Corsair's Carbide Cases, Vengeance RAM, SSD

Tom's Hardware Germany shared these photos and specs of two new cases from Corsair that are slated for July.

Carbide 400R

·      All-black case

·      removable drive bays for 6 x 2.5“ or 3.5“ drives

·      6 x 5.25“ drive bays

·      up to 10 Fans (6 x 120 or 140 mm,  plus 4x 120), with dual already pre-installed 120 mm at roof of case

·      Native USB 3.0 ports on front panel (no pass-through cable that loops around the back), along with Audio, FireWire and a switch for case lights

·      Load-bearing handle on the top to carry the case around

·      Eight expansion slot positions

·      Has "popped out" side-panels on both sides; these recesses allow cables to be snaked behind the motherboard tray and install very large coolers

·      MSRP: $99 USD

Carbide 500R

·      Similar to 400R, but instead:

·      2 x 120 mm fans in front, 1 x 120 mm fan at rear and 1 x 200mm fan on side panel included

·      Also, case has black/white or white/grey color scheme, no carrying handle

·      MSRP: $129 USD

ForceGT SSD

·      SandForce SF-2281 controller, SATA 6Gb/s

·      Capacities of 120 and 240, with 60 OR 90 following later (to be decided)

·      Uses synchronous NAND, which improves performance with incompressible data (according to Corsair)

·      Performance according to spec sheet:

o   120 GB version: 555 MB/s sequential read / 515 MB/s sequential write; 85k IOPS (4k aligned)

o   240 GB version 555 MB/s sequential read / 525 MB/s sequential write; 85k IOPS (4k aligned)

·      Pricing tbd, availability "later in June"

Vengeance RAM

·      now available as low profile and low power versions (white = low power, 1.35V)

·      Pricing tbd, availability "later in June"

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Nvidia Intros Beta Driver Supporting SLI on AMD 900 Series

Although SLI-certified AMD motherboards have been available for some time, Nvidia just released a set of beta drivers to unlock the requested feature.

Back in April, Nvidia's Tom Peterson revealed that the company was officially supporting SLI on motherboards playing host to AMD's 9-Series chipsets. Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock, and MSI were said to be among the first motherboard manufacturers to offer SLI support, with others arriving shortly.

"Long term gamers probably remember that for a long time AMD offered great high-end CPUs, but in recent years, AMD’s stature as the preferred gaming CPU fell by the wayside and Intel CPUs have been the gamers’ choice," Petersen explained. "For this reason, we’ve only licensed SLI for motherboards with Intel chipsets. We’ve been recently hearing chants of 'SLI for AMD CPUs,' and figured that now is a great time to do it."

Following the post, SLI-certified motherboards with AMD's 990FX, 990X and 970 chipsets began to appear on store shelves and online retailers, but the coveted feature still remained "locked" due to a lack of compatible drivers. That has now changed with the release of Nvidia's new GeForce 275.50 beta drivers, available starting Monday (release note - PDF)

As indicated, the new driver enables SLI technology on SLI-certified motherboards with AMD's 990FX, 990X and 970 chipsets. The new driver set also improves 3D Vision performance with Duke Nukem Forever with 3-way SLI and Quad SLI technology.

"With Release 275 drivers, the 3D Vision Controller driver is now included with all GPU driver installations," the notes read. "This driver package includes v275.33 3D Vision Controller driver. Users are no longer required to install a separate 3D Vision Controller driver or CD driver. For more information, please view this knowledgebase article for more information."

New 3D Vision game profiles were also added to the beta release including the Duke Nukem Forever demo, the Mars benchmark, Rise of the Immortals and Rusty Hearts. The Alice Madness Returns profile was also updated with a rating of "Good."

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ASUS Black Diamond Dual Band Processor, Hardware NAT, 5 Internal Antennas, Fast Gigabit Ethernet and 128MB DDR2 Wireless Router (RT-N56U)

Impossibly thin with a glossy black patterned finish, the ASUS dual band gigabit wireless-N RT-N56U router truly cuts the edge of innovation with powerful features that deliver the latest in networking capabilities. Equipped with exceptional hardware Network Address Translation (NAT), this one-of-a-kind router delivers up to 1000Mbps throughput that’s up to five times faster than conventional gigabit routers.1 The RT-N56U is like having two routers in one. Dual band transmissions enable both 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrums simultaneously to give you faster, more secure connections. And with up to 300,000 sessions-20 times the amount of convetional routers-you have sufficient headroom for additional clients and devices without buying an additional router. 

Price: $129.99

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ARM And AMD Partner On OpenCL

I have to admit that I was hoping for much more news from ARM's participation in AMD's currently held Fusion software developer conference in Seattle.

There is the persistent rumor that AMD may be licensing ARM architecture to make its way into the smartphone tablet space, but there was no confirmation of such a move at the conference. Instead, ARM and AMD are partnering in the OpenCL space to promote the craetion of GPU-accelerated apps.

At its conference, AMD announced a set of new OpenCL development tools that cater specifically to its Fusion APUs. The most interesting part of this announcement is the fact it was made by Manju Hegde, AMD's corporate vice president of AMD's Fusion experience program. Some readers may remember Hegde as the founder and CEO of Ageia, the company that invented the PhysX chip. Ageia was acquired by Nvidia in early 2008 and Hegde is now at AMD pitching OpenCL support, which is in direct competition to Nvidia's CUDA.

ARM's Jem Davies delivered a keynote at AMD's Fusion event and while there are obvious competitive edges between ARM and x86 products, the executive stresses that ARM and x86 are the only remaining "relevant" CPU architectures. Davies also pitched a hybrid processor approach that outlined CPU cores, parallel arrays and circuits that are dedicated to very specific functions, which obviously would favor highly parallel software that is written in, for example, OpenCL. It is a somewhat surreal experience to see ARM speaking at AMD's (x86) developer event and AMD could have simply invited ARM to annoy Intel. To see the partnership evolve is interesting, but the benefit to developers at the event was very limited.

I still believe that there is much more to come and those AMD-ARM rumors have some substance.

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EliteRAID ER104UT+B 1U 4 Bay USB 3.0/eSATA Hardware RAID 5 Rackmount (Black)

The EliteRAID ER104UT+B is a 4 bay hardware RAID 5 rackmount storage unit that utilizes high performance USB 3.0 and eSATA interfaces to provide over 200MB/s in performance. The included USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with the widely available USB 2.0 port, which is a convenient feature when both USB 3.0 and eSATA connections are unavailable. With built in RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5+hot spare and JBOD, the ER104UT+B provides hardware RAID redundancy protection against hard drive failures. A brand new RAID mode, CLONE or N Way Mirror, is also introduced to replicate the saved data throughout each of the installed hard drives. The RAID engine is embedded within the enclosure and performs all RAID parity calculations to reduce CPU utilization from the host computer, RAID controller cards are no longer necessary. World first 1U 4 bay USB 3.0 and eSATA Hardware RAID 5 storage. Hardware RAID, supporting RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, JBOD, Clone and hot spare disk. Over 200MB/s read and 170MB/s write performance. eSATA and USB 3.0 interface. Backward compatible with USB 2.0. True hardware RAID design within the enclosure, no driver and additional RAID controller needed. New Clone mode (N way Mirror) all the hard drives connected will be mirrored. Clone mode is especially useful when users would like to copy data form one hard drive to several hard drives at the same time. Supports SATA I (1.5Gb/s) and SATA II (3Gb/s) hard drives. Over 2TB per volume via eSATA and USB on OS that support 2TB and above. Automatic insertion/removal detection and rebuild. Hardware RAID with standard Interface. No extra drivers required. Built in rackmount bracket. Redundant power supply option available.

Price: $549.00

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AMD Reviving FX Brand For High-End Platforms

AMD is reviving its FX brand and expanding its Gaming Evolved program by adding new members, developer/publisher relations.

Tuesday during E3 2011, AMD announced that it's resurrecting the FX brand for its fastest processors and most powerful platforms, geared toward enthusiasts and "HD entertainment aficionados." The company also announced new members for its "Gaming Evolved" program including BioWare, Creative Assembly and Codemasters.

"AMD's FX brand will enable an over-the-top experience for PC enthusiasts," said Leslie Sobon, vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, AMD. "By combining an unlocked, native eight-core processor, the latest in chipset technology, and AMD's latest graphics cards, FX customers will enjoy an unrivaled feature set and amazing control over their PC's performance."

According to AMD, the first platform to earn the FX title, the "Scorpius" platform, will feature the now-available AMD 9-series chipset motherboards and AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series graphics cards, plus the upcoming "Zambezi" unlocked, native eight-core processor.

Tuesday the company also said that it's working closely with Eidos-Montreal to add support for AMD HD3D-capable hardware and AMD Eyefinity multi-monitor functionality in the upcoming game Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the PC. Other newfound partnerships with publishers and developers include Bioware (Dragon Age II), Creative Assembly (SHOGUN 2: Total War), and Codemasters (DiRT 3), the latter of which will include native support for DirectX 11, AMD Eyefinity and AMD Dual Graphics technologies.

"It's exciting that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the first video game title optimized to natively utilize AMD HD3D-capable hardware," said Stephane D'Astous, general manager of Eidos-Montreal, a Square Enix studio. "Coupled with AMD Eyefinity functionality, PC gamers will be even more immersed in the action-rich gameplay and compelling storyline."

Naturally AMD will be showcasing all of its goods this week at E3 2011 including a demo of "Orcs Must Die!" from Robot Entertainment and the DirectX 11-enabled "Blacklight: Retribution" from Perfect World.

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Aleratec PortaStor Secure 8 GB - 256-bit AES Hardware Encrypted USB Flash Drive 380105 - Black

The USB flash drive is one of the most widely used tools for transporting important data and multimedia files due to its size, convenience and near-universal compatibility. However, these same strengths make flash drives vulnerable to loss, theft and other potential breaches in security. Financial data, business proposals, research, development plans and any other confidential materials stored on flash drives are at high risk of falling into the wrong hands and being compromised. The PortaStor Secure family of USB flash drives addresses this risk by providing a secure partition for confidential files. All information in this secure partition is encrypted using 256-bit AES hardware encryption. This encryption renders all data in the secure partition useless to anyone without authorized access. For even greater security, this secure partition is automatically formatted after six invalid login attempts. The management application is stored right on the PortaStor drive. For the greatest flexibility, users can even specify the size of the secure and non-secure partitions.

Price: $58.99

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