Hasta La Gadget!

Intel’s Z68 Express chipset and its SATA 6Gb/s connections, CPU and memory overclocking, and SSD caching capability weren’t supposed to hit store shelves until the eighth of May. But, at least one Taiwanese retailer didn’t get the memo — or maybe it’s just another instance of Intel’s early far-east distribution on the down-low — because pics from across the Pacific show a shiny new Z68 Express motherboard from Gigabyte can already be had for the princely sum of NT $11,900 (about $407 here in the land of greenbacks). That’s quite a stack of cash for a place to put your speedy Sandy Bridge CPU, but perhaps its expeditious performance can be had for a more reasonable price once it lands on western shores… or maybe we should just start saving now.

[Thanks, Daz]

Gigabyte motherboard with Intel Z68 Express chipset on sale in Taiwan ahead of schedule originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 01:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Xfastest  | Email this | Comments

Stealth has been in the compact computing game for some time, and the company has just rolled out its most powerful pint-sized PC to date, the LPC-670. Packing Intel’s Arrandale Core i5-520M, Core i5-580M, or Core i7-620M silicon, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, a DVD or Blu-ray burner, a max 750GB 2.5-inch HDD or 128GB SSD, optional 802.11g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and DVI connections, Stealth’s new mini-PC has the brawn of much bigger machines. The price of such lilliputian luxury? An account-emptying $1650, and that’s just for the base model — check the right option boxes and the final tally will run you over three grand. That should ensure the customer base will be just like the machine itself… tiny. Press release is after the break.

Continue reading Stealth unveils the LPC-670 mini-PC: small in size, vast in price

Stealth unveils the LPC-670 mini-PC: small in size, vast in price originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Yes, laptops and tablets are all the rage these days, but there’s still quite a few of us who enjoy the expansive screen real estate of their sedentary computing brethren. That’s why Acer’s unleashed a sleek and svelte new all-in-one dubbed the Aspire Z5761. This latest AIO keeps the same fabulous form factor of its cousin, the AZ3750, but sports a larger 23-inch Full HD display, your choice of Sandy Bridge Core i5-2400s, Core i5-2500s, or Core i7-2600s CPUs, up to a 1.5TB SATA II HDD, a Blu-ray or SuperMulti drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT440, GT435M, or GT420 graphics, and a hybrid TV-tuner card so it can do double duty as your boob tube should you be so inclined. Connectivity comes courtesy of gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and eight USB 2.0 ports. In addition, the system’s preloaded with the company’s Clear.fi tech, so you can grab multimedia content residing on other Acer devices (assuming you have any) with the greatest of ease. Touching down for £799 ($1305 for those of us residing on the right side of the Atlantic), this desktop dandy is set to go on sale in early May — we know, we can’t wait either. Full scoop’s in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Acer unveils svelte and spiffy Aspire Z5761 all-in-one, on sale in May

Acer unveils svelte and spiffy Aspire Z5761 all-in-one, on sale in May originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Mobile gaming rigs don’t tend to be particularly upgradeable, so it’s important to get all the horsepower you can up front. With that in mind, MSI‘s latest is delivering a little more oomph than its last lap-warmer. It’s the GX680 and it’s rocking an Intel Core i7 2630QM processor paired with GeForce GT 555M graphics, NVIDIA’s latest bid at laptop pixel-pushing supremacy. That card has 1GB of GDDR5 memory onboard, while the system itself can be configured with up to 16GB of DDR3 — rather a lot for a laptop. A 15.6-inch, 1080p display is available, along with dual 750GB HDDs, which can be configured in RAID 0 if you like living dangerously. Blu-ray is also on offer, along with a THX certified Dynaudio sound system that is said to deliver audio “heretofore found only in cinemas.” No price yet, but as always with MSI that kind of hyperbole comes for free.

MSI’s GX680 laptop gets GeForce GT 555M graphics, up to 16GB of DDR3 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  MSI  | Email this | Comments

We suspect that some other laptop manufacturer will be coming out of the woodwork in around 4.98 seconds here to refute Gigabyte’s claim, but as of now, the 15.6-inch P2532 above is the planet’s thinnest laptop with a second-generation (Sandy Bridge) Core i7 CPU. It’s not “ultrathin,” per se, but for packing such a serious amount of horsepower, it’s definitely on the anorexic side of things. Our pals over at TweakTown managed to get their paws on one, and they noted that it was sporting a 1920 x 1080 resolution display, a 500GB (7200RPM) hard drive, NVIDIA’s GeForce GT550M (2GB) with Optimus technology, a DVD burner, two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, four speakers, a makeshift subwoofer and more ventilation ports than would normally be considered healthy. The company’s also offering up a smattering of interchangeable lids, with the pastel yellow one in particular catching our eye — can’t say it’s for the right reasons, but we digress. Sadly, there’s no price or release date to share just yet, but there is a hands-on video just past the break. Head on down and hit play, won’t you?

Continue reading Gigabyte’s 15.6-inch P2532: world’s thinnest second-gen Core i7 laptop (video)

Gigabyte’s 15.6-inch P2532: world’s thinnest second-gen Core i7 laptop (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  TweakTown  | Email this | Comments