Scythe announces the availability of new pc accessories Scythe Ninja Wire and Slim-Line SATA Cable. The Ninja Wire is a slim steel wire rope with hooks on both ends, with which you can stabilize particularly heavy components inside the computer, like heavy-weight cpu coolers or graphic cards. Thus, the burden of the motherboard is decreased and even cpu coolers like the Scythe Orochi can be installed without worries. An ultimate load of 2 kg and a length of 1 m enable multiple types of usage even outside the pc case, e.g. hanging or crabbing of random objects. The Ninja Wire is available from now on and is offered at a recommended retail price of 5.90 EUR (excluding VAT) or US$ 8.50 (excluding TAX).

With the Slim-Line SATA Cable, you get a cable that is designed for data transfer and as an adapter. The 45-cm-long cable is suitable for usage in htpcs, for instance, and connects the sata-slot of the motherboard with an installed slim-line drive. Consequently, you can from now on connect this popular type of drives with the sata-slot with ease, which allows running it with every current motherboard. The power connection, which you need to run the drive, is integrated in the cable. The speed of the data connection is 3 GBit/s. The Slim-Line SATA Cable receives a recommended retail price of 4.15 EUR (excluding VAT) or US$ 5.50 (excluding TAX). and is in stores now.

Solid-state drive specialist PhotoFast innovated an easy RAID builder solution, which doesn't boast of being an expansion card, and doesn't require additional drivers from the OS. The G-Monster Evolution "Simple RAID Adapter", is a small orange PCB with SATA II and power input on one side, and two sets of SATA II data and power connections on the other. Users can connect two hard drives or SSDs to the device, and connect the device like any other hard drive, to the computer's storage controller. The RAID array the device builds using the member drives connected to it, remains abstract to the host machine, which sees it as a single hard-drive. The G-Monster Evolution supports RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID JBOD modes, with maximum transfer rates of 270 MB/s for both read and write. RAID modes are configurable with the bundled software. One limitation of this device is that it does not support SSDs that have internal RAID 0 connections between two or more sets of NAND flash memory. This is perhaps because the device uses the same controller, or at least the basic design, that goes into making SSDs with internal RAID connections. Popular SSDs of this type (incompatible with this device) include PhotoFast G-Monster V2, Patriot Warp V3, OCZ Apex, and G.Skill Titan. Its availability and pricing are yet to be known.

Synology Inc. today launched the new 2.5" 4-bay Disk Station DS409slim, a highly anticipated addition to the 09 series product line that brings lower power consumption, virtually quiet operations and an extremely small footprint both physically and financially while providing the same reliable data sharing and backup solution that Synology is well known for.

The DS409slim is equipped with a 1.2 GHz CPU, 128MB DDRII RAM, one Gigabit LAN port, two USB2.0 ports and one eSATA port. The snap-in disk tray requires minimal effort to install and replace disks. Supporting up to 2 TB with the combination of four 2.5" SATA or SSD hard drives of 500GB which is the largest capacity on the market, it remains stylish and compact (120 x 105 x 142 mm).

Taiwanese memory manufacturer A-DATA is to update its existing SSD line-up with the introduction of the recently unveiled S592 series of solid-state drives. Enclosed in a 2.5-inch box, the new S592 SSDs come in 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB capacities, featuring SATA 3.0 Gbps interface. The drives use MLC NAND flash memory chips and will likely boast not less than 64 MB of cache. The S592 drives are reported to achieve a sustained read rate at 230 MB/sec and write rate at 170 MB/sec with an impressive performance of 6,740 IOPS at sequential read and 2,851 IOPS at write. The S592 family is backed by a two-year warranty, and has already started to appear in stores, with the 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB models being priced at about 122 Euro, 172 Euro and 317 Euro, respectively.

Thecus, the leader in digital storage, today announced the availability of its latest 7-bay NAS server, the N7700SAS. Offering massive storage capacity and cutting-edge technology, the N7700SAS is an enterprise class NAS server providing incredible flexibility, reliability, and expandability.

The N7700SAS brings the latest technologies to the table, including seven SATA/SAS hard disk bays that accommodate multiple terabytes of storage. To manipulate all of this data, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of DDR2 memory allow for more concurrent connections and quicker system response. For data protection, the N7700SAS lets you choose from a wide selection of RAID modes, including RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD. The N7700SAS also supports multiple RAID volumes, enabling system administrators to choose the right combination of RAID volumes for the network. Should changes need to be made, the N7700SAS also features online RAID expansion, online RAID migration, and auto rebuild for maximum flexibility.

Japanese company Green-House unveiled two new lines of SSDs, the internal MLC-based GH-SSDxxGS-2MA (where "xx" can be 32, 64, 128, or 256, corresponding to the model's capacity in GB), and the portable GH-SSDExxGU-M. To begin with, the GH-SSDxxGS-2MA comes in the standard 2.5" form-factor. It comes in capacities of 32, 64, 128, and 256 GB, and sports a 64 MB cache. It uses standard SATA II interface, and offers read/write speeds of 220/140 MB/s.

The GH-SSDExxGU-M portable SSD on the other hand, comes in capacities of 32, 64, and 128 GB. It measures 117 x 72 x 10 mm (WxDxH), and weighs in at a pocketable 63 g. The connectivity however, is limited to USB 2.0 for some reason, with lack of a faster interface such as eSATA. Its read/write speeds are limited to 20/18 MB/s. Perhaps the only selling point is its higher durability compared to mechanical portable HDDs. With USB sticks already touching 64 GB capacities, choose with your wallet. The pricing and avilability for the two are yet to surface.

Active Media Products, manufacturer of unique USB drives including the Obama drive, today introduced the new Predator GT series of 2.5-inch Serial ATA solid state drives that support outrageously fast data transfer speeds and include a Flex-fit adapter bracket to facilitate mounting in 3.5-inch drive bays.

The Predator GT is immediately available through Amazon and other online resellers in 64 GB and 128 GB capacities. Predator GT SSDs are based on a new 8-channel controller and employ a beefy 128 MB SDRAM cache to reach blistering fast speeds. The 128GB model supports sequential write speeds up to 200 MB/sec while the 64GB drive supports sequential write speeds up to 120 MB/sec. Both models are capable of sequential read speeds up to 220 MB/sec and 0.1ms access times.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it is now sampling a SATA-interface mini-card solid state drive (SSD) with some of its customers, for use in the expanding netbook marketplace. The Samsung SATA mini-card SSD expands the use of SSDs from not only being a primary storage medium, but also as a complementary drive to boost the performance of PCs with dual drive capabilities.

Samsung's new mini-card form factor, with a highly robust interface, makes an already rugged SSD even less susceptible to damage from jarring, jostling and dropping.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today introduces the SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS, the world's smallest 8-bay, Intel Atom network attached storage solution supporting eight 2.5-inch hard drives or solid state disks (SSD). Targeted at business users who require a storage solution of high performance, stability, scalability, low noise and low power consumption, the SS-839 Pro adopts low power Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU, disk on module (DOM) architecture, and 2GB DDRII memory. The total storage capacity of the NAS is up to 4TB. It also features 2 eSATA and 5 USB ports for storage expansion and external storage backup. With ultra silent and excellent energy-saving design, the power consumption of the NAS with 8 hard drives installed is about 34W, which is almost 60% less than general 8-bay, 3.5-inch NAS. Moreover, the SS-839 Pro is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX operating systems. It offers abundant software features such as built-in iSCSI application (up to 8 iSCSI targets) with Thin Provisioning, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Online RAID Level Migration, AES 256-bit volume-based encryption, Wake on LAN, automatic policy-based IP blocking, network share status report, instant SMS and email alert, BT download, Touch-N-Go RAID configuration by the LCD panel, scheduled power on and power off (max 15 schedules), 2 Giga LAN ports, 4 IP cameras for network surveillance, etc.

Western Digital is adding another high-capacity hard drive to its ranks. This time, the company it looking to expand its Caviar Black series of performance desktop hard drives, with the RE4-GP (WD2002FYPS). This 2 Terabyte drive boasts of a large 64 MB of cache, and two controllers on board to up the performance. It spins at 7200 rpm, and uses the standard SATA II interface. With four platters inside it, the drive weighs in at 0.73 kg. Ahead of its global launch, the drive seems to have already made it to stores in Japan, where unit packs of the drive are decking up shelves. When released in the west, these drives could go for around US $300 a piece.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today launched a new line of MasterDrive SX SSDs that incorporate 128MB of DRAM cache and reach new performance levels in high performance laptops.

The MasterDrive SX is based on an advanced new 8-channel controller and MLC NAND Flash. Its 8-channel architecture combined with a hefty 128MB of DRAM cache takes full advantage of the 3Gbps SATA-II bandwidth. The MasterDrive SX is capable of sequential read speeds up to 220 MB/sec and sequential write speeds up to 200 MB/sec.

WD today announced that it has begun shipping its new SiliconDrive III SSD product family based on technology from its March 2009 acquisition of SiliconSystems. The company's new SiliconDrive III products feature faster read/write speeds and increased capacities, and offer mechanical scalability, making them a perfect storage solution for embedded system and data streaming applications such as multimedia content delivery systems and data center media appliances.

Optical drive specialist Lite-On is released a new Blu Ray drive, the iHOS104, which started shipping this week. At US $69.99, the drive provides reading Blu Ray discs at 4x speed, 8x for DVD-ROM, and 32x for CD-ROM. It supports reading known sub-formats of the media. The drive packs 2 MB of cache, and uses a standard SATA interface. It comes with a copy of Cyberlink TrueTheater software.

Photofast is on a roll with its G-Monster series solid-state storage, with product launches on a monthly basis. This time around, the company is readying two products that are unique in their own ways. First up, is the G-Monster-3.5, the company's first SSD in the standard 3.5" form-factor. The drive uses internal RAID to achieve high-capacities. While most other SSD manufacturers would simply stripe two SSD modules in internal RAID 0 configurations, Photofast used an internal RAID 5 configuration that ups reliability. The array is completely abstract to the host machine, which only sees it as a single drive. The drive uses a standard SATA II interface. It comes in capacities of 64, 128, 256, 512 GB, and 1, 2 TB. As far as its performance goes, the company rates the read/write speeds around 270 MB/s. The drive will be backed by a one-year warranty.

Next up, is the G-Monster ExpressCard/54 SSD. This drive serves the purpose of expandable, removable storage for notebooks, that performs on par or faster than the hard-drive. The card comes in the standard 54 mm ExpressCard form-factor. It can function in both PCI-Express and USB 2.0 modes for the slot. When in PCI-Express mode, the drive provides stellar read/write speeds of 170/100 MB/s, and in USB 2.0 mode, 36/30 MB/s. It comes in 32, 48, and 64 GB variants, and boasts of 1.5 million hours MTBF. It will be backed by a standard one-year warranty. There is no word on the pricing and availability.

ASUS, the leading provider of integrated Home Entertainment PC solutions, today unveiled an innovative suite of entertainment solutions for home users. Slim, stunningly beautiful, and incorporating the latest standards in dynamic home entertainment, the solutions include the ultra-slim ASUS LS and MS Series monitors, the versatile ASUS 24T1E TV Monitor that receives both analog and digital TV signals, the convenient ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 HD Media Player that supports a wide array of media formats, the aurally superior ASUS Xonar Essence ST audio card which minimizes jitters for clearer and crisper audio output, and the highly portable ASUS External Slim Blu-ray Optical Disk Drives for high quality, high definition entertainment on the go.

ASUS, a leading producer of innovative server and workstation solutions, today announced three cutting-edge solutions designed to address the specific needs of SOHO and Business Enterprises. First in the line-up is the ASUS P6T7 WS SuperComputer motherboard, which provides users with sublime graphics capabilities and flexible high speed data input/output. Next is the ASUS RS700D-E6 Duo Nodes 1U Server, which features independent power supplies for superb reliability-giving business owners complete peace of mind-while offering exceptional space savings in the form of 4 + 4 hot-swappable 2.5-inch SATA/SAS hard disk drives. Finally, the ASUS Z8NA-D6 is the world's first slim dual processor server and workstation motherboard, making it the best workstation foundation for all forms of businesses.

At the booth of ASUS we found a motherboard that supports the brand-new SATA 6 Gbit/s standard that was released just a few days ago. ASUS prepared a running demo that showcases the performance differences between SATA-II and SATA-III.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading PC and Mac technology company, announced today the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro, the largest capacity, fastest bus powered portable storage solution on the market. The Mercury On-The-Go Pro is a high-performance, 500GB 7200RPM pocket-sized portable storage solution for Mac or PC users featuring FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and/or USB 2.0 interfaces for data transfer speeds up to 100MB/s. With its 500GB of storage capacity, the Mercury On-The-Go Pro can hold up to 500,000 JPEG photos, 250 DVD movies, 38 hours of digital video, or 175,000 MP3 songs.

The Mercury On-The-Go Pro 500GB 7200RPM line features three models, including a "Triple Interface" model for FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0; a "Combo Interface" model for FireWire 400 and USB 2.0; and a USB 2.0 model priced starting at $189.99.

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technologies, today announced their Convoy Series Dual 3.5" HDD/SSD enclosures.

Convoy XL is a complete RAID solution with USB and eSATA connectivity. Dual 2.5" drive bays hold either two SSDs and/or HDDs mounted in one standard 3.5" form factor bay. The built-in RAID controller can be configured for performance (RAID 0), redundant for backup (RAID 1) or two drives combined to be one large drive (JBOD). Additionally the one-touch-backup (OTB) feature is a perfect complement of SSD's robust and durability nature.

ASUS is preparing a new motherboard for DIY nettop builders. The AT3GC-I Mini-ITX motherboard, using an Intel Atom processor, takes care of the basics. The motherboard uses a common fan-heatsink to spread the heat between an Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor, Intel 945GC northbridge, and ICH7 southbridge. Memory support is covered by one DDR2 memory slot supporting a DDR2-533 module, and storage is care of two SATA and one IDE connectors. A standard PCI slot provides expansion. 6-channel audio and 10/100 Ethernet make for the rest of the mix. ASUS may use the Computex event as a launch vehicle for this entry-level motherboard.

The Serial ATA International Organization today, made the third-generation SATA interface official. The new interface provides a 6 Gbps high-speed serial data connection between the system and most of today's data storage devices such as hard drives, solid-state drives, optical drives, and enterprise tape drives. The interface also provides connectivity to external storage devices in its eSATA port variant. It is 100% backwards compatible with devices that support the SATA 150 MB/s and SATA II 300 MB/s standards.

The organization listed some of the standard's key enhancements, as follows:

• A new Native Command Queuing (NCQ) streaming command to enable isochronous data transfers for bandwidth-hungry audio and video applications
• An NCQ Management feature that helps optimize performance by enabling host processing and management of outstanding NCQ commands
• Improved power management capabilities
• A small Low Insertion Force (LIF) connector for more compact 1.8-inch storage devices
• A connector designed to accommodate 7mm optical disk drives for thinner and lighter notebooks
• Alignment with the INCITS ATA8-ACS standard

Hardware manufacturers have already implemented draft versions of the standard in some of their newest storage controllers. As the year progresses, it is hoped that the standard finds its way to storage controller cards and motherboards.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announces the first 2.5" SATA HDD, 4-bay, Intel Atom-based SS-439 Pro Turbo NAS dedicated to SMB and SOHO users. Designed with Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU, 1GB DDRII memory, and DOM (Disk on Module) architecture, the SS-439 Pro is the most compact, powerful, and power-saving 2.5" 4-bay NAS that supports RAID 5/ RAID 6 for highly secure data protection. The NAS supports four 2.5" SATA hard drives which are featured with high stability, low power consumption, low vibration, and longer life expectancy. With excellent cooling and energy-saving design, the power consumption of the NAS with four hard drives installed is as low as 18W. Moreover, the SS-439 Pro supports 3 USB 2.0 ports and 2 eSATA ports for storage capacity expansion and backup destination, and advanced features such as built-in iSCSI target service (max 8 iSCSI devices) with Thin Provisioning, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, Online RAID Level Migration, AES 256-bit volume-based encryption, Wake on LAN, automatic policy-based IP blocking, instant SMS and email alert, BT and eMule download, schedule power on and power off, 2 Giga LAN ports, 4 IP cameras for network surveillance, etc.

"The SS-439 Pro is a compact, silent, and power-saving server which is ideal to work for long hours in the office. When four low power 2.5" hard drives are installed, the power consumption of the NAS is only 18W, which is almost the same as an energy-saving light bulb. It is an environment-friendly storage solution that largely saves the electricity expense of the users and minimizes pollution to the earth," says Jerry Deng, Product Manager from QNAP.

The all new Slider Pro Hard Drive Enclosure Series offers you the very best in design, combined with the peace of mind that Spire is protecting your harddrive with its all aluminum casing for maximum heat dissipation and strength. And to make it that much easier, the innovative SliderPro is equipped with a slide tray that will save you time and hassle installing or replacing your Hard Drive into the enclosure. Equipped with a pre-installed 30mm cooling fan in the front for fresh cool air intake to keep your drive at best operating temperatures.

The Slider Pro HDD enclosures are portable and stand alone, not base or support is required. Date transfer is safe and fast between office, home or laptop computer with the RIFD and OTB features available on the Slider Pro enclosures. Enjoy that piece of mind and ensure safe back up and data storage with the new Slider Pro from Spire - Powered by Innovation!

LaCie announced today the availability of two new high capacity Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions - Big Disk Network and d2 Network. These professional file servers are optimized for users to instantly store, share, and back up files, from any PC or Mac on a wired or wireless network. LaCie's new NAS solutions deliver high-performance and professional-class reliability, in an easy-to-use network solution for the home or small office.

The d2 Network supports up to 1.5TB capacity, while the Big Disk Network combines two drives in a RAID 0 setting, for up to 3TBs of storage. Both NAS solutions are perfect for advanced users or small to medium sized offices that want to develop workgroup environments for up to 50 users (15 at one time). Network administrators can choose from various security levels for user profiles, groups, and public or guest access. Users can connect an external USB drive to increase security through scheduled backups, or even expand capacity. The d2 Network also includes an eSATA connection for storage expansion.

There is a new X58 "SuperComputer" motherboard, this time not from ASRock, but from ASUS. The company is ready with a new LGA-1366 single-socket workstation motherboard that concentrates quite heavily on its PCI-Express expansion slots. THe motherboard packs seven full-length PCI-Express slots. To support these, ASUS used a clever design: two 16-lane PCI-Express channels from the X58 northbridge provide connectivity to an NVIDIA nForce 200 (BR-03) chip each. Each of these chips in turn broadcast the connection to two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots (blue slots). The blue slots with a neighbouring black slot further have PCI-E switching logic that can divert 8 lanes to the black PCI-E x16 slots, when populated. As a result, it has seven slots worked out in all. The board supports ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI.

A large heatsink cools the lower cluster of chips that include the board's ICH10R southbridge, and the two nForce 200 chips. Heatpipes distribute heat to an elaborate array of heatsinks over the northbridge and the board's VRM areas. The board features six DDR3 memory slots for supporting up to 24 GB of memory. Storage is care of the southbridge and an additional controller to provide extra internal SATA ports along with the eSATA connectivity. 8-channel audio, and two gigabit Ethernet controllers, and an ASUS-exclusive system diagnostics card make for the rest of the equation. The P6T7 SuperComputer is yet to hit stores.