Paul Lilly
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Posts by Paul Lilly
OCZ Outs Low Profile Vertex 3 Solid State Drives
02 days ago
by Paul Lilly
in Syndicated Sites
Thin is in, as it pertains to the tech world, and the current trend is towards increasingly skinny devices. Just take one look at the Ultrabook frenzy, including similar devices that don't carry Intel's official Ultrabook label, but are just as flat and portable nonetheless. Catering to this crowd of thin and light machine owners is OCZ, which is rolling out a line of low profile Vertex 3 solid state drives.
The Vertex 3 LP line features a 7mm high form factor that "easily integrates into the latest mobile computing platforms." Best of all, the shrinkage in physical size doesn't come at the expense of performance or storage space.
These are SATA III SSDs available in 60GB, 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB capacities. Depending on the model, they offer maximum read/write speeds of up to 550MB/520MB per second, and up to 85,000 IOPS of random 4K write performance.
No word on when these will be available or how much they'll run.
Image Credit: OCZ
BitFenix Rolls Out a Pair of Fan Controllers
02 days ago
by Paul Lilly
in Syndicated Sites
The world's population of fan controllers grew by two this week, courtesy of BitFenix, including one model the company claims is the world's first Internet-connected fan controller (Recon) and another that sports low profile sliders (Hydra Pro) for compatibility with just about any case, even ones with doors. The Hydra Pro features 30W per channel performance (with five channels), offers push-button LED on/off functionality when combined with BitFenix's Spectre and Spectre Pro LED fans, and boasts BitFenix's SofTouch surface treatment similar to what you find on many rubberized smartphones.
Probably of more interest to most folks is the Recon, an Internet-connected fan controller that also boasts five channels, but offers fan monitoring and control via mobile devices. The mobile interface is browser-based, so you can control it with just about any operating system, including iOS, Android, and Windows.
"Users have been clamoring for these two devices for a while now, and I'm proud to report that the wait is finally over," says BitFenix Product Manager David Jarlestedt. "With Recon and Hydra Pro, BitFenix once again takes our disruptive ideas and brings them into a new design space – fan controllers. Offering never-before-seen functionality at competitive price points, Recon and Hydra Pro are set to become the go-to thermal control devices for enthusiasts the world over."
The BitFenix Recon carries an MSRP of $39 in the U.S. and will be available next week, while the Hydra Pro will run $34.90 when it ships in June.
Image Credit: BitFenix
Acer’s New TravelMate P243 Heads to the U.K., Packs Ivy Bridge
02 days ago
by Paul Lilly
in Syndicated Sites
Acer this week rolled out its TravelMate P243 laptop, a notebook designed to meet the needs of SMB and SOHO with a "pleasant yet practical design." On the practicality side, the TravelMate P243 wields third generation Intel Core processor options with Turbo Boost and, according to model, discrete level Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics to tear through those multimedia chores (or some gaming in between hammering out TPS reports).
The TravelMate P243 sports a 14-inch display with a 1366x768 screen resolution. Specs will vary by model, though all will come with a USB 3.0 port for high-speed data transfers (provided you're rocking a USB 3.0-friendly storage device), HD webcam, up to 8GB of system memory, at least 750GB of storage space, stereo speakers, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, GbE LAN, Bluetooth 4.0, and various security features, including Acer's ProShield Security lineup, which is a suite of security and manageability tools integrated in a unified user interface (file shredder, pre-boot authentication, and other odds and ends).
Pricing starts at £339 when it launches in the U.K. Acer didn't say when that will be, nor did the company mention whether or not its latest TravelMate will make a trip to U.S. shores any time soon.
Image Credit: Acer
Amazon Flirts with 10.1-inch Kindle Fire, Eyes Third Quarter Launch
02 days ago
by Paul Lilly
in Syndicated Sites
One of the complaints some people have with Amazon's Kindle Fire device is that it's only 7 inches. Sure, it's relatively affordable in the land of tablets (or glorified eBook readers, if you prefer to call it that), but certainly a larger screen size would put additional competitive heat on Apple's iPad, the only tablet line that sells better than the Fire. Well, it looks as though a 10.1-inch Kindle Fire is nearing release.
According to DigiTimes, Amazon is "likely" to launch a full-sized Kindle Fire tablet device in the third quarter of this year, and is so serious about the move, it's suspending the launch of the 8.9-inch version that was rumored to exist.
The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire was supposed to compete with Samsung's Galaxy Note tablets, or at least that's what DigiTimes' sources are saying. But with the decision to launch a 10.1-inch Kindle Fire, Amazon scrapped its 8.9-inch plans in order to simplify its lineup while going for the iPad's jugular.
Image Credit: Amazon
MSI Cooks Up Norris Edition Gaming PC, Forgets to Add Chuck
03 days ago
by Paul Lilly
in Syndicated Sites
MSI's 'Gamer's Choice Edition GTX 680 Norris Edition' is a high-end gaming PC, but it's not an official Chuck Norris system, because a gaming PC implies eventual obsolescence and Chuck Norris would never allow that to happen. There are millions of PC gamers in the wild, because Chuck Norris allows there to be, and as far as we know, there's only one Norris Edition system, an obvious reference to the martial arts master and Internet sensation.
So we've established that MSI's latest system is missing Chuck, but otherwise the recipe includes plenty of promising ingredients. It starts with a liquid cooled (Corsair Hydro Series H100) Intel Core i7 3770K processor (Ivy Bridge) overclocked to 4.4GHz. There's also an MSI brand GeForce 680 GTX graphics card (N680GTX Twn Frozr 2GD5/OC), an MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard, 16GB of DDR3-1866 memory, 120GB Corsair Force GT solid state drive, 2TB Seagate hard drive spinning at 7,200 RPM, and Corsair TX650 power supply. All this comes wrapped in Corsair's Graphite Series 600T mid-tower chassis.
According to overseas reports, like this one at Golem.de, MSI's Gamer's Choice Edition GTX 680 Norris Edition PC launches on May 20, 2012 for an introductory price of 1,899 euros (about $2,413). On May 31, the price jumps to 1,999 euros (~$2,540). No word on whether Chuck Norris will allow this system to launch in the U.S., and if so, how much it would sell for in the States.
