Posted 11/05/09 at 06:16:49 PM by Pulkit Chandna

An ongoing shortage of AMD GPUs has forced PC vendors to delay their shipments by about two months to the first quarter of 2010, claimed a Digitimes report, citing unnamed sources at PC vendors. Both the 40nm ATI Radeon HD 5000 series and 55nm ATI Radeon HD 4000 series GPUs are said to be in short supply.

The shortage of the 40nm ATI Radeon HD 5000 series is being blamed on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's inability to keep pace with the demand due to low yields. On the other hand, the dearth of 55nm GPUs is due to the fact that they no longer figure prominently in AMD’s plans.

The report further claims that AMD has delayed the shipment of “its ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series (Manhattan) GPUs for notebooks to the first quarter of 2010 from the originally planned fourth quarter of 2009.”

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Posted 11/05/09 at 08:35:55 AM by Pulkit Chandna

OWC has introduced a quad-interface Blu-ray burner that uses a Pioneer BDR-205. You will never be short of options with the Mercury Pro 12x Blu-ray burner as it supports four different interfaces: FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA. It ships with a cable each four all the interfaces that it supports. It is capable of writing to BD-R media ( single or double layer) at 12x speed, BD-RE media at 2x speed, DVD±R at 16X, DVD±R DL at 8X, and CD-R at 40X. The Mercury Pro 12x Blu-ray burner can be yours for $350. The burner is also available along with Roxio's Toast 10 Titanium Pro for $450, though the bundle is only meant for Mac users.

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Posted 10/14/09 at 10:13:41 AM by Pulkit Chandna

The PC industry is keenly awaiting the launch of Windows 7 in the hope that it will deliver it from its woes. Probably, Apple also has its sights firmly fixed on the sandglass counting down to the launch, but for a different reason, of course. Apple need not be fazed by the launch, though, if Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall is to be believed.

According to his analysis of previous Windows releases, a Windows launch has no negative bearing on the sale of Macs. In fact, previous Windows releases have acted as a catalyst for Mac sales.

"We have concluded that no negative correlation exists on Apple's (AAPL) hardware sales when Microsoft launches a new OS. Ironically, we believe new OS launches from MSFT may have even acted as a 'delayed accelerant' to AAPL's computing sales," Marshall wrote in a report.

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Posted 10/07/09 at 01:45:22 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

Ninety percent of the time, when I attempt to turn on my PC it powers up for a second then immediately shuts down. The other 10 percent of the time, it boots but I get no video signal. I’ve had it looked at by a local shop, which tested each component individually (except the mobo) and found them working properly. I’ve done some troubleshooting myself and I’ve gone through the wire diagrams and everything seems to be plugged in right. However, it doesn’t sound like my hard drive is turning on. I was hoping you had some ideas before I try a new hard drive. I’ve already put in a new power supply but that didn’t change anything. Any ideas?

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Posted 09/14/09 at 09:17:28 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Sales of PCs were up in the second quarter of 2009, according to market analytics firm, iSupply. Global shipments were up 1% over the first quarter to 67.2 million units. This is the first increase in six months. It’s not all roses though; sales were still down 4.3% from Q2 of last year. However, going into the end of the year, sales are expected to stay strong in part due to the October release of Windows 7. The likely advertising blitz will get PCs in many mainstream media outlets.

In this past quarter, HP managed to hold the top sales spot for the twelfth quarter in a row. HP’s sales were up 2% over last quarter, leaving it with a 20% market share. "HP is not only maintaining its leadership position but is also gaining market share due to its robust notebook business, which has outgrown the overall notebook segment for the past two quarters," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for iSuppli. Dell and Acer continued to fight it out for the number two spot.

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Posted 09/04/09 at 07:00:26 AM by Paul Lilly

Microsoft's "Laptop Hunters" ads try to drive the point home that PCs (as in, Windows-based) are a better value than pricey Macs, but all that goes out the window if you can pick up a Mac for free. Of course, there's a caveat. In order to cash in on the five-fingered discount, you have to be morally inept, willing to break and enter an Apple Store, and not be phased by the prospect of jail time.

A surveillance camera picked up just such a situation in an Apple Store in Marlton, NJ. Five thieves broke into the location with a brick and quickly went to business making off with 23 MacBook Pros, 14 iPhones, and 9 iPods in just 31 seconds, escaping before the security guard rushed in.

Catch the video here, and don't try this at home, or anywhere else.

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Posted 07/24/09 at 08:31:31 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Fujitsu is said to be working on the “fastest rig on the planet.” While it is very common for car ads to heap praise on German engineering, the same is not true when it comes to PCs. But a slide (see below) related to the upcoming “fastest rig on the planet” is a laconic ode to German engineering.

The slide credits “German ultra clocking” for making Fujitsu’s mysterious gaming rig the fastest in the world. It also mentions that the rig features the very best “hand selected components”. Fujitsu posted a link to a teaser video - which miraculously doesn’t make even a thickly veiled reference to the gaming rig – on Twitter.

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Posted 07/17/09 at 01:06:11 PM by Paul Lilly

Averatec today announced the D1005, a 22-inch all-in-one PC the company plans to sell for just shy of $800, which Averatec says is best suited for college students.

"Our latest offering was designed with the college student and business professional in mind," said Henry Hewitt, vice president of sales at TriGem USA. "Its sleek design and small footprint make it an attractive system to sit on top of your desk without taking up a lot of space.

The D1005 sports an Intel Pentium dual-core E5200 processor (2.5GHz), 3GB of DDR2 memory (upgradeable to 4GB), a 320GB hard drive, integrated Intel X4500HD graphics, DVD drive, WiFi, 2.0MP webcam, full-size USB keyboard and mouse, and Windows Vista Home Premium.

Averatec says the D1005 is available now through Bestbuy.com, Onsale, TigerDirect, and Newegg for $799.

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