IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 10/06/2012

Clevo stand featured oh-so-many products, some were quite heavy
Computex 2012 - A good friend of mine asked me to check out the Clevo stand, so we stopped by and they were surprisingly quiet, which was good for us to walk around and snap a bunch of pictures. Clevo's P270WM had some insane specs, sporting a third-generation Core i7 Extreme Edition, X79 chipset, NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 675M (in SLI!!) GPU, 16GB memory support, 17.3-inch Full HD display, 3 x HDD support, and more. No wonder this beast was so heavy.

Clevo's P370EM was specced nearly as good, same processor, but Intel's HM77 chipset, an option of AMD's Radeon HD 7970M GPU, or GTX 675M SLI, the same Full HD display, but just two HDD support, but ca be cranked up to support 32GB of RAM.

Something that caught my eye was Clevo's A110EU all-in-one PC, the A110EU was running Windows 8 and thanks to its multi-touch screen, I could test it out. The specs on it were Intel's quad-core i7, H61 chipset, HD Graphics 4000, a 21.5-inch Full HD display (multi-touch), 6 x USB 2.0 ports, HDMI output, 8GB RAM support.

Sparkle stand gets a look at, Calibre GTX 680 card looks nice
Computex 2012 - Here I was thinking Sparkle weren't really making VGA cards, but the Sparkle stand featured a bunch of cards, with a Calibre GEFORCE GTX 680. It looks quite good and was something I'd love to have in my rig.

Below we have a shot of some of the lower-end GeForce GT610 and GT620, as well as Sparkle's GeForce GTX 570. Pictures tell the story, and Sparkle had a PC build rocking a 3-monitor Surround system.

E3 wrap up: a slower year for gaming
E3, while crazy, was mostly uneventful. There weren't really any surprises and we knew basically everything that would be shown there. The biggest event for E3 would have to be Nintendo announcing and allowing hands-on tests with their new WiiU console. Sony and Microsoft were still pushing the same stuff, so it was pretty quiet from them.

There were a few smaller games being developed that I got a chance to look at and comment on. These pre-alpha games didn't have the fit and finish of a studio game, but were good nonetheless. Most of the game studios were allowing hands-on demonstrations of their new games, although most weren't allowing any pictures or videos.

On the hardware front, there were a few smaller companies showing new products off, but there were no major releases from the major companies. Razer released the Taipan mouse, Raptorfire.com was showing off a new USB module which would allow Xbox controllers on PS3 and PS3 controller on Xbox, along with game mods.

On the gaming front, Borderlands 2 was shown off along with Crysis 3, The Sims, and pretty much every other major game that will be coming out anytime soon. I played Crysis 3 and Defiance and was extremely pleased with both. Defiance is a TV show turned game. Err, I mean game turned TV show. Err, I mean both.

The show is over and now begins the long wait until these games are released. Next year, should the rumors prove true, will be massive as the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation are due out. There is still more to report on from this year's E3, but this post highlights the major events of E3.

Kingston shows 64GB of RAM is needed, possibly more
Kingston was at ShowStoppers, an event that runs at the same time as E3, demoing their RAM and the fact that 64GB is needed and, in some instances, not enough. They were running an Adobe program on a 2011 Intel platform with all 8 slots loaded with 8GB sticks of HyperX RAM. CPU usage was around 12%, while RAM usage was at 94% when I grabbed a picture.

The real news from Kingston, however, was the launching of their new RAM to compliment the Ivy Bridge platform. Kingston is now shipping dual-channel RAM kits specifically designed for the third-generation Core line of products. Kingston HyperX memory is available in 16GB and 8GB kits of two at 1600MHz, 2133MHz, 2400MHz and soon to be speedy 2666MHz frequencies.

"The new 22nm architecture of this processor allows significant performance gains for benchmarkers, enthusiasts and overclockers," said Mark Tekunoff, senior technology manager, Kingston. "Enthusiasts who want to push the performance boundaries of the new processors will want to pair it with Kingston HyperX memory. Our 2666MHz kit combined with the top CPU in the Ivy Bridge family will allow unparalleled performance."

The memory is now available through Kingston's traditional channels and is certified by Intel for XMP. More information about pricing, part numbers, etc is available in the picture below:

Entropic Communications demos MoCA, allows network connectivity over coax
An exciting new technology to expand network connectivity in older homes was shown at E3. Entropic demoed a technology that is similar in function to Ethernet-over-power, but higher performance and more reliable. The technology involves using the existing Coaxial cable (common TV, cable wire) that is in almost every house.

Most people don't have the luxury of having Cat5e wired throughout their house, so this allows them to obtain higher, more reliable speeds than wireless without having to run new wire. "MoCA is the universal standard for home entertainment networking and can support multiple streams of HD video content while delivering up to 175 Mbps net throughput at less than 4.5ms of average network latency. MoCA has more than 100 certified products, which can give gamers:"

Low latency, lag-free, Internet gaming across any platform

HD-quality entertainment for over-the-top video streaming services

Maximized high-speed broadband access from the cloud

The technology is already in use in cable modems and other adapters on the market, so it isn't exactly new technology. At the same time, however, it isn't exactly well known. I can see the promise in this technology and wouldn't hesitate to use it in my own home if the need arose.

Available Tags:GTX , gaming , Kingston ,

Sunday, June 10, 2012

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 10/06/2012

No comments: