OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today unveiled the OCZ Onyx SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, an ultra-affordable MultiLevel Cell (MLC)-based solid state storage solution designed for consumers looking to take advantage of flash-based storage technology. Offering a faster and more durable alternative to traditional hard drives in a cost-efficient SSD, the Onyx delivers reliable performance without the high price normally associated with SSD drives.

"As new technologies become available, OCZ continues to expand both our enterprise and consumer SSD lines, and one of our goals is to make SSDs more affordable to end-users. Our new Onyx series SSD does exactly that and is a perfect solution for netbooks, laptops, or home desktop PCs," commented Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "Designed to offer the best of both worlds, the new OCZ Onyx SSD delivers the speed and reliability of solid state storage to mainstream consumers at an aggressive price point that makes the technology more accessible to customers who want to take advantage of all the benefits of the SSDs without incurring the high cost normally associated with the solution."

Buffalo Technology released its newest line of portable hard drives, the HD-PVRU2 series. While the drive looks like almost any other portable hard drive from Buffalo, for a change it has a rugged matte finish. The HD-PVRU2 comes in capacities of 320 GB and 500 GB. It measures 81 (W) x 16 (H) x 130 (D) mm, and weighs 190 g. It draws power from, and connects to the system using USB 2.0 interface. A proprietary Turbo USB technology aims to squeeze the most out of USB 2.0, with some higher transfer speeds. The bundled ecoManager software spins down the drive when idle. The 320GB and 500GB models will be priced at $100 and $150, respectively, in Japan.


Source: TechConnect Magazine

Other World Computing, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today its OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini is the first 2.5" 1TB "Quad Interface" bus powered portable storage solution on the market and available for immediate ordering with 10 models priced from $119.99. Featuring a "Quad Interface" of FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0, and eSATA interface connectivity for data transfer speeds up to 300MB/s, the fanless Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini delivers high performance storage/backup to Mac or PC users in a portable, brushed aluminum, no AC adapter required Plug and Play footprint.


In addition to the new 1TB model, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini is available in nine other "Quad Interface" models offering a variety of speed, capacity, and drive type options:

ASUS announced the launch of the ASUS Cine5 PC speaker which provides accurate 5-channel surround sound in personalized spaces such as study rooms. With its all-in-one design, the Cine5 delivers realistic and dynamic surround sound to satisfy consummate gamers and personal entertainment users. To deliver exceptionally full sound from a compact form factor, ASUS drew on its expertise in high-performance audio cards during the development.

The Cine5 is the first PC speaker in the world to offer leading surround sound presence with the new "Embracing Sound Theatre HD" technology. This patented technology leverages on a discrete 5-channel output to deliver full audio surround, which users can experience whenever they are directly in front of the speaker. In a First Player Shooter game, the Cine5 provides precise sound location that improves shooting accuracy and heightens gaming thrills. The Cine5 also revives 5-channel audio from any down-mixed 2-channel source—for a high-fidelity, multi-channel sound during PC gaming or movie sessions.

Czech technology website PCTuning confirmed a few details about NVIDIA's upcoming performance graphics accelerator, the GeForce GTX 470. It was found out that a beta driver by NVIDIA, GeForce 196.78 supports GeForce 400 series accelerators, and was able run a qualification sample of GeForce GTX 470. The card was using A3 revision GF100 silicon. The driver's System Information dialog revealed that the card indeed has 448 CUDA cores (SIMD units). Further, it has 1280 MB of memory, and a 320-bit wide memory interface. NVIDIA also changed the way it represents memory clock speeds. Since it is using GDDR5 memory, while the memory has an actual clock speed of 1000 MHz, the data rate (DDR speed) is represented first, as 2000 MHz, and "effective speed" next, which is 4000 MHz.

Given these speeds, at 1000 MHz GDDR5, the GPU has a memory bandwidth of 160 GB/s. Without compromise on looks and quality, NVIDIA kept the cooler design basic. It has a matte finish. Display outputs include two DVI-D, and one mini HDMI. It supports NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround (a technology competitive to ATI Eyefinity, to span a display head across multiple physical displays), just that NVIDIA requires at least two accelerators in SLI to use it. NVIDIA's GeForce 400 series graphics accelerators will be launched on the 26th of this month.


Source: PCTuning

For those with the passion to discover, imagine and create the future, "on-the-go" access to workstation-class computing provides the freedom to work wherever inspiration strikes. This passion to create is why Dell continues to push the boundaries of workstation performance and mobility with the announcement today of the world's most powerful 15.6-inch mobile workstation¹-the Dell Precision M4500.

The Dell Precision M4500 joins Dell's family of mobile workstations, which includes the world's most powerful 17 inch mobile workstation, the Dell Precision M6500. The new mobile workstation is designed to liberate creative professionals, designers, animators, engineers and research scientists from their desks. The M4500 also supports the missions of defense customers who require mobile workstation performance and security, including authentication and data encryption, when in the field.

The controversy surrounding Newegg's shipment of counterfeit Intel Core i7 920 processors to some customers has finally met its logical conclusion, with Newegg disposing facts and making great headway in resolving the issue with affected customers. In a statement to HardOCP.com, Newegg said that it is conducting a thorough investigation in collaboration with Intel and law-enforcement agencies, to get to the bottom of how counterfeit merchandise could get into its supply chain.

Another major revelation here is that Newegg named IPEX as the supplier behind the merchandise, and not another supplier called D&H Distributing, which the media was fairly confident in alleging for this controversy. The said company earlier issued cease and desist orders to those media sources for misinformation and wrongfully dragging it into the issue.

The supplier, IPEX, had initially told Newegg that it had accidentally shipped "demo boxes", a keyword Newegg adopted in its initial press statement and communications to affected customers. In course of time, it was found out that these so-called demo boxes indeed were counterfeits. Newegg has terminated its business relations with IPEX. Sections of the media which named D&H Distributing in the controversy tendered their apologies.

Source: HardOCP.com

Silicon Power, one of the world's leading flash memory manufacturers announced today (3/9) the "Metal Aesthetic" Touch 830. The design of Touch 830 inherits Silicon Power's Touch series good looks, class and ultra thin design. However, the new Touch 830 has been given an extra touch of Northern European flavor. Combining art and technology, its design features icy-silver casing, natural looks and simplicity, it complies with Europe designer's conception of "A Mature Design is the Perfection Design". The simplicity and humble design of Touch 830 reflects the Northern European's way of life, attracting just the right amount of attention while keeping it simple and elegant.

For the perfect combination of looks and function practicality, the Touch 830 utilizes a reinforced one-body stainless steel casing construction. The one body construction allows for a small and rugged design. Practicality wise, the Touch 830 is plug and play compatible, users need not push lids, slide lids or supply additional power to operate. It is light, ultra small and comes with a jewelry lace for users to carry. Especially suited for people constantly on the go, Silicon Power's Touch 830 is available up to 16 GB of storage space so users can store data at will. For users who fancy the Northern European styling, Silicon Power's Touch 830 is the perfect storage you just got to get your hands on.

Following the successful launch of the ultrathin and light Vostro V13, Dell is offering business customers even more choice with the stylish Vostro 3000 series - a range of new thin, lightweight and durable laptop computers. Featuring powerful processors, high-end graphics and built-in security, the Vostro 3000 series is designed for small businesses that require robust mobile computing solutions.

Today's SMBs and entrepreneurs want notebooks that are powerful and attractive, and the new Vostro 3000 series was designed to meet and exceed both those needs. For the most demanding tasks, the Vostro 3000 series sports the latest powerful Intel Core processor technology, including, the optional, Core i7 Quad Core processor available on the Vostro 3700. For those that demand portability and productivity, the Vostro 3300 is one of the industry's thinnest commercial 13" laptop with an integrated optical drive. For those that can't afford to be chained to their desks, the 14" Vostro 3400 offers a full day of mobile productivity with up to 8 hours of battery life with an optional 9-cell battery.

A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd., the worldwide leader in DRAM memory and Flash application products, today announced the addition of microSDHC Class 10 memory cards to its product lineup. Besides high capacity, this new Class 10 card further brings users with unrivaled data transfer performance, providing a total upgrade solution ideal for the latest generation of mobile phones that come with a card slot.

Compliant with the SD Association Specification v3.00 to meet Class 10 requirements, A-DATA microSDHC Class 10 memory cards outperform others by delivering up to 16 MB/s in read and 10 MB/s in write, which is 1.6 times faster than the preceding Class 6 cards. Such impressive performance allows users to be able to enjoy the versatility and advanced multimedia features of the prevailing smartphones; recording continuous high-definition videos, transferring music files or running multiple applications on mobile devices cannot get any easier with the new speed class offered by A-DATA.

According to industry sources, motherboard major Gigabyte is closing the gap between it and ASUS in terms of motherboard shipments, so much so, that the two industry giants could entangle in a price-war. Gigabyte's shipments are estimated by market observers to have reached 3.1 to 3.3 million in the first two months of 2010, while that of ASUS for the same period were estimated to be 3.2 to 3.3 million.

To maintain its vulnerable lead, ASUS may shortly cut prices across the board and that could trigger a price-war in the motherboard industry, say sources in channel vendors. ASUS is currently planning to reshuffle some of its staff in the motherboard business unit. While ASUS refused to comment in this issue, Gigabyte said that the estimates concerning it are very close to the company's internal figures.

Source: DigiTimes

ASUS has unveiled a comprehensive suite of portable, multimedia, and productivity solutions that places it at the forefront of cloud computing. ASUS strives to offer optimized cloud computing experiences by harnessing innovation and a broad range of cloud-enabled solutions. Professionals can enhance their productivity with access to real-time applications while on the go. At home, the entire family can enjoy rich multimedia entertainment with cloud-optimized solutions and services.

MSI's X-Slim X360, with the Intel Arrandale ULV processor, comes equipped with the Intel Core i5 processor with Intel's Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading technology for excellent processing performance and up to 9 hours of battery life. Graced with MSI's exclusive stylish rhombic pattern, the X360 is the apex in slim computer technology.

The X360, the latest step in the evolution of MSI's beautiful X-Slim series of notebooks, comes with the Intel Arrandale ULV processor to provide outstanding performance with a longer-lasting, more environmentally friendly battery. The X360 comes with the Intel Core i5 processor with Intel Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading technology. The Intel HM55 chipset gives the X360 high-quality audio/video performance and 9 hours of ultra-long battery life.

Following the success of the original DT heat-pipe TherMax series, we're proudly introducing the TherMax Eclipse II. Powered by Innovation and with awesome looks this CPU Cooler is one supreme performer. Equipped with five 8mm Direct Touch U-Shaped sintered powder heat-pipes combined with black-nickel coated stamped heat-sink fins to best preserve killer looks. The TherMax Eclipse II is ready to best cool the extreme hot 130W to 150W Micro-processors made by Intel and AMD.

Universally compatible with the Intel 1156/1366/775 platforms in combination with the AMD AM3/AM2/940/939 platforms giving professionals and gamers a huge scope to utilize this impressive Diablo. Another welcome new feature are the possibility of mounting two fans simultaneously for even better cooling results. Simply installed with the included Anti-vibe rubber fan mounts installation is made tool-free and easy. This towering cooler is build to deliver the best thermal performance - guaranteed.

Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac. Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April. "As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

OCZ Technology has been working on a storage solution that takes advantage of the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface for a while. It's just got a little closer to seeing the light of the day at CeBIT. The OCZ Enyo is a device that's roughly the size of a compact portable HDD that you can carry in your pocket, except that it's a flash-based device, and uses USB 3.0. The Enyo offers data storage in three capacities (variants): 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB. It measures 56 x 120 x 10 mm, and relies on the USB 3.0 interface for power and connectivity. Being a flash-based solid state storage device, it is expected to have high transfer speeds, and inherently, the incentive of low access times and higher durability since it lacks moving parts. Back in January, on the occasion of CES, in a preview by LegitReviews, working prototypes the device was found to offer read-write speeds of 188.2 MB/s (read) and 130 MB/s (write). CAD drawings of the Enyo with its logo emerged.


Source: ATIForum.de

After last week's report on some of Newegg.com's customers receiving what the store calls "demo boxes" that it described to have been accidentally shipped by one of its "long term partners", Intel stepped in with a clarification on how it looks at these anomalies. In a statement to HardOCP.com, Intel's Dan Snyder said "Intel has been made aware of the potential for counterfeit i7 920 packages in the marketplace and is working to how many and/or where they are being sold. The examples we have seen are not Intel products but are counterfeits. Buyers should contact their place of purchase for a replacement and/or should contact their local law enforcement agency if the place of purchase refuses to help."

The "examples" Intel is referring to in the statement are these so-called "demo boxes", apparently 300 of them, which could be out on the loose. Meanwhile, Newegg.com is making efforts to get in touch with each of the affected customers and rush-delivering genuine merchandise or providing 100% refund, depending on what the customer chooses. While the whole episode seems to have taken a toll on Newegg's image as one of the most reliable, efficient, and competitive online retailers which it built over years, in the line of fire seems to be its "long term partner", a certain distributor in charge of these Intel processors. The same company sent cease and desist letters to some online publications to withdraw their reports on this issue, blaming them for publishing "untrue statements" about it. However Intel's statement adds clarity to the issue. Indeed some customers may have received "counterfeits", and indeed there are no such things as "demo boxes", at least as far as Intel is concerned. That said, whoever is behind these "demo boxes" still stands to face the law for infringement and imitation of Intel's product design, and trying to profit from it.


Sources: HardOCP.com, TechEYE.net

Sceptre, world class manufacturers of high-quality TV and PC monitors, has just released its 27-inchtrue 1080p LCD widescreen PC monitors featuring industry-impressive 60,000:1 contrast ratios and ultra-fast 2 ms response times for a morerealistic and advanced PC gaming experience.

"In the crowded LCD display space, the jaw-dropping performance and stylish design of our monitors are second to none," said Cathy Chou, vice president of operations, Sceptre. "Specifically designed for the PC gaming community, the unparalleled quality of our high-def monitors creates a more life-like gaming experience that is a cut above the rest. Plus,its energy saving attributes make gamers feel better about indulging in their favorite pastime."

Intel is set to introduce a series of eight-core Xeon server processors later this month, that are capable of running in four-socket servers. With HyperThreading technology enabled, each core can handle two threads, taking the logical CPU count on such servers up to 64. Each Nehalem-EX chip has 8 CPU cores with dedicated L2 caches of 256 KB, a shared L3 cache of 24 MB, and Turbo Boost technology that helps conserve power while also stepping up performance when needed. The die also features a memory controller with four DDR3 memory channels. Being based on the Nehalem architecture, the chips are built on the 45 nm HKMG process.

In related news, Intel will also introduce Westmere-EP processors later this month. These chips will be based on the 32 nm Westmere architecture, and are likely to have 6 cores, up to 12 logical CPUs per chip, 12 MB of L3 cache and three DDR3 memory channels. These chips will be suited for two-socket servers and workstations.


Source: PC World

Without making much noise, Acer introduced its new D241H LCD monitor. This one stands out of being yet another 24" HD-ready PC display, in having its own instant-on operating system, and WiFi. Its built in OS lets you do some very basic tasks such as web-browsing, media playback (music and videos), and browsing through photos, without needing a PC. It can connect to the internet over both wired Ethernet and WiFi. As a monitor, the 24-inch panel has a native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels with a response time of 2 ms, and dynamic contrast ratio of 80,000:1. Display inputs include DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. Other accessories built into it include a 2-port USB 2.0 hub and a multi-format memory card reader - both of which are of use to its OS, and can also be used by the PC it's connected to. Alas for what this 'monitor' is trying to be, a built-in webcam, and speakers are missing (standard issue on many premium displays). Pricing and availability are not known as yet. Finer details can be found on the product page.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading manufacturer of world class NAS servers, NVR Video Surveillance Systems, and Network-based Video Players today expanded their popular Business Series Turbo NAS lineup with two new 1U rack-mounted, 4-drive models, the TS-459U-RP and TS-459U-SP. These new models, with up to 8TB of storage (using 2TB hard drives), have been certified as compatible with VMware's vSphere4 (ESX 4.0) virtualization platform, ideal for departmental file sharing, storage, and advanced server applications in the office environment. VMware's vSphere is the industry's first cloud operating system that offers a way to reduce IT costs and increase responsiveness. Shared networked storage is an essential component of a cloud computing infrastructure. The TS-459U-RP and TS-459U-SP incorporate the Intel Atom D-510 1.66Ghz dual-core processor and feature 1GB of DDRII RAM , delivering exceptional performance and high reliability for multiple concurrent tasks and intensive data transfer with lower power consumption. Businesses of all sizes are able to enjoy the interoperability between VMware virtual machines and QNAP high performance storage to take the advantages of VMware cloud computing environments.

In ASUS' latest entry into its EeeBox series of nettops, the company adds support for USB 3.0, with the unit featuring two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports. The EeeBox EB1501U is about the shape and size of any variant in its series. It uses first-generation NVIDIA ION platform, with Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor, 2 GB of DDR2 memory, GeForce 9400M graphics, 320 GB hard drive, slot-in DVD writer, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and a USB 3.0 controller. Other connectivity features include eSATA, USB 2.0, and display connectivity including HDMI and D-Sub.


Source: Engadget

AMD today announced that, along with partners Pixelux Entertainment and Bullet Physics, it has added significant support to the Open Physics ecosystem by providing game developers with access to the newest version of the Pixelux Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), a breakthrough in physics simulation. In addition, to enabling a superior development experience and helping to reduce time to market, Pixelux has tightly integrated its technology, DMM, with Bullet Physics, allowing developers to integrate physics simulation into game titles that run on both OpenCL- and DirectCompute-capable platforms. And both DMM and Bullet work with Trinigy's Vision Engine to create and visualize physics offerings in-game.

"Establishing an open and affordable physics development environment is an important accomplishment for both game developers and gamers, signaling a move away from exclusionary or proprietary approaches," said Eric Demers, chief technology officer, AMD Graphics Division. "Not only does the integration of Bullet Physics into partner middleware help drive broader adoption of physics in games, it ensures that when those games are released, all gamers, regardless of the hardware in their PC, can benefit from the more realistic experience enabled by those effects."

OEM major Foxconn made additions to its own channel brand of motherboards with two Digital Lifes series models based on the AMD 890GX chipset, supporting socket AM3 processors. The nearly identical Foxconn Digital Life A9DA-S and A9DA (pictured in the same order below), are ATX boards building on the features the chipset provides. The CPU is powered by an 8-phase VRM. The AMD 890GX embeds an ATI Radeon HD 4290 class IGP with 128 MB (+UMA) SidePort memory and connectivity which includes DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI.

Expansion slots include two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8 when both are populated), PCI-E x1, and PCI. The SB850 southbridge gives out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Other standard features include 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The A9DA-S is the more premium variant, it has a heatsink over the CPU VRM, and a VIA 2-port FireWire controller. The two should be available in stores soon.


Source: TechConnect Magazine

Active Media Products, manufacturer of SSDs and endangered species USB drives, today released new 32GB and 64GB 1.8-inch PATA ZIF SSDs that support read speeds up to 100MB/sec and, thanks to their DRAM cache, reach write speeds up to 85MB/sec. These new Turbo ZIF SSDs are available now through Amazon.

With no moving parts, SaberTooth ZT is rugged enough for use in industrial, embedded and network computing applications where a very compact yet high speed storage solution is needed. Its PATA / IDE ZIF interface supports PIO mode 4 and UDMA mode 6. It also supports SMART commands. The ZT includes excellent ECC, wear leveling and bad block management technologies that improve reliability and extend endurance. These drives have the same physical dimensions as industry standard 1.8-inch HDDs, measuring only 2.8 x 2.1 x 0.2 inches (71 x 54 x 5 mm), making them an easy plug-in replacement in many laptops and netbooks.