Acer's AMD-powered Iconia Tab W500 tablet PC gets listed :: Posted by THRASHER2
Beside the two Android-flavored A500 and A100, Acer also has a Windows-loaded tablet called Iconia Tab W500 which, although not yet available, it can be pre-ordered through several German stores, the listed price tag being €499.
The W500 weights just unde 1kg and features a 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) LED-backlit touchscreen, a 1.0 GHz C-50 APU (with Radeon HD 6250 graphics), 2GB of RAM, a 32GB solid state drive, an SD card, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a G-sensor, a HDMI output, and a 3-cell battery.
Acer's Iconia Tab W500 runs Windows 7 Home Premium and is backed by a one-year warranty.
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Enermax to show off its first 80Plus Platinum power supply :: Posted by THRASHER2
As previously revealed, Enermax's CeBIT booth will have quite a lot of fresh hardware on display, from the ECA5020 and ECA3230 cases to a new tower CPU cooler and more T.B.Silence fans. That isn't all though as Enermax will also be showing off new power supplies, including one with a platinum feel.
Known as EXX900, the unit in question is a prototype which has managed to achieve 80Plus Platinum certification after scoring an efficiency of 91.07%, 92.51% and 90.12% at 20%, 50% and 100% load, respectively.
Enermax's PSU has a rated output of 900W, a modular design, and will probably make its way to market sooner or later.
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LaCie readies Thunderbolt-supporting dual-SSD external drive :: Posted by THRASHER2
Announced as one of the first companies supporting the Thunderbolt I/O technology, LaCie has revealed that its first product to support Intel's solution is the Little Big Disk, an external drive that utilizes a smooth and compact d2 aluminum chassis.
"Thunderbolt technology is a breakthrough in I/O technology and represents the future of mobile computing. Soon you will be able to carry workstation-class power and functionality in compact devices," said Philippe Spruch, Chairman and General Manager, LaCie. "LaCie is excited to be one of the first to deliver Thunderbolt technology with the LaCie Little Big Disk."
LaCie's offering has two Thunderbolt ports allowing for a daisy chain with compatible peripherals (hard drives, monitors, cameras), and packs two Intel 510 Series solid state drives set in RAID 0 which will surely deliver top writing/reading speeds. It won't saturate the Thunderbolt link though as it has 10Gb/s bi-directional channels.
The Little Big Disk is set to become available by summer. Prices are yet unknown.
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Corsair, A-Data, promise to show off 520 MB/s SSDs at CeBIT :: Posted by THRASHER2
OCZ and Patriot have spearheaded the official launch of the SandForce SF-2000 controllers, but A-Data and Corsair will follow soon as next week (March 1-5) at CeBIT 2011 in Hannover they will both showcase their SF-2000-powered solid state drives.
Corsair's Force Series GT and A-Data's S511 both have a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory chips, and can top 520 MB/s when reading (and some 500 MB/s while writing).
"With the rapid adoption of systems with SATA 3 support, enthusiasts are demanding SSDs that can take advantage of the dramatic increase in throughput over SATA 2," said Thi La, Vice President of Memory Products at Corsair. "The new Force GT SSDs can deliver up to twice the speed of the fastest SATA 2 drives, making them ideal for high-performance systems."
If all goes well both the Force Series GT and S511 drives will ship in Q2.
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OCZ's Vertex 3 and Vertex 3 Pro SATA 6.0 Gbps SSDs :: Posted by THRASHER2
The OCZ Technology Group has today made a proper introduction for its Vertex 3 and Vertex 3 Pro solid state drives, its first two flashy products to be equipped with SandForce SF-2000 series controllers. Both models will be seen next week at CeBIT 2011 and will begin shipping after the trade show.
The new Vertex SSDs feature MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory (likely 25nm NAND), a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, a 2.5-inch form factor, TRIM support, are capable of read and write speeds of up to 550 MB/s and 500 MB/s, respectively and have a 4k random write performance of up to 60,000 IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second).
"The new Vertex 3 solid state drive series builds on the success of our previous two generations of products and delivers exceptional performance by utilizing fast synchronous mode 2Xnm MLC NAND flash technology," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "These storage solutions feature both the highest sequential speeds available with a SATA 6GBps SSD and the highest IOPS of any current 2.5 inch SSD on the market today, allowing us to once again set the benchmark for industry leading SSD performance and reliability."
The consumer-oriented Vetex 3 drives utilize a SandForce SF-2200 chip and will be available in 120GB and 240GB capacities, while the enterprise-minded Vertex 3 Pro boast a SF-2500 controller and are set to arrive in 100GB, 200GB and 400GB versions. All Vertex 3 (Pro) SSDs are backed by a three-year warranty.
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Patriot's Wildfire solid state drives top 500 MB/s, come in :: Posted by THRASHER2
Patriot Memory has just announced Wildfire, its first solid state drives to make use of SandForce's new SF-2200 controller which have a 2.5-inch form factor, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface and are capable of delivering sequential read and write speeds of up to 500 MB/s.
"The Patriot Wildfire is the fastest SSD drive we have ever released to the public," says Les Henry, Patriot Memory's Vice President of Engineering. "SandForce has done a fantastic job engineering the SF-2200 SSD processor and combined with our research and development, we are able to further tweak the design and maximize performance with the processor and our flash memory."
The Wildfire drives will be bundled with a 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch bracket and are expected to ship in Q2 in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities. Prices were not revealed.
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MSI Afterburner 2.1.0 exits beta, brags with GPU support :: Posted by THRASHER2
MSI's own all-in-one graphics card utility, known as Afterburner, has today shed its latest beta tag and is available for download in a full and final 2.1.0 build. This new release brings improvements, fixes, support for the latest cards and a function called Predator.
With Predator people can record clips of their gaming sessions and take screenshots to share with friends and foes, similar to what Fraps does, except this one is free whereas Fraps needs a paid license to unlock all its goodies.
Beside video recording and taking screenshots, Afterburner can be used to monitor a graphics card's temperatures, overclock pretty much everything (some features are only available on certain MSI models), save/load settings profiles, stress test & benchmark with Kombustor (2.0.0), control the fan and more.
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Sources insist iPad 2 is coming :: Posted by THRASHER2
Latest word is announcement March 2nd
We have spoken with a number of sources who insist that the rumors that are being reported in a number of other locations are accurate, and Apple will announce the new iPad 2 in a press event to be held in San Francisco on March 2nd.
This does seem to confirm what we have been hearing about the iPad 2 and the fact that it would be announced in early March. As we previously told you about, our sources still say that we can expect a highly revised thinner design with many more features, as well as more flash and onboard memory and higher performance graphics processing power.
It is expected that the CPU will get a bump in speed as well as the addition of front and rear camera that can be used with FaceTime. Besides Apple and its authorized dealers, it is said that both AT&T and Verizon will offer the iPad 2 this time around.
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Panther Point chipset supports HDMI 1.4 :: Posted by THRASHER2
Ivy Bridge chipset gets Intel 7 series chipset name
Intel definitely wants to roll out a new chipset after the Sandy Bridge P67 and H67 debacle but it will take them until end of the year before it happens.
Codename for Ivy Bridge 22nm CPU chipset is Panther Point. The new chipset is going to end up with Intel 7 series brand, most likely P77 and G77, but it is too early to tell. It has 1Gb LAN support, PCIe 2nd generation support as well as SATA 3.0. Furthermore, it supports USB 3.0 and 2.0, which is the first time ever for an Intel chipset.
The surprising thing is HDMI 1.4 as well as DisplayPort 1.1. Ivy Bridge will be the third generation of Intel's CPU that features graphics support, and therefore Panther Point's DisplayPort and HDMI support will be put to good use.
The official launch date is currently scheduled for 1H 2012.
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Microsoft rolls out Windows 7 service pack 1 :: Posted by THRASHER2
As was announced
As was promised, Microsoft officially rolled out the final release of Windows 7 for general public.
The Windows 7 SP1 comes with all the previous security, performance and stability updates, as well as some improvements to features and services. Microsoft advises users to use the regular Windows update system, although manual download will probably be the faster way to go.
Depending on your method of choice, you will need anywhere from 750MB to 7,400MB for installation. Naturally, any pre-release versions of SP1 will have to be uninstalled.
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Upcoming PS3 with deal with hacks :: Posted by THRASHER2
Price drop rumored to dump old inventory
As we expected, whispers that we are hearing today from the land of the rising sun tell a story of a new version of the PlayStation 3 console said to be in development to address the security breach of the PlayStation 3. The new console will apparently not be able to be exploited in the same way that the current versions of the console are.
The new hack-proof version is said to feature several new advancements to reduce cost; but basically it is still the same slim version of the console, with the exception that it is said to include a 300GB hard drive.
Sony has apparently not figured out when it will release the new version of the PS3 into distribution, but it is prepared to slash prices of the consoles sitting in inventory and on dealer shelves to help move the older models out as quickly as possible, if necessary. A lot will depend on the damage that continues to be done by the hacks hitting the console and the impact that it is having, as well as the lawsuit with George Holtz (who apparently released the information that is leading to the latest exploits on the platform).
It is doubtful that Sony will build any more of the current revision of the console; so if the company needs to re-order more units before they have decided to release the new version, then they will build and release the new version of the console at that time. It is going to happen, as one source told us, but it is really more of a question of when is the right time to move forward with the release of the new model.
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New Gingerbread is 2.3.3. :: Posted by THRASHER2
Not 2.4
According to an official response given by HTC, the Gingerbread lineup presented at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona will be running on Google's Android 2.3.3., aka. Gingerbread.
It was pretty strange back then that the new version of the Android, the 2.4 one, will simply be called Gingerbread. It looks like Google stepped up to fix this confussion stating to HTC that the correct version number for the new Android Gingerbread will be 2.3.3.
A lot of sites have jumped the gun as this came directly from Google and it looks like that even manufacturers were told that the new Gingerbread will have a 2.4 version number. After all there were some screenshot of devices running on Android version 2.4.
We'll just have to wait and see and until then we can simply call it the new Gingerbread.
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MSI plans B3 stickers for affected boards :: Posted by THRASHER2
Wants you to be able to tell
MSI officially plans to put B3 stickers all over its P67 and H67 Sandy Bridge boards. The company wants to make sure that consumers will know when they buy a board with a fixed, B3 chipset.
Sales of P67 and H67 have been halted ever since Intel announced the bug, and the fixed boards are expected in April time. It looks like notebook manufacturers have the priority to roll out fixed notebooks and make some money for Intel but motherboard manufactures are next in line.
Intel will definitely cough a lot of money to cover the disaster Q1 for this recall.
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Powercolor working on new HD 6870 :: Posted by THRASHER2
The Eyefinity 6 HD 6870
Powercolor is apparently working on a yet another card that will be a part of its HD 6800 series, the Eyefinity 6 HD 6870.
As you could have guessed from the name, the card will be based on the HD 6870, Barts XT GPU, and will feature six DisplayPort outputs. The card will use Powercolor's well known cooler, the same one that is proudly cooling its PCS lineup and does a hell of job according to our reviews.
The details are still scarce so the precise clocks, date of availability or the price are still unknown. We are sure that Powercolor will be more than happy to show this one at Cebit so we'll probably know more then.
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Cooler Master prepares new products for Cebit 2011 :: Posted by THRASHER2
Two cases, a pair of coolers, new PSUs and more
As it could have been foretold, Cooler Master will be attending this years Cebit show in cold Hannover, Germany and as always we'll have a chance to see some new products.
The entire lineup of new products will be quite interesting as Cooler Master, or CM as we like to call it, was holding back for Cebit and it will be quite interesting to see a batch of new products once the show starts. Cooler Master didn't want to reveal any pictures yet as it has to keep some things as a surprise for Cebit, but it did shed some details. The Silent Chassis M and the CM Storm Enforcer will be two new cases and we managed to twist a hand or two to get some details.
According to what we know so far, the Silent Chassis M will support the USB 3.0 standard, will have an integrated SD card reader on its front I/O panel and Cooler Master's X-Dock tech for 3.5 and 2.5" HDDs. As you could have guessed from the name, the case should be one of the quietest ones that came from CM and will use some kind of soundproof insulation on its front and side panels.
The CM Storm Enforcer will be a case aimed at gamers and this one will also feature USB 3.0 ports, the removable HDD cage and patented Storm Guard Security feature. As you would expect from the Storm line of products, this one will be all about looks and we are sure that we will easily spot it at CM's booth at Cebit.
The cooler lineup will be represented by the Hyper 612S and GeminII S524. the new Hyper series CPU cooler will, as always, be aimed at silence-oriented operation, while the next generation of top-blow GeminII series will still feature a large heatsink meant for cooling not only the CPU but also other components on the motherboard.
In addition to those, Cooler Master will also be showing a new line of "semi-fanless" power supplies, the Silent Pro Hybrid. As far as we know so far, these will feature a fully modular design, external fan connect ports and manual fan speed control. It will be available in three different models, 850, 1050 and 1300W.
Other products include a new CM Storm Sirius surround gaming headset as well as the bunch of Choixx products for backup power including the Power Fort Go Music, iPower Fort and Solar Backpack Battery.
Of course, we'll be quite happy to drop by, make some photos and check those new products out. So stay tuned once Cebit starts.
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Intel market share flat in Q1 :: Posted by THRASHER2
Not affected by Sandy Bridge bug
According to IDCÂ’s latest report on global chip shipments, IntelÂ’s sales figures were not significantly affected by the Sandy Bridge bug.
Intel accounted for 80.8 percent of all processors shipped in Q1, increasing its share by 0.3 percent sequentially. AMDÂ’s market share went down to 18.9 percent from 19.5. Global processor shipments also dropped by 0.21 percent.
Despite IntelÂ’s massive recall of 6-series motherboards, it would appear that the Sandy Bridge SATA bug did not have much of an impact on total shipment figures. However, Sandy Bridge processors werenÂ’t supposed to account for much of IntelÂ’s sales in Q1 anyway, but the company was planning to aggressively transition to the new architecture throughout 2011. The bug will obviously delay the transition to some extent, but itÂ’s still not clear whether if it will affect sales in Q2.
AMD has apparently failed to capitalize on IntelÂ’s woes. Its next generation mainstream APU codenamed Llano wonÂ’t be available for a few months, so Intel has plenty of time to get back on track. Still, Llano will probably end up quite a bit cheaper than Sandy Bridge processors and it should pack quite a bit more graphics muscle.
IDC believes processor shipments will grow by about 10.1 percent in 2011. Analysts also think tablets will start to eat into notebook sales, which wonÂ’t bode well for Intel or AMD.
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Nvidia GTX 590 slated for mid March :: Posted by THRASHER2
Antilles lurking in the shadows
DonanimHaber is reporting that Nvidia will introduce its dual-GPU card at the PAX East 2011 event, which kicks off March 11.
The new card, designated GTX 590, packs two GF110 cores on a single PCB, but we still donÂ’t know the details. It should pack 3072MB of GDDR5 on a double 384-bit bus, but there is no word on the clocks yet. The biggest concern, of course, is power consumption. ThereÂ’s a good chance the GTX 590 will be the hottest and hungriest card of all time.
AMD is also working on its HD 6990 Antilles board and it should launch at about the same time. It appears neither Nvidia nor AMD will showcase the new boards to the general public at CeBit, but they should show up a couple of weeks later nonetheless.
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AMD shares up on MacBook pro deal :: Posted by THRASHER2
Nvidia also up, curiously
AppleÂ’s decision to ditch Nvidia chips in new MacBook Pro models resulted in impressive gains for AMD.
AMD shares jumped 6.43 percent Thursday on the news, up to $9.10. Curiously, Nvidia was also up 2.44 percent despite the fact Apple dropped it from much of its mobile lineup. However, AppleÂ’s decision doesnÂ’t simply boil down to Radeon shipments for new MacBooks. Analysts believe AMDÂ’s relationship with Apple is strengthening and the deal could just be a sign of things to come.
Apple has carried AMD desktop GPUs for quite a while, but the mobile space has traditionally been reserved for Nvidia. However, over the next few months Nvidia GPUs will only be available in select MacBook Air SKUs. Of course, there is a always chance Apple might switch between AMD and Nvidia in future generations, depending on its needs and performance offered by future generations of mobile GPUs.
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MSI to go Brazos at Cebit :: Posted by THRASHER2
Notebooks, netbooks, AIOs and a tablet
It looks like that MSI will use Cebit to show off numerous products based on AMD's Brazos platform and the company will formally announce a bunch of products based on the new platform. Of course, we will see the full lineup at Cebit once it starts next week but for now we at least have some details.
First in line is the MSI CR650, which has been announced a while back. This 15.6-incher is running on a 1.6GHz E-350 APU with AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics. According to details known so far, it will sell at around €399 to €499 depending on the configuration. The next in line is the netbook variant, the Wind U270. Packing the same APU as the previous 15.6-incher this 12-incher should sell at around €399.
The one that caught our eye is the X370, an X-Slim Series 13-incher based on the same platform. Of course, thin and light, as well as sleek design come at a price so this one will be selling at €599 in Europe. In addition to notebooks, netbooks and thin-and-lights, MSI will also show a Wind Top AE2050 All-in-One with the same specs. This 20-incher shjould also sell at €599 according to our info.
Last but definitely not least, MSI will introduce the Wind 110W tablet based on AMD's C-50 APU. We still don't have all the details but we do know that it will feature 3G, GPS and HDMI output. It will surely be interesting to see all those products running on AMD's Brazos platform so stay tuned for our Cebit coverage.
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PNY GTX 550 Ti tips up in EU listings :: Posted by THRASHER2
€159+, 900MHz clock, coming March 15
NvidiaÂ’s soon-to-launch GTX 550 Ti has tipped up in several EU listings with a few more interesting specs revealed by careless retailers. In this particular case we are talking about a PNY reference board, part number GMGX55TN2H1IZPB.
The GTX 550 Ti is a mainstream card based on NvidiaÂ’s GF116 core. Why Nvidia chose to use the GTX prefix for this particular card is anyoneÂ’s guess, but it does appear that it will replace some GTX 460 SKUs as well.
Bear in mind that early listings are notoriously unreliable in terms of specs, but hereÂ’s what all retailers seem to agree on. The GF116 packs 192 CUDA cores and 32 texture units. The reference core/shader clocks are 900MHz/1800MHz. It features 1GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus clocked at 4100MHz. Max power consumption is rated at 110W. No surprises here, the specs are in line with earlier leaks and rumours.
Prices start at €159 and judging by the price, the card should compete with AMD’s HD 6870 series based on the Barts XT core. In addition, the GTX 550 Ti will even end up about 10 to 20 percent pricier than GTX 460 boards with 1GB of memory and, quite worryingly, it costs about twice as much as reference GTS 450 cards, based on the GF106 core. You can probably see where we are going with this.
Mind you, the refreshed GF116 offers significantly higher clocks than the GF106, but it still has the same number of shaders and transistors (1.17bn). The GTX 550 Ti will also feature 1GB of memory rather than 512MB found on the GTS 450, but it will use practically the same PCB. Clearly, someone at Nvidia believes that changing the GTS moniker into GTX and tweaking the clocks justifies a price increase of 100 percent. We beg to differ.
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400,000 3DS units sold in Japanese launch :: Posted by THRASHER2
Lines said to be 2,000 deep at some locations
With the Japanese launch of the 3DS by Nintendo now in the books, the numbers are much better than anyone had expected. Nintendo claims to have moved 400,000 units, which includes the pre-orders that retailers already had for the system.
While the North American launch of the 3DS isnÂ’t happening till March 27th, lines in Japan were said to be over 2,000 people deep at some stores. While we doubt that the North American launch will produce demand and lines that long in the U.S., analysts we have spoken with over the weekend claim that the 3DS exceeded their expectations, which they believe could be a very good sign for the launch numbers in North America.
While buyers in the U.S. will be paying $349 for the 3DS, it seems that 3D and backward compatibility seem to be the major reason that got buyers to purchase a 3DS in Japan. We will have to see how well Nintendo can do in North America; but we believe that more titles are critical and it is still uncertain exactly how many titles will be available on launch day here. Nintendo is said to be committed to getting as many titles out as possible.
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Verizon to add Win Phone 7 devices :: Posted by THRASHER2
Will arrive in March, as confirmed by sources
After checking with our Red V sources, they whisper to us that the news that WinRumors is reporting is accurate, and Verizon will be adding Windows Phone 7 devices in late March. AT&T was the first to market and offer the first Windows Phone 7 devices in the U.S.
As with Sprint, Verizon will also be adding HTC 7 Trophy to their lineup. The Sprint Windows Phone 7 offerings will arrive starting on March 20th, while Verizon will offer theirs shortly after that. Both offerings are said to feature the “NoDo” update, which adds “cut and paste” support.
While Windows Phone 7 has not lit the world on fire, it has for sure received attention with its very well done “animated tile interface” that makes the smart phone easy to use and a real competitor to other smartphone offerings. It remains to be seen if adding additional carriers will equal more sales; but to start with, Verizon is said to be offering the HTC 7 Trophy for $199 with a two-year contract.
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Hackers have success with 3DS :: Posted by THRASHER2
R4 and other cards apparently working
While Nintendo talked about more stringent anti-piracy measures that have been deployed on the 3DS, it would seem that hackers in Japan have already figured out how to get the R4 and other DS piracy carts working on the system.
While all of the specifics are not clear as to how they are making these flash carts work, videos on You Tube apparently show people testing out these flash carts that are used for piracy of multiple titles onto one flash cartridge.
While the videos show DS games running from these flash carts, so far there is no evidence to support that 3DS titles have been modified to work using these flash carts. Still, the news has to be a blow for Nintendo who wanted to hold hackers off with the release of the 3DS.
It is expected that Nintendo will respond with new firmware to attempt to block use of the device, according to the whispers that we have been hearing, but we have no clue as to when Nintendo plans to deploy the new firmware.
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