Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in data storage solutions, today announced the new Game Drive for Xbox SSD - a flash-speed SSD storage drive designed exclusively for Xbox One - delivering fast gaming performance and convenient portability. Available in 2TB, 1TB, and 500GB capacities, the pro-level flash SSD upgrade delivers fast game loading performance to get you into the game. The officially licensed Xbox drive offers branding elements that match the Xbox One X consoles and increases the console's storage capacity to make room for all of your games and downloadable add-ons.

"The quality of production and in-game environment for today's game titles is off the charts," said Jeff Fochtman, vice president of marketing for Seagate Technology. "Seagate's Game Drive for Xbox SSD offers gamers the extra capacity for their entire library and flash-speed performance so they can jump into their games without waiting on slow menus and load times."

Akasa at Computex, unveiled a wide range of fan-less aluminium cases for the 7th generation "Dawson Canyon" NUC boards. The company had alreadly launched the Pascal MD late-2017. Among the new cases are the Newton S7D, Newton D3, and the Plato X7D. The Plato X7D is the largest of the three, and is characterized by a lattice of aluminium ridges that work like heatsinks for the SoC and chipset of the NUC, and diamond-cut edges along the front panel. Front-panel connectivity includes two each of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports. Besides rear I/O holes for "Dawson Canyon" series NUC boards, the case offers a stub for an RS232 (COM) port at the back. All three cases feature VESA mounts, so you can strap the NUCs behind your monitor and reduce clutter on your desk.

The Newton D3 is the most compact case of the three, and supports fewer NUC board models, namely the NUC7i3DNBE, NUC7i3DNKE, and NUC7i3DNHE (all of which have are low-TDP SoCs and fewer connectors). You still get a 2.5-inch drive bay, mount holes for your WLAN card's antennae, two USB 3.0 front panel connectors, an IR window, and an RS232 serial port provision at the back. The Newton S7D is its larger sibling, with more metal to the bone, to cope with higher TDP SoCs, and hence supports NUC boards based on Core i5 and Core i7 SoCs.

ASUS rolled out one of its first crypto-currency miner-friendly motherboards based on the Intel 300-series chipset platform, now that cheaper Pentium Gold and Celeron processors for this platform are available. The H370 Mining Master puts out all 20 PCI-Express gen 3.0 lanes of the H370 Express chipset as x1 slots. It does this in a space-saving way - wiring out each PCIe "port" as USB 3.0 physically (using its 9 pins), which you wire out using USB 3.1 type-A male-to-male cables into open-ended PCIe x1 risers. You can plug in 20 graphics cards over risers, besides a 21st card on the board's PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot.

The rest of the board is pretty spartan, which is what miners need. The LGA1151 socket is powered by a simple 4+2 phase VRM. Power is drawn from three 24-pin ATX, and one 8-pin EPS. The CPU socket is wired to two DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel memory, the x16 slot, and the H370 Express chipset. Storage connectivity includes just two SATA 6 Gbps ports. You get six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two via headers). Display outputs include DVI and HDMI. Legacy connectivity includes PS/2 combo, and one serial COM header. 6-channel HD audio, and one 1 GbE interface, driven by an Intel i219-V, makes for the rest of it. ASUS threw in onboard power/reset buttons, and POST debug display to sweeten things.

ASUS today introduced the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Swift PG27UQ, a 27-inch monitor with 4K Ultra HD resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels), a staggering 144 Hz refresh-rate, and support for NVIDIA G-Sync HDR. Under the hood is an IPS Quantum-Dot panel with DCI-P3 Color Gamut support, 4 ms response time, 178°/178° viewing angles, and 10-bpc (1.07 billion colors) support. 300-1000 cd/m² maximum brightness, and 20,000:1 static contrast ratio, make for the rest of the panel specifications.

The monitor features (and requires) DisplayPort 1.4 to sustain 4K @ 144 Hz with 10-bpc color. It also features HDMI 2.0. Also featured are GamePlus (OSD goodies), GameVisual (genre-specific display presets), a and 2-port USB 3.0 hub. The stand and the back-side of the display features RGB LED elements that can be controlled by Aura Sync RGB. The company didn't reveal pricing.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today released the 10GbE-ready quad-core TS-932X, a budget-friendly NAS designed to accommodate five 3.5-inch hard drives and four 2.5-inch SSDs. It is an ARM-based NAS that supports Qtier technology, which automatically tiers files and data based on access frequency to provide optimal storage performance. Taking up less desktop space compared with other models in the same class, the slim TS-932X is ideal for small/medium businesses and small offices. The native dual 10GbE SFP+ ports also provide users with a NAS that is future-proofed for 10GbE network environments.

"The TS-932X is a 9-bay NAS that is the physical size of a standard 4-bay/6-bay NAS and strikes a balance between storage capacity and performance," said Dan Lin, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Coupled with the advanced Qtier technology and 10GbE support, it provides a highly cost-efficient private cloud NAS solution."

QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP ) today unveiled the TS-963X, a 9-bay NAS with an AMD quad-core 2.0 GHz processor, up to 8 GB RAM (upgradeable to 16 GB), and 10GBASE-T connectivity supporting five connection speeds (10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M). The compact TS-963X is the size of a 5-bay NAS but accommodates five 3.5-inch HDD bays and four 2.5-inch SSDs bays that deliver high-performance, high-capacity storage potential including automatic file/data tiering based on access frequency (Qtier Technology). The TS-963X is ideal for small businesses and organizations to boost data access efficiency, network transmission speed and to meet demands of mission-critical tasks.

"The TS-963X is designed to enhance the everyday workflows of small businesses and organizations at a budget-friendly price," noted Jason Hsu, Product Manager of QNAP. "The 10GBASE-T/NBASE-T port and four 2.5-inch bays for SSDs can all significantly improve performance, allowing the total cost of ownership to remain reasonable and affordable for most businesses," he added.

OWC , a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, has announced that effective immediately, it is lowering the price of the bus-powered 1.0TB Envoy Pro EX Thunderbolt 3. OWC will be the first technology manufacturer to offer a 1.0TB Thunderbolt 3 SSD for under $500.

The Envoy Pro EX is the Mac and Windows PC solution that is built with a take anywhere design - be it importing images on a location shoot, performing live on-stage, editing in-studio, transferring data between workflows, or transporting music files or family photos for sharing. The powerful and portable drive pushes the envelope on performance, pairing Thunderbolt 3 with an M.2 (NVMe) SSD to provide transfer speeds up to 1,800MB/s, up to 3x faster than USB 3.0 SSDs.

StarTech.com has announced the release of two new Thunderbolt 3 adapters that enable access to many different external peripherals and devices using various interfaces. The two new Thunderbolt 3 accessories allow users to extend the life of their external hard drives, USB devices and other specialized laptop peripherals.

The first new Thunderbolt 3 accessory, the Thunderbolt 3 to USB 3.1 Controller Adapter (SKU: TB33A1C), provides dedicated USB 3.0 bandwidth to three USB-A ports and one USB-C port (total of 20 Gbps). The adapter gives the user access to high performance USB peripherals such as storage controllers and 3D scanners from Thunderbolt 3 based laptops. The second new product, the Thunderbolt 3 eSATA Adapter with USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) Port (SKU: TB3ESATU31), offers connections to an external eSATA hard drive or SSD, and to a USB device simultaneously. Both products are beneficial for Windows and MacBook Pro users, where no USB-A ports are available.

At the NAB 2018 conference Seagate Technology, a world leader in data storage solutions, today announced the launch of a new product, LaCie Rugged RAID Pro, and creative professional community, Collective. These announcements mark Seagate's ongoing commitment to provide innovative solutions and platforms to support the workflows of creative professionals that allow digital content to be created, stored, utilized and shared in the most creative and effective ways.

"Digital content creation is key in the media and entertainment (M&E) industry, comprising of unique moments that are the product of time and money - and often irreplaceable," said Tim Bucher, senior vice president of Seagate consumer solutions. "We have seen an exponential rise in the amount of data created and as such, it has become central to industries such as M&E. From shooting on set through to post-production, the transferring, storing and accessing of data is a pivotal part of the creative workflow. At Seagate, we're constantly looking to deliver storage solutions that allow people to unlock their full creative potential, and create truly memorable content."

MSI introduced the Cubi N 8 GL line of compact mini-PCs powered by Intel "Gemini Lake" Celeron and Pentium Silver SoCs. These include variants with Celeron J4005 and Pentium Silver J5005. Despite "Gemini Lake" chips featuring dual-channel memory support, the Cubi N 8 GL only features one DDR4 SO-DIMM slot, which supports up to 8 GB of DDR4-2400 memory. Storage options include either an M.2-2280 slot with both SATA 6 Gbps and PCIe 2.0 x2 wiring, or a 2.5-inch drive bay with SATA 6 Gbps. An interesting inclusion here is the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9461 WLAN card, which gives you 802.11ac (up to 433 Mbps), but Bluetooth 5.0. Other connectivity includes four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0 and D-Sub display outputs, and gigabit Ethernet. The company didn't reveal pricing.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today launched the cost-effective high-performance 4-bay (TS-473), 6-bay (TS-673), and 8-bay (TS-873) TS-x73 series NAS featuring an AMD RX-421ND quad-core CPU with Turbo Core up to 3.4GHz and two PCIe slots for installing a QNAP QM2 card, wireless network card or a graphics card to extend NAS functionalities. The TS-x73 series provides small and medium businesses with an ideal NAS solution to build a private cloud for applications including high-speed data transfer, backup/recovery, virtualization, media playback and graphics display.

The TS-x73 NAS series presents a budget-friendly solution by allowing users to add more value to their NAS based on their individual needs. Through the two PCIe slots, users can install a QNAP QM2 card to add SSD caching/10GbE connectivity for boosted performance; a wireless card with WirelessAP Station app to turn the NAS into a wireless access point; or even an PCIe bus-powered graphics card to enable 4K transcoding and HDMI output for a greater media multimedia experience," said Jason Hsu, Product Manager of QNAP.

While most Intel "Gemini Lake" SoC desktop motherboards are based on the cheaper Celeron J4005, a rare few, such as the ASRock J5005-ITX, implement the pricier Pentium Silver J5005 chip. What sets the J5005 apart from the J4005 is its quad-core "Goldmont Plus" CPU, and faster UHD Graphics 605 iGPU with higher clocks; which make the chip around 1.5 times pricier. Designed for machines with internal PSUs, the board draws power from a 24-pin ATX connector. A simple 2-phase VRM powers the 10W TDP SoC, and an aluminium heatsink keeps it cool.

The SoC is flanked by two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots, supporting up to 8 GB of memory. Expansion slots include a PCI-Express x1, and an M.2 E-key slot meant for WLAN cards. Display outputs include HDMI 2.0, D-Sub, and DVI. Four USB 3.0 ports (two on the rear panel, two by headers), gigabit Ethernet, and 8-channel HD audio, make for the rest of it. The board appears to be targeted at HTPC builders, as the UHD Graphics 605 appears sufficient for 4K UHD entertainment (10-bit HEVC encode/decode hardware acceleration). Given the $160 price of the SoC itself, we expect this board to be priced in the $200-250 range.

AOC has been making waves with the overall quality and value proposition of each new line of monitors they launch - from the premium to the more budget-conscious offerings. Now, they're introducing a whole new line of monitors that leaves their gaming roots behind in favor of more professional-centric features.

The series will cover the 21.5"-27" range, and panel types will vary between TN and IPS panels according to diagonal and pricing. Starting in the 21.5", the AOC 22P1D is equipped with a 21.5 "TN panel with 1080 screen resolution. The 24P1 is a 23.8" monitor which upgrades the panel to an IPS solution, features a 16:9 screen ratio with 1080p resolution, and a three-frameless bezel. There will be another 24" monitor in the form of the X24P1, which keeps all the features and specs of the 24P1, but brings the screen ratio to 16:10. Rounding out the lineup, we've got the 27" 27P1 (which sports an IPS panel with 1080p resolution) and the flagship 27", Q27P1 (which also sports an IPS panel but increases the resolution to QHD (2560 x 1440).

Intel today released two new barebones NUCs based on its latest "Gemini Lake" Pentium Silver and Celeron SoCs, the NUC 7 PJYH, and the NUC 7 CJYH. As their names might suggest, the PJYH is based on Pentium Silver J5005, while the CJYH implements Celeron J4005. The Pentium Silver J5005 packs a "Goldmont Plus" quad-core CPU clocked at 2.80 GHz, 4 MB of cache, and UHD Graphics 605 iGPU, while the Celeron J4005 features a dual-core "Goldmont Plus" CPU clocked up to 2.70 GHz, 4 MB cache, and UHD Graphics 600 iGPU.

As a barebones NUC, you're supposed to add your own memory, populating its two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots (up to 8 GB), and a 2.5-inch SSD or HDD. Networking connectivity includes 802.11ac WLAN, Bluetooth 5.0, and gigabit Ethernet. Display outputs include two HDMI ports. USB connectivity includes two each of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, from which one of the front USB 3.0 ports (yellow) has high-current (10A). There's also an SD card slot. A 65W power-brick runs the NUC. The two could be priced in the range of $299-$399.

SAPPHIRE Technology is launching today a new series of Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C accessories for both Windows and Mac users. The New lineup features products that extend display connectivity with popular HDMI and DisplayPort connectors, Power Delivery adapters for simultaneous display output and battery charging, and a traveler's 4-in-1 travel dock.

Thunderbolt 3 is a modern connector with staggering bandwidth of up to 40 Gbps. This speed of a single compact port enables users to extend the capabilities of their ultrabook and use additional peripherals, extra displays, Ethernet cards, or storage devices; and deliver power to their device at the same time. Thunderbolt 3 is an interface of USB-C that does it all.

HP today announced immediate availability of some monitors specifically geared for the professional - or at least pixel-conscious - crowd. The EliteDisplay S270n monitor features a 4K, IPS, 27" diagonal, 350 cd/m² brightness, 1300:1 static contrast ratio panel with 14 ms gray to gray response times. Display input duties can be allocated towards 1x DisplayPort 1.2 or 2x HDMI inputs (1.4 and 2.0). Additionally, there's 1x USB Type-C supporting Displayport 1.2 which is able to deliver up to 60 W of power to a connected device.

The other three models HP has announced today sport the Z27, Z32 and Z43 monikers, which directly reference the diagonal size of the monitors. The feature set is practically the same across all three of these models; they offer the same 4K UHD resolution and IPS based panels. 350 cd/m² remains as the peak brightness value, as well as a 1300:1 static contrast ratio, but the response time is improved on the 27" and 42" models to 8 ms gray to gray (the 31-inch model is at 14 ms, just like the EliteDisplay). The HP Z27, Z32 and Z43 all support 1x USB Type-C which supports DisplayPort 1.2 and can send up to 65W of power to the connected device. Display outputs are the same across these monitors (1x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x Mini-DisplayPort 1.2, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x USB Type-C, but the Z27 and Z32 pats only carry three additional USB 3.0 ports, while the Z43 ups that number to 5x. All monitors are available now, with pricing being set at $549 for the EliteDisplay S270, while the Z27, Z32, and Z43 are priced at $559, $899, and $799 respectively.

Kensington understands that no business wants to be tied to USB 3.0 technology as it is being replaced by faster and better protocols, while at the same time recognizing that it isn't practical for an organization to incur the expense and loss of productivity to replace every legacy device with one that supports USB-C. So we are pleased to announce the release of the SD4700P Universal USB-C and USB 3.0 Docking Station (K38240, SRP $219.99), which gives organizations full support for both USB-C and USB 3.0 devices from laptops using both Windows and macOS.

"At Kensington, we value the trust that consumers and organizations have placed in us since we introduced the first Universal Docking Station. As technologies improve, we are committed to providing our customers with new solutions that leverage the latest enhancements to boost productivity and performance," says Fred Wu, Global Product Manager Kensington. "The Universal USB-C and USB 3.0 Docking Station is a great example of that because it protects an organization's investment in existing technology by supporting USB 3.0, while offering complete access to the latest USB-C technology."

We headed to the GIGABYTE Aorus booth at the 2018 International CES to check out the only motherboard based on AMD's upcoming 400-series chipset visible in the entire show, the Aorus X470 Gaming 7. We snapped a lot of pictures. The first thing that caught our attention is the board's updated styling, which resembles the one GIGABYTE introduced with its Intel Z370-series motherboards. The second thing of course, was two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, confirming that AMD has indeed addressed 300-series chipset's greatest shortcoming - lack of PCIe gen 3.0 general purpose lanes. Since the AM4 SoC puts out 4 gen 3.0 general purpose lanes of its own, which wired to one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot on 300-series motherboards, the new 400-series boards will have at least two of these slots, one wired to the AM4 SoC, and another to the chipset.

The Aorus X470 Gaming 7 could become the company's flagship socket AM4 product based on AMD X470 chipset. It's been designed as such. Built in the ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and 4-pin ATX power connectors. A 12-phase VRM supplies power to the AM4 SoC. It's interesting to note that GIGABYTE chose some very high-current chokes for the chip's main voltage domains. The VRM heatsinks, too, are elaborate aluminium fin-stack types, with the two heatsinks spreading heat over a heat pipe. Is this a telltale sign that certain Ryzen 2 parts could have >95W TDP? The CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 when both are populated), and one of the two M.2 slots (we're guessing the top M.2-22110 slot). Both it, and the bottom M.2-2280 slots have included heatsinks. Other expansion slots include an x16 (electrical x4) slot wired to the chipset, and two x1 slots, which are all gen 3.0.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory storage products and technology solutions, announced today the launch of Nucleum, a 7-in-1 Type C USB hub. Nucleum is the ideal hub for newer MacBooks as it provides extra USB-C and USB-A ports as well as HDMI and SD/microSD card slots.

Nucleum, with its multiple ports, is built to handle all of the familiar accessories consumers have such as mice, keyboards and even a second monitor. Users can be more productive as all seven ports can be engaged at the same time. Nucleum users can power up a MacBook while also running an external hard drive and charging an iPhone simultaneously.

Linksys at its exhibition alongside the 2018 CES, showed off its latest gaming-grade Wi-Fi router, the WRT32XB. The router comes in two main "variants," one with co-branding from Alienware, Razer, GIGABYTE, and MSI; while another with exclusive Xbox One co-branding, named WRT32XB. Both variants are based on Rivet Networks Killer WLAN processors, and firmware optimization. The WRT32XB comes with a little more firmware fine-tuning that gives your Xbox One console a slight edge in pings and bandwidth prioritization. The router can sense that an Xbox One is seeking traffic (you're playing on it), and automatically run QoS rules that give it priority. The router comes with 802.11AC (2x2 dual-MIMO), with gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and USB 3.0 ports for mass-storage sharing. When it comes out this February, it will be priced at the same USD $299.99 price as the WRT32X.

Gyrfalcon Technology Inc, an emerging AI chip maker in Silicon Valley, CA, launches its Laceli AI Compute Stick after Intel Movidius announced its deep learning Neural Compute Stick in July of last year. With the company's first ultra-low power, high performance AI processor Lightspeeur 2801S, the Laceli AI Compute Stick runs a 2.8 TOPS performance within 0.3 Watt of power, which is 90 times more efficient than the Movidius USB Stick (0.1 TOPS within 1 Watt of power.)

Lightspeeur is based on Gyrfalcon Technology Inc's APiM architecture, which uses memory as the AI processing unit. This eliminates the huge data movement that results in high power consumption. The architecture features true, on-chip parallelism, in situ computing, and eliminates memory bottlenecks. It has roughly 28,000 parallel computing cores and does not require external memory for AI inference.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of highperformance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories today launchedthe UV230 and UV330 USB Flash drives, adding to its extensive range of portable storage devices. The UV230 works in USB 2.0 and is offered in up to 64GB, while the UV330 operates in much faster USB 3.1 and ships in up to 128GB. The two share a capless design where the connector extends and retracts using a quick-slide mechanism. ADATA remains committed to its USB Flash drive global leadership role and will continue releasing new models as market needs evolve.

From USB 2.0 to USB 3.1 5Gbps, ADATA recognizes demand for diverse USB Flash drives remains strong. Consumers want functionality, style, and ease of use as well as affordability. Hence ADATA delivers: from the entry-level UV230 to the vastly speedier UV330, and their many contemporaries in the ADATA catalog. From 16GB UV230s to 128GB UV330, just these two classic models cover much ground and offer a wealth of options for users that need to quickly save and move data.

ZOTAC International, a global manufacturer of innovation, today introduced an amazing addition to its product line, the ZOTAC AMP BOX Series. The all-new External Thunderbolt 3 box solutions possess the Power To Transform any Thunderbolt 3 capable systems into a powerful Game / VR Ready System or supplement it with an ultra-fast expansive storage with NVMe PCIe x4 SSD.

ZOTAC offers two models, AMP BOX and AMP BOX Mini. Both external boxes can accommodate dual slot graphics card and support up to an enthusiast-grade GeForce GTX 1080 Ti on the AMP and GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card on the Mini respectively, enabling users to complement any Thunderbolt 3 compatible ZBOX Mini PC, Notebook, or Desktop with the power to game beyond the limit.

Continuously dedicated to satisfying the needs of our consumers in every respect, Team Group today announced the elegant and rounded C173/C175 Pearl USB drive. With black and white two colors to choose from, they look like mysterious, luxury black pearl and pure, flawless white pearl born from the deep ocean. The streamlined unibody of the Pearl USB drive is designed for easy grab and use, and able to offer users a well-rounded and comfortable hand held feeling.

Being in a mobile digital era, having an easy carry USB drive with solid build quality is a necessary tool whether you are at work or in school. The overall seamless design of Team Group C173/C175 Pearl USB drive is ingenuity and unique. It does not scratch hands or get dirty easily. The well-proportioned, rounded appearance and the ingenious, exquisite design make it look simple, sleek and yet elegant. Moreover, after thoughtfully considering the usage convenience, the C713/175 Pearl USB drive added a hidden latch to the design so consumers can plug cap to the back to avoid cap loss problem. Besides the convenience, the elegant and aesthetic overall design can also be maintained.

EVGA's premium micro-ATX motherboard based on Intel Z370 chipset, the Z370 Micro, started selling at USD $179.99. The board was announced alongside the rest of the company's Z370 lineup, earlier this October. Designed for enthusiast-grade micro-ATX builds, the EVGA Z370 micro features a standard 240 mm x 240 mm PCB, but with cutouts for the angled 24-pin ATX and 6-pin PCIe power inputs. Besides the two, it draws power from an 8-pin EPS and 4-pin ATX power connectors, conditioning it for the CPU with a 10-phase VRM. The CPU socket features 150% higher gold content in the pins. The LGA1151 socket is wired to two reinforced DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel memory, and two reinforced PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC or x8/x8), with SLI support. An x4 slot makes for the rest of the expansion.

Storage connectivity includes two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots (from which one is occupied with the WLAN card), and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Eight USB 3.0 ports, and a number of USB 2.0 ports make for the USB connectivity. Network connectivity includes an Intel-made WLAN card with 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1. The lone 1 GbE interface is driven by an Intel i219-V controller. A Realtek ALC1220 CODEC drives the 8-channel HD audio. Overclocker-friendly features include dual-BIOS with manual switching, POST debug 7-seg display, angled case-fan headers, onboard POST speaker, and power/reset buttons.