Hardware Roundup: Thursday Edition

There are a myriad of storage options available to users today and today's roundup includes a good sampling including a high capacity flash drive from Corsair, Seagate's SATA 6Gb/s 2TB Seagate XT hard drive, the Thermaltake's BlacX Duet docking station (you can check out the OCC review here) and the latest solid state drive offering from G.Skill. For those of you in the United States, OCC would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy and safe Thanksgiving Day! Gaming Race On (PC) @ Gamingheaven Mobile Proporta Leather Style eReader Case @ TweakTown Motherboards ASRock P55 Deluxe Intel P55 Motherboard @ ThinkComputers Notebooks Asus UL80Vt Thin-And-Light Notebook @ HotHardware Storage/Hard Drives Thermaltake BlacX Duet HDD Docking Station @ Legit Reviews Seagate 2TB Barracuda XT Hard Drive @ Motherboards.org Corsair 32GB Flash Voyager GT @ Virtual-Hideout G.Skill Falcon II 64GB 2.5-inch Solid State Disk @ TweakTown Video Asus HD 5970 Voltage Tweak Edition @ Bjorn3D

Steam Holiday Deals Start Today

As the holiday shopping season is about to get underway, with Black Friday only days away, Steam is getting in on the action. From now until Monday, select games will be featured in daily deals. This is a great way to build your collection with great values, or to pick up some games to be gifted to others for the holiday season. Dragon Age: Origins which came out very recently is featured at 25% off, with the rest of todays deals at 50% off or greater. The two package deals, the Lucas Arts Premier Pack and THQ Complete Pack, provide for even greater deals. Gamers should be sure to keep an eye on these deals for the next few days.

Amazon Updates Kindle 2

In a new update to the Kindle 2, Amazon is providing consumers with extended battery life up to eighty-five percent, and the ability to view PDFs natively instead of converting it to a Kindle format. While the new update does not include much, users will benefit greatly from increased battery life that will a Kindle 2 last for up to a week without needing a recharge, compared to the previous four days. The PDF update allows for users to read Adobe PDF files natively, when before they had to be converted into a proprietary Kindle format. Amazons update is just in time for the Holiday season when people are looking more and more to buy e-readers instead of actual books to save both money and the environment. Though other e-readers are on the market and widely available for purchase, many consumers will be looking for the Kindle 2 wherever they can find one, especially after the recent update increasing battery life.

Hardware Roundup: Wednesday Edition

If you are in the market for a new computer case, we have a trio of reviews on units from Thermaltake, Cooler Master and Akasa for you to check out today. In terms of storage, Seagate's Barracuda XT 2TB drive is the first drive on the market that supports the latest SATA 6Gbps standard. Throw four of those into the QNAP TS-419P NAS server and you have some pretty serious storage capability. Of course, the holiday season is fast approaching with Black Friday just around the corner, so what better way to get things started that with a holiday gift guide? Check out the guide and the rest of the reviews in our Wednesday roundup by following the links below. Cases Akasa Freedom Xone Chassis @ DriverHeaven Cooler Master Elite 310 ATV Computer Case @ Tweaknews Thermaltake Element V Gaming Chassis @ ThinkComputers Input Devices ROCCAT Kova Gaming Mouse (& Sota Surface) @ Driverheaven Motherboards MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 Motherboard @ [H]ardOCP Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P LGA 1156 Motherboard @ Bjorn3D Notebooks Packard Bell DOT M/A AMD Powered Netbook @ Madshrimps MSI X-Slim X340 Notebook @ TechSpot Networking TRENDnet 300Mbps Wireless N Travel Router @ Techgage Storage/Hard Drives Seagate's Barracuda XT hard drive @ Tech Report QNAP TS-419P Turbo NAS 4-Bay Network Storage @ Legit Reviews Video Editorial: Why High-End Radeon HD 5000 series supply is problematic @ TweakTown Miscellany The Dark Crystal HD Movie @ TweakTown HotHardware Holiday Gift Guide 2009 @ HotHardware

muvee Reveal Offers Faster Rendering with CUDA-Enabled NVIDIA GeForce GPUs

By now we're all familiar with the processing power potential available with Nvidia's CUDA enabled GeForce and ION GPUs. One area that really benefits from the parallel processing is video processing and muvee has announced that version 8 of its Reveal movie making software now offers up to eight times faster processing using CUDA. Using muvee Reveal, users can create great looking videos by uploading videos and photographs, choosing music accompaniment and choosing a style and letting the software automatically select the best scenes and synchronize the video to the the beat of the music. Now users with CUDA-enabled graphics processors can see their creations render up to 8 times faster. muvee Reveal version 8 is now available online for $79.99 or just can download it and try it free for 15 days.

IBM Announces End of the Cell Processor

A vice president at IBM has recently confirmed that development has ended for the Cell processor. The chip, which was featured in the Playstation 3, didn't live up to the commercial hype but has nonetheless been important. The processor is featured in the RoadRunner supercomputer, and proved that heterogeneous multiprocessors could be successful. IBM was the first to bring this type of processor, featuring different cores on the same chip, but Intel and AMD have offerings planned for the future. The Intel Larrabee features similar concepts to the Cell, but differences in memory structure make it slightly easier to program for. However, writing any code to fully take advantage of the many cores that are featured on todays processors is difficult on any chip.

Asus Launches New EAH Graphics Cards For ATI's 5000 Series

Asus has recently launched three new cards for their 5000 series lineup, the EAH5970/G/2DIS/2GD5, the EAH5750 FORMULA/2DI/1GD5 and finally, the EAH5770/2DI/1GD5. The EAH5970 and the EAH5770 are equipped with Asus Voltage Tweak Technology, which enables the user to boost GPU voltages using SmartDoctor for a raise in performance up to 31%! Both EAH5750 Formula and EAH5770 feature very efficient coolers, plus Asus Xtreme Design solutions for a reliable high quality product. The three cards feature all 5000 series technologies like Eyefinity and support for DX11. For more specifications please check the three images in the bottom of this article. Voltage Tweak allows the user to boost the voltage of the GPU for a raise in the Core clock and Memory clock. The EAH5970 reported a 31% score increase in 3DMark Vantage Extreme using Voltage Tweak. As you can see you can get that performance boost very easily. Both the EAH5750 Formula and the EAH5770  have improved cooling solutions from their reference counterparts. While the EAH5750 Formula uses an aerodynamic cooler and a heatsink with Micro Surface Treatment, the EAH5770 features a tuning-fork shaped heatsink for higher heat dissipation surface area while being 15dB quieter than the reference one. This means both cards run cooler and more stable with good headroom for overclocking, something that both of them have already proven they are good at.

Hardware Roundup: Tuesday Edition

It should come as no surprise that there are several Radeon 5000-series videocard reviews in today's roundup, but we also have some news out of the Nvidia camp with a look at the upcoming Fermi architecture. As for the AMD graphics cards, we get a look at the PowerColor HD 5770 and HD 5770 and HD 5750 cards from Sapphire (both of which were reviewed by OCC here). Also in the roundup is the NZXT Lexa S computer case (also reviewed by OCC here) and more, so make certain you check out all of the reviews by using the links below. Cases NZXT Lexa S case @ Neoseeker CPUs Intel Core i7 860 LGA 1156 Processor @ ThinkComputers Gaming Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City Xbox 360 @ TweakTown Motherboards ASUS Maximus III GENE @ Bjorn3D GIGABYTE P55A-UD6 (P55 Express) Motherboard @ TweakTown Networking Trendnet 300Mbps Wireless N Travel Router @ Rbmods Operating Systems Beginners Guides: Safe Mode in Windows For Crash Recovery @ PCSTATS Power Supplies Corsair HX650W Power Supply @ DriverHeaven Video Inside Fermi's graphics architecture @ Tech Report PowerColor HD5770 Video Card @ [H]ardOCP ATI Catalyst 9.11 New Features Analysis @ Neoseeker Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 @ Techgage Sapphire HD5770 Videocard @ Tweaknews Miscellany HotHardware and TechVi Video Podcast - No 4 @ HotHardware

Sony May Open One Complete Storefront

Earlier last year, the Sony Connect store closed down due to customers going elsewhere for DRM-free music files as well as other reasons. This in turn left the company without an online music store. Later however, it opened MusicPass for its portable music players and kept other online access points for other products open. With its PlayStation console, it currently has the PlayStation Network, and with its other variety of online stores, it is easy to see how users can get easily confused on where to go for their files and media. Sony is however considering the thought of opening up one storefront area online for consumers to purchase and download all of their media files, codenamed for now as the Sony Online Service. This new online shop should encompass all of the different areas of the company, including the Sony Ericsson phone, Walkman music players, Bravia televisions, and even its PlayStation video game consoles. It is expected that most users of the PlayStation network will not migrate over to the new service easily after being so adapted to the current system, but the new idea should make buyable media that much more easier to those people who continue to use along with support Sony and their products.

Jailbroken iPhones Being Attacked Again

The first worm for the iPhone simply Rickrolled the user, but attempts since then haven't been so nice. The attacks are able to take place because the user hasn't changed the default password on their jailbroken phone, as users who don't jailbreak aren't affected by any of these attacks. The attack is once again SSH based, and once on the phone changes the root password. The only way to get rid of the worm at this point is to wipe the phone. The worm looks through your SMS database, and some versions are said to be able to upload that database to the creators. In addition, accessing an unnamed Dutch bank will lead users to a fake site where the hackers can steal the login information.

Hardware Roundup: Monday Edition

It's the start of another week and our roundup has several reviews to get you started. OCZ's dual-channel 4GB DDR3 PC3-15000 offers reasonable performance at a reasonable price. In the graphics card department with have a nice mix of reviews covering a GeForce GT240 card from XFX along with the ASUS Radeon EAH5850 and HIS HD 4850 cards. Memory OCZ DDR3 PC3-15000 Platinum Series 4GB Memory Kit @ TweakTown Notebooks Asus' UL80Vt 14-inch notebook @ Tech Report Storage/Hard Drives AMP 4GB USB Drives @ DriverHeaven Seagate Barracuda 2TB Sata 3 (Sata 6Gb/s) (ST32000641AS CC11) @ Bjorn3D Video XFX GeForce GT 240 Video Card @ Motherboards.org HIS HD4850 VGA Card @ Overclocker Cafe ASUS Radeon EAH5850 @ Techgage

Smoke in Your Mac is an OSHA Violation

Two complaints have surfaced against Apple from people who had their repair claims denied by Apple techs. Two different users reported that Apple denied their repairs because the computers contained smoking residue. Apple refused to work on these computers as they were ruled to be an OSHA violation. Both Macs were covered under the Applecare warranty program, but neither of them were fixed. One user was able to clean his computer with compressed air, while the other appears to be up a creek without a paddle. There is no mention of smoke damage voiding the users warranty in the Applecare contract.

GPU-Z 0.3.7 Available

The latest version of GPU-Z, 0.3.7 is now available. Updates in this version include full support for the ATI Radeon HD 5970 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 video cards, the option to show if a card is compatible with CUDA, PhysX, OpenCL and DirectX Compute, and enhanced accuracy of ATI GPU load monitoring. This new release also has the ability to show the amount of video memory in use for NVIDIA graphics card users, along with other various fixes and updates. GPU-Z 0.3.7 can be downloaded for free here.

MSI Prepares H57M-ED65 mATX Motherboard

Intel's LGA-1156 socket is due to get some new additions early next year including dual-core variants and on-die graphics. These new members of the 1156 family will need a new home: the Intel H57 Express chipset which enables support for on-die graphics. MSI has unveiled pictures and features of its first H57 offering, the H57M-ED65 mATX motherboard. It features a 10-phase VRM to keep the CPU fed with power and MSI's signature DrMOS heatsinks. This board has no PCI slots and contains two PCIe x16 slots and two PCIe x1 slots instead. Eight SATA 3Gbps SATA ports are available (two are from an extra storage controller) and one legacy IDE connector. The board features an array of video connectors supplied by Intel's Flexible Display technology (on-die graphics) including DVI, VGA, HDMI and Display Port. Other connectivity ports such as USB, FireWire, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet and 8-channel audio are located on the back panel. Enthusiasts are also catered for with the MSI OC Genie and on-board power/reset buttons. I'd expect to see this board in MSI's H57 line-up in Q1 2010. Thanks to TechSweden.org for the pictures of MSI's new motherboard.

Hardware Roundup: Weekend Edition

It's no surprise that AMD Radeon 5970 and Nvidia GT 200 cards are still prevalent in the roundup as both cards were just released last week. Also released last week was Google's Chrome OS and we're treated to a hands-on look. We also have games, a solid state drive ad an HTPC case in this weekend's roundup for you to check out. Cases Thermaltake SD100 mini ITX Home Theater Chassis @ Legit Reviews Gaming Command and Conquer 4 (Preview) - PC and Assassins Creed II Review (PS3 & X360) @ GamingHeaven Operating Systems Google Chrome OS hands-on (Dev Build November 20, 2009) @ TweakTown Storage/Hard Drives OCZ Colossus 3.5-in Solid State Drive @ PC Perspective Video Leadtek GT 220 @ Bjorn3D Sapphire 5970 Cfx and HIS 5970 CFx @ DriverHeaven Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 5970 2 GB Video Card Unboxing and Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 5970 2 GB Graphics Card @ Motherboards.org (YouTube links) ATI Catalyst 9.11 Windows 7 Driver Analysis @ TweakTown Miscellany PCPer Podcast #82 - Flash 10.1, AMD Radeon HD 5970, Kingston SSDNow 40GB, MSI NF980-E65 Motherboard and more! @ PC Perspective