News Archive

Thursday, June 30th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Keyboards
Memory
Motherboards
Processors
SSD
Storage
Biostar TZ68A+ LGA1155 Review

Biostar TZ68A+ LGA1155 Review

After 25 years in the market, Biostar recently released their latest product, the T-series TZ68A+, based on the new Intel Z68 Express chipset. Featuring Lucid's Virtu technology, the entry-level TZ68A+ seeks to meet the needs of mainstream enthusiasts with affordable pricing, with everything the Z68 offers ready and waiting.

Sandy Bridge-E Delayed to January 2012: Sources

Originally slated for Q4 2011, the launch of Intel's Sandy Bridge-E desktop/workstation platform has been pushed back to Q1 2012, sources told VR-Zone. The high-end platform was expected by industry observers to be a December launch, targeting the shopping season, but it seems like January 2012 is found to be more fitting. Perhaps the International CES, where the latest and greatest from the tech industry is unveiled, serves as the ideal launch-pad for Sandy Bridge-E.

Sandy Bridge-E is an upscale of the architecture that makes up Intel's 2011 Core processor family. Consisting of 4 or 6 cores, Sandy Bridge makes up two distinct product lines for the client desktop market. The chips pack massive quad-channel DDR3 integrated memory controllers and PCI-Express 3.0 hubs that can drive up to four graphics cards. The processor is made of a new 2011-pin LGA package, with the new Intel X79 chipset handling the rest of the platform.

IBM Scientists Demonstrate Computer Memory Breakthrough

For the first time, scientists at IBM Research have demonstrated that a relatively new memory technology, known as phase-change memory (PCM), can reliably store multiple data bits per cell over extended periods of time. This significant improvement advances the development of low-cost, faster and more durable memory applications for consumer devices, including mobile phones and cloud storage, as well as high-performance applications, such as enterprise data storage.

With a combination of speed, endurance, non-volatility and density, PCM can enable a paradigm shift for enterprise IT and storage systems within the next five years. Scientists have long been searching for a universal, non-volatile memory technology with far superior performance than flash - today's most ubiquitous non-volatile memory technology. The benefits of such a memory technology would allow computers and servers to boot instantaneously and significantly enhance the overall performance of IT systems. A promising contender is PCM that can write and retrieve data 100 times faster than flash, enable high storage capacities and not lose data when the power is turned off. Unlike flash, PCM is also very durable and can endure at least 10 million write cycles, compared to current enterprise-class flash at 30,000 cycles or consumer-class flash at 3,000 cycles. While 3,000 cycles will out live many consumer devices, 30,000 cycles are orders of magnitude too low to be suitable for enterprise applications (see chart for comparisons).

Corsair Announces Shipment of Force Series GT Solid-State Drives

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced the first shipments of the Force Series GT line of solid-state drives.

The new Force Series GT is designed for enthusiasts who demand the fastest performance available. It uses the new SandForce SF-2280 SSD Processor, with native support for SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3), combined with ONFI synchronous flash memory. Force Series GT SSDs deliver outstanding read/write performance and significantly faster system response, boot times, and application load times than SATA 2 solid-state drives, with out-of-box performance of up to 85K Random Write IOPS, read speeds of up to 555 MB/s, and write speeds of up to 525 MB/s. The use of synchronous flash memory makes the Force GT Series particularly adept at reading and writing non-compressible data, such as video and music files.

Delkin Devices Ships Fastest 64GB Secure Digital UHS-I Card in the World

Delkin Devices began shipping the fastest SDXC UHS-I memory card in the world. The new 64GB 633X rated card is designed for streaming HD and 3D video applications where speed and capacity are imperative and is the fourth capacity to be added to their recently introduced family of UHS-I memory cards.

"As camcorders are moving towards flash memory storage and away from tape, we're simultaneously seeing a strong trend in videographers utilizing HD video capabilities in DSLRs," explains Marketing Manager, Anna Lopez. "Standard SD memory cards are more than fast enough for typical applications but not nearly fast enough to keep up with the large amount of data that HD video requires, particularly when shooting a feature film or longer movie clip. Our new 64GB Elite633 card is able to record at speeds up to 45 megabytes per second and read at speeds up to 95 megabytes per second which eliminates any pause to the recording process that users experience with slower cards."

AMD Introduces Vision A6-3650 and A8-3850 Desktop APUs

AMD announced two of its first Vision A-Series accelerated processing units (APUs) for desktops today. Built in the socket FM1 package, the A6-3650 and A8-3850 are fabricated on the 32 nm HKMG process. Both pack four x86-64 cores, and while the A6 has 320 stream processors in the GPU component, the A8 has 400 of them. Both chips have 4 MB of cache, dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz IMCs, and PCI-Express 2.0 hubs to drive discrete graphics.

The AMD A8-3850 has its four x86-64 cores clocked at 2.90 GHz, with the Radeon HD 6550D GPU engine clocked at 600 MHz. This chip has a TDP of 100W, it is priced at US $135. The AMD A6-3650 has its CPU component clocked at 2.60 GHz, and Radeon HD 6530D GPU engine clocked at 443 MHz. This chip goes for US $115. With these two, AMD is targeting higher models of Sandy Bridge-based Pentium Dual-Core and Core i3 Sandy Bridge chips. Both will be available in stores by July 3.

ICY Dock Introduces New 2.5'' SATA SSD Xpander Hybrid Adapter

Introducing the MB882HX-1SB 2.5" SATA SSD Xpander Hybrid Adapter. Using a high speed 2.5" SATA SSD and a high capacity 3.5" SATA hard drive, you can combine them to create a new breed of species. Using our hybrid technology, we can take a moderate or 2nd generation 2.5" SATA SSD in combination with a mid to higher end 3.5" SATA hard drive which automatically creates "hybrid partition" and "storage partition". The "hybrid partition" doubles the capacity of the SSD drive and provides high performance in transfer rates. The storage partition gives you the remaining capacity of the hard drive* (the size of the 3.5" SATA hard drive minus "hybrid partition" size).

This is the perfect upgrade solution without purchasing an expensive high capacity SSD. The Xpander Hybrid Adapter doubles the sequential transfer rates of the hard drive exclusively in the hybrid partition, it is great for people who move, play or edit large media files. Such as a video editor, graphic designer, HD movie enthusiast that use applications like Adobe Photoshop, Sony Vegas and Windows Media Center that require large file loads / transfers. For editing, you can use the hybrid portion as a sketch drive; move the working files to it for fast editing. When you are done with the file we recommend moving the file to a RAID protected archive drive. The "storage partition" is perfect for non-important applications or files i.e. games, movies, music, or other media files.

GELID Intros Tranquillo Rev. 2 CPU Cooler

GELID today announced a revision of its Tranquillo CPU cooler. Revision 2 of this aluminum fin tower-type cooler comes with three major changes, an updated heat pipe profile; a new AMD socket clip that allows 4x 90° installation; and an improved heatsink shape. To begin with, the four exposed-copper heat pipes project out of the fanned out better, with the heat pipes almost reaching the periphery of each of the fins. Next, a new AMD socket clip allows you to orient the heatsink in the same way you can with the square bolt layout of Intel sockets (90° in any direction). Lastly, in the space between the CPU base and the bottom of the aluminum fin stack, GELID put a larger heatsink than the one found on the original Tranquillo. The Tranquillo Rev. 2 is certified to work on Intel sockets LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, and LGA775; AMD sockets AM3, AM2+, and AM2. The company did not give out pricing information, but usually revised SKUs carry the same market prices as the originals they're revisions of.
Wednesday, June 29th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Harddisks
Headphones
Motherboards
Mouse
Mousepads
Notebooks
SSD
Storage
Intel SSD 510 Series 250 GB Review

Intel SSD 510 Series 250 GB Review

Intel's latest 510 Series SSD is designed to deliver maximum performance at today's workloads. It supports the SATA 6 Gbps interface for maximum transfer speed and comes with a custom firmware that is optimized in performance. Being priced at $600 for the 250 GB version the drive is not cheap, but worth it?

Arctic Intros Freezer 13 Continuous Operation Series CPU Coolers

Cooling expert Arctic introduced two new CPU coolers specifically designed for gaming/enthusiast PCs that stay on 24x7, or for "continuous operation" as the company puts it. The duo consist of the bigger Freezer 13 Pro CO and smaller Freezer 13 CO, designed for thermal loads of up to 300W and 200W, respectively. The 24x7-readiness comes from the fans, that use dual ball-bearing and are designed to be less sensitive to dust. Arctic claims that the fans used are 5 times more durable than generic fans. Both are aluminum fin tower-type heatsinks that consist of U-shaped copper heat pipes that pass through a copper base, conveying heat to the arms that pass through the aluminum fin stack.

Measuring 134L x 96W x 159H mm, and weighing 893 g, the Freezer 13 Pro CO uses a 120 mm fan that spins at 300 - 1350 RPM, pushing 49.7 CFM of air through the heatsink. It also uses a 50 mm blower that sits on top of the CPU base, which resembles the blowers found in single-slot VGA coolers, it spins at speeds of 700 - 2700 RPM, blowing air in all directions, cooling the components around the CPU socket such as VRM, memory, and northbridge. It uses four copper heat pipes that pass through the heat fins in a uniform file. The Freezer 13 Pro CO is priced at US $58.32.

ViewSonic Intros New Budget LED Monitors

Display major ViewSonic announced three new monitors in Europe, the 19" VA1948m-LED, 21.5" VA2248-LED and 23.6" VA2448-LED. The VA1948m-LED features 16:10 aspect ratio, with native resolution of 1440x900 pixels; while the VA2248-LED and VA2448-LED are 16:9 full-HD monitors (1920x1080 pixels native resolution). All three feature LED-backlit panels with dynamic contrast ratios of 10,000,000:1, and 5 ms GTG response time. Available now, the VA1948m-LED, VA2248-LED, and VA2448-LED are priced at €119, €145, and €179.

SAPPHIRE Announces EDGE-HD2 Mini PC

Building on the success of its first Mini PC, hailed as the smallest PC in the world, SAPPHIRE Technology - the world leading manufacturer and supplier of PC graphics cards and mainboards has just introduced a new model - the SAPPHIRE EDGE-HD2. The SAPPHIRE EDGE-HD2 shares the same slim, stylish outline as the earlier model but delivers slightly higher performance and is now also available with a pre-loaded operating system. At less than half a litre in volume, it is slimmer and smaller than most wireless access points - in fact around the size of a paperback book! Its stylish design and simple pedestal mount make it equally at home next to a TV or business monitor whilst occupying the minimum of desk or shelf space.

TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.5.4 Released

TechPowerUp released the latest version of GPU-Z, our popular graphics hardware information and monitoring utility. Version 0.5.4 packs a large number of changes, beginning with faster start-up, support for the entire line of NVIDIA GeForce 500M series GPUs, new models of Intel Sandy Bridge processor graphics, a number of AMD Radeon HD 6000M series GPUs, improved support for AMD APUs, and a number of bug fixes.

GPU-Z has overcome the slow start-up issue on AMD Radeon GPUs, it loads slightly faster on NVIDIA GPUs, too. ROP count reading on AMD Radeon HD 6790, Turks & Whistler was fixed; along with sensor count on Caicos, Whistler, Turks. OpenCL detection on some NVIDIA drivers was fixed. The ability to read UMA-shared memory on AMD APU systems was added. GPU-Z has better ability to detect and warn of spurious graphics cards with faked IDs. GPU-Z 0.5.4 is available in both its standard form and the ASUS Republic of Gamers themed variant.

DOWNLOAD: GPU-Z 0.5.4 | GPU-Z 0.5.4 ASUS ROG Themed

A complete list of changes with this version follows.

MSI Debuts Dazzling CX480 Multimedia Notebook

MSI unveiled its new generation CX480 laptop, with your choice of black, white, or summery blue as well as MSI's own flat brush finish for an all-new youthfully chic exterior. The new color film print technology gives it character and natural refinement that make it stand out from the crowd. The CX480 is the perfect mobile companion when you're enjoying some summer rays.

Eric Kuo, associate vice president for global sales, MSI Notebook, points out that not only is the eye-catching CX480 NB ideal for outdoor use, it packs Intel's high performance second generation Core i processor and nVidia GeForce GT520M discrete graphics card with 1GB DDR3 display memory. In addition, the ALS and ECO technologies give it up to 8.5 hours of battery time per charge, perfect for individuals that don't always have electrical outlets nearby.

Lamptron Unveils FC9 Slider Type Fan Controller

Lamptron unveiled its latest internal case fan controller, the FC9. With this, Lamptron broke away from the rotary-knob styled speed control to a slider styled one. The FC9 lets you control up to four channels, each delivering up to 50W of power. The unit draws power from a standard 4-pin Molex connector. It measures 148.5 x 42.5 x 75 mm. It comes in two brushed aluminum bezel color options of black and silver. The LEDs colors are user-changeable between white, blue, green, cyan, red, purple, and yellow. Lamptron recommends users to have at least a 600W PSU to use this as intended. Pricing and market availability information was not given out.

FurMark Updated to Versions 1.8.5 and 1.9.1

The enthusiast community's favourite trial-by-fire for graphics cards, FurMark, has been updated to versions 1.8.5 and 1.9.1. Its developers maintain two branch versions of the program, since version 1.8 is popular, and 1.9 is the latest, bleeding-edge in the suite of stress test routines it has. FurMark is an OpenGL-based 3D graphics hardware stress-testing and benchmarking program. Its stress-testing functions are widely used to test stability of overclocked graphics hardware, and is dreaded by GPU manufacturers.

Version 1.8.5 is a maintenance release, which packs improved score submission, an updated number of window resolutions available, and improved graphics hardware detection using an updated ZoomGPU code. The FurMark 1.7 mode is removed. A bugfix filters the spikes in temperature graphs. Minimizing the window now can't be done in full-screen mode. Version 1.9.1, on the other hand, adds support for new AMD and NVIDIA GPUs with updated detection code, supports GPU-Z 0.5.1 and GPU Shark 0.5.1; added a workaround for a bug in AMD Catalyst GLSL compiler, which led to wrong lighting of the furry donut.

DOWNLOAD: FurMark 1.8.5 and 1.9.1
Tuesday, June 28th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Keyboards
Memory
Motherboards
Mousepads
NAS
Notebooks
PSUs
SSD
Sapphire HD 6450 1 GB Passive Review

Sapphire HD 6450 1 GB Passive Review

Sapphire's HD 6450 comes with a low-profile design, passive heatsink and native full-size HDMI. Together with AMD's UVD 3 video encode acceleration that provides excellent video decode capabilities this could well be your next HTPC card.

AOC Announces USB-Powered Full-HD Monitor

Display major AOC announced the USB-powered e2251wu monitor. This 21.5-inch monitor consumes so little power, that it draws it from a USB port. Even with so little resources, the monitor has a formidable specs sheet: 1920 x 1080 pixels native resolution, 1000:1 static contrast ratio, 200 cd/m² brightness, and 5 ms response time. The monitor can either by attached to its base, or incline on its arm. AOC is expected to release the e2251wu to the market in August.

ASRock Readies Z68 Fatal1ty Motherboard with PCI-Express 3.0 Slots

ASRock gave its premium LGA1155 motherboard lineup a boost with the new Z68 Fatal1ty. Apart from being a Z68 chipset based motherboard modeled along the lines of its predecessor, the ASRock P67 Fatal1ty, the new motherboard features PCI-Express 3.0 graphics slots, that work on Sandy Bridge and future Ivy Bridge processors. The new third generation PCI-E interconnect can drive 1 GB/s of data per link, per direction. You'll need PCI-E 3.0 compliant add-on cards to make use of that bandwidth, current graphics cards will run at Gen. 2 speeds. One advantage here could be that AMD Radeon HD 5000 and HD 6000 series single-GPU graphics cards will run on Gen 2.1 mode, which has slightly higher bandwidth at its disposal thanks to its lower-overhead data coding scheme.

The ASRock Z68 Fatal1ty is designed for both gamers and overclockers, using high-grade components. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 18-phase VRM, wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3-2133 MHz (Ivy Bridge IMC's optimal memory speed). Featuring Intel Flexible Display Interface (FDI), the board allows you to use the integrated graphics. With the Lucid Virtu technology, you can switch between the integrated graphics, and discrete graphics cards. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to Z68 PCH), and two each of PCI-E 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI.

NVIDIA Launches GeForce GTX 580M, The Fastest Notebook GPU Ever

NVIDIA today announced the world's fastest notebook graphics processing unit (GPU), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M. Available now in the Alienware M18x, the new GPU sets new standards in industry leading benchmarks and games. It will also be available soon in the Alienware M17x notebook along with NVIDIA Optimus technology.

"The best game support. The best gaming features. The best gaming performance available anywhere. That's the essence of the GeForce GTX 580M," said Rene Haas, general manager of notebook products at NVIDIA. "With power like this, you can turn all the knobs to 11."

Patriot Wildfire SSDs Deliver Enterprise-like Performance to Desktops and Notebooks

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash, storage and enthusiast computer products, today announced it is now shipping their new Wildfire series solid-state drives powered by a new SandForce SSD processor. The Patriot Wildfire series obliterates expectations of storage devices and delivers enterprise-like performance to consumer desktops and notebooks.

The Wildfire series utilizes the new SandForce SF-2200 processor enabling it to shatter previous SSD performance records with up to a blazingly-fast 555 MB/s sequential read and up to 520 MB/s sequential write speeds all backed by a SATA 6.0 Gb/s interface.

Club 3D Announces New Version of GeForce GTX 560 Ti CoolStream OC Edition

Club 3D B.V. brings another GeForce GTX 560 Ti CoolStream OC Edition card to market. This new Club 3D GeForce GTX 560 Ti CoolStream OC Edition features the award winning CoolStream thermal solution. Three pure copper, 6 mm diameter thick heatpipes, ensuring an efficient temperature dissipation. In addition to the high quality heatpipes, two big 92 mm temperature controlled fans, provide a dramatically improved airflow (54CFM) compared to the standard GTX 560 Ti design (35CFM).

No need to upgrade to an expensive third party cooler, CoolStream is all you need. The Club 3D GeForce GTX 560 Ti CoolStream OC Edition comes factory overclocked with 880 MHz GPU clock speed offering on average 10% better performance compared to the standard GTX 560 Ti design. The card is already available in the shops and should cost around USD 289 ex VAT.

GIGABYTE Rolls Out A75 Motherboards For AMD Llano A8 and A6 APUs

GIGABYTE TECHNOLGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched its latest series of motherboards supporting the new AMD A75 series chipsets, and the latest AMD A-Series APUs (codenamed Llano) that are set to take the world by storm with the best graphics performance ever seen on an onboard graphicsprocessor. GIGABYTE A75 based motherboards offer DIY PC builders and integrators a new world of 3D and multimedia performance with the most scalable, and best value upgrade path imaginable.

"At GIGABYTE, we are delighted to bring to market this new and exciting motherboard range, delivering our renowned durability and exceptional feature support to AMD's ground breaking APU technology," commented Henry Kao, VP of Worldwide Service and Marketing at GIGABYTE. "As well as bringing AMD A-Series technology to DIY users who demand excellent gaming and multimedia performance on a budget, these motherboards also offer a compelling upgrade path that includes Dual Graphics configurations."

Sony Announces New VAIO-Z Series, Ultimate Performance and Design

Weighing little over a kilogram, the new VAIO Z Series notebook PC from Sony is created for mobile professionals who demand absolute performance and portability. VAIO Z blends ultra-desirable styling and premium carbon fibre with no-compromise specifications and innovative productivity features. In the office or on the road, this class-leading business notebook helps demanding users work more efficiently with the ultimate in on-the-move computing power.

All-new VAIO Z takes cutting-edge styling by Sony to new extremes, with a 'full flat' body and display lid that are crafted in tough, ultra-light carbon fibre. At just below 1.2kg and 16.65mm slim, the new VAIO Z is the perfect partner for business travellers who demand ultimate power with less to carry.

EVGA Also Rolls Out Frostbite Thermal Interface Material

After treating the gaming community to some groovy mousepads, EVGA turned its attention to the overclocking community, with the new Frostbite thermal interface material (TIM). This white, silver-based TIM has a thermal conductivity of 6.5w/m-k, and is said to be less viscous than other silver-based TIMs. EVGA is pitching it for use in bleeding-edge overclocking setups, with sub-zero cooling solutions. EVGA even got renowned overclocker K|ngp|n to endorse it, saying that the Frostbite TIM is easy to apply and holds on longer during extreme bench sessions. Available in 2 g syringes, the EVGA Frostbite TIM is priced at US $9.99.

EVGA Intros Trio of Gaming Mousepads

EVGA solidified its gamer-centric image by rolling out a trio of gaming mousepads. All three are essentially of the same size and specs, but differ with the graphic on the surface. The three are "XL" sized (14" x 10.25" or 35.5 cm x 26 cm). All three have the same rigid/metal-coated surface that provides low friction, meaning that it's is a speed-centric surface. A non-slip rubberized base provides traction with whatever is below. As for the designs, the first one is dedicated to the EVGA Gaming Community (EGC), and shows a shield surrounded by all sorts of gun barrels; next is a plain EVGA Gaming logo with a pattern in the background; the third design is of a tactical shooter background with "Pwnage" in the foreground. All three are priced at US $14.99 at the company's online store.
Monday, June 27th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Chipsets
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Motherboards
Mouse
PSUs
Sound Cards
SSD
Storage
Enermax SpineRex Review

Enermax SpineRex Review

The SpineRex is the latest, full tower chassis from Enermax. Taking its name from the top spine cover, we dig deeper to see if the cool, multi-mode and multi-LED fans are trying to draw your focus away from something, or if they are the triumphant sights of a cool chassis.

Acer Debuts AC700 Chromebook

Acer America today debuts the Acer AC700 its first Chromebook in the United States and its first product running Google's Chrome-based operating system. The Acer AC700 ultraportable delivers blazing boot times and instant access to the Internet.

The first in a planned line of products that will utilize Google's Chrome operating system, the Acer AC700 Chromebook is ideal for savvy mobile consumers, educational institutions, and business people that spend most of their time on the Internet for cloud computing such as using web-based email, uploading photos to sites like Flickr and Picasa, and keeping up-to-date on the latest news and events. The new Acer AC700 provides WiFi connectivity, a sleek thin and light form factor, long battery life and excellent HD playback.

LaCie and Porsche Design Introduce New Generation of Hard Drives

Porsche Design Group (Porsche Lizenz- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG) and LaCie announce the latest technology to join the luxury brand's exclusive P'9000 electronics category: the LaCie Porsche Design Mobile (P'9220) and Desktop (P'9230) Hard Drives. The new storage accessories represent cutting-edge USB 3.0 technology, sleek aluminium frame, and purist design.

Since 2003, LaCie and Porsche Design have worked closely to deliver products that are technically inspired, delivering flawless functionality in its purest form. The luxury brand and the leading technology company complement the other, with technical influence from LaCie, together with an exclusive and timeless shape presented by Porsche Design.

Crytek Makes Slurpy Eye-Candy out of Crysis 2 with DirectX 11 Update

Crytek today delivered on its promise to the PC gaming community by giving Crysis 2 a potent dose of updates that enables jaw-dropping new graphics and eye-candy on capable PCs equipped with DirectX 11 graphics cards. The updates consist of a primary patch, version 1.9, that lets you install the DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade (free DLC), and the optional High Resolution Texture Pack (another free DLC).

The DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade brings with it redone maps, objects and models that are enhanced with Tessellation and displacement mapping, that greatly increases geometric detail. Next, is a suite of new lighting effects that DirectX 10 and 11 introduced, including higher quality HDR motion blur, and DirectX 11 depth of field with Bokeh shapes. To install the DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade, your Crysis 2 installation must be patched to version 1.9, and the PC must have a DirectX 11 compatible graphics card.

DOWNLOAD: Crysis 2 Patch v1.9 | Crysis 2 DirectX 11 Upgrade Pack* | Crysis 2 High-Res Texture Pack**install patch 1.9 first

Enermax Announces U.R.Vegas USB Rubber-Frame Fan

ENERMAX is proud to lead the cooling fans to a new era by its latest fan series: U.R.VEGAS, USB RUBBER VEGAS FAN. Think outside the case. Cooling fan is no longer stationary and hidden inside the case. U.R.VEGAS breaks the rule by special designed magnetic skin pad and USB power. U.R.VEGAS provides mobility and flexibility with its magnetic skin pad.

It can be attached onto case and moved easily to anywhere that needs extra cooling. With 18 LEDs, the U.R.VEGAS not only shines 4 times brighter than other fans, but also has 7 switchable lighting effects for users to enjoy the fabulous light show.

MSI Rolls Out GT780 High-Performance Gaming Notebook

MSI has finally rolled out the GT780-the dream machine long awaited by gamers worldwide. It packs the Intel Core i7-2630QM quad-core processor with core speeds of 2.00GHz and NVIDIA's new generation GeForce GTX 560M discrete graphics card. It boasts 1.5GB GDDR5 of high-end, large-capacity display memory for superior performance that greatly enhances game realism for the ultimate gaming experience.

Eric Kuo, associate vice president for global sales, MSI Notebook, explains that the GT780 gaming notebook comes equipped with a gaming keyboard crafted by SteelSeries. It is not only much more rugged, the Windows Start key was relocated to the right side of the keyboard and the Ctrl and Alt keys enlarged to make it harder to strike the wrong keys in the heat of battle. The GT780's keyboard features the latest LED backlighting technology. Simply depress the Gaming Mode hotkey above the keyboard to light up just the left side of the keyboard. The rest of the keyboard remains dark, allowing you to find the gaming keys quickly when the bullets are flying.

MSI Announces A75MA-G55 Military Class Socket FM1 Mainboard

World famous mainboard and graphic card manufacturer MSI today officially announces their brand new AMD A75-Series mainboard A75MA-G55 with Military Class II components to equip the mainboard with the best quality and highest stability. The amazing graphical performance of the A-Series APUs is complimented by the implementation of USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s ports to give the fastest performance when you're playing games, video editing, transferring files from mobile devices. With support for HDMI, DVI and 7.1 channel audio, the A75MA-G55 in its small MicroATX form factor is the perfect choice whether it is as a complete and powerful desktop PC or a versatile and efficient HTPC. MSI's A75MA-G55 is truly the best choice in high quality, high performance and high convenience.

Core i7-980 Released at US $583

As reported last week, Intel released its new Core i7-980 six-core processor to the retail channel. The new chip is priced at US $583 in 1000-unit tray quantities, displacing the Core i7-970 from this exact price point it previously held. It is expected that the i7-970 could eventually become cheaper while the platform is still in the market. The Core i7-980 is a socket LGA1366 six-core processor based on the 32 nm "Westmere" silicon. It is clocked at 3.33 GHz, with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 3.60 GHz. Unlike the Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, this chip has an upwards locked BClk multiplier, and its QPI link runs at 4.80 GT/s instead of 6.40 GT/s on the 980X Extreme Edition. As a trade off, the new chip is a little over half the price of the 980X Extreme Edition, which retailed for around US $999.

AMD Will Not Endorse SYSmark 2012 Benchmark, Separates from Association with BAPCo

AMD today announced that it will not endorse the SYSmark 2012 Benchmark (SM2012), which is published by BAPCo (Business Applications Performance Corporation). Along with the withdrawal of support, AMD has resigned from the BAPCo organization.

"Technology is evolving at an incredible pace, and customers need clear and reliable measurements to understand the expected performance and value of their systems," said Nigel Dessau, senior vice president and Chief Marketing Officer at AMD. "AMD does not believe SM2012 achieves this objective. Hence AMD cannot endorse or support SM2012 or remain part of the BAPCo consortium."

Prolimatech Intros Megahalems Black Series CPU Heatsink

Prolimatech released a new variant of its iconic Megahalems CPU heatsink, called the Black Series Megahalems. With the same exact dimensions as the original at 130 x 158.7 x 74 mm (LxWxH), the new variant uses black colored aluminum fins. The coating doesn't make for a polished, glossy surface, but a grainy one, which increases surface area. The design remains the same: six nickel-plated copper heat pipes pass through a base, conveying heat to two aluminum fin stacks that are arranged along each arm of the U-shape the heat pipes make. The Black Series Megahalems is compatible with all the current CPU socket types, including AMD AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2; Intel LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA1366, and LGA775. The Prolimatech Megahalems Black Series is listed on Caseking.de for €54.90.

Gigabyte Intros Rev. 2.0 of its GeForce GTX 560 Ti SuperOverclock Graphics Card

Gigabyte released a new revision of its GeForce GTX 560 Ti SuperOverclock graphics card. The new revision features a better (quieter) cooler, it retains the clock speeds of the original GTX 560 Ti SOC. The new cooler uses a similar, if not identical heatsink as the one in the original's cooler, with a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is conveyed by copper heat pipes. Unlike the original, the new cooler uses bigger inclined fans that deliver the same air flow at lower speeds, ending up being quieter.

That aside, the Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti SuperOverclock features clock speeds of 950 MHz core, 1900 MHz CUDA cores, and 1002 MHz (4008 MHz effective) GDDR5 memory. There is 1 GB of memory spread over a 256-bit wide memory interface, churning out roughly 128 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Gigabyte's in-house PCB uses Ultra Durable VGA+ construction, with 2 oz copper layer board, power-conditioning NEC Tokin Proadlizer, hand-picked GPU and memory chips, Japanese solid-state capacitors, ferrite core choke, and low RDS (on) MOSFETs. The card takes power from two 6-pin power connectors, display outputs include two DVI and one mini-HDMI. Expect the new revision to carry a similar price tag as the original, around US $260.
Saturday, June 25th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
CPU Coolers
Desktop PC
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Memory
Motherboards
Processors
SSD
Storage

Super Talent Announces TeraDrive PT3 Solid State Drive

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced their next generation SSD, the TeraDrive PT3.
Featuring the SandForce 2200 processor, SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and Double Data Rate, ONFiTM flash, the new TeraDrive PT3 offers a significant leap in performance over drives offered just a few months ago. The union of these 3 new technologies has forever changed the storage landscape. Right out of the gate, this new generation SSD stretches well within the new found bandwidth promised by the SATA 3.0 bus and breaks the 500MB/s barrier in both Read and Write scores. The comparisons between SSDs and HDDs just became a little harder to justify.

The only SSD processor to compress data before writing, SandForce's unique set of technologies enables the new TeraDrive PT3 to offer enhanced performance, flash durability and data integrity. Add to that the introduction of ONFi, double data rate flash, and the SATA 6 Gb/s interface, and we have one of the largest incremental leaps in performance that the storage market has ever seen.
Friday, June 24th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Memory
Motherboards
Mouse
Mousepads
NAS
PSUs
SSD
Corsair Professional Series HX1050 Review

Corsair Professional Series HX1050 Review

At Computex 2011 Corsair revealed a new model for the Professional HX series, the HX1050 which will replace the successful HX1000. The OEM remained the same, Channel Well Technology, the capacity increased by 50 W and efficiency remained at 80 Plus Silver. It seems like this PSU has what it takes to be a cost-effective alternative to the Corsair AX1200.

Scythe Releases Third Edition of Mugen CPU Cooler Series

Japanese cooling expert Scythe is announcing today the successor of popular Mugen 2 CPU Cooler. Mugen 2 CPU Cooler was awarded many times and is well known world-wide to mainstream users, Overclocker and Enthusiasts. During the development process main focus was set on improvement of performance and mounting mechanism as well as shrinking the heatsink dimensions. New Mugen 3 CPU Cooler is ready to take on the legacy.

While optimizing the performance the whole heatsink design of Mugen 3 CPU Cooler was re-worked which resulted in creation the improved fin-structure M.A.P.S. (Multiple Airflow Pass-Through Structure). Enhancements were achieved by reducing the aerodynamic resistance as well as improving of the overall heatsink stability. Furthermore Mugen 3 is equipped with total of six high-quality copper-heatpipes where the predecessor had only five. Typical for Scythe is the excellently processed and flat surface of the copper base which was refined by a thin nickel layer to prevent corrosion.

ASUS Announces New F1A75 Series Motherboards

ASUS today announced the launch of their new AMD A75 chipset-based F1A75 Series motherboards. Designed specially to optimize performance for the AMD Llano APUs, the F1A75 Series motherboards have exceptional overclocking capability for the versatile APU with a variety of integrated graphics built directly on the same die. This new series is also equipped with the latest ASUS-exclusive technologies and features, including the Dual Intelligent Processors 2 (DIP2) with DIGI+ VRM for precise power control, a graphical and mouse-controlled UEFI BIOS and the easy-to-use auto tuning for better performance.

AMD Gives Names to Dual-GPU Configurations Between APUs and Discrete GPUs

Years ago, AMD's integrated graphics chipsets offered users the ability to pair integrated graphics processors with entry-level discrete graphics cards to work in tandem, and increased performance ideally by 50%, this technology was called Hybrid CrossFire. With the latest AMD A-Series APUs, AMD is packing much more powerful GPU components, and in the process, giving users the ability to pair the GPU component with a discrete graphics card. In the discrete graphics sphere, AMD CrossFireX already allows the pairing between two graphics cards that use the same ASIC, even if they're different models (for example, you can pair a Radeon HD 5770 with a HD 5750).

The GPU component inside A-Series APUs are essentially similar to lower mid-range discrete GPUs from AMD's current generation, in having 400, 320, or 240 stream processors, giving you the ability to pair them with discrete graphics cards based on Turks (HD 6500 and HD 6600 series) or Caicos (HD 6300 and HD 6400 series). Unlike with Hybrid CrossFireX, AMD gave marketing names to the resulting dual-GPU setup between an APU and a discrete GPU. For example, pairing an A8-3850's APU with a discrete Radeon HD 6670 GDDR5 will give you a configuration "called" Radeon HD 6990D2. We see what you did there, AMD. So the next time you're buying a pre-assembled PC and you see "HD 6990D2" in the specs sheet, and the entire PC is priced under $800, you have no reason to jump through the roof in joy. Refer to the table below for more amazing configuration names.

LaCie Announces CloudBox Secure Local+Cloud Storage Device

LaCie announced the first implementation of hybrid storage technology by combining the best of local and secure online storage - LaCie CloudBox. When you store data on the CloudBox, it is also backed up in the Cloud - ensuring your data is always safe, secure and accessible.

With the CloudBox you don't have to worry about backing up in multiple places, it has double protection built-in. The CloudBox ensures your data is backed up on a local hard drive and again in the cloud. Having double protection means you no longer have to worry about your data.

Enermax Intros MaxRevo High-Wattage PSUs

Enermax announced two new high power PSUs that are compliant with the 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating, under the MaxRevo series. It includes 1350W and 1500W models. The two are designed for gaming PCs with four graphics cards, a ton of hard drives, and possibly even a dual-socket workstation. The MaxRevo PSUs use Copper-Bridge Array transmission technology that is claimed to deliver a 'cleaner' DC output. The 12V circuit is spread across six rails, and is backed by eight kinds of protection circuitry.

The PSU makes use of high magnetic power density transformer, 105°C Japanese electrolytic capacitors, and is cooled by a 139 mm twister-bearing fan that spins between 900 and 2000 RPM. The receptacle features CordGuard, which firmly secures the AC cord, while the fan-controller features HeatGuard, a feature that keeps the fan spinning even after system shutdown, to cool components down. The MaxRevo 1350W is priced at €344.90, and the MaxRevo 1500W goes for €379.90.
Thursday, June 23rd 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
CPU Coolers
Game Controllers
Graphics Cards
Input Devices
Motherboards
Netbooks
Notebooks
Processors
PSUs
Speakers
SSD

New 36-inch Monitor From EIZO Packs 4096 x 2160 Pixels Resolution

With the current consumer PC display standard positively, definitely stagnated at 1920x1080 TV resolution, primed for Blu-ray movies and Xbox games modified for PC, the launch of every new PC monitor that crosses the 1080p mark is met with some celebrations. Display major EIZO's latest such creation is the 36-inch DuraVision FDH3601. This display sports a native resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels.

The monitor likely uses a Sharp ASV panel with 170° viewing angles. Regardless, it's 10-bit, supporting 1.07 billion colors, is CCFL-illuminated with maximum brightness of 700 cd/m², and has 1000:1 static contrast ratio. The monitor also packs the Digital Uniformity Corrector (DUE), a feature EIZO has been working on for the last few years, that ensures perfect light homogeneity. Slated for a September 7, 2011 release in Japan, the EIZO DuraVision FDH3601 is priced at US $36,000.

Panasonic Updates Toughbook CF-C1 Feature-Set, Performance, Battery Life

Panasonic today unveiled a series of upgrades to the mk2 version of the Toughbook CF-C1, the business rugged and lightweight notebook that can be used in clamshell or tablet form. The device, which is ideal for mobile workers such as field healthcare workers, sales forces and market researchers, has been upgraded with more processing power, memory and a faster wireless module.

The Toughbook CF-C1mk2 uses the latest generation Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz) for increased performance and the Intel HD 3000 graphics for enhanced multimedia capabilities. RAM memory has also been raised to 4 gigabyte with a 320 gigabyte hard disk drive as standard configuration.

Apacer Announces ARES DDR3-2133 MHz Dual Channel Memory Kits for Overclocking

Apacer, one of the world's leading brands of memory modules, today announced an expansion of its ARES overclocking memory series with high capacity and clock rate: DDR3-2133 8GB (4GBx2) dual channel memory kit,which is engineered for the latest Intel P67 and Z68 Sandy Bridge platforms. With a combination of high clock rate, huge capacity and low latency of CL9, ARES series is a perfect solution for extreme PC enthusiasts and gamers who want to optimize performance on the new platforms.

The newly-unveiled ARES DDR3-2133 8GB dual channel memory kit provides the highspeed and capacityon the Intel P67 and Z68 Sandy Bridge platforms and is backwards compatible with existing the P55 platform. It runs at CL9-11-9-27 with 1.65 voltage, using advancedprocess 256Mb x 8chips, which are screened and tested withthe advanced test fixture and programs under diversified parameters of voltage and time sequences.

Stunning Ultra-Portable U36 Notebook Launches in the UK

The nanometer-coated ASUS U36 is the world's thinnest notebook with standard voltage Intel Core i5 processor. The U36 notebook is the world's thinnest laptop to harness the power of a standard voltage Intel Core i5 processor, giving you the freedom to stay light and connected on the move without compromising on mobile performance.

ASUS Super Hybrid Engine (with the ability to switch off USB 3.0 functionality) combined with NVIDIA graphics and Optimus technology saves power for when it's needed most to deliver an incredible 11.5 hours battery life.

Gigabyte Reshuffles Executive Positions to Fix Motherboard Shipments Decline

While motherboard major Gigabyte Technology saw rather stable motherboard shipments performance in the first half of 2011 compared to rival ASUS, it has noted a shipments decline, and has ordered a rearrangement of two of its executives holding the positions of R&D and sales. The two had been swapped to other positions in January, expecting its executive swap strategy would help further boost its R&D and sales ability, but the result has turned out differently. With the two returned to their original positions, Gigabyte hopes to return to competition with ASUS in the second half of 2011.

Buffalo Intros 1 TB MiniStation Portable Hard Drive

Buffalo Technology announced a new portable hard drive with 1 TB capacity, the MiniStation HD-PCT1TU2. The drive connects to the system over a USB 2.0 connection, drawing power from it. It measures 77 x 14 x 114 mm, weighing in at just 165 g. The bundled eCo Manager software can help reduce its power consumption by spinning down the drive when idling; there's also software included for data backup and data encryption. The drive is available in piano black (glossy) and pearl white (also glossy). Backed by a 1 year warranty, the Buffalo MiniStation 1 TB HD-PCT1TU2 is priced at US $169.

Turbo Core Equipped Phenom II X4 Chips Sold in Japan

When AMD was giving final touches to its desktop six-core processors, the Phenom II X6 series, there was also talk of a new quad-core processor line based on the same six-core Thuban silicon, but with two cores disabled. The resulting silicon was codenamed "Zosma". Apart from the two "potentially" unlockable cores, Zosma brought to table AMD's Turbo Core technology, which dynamically overclocks two of the four cores beyond the chip's rated speed, while respecting the chip's stock TDP value. The Phenom II X4 960T, one of the first such chips, however, never made it to the market, AMD shelved Zosma.

Market hounds in Japan recently spotted stocks of "Zosma" Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition, thought to have been shelved until now. This quad-core chip with unlocked BClk multipler comes with the part number HD96ZTWFK4DGR, and is sold in PIB (processor in a box) packages. The chip was tested to allow unlocking of the disabled fifth and sixth cores, proving it's based on the Zosma silicon. It comes with a stock clock speed of 3.00 GHz (15x 200 MHz), but can bump clock speeds up to 3.40 GHz (17x 200 MHz). The chip features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 6 MB of shared L3 cache.

PCI Takes on Thunderbolt, Big Worries for its Promoters

Did you know what lies behind the USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt controller? It's of course the bus that connects it to the rest of the system, PCI-Express. It is the 500 MB/s per lane interconnect that is indirectly responsible for the awesome bandwidth that today's plug and play interfaces such as eSATA 6 Gb/s, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt 10 Gb/s enjoy. What if you could eliminate the protocol overhead that comes with any of those protocols, and make PCI-Express directly an interconnect? So thought the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG), the body that decides the fate of PCI. The SIG is planning to create a cabled version of PCI-Express Gen 3, that has no secondary protocol overhead, not even of the kind Infiniband has.

A single PCI-Express 3.0 lane can provide 8 Gbps (1 GB/s) of bandwidth in each direction, the new cabled interconnect can supply bandwidth of four Gen 3 lanes, totaling 32 Gbps, over three times that of the current version of Thunderbolt. Apart from that bandwidth, cabled PCI-E will be designed to supply 20W of power to its devices, plenty of power for even a small 3-bay HDD rack. The connector itself will be designed to be very compact and flat, so it can be fitted into notebooks and tablets. PCI SIG plans to have the first specifications of cabled PCI-Express ready before June 2013. By 2013, Intel will be about 2 years away from releasing its proposed 50 Gbps version of Thunderbolt, but even then, Thunderbolt is an additional protocol that sits over the system bus (again, PCI-Express), unless Intel designs Thunderbolt controllers to somehow talk to CPU over QPI.
Wednesday, June 22nd 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Harddisks
Headphones
Keyboards
Memory
Motherboards
Mouse
Processors
PSUs
SSD
Cooler Master GX 650W Bronze Review

Cooler Master GX 650W Bronze Review

Recently, Cooler Master released their new GX Gold Series. The two most significant improvements of the new models are the change of the OEM from Seventeam to Enhance and the upgraded efficiency from 80 Plus to 80 Plus Bronze. The test subject of today’s review will be the CM GX650W Bronze, which offers similar specs as the previous model but sports the popular 80Plus Bronze certification.

G-Technology Delivers G-CONNECT Wireless Storage for Apple iPad with Internet

Known for delivering premium external storage solutions engineered to meet the needs of the Apple Mac community, G-Technology by Hitachi today introduced its G-CONNECT wireless storage solution, the first in a family of products providing instant, wireless storage and 802.11n WiFi Internet access for your Apple iPad, iPhone and many other mobile devices. The G-CONNECT solution provides on-the-go wireless access to content that's not already loaded on your iOS devices, including your favorite movies, music, books, photos and documents. No Internet connection is required. G-CONNECT provides access to five+ simultaneous devices, depending on the workload, and supports up to five SD or three HD video streams at once.

When connected via Ethernet to a network, the G-CONNECT drive becomes your own personal cloud or WiFi Internet access point, allowing you to surf and stream content, wirelessly, at the same time. Access and view content on the G-CONNECT solution with a mobile iOS app, which will be available in the App Store, or through your browser. Android devices are also supported with access through a web browser, with native apps available this fall.

I-O Data Intros New 20-inch Display with Hardened Glass Panel

I-O Data unveiled its latest PC display, the LCD-AD202XW-P. This 20-inch CCFL-illuminated widescreen uses a hardened glass panel that is resistant to scratches and fingerprints while continuing to have a glossy surface. With an aspect ratio of 16:9, the panel features a native resolution of 1600x900 pixels, 250 cd/m² maximum brightness, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, and response time of 5 ms. It takes input from DVI and D-Sub connectors. Other features include an Eco Mode that can bring about power savings of up to 42%; and 1W stereo speakers. Backed by a 3 year warranty, the I-O Data LCD-AD202XW-P is priced at $495.

Club 3D Introduces its Radeon HD 6870 X2 Graphics Card

Club 3D B.V. introduces the world first HD 6870 Dual GPU video card. The new Club 3D Radeon HD 6870 X2 2GB GDDR5 is the product that a gamer should look for nowadays. Offering on average 19% better performance in comparison to the best single GPU video card and now even more affordable, there is no other product in the market with a better price-performance ratio.

The Club 3D Radeon HD 6870 X2 features the award winning CoolStream thermal solution and is bundled with the latest DirectX 11 Dirt 3. This card will be in the shops worldwide in the first week of July. Recommended enduser price excluding VAT is USD 469.

PowerColor Releases Radeon HD 6870 X2 2 GB Graphics Card

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announces the very first dual GPU solution with BART XT graphics engine: the PowerColor HD6870X2. Powered by dual graphics engine, the PowerColor HD6870X2 delivers ground-breaking performance against the competitors and takes the game to the next level, enabling an unprecedented gaming experience you've never felt before.

The PowerColor HD6870X2 has 2240 stream processing units and 4.03 teraFLOP's of computing power, easily accelerating the gaming speed and maximizing the gaming power with 900MHz core speed and 1050MHz memory speed, fully tackling the most demanding game titles and allows the amazing gaming experience.

Silicon Power Announces Stream S20 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

Silicon Power today announces their ultra capacity 2.5inch USB 3.0 Stream S20 1TB external hard disk drive. It further strengthens powerful Stream Series of SP External Hard Drives. SP Stream S20 design concept comes from high-performance sports car. Front side of Stream S20 resembles sports car's low wind shear design as well as top and back-end. From any side Stream S20 displays its powerful performance. Metallic purple paint demonstrates its luxurious style and at the same time declares its superiority.

Arctic Announces Accelero Twin Turbo II Universal VGA Cooler with G-1 Thermal Glue

Arctic released a new version of its iconic universal graphics card cooler, the Accelero Twin Turbo II. The cooler can handle thermal loads of up to 160W, and now comes bundled with the G-1 Thermal Adhesive, letting you install the included memory and VRM heatsinks without any thermal pads/tape. Measuring 217 (L) x 122 (W) x 53 (H) mm and weighing around 900 g, the Accelero Twin Turbo II is a performance VGA cooler that uses a large heat pipe-fed aluminum fin array that's ventilated by two 92 mm fluid dynamic bearing, PWM-controlled fans that spin between 1000~2000 RPM. The cooler supports nearly all single-GPU graphics cards. It is priced at €44.54 in Europe and $63.32 in the US (excl. taxes).

Crucial Further Expands Gaming Line With New Ballistix Tactical and Ballistix Elite

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today announced two product line additions to its highly successful Ballistix high-performance memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical and Crucial Ballistix Elite lines. Building on the recent successful launch of the Crucial Ballistix Sport memory, these new product lines create a comprehensive high-performance memory portfolio addressing the needs of a broad range of users across performance memory segments.

Whether casual enthusiast or hardcore gamer, the expanded Ballistix portfolio now provides a distinct choice of performance memory solutions and is available in a variety of speeds and densities, along with differentiated product features. The complete line of Ballistix memory features a new logo treatment and updated heat spreader designs, as well as a full range of products from low latency DDR2-800MHz up to high-speed DDR3-2133MHz. Additionally, 4GB densities will be available in DDR3-1600MHz, -1866MHz, and -2000MHz modules.

KMI Announces SoftStep KeyWorx Multi-Touch Foot-Operated Input Device

Keith McMillen Instruments (KMI) announced today the SoftStep KeyWorx multi-touch foot controller, the world's first foot controlled digital interface, providing a new and faster way to operate a computer. Available for Mac and Windows, SoftStep KeyWorx is a valuable new tool for everyone using a computer, from gamers, video editors, programmers, data entry professionals, disabled people, repetitive stress syndrome sufferers, and anyone who wants a faster way to use their computer.

Club 3D Announces SenseVision Product Line

Club 3D introduces an exciting new way to enjoy multiple displays at home or at the office. With an existing usb port, now you can plug a new display with either a notebook or a desktop PC that are both Windows and Mac compatible and is HD ready.

Club 3D will be implementing first the CSV-2000D, an USB 2.0 to DVI model that supports a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1152. Easy installation with the convenience adding multiple monitors/screens to your existing computer SenseVision will truly expand your display possibilities. A second model, the CSV-2000H, an USB 2.0 to HDMI supports a maximum resolution of 1920 by 1200, which is HDMI 1.3 compliant and offers embedded HDMI audio support.
Tuesday, June 21st 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Chipsets
Cooling
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Keyboards
Memory
Motherboards
Mouse
Multimedia
Networking
Notebooks
PSUs
SSD
Storage
Head-Direct HiFiMAN HE-500 Headphones Review

Head-Direct HiFiMAN HE-500 Headphones Review

Headphone producer Head-Direct seems unstoppable when it comes to releasing new orthodynamic based headphones. The newest arrival is named HE-500 and slots in between the HE-5LEs and the HE-6s. New for the HE-500s is a special driver setup that allows for much higher efficiency.

Lian Li Announces the PC-A05FN ATX Mid-Tower PC Case

Lian Li Industrial Co. Ltd, maker of high-end, all-aluminum computer chassis since 1983, today releases an all-aluminum, high-end, mid-tower PC case available in silver or black called the PC-A05FN. With their commitment to optimizing instead of merely following convention, Lian Li's designers have positioned the PSU mount behind the front-panel at the base of the case, directly below the HDD cage. This unique design characteristic is complimented by a reversal of Lian Li's traditional front-to-back cooling scheme in order to achieve an increase in heat-dissipation within the PC-A05FN while reducing chassis size. With its chic and clean design, this computer case proudly bears all the markings of Lian Li's high-quality products and fits nicely into their list of outstanding 2011 releases.

OCZ Technology Introduces Deneva 2 SSDs for the Enterprise

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today launched the Deneva 2 SSD line for enterprise clients. Taking full advantage of the cutting-edge SATA 6Gb/s interface, Deneva 2 SSDs are designed for a wide range of enterprise applications including servers, cloud computing, and data centers. The Deneva 2 series delivers maximum performance while meeting the stringent reliability, security, performance and economical needs of enterprise storage environments.

"Data centers are one application where the speed benefits of a fast SSD visibly fall straight to a company's bottom line," said SSD analyst Jim Handy of Objective Analysis. "This has driven the enterprise to be the fastest-growing market for SSDs - Objective Analysis forecasts for enterprise SSD unit shipments to grow at an average annual rate of 83 percent, nearly doubling every year."

ZOTAC Announces GeForce GTX 550 Ti Multiview Graphics Card

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today expands the GeForce Multiview line-up with the addition of the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 550 Ti Multiview. The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 550 Ti Multiview is the latest mainstream graphics card capable of delivering a seamless triple-display computing experience.

"ZOTAC believes multi-monitor computing is the future of desktop computing. Triple displays are the sweet spot where productivity and the gaming experience drastically improves without overwhelming users with too many monitors," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "With our latest ZOTAC GeForce GTX 550 Ti Multiview, we are able to deliver a quality visual experience that combines Microsoft DirectX 11 compatibility, NVIDIA CUDA technology and triple simultaneous displays at a mainstream price point."

Intel Core i7-980 Hits Stores on June 26

Intel's newest socket LGA1366 processor, the Core i7-980, will reach stores by June 26. The i7-980 (BX80613I7980), is a non-XE variant of Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, it has its BClk multiplier locked at 25.0x. The six-core chip features a nominal clock speed of 3.33 GHz, which can jump to 3.60 GHz with Turbo Boost technology. Unlike with the Extreme edition, the i7-980 uses 4.8 GT/s QPI speed. With HyperThreading technology enabled, the chip provides the operating system with 12 logical CPUs to deal with. The chip features 256 KB of dedicated L2 cache per core, and a shared 12 MB L3 cache. It holds a massive triple-channel DDR3 memory controller. The Core i7-980 is expected to be priced at US $583, displacing the Core i7-970 from that price-point.

ADATA Announces First Shipments of S511 Solid State Drive

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today announced the first shipments of its highly anticipated S511 solid state drive (SSD). ADATA is hardly a newcomer to the SSD field; however the S511 is the company's first foray into the latest SATA 6 Gb/sec specification that employs the SandForce SF-2200 series controller. The timing of this release is consistent with the company's historical balance of speed and thorough testing of new technologies.

According to YJ Choi, Senior Vice President at ADATA. "ADATA does comprehensive testing and review before bringing products to market, to ensure that our customers enjoy a worry-free experience for their systems and data. We are confident that the S511 will provide dependable performance at industry-leading transfer speeds."

Intel Equipped to Lead Industry to Era of Exascale Computing

At the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), Kirk Skaugen, Intel Corporation vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group, outlined the company's vision to achieve ExaFLOP/s performance by the end of this decade. An ExaFLOP/s is quintillion computer operations per second, hundreds times more than today's fastest supercomputers.

Reaching exascale levels of performance in the future will not only require the combined efforts of industry and governments, but also approaches being pioneered by the Intel Many Integrated Core (Intel MIC) Architecture, according to Skaugen. Managing the explosive growth in the amount of data shared across the Internet, finding solutions to climate change, managing the growing costs of accessing resources such as oil and gas, and a multitude of other challenges require increased amounts of computing resources that only increasingly high-performing supercomputers can address.

EVGA Doubles Memory on GeForce GTX 570

EVGA released a new non-reference design graphics card based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (part: 025-P3-1579-AR), boasting of twice the memory amount, at 2560 MB (2.5 GB). The 2.5 GB of GDDR5 memory is installed over a 320-bit wide memory interface, with a memory clock speed of 950 MHz (3.80 GHz effective), providing a memory bandwidth of 152 GB/s. The added memory could improve performance on HD gaming with 120 Hz refresh-rates (for flicker-free stereo 3D). The core is clocked at 732 MHz, with the 480 CUDA cores running at 1464 MHz. The card uses EVGA's in-house design GF110 PCB, that is shorter than NVIDIA's reference design. Its cooler resembles that of the GTX 560 Ti, and is designed to be quieter. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort. EVGA's GTX 570 HD 2.5 GB is priced at US $399.99 at EVGA's online store.
Monday, June 20th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Chipsets
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Memory
Motherboards
Mouse
NAS
Nettops
Notebooks
PSUs
Speakers
SSD
Storage
Be Quiet! Straight Power E8 400 W Review

Be Quiet! Straight Power E8 400 W Review

Be Quiet's Straight Power E8 400W is a non-modular power supply coming at a very aggressive price point. According to the manufacturer it boasts an impressive 89% efficiency, also the unit is very quiet - no surprise, given the company name.

SanDisk Launches New Enterprise Solid State Drives

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today expanded its Lightning(R) Enterprise Flash Drive (EFD) family with six new 2.5-inch 6Gb SAS (6 gigabits per second Serial Attached SCSI) models. The Lightning products are part of the new Enterprise Storage Solutions (ESS) division that SanDisk created following its recent acquisition of Pliant Technology.

The new drives include three SLC (single-level cell) flash drives with capacities of 100 gigabytes (GB), 200GB and 400GB; and three MLC (multi-level cell) flash drives with capacities of 200GB, 400GB and 800GB. The new drives extend SanDisk's position as the industry leader in EFD performance, performance predictability and reliability. SanDisk also confirmed today that HP has qualified and integrated the new Lightning 6Gb SAS drives into its HP Qualified storage drive offerings.

Shuttle PC Announces Space-saving 3-litre PC with High Computing Power

Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH, the European subsidiary of Shuttle Inc., one of the leading developers and manufacturers of compact PC solutions such as the world-renowned XPC Mini-PC Barebones, today announces the launch of the first model of a new product line. With a volume of approximately 3 litres, the compact XG41 fills a gap in the company's product range. It offers significantly more performance than a nettop, while taking up much less space compared to the typical Shuttle shoebox format.

The XG41, measuring 24.2 x 20 x 7.3 cm (DWH), sports HDMI and DVI-I, two Gigabit network interfaces, 6x USB, 2x COM (RS-232 + RS-232/422/485), S/PDIF and audio ports at the front and rear. The mainboard also offers 1x Mini-PCIe and 3x SATA 3 Gbit/s. This means that up to three drives can be accommodated in the case (3x 2.5" HDD or 1x Slimline ODD and 2x 2.5" HDD).

Scythe Announces Ikazuti Mainstream PC Case

Japanese cooling expert Scythe is introducing today the mainstream PC Chassis "Ikazuti". Scythe expands the PC Chassis portfolio by adding this midi tower model which is packed with many useful features including an optimized airflow as well as very decent overall design.

Inside and outside of Ikazuti PC Case is kept in a decent black color creating a balanced and harmonic design. Users have yet to choose of tree different front panels which are available in Black, Silver and Dark Silver. Inside the midi tower is enough space for five 5.25 inch drives as well as four 3.5 inch Hard Disks which can be easily mounted using the integrated tool-free mounting system. Hence allows users to not only mount drives fast but safe and as well as avoiding hassle.

NVIDIA Makes SLI Support on AMD Platform Official with New BETA GeForce Driver

NVIDIA today released its latest version of the GeForce software suite, version 275.50 BETA. With this release, NVIDIA enables SLI support on AMD socket AM3+ platform. The driver enables SLI multi-GPU technology certified AMD 990FX, AMD 990X, and AMD 970 motherboards. Keep in mind, not every AMD 9-series chipset-based motherboard will run SLI, only certified ones, just like not every Intel 5-series and 6-series chipset based motherboard features SLI. Look for the SLI logo when buying the motherboard.

Besides this major change, GeForce 275.50 improves 3D Vision performance on Duke Nukem Forever. It adds new 3D Vision profiles for Duke Nukem Forever Demo, Mars benchmark, Rise of the Immortals, and Rusty Hearts. 3D Vision profile for Alice: Madness Returns is improved. This is a BETA release, use of which is not covered by product warranties. SLI support on AMD, and all features in this release will be carried forward by future WHQL-signed driver releases.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 275.50 BETA

EVGA Rolls Out First GeForce GT 545 Graphics Card

EVGA released the first consumer-channel graphics card based on NVIDIA's GeForce GT 545 graphics processor. The GT 545 has been an OEM-only SKU. Based on the 40 nm GF116 silicon, the GT 545 has 144 of the chip's 192 CUDA cores enabled, the same 192-bit wide memory interface, but making use of DDR3 memory instead of GDDR5 on the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. Clock speeds set at 720 MHz core, 1440 MHz CUDA cores, and 900 MHz (1800 MHz effective) memory, churning out memory bandwidth of 43 GB/s. There is 1.5 GB of memory.

EVGA's implementation resembles NVIDIA's reference design. It uses a short full-height PCB, and a single-slot cooler. Display outputs include one each of HDMI 1.4a, D-Sub, and DVI. It can pair with another card of its kind in 2-way NVIDIA SLI. Backed by 10 year warranty (if purchased this month), the EVGA GeForce GT 545 1.5 GB is priced at US $150.

Mitsubishi Announces Fast New DiamondCrysta Monitor

Mitsubishi Electronics announced its latest consumer display, the DiamondCrysta RDT233WX-Z. This 23.6-inch monitor uses a matte IPS panel that is LED-backlit, and is capable of 120 Hz refresh rate at its native resolution of 1920 x 1080, making it ideal for stereo 3D applications such as Blu-ray 3D and gaming. It is backed by a response time of 5 ms (GTG). Other vital stats include maximum brightness of 350 cd/m², dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000:1, and viewing angles of 178°/178°. Display inputs include two HDMI 1.4, and one each of DVI and D-Sub. To top it off, there's a pair of inbuilt 3W stereo speakers. The Mitsubishi DiamondCrysta RDT233WX-Z is slated for market release on June 29, in Japan. Its price is not known.

Tt eSPORTS Rock and Rolling with the New SHOCK ''SPIN'' HD Headset

Today, Tt eSPORTS is offering a new addition to the SHOCK gaming headset range in the form of the Spin HD. The new SHOCK Spin HD features exciting 7.1 Virtual surround sound to improve the quality that you get from the 50mm Speakers inside the headset. The SHOCK Spin HD comes in three sections, the Spin headset, the clip on microphone and the USB sound adapter which allows the headset to be used with ease anywhere by simply plugging it in to a PC or Laptop and your ready to go!

If you are currently using onboard sound and wanting to improve your in-game sounds, music and movie watching quality, the SHOCK Spin HD is the perfect companion as you can use the 7.1 Virtual Surround sound and set the sound configuration mode to the environment. Tt eSPORTS are excited that the SHOCK Spin HD will give everyone everything they want from a great gaming, entertainment and music headset in terms of sound quality, comfort and features as the SHOCK Spin HD offers everything required depending on what you are looking for from your headset.

Tt eSPORTS Announces the AZURUES Mini FPS Gaming Mouse

Tt eSPORTS, the world leading gaming peripherals brand, is proud to present its new FPS gaming mouse, the AZURUES Mini. Modeled on the original AZURUES, the Mini has been optimised for performance and slightly tweaked. AZURUES Mini differs from the AZURUES in two main factors; it is slight smaller and it contains the side rubber grip. These two features allow for gamers with smaller hands to use this mouse and for the gamers grip to always be optimal.

BIOSTAR Releases the Most Powerful AMD APU Mainboards

AMD's officially launched the new Llano APU platform for market availability in July worldwide, and BIOSTAR is releasing three mainboards that support this new platform at the same time; the "TA75A+", "TA75M+" and "TA75M". The advantages of the new AMD A75 chipset based motherboard include native support of USB3.0, DX11 graphic core for greater 3D performance, and BIOSTAR exclusive features (BIO-Remote2, Charger Booster, and etc.).

The new AMD A75 chipset series mainboards, "TA75A+", "TA75M+", "TA75M", all using AMD Hudson-D3 A75 single-chip design, "TA75A+" with ATX form factor and the other two are with micro-ATX form factor. With a brand new heat sink design that also gives a better outlook and better thermal efficiency.

Mozilla Expedites Firefox Development Cycle, New Release Tomorrow

There must be some latent value in version number. Close to 3 years old, Google Chrome is already at version 14 in its developer channel. The grand old man of web-browsers, Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), which has a much slower release cycle, is at version 9. The second oldest browser in production, Opera, is at version 11. That leaves Mozilla Firefox, which is relatively newer to the market, but crawled its way past generations by versions 1.0x or 0.5x, with 0.0.1x in near-monthly minor updates. With the browser-wars hotting up as Google Chrome maintains its breakneck development cycle and MSIE regained competitiveness with version 9, Mozilla Firefox is ceding market-share. Perhaps this is pushing Mozilla to speed up its update cycle.

In Mozilla's case, this seems more like an version number inflation, because Firefox 4 was released just this March, and has only had one minor update since (4.0.1). The group is already looking to release the next "big release", Firefox 5, on 21 June, 2011. Its file locations on Mozilla's FTP are already leaked. Unlike with older major releases where each comes with a changed user interface, layout, or at least new icons; Firefox 5 user interface is identical to that of Firefox 4. The changes here are a faster webpage rendering engine, improved HTML5 support, the ability to pin bookmarked webpages to the Windows Taskbar a-là MSIE 9, and a built-in Adobe PDF reader a-là Chrome.

DOWNLOAD: Mozilla Firefox 5 (Win32)

Arctic Intros G-1 Adhesive Thermal Compound

Arctic (formerly Arctic Cooling, before it diversified like no tomorrow), launched G-1 Thermal Glue, a non-metallic adhesive thermal paste. Unlike thermal epoxies that almost permanently attach heatsinks to components such as chips and FETs, the G-1 is intended to serve as adhesive thermal interface materials with scope for easy removal. It's more of a competition to thermal tape and "generic" thermal pads. Once applied, Arctic guarantees this compound to maintain its adhesion for up to 10 years.

The compound has a temperature range between 45°C and 200°C, with thermal conductivity of 4.3 W/mk, and viscosity of 320 P. The compound has no metal component, and is electrically non-conductive. The compound comes in the form of two components that have to be mixed before application. Arctic includes a small mixing tub and a spatula. Each box comes with three sets of compounds. The Arctic G-1 looks like the ideal compound for uni-FET heatsinks over individual MOSFETs, VRM area heatsinks, graphics card memory heatsinks, and even chipset heatsinks. Each box is priced at a little over 6.5 Euros.
Friday, June 17th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Gaming PC
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Memory
Motherboards
Mouse
Notebooks
PSUs
Speakers
SSD
Storage
PowerColor HD 6850 SCS3 1 GB Review

PowerColor HD 6850 SCS3 1 GB Review

PowerColor's Radeon HD 6850 SCS3 is the first completely passive cooled Radeon HD 6850. This makes it the fastest zero-noise graphics card available today. Instead of the fairly compact heatsink of the reference design, PowerColor is using a massive triple slot cooler which provides the cooling required for the HD 6850 SCS3.

Sharkoon Announces Four Port USB 3.0 Front-Panel Hub

The range of USB3.0 terminals is growing rapidly, but there are still newer PC systems barely equipped with suitable interfaces. Accessory specialist Sharkoon presents an internal USB3.0 hub, which provides easy access to four identical SuperSpeed ports on the front of the PC. The Sharkoon 4-Port USB3.0 Hub, with black front panel, is a separate 3.5" or 5.25" drive bay with the provided 5.25" mounting frame already pre-assembled.

It is connected to an external USB3.0 port on the main board on the PC's backside. For orderly feed through a 120cm long USB3.0 cable is enclosed with a pre-installed backplate. Power is supplied to the attached USB3.0 devices through the integrated 4-pin power supply connection. All four USB3.0 ports are each equipped with a LED status indicator.

iiyama Launches New 20-inch ProLite Monitor in Europe

Japanese display major iiyama released the new ProLite B2008HDS 20-inch monitor in Europe. This LED-backlit LCD display features a 16:9 aspect ratio with a native resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels. With a response time of 2 ms, it's geared for gaming. Other vital stats include 250 cd/m² of brightness, 1,000:1 static, and 30,000:1 average contrast ratio or ACR (iiyama is modest with this stat). Display inputs include DVI and D-Sub. Its stand allows 90º pivot, tilt and height adjustments by up to 10 cm. The monitor includes 1W internal stereo speakers. Backed by 3 year warranty, the iiyama ProLite B2008HDS is priced at €129.

Panasonic Toughbook To Address Market Void By Delivering Enterprise-Grade Android Tab

Panasonic Toughbook today announced its plans to deliver an enterprise-grade Android tablet to the market. The new Toughbook tablet will address a gap in the market for a rugged enterprise tablet designed with security, functionality and real-world reliability in mind. By delivering this purpose-built business solution, the new Toughbook tablet will appeal to a wide variety of users, including mission critical government personnel, highly mobile field forces, SMB's looking for a competitive edge, security conscious IT managers and bottom-line focused CFOs.

From a functionality standpoint, the Toughbook tablet will avoid the typical glossy screens-found on current tablet offerings-that are all but unreadable in outdoor environments. The Toughbook tablet will include a high brightness, daylight viewable screen so that mobile workers, in markets like field service, home healthcare and public safety, can easily see critical data and operate the device regardless of lighting conditions. The new tablet will also include an active stylus, allowing mobile workers in sales, customer service and mobile point-of-sale environments to capture signatures on the device's 10.1" XGA multi-touch display.

AMD Charts Path for Future of its GPU Architecture

The future of AMD's GPU architecture looks more open, broken from the shackles of a fixed-function, DirectX-driven evolution model, and that which increases the role of GPU in the PC's central processing a lot more than merely accelerating GPGPU applications. At the Fusion Developer Summit, AMD detailed its future GPU architecture, revealing that in the future, AMD's GPUs will have full support for C, C++, and other high-level languages. Integrated with Fusion APUs, these new number-crunching components will be called "scalar co-processors".

Scalar co-processors will combine elements of MIMD (multiple-instruction multiple-data,) SIMD (single-instruction multiple data), and SMT (simultaneous multithreading). AMD will ditch the VLIW (very long instruction word) model that has been in use for several of AMD's past GPU architectures. While AMD's GPU model will break from the shackles of development that is pegged to that of DirectX, it doesn't believe that APIs such as DirectX and OpenGL will be discarded. Game developers can continue to develop for these APIs, and C++ support is more for general purpose compute applications. That does, however, create a window for game developers to venture out of the API-based development model (specifically DirectX). With its next Fusion processors, the GPU and CPU components will make use of a truly common memory address space. Among other things, this eliminate the "glitching" players might sometimes experience when games load textures as they go over the crest of a hill.
Thursday, June 16th 2011

Today's Reviews

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Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Memory
Motherboards
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Speakers
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Storage
ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ Review

ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ Review

The brand-new ASUS M5A99X EVO, sports AMD's 990X and SB950 chipset. It is one of the first boards to offer full support for NVIDIA SLI and is also optimized for CrossFire configurations with its three PCI-E x16 slots.

Gigabyte Intros ECO500 Wireless Gaming-Grade Mouse

Gigabyte today slipped in its latest gaming-grade wireless mouse, the ECO500. The mouse connects to its host over standard 2.4 GHz band, and relies on a micro-dongle (included). Apart from its design its 1,600 dpi optical sensor makes it gaming grade. The mouse is powered by two AA batteries, with typical usage, a pair lasts up to a year. The mouse measures 105 (L) x 59.7 (W) x 40.1 (H) mm, its weight varies depending on the batteries used. The mouse features a total of five buttons, including two buttons on the left side (making it a right-handed mouse, despite its otherwise ambidextrous design). A red glowing shape (probably relaying the sensor's LED,) and a DPI adjustment switch deck up its top.

Chill Innovation Announces New Wireless Micro Keyboard

Danish company Chill Innovation A/S has just announced what they call "The ultimate Media Keyboard on the Market". Behind these bold headlines lies a whole new media keyboard which not only support standard computers and HTPC (Home Theater PC) systems, but also Tablet PCs, PDAs and smartphones like iPad, iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and even Playstation-3, as well as all other devices with Bluetooth HID keyboard support.

Besides an impressive compatibility list, the new Chill KB-1BT Wireless Bluetooth Micro Keyboard does not exactly look like a traditional keyboard either. The compact size, which kind of makes you think of a regular TV remote, still holds both a fully functional 71 keys keyboard and an integrated touchpad for easy mouse navigation.

Antec Launches Soundscience Halo 6 LED Bias Lighting Kit

In its 25th anniversary year, Antec Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today announced the availability in the European markets of the soundscience halo 6 LED bias lighting kit. The halo 6 LED bias lighting kit is an affordable option for outfitting PC monitors with professional-grade backlighting. This helps reduce eye fatigue and increase image clarity during long gaming sessions and similar periods of extended computer use.

The bias lighting illumination technique adds a ring of white backlight to PC monitors, reducing eyestrain caused by differences in picture brightness from scene changes in movies, TV shows and video games. The soundscience halo 6 LED bias lighting kit's USB-powered LED strip (14.6" / 370 mm in length) attaches to the back of the monitor and complements any PC monitor up to 24". The color and brightness of the LEDs are carefully calibrated and help increase a monitor's perceived contrast ratio - enhancing perceived black levels, vibrant colors and picture detail by enabling dark adapted viewing.

EIZO Makes Home Entertainment More Fun with FORIS FS2332 Full-HD Monitor

Eizo Nanao Corporation today introduced the FORIS FS2332, a 23-inch full high-definition (1920 x 1080 native resolution) monitor. The FORIS FS2332 is targeted at the home entertainment market and includes several features to enjoy gaming, watching movies, photo editing, and reading ebooks.

The FORIS FS2332 comes with an IPS panel and LED backlight. The IPS panel has viewing angles of 178° and minimal color shift so two or more people can see the screen at once. The LED backlight is mercury free and consumes only 20 watts of power during normal use.

AIDA64 v1.80 Unveiled by FinalWire

FinalWire Ltd. today announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 Extreme Edition 1.80 software, a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users; and the immediate availability of AIDA64 Business Edition 1.80 software, an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises.

The new AIDA64 update unveils a brand new hardware monitoring module called SensorPanel, implements FMA4 and XOP optimized 64-bit benchmarks for AMD FX-Series "Bulldozer" CPU, and adds AMD A-Series "Llano" APU and VIA QuadCore processor optimizations.

New Sony VAIO E-Series Laptops Bring Exceptional Design to Everyday Use

Sony today debuted a new, artfully-crafted collection of its affordably-priced line of VAIO E Series notebooks. The E Series 14-inch and 15.5-inch notebooks are available in four stunning colors- midnight blue, glacier white, charcoal black and blush pink - while the 17.3-inch model comes in charcoal black and glacier white. Geometric patterns appear on the lids, and on matching palm rests, and all the colors are fingerprint-resistant to help keep the models looking brand new while users stay connected and entertained.

"The VAIO brand stands for excellent quality and standout design," said Mike Lucas, senior vice president of Networked Technology and Services Division at Sony Electronics. "The new E Series delivers both, plus entertainment and connectivity options, at a price the everyday user can afford."

Inno3D Announces iChill CPU Cooler Series

iChill CPU Coolers are the ultimate thermal solution for the heat, especially in summer, that can damage your PC's CPU (main brain). A CPU that constantly runs too hot will have a shorter life than one that runs cooler, and could also cause problems like random shutdowns and the loss of important data. iChill brings you the X5, XXX and Storm CPU thermal solution!

When looking for ways to cool a PC's CPU, the first thing to do is reduce the overall temperature inside the PC's case, because that's where the CPU "lives." The best way to do that is to create an airflow that brings in cool air from the lower front of the case and exhausts hot air out the back of the case. After all, the fan that cools your PC's CPU can't work very well if it's blowing hot air onto your CPU. Don't make the mistake of thinking that your power supply's fan will cool your entire PC, like it did in older PCs.

OWC Announces Mercury Electra SATA 6 Gb/s Solid State Drive

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today announced the OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD, a new consumer/prosumer targeted SandForce Driven SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s Solid State Drive. Designed and built in the USA utilizing the highest quality components available, including Tier 1/Grade A NAND, the OWC Mercury Electra delivers 556 MB/s read and 523 MB/s write sustained data rates for over 7X faster performance than a standard factory hard drive found in Mac and PC computers.

Three Consumer/Prosumer Models Offered Starting At $229.99. Offering the SATA Revision 3.0 performance of a 6 Gb/s SSD, but aggressively priced like a SATA Revision 2.0 3G SSD, the OWC Mercury Electra 6G is ideal for high speed personal computing, home office environments, gaming, and production workstations, can be incorporated into a RAID 1 or SPAN configuration, and is available for immediate ordering in three capacity sizes:

Matrox Introduces SMD-2 for Large-Scale High-Density IP Video Decoding

Matrox Graphics Inc. today introduces the Matrox SMD-2 streaming media decoder, a second-generation universal IP video decode solution designed to decode - in parallel - large numbers of network video streams in different resolutions and formats. The ideal building block for large-scale IP video decode applications, each SMD-2 board can simultaneously decode up to 64 QCIF, 16 D1, or 2 HD 1080 streams. By combining multiple SMD-2 boards within a single system, users can decode and display hundreds of IP streams on any video display wall.

In light of their newly announced partnership, Matrox Graphics and Trenton are currently working together to engineer a validated system capable of supporting multiple SMD-2 cards within a single chassis, to be available later in the year. SMD-2 is fully integrated with the Matrox PPX Series and will be compatible with the Mura MPX Series later in the summer. With its capacity to cost-effectively support large-scale, high-density IP stream decoding, the Matrox SMD-2 is ideal for use in security surveillance, public security, and critical infrastructure sectors.
Wednesday, June 15th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Keyboards
Memory
Monitors
Motherboards
Processors
PSUs
SSD
Storage
Club 3D CSP-X1200CS 1200 W Review

Club 3D CSP-X1200CS 1200 W Review

Club 3D has recently entered the PSU market. Their new CSP-X1200CS is a high-end 1200 W model which addresses users with up to three graphics cards. Compared to the CSP-X1000CS the CSP-X1200CS, offers more power and better efficiency with its 80PLUS Silver certification.

Elpida Uses High-k Metal Gate Technology to Develop 2-gigabit DDR2 Mobile RAM

Elpida Memory, Inc., Japan's leading global supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), today announced the DRAM industry's first-ever use of high-k metal gate (HKMG) technology to develop a 2-gigabit DDR2 Mobile RAM (LPDDR2) at the 40nm-class DRAM node.

HKMG is technology that uses insulator film with a high dielectric constant (abbreviated to "high-k," a semiconductor industry measure of how much charge a material can hold) in the transistor gate to reduce current leakage and improve transistor performance. Metal gate electrodes that are required for the high-k dielectrics process are also used. Some makers of logic semiconductors have started to use HKMG, but higher heat treatment temperatures after HKMG formation and complicated DRAM structural characteristics have prevented consistent application in the DRAM fabrication process. Elpida, however, has managed to lower the heat treatment load and overcome certain memory device structural complications.

Next Gen. Fusion Chips to Pack Bulldozer Modules and VLIW4 Stream Processors

AMD is almost done releasing its first generation of Fusion accelerated processing units tageting almost every consumer segment, including ULPC, netbooks, nettops, notebooks, performance notebooks, and desktops. These chips combine x86-64 cores with Radeon GPU components, DDR3 memory contollers, and PCI-Express 2.0 hubs. At the Fusion Developer Summit, there is already talk about what the next generation of APUs will bring to the table.

The next generation Fusion platform, codenamed "Trinity", will combine two AMD's very latest in-house developments in the fields of x86 computing and consumer graphics: Bulldozer and VLIW4. Bulldozer is an x86 processor architecture built from ground up by AMD, that saw a large degree of reorganization within the processor core. A Bulldozer module is a closely-knit group of two cores that share some common resources, and end up with stellar inter-core bandwidth. Bulldozer packs support for the latest industry-standard instruction sets, including SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, and AES. VLIW4, on the other hand, is a reorganization of the SIMD processing clusters of Radeon GPUs, introduced with Radeon HD 6900 series. With this reorganization, each stream processor is more capable than it was, and performance per mm2 die area is increased.

AMD Catalyst 11.6 WHQL Driver Suite Released

AMD Catalyst received its monthly major update with version 11.6 WHQL. The driver isn't posted on AMD Game website, but leaked to the media. The new drivers bring support for AMD's new Fusion "Llano" A-series accelerated processing units (APUs), which embed AMD Radeon HD 6000 series GPU components. The new drivers also introduce the new AMD Steady Video Technology, which is an AMD APP-based software that works on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards (only on systems that also run AMD processors), AMD E450, AMD E300 APUs, and AMD A8, A6, and A4 series APUs. The technology processes videos for image-stabilization of each frame, giving out a "steady" video output. Videos processed by Steady Video are compatible with any of the popular video players, including Adobe Flash player, Windows Media player, Cyberlink PowerDVD, Corel Win DVD, ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater.

With the new driver, AMD enabled decode acceleration of MPEG-4 part-2 content in Microsoft's video player applications (through MFT support) for all AMD Radeon 6000 Series GPUs. The new driver also packs a number of game-specific performance enhancements, for applications such as Dirt 2, F1 2010, Tom Clancy's HAWX, Crysis Warhead, and Unigine Heaven (OpenGL). For more information, refer to the Release Notes article.

Intel SSD 710 and 720 Series Detailed

First making their existance known in April, Intel's new enterprise-grade 710 Series and 720 Series solid-state drives (SSDs) are inching closer to launch, with more specifications being known. The two series are very distinct from each other, the 710 series codenamed "Lyndonville" comes in the 2.5-inch SATA form-factor, with SATA 3 Gb/s interface; while the 720 series codenamed "Ramsdale" comes in the PCI-Express add-on card form-factor, probably using the PCI-Express x8 interface.

Intel 710 series SSDs make use of new 25 nm MLC NAND flash, cached by 64 MB of DRAM. It comes in capacities of 100, 200, and 300 GB; offer transfer-rates of 270 MB/s read, 210 MB/s write; with 36,000 IOPS and 2,400 4K IOPS performance; and offers endurance of 500 TB for the 100 GB model, and 1 PB (petabyte, equals 1024 TB) for the 200 GB model on full capacity. The Intel 720 series SSDs use PCI-Express interface, 34 nm SLC NAND flash, comes in capaities of 200 GB and 400 GB; transfer rates of 2,200 MB/s read, 1,800 MB/s write; 180,000 IOPS with 56,000 IOPS 4K random write performance; and massive endurance figures of 36 PB for 200 GB (8K random writes).

Lenovo Serves Up Powerful Network Performance with New ThinkServers

Lenovo today announced two new additions to the ThinkServer family - the TS130 and the TS430 - that give small-to-medium businesses and corporate branch offices a performance boost and powerful manageability tools. A perfect fit for businesses with few or no IT staff, they feature the latest Intel Xeon processor technology, are loaded with remote management tools and offer easy setup.

Lenovo also announced the ThinkCentre M71e, an entry-level desktop to give mainstream corporate offices the technologies they need to conduct business productively, securely and reliably every day. The desktop features 2nd generation Intel Core i processors, rapid boot up and security authentication features.

Toshiba Provides Power, Portability, and Style in Latest Mainstream Consumer Laptops

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced its latest line of smartly equipped yet affordable Satellite L700 and Satellite C600 Series laptops. Designed for style, versatility and affordability in mind, these laptops deliver the performance needed for everyday computing with prices starting as low as $379.99 MSRP.

Toshiba Introduces New Satellite P700 Series Laptops

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced a new family of premium laptops, the Satellite P700 Series. Available with Toshiba's textured Fusion X2 finish in Platinum, the Satellite P745, P755/P755 3D and P775 laptops feature 14-, 15.6- and 17.3-inch diagonal HD TruBrite LED backlit screens, respectively. These laptops incorporate essential features for multitasking and multimedia, including latest generation of multi-core processor and technology options, plus premium entertainment and convenience features.

Lexar Ships Echo MX and Echo ZX Portable Backup Solutions

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory products, today announced that the Lexar(R) Echo MX and ZX backup drives are now available at traditional and online retail channels. The Lexar Echo MX can be purchased at Amazon.com, Office Depot, and Target, while Echo ZX drives are offered at Amazon.com and Office Depot stores nationwide.

The Lexar Echo MX backup drive comes in a range of capacities, from 8GB to 128GB, allowing users to back up and protect large volumes of files and data on the go. With fast transfer speeds up to 30MB/s read and 17MB/s write, based on capacity, coupled with the easy-to-read, always-on capacity meter powered by E Ink technology, users can quickly access data while easily checking available space. The Lexar Echo ZX, an always-ready backup drive, provides the protection users are looking for in a low-profile, plug-and-stay design. The drive is available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities, with transfer speeds up to 28MB/s read and 15MB/s write, based on capacity.
Tuesday, June 14th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Motherboards
Notebooks
Processors
PSUs
Storage
Kingwin LZP-550 Lazer Platinum 550 W Review

Kingwin LZP-550 Lazer Platinum 550 W Review

The Kingwin Lazer Platinum LZP-550 is based on Super Flower's platinum platform (Golden King 550W) and according to the manufacturer achieves over 92% efficiency. The power supply's fan will only spin beyond a certain temperature, so the PSU will emit no noise at low loads. In our review we find that this power supply is the best model available in its power range at this time.

HP Introduces New Notebook Portfolio Powered by AMD

HP today expanded its consumer and business notebook portfolios with 11 new models utilizing AMD's latest VISION Technology for exceptional performance at an affordable price. Powered by AMD's A-series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that combine leading-edge CPU cores and powerful discrete-graphics onto a single die of silicon, HP's new notebooks offer solutions for consumers, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and large corporations.

The HP Pavilion dv-series (Pavilion dv4, dv6 and dv7) provides the ultimate entertainment notebook experience and is equipped with innovative features such as HP CoolSense, HP True Vision HD webcam and HP Beats Audio (Pavilion metal dv6 and dv7). The dv-series also offers more than two times the graphics performance compared with previous-generation integrated graphics.

Acer's Consumer Desktop Models and Touchscreen Display Sport New Aesthetics

Acer America Corp. has unveiled its new M and X Series desktops and T231H 23-inch multi-touch display that offer more power, practical features and attractive new aesthetics designed to make a versatile addition to a home office, bedroom or dorm. Consumers wanting the power of a desktop and an intuitive touch screen display to serve as a hub for fun, productivity and entertainment will appreciate Acer's latest models.

Acer's refreshed consumer desktops tout a contemporary black design with smooth lines and a glossy finish. They're available in two sizes to address specific customer needs. The M Series is built for those wanting a powerful desktop with expansion. Offering plenty of room for upgrades, it's a workhorse to leverage for years to come. Sleek and compact, the X Series is designed for those looking to conserve space. Both desktops maximize desktop real estate, while providing all the essentials for personal productivity and digital entertainment. Acer's T231H monitor is an ideal companion for computers with Windows 7. Integrating Microsoft Touch Pack, it frees users from their mouse by enabling them to interact directly with the PC in an intuitive and fun way.

Toshiba Announces Qosmio X770 and X770 3D Gaming Laptops

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced U.S. retail pricing and availability for the Qosmio X770 and Qosmio X770 3D series of high-performance laptops. Most ideal for demanding visual tasks like gaming and media creation, these laptops feature a high-performance blend of processor technologies from Intel and NVIDIA, while delivering ultra-fast components, entertainment-focused features and 3D technology for consumers looking for maximum mobile performance. Starting at $1,199 MSRP , the Qosmio X770 and Qosmio X770 3D Series are available at participating retailers later this month.

"Qosmio represents Toshiba's ability to make cutting-edge mobile computing technologies more accessible to the mass market," said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Toshiba America Information Systems, Digital Products Division. "With the Qosmio X770 and Qosmio X770 3D laptops, gamers, content creators and multimedia enthusiasts will be able to enjoy the latest HD content with amazing audio, even in vivid stereoscopic 3D."

Sharkoon Announces T5 Value ATX Mid-Tower Case

Sharkoon expands their range of ATX cases and complements the T-Series presented in March: The Sharkoon T5 Value is equipped - in contrast to the already available Sharkoon T5 Economy - with a front USB3.0, two pre-mounted 120mm LED fans and an acrylic window on the side panel. The black interior lacquer sets a stylish scene with the installed hardware.

The other functions are identical to the Economy Edition: The black case offers five installation bays for 5.25 inch drives behind its mesh front panel, plus additional space for five 3.5 inch drives and seven extension cards. With help from a special mounting frame, SSDs in 2.5 or 3.5 inch formats, or a 2.5 inch hard drive in a hard drive cage can be also attached. The optical drives and the hard drives are installed through the quick-locking mount, behind the main board mounting plate a cavity is provided for the mounting of a CPU cooler and the orderly installation of cables.

Patriot Memory Announces New AMD Black Edition Ready G2 Series Memory Kits

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash, storage and enthusiast computer products, today announces new G2 series, AMD Edition memory kits for the next-generation AMD 9-series platforms. The new Patriot Memory G2 series, AMD Edition memory kits are the perfect match for enthusiasts seeking to extract every ounce of performance available from the AMD 9-series platform.

Available at speeds of 1333 MHz to 1600 MHz, the Patriot Memory G2 series, AMD Edition let users pick the perfect speed for their applications. Low and enhanced latencies are available with the Patriot Memory G2 series, AMD Edition for the perfect balance of ultra-fast system responsiveness and overclocking headroom to maximize overall system performance.

AMD Ushers in Next Generation of Computing with AMD A-Series APUs

AMD today announced the next generation in mainstream consumer computing with the availability of the new high-performance AMD Fusion A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). Enabling truly immersive computing experiences in consumer notebooks and desktops, the AMD A-Series APUs enable brilliant HD graphics, supercomputer-like performance and over 10.5 hours of battery life.

In an increasingly digital and visually oriented world, consumers are placing ever-higher priorities on multitasking, vivid graphics, lifelike games, lag-free videos, and ultimate multimedia performance. To meet these needs, the AMD A-Series APUs combine up to four x86 CPU cores with powerful DirectX 11-capable discrete-level graphics and up to 400 Radeon cores along with dedicated HD video processing on a single chip. AMD A-Series APUs also allow for advanced capabilities such as gestural interfaces, multi-monitor support, 3D entertainment and real-time image stabilization.

Acer Introduces Revo RL100 Media Center; the Digital Heart of the Living Room

Acer America Corp. announced today that the slim and stylish Acer Revo RL100 media center is now available at leading technology retailers in the United States. A digital hub for a den or living room, it connects to a flat-screen TV and comes with a dual-mode wireless touchpad/keyboard for smooth navigation from the comfort of the couch. There are two models available, including one with Blu-ray.

Outfitted with Acer clear.fi, the Acer RL100 automatically interconnects all Acer home-based and mobile devices, including smartphones, making it easy to consolidate and share HD multimedia throughout the household. This means users can access HD movies and personal content from any Acer device in the house for enjoying on a big screen TV.

FX Turbo Core Technology Bumps Frequency by 1.00 GHz

With Intel's introduction of Turbo Boost technology, a new feature was introduced to the industry, where a processor overclocks itself in short bursts to handle increased CPU loads. AMD quickly followed with its own similar feature, called Turbo Core, with Phenom II X6. With the company's upcoming high-end client FX-series processors, that technology is being given an update. On the FX-series processors, the technology is designed to bump clock speeds by as much as 1.00 GHz over the processor's advertised clock speed, within the processor's TDP headroom.

A company slide reveals that FX-series processors can run all cores at nominal speeds (advertised speeds), all cores at a bumped "Turbo" state, or with half the number of cores running at max turbo speeds with up to 1.00 GHz (5.0x BClk multiplier) increase in clock speeds, with the other half the number of cores in C6 state, completely shut off. Turbo Core ensures increased performance in applications that are designed to work with lesser number of cores, most games come in this category.

EKWB Halts Nickel-Plated Water Block Production

Water-cooling major EK Waterblocks (EKWB) halted the production of nickel-plated copper water blocks. The company received several complaints from users about the nickel plating to be of substandard quality, and corroding away much faster. Nickel plating itself is supposed to work as a corrosion-resistant coating over copper. Nickel plating gives the surface of the block a chrome-like lustrous shine. EKWB, after conducting its own tests, blamed silver coils and copper sulphate additives, anti-algae agents used in public water supply. A weak defense, considering people use distilled water (battery water) in their loops, or coolants that are formulated to be less corrosive than tap water on metallic parts of the loop.
Monday, June 13th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Keyboards
Memory
Motherboards
Mouse
Mousepads
Netbooks
Notebooks
PSUs
SSD
Storage

NEC Display Solutions Adds Thin, Lightweight MultiSync EX Series Model

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today the addition of the 23-inch PVA panel MultiSync EX231Wp, which joins the 23-inch TN panel MultiSync EX231W. This sleek desktop monitor offers a premium-grade, performance-driven PVA panel that allows for increased viewing angle, sharp contrast ratio and ease in transporting between different locations. Ideal for multiple monitor setups, the MultiSync EX231Wp is designed for financial and corporate environments, business users on-the-go, small-scale digital signage, small-to-medium-sized business client meetings and presentations.

AMD A-Series APU Smashes IGP Performance Records...Surprise

Armed with a Radeon HD 6550D graphics core that has 400 stream processors, 8 ROPs, and full DirectX 11 support, AMD A-Series "Llano" accelerated processing unit (APU) was tested to be the fastest integrated graphics solution to date. The tests was run by a forum-member of TweakTown community with early access to engineering samples. On the test-bed was AMD A8-3850 APU, which has four x86-64 cores clocked at 2.90 GHz, and the Radeon HD 6550D IGP with engine clock of 600 MHz. Standard dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory was used, even though the APU supports faster DDR3-1866 MHz. To seat the test bed, Gigabyte A75M-UD2H was used. It's important to note here that the CPU cores were overclocked to 3.773 GHz (145.13 MHz x 26.0), with an insane core voltage of 1.52V.

The setup was put though three generations of 3DMark benchmark, covering DirectX 9.0c, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 performance. In 3DMark 06, the setup scores 10,492 points. In 3DMark Vantage, it scored P6160 (performance preset, validation). In 3DMark 11, it scored P1591 (performance preset, validation). More details can be read in the screenshots.

ASRock Unveils New Motherboards Based on AMD 9-Series Chipset

AMD's latest AM3+ processors are a shot in the arm for PCs, delivering start of the art processing at unmatched performance. ASRock superior AMD 9 series motherboards have been designed to support the new-gen AM3+ processors, while still retaining backward compatible with AM3 processors and unprecedentedly implementing support for SLI technology. To bring the best kit to users, ASRock has thrown everything you could want from the new-gen AMD 9 series motherboards. The innovative features include the ASRock signature XFast USB, On/Off Play Technology, Graphical UEFI, All-in-one AXTU program, and so on.

Cyber Snipa Intros Sonar Portable Mini Speaker

Gaming peripherals maker Cyper Snipa announced Sonar portable mini speaker, to grow into the new niche of portable gaming speaker. While backpack-friendly, this speaker is advertised to pack a punch thanks to its patented Vacuum Bass System. The speaker plugs into any portable audio device that has a 3.5 mm jack. It carries its own rechargeable battery-based amplifier, which lasts for 4 hours on a full charge. Slated for later this month, the Cyber Snipa Sonar portable mini speaker is priced at US $30.

AMD to Retire Phenom II X6 by December

With its latest generation of client processors just a stone's throw away (into the mist, since there's still uncertainity surrounding the actual launch dates), AMD is preparing to retire its current front-line client processors, the six-core Phenom II X6. A company slide talking about "desktop processor longetivity" shows all current Phenom II X6 models, including 1100T Black Edition, 1090T Black Edition, 1075T, and 1065T, are scheduled for "end of life" (EOL) in Q4 2011, at the very latest by December. When a product reaches EOL, the company stops taking orders from distributors for it, clears outstanding orders, and stops its production. The company will continue to honor any warranty claims in accordance with its warranty terms and conditions.
Friday, June 10th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Keyboards
Memory
Motherboards
Mouse
Processors
PSUs
Speakers
SSD
Storage

PCCooler OC3 W120 Combines Tower-Type Air Cooler with Water Block

What happens when you mash up a CPU tower-type air-cooler with a water-block? You get PCCooler OC3 W120. This innovative cooler combines a tower-type air cooler design with a water block. First, there's a typical heatsink that has a polished copper base and heat pipes originating from the base, conveying heat to a aluminum fin stack; next, at the top of the stack are fittings that connect the cooler to a liquid-cooling loop. The water tubes pass through the aluminum fin stack just like heat pipes, before reaching the base of the heatsink. At the base, a micro-fin plate and block chamber makes direct contact with the heat pipes and the base below.

The aluminum fin stack holds one 120 mm fan to ventilate it. The fins are of irregular shape and are dimpled to increase surface area and turbulence. With its unique hybrid design, the PCCooler OC3 W120 can handle thermal loads of up to 500W. PCCooler OC3 W120 is made by Chinese company Shenzhen Fluence Technology, its products are exclusively sold in the Asian markets.

Antec Announces EarthWatts 750W PSU

In its 25th anniversary year, Antec, Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today announced the EA-750 Green, the newest addition to its EarthWatts Green power supply line.

The EA-750 Green is a reliable, affordable power supply solution ideal for DIY enthusiasts and system builders. It consumes up to 33 percent less energy than an equivalent power supply with no reduction in performance, and it meets 80 PLUS Bronze certification - the most widely recognized independent standard in energy efficiency.

Samsung Mass-Producing 30nm-class, 32-Gigabyte Memory Modules for Green IT Systems

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it is the first in the industry to start mass producing 32 gigabyte (GB) memory modules, essential for cloud computing and advanced server systems, using 30 nanometer (nm) class* four gigabit (Gb) DDR3 DRAM chips.

"With this module, Samsung has secured the highest level of product and solution competitiveness in the DRAM market for PC, server and mobile applications," said Wanhoon Hong, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We also plan to ship more energy-efficient 4Gb DDR3 DRAM based on 20nm-class* process technology in the second half of this year, which will significantly expand the rapidly growing market for green IT memory solutions. Moreover, we intend to keep delivering the greenest memory products with optimal performance for customers," he added.
Thursday, June 9th 2011

Today's Reviews

Accessories
Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Input Devices
Keyboards
Multimedia
NAS
PSUs
SSD
Storage
ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum 1.5 GB Review

ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum 1.5 GB Review

First seen at Computex this year, the ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum is an overclocker's dream. It offers multiple voltage control via both software and hardware, a quiet running, powerful triple slot, dual fan thermal solution and easy to reach voltage measurement points. This card is also the first to be supported by ASUS' new GPU Tweak software.

Raptor Gaming Intros P9 Extra-Wide Mouse Pad

German gaming peripherals manufacturer and gamer community Raptor Gaming unveiled its new P9 professional-grade, extra-wide mouse pad. With an area of 390 x 290 mm and an irregular shape, the P9 is 3 mm thick, and uses a fine textured-surface with silver-metallic plastic coating, for control-intensive mouse movements. The bottom side is coated with natural rubber to add grip to the surface below. Slated for shipping in July, the Raptor Gaming P9 is priced at €29.90.

Lian Li Announces HTPC PC-C60 and PC-6 ATX Mid-Tower Cases

Lian Li Industrial Co. Ltd., maker of high-end, all-aluminum computer chassis since 1983, today releases two new PC cases: the HTPC/Desktop PC-C60, and the simple and elegant mid-tower PC-6. A new edition to their Domus series of HTPC chassis, Lian Li's PC-C60 is slim, sleek, all-aluminum, and available in black or silver with an open and easy-to-upgrade internal layout. The black, all-aluminum, mid-tower PC-6 embodies Lian Li's distinctive designing characteristics and fits perfectly into their Essence series of PC chassis with a timeless and quietly artistic design. With tool-less installations, anti-vibration features, excellent air-flow, and impressive build capabilities, the PC-C60 and PC-6 once again prove the quality of products that Lian Li is known for.

Club 3D Introduces the New Radeon HD 6570 1 GB DDR3

Club 3D B.V. announces the intro-duction of the AMD Radeon HD 6570 video card based on the Turks PRO chipset, AMD' second generation DirectX 11.The Club 3D Radeon HD 6570 1 GB DDR3 video card features now the AMD HD3D technology which allows you to have faster access to multimedia applications and gives you all tools to enhanced productivity. Furthermore you can enjoy the latest 3D Blu-Ray movies with EyeSpeed technology. The new card comes equipped with a nice single slot cooler which makes you enjoy your new video card without compromising on your perfect computing environment.

Silicon Power Announces the Diamond D10 1TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive

World leading flash memory manufacturer SP (Silicon Power) continues to use luxurious checkered design in-line with their Touch series USB flash drives and introduces the brand new 2.5 inch Diamond series USB 3.0 1TB external portable hard drive. New Diamond D10 featuring design with checkered stereoscopic effect combines USB3.0 interface with a massive 1TB storage capacity. As an external portable hard drive, D10 redefines indulgence and luxury!

The new Diamond series of external portable hard drives is designed by the SP R&D team. The focal point of the design was to sustain and continue the elegance of the Touch series using the checkered design. With a delicate and artistic manufacturing process, a stereoscopic effect was created that is gorgeous and eye catching wherever it goes!

Scythe Announces Kaze Q12 and Kaze Q8 Fan Controllers

Japanese cooling expert Scythe is announcing two new Kaze Q Series fan controller. Modern PC Chassis are getting equipped with more fans and allow mounting of additional fans in various sizes, but not every fan is adjusted to low fan speed to assure silent operation. This is where users usually wish to get their hands on to adjust each fan individually to optimum operation volume and speeds. Scythe Kaze Q8 and Kaze Q12 are aiming for exactly these purposes where the core function of controlling fans is the main focus.

Kaze Q8 is designed more compact for restricted space limitations inside a PC Case and can be therefore mounted into a common 3.5" bay. Despite the compact size up to 8 fans can be connected and controlled individually. For PC Cases with an vacant 5.25" Bay, Kaze Q12 is the perfect choice with its total of 12 fan channels for maximum utilization. Fan speed is adjusted for both models using voltage regulations for each channel separately with a control range between 5 and 12 volts. As soon as voltage is flowing over one of the channels, the corresponding channel's LED is visualizing this by illuminating in blue color. It's furthermore possible to completely turn of each fan channel if required.

Acer Readying Tablets Based on AMD Z-Series APUs

Acer has just placed an order for 80,000 pieces of AMD Z-series accelerated processing units. Based on essentially the same design as Fusion "Zacate", Z-series APUs are designed to have lower TDP and to be of higher quality, so they could be deployed in enterprise and IPC (industrial PC) environments. The AMD Z-01 is Acer's choice, this chip combines two x86-64 cores clocked at 1.00 GHz with AMD Radeon HD 6250 DirectX 11 compliant graphics, and a DDR3 memory controller. The TDP of the entire chip stands at 5.9W, it is built on the 40 nm process at TSMC.

Acer's first tablets based on AMD Z-01 will run Windows 7, since Android 3.0 (codenamed "Ice Cream Sandwich") is not going to be out any time before the end of 2011. Acer isn't the only big tablet-maker opting for AMD Z-series over Intel's Atom Pine Trail platform, MSI is also reported to be working on x86 tablets running AMD Z-series. Manufacturers are opting for Z-series over Pine Trail, because the latter has both higher price and TDP. With its relatively faster iGPU, Z-series should be able to drive graphics-intensive custom user-interfaces on tables sized up to 10.1-inches. Industry sources expect AMD to ship up to 500,000 units of the chip in the second half of 2011.

Panasonic Doubles Performance, Improves Features and Screen of Toughbook CF-19

Panasonic today announced the Toughbook CF-19mk5 with more than double the system performance, improved usability and unique new screen visibility technology. In field utilities, emergency services, defence, transport maintenance and a huge range of field services, the Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 is transforming the way professionals work by providing access to data and applications, wherever and whenever those professionals need it. As the market-leading outdoor convertible notebook PC, the CF-19 is the benchmark fully rugged notebook, built on 15 years of Panasonic Toughbook experience.

Icy Box Intros Three New Drive Enclosures

Icy Box released three new drive enclosures, two of which, the IB-272StU-OT and IB-250StU3-BH, can make portable drives enclosing 2.5-inch SATA HDDs or SSDs. The third one, the IB-351StU3-B, is a 3.5-inch drive enclosure that makes for a desktop external drive enclosure. The IB-250StU3-BH and IB-351StU3-B take advantage of the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface, with interface bandwidths as high as 5 Gb/s between the enclosure and the host. Between the enclosure and the drive, however, they use SATA 3 Gb/s interface.

The IB-272StU-OT is very slim, and can only hold 9.5 mm thick drives (most 2.5-inch notebook HDDs and 2.5-inch SSDs are that thick). It uses the older USB 2.0 interface, and is Plug & Play and Hit Swap compatible. It features a one-touch backup function. This drive is priced at €18.50. The IB-250StU3-BH supports USB 3.0, and can hold 9.5 mm as well as 12.5 mm thick drives, it costs €19.90. The IB-351StU3-B holds 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch HDDs/SSDs, its body makes lavish use of aluminum. It features tool-free drive installation. This one goes for €27.90.

Samsung Electronics Unveils Terabyte Hard Drive for Notebooks

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced its 500 gigabyte per platter, one terabyte internal hard disk drive, Spinpoint M8 for use in mobile computing applications such as notebooks. Samsung's Spinpoint M8, which consists of two 500 gigabyte platters, provides users with one terabyte storage space. The form factor support the 9.5mm height to comfortably fit in mobile computing applications.

The high density was achieved by utilizing advanced format technology (AFT), which raises the data storage density per unit area, enabling efficient and convenient data storage. A reduced number of components such as disks and heads also contribute to approximately seven percent increase in operation speeds and eight percent decline in power demand.
Wednesday, June 8th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Motherboards
Mouse
Multimedia
PSUs
Storage
ASUS M5A97 EVO AM3+ Review

ASUS M5A97 EVO AM3+ Review

Released on May 31st by ASUS, the M5A97 EVO is a new AM3+ motherboard, boasting support for AMD's upcoming AM3+ CPUs, as well, as current AM3 Phenom II CPUs. Sporting the now familiar black and blue color scheme from ASUS, the M5A97 EVO seeks, like its brethern, to turn the competition black and blue too.

Sony VAIO L Series All in One PC Combines Productivity with Entertainment

With so many integrated features, including a 3D display, the L Series delivers the ultimate one-stop shop for your every productivity and entertainment needs. The VAIO L Series All-in-One desktop is a contemporary high-definition PC/TV with a stunning 24-inch (diag.) LED backlit multi-touch display that offers intuitive touch access to Internet and TV(select models), Blu-ray Disc movies (select models), music, photos and more.

The Sony VAIO L Series features a full HD 3D display and lets you enjoy 3D Blu-ray Disc movies and PC games in 3D. You can also connect to a PlayStation 3 entertainment system via HDMI and enjoy 3D gaming on the 24-inch full HD display. One pair of USB rechargeable, active shutter 3D glasses are included with the L Series desktop.

IBM Microprocessors to Power the New Wii U System from Nintendo

IBM today announced that it will provide the microprocessors that will serve as the heart of the new Wii U system from Nintendo. Unveiled today at the E3 trade show, Nintendo plans for its new console to hit store shelves in 2012.

The all-new, Power-based microprocessor will pack some of IBM's most advanced technology into an energy-saving silicon package that will power Nintendo's brand new entertainment experience for consumers worldwide. IBM's unique embedded DRAM, for example, is capable of feeding the multi-core processor large chunks of data to make for a smooth entertainment experience.

Razer Unveils World's Most Advanced Gaming-Grade Tracking Technology

Razer, the world's leading high-end precision gaming brand, once again sets the bar for the absolute best in gaming technology with the introduction of their all-new 4G Dual Sensor System. Taking advantage of both an optical and a laser sensor for enhanced tracking accuracy, this sensor system was built to deliver the next level competitive edge in Razer's line-up of highly popular professional gaming mice, starting with the newest incarnations of the Razer Mamba and Razer Imperator.

Back in 1998, Razer pioneered the world's first true gaming mouse and since then has been at the forefront of developing the most cutting-edge sensors, always staying ahead of the competition. Whilst all other mice in the industry performed at under 500dpi, Razer mice were firing at four times that, at 2000dpi and up. The tracking precision on any Razer mouse was and still is unrivalled.

Matrox and Trenton Partner to Provide Integrated Hardware Systems for Video Walls

Matrox Graphics Inc. and Trenton Systems today announced a new technology partnership to deliver video wall solutions for the AV market, beginning with the Trenton TVC4401 4U rackmount system. The new Matrox-certified system can combine up to six, single-slot Matrox Mura MPX display controller boards-for up to 24 high-definition inputs and outputs-while leveraging the board's 64 Gbit/sec duplex data transfer to ensure flawless display of HD input captures, at full resolution and frame rate. Matrox Mura MPX hardware can be controlled using network commands or a fully-integrated video wall software suite. Designed to enable AV integrators deploying video wall solutions across a wide range of project sizes, Trenton systems with Matrox Mura MPX boards meet collaborative display wall requirements for small-scale corporate boardroom and digital signage configurations to large-scale control rooms.

Logitech Introduces Multi-Touch Lapdesk

So you can browse comfortably - right from your lap - today Logitech unveiled the Logitech Touch Lapdesk N600, featuring a large touchpad that makes it easier than ever to point, scroll and swipe your way through the Web.

"We've seen people using everything from pillows to pets to shield their laps from the heat their laptops generate, " said Denis Pavillard, vice president of product marketing for laptop accessories. "Our lapdesks are much more effective and, with the addition of a multi-touch touchpad, you'll get the added capability to more easily move through your favorite content without attaching additional peripherals."

CoolIT Announces OMNI N590 for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 GPUs

CoolIT Systems, the leader in advanced liquid cooling technology, announced today the launch of the OMNI N590 A.L.C. cooler for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590-based graphics cards. The release of this solution will enable trend setting system integrators to solve thermal and acoustic challenges in top-of-the-line PCs, allowing them to deliver a more robust NVIDIA Quad SLI solution to their customers.

The CoolIT OMNI A.L.C., winner of the 2010 CES Innovations Design & Engineering Showcase Award, is the world's first universally designed self-contained liquid cooling system for graphics cards.

PNY Debuts Liquid Cooled Graphics at E3

PNY Technologies, Inc. ("PNY"), a global leader in flash memory cards, USB flash drives, solid state drives, High Speed HDMI cables, computer memory upgrade modules, as well as consumer and professional graphics cards, today announced the debut of an innovative product line of Liquid Cooled Graphics Cards. PNY's new Liquid Cooled Graphics solution will be showcased at E3 2011 from now until June 9th.

PNY and Asetek, a leader in CPU thermal management, have combined forces to launch a high-end Liquid Cooled Graphics solution geared towards gaming enthusiasts. Consumers will receive a fully integrated XLR8 GeForce GTX liquid cooled graphics system, with a combination GPU/CPU cooling version available as well. Engineered with a closed loop system, and built with an Asetek sealed water cooler already attached, the PNY design offers consumers an out-of-the-box ready, simple to install and reliable product.

Corsair Recalls Force 3 120 GB Solid State Drives, Offers Free Replacement

Corsair issued a recall notice for its Force 3 120 GB solid state drive (model: CSSD-F120GBG3-BK). Other variants of the Force 3 series are not affected. Corsair noted a hardware issue where Force 3 120 GB SSDs shipped had much less performance than advertised. Owners of Force 3 120 GB can apply for a completely free replacement (shipping costs will be borne by Corsair), for a Force 3 120 GB drive from a normal batch. Owners can apply for a replacement at Corsair Support. Corsair will be pulling faulty batches of Force 3 120 GB off the shelves until they are restocked with fresh batches of normal drives.

Mushkin Announces Next Generation Chronos and Chronos Deluxe SSDs

Mushkin, Inc., a global leader in high-performance computer products, today announced "Chronos", a new solid state drive series based on the SandForce SF-2281 processor. This series will be Mushkin's first utilizing the SATA Revision 3.0 protocol, providing 6 gigabits per second of bandwidth. The Chronos Series is comprised of two types of products: "Chronos" and "Chronos Deluxe". Chronos Deluxe SSDs utilize high-speed NAND flash memory and are ideal for enthusiasts or those in audio/video production who require the greatest possible bandwidth. Chronos SSDs offer asynchronous flash memory and provide users with eye-opening SSD speed and functionality at a value-oriented price.

"This new series of SSDs is the latest in Mushkin's long history of solid state storage products. This is an area in which we have made great strides and our Chronos SSD line will continue this tradition. Users who are ready for SATA 6 Gb/s now, or are planning to upgrade down the road, will not find a better drive in terms of performance and price." - Brian Flood, Mushkin director of product development.
Tuesday, June 7th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Memory
Motherboards
NAS
Networking
Notebooks
Processors
PSUs
Storage

AMD FX 8 Core and 4 Core Processor Systems Seen Running at E3

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2011, AMD made its revival of the FX brand identifier official. The company steered clear of actually launching anything, but reran the audience through the AMD Bulldozer architecture, something AMD first did way back in August 2010 (yeah, it's been that long!). Knowing the audience needed a lot more than just that, AMD ran live demos of gaming PCs running the new FX series processors, again, without giving away any performance figures.

AMD first showed the final box art design. The box of the eight-core FX Black Edition processor is a classy metal canister, while the quad-core FX chip is housed in a more common-looking paperboard box, the design of which matches the one revealed in a box-art exposé back in March. The gaming rigs shown run the eight-core FX processor on an ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard, with Radeon HD 6900 series graphics, with an Eyefinity display setup.

Rambus and Freescale Sign Patent License Agreement

Rambus Inc., one of the world's premier technology licensing companies, announced today it has signed a patent license agreement with Freescale Semiconductor. This agreement covers the use of Rambus patented innovations for memory controllers and serial links in a broad range of logic integrated circuit (IC) products offered by Freescale. In addition, the two companies have settled all claims between them including resolution of past use of Rambus' patented innovations. The term of the patent license agreement is five years. Other terms of the agreement are confidential.

"Freescale is the global leader in embedded processing solutions, and this agreement demonstrates the strength of our patented innovations for both memory controllers as well as serial links," said Sharon Holt, senior vice president and general manager of the Semiconductor Business Group at Rambus. "With our commitment to innovation, we will continue to develop breakthrough technology which helps our licensees make great electronic products that deliver the richest consumer experience."

New Acer TimelineX Notebook PCs Deliver Style, Mobile Performance, Long Battery Life

Acer America today elevates its highly-touted Acer Aspire TimelineX series notebooks with a new sleek and stylish, thin and light design complemented by long battery life and the latest technology and new entertainment features, including Dolby Home Theater v4 Audio. Models are available now in the United States.

The Acer Aspire TimelineX Series is a best-in-breed notebook line that combines performance and portability in an incredibly beautiful and refined form factor. The notebook's upscale look and feel centers around its uncluttered, elegant design. The notebooks have a clean layout with a large touchpad and chiclet keyboard to promote both enjoyment and productivity. Available in three sizes -- the 13.3-inch 3830T, 14-inch 4830T and 15.6-inch 5830T -- the designs measure about an inch thin and are very lightweight.

The Battle Between The Empire and The Republic Gets Fiercer With Razer

Razer, the world's leading high-end precision gaming brand, is proud to send your Star Wars: The Old Republic gaming experience into hyperspace with the release of a licensed Star Wars: The Old Republic product line, expected to launch in conjunction with the hotly anticipated title. In collaboration with BioWare and LucasArts, this collection of gaming weaponry will equip you to win, whether you're carrying out the work of the Dark Sith lords or righteously defending the people of the Galactic Republic.

"As fans of Star Wars ourselves, we are absolutely thrilled for the chance to create a product line for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The result is a spectacular collection of the highest grade peripherals that is a tribute to the franchise, its fans and gamers alike," said Robert "RazerGuy" Krakoff, President, Razer USA. "And whether you're using our revolutionary new keyboard with the world's first LCD touch-panel, or the multi-award winning MMO gaming mouse styled in the Star Wars universe with a twelve-button thumb grid, it goes without saying, we equip gamers to win."

SteelSeries and Valve Announce Multi-Title Agreement for Co-Branding Gaming Surfaces

SteelSeries, the leading global manufacturer of gaming peripherals, today announced a new partnership with Valve Corporation, entertainment software and technology company and creator of the popular Steam platform and award-winning properties such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Portal and Left 4 Dead. Through a multi-title agreement, SteelSeries will work closely with Valve to design co-branded gaming surfaces, specific for Valve's most recognized game titles.

Scythe Announces Himuro Mini HDD Cooler and Noise-Dampener

Cooling expert Scythe is hereby announcing a smaller version of the Himuro HDD Cooler. New Himuro Mini is designed to cool and silence 2,5 inch Hard Drives. Users are able to install standard 2,5" Hard Drives with a thickness of up to 13 millimeter. Alike the former announced Himuro HDD Cooler, this smaller version is manufactured using high quality aluminum which is forming a chassis thickness of around 2 mm. This results in an overall product weight of 280 gram.

Himuro Mini is based on a design of two separate aluminum shells which are covering the Hard Drive and are fixed by screws. In order to reduce vibrations and noise coming from the HDD, thermal compound pads are included and vary depending on HDD thickness. Furthermore all inner sides are covered by thermal compound pads to achieve effective heat transfer to the fin structure on the outside of Himuro Mini chassis.

ASUS Releases ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Graphics Card to Market

Continuing the success of its popular ROG MATRIX Series graphics cards, ASUS today launches the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Series. Based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU, the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Series combines a dual-fan DirectCU II thermal design and 19-phase Super Alloy Power components with instant hardware overclocking tools; TweakIt, ProbeIt and an innovative Safe Mode button. Together, with the new GPU Tweak software overclocking utility, both gamers and overclockers can now gain an undeniable performance advantage over the competition.

Futuremark Updates 3DMark 11 to Version 1.02

Futuremark today released an update to 3DMark 11, a popular benchmark suite for DirectX 11 graphics hardware. The new version 1.02 brings with it an updated Bullet Physics library that supports new and upcoming CPUs and GPUs, and an updated SystemInfo component that can detect new hardware. Basic Edition users now get access to display scaling controls. There are a number of feature improvements for Professional and Advanced editions, including fixed wireframe mode for the Combined test with NVIDIA hardware, and load/Save result dialog remembering the last used folder. With Professional Edition, the correct watermark is always displayed when benchmark is launched from command line; and command line loop switch with single test now loops without reloading. 3DMark 11 1.02 is available both as a 17 MB patch that updates previous versions to 1.02, and the full 295 MB installer.

DOWNLOAD 3DMark 11 v1.xx to v1.02 patch | 3DMark 11 v1.02 installer

AMD Reintroduces FX Brand for High-End Processors and Platforms at E3

AMD today reintroduced the FX brand for PC processors and platforms at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). FX-branded products will be geared toward enthusiast PCs and HD entertainment aficionados. AMD also announced new members for its "Gaming Evolved" program, driving the PC gaming experience forward with native HD3D support in Eidos Montreal's "Deus Ex: Human Revolution," and new collaborations with Bioware, Creative Assembly and Codemasters.

The FX brand is associated with AMD's fastest processors and most powerful platforms -- those designed for unrestrained PC performance for the ultimate gaming and HD entertainment experiences. In addition, these processors and platforms drive rich visuals for graphics-intensive applications and high-resolution AMD Eyefinity multi-monitor configurations. The first platform to earn the FX title, the "Scorpius" platform, will feature the now-available AMD 9-series chipset motherboards and AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series graphics cards, plus the upcoming "Zambezi" unlocked, native eight-core processor.

Sony Announces PlayStation Vita, Revolutionary Portable Entertainment Device

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) announced PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) (PCH-1000 series) as the official platform name for the next generation portable entertainment system at E3 2011. With an RRP of €249 for the Wireless model and €299 for the Wireless/3G version, PS Vita will launch in the global market starting at the end of 2011.

"Vita", which means "Life" in Latin, was chosen as the most appropriate name for the next generation portable entertainment system as it enables a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context as SCE aims to transform every aspect of a user's daily life into an entertainment experience and an opportunity to play.

Mac OS X Lion With 250 New Features Available in July From Mac App Store

Apple announced that Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world's most advanced operating system with more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac App Store for $29.99. Some of the amazing features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

"The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac."

Apple Introduces iCloud, Free Cloud Services Beyond Anything Offered to Date

Apple introduced iCloud, a breakthrough set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and automatically and wirelessly push it to all your devices. When anything changes on one of your devices, all of your devices are wirelessly updated almost instantly.

"Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it's integrated into our apps you don't even need to think about it-it all just works."
Monday, June 6th 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
Graphics Cards
Keyboards
Memory
Monitors
Motherboards
Notebooks
PSUs
Speakers
SSD
Storage
Computex 2011 Show Girls Review

Computex 2011 Show Girls Review

Computex Taiwan is one of the leading computer tradeshows in the year. Thanks to its asian location the booths are full of hot show girls in short skirts. TechPowerUp brings you the complete collection with over 175 girls - including high-res images.
RASURBO Real & Power 550 W Review

RASURBO Real & Power 550 W Review

We are always thrilled to see new companies enter the PSU market because this leads to more choice for the end users and competition gets tougher, reducing prices. Today we will take a look at RASURBO's Real&Power 550 W, which is 80 PLUS certified, utilizes a semi modular cabling scheme and comes with attractive pricing.

SteelSeries Announces Family of Exclusive Diablo III Peripherals

As the game industry waits for E3 to kick off next week, SteelSeries, a leading manufacturer of professional gaming peripherals today announced a co-branding partnership with Blizzard Entertainment on the SteelSeries Diablo III family of products. The Diablo III Mouse, Diablo III Headset, and two Diablo III QcK mousepads - Witch Doctor and Barbarian Editions, were co-designed with technology, hardware, and illumination features that support the look and feel of the third installment of Blizzard Entertainment's highly anticipated, mouse-intensive Diablo series.

"The level of excitement for the Diablo III release is massive. When the opportunity was presented to partner up with Blizzard for a new family of co-branded peripherals, we knew that they had to be engineered for this particular type of gameplay by being both durable and able to bring out the Diablo III theme onto a player's desktop," said Kim Rom, SteelSeries CMO. "The mouse offers both simplicity for new players and unprecedented durability that will support the series' distinctive mouse-driven gameplay, while the headset optimizes the high, spine-chilling snarls of otherworldly creatures and the booming lows of a barbarian battle cry. Together, the headset and mouse will help immerse players into the game through their extended comfort, compelling designs and high performance."

Green House Intros Encryption-Enhanced PicoDrive Secure USB Flash Drives

Japanese company Green House unveiled PicoDrive Secure, a new series of compact USB flash drives that feature 256-bit AES data encryption. Measuring 65 (W) x 19 (D) x 8 (H) mm, and weighing just 11 g, the drives use older USB 2.0 interface. To keep data safe, the drive also features a password-based lock function that lets you switch from no access to read-only access, and full-access. The security comes at a price, however, with the 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB variants being priced at US $160, $230, $300, and $355, respectively.

Microsoft Intros New Wireless Desktop with 128-bit AES Encryption

Wireless input devices such as keyboards and mice provide a lot of convenience, but it comes at the cost of security. Anyone with proper equipment and skills can intercept the signals between keyboards and the PC, and log your keystrokes. That way, it's not extremely safe to input sensitive information like passwords. As wireless input devices evolved from using plain RF to 2.4 GHz band and eventually 5.8 GHz band, manufacturers began adding certain kinds of encryption mechanisms. Microsoft built on this, and packed its latest Wireless Desktop 2000 with 128-bit AES encryption, which is extremely tough for the unauthorized to decrypt.

The keyboard uses a standard layout with essential and media hotkeys. A row of buttons gives you easy access to pinned or opened items on the Windows 7 taskbar. The mouse, on the other hand, is a standard 3 button scroll mouse that uses Microsoft's Bluetrack technology that allows you to use it on virtually any surface. The new, secure Microsoft Wireless Desktop 2000 keyboard-mouse combo is priced at US $39.99.

OCZ Displays Fatal1ty-Branded 1000W Modular PSU

OCZ displayed a new Fatal1ty-branded 1000W modular PSU at this year's Computex. The PSU bears 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating, and is fit for gaming PCs with up to three graphics cards, or "hardcore gamers", as the placard puts it. The PSU is partially modular, i.e., essential connectors such as 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS are fixed to the unit, while everything else, is detachable. OCZ is said to be using special cables that are flatter and a lot more flexible, to reach around tight spots in the case. The unit is cooled by a 130 mm fan that is red LED-illuminated. It is backed by a 5 year PowerSwap warranty by OCZ.

ASUS Displays Cedar Trail-based IPC Motherboard

ASUS displayed its new mini-ITX motherboard for IPC (industrial PC) market, the D27NM10-I IPC. As an IPC-ready board, it is designed for rugged industrial environments that have minimal cooling and require high uptime. The D27NM10-I IPC uses next-generation 32 nm Intel Atom "Cedar View" D2700 dual-core processor clocked at 2.13 GHz, featuring HyperTreading to yield 4 logical CPUs for the OS to deal with. The processor is wired to two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots supporting single-channel DDR3 memory. Intel NM10 is the chipset employed, it's also found on previous-generation Pine Trail platform.

A large heatsink covers both the processor and chipset, there are three 4-pin PWM fan headers on board in case a fan has to be latched on to it. The board draws power from an external DC power source over standard 2-pin DC input connector. It can also be powered by any switching power supply with a 4-pin Molex power connector. Storage connectivity includes two SATA 3 Gb/s ports. The only expansion here is an open-ended PCI-E x1, and a mini-PCI-E. There's plenty of serial connectivity, including two serial DE-9 ports on the read panel, and 3 via headers. Other connectivity includes 2-channel HD audio, dual gigabit Ethernet, display outputs that include DVI and D-Sub, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The board uses UEFI with graphical EZ-Mode setup program.

Super Talent Readies New SandForce-Driven USB 3.0 Flash Drive

Super Talent is readying a new USB 3.0 flash drive, the RC8. This is essentially a SandForce-driven SSD on a stick. It uses a SF-1222 controller, coupled with 25 nm MLC NAND flash memory over 8-channels. It is available in capacities of 25 GB, 50 GB, and 100 GB. When plugged into a USB 3.0 port, the drive can offer read and write speeds of over 200 MB/s. It is backwards-compatible with USB 2.0, where its transfer rates are restricted to around 40 MB/s. Expect the 50 GB variant to be priced around US $110.

EVGA Readies Dual-LGA2011 X79 Motherboard

At this year's Computex event, we were treated to socket LGA2011 motherboards by various motherboard manufacturers, except EVGA. The company makes some of the highest grade enthusiast motherboards in the Intel platform, and so it was missed. It is however, said to be working on a monstrous dual-socket LGA2011 motherboard based on the Intel X79 chipset, that would replace its dual-socket LGA1366 EVGA SR-2.

Just imagine, such a monstrosity would combine two six/eight/twelve-core LGA2011 Sandy Bridge-E processors with eight channels of DDR3 memory, and four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x16) links to drive its graphics cards and connectivity. EVGA said that it will have single-socket LGA2011 motherboards by the time the platform launches, and this dual-LGA2011 about a month later.
Friday, June 3rd 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Monitors
Motherboards
NAS
Netbooks
Nettops
PSUs
SSD
Storage

Thermaltake Unveils New ''Smart'' Value PSUs

Thermaltake displayed some of the first PSUs in its new "Smart" series, which is designed to offer "just the right power", in other terms, cost-effective PSUs with proper connectivity. Some of these even feature modular cabling. Thermaltake Smart PSUs come in output capacities below 750W, we spotted a modular 550W model, fixed-cable 630W and 730W models. The Smart M550W is the modular box with 550W continuous power and 650W peak output, it is 80 Plus Bronze efficiency compliant.

The Smart 630W has peak output of 700W, and is designed for entry-level dual-GPU systems (two 6+2 pin PCI-E connectors), it is 80 Plus compliant. Leading the pack is the Smart 730W, with a peak output of 800W, and four 6+2 pin PCI-E connectors. All three models use single 12V rail designs, are standards compliant, and feature most protection mechanisms. Thermaltake is backing these value PSUs with 3 year warranties.

Thermaltake Displays Toughpower XT GOLD 1475W PSU

Thermaltake brought out its big guns in the field of PSUs at this year's Computex, with the Toughpower XT GOLD 1475W. As the name suggests, it's 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating compliant. Mind you, 1475W isn't its peak power, but continuous power guaranteed 24x7 @ 50°C. Further, the PSU uses a single massive 12V rail design to deliver that kind of power. The Toughpower XT GOLD 1475W is partially modular, with an angled 24-pin ATX connector and two 8-pin EPS connectors being fixed, and the rest let up for cable management. Thermaltake will back these beasts with 7 year warranty once released.

AmacroX Displays Calmer 4 Fanless 500W 80 Plus Gold PSU

PSU maker AmacroX displayed Calmer 4, its new silent PSU for mid-range gaming PCs. The PSU is fan-less, and relies on passive convectional air-flow to cool components inside. It can deliver 500W of power, with an efficiency that earns it 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating. The Calmer 4 has fixed cabling, and provides all essential cables, including two PCI-E cables for a single high-end graphics card. It is backed by a 5 year warranty.

Kingston Digital Unveils its First SandForce-based SSD

Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it has teamed up with SandForce Inc., a leader in high-performance SSD (Solid-State Drive) processors, to launch its first SATA Rev 3.0 (6Gb/s) based SSD targeted at enthusiasts, gamers, and performance users. The Kingston HyperX SSD feature the latest and most reliable SandForce controller to date, and is also available as a bundle with the HyperX Upgrade Kit for easy installation.

Shipping in 120GB and 240GB capacities, the HyperX SSD is based on SandForce SF-2281 controllers featuring SATA Rev 3.0 (6Gb/s). It allows for incredible sequential read/write throughputs of 525/480MB/s, IOPS of 40,000/60,000 (240GB), and SandForce DuraClass Technology to provide best in class endurance.

Spire Announces the Swirl Universal CPU Cooler

Spire Corp officially introduced its new Swirl CPU cooler today. Utilizing three (3) sintered powder all copper 8mm thick heat pipes and a vertical cylinder design the Swirl is ready to push your CPU to maximum performance. The Swirl is constructed with a combination of an all copper base and all-direction aluminum fins to provide sufficient heat-transfer and good cooling for the hot 130W ~ 150W micro-processors. The Swirl heat-sink and heat-pipes are both soldered and protected with a thin layer of dark-nickel coating to protect from oxidation and to preserve awesome looks. The vertical mounted fan is equipped with 4 bright red LEDs that give a cool glow inside your enclosure. Universal support for both Intel and AMD based systems makes this a versatile solution for any PC system. The Swirl is one of the most appealing coolers on the market and a great solution for those enthusiasts, gamers and professionals alike.

Noctua Shows New D-Type Heatsink Prototype Built on NH-D14 Design

Noctua is designing a new double fin-stack D-type CPU Cooler its prototype is on display at Computex. Its heatsink follows the same design principle as the NH-D14, and is roughly the same size, but with a few design optimizations. First, the two aluminum fin stacks aren't cuboidal. Towards the bottom, the fins are narrower, creating more room for components on the motherboard, next to the heatsink (such as memory modules and VRM heatsinks). The recessed lower fins create 60 mm of height clearance for memory modules. The density of the aluminum is also increased, with 50 fins, increasing surface area. The 120 mm NF-P12 from the original NH-D14 design are replaced by the company's new Focused Flow 120 mm fan.

Mach Xtreme Unveils mSATA SandForce-Driven SSD and Macbook Air Upgrade SSD

Mach Xtreme is among those memory vendors seeing a market in consumer mSATA SSDs, a component reserved to OEMs for use on notebooks, before Intel launched the Smart Response technology with its Z68 platform, paving way for motherboards with mSATA slots that hold the SSD used for Smart Response caching. On display at Computex is Mach Xtreme's SandForce SF-1200 driven mSATA SSD that offers capacity of 60 GB. MachXtreme also showed off its Apple Macbook Air upgrade SSD, that consumers can opt for upping capacity and transfer rates, over the bundled SSD.
Thursday, June 2nd 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Harddisks
Memory
Motherboards
NAS
Notebooks
Speakers
SSD
Storage
Viako Mini Letter ML-55 E-350 Wifi Review

Viako Mini Letter ML-55 E-350 Wifi Review

The Viako Mini-Letter ML-55 chassis is extremely compact, costs less than 90 US Dollar including a power supply, is constructed of thick metal and can fit a standard Mini-ITX board. That all sounds really good, but can it deliver in the sight of stiff competition?

A-Data Cashes in on Smart Response and Embedded Markets with New mSATA SSDs

Intel's Smart Response technology is doing wonders to the low-cost SSD market. The technology lets low-capacity, usually low-cost SSDs to be used as caches for hard drives, improving the system's overall responsiveness. The technology makes these low-cost SSDs more of a component than a product (such as 2.5-inch SATA SSDs), and hence it makes sense to offer them in the mSATA form-factor. Intel made its headstart by launching the Intel 311 "Larson Creek" series 20 GB SSD that comes in both 2.5-inch SATA 3 Gb/s and mSATA form factors. While mSATA makes it easy to deploy the technology into notebooks, desktop motherboard vendors such as Gigabyte thought it would be nice to give their motherboards an mSATA slot.

Capitalizing on this very market is A-Data, with a couple of new low-cost mSATA SSDs in the ISFM series. First is the ISFM-XM13, an mSATA SSD driven by a SandForce SF-1200 series controller. Even with some of the controller's channels unoccupied (due to obvious lack of space to put NAND flash chips), this card doles out decent transfer rates of up to 250 MB/s read and 170 MB/s write. This card comes in capacities of 30 GB (32 GB with 2 GB overprovisioned) and 60 GB (64 GB with 4 GB overprovisioned). This card uses MLC NAND flash. Next up, is the ISFM-IXM01, that looks to be using a JMicron-made controller. The bigger difference here is the use of SLC NAND flash on one of its two variants, which traditionally offers higher rewrite cycles. The other variant uses MLC NAND flash. The SLC variant offers transfer rates of 90 MB/s read and 90 MB/s write, and comes in capacities of 2, 4, 8, and 16 GB. The MLC variant gives you 150 MB/s read, 120 MB/s write; and comes in capacities of 32, 64, and 128 GB.

Galaxy Unveils its Multi Display Technology Graphics Cards

Galaxy has been working its way around NVIDIA's 4 TMDS/2 display limitation for a while now. In April, the first pictures of two cards emerged, that used multi-monitor controllers made by IDT to multiply the number of displays a single-GPU card can handle. Here's the fruition. Galaxy displayed the GeForce 210 MDT X4 and GeForce GTX 560 Ti MDT X5, the former can drive four displays, and the latter five. Galaxy is using the IDT VMM1400, a chipset commonly found on multi-monitor hub devices. It allows the graphics card MDT graphics cards to give out multiple full-HD (1920 x 1080) display heads. The GeForce 210 MDT X4 gives out four DVI connectors, while the 560 Ti MDT X5 provides four mini HDMI and one each of DisplayPort and DVI.

Galaxy Brings Hollywood-Quality Video to Consumer Graphics Card

Graphics card major Galaxy Technology designed a new GeForce GTX 550 Ti based graphics card that is HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) compliant, and packs a professional-grade hardware display processor (that which handles the actual display functions, while the GTX 550 Ti crunches graphics and performs drawing operations). The third-party display processor used was previously found only on professional graphics cards priced upwards of US $1000, and available only to the production industry.

The card works with the GPU, the GTX 550 Ti, handling all the drawing functions (rendering 3D and 2D frames), while the display processor handles the display functions, of generating analog and digital output via a plethora of display connectivity options including HDMI 1.4a. The result is ultra high video fidelity, the way the producers meant their production to be.

Noctua Assures 100% Memory Area Clearance with New Slim Tower-Type Heatsink

After many distinctive heatsink designs, Noctua is making a return to the conventional single aluminum fin stack tower-type heatsink (U-type), the company showed off its prototype at Computex. The new heatsink uses a slim aluminum fin stack that adds to the clearance with the motherboard's memory area, but compensates for that with a taller fin stack, that can hold 140 mm fans, in this case, it's supplied with a NF-P14.

The design consists of 7 nickel-plated copper heat pipes passing through a base, that conveys heat to the aluminum fin stack. The heat pipes are spread apart as they pass through the fins, allowing uniform heat dissipation. Thanks to the slim heatsink design approach, Noctua assures 100% memory area clearance. Noctua will bundle one fan, but there's the provision for a second "pull" fan. Expect a value price on this one.

NVIDIA GeForce 275.33 WHQL Software Suite Released

Amidst all the Computex fanfare, NVIDIA released its rather silent update to the GeForce software suite, with GeForce 275.33 WHQL. The driver includes all the updates of GeForce 275.27 BETA. A performance-drop issue found on The Witcher 2 played on 275.27 BETA, was fixed. Aside from that, a number of performance improvements are carried forward from 275.27 BETA, and released in the WHQL-signed 275.33. These are specific to GeForce GTX 580 and GTX 560, and provide performance improvements by as much as 15% in some cases.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 275.33 WHQL

A list of performance improvements follows.

Huntkey Displays X7 Post-Apocalyptic Case Concept

There are plenty of current and upcoming games set in a post-apocalyptic scenario, the limited few who are deep into the survival-horror and adventure settings will find this new case from Huntkey interesting, even otherwise the rustic industrial looks should get some. Called the X7, the case comes from one of the more popular case and PSU manufacturers selling in the eastern markets. The Huntkey X7 is an ATX full-tower case that features an industrial, almost post-apocalyptic design scheme. The side panel uses not just two-dimensional painted structures, but also three-dimensional metal shards sewn together by a network of screws.

It's not just the random shapes these shards are made of, but also the physical texture, that add originality to this design. The case looks like it's supported by a central SECC-made frame with shards all over it. The front panel looks like a set of random drive bay and fan bay covers, one even has a worn-out StarCraft logo. The surface carries splashes of rusty colors, worn out silvery surface, and patches of red, denoting that the "pre-apocalyptic" X7 may have been a metal-overall case with red paint. Inside, the case has components located in places where some of the first ATX tower cases had them: PSU on the top, a top drive-cage with four 5.25" bays, and one 120 mm rear exhaust apart from two 120 mm front intakes. There are top-exhausts, too, but they're made to appear like they've been drilled out later. The case is sure to make heads turn at LAN parties. Make sure you complement it: go dressed in a worn-out anti-radiation overcoat.

Noctua Displays Large Downdraft Type CPU Cooler Prototype

Noctua is one of the last bastions of high-performance top-flow design CPU coolers, but that doesn't come in the way of Noctua keeping top-flow alive, in fact the company is coming up with more ways to push the performance barrier, and compete with side-flow and closed-loop water cooling kits. Seen here is a new "downdraft" type CPU cooler prototype. The design involves large aluminum fin stacks that propagate along the plane of the motherboard, over the CPU socket and memory slot area. Don't worry, there's 70 mm of clearance with everything below, letting you install certain kinds of tall memory modules.

The heatsink, with its 25 mm thick fans installed isn't much higher than most high-end side-flow tower type heatsinks. The design involves a CPU base from which 7 nickel-plated copper heat pipes shoot up a height of 70 mm, before passing through the two fin stacks. The surface area of this heatsink is said to be 20% higher than that of the NH-D14. The heatsink is ventilated by two 120 mm Focused Flow fans, blowing air downwards. Everything else on the upper-half of the motherboard (such as VRM), gets cooled under the air-flow.

Scythe Announces Improved USB Foot Switch II

Japanese manufacturer Scythe is hereby announcing an improved version of USB Foot Switch. These special input devices were improved according to the feedback which was collected from users who have used the first version. The main focus was put on the reduction of in service noise which resulted in reconstruction of the switching mechanism. Hence new USB Foot Switch II is no longer based on a mechanical but an optical switch. To further reduce the switching noise, rubber was implemented inside the chassis.

To further increase the respond time of the USB Foot Switch II the key stroke was reduced from 8 mm to only 5 mm. Hence reduces the pressure required to use the switch resulting in easier and more comfortable use. USB Foot Switch II can be connected conveniently using the USB interface of a PC or Notebook. Required software and drivers are included, offering many options and combinations for the key configuration.

G.Skill Breaks SuperPi 32M LGA1155 World Record

During the first day of Computex 2011, three legendary overclockers, Shamino, Fredyama and Young Pro smashed the super Pi 32M record at the G.Skill booth. They achieved incredible Super Pi 32M time of 5min 33.172s with amazing ram speed of DDR3 2340MHz CL6-9-6-25 1T. This is the fastest Super Pi 32M record recorded using the latest Intel LGA 1155 platforms. This amazing score was achieved with top in-line hardware, G.Skill DDR3 2400MHz CL8 4GB (2GBx2) PI memory, ASUS ROG Maximus IV Extreme motherboard and Intel 2600K CPU.

Zalman Displays CNPS12X, Massive CPU Cooler

Here are the first pictures of CNPS12X, Zalman's new top-tier CPU cooler. Zalman is popular for its omega-shaped aluminum fin ring coolers that were counted among the best in the business for the better part of last decade, before tower-type coolers took over. Tower-type coolers offer the best cooling efficiency to the weight. The only way so far to better tower-type air-coolers in their category is double-tower type, where heat pipes pass through two aluminum fin towers, with two or three fans nested in between, in coolers such as the Noctua NH-D14 and Coolink Corator DS. Zalman made its first tower-type cooler with CNPS10X, and later implemented the design a number of times over, on CNPS11X, CNPS5X, and CNPS7X.

The CNPS12X is a faint tribute to the round fin-ring design heatsink, except that it's not. It is a double-tower type heatsink, with ring-like aluminum fin stacks. Unlike with true ring-type heatsinks where fins would propagate along the main heat pipes, on CNPS12X, they pass straight upwards from the base. The heat pipes pass through the first fin stack, through a base where they make direct contact with the CPU, and then on through the second fin stack. The cooler comes with three fans pre-installed, one at the intake, one between the two fin stacks, and one at the exhaust. The heatsink is large, at 151 (L) x 132 x 153 mm, weighing in at 1.00 kg.

TRENDnet Demonstrates a 450 Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Media Bridge

TRENDnet, a best-in-class wired and wireless networking hardware brand, today from COMPUTEX Taipei, demonstrates the first 450Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Media Bridge, model TEW-680MB. The 450Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Media Bridge networks computers, gaming consoles, televisions, and DVRs to the Internet with never before seen 450 Mbps wireless connection speeds. Four Gigabit Ethernet ports allow users to easily connect all networked media center devices to the Internet over a high performance network.

Dual Band technology provides users the option of connecting media center devices to the common 2.4 GHz network, or to the 5 GHz network, which typically offers less interference from competing networks and wireless devices. A popular network configuration when connecting to a Dual Band router, such as TRENDnet's 450Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Router (model TEW-692GR), is to assign the low interference 5 GHz band to media center devices, and the 2.4 GHz band to computers and peripherals that are typically only able to connect using the single band 2.4 GHz frequency.

Noctua Shows Off Top-Tier Triple Fin Stack CPU Cooler Prototype

One of the most interesting CPU coolers in the show, this prototype from Noctua is a sort of an "inversion" of the NH-D14 design. While the NH-D14 has two aluminum fin stacks with room for three fans (intake for the first stack, exhaust for the second stack and one in between the two stacks), this prototype uses three stacks, with two 120 mm Focused Flow fans in between (or any 140 mm fan). So now you have an aluminum fin stack before the first 120/140 mm fan, which conveys air onto a large central stack, from which air is drawn by the second 120/140 mm fan, and onto the third stack which is the size of the first one.

Heat is conveyed to the three stacks by eight nickel-plated aluminum heat pipes that pass through the CPU base. The heat pipes that pass through the central portion of the base pass though the central stack, while those that pass though the peripheral portions pass through the peripheral (1,3) stacks. The relatively slim central stack coupled with the high peripheral stacks leave plenty of room for RAM and VRM heatsinks, by up to 70 mm, should be plenty for Corsair Dominator modules. Noctua claims that this heatsink has 20% higher surface area than NH-D14, more surface area is always better.

Noctua Displays New Compact, Low-Profile CPU Cooler Prototype

Noctua displayed a new low-profile, top-flow CPU cooler prototype, that's capable of low-profile mode with a height of just 66 mm, making it fit for certain slim form-factor ITX cases. The prototype uses a C-type top-flow heatsink, similar to the NH-C14, only much smaller, and thinner. It uses four heat-pipes to convey heat to a dense aluminum fin array. Unlike on the NH-C14, this prototype uses a dual-fan design in which the bottom fan is smaller. While the top-fan is a 120 mm Focused Airflow, while the bottom fan is a 92 mm NF-B9. The cooler can be run in dual-fan mode with both fans installed (cooler height will be 91 mm), or single-fan low-profile mode with the top fan removed (cooler height of 66 mm). A "high-clearance mode" with the bottom fan removed also looks possible.

Noctua Designs LGA2011 Mounting Kit Free Upgrade

Weren't we all both surprised and touched that Noctua gave away free mounting kit upgrades to all owners of compatible Noctua coolers, when the industry was waking up to LGA1366 from LGA775? Noctua plans a similar move, giving away LGA2011 mounting kits to owners of Noctua coolers (any cooler released after 2005). The company showed off its LGA2011 mounting kit prototype at Computex. The kit builds on the SecuFirm 2 design, and lets you install Noctua heatsinks on socket LGA2011 motherboards that seat Sandy Bridge-E processors. Any user of a Noctua CPU heatsink released after 2005 with a proof of purchase will get the kit free of charge. Even otherwise, the kit will be sold at a nominal price, like it did with the LGA1366 mounting kit.

Noctua Innovates New Fan Design

Noctua displayed its new innovation in fan design, called Focused Flow. One of the first fans that use this design come in 120 mm size. Its design goal is to channel (or "focus") air flow towards the center of the fan, making it ideal for use with heatsinks and radiators. The biggest design change here is the stator guide vanes, that are a set of structures permanently fixed between the frame and the center. There are a number of innovations that improve air flow and reduce noise. Notable features are micro-structures on the inner-walls of the frame that dampens the whipping noise made by rotating fan-blades, and integrated vibration dampening material at the edges. The new Focused Flow 120 fan will be used by Noctua on all its upcoming CPU coolers.
Wednesday, June 1st 2011

Today's Reviews

Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Gaming PC
Graphics Cards
Keyboards
Memory
Motherboards
Notebooks
Processors
PSUs

Sharkoon Announces Flexi-Drive Ultimate USB Drive with Eight-Channel MLC Architecture

Small enough for transit, ample storage space for large files and SuperSpeed for rapid data access - Sharkoon raises the benchmark for USB 3.0 sticks a little higher and presents in time for Computex another model in their high-performance segment: The Sharkoon Flexi-Drive Ultimate achieves sequential read rates of up to 200 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 120 MB/s. Storage capacity is available in either 64 GB or 128 GB.

The Sharkoon Flexi-Drive Ultimate uses a powerful Single Chip USB3.0 Controller and four eight-channel controlled MLC storage cells. The memory stick is in a high-quality, black aluminium case with a protective cap and keychain eyelet, measures 79 x 27 x 9.3 mm, weighs 40 grams and supports the operating systems Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32 and 64 Bit), Mac OS 10 as well as Linux.

AMD Paves the Way for the Next Gen. of Supercharged Desktop PCs with 9-Series Chipset

AMD today launched its 9-Series chipset line-up today, helping PC builders to develop next generation high performance desktop platforms. The company also unveiled its 2011 HD Tablet Platform, based on the AMD Z-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), enabling vivid media display and content creation capabilities for the fast-growing market of Microsoft Windows-based tablets. These new AMD products are designed to enable more immersive digital experiences for the PC and tablet markets.

"As consumer appetites for more compelling, lifelike visual experiences increase, there is greater need for high performance, smooth, vibrant graphics as well as unparalleled computing power," said John Taylor, product marketing director, AMD. "From tablets to desktops, AMD is making powerful computing accessible to everyone."

Experience a New Era of ROG with a Range of High-Performance

ASUS, a global leader in the new digital era, today announced a number of exciting new products for high-performance gaming PCs to further expand its Republic of Gamers (ROG) range. Established five years ago, ROG is committed to developing the ultimate high-performance hardware.

"The ROG philosophy is based on the core ideals of class-leading performance, innovative user controls and gamer-focused design," said ASUS Vice President and GM of Worldwide Sales, Jackie Hsu. The products announced today not only hold true to these ideals, but also introduce a host of new innovations that push high-end PC performance to even greater extremes.

Akasa Also Shows off Venom Series Cases

Akasa also unveiled two of its latest PC cases targeting gamers, which make use of the Venom color scheme, the Venom Toxic, and Venom Strike. The Toxic is the larger among the two, it is an ATX full-tower that appears to support XL-ATX form-factor motherboards with 10 expansion slots. The case is very airy, the side-panel is almost entirely perforated, with room for side-panel fans. The top holds a large 200 mm fan, and a utility tray. It's quite possible that there's a HDD dock in there. The Venom Toxic also has cable management features on its motherboard tray. The Venom Striker is the value ATX mid-tower, that supports standard ATX, MATX, and mITX motherboards, it looks to provide all the essentials gamers need, including good, quiet ventilation (evident from the top 200 mm fan), and some cable management. The front panels on both cases are up to date, including USB 3.0 ports.

Akasa Unveils Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler

Akasa displayed the second generation of its iconic Venom tower-type CPU cooler, the Venom Voodoo. The Voodoo comes with a few apparent changes over the original. Firstly, two Viper 120 mm fans come standard, the original would give you just one, with the provision to add a second pull fan. Second, a plastic cap is added on top of the heatsink. Third, the heatsink design itself has undergone a change. It now uses six 6 mm thick copper heat pipes to convey heat to the aluminum fins, the original had four. The Venom Vooodoo retains the toxic color scheme that gave the original its product feel.

Corsair Displays its Three SSD Lines for 2011-12

Corsair showed off its trio of 2.5-inch SATA SSD lines for this year, consisting of Force 3 series, Force 3 GT series, and Nova 2 series. Among these, Force 3 is already out, and consists of SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs based on SandForce SF-2000 series controllers, doling out transfer speeds of 550 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write. The Force 3 GT features a fine-tuned SF-2000 series controller to deliver transfer rates higher than spec, at 555 MB/s read and 525 MB/s write. Like with Dominator DDR3 memory modules, the GT variants feature the fiery-red body-color. The third line of SSDs is new to us. Called Nova 2 series, this will be Corsair's big push towards propagating SSDs to consumers new to it. The green-colored Nova 2 series SSDs use the SATA 3 Gb/s interface and are driven by a cost-effective controller that gives transfer rates of 260 MB/s read and 240 MB/s write, enough to deliver the awe of SSDs to first-time adopters.

Cooler Master Shows AMD Scorpius Platform-Themed CM Storm Enforcer Case

Cooler Master is all ready with a case specially themed for AMD's upcoming Scorpius high-end desktop platform, which will combine AMD FX-series "Bulldozer" architecture processors with AMD 9-series chipset motherboard, and AMD Radeon HD 6000 series GPU-based graphics cards. Cooler Master used the recently-released CM Storm Enforcer case, modified its side-panel window to bear the AMD logo and a graphic showing a scorpion, and red LED lighting to keep up with the AMD Vision/Radeon red color scheme. The case is otherwise identical to the original CM Storm Enforcer.

TEAM Shows Xtreemly Fast Memory Modules

TEAM Group, of the TEAM Xtreem fame, showed us its latest generation of ultra-high end DDR3 memory modules for overclocking. The theme for this year is LV (low-voltage) modules, which can do their rated DRAM speeds at 1.35V voltage. We begin with TEAM Xtreem DDR3-2400 MHz and TEAM Xtreem DDR3-2000 MHz, which come in 2 GB and 4 GB module capacities, and in triple-channel and dual-channel kits. These kits are the top of the line that TEAM has, to offer.

Moving on, there's a second line of memory kits for the performance segment, also LV (low-voltage, 1.35V), called TEAM Xtreem Dark series, which offer speeds of DDR3-1600 MHz, and use slightly smaller heatsinks. These modules come in 2, 4 GB capacities, and in dual and triple channel kits. Next up is the TEAM Green series, that are bare modules without heatsinks, that do JEDEC standard DDR3-1333 MHz and DDR3-1600 MHz at 1.35V, with loose timings. Lastly, there's a performance line of SODIMM modules for Apple Macs, the TEAM Mac SODIMM, which runs at DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1066 MHz speeds, offering 2 GB and 4 GB module capacities.

OCZ Puts SSD-HDD Hybrid Onto a Single Addon Card

While not the very first of its kind, Intel Smart Response technology took the enthusiast community by storm, offering a middle-ground between small but fast SSDs, and large but slow HDDs. By caching on the SSD, Smart Response is able to give system responsiveness a significant boost. Before that, HDD major Seagate put a tiny SSD component onto its Momentus XT hard drive, to chop access times a little. Now OCZ inverted the concept, and strapped an HDD onto its SSD to make it more capacious, on its new RevoDrive Hybrid.

Here, the major component is a SSD RAID 0 on a stick, which pools data onto an HDD. RevoDrive is a PCI-Express x4 SSD card, which uses a number of SandForce SF-1200 driven SSD sub-units in RAID 0 that's abstract to the host machine. The card is normally available in capacities as low as 60 GB, or as high as 480 GB. On RevoDrive Hybrid, OCZ installed a 2.5-inch hard drive with capacities as high as 1 TB, with the SSD component very much intact. The device promises to give you RevoDrive-like speeds, and humongous capacities, by streaming low-access data onto the HDD.

ZOTAC Announces the Z68-ITX WiFi Series Mini-ITX Platforms

ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and the world's largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today unleashes the Z68-ITX WiFi and Z68-ITX WiFi Supreme - a pair of mini-ITX platforms designed for the most adventurous and demanding enthusiasts. The ZOTAC Z68-ITX WiFi series enables users to take advantage of all features of 2nd Generation Intel Core family processors including integrated graphics, overclocking and Intel Quick-Sync Video technology.

Powered by the latest Intel Z68 Express chipset, the ZOTAC Z68-ITX WiFi series enables adventurous enthusiasts to extract every ounce of performance available from 2nd Generation Intel Core while maintaining use of Intel GMA HD 2000/3000 series integrated graphics processors. Support for Intel Quick-Sync Video technology enables lightning-fast video transcoding for virtually instant video conversions to popular portable media players with the ZOTAC Z68-ITX WiFi series.

Eurocom Offers Modular VGA Solutions to Embedded, Small Form Factor and CUDA Devs

Eurocom Corporation, a leading developer of High Performance Mobile Computing Platforms is now offering a complete range of modular VGA solutions based on MXM technology for embedded , industrial computing, Small Form Factor computer and CUDA developers. The solutions are aimed at embedded systems, SFF (Small Form Factor) PCs and CUDA developers that require higher performance GPU performance.

MXM, Mobile PCI-Express Module, is a connection standard for Graphics Processors in laptops, small form factor PC's and embedded systems. The goal of developing MXM was to create a industry standard spec. The latest MXM standard, MXM 3.0 was released in 2009. Eurocom offers a line of MXM 3.0b video cards. MXM 3.0b supports cards with larger height, higher power requirements and 256bit memory bus, while also being fully compatible with lesser MXM 3.0a.

In Win Shows off Carlian IV, MANA137, and 80 Plus Gold PSUs

In Win's latest case is the Carlian IV, a fancy-looking ATX mid-tower that features a wacky slide-out drive bay design, a space-age white+black color scheme, and plenty of cooling. The company also showed MANA137, an airy new, all-black mid-tower. To top it off, there were 80 Plus Gold Compliant PSUs with 900W and 1200W outputs.

ZOTAC Unveils Z68ATX-A-E Fully Loaded LGA1155 Motherboard

ZOTAC showed off its new, upcoming socket LGA1155 motherboard based on the Intel Z68 chipset, the Z68ATX-A-E. This is a full-blown ATX form-factor motherboard, that throws in plenty of connectivity. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 20-phase VRM, that makes use of super-ML capacitors to condition power. The board uses an nForce 200 bridge chip that occupies the PCI-E x16 link of the processor, giving out PCI-Express 2.0 x16 links, further split between four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots. A PLX-made PCI-E 1.1 x4 to 3 PCI-E 2.0 x1 bridge chip is also present, driving additional controllers such as three of the four USB 3.0 controllers giving out 8 ports (four by headers). The board is designed to support 3-way and 4-way SLI.

Display connectivity includes two DVI, with the possibility of a DVI-HDMI dongle being bundled, other connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, WiFi b/g/n, and dual gigabit Ethernet. In the storage department there appear to be four SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s. There is a suite of overclocker-friendly features, including triple-redundant BIOS, voltage measurement points, and diagnostic LED display. The ZOTAC logo in the heatsink over the NF200 lights up. While the placard speaks of Intel 311 SSD, we're not sure if they're talking about an mSATA fixed SSD, we can't see one. Perhaps a 2.5-inch SATA 311 Series SSD comes bundled.

EZCOOL PSUs Are Dipped in 80 Plus Gold

The EZCOOL booth had PSUs of various shell designs, some are fixed-cabled, others semi-modular. One thing common is they're all 80 Plus Gold certified. The run-up began with a compact 1000W fixed-cable PSU, the PS-1000. Next up, are a pair of PSUs with fancy air-intake grills that use acrylic-made designs. Maybe these structures are lit up. The 600W PS-600, and 900W PS-900 fall in this category. Moving on, there's a duo of mid-range, fixed-cable PSUs with fancy air-intakes. The PC-05 is 500W, 80 Plus Gold compliant, and has a gold-colored fan to "show" that. Next, there's the 690W PS-690, another fixed-cable box, but with a round, spirally-spoked grill. Lastly, there's a trio of familiar-looking PSUs, including the 700W PS-07, 650W PS-650, and 890W PS-890.

Enermax Platimax Leads High-Efficiency PSU Pack

Enermax design team used lavish use of gold chrome polish on its 80 Plus Gold PSUs rushed in by the numbers last year. This is the year of the 80 Plus Platinum PSUs, and Enermax has its premium modular PSU line ready, called Enermax Platimax. Seen here are two of its top models, with output ratings of 900W and 1200W, ready for 3-way and 4-way multi-GPU setups. Among these, while the Platimax 900W is semi-modular, with some key cables such as ATX, EPS, etc., being fixed to the unit, the 1200W one is completely modular. Of course, Enermax doesn't have to both with bling gold paint on its 140 mm fan grille, it can just go with chrome to denote platinum.

X Marks the Air Intake on New, Stylish Strike-X Modular PSUs

Strike-X showed off its groovy-looking performance-segment, semi-modular PSUs. Boasting of 80 Plus Silver and 80 Plus Bronze efficiency ratings, the Strike-X PSUs come in 500W, 600W, 800W, and 1100W models. The part that caught our eye was the red+black styling with the "X" cutout design at its air intake. The PSUs are cooled by large 140 mm fans. Essential cables like ATX, EPS, and one set of PCI-E, are fixed, with everything else detachable. Expect these PSUs to be relatively affordable in their segments.

ECS Black Extreme A990FXM-A Motherboard Unveils Next Extreme Gaming Generation

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the world's leading motherboard, graphics card, barebone system, and notebook manufacturer is pleased to announce the latest AMD AM3+ support motherboard - ECS Black Extreme A990FXM-A. Coming with unbelievable gaming power, ECS Black Extreme A990FXM-A is going to bring about the storm of next gaming generation.

ECS Black Extreme A990FXM-A motherboard support 8-Core AMD CPU with AM3+ socket enables users to experience the most-core CPU of next generation. ECS Black Extreme A990FXM-A also supports 3-way AMD ATI CrossFireX and even 3-way NVIDIA SLI technology to support NVIDIA graphic cards to empower graphics ability firing up your gaming accelerating speed. Moreover, ECS A990FXM-A supports DDR3 2133(OC) with two sets of dual channel architecture up to 32GB.
Tuesday, May 31st 2011

Today's Reviews

Chipsets
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Memory
Monitors
Motherboards
SSD
Storage
Patriot Supersonic 32 GB USB 3.0 Review

Patriot Supersonic 32 GB USB 3.0 Review

Patriot has also jumped on the USB 3.0 bandwagon with their Supersonic series of drives. While the Supersonic Magnum is the flagship drive, the normal Supersonic packs quite the punch and breaks the advertised performance barrier - giving you more than you bargained for.

Xigmatek Also Shows XAF Series 140 mm Fans

While Xigmatek's stock fans that ship with its CPU coolers are quite decent, the company's standalone fan lineup isn't big. The company wants to take steps toward that with its new XAF series fans. These 140 mm (140 x 140 x 25 mm) fans use elliptical frames, support 140 mm, as well as 120 mm mount hole spacing, and 4-pin (with PWM) power input. The impellers of XAF fans keep up with the unusual shape of the frame. The fan blades are wavy shaped, with blunt edges, this design increases air-flow, so later that could be traded off with lowering fan speed to achieve low noise. The fans come in three color options, including piano black, pearl white, and Xigmatek's trademark shade of Orange/Auburn with silver lining and copper lining (for some reason the blades end up looking like bacon strips). More details are awaited.

TRENDnet Launches First Dual Band Router to Support 450 Mbps on Both Bands

TRENDnet, a best-in-class wired and wireless networking hardware brand, today from COMPUTEX Taipei announces the availability of the first to market 450Mbps Concurrent Dual Band Wireless N Router, model TEW-692GR.

This is the first router to offer full 450 Mbps speeds on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless bands concurrently-for a total throughput of 900 Mbps. A popular Dual Band network configuration is to assign the low interference 5 GHz band to media center devices, and the more popular 2.4 GHz band to computers and peripherals that are typically only able to connect using the 2.4 GHz frequency.
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