Seagate has jumped into wireless mobile storage with both feet, launching the GoFlex Satellite (now just the Satellite) and even experimenting with an LTE-equipped drive for dedicated road warriors. The FCC has just revealed that Seagate isn’t having second thoughts about its strategy anytime soon: a previously unknown Wireless Plus drive has popped up at the US agency carrying 2.4GHz WiFi and a considerably slicker design. We don’t know much more, although a handily provided copy of the quick start guide makes clear that the Wireless Plus is still centered on Android and iOS device owners wanting to stream media beyond what’s on their internal memory. FCC clearance won’t give any clues as to capacities or a ship date, but it suggests that it won’t be long before our mobile devices have some added headroom.
The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem — the consortium of companies attempting to develop an industry standard for digital distribution of entertainment, and the folks behind UltraViolet — can count another member among its ranks as of this week: digital storage company Seagate. The storage manufacturer announced as much in a press release this week, and threw its support behind UltraViolet. “As a DECE member, Seagate’s expertise and perspective on cloud solutions and storage devices will help the organization to evolve those benefits,” says UltraViolet GM Mark Teitell. Considering how many major content providers are supporting UltraViolet, it’s good to know that one of the largest storage companies isn’t standing against our digital futures.
When Seagate launched its PC/Mac Backup Plus offering that could safeguard not only your folders but your Facebook or Twitter content, too, it seemed like a nice idea. But conspicuously missing from the Mac side of that equation was a USB 3.0 port to hustle transfers along at a much less pedestrian 5 Gbps — likely because until recently, no Macs directly supported it. Now, Seagate has launched a USB 3.0 version of the device for those shiny new Macbook Pro Retina and Air models that pack it, while offering the option to upgrade to Thunderbolt or FireWire 800 “as the need presents itself.” Prices go from $110 for the 500GB model up to $180 for the 3TB version — check the PR after the break to see the entire range.
Seagate is an old hand when it comes to manufacturing hard drives, and today, we have a trio of new enterprise-class hard disk drives which were specially designed to cater to the varied needs of traditional data centers as well as emerging cloud infrastructures. Specially optimized for cloud bulk data storage, the Seagate Enterprise Value HDD delivers a maximum of 3TB of storage without consuming too much juice, making it ideal for efficient and affordable storage of unstructured data that is normally stashed away somewhere in the cloud.
Apart from that, Seagate also has its Enterprise Capacity 3.5 that features the industry’s widest range of capacities (1TB, 2TB, 3TB and 4TB), making sure your data is stored securely in a robust data center environment, and the Seagate Enterprise Performance 10K HDD is said to offer best-in-class performance and security for optimize storage efficiency. I guess there is a little bit of something for everyone with the three hard drives made available to the masses by Seagate this time around. Which one suits your needs best?
Last year, faulty 1TB Seagate drives living in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs purchased between May and July of 2011 were at the heart of Apple’s HDD replacement program. Now, Cupertino has extended the initiative to encompass rigs sold between October 2009 and July 2011. Customers with an affected iMac are eligible to receive a free drive until April 12, 2013 or for three years after their desktop’s original purchase date. Curious if your machine contains an afflicted hard drive? Simply visit the source link below and plug in your computer’s serial number to find out. If you do need a replacement, an Apple Store or authorized service center will be happy to help — just remember to back up your drive before parting with it.
Today we’re taking a look at the Needletail SX, Arkh Flight Systems’ (AFS) new flagship gaming PC. AFS seemed to have one goal when putting together the Needletail SX: make an insanely powerful gaming PC regardless of cost. Indeed, you’re working with a lot of power with the Needletail SX, but money can’t be an issue if you’re looking to buy one, as you’ll be paying a premium price for access to such a rig. It the Needletail SX worth the hefty price tag? Read on to find out.
Hardware
When you pull the Needletail SX out of the box for the first time, you’re likely to be taken aback by how awesome everything looks. All of your hardware is enclosed in an excellent NZXT Switch 810 full case, which has a window on the right side so you can look inside and view your motherboard. The case itself is sleek, with more than enough room on the inside to add additional hardware should you ever want to. The case also comes equipped with a number of dust filters to make fan maintenance less of a chore. The case is glossy in most places, which means that it will attract fingerprints easily, but a little upkeep is a small price to pay to keep your Switch 810 looking great.
That sexy-looking case is filled with some of the best hardware around. Bringing everything together is an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. This particular motherboard features an Intel x79 chipset, and enough PCI express 3.0 slots to support 4-way SLI or Crossfire. Even though the Needletail SX already comes with more than enough graphics power, it’s nice to know that you can continue to upgrade should you need any more power in the future. On the back of the unit, we’ve got 4 USB 3.0 ports, 8 USB 2.0 ports (one of which is reserved for ROG Connect), and two eSATA 3.0 ports. The ASUS Rampage IV Extreme is an excellent motherboard, but then again it would need to be with all of this high-end hardware attached to it.
As far as the CPU goes, you’re working with an Intel Core i7-3930k, which has six cores and 12 threads. This CPU normally comes clocked at 3.2Ghz, but AFS takes care of the overclocking for you and bumps that up to 4.4Ghz before sending it off. The model we received uses Intel’s older Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, but it seems that AFS has since updated its models to use Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs. It goes without saying that you’ve got a lot of processing power under the hood, and even that’s something of an understatement. You’ve got an excess of processing power under the hood, as the i7’s six cores can handle whatever you need to do with this computer with plenty left to spare. One only needs to look at the Geekbench and Cinebench scores posted below to see that much is true.
Next up let’s talk about RAM. Surrounding the CPU in a rather nice looking display are 8 G.Skill Ripjaws Z 4GB DD3 cards at 2133 MHz. That means you have a whopping 32GB of RAM at your disposal – likely more than you’ll ever need, but there to ensure that everything runs extremely smooth. Indeed, that RAM helps make this computer incredibly fast, regardless of what you’re doing. You can play a game with all the settings maxed (more on that later) and never have to worry about stuttering, thanks partially to the amount of RAM you’ve got under the hood.
System – System manufacturer System Product Name
Manufacturer
Arkh Flight Systems
Product Type
Desktop
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. RAMPAGE IV EXTREME
Processor
Intel Core i7-3930K
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 45 Stepping 7
Processor Frequency
3.20 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
12
Cores
6
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
12.0 MB
Memory
32.0 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz
FSB
100.0 MHz
BIOS
American Megatrends Inc. 1404
The dual SLI EVGA NVIDIA GTX680 graphics cards help with that too, naturally. With 2GB of video RAM each, this SLI setup can handle anything you can throw at it, as far as gaming goes. The GTX680 is one of NVIDIA’s enthusiast-level cards, meant only for those who take PC gaming incredibly seriously, and this computer uses two of them. Of course, installing two of the best GPUs around makes for a pretty significant price hike, but with these two working together, you won’t have to worry about updating your graphics hardware anytime soon.
The CPU is cooled by a Corsair Hydro Serious H100 cooler, and what’s interesting about this particular water cooler is that comes with adjustable fan settings. There are three settings in total – low, medium, and high – and the computer comes set to medium out of the box. You’ll be able to use the medium settings for most anything you’ll be doing with the Needletail SX, as it isn’t too loud (though it isn’t exactly silent either), and provides more than enough air to keep the computer cool while playing even the most graphics-intensive game. AFS recommends that you install a CPU thermometer widget to ensure that your CPU never runs above 82 degrees Celsius for too long, but in all of my tests, I never managed to get the CPU to heat up hotter than the mid-50s range. In other words, this cooling system does its job wonderfully, even when you’re intentionally trying to push it to its limits.
With storage, you’ve got a Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD and a Plextor M3 256GB SSD to take advantage of. Both are connected through SATA 6.0, and the operating system (in this case the Needletail SX is running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit) is stored on the SSD. With the 256GB allowed by the SSD, you might want to consider installing some of your most-played games on it, as load times are obviously dramatically shorter when running from the SSD. This HDD/SSD setup, along with the RAM and CPU, makes this beast ridiculously fast, so time spent waiting for something to boot or load is kept to a minimum.
You’ve heard enough about how great the hardware in this PC is, but the benchmarks prove that it isn’t just talk. With Geekbench 2.0, the Needletail SX managed to post a score dangerously close to 25,000. The processor was the star of the test, pulling in ridiculously high numbers, especially with the processor floating point test. Running Cinebench 11.5, we get impressive results once again. Cinebench is a benchmark tool that tests both the CPU and the graphics power, and both came back with excellent scores. The CPU test showed a score of 12.71, while the OpenGL test ran at a smooth 60.34 fps. It isn’t that often you get a computer that can put out scores like that – be it in Cinebench or Geekbench – which just goes to show that AFS was serious about building an enthusiast-level gaming PC when they put the Needletail SX together.
Benchmark Score – System manufacturer System Product Name
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
21587
24815
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
40402
Memory
Memory performance
9838
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
11515
Gaming
I’ve already mentioned gaming a couple of times in this review, but now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. After reading through the hardware section, it should go without saying that gaming is wonderful on this machine, but just for the purpose of reiteration, I’ll say it anyway: gaming is wonderful on this machine. I tested Battlefield 3, Skyrim, and Batman: Arkham City (all at 1920×1080 resolution) on this rig, and it was able to play all of them as if it was nothing.
With Batman: Arkham City, I used extreme detail settings, NVIDIA 32x CSAA, high DirectX 11 Tessellation, and turned NVSS and HBAO on. The result was a game that ran consistently between 50 and 60 fps, with an upper limit of around 70 to 75. Changing the settings to 8x MSAA and keeping everything else the same, we get about the same results: 50-60 fps consistently with a max that sits right around 70. On 8x MSAA, I enjoyed 60 fps on a more consistent basis, but when you’ve got a frame rate that averages around 55 fps, the difference is hardly noticeable. Overall, the graphics were incredibly smooth and there was very little stuttering; normally, the game stuttered briefly when it was loading a new area, but that was it. Not too bad for a PC port that many people have issues with.
Moving right along to Battlefield 3, turning up the settings as high as they can go – that includes 4x MSAA and 16x Anisotropic filtering – I managed a frame rate that ranged between 70 and 90 fps. That’s when you’re in outdoor environments with a ton of action surrounding you. With indoor environments, the frame rate can jump as high as 120 fps. Like Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3 looked amazing on the Needletail SX, with almost no stuttering whatsoever.
Finally, we come to Skyrim, which is unfortunately locked at 60 fps. There are ways to change this, but using ultra settings, 8x Anti-Aliasing, and 16x Anisotropic filtering, the game ran at a solid 60 fps all the time. That’s with Bethesda’s HD DLC and Laast’s Pure Waters mod (along with a few weapons and armor mods) installed. With Skyrim on the Needletail SX, you get nothing but silky smooth visuals, and trust me when I say that this is the way Skyrim was meant to be played.
Again, the Needletail SX is an excellent gaming rig, and it’s sure to handle whatever kind of gaming challenge you give it. You’re working with a lot of power under the hood, and the good thing is that this hardware isn’t going to become obsolete anytime soon. If you want to game with the visuals maxed while still enjoying an excellent frame rate, you need look no further than the Needletail SX.
Wrap-Up
So I’ve been singing the praises of the Needletail SX for quite a few paragraphs now. If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m in love with almost everything about this PC. The word “almost” is key there, because there is one significant downside to the Needletail SX: its price. With all of that hardware you’ve got installed, this PC does not come cheap. It comes in at $4,499, and that doesn’t include the operating system. You’ll have to buy the operating system separately (AFS offers the many versions of Windows 7 as “additional options”), so if you want the exact build I was working with here, you’re going to have to shell out $4,698.
That is going to hold a lot of people back, but it’s clear that AFS didn’t want to make a budget PC with this one. The old adage “you get what you pay for” applies here, and that high price tag means that you’re getting one of the best (if not the best) pre-built gaming PCs around. The Needletail SX is Arkh Flight Systems’ flagship model, and the company has packed this thing with some of the best hardware currently available. The steep price tag means that only the most serious of gamers need apply, but if you’ve got the cash and you don’t want to build a PC yourself, then you should be very happy with the Needletail SX.
The final price may end up being more than the initially proposed $186 million, but Seagate has successfully acquired a controlling share of LaCie stocks. The provisional price of €4.05 per share could increase to €4.17 if Seagate manages to accumulate 95 percent of the company’s stocks in the next six months. As of now, however, it hold just shy of 65 percent, enough to take control of the French manufacturer. With LaCie and its valuable consumer business under its belt and Samsung’s SSD expertise, the move to reject a Western Digital take over is looking better and better. After all, consumer choice is the engine of capitalism and now Seagate has more than enough ammunition to take on WD and its Hitachi properties. Check out the PR after the break.
With the massive flooding in Thailand last year, the hard drive market took a beating with many of the major players in the industry having to shut down assembly lines and shift production to other countries. Seagate was banking on growing business significantly due to competitors having significantly reduced production. That hasn’t worked as expected as the market has recovered quicker than expected.
We’ve also seen SSD prices decreased significantly leading more and more consumers to opt for the better performance of SSDs rather than HDDs. The price gap between an SSD and HDD has closed with SSDs getting cheaper and the price of HDDs increasing due to shortage. Seagate announced that its Q4 2012 financial results would miss targets. Seagate expects to report revenue of about $4.5 billion with non-GAAP gross margin of 33.6%.
The company expected at least $5 billion in revenue in non-GAAP gross margin of at least 34.5%. Wall Street expectations were somewhere between Seagate’s reality and its own expectations. Seagate also notes that an issue with one of its enterprise line of storage devices resulted in reduced shipments and also impacted earnings performance.
“Seagate expects to report another record quarter of revenue in the June quarter, however we did not meet our expected revenue and margin plan,” said Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman and chief executive officer.
“The June quarter’s shortfall was due primarily to two factors. First, we did not achieve our planned market share growth as we reduced shipments in response to the industry’s faster than expected recovery from their supply chain disruption. Second, we experienced an isolated supplier quality issue that affected one of our enterprise product lines. This product issue impacted enterprise product unit shipments by approximately 1.5 million units and drove our non-GAAP gross margin below our targeted plan. While this disruption to our business was disappointing, we acted quickly and conservatively by suspending shipments of the affected products. We have resolved the issue and have resumed fulfilling our supply commitments to customers.”
Luczo continued, “Based on the macro-economic concerns indicated by a broad base of customers, we are approaching the September quarter conservatively and aligning our business for a relatively flat addressable market and modest improvements in our product mix. We are adjusting our production and inventory planning accordingly, and we expect average selling prices and margins to remain relatively stable in the September quarter. We also continue to expect to exit the calendar year with non-GAAP gross margins exceeding 30%.”
Seagate has announced that it has partnered with DensBits for the development of SSDs for consumer and enterprise markets. The goal of the two companies is to develop low-cost and high-performance solid-state drives for consumer and enterprise markets and Seagate has made an equity investment in DensBits. Exactly, how much Seagate invested in DensBits is unknown.
The two companies will be developing future products with the goal of providing customers with cost savings, high reliability, and high-performance. The agreement will see the DensBits Memory Modem controller technology integrated into various Seagate storage products. Some applications will use three bit per cell TLC 1Xnm flash-based consumer-great SSD technology.
Other applications will make use of to bit per cell MLC 1Xnm flash-based enterprise-grade SSDs. There’s no clear indication of exactly when SSD’s using the technology from this partnership will come to market. There’s also no indication of what sort of price range the two companies will target with the storage products.
It’s an understatement to say that Seagate started off on the wrong foot in its attitude towards solid-state drives: the company only slowly came around to embracing flash memory, and then mostly for the enterprise crowd and hybrid drive lovers. A newly-struck partnership between Seagate and controller maker DensBits is signalling a more serious attempt to offer SSDs to everyday users. Along with catering to the business folk, Seagate wants its new teammate’s help on building “low-cost, high-performance” consumer SSDs. Most of the drives for the plebeians will use slower but denser 3-bits-per-cell memory made on a process under 20 nanometers, while the suits will get faster 2-bits-per-cell flash for their servers. The deal doesn’t have any timetable attached, although Seagate’s decision to pour equity cash into DensBits suggests it’s not just a one-time fling.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
FCC | Email this | Comments
Seagate is an old hand when it comes to manufacturing hard drives, and today, we have a trio of new enterprise-class hard disk drives which were specially designed to cater to the varied needs of traditional data centers as well as emerging cloud infrastructures. Specially optimized for cloud bulk data storage, the Seagate Enterprise Value HDD delivers a maximum of 3TB of storage without consuming too much juice, making it ideal for efficient and affordable storage of unstructured data that is normally stashed away somewhere in the cloud.
With the massive flooding in Thailand last year, the hard drive market took a beating with many of the major players in the industry having to shut down assembly lines and shift production to other countries. Seagate was banking on growing business significantly due to competitors having significantly reduced production. That hasn’t worked as expected as the market has recovered quicker than expected.
Seagate has announced that it has partnered with DensBits for the development of SSDs for consumer and enterprise markets. The goal of the two companies is to develop low-cost and high-performance solid-state drives for consumer and enterprise markets and Seagate has made an equity investment in DensBits. Exactly, how much Seagate invested in DensBits is unknown.
