techETA

Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse G700 gets about as fancy as you’d want

Rafael Hernandez — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:15:45 +0000

Gaming mice toss a whole heck of a lot of feature points at you without really getting to needs of the gamer: a whole heck of a lot of buttons. Keyboards are nice and all but since you’ve got your hand on your mouse a bulk of the time it’s a good idea to have as many macros loaded on to it to ease those complicated gaming functions. The Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse G700 gives you 13 buttons to work with and customizable software to program those healing macros to your heart’s content. Buttons aren’t the only thing going for it though since its high precision tracking device means you’ll make the shot most of the time…and if you didn’t it was lag anyway.

Logitech Wireless G700 Gaming Mouse Review @ Hardware Heaven

Sharkoon Bandit permits the air to flow

Rafael Hernandez — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:45:55 +0000

Most computer cases can be relied on to provide a stable place to hold your PC’s hardware but don’t offer much more than a few poorly placed fans and call it a day. The Sharkoon Bandit makes sure you have more than enough cooling potential with two pre-installed fans (120mm front, 180mm top) and the capability to add two more 140mm fans and a 120mm fan to the rear of the chassis. Of course fan mounts are important but they’ve also focused on adding a card reader, which many cases overlook, and a hard drive docking bay for those that love to swap a large amount of files in a short amount of time without having to dig into your case. If you’re interested you’ll be able to find it on sale starting today at your favorite European hardware dealer for 69 Euros.

Bandit PC Case @ SHARKOON Technologies

HP ProBook 4720s prefers to remain low key

Rafael Hernandez — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:45:49 +0000

The last bastion of box design notebooks has been the business lineups many companies offer but those too are falling for the softer rounded lines to ease the harsh looks. HP’s ProBook 4270s is having nothing to do with that and carries on the fine tradition of solidly built chassis packed with some of the finest technology around. The machine comes prepped with an Intel Core i5 processor of your choice along with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4350 graphics processor which should handle plenty of your business related tasks and even a bit of that hardware video acceleration and mild 3D requirements.

Review of HP ProBook 4720s Notebook PC WH287UT @ Test Freaks

NZXT Internal USB Expansion Module provides more than enough power

Rafael Hernandez — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:30:18 +0000

There’s nothing quite as frustrating as hooking up your favorite portable external hard drive to the USB ports on the front of your case only to find out they wouldn’t provide enough power to…power your storage device. NZXT feels your pain and has come up with their Internal USB Expansion Module which acts as a sort of go between your front panel USB ports and gives it a bit of extra juice, with the help of your power supply, in order to make sure your devices function properly. Of course if you’re running low on internal USB connections this might just solve those problems for you as well.

NZXT Internal USB Expansion Module Model IU01 Review @ TWEAKNEWS

BitFenix Colossus consumes your precious hardware

Rafael Hernandez — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:45:26 +0000

Having a computer case with a cavernous interior is all but required now a days as you’ve got to have enough space for that monstrous heatsink and graphics card setup as well as enough clearance to snake those power cables around your system. The BitFenix Colossus does all of that and much more allowing you plenty of cable routing options and copious amounts of drive bays, both internal and for external access, with an extra spiffy lighting system to boot. Of course if you’re worried about airflow they’ve implemented their very own “create a tornado in your case” with a pair of included 230mm fans (top and front) while you can add another pair of 140mm fans if it’s to your liking.

BitFenix Colossus Full Tower Case Review @ Legit Reviews

HP dm3 and ENVY 14 and 17 enjoy many refinements

Rafael Hernandez — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:45:30 +0000

HP is hoping you’ll find yourself in the company of their newly revamped mobile notebook lineup an their fancy new features. The company’s top of the line ENVY 17 3D notebook brings with it some stereoscopic 3D glasses for that extra vivid experience but you’re likely to be much more interested in its Intel Core i7 mobile processing capabilities and ATI Radeon HD 5850 Mobility graphics to go along with its Beats Audio technology.

Interestingly enough the ENVY 14 Beats Edition also touts the company’s Beats Audio tech but its much smaller 14″ form factor means you’ll have to make due with an Intel Core i3 or i5 CPUs and ATI’s Radeon HD 5650 Mobility graphics. The upshot is its 6.5 hours of battery life which makes it well suited for those away from a wall socket.

The HP Pavilion dm3 is a bit more reserved when it comes to advanced technology but its 13.3″ display means it’s the smallest of the three and it offers up to 7.5 hours of surfing your heart away. The notebook also sports HP CoolSense Technology which is a combination of strategically placed vents and automatic fan control which should keep things running much quieter and cooler.

HP’s Pavilion dm3 and ENVY 14 Beats Edition laptops can be had now at prices starting from $549USD and $1249USD respectively while the company’s ENVY 17 3D will be available this holiday season to fit into those massive stockings.

ENVY Laptops @ HP

HP working with Hynix to bring us the Memristor

Rafael Hernandez — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:30:24 +0000

Memory technologies come and go…no wait we’re still stuck with the same basic volatile RAM our systems use and the flash based memory our gadgetry and solid state drives are based off of. Interestingly enough HP stumbled into a method for creating something of a hybrid that might one day improve performance.

They’ve partnered up with Hynix, a major memory manufacturer, to bring their “Memristor” from the lab into a viable product. The technology, which will be incorporated into their forward looking ReRAM (Resistive Random Access Memory) is capable of storing information even when the power is turned off, which is basically what Flash media is capable of, but promises to be ten times faster than current Flash implementations and ten times more energy efficient.

Of course the most interesting news is that the technology can be worked in such a way that the storage chips themselves could do computing tasks on the data stored within which makes for some intriguing possibilities for the future.

Bringing the memristor to market @ HP

Antec Two Hundred V2 because revisions are always better

Rafael Hernandez — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:30:24 +0000

If you find yourself in need of an inexpensive computer case your choices are usually limited to something so flimsy you’ll probably dent it just by looking at it and the designs best left to the trash heap. Antec’s Two Hundred V2 carries on the tradition of lower cost cases that still offer a great deal of functionality that an enthusiast on a budget would want. The latest model comes prepped with more than enough fan mounts, five to be exact, as well as a cutout to ease installing any heatsink mounting plates you may have on hand. If that wasn’t enough a hard drive hot-swap bay makes an appearance to improve your massive file moving needs. Overall it seems like there are lots of nice additions that make this a reasonable alternative to the competition’s budget models and even some higher end cases out there on the market today.

Antec Two Hundred V2 Mid-Tower Case Review @ Neoseeker

AMD pushing DisplayPort to Single Link DVI adapters

Rafael Hernandez — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:45:38 +0000

AMD’s Eyefinity technology holds a lot of promise for those that wish to run six or so displays off of one graphics card enabling some insanely high resolutions for the gaming crowd and business related endeavors. Unfortunately few, inexpensive, monitors offer up DisplayPort as an input and the adapters to pump those precious pixels to the vast majority of displays are over-specced for the 1920×1200 displays out there (dual link adapters push up to 2,560 × 1,600 resolutions). Interestingly AMD is coaxing their card manufacturers to start including cheaper, and easier to make, single link DisplayPort to DVI adapters which should be available at around $30 a pop all by their lonesome which sure does beat upgrading that set of six monitors.

The DisplayPort to Single Link DVI Adapter @ Hardware Canucks

Lucid UNITY enables HYDRALOGIX Multi-GPU graphics processing possible for all

Rafael Hernandez — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:15:49 +0000

LucidLogix’s Hydra graphics engine allows any motherboard infused with its awesome powers to accept graphics cards from the two major manufacturers and allows them to work in tandem as a Multi-GPU solution that doesn’t take into account CrossFireX or SLI capabilities.

The technology does have its merits but it required motherboard manufacturers to add quite a bit of complexity, and cost, to their designs so Lucid has rolled out there newest product the UNITY architecture which moves their frame assembling technology on to the graphics cards bypassing the need for a Lucid Hydra equipped motherboard.

The company has at least one graphics card manufacturer on their side, PowerColor, which should make things interesting over the next few months if you’re the type of person that enjoys mixing and matching mid-range and high-end levels of hardware.