Latest News - Page 3004

CES 2013 - Western Digital have unveiled something quite interesting at CES this year, where they've shown off some new hybrid solid state technology known as SSHD. The new tech features the speed of a decent SSD, but the capacity that a mechanical HDD would feature.

WD says that the solid state storage will continue to be much more expensive than traditional drives for the foreseeable future. This makes WD change gears and work on hybrid drives in the meantime, until we get to a point where pricing drops to more "competitive" levels in regards to flash storage. The demo that took place at CES saw the drive loading a bunch of applications to measure just how long it takes to load.

The Tech Report reported that it took 81 seconds to complete the task using a standard drive, and just 51 seconds on a normal SSD. On WD's hybrid SSHD, it took only 55 seconds - less than 10% longer than a normal SSD, but much faster than a traditional mechanical-based HDD. WD says that the incoming writes from the host system aren't stored on the NAND, with the caching system being controlled by the firmware and host-based software drivers.

CES 2013 - As I checked the show floor, I met up with InWin to have a look at what they are going to offer this year. After some discussion, and of course a bunch of images, I got into some of the finer details of what was shown and what will soon be on the pages of TweakTown.

First on the table is a white version of the GR One. We have already seen and reviewed this chassis, but as with all manufacturers, white is the obvious revision choice to start with.

Second in the line-up is the H-Frame which I have not seen up close and personal, well at least until now, and I finally got to see what all of the review and forum hype was all about.

The Chrome Beta channel has just opened for Android today, offering up version 25.0.1364.8. It acts just the same as the Beta channel for a PC, which offers up a preview of features and fixes that has already passed the development channel and is on its way to final testing before it gets baked into the final version.

It makes for the perfect way to try out new things that might still be broken, but will allow the software to function as a hole. The release offered up comes with the following bugs:

If you want to hit up the Beta channel, check it out here.

CES 2013 - Micron today had the first working samples of DDR4 memory in action, putting on a demo that not only shows the new RAM working, but also being simultaneously tested by a Teledyne LeCroy analyzer.

The new DDR4 spec operates at voltages as low as 1.2V, which is roughly 20% lower than previous generations, and yet still manages to run twice as fast as DDR3. The stock timings for DDR4 will weigh in at a hefty 2133MHz, compared to the old DDR3 starting at 1066MHz. This will speed up users' applications, improve responsiveness, increase multi-tasking, handle data-intensive programs and overall increase the speed that the computer processes data.

This new DDR4 module looks like standard fare for a stick of RAM, but it packs a serious performance punch, with speeds expected to be much higher when overclocked at lower voltages.

CES 2013 - SMART Storage Systems introduced the new CloudSpeed Series of SSDs today which provide some great endurance with a very low price point, with enterprise class features at prices only slightly higher than consumer SSDs.

The two new SSDs are the CloudSpeed CS1000 and the CS1000E, which will both be available soon. The real story here is the shrink to 19nm MLC NAND and the high endurance that SMART Storage Systems has managed to pull from the NAND. In an effort to spread the word in a new and refreshing way, SMART Storage Systems CEO John Scaramuzzo formed the NAND Band.

In order to understand the need for new more powerful storage solutions we must take into account the data explosion that is currently taking place. As we can see from the graph above there is a shocking amount of data produced every day, and the data is only multiplying as users are becoming increasing mobile.

Research in Motion (RIM), the company behind the huge BlackBerry range, are already in trouble and this news is not going to help them one bit. Samsung have slowly but surely taken the consumer market into their hands after Apple's sticky hands got all over it, at least in shipment volume, and now it looks like Samsung have shifted aim to RIM's corporate users.

Samsung are investing heavily in enterprise devices that sport higher levels of security and reliability, the opposite of what consumers need badly. Various governments and corporations aren't too sure on BlackBerry 10, and are now looking for alternatives, which is where Samsung comes into play.

Chief Product Officer for Samsung Mobile USA, Kevin Packingham, said during an interview with Reuters:

Leaked specifications on the next-generation Xbox are here thanks to a user on Chinese forum TGFC, this user 'BD' claims to be an ex-Ubisoft employee and has leaked specification on the upcoming next-gen console from Microsoft.

BD has claimed that the next-gen Xbox will sport an AMD 8-core processor, 8GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon HD 8000 Series GPU, Windows 8 kernel and a 640GB HDD. If these specs are true, we're looking at production specs and not a prototype - we're close enough to the unveiling which should be at this years' E3.

Microsoft are going to face some fierce competition this time round, and so will Sony and Nintendo. We have the smaller Ouya console, NVIDIA's recently announced Project Shield and the biggest competitor in my opinion - Valve's Steam Box.

CES 2013 - Here I am thinking Samsung would save the bigger announcements for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, but the South Korean electronics giant has unveiled their 8-core processor known as Exynos 5 Octa.

Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa is based on ARM's new big.LITTLE technology which switches between two clusters of four cores each. The two clusters come in the form of an ARM Cortex-A15 processor used for performance, and a Cortex-A7 which will handle the common tasks which will provide better battery life.

At the moment, processors can change frequency and voltage on-the-fly, which provides better battery life, or higher performance depending on the task at hand. This new Exynos 5 Octa isn't the first chip that sports separate cores for heavy and light workloads, but the South Korean company are saying that they can cut power consumption by up to 70% compared to their Exynos 5 Dual, all by being able to take on common jobs with the lower-voltage A7 cores.

CES 2013 - I visited Digital Storm's suite and the focus of the room really was this massive system known as the Aventum. A fully customizable system, the Aventum starts at just shy of $5,000 and can run all the way up to $8,000 or more. It sits in a case custom designed by Digital Storm and fabbed locally in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The case is simple and elegant, and the model they were showing off in the suite, and subsequently at the Intel party tonight, featured hard-plumbed watercooling, an Intel 3970K, dual EVGA GTX 690s, and a plethora of other high performance components.

It features the Digital Storm A.R.E.S. cooling system, which allows lights, fans, and monitoring to be controlled from within Windows. If you're in the market for a new system, you should definitely check the Aventum out.

CES 2013 - Chris and Paul just got done with their visit to the Kingston suite at CES where they got to see some really cool stuff going on.

The most exciting was a system that Kingston prepared for the show that was running no less than 24 Kingston E100 400GB SSD's. The PC was configured with an Intel Xeon E5-2650 CPU, 128GB of Kingston memory and three LSI MegaRAID 9265-8i RAID controllers. Just forget the price of such a computer for a moment... and dream!

All of that madness was able to achieve a massive 1.8 million IOPS. Need to copy some files? How about read speed performance of 7000MB/s (yes, seven thousand megabytes per second!) and write speed performance of 4400MB/s.

CES 2013 - Lenovo's new K900, just announced today, is the company's new flagship device and will be coming to China in April, and subsequently to other markets. It features a 5.5-inch IPS panel pumping out full HD resolution and is powered by an Intel Atom processor.

"With the K900, our team has broken down the key functions of the smartphone and redesigned them from the ground up," said Liu Jun, president, Mobile Internet Digital Home, and senior vice president, Lenovo. "Rather than focus on specifications that look good on a datasheet, we've zeroed in on what consumers want and proved that for smartphone users, top performance doesn't require a thick profile. The K900 is a game-changer that looks as good as it performs."

The thing weighs in at 162 grams, or 5.7 ounces, and stacks up at a mere 6.9mm. The camera is a 13MP Sony Exmor BSI sensor on the rear. Pricing for the device will be announced closer to the April launch. Alongside of this, Lenovo has announced its entire smartphone portfolio:

CES 2013 - Panasonic have used the Consumer Electronics Show over in Las Vegas to announce that they're expanding their Toughpad range of tablets. If you're not familiar with the Panasonic Toughpad range of tablets, they're the enterprise-grade tablets from Panasonic - the expansion includes the Toughpad FZ-G1 which is a 10-inch tablet rocking Windows 8 Pro, and the second in line is the Toughpad JT-B1, which is an Android-based 7-inch tablet. Both tablets are available now.

The Windows 8-based Toughpad FZ-G1 has some impressive specs:

Up next, we have the detailed specifications on the Android-based 7-inch slate, the Toughpad JT-B1:

CES 2013 - Corsair added a surprise announcement earlier this morning about the 900D. This super-sized version of the 800D is pretty awesome, at least in my opinion. Chad Sebring, our Cases Editor, disagrees and feels like Corsair should have done more innovation like they did when they originally launched cases like the 800D.

That said, the case is absolutely massive, as you can see by the picture above. It features support for HPTX motherboards, meaning the SR2/SRX motherboards are supported. The system can support up to 15 3.5-inch drives and two PSUs. It stands 27 inches tall and is, quite frankly, one of the biggest cases I've ever seen.

It's simple, clean, and elegant in styling, and, according to Corsair, one of the easiest cases to build a system in. If you need lots of room, you should take a look at this beast.

CES 2013 - Last year was a big hit for ROCCAT as they brought forth the ISKU. In that design, the keyboard allowed unheard of control with the cross-talk features and T-keys that bring your thumbs some more action other than just pounding away at the space bar. While the ISKU was based on rubber dome switches, and the only reason I didn't keep my ISKU longer, things are now changing as ROCCAT ups the ante.

This time with the new Ryos, not only is ROCCAT finally entering the mechanical switch game, this board is to be offered with red, blue, black, and brown Cherry MX switches for the perfect fit to any user, they didn't just stop with that. As you will see in the attached video, this board boasts the most intense lighting scheme I have ever seen in a keyboard along with all of the things that already make ROCCAT a player in the keyboard market.

As I sat and watched this demo in the CES suite, I had to pick up my chin a couple of times, so be sure to back away from the desk as not to hurt yourself, you have been warned of its awesomeness.

CES 2013 - Unless you live under a rock, it is very likely you already want to get your hands on this sweet little AIO system from Swiftech. The H220 has to be the epitome of what users have cried out for in all the years that Asetek and CoolIT have been dropping the ball and pushing virtually the same products for years with only slight adjustments to their designs, but no matter what, once the seal on an average AIO is broken in any fashion, or you attempt to mod them, you surely throw away the warranty for your efforts.

Swiftech is turning the AIO community on its ear as they display the H220 in its CES suite. I have seen a lot of the press information prior to CES, but that means nothing compared to a hands on view of the product. I know this system is mod-able under warranty, but the amount of fine detail, craftsmanship, and the fact that the unit comes completely assembled, even with the fans on it, so that users can take fan screws and slap it inside of the chassis with very little effort, is just fantastic.

Things that go above and beyond a normal AIO are of course the ability to add anything you want into the loop and still have very reasonable results, but they don't just stop there. There are changes made to the radiator that takes the micro-channels of the radiator out from under the screws so that even if you drive screws in too far, they cannot cause the system to leak - you may bend a fin or three, but the loop will function as normal. Using black tubing is just a start to help reduce any algal build-up in the loop, and I am told that more colors will become available. Even the tiniest details like engineering the perfect clamps for this system to allow users to be able to screw them down until the thread stop, while keeping perfect pressure on the tubing at the connections to allow the system to stay virtually evaporation free at the fittings. At first glance you don't really notice these things, or even the fact that tons of work when into the noise produced so that at no time does the head unit make more noise than the fans at any of the controllable speed levels.

CES 2013 - Thermaltake is all about trying new things in cooling, and just letting the ball land where it may, and this year is no different. Where last year we were looking at the Frio Extreme, one of Tt's largest air coolers, there must have been some backlash to inspire the new Nic series of air cooling. If these four new air coolers weren't enough, the Water 2.0 series has been revised, and now Thermaltake has gone to version 3.0.

With the new Nic series of coolers, the Nic stands for non-interference cooler, the main goal here is to get as much cooling potential as possible to allow users a great TDP range of coolers that do not impede on the DIMM slots, nor do they run into any of the power delivery heat sinks found on most motherboards today.

The lineup consists of the F3, F4, C4, and C5, with TDP ratings of 180W, 200W, 220W and 230W respectively. Also in this line, you can opt for something smaller and cooled with a single 120mm fan, or go for the gusto with coolers that have shrouds to contain the air flow, or go with a pair of 120mm fans to allow you the best performance of both flavors of the Nic series.

I'm not a fan of rebadging GPUs, as you can see here with our AMD Radeon HD 8000M Series news, but it looks like NVIDIA have also pulled out their huge green rubber rebadging stamp, too. Le sigh.

NVIDIA are pushing new parts out to OEMs, with two being unveiled thus far: The GeForce GT 730M and GeForce 710M, there aren't many details on them at all, but AnandTech have used their magic powers to try and figure out what we should expect, as the picture above shows.

The 730M looks like a GK107-like rebadge, which we have now as the 640M, which supports Kepler-based tech such as TXAA, PCIe 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.2. This could end up being a 650M rebadge, but we won't know for a little while yet. The other part listed is the GeForce 710M which should be a GF117 rebadge, and should end up being a rehashed 620M. This chip doesn't support Kepler features such as PCIe 3.0, TXAA or resolutions above 2560x1600.

CES 2013 - The chassis selection from Thermaltake was a bit more limited this year at CES, and there weren't any signs of modded chassis' like the Mayan Mod that attracted so much attention last year, but that isn't to say that they had nothing to offer. In fact, while on one hand the Chaser series got a pair of new color choices, there was a quartet of chassis from a whole new line to also bring the techies to the yard.

Thermaltake had a table with many more Chaser chassis' that we have already seen in black, with many various configurations of cooling mounted inside of them to show off the room and capability of handling both the AIO coolers and tower coolers, at the one end of that table was a pair of Chaser cases in new flavors. As you can see there is now a light blue version and a white version with light blue trim to add to this well know fleet of cases.

The images above represent the new line of Urban chassis' from Thermaltake. From the discussion I had, Thermaltake wanted to move back to a simplistic outer design that won't be so bold as to push some users away as the Chaser might. Here you start with a simpler square bodied design in the Urban S21 at the top. As the series numbers increase from here, the chassis' then take on a rounded corner design, and with offering mid-tower and full-tower concepts, dropping in a window here and there, and changing some of the cooling and layout options, the S31 with a large side panel window, the S41, and S71 finish out the group.

CES 2013 - I started my morning with a trip to the Thermaltake suite, and since it is very much a part of my segment, I was immediately attracted to the new peripherals setting against a couple of walls in the room. While it is always good to see a good product that has already made a great name for itself gets revised, it is much better to see something new. Two of the products you are about to see are slight rehashes of older products, but one new peripheral is a mix of Thermaltake and an Xbox controller!

Starting off whit the White Ra inspired design, the Saphira optical sensor based mice are getting new clothes. As you can see, this is a product that has been around for a bit, but now is dressed in seven new colors. So while you may not have enjoyed the look of the original design, Thermaltake is now delivering the Saphira in anything from olive drab and digital camouflage to five solid colors that should allow for users to buy mice to match system colorations.

What is new this year from Thermaltake is the new Volos mouse. While not exactly retail-ready at this moment in time, you can definitely see an XBOX resemblance to four of the buttons on this mouse. Not only does the Volos have a design and shape that is something I haven't seen before, the four buttons on the left, along with a trio of buttons for the pinky finger allows users to have the option of loading Macros and having them at your fingertips. While this may be a strange design for some, mice like the Naga have shown that users have demanded mice with this sort of functionality and ability, and I for one would much rather have this on my desk then the way more obscure designs that have already been successful for many other companies.

CES 2013 - As I toured the CoolerMaster suite to see what is new this year the first thing I was drawn to at a table was covering all of the new cooling solutions that they plan to bring out this year. They have a couple of takes on products that we have seen and one of which I am currently awaiting my sample of.

If you have paid attention, you are likely already aware of the Eisberg customizable water kits. CoolerMaster has seen some action and much interest in this design. In fact, they have actually started at this point offering the Eisberg Solo. Essentially this is the workhorse of all of the Eisberg systems, but now CoolerMaster is offering the head unit with the built in pump and reservoir for the completely custom cooling desires of many builders. This way you get the compact, AIO style of the head unit, but with the ability to now use your own tubing, fittings, and radiators to get exactly what you want from the Eisberg without having the spend for all the extras that you really had no desire to use in some instances anyways.

The depressing part of this is that there wasn't a set price that I am aware of, and there was no discussion of an actual date of availability. Since the Eisberg kits are already in retail markets, the availability really isn't in question, but the pricing will make a big decision for those interested in using the Solo for their own custom water cooling loops.