Nexus 5 to feature 4.95-inch 1080p display and Snapdragon 800 SoC

It looks like we have more of an idea of what to expect from Google and LG's upcoming Nexus 5 smartphone thanks to a leaked technical manual on the smartphone. The manual is a 281-page document, which is filled with troubleshooting materials, circuit schematics and pinouts, and much more.

It is pretty much identical to the LG G2 smartphone, with some changes. The back of the Nexus 5 is featured, where we can see the Nexus logo placed vertically, like the 2013 Nexus 7, which we absolutely loved by the way. The specs on the Nexus 5 are definitely something worth getting excited over, check them out:

This could all be a lie, but I think this is what we should expect from the Nexus 5. I'm hoping to see LG and Google push a price of $399-$449 on this new device, starting at 32GB of on-board storage. I'm hoping to see a 64GB model, which would be nice, too. This will be a day one purchase for me, that's for sure.

Continue reading: Nexus 5 to feature 4.95-inch 1080p display and Snapdragon 800 SoC (full post)

NVIDIA drops pricing on mid-range GPUs, just in time for new games

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Oct 6, 2013 12:01 AM CDT

Just in time for AMD to announce its next-gen R7 and R9 series of GPUs, NVIDIA is using this time to drop its prices on its popular mid-range GPUs. This includes the GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 1GB and 2GB models, as well as the GTX 660.

We now have pricing of the GTX 650 Ti BOOST 1GB and 2GB models for $129 and $149 respectively, while the GTX 660 is now priced at $179. The GTX 760 has a suggested etail price of $249, and the GTX 770 starts at $399. This is a great time to pick up a new GPU, with next-gen titles about to hit like Battlefield 4 and Watch Dogs. If you enjoy the GeForce side of things, prepare your wallets!

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Half-Life 3 trademark in the EU was a fake, prepare your tears

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 5, 2013 9:33 PM CDT

We reported earlier in the week that Valve had trademarked the Half-Life 3 name in the EU, but it turns out this was wrong. It has all been a fake, with the website for the EU trademark office now gone.

Valve Time is right on the ball with this, but I'm sure that there are many out there, myself included, who are disappointed with the news. Just as we were hearing about the Steam Box, SteamOS, Steam Machines and Steam Controllers, we were suckered into believing one of the, if not the most anticipated game was finally coming... but not anymore.

Continue reading: Half-Life 3 trademark in the EU was a fake, prepare your tears (full post)

New Technologies for Server and Storage Solutions by Supermicro

In the server market Supermicro is beginning to pick up market share with its new line of server and storage solutions supporting Intel's new Xeon Processor's E5-2600 v2 & 1600 v2 family of CPU's.

"Intel's Xeon processor E5-2600/1600 v2 families push performance and efficiency to new levels with greater density and feature integration thanks to Intel's 22nm Tri-gate transistor technology," said Shannon Poulin, vice president and general manager of Intel Datacenter Marketing Group. "Intel works closely with partners such as Supermicro to ensure their latest computing solutions offer increased performance with higher frequency and core counts, lower power consumption and more features such as security and PCI-E acceleration. With Supermicro's rapidly expanding product lines and worldwide presence, our combined technology innovations can get to market quickly and contribute to a greener, more secure computing environment."

"Once again, Supermicro leads the industry with the best and most innovative green computing solutions supporting Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors," said Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro. "Our architecture advancements in FatTwin, TwinPro² and SAS3 12Gb/s solutions deliver the highest computing performance and energy efficiency with maximized PCI-E, memory and storage I/O bandwidth for unrivaled performance per watt, per dollar, per square foot. Our new server, storage and workstation solutions, combined with full integration and support services worldwide, help organizations minimize TCO and maximize ROI as they scale their business."

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Valve unveils what hardware reference Steam Boxes may house

Charles Gantt | Gaming | Oct 4, 2013 4:28 PM CDT

Valve recently unveiled its grand plan for the long anticipated Steam Boxes. Now being called Steam Machines, Valve said that the new gaming consoles will be developed and sold by partners, but the company did mention that it would be making a Steam Box of its own, and 300 lucky Steam users would be getting one to beta test.

No other mention was made about the hardware that we might see packed inside Valve's Steam Box at the time of the initial release, but today we have found out what those beta boxes will contain. Valve says that the first Steam Machine will be a high-end device that features off-the-shelf PC hardware, and will be fully upgradeable like a normal gaming PC.

Valve's Steam Machine will be served up with several hardware configurations with GPUs spanning from NVIDIA's GTX Titan, GTX780, GTX760 and GTX660. CPUs will conside of Intel i7-4770, i5-4570, and some i3 processors. RAM allocation will be 16GB of unknown origin and storage will consist of a 1TB/8GB hybrid SSHD. A 450W 80Plus PSU will handle power delivery, and the entire thing will fit in a case just over 12-inches by 12-inches by 3 inches. No image was issued with the hardware details.

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Watch Dogs requires 64-bit OS, makes better use of multi-core CPUs

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 4, 2013 7:35 AM CDT

We are finally seeing PC games move into the 64-bit world after what has felt like forever, with Ubisoft's Watch Dogs requiring a 64-bit OS to function. The news comes from the studio unveiling the requirements of its upcoming super open-world game.

Watch Dogs will require a 64-bit OS, a DirectX 9.0c-capable GPU, and 20GB of spare HDD space. Recommended hardware includes a DX11-capable GPU with at least 1GB of VRAM, 4GB of system RAM, and a quad-core CPU. As for GPUs, it's suggested that you use an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or AMD Radeon HD 5770. If you want to run the 'recommended' level, you're going to require much more power.

Ubisoft recommends 2GB of VRAM, an 8-core processor and at least 8GB of system RAM. Watch Dogs is said to scale very well on multi-core processors, so if you're in the market for a new CPU, you might want to grab that 6- or 8-core processor. With the recommended level, the GPU requirements go up, but not too bad, up to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti or AMD Radeon HD 7850.

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HGST begins shipping Endurastar J4K320, a new HDD for Automotives

Charles Gantt | Storage | Oct 3, 2013 1:10 PM CDT

Some of our readers may be shocked to hear that the car they drove to work this morning may have a hard drive under the dash. With today's vehicles featuring more and more technology, we have to have somewhere to store all that data, and HGST has been leading the way for years now.

Earlier this week, HGST announced that it has began shipping the sixth generation of its automotive friendly HDDs. The new Endurastar J4K320 line of hard drives feature a single platter design that has been refined for the automotive infotainment and telematics market. With capacities up to 320GB, the new Endurastar drives are built to survive the rugged environment that automobiles not only reside in, but also create.

The hard drives have to be able to withstand extreme temperatures with very fast fluctuations between hot and cold, while at the same time retaining enough rigidity to handle the stray pothole or speed bump the vehicle may encounter. The Endurastar hard drives can handle altitudes up to 18,000 feet, and can operate in temperatures from -22F all the way up to 185F. Shock loads up to 300Gs will not phase the drive either.

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Virident Systems unveils new 4.8TB FlashMAX Capacity enterprise SSD

Charles Gantt | Storage | Oct 3, 2013 12:09 PM CDT

Western Digital owned Virident Systems, has announced that it has pushed the capacity boundaries past their limits, and developed a new low-profile PCIe-based SSD that features 4.8TB of storage space. The new 4.8TB FlashMax Capacity card more than doubles the capacity of the current FlashMax II while still retaining all of the features that made the previous model such a success.

"Flash has firmly entrenched itself as the storage of choice for the increasingly demanding workloads being seen in the enterprise," said Jason Walker, senior network architect, IPFS Corporation. "However, until now the relatively limited capacity of PCIe flash cards has made it less efficient for capacity storage FlashMAX Capacity's 4.8TB of flash storage matches the capacity of a traditional HDD drive and doesn't require managing and integrating multiple tiers of storage. The combined capacity and performance Virident will provide is a big step forward for the storage industry, supporting the acceptance of, and move to, an all-silicon data center."

The 4.8TB FlasMAX Capacity model boast the same features as the FlashMAX II, and includes the same sustainable and predictable performance of its predecessor. Virident says the drive is compatible with the FlashMAX Connect Suite that allows users to extend the FlashMAX family of products with features such as Shared Storage Management and Data Management.The FlashMAX Capacity will arrive in the latter half of Q4 2013.

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Intel and TI team up with Arduino to launch two new dev boards

Charles Gantt | | Oct 3, 2013 10:46 AM CDT

This morning the Arduino team announced the unveiling of two new development boards that have been designed and built in conjunction with Intel and Texas Instruments, two of the largest chip manufacturers in the world. Each board brings forth a completely new set of hardware and features, while still retaining the popular Arduino header pin form factor.

Up first is the new Intel Galileo, an Arduino compatible embedded development board that features Intel's new Quark X1000 SoC. This new chip from Intel is a very low-power slice of silicon that features an X86 based, single-threaded, Pentium-based processor that is clocked in at 400MHz. To help seed the market, Intel and Arduino will be handing out 50,000 of these new boards to 1000 universities around the world.

Up next is a very interesting board from Texas Instruments. The Arduino TRE is the first Arduino board to be manufactured in the USA and features a 1GHz Sitara AM335x processor. Texas Instruments says that the Sitara processor gives the Arduino 100 times the processing power of the Arduino Uno or Leonardo and will open up the Arduino world to new and exciting projects. The Arduino TRE features the familiar Arduino compatible header layout for shield compatibility, as well as host of new I/O headers along the side of the board.

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Deus Ex: Universe is coming, will hit PCs and next-gen consoles

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 3, 2013 1:32 AM CDT

I was a massive fan of the original Deus Ex, and I did enjoy Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and now I'm excited for the news of Deus Ex: Universe. It feels like it has come out of nowhere, really.

Edios Montreal's boss, David Anfossi, explains how the Deus Ex universe (heh) is going forward: "The concept behind Deus Ex: Universe is to create an ongoing, expanding and connected game world built across a generation of core games. It's a commitment on our part to deliver meaningful content that expands the franchise on a regular basis and to deliver a deep conspiracy that will span several connected Deus Ex games, creating a more immersive and richer experience than ever before. Deus Ex: Universe will include PC and console games, but also additional Deus Ex games and experiences available in other media such as tablets, smartphones, books, graphic novels, etc. I'm pleased to confirm that we are already into production of the starting point for Deus Ex: Universe with a new game for PC and next-generation consoles."

The image you see above is actually a piece of art from Universe, which depicts the results of "trans-humanism segregation" which will be a very big part of the game.

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