Intel Corporation announced today a new addition to its award-winning lineup of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs): the Intel X25-V Value SATA SSD. Priced at $125, the 40 gigabyte (GB) drive is aimed at value segment netbooks and dual-drive/boot drive desktop set-ups to offer users the performance and reliability advantages of solid-state computing at an affordable, entry-level price.

SSDs can replace or coexist with traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). With no movable parts or spinning platters, SSDs are more reliable and higher performing than HDDs. This makes users more productive as they experience faster overall system responsiveness. With the affordable price point, consumers can now enjoy the benefits of an SSD by adding an SSD option to their current desktop PC in a dual-drive or “boot drive” set up. In a dual-drive configuration, the Intel X25-V SSD is added to a desktop with an existing HDD. The SSD is loaded with the operating system and favorite applications to take advantage of the speedy performance which is nearly 4x faster than a 7200RPM HDD. Users keep their existing HDD as a means of higher capacity data storage. This capability is commonly referred to as a “boot” drive since the SSD accelerates boot or start up time.

Dell rolled out its latest business LCD monitor, the G2410H. This model succeeds an older, similar model, the G2410. It has a 24-inch TN panel screen with WLED backlit illumination. The LCD uses arsenic-free glass. Power management and ergonomics is taken care of by an ambient light sensor that adjusts the monitor's settings to best suit the environment it's in. When in sleep-mode, the display consumes 0.15W of power (under 20W typical consumption). Its stand allows height and angle adjustments. Specifications include a native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, 5 ms response time, 250 cd/m² brightness, and contrast ratio of 1,000:1 with dynamic ratio of 1,000,000:1. It takes input from DVI and D-Sub. Sold with a 3-year warranty, the G2410H is priced at $339.



Source: TechConnect Magazine

Lenovo unveiled three new monitors with full HD resolutions, one of which is multi-touch capable. The series includes the L2261 Wide, L2361p Wide, and L2461x Wide Multi-Touch (pictured in the same order). The lineup starts with L2261 Wide, a 21.5 inch display with a native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, and brightness of 250 cd/sq m. The monitor features a dash of aesthetics with a metallic stand that lets it swivel. It takes input from D-Sub and DVI.

Next up is the L2361p Wide with its 23 inch screen, the same 250 cd/sq m, and 1920x1080 resolution, and a pad stand. It has some accessories such as integrated 3W stereo speakers and mic, 0.3 MP web-camera, and a 3-port USB hub. Lastly, there's the L2461x Wide with a similar form-factor as the L2361p Wide, but a 23.6 inch screen with multi-touch capabilities. This one also sports stereo speakers with mic, a 4-port USB hub, and 2.0 MP web-camera. It takes input from HDMI 1.3, DVI, and D-Sub. This display is priced at $550. The others are yet to be listed.



Source: Thinkpads

Active Media Products, a leading manufacturer of SSDs and USB drives, today announced a new line of SATA DOM (Disk on Module) drives that deliver substantially faster performance than PATA DOMs in embedded computing applications. They support sequential read and write speeds up to 100MB/sec and 42MB/sec respectively. "We didn't design these as a performance storage solution, yet our SATA DOMs appear to be the fastest DOMs on the market by a long shot. So any embedded applications that need a little more pep from the drive would benefit from these." said Active Media Products VP of Sales, Jerry Thomson.

A DOM, also referred to as an FDM (Flash Disk Module), is a small flash based storage drive that plugs directly into an industry standard port on most motherboards. These nine new SATA DOM products include three different mounting options: two 7-pin tall DOMs and a 22-pin low profile DOM, each offered in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities. Because they are SATA compliant, they can be easily adapted to virtually any application including embedded computers, industrial computers, and networking and military applications. Their industry standard Serial ATA interface and very small dimensions make them easy to design in.

Do you desire for a free CPU upgrade? Of course, you do! ASRock Inc. today launched the UCC [Unlock CPU Core] Series motherboard that delivers added core processing power by enabling the ASRock exclusive UCC function of the AMD CPUs. Unprecedentedly integrated with ASRock exclusive UCC Chip, ASRock UCC function is well-designed to provide extra performance boost on ASRock UCC Series motherboards. In conjunction with AMD's 8XX Series chipsets, ASRock 890GX Extreme3 motherboard, the first UCC series motherboard, comes with unique UCC feature and supports both advanced rendering from HD 4290, DX10.1 graphics technology and ATI Quad CrossFireX, 3-Way CrossFireX technologies.

Equipped with an exclusive ASRock UCC Chip, ASRock 890GX Extreme3 is able to support the excellent UCC function. ASRock UCC feature allows users to enjoy an instant performance boost by simply tuning on the UCC switch on BIOS. ASRock 890GX Extreme3 is the ASRock True 333 series motherboards. The board offers the latest SATA3 6.0Gb/s and USB 3.0 5.0Gb/s technologies from the industry-leading NEC support. The real I/O includes 1 x external SATA3 connector through the Bundled eSATA3 Bracket and 2 x USB 3.0 ports for 10X faster data transfer speed. For memory part, it supports 4 X DDR3 1800(OC), Hyper Transport Bus 5200 MT/s, ATI Quad CrossFireX and 3-Way CrossFireX. For audio aspect, it features 7.1 CH, VIA 2020 audio codec with Premium Blu-ray audio support. Combined with advanced rendering from AMD Radeon HD 4290, DX10.1 graphics, ASRock 890GX Extreme3 offers the spectacular visual output (output options include: D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI) as well.

MSI's newest 17" gaming notebook-the GE700, just made its debut. It comes equipped with Intel's latest core i5 processor with ATI Radeon HD 5730 discrete graphics card (with 1GB DDR3 VRAM), two cinema-class speakers and a subwoofer, a HD webcam, and dual hard disk architecture, so you can install two hard drives for maximum memory storage. Its superior multimedia, entertainment, and processing capabilities maximize your experience.

MSI Marketing Director Sam Chern points out that the MSI GE700, a 17" gaming and entertainment laptop, utilizes Intel Turbo Boost Technology for dynamic enhanced processing efficiency, a high-end discrete graphics card to increase image processing performance, and cutting-edge SRS Premium Sound. Furthermore, the GE700 boasts MSI's exclusive ECO Engine Power Saving Technology, Cinema Pro, and GPU Boost Technology to give you just the right amount of battery power you need for the task at hand.

The Swiss low noise cooling solution provider ARCTIC COOLING today announced the launch of two VGA coolers - the Accelero XTREME 5970 and Accelero XTREME 5870. These two 3-fan solutions are tailor-made for ATI Radeon HD5970 / HD5870. They follow the sophisticated design of the Accelero XTREME series, offering the best cooling for these high-end graphics cards.

Both models are equipped with three 92mm PWM fans running from 900 to 2,000 RPM, generating 81 CFM airflow for efficient heat dissipation from the core(s). The Accelero XTREME 5970 is designed with an 8-heatpipe and 119-fin architecture to achieve 300 watts cooling for the dual-GPU Radeon HD5970. Whereas the Accelero XTREME 5870 comes with 5 heatpipes and 84 fins, providing 250 watts cooling capacity for the Radeon HD5870. A layer of the ARCTIC MX-2 thermal compound is also pre-applied on the base of these two coolers.

Here are some delicious pictures of Inno3D's dispatch of GeForce GTX 400 series graphics cards, that are ready to ship. Come 26th March, and box-loads of these will reach markets all over. Initially inventories of GeForce 400 series cards across board partners could be low, but it is normal for a new GPU to have small inventories initially, which iron out in a few fortnights' time. Inno3D's accelerators most likely adhere to NVIDIA's reference designs.

Creative Technology Ltd. today announced the PCI-E Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD and USB Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD, setting the gold standard for PC audio with the first discrete audio card and USB digital audio system to include THX TruStudio PC audio technology.

"The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD and Sound Blaster X-Fi HD provide the highest quality audio playback of any sound products we have ever introduced, over a period of time where we have sold more than 400 million Sound Blaster cards," said Steve Erickson, Vice President and General Manager of Audio and Video at Creative. "We are thrilled to announce that our newest additions to the Sound Blaster line include THX TruStudio PC audio technology, bringing together two of the most respected names in sound quality to provide an unparalleled audio experience on the PC."

A list of new Phenom II series processors were tabled in a company road map. The road map confirms AMD's naming scheme for the Phenom II X6 brand, and also sheds light on a new line of quad-core processors. In the second quarter of this year, AMD will introduce Phenom II X6 six-core models 1075T, 1055T, and 1035T. While the 1075T has a TDP of 125W, the 1055T comes in 125W and 95W variants (likely one following the other), and 1035T is the slowest model with 95W TDP. All Phenom II X6 models are based on the Thuban core (a desktop, socket AM3 implementation of the Istanbul die). Each of the six cores has 128 KB of L1, 512 KB L2 caches, and a 6 MB L3 cache is shared between all cores. The HyperTransport 3.0 interconnect operates at 4.8 GT/s.

The new line of quad-core processors here, is the Phenom II X4 900T series. The first member in this series is the Phenom II X4 960T. These processors are created using Thuban dies by disabling two cores. It helps AMD salvage its foundry produce with minor defects, and also target lower price points. The resulting die is codenamed "Zosma". Zosma in X4 960T has a TDP of 95W. Probably it has a lower clock speed than the "Deneb" Phenom II X4 965, but is placed in the same league, in terms of performance. One of its biggest "unintentional" unique selling points is that since it's based on a die that has six physical cores, some customers could get lucky by unlocking them to a six-core processor, at a much lower price-point. Even as several motherboard manufacturers have innovated ways to unlock disabled cores, and are advertising their unlocking features, it is not guaranteed that a Zosma would unlock into Thuban, just as Callisto/Heka to Deneb unlocking doesn't always work out. Going by AMD's road map, these processors will be released some time in May.



Source: ATIForum.de