No sooner than Apple announces that the Mac Pro will feature Intel’s new six-core Core i7 processors does Dell update its high-end desktop, the Studio XPS 9100, with the same CPU. The Intel Core i7-980X is available as a configuration option when you’re customizing your XPS 9100 at Dell’s Web site, and while you can only get one in the XPS 9100, six cores are likely all you need, even for high-end video editing, audio encoding, and other CPU-intensive tasks.
The Studio XPS 9100 starts at $949 with basic options, but the i7-980X addition will add about $1000 to the purchase price of your fully configured machine. You can also configure the system to include up to 9GB of DDR3 memory, high-end Radeon graphics from ATI, and mirrored 2TB hard drives. It may not be Dell’s Alienware line of gaming machines, but with a six-core i7 under the hood, the SPX 9100 packs a lot of power.
[via Slashgear]
When the Apple Store went down this morning, it didn’t take long for people to speculate about what we would see when the store came back online. When it did come back, Apple had quietly unveiled a new product: the Magic Trackpad, a wireless, touch-sensitive aluminum and glass trackpad that responds to multi-touch gestures and can be paired with your Mac via Bluetooth. The Magic Trackpad works both in addition to a standard mouse and as a replacement for one, and is available now for $69 USD at the Apple Store.
Today, in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, eight high school students from the California Academy for Math and Sciences will attempt to put a 29-foot, 500-pound rocket into orbit, using the skills they picked up in an crash course in rocketry and a 17-inch Sony Vaio CW and F-series laptops with Intel Core i5 and i7 processors under the hood.
