Hardware

Microsoft Hardware Turns 30, Reflects on 1980s Nostalgia

Paul Lilly — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:13:16 +0000

Provided you've left your twenties behind, can you remember what you were doing 30 years ago? Microsoft does. In 1982, the Microsoft Hardware group was formed while Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album was selling a million copies a week, E.T. was phoning home on the big screen, and emoticons were in the process of being popularized. As Microsoft puts it, "1982 truly epitomized all that was glorious about the 80s," pointing out that Yale was offering a 14-week course aimed at solving the Rubik's Cube. Share your own favorite memory on Twitter and you could win a 30th Anniversary Arc Touch mouse.

We'll get to the contest details in a moment, but first let's take a second to reflect on Microsoft Hardware's journey. Formed in 1982, Microsoft Hardware shipped its first PC-compatible mouse a year later, a fugly (by today's standards) white rodent with clunky gray buttons. But it wasn't until the 1990s that Microsoft hit its stride, launching its first ergonomic keyboard -- the Natural Keyboard -- in 1994 and better looking (and functioning) products through the years since. You can check out a timeline of Microsoft Hardware history here.

Back to the contest. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Microsoft Hardware is giving away a "limited quantity" of the above mentioned Arc Touch mice. In order to toss your name in the hat, you'll have to tweet what you love about the 1980s and include hashtag #MSHWturns30.

Perhaps getting stingy in its old age, Microsoft Hardware's Official Rules page reveals that just 1 person selected at random from the top 100 tweets will win the Arc Touch mouse (valued at $70). Be sure to read through the rules for no-nos (like trying to enter more than three times) and other details.

Don't care about winning an Arc Touch mouse? In that case, feel free to share your favorite 1980s memory with us in the comments section below!

Image Credit: Microsoft

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BitFenix Gives Birth to a Mini-ITX 'Prodigy' with Support for Big Size Components

Paul Lilly — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:43:08 +0000

The whole point of building a mini-ITX system is to have something with a small footprint that you can tuck inconspicuously out of the way or plop on your desk without having it dominate your work/play environment. And that's well and good, but it typically means making sacrifices in your component selection. What if you didn't have to? That's the question BitFenix asks with its new Prodigy, "the first mini-ITX chassis designed with enthusiasts in mind."

BitFenix says the Prodigy is a small case with big ideas, and by that, the case maker means it supports long graphics cards, tower coolers, and even water cooling radiators, all of which are components you don't often find crammed into the tight confines of a mini-ITX enclosure.

"The wave of enthusiast class mini-ITX motherboards is upon us, and with Prodigy, users finally have a case to match," says BitFenix Product Manager David Jarlestedt. "No longer will users have to choose between compact size and blazing performance. With Prodigy, mini-ITX users can finally have it all."

Toss aside the side panel and you'll find room for up to five 3.5-inch hard drives or solid state drives for home server, HTPC, or NAS box chores. If you remove the middle portion of the FlexCage, the Prodigy will happily play nice with long graphics cards up to 320mm (a little over 12.5 inches), which means you can shove a GeForce GTX 690 or Radeon HD 7970 card in there and have room to spare. Removing the FlexCage altogether makes room for a 240mm water cooling radiator.

The Prodigy supports standard ATX power supplies, has two USB 3.0 supports on the front I/O panel, is suspended by two handles on the top and bottom made from BitFenix FyberFlex Composite, "a revolutionary new material that is very flexible yet offers incredible strength," and is coated with the company's SofTouch Surface Treatment, which feels like the material used on rubberized smartphones.

BitFenix says the Prodigy, available in silver or black, will land on store shelves in early June with an MSRP of $79.

Image Credit: BitFenix

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Corsair Shutters IPO, Launches New Force Series 3 SSD Upgrade Kit

Brad Chacos — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:14:19 +0000

Think you're having a productive Thursday? You've got nothing on the memory makers over at Corsair. It's barely past lunch time on the east coast and the company has already announced plans to drop its plans for a $78 million IPO thanks to "weak equity market conditions," and while the bigwigs were busy doing that, Corsair somehow squeezed in the time to launch its new Force Series 3 SSD notebook upgrade kits. Meanwhile, I'm barely through my second cup of coffee.

Corsair's been toying with the idea of going public for a while; in fact, the company even went so far as to file an S-1 with the SEC a year ago. This morning, Corsair said it was pulling back from the IPO and remaining a private company, at least for now.

"Corsair’s board of directors has decided to postpone its IPO due to weak equity market conditions. Our business is growing, and is generating increasing profitability and cash flow. We have decided that we will re-launch when equity market conditions are more favorable," Andy Paul, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Corsair said. "While we do intend to expand our capital base through public capital markets, our existing capital structure and balance sheet provides sufficient capital to enable continued investment in our brand strength, products and people."

That continued investment in products reared its head quickly with the announcement of the Force Series 3 SSD notebook upgrade kits, which are obviously built around Corsair's Force Series 3 SSDs. The kits are designed to make transitioning to a new drive easy thanks to a handy-dandy bundled USB-to-SATA cable that connects the SSD to your laptop, letting you swap over files before you make the physical switch. It comes with software to help you move over your OS and system/app data, too.

The upgrade kits are available now and cost $140 for a 120GB model or $260 for a 260GB model. That's not too outrageous a premium over the SSDs alone; a bare 120GB Force Series 3 SSD will set you back the same $140 on Newegg, but that drops down to $120 after a mail-in rebate.

You can learn more about the upgrade kit on the Corsair blog.

Toshiba Launches AT300 Tablet with Tegra 3, Ice Cream Sandwich

Paul Lilly — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:41:42 +0000

Tosbhia today officially trotted out its AT300 tablet with a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor tucked inside and Google's Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) running the show. The AT300 features a 10.1-inch LED-backlit touchscreen display with a 1280x800 resolution and Gorilla Glass, 1GB of RAM, and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, upgradeable via a full size SD card slot.

Budding paparazzi will appreciate the 5MP camera with LED flash on the back and 2MP front-facing camera. Connectivity consists of 802.11g/b/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, micro USB and HDMI ports, and a combo audio output / mic input port.

The AT300 sports a pair of 1W stereo speakers with SRS audio and up to 10 hours of battery life with 100 percent video playback, or up to 12 hours of normal usage. It measures 260.6mm x 178.9mm x 8.95mm and weighs 590g.

Toshiba said the AT300 will be available in the U.K. in the second quarter for £329 (16GB) and £379 (32GB). A 3G model will come out in the third quarter.

Image Credit: Toshiba

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Lian Li Envisions Smartphone /Tablet Users Going Gaga for Three New Ultra Compact PC Cases

Paul Lilly — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:14:44 +0000

Apparently owning a smartphone or tablet means you're predisposed to favoring ultra-compact computer cases over mid-towers or those hulking full-tower hunks of aluminum and steel. Just ask Lian Li, which today introduced a trio of pint-sized brushed aluminum cases "for smartphone and tablet" wielding folk looking to build "personal data storage hubs for all your mobile devices." Interesting pitch, no?

First up is the PC-Q02 with a minimalistic and quiet design. It measures 5.86 x 9.06 x 7.87 inches (WxHxD) and supports mini-ITX motherboards. The case doesn't come with any fans, instead relying on vent holes on the side and rear panels to maximize natural air flow. Features include a single 5.25-inch drive bay, support for one 3.5-inch and two 2.5-inch HDD/SSDs, two USB 3.0 ports, and an included 300W power supply.

Second up to bat is the PC-Q03, a tiny fanless chassis with enhanced graphics capabilities. It's essentially the same as the PC-Q02, only slightly larger at 7.83 x 9.64 x 8.26 inches (WxHxD), which allows it to accommodate graphics cards up to 7.08 inches in length. It also has HD audio ports on the front panel.

Finally, Lian Li unveiled its PC-Q16, a mini-tower chassis that measures 7.83 x 6.29 x 11.41 inches (WxHxD). This one is built for storage junkies and can hold a single 3.5-inch HDD and up to three 2.5-inch HDD/SSDs, though it doesn't come with a 5.25-inch drive bay, which rules out an internal optical drive. Like the PC-Q02, this one ships with a 300W power supply.

All three cases will be available in the U.S. and Canada at the end of May for $150 (PC-Q02 and PC-Q03) and $160 (PC-Q16).

Image Credit: Lian Li

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AMD to Push Out Power Friendly Processors for Windows 8 Tablets

Paul Lilly — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:10:09 +0000

It hasn't been much of an ARM wrestle in the tablet space up to this point, and it's not because AMD and Intel haven't talked the talk. For the most part, they just haven't walked the walk, which has allowed ARM to dominate the category. That could change once Windows 8 comes into view in a few months, and if Microsoft's upcoming Metro infused OS proves popular on touchscreen tablets, you can expect a dogfight between AMD and Intel.

Intel hasn't been shy about saying it plans to compete in the mobile device category, but what about AMD? According to DigiTimes, AMD is readying the release of its Hondo processors, which are low power chips built around the company's 40nm Bobcat architecture. Hondo processors boast a power consumption of just 4-5W, 1-2 processing cores, and on-die DirectX 11 graphics. These will go up against Intel's Clover Trail-W CPUs.

Following Hondo, AMD will roll out Tamesh processors in 2013. These second generation ultra low power APUs will feature AMD's Jaguar architecture with additional power enhancements and performance improvements.

Image Credit: AMD

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Dell Adds Gamer-Friendly Killer Wireless-N 1202 Wi-Fi Card To Alienware Notebooks

Brad Chacos — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:29:34 +0000

When Qualcomm Atheros launched its gaming-optimized Killer Wireless-N 1202 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo card about a month ago, the silence was deafening; the component launched without a single OEM manufacturer on board, meaning you couldn't actually, you know, find it inside any laptops. That changes today, as the company announced that Dell's Alienware gaming notebooks will sport the Killer Wireless-N 1202 heading into the future.

"Gamers everywhere depend on Alienware to deliver superior experiences that help them achieve that 'epic win'," Alienware general manager Frank Azor said in the press release, though we're not sure why "epic win" is bracketed by quotation marks. "Integrating the Killer Wireless N-1202 technology—another first from Alienware—allows gamers to experience exceptional online gaming."

The card combines Bluetooth capabilities with a 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi module capable of up to 300Mbps throughput and both 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum functionality, while the card's Killer Network Manager graphical UI lets you tinker with bandwidth and priorities on an application level.

The Killer Wireless-N 1202 also packs in Wi-Fi Direct capabilities and Qualcomm Atheros' Advanced Stream Detection technology, which can "automatically classify and prioritize latency-sensitive network traffic for online games, HD video and high-quality audio to maximize your online experience."

Have you played around with a Killer Wireless card? What were your experiences with it? Does it bring much to the table gaming traffic-wise?

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Image credit: hd-tecnologia.com

ViewSonic Launches Full HD 1080p Pro8300 Projector in Europe

Paul Lilly — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:40:22 +0000

Home theater buffs looking to replicate the big screen experience in their living rooms or man caves aren't the only ones who can benefit from a Full HD 1080p projector, at least not as far as ViewSonic is concerned. ViewSonic's new Pro8300 is just such a projector, boasting a 1920x1080 resolution, 3000 lumen rating, and "precise color performance and sharpness" that business users can take advantage of to pitch presentations.

ViewSonic also envisions its Pro8300 being used by teachers for multimedia, and of course there's nothing stopping you from plopping the projector in your home and firing up The Grey, provided you live in Europe, where this thing is being launched.

"ViewSonic understands business applications and launches the Pro8300 with an abundance of features that are capable of delivering outstanding presentations to partners and clients," ViewSonic says. "Pro8300 effectively elevates brainstorming meetings and commercial briefing by projecting information with 3000lm high brightness and a superior 1.5X optical zoom lens design to provide vibrant images with more 35 percent of additional zooming capability. The amazing clarity in 1080p Full HD resolution and detailed projection, allows the Pro8300 to dynamically enhance presentation quality and audience interaction."

The Pro8300 features dual HDMI and VGA inputs, a 10-bit image color processor, and a pair of 10W speakers. It will be available in Europe later this month for £999.00 inc VAT (around $1,577). No word on when or if ViewSonic plans to bring the Pro8300 to U.S. shores.

Image Credit: ViewSonic

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Graphics Shipments on the Decline, Jon Peddie Says

Paul Lilly — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:24:17 +0000

You can't hardly buy a processor any more without also purchasing a graphics chip. That's because many of today's CPUs sport integrated graphics, a relatively new development as both AMD and Intel push their respective CPU+GPU solutions onto the masses. But despite each company's efforts, along with a constant flow of discrete GPU solutions from AMD and Nvidia, graphics shipments are down overall.

According to data from Jon Peddie Research, combined graphics shipments declined 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012 when compared to the previous quarter, and slipped 3.38 percent from one year ago. No need to hit the panic button, JPR says.

"Although this did not shape up to be a great quarter for the suppliers, it actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. We found that shipments during the first quarter of 2012 behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality, declining from the previous quarter; however, this quarter's decline (of 0.8 percent) was less than the ten-year average of 3.1 percent," JPR points out. "If we use graphics as an indicator, the industry seems to be recovering from the floods in Thailand."

AMD actually grew its graphics shipments in Q1, by 0.3 percent, while Intel slipped 1.3 percent and Nvidia tumbled by 4.5 percent sequentially. How did AMD do it? According to JPR, "AMD had a gigantic increase of its desktop APUs of 84 percent," which more than made up for a "modest 2.6 percent decline in notebook APUs."

JPR's findings include both discrete and integrate graphics for desktops, notebooks, netbooks, and industrial systems. Handhelds, x86 servers ,and ARM-based tablets, smartbooks, and servers are excluded.

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Raspberry Pi Team Developing Camera Module

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:41:12 +0000

The much talked-about Raspberry Pi, which started shipping last month after a string of delays, is quite capable for its small size and price. As some of you may know, this diminutive single-board computer also features a 15-pin MIPI Camera interface (CSI) connector. However, according to “JamesH”, one of the people working on a camera module for the Pi, the CSI port on the Raspberry Pi is “fairly unusable without an already supported camera.” The good news is that the team has made some headway. More after the jump.

Last week, Liz Upton, who handles the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s PR, posted a few images of a prototype camera add-on board for the Pi. This prototype features a 14 megapixels sensor, according to Upton’s blog post. But don’t get your hopes too high, for the actual camera module is most likely to have something “around the 5 megapixel class” owing to pricing concerns. That said, Lipton did not rule out the possibility of a more expensive, higher-resolution module being made available at a later stage.

“The module is pretty small, which makes it ideal for some of the robotics and home automation applications people have been wanting to build,” Upton wrote. “The mechanical design still isn't complete, but the final version will attach to the Raspberry Pi with ribbon cable, like this prototype.”

The Foundation expects to release a working camera module for the Pi sometime later this year.

Image Credit: Raspberry Pi Foundation

Thermaltake's Black Element Cyclone Edition Mouse Blows (Thanks To Detachable Fan)

Brad Chacos — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:33:16 +0000

If your hot and heavy Diablo 3 sessions lead to sweaty palms and finger slippage, worry not: help is on the way courtesy of Thermaltake. Today, the company's Tt ESports division announced the Black Element Cyclone Edition mouse, which is an enhanced version of the basic Black Element mouse, complete with a detachable 6,000 RPM fan attached to cool down your overheated digits. No, really!

According to Thermaltake's press release, the Black Element Cyclone Edition hits 2.7 cubic feet of airflow per minute, a rate that the company claims can "efficiently dry off the hand" thanks to the close proximity of the fan to the mouse itself.

Now, we know what you're thinking: mo' fans, mo' noise problems! Again, don't worry. The Black Element Cyclone rocks a scant 21.7 decibels, which Thermaltake says is less than the ambient noise level at a typical library.

And as we said, if even that's too loud, you can always detach the detachable fan, neatly turning the Black Element Cyclone Edition into a traditional gaming mouse with 6,500 dpi laser sensitivity and 22.5g worth of customizable weights. It even packs a military-grade rubber coating to keep your hand from slipping if you do decide to deactivate the fan.

Interested gamers can read up on the Black Element Cyclone Edition over on the Tt eSports website. So, time to share your thoughts: is a detachable mouse fan is genuinely useful or just a gimmick?

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MSI Sends Z77A-GD80 Motherboard to the Thunderbolt Party

Paul Lilly — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:51:18 +0000

If someone sent out invitations to Intel's Thunderbolt party, consider MSI as having received one, hence the release of the company's Z77A-GD80 mainboard that was first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. Built around Intel's Z77 chipset with support for 22nm (Ivy Bridge) processors, the Z77A-GD80 is one of a handful of Thunderbolt-equipped motherboards making their debut today.

"With Thunderbolt, external device connectivity problems faced by high-end users are alleviated such as: poor data transfer rates, every device requiring an independent connection port, and transfer speed dropping low when sending and receiving files simultaneously due to lack of bandwidth, etc," MSI explains. "The all new Thunderbolt transfer technology provides an extremely large bi-direction 10Gbps bandwidth, which allows simultaneous connection of high resolution monitors, storage devices and even a graphics card."

Don't worry if you favor USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt, you'll find two of those on the rear, along with four USB 2.0 ports, plus a few more of each via headers on the mainboard. Other features include MSI's Military Class III components, UEFI BIOS, SATA 6Gbps ports, PCI Express Gen 3, Nvidia SLI and AMD Crossfire support, and other odds and ends.

MSI didn't announce a price or specify when the Z77A-GD80 will find its way onto store shelves.

Image Credit: MSI

Asus One of the First to Strike with an Intel Thunderbolt Certified Motherboard

Paul Lilly — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:18:46 +0000

Asus on Monday announced the launch of its P8Z77-V Premium motherboard, the flagship slice of silicon in the P8Z77 Series and, as it happens to be the case, the first Intel certified mainboard to boast a Thunderbolt interface, the company claims. Remember Thunderbolt? It's the previously much hyped high-speed interface from Intel that was supposed to give USB 3.0 a run for its money, though Intel claimed from Day 1 that the two technologies were meant to co-exist and not necessarily compete with each other.

Whatever the case may be, Asus made sure to point out that "Thunderbolt is 2 times faster than USB 3.0 and an incredible 20 times faster than USB 2.0." It has a maximum bi-directional speed of 10Gbps, and you can daisy chain up to six Thunderbolt devices on the P8Z77-V Premium, which also offers full display support for a seventh Thunderbolt or DisplayPort equipped monitor.

Luckily for those of you who are lovers of technology and not fighters of interface standards, there are plenty of USB options on the P8Z77-V Premium as well, including four USB 3.0 ports on the back panel and two on the mainboard, and half a dozen USB 2.0 ports overall (two on back, four on the mainboard).

Full specs can be found on the P8Z77-V Premium's product page. No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: Asus

Nvidia launches Fermi Based GeForce GT 610, GT 620, & GT 630

Justin Kerr — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:56:59 +0000

Nvidia is a master of marketing, so when they “quietly” launched the GeForce GT 610, 620, and 630 into the retail channel late last week, we knew something was up. It turns out of the three new cards, none of these are actually based on the most recently released Kepler architecture behind the GTX 670, 680, and 690, and are in reality based on the last generation designs. We knew Nvidia was already rebranding Fermi parts for use in OEM laptops and desktops, however it looks like the practice will again carry forward to the aftermarket parts as well.

The GT 610 is a rebadged GT 520, which could mean we are looking at a GF119, or GF 108 GPU, featuring a pretty paltry 48 CUDE cores. The GT 610 is intended to be the entry level 600 series card, and is unlikely to even outpace integrated graphics found on modern Ivy Bridge chips.

The GT 620 is a variant of the OEM-only GT 530, and features a slightly more respectable 96 CUDA cores. Twice the CUDA cores will help, but like the GT 610, the GT 620 only has a 64 bit memory bus which no doubt be a bottleneck.

The GT 630 is defiantly saving the best for last, however it doesn’t take much to stand out in this crowd. This card is a rebadged GT 440, and contains 96 CUDA cores, though with a slightly more respectable 128 bit memory bus.

We wish Nvidia would quit it with the rebadging as it only leads to confusion, but at least it will help them fill out the low end options faster than trying to scale down Kepler.

(Image Credit = AnandTech)

Nvidia Acknowledges Kepler V-Sync Stuttering Issues and Promises a Prompt Driver Fix

Justin Kerr — Sun, 20 May 2012 21:06:22 +0000

Nvidia’s new Kepler-based graphics cards are still fairly new on the scene, but a fairly serious new bug has emerged that started out as a forum rant, and has evolved into an official acknowledgement from the green team. The problem in question seems to be limited to GTX 670, 680, & 690 customers who enable v-sync though the Nvidia control panel, and by most accounts, is pretty infuriating.

Multiple news outlets have requested a comment from NVidia on the issue, however a response to the forum thread has finally brought closure to the issue, which by the sound of it, will be resolved in next month’s drive release.

We have received reports of an intermittent v-sync stuttering issue from some of our customers. We’ve root caused the issue to a driver bug and identified a fix for it. The fix requires extensive testing though, and will not be available until our next major driver release targeted for June (post-R300). For users experiencing this issue, the interim workaround is to disable v-sync via the Nvidia Control Panel or in-game graphics settings menu.