iLibs - 10/06/08 - Create, manage, and synchronize your iTunes libraries with your iPod.
SlimBrowser - 10/06/08 - Browse multiple Web sites in one window with a pop-up killer, an ad blocker, and a quick-search feature.
GIMP - 10/06/08 - Create and alter photos and graphics manually or via scripting.
Site: techPowerUp! Biostar T-Power X58 Mainboard Spotted - During the final weeks before Intel's Nehalem release date, we have covered almost any motherboard that will be simultaneously available as the platform launches. Today we'll accentuate on Biostar's T-Power X58, yet another LGA1366 mainboard that will help Core i7 buyers. The board is pretty much standard, it has a 12-phase power design, 6x DDR3 1333/1600/2000 slots, 3x PCI-E 16x SLI and CrossFireX capable slots, and 6x SATA + 2x eSATA + 1 IDE ports. The T-Power X58 also features a heat-pipe cooling system, on-the-fly power/reset buttons, and a LED POST code display. There's also a 7.1 integrated audio, two 10/100/1000 LANs, and two FireWire ports.
Source: Matbe.com EA and Crytek Announce a Free Weekend With Crysis Wars - Electronic Arts and Crytek are announcing today that Crysis Wars, the new multiplayer suite for Crytek's award-winning Crysis franchise and part of the critically-acclaimed Crysis Warhead package, will be available to play online for free from Friday, October 10th through Sunday, October 12th. Starting on Monday, October 6th, gamers can take advantage of this great offer by registering online at MyCRYSIS and by downloading Crysis Wars. After registration, players will receive a unique key generated on the site that will be saved to their profile, allowing them to play on all online multiplayer servers from October 10th at 11:00 AM PT to October 12th at 11:59 PM. And in order to give everyone enough time to practice, players will be able to play Crysis Wars on LAN with their friends the entire week before "Weekend of Wars" begins. Crysis Wars includes 21 mpas and three multiplayer modes including InstantAction, TeamInstantAction and PowerStruggle. It also features all the weapons and vehicles released in the latest Crysis series. If you like the game after the free weekend, you can purchase it online at any time for as low as $29.99.
Source: MyCrysis Microsoft Windows XP Downgrade Program Extended by Another Six Months - Windows XP, the OS that is still widely available although its Vista successor is trying to get the upper hand for more than a year, has just received another six months before going down forever. Earlier this summer, Microsoft instructed retailers to stop selling copies of Windows XP to consumers. Regardless of that customers were still able to use their lovely XP OS through a loophole that allowed them to purchase a new computer running certain version of Windows Vista and still downgrade to Windows XP for free. Originally, that option was set to expire on January 31st, 2009. Now Microsoft has extended that date by another six months, through July 31st, 2009. Recent market research shows that one third of the customers that can take advantage of the downgrade program, return to Windows XP without thinking twice. Recently Microsoft also made Windows XP licenses and support available for netbooks until 2010. With little help Windows XP could be still alive when Vista's deputy Windows 7 becomes available.
Source: The Register Fusion-io Preps PCI-Express Based ioXtreme Solid State Drive - Fusion-io, a company that's famous for its server SSD solutions, unveiled today at the E for All conference and expo its first consumer product, the ioXtreme. ioXtreme represents a PCI-Express based solid state drive with a capacity of 80GB. Fusion-IO promises that the ioXtreme PCI-E SSD card will be 20x faster than traditional hard drives and about 5x times faster than mainstream SSDs. In terms of transfer speeds it will be able to hit a data throughput of 500MB/s to 700MB/s. When released ioXtreme will power the world's fastest supercomputers and workstations.
"Imagine working on complex 3-D graphics, unzipping and manipulating massive files even installing a new application-all at the same time," said David Flynn, CTO of Fusion-io. "Suddenly, with the ioXtreme, tasks that would have brought your system to its knees are no longer limited by the disks spinning loudly inside your box."
The ioXtreme will be priced at under $1000 and be available for home and consumer use in Q1, 2009.
Source: Fusion-io Elpida Completes Development of 65nm Chip Shrink - Elpida Memory, Japan's leading global supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), announced today that it has developed a shrunken version of its 1-gigabit DDR2 SDRAM that delivers 20% more chips from a single 300mm wafer. Volume production of the new shrunken chip is expected to begin before the end of 2008 and will be shared among Elpida's Hiroshima Plant, its Taiwan-based Rexchip joint venture and its manufacturing partner PSC. Report: Kingston Technology to Resell Intel Solid State Drives - Recent reports indicate that memory manufacturer Kingston Technology has teamed up with chip maker Intel to market flash memory-based drives to top makers of laptops and servers. Under the partnership, Kingston will buy SSDs from Intel and then rebrand them and resell them to its partners. Kingston is also set to provide technical support, testing and sell the drives to big brands like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM and others.
"We have had both an engineering and marketing relationship with Intel for more than a decade," spokesman David Leong said. "This is one market where we believe it will grow quite a bit. The opportunity was there to jump into it right now with Intel," he added.
At the moment Intel produces a few solid state drives, aimed at the notebook and desktop markets as well as models for the server market. It's unclear whether Kingston will take the consumer path, or the server SSD side. The story is yet to be confirmed by both companies.
Source: DailyTech Nehalem Available for Pre-Order at Overclockers UK, ETA 31st October - In the last few days we have seen photos surface of several motherboards based on the upcoming Intel Architecture, code named Nehalem. These boards utilize the Intel X58 chipset along with the new socket, LGA-1366. Many people have been eagerly awaiting the imminent release of the new CPUs and motherboards, which was rumoured to be sometime in November. The online UK retailer Overclockers UK (OcUK), has today added new links in their motherboard and CPU sections for Intel 1366 (X58 Chipset) and Intel Core i7.
Within the CPU section, available for Pre-Order, are the three processors which were expected to be available at launch following what we covered here
The Core i7 920 is priced at £258.49, the Core i7 940 is priced at £469.99, and the Core i7 965 Extreme Edition, at £822.49 (all prices include VAT). In the motherboard section, also available for Pre-Order are three motherboards, two from Asus and one Intel: ASUS P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition, ASUS P6T Deluxe (base model), and Intel Smackover X58. The site states the ETA for all these products as 31st October 08.
Source: Overclockers UK ASUS Debuts the Eee PC S101 Netbook - ASUSTeK Computer released today its newest and most expensive Eee PC netbook, the Eee PC S101. Designed to attract users with its style and premium finish (available in three colors - brown, champagne or graphite), the S class Eee PC also offer the latest hardware that a netbook can integrate. Measuring 264 (W) x 180.5 (D) x 18 ~ 25 (H) mm, the Eee PC S101 will be available in 3 different models. The first one has a 16GB SSD + 16GB SD card (32GB total storage space), Windows XP OS and a retail price of around $699. The second version comes with a 32GB SSD, Linux OS and will retail for around $699 as well. Finally, there's the 64GB SSD model with Linux which will have a price tag of around $799. Feature-wise all three Eee PC S101 models have a 10.2-inch wide active matrix LED backlit screen (1024x600 resolution), 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, 10/100/1000 Mbps ethernet controller, WLAN support, Bluetooth, 4-in-1 MMC reader and a 0.3MB integrated webcam. For more information, please visit the Eee PC - Blog.
Source: Eee PC - Blog Xigmatek Readying Dark Knight HDT S1283 Cooler - The brand name "Dark Knight" seems to be quite a fashion these days. Xigmatek is preparing a new CPU cooler, the Dark Knight HDT for global launch. The cooler is compatible with Intel LGA-775 and AMD sockets 754, 939, 940, AM2(+). It measures 120x50x159 mm, and weighs 660 g.
The cooling mechanism consists of three copper heatpipes that come in direct contact with the CPU, which convery heat to to the array of aluminum fins. The fins are cooled by a 120 mm fan that rotates at speeds between 1000 and 2000 rpm. The fan has a maximum noise-level of 22 dBA. It features white LEDs for lighting.
Source: Donanim Haber Samsung Launches Eco-friendly Desktops, System Opertation at 60W - Samsung announced two new desktop PCs, that drive the company's eco-friendly initiative. Pictured below, are two models: the MV100 Mini-Tower, and the MZ100 Slim-Tower (look at those dark cuboid objects). Both feature identical system specifications, they feature Intel processors, an Intel G43 chipset based motherboard, and a GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB graphics card. Optionally, the GeForce 9500 GS is also available. What sets these desktops apart, is the fact that they consume as less as 60W when in power-saving mode, and 1W in stand-by.
Source: Akihabara News Crysis Wars in for Free Weekend - Gamers will be able to play Crysis Wars for free between Friday, October 10 and Sunday, October 12, announced the publisher, EA Games. Registration begins Monday, October 6 at MyCrysis.com, where gamers will be provided with a unique registration key. Though online play will only be available from October 10-12, players will be able to experience Crysis Wars via LAN across the week of October 6. This move by EA can be seen as something along the lines of Valve, which has seen boosts in sales of their popular multi-player titles such as Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source, following free weekend offers.
Crysis Wars is a multiplayer combat action game that is included in the Crysis Warhead package. It is based around the same island setting as the rest of the Crysis franchise, and offers gameplay modes such as InstantAction, TeamInstantAction and PowerStruggle. It includes 21 large thru small maps based on the gameplay mode. You get to use all the weapons and vehicles from the single-player Crysis titles.
Source: Shack News Theory of DDR3 Voltage Limitations for Bloomfield Gains Ground - Nehalem does promise to be a processor to look out for, it would be Intel's next installment, post the successful Core 2 series processors. This time however, Intel made a core modification with the way the system handles memory. The Bloomfield processors house a massive 192-bit wide memory controller for supporting tri-channel DDR3 memory. It however was found that the controller could bring in limitations to the DIMM voltages that the system could support.
The retail version of ASUS P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition motherboard was unboxed by XFastest. Being the retail product, as usually, it comes with precautionary labels attached to parts of the motherboard. The one that covers the 6 DDR3 DIMM slots reads:
According to Intel CPU SPEC, DIMMs with voltage setting over 1.65V may damage the CPU permanently. We recommend you to install DIMMs with voltage setting below 1.65V.
MSI Eclipse X58 Motherboard Pictured - The release version of the upcoming enthusiast-grade motherboard by MSI, based on the Intel X58 chipset for the upcoming Core i7 series processors, has been pictured at Coolaler. The close-up snaps show the motherboard to be packing quite some booty. It also shows that MSI hasn't used exorbitant cooling for the motherboard. There are two independent cooling units for the chipset and VRM areas. The board sports Dr-MOS component protection, and MSI seems to have spread the MOSFETs evenly, not to congest them at one place. The board provides a diagnostic display feature called D-LED 2, a small LED screen that shows diagnostic information, similar to the LCD poster that ASUS packs with some of its motherboards.
The board features an extensive set of expandability options. It features three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots that support both ATI CrossfireX and NVIDIA 3-way SLI for multi-GPU operations. It uses overclocker-friendly features on-board, including the peculiar turbo button. There are also 10 SATA ports, four of which, route to an external controller. All in all, the board looks promising. It isn't the highest MSI would be offering for the X58 plaform, with an even higher motherboard planned. For more pictures, browse through the thread.
A-Data Releases Tri-Channel Memory Kits for Intel X58 Platform - A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in high performance memory products, announced today that it is expanding its overclocking DRAM dual channel line with tri-channel kits at 1600 MHz and 1333 MHz.
Recent next generation Intel Core i7 platform using the latest DDR3 technologies has proven that i7’s internal controller gives a notable performance increase while using DDR3 tri-channel modules. A-DATA is now ready for production of DDR3-1600+ and DDR-1333+ tri-channel kits. These new modules will be available in 3GB and 6GB configurations and are expected to be available this quarter.
Acer Introduces new Aspire Gemstone Notebooks - PC major Acer made additions to its notebook lineup, with the introduction of four new Aspire Gemstone series notebooks. It includes Aspire Gemstone 8930-6448, an 18.4" model, along with a 16" Aspire Gemstone 6930-6809, the 15.6" 5735-4624 and the 14.1" 4730-4374. The Aspire Gemstone 8930-6448 is the flagship model, it comes with a CrystalBrite TFT LCD display, with a native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. At the heart of it, is a Core 2 Duo T9400 processor, clocked at 2.53 GHz. It includes 4 GB of memory, a 320 GB hard drive, and NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT graphics with 512 MB of memory. The laptop also boasts a DVD writer, a 6-in-1 card reader, a webcam, is pre-loaded with Windows Vista Ultimate and costs about US $1700.
The rest are downscale models of essentially the same design, albeit come of them not featuring a full-sized keyboard and those special media control feather-touch buttons. The 16" Gemstone 6930-6809 comes with a native screen resolution of 1366x760 pixels. It is powered by a Core 2 Duo T5800 at 2.00 GHz, with 3GB of RAM, a 320GB 5400 RPM HDD, DVD writer and Intel GMA 4500HD integrated graphics. It is priced at $700, and comes with Vista Home Premium installed. The 5735-4624 offers the same screen resolution as the 6930-6809. It features the 2 GHz T3200 processor, 2GB of RAM, 160GB 5400 RPM hard drive and integrated graphics. Windows Vista Home Premium is bundled. It sells for $550. At the very same price point, the 14.1" Gemstone 4730-4374 sports a native resolution of 1280x800 pixels, it is powered by a T3200 CPU, 2GB of RAM and a 120GB SATA hard drive.
Source: TechConnect Magazine Foxconn Renaissance X58 Pictured - The final version of the Foxconn Renaissance X58 motherboard has been pictured by an XtremeSystems forum member, complete with release-grade cooling. Foxconn gives Renaissance the "Digital Life" branding. Foxconn has diversified its premium motherboard lineup into Digital Life and Quantum Force, the former for premium motherboards with features that make them great all-rounder boards, while the latter for gamers and overclockers. It is a branding scheme similar to the Ai Lifestyle and Republic of Gamers schemes ASUS uses.
One glance at the Renaissance, and you would be drawn to its peculiar-looking northbridge cooler that looks like a speaker, but it is purely cosmetic, as with the southbridge cooler that looks like a rotary knob from a hi-fi system, from an angle. These are just to make the motherboard aesthetically blend with the Digital Life branding. The motherboard features four full-length PCI-Express slots. It will support the upcoming LGA-1366 socket Core i7 processors from Intel. Apart from the SATA II ports the southbridge provides, the board also includes two SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) ports using an external Marvell controller.
Source: XtremeSystems NVIDIA New Naming Scheme Revealed - After releasing yet another unofficial driver today, NVIDIA kind of revealed the new naming scheme for its video cards. Three lines from the latest NVIDIA driver release 178.15 suggest the new naming scheme:
All GeForce 9800 series powered by the G92 GPU will be renamed to GeForce GTS 15x, while the GeForce 9600 and 9500 (G94 and G96) cards will be known as GeForce GT 130 and GT 120. The new naming system is expected to become formal in two weeks time.
Source: TechConnect Magazine AMD Expects DirectX 11 and Windows 7 in 2009, More in Store - AMD conducted a presentation at CEATEC Japan, where the company took a sneak-peak at how the role of GPUs would become critical to the PC of tomorrow. This of course revolved around the company's newly adopted "The Future is Fusion" slogan, integrating all of AMD's technological expertise into object and function oriented solutions for the PC industry.
Among the numerous slides that formed part of the presentation, one such slide, shows some very interesting points on what the year 2009 looks like, from AMD's perspective. It shows a lot of things slated for much later to make it to the industry. To begin with, the DirectX 11 API and Windows 7 (Vienna) operating system could make it to the industry in 2009. However, there's no mention of them being "released" as such, or if they could just be working prototypes, such as alpha releases for use by select parts of the industry for mutual technology development.
Albatron Readying its AMD 780G Mini-ITX Motherboard - To combat Intel's Atom-embedded ITX motherboard linueup, and the platform itself, there has been an influx of mini-ITX motherboards based on the AMD 780G chipset lately. Perhaps the thermal design of the 780G allows implementation in form-factors this small. To combat the dual-core Atom, AMD had built up plans to release low-power processors based on the AM2 socket. Notably, the Athlon X2 22W and Athlon single core 15W chips. Perhaps it is these processors that are inviting companies to plan Mini-ITX motherboards based on the AM2+ socket with the 780G chipset.
Albatron is about to release the KI780G motherboard, and they seem to have packed quite a lot to it. To begin with, the board features an AM2+ socket (that supports processors only upto 65W TDP), two DDR2 SO-DIMM slots for using the more compact memory sticks notebooks use, four SATA II ports, an IDE connector, Gigabit LAN, 7.1 channel audio with SPDIF optical and co-axial pass, display connectors that include D-Sub, DVI and HDMI (HDCP capable), and finally a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot. The motherboard goes head-on against the feature-set that the MINIX comes with. This is meant to be a full-featured HTPC board. Its pricing is not known at the moment.
Source: TechConnect Magazine Gigabyte EX58-Extreme Pictured in all its Might - Members of the XtremeSystems forums put up pictures of Gigabyte's flagship X58 motherboard for the upcoming Core i7 processors, the EX58-Extreme with all its bells and whistles in place. Pictures of the board have surfaced several times now, older pictures were those of the EX58-DQ6 and DS4 models. What can be seen from the pictures, is a humongous chipset cooler that attaches itself to the main northbridge heatsink. The cooling continues over the board's VRM area and a large block covers the ICH10R southbridge. As the label screams, the motherboard is based on the Ultra Durable 3 PCB construction for best stability, heat dissipation and EMI control. Clearly, if you're going to be in the market for an enthusiast-grade motherboard, you're going to have a tough time...choosing. I'll leave you with the pictures.
Source: XtremeSystems Kingston HyperX DDR3 Modules Now Available in up to 2GHz PC3-16000 Speed - Kingston raised the barrier today, with the release of its 2GHz HyperX DDR3 memory modules, the fastest-performing DDR3 available to date. Shipping immediately in 2GB memory kits, the new HyperX PC3-16000 memory offers gaming enthusiasts top-of-the-line Enhanced Performance Profile (EPP) ready memory with CL9-9-9-27 @ 1.9v timings. "Two Gigahertz is now the sweet spot for many benchmarking enthusiasts and Kingston's new 2GHz HyperX DDR3 memory is fully tested at specified frequency and timing values so it's ideal for anyone seeking to boost performance," said Mark Tekunoff, senior technology manager, Kingston. With the addition of the 2GHz kit, Kingston now offers a full slate of DDR3 memory products available in a variety of speeds and capacities. The New Kingston PC3-16000 kit (KHX16000D3K2/2GN) is available now for US $227.00. All HyperX modules are backed by a lifetime warranty and free 24/7 tech support. For more detailed information please visit Kingston.
Source: Kingston Fujitsu to Sell its Unprofitable Hard Drive Business to Western Digital - A new rumour is spreading around the net, claiming that Fujitsu is in talks with WesternDigital to sell its hard disk drive business. Currently WD is the second-largest hard disk drive maker in the world behind Seagate Technology. Fujitsu's HDD business is ranked sixth. If there's a deal between WD and Fujitsu, it would raise WesternDigital's market share to almost the same level as the market leader Seagate Technology. A possible acquisition would include Fujitsu's plants in Japan, the Philippines and Thailand with a total of 15,000 workers.
It's necessary for Fujitsu to review its disk-drive operations because it's facing severe competition in an industry that requires large commitments to capital spending for companies to be competitive,
said Yukihiko Shimada, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. The deal would be finalized by the end of the year, according to experts. WD and Fujitsu representatives declined to make any official statements and confirm the story.
Source: CNET News NEC Display Solutions Introduces New 24- and 19-inch Premium MultiSync LCD Monitors - Graphics designers, professionals or users with deep pockets out there looking for a high-end LCD monitor are advised to read this post, as NEC Display Solutions of America is launching today its new 24-inch MultiSync EA241WM widescreen and 19-inch MultiSync EA191M standard-format LCD monitors. These are the third and fourth MultiSync EA Series products to be introduced, following the launch of the 26-inch EA261WM in June and the 22-inch EA221WM in September. The wide-format MultiSync EA241WM is a premium enterprise display that features 5ms response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 400 cd/m² brightness and full 1080p high-definition 1920x1200 native resolution. The screen offers DVI-D and VGA 15-pin D-Sub interface options. If offers a height, pivot, tilt & swivel adjustment, and also has integrated down-firing speakers with headphone jack. The MultiSync EA191M, a standard-format (5:4 aspect ratio) desktop display boasting a top-of-the-line PVA panel, is ideal for the financial and specialty markets with its 1500:1 contrast ratio, four-way ergonomic capabilities (height, swivel, tilt, pivot) and integrated speakers. The EA191M features a native resolution of 1280x1024, response time of 5ms and brightness of 250 cd/m². The MultiSync EA241WM and EA191M displays come with a three-year parts, labor and backlight warranty, and even an extended warranty if desired. The displays will be available for shipment this month at an estimated street price of $549 and $379, respectively.
Source: NEC Nine Models of 45nm Opteron Lined up for this Month - According to sources at server builders, AMD has notified that it would be releasing nine models of quad-core AMD Opteron 45nm processors this month. The processors would be based on the Shanghai core and mark the company's entry into the 45nm silicon fabrication for CPUs.
Out of the lineup of 20 processors that would come out, the ones slated for this month include CPUs of clock-speeds between 2.3 and 2.7 GHz, of which five of them are 2000 series (2-way) models and the rest, 8000 series (8-way) models. The processors are based on Socket F (s1207) design, and sport 6 MB level 3 caches. The sources also mentioned that in February 2009, AMD will launch five 55W energy-efficient enterprise CPUs, three 2-way and two 8-way; and two 105W high-performance models a 2-way and an 8-way each.
Source: DigiTimes WesternDigital Launches New Eco-friendly WD Caviar Green Hard Drives - WD today announced the second-generation of its highly popular and environmentally friendly WD Caviar Green desktop hard drives, which feature the company's GreenPower technology to significantly reduce power consumption, compared with standard hard drives. The new platform is based on WD's 333 GB/platter technology with 32 MB cache, producing capacities ranging from 500 GB to 1 TB. As an innovative leader in green storage technology, WD has ramped up its successful GreenPower technology-based hard drives to greater than 10 percent of its 3.5-inch hard drive shipments in the initial twelve months of production, making low-power technologies one of WD's fastest growing segments and WD Caviar Green one of the most successful new products in the company's recent history.
Microsoft to Release Windows Cloud OS Soon - Microsoft would be taking up its largest cloud-computing initiative, in the form of an operating system that is tailored to serve the purpose of a lean operating system that drives PCs meant for cloud computing. For those new to the term, cloud computing is the method of computer usage, where information is stored on internet servers, while cached locally onto the machine (client) the user is working on. Think of it as thin-client usage on a macro-scale.
Later this month, at the company's annual developer conference, Microsoft would unveil this new OS, which is to be named "Windows Cloud". "We need a new operating system designed for the cloud and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we'll even have a name to give you by then. But let's just call it for the purposes of today 'Windows Cloud'," said Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer. This would open up opportunities for a whole new breed of applications that are suited to the platform, which is in its infancy. The move by Microsoft could be seen as the company's effort to stay ahead of internet-Mogul Google, which seems to have some very concrete plans on cloud computing. "The last thing we want is for somebody else to obsolete us, if we're gonna get obseleted [sic] we better do it to ourselves" Ballmer added.
Source: The Register SpursEngine based Video Cards out Soon - The term "SpursEngine" might be a little new for some of us. It is the HD video processor Toshiba used in its Qosmio G55 and F40 high-end media notebooks, where the company chose to call it "Toshiba Quad-Core HD processor". The SpursEngine tag comes in, where the processor uses Toshiba's proprietary technology to accelerate graphics and HD video across multiple heads. The chip itself is derived from the CELL Broadband Engine (CBE), the central processor that drives the Sony Playstation 3 gaming console. Toshiba made modifications to the design, by reducing the number of synergistic processing elements (dubbed cores) to 4, with the common PowerPC thread arbiter remaining. It is specialized for video processing.
Toshiba has already formed collaborations with Leadtek and Thomson, the two companies would be the first to come out with cards based on this infant video processor. As such, these are not stand-alone video-cards as of now (they lack output logic), they stand to demonstrate the GPUs design methodology in a PC environment, so the companies could gain foothold. The cards could serve as HD video processing solutions, for industrial, office or home use. Toshiba could put in its proprietary video processing technologies into this product. The Leadtek Winfast PxVC 1100 is pictured below. It uses PCI-Express x1 interface, and comes with 128 MB of XDR memory. The cards could be out by the end of this month, and could carry a steep price-tag of US $286, at least going by the listings in Japan.
Source: PC World EVGA Upgrades 790i SLI FTW with Digital PWM - EVGA is one of the elite NVIDIA partners that sells NVIDIA-designed motherboards based on the nForce chipsets, apart from being a leading graphics card vendor. EVGA for one, added innovation to the NVIDIA designs with its own level of enhancements, such as improved capacitors, more number of CPU power phases than NVIDIA's own designs, among others. EVGA brands these higher-grade motherboards under the "FTW" series. If you've spent long enough time on an internet bulletin board, you would know that FTW means "for teh win".
EVGA decided to give its flagship motherboard, the nForce 790i SLI FTW an improvement with its power circuits. The new board, 790i SLI FTW PWM circuitry a digital upgrade. The board features an 8-phase circuit for the CPU. It also provides digital power management. This is said to push up its overclocking capabilities. The board provides vDroop control and onboard power, reset and clear CMOS buttons. The motherboard supports all LGA-775 socket processors including the ones with 1600 MHz FSB. It supports memory with speeds of up to DDR3 2000 MHz. The nForce 790i SLI FTW DIGITAL PWM is now on sale at $339.99, $40 higher than the older nForce 790i SLI FTW.
Source: TechConnect Magazine HIS Readies Radeon HD 4850 Fan - HIS is counted amongst the leading ATI add in board partners. They already have a vast lineup of products based on the Radeon HD 4800. Like every other board partner, HIS sells reference design design cards, as well as, its own IceQ4 series Radeon HD 4850 cards. HIS decided to make a simplistic design, this time around, with the Radeon HD 4850 "Fan", that's what it's called.
The card uses a blue PCB which looks similar to the reference PCB. The card has a circular GPU cooler with aluminum fins projecting radially. The fan at its center lights up blue, during operation. Memory chips can be seen to be cooled passively. Memory amounts to 512 MB. The VRM area gets some cooling however. The card ships with reference ATI speeds of 625/1998 MHz (core/memory). The Radeon HD 4850 Fan should reach stores soon.
Source: TechConnect Magazine WesternDigital Intros New WD ShareSpace Storage Systems - WD, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new WD ShareSpace high-speed network storage systems that provide cost-effective, centralized storage for small office and home networks. WD ShareSpace represents WD's first entry into the small-office network storage market, where it plans to bring to a new class of users the ease-of-use, design and value enjoyed by millions of WD My Book and My Passport customers.
MSI Silently Introduces its Custom-design 9800 GTX+ OC - There has been an influx of non-reference graphics cards based on the GeForce 9800 GTX+ graphics processor, over the last few weeks. MSI made its addition, with the N9800GTX PLUS-T2D512-OC. Like every other manufacturer making news for releasing such products, MSI designed its own PCB. The cooler chosen has featured on several MSI cards, in the past, including some models based on the GeForce 8800 GT and 9600 GT. This time around, MSI changed the cooler's shroud with a more designer one. This is only a cosmetic change. The cooler remains to be the heatpipe through aluminum fin design.
Unlike the custom design 9800 GTX+ cards from some other manufacturers, MSI released its card factory overclocked. The card ships with clock speeds of 760/1880/2300 MHz (core/shader/memory) against the reference speeds of 738/1836/2200 MHz. The card comes with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. The package is to include a copy of Rainbow Six Vegas 2. It is to be priced at roughly US $248 in Europe. MSI will be shipping two designs under the same model number and SKU. The first being this, and the other is a 100% reference NVIDIA PCB + Cooler design.
Source: TechConnect Magazine AMD Shanghai Ready to Ship - AMD Shanghai is the codename for a new enterprise processor the company is working on. It is a monolithic quad-core x86 processor that retains the design methodology of the K10h generation of AMD processors. It carries forward the Opteron brand. This time around, the company promises to have made numerous changes, big and small, learning from the shortfalls of the Barcelona chip. Shanghai will be the first 45nm AMD processor to make it to the market. Originally slated for Q1, 2009 its launch was pushed to Q4, 2008.
In a press event held yesterday, the company claimed that the company is all set to roll out the new chip. Initial volumes of the processor would run off existing core logic platforms by NVIDIA and Broadcom. It will retain the Socket F (aka s1207) package and support DDR2 memory. The lineup shows that most of these chips would retain the 2000 MT/s system bus, and all of them come with 6 MB of level 3 cache. A new company slide sourced by C|Net shows that the Opteron processor could embrace DDR3 memory only by 2010, with the introduction of the Magny-Corus 12-core processor architecture. Until then, the Istanbul 6-core processor the is slated for H2, 2009, could be the company's flagship product.
Source: CNET MSI Releases VR602 Notebook, Performance with Value - MSI today announces a new model to its line of notebook, the MSI VR602 Not only provides top Operation Performance, but also provides multimedia functions, MSI VR602 is ideal for any environment, whether home, office, or school. With MSI exclusive ECO Engine, the outstanding and unique power saving management function, VR602 could extends the battery running time while performing different tasks. VR602 applied the exterior with an Aerodynamic and Elementary design, also concealing all the openings at the connecting edges. There are no unnecessary gadgets for a Simplistic and Practical Styling, elevating our swift and practical feature. Just like a hard-cover book added with the seal of approval, and perfect work of art on display.
With1280x800 High-Resolution, perfect length and width ratio for the screen,15.4 inch LCD monitor,VR602 enables you to open many windows applets at once. Furthermore, the high accuracy board materials to go along with 1280 × 800 High-Resolution can perfectly portraying a picture's detail, letting you pleasantly enjoy at all times. Besides, built-in with a 1.3 mega pixel webcam and an internal mic, the VR602 enables you to engage in real-time sharing and live-video. Additionally, VR602 has a 4-in-1 card reader, and 4 well distributed USB 2.0 ports, facilitating connection with various types of computer peripherals. VR602 is the best choice for value and performance, and your best notebook choice.
ASUS and MSI Innovate Custom Cooling over Referece HD 4550, HD 4350 PCBs - AMD released the Radeon HD 4550 and Radeon HD 4350 graphics cards today. With their introduction, AMD allowed the AIB partners to roll out custom designs right away. Sapphire and Force3D have already taken the advantage of releasing their own PCBs, while ASUS and MSI have used the reference PCB design with their own coolers. ASUS for one (model: EAH4550/DI/512MD3), has used a black metal chunk with projecting metal that is actively cooled, while MSI (model: R4350-D512H/R4350-D256H) adopted passive cooling with a single large heatsink. The only glitch, is that the heatsink spans across two expansion slots. MSI has already released its card, while ASUS releases its card soon. Both cards use reference ATI parameters, and could carry price-tags around the US $60~$40 marks.
Sapphire Releases Radeon HD 4550 and HD 4350 - SAPPHIRE Technology, the leading manufacturer and worldwide supplier of AMD/ATI based graphics solutions is introducing two new graphics families aimed at mainstream users.
The new SAPPHIRE HD 4550 is a new mainstream product based on the architecture of the highly successful HD 4000 series. With its 80 stream processors, core clock speeds of 600MHz and carrying 512MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 900MHz (1.8GHz effective) the SAPPHIRE HD 4550 brings features previously associated only with high end cards to the cost conscious user. These include DX 10.1 compatibility, on board hardware UVD version 2.0 with support for AMD’s Avivo HD, HDMI support with 7.1 surround sound as well as extremely low power operation featuring AMD Powerplay dynamic power management.
Force3D Radeon HD 4550 & 4350 - Step Up Your Game - Force3D launch the Force3D Radeon HD 4550 and Force3D Radeon HD 4350, that deliver you the performance you need, to to take your high-definition experience to the new level, at home, work and play. The Force3D Radeon HD 4550 and Force3D Radeon HD 4350 outwit the old generation performance by more than double the 3DMark Vantage Performance speeds and more than 25% in 3DMark06.
With Force3D Radeon Radeon HD 4550 and Force3D Radeon HD 4350, you can watch Blu-ray movies and HD content with incredible visual fidelity and view digital photos with over 1 billion colours. Enjoy unprecedented levels of graphics realism and play the latest games with support for Microsoft DirectX 10.1 . Do it with the entire breakthrough efficiency that doesn't compromise on performance.
Inno3D Adds to the 9800 GTX+ Custom Design Lineup - Here comes yet another GeForce 9800 GTX+ graphics card based on the manufacturer specifications, rather than NVIDIA's. Inno3D is ready with its GeForce 9800 GTX+ Freezer DHT edition. For starters, the card ships with reference NVIDIA frequencies of 738/1836/2200 MHz (core/shader/memory), but the company makes use of a custom PCB and the Freezer DHT (direct heatpipe touch) GPU cooler. The cooler consists of a GPU contact block, in which the 3 heatpipes make direct contact with the GPU die. These convey heat to an aluminum fin array. The memory and VRM area are given independent heatsinks. The card continues to use two 6-pin PCI-E power inputs.
Source: Expreview Corsair Introduces 64GB Portable USB Flash Drive - Corsair, a worldwide leader in high performance computer and flash memory products, announced today that it is expanding its best selling Flash Voyager USB family lines with a new 64GB capacity offering. The new 64GB USB Flash Voyager has enough capacity for a library of DVD-length movies and tens of thousands of high-resolution digital images.
Thanks to the 64GB USB Flash Voyager, users now have the ultimate solution for storing, transporting and backing up large amounts of personal and professional data. With storage capacity that just a year ago could only be found in hard drives, the 64GB USB Flash Voyager drive also provides the added ruggedness, water resistance and performance not found in storage drives utilizing rotating media.
ARM, Chartered, IBM and Samsung Collaborate to Enable 32nm and 28nm Systems-on-Chip - IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Samsung Electronics, and ARM today announced they will develop a comprehensive 32 nanometer (nm) and 28nm Systems-on-a-Chip (SoCs) design platform based on high-k metal-gate (HKMG) technology from the IBM-led joint-development alliance. Under this multi-year collaboration, ARM will develop and license a design platform of physical intellectual property (IP) including logic, memory and interface products for the Common Platform technology alliance of IBM, Chartered and Samsung for distribution to their customers. ASUS Rampage II Extreme LGA 1366 Motherboard in Pretty Pixels - After yesterday's ASUS P6T Deluxe quick introduction, today is time for the heavy artilery to come by and stop at our front door. For sure ASUS, one of the biggest brands in the computer industry is not going to have only one or two motherboards to support Nehalem. Although the platform is not yet officially introduced, ASUS is ready with its Rampage II Extreme motherboard. As the name suggests this will be the enthusiast range of motherboard offerings support for LGA 1366 processors, triple-channel DDR3 memory and up to three PCI-Express x16 graphics cards. The new Republic of Gamers machinery might not have a fancy heat pipe cooling (it might not need one) but it has a few other tricks, such as a special VTT CPU power card that provides a 16-phase CPU and 3-phase memory power design. The board also features a number of strange buttons that will help experts overclock their hardware. The Rampage II Extreme also has six SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors, dual Gigabit Ethernets, FireWire, eSATA ports and most likely support for both ATI CrossFire X and NVIDIA triple SLI technology. Let the pictures finish this post:
Source: Muropaketti - Plaza Point of View Teams up with Arctic Cooling to Introduce New GeForce 9800 GTX+ Card - Graphics card manufacturer Point of View is jumping the Arctic Cooling band wagon just like many other manufacturers did, by introducing the brand new POV GeForce 9800 GTX+ with 512MB of GDDR3 memory (R-VGA150900H+). The 55nm built GeForce 9800GTX+ is one of the great cards currently on the market, performing very well with the latest games and also offering an acceptable price tag. To get even more performance out of the graphics card Point of View has decided to team up with Arctic Cooling and start offering their cards with AC coolers that will help lower temperatures and even more. The Arctic cooled POV GeForce 9800 GTX+ comes clocked at 738MHz core, 1836MHz shader clock and 2200MHz memory clock. At the same time the card is up to 20% cooler and also makes less noise than the standard NVIDIA cooling system. The actual model used is Arctic Cooling Accelero TWIN TURBO with two ultra quiet 80mm fans, 4 heatpipes and 30 fins that together form a dual-slot cooling monster able to transfer up to 120W of heat. To make their card even better all-rounder, POV has decided to equip it with a dual-link DVI port, a HDMI port and a VGA port. For additional information, please click here.
Source: Point of View Super Talent Begins Shipping Affordable 64GB and 128GB SSDs Next Week - Evolution continues, flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules manufacturer Super Talent today launched a pair of new high quality SATA-II SSDs. Solid state drives have become legendary for their many advantages over hard drives, but still can't take the market share they deserve because of their high retail prices. The new MasterDrive LX SSDs, offered in 64GB and 128GB capacities, combine all the advantages the solid state technology can offer but also appeal with an attractive price. The Super Talent MasterDrive LX 64GB model will retail for about $179, while the 128GB unit is expected to retail for under $300. Unfortunately performance scores are little lower. Using SATA 3Gbps interface both drives will offer sequential read speeds of up to 100 MB/sec, and sequential write speeds of up to 40 MB/sec. Both models will begin shipping this week, backed with Super Talent's 1-year warranty.
Source: Super Talent ATI Radeon HD 4550 and ATI Radeon HD 4350 Graphics Cards Announced - AMD today announced the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 4550 and ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics cards, the latest additions to the award-winning ATI Radeon HD 4000 series graphics line up. These feature-rich graphics cards deliver exceptional gaming and HD multimedia performance at value prices. Both cards are based on the same technology found in the celebrated ATI Radeon HD 4800 series, including support for the latest DirectX 10.1 games and superior HD multimedia capabilities. Delivering mainstream-class performance at a value price, the ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics card plays demanding game titles previously unplayable by cards in this price segment, and for less than USD $59 for a 512MB memory configuration. An even more incredible value, the ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics card is the ideal introduction to the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series, priced for less than USD $39 for a 256 MB memory configuration, giving gamers and multimedia enthusiasts more features than products available from the competition today.
ASUS P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition Spotted - To support the upcoming LGA-1366 socket Core i7 processors, motherboard manufacturers have their first-waves of motherboards ready. ASUS for one, has had its P6T Deluxe pictured before several of its competitors could have their flagship motherboards pictured on the internet. Enter P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition. What's new with this motherboard is that it bundles a gadget ASUS calls an "OC Palm", looking at its visual similarity to hand-held PCs. The device holds controls apart from an LCD screen. What this gadget does is, that it allows you on-the-fly overclocking of several system parameters for which, you would have had to use the system BIOS configuration. The device is handled by software that does the changes, it connects to the motherboard using standard USB interface, and the LCD screen gives the convenience of overclocking even when say playing a game. That apart, the package gives you essentially the same P6T Deluxe motherboard.
