Intel Announces New Generation of Atom Processors

Intel has announced its new Silvermont architecture, which is going to improve the Atom line significantly. The new architecture will be based on Intel's 22 nm 3D Tri-Gate SoC, which is faster while using less power than the current generation. Intel claims that Silvermont will deliver up to three times more peak performance or about the same performance as the current generation using only 20% of the power. The new architecture allows for a new out-of-order execution engine, a multi-core and system fabric architecture that is scalable up to eight cores, new IA instructions, and improved power management capabilities, such as low power C states.

Intel foresees that these chips will be used in various applications, such as smartphones, microservers, tablets, entry level laptops, and network infrastructure. Release dates of some of the CPUs based on Silvermont have been announced:

• Baytrail: Quad-core processor for tablets - holiday 2013
• Merrifield: Smartphone processor - by the end of 2013
• Avoton: Microserver chip - second half of 2013
• Rangeley: Routers and other networking gear - second half of 2013

The success of these chips are crucial for how well Intel will do in the growing mobile market. ARM has been dominating the market for quite a while, and other competitors are trying to get their market share as well. Intel needs to get some results soon, if it wants to have a say in the future of mobile computing.

Source: MaximumPC

Xbox 720 Might Not Need Always-on Connection After All

Good news for those who seek to buy the new Xbox 720, since it will not require an always-on connection as was previously rumored. It is supposedly not necessary to have a connection when playing games, watching Blu-ray movies, and streaming live television. It is still a rumor, but the information is said to be originating from an email that was sent to all full time members of the Xbox 720 team.

What is interesting is that Microsoft will implement Blu-ray support, since it originally betted its money on HD-DVD with the Xbox 360. Instead of developing a new type of high-capacity disc standard like Nintendo did with Wii U, Microsoft has chosen to adopt the competitor's standard. That decision is probably slightly forced due to the widespread use of Blu-rays, and because it allows the Xbox 720 to be used as an HTPC, when combined with the new cable television packages offered through Microsoft's new partners Comcast and Verizon.

Official details about the Xbox 720 will be revealed May 21, when Microsoft will uncover all the mysteries about the console. 

Source: ExtremeTech

Getac Offers Laptops for Extreme Use

Do you need a laptop for field research, is it necessary for your survival that you have a laptop with you on camping, or are you just generally clumsy and need a durable laptop? If you answered "yes" to any of the questions, then Getac has got you covered. Its new X500 Rugged Server is, according to Getac, certified to military specifications for operation in extreme conditions, so it should be able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it.

The X500 Rugged Server is approximately the same size as a briefcase, which might refrain some from calling it a laptop, but everything is relative. It sports a 15.6 inch display, a Core i7 820QM, 16GB of RAM, a GeForce GT 330M, 500GB of SATA storage, three USB 2.0 ports, one USB/eSATA combo port, dual GbE LAN ports, and 802.11n WiFi. The laptop also supports up to five shock-protected hard drives that are replaceable via two quick access doors. The drives are managed by a built-in RAID controller board.

So if you have some extreme demands for your laptop, then the X500 Rugged Server might just be your thing. All you need to do is request a quote from Getac, and you should be able to buy one now.

Source: Maximum PC

Corsair Dismisses Rumor About Being For Sale

There has been a rumor about Corsair being bought by Francisco Partners, a private equity firm; however, that rumor has now been dismissed by Corsair. Corsair told Maximum PC that the rumor is inaccurate, but the company is instead looking for investments. Corsair sent a FAQ to Maximum PC, which explains that "we would like to make more acquisitions and this requires outside investment." Corsair tried to acquire the needed funding through public funding, but that idea was discarded. Corsair estimated that the company would not be able to obtain the required funding using that method, since it is selling to niche markets, which limits the amount of people interested in buying shares. Instead Francisco Partners offered the needed funding in exchange for a share of the company. Despite Francisco Partners obtaining part of Corsair, the hardware company will still operate the way it always has. The newly obtained funding will be used to purchase small, less well-run companies that produce technology Corsair can benefit from to ensure continuous growth and an ever expanding product catalogue.

The investment is going to be approximately $75 million and it is expected to happen during the next few weeks.

Source: Maximum PC

A New Competitor to Apple's MacBook Air Emerges

Apple's Macbook Air has finally been dethroned as the lightest and thinnest laptop. A small Taiwanese computer maker called Inhon has recently announced its Blade 13 Carbon laptop that weighs only 870g, which is close to 200g lighter than Macbook Air. The thickness is only 10.7mm, making it a massive 2mm slimmer than its closest competitor. It features a 1080p display, either an i5 or an i7 cpu, up to 256GB SSD, and 4GB of RAM. A cheaper fiberglass version at 12.6mm and 1,195g will also be released. The resolution also goes down on the cheaper version with only 1600x900 pixels. The price for the cheaper version is estimated at around $1,000.

It'll be released in Taiwan in June though no release date for the US market is known. According to Engadget it will be priced at around $1,350, which means it will be able to compete with MacBook Air, so hopefully it'll ship to other continents later this year.

Source: Engadget

Texas Instruments to Provide HP with ARM SoCs for Servers

Texas Instruments has agreed to provide ARM-based SoCs (System-on-Chips) to Hewlett-Packard as part of its plans to build low-power servers. The chips will be based around quad-core ARM Cortex A15 processors, and will include cores dedicated to particular tasks such as network processing and I/O. HP hopes that support from Texas will allow them to construct a new standard of low-power servers aimed at cloud and telecommunications networks.

HP is not the only server vendor that is experimenting with ARM-based servers, companies such as Dell are also working on bringing ARM technology into the server market. Chip manufacturer AMD has also expressed an interest in building ARM-based server chips, despite the current market being dominated by standard x86 processors. One of the reasons for this is that the x86 architecture is much better at handling database and similar tasks, while ARM chips are better at handling large volumes of search requests. 

Source: PCWorld.com

Mac Pro Sales to Stop in EU on March 1

Due to amendments to EU electrical safety regulations, sales of the Mac Pro in Europe are to stop on March 1st, according to Mac fan site Macworld. The standard IEC 609501 was revised in December 2011, but only comes into effect at the beginning of March, which directly affects sale of the Mac Pro. This is due to the power provided to the system I/O ports as well as the placement of the product fan guards.

The current version of the product, however, has not had a revision since 2010, so it is likely that a new Mac Pro will emerge soon afterwards. Apple CEO Tim Cook also stated that Apple is working on the successor to the popular desktop in 2012, who also stated that the product would be released sometime in 2013.

Source: Macworld.com

Acer Looks to Refocus Business Model Going Forward

Acer is planning to change things up and begin to increase focus on creating products that are "beyond the PC." The company will close down the eMachines division while refocusing the Gateway and Packard Bell divisions. Acer acquired all three companies in 2007 as part of its purchase of Gateway for $710 million. Some possible new products for Gateway and Packard Bell include tablets, smart TVs, and media streaming boxes. Acer spokeswoman Lisa Emard said, "As computing devices are used in new ways, both on the go and throughout the home, Gateway and Packard Bell will adapt their product portfolios to meet these needs."

Source: Computerworld

Mac Mini Display Flickering Issue Fixed with Firmware Update

A firmware update has been released to correct a number of display flickering issues that arose in late November on many Apple Mac Mini devices. The problem was initially blamed on faulty Intel HD4000 graphics drivers. Intel made a statement on the issue that sparked a number of rumors that the issue was driver-based. Since then, Apple has released a firmware update that has resolved the display flickering issue on these devices.

The issue is said to have only affected a small number of machines but only occurred when they were connected to an HDMI output as DisplayPort outputs were unaffected. All users still experiencing the issue simply need to download the update through the 'Software Update' dialog, and the system will automatically install it and reboot the system. For those who wish to manually install the update, a download is available through the Support section of the Apple site.

OCZ Finds More NAND Suppliers, Looks to Get Back to Profitability

OCZ has been struggling a little of late, especially after it announced a reorganization plan earlier this month. Now, things may start to get back to normal, as OCZ has found more NAND suppliers after an unexpected shortage caused its shares to plummet 60%. The new suppliers had a positive effect on the shares price, as it rose 30% soon after the announcement. New CEO Ralph Schmitt is pleased with the new suppliers since he said OCZ was "overly reliant" on one, and hopes things can rebound for the company. He also said OCZ has no plans to sell but is "always open" to "strategic alternatives," which could possibly mean a partnership of some kind or just that the company is always listening to its options. In any case, hopefully the new suppliers help OCZ return to profitability.

AMD Hires JPMorgan Chase To Help With Chip Sales

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has enlisted the aid of JPMorgan Chase & Co. for financial advice as it struggles with chip sales in an ever changing martket more geared towards mobile computing. In the last year, AMD's shares have fallen over 60 percent with a current market cap of $1.4 billon. Long term debt and captial lease contracts have AMD owing some $2 billon to banks. Since the recent rush in mobile, AMD has had trouble in the last few years trying to keep up with names like Intel and ARM, which produce cheaper and more power efficent chips in a PC market now surging with an emphasis on mobile. AMD reported last month it would slash the workforce by 15 percent in an effort to refocus resources towards areas like communications, industrial and gaming hardware. Goldman Sachs analyst Jame Covello recented reported to clients that chances on AMD liqudating the PC processor divison were between 15 and 30 percent. AMD's current target market cap is $1.1 billion due to the company's decreasing size.

MSI GX60 Gaming Notebook Featuring AMD Trinity CPU Now Available

MSI's GX60 gaming notebook with an AMD A10 APU and HD 7970M GPU was first announced in September. MSI fully unveiled its upcoming machine but kept the price and release date a secret. MSI claims it to be the "only high-end gaming laptop in the world to support three-monitor output" and boasts that it has "the best performance-to-cost ratio of any high-end gaming notebook." The wait is over, as MSI has started shipping out the laptops, which start at $1,300. 

The GX60 weighs 8.6 pounds and has a 15.6" 1920x1080 anti-reflective LCD. It's powered by an AMD A10 quad-core CPU (2.3-3.2 GHz), AMD Radeon HD 7970M GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 750GB HDD drive spinning at 7200 RPM, a Blu-ray reader, a SteelSeries keyboard, a Killer E2200 LAN card that supports 802.11b/g/n WLAN, Bluetooth 420, a 720p webcam, three USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI output, 2.1 speakers with THX TruStudio Pro sound, a 5-in-1 card reader, and a 9-cell battery life. The GX60 comes preloaded with Windows 8, with no option to buy it with Windows 7.

Apple Patent Deemed Tentatively Invalid

This news is likely quite welcome by Samsung and many consumers. The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has declared a non-final action invalidating one of the key patents in the Apple vs. Samsung trial that Apple won in August. The reason for this action is a lack of novelty, as FOSS Patents explains.

The patent in question is for the overscroll bounce effect, or rubber banding, that occurs when trying to scroll beyond the length of a document or other item. It is also a patent that the jury in the aforementioned trial found Samsung guilty of infringing. This is a non-final action though, which means that it is possible Apple's claims to the patent will be upheld in the future, and the ruling by the jury would have to be enforced on Samsung. If the USPTO however does invalidate the patent, it would make the ruling unenforceable, as far as it concerns this specific patent.

Samsung has already filed this information with the judge for their recent trial, with the hope that she will consider this when making her own ruling on the trial. The jury has found Samsung guilty of patent infringement and recommended actions against them, but the judge still has to give her decision concerning those actions, which may increase or decrease their severity.

Toshiba Announces New PCs Running Windows 8

Toshiba has just announced its new range of Windows 8 PCs, only a couple days after Samsung, and is now accepting pre-orders, which will ship on October 26th. Toshiba launched a press release on October 17th and announced PCs for a varying range of budgets. The Satellite S, L, and P laptops have been announced, as well as the U series Ultrabooks. The specially designed Qosmio X875s will be available for gamers, and for those seeking an All-in-One desktop will be able to choose between the LX815 and LX835, with 21.5" and 23" screens, respectively. Each of these PCs have been optimized for Windows 8, the laptops feature larger touchpads to support gestures, and all come with three new Toshiba Windows apps: Toshiba Central, Toshiba Book Place, and Toshiba News Place.

After Ten Years, Dawn Looks Better Than Ever

In 2002 NVIDIA released the Dawn tech demo to show off the capabilities of the GeForce FX line. That demo was the first time a completely rendered and realistic humanoid was ever shown, and essentially that is all it showed because the hardware could not render an environment much more complex than a cube map. Modern GPUs though can do a great deal more than those of a decade ago, so NVIDIA has released A New Dawn to show off what is capable now.

The original Dawn never had a scene with more than 7000 triangles, but A New Dawn reaches 4,000,000. Originally Dawn's head only had 1700 strands of unmoving hair, but she has apparently decided to change how she has it cut as each of the 40,000 tessellated strands she has now are fully animated. She also did something with her skin as well by bringing in skin oil reflectance maps and multi-layered subsurface scattering.

A New Dawn is free to download and is targeted for the higher-end GTX 670, 680, and 690. Originally the demo was just going to be for the GTX 690, but the community requested support for single-GPU setups, so NVIDIA added a button to accommodate.

Microsoft Unveils the New Microsoft Surface - Windows 8 Tablet

Microsoft held a mystery press conference in Los Angeles today, one in which no solid information was announced ahead of time. Plenty of speculation flew, from a Windows 8 tablet to a partnership with Barnes & Noble to make an Amazon Kindle Fire competitor to even an Xbox tablet. See the trend with the tablets? Well, there was good reason for that as Microsoft has announced the new Microsoft Surface - a tablet that Microsoft calls a "stage for Windows." This new Surface is a tablet optimized for Windows 8, which Microsoft wants in order to show the potential of the new OS. The Surface features a 10.6" optically bonded screen, weighs under 1.5 pounds, and is only 9.3mm thin - just enough for a full-size USB port. There is also a microSD slot and an HDMI port and DisplayPort to connect to bigger monitors.

The new Surface has a magnesium case for durability, plus a Corning Gorilla Glass 2 screen to ensure nothing could happen to it. There is a 0.7mm thick kickstand integrated directly into the back of the tablet because Microsoft has designed the Surface to be for entertainment. There are front and rear-facing cameras on the Surface, with the front angled at 22 degrees for the best view when using the kickstand. All the standard Windows apps will appear, plus ones for Netflix, Xbox, and more. The Surface features a 3mm thick Touch Cover that reveals a multitouch keyboard and trackpad, so when it is on a table it will act like a laptop. There is also a version with tactile keys (Surface Type Cover) for those who prefer it, with 1.5mm of travel for each key. There will be a variety of colors for the covers as well, though in the images below the black one is the Type Cover.

As for that 10.6" screen, it is a Clear Type Full HD display. It supports digital ink and when you use the stylus, your hand resting on the screen will be ignored. The ink itself is displayed at 600ppi, so it looks like actual writing even though it is digital.

The best part about the Surface is there will be two versions: one using an ARM processor and one using an Intel processor for x86. The ARM processor will be supplied by NVIDIA, which is the tablet being shown, while the Intel version uses a Core i5 Ivy Bridge CPU. The Intel one will keep the overall weight of the Surface under two pounds, so you are not sacrificing a whole lot for the stronger chip. The ARM version is using Windows RT (formerly Windows for ARM) while the Intel one has Windows 8 Pro powering it.

The Surface with Windows RT will be available in 32 and 64GB sizes, while the one with Windows 8 Pro will come in 64 and 128GB sizes. The Windows RT version will be released around the time Windows 8 launches and is priced to compete with similar ARM-powered tablets. The Windows 8 Pro Surface will come out about three months later and is priced to compete with Ultrabooks. Microsoft is calling the new Surface a PC, a tablet, and something it thinks people will love. It certainly looks interesting, but we will have to see how it all plays out. Feel free to discuss the new Surface below or in the forums.

ASUS Teases with New ROG Product Shots

ASUS has sent us some teaser photos of upcoming Republic of Gamers (ROG) enthusiast-level products. The new products include a G75 gaming notebook, the Matrix HD7970 3GD5 graphics card and a pair of motherboards - the Maximus V Extreme and the Maximus V Formula.

As we mentioned, these are just some pre-release promo shots to whet your appetite and ASUS is remaining mum on release dates and pricing.

Countdown Appears on GeForce.com, NVIDIA to Make Announcement at NGF 2012

Remember NVIDIA teasing something on its GeForce Facebook page last week? Well, today NVIDIA has posted an update that points to a countdown clock on GeForce.com. The company will unveil something at GeForce LAN / NVIDIA Gaming Festival (NGF) 2012 in Shanghai, China on April 28th. The countdown will expire at 7:30pm PDT that day, so you can keep it tuned right here for all the details. NVIDIA will live stream the event on GeForce.com and I imagine quite a few people will be wondering just what is being cooked up. The graphics giant has also sent out some crowbars to various websites with the words "For use in case of zombies or..." with the GeForce logo afterwards. Maybe the crowbar will have to pry open a container from NVIDIA containing a new product, like the rumored GTX 685 (GK110) or GTX 690 (dual GPUs). Whatever the case may be, we have until the end of the week for the speculation to come to a close.

Corsair Claims Two Manufacturer of the Year Awards

Corsair has announced that it is the recipient of two Manufacturer of the Year 2011 awards from PC Games Hardware in Germany. The awards were obtained in the categories of PC memory and compact CPU coolers. This marks the sixth year in a row that Corsair has taken home the awards voted on by the readers. The full results will be available online and in the 05/2012 issue of the magazine, hopefully you can read German. Corsair CEO Andy Paul was happy to hear about the awards and went on to say, "We’ve worked hard to ensure our Hydro Series CPU coolers match up to the performance expectations of enthusiasts, so we’re thrilled to receive the award for best compact CPU coolers. And to win Manufacturer of the Year for memory for the sixth year running shows that we can continue to successfully expand into new product categories while retaining our dominant position as the World’s leading builder of performance PC memory.”

AMD Giving Up GlobalFoundries Stake

AMD has decided to cut the cord and is giving up its final stake in GlobalFoundries. AMD spun off GlobalFoundries in 2009 and has gradualy reduced its share over time, but now it is giving up that final 8.8%. This makes GlobalFoundries wholly owned by the United Arab Emirates government. AMD also restructured the contract it held with GlobalFoundries, and now is free to use TSMC's 28nm process for its chips. Previously all 28nm work was done at GlobalFoundries, but now AMD is no longer bound to that agreement. It still plans to use GlobalFoundries in some form and will not completely abandon it, however. This should be good news for AMD because of the problems GlobalFoundries was having with the 28nm process, but there is a cost to that newfound manufacturing freedom. AMD has agreed to pay GlobalFoundries $425 million over the next two years, with the deal costing a total of $703 million when all is said and done.

Google - Motorola Mobility Deal Approved by US and EU

Back in August of 2011, Google stated its intent to purchase Motorola Mobility, the company that actually builds Motorola cellphones, such as the newly released Droid 4 and Droid RAZR. Such a merger would bring with it 17,000 patents, and an additional 6,800 applications to Google. Though the company assured everyone it would only use these patents to protect its Android operating system, and Android phone manufacturers, from suits, there is still the concern of Google abusing these patents in a monopolistic way.

Today both the US government and the European Union have given the action a green light. This is not to say they are not still worried about what Google may do in the future, it is just that such a merger is not illegal under their laws. However regularors in China, Taiwan and Israel must still approve the merger before it can take place. It may be a bit longer then before Google can start making its own phones, using Motorola Mobility’s manufacturing facilities. Also announced today is the US Justice Department approval of the sale of Nortel patents to a consortium including Apple, Microsoft, and RIM. It has certainly been a busy day in the patent world.

Corsair Receives Four Industry Awards

Corsair was recently selected as the winner of four different awards from major European print publications and websites. The categories were voted on by the readers of the publications, and placed Corsair at the top of three different categories. The Obsidian 800D case grabbed the "Best Case" award from hardware.info, based in the Netherlands. The Vengeance series of DDR3 memory was awarded "Best Memory Modules" from the same site. Corsair received the Memory Manufacturer of the Year award from both PC Masters and Hardwareluxx magazine, both based in Germany. CEO Andy Paul was happy to hear the news of receiving awards that were voted on by the enthusiast community, "We're thrilled with the recognition from our customers around the world."

On the Way to More Efficient Processors

Traditionally software has been optimized for performance, so every cycle and resource is used to its fullest potential. Now researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and the Australian National University are suggesting programmers look toward more energy efficient practices, with the help of advanced power profiles.

In certain situations, the architecture of a piece of hardware can impact performance. For example, Intel CPUs have been known to outperform AMD’s counterparts for intensive video editing operations. Instead of performance though, these researchers are looking at power draw, and have already seen different classes of software use really different amounts of power. Though their measurements are the first of their kind they will likely not be the last, especially has Intel has released a chip with an exposed power meter. This will allow programmers to see just how much power their software needs.

Naturally, optimizing energy efficiency may come at the cost of performance, but in some circumstance, such as cell phones and other battery-powered devices, performance is of lesser importance. Already software developers and hardware manufacturers are working to improve their designs; this research shows the value of their efforts.

Mushkin Launches a New Website

Lost in all the commotion of CES last week was Mushkin's redesigned website. The website before was nice, but a little outdated and not exactly the friendliest in terms of finding what you want. Mushkin's new website, however, changes all of that, with easy access to the information you want for the products you need. Now you can easily see all of Mushkin's products, from RAM to SSDs and Flash memory. You can also read about Mushkin's different technologies for RAM, see how to install RAM if you are new to upgrading, and even grab some wallpapers to show your support. Head on over to the redesigned Mushkin.com for all your memory needs.

Boycott SOPA: There’s an App for That

Some may think this goes too far and others may think it does not go far enough. Regardless, it exists. The Boycott SOPA app in the Android Market, coupled with the Barcode Scanner app, allows any Android phone to identify if a product is linked to a company supporting SOPA. The app uses the barcode scanner to find out what product you are looking at, and then checks it against a list of companies and bands. The list can be viewed on the developer’s website and includes not only SOPA supporting companies, but companies strongly affiliated with those that do. There are currently 879 entries on the list, which will grow and diminish as companies change their stance on SOPA.

What will Windows 8 Need?

As with other operating systems, there are specific hardware requirements of Windows 8 certified devices. These requirements are so Microsoft can guarantee a certain level of experience for all those who use its coming flagship on tablets and convertible PCs. These requirements include 5-point multitouch, NFC “touch marks,” five specific hardware buttons, a new Ctrl+Alt+Del combination, two second resume, and more.

The NFC "touch marks" mean there is something marking where devices need to be in contact in order for NFC to work. The five required buttons are Power, Rotation Lock, Volume Up and Down, and the Windows Key, which must be at least 10.5 mm in diameter. Other requirements include there being a minimum 10 GB of free space after the out-of-box experience, a 1366x768 screen resolution, and a 720p camera. For ARM machines the bootloader is also to be locked, which will prevent such devices from having other OS’s installed (until someone figures out how to get around that).

Apple At It Again

It seems that Apple suing Samsung is a new universal constant as more suits have been filed in Germany. Time for a quick recap: Apple first sued Samsung claiming the Galaxy S phones and Galaxy Tab tablets are too similar to the iPhone and iPad. Even though Apple tampered with images to make the similarities more extreme than they are, the court ruled that the sale of certain Samsung products be blocked. This prompted the development of the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, which is a variant that can be sold in Germany. Now Apple is claiming it and the Galaxy S II phones, amongst other devices, also infringe on Apple patents.

Worth noting is these new suits are actually separate from the original ones. This means the entire trial process will begin again for them, instead of just being added to the current proceedings. All told 10 smartphones and 5 tablets are being targeted by these new suits, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, the world is starting to wonder if the two companies are putting more money into these suits or product development.

New Rosewill Products Announced at CES

Rosewill produces many computer components and peripherals, from computer cases to wireless adapters to keyboards, and has announced several new items at CES 2012. Among the new products are the Ranger and Ranger-M computer cases. The Ranger is a mid-size tower with ATX motherboard support while the Ranger-M is a mini-size tower for MicroATX boards. The full-size brother to the Ranger cases is the Thor V2 and its White Edition. This case design can hold an XL-ATX board with 6 internal 3.5” drives. There is also support for three 230 mm fans; one on the front, top, and side. In case the Thor V2 is not big enough for you, there is the Blackhawk-Ultra Super Tower. At 25” tall and 25.99” deep, this tower supports motherboards ranging from ATX to HPTX. If you need 10 internal 3.5” drive slots, this may be the case for you.

Other products announced are the new Hive power supplies, with 80+ Bronze certification. The three PSUs are 550 W, 650 W and 750 W. The Capstone PSU series achieves 80+ Gold certification with its 450 W, 550 W, 650 W, and 750 W non-modular units, and 650 W and 750 W modular units. The RX-358 U3C is an external HDD enclosure with both USB 3 and eSATA external interfaces. Two wireless adapters, routers, and some laptop accessories have also been announced.

Cooler Master Celebrates 20th Anniversary With New Web Site and Giveaways

Cooler Master is a well-known manufacturer of computer chassis, cooling products and peripherals, many of which have been reviewed here at Overclockers Club. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Cooler Master is launching a totally revamped web site that features a look at its history as well as some impressive giveaways. I'll leave it up to you to check out the user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing design, but you need to check out the 20th Anniversary Timeline companion site where you can upload Cooler Master-related photos. Each approved picture upload enters users into monthly random prize giveaway drawings throughout 2012 with a final grand prize after the end of the year for a full system build. Head on over to the site to check out the rules and conditions then upload photos of your Cooler Master products for a chance to win.

AMD Sued by Quanta (Not Over Patents)

Here’s something you may not have seen for a while; a suit between two tech companies without patent infringement involved. The plaintiff in this case is Quanta Computer Inc, the largest contract maker of laptops in the world. Its claim is AMD sold it chips which did not meet heat tolerances. These chips were then used in the laptops ordered by NEC and later malfunctioned.

In the complaint Quanta says it has, "suffered significant injury to prospective revenue and profits." AMD disputes these claims and states it has never received a report of the chips involved failing. In fact, Quanta itself admits it used the same chips in a different large order for NEC without issue.

Additional allegations in the complaint include breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation, civil fraud and interference with a contract.