APC has a pair of cheap developer boards that have similar hardware and different form factors. One of the products is called the APC Paper and the other is called the APC Rock. APC has announced that a new operating system is available for both of those hardware products. The newly available operating system is […]
Earlier this month we mentioned the CuBox-i series small form factor computers when they first surfaced. At the time we knew pretty much all the hardware details on the machines, but we didn’t know exactly how much they would cost or when they would be available. More details have surfaced this week and the computers […]
Epitomizing the cliche “small but terrible”, Gigabyte’s upgraded BRIC ultra compact PC offers quite a lot in terms of raw power while remaining locked up in a chassis no bigger than your hand. Gigabyte’s BRIX line represents a growing trend of packing mid- to high-end components in ever decreasing device sizes. While huge desktops and […]
We’ve heard extensively about the gradual decline of the consumer PC market, with industry leaders feeling the pain as consumers gravitate towards more mobile devices: tablets and smartphones. NVIDIA is one such company that has felt the squeeze, and its response is a strong one: an expansion of its business model with an announcement that
Maingear has announced that it is now offering the world’s fastest video card inside select M a aingear gaming computers. The video card in question is the new AMD Radeon HD 7990 unveiled earlier this week. This is a seriously impressive, and very large video card requiring three slots inside your computer.
The new HD 7990 video card has 6 GB of GDDR5 RAM available promising the fastest graphics performance ever with 806 billion transistors inside, 4096 stream processors, and 8.2 Tflops of computing power. The video card supports up to five monitors at the same time using AMD EyeFinity technology.
To keep the massive GPU cool, the video card features three ultra-quiet axial fans. Maingear will be offering the new video card option on three different gaming PC lines including its SHIFT, F131, and Vybe. The video card can be combined with the company’s available EPIC CPU liquid cooling systems as well.
As you can imagine with any new high-end video card, the price is far from inexpensive. Adding a single HD 7990 is an $822 option. A pair of those video cards will add $1200 to the price of your gaming machine.
[via Maingear]
Maingear crams triple slot Radeon HD 7990 inside gaming PCs is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Giada has unveiled a new and very small fully featured mini-ITX mainboard called the N70E-DR. The little mainboard is aimed specifically at users looking to build network attached storage. The manufacturer of the motherboard says that the board will allow users to build low-cost implementations of NAS servers for file sharing, data backup, and media server functionality.
The mainboard is very small measuring 17 x 17 cm and has a rich component interface. The board supports Intel Ivy Bridge Celeron C2007U processors with power consumption of 17 Watts. The chipset used on the mainboard supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 10 with data security protection.
The mainboard also features dual Intel 82583V Gigabit Ethernet ports. The construction of mainboard uses high-quality solid capacitors enclosed with nickel core inductors for longevity and stability. The board is also fitted with high quality Power PAK MOS FETs.
Other features of the small mainboard include dual USB 3.0 ports and TPM pins allowing the connection of an optional TPM module for data security protection. The board also features intelligent hardware monitoring and management functions such as the CPU overheating alarm and abnormal power state alarm. Pricing for the mainboard is unknown at this time.
[via Giadatech]
Giada N70E-DR mini-ITX mainboard aims at entry-level NAS servers is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Fusion-io makes some of the most unique and interesting storage devices on the market today. The company makes storage devices that use solid-state storage rather than spinning magnetic platters. However, the storage devices offered by the manufacturer plug into PCI Express slots rather than traditional SATA ports.
The company aims its high-end ioFX workstation acceleration platform at professionals performing video editing, computer assisted design, 4K and stereoscopic television production. When this device originally launched it was available in a highest capacity of 420 GB. Fusion-io has now announced that it has a version available with 1.6 TB of storage capacity.
By using the PCI Express slot rather than a SATA port, the ioFX device is able to remove traditional data storage bottlenecks allowing for higher performance. The design allows for faster composite, edit, playback, and finish digital content completion thanks to higher speed and efficiency.
The manufacturer says the 1.6 TB Fusion ioFX storage device will be available this summer. The company isn’t saying exactly how much the 1.6 TB version of the device will sell for. Considering that the 420 GB version of the same product is available for $1995, you can expect the 1.6 TB version to cost significantly more.
[via Fusion-io]
Fusion-io ioFX workstation acceleration platform announced with 1.6 TB of storage is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Intel has announced that it will be shutting down its Desktop Motherboard group in the next few years, with the Haswell motherboards being the last of its offerings. The company will still supply chipsets to third parties, but will cease developing its own desktop motherboards once the Haswell launch is over.
Employees working in the group will be transitioned to other areas within the company, working with FFRDs. This marks the end of a two decade era and a change in the market as a whole. The need for Intel to produce its own desktop motherboards has diminished, and in purely business terms, focusing its efforts elsewhere is better for its bottom line.
Product warranties will be supported for their duration despite the eventual shutdown. This comes after an announcement earlier today that the company has rolled out Ivy Bridge processors for the budget market, with a total of three Celeron, four Pentium, and one Core i3 being launched today with a price range of $42 to $117.
Said Intel: “We disclosed internally today that Intel’s Desktop Motherboard Business will begin slowly ramping down over the course of the next three years. As Intel gradually ramps down its motherboard business we are ramping up critical areas of the desktop space including integration of innovative solutions for the PC ecosystem such as reference design development, NUC and other areas to be discussed later.”
[via Legit Reviews]
Intel’s Desktop Motherboard Business to shutdown within three years is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
There are a few different types of SSDs on the market today for storing data in computer systems. Typically, when we think SSD what comes to mind are the 2.5-inch form factor drives that are used in larger notebooks and desktop computers. However, when it comes to putting SSDs and some of the incredibly thin ultrabooks and other small notebooks on the market those 2.5-inch form factor SSDs are simply too big.
In thin and small devices, mSATA SSDs such as the one in the picture above are typically used that do away with the housing and plug directly into the mainboard of the computer. Mushkin has announced a new extremely high-capacity mSATA SSD that is certain to find its way into high-end ultrabooks and other compact computing devices in the future.
The new storage device is the world’s first 480 GB mSATA SSD cramming an incredible amount of storage space into the tiny MO-300 mSATA form factor measuring 50.80 x 29.85 x 4.85 mm. The storage device uses the mini PCIe interface and has user upgradable firmware.
The SSD uses a SandForce SF-2281 SSD processor and supports ATA APM, Security Set, and NCQ features. The little storage device also has integrated BCH ECC providing up to 55 bits correctable per 512 byte sector. The little SSD will be available in early January via resellers and distributors for $499.99. With this little SSD being available via distributors, you should be able to find one to upgrade your existing computer.
Mushkin unveils world’s first 480 GB mSATA SSD is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
For years now, we’ve used the Crysis series to determine how good a PC is at a glance, with enthusiasts today still asking “But can it run Crysis?” when you bring up your PC’s technical specifications. It looks like Crysis 3 will continue the series’ trend of demanding a lot of power, as Electronic Arts has released the PC requirements for the incoming game. Luckily, EA has share the requirements two months before Crysis 3 launches, which is good since it sounds like some of us will have to spend some time upgrading.
Electronic Arts has shared three sets of requirements: minimum, recommended, and high-performance. We imagine a lot of users will be able to meet the minimum system requirements, but if you want to go for high-performance, you’ll need the latest and greatest. You’ll also need a machine running DirectX 11 regardless of your hardware, so you Windows XP users are being left out in the cold with Crysis 3, sorry to say. Here’s the full list of requirements straight from EA:
Minimum system operating requirements:
• Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
• DirectX 11 graphics card with 1GB Video RAM
• Dual core CPU
• 2GB Memory (3GB on Vista)
• Example 1 (NVIDIA/Intel): NVIDIA GTS 450, Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 Ghz (E6600)
• Example 2 (AMD): AMD Radeon HD5770, AMD Athlon64 X2 2.7 Ghz (5200+)Recommended system operating requirements:
• Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
• DirectX 11 graphics card with 1GB Video RAM
• Quad core GPU
• 4GB Memory
• Example 1 (NVIDIA/Intel): NVIDIA GTX 560, Intel Core i3-530
• Example 2 (AMD): AMD Radeon HD5870, AMD Phenom II X2 565High-performance system operation requirements:
• Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
• Latest DirectX 11 graphics card
• Latest quad core CPU
• 8GB Memory
• Example 1 (NVIDIA/Intel): NVIDIA GTX 680, Intel Core i7-2600k
• Example 2 (AMD): AMD Radeon HD7970, AMD Bulldozer FX4150
So Crysis 3 is going to be one power hungry game, but did we really expect otherwise? The footage we’ve seen of the game has looked great so far, and if you’ve got the hardware to crank everything up to maximum settings, then you’ve got some beautiful visuals to look forward to. Of course, Crysis 3 requires some really expensive hardware to look its best, so beautiful visuals may not be worth it in this case.
Crysis 3 was accidentally revealed by Electronic Arts earlier this year and is built on CryEngine 3. It’ll be available on Xbox 360 and PS3 as well as PC, but aside from a rather vague February 2013 window, we don’t have a solid release date for the game yet. We’ll let you know when a release date is announced, but in the meantime, let us know if your rig is beefy enough to run Crysis 3 at max settings.
Crysis 3 PC requirements land, get ready to upgrade is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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