IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 06/01/2014

Sunday, January 5, 2014

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 06/01/2014

TweakTown

RumorTT: Samsung to unveil next-gen Galaxy Gear at CES 2014
If Samsung Mobile UK's Twitter is anything to go by, we should expect the South Korean giant to unveil the next-gen Galaxy Gear smartwatch any day soon. The tweet gives no exact details, but it does tease the new Galaxy Gear.

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With CES 2014 right around the corner, it would be a perfect time to unveil a new smartwatch. We could even see an unveiling, with a full launch across the world with the upcoming Galaxy S5 smartphone.

Analyst lowers his expectations for Samsung Q4 2013 profits
There are countless Galaxy smartphones and tablets in the wild now, but according to Barrons, Jefferies & Co. analyst, Hyunwoo Doh, it looks like Samsung's Q4 2013 profit estimate might not be as strong as previously thought.

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The analyst lowered his estimates for Samsung's Q4 2013 "to reflect higher bonus payouts, adjustments to the company's manufacturing of display panels, and the decline of the U.S. dollar against the Korean Won." Doh has faith in the South Korean giants mobile division, which is doing very good business.
He added: "[T]he [IT & Mobile Communications] division should see a decrease in earnings, due to slower high-end smartphone sales and inventory destocking. As such, its share price momentum should weaken until an earnings recovery is seen."

SteelSeries working with Tobii on eye-tracking hardware
It looks like another "future of gaming" is about to be unveiled, with SteelSeries teaming up with Tobii on some impressive eye-tracking technology, which also makes the AI enemies in a game harder.

With the technology tracking your eye, Tobii describes it as "passive gaze triggers" that would let you pick up an in-game item, or begin talking to a character in the game. These actions normally require a button press. Tobii has the hardware up for pre-order, with EyeX Engine dev kit available for $95.

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Corning announces new 3D Gorilla Glass, protects your curved display
Days before CES 2014, Corning has announced its new Gorilla Glass tech, something it calls 3D-shaped Gorilla Glass. This new tech from Corning will protect the new curved devices hitting the market, like Samsung's Galaxy Round and LG's G Flex smartphones.

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The new 3D Gorilla Glass uses a new manufacturing process that is capable of making glass in unique shapes, without the scratch-resistant properties becoming weaker, or getting thicker. Corning is now capable of making everything in-house, including making glass for flat and curved displays. Right now, Corning's Gorilla Glass is protecting millions of smartphones already out, and many more slated to arrive in the coming months and years.

Metal Gear Solid 5 is going to be absolutely massive
If we are to believe the Siliconera translation of a tweet by Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain's map is going to be ridiculously large.

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So large, that it will be "hundreds of times larger" than Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, the prologue to The Phantom Pain. Ground Zeroes' map will not feature real-time changes, such as a day and night cycle, with Kojima stating that each mission will offer different experiences. The translation reads: "GZ is both a prologue to the MGS5 story and, at the same time, a tutorial for a new MGS, which transitions to sneaking simulator."

Titanfall on PC will not support mods at launch, studio confirms
Respawn Entertainment co-founder Vince Zampella has confirmed that Titanfall on the PC will not feature any mod support or map editor when it launches, but he did state that the company "will have to evaluate after launch".

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This will come as disappointing, but not surprising news to most - with Titanfall hitting the Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC - skipping the PS4 - on March 11, 2014. The developer will be making a PS4 version of Titanfall, but not right away.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, suffers kidney stone attack
While on a cruise ship in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos suffered a kidney stone attack. Bezos was airlifted by an Ecuadorian navy helicopter, flown to his personal jet, and then to the US to have surgery performed.

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ABC News reports that Bezos suffered the attack on New Year's Day when on the cruise ship, with other media outlets reporting that the Amazon founder received messages of thanks from his family and business partners. Bezos himself has now confirmed the news, with an Amazon spokesperson telling The Verge: "I sent Jeff your note and here's what he sent back: 'Galapagos: five stars. Kidney stones: zero stars."

Team TweakTown descends upon Vegas for Storage Visions and CES 2014
The TweakTown team is braving the insane weather and descending upon Las Vegas to cover Storage Visions 2014 and CES 2014. With this weather the planes practically need ski's instead of landing gear, but we should all arrive safe in time to get prepared for Storage Visions 2014. Soon after we will be working the CES showfloors. For those also attending Storage Visions feel free to stop by our booth to chat storage. On camera or off, we welcome all to come join us during the show.

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We will have five team members on-site, but just as important we also have other team members from far-flung locations across the globe, including Australia and Taipei, who will also be assisting in providing our readers the best coverage possible during both shows. Here's hoping all of our team members arrive safe, with the weather system slamming the east coast as you can see the lines for missed flights are ridiculous!

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Stay tuned to TweakTown for all the best coverage of Storage Visions and CES 2014!

NVIDIA announces CES 2014 event, starts minutes after the AMD event
Tomorrow at 8PM local time in Las Vegas, AMD will be hosting some of the world's tech media at the Cosmopolitan hotel, where the chipmaker will discuss its new Kaveri APU.

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NVIDIA has chosen to announce an event at the same hotel, at around the same time, to talk about its Tegra line of SoCs. We could also see something about Logan unveiled, or the new Tegra 5 SoC. NVIDIA isn't expected to launch anything at CES 2014, but we could see a serious tease at the event. We'll have more as it happens.

New Web Poll - Did EA kill the BF franchise with terrible BF4 issues?
It's new web poll time here at TweakTown!

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In the past weeks and days, much has been discussed about EA's shocking handling of Battlefield 4 and its issues. DICE employees even discussed on Reddit that BF4 was launched with certain aspects of the game being untested, presumably to rush the game out quicker to compete with the latest COD game.
So, what are your thoughts on the future of the Battlefield franchise? Cast your vote and let us know.
Head on over to the web poll here or look on the right side of our website to cast your vote! Also feel free to voice your opinion in the comments below.

TweakTown Web Poll Results - Worst tech flop of 2012 - 2013?
Our latest poll had over 21,000 people who answered, "Worst tech flop of 2012 - 2013?"

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I'll start by saying this was one of our most popular polls in probably forever. At the end of the day though, the responses were split for worst tech flop between Apple Maps and Windows 8, with 25% of the votes each.
Next in line for the fail award was the Xbox One. This poll has been running for many weeks and the One did get off to a "strong" start, but since it seems some readers have somewhat embraced Microsoft's latest console.
For the actual numbers, go here. In our latest poll, we want to know... "Did EA kill the Battlefield franchise with the terrible BF4 issues?" Let us know! Go here to vote!

Polaroid to introduce a 4K TV for under $1000 at CES 2014
This definitely sprung up on me, but Polaroid is set to unveil a new 4K/Ultra HD TV at CES 2014 in just a few days time. Polaroid won't be making the TV of course, that will be done by Empire Electronics.

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The new 4K TV will be priced at under $1000, and come in at a hefty 50 inches. The new 50-inch 4K TV from Polaroid will feature three HDMI inputs, with the company claiming it will feature "the highest quality picture resolution at the best price." It looks very similar to the Seiki Digital 4K panel, which isn't a bad thing at all, as it has a similar price.

Microsoft upgrades the processor on the Surface Pro 2
When Microsoft launched the Surface Pro 2, its Windows 8.1-based slate featured a quad-core processor clocked in at 1.6GHz. The software giant has beefed up the CPU a little bit, pushing it up to 1.9GHz.

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The Turbo clocks have been increased as a result, increasing from 2.6GHz to 2.9GHz. Microsoft didn't stop there either, where it also cranked the built-in Intel HD Graphics 4400 chip from 1.0GHz to 1.1GHz. Microsoft was able to do this all while keeping its 15W TDP in check, which is nice to see. There are also some new CPU features that should be mentioned, too: vPro, VT-d, TSX-NI, Trusted Execution Technology and a few other enterprise-related goodies.

Samsung announces its Galaxy Camera 2
CES 2014 hasn't even begun and we're already being introduced to a slew of new devices, a few of which have been announced by Samsung. The South Korean giant has just outed two new cameras, the refreshed Galaxy NX20, and the new Galaxy Camera 2.

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The Galaxy Camera 2 has some impressive specifications, with an improved 1.6GHz Exynos 4 Quad SoC, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, a 2000mAh battery, 8GB of internal flash which is upgradeable by microSD to 64GB and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n. As for the more important part, we have a 16.3-megapixel 1/2.33-inch BSI CMOS, a 121.2mm HD Super Clear Touch LCD Screen and 21x zoom.

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Moving onto the Galaxy NX30, where we find an interchangeable lens, making it the first interchangeable lens camera that runs a mobile OS - which isn't Android by the way, it's Tizen - Samsung did say quite a while back that it wanted its OS on a variety of devices, not just smartphones. Samsung has stepped it up, offering a copy of Adobe Lightroom 5.

Alicia Keys out as BlackBerry's Global Creative Director
During BlackBerry's event earlier this year announcing BlackBerry 10, the company surprised everyone by appointing singer, Alicia Keys, as the new Global Creative Director. While this position was mostly for publicity, it represented the length that BlackBerry was willing to go to save itself from financial ruin.

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Now less than a year later, and with new management steering the ship, Alicia Keys has been relieved of her duty. While no official reason has been mentioned for her departure from her honorary position, it could be due to the fact that Keys never really gave up her iPhone or iPad for BlackBerry devices. Just weeks after the BB10 announcement, Keys tweeted from the iPhone she reportedly gave up for the new at the time BlackBerry Z10.

Double XP event for Battlefield 4 to happen over the weekend
It looks like DICE is going to be unleashing some XP points this weekend to Battlefield 4 gamers, with the studio announcing a new double XP event to take place January 3-5.

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Premium subscribers will earn double XP starting 8am EST on Friday, January 3. The double XP goodness will flow for 58 hours, ending at 6pm EST on Sunday, January 5. I think this is great timing, as I'm going to my first LAN in years this weekend, and will be able to double up on my XP. Thanks, DICE!

Polaroid unveils its new range of Q Series tablets
Days before CES 2014 kicks off in Las Vegas, Polaroid has taken its time to announce its Q Series of slates. There will be three models, coming in at 7, 8 and 10 inches.

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The new Polaroid Q7, Q8 and Q10 tablets will all be Wi-Fi-only, and will come with Android 4.4 KitKat installed - whic his a nice touch. Inside, we'll find a quad-core processor, Bluetooth, HDMI out, dual cameras, and front-facing speakers for listening to your media. Polaroid has put some great pricing on these new Q Series slates, starting at just $129, and going up to just $179.

DayZ racks up 400,000 in first-week sales alone
Just 12 hours after DayZ was released, it had over 88,000 copies sold, and within 24 hours it had a total of 172,500 copies. But one week down the track and we're looking at over 400,000 copies.

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This is quite the achievement, considering it's still an Early Access build. DayZ has already seen a peak concurrent user base of over 40,000 players, which is another milestone in itself. Since it's release last month, there have been three major updates to the game, with many, many more to come.

The NSA is building a quantum computer - the end of privacy?
Just months ago the US government was shut down, with hundreds of thousands of jobs in the air, millions of US citizens effected, but that's nothing when it comes to the blank cheques it signs to the National Security Agency for "research".

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The US spy agency is reportedly working on a quantum computer that would break through any encryption thanks to its pure, insane amount of processing power. Edward Snowden is behind the leaks - come on, you're not surprised now, are you - revealing a program that is worth some $79.7 million, dubbed "Penetrating Hard Targets".
The Washington Post is reporting the news, stating that the majority of the research is being done at the University of Maryland's Laboratory for Physical Sciences.

Microsoft considered making the Xbox One an all-digital console
Microsoft Studios' boss, Phil Spencer, spoke with OXM, stating that the company spun the idea around the office of an all-digital "purely disc-less console" right up to the middle of last year - months before the Xbox One was released to the public.

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He explained: "Obviously, after the announcement and E3, there was some feedback about what people wanted to change. There was a real discussion about whether we should have an optical disc drive in Xbox One or if we could get away with a purely disc-less console, but when you start looking at bandwidth and game size, it does create issues. So we decided - which I think was the right decision - to go with the Blu-ray drive and give the people an easy way to install a lot of content. From some of those original thoughts, you saw a lot of us really focusing on the digital ecosystem you see on other devices - thinking of and building around that."
I think it would've been an interesting move, but for gamers with slow Internet connections (like myself) it would've caused even more pain.

Science Channel to feature Micron SSDs in its "How It's Made" series
For those interested in the making of solid state drives, you will be happy to know Science Channels long running "How It's Made" series is airing episode 285. Episode 285 features a peek inside the factories of Micron and the making of the M500 SSD among others.

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For those of you in the eastern time zone, the episode will be airing at Midnight tonight, along with an additional time slot at 4am tomorrow morning January 3rd. Being that the time slots are rather late it may be one of those times your DVR comes in handy.

DERP takes down EA login, Origin is not working at all
EA's login is not working right now, with Origin logins completely broken right now for most. It looks like a hacking group known as "DERP" are responsible, who aimed their "Gaben Laser Beam" at the EA login servers, taking them offline.

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The hacking group said 5 minutes before it took EA's login servers down that "5 minutes from this tweet we will begin officially" and then minutes later, DERP tweeted "We've directed the Gaben Laser Beam @ the EA login servers. Origin #offline". Right now, I cannot access Origin, and my tears are flowing.

YouTube to show off 4K streaming at CES next week
It looks like Google will be making quite the high resolution splash at CES 2014 next week, where it will have its YouTube team on-site to show off its new 4K streaming technology that uses the VP9 codec.

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The search giant has 19 hardware partners that are supporting the mostly unused codec, including ARM, Broadcom, Intel and Marvel. At CES 2014, YouTube will be showing off its 4K streaming technology at the booths of LG, Panasonic and Sony. Google developed the royalty-free codec in-house, but hasn't ruled out that YouTube won't have support for H.265 sometime in the future.

Valve's Steam Holiday Sales go out with a bang!
If you hadn't jumped on the Steam Holiday Sales, you need to do so in the next 15 hours or so. Valve has just unleashed the last day of the Holiday Sales, and what a sale it is!

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The gaming giant has bought back the most popular deals, with 24 games on the cheap! Check them out above. We have games like Batman: Arkham Origins, Metro: Last Light, Dishonored, Skyrim, Saints Row IV, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3, and much more - many of the best games of 2013 are available right now, for 15 more hours, on special.

LG's WebOS TV appears in pre-CES leaked images
LG will be showing off its first iteration of WebOS for its SmartTVs at CES 2014, and thanks to @evleaks we have just gotten a sneak peak at what it may look like. @Evleaks posted the photo on its Twitter account this morning, and I have to admit that the UI does not look all that bad.

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LG appears to already have apps created for all of the major brands including Facebook, YouTube, Skype, Twitter, and more which will go very far into helping the new smartTV OS become mainstream. The TV shown in the photo is said to feature a 2.2GHz dual-core processor and 1.5GB of RAM which may sound impressive, but many low-end smartphones have more computing power than that today.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) Cinema Review

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A modest success during its 2004 cinema release, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy went on to become a cult hit on home video, riding the crest of the mainstream success of the DVD format, which massively increased its fan base. Despite a number of aborted attempts to get a sequel off the ground, Paramount have, after nearly a decade, finally ceded to fan demands for a sequel. However, the old adage "be careful what you wish for" would seem to apply.

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After falling foul of lead anchor Mack Tannen (Harrison Ford), Ron Burgundy's now wife Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) is not only promoted ahead of Burgundy, but Burgundy himself is fired. His precious ego hurt, this puts an inevitable strain on their relationship, culminating in Burgundy walking out. Fumbling from one job to another, Burgundy finally falls on his feet at upstart network GNN who plan to launch with an unprecedented 24 hour news service.
As part of his contract, he dutifully begins re-assembling the San Diego news team of Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner) and Brick Tamlin (Steve Carell) and continues from strength to strength, running sensationalist news beats up and covering ratings grabbing car chases. However, his fame quickly goes to his head and when disaster strikes, Ron quickly remembers the most important thing of all: the bonds of family.

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Disappointing sequels are hardly a new enterprise, but a sequel that takes the best elements of its predecessor, systematically rehashing and trashing them whilst contributing scant original laughs on its own right, is quite something. Anchorman 2 comes with a huge amount of goodwill and not overly lofty expectations, but to have both dashed so comprehensively is utterly wasteful and disappointing.
I was a huge fan of the original which makes, for me, this even more painful. Worse, I even considered the taboo final solution of bad films: walking out. That I didn't is more testament to wanting to see how the car crash is finally wrapped up, rather than any final saving grace.

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So, where exactly does it wrong? Well, for starters, almost every joke of any consequence is contained in the films theatrical trailer. Everything else is mostly rehashed, in a superior fashion, from its predecessor. Secondly, despite having two editors, Anchorman 2 is painfully overlong at two hours in length; nearly 30 minutes longer than the original. Half way through, the jokes are starting to wear thin, and by the end... well you get the idea. Whole subplots lead nowhere and should have been judiciously cut, including a poorly executed love interest for Brick played by the normally reliable Kristen Wiig and a soul searching sequence following Ron's fall from grace.
The core script, which on paper sounds promising, with Burgundy single handedly responsible for the downward spiral in news reporting, solidified by the likes of Fox News, is ill handled and an attempt to craft a Rupert Murdoch like figure ultimately falls flat on its face.

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With such an impressive pedigree of talent both in front of and behind the camera, there are no excuses for Anchorman 2's failure as both a comedy, and as a sequel to one of the best comedies of the 2000's. It pains me to say, but the franchise probably needs one more entry in order to wipe away the distaste. If that eventuates, I can only hope the filmmakers spend the decade crafting a much better script.

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Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB TOXIC Video Cards in CrossFire

Introduction

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A few months ago we got a chance to check out the Sapphire R9 270X 2GB TOXIC, and found ourselves extremely impressed with what was being offered from the company. We actually found ourselves so happy with the model, that after we finished looking at it, I made it a personal mission to try and hunt down a second one from Sapphire to see what CrossFire performance looked like.
While it took a few months, we finally got a second R9 270X 2GB TOXIC from Sapphire, and we now find ourselves with the ability to test the card. Along with the ability to test this Sapphire model in CrossFire, it's also the first time we've had the chance to test the R9 270X 2GB in CrossFire.
Due to the fact that we've already had a look at the Sapphire R9 270X 2GB TOXIC in detail, we won't be looking at the card again. If you want to see what exactly we're dealing with, then we recommend you head over to the original review that we linked to in the first paragraph. Instead, today we'll be moving from our introduction, into our test system setup before getting stuck into the performance side of things.
Priced at $239.99, it will be interesting to see just how this $480 setup goes against the more expensive single card setups on offer at the moment. So, with that all said and done, let's stop talking and just get into the testbed before covering the cards that you'll see in our graphs today.
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Intel 530 240GB SSD Review

Introduction

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We've spent quite a bit of time with this drive over the last three months. Upon release, we purchased the drive from Newegg for $259, and then started what we assumed at the time would be a regular round of tests. We were wrong, and after writing seven TB of data to the drive, we still can't figure out why the Intel 530 240GB still performs as poorly as it does.
Initially, we assumed the performance issues revolved around the 20nm flash, but after looking at our 335 Series 240GB results with the same flash, we knew that wasn't the case. Also, we tested the drive on no less than four different motherboards; all with SATA 6Gbps.
With the flash eliminated as an issue, and our test systems configured properly, that only leaves the controller or the firmware. Surely LSI doesn't have firmware issues again... or do they?

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I initially started writing this review on Black Friday, and at that time, the Intel 530 Series 240GB retail was down to $179.99. The retail drive is now down to just $159.99, a price that undercuts Samsung's 840 EVO 250GB by ten dollars.
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Corsair Hydro Series H75 Liquid AIO CPU Cooler Review

Introduction

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It seems that just about annually, all of the major companies that offer AIO coolers revise their offerings. Usually, this coincides with newer developments in the head unit, where they take the voltage and amperage down to reduce heat dump. They may also come up with a new radiator design, or like in the instance of Zalman, they produce something so out of the box in thought and design, that they hit the market just when it is ready. Even SilverStone did this.
This time around, from Corsair, we have some improvements to the design. Specifically, there is the newest generation of head units, and they also took a redesign aesthetically. It also seems that Corsair listened to all of the complaints of high noise levels from the previous models, and has adjusted to demand, because there are new fans shipped with this AIO. There is also new mounting hardware, with a new back plate, to hopefully simplify the way things work back there. Of course, there is still a bit of the old kept in the design to make installation of the radiator and head unit similar to what we are all used to in AIO cooling.
Today, we are here to look at one of the latest AIOs to release; in this instance it's the Hydro Series H75. This design uses a single, thin radiator, a pair of fans, and the latest generation of head units, to offer builders something that attempts to appeal to the masses in as many aspects as possible. Stick with us as we give the new hardware a go, and put the H75 through the gauntlet of tests, to see just how well the latest sample to hit the lab can hold up against other AIOs and air coolers.
Judging by what I have already seen: at the least, this review will be interesting to those who have followed the developments of these types of coolers. Corsair may in fact be on a slippery slope with the latest releases, and by the time we are done, we will cover all of the reasons why we feel this way.
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SanDisk Optimus Eco Enterprise SAS SSD Review

Introduction

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The maturation of enterprise SSDs has led to further refinement of the product stack. When enterprise SSDs began to gather steam a few years ago, nearly every product was tailored for the high endurance, write-intensive segment. The formula was simple; the high price of enterprise SSDs dictated that their destination was always high-end applications. These SSDs typically featured SAS connections, and SLC NAND, as a rule.
The expansion of enterprise SATA SSDs brought along eMLC NAND, and then finally, the widespread adoption of typical MLC NAND resulted in crashing prices for SSDs. A whole ecosystem of SATA SSD's began to crop up with an SSD truly for every usage case, from read-oriented, to mid-tier and high endurance. However, the SAS segment remained largely focused on expensive, high endurance flagship-class SSDs.
The release of the SanDisk Optimus Eco brings a lower-cost alternative into the SAS stable. The high performance expected of a SAS SSD remains in place, while the write endurance of the SSD is lower than preceding products. This provides a value-oriented SAS SSD that bucks the typical high-priced SAS trend.
The Optimus family consists of two models. The Optimus is an award winning SAS SSD designed for heavy read/write workloads, and fulfills the role of the workhorse for bleeding-edge applications. The Eco steps in and provides a mid-tier solution, with High Availability features and SAS functionality. The CloudSpeed 1000 and 1000E fulfill the role of SATA-class SSDs employed for mainstream use.
The Optimus Eco is designed for read-centric workloads, yet still features impressive random read/write speeds of 90,000/35,000, blistering sequential read/write speeds of 500/500 MB/s in normal operation, and up to 1Gb/s in wideport mode. The Eco moves to 19nm NAND produced by the SanDisk/Toshiba Flash Forward joint venture. The Guardian Technology platform delivers an endurance rating of three random Drive Writes per Day (DWPD), and seven DWPD for sequential workloads.

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The Eco features capacities of 400 GB and 800 GB, in a 2.5" 9.5mm form factor. This limited capacity range on the low-end denotes a focus on high capacity for the Eco series, but it does not stop there. The Eco is also available in a 15mm chassis, with massive capacities of 1.6 and 2.0TB. This high-density trumps any performance 2.5" HDD on the market, and secures a spot for the Eco in dense applications that require high performance, significant endurance, and affordability.
While the Eco sports focus on capacity and affordability, it doesn't skimp on enterprise-class features. Power capacitors provide resilience to power loss, onboard data duplicity guards against data loss, dual port SAS provides enhanced functionality, TCG Enterprise Compliance, AES 256-bit encryption nails down security, and an amazing MTBF of 2.5 million hours provides a high level of reliability. The Eco is also backed by a five-year warranty.
There is no doubt in the performance of the original SAS Optimus; it still leads our charts as the fastest 6Gb/s SSD available on the market. The Eco has much of the same design and architecture of the original Optimus, so all of the pieces are in place for a more affordable high-end SSD.
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