AMD Trinity Meets Lucid Virtu on Gigabyte’s New “UP Series”

Well-known mainboard manufacturer, Taiwanese company Gigabyte, lately known as the “Thinnest UltraBook” record holder, has just presented its first FM2 maindboard during Computex 2012. The new toy is called Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 and comes with very interesting features. The motherboard will support AMD’s new Trinity desktop CPUs that feature new and improved Piledriver x86 cores along with a newer iGPU using VLIW4 architecture. This mainboard is part of Gigabyte’s new “UP Series” and features a new VRM system that promises much lower component temperatures especially in weak ventilated environments. The new VRM build on IP licensed from International Rectifer and brings a current intensity of 60 Amps per phase. Gigabyte’s...

Read more »

Core i7 Transformer Book Presented by ASUS

ASUS is a well-known mother board manufacturer. It’s likely the biggest motherboard manufacturer in the world, but the company now appears to be taking the mobile world by storm. During this year’s Computex show, the company is showing its own TransformerBook concept. Although the tradition is to write it in a single word, just like UltraBook, netbook, nettop and notebook, maybe we should take a break from that an just write it Transformer Book. As we’ve already said, ASUS is taking the mobile world by storm and this is not a single blow like the first and second Transformers were. This seems to be a full blown attack. ASUS’ ZenBooks seem to be gunning for Apple’s MacBook Air. The Dual Screen wonder is a tough blow targeting...

Read more »

Gigabyte Presents Two AMD Trinity Mainboards

World’s Thinnest UltraBook record holder, mainboard manufacturer Gigabyte has just introduced a high-end “UP Series” FM2 mainboard today, but now the company is showing the rest of its FM2 lineup. These mainboards are slim-ATX and microATX models that sport UltraDurable 4 quality certification and are powered by AMD’s A55 FCH chipset. The first one is the Gigabyte GA- F2A55-DS3 in the slim-ATX format using a simpler 4 + 2 phase VRM to fuel the processor. The board only comes with two DDR3 DIMM slots supporting DDR3-2400 memory through overclocking an a single PCI-Express x16 slot belonging to the 2.0 PCIe generation. There are four more PCI-Express x1 slots and two legacy PCI 32-bit expansion slots on the GA-F2A55-DS3. On the...

Read more »

MSI's GeForce GTX 670 Power Edition Debut

Micro-Star International has officially introduced a couple of GeForce GTX 670 graphics cards, both equipped with a custom printed circuit board (PCB) and air coolers. Even though one of the GTX 670 Power Edition boards has regular clock speeds (915 MHz GPU, 980 MHz GPU Boost), it deserves the name because of its higher than normal overclocking capability. The custom PCB has a stronger VRM, as well as SFC chokes, International Rectifier DirectFETs and Hi-C capacitors. All in all, the enhanced PWM design should allow for a 25% higher current support compared to NVIDIA's PCB. Add to that Triple Overvoltage and there is a lot of overclocking headroom for enthusiasts to play with (fine-tuning of GPU, memory and PLL power...

Read more »

Galaxy S III Gets Torn to Pieces, Unveils Impressive Internals

Samsung’s Galaxy S III is already available for purchase in various markets around the world, and it is nearing its official availability in some more countries before the end of this month. Enthusiasts rushed to grab the new Android flagship device from Samsung, yet there still are some who haven’t yet had the change to take a good look at it. For all current and future Galaxy S III owners, as well as for those who are only interested in learning more on it, the guys over at iFixit have a treat. They took the time to disassemble one Galaxy S III unit and to bring all of its inner parts to light. Thus, users can have a better look at the phone’s 4.8" Super AMOLED 720 x 1280 resolution display, as well as at its 1.4 GHz quad-core...

Read more »

Kingston Launches 2,666 MHz-Certified Memory

Kingston is determined to hang onto its status as one of the best-known memory brands, so it has created some Hyper-X-branded, high-speed dual-channel DDR3 kits. Since Intel saw fit to release a bunch of new dual-core and quad-core mobile and desktop CPUs, Kingston chose to ship kits “engineered especially for the new Intel third-generation Core i7 and i5 processors.” “The new 22nm architecture of this processor allows significant performance gains for benchmarkers, enthusiasts and overclockers,” said Mark Tekunoff, senior technology manager, Kingston. “Enthusiasts who want to push the performance boundaries of the new processors will want to pair it with Kingston HyperX memory. Our 2,666 MHz kit combined with the top CPU...

Read more »

New CyanogenMod 9 Boot Animation Emerges on Video

CyanogenMod 9, the popular Android 4.0-based custom software, has just got a new boot animation for all its users to enjoy. The CyanogenMod team has recently adopted a new mascot for their software – Cid –, and the boot sequence has been revised to reflect that. The old mascot – Andy – is gone now, and soon all users will be greeted by Cid when powering up their devices. In the video embedded above, you can have a look at the official boot animation that CyanogenMod will soon feature, with the new mascot inside. “This is the official boot animation for CyanogenMod 9 (CM9),” its designer notes. “I had to recreate the animation with the new mascot ‘Cid’ in place of old skateboard Andy.” Users will get the chance to download it soon, so stay tuned for more on the matter. ...

Read more »

PNY Introduces Verto GeForce GT 640 Graphics Card

A couple of days ago we wrote about the bizarre GeForce GT 640 graphics card lineup that NVIDIA had released. Now we are bringing you information on a custom-made GT 640, from PNY. It is called Verto GeForce GT 640 and runs the Kepler GK107 graphics processor (384 CUDA cores) at 900 MHz. Meanwhile, the 1 GB of DDR3memory has a frequency of 1,782 MHz (effective) and an interface of 128 bits. "Consumers can now experience Kepler architecture at an affordable price point," said Nicholas Mauro, senior marketing manager, PC components for PNY. "Whether you're using your PC for multimedia or gaming, the GT 640's ability to visually consume three monitors with HD photos, videos, or games is truly dynamic. The GT 640 positions...

Read more »

TRENDnet Reveals Wireless Networking Devices

People looking for a nice way to set up a wireless network at home may want to drop by TRENDnet's Computex 2012 booth one of these days. What the company did was build the AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router and the AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Media Bridge. The former (model TEW-812DRU) operates at 1,300 Mbps over 5 GHz 802.11ac and 450 Mbps over the 2.4 GHz band. Gigabit LAN receives the connection from a cable, while Beam Forming technology ensures optimum wireless transmissions. An USB port is thrown into the mix for networking HDDs or flash drives too. The other device, AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Media Bridge (TEW-800MB) links together up to four media center devices (via Gigabit LAN ports) and a 1300 Mbps 802.11ac network....

Read more »

Acer’s AIO 7600U and 5600U Gets Detailed

Acer has been known lately as one of the world’s biggest mobile PC manufactures. More to the point, Acer is currently enjoying the world’s second largest notebook manufacturer status. Now that the All-In-One / Touchscreen craze is in effect, Acer seems dead set to capture a considerable part of the market. The company has shown much more innovative products than it did one or two years ago, and it’s also improving the quality of the devices developed. One such innovative and superior quality range of products is the company’s new AIO line. AIO is short for All-In-One. The 7600U and 5600U look very interesting on paper and nice in the marketing shots, but our colleagues from Slashgear have managed to get their hands on...

Read more »

ASUS Reveals Most Powerful Enthusiast Router

ASUS is a well-known motherboard manufacturer that has recently been registering success after success with its notebook and tablet mobile series. Today, the company is officially introducing the new AC wireless router called RT-AC66U. Ever since the launch of the 500GP series, ASUS has been pretty successful among the home wireless enthusiasts. The 500GP was the first model to have two integrated USB 2.0 ports that were able to share a printer, an external HDD and a webcam to the rest of the network. One other feature that ASUS has always underlined regarding its top-of-the-line wireless routers was the Download Master application that allows the user to directly download files and torrents onto the external HDD connected...

Read more »

Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 Flagship Motherboard Makes an Appearance

Since Computex 2012 is ready to kick off, hands-on reports about products are already coming in, such as the one where VR-Zone speaks about Gigabyte's Z77X-UP7. The Z77X-UP7 happens to be the new so-called “flagship” motherboard with support for Intel's latest central processing units. Flagship means the latest and greatest product in a certain category, making the way the product title is chosen a bit strange really. Even though “flagship” would imply that a device leads in terms of marketing success, high-end devices end up selling in much lower numbers than mid-range models. Thus, “flagship” denotes the best-in-class invention on the part of a company and is more a means to show what said IT player can brag about. Of...

Read more »

Windows 8-Loaded ASUS Tablets 600 and 810 Now at Computex 2012

Since Computex participants have finished preparing their booths, most products are already on show, and that goes for a certain pair of tablets from ASUS as well. As opposed to the previous edition of the Computex trade show, or MWC 2012/11, this year there won't be an emphasis on Android slates. Instead, companies are going to reveal their Windows 8 projects. ASUS' tablet 600 and Tablet 810 are exhibits A and B, measuring 10.1 inches and 11.6 inches, respectively. "At ASUS we have been incubating for the arrival of this exciting era for several years. We believe that an open and balanced architecture can provide the best, ultimate solution for the new ubiquitous cloud computing era," said ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih. The...

Read more »

Windows 8 All-In-One Systems with TouchScreens Showed by Acer

It seems that notebook company Acer has become much more innovative this year and not only did it follow ASUS’ good tablet example, but the company now shows new All-In-One systems with impressive features. The new touch-enabled All-In-One systems from Acer come with very thin bodies and feature an impressive multi-touch screen. The thickness is officially rated at just 35 millimeters. That's less than one inch and a half, and the multi-touch interface has support for an impressive 64 touch points. There were only two models presented until now and these are the 27” Acer Aspire 7600U and the 23” Acer Aspire 5600U. The 7600U can be rotated in almost any position and can even be laid flat on a table for something like...

Read more »

Symbian Donna (PR3.0) Update Tipped for September

We already know that Nokia 808 PureView is the first Symbian smartphone to come with FP1 update out of the box, but the Finnish company plans another software update for September. According to Symbian-Developers, Nokia plans to release PR3.0, also known as FP2 or Symbian Donna, in the 36th week of the year. Even the document leaked mentions the upcoming availability of Donna sometime in September, there are no details on the changes that the update is expected to bring. On the other hand, the document contains most of the new features and bug fixes of the PR1 and PR2 updates. There’s a high chance that the update will be launched as Belle FP2, just like Symbian Carla was deployed as Belle FP1. Stay tuned for more updates...

Read more »

AMD E1-1200 and E2-1800 Brazos 2.0 APU Specs Exposed

Having already made a “gigantic” shipment in the first quarter of 2012, AMD is getting ready to launch a couple of newer and better Accelerated Processing Units. Two of the APUs that will start shipping this month (June, 2012) are called E1-1200 and E2-1800. They are built on the bobcat architecture. Their specifications hadn't been known until today, not officially anyway. Fortunately, the Sunnyvale, California-based company has added them to its website at last. The E1-1200 is a dual-core with a clock speed of 1.4 GHz and the Radeon HD 7310 integrated graphics processor, with 80 shader cores and a frequency of 500 MHz. The E2-1800 also has two cores but runs at 1.7 GHz and drives its Radeon HD 7340 GPU at 523 MHz...

Read more »

Acer Aspire S7 Windows 8 Ultrabooks Showcased

Computex hasn't officially begun yet, but the products are already on display, which means that PC makers have started to bring out the press releases for their various items. The company now getting our attention is Acer, and it isn't for those Windows 8 Full HD tablets that we wrote about just a couple of hours ago. What we are looking at here is a pair of, surprise surprise, ultrabooks called Aspire S7 series. One of them has a display of 11.6 inches in diagonal while the other is larger, at 13.3 inches. Barring the cases, the rest of their specs are nearly the same, down to the native resolution of their respective liquid crystal panels: Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). We say nearly because the former lasts...

Read more »

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Gets PC Version, Pre-Order Bonuses

High Moon Studios has confirmed that, after all, a PC version of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is coming alongside the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions and has also revealed two different pre-order bonus offers. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is the successor to the pretty impressive War for Cybertron and, from what we've seen up until now, it's going to respect the heritage of the franchise instead of trying to tie into one of the recent Hollywood movies. Up until now, developer High Moon Studios said that Fall of Cybertron would land only on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, due to the its team’s lack of expertise on the PC. Now, an official announcement has been posted on the game's Facebook page, confirming that Transformers:...

Read more »

HP Intros New and Updated HP Z220 Desktops and EliteBook Workstations

Hewlett-Packard has formally launched some desktops powered by Intel Xeon CPUs, in addition to upgrading the EliteBook W-Series of mobile workstations. The workstations bear the name of Z220 series and rely on quad-core Xeon E3 processors or, should budgets not be too great, Core i7 or Pentium units. It all depends on what buyers choose. NVIDIA Quadro or AMD FirePro graphics adapters, as well as up to 32 GB of RAM, are paired with whatever chip is selected. Meanwhile, the mobile series includes 14-inch, 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch laptops powered by Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs. NVIDIA's Quadro K-series graphics are available, plus 24 GB SSD caching, various HDD/SSD storage options, up to 16 GB of RAM and 3G. The model names...

Read more »

New Windows Phone 8 Concept Emerges

This fall, Microsoft should bring to the market a new flavor of its mobile operating system. Dubbed Windows Phone 8, the platform is expected to bring various enhancements over the current platform version, yet specific info on its features lack at the moment. However, that does not prevent enthusiasts from imagining what the next version of the OS would have to offer to them, and a new concept based on Windows Phone 8 has emerged recently. Running on a Nokia phone, which might be easily called Nokia Lumia 908, the concept focuses heavily on the platform’s interface and various features that would easily make users fall in love with it. In light of this platform concept, Windows Phone 8 will supposedly feature the same...

Read more »