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G.Skill has today announced that we'll be seeing a PC3-18400 RipJaws-X kit that carries a whopping default clock speed of 2300MHz DDR. This is achieved with a 9-11-9-28-2T @ 1.65v setup. Below, though, we can see in the screen shot G.Skill have actually managed to achieve 2303MHz DDR at 9-11-9-28-1T using the same voltage.

What makes the kit really stand out is the fact that it's an 8GB one versus 4GB, which is what we tend to see from these really high-end kits. Coming as no surprise the kit will be a limited edition and that's no doubt due to the fact it's such a high speed. Unlike the 2133MHz DDR kit, overclocking will be slightly more involved due to 2300MHz DDR not being a natively supported speed on the Intel P67 platform.

To achieve the default clock G.Skill tell us you'll need an ASUS Maximum IV Extreme or P8P67 Deluxe along with a CPU that's capable of achieving a 107.9 BCLK. While the first requirement won't be an issue for high-end users, a high BCLK achieving CPU comes down to luck of the draw.

Currently there's no pricing slated for the kit and the current ETA is "Coming Soon" but we should see the RipJaws-X PC3-18400 kit in the coming weeks with the G.Skill Turbulence II that you can see above...

Valve's Portal 2 is a smash hit, scoring virtually 100-percent in all reviews. There's not much to say about the game unless you haven't heard of it - if you're one of these people, there are some steps you require right now. Stop what you're doing, open Steam (and if you don't have it, GET IT), find Portal 2, purchase. This is all you need to do to enjoy happiness.

As for reviews, I've provided a bunch of links below:

Earlier this week, NYC-based GPS interactive augmented reality game startup GoldRun raised $1.1 Million this week in angel funding. GoldRun was fortunate enough (literally) to have participants like Ed Mathias of The Carlyle Group, financier Jon Ledecky, Founding Partner of United Talent Agency Jeremy Zimmer, Former Chairman and CEO of Sunglass Hut Jim Hauslein, and CEO of Venturehouse Group Mark Ein (Mathias and Zimmer will join the board of directors). GoldRun is looking to use the funding to develop new features for both users and clients to offer more AR interactions within their application. They will also invest in supporting sales and deployment activities in both the US and other, international markets. Even more exciting, we'll see GoldRun hosted gaming sometime in the near future.

For those of you unfamiliar with the application, GoldRun uses geo-data to run augmented reality experiences on the iPhone , and they recently launched a campaign with a sentimentally confused billboard near the Holland Tunnel in New York City, which we reported earlier this week. Founder and CEO Vivian Rosenthal commented:

GoldRun allows for a new form of...

This could well be the future folks, reprogrammable chips. Startup company, Tabula, is trying to create the hardware equivalent of software - a chip that over time, can have hardware improvements without completely replacing the device. If a programmable chip like this makes it to the market, it would replace the current mantra of replacing the entire device when a new, faster device comes out.

The idea isn't new, field programmable gate array (FPGA) is a similar technology which is used in some finished devices or prototypes before production begins. But right now FPGA chips are large as they require all the space for the reprogrammable circuitry. This of course makes them slow and expensive.

Google's 3-year-old Map Maker project, as of today, allows users to create points of interest in the United States and edit them as they see fit. Well, pending Google's eventual (and not guaranteed) approval. Why the three year wait? Evidently Google began its editing program in smaller areas of the world that necessitated detailed maps, experimenting to see if their infrastructure could cope with what would be, and will be, an extremely persistent and massive amount of traffic once it would be implemented in the US. With the potential of millions of unique views a day, someone has to ensure that thousands of Clownfart Daycare Centers don't just start popping up all over the bible belt (and that's giving most Americans the benefit of the doubt).

The editing process is pretty straightforward: anybody with a Google account can sign in, add a map POI with all of the corresponding information, and even draw a structure or addition to an existing point. For example, if someone were to make a large change to their house, like adding a wing or a helipad or something, you could draw that in. Google has made it so that edits are approved or denied and added to Google Maps (including Street View) within seconds- a pretty impressive feature considering the amount of editing requests that will start pouring in.

I'm sure people will complain about censorship at some point...

We all love the idea of using an SSD to replace our hard drives but there are just situations where it's just too expensive, like say in a server. Let's imagine that we can speed up our servers and make our hard drives seem as fast as if we'd replace them all with SSDs. Let's take a look at a hybrid array of HDDs and SSDs specifically the demo we saw put on by Adaptec MaxIQ at IDF Beijing 2011.

The increased speed and performance are achieved by automatic storage acceleration, which is facilitated using MaxIQ SSD Caching. The storage controller is in a unique position to monitor storage traffic and make decisions regarding "hot" data areas that can be copied to SSDs, automatically and dramatically increasing the speed of any system. Analysis of traffic patterns is made and copies frequently-read "hot" data are made to the SSD cache pool. This automatically increases performance without adding any management issues. The data in the SSD cache pool is simply a copy of the hot data residing on the HDD, eliminating many of the data migration concerns that get involved in placement algorithms.

This is the basic overview of what is explained in depth by Neil Cameron field engineer at Adaptec PMC, it's a very interesting interview in which I felt I learned a lot... and trust me when I say that SSD caching isn't usually something that I would cover, unless it was REALLY interesting!!

Telstra have revamped their website in yet another move to get customers to deal online with them more. The move might work as the site is much less text-heavy now and feels slightly less bloated.

Gerd Schenkel, executive director of Telstra Digital says:

You told us our site was too text heavy, confusing and very hard to navigate - you couldn't quickly and easily find what you were looking for, and as a result many visitors had to phone us or go into a store instead...you told us it was really hard to find the basics - such as viewing and paying your bill and checking your email, so we've made these sections much more prominent.

A screenshot of the new Task Manager for Windows 8 has been leaked from Windows 8 build 7850. The new Task Manager is obviously not fully functional at this early stage in the Windows 8 game but we can still tell from the leaked screenshot that is is far different to the previous Task Managers in Windows 7, Vista and XP.

There are now three tabs: Programs, Startup and Users (compared to current Task Managers which are made up of Applications, Processes, Performance and Networking). This is probably set to change but for now it's great to see Microsoft changing up the Task Manager with a new fresh look.

Hey hey hey, remember when I was just talking about how amazing the SNES was? Well instead of waiting on Nintendo to ponderously release amazing retro games amidst a sea of irrelevance, why not just check out Hyperkin's SupaBoy instead?

It looks like an SNES controller! And it plays SNES games! If you're going to start whining about the 3.5" screen, you probably didn't read the part about how it has Video Out and controller ports for actual SNES controllers. Yeah that's right, you can play any SNES game (that you own or can find) on your flatscreen or, you know, anywhere else you take the SupaBoy with you. It's coming out Summer of 2011, so stay tuned for more information.

In case any of you forgot, the Beta for Gears of War 3 is available next Monday, and all you have to do is to use Gamestop to pre-order this bad-ass game you want to play anyway (pending you have an Xbox 360- otherwise you're kinda out of luck). If you were smart enough to grab the Epic edition of Bulletstorm (kinda redudndant, that game is pretty epic as is), you got access to the Beta today! Congratulations for loving hardcore FPS's.

Here's a video of some of the Beta, which begins April 27 and lasts until May 15, brought to you by Canada's Console Creatures:

Also, after the break, a list of all the awesome stuff that comes with it from the Gears of War 3 blog.