With the launch of the high-performance Cherryville series of solid state drives Intel will continue the tradition started with its the 510-series SSDs and will use a third-party controller which will be built by SandForce, according to SoftPedia. The first rumors regarding Intel's plans to utilize SandForce controllers in their SSDs appeared quite some time ago.

The controller used by Intel for its 520-series solid state drives is similar to the one included in Corsair's or OCZ's SSDs.

If this report is indeed true, than Cherryville SSDs should be able to reach sequential read and write transfer rates in excess of 500MB/s, while the 4K random access performance should be rated at 85,000 IOPS.

This last number is quite a departure from the 40,000 IOPS detailed by previous reports which covered Intel's 520-series drives.

Intel designed the Cherryvile SSDs to spread the series in capacities when compared to the previous 510 Elm Crest drives, so the maximum capacity to be reached now is set at 480GB compared to the previous 250GB.

Furthermore, the Cherryville line of solid state drives will also witness the introduction of a lower 60GB model, which should be a great option for user seeking a fast boot drive for their system.

Intel's 520-series of SSDs is expected to reach retail until the end of this year, pricing is unknown.

» Read full story

The performance bracket that AMD's FX-Series desktop processors are delivering, apparently made Intel reconsider the prices of its Core i5 and Core i7 processors, which now seem to retail for higher prices than before Bulldozer was out.

Intel has seen AMD's inability to deliver a hefty competing product as an opportunity to increase the margins of its products.

Using the Geizhals.at price comparison engines, one of the largest of its kind in the world, Bright Side of News analyzed the prices of Intel's processors both before and after the launch of AMD's FX-Series CPUs.

This way, the Website has found out that pricing for the Core i7-2600K rose from

» Read full story

FWow, anyone else thinking Lian-Li here ? Japanese company Abee introduced the J03, a new steel mid-tower case with aluminium panels. The case measures 427mm x 209mm x 436mm and supports Micro ATX and ATX motherboards. The design reminds me a little of Lian Li cases, but unfortunately the price tag is pretty hefty, in Germany the case is sold online for horrendous 309.90EUR.

Available in black, Abee's chassis includes two front USB 3.0 ports, two exposed 5.25-inch bays, one 2.5-inch and three 3.5-inch bays (you can install more drives, vertically, on a removable bar), two 120mm (1000 RPM ) fans (one in front, one at the rear), and has support for graphics cards up to 370mm long.

» Read full story

Battlefield 3 is coming out next week.


» Read full story

The action comes fast and hard as it showcases the merciless fighting prowess of master assassins Ezio Auditore and Alta
» Read full story

EVGA teases with an image today, on display is a dual-socket motherboard we'll call SR-3 for now. We can only assume this is X79 based, previously at Computex ASUS also already has been showing something similar under codename Danshui, read and see all about that here.

The EVGA motherboard hints to being an X79 motherboard as you can clearly see a quad channel DIMM setup surrounding each CPU socket. Looking at the socket themselves, that's indeed Socket LGA 2011.

EVGA has had good success with the limited available SR-2 in the past, our experiences with Sandy Bridge-E overclocking have been splendid thus far, we can only imagine what two can do. You'll need Xeon based SBE processors though, to support SMT/SMP properly.

Also we spot two NF200 chips allowing a chunkload of cards in SLI and PCIE bandwith on the seven x16 PCIe slots. We also spot bluetooth, for perhaps some new form of overclocking through an external device.

Anyway have a peek at the picture. Fun stuff. And have a peek at our Sr-2 review from a while ago, Beaux is da man.

» Read full story

The Rosewill RK-9000 remains one of the best value keyboard on the market, especially now that they are available in several different types of switches. Be you gamer, typist, or some combination in between, the Rosewill RK-9000 puts one of the best mechanical keyboards out there under your fingers. We test the Rosewill against several other mechanical keyboards to find out it compares, and in the process, deep dive into the mechanical keyboard universe.

Check out the review right here.

 

» Read full story

Enermax brings a breath of fresh air into the CPU cooler market

» Read full story

I;m a bit late with this news, but still .. ASUS showed off the Transformer Prime tablet at the AsiaD conference. The device has a 10" screen and features NVIDIA's new quad-core Tegra 3 chip. It's unknown when the device will start shipping, ASUS head Jonney Shih revealed Ice Cream Sandwich tablets should be available by the end of the year, but he didn't share whether Transformer Prime will be released with Honeycomb to start.

It's the same one saw teased just yesterday, and Jonney affirmed that it'll ship with a quad-core NVIDIA chip, 10-inch display, mini-HDMI port, a 14.5-hour battery, an SD card slot and a top lid that looks precisely like its Zenbook line. Oh, and it's 8.3mm thick, though Jonney didn't specify as to whether that was docked or undocked (we're guessing the former!). Naturally, it'll ship with Android, and we're assuming it'll be Honeycomb to start.

» Read full story

OCZ introduced the Octane (SATA 6Gbps) and Octane-S2 (SATA 3Gbps), two new solid state disks with the Indilinx Everest SSD controller. Both modules will start shipping on November 1, capacities will range from 128GB to 1TB but pricing is still unknown.
OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs), today launched the Indilinx Everest-based Octane SATA 3.0 and SATA 2.0 SSD series, striking the ideal balance between capacity, physical size, and speed. In addition to being the world's first SSD to achieve up to a 1TB capacity in a compact 2.5 inch format, OCZ's Octane SSD series combines high-speed data transfer rates with record-breaking access times to provide a superior user experience and improved application performance.

"OCZ has reached an important milestone in the development of its own controller technology," said James E. Bagley, Senior Analyst with Storage Strategies NOW. "The high sustained performance, even with compressed files, the rapid boot feature and high access speeds using SATA 3.0 protocol puts their controller technology in the major league."

"Until now SSDs have been tailored for specific applications, forcing users into a product which maximizes performance for a narrow band of applications, but is significantly lacking in others," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. "The Octane Series solves this problem by providing the highest level of performance across varied workloads including mixed file sizes and mixed compressible and uncompressible data, all while nearly doubling NAND flash endurance."

The Octane series leverages the cutting-edge Indilinx Everest platform to deliver up to 560MB/s of bandwidth and 45,000 IOPS and is optimized for the complete spectrum of file types and sizes. In particular, the Octane's proprietary page mapping algorithms allow for steady mixed-workload performance, mirroring real world conditions across a wide range of applications. The Octane series also includes a number of advanced features unique to Indilinx, including innovative latency reduction technology, enabling both read and write access times as low as 0.06ms and 0.09ms respectively, the lowest of any commercially available SSD. This enhances application responsiveness and enables features such as "fast boot" in consumer applications.

Octane SSDs also come equipped with Indilinx's proprietary NDurance

» Read full story

Cooler Master shows off the Silencio 450, a new mid-tower steel case that focuses on quiet computing. The case will be available in early November for 54.95EUR.
Cooler Master, an industry leading chassis, thermal solution, power supply, peripheral, and accessory manufacturer, today adds a new sibling to the Silencio 550, the Silencio 450.

Quiet Operation
The Silencio Series represents the best solution for sound absorption with system builds of all levels. Sound silencing foam padding seeks to severely reduce system noises produced by hard drives, numerous cooling fans, and other devices. Combine this with a solid-steel frame, vibration inhibiting rubber feet, two Cooler Master quiet-spinning fans and the Silencio 450 nearly becomes completely silent. Those that value a quiet computing space will immensely appreciate the Silencio Series.

Intelligent Interior
Look beyond the modest exterior of the Silencio 450 to find a clean, intuitive, and spacious interior. Three 5.25

» Read full story

Hey now,  more competition in the USB 3.0 market is always nice, and Fresco delivers some nice candy with its new FL1100 four-port USB 3.0 host controller.

Fresco Logic

» Read full story

The official Playstation blog has announced that the $499 24 inch display will begin shipping to stores and to pre-orders on November 13. All of the units will include a set of 3D glasses, an HDMI cable and a free copy of the recent Playstation 3 exclusive arcade racing game MotorStorm: Apocalypse.

People who pre-ordered the display before September 30 will also get a second free PS3 game, the sci-fi first person shooter Resistance 3. Sony has also posted up an FAQ responding to some of the more popular questions from PS3 fans about the display. A full list of currently available 3D games is available here.

» Read full story

Modern Warfare 3's all-new Strike Package system looks set to shift the game away from the lone-wolf tactics that dominate the Modern Warfare 2 online arena. Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer have released a new video explaining how the system works. If you are a lone wolf, assist or team player, there is a Strike Package tailored just for you. The above video explains many of the available rewards, and gear you can expect to unlock online.

» Read full story

With a little less than a month to go until Intel will make official its first processors based on the high-performance Sandy Bridge-E architecture, European retailers have started listing some of these chips on their websites, the Core i7-3930K and Core i7-3960X being the first to arrive.

These two Intel processors have popped up in Sweden on the PriceSpy website. After dropping the 25% VAT tax from the price of these CPUs, it would result that the Core i7-3960X is priced at $1086 US, or about 786 Euros, while its slower brother has a retail price of $616 US (446 Euros).

Both of these prices are higher than those suggested by previous leaks, $999 and $583 respectively, but they are expected to come down once we are getting nearer to the Sandy Bridge-E release date.

Intel's initial LGA 2011 processor lineup will include three chips, all of them belonging to the Core i7 product line.

As most of you know, the Core i7-3960X is the fastest of these as the Extreme Edition part includes six processing cores with Hyper-Threading support, has a base frequency of 3.3GHz and a maximum clock speed of 3.9GHz, as well as 15MB of Level 3 cache memory.

In comparison, the Core i7-3930K, also includes six processing cores with Hyper-Threading support, but has a base operating clock of 3.2GHz, while the maximum frequency in Turbo mode is set at 3.80GHz.

Cache size has was also reduced, as the Core i7-3930K sports only 12MB of Level 3 cache memory. Intel is expected to release both of these LGA 2011 chips on November 14.

 

» Read full story

The Rosewill RK-9000 remains one of the best value keyboard on the market, especially now that they are available in several different types of switches. Be you gamer, typist, or some combination in between, the Rosewill RK-9000 puts one of the best mechanical keyboards out there under your fingers. We test the Rosewill against several other mechanical keyboards to find out it compares, and in the process, deep dive into the mechanical keyboard universe.

Grab the new AMD Catalyst Application Profile - 11.9 CAP3. These are the Catalyst profiles for multi-GPU support.

This release of ATI Catalyst delivers support for the latest ATI CrossFireX profiles in a separate executable file ensuring users have access to the absolute latest set of profiles installed on their PC.

Latest profiles added :

• Battlefield 3: Provides great CrossFire scaling and reduces flickering / corruption issues when running in CrossFire mode
• Red Orchestra 2
  

» Read full story

PowerColor today introduces all-new multimedia solution, SlingIt, which is designed to help centralize and distribute entertainment to various devices inside your home. SlingIt creates a gateway to wireless entertainment by offering a pair of devices that builds a bridge among multiple rooms.

Any device with HDMI connection can be supported by SlingIt. SlingIt allows users to set up easily by just plugging the transmitter to HDMI source and the receiver to HDVT, and then you can stream Youtube, play games, or share photos with your friends. SlingIt brings incredible HD experience to users with a variety media formats.

Transmit uncompressed 1080p HD/3D wirelessly without noticeable latency
SlingIt presents flexible and uncompressed 1080p wireless transmission from desktop PC or notebook to HDTV, users are available to enjoy full 1080p HD video, Blu-ray 3D playback with up to 1920 x 1080 resolution for all HDMI devices. The most important of all, SlingIt transfer HD content without noticeable latency, brings amazing lag-free home entertainment.

Support HID & IR remote control
SlingIt supports Human Interface devices (HID), for example, wireless mouse and keyboard. You can share photos, stream YouTube, play games, watch movies from PC and remote control it without moving your feet. Also with the IR support, you can make your remote controller backward, forward, pause or change channels without your device nearby.

Plug and Play
The interface design of SlingIt is very user-friendly, there

» Read full story

OCZ launched the ZT series, a new line of modular power supplies with wattages of 550W, 650W and 750W. These units have a single +12V rail and offer 80Plus Bronze certification. Cooling is provided by a 140mm fan.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., (Nasdaq:OCZ) a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and power management solutions for computing devices and systems, today unveiled the ZT Power Supply Series which offers consumers performance and stability for gaming systems and desktops. Providing high efficiency, cool operation, and a fully modular cable design, the ZT Series comes in a range of wattage options for users looking for a quality upgrade.

» Read full story

Noctua announced customers of the company's CPU coolers can order a NM-I2011 kit free of charge. This mounting kit will make all Noctua coolers since 2005 compatible with Intel's upcoming LGA2011 socket. The NM-I2011 can be ordered on this page.

Continuing Noctua's tradition of supplying its customers with SecuFirm2

» Read full story

A leaked Catalyst 8.91 driver (codename for Catalyst 11.11 Preview) contains references to a bunch of upcoming Radeon HD 7000 series parts. Additionally, the file also reveals some new codenames.
The relevant names are listed as follows:

AMD6778.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7000 series"
AMD68FA.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7300 Series"
AMD6850.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400 Series"
AMD6858.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400 Series"
AMD6859.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400 Series"
AMD677B.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400 Series"
AMD6772.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7400A Series"
AMD675D.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7500 Series"
AMD6742.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7500/7600 Series"
AMD6841.7 = "AMD Radeon HD 7500M/7600M Series"
AMD675B.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7600 Series"
AMD6751.1 = "AMD Radeon HD 7600A Series"
AMD6840.7 = "AMD Radeon HD 7600M Series"
AMD683B.1 = "CAPE VERDE PRO"
AMD683F.1 = "CAPE VERDE PRO"
AMD6839.1 = "CAPE VERDE XT"
AMD683D.1 = "CAPE VERDE XT"
AMD6838.1 = "CAPE VERDE XTX"
AMD682F.1 = "CHELSEA PRO"
AMD6824.1 = "CHELSEA XT"
AMD682D.1 = "CHELSEA XT"
AMD6831.1 = "GREAT WALL"
AMD6821.1 = "HEATHROW PRO"
AMD6827.1 = "HEATHROW PRO"
AMD6820.1 = "HEATHROW XT"
AMD6825.1 = "HEATHROW XT"
AMD6819.1 = "PITCAIRN PRO"
AMD6818.1 = "PITCAIRN XT"
AMD6799.1 = "SI NEW ZEALAND"
AMD679A.1 = "SI TAHITI PRO"
AMD6798.1 = "SI TAHITI XT"
AMD6830.1 = "SUMMER PALACE XT"
AMD9901.1 = "TRINITY DEVASTATOR DESKTOP"
AMD9904.1 = "TRINITY DEVASTATOR LITE DESKTOP"
AMD9903.2 = "TRINITY DEVASTATOR LITE MOBILE"
AMD9900.2 = "TRINITY DEVASTATOR MOBILE"
AMD9991.1 = "TRINITY SCRAPPER DESKTOP"
AMD9990.2 = "TRINITY SCRAPPER MOBILE"
AMD6800.1 = "WIMBLEDON XT"

Right off the bat, there are a string of Radeon HD 7000, containing Radeon HD 7300, 7400, 7500, and 7600 Series. For notebooks, HD 7500M and HD 7600M are listed. Also mentioned are HD 7400A and HD 7600A Series. "A" is a new suffix and might indicate integrated graphics for APUs. For Llano, the APUs contained suffixes of G for notebooks and D for desktops.

» Read full story

Yesterday Google officially announced Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich", an upcoming update that delivers a massive redesign of the user interface and a bunch of new features.

Some of the highlights include an NFC-enabled feature called Android Beam, offline search in Gmail, new lock screen features and a fancy unlocking method called "Face Unlock," which uses facial recognition to ensure strangers can't use your phone without permission. Ice Cream Sandwich also includes enhancements in almost every native app within Android itself. The SDK is already available for Android 4.0, and the update itself will make its first public appearance on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, also unveiled tonight.

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus will be the first smartphone to feature the Google Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" operating system. Neowin provides a list of the main specifications of this device:

• A 4.65-inch 1280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED display
• HSPA+ or LTE (depending on region)
• 1.2 GHz dual-core processor (TI OMAP 4460)
• 1 GB of RAM
• 16 or 32 GB of internal storage
• 5 MP rear camera with flash; 1.3 MP front camera
• Full HD 1080p video recording at 30 FPS; zero shutter lag
• Bluetooth 3.0 and dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• NFC and a barometer
• 8.94mm thin; 135g light
• 1,750 mAh battery

» Read full story

Check the vid out, pretty cool. A demonstration by Tel-Aviv University's Superconductivity Group School of Physics and Astronomy shows quantum locking in action. The video was recorded at the Association of Science  Technology Centers Annual Conference and has already been viewed nearly 400,000 times in only two days. The video was posted on YouTube on October 16 by ASTCvideos and shows a permanent magnet being used to levitate a thin superconductor layer in an effect called quantum levitation. In layman's terms, the superconductor is so cold that it's locking the magnetic field in three dimensions. The superconductor can seemingly hover� in space and even move along a track freely because the magnetic field stays the same.



The semiconductor (0.5micron) is coated with a sapphire crystal (500micron) layer, wrapped in plastic and chilled in liquid nitrogen. The end result is that the chilled wafer is essentially locked in space above the magnet. This works because at a normal state (warm), the magnetic field is able to penetrate freely. Cooling creates quantum trapping and the magnetic field penetrates in the form of quantum flux tubes. The quantum flux tubes are pinned in defects, locking the superconductor in space and allowing frictionless movement.
» Read full story

See the first mod for Red Orchestra 2: Rising Storm, taking the most realistic WWII shooter game into the brutal battlefields of the Pacific.


» Read full story

Nvidia shows off the PhysX particle effects in the PC edition of Batman: Arkham City.


» Read full story

Gigabyte shows a one of their forthcoming X79 series motherboards, with a glimpse of the GIGABYTE G1. Assassin 2 in all its glory; the first G1-Killer series board to support Intel Core processors for the 2011 socket:

   

Click the thumbs .. btw is it just me or is the 'gun' theme getting a little -- meh ? Motherboards for grown ups please !

Gigabye: As with all GIGABYTE G1-Killer motherboards, the emphasis is on serious gaming performance, with onboard audio and networking processors that ensure you

» Read full story