Akitio, a leading manufacturer of storage solutions, announced today the release of the Neutrino U3+ laptop hard drive enclosure to the company's ever-expanding product line. With the news of Apple's integration of USB 3.0 to the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the Neutrino U3+ is ideal for Mac users, as well as audio and video professionals, looking for a portable, speedy storage solution.

Akitio's Neutrino U3+ is encased in a portable aluminum enclosure and was created for ease of use and the latest 2.5" SATA hard drives. By combining USB 3.0 SuperSpeed technology with FireWire 800, Neutrino U3+ provides two of the fastest transfer speed combinations available.

G-Technology today announced a new line of portable and desktop USB 3.0 storage solutions for a broad range of users from consumers to audio/video professionals. Given the brand's strength in the content creation and Apple Mac community, G-Technology is well positioned to move the Mac industry forward in leveraging high-capacity, high-performance USB 3.0 drives across a variety of customer segments, all while delivering one of the industry's most respected external storage platforms with proven quality, reliability and performance.

Today, new kinds of devices and media formats require considerably more interface bandwidth and higher transfer rates to move, store and edit data quickly. Backward compatible with USB 2.0, G-Technology's USB 3.0 drives deliver speeds 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and six times faster than FireWire 800. This means that users can now transfer two full-length movies from a G-Technology USB 3.0 drive to a computer in minutes.

Belkin today announced new upgrades to its upcoming Thunderbolt Express Dock, as well as a new Thunderbolt cable for both Mac and PC users. Belkin's new Thunderbolt offerings will be on display at the Intel Exhibition Showcase, Booth M410, at Computex, June 5-9, 2012.

The Thunderbolt Express Dock is a first-of-its-kind docking solution for both PC and Mac users that enables instant access to up to nine desktop peripherals with one cable, and provides an easy transition from a desktop workstation to a mobile device. Upgrades to the latest version of the dock include the addition of three USB 3.0 ports, instead of USB 2.0 ports, as well as an eSATA port.

Seeing as how some of the newest socket LGA1155 processors, such as the Core i7-3770K, competes with Sandy Bridge-E HEDT platform, and how today's GPUs are beginning to benefit from PCI-Express 3.0 in x8 and x4 configurations, ASRock decided to go beyond its Z77 Fatal1ty Professional, and launched a new Extreme series model, with a focus on features and connectivity. The Z77 Extreme9 from ASRock crams has every square inch of its standard ATX size PCB with features.

To begin with, the Z77 Extreme9 uses a fairly strong 8+4 phase VRM, which is similar to that of the Z77 Extreme6. The CPU VRM MOSFETs are cooled by a fairly big heatsink, which shares its head with a neighbouring heatsink, which cools a PLX PEX8747 PCI-Express 3.0 bridge chip, which takes in the lone PCI-Express 3.0 x16 link from the processor, and drives four of the board's six PCI-Express 3.0 x16 long slots, enabling 3-way and 4-way SLI/CrossFireX capability. The other slots are electrical PCI-Express 2.0, and wired to the Z77 PCH.

ASUS is working on an AMD-powered notebook under the K53TK line. The K53TK-SX0A8 from ASUS is a 15.6-inch notebook that incorporates AMD A8-3520M "Llano", which is a quad-core APU clocked at 1.60 GHz, with Radeon HD 6620G graphics. The APU's integrated graphics works in tandem with a discrete Radeon HD 7670M GPU, that has 2 GB of dedicated memory. Other vital components include 8 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1333 MHz memory, and AMD A70M FCH chipset.

The 15.6-inch display packs 1366x768 pixels resolution. Display outputs include D-sub and HDMI. Storage is care of a 750 GB HDD and DVD SuperMulti drive. Connectivity includes 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, gigabit Ethernet, SD/SDHC/MMC card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, 1.3 MP webcam, and FireWire. The battery powering the beast can run it for 4 hours before needing a recharge. Measuring 391 x 266 x 30.5 ~ 40.5 mm (WxDxH), the notebook weighs 2.7 kg. Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system comes pre-loaded. It will be priced around 79,800 JPY (US $970).

ASRock is readying its second Fatal1ty-branded socket LGA2011 motherboard, the X79 Fatal1ty Champion. The company's first LGA2011 Fatal1ty motherboard is the X79 Fatal1ty Professional, which was launched in February. The new X79 Fatal1ty Champion will be launched on April 27. Those familiar with Creative Sound Blaster Fatal1ty line of sound cards will note Fatal1ty Champion as being a more feature-rich version of Fatal1ty Professional. In this case, the X79 Fatal1ty Champion is based on a completely new PCB, with the design idea of more expansion, and the latest Creative Sound Core3D audio solution.

The X79 Fatal1ty Champion features eight DDR3 DIMM slots (X79 Fatal1ty Professional has four), and a PCIe-only expansion slot layout. The LGA2011 socket is powered by a 12-phase DigiPower VRM, similar to the one on the Professional. The VRM heatsink is assisted by two other secondary heatsinks, to which heat is conveyed by a heat-pipe. One of these is connected to the PCH heatsink. Power is drawn by 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and one 4-pin Molex (angled, optional). The board features consolidated voltage measurement points, which are socketed to hold your multimeter's leads in place. The board will be augmented by a feature-rich UEFI BIOS setup program, and ASRock-exclusive features such as XFastLAN, XFastUSB, and XFastRAM will be included.

Western Digital today introduced the first 2 TB capacity portable drive dedicated for Mac customers, My Passport Studio. This new standard in high storage capacity, along with Apple Time Machine compatibility for quick and easy automatic backup of Mac hard drives, allows Mac users to use one drive for the protection and transport of virtually all their digital content, everywhere they go.

The new My Passport Studio portable drive maintains its elegant and protective all-metal casing to complement the MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, providing the beautiful aesthetic that Mac users expect while increasing storage capacity to 2 TB, enough space for approximately 400,000 photos, 240 hours of video or 500,000 songs.

Here are the Z77X-UD5H and Z77X-UD3H pictured up-close. The two form Gigabyte's upper-mid range and mid range offerings based on the Intel Z77 chipset, supporting socket LGA1155 "Ivy Bridge" and "Sandy Bridge" Core processors. The Z77X-UD5H is an extremely feature-rich offering, in some aspects a more complete package than even the G1.Sniper 3. It provides a 15-phase CPU and 2-phase memory VRM. Expansion slots on this board include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), three PCIe 2.0 x1, and one legacy PCI.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today it has expanded the storage capacity of its high-performance OWC Mercury Elite Pro single bay and dual bay desktop storage solution line to 8.0 TB.

By utilizing the industry's only 3.5" 4.0 TB SATA 6 Gb/s hard drive, OWC's Mercury Elite Pro storage solutions deliver 33 percent more storage/back-up capacity per drive over current 3.0 TB hard drives With up to a "Quad Interface" of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA connections, the Mercury Elite Pro line offers Plug and Play data transfer speeds up to 300 MB/s with Mac and PC computers.

LaCie is excited to announce availability of the 2big Thunderbolt Series. With speeds up to 327MB/s, the Thunderbolt interface delivers speeds three times faster than FireWire 800. For data transfer gurus, that means 1TB of data - that's nearly 235,000 MP3's, 750 iTunes movies, or more than 450,000 photos* - can be transferred in less than an hour! Furthermore, you can daisy chain multiple 2big Thunderbolt devices to increase overall performance.

LaCie announced its latest peripherals featuring Thunderbolt technology today at the 2012 International CES. The new 2big Thunderbolt Series delivers speed, flexibility and capacity, while the eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series allows users to connect external eSATA drives to their new Macs. This announcement follows the unprecedented success of LaCie's Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series and further asserts the company's commitment to deliver high-quality products featuring Thunderbolt technology.

"LaCie is proud to offer the widest range of storage solutions featuring Thunderbolt technology," said Erwan Girard, Professional Business Unit Manager, LaCie. "These products are some of the fastest and most flexible storage solutions on the market. They will dramatically accelerate the workflow of even the most demanding digital users."

Iomega, an EMC company and a global leader in data protection, today announced the completion of its new Mac-oriented hard drive line with the launch of the new Iomega eGo Mac Edition Portable Hard Drive, an on-the-go stylish drive with plenty of storage that can withstand drops and still travel easily in a pocketbook or briefcase.

Combined with the recent launches of the Iomega Helium Portable Hard Drive and the Iomega Mac Companion Hard Drive, Iomega now has a complete new line of portable and desktop hard drives for Mac users. All three new drives are formatted HFS+ for compatibility with Mac computers right out of the box, making them perfect complements to today's Apple notebooks and desktops.

ASRock is readying is new, high-end socket LGA2011 motherboard targeting the upper-most tier of the PC enthusiast market, the X79 Extreme7. This board will be a part of the company's first wave of LGA2011 motherboards, which are slated for mid-November, 2011. Pictures scored by XFastest reveal the board to be filled to the brim with features. The CPU socket is powered by a 16-phase VRM making use of high-grade chokes, and server-grade poscap capacitors.

The socket is wired to six DDR3 DIMM slots arranged in sets of three on either sides of the socket, powered by a 4-phase VRM. Among channels A, B, C, and D; channels B and D have two DIMM slots wired, so if you have four DDR3 modules, you should populate slots 0, 2, 3, and 5; to take advantage of quad-channel DDR3 memory. There are heatsinks over the memory VRM areas, that are connected to the heatsink over the CPU VRM using heat pipes.

BIOSTAR Group, a world famous manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, industrial computing systems and computer peripherals, proudly announces the TA990FXE motherboard aimed at the most demanding overclockers and gamers.

The TA990FXE is made in the ATX form-factor on the flagship AMD 990FX chipset in combination with the most advanced SB950 Southbridge which guarantees the support of the latest technologies and ensures the unprecedented performance. The board supports all Socket AM3+ based Phenom II X6, Phenom II X4, Phenom II X3, Phenom II X2, Athlon II X4, Athlon II X3, Athlon II X2 and Sempron CPUs including top 6-core and 8-core AMD FX, AMD Phenom II and AMD Athlon II chips with the maximum thermal design up to 140W.

Sonnet Technologies, a leader in providing storage systems for professional users of Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX systems in the film, video, and broadcast industries, today announced the Fusion F2QR portable two-drive hardware RAID storage system. Mounted side by side in a tough aluminum enclosure about the size of two stacked CD cases, the diminutive system contains two, 2.5-inch, 1TB hard drives.

Based on the multiple-award-winning Fusion F2, a portable two-drive RAID SATA storage system recognized for its performance, reliability, whisper-quiet operation, and shock-resistant characteristics, this compact device adds a built-in hardware RAID controller for configuring the drives; a quad interface with eSATA, FireWire(R) 800, and USB 2.0 ports for flexible compatibility; and a greater storage capacity. The Fusion F2QR delivers great performance with up to 160 MB/sec read and 100 MB/sec write data transfer rates, and is bus-powered by a FireWire port on the computer regardless the interface used.

BIOSTAR is ready with its new performance-segment socket AM3+ motherboard based on the AMD 990FX + SB950 chipset, the TA990FXE. It carries on with the design elements and component choices for some of BIOSTAR's recent Intel Z68 motherboards, it's likely that the board will carry a sweet-spot price. The CPU is powered by a 5-phase VRM, it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel DDR3-2000 MHz memory.

Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x16/x16/x4), a PCIe x1, and two PCI. Five of the six SATA 6 Gb/s port from the southbridge are internal ports, with the sixth one being assigned as an eSATA. The connectivity loadout covers essentials: 8-channel HD audio, USB 3.0, gigabit Ethernet, and FireWire, apart from USB 2.0 and PS/2. The board is driven by AMI UEFI firmware, with BIOSTAR's own GUI setup program.

ASUS unveiled a trio of socket LGA1155 motherboards based on the Intel Z68 chipset, which feature PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated). The new motherboards are PCI-Express Gen 3.0 specifications compliant, complete with switches and electrical components. Leading the pack is the P8Z68 DELUXE/Gen3 in the $250-segement, followed by the P8Z68-V PRO/Gen3 in the $200-segment, and the P8Z68-V/Gen3 in the sub-$200 segment.

All three feature 16-phase Digi+ CPU VRM, an Intel-made gigabit Ethernet controller, and Lucid Virtu support. All three feature the same expansion slot loadout, with two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical 2.0 x4), and two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI wired to an ASMedia-made bridge chip.

Intel released two new Desktop Board Extreme Series motherboards based on the Z68 chipset, supporting Core processors in the LGA1155 package, the DZ68ZV and DZ68BC. The DZ68ZV uses the same exact PCB as the DP67BG, replacing the P67 PCH with Z68 (they're pin-compatible). It lacks display connectivity. The only plus here is support for Intel Smart Response Technology. It uses a 8-phase active-swiching/load-balancing digital PWM power circuitry for the CPU, and quite a few overclocking features. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16, three PCIe x1, and two PCI. Storage connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s four SATA 3 Gb/s and one eSATA 3 Gb/s. Then there's 8-channel HD audio, USB 3.0, and Intel GbE controller.

The DZ68BC is a completely new design that is tailored for the Z68 chipset, complete with overclocking features, as well as display connectivity. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase digital PWM VRM, makes use of improved VRM cooling, expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16, three PCI and two PCIe x1, storage connectors consist of four SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s, and two eSATA. There's 8-channel HD audio, Intel GbE connections, display IO that includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI, USB 3.0, and possibly FireWire. Lucid Virtu comes bundled, that provides active switching between the integrated and discrete GPUs.

Western Digital today introduced its newest generation of My Passport portable hard drives specifically designed for use with Mac computers and Apple Time Machine, featuring compact, elegant Mac-inspired designs with high capacity storage options and exceptional security for today's active lifestyles.

My Passport Studio boasts the all-metal design and performance needed for today's discerning Mac user, serving as an ideal companion for the on-the-go photographer, videographer, graphic artist, or creative professional that produces, shares and consumes massive amounts of digital content daily. Offering up to 1 TB capacity, the My Passport Studio also provides multiple connectivity options with two FireWire 800 ports and a USB 2.0 interface.

Gigabyte unveiled a new socket AM3+ motherboard targeting a price-point sweetspot, the 990FXA-UD3 1.2. The board is based on the AMD 990FX + SB950 chipset, and supports the upcoming AMD FX processors apart from socket AM3 processors in the Phenom II and Athlon II series. As a new revision, the board supports AMD FX processors out of the box. The AM3+ socket is powered by an 8+2 phase VRM. The board is constructed according to the UltraDurable 3 Classic specifications, with 2 oz copper-layer PCB, 50,000+ hours capacitor durability, and DualBIOS. The socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3-2000 MHz memory with overclocking.

There are four PCI-Express x16 slots on this board, however, only two of them are wired to the AMD 990FX northbridge, both run at full PCI-Express 2.0 x16 bandwidth at all times. The other two are electrical PCI-Express x4, wired to the SB950 southbridge. The board supports both NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX, though it's likely that it will ship with just the 2-way SLI bridge cable.

Post production pros know that you can never have enough fast, cool and reliable storage. Dedicated to serving the Apple Mac and creative professional audio/video (A/V) markets, G-Technology by Hitachi is demoing its first 4TB hard drives at IBC 2011 (Stand #7.D12a) in its two-drive, RAID 0, G-RAID solution. Continuing to develop innovative and creative storage solutions for those looking to push creativity beyond the limits, the 8TB G-RAID demo shows how G-Technology is making digital production faster, super-sized and affordable, giving users a competitive edge in the demanding entertainment and film industry.

Seagate today announced it is shipping a new 4TB GoFlex Desk external hard drive - the highest capacity hard drive in the industry. This latest addition to the GoFlex Family of external hard drives showcases Seagate's new desktop design. The streamlined industrial design delivers a smaller footprint and better reflects the aesthetic of today's modern offices while still providing all of the benefits of previous generations of the GoFlex drives. The new 4TB GoFlex Desk drive is now available from www.seagate.com and will be available from select online retailers within the month for a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $249.99 USD. The entire line of GoFlex Desk products will also adopt the new industrial design in the coming weeks. The GoFlex Desk for Mac external drive featuring both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 will be available in Apple stores by the end of the month.

Iomega, an EMC company and a global leader in data protection, today announced the new Iomega Mac Companion Hard Drive, a speedy, large capacity desktop hard drive styled to match the latest Mac computers with a first-of-its-kind convenient high-powered port to charge your iPad, iPhone and iPod, as well as selection of computer interfaces for connecting peripherals like a printer or other external storage device.

"With the new Iomega Mac Companion Hard Drive, Mac users now have a convenient and stylish way to quickly charge their iPads with the bonus of plenty of new storage capacity for their Mac computer," said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega Corporation. "With more than nine million iPads sold in the last quarter alone, the new Mac Companion Hard Drive is the perfect complement for all those iPad owners. This futuristic drive blends effortlessly with the latest Mac computers and the Apple ecosystem of mobile devices. Together, form and function rarely looks as good or works as well as the new Iomega Mac Companion Drive."

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today it has expanded the new Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini bus powered (no AC adapter needed) portable hardware RAID storage solution with two new hard drive and three new OWC SSD based models. Now offering 10 pre-configured choices with hardware RAID-1 "mirrored" redundancy for "live activity" data protection; or RAID-0 "stripe" for maximum performance capacity, the Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini contains two 2.5" hard drives or OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSDs for up to 2.0TB of capacity and a "Quad Interface" of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, & eSATA connections for Plug and Play data transfer speeds up to 300MB/s with Mac and PC computers.

Apple today unveiled the new Apple Thunderbolt Display, the world's first display with Thunderbolt I/O technology and the ultimate docking station for your Mac notebook. With just a single cable, users can connect a Thunderbolt-enabled Mac to the 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display and access its FaceTime camera, high quality audio, and Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt ports. Designed specifically for Mac notebooks, the new display features an elegant, thin, aluminum and glass enclosure, and includes a MagSafe connector that charges your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

"The Apple Thunderbolt Display is the ultimate docking station for your Mac notebook," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With just one cable, users can dock with their new display and connect to high performance peripherals, network connections and audio devices."