Computer Systems - Page 38

CES 2016 - Intel has refreshed its portable Compute Stick with three different configurations that put the original to shame.

Intel's Compute Stick is an amazing idea on paper. I mean, who wouldn't want to turn any given HDTV or monitor into a fully-fledged desktop workstations? Intel's first iterations of the PC-in-your-pocket hardware was anything but practical, however: it was slow at performing tasks and didn't live up to its claims, making it more of a starting point than an actual finished product.

Now Intel is back again with its new trio of Compute Sticks, each of which tremendously outshine the "beta" variant. Thanks to additions like two USB ports and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the chip-maker's new line of HDMI PC sticks completely blows away the original. Intel has even managed to shove in its new high-performance M3 and M5 CPUs into the top-tier variants.

CES 2016 - Syber Gaming, CyberPower PC's gaming line, has just unveiled two new PC builds that pack enough power for VR and 4K gaming.

While the Oculus Rift finally has a price tag and release date, it's only half of the VR equation. Gamers still need to have adequate hardware to power virtual reality, and Syber Gaming has the perfect solution with its new pre-built PC duo.

The tag team consists of a fully-fledged Mid-Tower PC called the Syber M, as well as the more discrete Steam Machine-esque Syber C for living room VR and 4K gaming. Both builds are fully customizable and feature state-of-the-art components, including AMD Radeon R9 300 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 900 series video cards, high-speed DDR4 RAM, LGA 1151 motherboards, 6th generation Intel Skylake CPUs, SSD and HDD combos, and Windows 10 64-bit to top it all off.

CES 2016 - Origin PC has just announced its latest gaming PC, an all-in-one gaming machine called the Omni. The Omni features a considerable amount of customization, with the company calling the Omni the "world's most powerful and customizable" PC of its kind.

The Origin PC Omni features a 34-inch UltraWide display with a native resolution of 3440x1440 - my favorite resolution, with enough room for an Intel Core i7-5960X, 12GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X. Bloody impressive for an all-in-one gaming PC, don't you think?

The Omni has support for up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, with Origin somehow building a liquid cooling system inside of the AIO PC. You can even customize your Omni to feature a translucent back if you want to show off your impressive PC - this is the icing on the cake for me!

CES 2016 - Velocity Micro unveils its new Raptor One all-in-one PC that sports some pretty beefy specs, bringing desktop-grade performance to the AIO realm.

Velocity Micro proudly touts its new Raptor One as the "world's most powerful AIO", and for good reason: it rocks some amazing specs for an AIO, including a full-sized NVIDIA GTX Titan X GPU, a brilliant 34" curved 3,440 x 1,440p WQHD display with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and configurations that include Intel's latest sixth-gen Core i7 Skylake CPUs.

The Raptor One can be tailor-made and customized to a tee similar to Maingear's new powerful AIO, and even supports liquid cooling options for maximum heat transfer as well as Intel Xeon CPU support for workstation transformations.

CES 2016 - Maingear has announced a new AIO desktop that packs quite a bit of enthusiast-grade muscle with liquid-cooling support, 4K display options, and workstation-class AMD FirePro and NVIDIA Quadro GPUs and Intel Xeon processors.

As all-in-one desktops are traditionally made for office work spaces, the builds are quite lacking when it comes to gaming performance. Maingear wants to reinvent AIO's with its new Alpha 34 gaming desktop, which can fit full-sized gaming and workstation video cards and CPU's for blistering performance.

The Alpha 34 sports a curved 34-inch 3480 x 1440p display, and comes in three different flavors: the H110/Z170 build for performance gamers, the X99 build for enthusiast gamers, and the titanic Professional grade that sports Intel Xeon CPU support and workstation graphics. The cheapest option--the Z170 tier-- starts at $1999, and adding top-tier GPU's will boost the price quite a bit. For example, a Alpha 34 Z170 with an AMD Radeon R9 390 and an Intel i7 6700K CPU and 16GB of DDR4 RAM will cost around $2,600.

On the heels of CES 2016, Lenovo has announced its new ThinkPad X1 family of hardware that includes a new modular tablet, a new Yoga Pro laptop that sports a 360-degree OLED display, and a sleek new all-in-one desktop.

Lenovo has just unveiled its new ThinkPad X1 triumvirate of pro hardware that will push forward into 2016, sporting tech innovations like OLED screens, ultra-thin AIO setups, WiGig wireless docking, USB Type C and a galaxy of peripheral add-ons like 3D sensors and more. Lenovo's X1 trinity is composed of the ThinkPad X1 Tablet, ThinkPad X1 Yoga, and finally the all-in-one ThinkCenter X1 AIO desktop.

The modular ThinkPad X1 Tablet is Lenovo's answer to the Surface Book, and features a slew of modular attachments that change up the device's main functions. These peripherals include the basic stylus-and-keyboard combo, but add-ons like an optional $149 3D RealSense camera sensor that captures and renders real life objects aim to transform the tablet.

Today iBuyPower announces the successor in the popular sleek and modern Revolt gaming desktop, the Revolt 2.

The Revolt 2 gaming desktop is all sleek angles and curves, and the chassis very much resembles a work of futuristic art. The tantalizing design doesn't take away from its utility: the Revolt 2's smallish stature can house enthusiast-grade hardware including a mini-ITX motherboard, a 280mm liquid cooler, 2x SSD's, an HDD and a full ATX power supply.

"[With the Revolt 2], we were inspired to create a PC that highlighted the most important components in a gaming rig and allowed customers to create a PC that's as unique as they are. We chose to lead the revolt against the standard, the generic, the boring, and instead forge a new path," iBuyPower said in their official press release.

According to the latest rumors, Intel is positioning itself for a new NUC launch in Q1 2016. Intel has teased that the new NUC is "the most powerful NUC yet... now with Intel Iris Pro graphics" and that it's "coming Q1 2016".

Now, Q1 2016 is an interesting time frame because we have the Consumer Electronics Show kicking off in early January, but Computex is in Q3. As for the NUC itself, it should rock Iris Pro 580 graphics on the flagship Skull Canyon-based NUC. Intel's Iris Pro 580 graphics features 128MB of eDRAM (which acts as super-quick L4 cache) and houses the 72 Execution Units (EUs) on the die itself.

We're expecting the core clock on the chip to hit 1GHz, but it could change closer to release. If we put this into perspective, we're looking at similar graphics performance to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 750. The new Skull Canyon NUCs should sport Intel's Skylake-U series processors, replacing the Broadwell-U series parts in the current NUC lineup.

Currently on Kickstarter and sitting at 540% of its $31,000 goal with a massive 44 days to go, the PINE A64 is quoted as "the world's first 64-bit expandable Quad Core 1.2Ghz supercomputer, tablet, media center, and more."

Available for only $15, this product is what seems to be the first real Raspberry Pi competitor. While Raspberry Pi released its Zero computer for only $5 recently, PINE offered up its first backers a $5 PINE A0 system, packed with a quad-core 64 bit processor and no Ethernet port.

The PINE A64 board measures in at 3.125" x 5" and features a 64-bit quad-core ARM A53 CPU, claiming to offer between 20 to 30 percent better performance than the Raspberry Pi-2B and Pi-1A+ while being almost half the price. designed to run Android 5.1, this product has been made with desktop PC processing tasks in mind, however, there are almost limitless options available for tech savvy users looking to tinker and create projects.

Designed through not-for-profit organization 'One Education' by CEO Rangan Srikhanta and his staff, this brand new product is called the Infinity and it's a modular laptop (or tablet) designed for educational purposes.

Aimed at school-aged children, you can find Infinity on IndieGoGo, aiming to reach an overall goal of $50,000. Currently sitting at $18,452 funded thanks to 76 backers with 33 days remaining, a donation of $269 will earn one of these products for yourself.

Set up primarily as an educational tool, Srikhanta has allowed people to purchase a "Give One, Get One" pack, charging $499 for users to receive a device themselves while donating the other to a needy child. Running on Linux, Windows or Android, you can pick one up for yourself or a child in need here.