Mushkin, Inc., an industry leading designer and manufacturer of high?performance and mission?critical computer products, announced today the launch of their new Scorpion Deluxe PCIe SSD alongside Mushkin's "Pacific Rim Sweepstakes" which will run from June 5, 2013 until August 17, 2013. Prizes offered include a home theater system valued at $3,500 and a brand new Razer Blade Pro Gaming Laptop valued at $2,299, in addition to a limited edition Mushkin themed PC and Mushkin/Pacific Rim prize packs.

"Mushkin's Pacific Rim sweepstakes definitely appeals to our audience on a variety of levels and provides our consumers with the chance to win some amazing prizes," said Nicolas Villalobos, Director of Global Marketing at Mushkin, Inc. "Alongside this campaign we are excited to launch our latest Scorpion Deluxe line of SSDs. Our customers can now manage data faster, safer and more efficiently. Whether for digital content creation, virtualization, database acceleration, motion picture visual effects or your own application, the Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe PCIe SSD is always ready."

Cooler Master unveiled the second generation of its GX line of mainstream PSUs for gaming PC builds. These extremely well 'packaged' PSUs come in mid-range capacities under 850W, offer all the connectivity most gaming PCs need, at usually good prices. Pictured below is a new 700W model, which is compliant with the latest ATX specifications, supports Core "Haswell" low-power C-states, and offers essential features such as APFC, protection from over/under voltage, overload, overpower (output), and short-circuit. It offers all the cabling (fixed) you need for a gaming PC with up to two graphics cards; including four 6+2 pin PCIe, nine SATA, three Molex, apart from 24-pin ATX and 4+4-pin EPS. GX series PSUs lack fancy 80 Plus certifications, but Cooler Master claims this unit should offer 85 percent at typical loads. Cooler Master addressed the issue of a generally edgy fan-speed curve with its mainstream PSUs, by deploying a large 135 mm Yate Loon fan to keep the unit cool.

Advantech, a global embedded platform manufacturer, today unveiled the new ASMB-822I server-grade motherboard powered by Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family technology. This new technology comprises 64-bit multi-core processors, PCI Express Gen3 high speed communications, and DDR3 memory with total capacity up to 96GB. ASMB-822I is perfect designed for high performance demands such as NVR, DVR and also target to video wall, video conferencing, surveillance and other mission-critical applications.

"Advantech is committed to providing a full spectrum of embedded systems with advanced and intelligent built-in technology, from fanless and ruggedized to high-performance solutions," said Linda Tsai,Director of Advantech Embedded Systems Group. The ASMB-822I is an ATX server board equipped with LGA 2011 Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 series and Intel C602J series chipset. It supports six DDR3 registered DIMM slots for a 96 GB total capacity and dual GbE LANs using Intel controllers.

Micron Technology, Inc. today announced a new PCIe all-flash I/O accelerator to improve overall performance in enterprise servers, appliances and storage platforms. The new Micron P420m combines consistent performance with the inherent power efficiency of an all-flash system to deliver improved economics for enterprise data centers. The P420m accelerates performance of today's demanding data center applications, including online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing and virtualization.

Ultimately, Micron's P420m ends the wait game for digital data. It features ultra-low latency performance that enables fast and predictable response times to information frequently used in data center environments. When tested against competing PCIe solutions in a MySQL server running an OLTP benchmark, the P420m is the fastest and most consistent performer, delivering more than 3,200 web server requests per second. It handily manages online requests during peak traffic times, improving the overall end-user experience.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced the OWC Mercury Helios+E2 Thunderbolt SSD Solution. The bootable 'all-in-one' storage performance and expansion solution offers owners of Thunderbolt technology enabled Macs and PCs sustained read/write data throughput up to 617MB/s from up to 960GB of OWC Mercury SSD capacity; two Thunderbolt interfaces for connecting multiple Thunderbolt devices; and two eSATA 6Gb/s expansion ports for connecting up to an additional 32TB or more of external storage/backup capacity.

With Computex 2013 a little over a month away, alongside which Intel plans to launch its 4th generation Core "Haswell" family, motherboard manufacturers are gearing up for another summer of product launches, with compatible socket LGA1150 motherboards. Among these is MSI, which teased its flagship motherboard that targets overclockers and PC enthusiasts interested in taking the Core i7-4770K and Core i5-4670K for a spin. This motherboard falls inside the company's Big Bang series, bearing the name Z87 XPower. As the name suggests, it's based on Intel's Z87 Express chipset.

Not much is known about the Big Bang Z87 XPower, except what the teaser video (after the break) and a couple of corner-shots reveal. Expect a fancy new color scheme (probably a combination of gold and black), a new design scheme for the VRM and chipset heatsinks with a glowy "X" sign, the usual plethora of overclocking options MSI packs with its high-end motherboards, and what appears to be an mSATA or mPCIe slot, in one of the pictures.

Market launch of AMD's Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" dual-GPU graphics card is less than a week away, according to an OCaholic report. Sources told the publication that AMD plans to launch its flagship graphics card on the 24th of April, 2013. According to it, reviews of the card should already be underway. AMD Radeon HD 7990 is the company's flagship graphics card, featuring a pair of 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs. According to specifications derived from older reports, it packs a total of 4096 stream processors, and 6 GB of GDDR5 memory across two 384-bit wide memory interfaces. What sets this card apart from the HD 7990 "New Zealand" launched last year by AMD's partners is the power-optimizations AMD put into it, leaving the card to draw power from "just" two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and make do with a dual-slot cooling solution.

During her keynote at the Intel Developer Forum today in Beijing, Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Datacenter and Connected Systems Group, discussed how her company is helping users harness powerful new capabilities that will improve the lives of people by building smarter cities, healthier communities and thriving businesses.

Bryant unveiled details of upcoming technologies and products that show how Intel aims to transform the server, networking and storage capabilities of the datacenter. By addressing the full spectrum of workload demands and providing new levels of application optimized solutions for enterprise IT, technical computing and cloud service providers, unprecedented experiences can be delivered.

An anonymous tipster left an interesting picture on our doorsteps. It shows a pair of Radeon HD 7990 "Malta" reference-design graphics cards chugging along inside an enthusiast PC. AMD surprised us late last month, when it showed off a reference-design Radeon HD 7990 dual-GPU graphics card, at the Game Developers' Conference (GDC) event. The cards in this new picture appear to be identical to the one AMD showed. The "Radeon" embossing appears pretty clear on both cards, so one can't mistake them for FirePro S10000.

Bearing a new internal codename "Malta," compared to last year's various dual-HD 7970 contraptions that were codenamed "New Zealand," the new Radeon HD 7990 is being designed to be far more energy efficient, and quiet. While the various "New Zealand" cards often featured three 8-pin PCIe power connectors and triple-slot cooling solutions, "Malta" makes do with just two 8-pin power connectors, and a dual-slot cooler. We've been talking to a lot of reliable sources in the industry, and nobody has any clue about a tentative launch date.

HGST today announced the industry's fastest and most advanced enterprise-class, multi level cell (MLC) SAS SSD family - the Ultrastar SSD800MH, Ultrastar SSD800MM and Ultrastar SSD1000MR. From the market share leader in enterprise SAS/FC SSDs, these HGST drives are the first to double today's SAS interface speed.

Designed for the most demanding applications where "hot" data is accessed frequently, such as high-frequency trading, online banking, cloud computing, online gaming, and big data analytics, HGST's new 12 Gb/s SAS SSDs help increase input/output per second (IOPS) and improve response times to mission-critical data in cloud and traditional IT datacenters environments.

HighPoint Technologies, Inc., a leading HBA and storage solutions manufacturer, announces the industry's first 40-Port SATA 6 Gb/s HBA - the Rocket 750. HighPoint is proud to introduce our innovative SATA Aggregation Technology to the storage marketplace - this revolutionary architecture allows a single host adapter card to support up to 40 SATA hard drives, and represents the industry's lowest-cost mass SATA storage solution.

The Rocket 750 is ideal for applications that require huge levels of storage capacity such as data Libraries, archiving and backup solutions, but need to maximize cost savings over SAS expander-based configurations. Powered by a PCIe 2.0 x8 host interface, 40 device channels, and HighPoint's Intelligent Storage Health Management Suite, the Rocket 750 is an ideal DAS solution for PC platforms and SMB server applications.

Cooler Master showed off a new line of performance-segment PSUs under its V-series. Consisting of three models, the V700 (700W), V850 (850W) and V1000 (1000W), the three boast of 80 Plus Gold efficiency rating (90 percent efficiency at 50 percent load, 87 percent efficiency at 100 percent load).

The three feature fully modular cabling (including 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS); four 6+2 pin PCIe connectors on the V700, and six on the V850 and V1000; and all modern protection features. It's reported that the three are originally manufactured by Seasonic. Pricing and availability are under the wraps.

ASUS is working on the GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini, a high-end graphics card that's size-optimized for mini-ITX gaming PC builds. NVIDIA's reference-design PCB for the GTX 670 already established that compact (<20 cm long) PCBs are very much possible for the chip. ASUS designed its own short (17 cm long) PCB with a 5-phase VRM, which draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, instead of two 6-pin. This allows you to make do with compact PSUs that only feature one PCIe connector, and avoid wasting Molex cables on the second 6-pin.

What's more interesting about the GTX 670 DirectCU Mini is its cooler, which appears to use a combination of a thick metal plate that draws heat from VRM and memory on the obverse side; and a round aluminum fin-stack, which could be cooled by a single ~80 mm fan. ASUS did not release pricing or availability information, and is still gauging community interest in such a product.

What's better than an OCZ Vector SSD? Two of them in RAID 0, on a PCIe add-on card. The SSD may use two SSD subunits in RAID, yet it's backed by OCZ's VCA 2.0 (virtualized controller architecture), which lends it TRIM support, even in high-performance RAID 0 modes. At CeBIT, the company ran live benchmarks of the drive. These include tests that are generally lenient on the drives (sequential tests), yet the results are impressive.

To begin with, the Vector PCIe 960 GB belts out up to 929.96 MB/s sequential read speeds, 883.94 MB/s sequential writes; and a comfortable 4K 64-thread read performance of 544.71 MB/s, 486.19 MB/s writes. It scrapes the 1000 MB/s mark in ATTO. In synthetic tests that replicate real-world scenarios, such as ISO file copy, program access, and game resource access, the drive managed to stay above 396 MB/s. The drive has advertised read/write speeds of 1000 MB/s, and random access performance as high as 140,000 IOPS.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the general availability of the next release of its popular VXL Cache and Virtualization Software. VXL 1.3 has evolved its synchronous data mirroring capabilities and automatic server failover mechanisms to enable 'SAN-less,' highly available, fault tolerant environments based entirely on virtualized host flash. The ability to provide uninterrupted service for business-critical applications even during severe system failures is a requirement for IT managers of any sized data center, and ideally suited for virtualized database deployments, email servers, or cloud computing applications.

Another innovation in this new version of VXL allows IT managers to pre-load the cache with critical data at pre-determined schedules to ensure that important data is available on SSD flash at the precise time it is required by the application.

Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH, the European subsidiary of Shuttle Inc., one of the leading developers and manufacturers of compact PC solutions such as the world-renowned XPC Mini-PC Barebones, expands its range of All-in-One PCs with integrated monitors and adds a 46.7 cm (18.5") version to its original 39.5 cm (15.6") machines.

As well as offering a larger display, the new Shuttle All-in-One Barebone X70S also provides significantly more power. For the first time conventional Intel desktop processors can be used for the LGA1155 socket, e.g. Intel Core i3/i5/i7 (up to 65 W TDP, heatpipe-cooled). DDR3 RAM up to a total of 16 GB can be installed in the two SO-DIMM slots. The 5.7 x 46.8 x 36.4 cm (DWH) chassis of the X70S also has space for a 2.5" drive (SSD/HDD) as well as expansions via the Mini-PCIe slot, which can be fitted, for example, with an mSATA module.

Since Thecus has entered the enterprise level NAS market with the N12000 and the N16000; they proved that the reliability and stability already found within its existing line of NAS could be tailor made to service heavy storage and heavy demand businesses. And to better serve the needs of the diverse enterprise users, the N12000V and N16000V followed which offered a choice between more value and more power. As the technology evolves quickly, Thecus is now proud to announce its new large business solution, the N12000PRO and N16000PRO.

"Thecus is dedicated to serve enterprise level needs with the best technology available," said Florence, CEO and General Manager of Thecus Technology. "Paired with powerful Intel processors and functions which provide advanced security features, our customers can rest assured that their data is being managed by professional hands."

STEC, Inc., a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) solutions, today introduced a pair of two-Terabyte (2 TB) Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) and Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) SSD drives - each with select versions supporting unlimited writes - becoming the first supplier to offer 2 TB SSDs with both interfaces. Additionally, the company has released a significant update to its EnhanceIO SSD Cache Software.

The new STEC 2 TB s840 SAS SSD and 2 TB s1120 PCIe Accelerator SSD, along with the updated EnhanceIO software, deliver on STEC's mission of providing innovative solid-state storage solutions that solve many of the performance and optimization challenges in the enterprise storage market.

In advance of the Open Compute Summit today, Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO) announced its newest product line, Fusion ioScale. Previously exclusive to Fusion-io customers outfitting thousands of servers, ioScale is now available for hyperscale and cloud companies in minimum order quantities of only one hundred units. Each ioScale provides up to 3.2 terabytes of reliable Fusion ioMemory capacity that is performance tuned for the unique needs of webscale environments. With prices starting at $3.89 USD per gigabyte with increasing discounts based on volume, ioScale now makes it practical to architect an all-flash datacenter at scale.

"By making ioScale available to growing webscale and emerging cloud companies, Fusion-io is at the forefront of the transition to the all-flash hyperscale datacenter, powered by open software defined solutions," said David Flynn, Fusion-io CEO and Chairman. "Hyperscale companies are an entirely different market with different needs compared to enterprise organizations. Fusion ioScale has been specifically designed with the input of existing hyperscale market leaders to maximize the simplicity of the all-flash datacenter and meet the unique needs of webscale customers. Fusion-io is pleased to now be able to offer this technology to emerging market leaders to help them redefine what's possible when it comes to cost effectively delivering rich data services to millions of people around the world."

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that it will demonstrate a pre-production version of its new flagship Vector SSD Series for PCI Express (PCIe) interfaces at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2013, Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, from January 8th through 11th. In addition to showcasing the PCIe-based Vector Series, OCZ will also present its portfolio of enterprise and consumer SSDs, as well as enterprise software used to cache, virtualize or accelerate key applications and associated data.

Driven by its cutting-edge Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller, which has received worldwide accolades for industry-leading performance, enhanced reliability/endurance, and differentiated features, the PCIe-based Vector SSD Series has improved input/output operations per second (IOPS) burst performance and consistently delivers superior 'real-world' sustained performance regardless of whether the data streams are in compressed or uncompressed formats.

Marvell today announced the availability of the Marvell DragonFly NVDRIVE, a turnkey enterprise-class PCIe SSD caching solution with built-in SSD modules that extends the company's award-winning DragonFly NVCACHE and NVRAM adapter product offerings first announced last August. Targeted for large-scale Internet and cloud computing datacenters, the DragonFly NVDRIVE dramatically scales both bare metal and virtualized server applications, including Web servers, OLTP and analytic databases, as well as NoSQL and big data distributed applications.

"The NVDRIVE is a game-changing extension of the popular DragonFly NVRAM and NVCACHE family. It delivers the same unprecedented application acceleration as the existing NVCACHE solution, but now seamlessly integrates with onboard SSD modules for plug-and-play ease of use," said Alan Armstrong , vice president of marketing of Marvell Semiconductor's Storage Business Group. "The innovative application of non-volatile DDR memory, highly optimized caching algorithms, and entry enterprise SSD modules creates a converged solution that is ideally suited for mixed-workload cloud data centers. The NVDRIVE raises the bar on affordability and performance, and its unique cache automation and consistent write latency capabilities will be sought after by both OEM and cloud computing customers who require predictable performance at reasonable costs."

KFA2, Galaxy's European front, is working on a limited-edition GeForce GTX 680 4 GB factory-overclocked graphics card based on an all-white design, the GTX 680 LTD OC V4. Derived from the April-launched KFA2 GTX 680 Hall of Fame, the new card swaps out the contrasting black+blue fans for white fans with white frames, and a dash of black for its decals. Much like the older card, the GTX 680 LTD OC V4 features 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The factory-overclocked card features 1006 MHz to 1150 MHz GPU frequencies (including GPU Boost), and 6.00 GHz memory.

The KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 LTD OC V4 uses a milky-white custom-design PCB that uses an 8-phase VRM that makes use of CPL-made chokes, IR DirectFETs, tantalum capacitors, and a multi-phase proadlizer by NEC-Tokin. Its cooler consists of a large aluminum fin stack that spans across the entire length of the card, which is ventilated by three 90 mm fans which aren't LED lit (unlike the HOF). Display outputs include one standard DisplayPort 1.2, and three mini-HDMI 1.4a connectors. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and can pair with three more of its kind for 4-way SLI. In the UK, it's expected to be priced under £450 (US $730).

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that it has initiated a beta test program for its Linux Acceleration (LXL) Software development and invites its enterprise SSD customers to participate. The new OCZ LXL Software is a fast caching storage solution for OCZ's portfolio of enterprise SSDs and designed specifically for Linux-based physical and virtual environments.

OCZ's unique LXL Software provides a new integrated approach for making application-optimized data cache selections while minimizing I/O access times to SSD flash. It achieves this type of dynamic cache selection optimization by splitting the caching policy engine between the core mechanism running in the Linux kernel and an advanced statistical out-of-band analysis module that optimally determines which data needs to be placed in the cache and stores the data locally in OCZ enterprise-SSDs. The LXL software supports a wide range of OCZ enterprise solid state solutions across multiple interfaces (i.e. Z-Drive R4 PCIe Series, the Talos 2 SAS Series and the Deneva 2 SATA Series).

PLX Technology, Inc., a leading global supplier of high-speed connectivity solutions enabling emerging data center architectures, and Kontron, a global leader in embedded computing technology, today announced an industry breakthrough in the deployment of PCI Express (PCIe) technology as a backplane interconnect. Built around PLX ExpressLane PCIe 3.0 (Gen3) switches, Kontron's VX3042 and VX3044 Intel Core i7-based single-board computers (SBCs) routinely achieve 5.6 gigabytes per second (GB/s) in data throughput between any boards in a VPX rack.

FirmTek, LLC, a pioneer and leader in Serial ATA (SATA) storage solutions is announcing that the SeriTek/Q6G 4-Port eSATA host adapter is now available. The high performance SeriTek/Q6G is Mac OS X Bootable, whether installed inside the Apple Mac Pro or a Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis, with and without SATA port-multiplication.

Performance
"Dynamic growth in the availability of SATA 6G SSD and HDD storage devices has increased the need for ultra-high performance 6-Gigabit/sec eSATA controllers with sufficient bandwidth to maximize performance. The SeriTek/Q6G was developed to meet this need. With real world storage performance results in excess of 500 MB/s per channel, the SeriTek/Q6G offers a new level of performance for professional customers", said Chi Kim Stanford Vice President of Business Development. "The SeriTek/Q6G is ideal for audio/video editing, photography, large media content libraries, storage expansion, backup and any other application where external, hot swap, high performance, data storage is desirable."