Synology today announced DiskStation DS1512+, a 5-bay next generation NAS server for delivering high performance and scalability with complete business solutions to small and medium businesses.

"NAS severs today are expected to produce higher levels of reliability and availability. With today's introduction, Synology customers can share and access data on DS1512+ in full confidence and satisfy the productivity, versatility and reliability they demand," said Peter Chen, Product Manager of Synology Inc.

Synology DS1512+ features a passive CPU cooling technology and a fan redundancy mechanism of two user-replaceable 80 mm fans, thus eliminating a single point of failure and ensure continuous system uptime during malfunction. The dual LAN network failover support allows DS1512+ to sustain the potential of one network discontinuity while maximizing system availability at all times.

Among the first to support the industry

Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview - the next milestone of the Windows operating system. This latest preview will be made available for download starting today at http://preview.windows.com. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview offers a more robust experience for testing the world's most popular operating system and is available to the widest range of people yet following the initial release of the Windows 8 Developer Preview late last year. The Developer Preview received more than 3 million downloads.

"With Windows 8, we reimagined the different ways people interact with their PC and how to make everything feel like a natural extension of the device, whether using a Windows 8 tablet, laptop or all-in-one," said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft. "The Windows 8 Consumer Preview brings a no-compromises approach to using your PC."

At a Windows 8 Consumer Preview event in Barcelona that was attended by partners from Europe and around the world, the company shared some key new updates in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview:

• Broad range of product changes and improvements. Since the Developer Preview in September, designed to preview the programming platform, Windows 8 has progressed across every dimension. From completing the user experience for touch, keyboard and mouse to refining the development platform, the Consumer Preview improves performance, quality and reliability across all subsystems. With the added features, it represents a more complete view of the capabilities of Windows 8.
• Windows Store with new apps. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview marks the beta opening of the Windows Store, which is filled with a variety of new Metro style apps from both third-party developers and Microsoft. During the Consumer Preview, these apps are available to try and experience at no cost to users. The Windows Store will offer personalized recommendations, and Windows 8 gives users the ability to take their apps and settings with them across multiple PCs, making it easy to discover and try new apps while offering developers the greatest opportunity of any platform.
• Connecting to the cloud across Windows-based PCs and Windows Phone. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview offers seamless integration with the content people care about across their devices. An optional additional sign-on with a Microsoft account provides access to a host of features, including the ability to roam all settings, use cloud storage, communicate with email, calendar and contacts, and connect to a broad range of services. Your connection to the cloud works across your Windows-based PCs and your Windows Phones.
• Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 5. The best way to experience the Web on Windows is with Internet Explorer 10. The browser has been re-imagined to create a new experience designed specifically for Windows 8 devices. It provides an edge-to-edge user interface that is all about less browser and more Web. Fast and fluid, Internet Explorer is hardware-accelerated to enable Web performance.
• Preview of new hardware capabilities. At the event, Microsoft also showcased Windows 8 running on a wide range of new x86- and ARM-based reference hardware. This hardware will be available to select developers for trial and testing as previously announced.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be available worldwide for download in English, French, German, Japanese and simplified Chinese languages.

ISO:

Windows 8 Consumer Preview x86 (32 bit)
8250.0.WINMAIN_WIN8BETA.120217-1520_X86FRE_CLIENT_EN-US-HB1_CCPA_X86FRE_EN-US_DV5.ISO

Windows 8 Consumer Preview x64 (64 bit)
8250.0.WINMAIN_WIN8BETA.120217-1520_X64FRE_CLIENT_EN-US-HB1_CCPA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5.ISO


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Overall, the prices were slashed by 2% - 15% for Phenom CPUs, and by 6% - 9% for FX chips. The parts, discounted the most in absolute terms, are FX-8120, and Phenom II X4 965, 975, and 980. They have got $20 cheaper. AMD FX-6100 had modest $10 price drop, however let's not forget that this is the second drop since processor's introduction last October. The biggest relative price cut, almost 15%, was for Phenom II X4 965.

The Rig of the Month February 2012 once again shows style and design, the detail very nice in black, white, gold with Carbon elements. Mathieu who transformed one PC into a very unique and bling build certainly convinced us. What a nice job.

Check out the article right here.

AllGamesBeta posted what it claims to be leaked screenshots of Doom 4, which it also goes on to claim as being "doomed" (cancelled), citing rumors. Close to two dozen of these screenshots can be found at the source. They reveal what [could have been] the setting of Doom 4, probably of the horrors unleashed on Mars (in Doom 3 and Resurrection of Evil) finding their way to Earth.

Go check out the screenshot right here.

The colleagues over at TPU received details about XSPC's new Razor 7970 waterblock for AMD Radeon HD 7970 and 7950 reference design graphics cards. The block doesn't take up an additional expansion slot, it measures 220mm x 142mm x 9mm (18mm at the ports). Most of the block is milled out of a block of copper, the VRM area is made out of aluminium and the top plate is made of CNC-cut stainless steel.

The portion of the block that's over the GPU is ridged, making copper micro-fins, that increase dissipation of heat to the coolant. The top is made of CNC-cut stainless steel. The block is ready for CrossFire setups with four G1/4″ ports, two G1/4″ plugs are included. Listed on the company's online store (currently out of stock), the XSPC Razor 7970 is priced at

OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCZ), a worldwide leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and power supplies for computing devices and systems, today announced the availability of the Fatal1ty 1000 Watt power supply, the latest high-performance PSU targeted at gamers and enthusiasts that demand maximum wattage, high efficiency, and a modular cabling configuration.

Dedicated to delivering premium power solutions, OCZ

ROCCAT will show off the Savu mid-size hybrid gaming mouse at CeBIT. This new peripheral promises a significantly better sensor, and should be available in retail stores from early May.
ROCCAT Studios today announced the upcoming availability of the Savu Mid-Size Hybrid Gaming Mouse

ADATA claims its new XPG SX900 solid state disk will be the most powerful SSD on Earth. The new disk incorporates the SandForce SF-2281 controller and promises max sequential read/write speeds of 550/530MB/s and max random 4K write performance of up to 85,000 IOPS. The XPG SX900 serie will be avaialble in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities.

The XPG (Xtreme Performance Gear) SX900 solid state drive is an expanded capacity SSD which uses new optimized firmware to utilize greater storage capacity of the NAND Flash components. With superior NAND Flash, the XPG SX900 SSD reaches new levels of stability and performance. The drive breaks new ground in storage capacity for SSDs utilizing the SandForce 2281 controller, reaching 512GB, a 7% increase over common SSDs in the market that use a SandForce controller. This represents a milestone in ADATA

Seen first at Microsoft TechForum 2012, IllumiShare enables remote people to share any physical or digital object on any surface. It is a low-cost, peripheral device that looks like a desk lamp, and just like a lamp lights up a surface at which it is pointed, IllumiShare shares a surface. To do this, IllumiShare uses a camera-projector pair where the camera captures video of the local workspace and sends it to the remote space and the projector projects video of the remote workspace onto the local space. With IllumiShare, people can sketch together using real ink and paper, remote meeting attendees can interact with conference room whiteboards, and children can have remote play dates in which they play with real toys.

The chaps over at wccftech noticed that  NVIDIA

AMD launched two new FX Series processors, the FX-6200 hexa-core and the FX-4170 quad-core, and announced price reductions for the October-released FX-8120 and FX-6100.

The FX-6200 and FX-4170 are made on 32 nm process technology, and feature an AM3+ package, a TDP of 125 W, and 8 MB of L3 cache. The FX-6200 has a base clock of 3.8 GHz (4.1 GHz Turbo) and is up for pre-order @ 152.70 Euro while its quad-core sibling is set to 4.2 GHz (4.3 GHz Turbo) and is selling for 120.60 Euro. The updated FX-8120 and FX-6100 prices stand at $185 and $145, respectively.

Elpida Memory has filed for bankruptcy protection today, as the firm is unable to refinance its heavy debt. It's the largest Japanese manufacturing corporate failure since World War II, the company has a debt of $5.5 billion and a DRAM marketshare of 12.5 percent.

Elpida decided to separate the low margin PC business to its Taiwanese subsidiary and concentrate instead on higher ASP devices for smartphones after the financial crisis. Yukio Sakamoto, Elpida

The chaps over at VR-Zone are displaying a diagram based on the (what they claim to be) NVIDIA GeForce Kepler 104 (GK104) ASIC, which rpesumably is going to be the GeForce GTX 670 Ti. Apprantly that diagram is showing a 5 NVVDD phase power supply (VRM) design that draws power from 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors.

Up you accumulate that then logic assumes that the board power can peak towards 300W of power as 75W + 150W + 75W from the PCIe connector = 300W That's quite a bit. Phase 1 and 3 will be wired to the 6-pin connector; phase 2, 4, and 5 to the 8-pin connector. NVVDD phases 2, 4, and 5 feed power to the GPU, while phases 1 and 3 power the GDDR5 memory and other components on the board.

Nothing much can be taken from this though, as the boards design power says nothing yet about TDP. Have a peek at the screenshot, courtesy of vr-zone.

The Transformer Pad Infinity is the slate that has just been introduced by ASUS, a renamed TF700T.

It boasts a 10.1-inch display with two major selling points: a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels and a Super IPS+ Gorilla Glass 2 panel.

For those unaware, Gorilla Glass panels basically make displays unbreakable, unless tablet owners, or particularly malicious people, truly seek their destruction with abandon. Back to the slate, the Infinity has 1 GB of RAM (random access memory) backing the CPU. Oddly, though, the platform will be different depending on the wireless options.

Where the Wi-Fi version gets the 4-PLUS-1 NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core 1.6GHz SoC, the 3G/4G LTE Pad gets Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 (based on the new 28nm Krait architecture). Both come in the same sort of aluminum case, colored amethyst grey or champagne gold.

Furthermore, ASUS sells the newcomer with 8GB of free lifetime ASUS WebStorage space and, for some extra money, an optional mobile dock as well (an additional 22Whr battery, keyboard, trackpad, etc.). A battery charge should be good for about 10 hours of operation, while the dock adds 6 more.

Finally, there should be two cameras (8MP back, 2MP back), storage of 16/32/63GB and the Android 4.0 operating system. No pricing or availability yet.

The Finiancial Times reports that Intel expects its next-generation microprocessors to go on sale eight to 10 weeks later than initially planned, according to Sean Maloney, executive vice-president of Intel and chairman of Intel China.

In his first interview to discuss Intel

The latest in the Carbide series of PC cases from Corsair would be the 300R, Corsair markets the product being entry-level, a bit peculiar though with its price level at 90 USD, which really is a mainstream price. These chassis remain to be good looking but really are feature rich products. Keywords here would be an okay design chassis, tool free, lots of of space, nice airflow and prepped for liquid cooling.

Check the article here.

Intel has unleashed quite a few motherboards over the past week, like the Media Series and the Executive 7-Series, all part of the 7-Series, and now we get to look at the high-end models too as softpedia reports:

According to VR-Zone, there are two high-end 7-Series motherboards on the way, powered by the Z77 chipset.

Like them, we aren't exactly sure why it has taken to launching so many motherboards, knowing that the consumer base will more than likely gravitate towards companies that specialize in such products and have proven their brands' worth over and over (ASRock, ASUS, MSI, etc.).

Nevertheless, Intel has released the DZ77GA and DZ77RE for the high-end market.

The former has the Gasper codename and comes with two PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, two PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots, one PCI Express 2.0 x4 slot and a pair of PCI slots.

There is also USB connectivity (four 3.0 and four 2.0 ports at the back, plus some more via headers), FireWire connectivity, eSATA and dual Gigabit Ethernet, plus 7.1-channel audio with optical S/PDIF.

Furthermore, the chip giant implemented an HDMI connector, but this begs the question of why Intel isn't enabling support for multi-display setups.

After all, the bundled LucidLogix Virtu software lets discrete graphics signals pass through the integrated GPU, allowing for more than one monitor to be managed by the mainboard directly, provided there are enough display ports to plug the panels in (which there aren't).

The second motherboard will possess Thunderbolt at least, but more or less the same other specifications as its sibling.

Keep in mind that the PCI Express x4 slot may have to be disabled while Thunderbolt is in use, though.

Intel has been doing its best to extend its reach beyond the CPU market, entering not just the mainboard but also the SSD business. Neither outlet has seen as much success as its primary focus, and with the upcoming Ivy Bridge CPUs supposedly getting cheaper (by $60-70 / 45-53 Euro) this situation can only persist.

 Times reports Huawei has revealed high-end smartphones and tablets based on a quad-core chip designed by the company's HiSilicon division. Huawei officials claim the 1.2-1.5GHz KV32 chip outperforms NVIDIA's Tegra 3 SoC by 30 to 50 percent across a range of benchmarks.

A 64-bit memory bus--twice the width of the tegra3--is one of the main factors in the performance of the KV32, said Jerry Su, chief architect of the chip. Built in a TSMC 40 nm low power process, the chip fits in a 12x12mm package

The KV32 uses four ARM Cortex A9 cores and a 16 core graphics chip co-developed with an unnamed U.S. chip designer. The two collaborated on the GPU

Jay Wilson from Blizzard Entertainment posted a development update on the Diablo III forums in which he stated that the release date announcement would be in the 'near future' and that development was going well and that the game was in 'good shape'. This latest update follows the recent patch 13 release last weekend which saw an overhaul of the game's rune system and skill interface which received mixed reactions from the community:

Some of you might have seen some headlines or a certain (obviously sarcastic) blue post that implies that we're unsteady about where Diablo III stands, and that you should temper your expectations when it comes to the next installment in the Diablo series.

Let me be clear: Nothing could be further from the truth.

As those of you in the beta have seen, the game is in good shape. Actually, I should say that the beta version of the game is in good shape. The latest full build we've been testing here in the office is in great shape.

We get a lot of sympathy from the other teams because of the long hours of crunch our design team is putting in, but the secret is that playing through the game as we do final tuning, bug fixes, and optimizations is a real joy. We always know a Blizzard game is almost ready when we have to ask members of the team to stop playing so they can get their work done. That's definitely been the case around here.

We think you're going to love Diablo III when it's released, and speaking of release plans, you can seriously expect a launch-date announcement from us in the near future. See, I didn't say soon, so I'm not taunting you. ;) You�'l know as soon as I know for sure the exact date.

And by the way, we want you to have high expectations for Diablo III and all Blizzard games. That�s what pushes us to try to make the best gaming experiences we possibly can. If Diablo III wasn't a worthy next installment in the Diablo series, we wouldn't release it. That's the way we do it. That's the way we've always done it.

As I've said many times in the recent past, we think Diablo III is coming along great and we can't wait for you to get your hands on it. We're doing all we can to ensure you have one hell of a time once you step foot in Sanctuary

Also, I think Diablo is much more comparable to the Evil Dead series personally, and those just kept getting better. OK, I know a lot of you prefer Evil Dead 2 to Army of Darkness, but come on, Bruce Campbell fights a squad of little Bruce Campbells! Priceless. =)