Sharkoon is out with a unique pair of devices it refers to as LanPort "USB servers". The function of these devices is to let USB ports being shared by computers across a network. The main unit connects to a wired network over a common RJ-45 port (probably 10/100 Mbps), and takes in a 5V DC power input (to power the ports) and gives out USB ports. The LanPort 100 comes with just one USB port, while LanPort 400 comes with four. Any USB device, such as mass-storage (flash drives, external HDDs, PMPs), printers, scanners, etc., can be shared.

The device comes with its own web-interface that lets users configure it, while the bundled software helps handle the configuration, and sets up a layer between the PC and the remotely connected USB devices. The software supports Windows 7, XP, and Vista. Sharkoon's LanPort 100 and LanPort 400 will become available soon and with price-tags of 23 Euro and 37 Euro, respectively.

ASUS today launched the Eee PC T91MT, the world's first convertible tablet netbook to feature a multi-touch screen that supports Windows 7 Multi-Touch gestures. Particularly handy for students and professionals who need to take notes and make one-to-one presentations on a frequent basis, the slim and light Eee PC T91MT-which measures one-inch thick and weighs a mere 0.96kg-reproduces handwriting beautifully and allows users to perform tasks fluidly and intuitively with just their fingers. The Eee PC T91MT's multi-touch capabilities are further enhanced by a comprehensive suite of touch-optimized software that comes preinstalled. Designed for mobility, the Eee PC T91MT sports a shockproof 32GB Solid State Drive (SSD) and comes with an additional 500GB of online ASUS WebStorage.

The Eee PC T91MT's tablet form factor and multi-touch screen avail it to many uses. In slate form, it functions as a great e-reader, allowing users to read documents and books comfortably anywhere. In netbook mode, the Eee PC T91MT serves as an invaluable tool for discussions, as the screen can be swiveled to accommodate multiple users, as well as accept concurrent touch input from more than one source. With the Eee PC T91MT's multi-touch capabilities, free-flowing interaction between participants is now possible.

PowerColor is yet another AMD AIB partner to slip in a newer cost-effective ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card without making much noise. The new HD 5770 V2 model from PowerColor (AX5770 1GBD5-MDHGV2) uses the simpler (cost-effective) GPU cooler, while retaining the original design for the rest of the card. It includes a coupon for the popular PC game BattleForge.

The rest of its specifications are standard. The Juniper GPU packs 800 stream processors, DirectX 11 compliance, and the card features 1 GB of memory across a 128-bit wide GDDR5 interface. It draws power from one 6-pin power connector, and supports ATI CrossfireX. Display connectivity includes two DVI-D, and one each of HDMI with 7.1 channel audio, and DisplayPort. The GPU is clocked at 850 MHz, and memory at 1200 MHz. It is expected to be priced slightly lower than the original reference design model (AX5770 1GBD5-MDHG).

Gigabyte is adding to its small but growing lineup of power supply units with the new Odin Plus series mid-range PSUs. The company is planning three models in this series alongside more in the Odin GT and Odin Pro series to be detailed later. The three Odin Plus models include 500W, 600W, and 700W. These PSUs feature Japan-made solid-state capacitors, 6+2 pin PCI-Express power connectors, and a multi-rail +12V circuits. While the 500W and 600W models feature three +12V rails, the 700W one comes with four.

The PSUs comply with ATX 2.3 standards, along with compliance for RoHS and WEEE specifications. Its efficiency makes it eligible for the 80 Plus Bronze rating. Power connectors include 24-pin ATX, 4+4 pin CPU power, two 6+2 pin PCI-Express power, four Molex (three on the 500W model), one and six SATA power (four on the 500W model). The Gigabyte Odin Plus series PSUs are expected to retail soon, priced between 110 and 140 EUR.

Cogage is ready with a new massive CPU air-cooler with the Cogage Arrow. The Arrow is a slightly redesigned Thermalright IFX-14. The redesigning done here is for the shape of the aluminum fins, which have pointed edges. Perhaps that's where its name was coined on. The construction involves a CPU contact block from which pass four 8 mm heat-pipes. These heat-pipes pass through two independent aluminum fin blocks. Each of these is capable of holding 120 mm fans on either sides, including space to hold a 140 mm fan in the central gap. The heat-pipes are made of nickel-plated copper. It is expected to reach stores soon, probably priced similar to the IFX-14, which is US $60~$70.

Cooler Master is ready with a new 120 mm PC fan with the Excalibur. The fan is characterised by its perforated circular metal fan frame, and detachable fan blades that makes cleaning easy. It measures 120 x 120 x 25 mm, and is PWM controlled, spinning between 600 and 2,000 rpm ± 10%. At those speeds it pushes between 26.4 and 85.6 CFM of air, 0.75 to 3.53 mm H2O air pressure. Its noise output is rated between 13 to 30 dBA. The barometric ball bearing is said to more than double its life time over conventional fans. The Cooler Master Excalibur 120 mm fans is expected to reach stores soon, priced at 17.90 EUR. The fan is fit for use in cases, CPU coolers, and radiators.

HIS is readying its second non-reference design Radeon HD 5750 graphics cards with the HD 5750 IceQ+. This model continues in the series of IceQ series graphics cards from the company, which come with superior, quieter cooling, while also being visually appealing and reactive to UV case lighting. The HIS HD 5750 IceQ+ seems to be using the reference design PCB, albeit in blue color.

At the heart of it is the DirectX 11 compliant ATI Radeon HD 5750 GPU with 720 stream processors, aided by 1 GB of memory across a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The GPU is clocked at 700 MHz, with the memory at 1150 MHz. Display output connectivity includes DVI-D, HDMI with 7.1 channel audio, and DisplayPort. The card draws power from one 6-pin PCI-Express power connector. It is CrossfireX capable. Bundled in the package are Bumptop 3D desktop environment software, and a coupon for Dirt 2. It is expected to be priced around 130~140 EUR.

Close to two weeks after launching the industry's fastest graphics card with the Radeon HD 5970 2 GB, it looks like AMD will back the release with another high-end graphics card in Q1 2010, ideally to stack up a lineup against NVIDIA's performance DirectX 11 offerings that are slated for around the same time. The new release comes in the form of Radeon HD 5950, aimed to occupy the gap between the Radeon HD 5870 and Radeon HD 5970.

The Radeon HD 5950 will retain the design methodology of the HD 5970. It will use two AMD Cypress GPUs with the same configuration Radeon HD 5850 uses. It has 1440 stream processors enabled per GPU, 72 TMUs and 32 ROPs enabled, and 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interfaces per GPU probably to hold 2 GB of total memory. Just as the dual-GPU HD 5970 uses lower clock speeds compared to the single-GPU HD 5870 that uses the same GPU, HD 5950 keeps up with the trend. It is expected to have its core clocked between 650~675 MHz, and memory at 900~1000 MHz (3.60 GHz to 4.00 GHz effective).

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and innovative USB drives, today announced a new Ken Elkinson USB flash drive that includes six original Ken Elkinson piano solos in MP3 format. The tiny pivot style drive features a hologram of New York's greatest icon - the Statue of Liberty - on its front, tying into Ken's roots in New York City.

The Ken Elkinson USB drive is a tiny general purpose mobile storage device that comes preloaded with a six pack of original Ken Elkinson compositions in MP3 format. The drive itself is waterproof, supports up to 200X transfer speeds. The folding drive is offered in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities. "I'm thrilled to be partnering with AMP on this product," stated Ken Elkinson. "These six songs are an excellent cross-section of my music that I picked myself."

MSI is readying a new redesigned ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB graphics card. The new R5770-PM2D1G probably replaces the existing one with the same model number, which uses the AMD reference design PCB and cooler. The new design is also looking like a reference design since other board partners are also opting for it, albeit it looks to be simpler. This could also be cheaper to manufacture, and could help bring down prices of the Radeon HD 5770.

The new cooler design consists of the round GPU cooler often spotted on design prototypes from AMD. From its base arise two copper heatpipe that form a circular frame, holding a densely-packed aluminum fin array that projects radially from the center. An 80 mm fan is nested within, blowing air onto these fins, dissipating heat. A plastic shroud sits on top of it, holding the manufacturer graphic. The PCB appears to have remained the same. With this cost cutting, the new MSI HD 5770 1 GB could be had for 130 EUR.

Thermaltake, leading DIY chassis brand, launches the newest mid-tower PC case in their V-Series for value-conscious users. The Thermaltake V3 Black Edition comes in an entirely black coating from the inside to the outside, lending it stylish looks and a degree of individuality. A transparent window at the back end of the left side panel allows for a look inside the case. This way the brilliant blue beams of the preinstalled 120 mm rear exhaust-fan can emanate in a black-bluish array. A perforated black mesh front panel offers optimized airflow and a sleek design.

As characteristic for all Thermaltake chassis, the V3 Black Edition is also optimized for most effective airflow with the option for 3 additional case fans: the front panel allows to add a 120 mm intake fan, the top panel offers the possibility to install a 120 mm exhaust fan and on the bottom is room for yet one more intake fan. The standard ATX PSII PSU can conveniently placed at the bottom of the case where you find an intake exhaust hole to immediately blow cold outside air into the PSU. An extra dust filter is attached to this fan hole in order to keep dust and dirt out of the case and the PSU, effectively prolonging you power supply's life time.

G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and solid-state storage with solid quality, has today released its series of very high capacity DDR3 memory: 8GB (2GBx4) and 12GB (2GBx6) memory kits.

G.Skill understands that families, business users, PC enthusiasts and gamers are often heavy multi-taskers too. Opening tens of applications to retain a workflow or several hundred photos after a family day out can put serious demands on the memory capacity, so installing 8-12GB becomes an investment in being able to do as much as you want, when you want.

SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today introduced the SPARKLE GeForce GTS250 Low Profile Graphics Card, the world's first low profile graphics card based on GeForce GTS250 graphics chip, providing powerful 3D performance and amazing home theater experience to HTPC enthusiasts.

Consummately designed low profile, the PCB height of the SPARKLE GeForce GTS250 Low Profile Graphics Card is 6 cm,only half the height of ordinary Graphics Card with full profile design, which makes the SPARKLE GeForce GTS250 Low Profile Graphics Card to be the best partners for HTPC. HTPC enthusiasts don't need to worry about the inconvenience caused by narrow space HTPC chassis and full profile designed graphics cards. With low profile design, the SPARKLE GeForce GTS250 Low Profile Graphics Card not only can easily meet the HD video playback and DX10 gaming demand from HTPC users, but also can easily satisfy the requirements from SSF, mini-chassis and industry PCs which demand compact and practical graphics card.

The third motherboard vendor in the league to be ready with products based on the Intel H5x Express chipset is ASRock, whose first wave consists of one ATX, and two micro-ATX form-factor motherboards, based on the H55 Express chipset. The H55 Express chipset is known to bring along the Flexible Display Interface, which handles the connectivity of the embedded graphics processors Intel's upcoming Core i3 and Core i5 "Clarkdale" processors feature, completing Intel's portfolio of processors based on the Nehalem/Westmere architectures across all segments. H55 Express is a toned-down version of the H57 Express chipset, it lacks support for technologies such as Remote PC Assist, Rapid Storage, and has slightly lesser number of USB 2.0 ports and lesser PCI-Express lanes in its local hub.

The two micro-ATX motherboards from ASRock are the H55M Pro and H55M. These boards are nearly same, in having 4+1 phase CPU VRM, display connectivity that includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI, expansion slots which include a PCI-Express 2.0 x16, a PCI-Express x16 (electrical x4), and one each of PCI-Express x1 and PCI. Both feature high-grade DuraCap solid-state capacitors, 8-channel audio, gigabit Ethernet, and eSATA. The two differ with the H55M Pro being slightly broader to accommodate four DDR3 DIMM slots, while the H55M has two, the H55M Pro has five out of six SATA 3 Gbps ports from its PCH assigned as internal ports, with one eSATA, and features FireWire, while the H55M has four internal SATA 3 Gbps ports, two ports are assigned as eSATA, and FireWire is absent.

Just over a day after releasing it in the beta form, NVIDIA released the WHQL-signed version of its GeForce 195.62 driver package. The package provides drivers and related software for GeForce GPUs and the ION chipset. Usually, a WHQL-signed driver that trails a beta release has a different version number and includes some minor changes. With this release however, there are no changes whatsoever, except of course the WHQL certification. As a quick recap, this is what is new with GeForce 195.62:

• Added GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with the new Adobe Flash 10.1 beta.
• Added support for OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
• Added support for CUDA Toolkit 3.0 features and performance enhancements
• Added SLI and multi-GPU support for many top new gaming titles including Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA Soccer 10, and more
• Includes numerous bug fixes

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 195.62 WHQL Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit

Iiyama introduced two new 27-inch full-HD LCD monitors, both part of its ProLite family. The B2712HDS/-B and E2710HDS/-B come with low power draw for their panel sizes, 45W operational, and 1W when on standby. Both have native resolutions of 1920 x 1080 pixels, brightness of up to 400 cd/m², contrast ratio (static) of 1000:1, and response time of 5 ms with 2 ms grey-to-grey. Input connectivity on both include DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI, and both come in black or white.

The differences between the B2712HDS/-B and E2710HDS/-B start with the former having a dynamic contrast ratio of 50,000:1 and 1.5W internal stereo speakers, while the latter has 20,000:1, and 2W internal stereo speakers, along with a USB hub. The B2712HDS/-B and E2710HDS/-B are priced at US $458 and $435, respectively.

Having recently announced one of the industry's first USB 3.0 external HDDs, Buffalo is diversifying its lineup of products that support the new interface. The BR-X1216U3 is an external Blu-ray disc writer drive that supports USB 3.0. The drive has the capability to burn Blu-ray discs at 12x speeds. At those speeds, the drive transfers data at 54 MB/s. Probably factoring protocol overhead, USB 2.0 bottlenecks proper data transfers, and hence USB 3.0 is called on to eliminate all bottlenecks, while also broaden compatibility with existing PCs.

The main unit measures 164 (W) x 50 (H) x 281 (D) mm, and weights 1.8 kg. Both single-layer and double-layer Blu-ray discs can be written at 12x, BD-RE single-layer and double-layer discs at 2x, 16x for single-layer DVD+R/-R, 8x for double-layer DVD+R/-R and DVD+RW, 6x for DVD-RW, 5x for DVD-RAM, 40x for CD-R, and 24x for CD-RW. Bundled software includes CyberLink PowerDirector 8 HE, PowerProducer 5, PowerDVD 9 BD edition, Power2Go 6, PowerBackup 2 and InstantBurn 5. It reaches stores in Japan next month, at a price of US $450.

Elpida Memory, Inc., Japan's leading global supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), today announced that it had begun sample shipments of a 2-gigabit x32-bit I/O DDR2 SDRAM that operates up to a high speed of 1066 Mbps. The new memory device is capable of meeting the need for 1.8V x32-bit and x16-bit I/O as well as low-voltage 1.5V x32-bit and x16-bit I/O.

Rapid advances in the image quality and functionality of digital TV, digital still cameras and other new digital consumer equipment have led to a growing need for memory that can deliver faster speeds, higher densities and wide-bit configurations. Elpida's newly developed 2-gigabit density x32-bit I/O product provides an optimal solution for these needs. Systems with a 32-bit CPU that require 2-gigabit memory density have until now had rely on a conventional 1-gigabit x16-bit I/O two-chip design. Elpida's new 2-gigabit x32-bit I/O product, however, reduces by half the number of mounted memory chips, simplifies high-speed memory bus design, conserves chip mounting space and lowers power consumption.

A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., the worldwide leader in DRAM memory and Flash application products, released today its new compact Flash card CF633X, the ultimate memory card fast enough to keep up with your digital SLR cameras. Performing at the industry's fastest read/write speed up to 93/92 MB/s, the new A-DATA CF633X adopts the turboMLC technology and delivers the performance of SLC at the cost of MLC.

With an ECC automatic error-checking program in place, the CF633X consumes less power and extends the use of a DSLR. Capacity available in 16GB and 32GB, the CF633X is the perfect storage device for users to store more high resolution images and high definition video clips.

ASUS slipped in no less than three value micro-ATX motherboards based on the AMD 760G + SB710 chipset. Two of these, the M4A78L-M LE, M4A78L-M use socket AM2+ to connect to existing AM3 and older AM2(+) processors supporting DDR2 memory, while a third one, the M4A78LT-M LE uses AM3 socket to support AM3 processors and DDR3 memory. All three feature ASUS exclusive features such the EPU (energy processing unit), ExpressGate instant-on OS, and a 'Turbo-key' push-button overclocking feature. All three are to an extant similar, in having two DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, one each of PCI-Express x16, x1, and two PCI, and have an ATI Radeon HD 3000 class IGP.

The differences start with the M4A78L-M LE and M4A78LT-M LE being more office-oriented, with display connectivity being confined to D-Sub, or DVI, presence of legacy serial and parallel ports, a simpler 6-channel audio, and 4-phase CPU VRM, while retaining essential connectivity of the southbridge, including six SATA 3 Gbps ports, and one IDE connector for running two ATA devices. The M4A78L-M is slightly more consumer / home-user oriented, with better display connectivity that includes D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI, 8-channel audio with optical SPDIF output, and a slightly more powerful 4+1 phase VRM. The M4A78L-M LE, M4A78L-M and M4A78LT-M LE are priced at £42.42, £47.87 and £51.68, respectively.

NVIDIA released a beta version of its GeForce driver suite. Version 195.62 beta provides driver support for GeForce 6 series, 7 series, 8 series, 100 and 200 series GPUs, along with support for the NVIDIA ION chipset. This release also bundles PhysX version 9.09.0814 system software. Important changes include:

• Added GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with the new Adobe Flash 10.1 beta.
• Added support for GeForce GT 240.
• Added support for OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
• Added support for CUDA Toolkit 3.0 features and performance enhancements.
• Added SLI and multi-GPU support for many top new gaming titles including Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA Soccer 10, and more.

Be cautioned, these are beta drivers, the use of which is not covered by product warranties.

DOWNLOAD: GeForce 196.62 BETA

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Chris Liddell will be leaving the company at the end of 2009, and named Peter Klein as the company's new chief financial officer.

"Chris and his finance team have accomplished a great deal over the past four and a half years. The team is deep and strong, and has an excellent record of building value for our shareholders," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive officer. "Peter brings great finance and operations expertise and a deep understanding of the company, and I am looking forward to a smooth transition that continues our commitment to cost containment and finance excellence."

In the past fiscal year, Microsoft reduced costs by $3 billion compared with its original plan, and returned $14 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock buy-back.

Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer and flash memory products, today announced that it was voted Best Memory Manufacturer 2009 and Best PSU Manufacturer 2009 by the readers of Custom PC magazine and bit-tech.net.

Custom PC magazine and bit-tech.net, based in the United Kingdom, are two of the most highly respected and influential technology publications in the world. These awards were voted for by their audience of PC hardware enthusiasts and overclockers, and Corsair emerged as the clear winner in the Power Supply and Memory categories.

"Corsair winning the award for Best Power Supply Manufacturer for the third year running is a terrific achievement as it's a very competitive section of the marketplace where reliability and stability are key," said Alex Watson, Group Editor of Custom PC and bit-tech.net. "Corsair's award for Best Memory Manufacturer is a testament to the speed, value and design of its modules. The company also played a key role in this year's winning Dream PC, the Scan 3XS Jellyfish, supplying its chassis, solid-state drives and DDR3 memory. Congratulations to Corsair, the awards were well deserved."

LaCie today introduced the most complete HD multimedia hard drive player, combining Full HD 1080p playback, unsurpassed format compatibility and DLNA media server functionality - LaCinema Classic HD, design by Neil Poulton. Users can browse, play and share HD media collections from anywhere in the home, directly on HDTV.

The LaCinema Classic HD offers a timeless and sleek design making it a great addition to any TV setup. Providing the widest media format compatibility, LaCinema Classic HD will play all your files without concern - from the most popular DivX format to high-quality MKV H.264 video format via its HDMI 1.3 connection. Uncompromising support for Dolby Digital audio quality enhances the LaCinema Classic HD, as well as your entertainment viewing experience.

The MSI X-Slim X430 uses AMD's latest second-generation Ultrathin Platform with dual-core processors and Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 7, to provide users with the ultimate in ultra-thin mobility. MSI's ultra-thin, power-saving X-Slim 14" notebook has evolved once again to feature AMD's 2nd Generation Ultrathin Platform and Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system in the gorgeous new X-Slim X430.MSI Notebook Marketing Director Sam Chern states that the X430, in addition to maintaining the ultra-thin, power-saving and beautiful exterior design characteristics of the X-Slim series, has bolstered hardware performance not only by the use of a dual-core processor, but also a fully supported HD video output capability that provides users with outstanding image management and visual performance.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage and Symwave, a leading silicon supplier of system solutions for SuperSpeed USB devices, today announced a partnership to deliver next generation USB 3.0 solutions at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 7-10, 2010. The first outcome of this partnership is the industry's highest performance external Solid State Drive (SSD) storage product, ideal for consumers demanding uncompromised leading-edge technology. By working with Symwave, OCZ was able to leverage its flash technology expertise and develop even faster cutting-edge solutions making use of the new USB 3.0 standard.

"Thanks to Symwave's industry leading USB 3.0 storage controller, our external SSD device delivers 10x the transfer rate of USB 2.0 at 5Gb/s, as well as several 'green' improvements including superior power management and lower CPU utilization," said Eugene Chang, Vice President of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group. "We are determined to be at the forefront of the market by offering products with unparalleled performance, reliability, and design to unleash the potential of flash-based storage."

Powered by a high-performance NVIDIA GT 220 graphics processor with 48 CUDA cores and 1GB of high-speed DDR2 memory, the ZOTAC GeForce GT 220 ZONE Edition packs plenty of performance ready to take on the latest Microsoft DirectX 10.1, DirectCompute, OpenGL 3.2 and NVIDIA CUDA powered games and applications for lightning-fast video conversion, precise GPU-accelerated image editing and immersive gaming.

"ZOTAC is one of the leading manufacturers of silent graphics cards. Our lineup of ZOTAC GeForce ZONE Edition graphics cards has won many awards for the combination of performance and silent operation," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. "The ZOTAC GeForce GT 220 ZONE Edition is the latest addition to our award-winning lineup that also brings support for Microsoft DirectX 10.1 and HDMI 1.3a technology for the best quiet computing experience for the price, whether you're gaming or using it for a home theater PC."

Razer, the world's leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, today announced the Razer Imperator, a right-handed ergonomic mouse for palm and fingertip gamers. The Razer Imperator is designed with gaming-grade ergonomics in mind - contours and grooves specifically crafted to enhance aggressive mousing movements made by gamers.

"Ergonomics and control were the key objectives with this mouse" said Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff, president, Razer. "Your grip stays locked and planted no matter how often you lift and swipe your mouse while playing. One of the typical complaints of gamers is the difficulty in reaching the side or thumb buttons on a mouse. We have pioneered adjustable side buttons that slide and lock into your ideal thumb position. You just can't get a more custom tailored fit than the Razer Imperator."

Cloud Engines, Inc. unveiled the second generation of the award winning Pogoplug multimedia sharing device today giving consumers more flexibility to store personal content safely in the home and access, manage, and share it from anywhere on the Internet. The new Pogoplug hardware sports a new design boasting multiple USB ports supporting up to 4 external drives for expanded data capacity. The new Pogoplug also gives users improved sharing capabilities, an easy drag-and-drop interface to create engaging multi-media slide shows, seamless media playback, and enhanced sharing with friends on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Pogoplug acts like a gateway from your home or office through the Internet. It allows you to access, share and even stream your personal digital media directly to anybody, anywhere in the world. Your content always remains physically in your home or office, making it secure, convenient and available on your terms. Pogoplug is perfect for those individuals with increasingly mobile lifestyles and small businesses in need of simple, inexpensive mobile data access solutions.

Gigabyte is readying the industry's first socket AM3 motherboard that offers the new connectivity features combo that is turning out to be quite a selling point in itself: USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps. Enter GA-790FXTA-UD5P, a high-end socket AM3 motherboard based on the AMD 790FX + SB750 chipset, that isn't just a revised GA-MA790FXT-UD5P. Apart from the star attractions of USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps, the board features a redesigned expansion slot layout, among other new features. The socket AM3 motherboard supports AMD Phenom II AM3 and Athlon II series processors with support for dual-channel DDR3 memory.

To begin with, the CPU is powered by a 8+2 phase VRM supporting 140W processors, with a 2 phase VRM powering the four DDR3 DIMM slots. The board supports DDR3-1866 by overclocking, while DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1066 are naturally supported. A Precision OV controller provides fine (small step) voltage control for the CPU, memory and chipset voltages. Instead of two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots on the MA-790FXT-UD5P, this board features three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrical x16, x16, NC, or x16, x8, x8, depending on how they're populated). Each x16 slot as one slot spacing which is occupied by a PCI slot. A lone PCI-E x1 slot heads the pack.

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

There is a new player in the custom gaming PC market space boasting the quality and performance of a boutique builder while offering the most affordable gaming computers on the market. Ballistic Gaming PC is officially opening its doors Wednesday November 25, 2009 and as part of their launch Ballistic has partnered with MaximumPC.com and TomsHardware.com to giveaway two Ballistic high-performance gaming computers starting today which will include Intel's i7-920 processor and NVIDIA's top video card the GTX 295.

Consumers have less disposable income in this current economic climate and so Ballistic offers the best possible deal to make sure their customers are always getting the lowest price. However, Ballistic does the unfathomable by, in addition, offering a 3 year parts & labor warranty with home-grown US based lifetime tech support. Ballistic has taken this simple philosophy and interwoven it into every aspect of its business.

The Inno3D GeForce GT 240 had only just launched but it has already been given the i-Chill treatment with XStriker3. Uniquely designed for passive and active cooling solutions, the Xstriker3 was the first cooler specially designed for Inno3D i-Chill series - built to increase efficient air circulation for extreme gaming. Inno3D i-Chill GT 240 is built with top-notch quality, which includes faster core speeds; gold plated DVI+VGA+HDMI connectors that allows better signal quality; top quality OS-CON capacitors; aluminum ramsinks to stabilise memory; with full game bundles and 3 years warranty. Inno3D i-Chill GT 240 has reached over expectation and beats the Vantage performance scores in comparison to the reference speeds as shown in the below comparison table. It is equipped and built with top quality features to run a smooth game play.

Scythe announces a brand new accessory for the 5.25" Bay which allows users to store various items inside. Kama Cabinet is available in four different versions which differ by color and material of the front panel. Users can choose between silver and black aluminum, black plastic and black metal mesh to match their PC's front panel.

Supplied soft tray can be used to safely store up to 16 CD- or DVD media. Splitter plates are supplied in order to divide the space inside Kama Cabinet for everyone's requirements. By using Kama Cabinet, unused 5.25" Bays can be occupied and used as storage space for USB sticks, Hard Drives or MP3 players.

PC cooling products specialist Evercool introduced its Armor case-mounted HDD cooler. The cooler acts as a drive-cage, converting 5.25" drive bays into 3.5" bays, and directs air onto three 3.5" hard drives, while occupying two 5.25" bays. It comes with a metal front bezel with perforated metal for the intake. Bezel colors include black and silver. Internally, the drive cage is made entirely of steel. Air is blown onto the drives by a 2 ball-bearing 80mm fan running at 1200 RPM. The perforated front air intake is detachable without dissembling the cage, it lets you clean the dust-filter and the fan. Its pricing and availability are not known.

Multimedia-minded consumers who prize the portability of netbooks but lament the typical lack of processing muscle now have a reason to rejoice. ASUS has launched the Eee PC 1201N, a multimedia netbook sporting an Intel Atom 330 dual core processor and an NVIDIA ION graphics processor that delivers a level of performance never before seen on netbooks. The stylish Eee PC 1201N also offers exceptional typing comfort through a full-sized ergonomic chiclet keyboard, and comes with a total of 750GB hybrid storage to house and host massive multimedia collections.

The Eee PC 1201N marks a radical departure from other netbooks that usually feature single core Atom processors. With its Intel Atom 330 dual core processor, NVIDIA ION graphics, and two-DIMM, dual-channel DDR memory architecture, the Eee PC 1201N will set new netbook performance benchmarks. More importantly, this combination shatters today's netbook conventions by delivering a rich multimedia experience.

Synology Inc. today officially announced the launch of Synology DS210j and Synology DS410j NAS servers. Both models offer versatile multimedia applications at a significantly lower price point for home and small office.

Synology DS210j and Synology DS410j are both equipped with 800 MHz CPU, 128 MB DDRII RAM, and one Gigabit LAN port, while Synology DS210j has 3 USB ports, and Synology DS410j has 2. The capability of supporting 2 TB hard drives enables Synology DS210j and Synology DS410j to hold storage capacity up to 4 TB and 8 TB. The cable-less design delivers hassle-free installation. Without the need for data cables, the installation of hard drives is extremely easy. The built-in disk holders of the DS410j enable you to install both 3.5" and 2.5" hard drives. To install 2.5" hard drives on the DS210j, an optional 2.5" Disk Holder Type C is available for purchase.

Over a month ahead of its launch, the first wave of Intel's 32 nm based Core i3 and Core i5 series dual-core processors have been listed on German online store HPM-Computer. The pricing and specifications disclosed by these listing confirm the information that surfaced as early as in July, this year. The series starts with Core i3 500 series processors whose clock speeds range between 2.93 to 3.06 GHz, and continue with Core i5 600 series dual-core processors ranged between 3.20 GHz and 3.43 GHz. While both series feature HyperThreading Technology to give the operating system four logical processors (threads) to work with, the Core i3 processors lack the Turbo Boost feature which the Core i5 chips have.

According to the new listing in which the chips are priced in Euros, the 2.93 GHz Core i3 530 processor is priced at 103.90 EUR, and 3.06 GHz Core i3 540 at 120.90 EUR. The Core i5 600 series lineup includes the 3.20 GHz Core i5 650 priced at 160.90 EUR, 3.33 GHz Core i5 660 and 661 priced at 175.90 EUR, and lead by the 3.43 GHz Core i5 670 priced at a premium 252.90 EUR point. All prices include a 19% applicable tax. The IGP clock speed (750 MHz vs. 900 MHz), differentiates Core i5 660 from 661. It is likely that the price of one of those seems to have entered incorrectly. With these processors, Intel may also introduce the Intel H57 Express chipset, and motherboards by various vendors will soon follow. These processors, however, have the same LGA-1156 socket the "Lynnfield" quad-core processors have, which are currently in the market. They may run on existing P55 Express based motherboards too, according to a recent report.

ASUS launched the new ASUS EAH5000 Series, a lineup of three graphics cards that cater to a wide spectrum of needs including extreme overclocking, fast-paced gaming and daily computing. Equipped with ASUS' exclusive Voltage Tweak technology, the ASUS EAH5970/G/2DIS/2GD5 and EAH5770/2DI/1GD5 graphics cards enable users to boost GPU voltages via the SmartDoctor application to enjoy up to a 31% improvement in performance. The ASUS EAH5770/2DI/1GD5 and EAH5750 FORMULA/2DI/1GD5 feature highly effective cooling solutions capable of up to 13% better heat dissipation, and boast ASUS' exclusive Xtreme Design-an effective marriage of hardware, software, and material choices-that delivers the performance, reliability and safety DIY users need to enjoy stable and smooth daily computing.

GeIL announces the launch of the all new DDR3 Gaming Series Black Dragon Dual Channel & Quad Channel Kit to be added to the performance DDR3 memory module lineup.

The Gaming Series DDR3 Black Dragon will be available for the full range of speed with enhanced performance and stability by GeILs' DBT - Die-hard Burn-in Technology.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual display and computing products, today expanded its PC Mini lineup with the new VOT530 and VOT550. These full-featured, small-format PCs are ideal for power computing and enjoying digital media anywhere in the home, all while using up to 45% less energy and up to 50% less plastic than tower PCs.

The VOT530 and VOT550 PC Minis come standard with a Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, powerful Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz processors and 802.11b/g/n wireless connectivity, making them perfect media entertainment systems or home computing hubs. Whether streaming Internet content to a TV or accessing movies and music saved on the hard drive, these compact computers are ideal for downloading, managing and displaying digital content on any standard display or HDTV.

Axle today unleash GT 240, a budget solution with exhilarating HD graphic performance and GPU-accelerated Nvidia PhysX game effects.

Axle GT 240 is built with the latest 40nm technology GPU, supporting DirectX10.1 and SM4.1. Positioning as a replacement of Geforce 9600 series, Axle GT 240 is equipped with the GDDR5 memory which brings the users with unexpectedly good performance at such price level.

Axle is proudly to introduce the unimaginably powerful graphic monster in the world, Axle HD 5970. Featuring with the 2nd generation TeraScale engine, the market is already enchanted by the amazing performance of HD 5870. Now each HD 5970 is empowered by two RV870 GPU, the speed of the card is considered to reach an unparalleled level. Axle HD 5970 is built with 2GB DDR5 memory with 512 bit bandwidth. Armed with 3200 stream processing units, Axle HD 5970 display card delivers well-above four teraFLOPS computing power. Above all, overclockers will be ravished with joy by the massive headroom for overclocking capabilities of each Axle HD 5970.

The new HD 5970 also features with the most innovative technology from ATI - Eyefinity. With this unimaginable technology, gamers can connect Axle HD5800 series with three displays simultaneously at a resolution of 1080p. The "wrap around" experience enable the gamers to be fully absorbed in the animated world. Other than 3D gaming, Eyefinity can be widely adopted to the applications which require to view several windows in the same time.

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

Mionix, the Swedish manufacturer of professional high-end gaming accessories today unveiled their new gaming mouse, Mionix Naos 5000. Ergonomically designed and stuffed with new and innovative features, Mionix Naos 5000 not only stands out from the crowd, it sets new standards when it comes to comfort, tracking capacity and customization options.

"When we started this project our goal was to create a fully adjustable and innovative gaming mouse with unique features. It has been very challenging and we put in a lot of effort to archieve our goals. Mionix Naos 5000 is a big step forward to become one of the world's leading manufacturer of gaming accessories with a wide range of gaming products that gamers can identify themselves with. We are very proud to be the first Swedish manufacturer of gaming accessories to develop a gaming mouse", says Carl Conradsson, Mionix.

Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. has announced the Intel validation of 2Gb (Gigabit) DDR3 DRAM using 40nm class process technology.

Hynix's newly validated products are 2Gb DDR3 SDRAM component, 4GB (Gigabyte) DDR3 SODIMM (Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Module) and 2GB DDR3 UDIMM (Un-buffered Dual In-line Memory Module) at the operating speed of 1333MHz with 1.5V power supply.

The products can offer the maximum data transfer speed of 1867MHz with 16-bit I/O and 3.7GB/s (Gigabytes per second) bandwidth. The productivity of Hynix's 40nm class 2Gb DDR3 is increased by more than 60% over 50nm class process technology.

Elpida Memory, Inc., Japan's leading global supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), today announced that it had developed a 1-gigabit GDDR5 (product name: EDW1032BABG) that operates at a world-class high speed of 6Gbps. The new graphic memory (GDDR: Graphics Double Data Rate) device marks Elpida's first successful step in the GDDR market.

Applications for GDDR memory devices used with GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) are found not only in such graphic processing equipment as game consoles and PC graphics cards but also in equipment that require high-performance computing for use in such areas as science and technology, physical simulation, digital image processing and video conversion.

Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced the expansion of its line of gaming solutions with the Lexar Gaming Memory Stick Micro (M2) and Gaming Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) memory cards. Designed to take the gaming experience to the next level, the cards enable users to reliably save and store gaming data and multimedia content on popular gaming consoles. With the introduction of the new Gaming memory cards, Lexar is expanding its leadership in high-performance digital media gaming solutions to improve the overall video game experience for the growing number of consumers playing and competing on popular gaming consoles.

Available in 4GB and 8GB capacities, the Lexar Gaming M2 and Lexar Gaming SDHC memory cards give gamers the ability to store critical gaming data and information, such as cheat codes, checkpoints, custom settings, high scores, bonus materials, and player profiles. The new Gaming memory cards also enable gamers to store and manage games and downloaded multimedia content.

TechPowerUp released the newest version of GPU-Z, our graphics subsystem information and monitoring utility. Version 0.3.7 brings with it some significant feature-set updates that enhance usability, and add the the vast amount of information this tiny utility can display. To begin with, GPU-Z now shows the GPU Computing features your graphics cards support, including whether they support technologies such as DirectCompute, OpenCL, CUDA, and PhysX acceleration. Building on the infotips feature the previous version came with, the Sensors tab now includes handy infotips too. For NVIDIA users, GPU-Z is able to display the exact amount of video memory in use by making use of a new driver-level feature by the company.

GPU-Z also includes full-support for ATI Radeon HD 5970, NVIDIA GeForce GT 240, and improved support for Intel G41. Detection features have also been added that help determine counterfeit graphics cards that use some old GPUs relabeled as new current-gen GPUs. Several other stability issues have been addressed. GPU-Z is backed by our extensive video-card BIOS database, and overclocking validation system.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.3.7

A complete list of changes according to the change log is as follows:

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

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

After AMD completed its mid-thru-high end product launches under its DirectX 11 compliant Radeon HD 5000 series, it looks like NVIDIA eased up restrictions for partners to design high-end dual-GPU accelerators. ASUS had launched a limited-edition accelerator making use of two GeForce GTX 285 GPUs, but limited quantities, and other factors which we're not aware of, may have influenced the company to sell it for over $1000 a piece. Galaxy, for one, is second in line, with a single-PCB dual-GPU graphics accelerator, which it reportedly plans to release before Christmas.

For now, the card exists only in its drawings and CAD designs. The PCB layout drawing shows the card have a layout similar to the single-PCB GeForce GTX 295. With space for 16 memory chips on the obverse side and a backplate in the CAD design, it is deduced that the card has 512-bit memory interfaces per GPU, and hence could be a dual GeForce GTX 285 accelerator, much like the ASUS MARS dual-285. The cooler looks to have independent coolers over each GPU with circular heatsinks that have radially-projecting fins, and a baseplate to cool other components. Galaxy wants this to be a Christmas special. Here's hoping it doesn't draw inspiration from the ASUS MARS as far as pricing is concerned.

ASUS, a worldwide leader in personal computers, today introduces the TS mini small office/home office (SOHO) server. The TS mini targets modern home and small office users that frequently exchange data from multiple computers and require access from various locations. The TS mini secures documents, multimedia, and other digital content into a sleek repository. It further safeguards data on multiple computers across the home or office with automatic backups and cloud storage. TS mini allows centralized file access with local networks, attached storage devices and remotely over the internet. Equipped with an Intel Atom processor, the TS mini delivers quiet, energy efficient, always-on access. Operating on the Microsoft Windows Home Server Platform, it simplifies management of digital content. The TS Mini is available now for pre-order at Amazon.com and NewEgg.com starting at $349.99 USD.

"Consumer demand for rich content that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, on any device is fueling innovation in networking and storage of media and data in the home," said Seth Bobroff, general manager, Data Center Group - Storage, Intel Corporation. "The Intel Atom processor in the TS mini enables ASUS to deliver the ability to stream media, share files and protect data while remotely accessing it, all in a sleek and energy-efficient 2-bay design."

As the first notebook capable of producing realistic 3D visuals in games and videos, the new ASUS G51J 3D is designed to deliver a truly immersive gaming and multimedia experience to gamers everywhere. Equipped with NVIDIA 3D Vision and bundled with specially designed 3D glasses, the ASUS G51J 3D-which sports an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M with 1GB DDR3 video memory-delivers adrenaline-pumping, edge-of-your-seat visuals anytime, anywhere. EAX and CMSS audio technology further enhances in-game immersion, delivering crystal clear sound and compelling environment audio effects through bespoke Altec Lansing speakers. Powered by an Intel Core i7 processor and 64-bit Windows 7 operating system, the ASUS G51J 3D is the weapon of choice for discerning gamers who enjoy gaming-on-the-move.

Equipped with NVIDIA 3D Vision, the ASUS G51J 3D delivers ultra-realistic graphics that come to life before the user. A pair of 3D Vision active-shutter glasses coupled with a wide-range infra-red emitter delivers stereoscopic images with clarity, brightness and depth-of-field (DOP) at full resolution without any viewing angle restrictions. The GPU driver and a 120Hz 3D panel render each scene twice, delivering up to 60 images evenly to each eye, amounting to a total of up to 120 images at any given time. Gamers can experience total immersion into their games from what were previously flat 2D worlds, to true-to-life 3D. With up to 400 PC games that work out-of-the-box with 3D Vision, gamers can experience a whole new dimension of gaming never-before seen, with recently released games such as Resident Evil 5, Borderlands, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Star Trek D-A-C.

Zalman is readying a new multi-channel fan controller, the MFC1 Combo. This fan controller occupies one 5.25-inch drive bay, and comes with a brushed aluminum bezel. Out of the five independent channels the controller provides, four work on the conventional voltage-control principle, while one provides PWM (pulse-width modulation) control. Each channel delivers up to 7W / 0.6 A. The PWM-controlled channel also comes with a PWM-mode with three speed presets a fourth one can be user-defined. The Zalman MFC1 Combo should be priced at around 40 EUR.

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technology, today announced the release of their new PS-100 Series SSDs.

The PS-100 is the latest in Patriot's "cache" based SSD drives and has been targeted for cost-conscious consumers pursuing performance and reliability without having to empty their bank account. The 2.5" SSD makes use of a 64MB cache, power consumption of 5.3W when operating, and .5W when in standby mode; an option that is sure to attract notebook and laptop users alike. The PS-100 boosts sequential read speeds of up to 210MB/s, with sequential write speeds up to 150MB/s, another feature that will be attractive to end users. The low power consumption of the PS-100 drives extends battery life on notebooks and netbooks while the performance reduces system boot times and application load times improving overall system responsiveness.

Club 3D, European market leader for graphics cards, today announced the release of its new 40nm process technology based HD5970 graphics card. Equipped with two ATI Hemlock graphics processing units. The fastest graphics card on the planet has been developed.

Engineered for speed, the Club 3D HD5970 delivers an unrivaled HD gaming experience so you can play the latest, most demanding HD titles like never before. Featuring cutting-edge graphic, display and memory technology, this next-generation powerhouse delivers unprecedented performance straight out of the box. Unlocked, this graphics card has massive headroom, so you can take control and push your hardware to its full potential!

Club 3D, European market leader for graphics cards, today introduces with the Club 3D GT 240 graphics card the next GPU manufactured in 40nm process technology. Your perfect choice for professional graphics and also suitable as dedicated PhysX graphics card to run your games 50% faster. Turn your photos and home videos into materspieces at the clock of a button, view flawless Adobe Flash 10.1 video in full screen HD. Energize your multimedia with Club 3D GT 240 graphics and equip your PC for the digital world. Enjoy 3D Vision and 3D Photos to play your games and view your photos in 3D.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today introduces the fastest graphics card on the planet: the PowerColor HD5970. As the most powerful card in the world, this stunning graphics solution clocks at 725 MHz core speed and 1000 MHz effective memory speed. Memory data transmission rates up to 4.0 Gb/s, delivering unprecedented performance.

The PowerColor HD5970 is built with 3200 stream processing units, ready to tackle all the most demanding HD titles; with almost 5 teraFLOPs of compute power, it puts the power of graphics "supercomputing" in the hands of extreme gamers. Furthermore, the PowerColor HD5970 has massive headroom for overclocking capabilities giving all gamers the control and flexibility to tune their custom rig for maximum performance.

"This puppy here, is Fermi" announced a proud Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's CEO. The shiny, chrome-decked Tesla GPGPU accelerator that makes use of NVIDIA's Fermi architecture, soon turned out to be a mock-up, aimed solely at announcing the completion of development of the Fermi architecture. It was also strategically timed to coincide with AMD's market launch of the industry's first DirectX 11 compliant graphics cards under the Fermi is significant since it supports the DirectX 11 API. Today ironically, on the occasion of AMD's launch of its "Hemlock" Radeon HD 5970 flagship accelerator, a picture showing a working consumer graphics variant of Fermi working. It is as if to assert that a Fermi derivative is no more the paperweight it was when it was first paraded to the media.

NVIDIA's Fermi GPU architecture is to be implemented in three variants: GF100, GT300, and GT300GL, to drive three of the company's product lines: GeForce, Tesla, and Quadro, respectively. GF100 is of utmost relevance to us. A picture leaked recently to Bright Side of News shows a GeForce accelerator based on GF100 to be working, where it appears to be rendering the Unigine Heaven DirectX 11 benchmark. This early sighting, however, doesn't mean that the product is any closer to its launch. It is still slated for Q1 2010, meaning that it will miss out on the X-Mas shopping season. The GF100 GPU is said to have 512 shader cores, and connects to GDDR5 memory across a 384-bit wide memory interface.

Today HIS unleashed the revolutionary new HIS Radeon HD 5970 2GB GDDR5. Building on the success of HIS 5800 series, HIS 5970 offer the power of two 5800 GPUs and 3200 stream processors on a single board. It delivers groundbreaking graphics performance along with the most advanced feature set in the graphics industry.

Powered by the top-of-the-line 5970 GPU, HIS Radeon HD 5970 2GB GDDR5 accelerates PC gaming with more than 4 teraFLOPS computing power! Running at 725MHz core clock speed and 4Gbps memory clock speed, the, HIS Radeon HD 5970 ensure extreme game play at high resolutions and maximum settings. It delivers full support for Microsoft DirectX 11 graphics and compute functionality. Besides, it features an architecture tailored to excel with DirectCompute 11 (Shader Model 5.0) and OpenCL, taking ATI Stream functionality to next level.

World leading graphics supplier, SAPPHIRE Technology, now introduces the world's fastest graphics card, the SAPPHIRE HD 5970 OC Edition. With twice the computing power of the highly acclaimed SAPPHIRE HD 5870, the new HD 5970 model shares all the exciting features of this family - including support for the DirectCompute 11 instruction set of Microsoft DirectX 11, hardware tessellation and multi threaded communication with the system CPU. It also supports the acceleration of applications supported by ATI Stream, and the ability to display across three monitors simultaneously with ATI Eyefinity.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5970 OC Edition ships with enhanced clock speeds of 735MHz core and 1010MHz (4.04GHz effective) - faster than the standard model, making the SAPPHIRE HD 5970 OC the fastest card in its class, and the fastest in the world*. Enthusiasts will also be able to tune performance of these SAPPHIRE cards using the SAPPHIRE Redline voltage tweaker tool** to enable higher levels of overclocking.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today released the Colossus 3.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, designed to meet the performance and storage demands of high-end desktop users and enterprise clients. Available in up to one terabyte configurations, the Colossus Series marks a milestone in solid state drive technology, making it possible to have both high performance and high capacity in one solution.

"The new Colossus Series is designed to boost desktop and workstation performance and is for high power users that put a premium on speed, reliability and maximum storage capacity," said Eugene Chang, VP of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group. "The Colossus core-architecture is also available to enterprise clients with locked BOMs (build of materials) and customized firmware to match their unique applications."

XFX takes technology for a trip down the fast lane with the debut of The XFX ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card. The fastest dual GPU-on-a-PCB card on the planet, in addition to the base powerhouse, this card also comes in an "I've-never-seen-that-kind-of-performance-before" Black Edition with an exclusive performance enhancing Overvolt Tool.

Created for the true performance enthusiast, this card offers the ultimate in speed, with the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5970 scoring in excess of X10000 in 3DMarkVantage v. 101, the highest single graphics card score achieved to date. It also features all of the latest, state-of-the-art technologies that hardcore gamers want, including ATI Eyefinity technology, ATI Stream technology and full DirectX 11 support.

World renowned graphics card and mainboard brand and manufacturer, MSI, captured the hearts of powerful performance enthusiasts after unveiling its all-new R5800, R5700 series of graphics cards. Today, MSI unveils its top model, the R5970-P2D2G graphics card, which not only equips two advanced 40nm GPUs, but also utilizes 3200 stream processors (SPs)*, and 2 GB 512 bit** GDDR5 graphics memory, making it the best performing card on the planet today!

Additionally, MSI's R5970-P2D2G graphics card features ATI Eyefinity triple-display output technology, allowing gamers to get fully immersed in the latest DirectX 11 environments. The card also offers PowerPlay power-saving functionality that shows remarkable power-saving when the machine is in stand-by. Equally noteworthy is MSI's own "Afterburner" overclocking software that allows the user to adjust both the voltage and overclocking settings for better performance. With CrossFire X enabled, the dual GPUs offer outstanding, stable performance that redefines fast. Without a doubt, this card will be the first choice of performance enthusiasts.

AMD today announced the flagship installment in the award-winning line of graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, the fastest card ever created. The new ultra high-end model joins a growing list of the world's first and only graphics cards to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11 technology and ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology.

Designed to support the most demanding PC games at ultra-high resolutions and image quality settings, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 has unlocked overclocking potential, granting access to every bit of power the card has to offer through ATI Overdrive technology. Now shipping from retailers and available in the channel, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 also launches today in new Alienware Area-51, Area-51 ALX and Aurora desktop PCs.

AMD published its near-monthly installment of the ATI Catalyst Software Suite, which provides essential drivers for the company's ATI Radeon graphics processors, AMD 7-series chipset IGPs, ATI multimedia products, and the AMD FireStream GPGPU processors. Version 9.11 announced today, comes with the same hardware support base as the older version, includes two new features, and carries the usual application-specific fixes.

New features include GPU Acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta, and High Quality downscaling for video transcoding MSE. The release of ATI Catalyst, according to AMD, supports the new Hardware Acceleration features of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta for video encoded in the H.264 format. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta introduces hardware-based H.264 video decoding to deliver smooth video playback, reduce system resource utilization, and preserve battery life. Hardware acceleration is supported on all existing Radeon HD 5000 and HD 4000 series graphics processors. The release of ATI Catalyst includes an enhancement for the ATI Video converter for users transcoding high quality interlaced content (1920x1080i @60i videos) down to small resolution progressive content (320x240 @30p - iPod videos as an example), by maintaining high visual quality when down-scaling by a significant amount and converting interlaced video content to progressive. For a list of minor issues fixed in the release, refer to the Release Notes document.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 9.11 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 32-bit | Windows 7/Vista 64-bit | Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit

World renowned graphics card and mainboard manufacturer, MSI, today formally releases the world's first graphics card to support over voltage function - the N240GT series. Including the N240GT-MD512-OC/D5 and N240GT-MD1G, this series allows the user to adjust both the voltage and the overclocking configurations via the Afterburner overclocking software to increase GPU clock up to 30%. Additionally, this series utilizes an advanced 40nm GPU, supports the DirectX 10.1 gaming standard, and offers an native HDMI output for awesome 3D support and high-definition entertainment. The N240GT-MD512-OC/D5 uses extremely fast 512 MB GDDR5 graphic memory, and implements military class components to offer an incredible cost-performance value to customers.

MSI's all new N240GT series of graphics cards supports over voltage function of GPU and overclocking configuration adjusting functionality. Accessible through MSI's Afterburner overclocking software, the user can quickly adjust the GPU's voltage to improve overclocking potential, and the GPU clock can be up to 30%. Without a doubt, this new graphics card series offers users an impressive overclocking experience.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of the DataTraveler Locker+ USB Flash drive. The DataTraveler Locker+ allows companies of any size to secure mobile data with the ease and confidence of knowing that their data is encrypted and safe. The DataTraveler Locker+ also comes at a lower cost in times of shrinking IT budgets, making it ideal for budget-conscious companies.

"Kingston created this drive to address the rise in data loss and theft which has been a growing problem with expensive consequences. This device gives companies a solution that is not only affordable but provides peace of mind in securing mobile data," said Mark Akoubian, business manager, Secure USB Products, Kingston. "The DataTraveler Locker+ encrypts 100 percent of the contents and is available at a price point that is very attractive for all entities looking to comply with corporate security policies."

EVGA announced the EVGA GT 240 series. Upgrade today to the EVGA GT 240 and experience picture-perfect photos, vibrant videos and great games like Borderlands, WoW, Sims 3 and Darkest of Days. GPU Accelerated Flash means flawless HD videos on websites like YouTube and Hulu with the new GPU-accelerated Adobe Flash 10.1, and of course crystal-clear BluRay in 1080p with True-Fidelity 7.1 Surround Sound are 100% supported.

Experience NVIDIA PhysX technology on Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darkest of Days, and other GPU PhysX titles with speeds 2x faster than the competition. Enjoy 40% faster HD gaming on other popular titles like Borderlands and Darkest of Days. Leverage 96 processor cores to run the latest GPU-accelerated applications like MotionDSP vReveal, Cyberlink MediaShow with Face tagging, and many more at speeds up to 50% faster than prior generation.

Punch up your digital experience with a blast of power. The XFX NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 graphics card gives you an across-the-board speed and performance boost that takes you from "mundane" to "insane". NVIDIA PhysX technology adds speed to your game, so that you can play Batman: Arkham Asylum or Darkest of Days 2X faster than the competition. Transform it into a dedicated PhysX card by pairing it with another NVIDIA based graphics card and enjoy up to 50% pop in performance.

Ninety-six NVIDIA CUDA cores enable you to run the latest GPU-accelerated applications, many at speeds 50% faster than prior generation. Maximize your YouTube- and Hulu-viewing experience in full HD with new GPU-accelerated Adobe Flash 10.1. Enjoy all of the great Microsoft Windows 7 features, including drag and drop video conversion, as well as full support for DirectCompute, OpenGL 3.2 and PC Express 2.0. Available in a 1 GB GDDR5 or 512MB DDR3, put the power of the XFX NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 graphics card at your fingertips.

Due to the serious issue of global warming, in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, saving energy has become the responsibility of every global citizen. DFI is committed to developing energy saving products, not only to provide consumers a better platform, but also to do the best for the earth. Therefore, Hybrid platform was invented. Besides saving plenty of energy, Hybrid platform also brings consumers the benefits of time saving, space saving, and money saving. In addition, it is simple to use. Via a control panel, two systems can be easily switched and using condition can be known.

Hybrid platform, adopts the latest DFI patent technology. That is, a board combines a powerful platform of the current mainstream (P45 + ICH10R) and a green platform (NVIDIA ION). In other words, Hybrid has two platforms which operate completely independently. What is more, files can be shared between platforms. Through integrated hardware switch chips as well as network switch chips, Hybrid platform features a KVM and LAN switch on board. So Hybrid platform can be used with a monitor and keyboard/mouse, or with two sets of devices to work separately. This product will bring you the following four benefits.

POINT OF VIEW, premier NVIDIA partner for GeForce Graphics cards, is launching today the first GDDR5 GeForce graphics card, the GeForce GT240. Built from the ground up, the latest GeForce 200 series graphics card is a big step forward. Built on 40nm the GPU will consume less energy and have less heat production. This allows better clock speeds, a higher overclocking potential and lower temperatures. The smaller die-size together with the support for DirectX 10.1 and Shader model 4.1 really adds a future proof coating to the GT240.

Another major improvement is the support of GDDR5 which literally multiplies the possible memory clock by two! The new PCB design also has integrated HDMI audio so no additional SPDIF cable is required for rerouting the sound to the HDMI cable.

ASUS is ready with yet another socket LGA-1156 motherboard, only this one you can't pass on. The Maximus III Extreme is the company's second motherboard in its coveted Republic of Gamers series of high-end motherboards suited for gamers and overclockers, and will end up as the best ASUS has to offer for this platform. Based on the P55 Express chipset, the Maximus III Extreme seems to make use of an additional PCI-Express bridge chip to provide two x16 links. External lane switching further allows there to be four slots with x8 bandwidth. A fifth x16 slot could be wired to the PCH, being electrically x4 to accommodate other PCI-E devices.

The CPU socket is powered by a 11-phase digital PWM circuit, which uses a SuperML capacitor. The four DDR3 DIMM slots are powered by a 3-phase circuit. Apart from the main 24-pin and 8-pin CPU power connectors, there is an additional 6-pin connector. We suspect this to be a PCI-Express power connector for additional electrical stability, which could help overclocking.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the world's leading motherboard, graphics card, barebone system, and notebook manufacturer is pleased to announce latest GT 240 series graphics card with GDDR5 solution. Catering to users who want their graphics card capable of delivering astounding graphical performances, ECS GeForce GT 240 series graphics card are built with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 graphics processing units (GPU) come with 96 processor cores, 128-bit GDDR5 512MB/1024MB at 1700MHz memory clock to deliver outstanding visual experience.

With an unified architecture to provide fully unified shader core, dynamically allocates processing power to geometry, vertex, physics, or pixel shading operations, delivering better gaming performance of prior generation GPUs. ECS GeForce GT 240 series graphics card are embedded with HDMI connector which can transfer video & audio signals via a single cable making top performance and power efficiency. It uses NVIDIA CUDA technology to unlock the power of the GPU's processor cores to accelerate the most demanding system tasks - such as video transcoding in order to deliver incredible performance improvements over traditional GPUs. ECS GeForce GT 240 series contain NVIDIA PhysX technology enabling a totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience with GeForce. It supports Microsoft DirectX 10.1 & Shader Model 4.1 to meet users' requirement of those latest gaming titles. If you want to save your money and enjoy mainstream gaming experience, ECS GeForce GT 240 series graphics card is the best choice.

Transcend Information, Inc., a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, today introduced the latest addition to its StoreJet external hard drive lineup, the StoreJet 35T. With its TurboHDD USB transfer mode and One Touch auto-backup button, the compact 3.5-inch StoreJet 35T is an ideal data management system for uploading, downloading, storing and transferring vital data and information.

About the size of a hardback book, the black streamlined StoreJet 35T offers up to 1.5TB capacity, providing ample space for essential files, folders, documents, photos, music and high-definition videos. Its slender design allows it to be placed upright, thus occupying a smaller footprint to save precious desk space. Ideal for use at home or at the office, the handsomely designed StoreJet 35T is both stylish and practical.

Transcend Information, Inc., a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, today announced the expansion of its flash card product line with the introduction of high-capacity 400X CompactFlash cards with capacities ranging up to 64 GB. The new 400X CF cards also feature high-speed transfer rates up to 90 MB/s read and 60 MB/s write, ensuring maximum performance when used with today's high resolution imaging equipment.

With storage capacities ranging from 16GB to an enormous 64GB, Transcend's 400X CF cards allow digital camera users to take thousands of photos at a time without the inconvenience of switching cards. The 64GB 400X CF card, for instance, can capture more than 13,000 still images (with a 10 megapixel camera) and record over three hours of Full HD video (1920x1080 at 38.6Mbps), allowing users of digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR) and HD video camcorders to take full advantage of their high-resolution equipment.

Ten times faster than the USB2.0, data transfer rates of up to 5 GB/s, enhanced transmission reliability and energy efficient: The new USB3.0 interface now also offers an over abundance of bandwidth for data transfer applications. However, Mainboards and peripheral devices that allow SuperSpeed USB's simply can not wait. Sharkoon is the first provider to immediately offer a PCIe controller so that the Desktop PC can be quickly and efficiently upgraded: The Sharkoon USB3.0 Host Controller Card is equipped with a NEC µPD720200 chip; the two USB3.0 Ports are combined with the PCIe 2.0 so that it can conform to Intel xHCI-rev0.96 specifications. The controller card can connect directly to the PCI-x1 slot and operate a larger PCIe slot with a connection speed twice as fast; it possesses a 4-pin plug to the power supply over the network, and supports the operating systems Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 (32 Bit / 64 Bit).

Also, a first peripheral device with the SuperSpeed interface from Sharkoon will soon be made available on the market: As of calendar week 48, the popular hard drive docking station Sharkoon SATA QuickPort with USB3.0 port will be released. The new interface has USB-IF specifications including compatibility with previous USB 2.0, USB 1.1 and USB 1.0 connections.

Inno3D are excited to announce the Inno3D GeForce GT 240 graphics card. The GeForce GT 240 opens up visually tantalising possibilities by providing the graphics processing power to manipulate the dullest of photos or home videos and transform them into your very own masterful creations. It also allows the viewing of flawless Adobe Flash 10.1 video in full screen HD and plays the latest games with fast frame rates and NVIDIA PhysX effects. Energise your multimedia with GeForce GT 240 graphics and equip your PC for the digital world.

The sheer power of the new Inno3D GeForce GT 240 is illustrated in the Vantage Performance chart above, towering over the performance of the 9600GT with great significance. This surely is a reflection of Nvidia's technological advancement from 9600GT to GT 240 whilst boasting an array of additional features raising the bar of the performance card.

AMD's dual-GPU flagship graphics accelerator, the Radeon HD 5970, is closer than you think it is. Slated for 18th Nov, it includes every feature that allows AMD to reclaim the performance leadership it yearned for since the beginning of this year. In a series of company slides sourced from XtremeSystems Forums, it is learned that this could be one of the first accelerators which AMD "openly" markets as having a "Massive Headroom" for overclocking. While the clock speeds on the HD 5970 are lower than those on the single-GPU HD 5870, AMD lifted limits on what the driver-level ATI Overdrive software can offer in terms of clock speeds. While the engine (core) and memory speeds are set at 720/1000 MHz, the unlocked ATI Overdrive lets users take the clock speeds all the way up to 1000/1500 MHz. That's 30% for the core, and a stellar 50% for the memory.

To back such speeds, AMD seems to have splurged heavily on top-notch components on the PCB. To begin with, the PCB holds two high-grade AMD Cypress GPUs, each with all its 1600 stream processors enabled. The GDDR5 memory, while clocked at 1000 MHz or 4 GT/s, is technically rated by its manufacturer to run at 1250 MHz or 5 GT/s. All systems are powered by high-grade digital PWM voltage regulators, with independent Volterra VRM controllers that allow real-time monitoring, and software voltage control. Barring the five-odd cylindrical solid-state capacitors, Japanese pure ceramic surface-mount capacitors are extensively made use of.

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

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

Intel Corporation and NEC Corporation today have agreed to jointly develop High Performance Computing (HPC) system technologies that will push the boundaries of supercomputing performance. NEC will bring these technologies to market in future supercomputers based on the Intel Xeon processor. NEC's expertise in this field coupled with the Intel Xeon processor's outstanding performance and its accelerating vector capabilities such as AVX will allow for higher performance supercomputers, satisfying customer demand for Intel architecture based products.

NEC will also continue to sell their existing SX vector processor-based products. A vector processor can perform a mathematical operation on several numbers simultaneously.

"Intel's substantial investment in the Intel architecture, including the development of processors, chipsets, software compilers and other related products has expanded the usages of Intel Xeon processors in both the volume and high-end HPC market segments," said Richard Dracott, general manager of Intel's High Performance Computing Group. "Now with NEC further innovating on Intel Xeon processor-based systems, Intel is poised to bring Intel Xeon processor performance to an even wider supercomputing audience."

Kingston is out with its newest 12 GB triple-channel DDR3 memory kit. Unlike the last time, when the company came out with a three-module kit consisting of 4 GB modules, with the KHX1600C9D3K6/12GX, the new 12 GB kit consists of six modules. What is also noteworthy, is that the new kit costs a fraction: Around 350 Euro versus over 1000 Euro.

The six 2 GB modules are cooled by the classic Kingston HyperX heatspreaders. They are rated to operate at 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) with DRAM timings of 9-9-9-27, with module voltage of 1.65V, along with Intel XMP support, making them just about ideal for socket LGA-1366 desktops and importantly, 2-socket workstations.

Convergence Technologies (USA) LLC, of Reston Virginia, today announces that it has filed a lawsuit (Docket No. 1:09cv1256) in the Eastern District of Virginia against Hewlett-Packard, Sapphire Technology Limited (a Hong Kong company) and Taiwan Microloops Corporation (a Taiwanese registered company, herein referred to as Microloops) for the infringement, contributory infringement, and/or inducement to infringe upon its U.S. patent #7,422,053. Joseph J. Zito of ZITO tlp has been appointed as its lead litigator.

"With the recent Taiwan court's ruling and Microloops' predatory pricing practice, we have no choice but to now turn to the U.S. court for protection," said Dr. Steven H. Lee, Founding President & CEO of Convergence Technologies Limited. Dr. Lee further adds that "It is unfortunate that venture capital was scarce in Hong Kong, which gave other companies the opportunity to exploit our weakness, but we have the best vapor chamber technology in the world, and Joe Zito will help us ensure this technology reaches the market place.

NVIDIA Corporation today unveiled the Tesla 20-series of parallel processors for the high performance computing (HPC) market, based on its new generation CUDA processor architecture, codenamed "Fermi".

Designed from the ground-up for parallel computing, the NVIDIA Tesla 20-series GPUs slash the cost of computing by delivering the same performance of a traditional CPU-based cluster at one-tenth the cost and one-twentieth the power.

SteelSeries, the leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessories, today introduced the SteelSeries Siberia Headphone. Modeled from the award-winning Siberia Headset, the new SteelSeries Siberia Headphone presents gamers with an audio option of superior SteelSeries sound quality and comfort at an entry level price point.

"We're introducing the new headphone right before the holidays with the notion that high-quality, professional gaming gear can be offered at an affordable price for both novice gamers and pro-players," said Bruce Hawver, CEO of SteelSeries. "The Siberia Headphone rounds out our audio line-up as the opening level SteelSeries audio option for gamers who are looking to experience professional quality headphone technology."

Following AMD's recent success of its 6-core Opteron processor in the TOP500 supercomputer list, Intel has sensed a market for "HPC-optimized" processors, which the company expects will be out in the first half of 2010. These could be either variants of the Nehalem-EX multi-socket capable processors, or that by design, Nehalem-EX suits HPC (high-performance computing) applications better.

These 6-core processors will carry clock speeds higher than 8-core Xeon processors around that time. The processors will be able to work in systems with up to 256 processors (logical CPUs). In addition to these Intel also announced that it will be releasing a beta version of its Ct technology by the end of this year. Ct makes parallel programming in the C and C++ programming languages easier, by automatically optimizing code to exploit multi-core and many-core systems.

The Swiss low noise cooling solution provider ARCTIC COOLING today announced the launch of the Accelero TWIN TURBO PRO. This dual-fan cooler is designed for fitting ATI and NVIDIA graphic cards, offering a truly cool and quiet solution for most enthusiasts.

This superior cooler is the upgraded version of the reputable Accelero TWIN TURBO. Instead of using 80mm fans, the Accelero TWIN TURBO PRO features two 92mm PWM fans for more advanced heat dissipation. The unconventional 4-heatpipe architecture together with 35 fins achieve up to 120 watts cooling capacity. Also with a layer of the ARCTIC MX-2 thermal compound on the base, the Accelero TWIN TURBO PRO guarantees instant and efficient cooling at all time.

Following Intel's launch of the new socket LGA-1156 platform with quad-core Intel Core i5, Core i7 "Lynnfield", and the P55 Express chipset to drive the platform, Intel is preparing to drop another chalk in Q1 2010, with dual-core socket LGA-1156 processors that use the Core i3 and Core i5 brand identifiers. A feature unique to these processors is the integration of a graphics controller into the processor package. On the platform side, core-logic must support the Intel Flexible Display technology, which handles connectivity for that graphics controller. The chipset which will drive this would be Intel's upcoming H57 Express chipset, codenamed "Eagle Lake".

Motherboards based on the H57 chipset typically feature display connectors such as DVI, D-Sub, or HDMI. While intended to cover the mainstream segment, H57 can also be used to drive high-grade motherboards, as is shown by ASUS with its newest motherboard based on the chipset - the P7PH57D-V EVO. The ATX motherboard resembles the P7P55D Deluxe in many design aspects. It supports all the high-end features its cousin does, including support for SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 along with full-bandwidth PCI-Express 2.0 interfaces for the controllers.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and innovative USB drives, today announced the new Wink USB drive measuring merely 1.2 x 0.5 x 0.1 inches and tipping the scales at only 1/20 of an ounce. The Wink drive is available now in capacities from 2GB to 16GB.

Waterproof Wink Drive Measures only 1.2 inches Long and Weighs Less Than 1/20 Oz. Although its size is small, the Wink drive's storage capacity is great. The 16GB model holds up to 5,000 MP3 songs. The Wink drive is also quite rugged. The delicate electronics are encapsulated in a waterproof COB unit, which is in turn protected by a high-impact polymer outer shell. The outer case features an embossed wink face and an eye hole for an included keychain. According to Active Media Products VP of Sales, Jerry Thomson, "We designed the Wink drive to be extremely small, yet rugged and reliable." These new drives are Windows 7 and OS X compatible. All four capacities are available today through Amazon at prices starting at $7.95.

PhotoFast announced three new solid state drives in the 1.8 inch form-factor. All three use IDE interfaces, and hence are ideal for consumer electronics such as PMPs, video cameras, etc. The new series these come under is the G-Monster V4. The drives offer capacities ranged between 32 and 256 GB (probably including 64 GB and 128 GB models along the way), and are characterized by the interface type: 40-pin ZIF, 44-pin IDE, and 50-pin IDE. All three feature MLC NAND flash chips, with 64 MB DRAM memory for the NAND flash controller. The controller offers a "Built-in Garbage Collection" feature that clears deleted data, relocating existing data onto its area. In this way, data fragmentation is reduced. The read-write speeds on offer are 128/90 MB/s, respectively.

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

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

The newest case under the Cooltek brand was announced by PC-Cooling. The Cooltek K4 is a mid-range, mid-tower, which provides the essentials of casing in its 430 (H) x 190 (W) x 480 (D) mm form, weighing 5.2 kg. The case offers three externernal 5.25" drive bays, one external, and six internal 3.5" bays, with tool-free retention mechanism for the drives. The case, along with its interiors, seems to be fabricated entirely with SECC-steel. While it does not include any fans, the case does provide room for front and rear fans, along with two on the side-panel. The Cooltek K4 is priced under 45 EUR.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announces a new flavor to HD5700 series: PLAY! HD5770. PLAY! HD5770 features full digital output solution with Display Port / HDMI/ DVI onboard design; delivers an incredible visual performance at all resolutions. And with the support of ATI Eyefinity technology, PLAY! HD5770 can run up to three displays from one single card and give all gamers a surreal gaming experience.

PowerColor PLAY! HD5770 clocks at 850MHz core speed and 1200MHz of memory speed; with an ultra 92mm cooling fan, PLAY! HD5770 is able to increase air flow in low fan speed, yet still dissipates heat easily from the cooper base, which covers the GPU entirely. This cooler also reduces fan noise and enhances cooling ability to deliver the ultimate gaming performance in a low-noisy, and cool operating environment.

Dell today introduced the mini-sized Inspiron Zino HD, which is versatile enough to handle tasks from basic computing chores to driving a big-screen, High-Definition TV media center. With a choice of colors, the Inspiron Zino HD can be easily personalized to add flare to any room in the home.

Starting at $229, the Inspiron Zino HD includes standard HD-capable integrated graphics, HDMI output and built-in networking that make it smart for typical home and student computing activities such as word processing, e-mail, organizing photos and music, and surfing the Internet.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced new 450X, 533X, and 600X high speed CompactFlash media cards which achieve read/write speeds up to 90MB/sec. The new high speed CF cards are offered in four different capacities: 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

CF is one of the world's most popular digital mass-storage card formats and is widely used on DSLR cameras as well as in embedded computing. Super Talent designed these high speed CF cards especially for the demanding requirements of performance oriented photographers. The cards use MLC NAND Flash as the medium which works silently, lasts longer and is lightning fast. The 600X cards reach transfer speeds up to 90MB/sec which accommodate the high read/write requirements of premium DSLR cameras.

The Swiss IT hardware manufacturer ARCTIC COOLING is expanding its diversified product line from designing cooling solutions to various electronic products and peripherals. Today the company launched their first power adapter series ARCTIC C1 and ARCTIC C2, designing for frequent travelers for charging a wide range of USB-powered appliances.

4 AC plugs are supplied with the ARCTIC C1 / C2. They can be used worldwide - North and South America, Europe, UK, Middle East, Africa, China, Japan, Australia and more. With full range 100 to 240V input, these chargers automatically, providing users a truly hassle-free charger.

ASUS has developed its own take on AMD's mid-range Radeon HD 5750 graphics accelerator, with the EAH5750 Formula 1 GB. Being a non-reference design product, it makes use of both cooler and PCB indigenously developed by the company. The black PCB seems slightly shorter than the reference PCB, and has its power connector located on the top, rather than on the end. The Radeon HD 5750 GPU features DirectX 11 compliance, 720 stream processors, and a 128-bit GDDR5 memory interface to connect to the 1 GB of memory on this card. It sticks to AMD's reference clock speeds of 700/1050 MHz (core/memory).

The other, more important selling point of this card is its custom designed GPU cooler. Apparently the design involves a GPU contact block from which metal fins project radially, on which a PWM-controlled fan circulates air. Characteristic to ASUS' Formula series graphics cards, the cooler shroud coarsely resembles a Formula One racing car. The connectors are all rounded off onto one metal bracket, although the card still needs two expansion slots. Connectors include one each of DVI-D, D-Sub, and HDMI. The price is expected to be under € 120.

G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and solid-state storage with solid quality, has today released the world's fastest DRAM modules rated at a groundbreaking DDR3 2200 CL7-10-10-28 1.65V 4GB (2GBx2), and specially tuned for Intel Lynnfield Core i7 870, 860 processors.

Furnished with the brand new design PI series heatspreader, these modules once again represent G.Skill's commitment to pushing the boundaries and providing overclocking enthusiasts and extreme gamers with the best DRAM modules for breaking overclocking world records. The kits will be sold with G.Skill's Turbulence memory fan to decrease the system temperatures and provide further overclocking headroom during tweaking.

Intel Corporation and Advanced Micro Devices today announced a comprehensive agreement to end all outstanding legal disputes between the companies, including antitrust litigation and patent cross license disputes.

In a joint statement the two companies commented, "While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development."

Under terms of the agreement, AMD and Intel obtain patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement, Intel and AMD will give up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement, and Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion. Intel has also agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions. As a result, AMD will drop all pending litigation including the case in U.S. District Court in Delaware and two cases pending in Japan. AMD will also withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide. The agreement will be made public in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Intel recently released quad-core notebook processors based on the Nehalem architecture. The company wants to further develop its ultrathin notebook processor portfolio with three new dual-core processors based on the "Arrandale" core, carrying the Core i7 and Core i5 brand identifiers. These models are slated for launch in the first half of 2010. Included, are the Core i7 640UM, Core i7 620UM, and Core i5 520UM. While the Core i7 640UM is clocked at 1.20 GHz, the Core i7 620UM and Core i5 520UM carry the same clock speeds of 1.06 GHz. We would imagine a feature such as HyperThreading Technology to differentiate the two.

While the clock speeds may seem low, it is important to note that these ultra low voltage processors succeed similarly clocked Core 2 Duo SU9000 and SU7000 series processors. Speaking of which, in the run up to the new chips, Intel will introduce six new models within Q4 2009, namely Core 2 Duo models SU9600, SU9400, SU7300, Pentium models SU4100, SU2300, and Celeron 743. The Core i7 640UM, 620UM, and Core i5 520UM are expected to be available to manufacturers at US $305, $278, and $241, respectively. All prices are in 1000-unit tray quantities.

As part of its Financial Analyst Day for 2009, AMD listed out its priorities for the year ahead, looking into 2010. While the company has lived up to its development targets for this year by releasing a full-fledged lineup of PC and server processors built on the 45 nm process, increasing its market share with graphics products, and releasing the first DirectX 11 compliant (back then referred to as 'next generation') GPU, the year ahead looks equally ambitious for AMD.

AMD set the following product priorities for 2010: to deliver four new winning PC platforms in the first half of 2010, improve battery life of its notebook platform, expand homegrown DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL developer tools, propagate DirectX 11 graphics to notebooks, launch the company's first 12-core Opteron processor, and more interestingly, sample the company's next-generation "Bulldozer" architecture to industry customers, along with sampling the company's first Fusion-design "Bobcat" processor, which integrates the CPU with GPU, along with sampling some of the company's first processors built on the 32 nm manufacturing process.

Some of the first online store listings of AMD's newest high-end graphics accelerator, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, have started to surface. Austrian computer hardware online store aggregator Geizhals.at has sources out three such stores which list the accelerator by AIB partner Sapphire, between € 505.39 and € 514.46, including 20% applicable tax (excluding which, it is priced between € 421 and € 428). The Sapphire HD 5970 accelerator listed carries the part number 21165-01-50R. It features a total of 2 GB of memory (2x 1GB), contrary to an earlier report. A short list of stores can be found here.

In response to feedback, Cooler Master issued revisions of its Hyper TX3 and Hyper 212 CPU coolers. The new G1 revisions of the two, can be identified by new model numbers RR-910-HTX3-G1 (for Hyper TX3) and RR-B10-212P-G1 (for Hyper 212), and maintain the same prices of their predecessors, US $29.99 and $19.99, respectively. Changes include redesigned CPU contact bases, and a more end-user friendly fan-retention mechanism.

With CPU contact base on which copper heatpipes make direct contact with the CPU, the channels that hold thermal paste have been removed (small gaps created between the CPU and the heatpipes because the heatpipes are nested too deep into the rest of the base). This ensures that improperly applied thermal paste doesn't excessively accumulate there, insulating rather than conducting heat.

Taiwanese company Xilence Technology released its 4ALL.R3 CPU cooler. This entry-level CPU cooler is intended to serve as a stock-heatsink replacement. It has a simple tower design, with the CPU contact base (which doubles up as a small heatsink) conveying heat to an aluminum fin block using two copper heatpipes. The fins are cooled by a 92 mm fan. The 4ALL.R3 supports Intel sockets LGA-775 and LGA-1156, and AMD sockets AM2(+)/AM3. It is priced at 20 EUR.

G.Skill announced the Falcon II family of SATA solid state drives (SSDs). This new line of SSDs brings with it support for the Windows 7 TRIM command feature, which improves performance by reducing file fragmentation using clever ways to allocate data on the flash modules. Speaking of which, like its predecessor, the NAND flash technology of Falcon II is of the multi-level cell (MLC) type. The NAND flash controller in use is Indilinx ECO. It comes in 256 GB (model: FM-25S2I-256GBF2), 128 GB (FM-25S2I-128GBF2) and 64 GB ( FM-25S2I-64GBF2) variants. They come in the usual 2.5" form-factor, have 64 MB of DRAM cache memory, and under 0.2 ms of access time. The read/write speeds on offer are 220 MB/s (read) and 150 MB/s (write). Backed by a two year company warranty, the SSDs come with an MTBF of over 1.5 million hours. Its pricing is yet to be known.

Intel's is readying a hardware update for its P55 Express chipset, currently the only core-logic for the company's brand new socket LGA-1156 processor platform. The new B3 stepping of the P55 PCH will bring with it a little more than new MM number and S-spec numbers. A list of changes is as follows:

• New MM number and S-spec numbers for the converted products;
• Firmware and minor BIOS updates are required with the conversion;
• Processor MRC/microcode update required to enable future processors;
• Recommended storage driver upgrade from Intel MSM 8.9 to Intel RST 9.5.

Although it is listed that the MRC update enables 'future processors', Intel, in a statement issued to X-bit labs assured that the current B2 stepping of the chipset (found on current socket LGA-1156 motherboards) does not leave out support for any of Intel's new LGA-1156 processors that are slated for release in the very near future. The dual-core "Clarkale" 32 nm processor will be supported by both B2 and B3 steppings of the chipset.

Elpida Memory, Inc., Japan's leading global supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), and Winbond Electronics Corp. today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for DRAM foundry services that will see Winbond manufacture DRAMs under contract to Elpida. The outsourcing agreement is the first step of a business partnership the two companies intend to pursue further.

The agreement pertains to the supply of GDDR3 and GDDR5 graphic DRAMs for Elpida. Prior to this agreement Winbond and Elpida have been working together to commercialize GDDR3 and GDDR5 DRAM products. Winbond is preparing to begin commercial production of these products by the end of 2009 while Elpida plans to begin purchasing the output in the first half of 2010.

In a few days from now, AMD will unveil its new flagship graphics accelerator, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, which will intends to cement the brand's performance leadership over every product from rival NVIDIA. The HD 5970, codenamed "Hemlock", is a dual-GPU accelerator, with two codenamed "Cypress" GPUs in an internal CrossfireX configuration.

Built on the 40 nm process, these GPUs will feature 1600 stream processors each, and will each have a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface to connect to 2 GB of memory (4 GB total on card). The clock speeds are where the specifications of these GPUs differ from their single-GPU avatar, the Radeon HD 5870. The core is clocked at 725 MHz, while the memory runs at 1000 MHz (4000 MHz effective).

The accelerator will not have a rear panel identical to those of other Radeon HD 5000 series accelerators. It has the usual broad air vent occupying one slot, while the other has two DVI-D and one mini DisplayPort (DP) connector. The mini DP connector can give out DVI output using a dongle, and in this way, support for ATI Eyefinity technology remains intact. The NDA covering this accelerator is said to expire on the 19th of November, not very far away.

Razer, the world's leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, today launched the Razer Abyssus gaming mouse. By combining simplicity with a state-of-the-art 3.5G 3500 dpi infrared sensor, the Razer Abyssus stands ready to frag.

"Less is more," said Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff, president, Razer. "We've taken our ambidextrous three-button mouse design and loaded it with our industry-leading technology without the added cost of too many bells and whistles. Our goal with the Razer Abyssus is to give competitive gamers access to gaming grade hardware without breaking the bank."

Zalman launched its pulse-width modulation (PWM) based universal fan controller called the PWM Mate. This nifty little device connects to 4-pin PWM fans (such as those on CPU coolers), and provides more precise fan control than what traditional fan controllers would offer. PWM fan controllers adjust the speed of a fan by supplying the motor pulses of current instead of reduced voltage. The device is able to provide precise fan speed control between 25~100 percent speed. It comes in the form of a hand-held pod that can stay within your chassis or pop out. The main unit measures 55 (L) x 24 (B) x 13.5 (H) mm and uses a 4-pin fan connector to connect to the motherboard and then to the cooler. Those finding it familiar will note that the PWM Mate has been selling as part of the CNPS-10X Extreme's package. Its pricing and availability are yet to be known.

Intel's Atom processor platform will get its successor in the next-generation "Pine Trail" platform sooner than expected, what Intel refers to as a 'fast transition to the next-generation platform'. The company plans to detail the new platform for netbooks and nettops on the 21st of December, 2009, by means of a press release. Launches of products based on the new Atom N450 will start as early as by 4th January, 2010, in time for the CES 2010 event.

At the center of the Pine Trail platform is the "Pineview" processor. Unlike its predecessor, Pineview integrates a DDR2 memory controller, graphics processor, and a video decoding processor by Broadcom into a single package. The new processor will support the x86-64 instruction set, indicating that netbooks and nettops could use over 4 GB of memory very soon. The processor also comes with higher performance, and a brand new chipset. Sources reveal the following three initial models to X-bit labs:

• Intel Atom N450: single-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66GHz, 512KB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $63 price-point;
• Intel Atom D510: dual-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66GHz, 1MB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $63 price-point;
• Intel Atom D410: single-core with Hyper-Threading support, 1.66GHz, 512KB cache, x86-64, BGA437 package, $43 price-point.

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

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

Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer and flash memory products, today announced two new Flash Survivor GT USB flash drives. The new drives are available in capacities of 32GB and 64GB, and feature the same ultra-durable metal housing found on all Flash Survivor models, along with the signature red GT highlights.

"The Flash Survivor GT is the ultimate flash drive for users requiring both high speed and extreme ruggedness," said John Beekley, VP of Technical Marketing at Corsair. "These drives will carry your data and media into the harshest environment and still provide rock-solid protection."

MSI is readying the 770-G45 motherboard, which supports socket AM3 Phenom II and Athlon II series processors from AMD. This is the third in the series of motherboards recently launched by MSI, to be based on the AMD 770 chipset, albeit being the most feature-rich of the lot. The other offerings being 770T-C45, and 770-C35. The motherboard makes use of AMD's SB710 southbridge, and hence supports the ACC feature. The more important feature however, is the provision of two PCI-Express x16 slots, supporting ATI CrossfireX. The second slot however, seems to be wired to the southbridge, and electrical PCI-Express x4.

The CPU is powered by a simple 6 phase VRM circuit, supporting the Active Phase Switching feature, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots to support dual-channel memory. All six SATA 3 Gb/s ports are internal. A PCI-E x1 and three PCI slots make for the rest of the expansion. Connectivity includes gigabit Ethernet, a serial port, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The OC Switch feature aims to simplify overclocking. Ideally, this motherboard should make it around the $100 price point, though the price isn't known at this point.

Here's a mouse that takes macro-bound multi-button design to a whole new level. The OOMouse from WarMouse crams over 18 buttons. The last time someone got this generous with buttons, was Razer, with its Naga MMO mouse that offers up to 12 macro buttons. The OOMouse on the other hand, isn't intended to be a gaming mouse, quite the opposite, it carries the OpenOffice.org branding, and offers that many buttons to improve productivity, after of course getting used to bending your neck to look for the right button, compared to simply moving the pointer to macro buttons on screen, or using keyboard shortcuts.

"The WarMouse team have worked closely with experts from the OpenOffice.org user experience project to deliver the full benefits of the world's leading open-source office software to the fingertips of users," says John McCreesh, marketing project lead at OpenOffice.org. Using its 18 programmable mouse buttons, clickable scroll wheel, three different button modes (key, keypress, and macro), and up to 16 macros on a joystick, on the left-side of it, the OOMouse can perform 52 different actions with the touch of a button. Unintentionally, it can also help MMO gamers thanks to its 1600 dpi optical sensor. The resolution of this sensor can be adjusted between 400 and 1600 dpi.

HIS today rolled out its own designed graphics accelerator based on the Radeon HD 5750 graphics processor. The HIS HD 5750 iCooler IV is a completely non-reference design, including cooler and PCB. The design involves use of the company's iCooler IV GPU cooler the company has used on mid-range accelerators in the past, the blue PCB, and an overall compact design, including a rear-panel cluster that breaks away from AMD's connector cluster design for the Radeon HD 5000 series. Instead, the card uses a single bracket that includes one each of DVI-D, DisplayPort, and HDMI, although the card itself occupies two slots due to its cooler design.

The Radeon HD 5750 GPU has 720 stream processors available, and is wired to 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit wide interface. It is DirectX 11 compliant, and supports other technologies such as DirectCompute 11, and AMD's Eyefinity, and CrossFireX technologies. The clock speeds of the card stick to AMD's reference speeds, those of 700 MHz (core), and 1150 MHz (effective 4600 MHz, memory). HIS bundles a Collin McRae DIRT-2 coupon, which can be redeemed to get a copy of the game when it's out. Expect standard pricing.

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

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

Closely trailing the GA-X58A-UD7, Gigabyte is preparing a new high-end socket LGA-1156 motherboard based on the Intel P55 chipset. The GA-P55A-UD7 is touted to lead the new pack of motherboards under the P55A series, which bring technologies such as USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s integrated for the LGA-1156 platform. Observantly, after a very long time, Gigabyte has made use of an NVIDIA nForce chip on its high-end motherboards, certainly the first time it has made use of the nForce 200 PCI-Express bridge chip. Gigabyte made some clever use of its real-estate, especially with regards to the PCI-Express bandwidth.

The LGA-1156 socket is powered by a 24+3 phase circuit. It connects to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory. Its PCI-Express 2.0 x16 link is wired to an NVIDIA nForce 200 chip, which gives out 32 PCI-Express 2.0 lanes to ensure support for 3-way NVIDIA SLI, ATI CrossFireX is naturally supported. There are three PCI-Express x16 slots (which arrange into x16, x16, NC; or x16, x8, x8, depending on how they're populated). A PLX-made PCI-Express bridge chip (probably connected to the PCH) ensures full-bandwidth PCI-Express 2.0 x1 connections to the NEC two port USB 3.0 controller, and the two port SATA 6 Gb/s controller made by Marvell. Apart from the six (color-coded blue) SATA 3 Gb/s ports the PCH provides, the two color-coded white ports on the south are SATA 6 Gb/s, while the two on the north are connected to a Gigabyte GSATA2 SATA 3 Gb/s controller, which also gives out an IDE connector.

Noctua today announced a new special edition of its popular NH-U9B premium cooler, which is renowned for providing excellent quiet cooling performance in a compact package that lends itself to use in HTPCs or smaller cases. The new NH-U9B SE2 now comes with two of Noctua's award-winning NF-B9 92mm fans and adds support for LGA1156 as well as LGA1366 via the latest SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting system.

"Many customers who are looking for a premium quality quiet cooler but can't accommodate our larger models are choosing our NH-U9B, which offers performance levels close to its bigger brothers while being much more compact", explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO "Given the ongoing popularity of the NH-U9B, we've decided to create a special edition that comes with a second NF-B9 fan and provides support for the latest CPUs."

Everyone who is more than familiar with the term 'the Internet', may have come across, or has even been affected by Mozilla Firefox, one of the most popular web-browser software. The cross-platform, open-source web-browser was born out of the Mozilla project, after practical, and minimalist simplification of the user interface. This, coupled with good performance for the stature of an Internet Explorer alternative, being safer against spyware, popups, and malicious addon software, quickly became popular, and part of the web-centric pop-culture.

Firefox has also helped shape several things in the connected IT industry. It replenished the credibility of open-source model of software development, and forced content providers to adhere to open-standards. Firefox today turns five years old, which is 'a long time on the Internet', as its team puts it. The SpreadFirefox community have rolled out a portal celebrating the event, it can be found here.

First surfaced two weeks ago, Gigabyte's then called GA-EX58-Extreme 2 motherboard has been renamed to GA-X58A-UD7, ahead of its launch. Traditionally known for giving the DQ6 and UD6 identifiers for its high-end motherboards, Gigabyte used the 'Extreme' identifier for some of its later high-end offerings. This is the first time a '7' identifier is in place. Touted to be a full-fledged successor to the EX58-Extreme, the X58A-UD7 brings to the table an upgraded feature-set, including support for USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gb/s, and four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrical x16, NC, x16, NC; x16, NC, x8, x8; or x8, x8, x8, x8, depending on how they're populated,) enabling 4-way ATI CrossFireX. Support for NVIDIA 3-way SLI is also included. One of the star attractions of this model is its factory-fitted chipset water-cooling block. Based on the Intel X58 Express chipset, the X58A-UD7 supports socket LGA-1366 Intel Core i7 processors. Its price and release date are still under wraps.

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

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

Antec is preparing the airy, new Lanboy Air ATX case. The new case will be one of Antec's star attractions at CES 2010, where it will be launched. The sporty design looks to be massively modular, from the looks of it, users could completely dismantle it. Several shards look to be connected to each other, which make for the case's various panels. Each of these has a steel mesh for high airflow. These, in combination with the black, grey and a dash of yellow, give it a subjectively industrial look.

The case sports three 5.25" drive bays, two 120 mm fans which protrude, and the the front connectors, on the front panel. The area of the side panel covering the drive bays holds another two to three 120 mm fans, two more right over the expansion slot area. The top, again, is perforated, with room for two 120 mm exhausts apart from the usual one on the rear panel. The LanBoy Air awaits launch at CES 2010, which will be held in the coming January. It is expected to be priced at around 200 EUR.

Elpida Memory, Inc. and ProMOS Technologies announced today the signing of a DRAM foundry agreement. This agreement marks the beginning of mutually beneficial business cooperation.

According to the agreement, Elpida will provide advanced DRAM process and product technologies to ProMOS, while ProMOS will provide certain amount of manufacturing capacity at ProMOS' Taichung 300mm wafer fab to Elpida for the manufacturing of Elpida's advanced 1Gb DDR3 device. Trial runs will be completed in the first half of 2010, with mass production following in the second half of the same year.

Dr. M. L. Chen, President & Chairman of ProMOS Technologies, noted that Elpida has long been globally recognized as a leader in the development of leading edge DRAM technologies. The synergistic partnership built through this agreement will combine strengths from both companies; Elpida's 1Gb DDR3 device is among the most cost-competitive product in the industry, pairing well with ProMOS' strength in 300mm manufacturing. Dr. Chen further noted that through this agreement, ProMOS will be able to rapidly increase its capacity utilization rate at its Taichung 300mm facilities. With the recent turnaround in the DRAM market, ProMOS has embarked on the road to recovery.

NVIDIA Corp. today reported revenue of $903.2 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 ended Oct. 25, 2009, up 16 percent from the previous quarter and up slightly from $897.7 million reported in the same period a year earlier.

On a GAAP basis, the company recorded net income of $107.6 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, compared with net income of $61.7 million, or $0.11 per diluted share a year ago. Third quarter GAAP results included a benefit to operating income of $25.1 million related to insurance reimbursements received during the quarter. On a non-GAAP basis - excluding the insurance reimbursements and stock-based compensation, as well as their associated tax impact − net income was $110.3 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, compared with $111.4 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, a year earlier.

ECS is jumping the USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s bandwagon with two PCI-Express expansion cards for each kind of connectivity. The cards use popular controllers NEC µPD720200 for USB 3.0 and Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 for SATA 6 Gb/s. While the USB 3.0 card provides both its ports on the rear-panel, the SATA 6 Gb/s card holds one internal SATA 6 Gb/s port, and one eSATA 6 Gb/s. Currently there is no word on the availability or price of the two. These cards follow similar offerings from the likes of ASRock and ASUS.

Speed plays a decisive role in computing. When the computer runs slowly, not only will the work progress be delayed, even our thoughts will be interrupted. Therefore, hard drives with higher speed will mean efficiency to professional graphic designers. The 2.5-inch P2 IDE Solid State Disk (SSD) from Team Technologies not only enhances the computer startup and data transfer speed, but also loads programs much faster than conventional mechanical hard drives. The excellent speed performance of the P2 IDE SSD is particularly felt when users open many windows at the same time. This saves designers a lot of time from searching images and drawings and allows them to enjoy speedy reading and writing, thus fully displaying computing performance and speed.

A promising new technology from LucidLogix, the Hydra, has perhaps hit its biggest roadblock. The Hydra multi-GPU engine allows vendor-neutral and model-neutral GPU performance upscaling, without adhering to proprietary technologies such as NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossfireX. NVIDIA, which is staring at a bleak future for its chipset division, is licensing the SLI technology to motherboard vendors who want to use it on socket LGA-1366 and LGA-1156 motherboards, since Intel is the only chipset vendor. On other sockets such as LGA-775 and AM3, however, NVIDIA continues to have chipsets that bring with them the incentive of SLI technology support. NVIDIA's licensing deals with motherboard vendors are particularly noteworthy. For socket LGA-1366 motherboards that are based on Intel's X58 Express chipset, NVIDIA charges a fee of US $5 per unit sold, to let it support SLI. Alternatively, motherboard vendors can opt for NVIDIA's nForce 200 bridge chip, which allows vendors to offer full-bandwidth 3-way SLI on some high-end models. For the socket LGA-1156 platform currently driven by Intel's P55 Express chipset, the fee is lower, at US $3 per unit sold.

The Lucid Hydra engine by design is vendor-neutral. It provides a sort of abstraction-layer between the OS and the GPUs, and uses the available graphics processing resources to upscale resulting performance. This effectively kills NVIDIA's cut, as motherboard vendors needn't have the SLI license, and that users of Hydra won't be using SLI or Crossfire anymore. Perhaps fearing a loss of revenue, NVIDIA is working on its drivers to ensure that its GeForce GPUs don't work on platforms that use Hydra. Perhaps this also ensures "quality control, and compatibility", since if the customer isn't satisfied with the quality and performance of Hydra, NVIDIA for one, could end up in the bad books. This could then also kick up warranty issues, and product returns.

The explosion of online media and digital data means that many more people take film and music, digital images and other files with them when they are on the move. The MiniStation Lite is a low cost, external hard drive ideal for storing, backing-up and transporting digital files, giving people access to their important files from wherever they are.

With a sleek compact form factor, the MiniStation Lite in Sakura Pink and Lapis Blue are both available in capacities of 320GB or 500GB. The MiniStation Lite is also available in black, red or white with capacities of 250GB, 320GB or 500GB.

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking, network and direct attached storage solutions today announced the Nfiniti Wireless-N Essential Router & Access Point WHR-HP-G300N. An ideal solution for connecting PCs and laptops wirelessly to the Internet, it is perfectly suited for the home and small office environment. When streaming multimedia content, such as HD movies or music, the Nfiniti Essential Router lets you download images or send and receive e-mail from multiple PCs simultaneously. With speeds of up to 300 Mbps it is also ideal to upgrade an existing wireless network, providing greater speed and coverage than Wireless-G.

"The latest iteration of Buffalo's wireless routers and clients are engineered to exacting standards to meet and exceed the rigorous demands of our customers," said Ralph Spagnola, vice president of sales at Buffalo Technology. "Buffalo Technology continues to be committed to delivering robust wireless solutions that are designed to precise specifications to maximize performance and range."

Here is one of the first socket LGA-1156 motherboards in the mini-ITX form-factor, certainly the first one based on the Intel P55 chipset. Packed in its 6.7 x 6.7 inch PCB are a 6 phase digital PWM circuit powering the CPU (socket made by LOTES), two DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, and a decent utilization of the feature-set of the P55 PCH, which is cooled by a tiny low-profile heatsink. The PCH gives out three internal SATA 3 Gbps ports, and one powered eSATA port.

The 8-channel HD Audio also takes care of optical and co-axial SPDIF connectivity. Gigabit Ethernet, and four USB 2.0 ports make for the rest of the rear-panel. Two headers make room for four more USB 2.0 ports. The lone expansion slot is a generous PCI-Express 2.0 x16, which will accommodate any PCI-Express addon card. You will especially need it, as the P55 platform relies on discrete graphics. With its ABS II, debug LED, and rear-panel clear CMOS button, the board also tries to be as overclocker-friendly as it can afford to be, with its limited resources. Its pricing is yet to be known, though the launch isn't very far off.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today introduces a passive cooling solution into the HD5700 family: SCS3 HD5750. The PowerColor SCS3 HD5750 features an effective passive cooling solution dissipating excessive heat with minimal noise. The copper base, which fully covers, the GPU through 4 copper heat pipes and 32 piece heat sink offers outstanding cooling performance in a quite setting.

While running passively, the PowerColor SCS3 HD5750 maintains the original specifications with core engine of 700MHz, 1150 MHz memory speed. This model takes advantage of the latest 40nm technology, providing better performance while using less power and offering an excellent balance between a superior gaming experience and power efficiency.

Toshiba Corporation, the industry pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today introduced a new line up of 1.8-inch HDDs with a maximum capacity of 320GB, the highest yet announced by the industry, targeted at thin and light mobile PCs and portable external hard disk drives. The new series delivers three models in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacities, and will start mass production from December.

Improvement of the MK3233GSG family's perpendicular magnetic recording head and the disk's magnetic layer secure an areal density of 801 Mbit/mm² (516Gbpsi), the industry's highest for 1.8-inch HDDs. The new drives position Toshiba to provide manufacturers of PCs and peripheral equipment with thin and light solutions offering the industry's largest storage density in a 1.8-inch form factor. They also deliver highly efficient power consumption, high-level durability and quiet seek operation.

I-O Data released a trio of products circled around the new USB 3.0 SuperSpeed standard. The first being the HDJ-UT external hard drive that supports USB 3.0, and then expansion cards that provide USB 3.0 support to PCs, desktops and notebooks alike: the USB3-PEX PCI-Express x1 two port low-profile addon card, and USB3-EXC ExpressCard 34 card. The HDJ-UT comes in capacities of 1 TB and 1.5 TB, and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 systems. When connected using USB 3.0, it offers read speeds of up to 139 MB/s. The HDJ-UT external HDD is priced at US $231 (1 TB) and $279 (1.5 TB), while the USB3-PEX and USB3-EXC are priced at $69 and $93, respectively.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA AMOS-5000, a specially designed chassis kit for Em-ITX form factor boards such as the VIA EITX-3000, offering fast and easy assembly of a variety of fanless, robust IPC designs.

Built using only five sections the VIA AMOS-5000 has the VIA-developed Em-ITX at its heart, offering developers a wealth of advantages including rich and versatile I/O configurations through expansive dual I/O coastlines, coupled with a variety of expansion modules for wide variety of application specific I/O configurations and a flexible EMIO bus supporting a wide range of modern and legacy bus technologies. Systems build using the VIA AMOS-5000 are shock resistant and can withstand a wide range of temperatures.

Flash memory manufacturer leader, Silicon Power debut their flagship USB flash drive earlier this year, the LuxMini 920. It featured ultra fast read (maximum 200x) and write speed. Straight out of the gate, Silicon Power's LuxMini 920 received rave reviews and was awarded "Original Design" from iXBT Labs and won the top honor ~ Product of the Month, a five-star review from PC Magazine, Russia. To continue its success, Silicon Power announced today (11/4), the LuxMini 920 storage capacity will be boosted up to 64GB. Retaining its elegant looks and the 200X high speed transfer rate, it is currently one of the most attractive and the fastest USB flash drives in its class.

The maximum 200X read (30MB/sec) transfer rate is a feature accomplished only by a few USB flash drives in the market. With modern day high definition digital devices, the captured data capacity have increased daramtically. Whether it be recorded audio or pictures, the 200x speed can signigicantly reduce the time it takes to copy data. Apart from LuxMini 920's ultra fast read speed, its write speed is no slow either. When compared with most USB flash drives on the market, it is roughly 3~6x faster at a maximum speed of 20MB/sec.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, announced today that it has developed the world's thinnest multi-die package, one that measures a mere 0.6mm in height. Designed initially for 32 gigabyte (GB) densities, the new memory package is just half the thickness of a conventional memory package of eight stacked chips (or dies). The advanced packaging technology delivers a 40 percent thinner and lighter memory solution for high-density multimedia handsets and mobile devices.

"Thin remains the action word in today's mobile environment and we're taking a big step here at Samsung to make higher density memory less than half the thickness of what it was before," said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and innovative USB drives, today began shipping an eco-friendly silicone rubber Koala drive, that is both waterproof and shock resistant, in capacities from 2GB to 16GB.

The Koala drive is exceptionally rugged. The sealed COB style USB drive has a soft silicone rubber outer casing that provides outstanding protection from the elements and protects the drive if it is dropped or banged around. "Customers will enjoy the Koala drive's durability as much as its stylish design." commented Active Media Products' VP of Sales, Jerry Thomson. "The Koala drive merges form with function, and the result is an awesome little product with great visual appeal and a soft tactile feel that protects its contents much better than most USB drives".

LaCie today announced the LaCie Network Space 2, design by Neil Poulton - a leading-edge Network Attached Storage (NAS) and media server. The LaCie Network Space 2 combines the performance of a full-featured NAS solution, with a unique and customised way to manage the total experience.

LaCie Network Space 2 was designed to be as convenient and user-friendly as a classic USB external hard drive. With the advanced LaCie Network Assistant, you can be up and running in a few short steps. To help you manage your desired product preferences, the LaCie Network Assistant now offers new dashboard functionality. You can customise the dashboard with useful widgets to access network and drive information, administer user accounts and monitor drive capacity.

The CoolNess laptop base cooler is equipped with a large 20cm cooling fan. Formed out of lightweight plastic this laptop cooler is not only portable, but a great value for the cost conscientious laptop user. The ergonomic design and anti-slip features provide comfortable computing experience.

Compatible with 10" up to 17" laptop computers. There is no need for an external power adapter, powered by your laptop's USB port (cable included) the CoolNess is a 'plug and play' ready product.

German gaming peripherals and accessories specialist Raptor-Gaming is out with its newest gaming mouse, the M3x. This right-oriented mouse features 7 buttons including the scrollwheel, and provides high-precision pointing along with being able to tailor its weight to preference. The laser sensor resolution can be adjusted in a broad range between 400 and 4800 dpi, in steps of 400 dpi (400, 800, 1200,...). The soft tough surface ensures better grip. It comes with a 2 m long cable, with a gold-plated USB connector. The weight chamber underneath it allows five weight settings using additional weights of 6.5 g each. The unit's weight can be altered from 110 g to 140 g. Available for preorder, the M3x is priced at 70 EUR. Shipping starts later this month.

ECS revealed leading technology called "15μ Gold Contact" that ensures motherboards longest lifespan, better reliability and excellent contact. This leading Technology is available on both Intel and AMD platforms.

Metal Pins on CPU Sockets and Memory Slots are susceptible from environment molecules that can cause instability of the whole system by forming oxidized rust on pins contact. Traditionally, in order to provide protection, 5µ Gold is flashed on these metal pins. Compared to 5µ Gold flash, ECS has discovered 3 times extra Gold "15 μ Gold Contact" which is equivalent to 0.000381 millimeters of Gold plating on its motherboard Socket and Slot Pins to offer 3 times extra protection. Due to this technology, Gold plating on Socket and Slot pins are 3 times thicker and stable that also provide additional confidence to extreme gamer who always plug-in and plug-out their system components.

AMD today made its RB-C3 revision of the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition quad-core processor official. Carrying a characteristic model number of HDZ965FBK4DGM compared to HDZ965FBK4DGI the older C2 revision. Another important specification change is the TDP, now rated at 125W compared to 140W on the C2. Built on the 45 nm SOI Deneb die, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition runs at a clock speed of 3.40 GHz (17.0 x 200 MHz). Each core has 128 KB of L1 and 512 KB of dedicated L2 cache. The four cores share an L3 cache of 6 MB. Based on the socket AM3 package, the new CPU typically supports DDR3 and DDR2 memory on socket AM2+ motherboards. It is priced on par with its 140W twin, at US $196.Image Courtesy: OverclockersClub

Stealth.com Inc. (Stealth Computer) a leading ISO 9001 manufacturer of industrial rugged computers and peripherals has released the new Model LPC-395F, a rugged, small footprint, fanless computer with integrated removable storage.

Stealth's LPC-395F fanless mini PC includes front loaded removable media slots for both hard drive and compact flash media. An industry standard mobile 2.5" SATA hard drive slides directly into the machine without having to open the chassis. The system also supports a front loaded CF memory card for easy system updates and file deployment. Ed Boutilier, President & CEO of Stealth.com states; "Stealth's removable storage feature presents a new level of security, maintenance and data protection in a small form factor PC. There is no longer any need to spend lengthy time to open a chassis to change/ remove the hard drive. Our removable storage feature allows the user to secure or replace their critical data in a matter of seconds."

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced the new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 RAIDDrive, which supports transfer speeds up to ten times faster than USB 2.0 drives. The new drive, in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities, is fully backward compatible with USB 2.0 ports, but operates at slower speeds.

The USB 3.0 RAIDDrive uses patented "multiple pairs of differential serial data lines technology" for optimal NAND flash performance. "This product underscores Super Talent's continued leadership in USB drives." said Super Talent COO, C.H. Lee. "We've developed the world's first mobile USB 3.0 flash drive. It delivers phenomenal performance and it incorporates our own patented technology".

The Mushkin Enhanced Design Team has once again pushed the envelope in regards to memory cooling and developed the new Copperhead Memory Cooling System. The side plates are comprised of pure copper, providing much more heat reduction than other metals.

One of the unique characteristics of the Copperhead System is the "Copperhead Watercooler". This is a quick and easy way to liquid-cool your memory modules. All that is needed is a quick, two-screw setup per memory module and Copperhead can be integrated into any existing watercooling system. The water cooler is available separately.

Acer America today introduced the Acer Aspire AS8940G-6865 notebook PC, featuring the new Intel Core i7 Quad-Core 720QM processor and Windows 7 Home Premium. This mobile processor delivers extremely fast performance for the most demanding applications such as playing games and editing digital photos and videos.

Designed for entertainment and multimedia enthusiasts, the Aspire AS8940G-6865 offers superior performance, innovative features and advanced technology for mobile users. This new notebook boasts a large 18.4-inch widescreen HD display for extraordinary visual quality, advanced NVIDIA graphics, Blu-ray technology, a high-quality audio system, a large hard drive and ample memory, making it a mobile powerhouse. The addition of Windows 7 to this new notebook provides users with a new level of performance, simplicity and ease of use.

Be Quiet! is out with the SilentWings PWM series of case fans. Available in sizes of 80 mm, 92 mm, and 120 mm, the fans feature blades with ridged surfaces. The PWM controlled motor allows user cotnrol over the fan speed. The copper-core fluid dynamic bearing ensures longer service life of 300,000 hours. The fan frame comes with a screw-less mounting system.

The 80 mm model comes with a rotational speed range of 500 ~ 2,000 rpm, 16.5 dBA of noise output, and up to 44.3 m³/h of airflow. The 92 mm model on the other hand, has a rotational speed ranged between 470 ~ 1,800 rpm, 17.5 dBA noise output, and 55.4 m³/h airflow. And lastly, the 120 mm one spins between 500 ~ 1,500 rpm, with a noise output of 18.5 dBA, and 85.5 m³/h of airflow. The three are priced between 11 to 14 EUR.

WD, known for its hard disk drive leadership in the desktop, mobile and consumer marketplaces, today announced its entry into the traditional enterprise market segment with volume production shipments of its first 10,000 RPM, 2.5-inch, small form factor, SAS interface hard drives. The WD S25 provides up to 300 GB of high-performance storage suitable for both mission-critical enterprise server and enterprise storage applications, such as high-I/O-driven applications and configurations, as well as data centers and large data arrays.

"Our entry into the traditional-enterprise market continues the strategic expansion and diversification of WD's broad market and product portfolio, and significantly increases our addressable revenue opportunity," said John Coyne, president and CEO of WD. "As with our previous market expansion and diversification efforts, WD will approach the traditional enterprise space with the same focus on quality, customer service, technology and value that has earned us strong positions in every market we serve."

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms,　today introduced its new VIA Nano 3000 Series processors, bringing enhanced digital media performance and lower power consumption to Windows 7 thin and light notebook and all-in-one desktop PC markets.

Based on the 64-bit superscalar 'Isaiah' architecture, VIA Nano 3000 Series processors deliver the most compelling thin and light notebook computing experience with their rich HD entertainment capabilities, including support for flawless playback of high bit-rate 1080p HD video, as well as low power consumption resulting in longer battery life.

Targeting HTPC buffs, Enermax rolled out its Aurora Micro Wireless keyboard. The device combines a compact keyboard with a high-precision trackball. Measuring 319 x 193 x 33 mm and weighing 800 g, the keyboard has a brushed metal shell, with diamond-cut edges. Being a micro keyboard, it trades the number pad for compactness. Some of the important keys are LED illuminated for convenience in the typically dark HTPC room. Besides the 7 hotkeys, there is a full-fledged high-precision trackball with a 1200 dpi sensor, two buttons, and a 2-way scroll-wheel. The wireless technology operates in the 2.4 GHz range, with an operating range of 10 m. The keyboard is powered by two AA batteries. On sale now, the Enermax Aurora Micro Wireless is selling for 75 EUR.

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

Thermal Solutions specialist GELID Solutions unveils its multi-compatible CPU Cooler "Tranquillo" of its SILENT product line. The mainstream tower CPU Cooler "Tranquillo" uses 4 power heat pipes and a special heat pipe constellation to achieve best heat transfer from CPU core to the aluminium fins in its class. After precise software simulation and calculation during the development stage a unique heat sink shape was created to lower air flow resistance as much as possible.

A silent 120mm fan with the intelligent GELID PWM (Pulse Width Module) control has been chosen to make this heat sink more valuable. The fan blades were optimised to guarantee high airflow while running silently. The intelligent GELID PWM curve keeps the fan silent when no necessary cooling is needed and accelerates the fan speed whenever additional cooling is needed. The multi-award winning high performance GC-2 thermal compound is already included in the package. Additionally mounting clips for AMD 754/ 939/ 940/ AM2/ AM2+ and for Intel 775, 1366 and latest 1156 sockets as same as back plates for Intel LGA 775, Core i5 and Core i7 boards are all included. The cooler is RoHS and WEEE conformed and carries a 5 year warranty.

Lenovo today reshaped its ThinkCentre business desktop line by introducing its first all-in-one (AIO) desktop PC - the ThinkCentre A70z. Built for the needs of small and medium businesses (SMB) all the way up to large corporations, the AIO delivers a compelling alternative to the traditional desktop PC, starting at just $499. Despite the budget-friendly price tag, the high performance all in one comes with Intel Core2Duo processors and delivers blazing fast boot up time as one of Lenovo's Enhanced Experience certified PCs. The ThinkCentre A70z saves 70 percent more space, takes less time to set up and service and consumes less power than traditional desktops. At the same time, the AIO adds a new touch of style and sophistication for today's modern office. Lenovo today also introduced the ThinkCentre A58e tower desktop, bringing SMBs an affordable and reliable computing solution.

"We've heard from a number of IT managers in a variety of industries, from education, to finance to healthcare, and they've all told us they need desktops that conserve space, save on energy consumption and are easy to maintain and service," said Dilip Bhatia, worldwide desktop marketing, Lenovo. "The new ThinkCentre A70z exceeds these needs - not only is it compact, super energy efficient and quick to service, but it's also high performance and extremely affordable."

Noctua today officially presented its long-awaited NH-D14 premium CPU cooler. Combining a massive six heatpipe dual radiator design with an exquisite NF-P14/NF-P12 dual fan configuration, the NH-D14 is built to further improve the renowned quiet cooling performance of Noctua's award-winning NH-U12P series.

"Our NH-U12P coolers are widely regarded as one of the best solutions on the market, so it makes us especially proud that we can offer a further substantial improvement in quiet cooling performance with the new NH-D14", explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "The NH-D14 in Ultra-Low-Noise mode actually outperforms the NH-U12P at full fan speed, so we're confident that this cooler will appeal to overclockers and silent enthusiasts alike."

Japanese firm ELSA is out with a low-profile graphics card based on the NVIDIA GeForce 210 GPU, this one uses a PCI-Express 2.0 x1 interface, for broader compatibility. It makes for an ideal match with PCs that have PCI-Express x16 slots populated. The card retains the simple PCB layout of most of its PCI-E x16 counterparts. The GPU holds 16 shader cores, and a 64-bit wide memory interface, with which it connects to 512 MB of DDR2 memory on this card. Output connectivity includes DVI and HDMI. The company seems to believe the PCI-E x1 interface to be a big incentive to its target buyers, and hence priced it at the JPY equivalent for US $137.

Transcend Information Inc., a leading global manufacturer of memory modules, today announced shipping of a new DDR3 1333MHz memory module kit designed for Intel's latest LGA-1156 Core i5 and Core i7 platforms.

The DDR3 1333 MHz dual-channel memory kit is perfectly matched for use with Intel's next-generation desktop PC platform, Core i5. The new Core i5, which is based on Intel's new Nehalem architecture, is the first Intel processor to integrate both a 16-lane PCI Express 2.0 graphics port and a two-channel DDR3 memory controller, enabling all input/output and manageability functions to be handled by the single-chip Intel P55 core-logic.

Intel updated its socket LGA-1366 Xeon processor portfolio with the W3565. Based on the Nehalem architecture, this quad-core processor is made for single-socket servers and workstations. It has near-identical specifications to the consumer-grade Core i7 960, in having a clock speed of 3.20 GHz (24 x 133 MHz), 8 MB of L3 cache, and a QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) speed of 4.8 GT/s. The QPI speed is perhaps the only thing that differentiates it from the W3570, which has the same clock speed, albeit a QPI speed of 6.4 GT/s. This one specification makes for a large price difference. While the new W3565 is priced at $562, the W3570 is priced at $999. With the introduction of the new processor, Intel is set to retire the 2.93 GHz W3540, and 3.06 GHz W3550.

AMD updated its CPU market schedules, looking as far as Q4 2010, across various CPU product lines. The update involves phasing out several existing products, adding replacements, and the addition of new products, according to sources in the motherboard industry. To begin with, several Phenom II X4 900 series quad-core processors will be discontinued. The company has reportedly already stopped taking orders for the Phenom II X4 910 (HDX910WFK4DGI, 2.60 GHz), and the 125W Phenom II X4 945 (HDX945FBK4DGI, 3.00 GHz). The latter perhaps is phased out due to its 95W variant (HDX945WFK4DGM). The company will stop taking orders for the 140W Phenom II X4 965 BE in Q1 2010, perhaps because of its 125W variant, for X4 925 around the same time, and for the X4 955 125W in Q2. The company is planning to release a 95W variant of the X4 955 around that time.

The company will also stop taking orders for several Phenom II X4 800 series, X3 700 series, X2 500 series, and Athlon II X4 600 series, and X3 400 series processors, as Phenom II X4 820, Phenom II X3 740 and Phenom II X2 550 will remain. Q4 2009 will see the introduction of the 3.20 GHz Phenom II X2 555, the new Athlon II X4 640 (3.00 GHz, 95W), and the Athlon II X3 445 (3.10 GHz, 95W) will follow in Q2 2010.

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

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

EVGA's Halloween offering, the mystical graphics accelerator with two different GPUs - each handing one kind of task - is official. Behold the EVGA GTX 275 Co-op PhysX accelerator. This unique graphics accelerator uses an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 GPU to handle the primary task of graphics processing, while offloads GPGPU related tasks, such as game physics acceleration using the company's PhysX technology, to a second GeForce GTS 250 GPU. While the GTX 275 component has 896 MB of GDDR3 memory across its usual 448-bit wide interface, the GTS 250 has 512 MB of it across its 256-bit wide interface, 1280 MB total on board (though not the total amount of memory available to a 3D application).

While not intended to be a true dual-GPU accelerator in essence that the two GPUs work in tandem to render graphics, the design ensures that the GeForce GTX 275 works with zero overhead from processing PhysX. The two GPUs are not part of an SLI multi-GPU array. With the provision of two SLI fingers, users can pair up to three of these in a 3-way SLI array. It is logically possible to pair this with other normal GeForce GTX 275 accelerators as well.