We're happy to see MSI Afterburner is leading the overclock applications, but where satisfied with what we have now, we plan to go one step beyond everybody!

The most exciting thing in this beta is the support of HD 6970 and HD 6950. Now you can tweak voltage of HD 6970 and HD 6950 by afterburner.

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Gigabyte adds a new WindForce3x model to its lineup, this time the Geforce GTX 570 gets the royal treatment. We tested plenty of these products already and that cooler is very impressive and silent.

The product can be found under SKU code N570OC-13I and clocks in at speeds of 780 MHz core and 1560 MHz on the 480 shader cores, against reference speeds of 732 and 1464 MHz, respectively.

The Ultra Durable VGA PCB by gigabyte makes use of quality components and 2 oz copper layer board. Other specifications are standard. Have a peek:

NVIDIA and TSMC celebrate the shipment of the one-billionth GeForce chip! The milestone was reached in under 12 years and it all began with the release of the GeForce 256 (NV10) on August 31, 1999. This chip was marketed as world's first GPU, it was the first 3D acceleration chip with integrated hardware-based T&L (transform and lighting).

NVIDIA and TSMC today celebrated the shipment of the one-billionth GeForce graphics processor designed by NVIDIA and manufactured by TSMC.

Today's announcement is a testament to the popularity of GeForce graphics processors, which are recognized worldwide for exceptional performance in games, video, and nearly all forms of 3D content. Today nearly every major PC manufacturer offers systems powered by GeForce GPUs.

The partners achieved the one-billionth processor milestone in less than 12 years. This achievement reflects a shared commitment to technological excellence and a relentless pace of innovation. Through deep trust and long-term objectives, the companies have raised the bar for the ambitions and practices that have helped shape the semiconductor industry.

"Since inventing the GPU more than a decade ago, NVIDIA has driven innovation in these processors at a rate virtually unmatched in the technology industry," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer, NVIDIA. "With our close partnership with TSMC, the complexity of these devices has increased more than 1000 times, enabling enormous progress in computers ranging from handhelds and PCs to workstations and data centers."

"NVIDIA's achievement is a prime example of how close collaboration between foundry and fabless companies can benefit the consumer electronics market, the semiconductor market segment, and both companies' shareholders. NVIDIA has been a model of vision and innovation, and we highly value the long-term relationship between NVIDIA and TSMC," said Dr. Morris Chang, TSMC Chairman and CEO.

Sparkle released a new low-profile GeForce GTS 450 graphics card. This model is aimed at HTPC systems, it features a 783MHz core, 1566MHz shaders and 1GB GDDR5 clocked at 3608MHz.

Exclusively on the SPARKLE GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile Graphics Card, users make the most cooling effects with Axial Fan design.

This design features dual axial fans which bring greater amount of wind volume. The unique airflow guide technology can bring the heat generated by GPU to the outside smoothly. Thanks to the axial fan design, now users can get lower working noise from the SPARKLE GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile Graphics Card, making it a ideal products for home theater enthusiasts who seek quiet operation environment.

Tests done in the SPARKLE hardware labs show that the GPU idle and full loading temperature are 4 and 1 centi-degree lower than the reference board, the idle and full loading fan working noise are 7% and 4% percent lower than the reference board. ?@ ?@

Low Profile Design
Consummately designed low profile, the PCB height of SPARKLE GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile Graphics Card is 6cm,only half the height of ordinary Graphic Cards with full profile design, which makes the SPARKLE GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile Graphics Card to be the best partners for HTPC. HTPC enthusiasts don't need to worry about the inconvenience caused by narrow space HTPC chassis and full profile designed graphics cards. With low profile design, the SPARKLE GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile Graphics Card not only can easily meet the HD video playback and DX11 gaming demand from HTPC users, but also can easily satisfy the requirements from SSF, mini-chassis and industry PCs which demand compact and practical graphic cards.

Intel announced a record fourth-quarter profit of $3.4 billion, or 59 cents per share, on revenue of $11.5 billion. For the full year of 2010 the chip giant pulled in a profit of $11.7 billion, or $2.05 per share, on revenue of $43.6 billion. These figures exclude the EC fine and the settlement with AMD. CEO Paul Otellini says 2010 was a record year for Intel and he believes 2011 will be even better.

Analysts anticipated a fourth-quarter revenue of $11.36 billion and $0.53 earnings per share. Intel's stock (INTC) is up 2.72 percent in after-hours trading to $21.87. SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 13, 2011

We test the KFA2 GeForce GTX 460 Razor Single Slot graphics card that is bound to delivers a very decent gaming experience. The Razor single slot solution could be interesting as a small form factor product

Let us show you an extraordinary Full tower ATX PC case beyond any design or aesthetic resemblance, the all black mighty power of the InWin Dragon Rider. A chassis with great looks, features all fitted into a well thought through concept.

This is one of the more spoken of chassis designs for a while now, definitely worth to check out or at least have a look at, you can find the Guru3D review right here.

Yep, that's right, pitted against the Radeon HD 6800 series the the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is based on new GF114 silicon, features 384 CUDA, a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface, and a presumable core clock speeds of 820 MHz 

But the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, does that ring any bells ladies and gentlemen ? Well for those that remember it, it started ion the GeForce 3 era, but how about the GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE ? or GeForce 4 Ti 4200 back in 2002/2003 ?

Late this month NVIDIA will introduce their new GeForce GTX 560 series, and for whatever reason they are resurrecting the Ti branding. This has now been confirmed with Industry sources as well as a driver entry in an .inf file.

The new graphics cards is to be released January 25th.

The NAS6220 has space for two 3.5" SATA HDDs with up to 2 TB. All data can be made available to the home network and are thus accessible through the Samba server. Also the printer server can be shared. For the installation you don't need special IT skills. If you can use a computer you are also fine with the NAS6220.

Enermax introduced the ErPro80+, a new line of power supplies available in 350W, 400W and 500W editions. These units offer an energy efficiency of up to 86 percent, they are equipped with two +12V rails and cooling is provided by a 120mm fan. The specifications can be found at Enermax.

Brief overview:

• 350W: Two 17A +12V rails. Cables: 4x Molex, 4x SATA, 1x PCIe
• 400W: Two 22A +12V rails. Cables: 4x Molex, 4x SATA, 2x PCIe
• 500W: Two 24A +12V rails. Cables: 5x Molex, 6x SATA, 2x PCIe

The units are already available in European webshops, the cheapest stores I could find sell the 350W, 400W and 500W versions for 54.12EUR, 67.46EUR and 85.73EUR, respectively. We'll have a review ready on the Modu82 II version next week, which has ErPro enabled as well so we'll explain a little further on what that is in that article.

Samsung issued a press-release announcing two new external hard disks with the USB 3.0 interface.

For those who desire portability the company has created the S2 Portable USB 3.0, this model is available in capacities of up to 1TB. The compact device has a slender appearance and features a matte finish that hides fingerprints and scratches. This model will be available in four colors: Brown Black, Noble Beige, Clay Orange and Mist Gray.

The 3.5" disk is available in capacities of 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB. The HDD has a retro aluminium design and is equipped with SafeKey to protect backup data with a password and SecretZone to create a virtual drive that encrypts data. The STORY will ship in Brown Black and Noble Beige color options.

Both USB 3.0 HDD lines will soon be available in Europe with prices starting around 79EUR (incl. VAT)

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) introduces the latest Inte

Looks like F.3.A.R. (or F.E.A.R. 3 if you prefer!) will be delayed a little. The new reelase date is May 2011.

KFA2, the New European premium brand of Galaxy, announced today its launch of the two new custom edition KFA2 GTX 460

The new ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution enables extreme graphics performance with multiple GPU arrangements that result in the most advanced visual performance of any P67-based motherboard. It delivers ASUS

Over at CES already the Radeon 6970 model of this version was shown. However it seems that ASUS is working on GeForce GTX 580 DirectCu II model as well.

The DirectCu II cooler has the traditiononal aluminum fin array connected to five heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. Two 100 mm fans are there for ventilation.

The card triple slot (!) card uses a custom PCB with massive VRM (eight phases for GPU) implementation. it draws that power directly from the 8-pin PEG headers and not the PCIe slot.

The power circuit is also completely localized, meaning that it draws absolutely zero power from the PCI-Express slot. The VRM makes use of high-grade components, including an NEC-made proadlizer to condition power for the GPU. The rear panel has two DVI connectors one DisplayPort and HDMI.

I dunno what is going on with chassis designs these days, to me that is not a good looking chassis. But then again, I dunno what you think about it.

Enermax cooked up the Hoplite, a new steel mid-tower ATX case with an all-black design and a fancy 120mm Vegas LED intake fan with light control button. The case measures 493mm x 200mm x 490mm and is available in three different versions, each model has support for up to five fans, four 5.25" devices, six 3.5" disks including two hot-swappable bays (only five for the ECA3222), two 2.5" SSDs (four for the ECA3222) and seven expansion slots.

The ECA3222 is the most advanced model, it has a top-mounted docking station for 2.5/3.5" SSD/HDDs, USB 3.0 ports in the I/O panel, and it also supports graphics cards with a length of up to 330mm (max 315mm for the ECA3220/3221). Other enthusiast features include a cut-out for easy access to the CPU heatsink, quick-release bay covers, enhancements for cable management, dust filters, tool-free installation and three holes for watercooling tubes.

The Hoplite ECA3222 model is reportedly available in Japan for the equivalent of $154.

An interesting post was found at French Hardware.fr as they published a list of computer hardware failure rates, you can check it out over here. It's in French but with the help of Google's Translator it shouldn't be too hard to understand, each page gives failure rates for the most popular brands and also provides failure rates for specific components.

The data originates from a large French e-tailer, it covers returns created before October 2010 for hardware sold between October 1, 2009 and April 1, 2010. The brand failure rates are compiled using a minimum sample of 500 sales, while model failure rates are calculated using a minimum sample of 100 sales.

In the motherboard market there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between manufacturers:

• Gigabyte 2,33% (contre 2,36%)
• MSI 2,44% (contre 2,54%)
• ASUS 2,49% (contre 3,05%)
• ASRock 2,71% (contre 2,21%)

The memory market shows quite a different story, especially OCZ dropped the ball as its failure rate increase more than doubled compared to the last report.

•  Kingston 0,30% (contre 0,37%)
• Crucial 0,93% (contre 0,78%)
• Corsair 1,41% (contre 1,66%)
• G.Skill 2,73% (contre 1,53%)
• OCZ 6,76% (contre 2,76%)

The HDD is likely one of the most critical components in your computer, in this category Maxtor received the best ranking:

• Maxtor 1,04% (contre 1,73%)
• Western Digital 1,45% (contre 0,99%)
• Seagate 2,13% (contre 2,58%)
• Samsung 2,47% (contre 1,93%)
• Hitachi 3,39% (contre 0,92%)

SSD failure rates are also listed and although you usually hear that SSDs are more durable than HDDs the numbers show a different story. Only Intel SSDs seem to score significantly better than HDDs.

• Intel 0,59%
• Corsair 2,17%
• Crucial 2,25%
• Kingston 2,39%
• OCZ 2,93%
  

Zotac introduced the ION-ITX R, S and T series with Intel's dual-core Atom D525 (1.8GHz) and NVIDIA's ION2 GPU. All three models feature passive cooling.

Next-Generation NVIDIA

Aerocool has released the Rs-4, a new mid-tower gamer case made from 0.6mm SECC steel. The black chassis has a red interior and is equipped with a top-mounted handle for easy transporting.

I can imagine a red/black theme motherboard like the Asus ROG series in there fit really well. The Rs-4 measures 475mm x 200m x 475mm (H x W x D), it has room for four 5.25" devices and features two HDD cages (one is removable). Two fans are included and the RPM can be controlled via a fan knob at the top of the case. A 5-in-1 memory card reader has been integrated into the case and the I/O panel features two USB 2.0 ports, eSAtA and headphone + microphone ports. Unfortunately, there's no USB 3.0 support.

The Rs-4 has two pre-drilled holes for watercooling tubes. It will start shipping in Europe this week for 79.90EUR.

EA today confirmed that it will host an unveil event for Battlefield 3 on March 1st during GDC in San Francisco. Battlefield 3 is expected to ship in 2011.

The publisher confirmed to the media it will host an unveil event for the game on Mar. 1, 2011, taking place during the week of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Additionally, EA says it will also have new game announcements as well as hands-on time with many upcoming titles, including: Shadows of the Damned, Alice Madness Returns, Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning, and Crysis 2.

Those who purchased the Limited Edition of Medal of Honor this past fall received an invitation to the Battlefield 3 beta. Details about the beta's release date have not been announced.