Check out the latest Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag trailer
Ubisoft continues to tease the upcoming Assassin's Creed game. Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will take place across islands and boats and will be launching on the next-generation PlayStation 4. Ubisoft has actually commented publicly about how happy they are with the PlayStation 4 and what it is allowing them to do.
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Rovio partners with Sony Pictures for distribution of Angry Birds movie coming in 2016
Rovio announced that they have partnered with Sony Pictures for their upcoming Angry Birds movie. We've previously covered details of the Angry Birds movie that was originally announced back in December 2012. At that time, I asked what the movie would consist of. That question still needs to be answered.
Sony impressed us with their great attitude, determination, and professionalism. They convinced us that we have found the right partners and team to help us market and distribute our first motion picture.
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Survey says that only 1 out of 10 Americans would wear Google Glass
Google is going to have a fight on its hands to make Glass a popular product. According to a survey conducted by BiTE interactive of 1,000 US adults, 45 percent of respondents said they wouldn't wear the glasses due to their aesthetics or because they thought the device would be irritating.
Joseph Farrell, EVP of operations at BiTE interactive:
Google Glass represents a profound social barrier for the average consumer.At best, they see a Glass user as someone who prioritizes information access over a personal connection with others. At worst, they fear social sleights of hand: researching topics, recording video or Googling a person in mid-conversation. Overall, what Glass offers is combination of high social rejection with features the average person simply doesn't value over their current smartphone.So now my question to you: Would you wear Google Glass? If not, what would it take you to wear it. If so, why?
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Rovio brings Angry Birds Rio to Windows Phone, mark down another classic iOS game for Windows Phone
Microsoft announced today that Rovio has brought the classic Angry Birds Rio to the Windows Phone platform. The app has been available on iOS and Android for a long time, but it has finally jumped over to the fledgling Windows Phone platform. Microsoft needs popular iOS apps to continue coming to Windows Phone to encourage users to jump on the platform.
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The Internet is still off-limits for a large part of the UK's population
More than seven million adults in the UK have never used the internet, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The data was based on responses to the question: "when did you last use the internet?"
Graham Walker, chief executive of digital accessibility charity Go On UK has commented that the numbers were "encouraging", but more work is needed. Mr. Walker has also mentioned that "it's not just about access to the internet. Sixteen million adults don't have the basic online skills to confidently take advantage of digital tools."
The statistics indicate that London enjoys the highest rate of web users (90%), while Northern Ireland has the lowest (79%). When the stats are segmented by age, the figures suggest that 99 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds are now online. At the opposite end of the spectrum, those aged 75 or above are most likely to be among the "disconnected." 4.2 million women and 2.8 million men in the UK have actually never used the Internet.
It is understandable that many older people are still reluctant to use a technology that hasn't been around during a large part of their lives. We have all seen examples of web-savvy older users who are enjoying full access to the best that the Internet can provide. We have also seen less experienced older folk who fall prey to the tricks of online scammers. Educating older people on the benefits--and also the dangers--of the web is a need that has to be addressed by both the British government and the UK's elderly-related charitable organizations. Our older citizens need to develop the skills that will enable them to make the best out of the web, while also avoiding the worst aspects of it.
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Gran Turismo 6 will be coming to PlayStation 3 later this year
There are many fans of the Gran Turismo line of racing games. Gran Turismo has been around since the original PlayStation and, as the trailer brags, has 15 years of history. Gran Turismo 6 is shaping up to be quite the game, featuring over 1,200 cars and 71 different race tracks across 33 different locations.
The new Gran Turismo 6 will feature an all-new game engine that will supposedly offer more realistic driving. Gamers will get a chance to play with the new engine in July when a demo is released. We here at TweakTown can't wait for the next Gran Turismo.
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YouTube expands livestreaming, opens it up to all channels with 1000+ subscribers
Google had a massive opening day at Google I/O. Today, the company announced that they are expanding livestreaming options by opening the platform up to more users. Now, any channel that has more than 1,000 subscribers will be able to use YouTube to livestream events.
- You get real-time transcoding in the cloud, so you only need to send us your highest quality stream and we make it instantly available in all resolutions and device formats
- You can show multiple camera angles, add closed captions, and insert ads and slates
- Viewers can watch the live stream from any device, get the best quality constantly adjusting to their Internet connection, and can skip back and forth in the live stream
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Google updates Wallet, now allows you to send money via Gmail
Time to report on another Google update announced today at Google I/O. Google has integrated its Wallet product into Gmail to allow people to send money with an e-mail. This makes the product competitive with PayPal, which also allows you to send money to other people. However, PayPal doesn't allow you to attach money to an e-mail.
It's pretty cool to be able to attach money to an e-mail just as you would attach an image or other attachment.
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RumorTT: Next iPad mini will feature upgraded processor and cameras
Another week, another Apple-related rumor. The latest rumor says the next iPad mini will be coming with numerous improvements over the original model launched last year. Rumors say that this fall will be a busy one for Apple, with a new iPad, iPad mini, and iPhone all expected to be showing up.
The thickness is expected to increase slightly to make room for a larger battery to power these higher-spec'd parts. As with all rumors, take this with a grain of salt.
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Google sends cease and desist letter to Microsoft over new Windows Phone YouTube app
Google isn't happy with Microsoft over its recently released YouTube app. The app, which was released by Microsoft just over a week ago, is a much-improved YouTube app that Google apparently didn't know was coming. According to a copy of the cease and desist letter sent to Microsoft, Google is demanding Microsoft "immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013."
Content creators make money on YouTube by monetizing their content through advertising. Unfortunately,by blocking advertising and allowing downloads of videos, your application cuts off a valuable ongoing revenue source for creators, and causes harm to the thriving content ecosystem on YouTube. In addition,your application overrides specific decisions made by some content creators to keep their content from displaying on certain types of devices, which in many cases are due to exclusive distribution arrangements those content creators have with third parties. YouTube's agreements with creators give them choices in how their content is presented and distributed, and your application takes away that control
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Is NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 770 just a GTX 680 in disguise? GTX 680 can be BIOS flashed to a GTX 770
NVIDIA is set to release their next-generation GPUs in the form of the 700-series next month, with some sources stating that you can flash your GeForce GTX 680 to a GeForce GTX 770 with a BIOS flash.
But, don't get your hopes up just yet, as a post on TechPowerUp has said that the BIOS supplied to the Reddit user isn't a GTX 770 BIOS, but a "modified GTX 680 BIOS" that has increased clock speeds and the .inf file has been edited to change the card's descriptor string to 'GTX 770'.
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Windows Phone won't be revamped until 2014, Windows Phone users feeling 'blue'
Windows 8 is receiving an update in the coming months pushing it to Windows 8.1, which was called Windows Blue. But, there have been questions of whether we would see an update to Windows Phone 8 or not, which was answered in a report by Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet.
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Sharp's Aquos Pad SH-08E features 7-inch 1920x1200-pixel IGZO display and 1.7GHz quad-core processor
Sharp are preparing a new 7-inch tablet that is sure to impress, featuring a 1920x1200-pixel IGZO display and super-fast 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor. We should also see a 4,200mAh battery and Android 4.2.2 on top.
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Google Maps gets a makeover ahead of Google I/O
Just hours before Google I/O begins and we go all Google crazy for days on end, a new look Google Maps for desktop has been unveiled by Droid-Life. The site noticed a description on the revised Maps landing page that reveals we should expect a "tailored map for every search".
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BlackBerry will come out with BlackBerry Messenger apps for iOS and Android this summer
BlackBerry is attempting to stay relevant with its latest offering of smartphones. While there is some debate as to whether or not it's working, BlackBerry is charging ahead with other attempts at stay relevant. BlackBerry has announced that they will be releasing BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) apps for both the iOS and Android platforms sometime this summer.
BlackBerry says the service currently handles around 10 billion messages every day, sent by over 60 million users. The mobile messaging market is heating up with WhatsApp being the messaging app currently on top. Why BlackBerry has just now decided to release BBM for other platforms isn't clear. It could be a good thing, or it could be the signal of a dying company.
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Microsoft adds support for Google Chat to Outlook.com and Skydrive.com
Microsoft has gone and added Gchat support to Outlook.com and Skydrive.com. Users who are logged into their Microsoft account on Outlook.com or Skydrive.com will gain the ability to chat with their Google contacts over the next few days. This comes at an interesting time as Google is rumored to be launching its unified Babel chat platform at Google I/O, which kicks off tomorrow.
It's nice to see a company working with a competitor to make their own product better for the consumer. Microsoft is still working on increasing its public image, and this is probably part of that push.
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Nokia 'very interested' in tablets, according to executive
Earlier today, Nokia launched the Lumia 925, one of two successors to the Lumia 920. During the event, Nokia's executive vice president of smart devices said that Nokia is interested in tablets. "We're very interested in tablets and that's an area we're looking at," Jo Hawlow said.
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US Navy's X-47B marks the first unmanned plane to take off from an aircraft carrier
No longer do Navy drones have to be land-based. The United States Navy has officially tested the X-47B on an aircraft carrier and it is the first unmanned aircraft to be launched from an aircraft carrier. Even cooler, the X-47B was launched from the aircraft carrier using the steam-powered catapult.
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Sleeping Dogs Benchmarked with AMD Eyefinity in Portrait at 3240x1920
Introduction
We started off our Eyefinity benchmarks by looking into the most used monitor orientation - landscape. But there's something a little different out there in the form of multi-monitor gaming in portrait. Landscape Eyefinity is when you have your three monitors side-to-side, giving you a super-wide experience. Portrait sees them flipped on their sides, for some awesome gaming.Portrait Eyefinity provides us with 1920 pixels high, because those same pixels are usually from left to right. This gives games an incredible sense of height, and personally, first-person shooters benefit from this the most. Instead of the fish eye view from the usual landscape multi-monitor use, nothing is stretched, it just feels like a massive screen.
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Let's get into it shall we? For your information, I am running:
- Intel Core i7 3770K @ 4.8GHz
- Corsair H100 Hydro Cooler
- Corsair Force Series GT 240GB SSD
- ASRock Z77 Extreme 9 motherboard
- Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7970 Dual-X OC Edition (x2)
- Lian Li PC-T60 Pitstop
- Corsair Dominator Platinum - 16GB kit of 2133MHz DDR3 RAM
- Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64
- AMD Catalyst 13.2 beta 4 drivers
I'd like to extend a big thank you to Sapphire, Corsair and ASRock for supplying the parts for this machine, I couldn't write this article or any future articles without this hardware!
It's a seriously nice machine, and really powers through what I do each day. I've got the CPU clocked up to remove any potential CPU-based bottlenecks, the RAM is at stock speeds and everything else is at out-of-the-box settings.
Benchmark Results
What we've done with Sleeping Dogs is run it at the Extreme quality preset, with both 'Normal' and 'Extreme' AA settings. We've run this at 1080p with a single GPU stock, overclocked GPU stock at both Normal and Extreme AA settings - we ran this again with CrossFire enabled at both stock/overclocked and Normal/Extreme AA settings. We've run this same test yet again, at 3240x1920 with single/CF GPU, stock/overclocked and Normal/Extreme.08[/imgsbs] 02[/imgsbs]
It takes some time, but it gives us a better idea of what stresses the cards out and where potential usefulness with CrossFire comes into play. The results:
Turning down the anti-aliasing settings to 'Normal' AA, we find much better results. We're hitting 64.1 FPS with a single Radeon HD 7970 when overclocked, and at stock we have 56.3 FPS - great results. The monitors I've used for Eyefinity are 120Hz-capable, so I love to get close to 120 FPS or more.
CrossFire HD 7970's doesn't get too far off the mark, scoring 103.1 FPS and 108.4 FPS for stock and overclocked HD 7970's, respectively. This is some great results from two HD 7970's, but not enough to run the game at 3240x1920 at 120 FPS.
What we hope to do in the near future is offer you these same 5760x1080 and 3240x1920 results, with NVIDIA GPU's. In the not too distant future (2-3 months) we will also be offering a look into triple 2560x1440 screens for a whopping 7860x1440 and 4320x2560. These will be some very expensive setups, but glorious articles we'll be offering up shortly.
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KingFast F3 Plus Series KF2510SCF Enterprise SSD Review
Introduction
The KingFast F3 Plus Series KF2510SCF SSD merges the LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller and Intel 25nm SLC NAND into one package. This arrangement features sequential read/write speeds of 556/530 MB/s, respectively. The random read IOPS are 55,735 and random write weighs in at a higher 83,221 IOPS. These are likely FOB (Fresh out of Box) numbers with 100% compressible data.
Recently we published a review of the SuperSSpeed S301 Hyper Gold Enterprise SSD, which also features a very similar build with the SF-2281 and Intel SLC flash. The real differentiator between these two products is that the SuperSSpeed is geared specifically for the client-side, and the KingFast F3 Plus Series SSD was designed and optimized from the ground up for datacenter applications.
With the same controller and NAND on both of these SSD's, we will put them head to head to see which can provide the best solution in an enterprise environment. There are always different variables to take into consideration beyond the normal 'feeds and speeds' when testing enterprise storage solutions. Typically, reliability and enhanced efficiency will trump less-refined solutions, even if they are faster.
The emergence of these value-oriented SLC SSD's brings forth an interesting product for those seeking tremendous endurance specifications at lower price points. The KingFast F3 Plus retails for roughly $2.50 per GB at the time of publishing for customers purchasing 10 or more SSD's. This is in the same price range of the SuperSSpeed offering, with its $2.00 per GB price. Part of the pricing disparity is due to the slightly larger capacity of the SuperSSpeed S301. The SuperSSpeed S301 features 128GB in comparison to the 120GB of the KingFast F3 Plus.
The reason for the capacity disparity is due to R.A.I.S.E functionality onboard the KingFast F3 Series SSD. The SuperSSpeed has this feature disabled. The SF-2281 controller is intended for consumer applications, but the use of R.A.I.S.E. functionality significantly boosts the capability of the SSD to deal with uncorrectable errors. This feature embeds a layer of parity in the NAND to allow for recovery from a failed sector, page, or even an entire block.
Enabling the R.A.I.S.E. feature creates a small loss of capacity, but yields huge gains in reliability. In conjunction with the 55b/512 BCH ECC this boosts the Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate (UBER) to 10-29, which equates to a quadrillion fewer uncorrectable errors than other controllers. Pairing this vigorous level of data protection with SLC NAND and its impressive 100,000 P/E cycles creates a very durable SSD that should handle the rigors of even the heaviest write workloads with ease.
Today in the comparisons of the two LSI SandForce SSD's we will learn that things aren't always what they seem when comparing raw speed of several SSD's. Even when performance results are mind-numbingly similar during the tests, there can be large differences in power and efficiency. With efficiency dictating the shape of today's datacenters, our results bring into focus the power efficiency metrics between two very similar SSD's.
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SilverStone DS322 Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure Review
The DS322 is a user-friendly dual-bay RAID enclosure that can support RAID volumes in excess of 2.2TB. These RAID modes include 0, 1 and No-RAID. Being built primarily out of aluminium, the DS322 has been fitted with a 40mm cooling fan to exhaust excess heat during operation. Compatibility of the DS322 extends to Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and Mac OS X.
The second is DiskBench, a real-world file benchmark that uses the drives file system to read and write data. In this test we copy a 10GB directory consisting of audio, video, documents and pictures to the enclosure. Each enclosure is connected via USB 3.0 to our native ports on the Z77 chipset. The drives used in testing are a pair of Western Digital Red 1TB hard drives, and for testing the enclosures maximum speed, a pair of Corsair Neutron 256GB SSD's.
SilverStone is one of those companies that we put on a pedestal, their products are always bathed in quality and the DS322 is no different. From the sleek black aluminium exterior, to the performance built inside, this unit represents everything that is the SilverStone touch. The front mounted LED indicators are a nice feature and even further, they aren't so bright to where they have that blinding effect. Swapping drives in and out of the enclosure is rather simple with the tool-less design, and with the DIP RAID selection switch mounted up front, you don't have to fiddle around getting behind the enclosure to switch RAID modes.
As I said previously, the DS322 is one of the highest performing enclosures I have seen, and as such, I have come away from this review quite impressed with what SilverStone has put together. In our testing we saw the DS322 reach speeds upwards of 450MB/s with our Neutron SSD's and even 300MB/s with our WD Red HDD's.
One thing that is definitely worth mentioning is upon receiving this unit I had a number of issues trying to get it to format drives through USB 3.0. After contacting SilverStone, they directed me promptly to a firmware update located on their product page. This firmware update was rather simple to run through with the included documentation and I had my enclosure up and running perfectly within minutes. So, if you find yourself in this predicament, update the firmware.
Pricing of the DS322 at the time of this writing is set at $79.99. This places the DS322 in perfect position against competitor's products that offer similar performance at a higher price. Simply put, if you're in the market for an external solution and want RAID capability, the DS322 is one to look at!
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Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best of Both Worlds (1990) Blu-ray Review
Amongst the 26 episodes of The Next Generation's third season, none are more memorable than the cliffhanger episode The Best of Both Worlds, and its season four resolution, which represented a new direction that broke tradition to span stories over multiple episodes, allowing for more creative story arcs and an audaciously dramatic escalation for the series.
Responding to a distress signal from a Federation colony, the Enterprise finds a swathe of destruction which points to the Borg, a formidable alien race of biomechanical beings with a collective consciousness, who travel across the galaxy assimilating technology and alien and human species alike. Fast approaching Earth, packing weaponry and technology that far outstrips the might of the Federation, the only thing stopping the Borg is the Enterprise and its crew, but the ship will soon find that the cost of war is very high indeed.
As part of the wider restoration of the entire seven season run of The Next Generation, Paramount have taken the opportunity to offer The Best of Both Worlds as a separate feature length episode, which seamlessly bridges the dual episode gap. Fans initially taken aback by the seemingly second bite of the cherry from Paramount Home Video need not be alarmed. The studio have assembled some truly great extra features for this standalone Blu-ray which without doubt warrant adding it next to the season collections proper, whilst more casual fans might be enticed by its low entry price. Either way, it's a win-win for all involved.
Video
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best of Both Worlds is presented in the series' original intended aspect ratio of 1.33:1 encoded with AVC MPEG-4 compression.
Whilst my review for the third season of The Next Generation will be forthcoming, viewers will be immediately drawn to the updated visual look of the third series, a more cinematic look owing to a change in director of photography in Marvin Rush whose preference for a brighter and more vibrant image makes the image pop, along with a change in Kodak film stock, which featured much smaller emulsion and significantly less grain, resulting in a sharper and better defined image.
Like the first two season of The Next Generation, The Best of Both Worlds has been reassembled and re-composited by the in-house team at CBS Digital, and they've done a spectacular job of piecing it all together. It's a small observation, but three seconds of film could not be found, and which has been up-converted from analog SD video. It's fleeting and due to the dark nature of the shot means its less obvious, but it's a shame that the shot could not have been reassembled using the background from a previous shot, rotoscoping the two figures from the SD footage.
Overall, experiencing The Best of Both Worlds in 1080p is like finding out that The Next Generation filmed another movie and it's just been unearthed.
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best of Both Worlds is presented in DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 at 24 bits, along with the original stereo audio tracks in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kb/s).
Similar to all season releases thus far, the audio track has been expanded to full 7.1 by going back to the audio stems. There's really little to say - this is by far and away the best the series has ever sounded and will likely ever sound. For those that prefer to listen to the original stereo audio tracks, they'll be pleased they are still catered for.
I didn't detect any audio sync issues, and dialogue is generally mastered at a good level. Surround channels are utilized more aggressively than expected, phaser beams emanate seamlessly from the front to the rear soundstage, and the action oriented plot allows for more exploitation of the audio spectrum.
Low frequency output is generally present throughout, underscoring some of the more dramatic sequences and to convey size, be it the hulking Borg cube or the sleek Enterprise D.
Overall, free of the confines of stereo channels, The Best of Both Worlds is allowed to shine in a lossless mix whilst remaining true to the original sound design.
Despite their exhaustive schedule creating extra features for the full season Blu-ray releases, Roger Lay and Robert Meyer Burnett return with some exclusive extra features, which won't be duplicated elsewhere and which focus exclusively solely on the feature length episode. Let's dig in.
First up is an Audio Commentary featuring director Cliff Bole, actress Elizabeth Dennehy and Trek-sperts Michael and Denise Okuda. The choice of participants across all areas makes for multiple interesting perspectives, and much of the discussion revolves around how important the episode is to The Next Generation canon of stories, and its impact on popular culture, and the franchise moving forward.
Next is the 30 minute long Regeneration: Engaging The Borg which features newly shot retrospective interviews and vintage behind the scenes footage discussing the genesis of the storyline, and the risk factor of endangering the crew with such a formidable enemy, and the shows many production elements, including visual design and effects. It's particularly interesting to see the isolated visual effect element shots interspersed throughout, although seeing the Borg cube explode in 16x9 widescreen makes me wonder what The Best of Both Worlds would have looked like presented in a widescreen aspect ratio.
Finally, we have a five minute long Gag Reel taken from the camera negative and presented in 1080p, along with two SD Episodic Promos.
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NZXT HALE90 V2 1000-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Review
Introduction
This time around, NZXT has done a few things to better an already outstanding unit. Of the many things that have changed, the most notable one is certainly that the unit is now 100% modular. Previously it featured several natively wired cables including a pair of EPS12V connectors, which were just left hanging in most systems.
NZXT's press release stated that they wanted "to deliver a PSU suitable for high up-time server environments, but in a package for enthusiasts." We'll keep that in mind as we start tearing into the package and see what the new HALE90 V2 1000W power supply has to offer.
Specifications, Availability and Pricing
NZXT lists the HALE90 V2 1000W power supply with an MSRP of $229. The cheapest we could find it for was at Newegg along with a $5.99 shipping fee, bumping the total to $235.98. This places the HALE90 V2 towards the more expensive end of Gold rated power supplies, and as such, we expect to see that the addition cost warrants some better performance. Warranty for the HALE90 V2 series is five years.
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PNY Prevail Elite 240GB SSD Review
Introduction
Going forward, PNY has high aspirations in the SSD space. With a large new factory built in New Jersey, PNY has one of the very few SSD manufacturing facilities in North America. PNY hasn't released their monthly production numbers, but with their own product line and parts made under the HP brand, PNY is churning out a large volume of SSDs.
Sitting at the top of the PNY SSD product line is the Prevail Elite. The Prevail Elite is a very special SSD that shares many of the same specs with the consumer focused Prevail. The difference between the Elite and the consumer Prevail is the Elite's 10K P/E cycle NAND flash, up from the 3K NAND found on a majority of consumer SSDs. PNY says the Prevail Elite is best used for cloud storage, networking, RAID configurations and servers.
In the past, we've seen other companies make a big deal about their 5K P/E cycle products. Intel's 520 Series and Kingston's original Hyper X come to mind. The PNY Prevail Elite trumps these products with double the program erase cycles. That makes it fit for high write environments, like a temporary destination for downloaded content on your NAS server. This is an area where I burn through consumer SSD's due to the PAR and RAR stages. These are also the same stages to benefit the most from flash-based storage due to the high IOPS performance.
That's just one example of use, but you may think the PNY Prevail is an expensive option for the task. If you look at PNY's website and see the $749.99 price, then you'd be correct. For those looking for one of the best values in the SSD space, then the Google shopping price of $229 is a better option. The Google option brings this hybrid consumer / enterprise product within reach of enthusiasts.
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PQI Tiffany 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review
The Tiffany USB 3.0 flash drive is available in 16GB and 32GB capacities. Marketing dictates that each of these drives are capable of 210MB/s read and 80MB/s write, while being compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and even Mac OS X.
One of the lesser known features of running Microsoft's new operating system Windows 8 is the native capability of USB Attached SCSI or UASP. To start my benchmarking procedure I secure erased the PQI Tiffany, as I do all drives I test.
The PQI Tiffany is a well-built elegant drive that would make a great companion drive for any ultra-book or MacBook user. In fact, as soon as my wife saw this drive laying on my desk, she snatched it up for use at work. That should tell you something right off the bat. PQI has manufactured and marketed the drive quite well, catching the eye of the shopper with the jewellery based packaging, a good move and I must give kudos to that.
As far as performance is concerned, the Tiffany isn't the fastest drive we have tested, then again, we were able to achieve just over the stated marketing speeds of 220MB/s read and 80MB/s write.
Pricing on the drive at this point is a bit iffy as I could only find it on eBay with several auctions listing it at $44.99. However, this being the price, it does lift the Tiffany above the $1 per GB, and with availability quite slim, I'm not sure you could get your hands on one even if you wanted to.
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Thermaltake Chaser A41 Mid-Tower Chassis Review
Introduction
In this evolution you are now dealing with a mid-tower chassis, but there are a bunch of styling cues that hark back to the original design. The fan controller and HDD dock are lost in the shrink, but you still get a lot of mesh, aggressive styling, a large side window to view the build, and Thermaltake also kept the duck feet. Another cross over from the original is the light blue accents found on the front of the chassis and in a stripe on the feet. One of the cool features that not many companies are even attempting to deal with was not lost on the newest release either, and while trivial to some, I can really appreciate the headset hanger offered on the left side of this chassis. While there may be some features removed that the Chaser series was known for, I really think the overall design is much better, and should serve a much wider market this time around.
In case you missed the title of this review, we will be getting in-depth with the Thermaltake Chaser A41 mid-tower chassis today. Even with samples out in the wild, these are very fresh to the market, and I may even be one of the first to have this chassis. With it setting for a couple of days while I caught up, I wanted to act fast to bring this chassis to light and show what Thermaltake is offering in mid-tower cases this year.
Of course we also have the Urban series to look forward to as well, but for now the Chaser series is what I was presented, and I am here to give you my take on just how well the Chaser A41 will do in the market.
So, get yourself comfortable and follow me on the journey that is the Thermaltake Chaser A41 review and chassis build.
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Logitech G19s Gaming Keyboard Review
Introduction
The one thing that had been holding back this whole idea with me was that the LCD screens were so limited. You could make bmp, logos and add them, or have information displayed on what looked like a large 1980's wrist watch, but I was looking for something a little more. Well, technology has finally caught up with the designers, and let me say, the capabilities of the screen on the new G series keyboards from Logitech are really top notch. In the age of phones being capable of high definition video playback, it was just a matter of time before the LCD on these keyboards would be something to blow your mind.
Not only are you getting a proven gaming keyboard from a manufacturer that is in every store, and I would guess in almost every home, you are getting all of the perks that come along with the G series from Logitech. The one thing that sets the new Logitech G19s gaming keyboard apart from others in the G series that I have reviewed before is the LCD screen. It's capable of displaying images, playing movies, updating RSS or POP3 email accounts, showing PC usage, and even a pizza timer and stopwatch to make sure your lap times are good and that you don't burn dinner, all at the same time.
If this sort of tech all packed into a keyboard hasn't piqued your interest in the slightest, you better check for a pulse, the Logitech G19s that we are about to see is just that cool.
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Thermaltake GOrb II Portable Laptop Cooler Review
Introduction
Time has since gone by, and in that time, I didn't see many (if any) reviews of the GOrb. It was almost as if it was just a paper launch, as it didn't seem that much effort went into making the GOrb known to the masses. Even if just a super simple concept for a cooling option for a notebook, the idea was to keep it very compact, so that you could just throw it almost anywhere when traveling. Realizing this is the size of a wadded up pair of socks, you get an idea of how easy these can be to stow away.
With not much to go on from Thermaltake with the original GOrb, I am pleased to see that when the second incarnation arrived, they were much more open and willing to send them out to the media. So, now we have a chance to look at the next-generation of GOrb cooling, with the GOrb II. I wouldn't start off thinking this is just another plastic ball either, Thermaltake redesigned just about every aspect of how the system looks, operates, and there even some cool tricks hidden inside to allow users something very cool to look at. And now with fans included in the design, the GOrb II should perform a bit better than just sticking a couple of jack stands under the notebook.
I really think that this second generation is something that many will want to check out, specifically those on the go with little room for a full sized, regular laptop cooler.
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Noctua NH-U14S CPU Cooler Review
Introduction
Along with the NH-U12S, this cooler uses a similar base and fin arrangement. Here you will get a two piece base, but Noctua adds a sixth heat pipe into the larger cooler. Along with the bottom of the fin stack needing some cuts and adjustments to allow room for the extra heat pipe, the width of this cooler has been increased to allow this tower to be cooled with a 150mm fan. The basic concept is still the same though, with the nickel plating of the base and pipes to look good next to the aluminum fins, and of course with the larger version, you will also be able to add a second fan to this, too.
With the smaller NH-U12S, Noctua also sent along the NH-U14S and an NF-A15 PWM fan for us to have a look at. What I do like about the NH14S up front is that is seems to offer all of the same attributes of the smaller cooler, yet increased the size of the cooler just enough to house the much larger fan. This will do three things, as I see it. One, it should increase the NH-U14S efficiency over the 12S. Two, it should theoretically be quieter, as larger fans typically are at similar speeds as smaller versions. The last thing it should do is cost a little more than the NH-U12S.
What I am about to show you is whether or not the performance and price increases are in line with the investment, as we continue getting much more up close and personal with the NH-U14S from Noctua.
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Corsair Neutron 128GB and 256GB (2013 Hynix Edition) SSD Review
Introduction
LAMD is a specialty SoC builder with a handful of products. Although founded in 2004, the first time we noticed LAMD came when testing the Seagate Pulsar.2 enterprise SSD. Fast forward a year and a half later and LAMD tipped up again in Corsair's flagship Neutron GTX consumer SSD.
A few months after Corsair publicly launched the then new Neutron Series, SK Hynix, a South Korean DRAM, NAND and CIS manufacturer, purchased Link_A_Media Devices. Not including portable flash devices like thumb drives, we rarely run across SK Hynix flash in consumer SSDs. The most recent was a SSD built by SK Hynix that used a LSI SandForce controller paired with the company's own flash.
The SK Hynix NAND paired with a LSI SF-2281 controller produced some very interesting results. The read performance was down a little compared to other 2281 drives on the market with IMFT 25nm flash, but write performance increased. As we move forward to smaller packages, write performance will become a larger issue, because the performance is decreasing. This is a bigger issue with smaller capacity SSDs and one that you can see for yourself by the performance numbers released in marketing docs for the Crucial M500 and OCZ Vertex 3.20, both with new IMFT 20nm flash.
The first and only time we reviewed the Corsair Neutron was just after Computex 2012 one year ago, and it was the 240GB model. The base Neutron shipped with IMFT 25nm flash. Around the same time, we reviewed the Neutron GTX 240GB with 24nm Toshiba Toggle Mode flash. That was then and this is now. The Neutron shipping today has changed. The flash comes from SK Hynix now on the base Neutron and the full 256GB of capacity is now in the user's hands thus the new 256GB capacity size in the new marketing material. The Neutron GTX has a smaller change, now with 19nm Toshiba Toggle flash, but we'll talk about that in a couple of days with a special follow up review.
When we discovered the changes, the Corsair Neutron 256GB was at Newegg for right around $169. Not only did we notice the great price, but also the new capacity size. We reached out to Corsair for a sample, but almost right away, the request was shot down. As you can imagine, Corsair wanted to send us a sample for review, the problem was with allocation. The marketing team can't get their hands on them because the new low price means they are selling like crazy. So, we waited in line like everyone else and ordered a handful of new Corsair Neutron and Neutron GTX drives from Newegg.
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Corsair Obsidian 350D Micro-ATX Chassis Review
Introduction
The idea behind this latest design was to give people who loved the previous cases in the Obsidian series a chance to get in to what they have to offer, but doing so in a much smaller area. As we all have seen, some of the coolest builds out there are based off Micro-ATX motherboards, without over filling the feature set with a bunch of irrelevant options that nobody will actually use. With this design, things are very straight forward, and both on the outside and on the inside, very cool changes are made to allow for better air flow, more interior spacing, and delivering it all in a sleek Obsidian packaging. What really helps keep the height down, and allows for some of that additional space is the fact that this chassis is designed for a Micro ATX motherboard - and I tried - and ATX motherboard will not line up well at all.
This new chassis is the Obsidian 350D that Corsair has sent over for testing. In this design you are currently left with two options. First is an all steel chassis that is painted black throughout, and offers a brushed aluminum fascia. The second option will come with all of those options, but also offers a very large clear window in the left panel. As our readers may know, I was just in the market for a chassis just like this for a build I had planned, but ended up with a Fractal Design solution. Considering these two cases are right in line with each other, you can see just as I will if maybe I may have jumped into a chassis too early, and maybe I should have waited for this instead.
There is quite a bit to cover in this Micro-ATX chassis called the Obsidian 350D, so get comfortable as I take you on this ride.
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Acer Aspire S7-391 Touchscreen Ultrabook Laptop Review
Introduction
As stated in our previous reviews, some benchmarks have been updated to their latest version. Notably, PCMark 7 and Powermark have been updated to their latest versions. Previous PCMark 7 scores are not comparable to the new version so all old results have been archived. We've gone ahead and archived Powermark's results at the same time to be sure that results in our charts are all comparable.
Is the Acer Aspire S7-391 better than its smaller brother or would you be better off with something else? Most importantly, does the S7-391 feature a keyboard that is better than the one on the S7-191? Keep reading to find out!
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Seagate Pro 600 Enterprise SSD Review
Introduction
The Seagate 600 Pro is designed to target the entry-level enterprise SATA SSD market, in particular hyperscale datacenters and cloud applications. Seagate foresees the 600 Pro also gaining traction as an enthusiast model for the client space.
Seagate has a deep understanding of the datacenter, they produce eight new HDD's per second, and churned out over a billion HDD's in the last four years alone. Unbelievably, that is more than 680,000 HDD's per day. Many of these HDD's head into datacenters, and Seagate has leveraged this understanding of OEM storage solutions and power efficiency to shape their new line of enterprise SSD products.
The Seagate 600 Pro features the LAMD LM87800AA controller also utilized in client SSD's. Seagate has built a history of collaboration with Link_A_Media (LAMD) during their initial foray into the SSD market with the Seagate Pulsar series. The LAMD controllers were actually designed in conjunction with Seagate. In the past Seagate even provided Series B financing for LAMD. SK Hynix has since purchased LAMD, but the bond between Seagate and LAMD remains strong.
This provides Seagate with broad experience with the LAMD LM87800 controller. Leveraging Seagate's own firmware allows them to tune the controller for enterprise use. Seagate has an expansive, and growing, patent portfolio that includes many technologies that translate well to SSD design, including multi-layered error recovery technology with advanced error detection and correction encoding.
The intense qualification cycles and rigorous interoperability testing delivers a quality product that will mesh well with any environment. The 400GB Seagate 600 Pro features sustained sequential read/write speeds of 520/450MB/s, and random read/write performance of 85,000/30,000 IOPS (in the capacities points with extra overprovisioning).
The 400 GB version of the SSD sports an endurance rating of 1080TBW, compared to 350TBW of endurance with the 480GB model. The extra overprovisioning also brings random write performance up from 11,000 IOPS to 30,000 IOPS at this capacity point. The gamut of available capacities provides administrators with a scalable configuration with preconfigured amounts of overprovisioning to suit their workload.
The Seagate 600 Pro also features tantalum power capacitors and a design optimized to deliver best-in-class performance efficiency, lowering the overall TCO of the storage solution. The continuing push from the HDD juggernaut into the SSD market aims to bring low-cost, yet powerful, solutions to market as part of their expansive portfolio of storage options.
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Seagate 600 SSD ST480HM000 480GB SSD Review
Introduction
480GB capacity size SSD's are perfect for mobile users. Notebooks rarely offer two or more drive trays so mobile users need to pack all their data in one drive. For years, Team Flash had to put up with Team Spinner bragging about a capacity advantage, but with 7mm and new 5mm designs, multiple platters in the mechanical products aren't possible. With SSD's breaking the 1TB marker now, the tables are turning, and quickly at that.
There is still a price difference between 1TB of flash-based storage and 1GB of mechanical storage. At the time of writing we don't know where the Seagate 600 SSD price will fall, but we can guarantee it will cost more than a 1TB 2.5" HDD.
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Seagate 600 SSD 240GB RAID Report
Introduction
Things should be different in 2013. Paul has ramped up his output and taken enterprise off my plate. Tyler is starting to ramp up with external storage and HDD reviews, so I can get back to some of the special projects that made TweakTown a special place to read SSD reviews. RAID reports are back and The State of Solid State will be too, right after Computex Taipei 2013 next month.
Today isn't about my work schedule though, today is Seagate's big day. The company just announced their new consumer and enterprise flash based products for 2013 and we're right in the middle of covering the new drives. In the Seagate 2013 Product Lineup article we covered the new 600 SSD, 600 Pro SSD, 1200 SSD with a SAS 12Gb/s interface and the new PCIe X8 Accelerator. Our Seagate 600 240GB review is also posted on and now it's RAID TIME!
Let's take a look at the Seagate 600 SSD product specs that we know and then get down to benchmarks.
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Seagate 600 SSD ST240HM000 240GB SSD Review
Introduction
First up is the mid-capacity consumer drive, 600 SSD in 240GB capacity size. This is Seagate's entry to the consumer SSD market, an expected move despite statements made by Seagate's CEO over the last five years.
At this point going forward, the consumer market will have flash. Intel's new ultrabook specifications mandates flash in the data storage path. This comes in the form of either an SSD or a cache SSD paired with mechanical storage. Mechanical drives are quickly being displaced by flash for boot drives and out of box storage, like NAS servers and cloud-based storage are moving into the home.
We have a lot to cover today, so let's get started with the new Seagate 600 SSD specs on the next page.
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Cooler Master V1000 1000-Watt 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Review
Introduction
The new V-series power supplies are meant to be their flagship units and were designed in conjunction with Seasonic. Cooler Master offers the new V series power supplies in three wattages: 700W, 850W and 1000W. These three models will take care of most enthusiasts, but those needing a bit more power will have to look towards their other models. All V series power supplies are rated for 80 PLUS Gold efficiency and feature a five year warranty.
So far things sound good, so let's take a deeper look at some of the specs, and find out what the new V1000 can do.
Specifications, Availability and Pricing
Cooler Master has placed an MSRP of $209.99 on the V1000 power supply. As we've written this review prior to launch, we can't provide a link to the unit for sale or find a better deal. Cooler Master has said the unit will be available in the US and Canada at the very least and if you live outside these regions, you'll have to order from one of the two at launch. Cooler Master backs the V1000 with a five year warranty.
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Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [06 May 2013]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!
- Samsung Galaxy Note II Phablet Review
- Iron Man 3 (2013) Cinema Review
- Infortrend EonNAS Pro 510 NAS Review
- Turn your Raspberry Pi into a full featured XBMC Media Center in an hour or less
- EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost SuperClocked 2GB Video Card Review
- iBUYPOWER Revolt SFF Desktop Gaming PC Review
- Corsair SSD Toolbox Software Overview - Better than Never
- Fractal Design ARC Midi R2 Mid-Tower Chassis Review
- GIGABYTE AMP-UP Audio 4th Generation Intel Core Feature Preview
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB and HD 7970 GHz Edition Video Cards in CrossFireX
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Far Cry 3 PC Review
In Far Cry 3 you take control of Jason Brody, a young college kid with rich parents enjoying life to the max on an island paradise when things go awry. Jason and his friends are captured by pirates and the infamous Vaas. Taken for ransom from their wealthy parents, Jason manages to escape with his brother and from there the story becomes that you as Jason must rescue your friends, but also as you build acquaintances on the island, decide how you want the future to be for those people. There is a point where the story just becomes boring and formulaic unfortunately, but until then it's one of the best stories of this generation.
As expected based on the first two games, Far Cry 3 puts you in a massive open world with side missions and main story to complete. One of the key facets of the title is exploration and the game significantly rewards you for exploring. Whilst there are scripted elements to some of the missions, sometimes it's just interesting to wander about the island and see what the enemy and other NPCs are doing. One example was we were closing in on an enemy kill, only to see a crocodile jump out of the water to take him alive. If someone else was to go to that exact spot, it may not happen because those sequences are not scripted.
For example, if you get some shark skins, you can craft a new pouch which improves your inventory level - something which is a lot more interesting to do than just buy a new pouch. You can pick up leaves and plants to help you concoct medicine to heal Jason. At no real point in the game are you forced to buy things. For example, one area which encourages exploration is the local stores. If you manage to take over the local radio tower, the shops will give you free weapons as a reward whilst that tower is not held by the enemies. It's a really interesting mechanic that rewards exploration in a manner that is tangible rather than just 'let's see this entire island'.
For the most part the missions are also enjoyable to play as well. There are over thirty campaign missions with quite a number more side missions to complete. To complete Far Cry 3 without doing side missions will take you about 10 hours and so it is a fairly meaty game when you compare it to most releases. The game does contain fast travel once you have visited a location although sometimes it is better to just explore and see the world on offer.
What Far Cry 3 manages to achieve is a believable world. This island could be a real world thing (although it's not), and the developers have clearly put a lot of work into building a fantastic world for the game. It has the crazy professor and the tribal warriors to complete the mix. But what takes it to the next level is the various fauna milling about the place. You can be swimming quietly in the rivers or ocean and the next minute a shark or crocodile attacks. The first time this happens you will literally jump in your seat and it's generally over before it even starts. You can imagine this is how it happens in the real world as well with most victims attacked before they even know it's happening.
On the PC at least, Far Cry 3 is a visual tour de force and one of the best games graphically we have ever played. If you have the hardware and video card to push this to the max you will see a visually stunning world with amazing graphics. Tone the graphics done a little and the game still shines even on older hardware, so it is clear Ubisoft has done its job in optimizing this game for fairly run of the mill systems as well. This is something that the original Far Cry game was criticised for not doing.
The game also features a co-operative multiplayer portion for up to four players to take part in. It is set six months before the actual events of the single player campaign and so in many ways is its own story. Introducing co-operative into such an awesome, open world game is something that Ubisoft had to do to take this game to the next level. With a length of about six hours, you certainly get your money's worth even though it's not the main campaign.
Far Cry 3 started out with a great E3 presentation that put the hype levels through the roof. Usually when this happens games significantly let us down, but in this case Ubisoft has delivered. No doubt they felt the pressure of such an awesome opening with Vaas and our main character, but instead of crumbling, they produced what is sure to be one of the best games of 2012.
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Hitman: Absolution Xbox 360 Review
This game became Kane & Lynch which had middling success in both sales and critical format. So six years later we have the return of Agent 47 and it's not without changes. Absolution completely changes up the series in many ways and we still aren't sure if all the changes and decisions made were the right ones.
Absolution picks up with Agent 47 being tasked to kill his agency handler Diana. She has gone rogue and has been selling secrets to enemies of the agency so his final contract becomes her. The agency has produced another agent from a child, Victoria with Diana on her deathbed asking 47 to protect her at all costs. This is what the story primarily revolves around; the protection of Victoria and escaping from the agency that 47 once called home. From the outset this shows just how much of a departure Absolution is to the regular format with previous games tasking 47 with contracts to fulfil for the agency.
This is only apparent on some of the levels. On many levels within the game there are no targets and instead it is 47's goal to reach another area to continue the story. As well as this there are times where the game takes control from you and performs kills in cut scenes. For a series which has focused so much on clean quiet kills from a gameplay perspective, to have this happen is frustrating. There are some sections in the game where quiet kills just cannot occur.
This is where you will like this game or not. Whilst in the past each mission was one huge environment for 47 to traverse and come up with sneaky ways to take out the target, in this game you are instead tasked with basically getting from point a to point b. Hitman in many ways becomes a third person shooter with the amount of sandbox missions able to be counted on less than two hands. Given that there are 20 missions overall in the game, this is a bit disappointing.
However, on those levels which do give you the freedom to explore and come up with various ways to take out the targets, the game absolutely shines. Previously seen at E3, the King of Chinatown level is one such example where there is many different ways to take out the target such as poisoning fish or blowing up a car. And it is these missions that you will revisit over and over again to try and come up with different ways to end the mission without being seen.
As well as the actual targets each mission contains a number of challenges to complete. Sometimes these challenges are to take out the targets in various different ways whilst other times it can be tasks such as finishing the mission only using 47's suit. Given that you very often traverse areas where you should not be, doing this is harder than it sounds.
Many of the elements we have seen in previous titles have again come back. You can still take the disguises of other characters although this is a bit harder than last time around.
Enemies will spot that you are not one of them quite easily and so it becomes a case of still having to focus on stealth even when blended in. To aid with this, 47 now has an instinct ability which allows you to see enemies through walls and walk near enemies in disguise without being spotted. You gain more instinct by performing quiet kills and tasks.
One of the more frustrating elements of Absolution is the change from limited save games to checkpoints. Instead of being able to save at any point in the game (within a limited number), you now have to track down and find checkpoints in the level. They are generally off the beaten track and this can be very frustrating especially on the tougher levels. The checkpoints also do not get retained if you leave your game which we have no idea why IO Interactive decided that was a good idea.
On the visual and environmental side of things the game is generally impressive. Whilst there is quite a variety to the locations that you will visit during your time with the game, it is not as varied as it was in Blood Money with some locations being visited more than once. Some of the missions are quite large in size whilst others are almost corridors only. It goes without saying the larger missions are the ones where 47's abilities can really shine. One thing that is true is that in general IO Interactive has used the environments to the best of their abilities with 47 being able to perform numerous environmental based kills on his targets.
Multiplayer comes in the form of contracts mode and in an ironic twist this system is much closer to that of the older games. You can either build or download contracts from other users and basically you are dropped into a world and have to kill targets silently to fulfil the contract. As you do so you gain money which can be used to upgrade your weaponry in multiplayer. This is an interesting take on multiplayer and we hope that users really embrace this system because it's entirely possible this could give the game a lot of legs.
Hitman: Absolution is a game that made us think about how we review games in many ways. Should we review a game based on what the name is on the box, or what the content actually is. Of course the latter is the answer, but we can't help but feel that this is not the greatest Hitman game. It's significantly different to other Hitman titles, but it's also not a bad game. If you come into the game expecting Blood Money 2 you will be disappointed, but if you look past this you will find a competent Hitman game that has just enough elements of its predecessors to ensure you should play as 47 again.
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Assassin's Creed III: Liberation PlayStation Vita Review
However, with the release of a new platform, the PS Vita, Ubisoft decided to give the portable space another crack with the AC series and have come out with mixed results. Liberation is not necessarily a bad game, but there are some areas which can be quite infuriating to play.
Liberation for the first time introduces a female character as the main lead. You play as Aveline, the black daughter of a rich businessman in the 1700's. A result of infidelity, Aveline lives with her step mother and father in New Orleans as one of the wealthy and famous. However, Aveline wants to rid the world of slavery, especially for her people and sets about trying to bring down the tyranny which existed in the time. Set in the 1700's, the game takes place during the same timeline as that of the main console game, and to get the most out of the story, you need to play both.
This is probably the most interesting change to the franchise because it means you often have to change your clothing to complete tasks. Having to change clothing to complete a task can be a tad tiresome (especially when it's not clear which clothing you should be wearing), but all the same the addition enhances the franchise.
As well as the main city, you will also visit the bayou of New Orleans which gives you the opportunity to partake in tree climbing and jumping. Ripped directly from the console game with Connor you can at will climb trees and often have to when completing assassination tasks. The game controls well and it's very obvious when you can and cannot climb trees. The Bayou has a very Metal Gear Solid 3 feel to it - a large, lush jungle full of crocodiles and other animals that can hurt Aveline. The main difference being that Aveline does not need to eat animals to survive.
The structure of the game takes on that of its console big brothers. The game includes nine sequences to complete which is a little on the short side and you will have this game down in around six to eight hours depending on how good you are at it. There is no difficulty setting so once you finish it, that's it really.
There are a number of side tasks to complete and there is a meta game where you can control a shipping company to gain money, but really in the grand scheme of things, you can ignore these and easily complete the game. One of the interesting elements is that the story you get if you just play the main missions is not the actual story. To get the real ending you need to take out a particular hidden character in each sequence.
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One of the biggest bugbears we have with the game is the PS Vita controls. The main controls themselves are fine, but when the developer is trying to shoe horn in the touch mechanics of the game, it just starts to break. For example, the game will at times ask you to put the Vita camera near a bright light. It took us a while to find a light that would give the Vita what it wanted, and there was no indication at all whether we were getting closer or not.
There are also other sections of the game which use the back touchpad such as paddling a canoe. There is nothing wrong with trying to include Vita specific controls, but when they work like they do in Liberation (it's a lucky dip as to whether your motions will be picked up), it would have been best to leave them out.
The environments that the game is set in are impressive for a handheld product. The city of New Orleans is beautifully represented by period buildings and the actual city itself is quite large, but nowhere near what you find in the console games of course. The split of the bayou and the city is an interesting feature with both environments having graphical problems as well as also some impressive sections. Voice acting on the system is impressive especially for a handheld and whilst the soundtrack can become repetitive, it suits the game and setting well.
There is no doubt that Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is the most impressive handheld version of the series yet. Ubisoft has used some of Vita's power well, but also included some utterly frustrating mini games based on the touch and camera features. It is on the short side and that means it's not really suitable as something for a long distance trip, but for short spurts on the way to work, it works almost perfectly.
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Deepcool Presents MULTI CORE X8 Notebook Cooler
Deepcool, the leading manufacturer of desktop CPU coolers, Notebook coolers, VGA coolers and DC case fans, has announced the third member of the MULTICORE notebook cooler family?MULTICORE X8. Sporting a large, high quality aluminum panel and 4 x10cm fans, this notebook cooler is able to cool down your notebook for better performance and safety.
Ergonomic Design for Health and Convenience
With two foldable supporting feet, the MULTICORE X8 is able to provide the user with 2 viewing angles to help ensure a healthy viewing position whether typing an email or watching a YouTube video. In addition, there are 2 included USB ports for expanding the notebook's usable connectivity.
Deep Cool Multi Core X8 Notebook Cooler Features:
- Built-in four fans provide massive airflow to cool the whole notebook base with no blind area.
- The creative Multi-Core Control Technology enables users to apply 4 different fan-working statuses: 4 fans on / 2 upper fans on / 2 downside fans on / 4 fans off.
- Ergonomic design with 2 viewing angles available for the most comfort in use.
- Four aluminum panels with Vertical Airflow Design pushes air into four different directions for superb cooling performance.
- 2 USB ports allow users to connect their personal USB devices
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SilverStone Raven RV04 Chassis Detailed
Here are some of the first pictures of SilverStone's upcoming flagship chassis, the Raven RV04. Its styling is clearly evolutionary to the Raven RV03, with no chrome highlights, and a more curvy, "concave" front. The biggest change is on the inside, while the RV03 features a 90-degree clockwise-tilted motherboard tray, the RV04 uses an upside-down BTX-esque motherboard tray. Perhaps the new trend of detachable drive-bays to make room for long graphics cards caught up with SilverStone. The case supports ATX, E-ATX, and SSI-CEB motherboard form-factors.
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ORIGIN PC Offers The Ultimate Mobile Performance Bundle
ORIGIN PC is now offering their award-winning EON17-SLX RTS (Ready-To-Ship) laptops that deliver the ultimate mobile performance in a special bundle for a limited time only! Right out ofthe box, the EON17-SLX RTS gaming laptop arrives pre-configured with dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M graphics cards in SLI, an Intel Core i7 mobile processor,16GB of 1600MHz memory, 240GB solid state hard drive, 1 TB additional storage hard drive and is bundled with a high-performance mouse, headset and an ORIGIN PC messenger bag. All RTS systems offer the same unmatched quality and performance as all ORIGIN PC systems and are backed by the same industry leading lifetime 24/7 customer support. All EON17-SLX RTS systems ship the next business day after payment is processed.The EON17-SLX RTS Ultimate Mobile Performance .
- Intel Core i7 3840QM Mobile Processor
- Dual 4GB NVIDIA GTX 680M With Professional ORIGIN PC Professional GPU Overclocking
- 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM
- 8XDVD+/-R/RW Optical Drive
- 240GB Solid State Drive
- 1TB Additional Storage Hard Drive
- Windows 7 Home Premium
- Includes High-performance Mouse, Headset and ORIGIN PC Messenger Bag
Special Bundle Price: $3,399
Total Bundled Savings: $500
For more information, visit this page.
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NVIDIA Reports Financial Results for First Quarter Fiscal 2014
NVIDIA today reported revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2014, ended April 28, 2013, of $954.7 million, down 13.7 percent from $1.11 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.13, down 53.6 percent from $0.28 in the prior quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.18, down 48.6 percent from $0.35 in the prior quarter.
"The success of Kepler-based GPUs within and beyond the PC helped drive another quarter of record margins," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. "Kepler is capturing share among gamers, strengthening our workstation and supercomputing segments, and will fuel new growth opportunities for our GRID server graphics solutions. With Tegra 4 devices and Tegra 4i certification on the way, we're gearing up to return to growth in the second half."
NVIDIA's outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 is as follows:
- Revenue is expected to be $975 million, plus or minus two percent.
- GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be approximately flat relative to the prior quarter, at 54.3 percent and 54.6 percent, respectively.
- GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $448 million; non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $408 million.
- GAAP and non-GAAP tax rates for the second quarter and annual fiscal 2014 are both expected to be 16 percent, plus or minus one percent. This estimate excludes any discrete tax events that may occur during a quarter, which, if realized, may increase or decrease our actual effective tax rates in such quarter.
Diluted shares for the second quarter are expected to be approximately 590 million.
Among highlights of the first quarter of fiscal 2014, NVIDIA:
- Announced its intention to return in excess of $1 billion to shareholders during fiscal 2014.
- Introduced NVIDIA GRID VCA, the industry's first visual computing appliance -- enabling businesses to deliver ultra-fast GPU performance to any Windows, Linux or Mac client on their network.
- Announced that NVIDIA GRID-based servers are now available from Dell, HP and IBM, and that NVIDIA GRID-enabled software is available from Citrix, Microsoft and VMware.
- Introduced its first fully integrated 4G LTE mobile processor, NVIDIA Tegra 4i, which is three times faster yet half the size of its nearest competitor.
- Introduced GeForce GTX TITAN for gamers, with the DNA of the world's fastest supercomputer and powered by world's fastest GPU.
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The Sony Xperia SP - Available now
09 May, Sydney, Australia - Following last month's announcement for the Sony Xperia SP, Sony Mobile Australia has today revealed pricing and availability for the latest model to join the Xperia smartphone line up for 2013. The Xperia SP delivers 4G LTE performance and an exceptional viewing experience, with a razor sharp HD screen housed in a beautiful design. It is available now from Virgin Mobile Australia, from Vodafone from May 15th and from Telecommunication Retailers later this month.
Adding to the unique design innovation is the colour-changing 'transparent element' with customisable illuminations allowing you to personalise incoming calls and text messages. And you can even set the illuminations to pulse to the beat of your favourite music. Check out how to customise the Xperia SP here.
"The Xperia SP is perfect for the Australian who needs an affordable smartphone that doesn't compromise on features," said John Featherstone, Managing Director of Sony Mobile Australia. "This new model benefits from Sony's proven innovation and engineering experience. It is the perfect accessory for the music lover, for enjoying premium HD entertainment, and of course capturing and sharing content with friends and family."
The Xperia SP will be ranged with both Vodafone and Virgin Mobile Australia.
Virgin Mobile Australia
- The Sony Xperia SP will be available for $0 per month on the Big Plan $39 (24 month contract, min total cost is $936.00)
- Inclusions: $450 plan credit + 1GB data + unlimited mobile calls & text Virgin to Virgin within Oz
- For more information and additional plan options go to: http://www.virginmobile.com.au/sony-xperia-sp
- The Sony Xperia SP will be available from May 15th from Vodafone for $0 per month on the Vodafone $40 Plan (24 month contract, min total cost is $960)
- Inclusions: $250 plan credit + 500 MB data + a choice of unlimited mobile calls or text Vodafone to Vodafone & 3 mobiles within Australia
For more information and additional plan options go to: http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/plans/pricingplans
The Xperia SP will also be available from key telecommunication retailers outright for $499 RRP.
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BitFenix Reveals Prodigy Green and Blue
Almost one year ago, BitFenix launched the Prodigy - a mini-ITX chassis that makes no compromises. Today, BitFenix is pleased to announce two new members to the Prodigy line up - Prodigy Green and Prodigy Blue. Sporting two exciting new colors and a window side panel, these two new models take the awesome features and styling of the original Prodigy and revamp it for a new year.
The flexibility offered by this mini-ITX dynamo sparked the creative fires of builders everywhere, resulting in a virtual avalanche of unique builds. Prodigy Green and Blue, with their standard window side panels, make it easy for users to show off their creations. And with two luscious color options - Vivid Green and Cobalt Blue - Prodigy Green and Blue owners will have no trouble attracting attention at the next LAN party.
On the inside, users will find plenty of room for up to five 3.5" HDDs or 2.5" SSDs, as well as long graphics cards up to 320 mm in length. Removing the BitFenix FlexCage gives room for the thickest 240 mm radiators, and the standard ATX power supply cage enables builders to power their mini-rigs with choice PSUs.
BitFenix fans around the world will be able to get their hands on Prodigy Green and Prodigy Blue beginning late May once they arrive on store shelves.
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ZOTAC Supercharges ZBOX with Intel Core i5 Desktop Processor
ZOTAC International, a global innovator and leading manufacturer of graphics cards, mainboards and mini-PCs, today supercharges the ZBOX mini-PC with desktop Intel Core i5 and i3 processors for outstanding performance that can match and outpace larger full-size desktop PCs. The new 3rd Generation ZOTAC ZBOX with Intel Core Processors ushers in a new era of performance to the mini-PC form factor.
The Intel Core i5 3470T processor adds Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology to intelligently increase clock speeds of individual processor cores up to 3.6 GHz depending on computing demands of the operating system and applications. Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) enhances virtualization capabilities on the Intel Core i5 3470T for superior performance for virtualization uses.
Intel HD Graphics 2500 graphics processing transforms the 3rd Generation ZOTAC ZBOX with Intel Core Processors into powerhouse HTPCs with Intel Quick Sync Video technology for lightning fast video conversions, Intel InTru 3D technology for stunning and smooth Blu-ray 3D playback with advanced audio technologies, and Intel Clear Video HD technology for hardware-accelerated high-definition video playback.
It's time to play with the 3rd Generation ZOTAC ZBOX with Intel Core Processors.
General details
- ZOTAC Introduces 3rd Generation ZBOX with 3rd Generation Intel Core Processors
- New ZBOX ID88 and ID89 series
- Desktop Intel Core processors (Ivy Bridge)(LGA1155)
- Intel Core i3 3220T (dual-core, 2.8 GHz)
- Intel Core i5 3470T (dual-core, 2.9 GHz, up to 3.6 GHz Turbo)
- Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology
- 4 GB DDR3
- 500 GB HDD
- HDMI & DVI-I outputs
- 802.11n Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 4.0 w/ dual external WiFi antennas
- Dual Gigabit Ethernet
- High-amperage USB charging capable (yellow ports)
- Bundled MCE-compatible remote w/ USB IR receiver
- Bundled VESA75/100 mount
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Silicon Power Presents the New Generation of Xpower DDR3 Memory
Silicon Power, the world's leading provider of memory storage solutions today unveils the new generation of Xpower DDR3 Overclocking series memory module. Built in a special-made metallic heat sink, the new Xpower DDR3 is able to provide a better cooling solution and increase the heat dissipation area, maintaining a powerful speed and stability to meet the needs of overclocking enthusiasts and hardcore gamers.
Silicon Power new Xpower DDR3 Overclocking series are available in various duel channel kits in DDR3-1600, 1866, 2133, and 2400 MHz variants, reaching the high capacity from 8 GB (4 GBx2) to 16 GB (8 GBx2). Compatible with Intel Core Gen 3 and the latest Z77 platform, Xpower Overclocking series can maximize the transfer speed, unleashing the extreme system performance to the next level.
Product specifications:
- Memory module type: Xpower DDR3 Memory
- Pins: 240Pin UDIMM without ECC
- Speed: DDR3-1600 / 1866 / 2133 / 2400
- CAS Latency: 9 (1600/1866) / 11 (2133/2400)
- Capacity: 8 GB (4 GBx2) / 16 GB (8 GBx2)
- DRAM Chip spec.: 4 Gb (512Mx8bit) (Single Chip Density)
- Operating voltage: 1.65 V
- Support Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
- Lifetime warranty
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DisplayLink Launches New Mac OS X Driver for USB Docking
DisplayLink, the leading provider of USB Graphics technology, today launched its latest software driver extending USB Graphics support for Mac OSX platforms. Following strong feedback from DisplayLink MAC OSX demonstrations at CES 2013, the company today announced availability of the latest V2.0 DisplayLink Mac driver supporting up to 4 simultaneous displays over monitors and docking stations enabled by the company's award winning chips and software technology.
The new Mac driver is available as a software upgrade and completely backward compatible with DisplayLink's previous silicon solutions, allowing existing users to reap the productivity and connectivity benefits of USB Graphics over both USB2.0 and USB 3.0 connections.
Availability
The new DisplayLink Version 2.0 driver for Mac OSX is available for download immediately via the DisplayLink website.
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AMD Announces Memory Series Designed With Gamers in Mind
AMD today launched the AMD Radeon RG2133 Gamer Series Memory and Radeon RAMDisk 4.1. AMD Radeon RG2133 Gamer Series Memory is the only memory on the market that offers both XMP and AMP memory profiles in one package, enabling ultimate ease in overclocking on both platforms.
The newly introduced Gamer Series Memory is composed of high quality components that help deliver top memory performance and reliability. With Dataram, AMD's memory manufacturing partner, AMD is proud to introduce Gamer Series to its product line up as well as the improved performance of AMD Radeon RAMDisk that allows gaming enthusiasts to load their favorite games significantly faster, saving time and eliminating frustrations.
"AMD and Dataram have worked together to significantly enhance the dynamic background load-and-save feature in order to create a seamless, non-volatile RAMDisk experience," said Jason Caulkins, CTO, Dataram. "This underscores AMD and Dataram's continued dedication to delivering the highest-performing memory products for PC enthusiasts."
Features and Benefits of AMD Radeon RG2133 Gamer Series Memory
- Support for XMP and AMP Technology: Designed and tested to ensure compatibility across multiple platforms.
- Suitable for Everyone: Great fit for casual to hardcore gamers and everyone in between.
- Unbeatable Value: Comes with free Radeon RAMDisk 64 GB with enhanced load-and-save as well as lifetime manufacturer's warranty
- Stay Cool: Features high-grade aluminum heat shield for enhanced heat dissipation.
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Mach Xtreme Introduces FX 256 GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive
Mach Xtreme Technology Inc., a worldwide leader in top performance, high reliability and user-friendly designed PC components, adds 256GB model to expanding FX USB3.0 flash drives series today. This addition will join existing 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB models.
MX-FX 256 GB is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0 for efficient data transfer rates. The MX-FX 256 GB flash drive delivers best-in-class read and write speeds clocking in at up to 300 MB/s read and 185 MB/s write along with its ultra compact size (78 x 27 x 9.3mm). Mach Xtreme FX flash drives come also in 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB flavors.
MX-FX Series USB 3.0 256 GB at A Glance:
- USB 3.0 Interface
- MLC NAND flash technology
- Max. Read Performance up to 300 MB/s (256GB)
- Max. Write Performance up to 185 MB/s (256GB)
- Shock- and vibration-resistant
- Compact and easy to carry: 78 mm x 27.0 mm x 9.3 mm
- Capacity: 256 GB (MXUB3MFX-256G)
- Warranty: 3 Years
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MSI MS-98D1 EPIC IPC Motherboard Announced
MSI proudly announced the release of its new EPIC embedded board MS-98D1. The MS-98D1 is a compact EPIC size embedded board with Intel Atom Dual Core processor for low-power fanless solution. Featuring with dual core, fanless design, rich I/O, and wide input voltage of 9 to 36 VDC, the MS-98D1 is especially ideal for industrial applications that involve control and communications, or any industrial fields that require fanless embedded systems.
Featuring with Intel Atom Dual Core low-power processor, the MS-98D1 offers a perfect-fitting processing power for industrial control and communications, while keeping the system cool for higher reliability. The dual Gigabit LAN built-in also benefit the target industrial applications by providing broad-band communication capability. The rich interfaces of 6 COM, 6 USB, parallel, PS/2, 8 GPIO, dual Mini-PCIe, and stackable PCI-104 allow the system to connect as many peripheral devices and communication modules as possible. Moreover, 2 independent displays with VGA, DVI, and Dual LVDS outputs enable the MS-98D1 in remote monitoring and control systems as well.
To fulfill the application needs in this high-density communication networking age, MS-98D1 offers dual Gigabit LAN for broad-band communication. The Mini-PCIe and PCI-104 stackable interface also benefit this kind of communication demand for applications such as process automation, control and communication in utility automation, or transportation (bus, subway, wayside cabinet, etc.). In addition, the innovative design of the onboard 3G SIM-card holder* for Mini-PCIe slot allows system integrator to embedded 3G network without extra effort to redesign the card holder in the system, which greatly saving time and cost required.
*MSI is the first provider to design the SIM card holder on industrial embedded board. Almost all of the 3G add-on cards available on the market do not come with an onboard SIM card holder, and it bothers system integrators with redesigning the system simply for the SIM card holder.
Key Features:
- Intel Atom D2550/N2800/N2600 Dual Core processor for low-power fanless solution
- Support DDR3 1066MHz SO-DIMM memory up to 4GB
- 9~36 VDC wide input voltage enable more stable power source for industrial applications
- 2 independent displays with VGA, DVI, and Dual LVDS supported
- Dual Gigabit LAN for high-bandwidth networking applications
- Dual Mini-PCIe for expansion, offering more application possibilities
- 6 COM ports and 6 USB 2.0 for multiple serial/USB connections
- Stackable PCI-104 to expand industrial modules without limits, such as WiFi, LAN, COM modules
- Designed with 3G SIM-card holder onboard, ready for 3G Mini-PCIe application
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SEAGATE DELIVERS ON SOLID STATE STRATEGY: UNVEILS COMPLETE SSD PRODUCT LINE
CUPERTINO, Calif. - May 7, 2013 -Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ:STX), a worldwide leader in storage solutions, today announced its new portfolio of flash-memory solutions. The company took the wraps off its first client solid state drive (SSD) and its next-generation enterprise SSDs. Featuring the Seagate 600 SSD, Seagate 600 Pro SSD, and the Seagate 1200 SSD, the new line of drives are engineered to deliver ultra-fast speed and high data integrity. Rounding out the portfolio, Seagate also announced the new Seagate X8 Accelerator, a storage class memory PCIe card powered by Virident enabling the company to offer all key interfaces including SATA and SAS solutions.
"We are pleased to announce these new flash memory products. With these new drives, Seagate solidifies its commitment to the flash-based storage market by delivering enterprise SSDs and server-side solutions as well as client solutions," said Gary Gentry, senior vice president and general manager of Seagate's solid state drive business. "By adding more SSDs to our family of hard disk and solid state hybrid drives, we now have the broadest portfolio of storage products in the industry, delivering one-stop shopping for our customers and partners. And we're just getting started. Seagate is committed to becoming a premier supplier of both solid state drives and storage class memory products. We have put in place a winning strategy for developing multiple high value, flash based products and solutions for our customers."
The ultimate laptop upgrade, the Seagate 600 SSD delivers faster boot up speeds, shorter application load times, and improved system responsiveness for the ultimate performance. Laptop users can boot up nearly four times faster and load applications more than two times faster than with a standard hard drive, greatly reducing the amount of wait time to access content.
"SSDs continue to be among the most popular product categories on Newegg.com as more consumers increasingly turn to them to deliver more speed, faster boot up times and superior performance," said Patrick Chung, vice president of global product management at Newegg. "Seagate's new line of SSDs, including the new 600 SSD, will be a great addition to our existing assortment. We're excited to introduce the new SSDs to our customers and look forward to continuing our strategic partnership with Seagate."
"Over the years, Seagate has been a valued partner contributing a vast array of storage solutions to our comprehensive selection of IT products," says Lionel Garcia, vice president at Tiger Direct. "Seagate's products are in high demand among our customers and we're excited to add their new SSD to our assortment. As consumer demand for greater speed and shorter boot up times continues to rise, the new 600 SSD will provide customers with the ultimate performance they crave."
Fast and as easy to install as a hard disk drive upgrade, the Seagate 600 SSD is available in multiple z-heights including an industry-first, diminutive 5mm-high drive making it ideal for most ultra-thin devices as well as standard laptop systems. The drive features up to 480GB of capacity and comes in a 2.5 form factor. It also incorporates a 6Gb/s SATA interface for fast data transfer rates and easy connection.
A low power server and storage solution, the Seagate 600 Pro SSD is ideal for cloud system builders, hyperscale datacenters, cloud service providers, content delivery networks, and virtualized environments. An entry-level enterprise SATA SSD, the 600 Pro SSD combines fast performance and lower power delivering best-in-class performance efficiency and IOPS/watt value.
"By incorporating Seagate's SSD technology into our product offerings we are able to address customer demand for greater speed, short, consistent response times, and greater enclosure and power efficiencies," said Paul Poynter, CTO Rorke Data, an Avnet business unit. "As we continue to drive PC innovation in today's markets, we look forward to integrating this enterprise SSD technology into our Rorke product line providing our discerning customers with the ultimate in performance and value."
Engineered with efficiency in mind, the 600 Pro SSD features the industry's highest IOPS/watt to improve system performance while reducing power and cooling costs for transaction-hungry datacenters and cloud enterprise applications. Utilizing 2.8 watts typical operating power, the drive reduces energy by automatically adjusting the power consumption to workload I/O levels- using less power for lighter workloads. The drive is also equipped with the intelligence to deliver high-data integrity, safeguarding against unexpected power loss and undetected corruption when a device is powered off.
The Seagate 600 Pro SSD is available with up to 480GB capacity and comes in 2.5-inch form factor. It is equipped with a 6Gb/s SATA interface for fast data transfer rates and easy connection to existing SATA infrastructure.
Designed for demanding enterprise storage and server applications with complex, write-intensive mixed workloads, such as high-performance computing and data analytics, the Seagate 1200 SSD delivers the ultimate in speed, consistent performance and the highest levels of data integrity.
Built to deliver ultra-fast data access, the drive uses algorithms that optimize performance for frequently accessed data by prioritizing which storage operations, reads or writes, occur first and optimizing where it is stored. The result is improved performance to help close the gap between processor and data access.
It incorporates a dual port 12Gb/s SAS connector providing 100 percent faster interface speed, over previous generations, for twice the I/O bandwidth while ensuring the highest level of reliability, availability and scalability. The drive is also backwards compatible with 6Gb/s SAS environments.
The 1200 SSD leverages Seagate's existing enterprise expertise and manufacturing excellence to deliver high levels of data integrity, manageability, testing and support. It also safeguards data against unexpected power loss and protects data from undetected, unintentional corruption.
The Seagate 1200 SSD is available with up to 800GB capacity and comes in either a 1.8-inch or 2.5 inch form factor.
Seagate X8 Accelerator- Application Performance Turbocharged
The Seagate X8 Accelerator, powered by Virident, delivers memory-class performance and storage-class capacity with enterprise reliability and data integrity in a single, low profile PCIe card. Providing industry-leading performance, with up to 1.1 million IOPS, the X8 Accelerator boosts server performance with ultra-fast speed that is up to 2X faster than the closest competitor and closer to DRAM performance than storage.
Boasting high storage capacity (up to 2.2TB) in a small footprint (HHHL half height half length) the X8 Accelerator fits in any server. The card's x8 PCI Express Gen-2 interface enables it to deliver maximum application performance in database and virtualization applications such as Microsoft© SQL Server, Oracle Enterprise Server, MySQL, and VMware.
For more information on Seagate's entire portfolio of flash memory products visit http://seagate.com/www/ssd/.
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LG IPS COLORPRIME MONITOR NAMED BEST PHOTO MONITOR AT 2013 TIPA AWARDS
SEOUL, May 6, 2013 - LG Electronics (LG) announced that its ColorPrime (27EA83) monitor has been named the "Best Photo Monitor" of 2013 by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA). Ideal for filmmakers, photographers and graphics professionals, LG's award-winning monitor features In-Plane Switching (IPS) display technology, an incredibly high resolution and a wide color palette.
The ColorPrime monitor achieves true-to-life picture quality thanks to LG's advanced IPS display technology, which also helps to reduce user eyestrain. With an impressive 178 degree viewing angle, image quality and color fidelity remains consistent, regardless of where the viewer is positioned. Meanwhile, the 4-Screen Split and Dual Link-Up features take multitasking to the next level. 4-Screen Split lets users divide the 27EA83's display into four segments, which can quickly arranged into a variety of useful configurations. LG's clever Dual Link-Up function makes it possible for users to work with files or programs from two different devices at the same time. In short, the ColorPrime monitor is a comprehensive imaging solution for filmmakers, photographers, designers and other graphics industry professionals.
TIPA, which comprises 29 member magazines from 13 different countries, is one of the most influential photographic and imaging press associations in the world. Its members convene annually to vote on the best products of the year, assessing each device based on a number of criteria including technological and design innovation, ease-of-use, and value for money. The TIPA awards are comprised of 40 separate categories with only one winner being announced for each. This year's top products, including LG's ColorPrime monitor, will be officially recognized at the 2013 TIPA awards ceremony, set to be held in Tokyo, Japan in June.
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DisplayLink to Demonstrate WiGig and USB Docking Expansion
DisplayLink, the leading provider of USB Graphics technology, today announced plans to show the latest solutions for Wireless and USB Docking at Interop 2013. Targeting Ultrabook and Tablet expansion and connectivity for business users, DisplayLink will feature wireless WiGig Docking, Enterprise Class USB Docking, and the latest Mac drivers, with demonstrations to be held at the Interop Expo.
Introducing the latest solutions, John Cummins, VP Sales and Marketing for DisplayLink said, "IT Managers are struggling with BYOD. At Interop 2013, DisplayLink will showcase our customer's products, including monitor-docks for tablets with touch screen and integrated Webcams, WiGig Docks for wireless graphics and peripheral expansion, and Enterprise-Class USB Docks with multiple display connections for both Windows and Mac. These products solve problems and enhance productivity."
BYOD, an increasingly mobile workforce, and the continued diversification of PC devices are driving the need for universal, plug-and-play, docking solutions for the whole workforce. DisplayLink enabled products provide the flexibility, ease of setup, and increased productivity that IT Managers demand. For PC's, Ultrabooks, Slates and Tablets such as Surface Pro, USB is THE universal connector on all computing platforms. Through USB, and now WiGig, DisplayLink enables expansion for multiple displays, Gigabit Ethernet, audio and connectivity to a plethora of USB peripherals.
Simple USB plug-and-display setup makes the solutions ideal for business, productivity and on-the-go multi-tasking, see more at Interop 2013 Las Vegas.
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Corsair Components Turns to Francisco Partners for Strategic Investment
Corsair Components, Inc., a premier global supplier of high-performance PC components, has received a strategic investment of approximately $75 million from Francisco Partners, a leading technology-focused investment firm. Francisco Partners will partner with Corsair CEO Andy Paul and the management team to further strengthen Corsair's market-leading position among PC gaming enthusiasts. Paul and the current management team will continue to hold a substantial equity interest in the company.
Since its founding in 1994, Corsair has built one of the top brands in PC gaming components and peripherals. Its close relationships with customers facilitate new product development, and its global distribution network enables the company to scale quickly. With more than $500 million in annual revenue, Corsair is among the largest privately owned hardware companies in Silicon Valley.
"We sought out Francisco Partners based on its rich experience with high-growth hardware companies and its reputation for operational expertise," said Corsair CEO, Andy Paul. "Following the transaction, we are confident we will be able to better support and serve our existing customer base and core markets. Furthermore, with the support of Francisco Partners, we will continue to leverage our understanding of enthusiast audiences to expand into related adjacent product categories and geographies."
Mr. Kowal added, "Corsair's attractive growth and expanding market position realized over the last decade is a testament to its product innovation and strong execution. We look forward to partnering with Andy and the Corsair team to strengthen this foundation and build upon it through selective acquisitions."
Stifel served as exclusive financial advisor to Corsair Components in the transaction. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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PNY Launches New HP Portable Hard Drives
PNY Technologies, Technologies, considered one of a worldwide leaders in Memory and Flash products, announced its authorized HP portable hard drive p2050/p2100 to take care of your portable data storage requirements. It sports a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port that supports speeds up to 4x faster than USB 2.0, thus saving you a lot of time while transferring data. Of course, the drive is backward compatible with USB 2.0 and can therefore be used with older computers. With a single USB port, it doesn't require a separate power cable, thus saving you the trouble of carrying along a power adapter.
You don't need to buy backup software separately because the drive comes with HP Simple Save that is sufficient to take care of all your backup tasks and even organizes them according to document types. Available in silver, black, blue and red colors, the HP p2050/p2100 comes with 2 years limited warranty.
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McAfee to Acquire Stonesoft
McAfee today announced the execution of a definitive agreement to initiate a conditional tender offer for the acquisition of Stonesoft Oyj, a leading innovator in next-generation network firewall products, for an aggregate equity value of approximately $389 million in cash.
"With the pending addition of Stonesoft's products and services, McAfee is making a significant investment in next-generation firewall technology. These solutions anticipate emerging customer needs in a continually evolving threat landscape," said Michael DeCesare, McAfee President. "Stonesoft is a leading innovator in this important market segment. We plan to integrate Stonesoft's offerings with other McAfee products to realize the power of McAfee's Security Connected strategy. Stonesoft products will benefit from the collective expertise of more than 7,200 McAfee employees. Leveraging McAfee's cloud-based Global Threat Intelligence service will provide our combined customers with unparalleled security."
The rationale for the proposed acquisition is as follows:
- Network security is a vital component of a comprehensive security solution. Next-generation firewalls solve critical customer needs and represent one of the fastest growing market segments in network security.
- Stonesoft is a leading innovator in the next-generation firewall segment. Gartner positioned the company as "visionary" in the 2013 Network Security Firewall Magic Quadrant. Stonesoft achieved "Recommend" status in NSS Labs' latest 2013 firewall tests.
- With Stonesoft, McAfee expects to grow its network security business by delivering the industry's most complete network security solution with three leading platforms: McAfee's IPS Network Security Platform, McAfee's Firewall Enterprise for the high assurance market segment, and Stonesoft's next-generation firewall.
"The combination of the two companies allows Stonesoft to benefit from McAfee's global presence and sales organization of over 2,200 employees, best-in-class threat research and technology synergies," said Ilkka Hiidenheimo, Chief Executive Officer of Stonesoft. "Combined, we believe we can offer our customers a world-class product portfolio with world-class support ? all backed by Intel."
For additional information, please reference http://www.mcafee.com/us/about/mcafee-stonesoft.aspx.
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BIOSTAR to Showcase Exclusive Hi-Fi Puro Technology at Computex
Computex is Asia's largest high-tech event and will run from June 4th to to 8th, 2013 in Taipei, Taiwan and BIOSTAR will be showcasing their embedded/IPC solutions and graphics cards products as well as their line of Intel and AMD based motherboards in the Nangang Exhibition Hall at Booth M0402. The theme of their exhibition this year is their Hi-Fi Puro integrated products, including Intel's next generation Haswell based boards and their FM2 motherboards that support AMD's new Fusion "Richland" CPU. Continuing the tradition of their own in-house audio technology called "Puro Hi-Fi Technology"; Biostar is going to present the 2nd generation of this technology, called "Hi-Fi 3D".
Part of the Puro Hi-Fi design includes high-quality "Non-Polarized Electrolysis Electric audio capacitors" for each individual audio channel circuit delivering low noise, low distortion, and a wide bandwidth to achieve the highest sound resolution and sound expansion for the most realistic sound effects. Furthermore, the resistors used by the system are of the metal-oxide film type with metal oxides such as tin. The electric characteristics are that of greater stability and reliability than regular metal film resistors when operating in an extremely broad working temperature range. These special components are typically used in applications with high endurance audio demands.
All the BIOSTAR Hi-Fi series motherboards have the Puro Hi-Fi technology and so are equipped with special components to ensure the best possible audio quality consistency.
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Advantech Launches ATX Intel Xeon E5 Industrial Serverboard
Advantech, a global embedded platform manufacturer, today unveiled the new ASMB-822I server-grade motherboard powered by Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family technology. This new technology comprises 64-bit multi-core processors, PCI Express Gen3 high speed communications, and DDR3 memory with total capacity up to 96GB. ASMB-822I is perfect designed for high performance demands such as NVR, DVR and also target to video wall, video conferencing, surveillance and other mission-critical applications.
Rich Expandability and Performance
The ASMB-822I comes with high connectivity and expansion options including: five PCIe x16 slots with x8/16 link (PCIe Gen3),one PCIe x8 slot withx4 link (PCIe Gen2), and one PCI expansion slot. Supports up to ten USB 2.0 ports (rear side and onboard header), two USB 3.0 ports in the rear for high speed devices. And also two USB Type-A connectors inside the chassis for USB dongle installation and for security and convenience needs.
Other I/O support includes: two COM ports and six SATA drives?composed of fourSATA2and two SATA3, which can achieve fast 3Gb/s for SATA2 and 6 Gb/s for SATA3 data access.
The SATA ports support software RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 for fast, reliable data storge and transmission. The ASMB-822I also has dual Gb LANs that support teaming/failover, jumbo frame and virtualization applications.
Besides high performance and rich expansion slots, the ASMB-822I also supports an auto switch function for efficient resource deployment across expansion slots. Slot pair 5 and 6, and slot pair 3 and 4 both support auto switching. If a PCIe x16 card is in slot 6, with nothing in slot 5, slot 6 fully supports PCIe x16 link. If there is a card in slot 6 and also inslot 5, both slots automatically support at PCIe x8 link. Slots 3 and 4 work the same. The board accommodates up to five full-length cards with no trouble. Auto switching provides for full, efficient signal use, with attendant resource savings.
Industrial Benefits: Reliability and Manageability
ASMB-822I offers high reliability and manageability, both for hardware and software. Unlike commercial server suppliers, Advantech has specific knowledge in the embedded domain that helps meet industrial needs. With its SSI (Server System Infrastructure) compliance, ASMB-822I is compatible with a standard chassis for easy assembly and maintenance. All components are industry-proven, and only solid capacitors are utilized, for high MTBF reliability.
As with most Advantech's server-grade IPC products, ASMB-822I supports IPMI 2.0, which permits out-of-band and cross-platform, remote system update and recovery, as wellas monitoring of voltage and temperature. An innovative thermal design is complemented by BIOS settings for optimized quiet fan curve control. In the event of system failure or blue screen or other errors, issues can be reported and recovery actions such as system reset or power down can be conducted remotely. This helps system administrators easily maintain and troubleshoot systems, especially in unmanned environments.
3-5-7 and CTOS Services
All Advantech server-grade products, including this new ASMB-822I serverboard, offers a long-term commitment to customers: 2 year standard warranty, up to 5 years of extended warranty, and a 7-year guaranteed product supply. For the 3 levels of service, if any customer has a system issue, Advantech provides a dedicated, professional AE for 1st level trouble shooting; strict revision control and parts repair comprise the 2nd level of service; and flexible BIOS or mechanical customization support from the 3rd level of expert backup. Advantech also provides Configure to Order Service (CTOS) that enables flexible server system configuration with local services. The ASMB-822I can be integrated with an Advantech 2U or 4U/Tower IPC chassis to fulfill server applications requiring a high level of compatibility. Customer requirements for non-Windows operating systems such as Linux, QNX or Novell also can be fulfilled on request. Please contact your local Advantech sales office, or visit the website for more information.
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Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [06 May 2013]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!
- Toshiba Launches Canvio Connect Portable Hard Drive
- Samsung Now Producing 4 Gb LPDDR3 Mobile DRAM, Using 20nm-class Process Technology
- Smart Storage Systems Intros First SAS SSD with 19 nm MLC Flash and 2 TB Capacity
- COUGAR Value Line of PSUs Designed to Run Quiet
- FORMER OCZ AND CORSAIR EXECUTIVES TEAM UP AND LAUNCH AVID THINKER LLC
- Cooler Master Launches N300 and N500 ATX Mid-Tower Cases
- QNAP Releases Turbo NAS TS-x21 and TS-x20 Series for Home Users
- Micron Unveils New PCIe I/O Accelerator
- ASRock Brings New Technology to Light! A-Style: Purity Sound
- Corsair Releases Drive Cloning Kit and SSD Software Utility
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Corsair Releases Drive Cloning Kit and SSD Software Utility
Fremont, California - May 2, 2013 - Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components, today announced two new solid-state drive (SSD) related products. The first, the SSD & Hard Disk Drive Cloning Kit, enables users to easily duplicate and transfer data between drives. The kit, which includes a cable and software, is ideal for users upgrading from traditional hard disk drives (HDD) to faster, more rugged Corsair SSDs. In addition, the company announced the Corsair SSD Toolbox, a free software utility which enables users to configure, optimize and monitor their Corsair SSDs.
The SSD & Hard Disk Drive Cloning Kit enables users to move data between a hard drive and SSD by simply selecting the source drive and destination drives and then clicking a button. Designed for users migrating their data to newly installed SSDs, the kit includes data migration software, a USB-to-SATA cable, and Quick Start Guide. The cable supports USB 3.0 and 2.0 delivering transfer rates up to 180MB/s with USB 3.0 ports, 4 times faster than USB 2.0.
The SSD & Hard Disk Drive Cloning Kit features:
- Support for Corsair SSDs and SATA notebook hard drives
- Compatibility with Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and OS X
- Includes data migration software, USB-to-SATA cable, and Quick Start Guide
- 3 year warranty
The Corsair SSD Toolbox software helps Corsair SSD owners to install, configure, optimize, and monitor the health of their drives. The Windows compatible software is available as a free download from the Downloads tab of SSD product pages on http://www.corsair.com.
The Corsair SSD Toolbox features:
- Drive Information - Displays model, size, firmware, serial number, and other key drive data. Also updates SSD firmware.
- Over-provisioning - Allows allocation of SSD space to enhance endurance and performance
- SMART Status - Displays Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology status of drives
- Secure Wipe - Securely erases data from drives
- Optimize - Allows scheduling of TRIM command to optimize SSD performance
- Clone - Copies entire contents of one drive to another (coming in a future update)
http://www.corsair.com/ssd
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ASRock Brings New Technology to Light! A-Style: Purity Sound
TAIPEI, TAIWAN, May 2, 2013 - Onboard audio solutions, an essential yet long-overlooked part of computing, especially in this era of rich multimedia contents. In the past, the quality of these onboard audio solutions has been loathed by music lovers, while countless audiophiles mourned over bleeding ears caused by distortion. Woe no more! Everyone can dry their eyes now, because ASRock is here with music to your ears. ASRock's 8 Series motherboards will be packed with a set of various new features with the code name A-Style, which includes Purity Sound, a revolutionary audio solution for people who take audio seriously.
When it comes to improving technology, ASRock never turns a blind eye to even the most trivial imperfections. Still not sure about whether audio quality matters? Try A-Style: Purity Sound. You won't have to take our word for it, listen for yourself and hear the difference!
For more product information, please visit :
http://www.asrock.com/microsite/Intel8
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Micron Unveils New PCIe I/O Accelerator
BOISE, Idaho, May 2, 2013 -- Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:MU) today announced a new PCIe all-flash I/O accelerator to improve overall performance in enterprise servers, appliances and storage platforms. The new Micron P420m combines consistent performance with the inherent power efficiency of an all-flash system to deliver improved economics for enterprise data centers. The P420m accelerates performance of today's demanding data center applications, including online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing and virtualization.
"The P420m is a true workhorse-it delivers where performance matters most," said Ed Doller, VP and general manager of Micron's Enterprise SSD division. "Introduction of the P420m is a testament to our commitment to storage innovation for all levels of integration. We've expanded our portfolio to address the changing storage needs of today's data centers, regardless the workload."
Micron will be showcasing the P420m, along with a broad portfolio of storage solutions, at EMC World, May 6-9 in Las Vegas (Booth #834).
The P420m is designed using Micron's custom-designed ASIC controller, advanced 25-nanometer (nm) multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash technology, DRAM, firmware and drivers to create a truly vertically integrated solution. The vertical integration begins with intimate knowledge of the NAND media and extends all the way to the end-system design, manufacture and drivers. This end-to-end involvement ensures delivering the ultimate level of storage quality and efficiency.
The P420m low-profile accelerator card comes in a half-height, half-length (HHHL) form factor for rackmount servers. It is also the industry's first MLC PCIe solution available in a 2.5-inch form factor. The 2.5-inch form factor is growing in popularity among IT administrators because of its ease of serviceability and scalability; it allows drive access from the front of the server, which eliminates the need to power down the server for drive service. This hot-swap capability dramatically decreases server downtime and maintenance costs.
It will be available in 350GB, 700GB and 1.4TB capacities. Micron is currently sampling the P420m with production expected to begin in June 2013.
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