B HD" - a member of BIOSTAR famous "T-Series" with Micro ATX form factor design, black color PCB, and supporting latest Intel 32nm "Clarkdale" Core i5 / i3 processor.

Auzentech, Inc today announced the immediate release of the Auzen X-Fi Bravura 7.1 sound card, a full-height, custom designed PCI Express sound card built around the Creative PCI Express audio processor. The Auzen X-Fi Bravura 7.1 promises "breathtaking" audio for music and movies with DTS Neo:PC & DTS Interactive. And when it's time to unwind with your favorite PC Game, you won't be left behind with EAX 4.0.

Below are the Auzen X-Fi Bravura 7.1 sound card Key Features, Innovations, and some inside information on how Auzentech designed the card for optimal performance with both Digital and Analog audio.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, is thrilled to announce the world's fastest GPU with liquid cooling solution: the PowerColor LCS HD5970 2GB GDDR5. Equipped with the award-winning EK cooling solution, LCS HD5970 enables superior gaming experiences, and easily boosts up the potential overclcoking ability in an ultra quite and cool operating environment.

PowerColor LCS HD5970 has a full water block mounted, which fully covers the memory and power regulator chip. With a copper base design, it is reduces temperature up to 30°C compared with the reference version. PowerColor packages a high-flow 3/8" and 1/2" fittings (barbs) to maximize water flow with captured o-rings to prevent leakage. Gamers can effortlessly customize their own liquid cooling system using these two fittings.

MSI's latest ultra-thin and lightweight X-Slim Series of the dual-core model, X420, features the Intel CULV ultra-portable and energy-efficient platform equipped with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor together with ATI's Mobility Radeon HD5430 3D external display adapter (with built-in 1GB DDR3 VRAM), SRS-certified audio, as well as a battery life that lasts up to 9 hours.

MSI Director of Marketing Sam Chern points out that the X-Slim X420 is MSI's latest 14-inch ultra-thin notebook that carries on X-Slim Series' fine tradition of thin and elegant design. Weighing only 1.88kg, the entire unit is no more than one inch thick. The exterior of the new generation X420 is decorated with many new fashion elements. MSI's exclusive textured pattern color film print coating is used, the cover is treated with translucent Cappuccino Brown color, and the palm rest area is coated with golden film. The entire unit from the inside out is imbued with a bright and smooth pearl texture, redefining the new standard for notebook fashion.

World renowned mainboard and graphic card manufacturer, Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. again presents its P55-GD85 mainboard, and is officially supporting the Intel latest 32nm process and LGA1156 packaged Core i3 / i5 / i7 series CPU. In addition, the mainboard is built-in with SATA 6Gb/s and SuperSpeed USB 3.0 protocols and each has 2X and 10X ultra-high data transmission bandwidths respectively than their predecessors. OC Genie, SuperPipe and DrMOS, the 3 excellent design inherited from Xtreme Speed P55 series mainboard, are incorporated providing P55-GD85 mainboard with best compatibility and can offer outstanding performance.

A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., the worldwide leader in DRAM memory and Flash application products, introduced its latest Portable HDD, the CH94. Resembling the shape of a notebook, the ergonomic streamlined enclosure of CH94 gives a smooth touch as if an actual diary is held in hand. With the thickness just less than 20mm and the built-in wrap-around USB cable, CH94 is neatly designed to fit right in your pocket. Providing both convenience and easy portability, CH94 is the perfect companion for users who need be constantly on the go.

PowerColor today announced the "How was your first time? DX11 Experience!" contest in collaboration with media partners. Participating online publications' online communities including members of TechPowerUp Forums will be able to participate in the contest. The objective is to take an artistic picture of yourself at your "First time DX11 experience" as PowerColor puts it, your reaction to the visual realism DirectX 11 shows, etc.

Entries collected in this community will be put to a vote by its members. The best entry from the community will win a PowerColor HD 5770 PCS+ graphics card. Winning entries from the various participating publications will make it to a larger selection where a worldwide winner will be announced.

The fine-print of this contest follows after the break.

We also got a chance to drop by the Thermaltake suite at CES. They have quite a few new items on display. Let us start with the input devices. The Challenger and Challenger Pro gaming keyboards come with onboard memory, one or two USB 2.0 ports respectively and a small cooling fan, which clips onto the top edge of the part. They will also offer a gaming mouse called "Black" with up to 4,000 DPI in combination with a weight system and a pair of headsets (not pictured).

Here are some last minute pictures of the CM 690 II chassis along with the Cooler Master GX line of PSUs and V6 CPU cooler. There has been a lot of buzz around the new case and it lives up to the hype. Upon first inspection, the case does seem to be a valid successor of the original 690. The most obvious and certainly very nice feature is the top SATA port, which allows you to plug in drives without any extra casing or the need to open the chassis up (Ed. note: no the hot girl does not ship with the chassis). Next up we have the GX series of power supplies, which will be available at 650 and 750W soon.

Last, but not least we have the V6 and V6GT CPU coolers. They differ only in the number of supplied fans and look of the top cover. The V6 holds a single fan, with the possibility of adding a second one, while the GT already ships with a pair along with an LED light on top of the cooler, which may be turned on or off. These coolers have a V shaped arrangement of heatpipes so that each of them has direct access to the air flow of the coolers.

Lenovo today announced the ThinkCentre A63 desktop, an essential desk side companion for small-to-medium businesses (SMB). The new desktop combines powerful productivity features such as Lenovo's Enhanced Experience for Windows 7 for blazing fast boot-up time and choices for the latest AMD Sempron processors, AMD Athlon II processors and AMD Phenom II processors, all at an affordable price tag starting at $329.

"We know that PCs are the technology backbone for SMBs to run their businesses," said Dilip Bhatia, executive director, ThinkCentre Marketing, Lenovo. "The new ThinkCentre A63 desktop delivers on the three 'P's' that businesses need in today's fast-paced, cost-conscious environment: power, peace of mind and price."

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today is pleased to announce their latest GV-R5600 series graphics cards. GIGABYTE's GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I are built on the highly anticipated ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series GPUs ─which utilizes the latest 627 million transistors on 40nm fabrication process and GDDR5 memory. GIGABYTE GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I provide Microsoft DirectX 11, ATI Stream technology, ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU support, UVD 2 and PowerPlay. GIGABYTE GV-R5600 series are also equipped with GIGABYTE unique features including Ultra Durable 2 technology, and native HDMI port for HD gaming and Blue-ray movie playback.

The GIGABYTE GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I feature ATI's latest 2nd Generation TeraScale graphics engine, boasting the power of more than 620 GigaFLOPS with 400 stream processors respectively. With 1GB and 512MB GDDR5 memory, the GV-R567OC-1GI and GV-R567D5-512I provide twice the data per pin of GDDR3 memory at the same clock speeds. Utilizing ATI Stream Technology, end-user can easily unleash the massive parallel processing power of GPU for physics, artificial intelligence, stream computing and ray tracing calculations, and tackle demanding tasks like video transcoding with incredible speed.

EVGA released an update for its Precision graphics card overclocking and monitoring software. Version 1.9.0 of EVGA Precision introduces a number of important changes compared to its older version, including performance and stability fixes related to the application's OSD features, a number of user interface (UI) related changes, and changes to the skin engine which reduces memory footprint.DOWNLOAD: EVGA Precision 1.9.0 (for registered EVGA users)
Changes listed by EVGA are as follows:

All gamers were not created equal - until now. XFX is pleased to introduce the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 Graphics Card, offering the latest technology at a price that is transforming not only how the game is played, but who's playing it.

Designed for power users who want an immersive 3D gaming experience, as well as powerful content and entertainment capabilities, the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5670 Graphics Card delivers the ultimate work/play punch. Capable of supporting the latest DirectX 11 games, users enjoy significant gains in gaming potential over DirectX 10.1. And, with Microsoft 7 support, users enjoy fast and easy video playback, editing and content transfer.

Gigabyte is expanding its Super Overclock family of graphics cards with a highly tweaked model based on the ATI Radeon HD 5870. The Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD features a complete design overhaul over AMD's reference design, with the card sporting a typical Gigabyte-blue colored PCB, and a custom-design double-slot VGA cooler. The PCB uses Gigabyte's Ultra Durable VGA construction which makes use of a PCB with 2 oz copper layer, ferrite core chokes, low RDS (on) MOSFETs, and Japanese solid-state capacitors. The VGA cooler consists of a GPU base from which four copper heat pipes convey heat to aluminum fin blocks cooled by two 90 mm fans.

The GV-R587SO-1GD comes with out of the box clock speeds of 1000 MHz (core), and 1300 MHz / 5.20 GHz effective (memory), against reference AMD clock speeds of 850 MHz (core) and 1200 MHz / 4.80 GHz (memory). ATI Eyefinity support is retained with a display connectivity that resembles the reference design: two DVI-D, and one each of DisplayPort and HDMI. The GPU features DirectX 11 compliance, 1600 stream processors, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. It connects to 1 GB of memory.

World renowned manufacturer of graphic card and mainboard, MSI releases R5670-PMD1G graphics card today to fulfill mainstream players' thirst for performance. With ATi RadeonTM HD 5670 standard technical specifications, including DirectX 11 and ATi Eyefinity technology, MSI R5670-PMD1G adopts unique designs, like GPU voltage adjustment, next-generation DisplayPort output and military class components. Hence, MSI R5670-PMD1G can fine-tune its performance and have better extensibility so that it is mainstream players' best choice for high C/P value.

Adopting brand-new 40nm processed ATI Radeon HD5670 GPU, MSI R5670-PMD1G graphics card is equipped with 1GB GDDR5 high speed memories and reach excellent balance between performance and power consumption. Furthermore, through MSI exclusive Afterburner overclocking utility, it can not only adjust the clock of GPU and memory, but also tune the GPU voltage to release the potential performance of graphic card as easy as anything.

SAPPHIRE Technology is now shipping a new family of graphics cards in the highly successful HD 5000 series. The SAPPHIRE HD 5670 is a new low power model aimed at the mainstream market, whist sharing many of the exciting features of the latest high end series.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5670 is based on the latest graphics architecture from the ATI division of AMD, the second generation of GPU to be built in its 40nm process. It supports the advanced graphical features of Microsoft DirectX 11, and delivers spectacular video clarity, speed and visual effects, whilst consuming very low power levels.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announced the latest in DirectX 11 mainstream graphics: the PowerColor HD5670. The PowerColor HD5670 features low power consumption, supports the latest DirectX 11 technology and enables immersive HD gaming without an external power connection.

PowerColor's HD5670 clocks at 775MHz core speed and 1000 MHz of memory speed. The card is equipped with GDDR5 memory; delivering more speed and higher bandwidth up to 4.0 Gbps. Award winning cooling provider, Arctic Cooling, aims to provide superior cooling performance to all gamers. The 92mm cooling fan increases air flow at a lower fan speed to reduce the noise efficiently and is optimized for air flow to dissipate the heat from the PWM and memory. All this adds up to the ultimate gaming performance in a low-noise and cool operating environment.

Club 3D B.V. today announced HD 5670 availability in stores. Club 3D's newest offer out of the latest HD 5000 graphics cards series, HD 5670 is your start into HD gaming and extends Club 3D's multimedia and gaming graphics cards segment spanning more than 10 years of successful market with ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards.

As Club 3D's start into HD gaming graphics card, the HD 5670 provides amazing performance with ATI Redwood XT graphics processor combined with the latest DirectX 11 gaming technology to dominate with your games. Club 3D HD5670 supports ATI Avivo HD Technology for the best possible video and image quality and ATI Stream Technology to accelerate your applications to fulfill your multimedia demands.

VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of PC and prosumer audio silicon, today unveiled the VIA Vinyl Envy VT1730 USB 2.0 Audio Controller, the industry's first highly-integrated single chip solution that leverages the broad USB 2.0 bandwidth (480 Mb/s) to deliver uncompromised audio quality.

The VIA Envy VT1730 is an 8-channel, 24-bit/192kHz audio controller specifically designed to achieve cinema-quality audio recording and playback in high fidelity USB and MIDI system applications. Whether it's using the bandwidth capacity of USB 2.0 to simultaneously support audio streams from a guitar, bass, keyboard and microphone, or delivering true-to-life sound to multiple speakers in a home theatre set-up, the VIA Envy VT1730 offers outstanding audio performance and impressive application flexibility.

Scythe is announcing today a new High-End TOP-Flow CPU Cooler by the name "Grand Kama Cross", which is the successor of former Kama Cross CPU Cooler. Grand Kama Cross is based on an X Structure layout using total of four 8 mm copper heatpipes for fast transfer of heat from the copper base to the aluminum fins. Thanks to the X Structure Design, easier mounting on CPU sockets as well as higher compatibility to tall RAM and Northbridge coolers are accomplished. By using the angled fin shape, airflow is redirected to allow additional cooling of surrounding components such as RAM, Northbridge and Voltage Regulators. For the optimum airflow, new Slip Stream 140 mm fan is first introduced with Grand Kama Cross CPU Cooler. PWM support allows flexible fan speed in a range between 500 and 1,300 rpm, automatically controlled by the motherboard creating airflow from 46 to 119 m³/h and accordingly 27.2 to 69.93 CFM. Both Slip Stream 140 mm fan and Grand Kama Cross CPU Cooler are using standard 120 mm fan mounting holes which allow the use of common aftermarkets 120 mm case fans as a replacement.

Today HIS unleashed the revolutionary new HIS Radeon HD 5670 IceQ 1GB/5121MB GDDR5, featuring the award-winning IceQ cooling technology. With full DirectX 11 support you can enjoy eye-popping visuals, astonishing realism and fast frame rates. It has the power and premium features you need for fully immersive gameplay while consumes less than 75 Watts under full load, eliminating the need for an external power connection for easy installation.

HIS IceQ technology is endorsed as the most efficient cooling technology among the current mainstream graphic cards' series. It can actively draw the air inside your PC case to cool down the card, and blows amounts of hot air out of your case, dramatically decreasing the GPU temperature. HIS IceQ is also UV sensitive, enhancing the gamers' UV light case.

AMD today introduced the ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics card, the latest addition to the award-winning line-up of the world's first and only graphics products to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11 gaming and computing, as well as new innovations such as ATI Eyefinity technology. Priced at less than USD $100, the ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics card enables a superior HD gaming experience in the latest DirectX 11 titles, employs ATI Stream technology to boost performance in video playback and productivity applications, and helps enable the full Microsoft Windows 7 experience.

Mushkin Enhanced, a global leader in high-performance computer products, announced today the release of three groundbreaking memory kits for Intel's LGA1156 and LGA1366 platforms.

Boasting ultra-low CL7 performance in high-density 4GB modules, the 996798 and 998798 memory kits provide free slots for future memory expansion while boosting memory performance to exceptional levels.

AMD's entry-level graphics processor in its DirectX 11 compliant generation, the Radeon HD 5000 series is codenamed "Cedar". This GPU is expected to be half as powerful as the "Redwood" GPU, with an expected 200 stream processors, 64-bit GDDR5/GDDR3 memory interface, and DirectX 11 compliance. It will make for two initial product SKUs: the Radeon HD 5400 series (probably Cedar with GDDR3 memory), and Radeon HD 5500 series (probably Cedar with GDDR5 memory). There are three models slated for release later this month: Radeon HD 5450, Radeon HD 5550, and Radeon HD 5570.

A low-profile reference design engineering sample's picture made it to our friends at Arab Hardware. The picture reveals a low-profile design which is slightly longer than the PCI-Express interface itself, keeps the black PCB color theme for the HD 5000 series going, and uses a tiny GPU cooler. DVI-D and DisplayPort connectors are located on the card, while a full-height bracket can expand the connectivity with a D-Sub connector. Products based on the Cedar GPU are expected to be positioned well within the $100 mark, and aimed at media-centric home users and full-time HTPCs.

ASUS' Eee Box EB1501 nettop released late last year got a Blu-ray variant with the EB1501-B0367. This variant has a slot-in Blu-ray drive, and is geared to be an aesthetic HTPC companion when paired with an external HDD. The Eee Box EB1501 is based on the NVIDIA ION platform, it which makes use of an Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor along with NVIDIA ION chipset. The chipset embeds GeForce 9400M graphics, which accelerates HD video, and can handle Blu-ray playback, and 1080p displays. Other specifications include 320 GB of storage, 2 GB of DDR2 memory, HDMI and D-Sub for display connectivity, WiFi, and Windows 7 Home Premium OS. It is expected to be priced at $620.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, today announced two high-density memory solutions for mobile devices. The new storage solutions - a 64-gigabyte (GB) moviNAND memory device and a 32GB micro secure digital (microSD) memory card - satisfy mobile handset designers' requirements for advanced compact high-density memory.

"Samsung's high-density memory solutions bring the storage capacity levels of computing systems to small, mobile devices," said Dong-Soo Jun, executive vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Electronics.

Zotac is trying out a new nettop design which makes use of discrete NVIDIA GT218 graphics processor with the second generation Atom platform (codenamed Pinetrail). By design, the Intel NM10 chipset which drives the new processor does not give out a PCI-Express x16 link, which leaves a lot to be learned about how Zotac goes about putting its ideas in motion. The company has displayed a non-functional prototype at this year's CES. The discrete graphics will give the nettop sufficient power to display 1080p graphics (which the platform can't, without an external HD video decoder). Zotac may place this as a successor to its MAG series nettops.

EVGA is preparing a new software that tests the stability of the overclocking (as a stress-testing program), and a benchmark program rolled into one. The yet to be named software is another of EVGA's fleet of software the company has developed, as value added features for its graphics cards and motherboards. The software has two components: an artifacts scanner, and a benchmark. It involves rendering a high vertex 3D object which stresses the graphics card, similar to applications such as GPUTool or the classic ATI Tool. It will be out soon.

Many of you have probably read the press release of the Radeon HD 5750 from Powercolor without the usually required PCI-E power connector. The card runs at the exact same specs as a reference card of the same model, but lacks both the additional power requirements and active cooling. Powercolor has placed a dual slot, passive cooling solution with copper heatpipes and aluminum heatsinks unto the graphic card. The DVI connectors are of black color and Powercolor has also kept the additional DisplayPort and HDMI connectivity we have seen on reference models of the graphic card. Here are some close-up pictures of the card:

Having reclaimed the positions of having the fastest graphics cards and the most powerful GPU with the DirectX 11 compliant Radeon HD 5000 series, AMD is looking to make DirectX 11 accessible to all market segments. Later this month, AMD is expected to announce its lower-mainstream Radeon HD 5600 products, but with it, also an addition to the Radeon HD 5800 series: the Radeon HD 5830. This product is expected to fill the gap between Radeon HD 5770 and Radeon HD 5850.

The Radeon HD 5770 is priced in the sub-$200 range, while the HD 5850 at around $300. This gap is currently held by the previous-generation Radeon HD 4890, which faces competition from some NVIDIA GeForce GTX 200 series products. It is expected that the Radeon HD 5830 will be about as powerful as a Radeon HD 4890 in current applications, while being priced slightly lower, and a little more competitive owing to its feature set and future-proofing. The new product could be announced on the 25th Jan. No additional details or specifications are known at this point.

Dell today announced the highly adaptable OptiPlex XE desktop PC for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and retail environments. Designed to withstand challenging conditions such as high heat, dust and 24x7 operations, the OptiPlex XE delivers on Dell's commitment to purpose-built solutions more directly connected with customer needs. The system is easily placed within medical carts, video rental kiosks, retail point-of-sale (POS) solutions and other custom deployments that require easy remote management and long-term system stability options.

A-DATA has a few nice new storage devices out there. The CH94 drive enclosures have a capacity of up to 640 GB. They are currently shipping in black, white and light blue versions and come with a set of stick-on letters and numbers, so that you may customize the look of it. The USB cable wraps around the plastic enclosure, so you won't have to carry one around separately. Then there are the Superior and Nobility drives. The first is very compact, while the other is intended for the budget minded user. A-DATA is also showing a SATA II based SSD, which features USB 3.0 connectivity as well. A little surprise are the A-DATA power supplies we got to see at the show here. They are all featuring detachable cables and can be had in configurations between 525 W and 825 W.

We posted their press release here, but have now managed to get a few more infos for you. The unit will only ship in silver, comes with a 3.5" SATA hard drive and sports multiple USB connectors in the back along with a network jack. It has the same foot print as an AppleTV, but is slightly taller, while the casing seems to be made of aluminum. Besides that, we snapped an image of an external hard drive with an LCD screen. While this may not be anything out of the ordinary, the technology used in the display allows it to function just like eInk. It does not require any power to change the state of the screen, so that you will always know how much free space is available, even when it is not connected.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA M'SERV S2100: a compact and versatile server system suitable for a range of applications for SOHO and SMB customers. Available to OEM customers, the VIA M'SERV S2100 is a mere 10.2" long by 4.7" high and provides up to four terabytes of storage in a stylish, compact, low power and low noise system.

The VIA M'SERV S2100 is the first product of its kind to offer the unique advantages of the high-performance, 64-bit VIA Nano processor. This makes the VIA M'SERV S2100 capable of addressing many traditional and next-generation server applications including sophisticated backup, cloud-intermediary service roles along with other storage oriented server applications such as NVR (Network Video Recorder) systems and Log servers.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and innovative USB drives, today launched a pair of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 adapters designed to upgrade desktop and laptop computers to USB 3.0.

Atomix PX is a two port USB 3.0 adapter card with a PCI Express (PCIe) interface that works in virtually any desktop PC with an available PCIe slot. Atomix EC is a two port USB 3.0 adapter card with an Express Card interface that works in most laptops that have an Express Card slot. "These adapters were designed to facilitate the migration to USB 3.0 by offering a quick and easy upgrade path for most existing desktops and laptops", Active Media Products' VP of Sales, Jerry Thomson said in a statement.

QNAP has made a name for themselves with their previous NAS devices, which made use of the Intel Atom processor, but the newest revision of their units with 2, 4, 6 or 8 storage bays now runs on the Pinetrail Atom D510 and also features VMware and iSCSI support. All of them are able to run in IPv6 based networks as well. On top of that, we got to take a quick look at their consumer products - the TS-111 (one bay) and TS-210 (two bay). Both feature a 1000 Mb/s network port, along with an 800 MHz Marvell processor and 256 MB memory.

CoolIT System has a bunch of new CPU and GPU coolers. They are showing a full range of new coolers for the CPU, starting with the ECO A.L.C. which now places the pump right into the cooling base, increasing compatibility with cases. The unit has an MSRP of $74.99 and should be available now. The next step up is the Vantage A.L.C, which incorporates a display and all the electronics on the CPU bracket. The LCD is a programmable 84x48 pixel screen with a dynamic, custom color backlight and 2.4 GHz wireless communication module. Two buttons on the Vantage module provides a user interface for optimizing all chassis fan speeds, RGB case lighting, LCD Backlight color along with monitoring and alarm triggers. The Vantage also features the so called ESP (Extra Sensory Peripherals) wireless technology which enables the cooler to be controlled and monitored through CoolIT's Maestro software and USB wireless controller.On the GPU cooling front, we got a good look at the OMNI A.L.C. This unit has the same wireless system and features interchangable plates between the water block and GPU. This means that you can simply exchange the this plate when upgrading your graphics card.

Super Talent's highlight is a USB 3.0 flash drive. The unit manages over 300 MB/s read and 176 MB/s write performance. It comes in 32, 64 and 128 GB versions and utilizes multiple controllers (USB 3.0 -> SATA 6 Gb/s -> Flash) to achieve the performance. Super Talent is also displaying a PCI-E x8 based RAIDDrive SSD in their booth. It manages over 80,000 IOPS per second at 4k, comes with capacity of up to 2 TB, configured in RAID 0 or 5. Lastly there is also a Sandforce based SSD, called UltraDrive FX2. On the memory end, we are not seeing any new products. As a minor improvement, Super Talent has now clearly marked their memory with "Performance" and "Speed" labels.

According to ASUS the Rampage III Extreme is "Designed for those who know the Dark Art of Overclocking". It comes equipped with all features that overclockers dream of, and also has new stuff like ROG Connect for example.
The board supports CPUs for Intel Socket 1366, which means Core i7 including Gulftown (yes, I asked). As chipset Intel's X58 and ICH10R is used like on the Rampage II Extreme. ASUS has routed 32 PCI-Express 2.0 lanes to the PCI-E x16 slots, so you can either run x16+x16, x16+x8+x8 or x8+x8+x8+x8 - all without the added heat and latency of NVIDIA's nForce 200. As we hear this does make quite a difference in a 4x HD 5870 configuration for example. Major improvements have also been made to the power solution which is now 8-phase digital 250 - 1000 kHz. Of course support for USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s is included as well.While exact details are not known, the price of the board will be "highest priced ROG" - my guess is around $400, with availability starting around the Gulftown launch which should be some time in March.

Big, big picture, about 5 MB, can be found here.

MSI, a leading manufacturer of computer components and systems, has unveiled three new concept products at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the company believes will redefine the way consumers will interact with digital information in their homes.:

1. 3D All-in-One PC - Continuing to lead the industry in All-in-One product features, MSI has developed the world's first 3D All-in-One PC. Wearing comfortable wireless 3D glasses, users can have the ultimate life-like gaming experience and 3D HD movie experience from the comfort of home with system's stunning 24-inch display.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced the G Series, its new line-up of external hard drives, designed under an eco-friendly green concept. The new G series strengthen Samsung's external drive portfolio of 1.8", 2.5" and 3.5" drives, targeting the young adult market, which are looking for a fashionably styled mobile drive but that is also reliable with high density.

Samsung's new G-Series, introduced at the International Consumer Electronics Show, consists of the 2.5-inch G2 Portable with 250/320/500/640GB densities and the 3.5-inch G3 Station available in 1/1.5/2TB versions.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a market leader in consumer electronics and world leader in IT technology, today announced the extension of its R-Series range of notebooks with six ultra-stylish new models - the powerful R780, R580 and R480 and the stylish R730, R530 and R430.

The R780, R580 and R480's built- in Intel Core i5-520M Processor moves faster than you do by automatically allocating processing power where it's needed most. So, whether you're creating high definition (HD) video, composing digital music, editing photos, or playing the coolest PC games, they enable you to multitask with ease and be more productive than ever.

HighPoint Technologies - an innovative host-based RAID controller manufacturer is introducing the RocketRAID 620 Series- the industry's first SATA 3.0 host adapters with RAID 5 capability. The 620 series will double the data rate from 3Gb/s to 6Gb/s for high bandwidth PC applications, gaming, digital video and audio, video streaming and graphics applications.

The two members of the RocketRAID 620 Series - RocketRAID 620 (MSRP $69.99) and RocketRAID 622 (MSRP $79.99) will ship mid January 2010. These premier RAID host adapters are based on PCI-Express Gen 2 host interface technology and are designed to optimize storage performance and redundancy with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD. User friendly features include hot plug and hot unplug to add or remove storage devices; and OCE/ORLM to expand storage capacities or migrate to different RAID levels.

Two of ECS' upcoming motherboards based on AMD's 890GX+SB800 chipset, supporting socket AM3 processors have been pictured: the A890GXM-A Black Series, and the IC890GXM-A. The two are ATX motherboards which build slightly on the chipset's features on offer.

The A890GXM-A Black Series is the higher-end part aimed at overclockers and performance users. It has an elaborate heatsink that covers the 890GX northbridge and CPU VRM area, which makes use of a heatpipe for uniform heat dissipation. It is marked with "Six Core CPU Support", indicating that it is ready for AMD's upcoming "Thuban" six-core desktop processor. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots to support dual-channel memory. DDR3 memory with speeds over 1800 MHz are supported by overclocking.

HIS released a custom-design graphics card based on the ATI Radeon HD 5770 GPU, part of its generally cost-effective "Fan" series. The HIS HD 5770 Fan 1GB (H577FL1GDG) uses a GPU cooler which uses heat pipes to transfer heat to a circular aluminum fin array surrounding a fan. Unlike with older Fan series models (such as the HD 4850 Fan) which had seemingly skimpy cooling, HIS placed a plastic shroud on top of the cooler. It uses reference AMD clock speeds: 850 MHz (core), 1200 MHz (memory), and sports 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit interface. Connectivity includes one each DVI-D, HDMI, and DisplayPort. It is expected to be priced around $140~$150.

ASUS displayed its newest mini-ITX form-factor motherboard intended for use in nettops, at the ongoing CES event. The ASUS AT5NM10-I is based on Intel's new second-generation Atom processor platform. It makes use of the Atom D510 dual-core processor, aided by Intel NM10 chipset. The processor operates at 1.66 GHz, and supports single-channel DDR2 667 MHz memory. Due to the lowered thermal footprint of the chipset, ASUS used a single heatsink to cool both the processor and chipset. It provides two DDR2 DIMM slots to hold up to 4 GB of memory. The lone expansion slot is a PCI. Storage comes in the form of two SATA 3 Gb/s ports. Connectivity includes 6-channel audio, 10/100 Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel, four by headers, D-Sub for display, serial and parallel ports, and PS/2. There is no word on the availability or price.

Verbatim the information storage pioneer now celebrating its 40th anniversary, is "backing up" its already impressive assortment of portable hard drives with an all-new range of exceptionally reliable and fashionably thin models to help consumers effortlessly preserve their most vital files - verbatim! The exciting new additions, part of Verbatim's complete 2010 product line, will be on display at Booth #36523 in South Hall 4 of the Las Vegas Convention Center, January 7-10, 2010.

"We are thrilled to celebrate our 40th anniversary with a spectacular line-up of data storage products that perfectly provide everyone - from time-pressed parents to busy business executives - with extremely dependable and easy-to-use units that give consumers exactly what they want in a hard drive - reliability, functionality and style," said Charles Klinker, Verbatim's Director of Marketing, HDD Products. "Whether it's increasing the storage capacity of a laptop or desktop system, backing up and protecting data, music, photos and videos, or transferring large files between computers, Verbatim's new portable storage devices efficiently and affordably do it all - while looking great, too!"

Shuttle, an industry leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance small form factor (SFF) PC solutions and creator of the XPC, today released details and images for the Shuttle models that will be showcased at the 2010 International CES, the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology, from January 7-10, 2010.

Shuttle will be unveiling its forthcoming XPC models slated for release in the first half of the year, from the new J Series and re-designed All-In-One PC product lines. These models include the latest technology and new features from Intel, including the next-generation Intel Atom platform and the all new Intel Core i3, Intel Core i5, and Intel Core i7 processors.

EVGA showed of its almost-ready dual LGA-1366 high-end workstation motherboard at the ongoing CES event. The motherboard pictured sports a component cooling covering all its vital areas except for one of the CPUs' VRM areas, it gives a fair idea about what the final product could look like. The board itself was detailed earlier.

The chipset cooler design borrows heavily from single-slot graphics cards. A monolithic baseplate covers the northbridge Intel 5500(?), ICH10-class southbridge, and the two NVIDIA BR-03 bridge chips. The heatsink becomes taller over one of the CPU sockets' VRM area. Air is drawn in from the round intake, and pushed out near the expansion slots. the gaps between the expansion slots will do their part in directing the hot air away.

MSI is ready with two new custom-design graphics cards based on the ATI Radeon HD 5800 graphics processors: the R5870 Lightning and R5850 Cyclone. The R5870 Lightning, as expected features a Twin-Frozr II dual-fan VGA cooler designed by MSI on a custom-designed PCB which makes some high-grade components, specifically in the card's VRM area (12-phase PWM, dual 8-pin PCI-E power input), to make it fare better at overclocking. Other notable features include v-check points and 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across the GPU's 256-bit wide memory interface. Connectivity cluster resembles that of the AMD reference design, retaining Eyefinity technology support. The R5850 Cyclone, on the other hand, uses the familiar Cyclone GPU cooler MSI used in the past on some Radeon HD 4800 series graphics cards. MSI designed its own PCB here too, but with a few smart cost-cuttings, although the quality of the components used isn't affected. The two will be out in this quarter.

Verbatim Americas LLC, the information storage pioneer and computer peripherals leader, introduces MyMedia Server, a home network storage solution designed to efficiently help consumers consolidate, preserve and share all their content on one dependable, high-performance device. Whether seamlessly transferring documents directly onto the server or uploading vacation photos from a remote location, Verbatim's MyMedia Server brings file storage and media sharing to the next level. MyMedia Server will be on display during CES at Booth #36523 in South Hall 4 of the Las Vegas Convention Center, January 7-10, 2010.

"Many homes today have more than one computer, creating the need for consumers to share or access their digital content from either the comfort of a living room or sitting in café or classroom." said Ron Hanafin, Verbatim Product Manager. "With a user interface and design that creates a more enjoyable experience, MyMedia Server is straightforward for anyone to set up and start saving their important data quickly and easily. From here it only takes a couple of clicks to easily access files, listen to music, or share photos with friends and family."

A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., the worldwide leading manufacturer in high-performance DRAM modules and flash application products, today introduced its new XPG Gaming Series v2.0 DRAM module, offering multitude killer speed ranging from DDR3-1600, DDR3-1866, and DDR3-2200 MHz frequency with dual channel kit and triple channel kit options. Designed for gaming enthusiast, the new XPG Gaming Series v2.0 DRAM module are equipped with Thermal Conductive Technology (TCT), and doubling the amount of copper in the PCB to give gamers the speed and stability they need for demanding higher gaming experiences.

The new XPG Gaming Series v2.0 DRAM module features with Thermal Conductive Technology (TCT), each memory chip is direct contact with the heatsink to perform immediate heat spreading from critical areas, the increased surface area of heatsink also provide the efficiency of offload heat away from the DRAM module. Moreover, the doubling amount of copper in the PCB can improve the energy efficiency to lower the system temperature, in order to enhance the system stability.

One of ASUS' premier offers for this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) event is a new high-end socket LGA-1366 motherboard, the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Rampage III Extreme. The board succeeds the Rampage II Extreme which launched over an year ago along with Intel's then new Core i7 series processors. The new model based on the Intel X58 Express + ICH10R chipset, comes with four well spaced out PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, a new set of overclocking enhancements such as the ROG connect which lets you control the motherboard's overclocking from any Bluetooth and Java enabled mobile phone, SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 connectivity using ASUS' innovative PCI-Express 2.0 bridge implementation, and a more powerful CPU VRM to keep the board stable with bleeding-edge settings.

The board features an enhanced CPU VRM which is now powered by two 8-pin ATX connectors apart from two 4-pin Molex connectors. Some of these could be redundant and needed only for electrical stability. The CPU and memory power circuitry makes use of super-ML capacitors for cleaner power delivery. Voltage readouts are located next to the DIMM slots for accessibility. The motherboard makes use of slimmer component heatsinks that look to be made of the ceramic composite which the TUF Sabertooth P55 motherboard uses.

NVIDIA BIOS Editor (aka NiBiTor) got its update for this month. The popular BIOS manipulation utility has been updated to version 5.3. As with every new release, version 5.3 brings along an expanded supported products list, a number of critical and trivial bug fixes, and an improved ability to work with unsupported hardware in a limited way. Newly supported products include:

• GeForce GTX 295 (Single PCB)
• GeForce GTX 260M
• Quadro FX 3700M

DOWNLOAD: NiBiTor v5.3

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technology, today announced the release of their new Valkyrie two-bay network attached storage device targeted for SOHO and 'prosumer' users.

In today's multi-media world, the need to have large storage capacity has quickly changed from being a luxury to being a necessity. Network Attached Storage (NAS) is designed to meet this need, and has become the local storage solution for home networks and small businesses. NAS has become the central digital media and file 'hub' for your entire network. Rather than supporting just one computer, now you can support multiple digital devices within the home as well as share files across the internet.

At the ongoing CES event, ASUS displayed some of its upcoming motherboards which included the M4A89GTOD PRO, an ATX form-factor model based on the AMD 890G chipset. The AMD 890G seems to be a successor to the AMD 790GX, in being a performance integrated graphics part. It integrates a DirectX 10.1 compliant IGP while supporting discrete graphics with 2-way ATI CrossFireX.

The M4A89GTOD PRO comes with an expansive feature-set thanks to the AMD 890G. The more interesting component being the AMD SB800 southbridge chip, which is on its way to being one of the first PC motherboard chipsets to natively support SATA 6 Gb/s. The chip doles out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, while doing away with its on-die IDE controller. An external JMicron-made storage controller compensates with an IDE connector, a SATA 3 Gb/s port (colored black) and perhaps an eSATA port (at 3 Gb/s speeds), too.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, announced today it will display a prototype of its new slim external DVD writer, the SE-S084D optical disk drive (ODD) at the Treasure Island Hotel in a private product display room during CES 2010. Featuring a more compact footprint and lighter weight than competitive offerings, the new DVD writer also delivers high-performance with a USB power source to eliminate electrical outlet requirements.

"Because netbooks are designed for ultra mobility, they aren't typically equipped with optical disc drives, which can potentially make booting from a CD or playing a DVD movie a problem," said John Suh, director of OMS sales and marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. "But with the lightweight, portable SE-S084D Optical Disc Drive, you have the perfect on-the-go, stand-alone. And thanks to its USB BUS power source, you can write at maximum speed with no outlet in sight."

EVGA introduced its lineup of three motherboards based on the new Intel H55 Express and H57 Express chipsets. These motherboards feature LGA-1156 sockets to support all current LGA-1156 Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processors. With the Intel Flexible Display Interface support, the boards let you make use of the integrated GPUs on some dual-core Intel Core i3, Core i5, and Pentium processors. Models include EVGA H57 (123-CD-E637-KR), EVGA H55 (123-CD-E635-KR), and EVGA H55V (111-CD-E630-TR), with the H55V being a micro-ATX model.

The EVGA H55 and EVGA H57 offer a little more than the chipset's feature-set, with Firewire, and additional storage controllers for IDE and two additional SATA 3 Gb/s ports. The two feature nearly identical board layouts with 5+1 phase CPU VRM, DVI and D-Sub for display connectivity, 8-channel audio, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The EVGA H55 has one set of internal USB headers less, and does away with the PCI-Express x1 slots between the PCI-E 2.0 x16 and PCI-E x16 (x4) slots.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions is pleased to announce their latest generation H55/H57 series motherboards, based on the Intel H55 and Intel H57 chipset and leveraging the success of the GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 design featuring 2x copper PCB and delivering a host of cutting-edge features including innovative Smart6 PC management tools, Dynamic Energy Saver 2 power saving utilities, DualBIOS and support for Energy Using Products Directive (EuP), for a powerful, yet power efficient multimedia platform.

"GIGABYTE once again leads the motherboard industry and sets the standard for delivering high speed data transfer and richer video playback capabilities for HD multimedia home entertainment devices," commented Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at GIGABYTE Technology Co. Ltd. "Featuring next generation storage capabilities including USB 3.0 and high performance digital DisplayPort connectivity, as well as GIGABYTE's own unique 3x USB Power Boost, the GIGABYTE GA-H57M-USB3 and GA-H55M-USB3 provide a compelling solution for users wanting the ultimate multimedia system."

NVIDIA today launched its Next Generation Tegra, the world's first processor for the mobile web, specifically designed for the high-resolution needs of tablets. Consumers have been waiting for a truly portable, high-resolution, no-compromise Internet experience. NVIDIA's new Tegra processor delivers that by combining lightning-quick browsing, streaming 1080p video and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 acceleration with an immersive 3D user interface and days of battery life.

"Without question, 2010 is going to be year of the tablet," said Tim Bajarin, President, Creative Strategies, Inc. "The new NVIDIA Tegra processor has a unique feature set critical for tablets -- fast web browsing with fully rendered pages, uncompromised graphics, snappy user interface and HD video - all with the battery life we've only seen with cell phones."

In order to provide consumers more comprehensive upgrade services, MSI, the world-leading mainboard and graphic card manufacturer, announced today that all MSI mainboards using Intel X58 chipset are available for simple BIOS upgrade without reconfiguring any hardware settings to support the next-generation Intel 32nm CPUs. This will bring greater scalability to consumers and mark out the thoughtful upgrade consideration of MSI products right in the beginning of product design.

In addition to process advancement, lower operating temperature and higher performance, the new 32nm Intel processors are the first series that includes native 6-core products on the market. The multi-tasking performance provide by the new 32nm Intel processors will bring consumers the experience of extreme performance. The MSI X58 mainboards have been a heat on the market since they were launched for their outstanding specifications and performance. Another heat is expected from them for their full support and compatibility with the next-generation 32nm processors from Intel. And they will surely be the right choice for power users who dare to challenge the extremes.

MSI G-Series and C-Series of laptop computers have reached a new apex in their evolution. The first NBs equipped with Intel's new generation Calpella platform to be shown at CES 2010, both series come with Intel's most advanced family of New Core processors and Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. They also come with cinema-class screens coupled with top-end Surround Sound for maximum audiovisual enjoyment.

World-renowned mainboard and graphics card manufacturer, MSI, today officially released H57/H55 Intel chipset products that offer outstanding performance, effective heat dissipation and remarkable power efficiency and stability. After installation of the 32nm Intel Core i5 and Core i3 processors with graphics cores integrated, ultra-strong display performance and outstanding multi-display capability complement MSI's exclusive OC Genie one-second overclocking technology. This enhances 3D performance by up to 45%, allowing smooth BD movie playback, and seize the advantage while gaming.

MSI H57/H55 Series mainboards with built-in industry leading OC Genie auto overclocking technology: Just press the OC Genie button on the mainboard and within one second; enjoy auto overclocking and an optimized processor. Memory module and chipset setting values give overall 3D performance a boost of up to 45%. Whether users want to watch a high bit-rate HD movie or go online for some head-to-head gaming, both can be enjoyed with image performance that is smoother and lag-free.

"We've had great success with our existing ZOTAC GeForce Eco series graphics cards but many users wanted a higher end model, and thus we engineered the ZOTAC GeForce GTS 250 Eco series," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "Using our experience from the existing ZOTAC GeForce Eco series, we were able to optimize and reduce energy consumption of the award-winning GeForce GTS 250 architecture by a noticeable amount."

Powered by NVIDIA Unified Architecture with 128 unified shaders, the ZOTAC GeForce GTS 250 Eco series deliver compatibility with Microsoft DirectX 10, OpenGL 3.2, NVIDIA PhysX and CUDA enabled games and applications. High-performance DDR3 memory connected via 256-bit memory interface feeds the high-performance graphics processor with maximum energy-efficiency for a visual computing experience that's loaded with stunning realism and performance while maintaining optimal energy-efficiency.

CoolIT Systems, leaders in advanced liquid cooling technology announced today 4 new products set to revolutionize the computer cooling industry yet again. Following the huge success of the CoolIT Domino that hit the market by storm in 2009, CoolIT have wowed visitors at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas, Nevada with even more innovative, affordable and leading-performance advanced liquid cooling products.

"Liquid cooling is the future" remarked Geoff Lyon, CEO, CoolIT Systems. "The advantages of CoolIT's liquid solutions far outweigh any air-based or competitive liquid cooling product, and at CES this year, we're here to prove that".

CoolIT ECO A.L.C
First up is the CoolIT ECO A.L.C CPU cooler which breaks a world record for the ultimate price/performance cooling benchmark.

Support for the latest generation of Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 takes the ZOTAC H55-ITX WiFi to performance levels previously unattainable by the mini-ITX form factor. The ZOTAC H55-ITX WiFi supports Intel QuickPath technology for lightning-fast communications to high-speed dual-channel DDR3 memory for superior bandwidth and quicker memory access that delivers the chart-topping performance enthusiasts and performance-hungry users desire.

"Since Intel announced its latest generation of Nehalem CPUs, there's been great demand for a mini-ITX platform for the CPUs, unfortunately the power consumption and heat output of the original Intel Core i7 900 series would've been too high for such a small form factor," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International (MCO), Ltd. "With the latest generation of Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors, greater energy efficiency and improved thermal management, the ZOTAC H55-ITX WiFi is able to deliver a mini-ITX platform capable of accommodating the new high-performance processors with no compromises."

SteelSeries, the leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessories, today during the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, introduced the SteelSeries NP+ Mousepad. The new, large surface was designed for gamers and mouse users who prefer a thick and rough glide surface. The pressure compressed fibers allows for extreme durability making it water and most-stain resistant.

"We work with a number of professional gamers that have a wide assortment of preferences when it comes to the surface they're playing on or the level of glide and friction they prefer, said Bruce Hawver, SteelSeries CEO. "The SteelSeries NP+ was designed for those that prefer a rough glide and large area surface. The water and stain resistant material makes this surface, our most unique textile mousepad."

Samsung Electronics America Inc., a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Corporation, the number one worldwide brand of LCD display products, today announced the launch of its latest premium LED monitor, the 23 inch Samsung Syncmaster PX2370. The PX2370 will be available in April from Samsung resellers at a price of $369, giving customers outstanding performance combined with sleek, attractive design and energy-efficient technology.

"With its slim 18mm depth and eco-sensitive design, the PX2370 leads the way with the smallest footprint possible, both on the desktop and the environment," said Young Bae, director Display Marketing, Samsung Information Technology Division. "Consumers no longer have to choose between a high-performance, feature-laden product and green technology."

NVIDIA's next generation graphics card based on the Fermi architecture, whose consumer variant is internally referred to as GF100 got to business at the CES event being held in Las Vegas, USA, performing live demonstration of its capabilities. The demo PC is housing one such accelerator which resembles the card in past sightings. Therefore it is safe to assume this is what the reference NVIDIA design of GF100 would look like. The accelerator draws power from 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors. It has no noticeable back-plate, a black PCB, and a cooler shroud with typical NVIDIA styling. The demo rig was seen running Unigine Heaven in a loop showing off the card's advanced tessellation capabilities in DirectX 11 mode. The most recent report suggests that its market availability can be expected in March, later this year. No performance figures have been made public as yet.A short video clip after the break.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, adds its own cooling solution to the HD5800 series: PCS+ HD5870 and PCS+ HD5850. Both products embrace the supremacies of PCS+ series features, which equip with superior factory overccloked setting and exclusive cooling solution; and maximize the ultimate gaming performance in the coolest working environment.

PCS+ HD5870 and PCS+ HD5850 clock at 875MHz / 760MHz core speed respectively, while memory clock at 1225MHz / 1050MHz respectively. The factory overclocked ability ensures gaming efficacy can effortlessly go beyond the standard version, and provides the out of box gaming performance gamers have never felt before.

Western Digital (WD) is reportedly giving its flagship performance hard drive, the VelociRaptor a specifications update with a new 600 GB model. The new VelociRaptor HDD will succeed a four generations of Raptor HDDs from the company. It will implement developments in areal density to place 600 GB of data onto two platters, a two-fold increase over the previous generation. A single-platter 300 GB model also seems to be on cards. The drive will also feature improved electronics with a 'significantly' larger cache. It is also indicated that the 600 GB model will be priced on par with what the current-generation 300 GB VelociRaptor was upon release (~$250).

In this era of SSDs, Western Digital believes it can still compete with high-performance HDDs. The new VelociRaptor will strike the right balance between price, performance, and capacity. A $250 HDD with 600 GB capacity seems to be a good deal compared to a 250 GB SSD which can go for as much as ~$700. Past models in the Raptor family of HDDs have come with high spindle speeds backed by large caches to give out high read-write speeds and low access times compared to other HDDs.

AMD today introduced its lineup of next-generation DirectX 11-capable ATI Mobility Radeon Premium graphics, including ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 graphics, the highest performance graphics for notebooks in the world.1 The entire family of DirectX 11-capable graphics consists of ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5600 and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 series graphics. This top-to-bottom family of Direct 11-capable notebook graphics introduces compelling new features including ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, bringing powerful visual gaming and computing innovation to the notebook PC. Notebooks featuring the new graphics technology are previewed at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the VISION Experience Center, located in the Grand Lobby (GL-8 and GL-10) of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"Six months ago AMD claimed the title of undisputed technology leader in desktop graphics, and now we also offer powerful mobile graphics processors for notebooks to go with our market leadership in that segment," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Products Group, AMD. "Once again, AMD changes the game both in terms of performance and experience. AMD innovations now give notebook users full DirectX 11 support, eye-opening ATI Eyefinity technology, superb HD multimedia capabilities, and ATI Stream technology designed to help optimize Windows 7 notebook performance."

At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, AMD today announced the shipment of its two millionth DirectX 11-capable graphics processor to its technology partners, cementing AMD graphics as the standard for DirectX 11 computing. This millions-shipped milestone comes just three months after the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series, the first DirectX 11-capable graphics products from AMD. The fast pace with which AMD delivered two million next-generation GPUs is a result of an aggressive execution of the AMD "Sweet Spot" graphics strategy which positioned the company to more rapidly bring DirectX 11 products to market across high-volume segments and popular price points, in combination with the positive reception of AMD's DirectX 11-capable graphics technology from PC users worldwide.

"Today's milestone underscores the ingenuity and innovation that AMD poured into the DirectX 11-capable ATI Radeon Premium Graphics products," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Products Group, AMD. "Fifteen weeks ago we introduced the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards to the world, the first to support DirectX 11 and powerful capabilities like ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology, with support for Direct Compute 11. Over the course of the last few months, we've shipped tens of thousands of DirectX 11-capable graphics processors a week to technology partners who in turn put them into consumers' hands. With this week's introduction of the DirectX 11-capable notebook counterparts to our desktop family in the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series, an even larger base of users will enjoy the best visual computing experience available today."

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), a leading motherboard, graphics card, barebone system and notebook manufacturer, today announced the launch of the ECS H57/H55 motherboard family with a lot of options of brand new technologies and unique features to meet the next generation of HTPC.

Marvell, a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, today announced another breakthrough in advanced chip design: the world's first "quadruple" core processor for applications utilizing the ARM instruction set. Building on a long and successful history of CPU core development and previous multicore implementations, Marvell's achievement represents a milestone breakthrough for the ARM ecosystem with many positive implications for consumers. Based on the same CPU architecture as the Marvell ARMADA 500 and 600 processor series, Marvell's quadcore implementation can deliver gigahertz-plus processing per core and is designed for customer-specific products such as mass consumer market and high volume gaming applications.

"Introducing our quadcore technology to the world represents a pivotal moment in CPU development for the consumer electronics industry," said Ms. Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.'s Consumer and Computing Business Unit. "Today's media-rich consumer applications are already pushing the limits. By making quadcore capabilities available to our customers we will enable the newest generation of cutting edge devices that consumers will always demand -- more horsepower, higher performance, better battery life, and more attractive price points than ever before for mass consumer market adoption."

LaCie demonstrates a new network storage server based on the Microsoft Windows Home Server platform. The product will be shown for the first time at the CES. This server leverages the success of LaCie's award winning 5big Network, which features five user-replaceable drives, Gigabit Ethernet, and data protection support for data integrity. The technology demonstration shows that by combining Microsoft and LaCie technologies on a single platform, small business users can enjoy a seamless interface to automatically back up computers to a single server. The server secures their backup both locally and remotely by automatically copying their critical data to the cloud, using LaCie's Wuala technology.

"LaCie's network server offers an exciting design and provides plenty of storage options with terabytes of capacity and the ability to back up data from local computers and to cloud-based services," said Leslie McGuire, Director of Windows Server Marketing at Microsoft. "We're pleased to have LaCie join us as a Windows Home Server partner."

LaCie today unveiled LaCinema Mini HD, the all-in-one WiFi High Definition media center. Its amazingly small and stylish design packs a big punch, bringing your HD movies, photos and music collections to your widescreen TV in full 1080p resolution.

LaCinema Mini HD bridges the gap between the computer and entertainment worlds in full HD quality. Featuring built-in high-speed 802.11n WiFi, LaCinema Mini HD brings a DLNA media player and server to your home without wires.

Transferring content to the LaCinema Mini HD is easy through the bus-powered USB connection for maximum transfer speeds, or by connecting the drive to a home network. Users can conveniently load files wirelessly from their computer or via the Ethernet connection.

HP introduced a new range of powerful commercial notebook PCs designed to meet the performance and reliability demands of business users. Among the new products being announced are:

• The HP EliteBook 8440 p/w and 8540 p/w series notebooks incorporate the latest mobile technologies, are engineered to meet the tough MIL-STD 810G military-standard tests for vibration, dust, humidity, altitude, and high and low temperatures, and also are BFR/PVC-free.
• The HP ProBook 6440b and HP ProBook 6540b are aimed at corporate customers who want an affordable combination of business-critical and innovative features in a full-function notebook PC.
• The HP Notebook Projection Companion, a compact projector using a mercury-free LED light source that measures only 4 inches by 3 inches and weighs less than 0.45 kilos.

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today expanded its line of Satellite T100 Series ultra-thin laptops to include models equipped with processors from AMD, delivering enhanced multimedia processing power to the ultra-thin category.

Satellite T100 Series laptops are designed for those looking for a stylish ultra-thin form factor that delivers a balance of performance, features and affordability needed for everyday mobility. New configurations based on the AMD Neo platform deliver the versatility of dual-core processor performance, plus ATI Radeon graphics that enhance the laptop's multimedia prowess.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is shipping the largest HyperX DDR3 memory kits to date. Users of the Intel Core i7 and X58 platforms can now take their systems to the memory extreme with Kingston's 1600MHz 24GB HyperX kit made up of six 4GB modules. For Core i5, P55 chipset enthusiasts, Kingston has released a 1600MHz 16GB kit of four 4GB modules to take full advantage of dual-channel performance.

"We are pleased to make available the largest HyperX memory kits ever for the prosumers, multimedia pro or super enthusiast who wants everything," said Mark Tekunoff, senior technology manager, Kingston. "Users working with the latest operating systems like Windows 7 can keep multiple programs open, run memory intensive video or photo applications, or run numerous virtual machines using 24GB or 16GB of DDR3 HyperX memory and create more efficiency and performance gains than ever before."

Super Talent Technology, an inventor of USB 3.0 flash drives, today announced volume shipment of its newly announced USB 3.0 RAIDDrive. The new drive, available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities, is fully backward compatible with USB 2.0 standard and operates at 10x speeds when used in conjunction with a USB 3.0 port.

"This product underscores Super Talent's continued leadership in USB drives." said Super Talent COO, C.H. Lee. "We've developed the world's first and fastest USB 3.0 flash drive, by integrating two SSD into a RAID array for maximum throughput." It delivers phenomenal performance and it incorporates our own patented technology, filed world wide and protected under US Patent #7,457,897 etc.

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, plans to unveil an array of next-generation solid state drives (SSDs) along with other premium hardware at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show to be held January 7-10, 2010, in Las Vegas, Nevada. With its finger on the pulse of emerging and booming markets, OCZ's impending line of SSDs is designed to optimize entire businesses as well as the computing experiences of everyday consumers.

"For this year's Consumer Electronics Show, OCZ continues to build on its lineup of SSD solutions designed for enterprise-class applications," commented Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "We are uniquely positioned as the leading developer of SSDs, which we believe will ultimately replace traditional hard drives. In addition to our robust lineup of 2.5-inch solid state drives, we will be launching new drives at CES with interfaces that include SAS and PCI-E. These interfaces make it easier than ever for enterprise clients to replace expensive-to-maintain, traditional storage media with a higher-performing and more reliable solution."

KINGMAX, leading manufacturer of DRAM Module and Flash Products, announces the high density solution for DDR3 memory for Intel Core i5 and i7, provide the most stable compatibility for desktop and laptop platforms. These DIMMs are available in single, dual and triple channel configurations and are specifically tuned for Intel CPUs; unleash the best performance for gaming operation.

KINGMAX high density solution DRAM Module improves the performance of 64 bit OS efficiently. The efficiency would be upturned after adopting KINGMAX high density DRAM Module, while operating video decoding, large image file handling and modifying and performance demanding games.

KINGMAX, leading memory product manufacturer, recently announced the 32GB Class 10 SDHC memory card featuring fast writing, large capacity and waterproof features. With a writing speed of over 20MB/sec on a total capacity of 32GB, users can display the full continuous shooting speed of cameras without worrying about insufficient storage space. Also, the IPX8-compliant waterproof performance helps professionals prevent data damage from accidents.

The bustling US MBL World Champion Series has just finished, and there was not an empty seat in any single match of this annual event. When watching these spectacular matches, there is no reason for any spectator to miss any opportunity to shoot the excellent performances of the players. If the memory card does not support fast writing, continuous shooting will be unable to shoot continuously. Therefore, KINGMAX introduces the 32GB Class 10 SDHC memory card. Complying with the Class 10 standard specified by SD Association, this memory card allows users to apply continuous shooting at a faster speed without using a professional SLR camera with its high writing speed at 20MB/sec or faster. Also, it is particularly suitable for the continuous shooting of sports events, pets, children and other fast-moving objects. Even amateurs can capture every moment of a great event.

Since the introduction of the first Eee PC, ASUS has inched high technology ever closer to high fashion. With the Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection (1008P), ASUS has taken a decisive leap onto the catwalk. Co-conceived by one of the world's leading designers, the Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection is the realization of Karim's vision of computing-one that is more sensual, more human, more hip. Completely contemporary and anathema to nostalgia, these netbooks are more daring, more intersecting, and are designed to appeal to young, mobile trendsetters while remaining an accessible luxury to everyone.

The Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid Collection manifests ASUS' commitment to designing products that appeal to the five human senses, with an emphasis on vision and touch. To achieve this, ASUS' industrial designers have had to pioneer a plethora of material, production, and textural innovations, such as the combination of rubber paint, in mold roller (IMR), and metallic materials to create thoroughly unique finishes.

Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, announced today the launch of its flash-based, backup drives, Lexar Echo SE and Lexar Echo ZE. Designed to protect valuable data on netbook and notebook computers, Echo SE and ZE backup drives provide users with portable, easy-to-use file backup solutions for their mobile lifestyles. For additional information about the Lexar Echo SE and ZE backup drives, visit this page.

High-performance Echo SE is an ultra-portable drive that easily plugs into a computer's USB port to perform automatic backup and transfer of files, at read speeds up to 28MB/s and write speeds up to 10MB/s. Echo ZE, with its low-profile 20.1 by 15.1 millimeter size and plug-and-stay design, is an always-ready drive providing a convenient means to automatically back up essential files -- anytime, anywhere. Both drives are interoperable between Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, as well as Mac OS X operating systems, allowing data to be seamlessly accessible whether using a PC or Mac computers.

HP today added powerful and affordable new workstations and displays to its professional lineup, including the company's first 14-inch mobile workstation. Building on HP's award-winning Z series of workstations, the HP Z200 Workstation offers a new entry point to workstation-class performance at starting prices that rival those of traditional desktop computing systems, making it a great choice for government, education and small businesses. The HP Z200 is ideal for engineers and designers using Autodesk AutoCAD, photographers using Adobe Photoshop and power office users.

HP also introduced the HP ZR22w and HP ZR24w Performance Displays, providing exceptional visual quality with a new brushed aluminum industrial design, making them a great pairing with HP Z Workstations both in looks and performance. According to IDC, HP is currently the industry leader with 42.8 percent of the global mobile workstation market. Adding to its award-winning EliteBook notebook lineup, HP introduced the 15-inch diagonal display HP EliteBook 8540w and the 14-inch diagonal display HP EliteBook 8440w. The HP EliteBook 8540w and 8440w feature workstation-caliber graphics that are tested, optimized and certified to run the most demanding professional applications for mobile power users.

You're already using your laptop to listen to music, play games, and watch movies, TV and videos. You're already using it on the couch and on the bed. But you're looking for a way to be comfortable, and you know what a difference high-quality audio can make when you're enjoying good entertainment. For a theater-like experience on your laptop, Logitech today introduced the Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N700 - the company's first all-in-one laptop accessory with integrated stereo speakers, a built-in fan and a wide padded base.

"More and more people around the world are enjoying fantastic entertainment on their laptops - but with mediocre sound and comfort," said Denis Pavillard, Logitech vice president of product marketing for laptop accessories. "In fact, according to our research nearly 50 percent of laptop users report being dissatisfied with the sound quality of the built-in speakers. The Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N700 helps transform your laptop into a private theater in the cozy confines of your lap."

Today LaCie announced the LaCie CooKey and LaCie WhizKey, design by 5.5 Designers. The new USB flash keys are modeled after the award-winning LaCie iamaKey, which was recently issued a 2010 award by the internationally recognized Observeur du Design.

LaCie, the originator of the flat key-shaped design for USB flash keys, now presents two new unique designs. The LaCie CooKey and LaCie WhizKey are built with sturdy metal, making the surfaces tough and dependable. Additionally, the Gold SIP connector on the USB keys are both water- and scratch- resistant, making them some of the thinnest and most durable flash drive choices on the market.

Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced improvements to the Professional line of CompactFlash (CF) and Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) memory cards for an enhanced imaging experience. Lexar has increased the capacity of Professional 300x CF cards to 32GB, and Professional 233x CF cards are now available in 16GB and 32GB capacities. In addition, the Lexar Professional 133x SDHC card has achieved a Class 10 speed rating. The improvements to the Lexar Professional line allow professional photographers and advanced enthusiasts to capture more high-resolution images and high-definition (HD) video with their digital SLRs. For additional information about the Lexar Professional CF and SDHC cards, visit Lexar.

The Lexar Professional 133x SDHC memory card now offers the maximum Class 10 speed rating, providing a blazing-fast minimum sustained write speed capability of 133x (20MB per second) for shooting higher-resolution images and large-sized, high-definition video files with SDHC-enabled devices. Additionally, the Lexar Professional 133x SDHC card significantly improves camera performance and image transfer speeds from card to computer, reducing post-production time and enabling shooters to focus on the business of photography.

Zalman unveiled three new products which it plans to release very soon. The three include CNPS10X Performa CPU cooler, VF3000 series VGA coolers, and Z7 PLUS case. To begin with, the CNPS10X Performa is a tweaked version of the other two CNPS10X series coolers. It sheds away some cosmetic features for those that matter. It retains the tower design structure with five copper heatpipes making their way through an aluminum fin block. Thanks to its cost cutting, the CNPS10X Performa may strike a price-point below $40, where all the action is with coolers from the likes of Arctic Cooling, OCZ, Xigmatek, etc.

The VF3000 series VGA coolers seem to pack quite some cooling power into its racy design. It boasts of being a universal VGA cooler, supporting most of current GPUs, including ATI HD 5000, HD 4000, HD 3000, and NVIDIA 9 series, and 200 series. It comes in two liveries - black and red. The design is similar to many coolers in its league: two copper heatpipes pass through a GPU contact base, leading to two aluminum fin blocks which are cooled by LED-lit fans. Lastly, there's the Z7 PLUS case. This ATX mid-tower packs features essential to today's mid-range gamer PCs, with a perforated metal front bezel, all its drive bays can be converted to external bays. Zalman's new products should be out in the weeks to come. More pictures at the source.

VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today launched the VIA VL700 USB 3.0-SATA Controller, a highly integrated single chip solution that allows users to connect SATA hard disk drive (HDD), solid state drive (SSD), and optical disc drive (ODD) devices to their PC via new USB 3.0 specification ports.

With data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, USB 3.0 (also known as SuperSpeed USB) offers ten times the throughput available to USB 2.0 based devices, meaning large amounts of information stored on a SATA device can be effortlessly transferred to a PC in a fraction of the time it would usually take.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced two new hand tested 1600 MHz 1.65V DDR3 kits based on high density 256Mx8 DRAM ICs. WP160UX8G9 is a dual channel 8GB (2x 4GB) kit designed for high performance P55 based systems, and WB160T12G9 is a triple channel 12GB (3x 4GB) kit designed for exceptional performance in X58 based systems. Both new kits are clad in Super Talent's Chrome Series heatsinks for optimal thermal efficiency.

"These new high density kits will deliver refreshing performance gains in 64-bit desktop environments. We select the fastest available RAMs to build these kits, and we cherry pick the fastest modules to support high speeds", stated Super Talent Director of Marketing, Joe James. Both these kits will be available this week through Super Talent resellers. For more information, visit this page.

G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and high performance solid-state storage, has today released its ultimate DDR3 memory kit. At 2400 MHz CL9 and 2000 MHz CL6, these ultra high frequency memory modules are available in standard 4GB (2GBx2) memory kits and are specifically tailored for Intel's P55 chipset and LGA-1156 CPUs.

The 2,400MHz CL9 memory modules are the fastest commercially available memory product in the world, allowing overclocking enthusiasts to reach unprecedented levels of performance to achieve the ultimate PC. In addition, G.Skill has also announced a series of ultra low latency DDR3 2,000MHz memory kits, including an extreme CL6, followed by CL7, CL8 and CL9, which perfectly match current Intel Core i5 750 and Core i7 860, 870 CPUs.

WD, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its fastest My Book external hard drive ever -- the new My Book 3.0 desktop external drives are among the first devices certified with the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface. With an interface that's up to 10 times faster than the previous-generation USB 2.0 interface, the high-performance My Book 3.0 drive significantly reduces the time it takes to open and save large files. Offered standalone, or in a kit that includes a USB 3.0 PCIe (gen2) adapter card, the 1 TB My Book 3.0 drive is available now at select retailers and shopwd.com. The 2 TB model is expected later this week.

The SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface on My Book 3.0 drives provides transfer rates of up to 5 gigabits-per-second, allowing users to open and save files up to 4.7 times faster than USB 2.0. The new My Book 3.0 drive is compliant with the USB-IF SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard to provide compatibility with other USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 products. SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1.

Xigmatek is ready with a new CPU cooler for the season, the Xigmatek Carbonado (S1284V). This tower-design CPU cooler with heatpipe direct touch (HDT) technology sports a slightly asymmetric design with its aluminum fin design and the placement of the four 8 mm heatpipes, which takes shape accordingly on the CPU contact base, working towards increasing the surface contact area. The main unit measures 120 (W) x 60 (H) x 159 (D) mm, weighing 660 g. It comes bundled with a 120 mm fan with anti-vibration retention. The fan is white LED illuminated, and spins at speeds between 1000 ~ 2200 rpm. It supports all current CPU sockets including LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, and AMD AM3/AM2+. For AMD sockets the cooler includes a tool-free retention module. It will be available in the weeks to come.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA EPIA-P820, the first Pico-ITX form factor board to feature the high performance, 64-bit VIA Nano processor, bringing industry-leading digital multimedia performance and virtualization capabilities to the smallest of spaces with the VIA AMOS-3001 chassis system.

The choice of VIA Nano processor means that the VIA EPIA-P820 offers a range of advantages over competitor offerings, including full 64-bit software support, a high-performance superscalar architecture and full support of the latest virtualization technologies for next generation server and virtual machine applications. Paired with the VIA VX855 media system processor, the VIA EPIA-P820 is well equipped to handle smooth playback of the most demanding codecs at resolutions up to 1080p.

World class flash memory module manufacturer, Silicon Power announces today the new Xpower DDR3 overclocking series memory module. Complete with dual (2GBx2) and tri-channel (2GBx3) packs, it is available in DDR3-1600, 1800, 2000, 2133 MHz variants. Completely compatible with Intel quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 platforms, Xpower DDR3 modules use "oblique groove manufacturing process" and pure aluminum heat sink to resolve heat dissipation issues. In addition, Xpower DDR3 applies 1.65V to maintain high speed and stability to meet the needs of enthusiasts and gamers.

The oblique groove heat sink design of Silicon Power's Xpower DDR3 overclocking series increases the heat dissipation area of the heat sink and can provide up to twice the heat dissipation ability over standard heat sinks. In addition, the Xpower DDR3 series use 8-layered PCBs and new fly-by topology design for more efficient commands, addresses, control signals, and clocks signals. It also supports On-DIE Termination (ODT) to dramatically reduce unwanted reflection signals and maximize speed. Silicon Power insists on using original memory modules and FBGA packaging for better heat dissipation and accurate data transfer.

Lenovo today unveiled 11 new IdeaPad laptops and IdeaCentre desktops at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show that demonstrate the company's re-energized commitment to personal computing design and engineering specifically for consumers. The new IdeaPad laptop PCs - S10-3t, S10-3, Y460, Y560, G460, G560, V460 and V360 and IdeaCentre desktop PCs - A300, C310 and K320 - include industry leading design and technology that will help enhance performance, style and entertainment capabilities across Lenovo's consumer products lineup.

"Our new Idea PCs are the next step in our exciting new worldwide product portfolio designed with the consumer in mind," said Liu Jun, senior vice president, Idea Product Group, Lenovo. "These additions to our Idea portfolio demonstrate Lenovo's commitment to giving our customers the capabilities they expect, at prices they can afford, while showcasing our forward-thinking innovations."

AMD announced VISION Pro Technology, a new commercial PC platform brand that delivers a superior visual computing experience, and can help businesses increase productivity and gain competitive advantage by enabling visually stunning communications, marketing and sales materials.

Graphics matter more than ever in business communication and innovative companies are leveraging balanced PC platform technology to generate and view rich visual presentations, including videos and 3D graphics to communicate winning ideas. Studies show that more than 80 percent of human comprehension is gained visually and that the use of visual aids with oral presentations improves content retention as much as 6.5 times greater than using words alone. Furthermore, the increased viewing area provided by multiple monitors helps improve worker productivity by as much as 40 percent. Commercial PCs based on VISION Pro Technology from AMD offer out-of-the-box support for multiple monitors, seamless viewing of videos, use of video conferencing software, and the performance necessary to create and view rich presentations with embedded video and 3D graphics.

Lenovo today announced the Lenovo Skylight, the first ARM-based smartbook based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset platform. Skylight harnesses the best of smartphones and netbooks to create a new mobile consumer device. With a stunningly sleek and slim design, all day battery life, robust wireless connectivity and custom interface with live web gadgets, Skylight is designed to transform the mobile Internet experience. The Skylight smartbook connects with AT&T 3G mobile broadband service in the U.S.

"The web has become the window to the world for more and more people, helping them connect with friends and family across town or thousands of miles away," said Peter Gaucher, executive director, Mobile Internet Product Management, Lenovo. "Skylight combines the long battery life and connectivity of a smartphone with the full web browsing and multimedia experience of a netbook to create one of the first devices in this developing smartbook category. Consumers want choices. They can now choose from a full portfolio of Lenovo mobile consumer devices including netbooks, smartbooks and laptops."

ioSafe today announced the availability of the new ioSafe Solo SSD - a solid state, highly ruggedized model of the award-winning ioSafe Solo desktop external hard drive. Combining ioSafe's new proprietary ArmorPlate, a military grade steel outer casing with SSD technology, the new ioSafe Solo SSD adds unprecedented shock, drop and crush protection to the existing fire and water protection.

The ioSafe Solo SSD combined with ArmorPlate helps to protect data in a two story building collapse, 5000 lb. crush forces, 20' drop into rubble and up to a 1000g shock. In addition the original HydroSafe, FloSafe and DataCast work to keep the drive cool during normal operation and protect the data from fires up to 1550 °F for 1/2 hour and complete water submersion of 30' for 30 days in fresh or salt water. Like all ioSafe products, the ioSafe Solo SSD comes with ioSafe's Data Recovery Service, a "no questions asked" policy to help customers recover from any data disaster including accidental deletion, virus or physical disaster.

ASUS today announces the launch of a new motherboard series based on the Intel H57 and H55 chipsets. The ASUS P7H57D/P7H55 Series supports the new Intel Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, and Pentium processors with feature laden ATX and micro-ATX models to provide the best value and performance on the new LGA1156 platform. Featuring exclusive GPU Boost technology, the series delivers a rich visual experience and smooth video performance with Intel's latest HD capable integrated graphics capable processors. Built with Xtreme Design features, the P7H57D/P7H55 Series delivers optimized performance while being very energy-efficient. The ATX based P7H57D-V EVO also supports next-generation USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s technology for faster data throughput and better storage performance.

EVGA seems to be ready with two of its first motherboards based on the Intel H55 Express and H57 Express chipsets, supporting processors in the LGA-1156 package, along with support for Intel Flexible Display Interface to make use of the iGPU embedded in some dual-core Pentium, Core i3, and Core i5 processors. The two look nearly similar - infact seem to have the same PCB layout. The LGA-1156 socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory support. There are two PCI-Express slots (x16, x4), and three PCI slots. The EVGA H57 model further packs two PCI-Express x1 slots.

The H55/H57 chipset provides six SATA 3 Gb/s ports, all of which are assigned as internal ports. A JMicron-made storage controller provides additional two SATA 3 Gb/s ports, along with an IDE connector to support two devices. Display connectivity on both models includes DVI and D-Sub. Other features include 8-channel audio, gigabit Ethernet, Firewire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The H55 model has two internal ports less, along with other internal features that the chipset lacks, such as Remote PC Assist, and Rapid Storage Technology. More details will be out soon.

The new ZOTAC NM10 series delivers class-leading energy-efficiency from a new Intel Atom D510 dual-core processor and NM10 Express chipset with Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 integrated graphics for the perfect blend of performance and energy-efficiency. Paired with DDR2 memory, the ZOTAC NM10 series platforms have plenty of memory bandwidth and lightning-fast access latency for that extra performance punch for computing demands.

"More users are becoming eco-conscious about their computing demands. With the ZOTAC NM10 series platforms, users can have plenty of performance for email, word processing and web browsing on a desktop with superior energy-efficiency," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International.

In the digital age, people are creating and accessing digital content like never before. As such, they require a storage device that is powerful enough to store and serve this content, but friendly enough to manage quickly and effortlessly. Today, digital storage leader Thecus Technology is proud to announce the Thecus N4200. Fast, secure, and incredibly easy-to-use, the N4200 is the ideal home NAS for the digital lifestyle.

The N4200 was designed to enable users to access their data both quickly and easily. It begins with the new Intel Atom dual-core processor D510, which runs at 1.66 GHz and, in combination with 1GB of DDR2 memory, delivers both blistering data transfer speeds and increased system response. Users can easy manage their unit with the N4200's dual displays. The LCD offers a wealth of system information, including hard disk and network status, while the big and bright 2.8" OLED display allows users to modify a number of settings directly on the device including WAN, LAN, Link Aggregation, languages and more, making the N4200 the friendliest Thecus NAS ever.

The recently surfaced high-end dual socket LGA-1366 motherboard is pictured in full, without its cooling assembly. The picture reveals quite a bit about EVGA's new monstrosity. To begin with, the motherboard is neither ATX, nor EATX in the truest sense. Like the recently announced X58 Classified 4-way SLI which was based on the "XL-ATX" form-factor, this motherboard seems to be 13.58 inches (344.93 mm) long, and about as wide as EATX (330 mm, 13 inches), or maybe a little more.

Each LGA-1366 socket is wired to six DDR3 DIMM slots for triple-channel memory, and is powered by an 8-phase digital-PWM circuit. Each socket further has a 3-phase power circuit for its DIMM slots. The CPU VRM for each socket takes input from an 8-pin ATX, and what appears to be a 6-pin +12V (PCI-E?) connector. The motherboard further takes power from a 6-pin PCI-E power connector apart from the usual 24-pin ATX power connector. Some of these inputs may be redundant and needed only for additional electrical stability to support competitive overclocking.

VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today unveiled the VIA VL810 SuperSpeed Hub Controller, the industry's first integrated single chip solution that supports the higher transfer rates of the new USB 3.0 specification.

USB 3.0 (also known as SuperSpeed USB) allows for a maximum data transfer rate of up to 5Gbps, or ten times the throughput available to USB 2.0 based devices. Other enhancements provide for improved interaction between device and host controller, including important advancements in power management.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today unveiled its new series of ultra-high performance Turbo NAS servers TS-259 Pro, TS-459 Pro, TS-659 Pro and TS-859 Pro (a QNAP exclusive) that have been certified as compatible with VMware's vSphere4 (ESX 4.0) virtualization platform, ideal for departmental file sharing, storage, and advanced server applications in the office environment.

VMware's vSphere is the industry's first cloud operating system that offers a way to reduce IT costs and increase responsiveness. Shared networked storage is an essential component of a Cloud Computing infrastructure. The new Turbo NAS series incorporates the Intel Atom D-510 dual-core processor, which delivers exceptional performance and maintains high reliability for multiple concurrent tasks and intensive data transfer with very low power consumption. Businesses of all sizes are able to enjoy the interoperability between VMware virtual machines and QNAP high performance, low power consumption certified storage, take the advantages of VMware Cloud Computing environments.

Lenovo today announced a new ThinkPad laptop Series, simply called "ThinkPad Edge," with 13, 14 and 15 inch models designed specifically for the small to medium sized business (SMB). The 13 inch model represents the first ThinkPad laptop to offer AMD dual core processor technology and to be offered on AMD's VISION Pro Technology. In addition to performance, the new laptops are designed with style and affordability in mind for today's budget-conscious customers. For example, they include new rich and vibrant color choices and a new contemporary keyboard. Lenovo is also expanding its retail sales channel to offer select ThinkPad Edge models in Best Buy stores.

"Small to medium business customers tell us they want PCs with bold yet professional designs, uncompromising durability and reliability with the latest technologies that meets their budgets," said Fran O'Sullivan, senior vice president, Think Product Group, Lenovo. "Our answer is the new ThinkPad Edge family of laptops. They deliver stunning technology and powerful performance at an unprecedented value."

Samsung Electronics, a market leader in consumer electronics and world leader in IT technology, today launched the latest additions to its award-winning range of netbooks, the Samsung N210, N220, N150 and NB30. Designed to provide maximum personal freedom, the N210 and N220 deliver up to 12 hours* of secure connected mobility, while the N150 and NB30 keep on going for up to 8.5 hours* and 11 hours* respectively. This impressive battery-powered performance is possible because overall power consumption is reduced by their energy efficient LED display, optimized processing performance and Samsung's proprietary Enhanced Battery Life solution.

The N210, N220, N150 and NB30 also have several display features that enhance the visual experience. The new netbooks' 10.1" LED anti-reflective display fine-tunes movies and images with the sharpest details and boldest colors, with no mirror effect under bright lights or in sunny weather. Using the integrated Easy Resolution Manager tool, screen resolution can easily be changed if a program or game needs to be viewed in 1024x768. For added visual enhancements, the N210, N220, N150 and NB30 offer an integrated Digital LiveCam for video-conferencing or live messaging.

Lenovo today announced the ThinkPad X100e, the company's first professional-grade ultraportable laptop starting below $500. The introduction pioneers a new category of PCs for today's business users that blends professional performance, usability and design with new color options at an extremely affordable price. The X100e also represents the first time Lenovo and AMD have collaborated to offer AMD processors on ThinkPad laptops and to leverage AMD's VisionPro branding.

"By listening to our customers and observing market trends, we identified an opportunity to create a new type of ultraportable laptop for business users," said Sam Dusi, vice president, ThinkPad Product Marketing. "Customers asked us for low cost and extreme portability without sacrificing usability or the manageability needed to run a business. By expanding the ultraportable ThinkPad X Series to reach prices under $500, the X100e delivers on all counts."

Pictures of what appears to be AMD's new entry-level DirectX 11 compliant graphics card has surfaced. The pictures show a Unika-branded Radeon HD 5570. At this point in time it's unclear if the GPU is based on AMD's Redwood GPU which powers the recently unveiled Radeon HD 5670, or the even smaller Cedar GPU, though looking at the package size of the GPU, we're inclined to believe it's a watered-down version of the Redwood with 1 GB of GDDR3 memory across a 128-bit wide memory interface.

The card by Unika is hardly any longer than the PCI-Express interface itself, from which it draws all its power. The GPU is cooled by a custom active fan-heatsink. Connectivity includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. Clock speeds include 650 MHz for the core, and 900 MHz (1800 MHz DDR) for the memory. The GPU is DirectX 11 compliant, and supports UVD 2.0. Expect more details about the GPU to surface at the CES event.

Intel today gave a go ahead for the media to publish reviews of its brand new dual-core processors under the Core i5 6xx and Core i5 6x1 series. The processors are based on the new "Clarkdale" processor die, and make use of the company's 32 nm next generation HKMG manufacturing process. Unlike conventional processor packages based on the Nehalem/Westmere architecture, the new processors move the northbridge component of the system onto the processor package, only that it is based on a separate 45 nm die within the package. The 32 nm processor die houses two processor cores along with up to 4 MB of L3 cache, while it is wired to a larger iGPU die which houses the dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, a graphics core, PCI-Express root complex, along with other components traditionally found on northbridge chips.

The first three models in the new Core i5 series are the 3.20 GHz Core i5 650, 3.33 GHz Core i5 660 and 661 (latter has a faster iGPU), and 3.46 GHz Core i5 670. These processors have the LGA-1156 package and are compatible with existing P55 Express chipset (albeit without the iGPU feature), along with the company's new H55 Express and H57 Express chipsets that support the Flexible Display Interface that provides connectivity to the processors' iGPUs. The new processors feature HyperThreading Technology, with which it provides the operating system with four logical CPUs (threads) to deal with, TurboBoost technology which powers down a core and overclocks the other when the task load is low. Pricing and availability will surface when the processors are formally announced, a little later this month. Meanwhile, motherboard manufacturers are ready with boatloads of new motherboard models based on Intel's two new chipsets. A compilation of links to major reviews on the internet can be found in the day's reviews list on the homepage.

Acer America today debuts the next generation of its acclaimed line of Aspire One netbooks. These new Aspire One AO532h netbooks are packed with powerful features and performance to boost productivity and battery life, enhancing the mobile computing experience. Designed for all day mobility and connectivity, the Aspire One AO532h netbooks feature the latest Intel technology with the Intel Atom N450 processor, 10 hours of battery life, fast Wi-Fi connectivity, a 10.1-inch LED-backlit TFT LCD and a large keyboard with a Multi-Gesture touchpad. All this power and functionality comes in a package that is only 1-inch thin and weighs just over 2-1/2 pounds, making it a true mobile companion.

"These new Aspire One netbooks offer mobile users some of the features and performance of a larger notebook, while providing a highly portable, compact design that's easy to take anywhere," said Ray Sawall, senior manager of product marketing for Acer America. "Consumers can browse the Internet, check email, share photos, enjoy their entertainment applications, and even get work done wherever their travel takes them."

EVGA is keeping up its streak of releasing high-end motherboards for processors based on the new Intel Nehalem architecture, with a new dual-socket monstrosity. Slated for CES 2010, not much about this high-end workstation motherboard has been revealed beyond the picture below. From the looks of it, probably EVGA is making a high-end, overclocker-friendly dual LGA-1366 motherboard based on the Intel 5500 "Tylersburg" chipset with the usual ICH10R southbridge. Existing LGA-1366 processors that support dual-socket operation which includes Xeon 5500 series may work on it. Probably, a future high-end Intel Core family CPU is released that is capable of dual-socket setups, too. The picture reveals two LGA-1366 sockets, each powered by an 8-phase digital PWM circuit. Each socket is wired to six DDR3 DIMM slots supporting triple-channel memory for that socket. More this CES.

Cooling products specialist Xigmatek is readying a new PC case for early 2010, the Xigmatek Utgard. This all-black ATX mid-tower case includes black interiors. It has nine 5.25" drive bays with perforated metal bezels that let them double up as air intakes. There are internal (probably detachable) 3.5" drive cages. Apart from the usual salad of USB, audio and eSATA ports, the front-panel holds a 2-channel fan controller. Apart from the rear 120 mm exhaust fan, the case seems to have exhausts on the top, along with provisions for more fans on the side panel. The PSU bay is located at the bottom of the motherboard tray. Other details are yet to surface, though more about this case could surface at the upcoming CES event.