Computer Hardware Reviews Daily Tech News

The OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator has been out for seven months, but just now has OCZ released 64-bit drivers. Late last night I got an e-mail from one of the engineers at OCZ giving me the good news and I thought I'd pass it along this morning. If you need them download them here. Make sure you get both the 64-bit beta driver and the 64-bit beta driver patch. For some reason there is already a patch for something that was just released last night. I'm not even going to ask!

“Advances in hardware and software allow today’s games to offer consumers an exceptional entertainment experience, and we wanted to take the next step by immersing gamers into these environments with the innovative new NIA,” stated Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. “The NIA radically changes the ways that gamers can interact and control elements within games, and can be configured in a matter of minutes for any game that is already published or will be released.”

Thermal Solutions specialist GELID Solutions launches its first CPU Cooler of its SILENT product line. The Quad heatpipe CPU cooler “Silent Spirit” uses 4 sintered high performance heatpipes for optimum heat transfer from copper core to aluminum fins. The fins are built in a unique architecture to ensure an equal air flow distribution to the heatsink. The “Silent Spirit” cooler will be available in November 2008 and has a MSRP of $35 USD or Euro 23.

This Top-flow cooler “Silent Spirit” follows an open frame structure concept whereby both design and dimensions have been improved to eliminate humming and buzzing noises while maintaining a compact overall size. Precise software calculations were made during the development stage to simulate both airflow and cooling performance in order to create a prototype that would live up to the expectations of a true silent aficionado. In order to cool down the Northbridge heatsink (chipset) and surrounding voltage regulator module close to the CPU, the heatsink has been tilted specially to an angle for this purpose.

Kingston Technology announced today that they are adding a new high capacity 32GB USB drive to its product line. The DataTraveler 150 (DT150) USB Flash drive allows users to conveniently combine work-related content and personal digital content on the same drive with plenty of room to spare. Users can now transport and share entire libraries of music, photos, large business documents, and even video without ever having to change USB drives or search other portable storage devices containing specific content. The MSRP on the 32GB DataTraveler 150 is $139 USD and should be shipping now.

“The new DataTraveler 150 has broken through storage barriers by allowing users to store all their digital files ― business or personal ― all under one roof,” said Mark Akoubian, Flash business manager, Kingston®. “As file sizes increase especially with content such as music and photos, the need for small form factor storage drives with high capacities will continue to go up. The DT 150 certainly addresses those needs today.”

Foxconn just released their G45MG motherboard based on Intel G45 Chipset. This is the second model launched in their GREEN Series. Not only does this model brings users high multimedia performance (BlueRay, HDMI, Integrated Graphics X4500, Dual DDR3, and more), but combined with Foxconn's properietary 3G Technology (energy efficient features),an average PC system will have a power savings of more than 68% depending on PC usage. The Foxconn G45MG GREEN series motherboard should be available around end of October to early November in North America.

The G45MG is a highly capable integrated HD graphics platform, ready to play Blu-Ray and HD DVD content without upgrading the onboard graphics. The integrated Intel GMA 4500HD graphics processor not only includes encoding/decoding technologies for HD video, but also provides DirectX 10 graphics for the latest games titles. With 3.0X the 3D performance of the Intel G33 chipset and and 1.7X the 3D performance of the Intel G35 Express chipset graphics, the list of playable games has grown significantly, saving many home users the additional cost of installing a dedicated graphics card.

I just got word from our friends at Toshiba that they have announced a brand new freshly designed Satellite laptop PC — the Toshiba Satellite E105, developed in collaboration with Best Buy and its customers. The Satellite E105 is one of the first products to be offered under Best Buy’s exclusive Blue Label program. With a starting price of $1,249.997, the Satellite E105 is available Best Buy retail stores nationwide or online.

“Toshiba’s aim is to produce high quality laptops with features that consumers look for, and our combined effort with Best Buy has helped us further realize this goal,” said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Digital Products Division, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. “The Satellite E105 is a special laptop, and we are delighted with the result and the opportunity to bring this impressive machine to market.

Beginning with the venerable N4100 to the legendary N5200, Thecus NAS devices have established the company as a worldwide leader in digital storage. Today, Thecus is proud to release details about its latest NAS breakthrough – the N7700. Bringing together the cutting-edge technology and years of NAS experience, the N7700 is an enterprise class 7-Bay NAS server that makes no compromises.

To address the needs of business, the N7700 comes with a few more outstanding features. The N7700 supports iSCSI initiators, making it easy for users can centrally manage and deploy storage for their entire network. In addition, the N7700 is also stackable, enabling users to connect their unit with up to five additional N7700s and manage them via a master system. To manage all of that storage, users can look forward to multiple RAID modes on the N7700, including RAID 0, 1, 5,6,10, and JBOD. What’s more, the N7700 also features RAID expansion and RAID level migration, which means that users can add larger hard disks to available slots and join an existing RAID without having to power down the system, cutting productivity-killing downtime to zero.

EVGA took the original overclockers dream; The EVGA 790i SLI FTW; and made it even more extreme with the addition of Digital Power Management (Digital PWM - Pulse Width Modulation), once again improving upon the voltage stability and efficiency. In addition, the EVGA 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM includes solid state capacitors, an 8-Phase Power design, on-board all ferrite core chokes, an enhanced enthusiast BIOS, Vdroop control and much more. The EVGA 790i SLI FTW Digital PWM is said to be the ultimate platform for those who demand the best and want to run SLI!

• Innovative chipset fan design directs airflow away from the graphics card.
• Reach extreme overclocking speeds supporting 1600MHz FSB and beyond
• 8 phase power design for superb stability and performance
• Solid state capacitors and ferrite core chokes allow for better overclocking and stability.
• Convenient layout with on-board Clear CMOS, Power, and Reset buttons.
• Friendly system BIOS features with easy to use overclock and voltage settings.
• Extreme DDR3 speeds of 2000MHz and beyond.

Albatron Technology has just announced the KI780G Mini-ITX mainboard featuring the AMD 780G chipset. This is one of the few mini-ITX boards on the market that support this chipset, which means it offers support for powerful 4-core, 3-core AMD Phenom processors with AMD AM2+ socket. Not only does the KI780G define a new class of performance Mini-ITX mainboards, it boasts the most complete set of functionality on par with many ATX boards on the market. The board looks pretty nice and if you are building a system with a mini-ITX platform, then be sure to give this board a look.

As for serious 3D gaming, the KI780G provides a PCIe X16 slot which employs four of the lanes but can still accept any PCIe X16 VGA card. As the 4-lane bandwidth is not as important as having a good GPU for 3D gaming, the KI780G has been shown to handle hardcore 3D games as long as it is used with an adequate VGA card.In addition to the great graphics facilities, the KI780G has everything you need to build your Home Theatre PC; a complete set of monitor connectors including HDMI; full 8-channel audio capabilities plus SDPIF in/out; and up to 10 USB 2.0 channels for the rest of your hi-tech gadgets.

Western Digital just announed an update in GreenPower technology, with the launch of the new WD Caviar Green 1 TB drive. This new drive is a 333/GB per-platter hard drive with 32 MB cache. WD’s latest WD Caviar Green hard drives consume up to 20 percent less power and offer a 10 percent increase in performance over the previous version. The MSRP for the WD Caviar Green 1 TB hard drives (model WD10EADS) is $219.00 USD and are available now.

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. WD’s latest WD Caviar Green hard drives consume up to 20 percent less power and offer a 10 percent increase in performance over the previous version , while continuing to provide the market with hard drives enabling quieter and cooler-running desktop PCs and external storage devices.

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.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today launched a pair of new high quality SATA-II SSDs that shatter previous price barriers. The new drives are both part of the Super Talent MasterDrive LX series and offer an incredibly low price point; the 64GB model will retail for about $179, while the 128GB unit is expected to retail for under $300. Both models will begin shipping this week.

Backed with Super Talent’s 1-year warranty, the MasterDrive LX is built with NAND flash and uses a SATA-II 3Gbps interface that makes it 100% interchangeable with hard disk drives. These SSDs support sequential read speeds of up to 100 MB/sec, and sequential write speeds of up to 40 MB/sec. Integrated ECC, wear leveling and bad bit management functions dramatically improve the reliability and lifespan of these SSDs.

Corsair 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. Corsair 64GB USB Flash Voyager drives will be available immediately at a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of $249.99.

"Corsair is always developing new and exciting flash products, and the 64GB USB Flash Voyager is no exception," said John Beekley, Vice President of Applications at Corsair. "With more storage space than most laptops, we can offer a full suite of features – whether it be backing up data, building a portable media library, or simply transporting huge amounts of data." added Beekley.

Toshiba Corporation today announced enhancements to its line-up of NAND-flash-based solid state drives (SSD) with the addition of an industry-leading 256-gigabyte (GB) SSD and the launch of a series of small-sized Flash Modules for netbook computers ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) and other mobile and peripheral applications. The new drives will be showcased at the CEATEC in Makuhari, Japan, from September 30 to October 4.

The new 256GB SSD mounts NAND flash memory on a 70.6mm (L) x 53.6mm (W) x 3.0mm (H) platform. The drive offers performance characteristics essential for today’s mainstream notebook PCs: highly reliable, high density data storage and support for fast data transfer rates, with a maximum read speed of 120MB a second and maximum write speed of 70MB a second, via a high speed SATA 3.0Gb/s interface.

If you've been wanting to increased your F@H points per day or just want to upgrade the family PC this is a hard deal to pass up. Newegg has the EVGA GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB video card for sale at with free 3 day shipping. For $49.99 this graphics card will turn in a reported 4,000-5,000 points per day when running F@H, so if you want to get into folding on the cheap this is the way. The lowest price for this card on , so as you can tell this is a great deal. If you want to know how performance does check out where I benchmarked the EVGA GeFOrce 9600 GSO against the ATI Radeon HD 4670, GeForce 9600 GT and GeForce 9500 GT.

The NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GSO GPU offers a powerfully immersive entertainment experience designed for extreme high-definition gaming and video playback. Play the hottest DirectX 10 games with awesome speed and watch the latest HD DVD and Blu-ray movies with brilliant clarity. Featuring next generation GeForce and PureVideo HD technologies, the GeForce 9600 GSO GPU puts amazing graphics performance within your reach. Get the most graphics bang for your buck with a GeForce 9600 GSO GPU. With 96 processor cores supporting resolutions up to 2560x1600, PC gamers everywhere can now enjoy games at extreme HD resolutions without breaking their wallets.

rock just announced that they will be introducing nVidia’s new ‘enthusiast class’ GeForce 9800M GTX GPUs into its performance notebook ranges. Both the award winning Xtreme SL8 range, the fastest laptops in the world, and the recently unveiled X780 range, the fastest Centrino 2 notebooks in the world, will have their leading position in the market underlined with the next generation, mobile graphics technology.

Gaming has reached new heights with nVidia’s new GeForce 9800M GTX GPU’s. Specifically designed to deliver optimised performance for immersive on the go gaming, the new enthusiast class nVidia graphics empowers the rock SL8 and X780 notebook lines to storm through the latest PC games with blazing ferocity… the introduction of the new 9800M GTX GPUs also means that the SL8 and X780 ranges can boast the ultimate DX10 experience with the inclusion of nVidia’s PhysX, a powerful physics engine which enables real-time physics in leading edge PC games. PhysX provides an exponential increase in physics processing power delivering rich and engrossing gaming environments which dramatically alter the interactive entertainment experience.

Who says big cards can’t be fast? SanDisk Corporation today announced the 32-gigabyte (GB)1 SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash (CF) card, the latest addition to its award-winning SanDisk Extreme III line. Combining world-class storage capacity with fast data transfer rates, SanDisk’s new memory card is designed to meet the demands of professional digital videographers and photographers. For many cards, an increase in storage capacity often comes at a cost to speed, but the 32GB SanDisk Extreme III CF card at 30 megabytes per second (MB/s) offers customers the best of both worlds. The 32GB SanDisk Extreme III CF card has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price in the United States of $299.99 and won't be made available till next October.

“The 32GB SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash cards are a great fit for our Infinity DMC 1000/10 and DMC 1000/20 camcorders,” said Scott Sheehan, director of marketing for new and emerging markets at Thomson. “Our customers want a choice in media that meets the needs of their file-based workflows. Solid state memory provides the fastest access to such content, and with SanDisk CompactFlash it’s also affordable. Using SanDisk’s 32GB Extreme III CompactFlash card, our customers can record more than 80 minutes of 100 MB/s, 10-bit, 4:2:2 HD video at the high performance needed for today’s professional video applications.”

Western Digital announced today that they are now shipping the new backplane-compatible WD VelociRaptor hard drive. The new backplane version of the WD VelociRaptor is specifically designed for 3.5-inch drive-based servers, PC and Mac computer enthusiasts and professional workstations that require the need for a backplane structure. WD VelociRaptor (model WD3000HLFS and WD1500HLFS) hard drives are available through select resellers and distributors. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD VelociRaptor 300 GB and 150 GB are $319.00 and $229.00 respectively. Be sure to check out

“We designed the latest version of the WD VelociRaptor due to the increasing amount of systems that require a backplane mounting system. We have had overwhelming demand of our WD VelociRaptor as it provides enthusiasts with the computing speed and capacity they thirst for,” said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of WD’s enterprise solutions storage business unit. “The new WD VelociRaptor further demonstrates WD’s commitment to the enthusiast and server market by delivering the greatest performance, compatibility, and reliability of all SATA hard drives currently on the market.”

Kingston Technology announced just hours ago that they are shipping a 32GB Elite Pro SDHC Flash memory card for use with today’s digital video camcorders and other high-resolution imaging devices. The new 32GB card is the largest capacity in Kingston’s Elite Pro line of SDHC cards, which currently includes 4-, 8- and 16GB capacities. The 32GB SDHC card (Kingston part #: SD4/32GB) has a suggested price of $308.00 (MSRP U.S.).

“With the growing popularity of digital video and the HD format, consumers continue to look for ways to extend recording times and maintain fast data transfer rates (DTR) to maximize the performance of their recording device,” said Wendy Lecot, Flash business manager, Kingston®. “Our new 32GB Elite Pro SDHC memory card is optimized to meet the demands of high capacity and fast write speeds to help consumers share their lives through the use of video, photography and other creative devices. With the addition of the 32GB capacity card, Kingston is at the forefront of offering a versatile line of SDHC solutions to solve a variety of needs in today’s digital imaging world.”

Asetek's LCLC liquid cooling solution is now available for AMD's much anticipated multi-GPU cards, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 family of graphics cards (codenamed R700).

"The days of computers that sound like jet aircraft taking off are over. Our award-winning, LCLC provides worry-free, aggressive thermal management for advanced gaming and graphics-intensive applications—especially those using multiple GPUs like AMD's latest R700-based graphics cards." When used as part of a Radeon HD 4870 X2 Crossfire configuration, the LCLC product consumes only two of the four PCI slots normally used, freeing up two slots for other configuration upgrades. End users now have additional configuration flexibility.

ASUS has today introduced the graphical solution for the latest generation of AMD dual RV770XT GPUs – the ASUS EAH4870X2/HTDI/2G – equipped with double GPUs and a massive 2G of on-board memory. Additionally, the ASUS EAH4870X2 TOP will be released soon with impressive performance results to provide superb gaming performance.

In line with the Rock Solid promise of high quality from ASUS, the second versions of the EAH4870X2 Series will come with several solutions to provide top quality graphic performances. These upgraded graphics cards will utilize a specially designed fansink to effectively dissipate heat away from both GPUs – enabling much more stable performances in comparison to reference designed single fansinks*. In addition, they will also be equipped with an EMI shield, which reduces EMI Interference by 66% for more stable signals; and DIP Spring Chokes will lower temperatures by 5~10°C in comparison to traditional Toroidal Coil Chokes.

Another industry first is in the works this week during SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles—NVIDIA is demonstrating the world's first fully interactive GPU-based ray tracer. Based purely on NVIDIA GPU technology, the ray tracer shows linear scaling rendering of a highly complex, two-million polygon, anti-aliased automotive styling application. To see more pictures from the demo follow the link below to the forum!

At three bounces, performance is demonstrated at up to 30 frames per second (fps) at HD resolutions of 1920x1080 for an image-based lighting paint shader, ray traced shadows, and reflections and refractions running on four next-generation Quadro GPUs in an NVIDIA Quadro Plex 2100 D4 Visual Computing System (VCS).

Lian-Li is launching the PC-XB01 chassis for the Xbox 360 today. The XB01 is a chassis replacement for the XBox 360 chassis, which alleviates heating issues from hot components and reduces noise from vibrating optical drives in the original case design. The PC-XB01 requires DIY knowledge for the transfer of components, but once completed, heat will no longer be a factor in dampening your XBox 360 gaming experience. The Manufacturers Recommended Selling Price (MSRP) is set at $149USD and it is expected to be for sale later this month.

The Lian Li PC-XB01 is the perfect complement to the Xbox 360 to alleviate heating issues. The stylish exterior gives your product a sense of class and will fit in with almost any living room environment. Microsoft Inc is very strict on warranties, so it should be noted that you will not be able to return your product if you use the Lian Li PC-XB01 alternative. With that being said, you are less likely to have overheating.

Responding the demands of enthusiasts and high-performance mobile computing consumers, OCZ Technology has unveiled the newest addition to their industry-leading OCZ Core Series SATA II 2.5” Solid State Drives. The Core Series has established OCZ as a pioneer in the SSD market by offering consumers the benefits of solid drives technology at an affordable price. With the industry continuously shifting in this direction, OCZ strives to place its Core Series at the forefront.

Featuring new architecture, the Core Series SSD V2 will be available in up to a massive 250GB capacity and delivers enhanced speeds of up to 170 MB/s read and 98 MB/s write speeds with an improved seek time of less than 0.2-0.3ms, making the Core V2 significantly faster when it comes to both Read/Write and seek-time performance. The addition of a mini-USB port also makes it possible for customers in the field to update the Core V2’s firmware should new versions become available, to further enhance compatibility or performance with future platforms.

OCZ Technology Group late yesterday announced the ModXStream Pro, a gaming-grade power supply series that offers consumers a combination of OCZ’s cutting-edge PSU architecture and an efficient modular cable management system. Designed for enthusiasts and gamers in 400W, 500W, 600W, and 700W configurations, the ModXStream Pro is built for unparalleled stability and will provide optimal high-performance power to the latest GPUs and CPUs while promoting a tidy case environment.

The ModXStream Pro delivers OCZ excellence with the benefits of modular cables, thanks to OCZ’s “EZMod” technology, which features all detachable cables with the exception of the essential mainboard connectors. Modular cabling has emerged as the preferred design on the market with system builders and gamers utilizing the option to optimize airflow and eliminate cable mazes. ModXStream Pro PSUs are therefore equipped to allow complete customization of your power system by utilizing only the connectors you require.

Thecus recently revealed the brand new 4-bay NAS – N4100PRO. With powerful new RAID options, a built-in LCD, and vastly improved data throughput, the N4100PRO ups the ante once again with increased usability, functionality, and performance when it comes to network attached storage devices.

Powered by the AMD Geode LX800 processor and 256MB of DDR400 memory, the N4100PRO delivers the raw horsepower required to transfer files quickly and efficiently. With updated hardware and a ton of performance improvements, the data transfer speed of N4100PRO doubles that of the original N4100! Four 3.5" SATA hard disk bays enable up to 4TB of storage, and users can manage this space with an updated list of RAID mode selections, including 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD. The N4100PRO also offers advanced RAID management features, including RAID expansion and RAID level migration for ultimate flexibility. To top it off, the N4100PRO comes equipped with a big, bright LCM module, which displays useful status messages such as IP address, date and time, and RAID status, making it easy for users to keep an eye on the condition of their N4100PRO. With features like these, the N4100PRO is easier to manage than ever.

Enhancing personal expression and style, Dell today launches five bold and contemporary Special Art Edition designs for the Dell Studio 15 and 17 laptops, exclusively created by urban artist Mike Ming. Building off of the inaugural Ming art work for the Inspiron 1525 laptop, Dell extends its offering with new designs that showcase Ming’s fluid organic style. Pictured below is the red swirl, which is one of the new urban designs.

Brooklyn-based artist Mike Ming (born Michael Miyahira) blends popular culture, motion and emotion to communicate his visual world. According to Ming, "The technology behind creating Dell's Art House series of laptops allows me to share my visual creations with people who are inspired by art and who want to express their own individually unique sense of style."

Pictured below is a real production wafer of Intel Nehalem, now called Intel Core i7. Anyone with some free time want to count how many cores are there per wafer? Remember don't count the ones on the edge that ran off. Head to the forums for a closer look if you want to actually see each of the four cores per die.

I just heard yesterday that Intel Intel Dunnington processors were shipped to key channel partners for testing and validation last month and it seems that is true. One of our readers snapped this picture of a 2.6GHz Intel Dunnington processor before being installed in their system for testing. They said all their specific platform needed was a BIOS flash and this 45nm six core beast was up and running in minutes. That is good news for all of us! If any of our readers ever get any hardware before it comes to market send us a picture and we'll keep who you are private.

Lian Li has just launched the new MAXIMA Force series of Power supply units (PSU). The MAXIMA Force offers exceptional power regulation and safety features with 80 Plus certification, which is a key feature in this new green age. The nw MAXIMA Force power supplies come in 470Watts, 650Watts and 750Watts models and were designed with the enthusiast gamer in mind. When it comes to pricing the Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price is $104 on the 470W, $144 on the 650W and $177 for the 740W power supply.

MAXIMA Force complies with the newest Intel standard ATX 12V V2.3 & EPS 12V rail systems, while the environmentally friendly design for energy saving with Active PFC (>0.9) / High efficiency (>80%) complies with the best standards and allows additional full rated power draw during overclocking sessions. The PCI-E connector has bead-core protection to minimized electromagnetic interference (EMI) for a cleaner output. Unlike some PSU’s out in the market, the MAXIMA Force can support its FULL rated power output.

OCZ Technology today unveiled the latest addition to its peripherals with the Dominatrix, a top-of-the-line laser mouse for PC gamers. The OCZ Dominatrix mouse is built with the hardcore player in mind with a solid design, maximum functionality, and programmable customization unique to each user. The Dominatrix offers a competitive edge with quality ergonomics and advanced features to excel even when immersed in the most challenging gaming environments.

Gaming in extremely large resolutions and fast paced battles requires a specialized mouse that is built for comfort and speed, and Dominatrix users can fine-tune the weight and balance of their mouse up to 40 grams for ultimate control. With multiple dpi settings of 2000/1600/800/400, independently adjust both “X & Y” axes for a combined maximum of 3200 dpi for lightning fast responsiveness and fluid gameplay. High speed USB 2.0 delivers a poll rate up to 500Hz and bi-directional connection for breakneck acceleration and control in any first-person shooter.

Palit just announced an SLI-ready GeForce 9500 GT series graphics cards that stands out from the crowd. The Palit GeForce 9500 GT is a dual slot graphics card that is passively cooled for complete silence. This is a big bonus for those building a HTPC or something where noise would be a concern. All together Palit has three GeForce 9500 GT video cards to pick from, so they have a card for whatever needs you have.

Designed by Palit’s own engineers, Palit GeForce 9500 GT graphics solutions are passively cooled for silent operation. In addition to ultra quiet operation, the Palit GeForce 9500 GT operates at a core frequency of 550MHz. There are three different board designs available including the Palit GeForce 9500 GT SUPER 512MB and SUPER+ 1GB with DDR2 at 800 MHz and the Palit GeForce 9500 GT with 256 MB of ultra fast GDDR3 at 1,600 MHz.

Walton Chaintech just announced the GeForce 9 series GSE9500GT DDR3 512MB graphics card, the officially appointed gaming graphics card for the famous game C.S. On-Line in Taiwan. CHAINTECH GSE9500GT is the mainstream graphics card not only geared by the latest NVIDIA GeForce series core G96 technology but with an easier price tag, providing consumers a two-times more exciting visual experience than its prior version.

Performing exceptional visual computing ability, GSE9500GT is with 550MHz core memory clock and GDDR3 memory clock of 1600 MHZ, CHAINTECH GSE9500GT owns 32 Stream Processing Units with 512MB GDDR3 Memory, exhibits the high processing power and extreme bandwidth via PCI Express 2.0. The overall presentation of CHAINTECH GSE9500GT is indeed beyond just mainstream but with more hard-core level of graphics performance.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) has revealed the latest GeForce 9800 GTX+ Hydra Pack to meet the requirement from performance-hungry gamers. With two N9800GTX+-512MX-W graphics cards, ECS Hydra Cooling System, and plenty of accessories bundled in a package, unprecedented gaming performance is now available via the power of multi-GPUs.

Delivering better cooling efficiency up to 18.7%, ECS Hydra Cooling System proves that a graphics card with amazing performance doesn’t always come with annoying heat, not to mention the bothering noise generated by the fan especially while using dual graphics cards for better graphics performance. Working closely with Thermaltake, the most famous brand in thermal solution, ECS GeForece 9800 GTX+ Hydra Pack adopts Thermaltake’s BigWater 760i liquid cooling system to providing a stable and quiet gaming environment for gamers. Heat and noise can be left behind from now on.

Walton Chaintech Corporation announced this morning the APOGEE GT Blazer DDR3 1800 4GB Low Voltage memory kit. Supporting EPP 2.0 as well, APOGEE GT Blazer DDR3 1800 4GB kit attains the lowest voltage of 1.8V compared with other memory modules of similar speed in current market place for more power saving operation, and longer product life. The patent-pending Cool It Smart heatsink design is interesting to say the least as it connects each module to a heat sink that sits above them.

What makes this memory module a true DDR3 masterpiece? It performs not only high data rate but also is of low voltage as 1.8v to achieve a beautiful balance between higher system performance and reliability. Dual modules packaged in 4GB kit, APOGEE GT DDR3 1800 of CL latency of 8-8-8-24 can be easily utilized for increasing the operation efficiency for power users. APOGEE GT Blazer DDR3 1800 4GB kit has earned a performance over 28.8GB/sec on the EVEREST Memory bandwidth read and write test, providing the excellent level professional memory product quality. In addition, in accordance to the high speed of 1800MHz, the cooling performance is particularly enhanced by its famous bridge-alike, patent-pending Cool It Smart heatsink design.

Corsair just announced the immediate availability of a new DOMINATOR DDR3 memory kit running at 2133MHz. The launch of this memory kit, the TW3X2G2133C9DF, makes it the world’s fastest DDR3 memory solution in production volume. The new DOMINATOR TW3X2G2133C9DF kit is now available in stock for $575 at select Corsair retailers.

The TW3X2G2133C9DF DOMINATOR modules represent the very best of Corsair’s cutting edge technology in DDR3 overclocking and gaming memory. Ultra fast, selected DRAM chips are housed in Corsair’s proprietary Dual-Path Heat Xchange Cooling Technology (DHX) -used in Dell, HP and Alienware gaming systems- for striking speed and performance. The new DOMINATOR TW3X2G2133C9DF memory kit unleashes the high performance potential of NVIDIA 790i-based platforms.

Western Digital Announces 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor Hard Drive for Enterprise Users

Western Digital announced today the WD VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM enterprise SATA hard drives in an enterprise-class 2.5-inch form factor for blade servers and 1U and 2U rack servers. The newest WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built for business-critical applications with enterprise-class mechanics and packs up to 300 GB of capacity into the enterprise small form factor bays, while consuming 35 percent less power than the previous-generation WD Raptor drive. I reviewed the VelociRaptor back in April and found it to be a great drive, so be sure to check out if you haven't already.

“WD is bringing to enterprise customers what PC enthusiasts already appreciate about the WD VelociRaptor: a combination of high performance and high capacity for hard drive storage,” said John Rydning, IDC's research director for hard disk drives. “WD's new WD VelociRaptor, designed specifically for the enterprise in an energy efficient 2.5-inch form factor, gives system OEMs and end users a new storage option to consider to meet growing storage requirements.”

Lancool must be launching a dozen new cases as it seems I get a press release from them at least twice a week. This time around they have announced the K12 Midi-Tower Chassis. We asked Lancool when these would be available and they informed us that they would start shipping them from Taiwan at the end of July. When it comes to pricing the MSRP is $160, so start saving now if you want one in the coming weeks.

This is a Midi-Tower case with 9x 5.25” bays giving you plenty of options and tonnes of room. The strength of the Lancool series lies not only in the structure, but also in the features, which include support for the modular patented anti-vibration HDD cage, supporting 3x HDD’s. Each HDD is mounted with a special thumbscrew and rubber grommet to ensure that HDD’s are secure and vibration free. The modular cage can be secured as you see fit within the roomy interior of the case. It has a120mm fan mounted into the bracket, making sure that the HDD’s are cooled and that air flow is optimal according to your needs. Incorporating outstanding quality and craftsmanship; the Lancool series have a steel inner-core, making them stronger than all-aluminum chassis, but also considerably cheaper.

Super Talent Technology recently announced that the company has dramatically improved the write speeds of its MasterDrive DX, MasterDrive KX and MasterDrive MX solid state drives (SSDs) thanks to a minor firmware update. These three series of SSDs already boast exceptionally fast read speeds of up to 120 MB/sec. But, fast write speeds are important in applications such as video editing and encoding, image processing, compressing and extracting files, installing applications and copying files to the drive. These newly revised SSDs categorically outpace the fastest hard drives in the world.

“Our expert engineering team is constantly discovering new ways to improve our products, and this is one improvement that will be well received by power laptop users”, commented Super Talent Director of Marketing, Joe James. “We continue our relentless drive to add performance, features and value to our SSDs while driving the price down”, Mr. James added.

A long time friend in the industry tipped me off about Danamics long ago and sent me the company logo before the site was even online. Fast forward a few months and they have announced the LM10, which is said to be the the first liquid metal-based cooler to hit the market. Danamics claims that it will do a better job at keeping your CPU cool than most water-based cooling systems that come in a kit. That's apparently possible thanks to a combination of liquid metal (the exact specifics of which seem to be under wraps) and the 'multi-string' electromagnetic pump that keeps things flowing.

Danamics ApS is a leading manufacturer of liquid metal based cooling solutions. The company was founded in 2005 and our headquarters are placed in Nørresundby, Denmark. The technology is described in parts containing information about the unique electromagnetic pump with its patent pending multi-string design and the liquid metal with its superior thermo physical characteristics.

AMD today reported second quarter 2008 revenue from continuing operations of $1.349 billion, a seven percent decrease compared to the first quarter of 2008 and a three percent increase compared to the second quarter of 2007. As part of its previously communicated review of its non-core businesses, AMD decided to divest its Handheld and DTV product businesses, and therefore is classifying them as discontinued operations for financial reporting.

In the second quarter of 2008, AMD reported a net loss of $1.189 billion, or $1.96 per share. For continuing operations, the second quarter loss was $269 million, or $0.44 per share, and the operating loss was $143 million. The results for continuing operations include a net favorable impact of $97 million, or $0.16 per share as described in the table below. Loss from discontinued operations was $920 million, or $1.52 a share, including asset impairment charges of $876 million, or $1.44 a share.

Kingston Technology today announced the addition of 8GB microSD High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash memory cards to its mobile memory storage line. Shipping immediately, the new 8GB microSDHC cards offer greater storage options to the latest mobile phones and digital devices in the smallest footprint available. The new microSDHC 8GB card, Kingston part number #: (SDC4/8GB) has a suggested price of $58.00 in the United States.

The microSDHC format is emerging as the predominant mobile memory standard as more handset manufacturers, including HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, and Samsung, embrace it with compatible mobile phones. Recent models tested with the new Kingston 8GB microSDHC card include the BlackBerry Pearl 8120; the LG evV2 (VX9100) and Voyager (VX10000); as well as the Samsung BlackJack II (i617) and Glyde (U940).

The Toshiba Qosmio x305 Gaming Notebook Pictured

Toshiba has some great looking notebooks in the Qosmio series, both in terms of the internal hardware and the overall look of the notebook. The Toshiba Qosmio x305 notebook will be released in mid-July and is already making ripples in the industry ever since it was announced and posted on the Toshiba website. The graphics on the Qismio x305 will be powered by the yet to be announced NVIDIAGeForce 9800M GTX graphics card, which has 1GB of video memory. For those that still want to game, but save some hard earned dollars we overheard that consumers can customize the notebook with the less expensive GeForce 9700M GT graphics card rather than the GeForce 9800M GTX. NVIDIA hasn't said much about this un-released graphics card, but they did have the Toshiba Qosmio x305 notebook on display at a Microsoft Corporation event this week called the Games for Windows Presents: The Big Picture.

The Toshiba Qosmio x305 notebook was spotted doing what it does best, playing games on the Windows operating system. What else would you expect from a Microsoft event? Notice the four sweet looking Harman Kardon stereo speakers located at each corner around the keyboard. The features of the notebook are impressive as you can see from the list below.

• 3GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme dual-core Processor
• NVIDIA Geforce 9800M GTX graphics with 1GB RAM
• Up to 4GB DDR3 RAM (This is a Montevina platform)
• Dual 200GB 7200rpm hard drives
• 17in 1680x1050 resolution (WSXGA+)
• HDMI and S/PDIF outputs
• 4.1-channel Harmon Kardon speakers

The red flame finish on the Qosmio x305 is slick looking to say the least as you can see for yourself in the picture above. Toshiba hopes that gamers will flock to the notebook as it is based on a newer platform than competitors like Dell with the M1730 gaming notebook. With new features like DDR3 memory and the latest and greatest chipsets, video cards and processors they just might pull it off!

Here we have a picture of NVIDIA's notebook master Rick Allen (PR Manager, Notebooks and Multimedia) showing off his skills on the unreleased PC game Devil May Cry 4 by Capcom (Check out the PC Demo here). Devil May Cry 4 will have both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 modes, and will also be compliant with the Games For Windows program. NVIDIA had the game running in DirectX 10 mode on the Qosmio x305 at the event.

To conclude this exclusive look at the Toshiba Qosimo x305 notebook we give you Cyntiha (NVIDIA PR Coordinator) and the Toshiba Qosimo x305. Now that is what we call a sexy looking notebook! It looks like Toshiba will be the talk of gamers this summer with the Qosimo x305 sure to turn some heads! The combination of Intel Core 2 Extreme processors along with NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX graphics is sure to create some buzz. The Toshiba Qosimo x305 is set for release on July 14th, 2008 with prices starting at around $3500 USD.

OCZ Technology just announced the expansion of its gaming peripherals under a new “Alchemy” line, with the introduction of the Elixir keyboard series for highly advanced functionality in game-play. Featuring a wealth of user-friendly features combined with an ergonomic and sturdy design, the Elixir keyboard will deliver a unique combination of performance and vale to gamers as they blaze through the latest PC titles. The Elixir keyboards feature a MSRP of $29.99. While we are on the subject of OCZ, we would like to note that one of our sources gave us wrong information this week and that OCZ has not laid off people in sales and marketing. OCZ said that they have actually hired people in sales and marketing recently. Our apologies to OCZ for not verifying the rumor before commenting on it. We have since removed our comments from the news post in question.

“The new Alchemy line from OCZ is designed to offer gamers quality gaming solutions that deliver both exceptional performance and value,” said Eugene Chang, Product Manager of the OCZ Technology Group. “Just because gamers have a budget doesn’t mean they shouldn’t enjoy premium gaming features, and our first Alchemy solution the Elixir gaming keyboard is designed with quality ergonomics and offers efficient game-play with programmable macro keys.”

This morning Lian Li announced the PC- K1 and PC-K1 Pro computer cases under the Lancool brand. Both of these Lancool series cases have a steel inner-core, making them 40% stronger than all-aluminum chassis, but also considerably cheaper, and while the frame is heavy(7.2kg), it is not so heavy as a standard metal chassis. The design looks pretty sweet and hte case is aimes at the DIY gamer.

There are many unique touches that make Lancool products stand out as an executive upper-class chassis. Those features include an all aluminum chassis exterior, giving the case the traditional hair-line brushed finish with black anodizing, while the internals have finely honed edges to keep up high safety standards. The PC-K1 Pro has an all white interior finish, ideal for reflecting light with LED’s. There is one 14cm Blue LED fan in the front, and one 12cm Blue LED fan at the rear of the chassis maintaining the high quality but incorporating a colorful option for the gaming enthusiast.

Seagate today unveiled the industry’s first 1.5-terabyte desktop and half-terabyte notebook hard drives to meet explosive worldwide demand for digital-content storage in home and business environments. The debut of the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB hard drive, the eleventh generation of Seagate’s flagship drive for desktop PCs, marks the single largest capacity hard drive jump in the more than half-century history of hard drives – a half-terabyte increase from the previous highest capacity of 1TB, thanks to the capacity-boosting power of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. Shipments of the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB are set to begin August 2008. Momentus 5400.6 and 7200.4 hard drives are to begin shipping in Q4 calendar 2008, so don't expect to order one next week.

Momentus 5400.6 and Momentus 7200.4 hard drives are the fourth generation of Seagate’s laptop family to use PMR. The Momentus 5400.6, a 5400-rpm drive, combines a powerful Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface and capacities ranging from 120GB to 500GB with an 8MB cache. The Momentus 7200.4 hard drive, with its 7200-rpm spin speed and a Serial ATA 3GB/second interface, delivers true desktop performance. The power-efficient 7200-rpm drive maximizes battery life and comes in capacities ranging from 250GB to 500GB with a 16MB cache.

Kingston Technology just announced that they are shipping HyperX 800MHz low-latency DDR2 SO-DIMM notebook memory kits in 2- and 4GB capacities. The latest offering provides mobile computer users an even greater performance and flexibility option as the SO-DIMMs are pre-programmed with three serial presence detect (SPD) profiles, allowing the memory to work in 800MHz-CL5, 667MHZ-CL4 and 533MHz-CL3 low-latency configurations.

The Kingston 3GB Kit HyperX 667MHz (Part Number KHX5300S2LLK2/3G) has memory timings of 4-4-4-12 at 1.8V and has an MSRP of just $102.50. The Kingston 3GB Kit HyperX 800MHz Low Latency (Part Number KHX6400S2LLK2/3G) has memory timings of 5-5-5-18 at 1.8V and has an MSRP of just $106.25.

Albatron Technology recently unveiled three new "PCI" graphics cards at Computex 2008. The PCI8600GT-256X, the PCI8500GT-256X and the PCI8400GS-256 are all brand new graphics cards that retrofit recent GeForce 8 Series graphics onto older PCI technology. These cards all offer a significant graphics boost along with dual monitor capabilities for an entire generation of integrated-graphics, PCI-only mainboards.

It's a little known fact that there have been millions of Mainboards mass produced in the last 7 years with AGP and PCI Express slots left off in favor of integrated graphics only. Although these mainboards have the traditional PCI-slots, they have been deprived of a chance to upgrade to the latest graphics technology which is almost exclusively for PCI Express these days. The best alternative to experience the latest graphics was for a complete systems overhaul - that is, until now. Albatron has answered the call with its PCI based VGA cards featuring recent NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series graphics technology. These cards allow these mainboards a chance to make a significant jump from integrated graphics without investing time and money in a whole new system.