Hasta La Gadget!

Our tips inbox rarely becomes flooded with news on a surprise laptop release, but such is the vibe that HP’s stylish Envy series seems to inspire — and now it looks as though that May-officiated 14.5-inch model is on sale for public consumption, albeit with a starting price just one Benjamin higher than expected. Base model nets you a 2.4GHz Intel Core i3-370M, 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, 4GB RAM, and a 320GB 7,200rpm HDD… but if you want to go wild and crazy, crank it up to a Core i7, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD for a cool $2,139.99. Well-loved aesthetics are there, and last we heard HP was still touting a possible eight hours of battery life. Your credit card may not be happy, but you could be.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HP Envy 14 now on sale for both the washed and unwashed masses originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS had a fairly big showing here at Computex, and while mobile computing was obviously the highlight of the show, the desktop gamers were thrown a bone with this gem. Dubbed Immensity, this concept X58 mainboard has plenty of room for an ultra-speedy Core i7 processor, but what makes this one unique is the built-in GPU. Nah, it’s not some lame-o integrated chip that chokes up when playing back 480p versions of last night’s Glee — it’s a full-fledged ATI Radeon HD 5770. Thankfully for you, that’s not where the fun ends. There’s also an integrated Lucid Hydra chip fused onto the PCB, which means that you’re free to slap another pair of PCIe-based GPUs in and get a three-way CrossFireX setup going. Representatives at the booth were fairly confident that the concept would turn commercial by the end of this year (or early 2011 at worst), though they’re still trying to hammer down what exactly the final GPU will be. We’re sure there’s a good bit of “dealing with thermals” going on in the labs, but here’s hoping ASUS really can pull this off and change the way we think about IGPs. Have a look at the monster below, and try your best to not get those hopes too high.

ASUS demos Immensity X58 Hydra mainboard with integrated ATI Radeon HD 5770 GPU originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Typical, right? As the 3D craze flows from the cinema to the television and onto the PC, it was just a matter of time before one of MSI’s Wind Top all-in-ones shipped with support for the third dimension. By most accounts, the new Wind Top AE2420 3D looks like a mildly larger version of the AE2220 we peeked late last year, touting a 24-inch 1080p multitouch panel, support for shutter glasses (a single pair is included), Core i5 or i7 CPU options and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD5730 pushing the pixels. There’s also a pair of 5-watt speakers built-in, not to mention an Ethernet jack, VGA output and a handful of USB 2.0 sockets. Mum’s the word on pricing, but MSI is expected to have this bad boy on display as Computex kicks off early next week. Yeah, you know we’ll be there pretending to be embarrassed while donning the spectacles.

Continue reading MSI follows fate’s whispers, intros 24-inch Wind Top AE2420 3D

MSI follows fate’s whispers, intros 24-inch Wind Top AE2420 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 22:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re one of the truly lilliputian proportion of PC gamers who actually bought two of either the GTX 470 or GTX 480 from NVIDIA in the hope of running a tri-monitor 3D gorgefest, we’ve got bad news for ya. If you’re anyone else, enjoy the schadenfreude of knowing that those first guys will have to keep waiting for 3D Vision Surround support until the end of June. As NVIDIA tells it, the driver bringing the tri-dimensional, multi-monitor gaming nirvana was targeted for an April release, but has now slipped a couple of months. It’s disappointing to see one of the major selling points of the GTX 400 series coming so much later than the cards’ release, but at least ATI’s around to console you if you’re feeling jilted. The company has set up an Eyefinity Experience Tool that does a good job illustrating the benefits of gaming on a trifecta of monitors over a single display. Hit the source links for more.

NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround delayed, ATI gloats with an Eyefinity demo site originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 03:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD got serious with its VISION guide to buying PCs last September, but we’ve yet to see it actually put into practice until today. In addition to a new spate of laptop chips, the company is finally coming clean with the desktop CPUs that we’ve seen whispered about, touched and even benchmarked for weeks now. Frankly, there’s not much here we didn’t know already, but we’re guessing that AMD’s just aligning its official launch with the plans of Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and all the other big names that’ll be introducing rigs based on this silicon in short order. Regardless, bargain gamers should greatly appreciate having the dual- and quad-core Athlon II range as well as the quad- and six-core Phenom II crew hitting the scene in official fashion, offering plenty of performance (for most, anyway) at a fraction of the cost of Intel’s swankest Core i7 chips. And yeah, we’re pretty stoked to see AMD getting its chips into so many desktops — it’s been awhile since there was even a semblance of an AMD / Intel balance in the customize-to-order sections of the world, and it’s about time that changed.

Continue reading AMD comes real clean with 2010 desktop platform: Phenoms, Athlons, Radeons, oh my!

AMD comes real clean with 2010 desktop platform: Phenoms, Athlons, Radeons, oh my! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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