FSP has announced the launch of a brand new line-up of 80 Plus Gold power supplies, the Aurum Series, which includes 400 W, 500 W, 600 W, and 700 W models, all of them compatible with the ATX12V v2.3 and EPS12V v2.92 standards, and featuring active PFC, a 120 mm fan with fluid dynamic bearing, two (400 W and 500 W models) or four (600 W and 700 W) +12 V rails, and protections against over voltage (OVP), under voltage (UVP), over power (OPP), over current (OCP), over temperature (OTP), and short-circuit (SCP). Information on pricing or availability was not provided.
HIS is one of the first manufacturers to launch a Radeon HD 6950 video card with 1 GB of memory. The HIS HD 6950 1 GB Fan Edition features the stock clocks (800 MHz for the GPU and 5000 MHz DDR for the memory), and comes with two DVI, one HDMI and two mini-DisplayPort connectors. HIS did not mention the price of this video card, but it should cost below USD 300 (the price of the Radeon HD 6950 with 2 GB of memory).
Sparkle has launched a low profile version of the GeForce GTS 450 video card (it has half the height of GeForce GTS 450 reference model) targeted to users of HTPC (Home Theater PC) systems. This card (part number SXS4501024D5LHD) works internally at 783 MHz, accesses 1 GB of GDDR5 at 3,608 MHz through a 128-bit interface, and has DVI and HDMI connectors. Sparkle did not mention the price of this video card.
MSI has launched a powerful gaming notebook that will for sure make gamer’s dreams come true. The MSI GT680 features a second generation Core i7 processor based on the Sandy Bridge architecture, a DirectX 11 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M discrete video card, and an SSD drive. According to the manufacturer, this notebook has achieved a record-breaking 18,162 points when tested with PCMark Vantage - the highest score of any notebook ever.
Spec-wise, the MSI GT680 has a 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) or HD (1366x768) LED-backlight display, a Core i7 2630QM (2 GHz) processor, up to 16 GB of DDR3 memory, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M discrete video card (1.5 GB of GDDR5), two 320 GB or 500 GB hard drives in RAID 0 or a 120 GB SSD drive plus a 500 GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an HD webcam, a 5-in-1 card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA port, an HDMI output and a 9-cell battery. Unfortunately MSI didn't mention the notebook's price.
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The Intel P67 chipset is targeted to the second generation Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs (Sandy Bridge architecture) based on the socket 1155 platform. But ASRock has launched a socket 1156 motherboard (for Intel Core i7/i5 processors based on the “Lynnfield” core) based on the new P67 chipset. According to the manufacturer, the P67 chipset provides a better bandwidth to SATA-600 and USB 3.0 ports compare to the P55 chipset.
Dubbed ASRock P67 Transformer, this motherboard features a PCI Express x16 slot, three PCI Express x1 slots, two PCI slots, four DDR3 memory sockets (up to DDR3-2600 through overclocking), two USB 3.0 ports, two SATA-300 ports, one eSATA port, coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs, and eight-channel audio.
Huntkey has announced that their X7 500 W power supply has gotten the 80 Plus Platinum certification, being the first Huntkey unit to be granted with the Ecos Consulting’s (the company behind 80 Plus) highest certification level.
During CES 2011 AMD demonstrated using an infrared temperature gun how their new APUs dissipate less heat than Intel’s Atom processor. APUs or Accelerated Processing Units are processors targeted to mobile devices recently released by AMD that have a CPU, a GPU and a north bridge (including a memory controller) in the same die.
AMD wants to end the stigma that their mobile CPUs dissipate a lot of heat and have lower battery life compared to Intel’s counterparts.
In the pictures below you can see what AMD showed us. As you can see, the laptop using the Intel Atom was dissipating 101º F (38.3º C) on its keyboard area and 93.4º F (34.1º C) on its exhaust area, while the laptop using the AMD APU was dissipating 91.8º F (33.2º C) on its keyboard area and 82.6º F (28.1º C) on its exhaust area.
NVIDIA has announced the world’s first dual-core mobile processor, the Tegra 2. The first smartphone to be released with the Tegra 2 processor is from LG and will be called LG Optimus 2X.
Tegra 2 has hardware support for Adobe Flash, so Flash software is supposed to work 5x faster than the current high-end devices.
Crucial has launched a DDR3 memory line-up, dubbed Ballistix Smart Tracer, which allows users to control activity-indicating and ground-effect LED colors and patterns. The new modules also include integrated thermal sensor that allows users to monitor memory temperature. The two rows of lights can be customized using the Ballistix MOD utility that is offered for free by Crucial.
The Ballistix Smart Tracer memory is available in the following configurations:
2 GB module running at 1600 MHz with CL8 timings at 1.65 V, orange/blue LEDs or red/green LEDs, USD 59.99
4 GB kit (2 x 2 GB) running at 1600 MHz with CL8 timings at 1.65 V, orange/blue LEDs or red/green LEDs, USD 118.99
6 GB kit (3 x 2 GB) running at 1600 MHz with CL8 timings at 1.65 V, orange/blue LEDs or red/green LEDs, USD 178.99
SilverStone released this CES the FT03, a small form factor (SFF) case for micro ATX and mini-ITX motherboards following the same concept introduced with the Raven RV01 and followed by the Raven RV02 and Fortress FT02: the motherboard is rotated 90º, making the motherboard rear connectors to be facing the top of the case. Since hot air tends to go up, this change improves thermal dissipation.
The FT03 comes with three fans, and if the bottom fan is removed, you can install a second long video card, allowing to build a small yet powerful gaming PC. The only limitations of this case are regarding the optical drive, that must be slim (same kind used in laptop computers), and the length of the power supply, which cannot be greater than 7.2” (180 mm).
The case has a hot-swap bay that can be removed from the top of the case.
Following the footsteps of the Big Bang XPower, MSI released this CES the Marshal, a socket 1155 motherboard based on the Intel P67 chipset featuring eight PCI Express x16 slots. It makes use of a Lucid HydraLogix 200 processor, meaning that you can not only build SLI and CrossFireX systems, but mix cards from different generations and even mix AMD- and NVIDIA-based video cards. With eight slots you can have up to eight single-slot video cards working in parallel at the same time, even if they are from different chip makers! Other features include the presence of switches to disable each PCI Express x16 slot, ultra high-end voltage regulator circuit (30 DrMOS phases with military-grade components), voltage monitoring points, and more. Although this motherboard doesn’t have other kinds of PCI Express slots, keep in mind that you can install x1, x4, and x8 card in x16 slots.
The world plus dog released socket 1155 motherboards based on the Intel P67 chipset this CES (the word out there is that Gigabyte alone launched 31 different models), but only a couple of motherboard manufacturers released really different products. ASUS was one of them, with their Sabertooth P67 motherboard. The main feature of this motherboard is the presence of a huge thermal cover, which makes the motherboard to look like a Lego block, check in the pictures below. The cover can be entirely removed, if you want, or you can only remove the part above the P67 chip, if you want to install a small fan to cool down the chipset.
OCZ is developing a proprietary optical interface, called HSDL (High-Speed Data Link), for connecting SSD to desktops and servers. During this CES they displayed an SSD unit, called Ibis, using this technology. According to the manufacturer, the interface can reach up to 20 GB/s. Sounds great, but don’t forget that Intel is preparing its own optical technology, called Light Peak.
Thermaltake displayed their forthcoming gaming keyboard. Without a name yet, the new mechanical keyboard will have 12 separate macro keys, multimedia keys, USB connection, two available USB ports and audio jacks. One neat feature of this future keyboard is that only keys universally used by games (A, W, S, D and the arrows) are illuminated, and you can also control their brightness level.
During this CES Antec presented two new computer cases: One Hundred and Sonata IV.
The One Hundred is a mid-tower, all-black gaming case that features three 5.25” external bays, six 3.5” internal bays, one 2.5” internal bay, and eight slots for expansion cards. It supports Mini-ITX, micro-ATX, and ATX motherboards, and comes with four USB 2.0 ports, a handy storage tray for putting accessories, and anti-theft device.
As for cooling, the One Hundred features one 140-mm fan on the top panel, one 120-mm fan on the rear panel, besides three 120-mm optional fans, two on the front panel and one on the side panel. The One Hundred is priced at USD 79.95.
click to enlarge Antec One Hundred
click to enlarge Antec One Hundred
click to enlarge Antec One Hundred
click to enlarge Antec One Hundred
The Sonata IV is the newest member of Antec’s Sonata line-up, which is made up of seven models, and we’ve already reviewed three of them: Sonata Proto, Sonata III 500 and Sonata Elite.
The new Sonata IV is a mid-tower case that features three 5.25” external bays, four 3.5” internal bays, one 2.5” internal bay, and seven slots for expansion cards. It supports Mini-ITX, micro-ATX, and ATX motherboards, and comes with two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, and a 620 W power supply.
As for cooling, the Sonata IV features a 120-mm fan on the rear panel. This case is priced at USD 199.95.
