We test and review the Alienware M11x UltraPortable.
Recently Alienware released the M11x UltraPortable laptop which you can configure with Core i3/i5/i7 and next to that it received the royal NVIDIA Optimus treatment. Basically you have two graphics processors inside the laptop.
One embedded Intel IGP for the regular 2D stuff and the minute you start up games, an NVIDIA chip will take over and manage your accelerated gaming experience, but is this Ultra portable any good ?
You can read all about it in this Guru3D article right here.
AMD is currently in talks with Renesas Electronics, which was merged with Japan-based NEC, about the licensing of USB 3.0 technology, and is considering integrating USB 3.0 support in its upcoming Hudson D1 southbridge chipsets, according to sources from notebook makers says digitimes.
The Hudson D1 chipset will be introduced for AMD's 40nm Ontario APUs that are set to be shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010. The new platform will mainly target the ultra-thin notebook and netbook markets.
In 2011, AMD will launch Llano-based processors for its mainstream desktop and notebook segments.
AMD is set to launch six-core Phenom II X6 1045T; dual-core X2 560; quad-ore Athlon II X4 645 and 650; and triple-quad Athlon II X3 450 and 455 processors in third-quarter 2010. The company will also launch the single-core Sempron 150 in the fourth quarter.
NVIDIA released its line of Quadro graphics cards based on Fermi architecture.
NVIDIA issued five products with the Quadro 4000 has 2GB of GDDR5 memory and 256 stream processors (SP). Also, the Quadro 5000 has 2.5GB VRAM and 352 stream processors, whereas the Quadro 5000M, for mobile workstations, boasts 2GB GDDR5 and 320 SP. The shader processor count hints to the GF104 GPU being used, which is the latest update of Fermi running in the GeForce GTX 460 as well.
Then in the more powerful segment a GF100 silicon wazs used as the Quadro 6000 has a good 6GB graphics memory (!) and 448 stream processors. And then get this, the Quadro Plex, the most powerful by far, with a massive 12GB of memory and 896 SP -- obviously empowered by two GPUs.
"We have built engines like AXE to enable the creation of next-gen applications. When you couple these technologies with our Fermi architecture, the result is a new Quadro family that's exponentially better than anything the market has ever seen " said Jeff Brown, general manager, professional solutions group at Nvidia.
Interesting concept, Tagan has reelased a new model PSU, the PipeRock III. It is a line of 80Plus Silver power supplies with a heatpipe equipped internal cooling system and 135mm LED fan.
The PipeRock III PSUs are EPS12V v2.91 and ATX v2.2 compliant, and feature four 12V rails, an efficiency of up to 85% (80Plus Silver certified), a super heat-pipe-equipped internal cooling system, a 13.5cm LED fan (thermally controlled), and ribbon cables for easier wire management.
The Tagan PipeRock III 700W is already shipping for 129EUR, while 800W, 900W and 1000W versions will follow by mid-August [via tcmagazine].
Some will love em, some will hate them, fact is these are good monitors alright. Apple slipped it will start shipping a 27" Cinema Display in September. This new LED-backlit has an IPS (color precise) panel with 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, it will ship for $999. For an IPS screen at that resolution its a pretty nice deal.
Apple
Intel Corporation today announced an important advance in the quest to use light beams to replace the use of electrons to carry data in and around computers. With the technology behind it Intel sees this as a replacement for connectors such as USB 3.0.
They already reached 50 Gbps with this new Photonics link. The prototype is composed of a transmitter chip, which merges the beams of four 12.5 Gbps lasers, as well as a receiver chip tasked with separating them and directing them into photon detectors. Said detectors then convert the data back into electrical signals.
Owners of iPhones and other smartphones are one step closer towards taking complete control of their gadgets, thanks to a new government ruling Monday on the practice of "jailbreaking." as Yahoo news reports.
This weekend has seen a flurry of activity about digital rights, but the biggest news dropped Monday morning, when the FCC announced that it had made the controversial practice of
Thermaltake is introducing their first mid-tower chassis with integrated single bay docking station on the case top for convenient easy-swap of 3.5" and 2.5" SATA drives. Users can handle data access and transfer on-the-go without the need to install their harddrives or having to add an external docking device. Two USB 2.0 connectors as well as HD audio microphone and earphone jacks on the top of the front bezel put all major multimedia connectors right in your hand's reach. The tool-free, all black Thermaltake V6 BlacX Edition offers a total of 8 drive bays for maximum storage expansion and 7 PCI expansion slots.
As characteristic for Thermaltake chassis, special attention had been paid to optimized ventilation and airflow. Therefore one 20 cm blue LED exhaust fan on top and another 12 cm exhaust TurboFan in the back warrant that heat dissipated by the CPU is immediately blown out of the case. Further airflow is created by 2 pre-drilled ventilation hole areas on the right side panel and the top of the case.
The feet elevate the V6 BlacX Edition high enough as to allow for improved ventilation of the bottom based ATX PSII power supply. To avoid outside dust to find its way into your power supply a removable and cleanable dust filter is positioned underneath, providing users with an easy way to keep it clean.
The V6 BlacX Edition mid-tower with integrated docking station on the top of the chassis is available for a suggested retail price of US$ 69.
We test and review the Alienware M11x UltraPortable. Recently Alienware released the M11x UltraPortable laptop which you can configure with Core i3/i5/i7 and next to that it received the royal NVIDIA Optimus treatment. Basically you have two graphics processors inside the laptop. One embedded Intel IGP for the regular 2D stuff and the minute you start up games, an NVIDIA chip will take over and manage your accelerated gaming experience.
Earlier last week we posted a GPU performance review on StarCraft II, we noted there that ATI Radeon cards for whatever reason do not support AA modes. ATI issued a statement on that, today StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty launches. Below is the 1:1 response that ATI has send out to some media:
AMD constantly strives to deliver great gaming experiences for our customers and the upcoming launch of Starcraft II is no exception. Blizzard
ATI just uploaded non beta (thus final) Catalyst 10.7 drivers and its release notes:
New Features
This section provides information on new features found in this release of the ATI.
ATI Eyefinity - HydraVision enhancements
Reported earlier on the AMD Phenom II X6 1035T and Athlon II X2 220 ar now finally shipping.
The Phenom II X6 1035T can be considered the 'slowest' six core processor (if you can call it that), yet and here's the interesting bit, it is selling for about a sixth of the price that Intel's own cheapest hexacore boasts. Phenom II X6 1090T: 3.2GHz / 3.6GHz / 125w.
The Athlon II X2 220 is priced at just over 44 Euro and is a faster iteration of the Athlon II X2 215. It uses the same Regor core and has a clock speed of 2.8GHz - which is good value for money really. Pricing on the 1035T should be roughly 150 EUR though that is not yet confirmed, we expect this part to end up in OEM mostly.
Download ATI Catalyst 10.7 Beta Windows 7 and Vista(32/64-bit)
You guys have been able to witness a bit of a goof up with Palit over the past few weeks. The reviews on the Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum edition have been extremely positive in most reviews, including ours in the GTX 460 shootout. Great performance, good cooling and an extremely silent noise level. However earlier on we noticed some reports in our forums that an batch of the Palit GeForce GTX 460 seems to be missing the VRM/MOSFET heatsink.
As a result the cards temperature and noise levels can differ very much. On top of that, the initial batches of this product had a non-tweaked BIOS, making the noise levels of the Sonic Platinum rather loud.
Based on our comments a lot of things happened, a new BIOS series has been released to compensate the noise levels on the retail samples of the Palit GTX 460 series, if you have a GTX 460 from Palit, please download the new BIOS here:
http://www.palit.biz/main/faq_show.php?pc_cate=vga&id=161
This file (includes BIOS) is for all of our GTX 460 models to update a new BIOS. It will automatically update the BIOS if it needs to.
Now last week we requested to Palit to send out a final board so we can check out the retail product ourselves, and not the early engineering sample. Today the card arrived and as such we have updated our GeForce GTX 460 review. The sample we received is equal tot he ones in the stores, and has that very latest BIOS. The results are by far less worse then I expected. Temperatures on the final board are a little higher as well as the noise levels. Still this card remains to be one of the best GTX 460 pre-overclocked products out there. As promised (also already integrated in our article) here are the final numbers:
You will notice that the overall PEAK temperature went up 5 degrees towards 79 degrees C. Though a little on the high side, that is a normal temperature. Unfortunately the VRMs can not be measures temperatures wise on this product. Fan RPM was tweaked with the updated BIOS alright and has been set a little higher, as a results under full load we spot a 42 DBa noise level measures at 75cm from the PC. This noise level remains very normal, it means you can hear it, but not annoyingly at all.
With the results updated to the final product, our recommendation stands at it is. The Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum edition remains a very lovely product which we can recommend very much. Thanks go out to the end-users who have been reporting their results and opinions here at Guru3D.com and and of course thanks to Palit for working with us, listening to us and to finalize a product that we can recommend wholeheartedly.
CoolIT ALC Vantage CPU cooler review
We test and review the CoolIT ALC Vantage. The ALC series are single self contained water-cooling based unit, that are very easy to install. No need to full em up, nope .. seat them, secure them activate them and you are good to roll. The latest model comes with a LCD screen that enables user-selectable control profiles with a display capable of 6 colors and 4 orientation settings. The Vantage A.L.C. provides good performance, reliability and a great feature set.
Check out the full Guru3D review right here.
Makezine is demonstrating a Computer Board Table, a pretty sexy coffee table made from a bunch of old computer parts. It's mainly made up of boards/drives from old Intergraph 6000 series machines built in the late 80s early 90s. They had nice big boards.
It was a good way to keep around my first real computer after I could no longer find parts to keep it working, an Intergraph 6880 with Edge II graphics. I learned computer modeling, rendering and animation on it and think of it as a mentor. There are also old 2800 baud modem parts and other random parts collected over the years.
No real pattern other than just getting it all to fit together like a puzzle. The LED lights along the perimeter worked out better that I had hoped. I have it wired so it automatically goes on when it gets dark.
The fables of Fable continue to be told with this third series entry -- a revolution for the series that gives you power over your character and environment like never before. In this new adventure, players will witness tyranny, poverty and injustice plague their land. They will see a people divided, and they will be compelled to stand up for change. They will also be forced to answer a question: What would you sacrifice to secure the crown of Albion? Will you uphold the values and principles that led to your ascension, or will you be corrupted by the station you
While NPD
ASUS and Sennheiser announced their Xonar Xense One Premium Sound Card paired with PC 350 Xense headphone. The result of this cooperation couldn
