Hardware Canucks News

The High Court in New Zealand has denied bail to MegaUpload founder and chief executive, Kim “Kim Dotcom” Schmitz, ruling that he might try and flee the country.

Mr. Schmitz denies these charges, stating that he has no intention of fleeing the country as he wants to be with his family and attempt to recover his frozen assets.

“I will not run away. I want to fight these allegations on a level playing field. I have three little children. My wife is pregnant with twins. I just want to be with them,” Mr. Schmitz told the court.

Mr. Schmitz is known to have multiple passports, and offshore bank accounts in different names. According to Bloomberg, Mr. Schmitz has more than $21 million in 23 seperate bank accounts in Hong Kong.

Justice Raynor Asher, who presided over Mr. Schmitz’s most recent case, argued that Mr. Schmitz’s great wealth and connection to Germany – which does not have an extradition agreement with the United States – is rationale to label him a flight risk.

“I’m aware that if I go to Germany I would be unable to unfreeze my assets. What I want to do is stay here to fight and get my money back,” Mr. Schmitz responded. “What would I do in Germany with five kids and a wife with no money?”

“It is not an option for me.”

The adipose former digital storage locker mogul claims that he has gotten “unwanted” letters from female prisoners, and a harassing phone call from a man claiming to be a prosecutor according to media reports from New Zealand.

Mr. Schmitz is expected to remain in custody until February 22, when his extradition hearing is expected to begin.

On Friday morning HP accidentally leaked some details about its upcoming Xeon E5 powered Proliant Gen8 server line.

The pages listed details of the upcoming single- and dual-socket BL, ML and DL Gen8 servers.

These details were quickly retracted from HP’s site.

A reporter for the IDG news wire managed to take a look at the website, and filed a story with details of the new server line.

HP’s Proliant Gen8 server line will replace the x86 basd Gen7 line, first introduced in March 2010.

According to the now retracted page on HP’s website, the single-socket ProLiant BL460c will be a small form factor machine based on Intel’s E5-2650L.

On February 13 HP plans to host a press conference in Las Vegas with Dave Donatelli, VP of HP’s Enterprise Server division, to share news about a “ground-breaking, new enterprise technology and services that redefine customer data center experiences and economics,” according to an invite.

Xigamtek is celebrating a first with the Gigas Micro-ATX Cube, as it is their first Aluminum chassis. Even with its compact dimensions, the Gigas Cube manages to fit high-end Hardware, allowing one to easily build a potent HTPC or Gaming system. USB 3.0, space for up to 4 fans, along with a fan controller round up the list of features.

The word “Gigas” is part of the Greek language and means “giant”. In the modern language, the prefix “giga” can be found in many different areas to quantify the sheer size. Gigabyte or Gigawatt are such examples and the new chassis from Xigmatek carries the name “Gigas” for good reason.

The shell of the cube chassis is constructed of Aluminum, which give the chassis that extraordinary look and feel. With the single piece spanning across the left, front and right of the chassis, completely eliminating any ugly gaps between these areas. Plenty of openings allow for ample ventilation and have been placed in the rear, side and front of the chassis, with the one in the front shaped like an X for Xigmatek.

Two 5.25 inch drive bays in the front next to a perfectly placed I/O panel, which holds not only the power and reset buttons, but also the two USB 2.0 and a single USB 3.0 plug. The latter may be connected directly to the 20-pin header of modern motherboards. Naturally, two status LEDs and a pair of audio connectors can also be found on the I/O panel..

Upon removing the six screws holding the top cover in place, one may access the innovative interior layout, which is the absolute strength of the Gigas. The motherboard, be it of the Micro-ATX or ITX, is simply placed on the floor of the chassis as this panel also acts as the board tray. Expansion cards and ATX power supply are to be installed horizontally within the chassis, as this is the most efficient use of the limited space.

Two large air vents on the left side of the chassis give access to fresh air for the PSU and graphic card so that even the longest (up to 35 cm) and fastest graphic cards keep cool under any circumstance. Two 120 mm fans, rotating at up to 1.000 RPM push cool air across the components, further reducing the overall temperature within the Gigas.

To pull hot air out of the case, the Gigas may hold an additional two 120 mm units in the rear of the chassis. These are to be installed above each other, which generates a healthy flow of air across the hard drive cage and the CPU cooler,

Each of the two hard drive cages can hold up to three 3.5 inch hard drives, with an additional 2.5 inch SSD mounting on the underside of each unit, for a total of eight drives. A third cage, intended for two 5.25 inch drives can be found in the front of the chassis. For additional support of these parts, a metal beam has been installed within the chassis, while still allowing CPU coolers with an impressive height of 18.5 cm to be installed with the Gigas.

With all these features and the incredible and innovative use of space, the Xigmatek Gigas performs like a giant, able to hold high-end components without breaking a sweat. Xigmatek rounds up the impressive list of engineering achievements with their “Mono Cool” fan controller, also part of the Midgard (II) cases, with which one may adjust the speed of up to three fans within the chassis.

Speculation is rampant about AMD’s planned “ambidextrous” mobile strategy, after a series of announcements yesterday by AMD’s top brass at the company’s Financial Analyst Day.Dr. Lisa Su, AMD’s general manager, said the company would no longer be “religious” about architectures and this flexibility would be the pillar of the company’s strategic advantage.

Neither Dr. Su nor CEO Rory Read directly mentioned any specific ARM commitments on their road-map, and according to this document the company remains loyal to x86. This commitment was reinforced by Dr. Su’s announcement that AMD will be attempting to take an x86-compatible System on a Chip  into the sub-2W category.

However, Dr.Su’s enthusiasm for rejecting architecture theism, and the repeated references to being “ambidextrous”,  indirectly means the company will be exploring offering ARM based chips when market conditions dictate.

Another clue that points towards the potential ARMing of AMD comes from part of CEO Read’s speech at the event.

“We’re going to double down on client and mobility. I’m not suggesting we dive into smartphones, a heavily crowded space with low margins … I’m going to focus on client mobility, thin and light,” Mr.  Read announced to the audience.

“You’ll see a breakdown of proprietary control points, those control points that have dominated our industry for years and years,” Read said.

“The status quo will break down.”

Citing industry sources, Digitimes is reporting that motherboard manufacturers are expecting to have to raise their prices by 10% this year due to rising copper and labour prices in China.

“Motherboard prices were hiked by 5-10% in early 2011 to reflect increased material costs and the impact of labor shortages, and by 3-8% in April 2011 due to increased costs of some components arising from the earthquake hitting northeastern Japan in March,” Digitimes’ sources said.

Copper has risen from approximately US$8,000 per metric ton (MT) to US$8,600/MT currently.

At the start of the new year the monthly minimum wage was raised from the equivalent of $184 to $200 in Beijing, while Shanghai is expected to raise their minimum monthly wage from $177 to $202 in April.

Ushering the finest and most capable graphics card based on new AMD “Tahiti” 28nm GPUs, the ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP uses a factory-overclocked core and 3 GB of GDDR5. It is cooled by the exclusive DirectCU II, a dual fan thermal design with six copper heatpipes and a large dissipation area that leads to the lowest temperatures and quietest operation of any HD 7970 card.

ASUS DIGI+ VRM 12-phase digital power delivery comes to graphics cards improved with Super Alloy Power components, while overclockers are bound to appreciate the inclusion of exclusive VGA Hotwire hardware overvolting and GPU Tweak software tuning. The new cards further support adapter-free AMD Eyefinity 6.

Overclocked to 1000 MHz – 75 MHz higher than reference

The HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP ships tuned to 1000 MHz, 75 MHz up from reference. This boost in clock speeds creates noticeable performance improvement, helping make greater use of the generous 3 GB GDDR5 video memory. The default increase in speed indicates the proprietary ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP design’s amenability to overclocking and performance pushing, making better use of the 384-bit memory interface and PCI Express 3.0 standard, which works at up to twice the speed of PCI Express 2.0.

DirectCU II leads to the coolest and quietest HD 7970 card available

Further design and engineering improvements to the ASUS DirectCU II thermal architecture have resulted in its finest iteration yet. The new design consists of six all-copper heatpipes in direct contact with the GPU, in addition to a 20% larger dissipation area than any previous versions. Cooling effectiveness increases by up to 20% compared to reference, helping the card run with improved stability and reliability – critical to successful overclocking. Since the card stays so cool, the dual fans can operate at lower speeds, contributing to a 14 dB quieter than reference experience that helps gamers focus on the action instead of the noise.

First graphics card DIGI+ VRM digital power design with 12-phase Super Alloy Power

ASUS has brought its acclaimed DIGI+ VRM digital power delivery design from motherboards to graphics cards, with the HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP serving as the launch vehicle. DIGI+ VRM has been applied via a massive 12-phase power design that uses digital voltage regulators to increase power efficiency, widen the voltage modulation range, and improve overall stability and longevity. Power delivery components utilize exclusive ASUS Super Alloy Power formulation, which reinforces capacitors, chokes, and MOSFETs with better manufacturing and materials to increase heat tolerance and stress resistance. Cards with Super Alloy Power outperform reference variants and last longer, offering consumers better value.

Easy DIY overvolting with VGA Hotwire

Derived from technology first implemented in ROG motherboards such as the Rampage IV Extreme, VGA Hotwire links headers on the motherboard and the graphics card with simple solder points. Users can alter voltages directly on a hardware level, resulting in more precise modification. Core, memory, and phase (PLL) voltages can be readily altered, opening up new overclocking opportunities.

Intuitive tuning via the GPU Tweak utility

Users who prefer a friendlier interface can utilize the ASUS GPU Tweak suite, which offers fast tuning of numerous card parameters, including clock speeds, voltages, and fan settings. GPU Tweak can control up to four cards at once through AMD CrossFireX. It features GPU clock and voltage syncing, plus 2D/3D switching and mode locking for higher 3D benchmarks. Users get more accurate system testing and higher scores in competitive overclocking scenarios. The utility offers auto driver/BIOS updates to keep cards in optimal working condition, and a handy monitoring widget that provides highly detailed multi-parameter information on demand. ASUS has also worked closely with Techpowerup to integrate GPU-Z into GPU Tweak, offering even more reliable graphics card data and tracking.

First HD 7970 card with four native DisplayPorts for six-screen AMD Eyefinity

The input/output logic of the HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP takes full advantage of the power of the hardware, offering users access to dual DVI and four DisplayPort connectors. As a result, one card can drive up to six screens – achieving HD/4K resolutions with no additional adapters. The efficient power of top-end 28 nm GPU technology means visuals look better than ever even on extremely large displays.

Also in: all-new ASUS HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP ships overclocked to 900 MHz

The HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP features the DirectCU II dual fan cooler and offers consumers superior performance compared to the 800 MHz HD 7950 reference card. ASUS has begun developing more enhanced versions of the HD 7950 that will feature additional exclusive ASUS technologies, including DIGI+ VRM and Super Alloy Power. These cards will ship during the remainder of Q1 2012. Further announcements will be made as products become available.

The world-wide crackdown on file sharing websites continued yesterday, as the Swedish Supreme Court announced that it would not be granting an appeal to Pirate Bay founders Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm as well as associate Carl Lundström. This decision means that the sentences delivered in 2010 – 4 to 10 months plus damages of more than $6.5 million – will hold.

The Pirate Bay website was not a part of the legal proceedings and remains online, though it redirects to a .se domain.

“The verdict is absurd,” Carl Lundström’s lawyer Per E Samuelsson told TorrentFreak. “I am disappointed that the court is so uninterested in dissecting and analyzing the legal twists and turns of one of the world’s most high-profile legal cases of all time.”

The founders of The Pirate Bay and Mr. Lundström initially went to trial in 2009. In April of that year a Swedish court issued a decision that stating, “The court has found that by using Pirate Bay’s services there has been file-sharing of music, films and computer games to the extent the prosecutor has stated in his case. This file-sharing constitutes an unlawful transfer to the public of copyrighted performances.”

The four were sentenced to 1 year in jail each and fines totalling $3.26 million.

Mr. Lundström and the founders took this to the Swedish Appeal Court, and in 2010 they were sentenced to 4 to 10 months in jail and fines of $6.5 million. Mr. Svartholm was not sentenced at this hearing as he was absent due to medical reasons. Because of this, the 2009 ruling against him of 1 year in prison and an equal share of the damages was made permanent.

According to TorrentFreak, one of the defendents claims that they will appeal the case at the European court of justice.

While the shutdown of MegaUpload may have caused a ‘chilling’ effect to reverberate through the digital locker file sharing community, the sentencing of the Pirate Bay’s founders is a symbolic cannonball through the hull of the larger bittorrent community. In addition to being the world’s largest torrent tracker, the Pirate Bay’s brand name represented a culture of defiance; the tracker openly taunted copyright holders by mocking their attempts to have their files taken down.

Despite the founder’s fate, the characteristically resilient Pirate Bay promises to not be shut down.

“2012 is the year of the storm. The Pirate Bay will reach an age of [nine] years. Experiencing raids, espionage and death threats, we’re still here. We’ve been through hell and back and it has made us tougher than ever,” the website wrote in a blog post.

Mr. Sunde said he was disappointed about the ruling, and in a blog post made claims that he was some sort of martyr.

“TPB has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship,” wrote Mr. Sunde. “We’ve fought corruption all over the world. We’ve promoted equal opportunities to poor nations around the globe. We’ve crushed the monopoly on information.”

Antec, Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components, announces the High Current Gamer M series, a mid-range wattage class of hybrid modular power supplies. The High Current Gamer M series is an extension of the HCG PSU line issued in late 2010 but features hybrid modularity, allowing for cleaner systems by reducing cable clutter behind the motherboard.

Antec‘s new desktop PSU series provides quiet, efficient power in 400W, 520W, and 620W models, accommodating casual gamers, home office and corporate consumers. The High Current Gamer M Series is the perfect combination of power and cabling that supply extreme levels of power and superb efficiency.

Maximum Efficiency – As one of industry’s mainstream 80 PLUS® Bronze certified PSU, the High Current Gamer M series offers an ideal combination of industry-leading reliability, guaranteed Continuous Power and up to 87% energy efficiency to help reduce electric bills.

Whisper Quiet – A simple 135mm two ball-bearing fan controlled by Antec’s renowned Thermal Manager and CircuitShield™ operates with minimal noise even at full load.

Premium Components – High Current Gamer M employs 4 fully-protected High Current +12V rails with high load capabilities to ensure maximum CPU and GPU compatibility. It’s designed with 100% Japanese capacitors, ensuring maximum DC stability and regulation. It also offers stealth wires for minimal visibility inside the chassis and a 10-pin modular socket for High Current Flexibility.

Black mesh cable sleeves – All wires darkened for minimal visibility in chassis

Safety Precautions – Patented Circuitshield™ includes voltage, current, power, under voltage, and short circuit protection which automatically shuts down the PSU to prevent further system damage.

All HCG-M power supplies are covered by an Antec five-year parts & labor warranty.

“Antec has succeeded with providing consumers with quiet and efficient power supplies to choose from,” said Mafalda Cogliani, Global Marketing Director at Antec. “And now we want to provide the same type of power and convenience via hybrid modularity power supply that will help with energy reduction.”

Availability
The HCG-M PSU series will be available in the US on Newegg, ASI, Ma Labs, Amazon, J&R and Buy.com and in Canada on NCIX and Canada Computers in early February.

NEC Display Solutions of America, announced today the 24-inch AS241W to its AccuSync Series of value-driven desktop monitors.

The LED-backlit AS241W, which joins the AS171, AS192, AS191WM and AS221WM displays, offers a full range of environmental compliance, including EPEAT Silver, ENERGY STAR 5.1 and TCO 5.2 ratings. This full HD display boasts a quick 5ms Rapid Response time that delivers virtually uninterrupted, undistorted viewing of high-speed, full-motion video. Energy-saving ECO Mode™ enables users to toggle between pre-configured brightness settings that reduce power consumption, heat generation and extend the life of the AS241W.

“The AS241W is our first 24-inch 16:9 display in the AccuSync family, a popular size with the great features our SMB customers need for daily tasks,” said Lynn Gu, Product Manager at NEC Display Solutions. “Many customers have moved to wide-format screens because of their ability to allow the viewing of multiple applications simultaneously. This practice is proven to increase productivity in the workplace.”

 

 

 

The AS241W includes the following features:

• 24-inch, 16:9 TN panel with LED backlighting
• Slim and light design
• 1920 x 1080 full HD resolution
• 1000:1 typical contrast ratio
• 300 cd/m² brightness
• 5ms Rapid Response time
• DVI-D and VGA inputs
• User-friendly On Screen Display (OSD®) controls
• Tilt adjustability
• ECO Mode, carbon footprint meter
• ENERGY STAR® 5.1 and TCO 5.2 compliant
• EPEAT™ Silver

The AccuSync AS241W ships with a 3-year limited parts and labor warranty and will be available in February 2012 at an estimated street price of $239.

 

RunCore, a leading manufacturer of high-performance and rugged solid state drives (SSDs) today announced the availability of its latest SATA 3 SSD.

“The new 2.5″ SATA3, 6Gbs, drive is the nice addition to our existing portfolio of SSD products. The Pro-V MAX is based on the SF-2281 controller with the optimized firmware (the Golden FW). With Read and Write transfer rate at 560 MB/s and 520 MB/s, respectively, and the burst IOPS at 87K while sustained IOPS over 60K, has a super score of over 770 in AS SSD Benchmark, the drive is designed to deliver exceptional performance over the life of it with no performance degradation over time. The Pro-V MAX is ideal for use in gaming machines, HPC & datacenter servers,” said Amy Wang, VP of Strategies and Business Product Development of RunCore.

The Pro-V MAX series features RAISE technology for enhanced reliability and DuraWrite technology. Also supports SATA 6 Gb/s and compatible with 3 Gb/s and 1.5 Gb/s support NCQ (up to 32 commands) and SMART Command and many Operating Systems such as Windows, Linux, Unix, Solaris, Mac OS.

Being the newest and highest-end addition to AMD’s A-series APU lineup, not only does the A8-3870K feature the much raved about integrated Radeon HD 6550D, but it comes with fully unlocked multipliers for both the CPU and GPU portions.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today introduced new industry-leading, single piece 8GB DDR3-1600 high-density memory modules. Known for industry-high standards of quality control and meticulous device engineering, the new modules will meet and exceed expectations of customers who seek performance and quality in DRAM products.

With this launch ADATA is continuing its tradition as an industry leader in DRAM product line-up. These 8GB Premier Series DDR3-1600 single piece memory modules allow users to boost system performance over the limitations of memory slot availability.

The Premier Series 1600Mbps DDR3 240-Pin (Unbuffered DIMM) are standard pin design modules operating at 1.5 volts, with bandwidth up to 12.8 Gb/second (PC3 12800). The memory modules are made of cutting edge high density 4Gb DRAM, so they operate faster, consume less power, and hence operate at cooler temperatures. All the modules are in accordance with JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, JEDEC Solid State Technology Association) and RoHS design and production standards, simultaneously ensuring compatibility with all computer systems adopting the same standard, and are ecologically sound products. ADATA Series memory modules come with lifetime warranty and service1, providing consumers the best protection.

 

The Steam application for iOS and Android devices, announced last week, is now available to all gamers around the world.

Launched last week in a closed beta, the Steam app allows gamers to chat with Steam friends, browse community groups and user profiles, view screenshots and user-generated content for their favorite games, read the latest gaming news, stay up to date on unbeatable Steam sales, and more.

Want to check it out? Simply download the Steam app (free of charge) and log in to your Steam account via the mobile app.

Steam is a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC and Mac games with over 40 million accounts around the world and over 1,800 titles offered.

For more information, please visit http://store.steampowered.com/mobile

A vitrolic court battle between Hewlett Packard and Oracle over Intel’s Itanium platform and HP’s ex-CEO Mark Hurd took a turn in HP’s favour Monday, when a judge dismissed Oracle’s fraud claim against the company.

The saga begun last year, when Oracle discontinued its support for Intel’s Itanium platform  – a platform jointly developed by HP and Intel in the late 90s – claiming it had received word from the chip-maker that the end was nigh for the platform.

This lead HP, whose server line is powered by Oracle’s software and runs on Itanium chips, to sue Oracle alleging this play was “anti-customer” and a breach of agreement.

Oracle countered, alleging that Intel only developed and supported the chip because it was paid to do so by HP. Oracle quoted an internal HP document which said the roadmap for Itanium was “more of an illusion than of technical significance.”

In November 2010, Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems giving it control of Sun’s lucrative SPARC hardware business. Sun’s SPARC servers compete directly against HP’s Oracle powered server line. Oracle alleges HP’s strategy was to take away business from Oracle Sun, and to “reap lucrative revenues from the locked-in Itanium customer base using HP’s HP-UX operating system on Itanium servers”.

According to court filings, payments from HP to Intel totaled $440 million under an agreement signed in 2008 between the companies. In 2010 that deal was extended to more than $250 million.

Intel refused to comment at length on the proceedings.

“Intel’s work on Itanium processors and platforms continues with multiple generations of chips currently in development,” a spokesperson for the company said. “We remain firmly committed to delivering a competitive, multi-generational roadmap for customers using HP-UX and other operating systems that run the Itanium architecture.”

In late August 2011, the New York Post reported on rumours that Oracle was considering a takeover of HP. This would have allowed Oracle to better position itself against market leader IBM.

Last December, Oracle counter-sued HP claiming fraud, defamation, intentional interference with contractual relations, as well as violation of the Lanham Act and two violations of the California Business and Professional Code.

“HP engaged in a multi-year campaign of secrecy and deception designed to conceal the truth about Intel Corporation’s commitment to the Itanium microprocessor in order to extend its Itanium server business at Oracle’s expense and reap large profits from its own unsuspecting installed base of Itanium users,” Oracle lawyers wrote in the brief sent to Judge James Kleinberg of the California Supreme Court in December.

Oracle claims of fraud were centered around allegations that HP had acted fraudulently by withholding information from Oracle when the two firms entered into the “Hurd Agreement”. This agreement was reached after HP sued Oracle for hiring its former CEO, Mark Hurd. Before Mr. Hurd was appointed to be the co-president of Oracle, he served as the CEO of HP until August 2010 when he was resigned after a sexual harassment inquiry found he had filed inaccurate expense reports.

Oracle said it never would have entered into the Hurd Agreement if it had known about these issues with Intel, hence the allegations of fraud.

In a 21-page ruling released Monday, Judge James Kleinberg ruled against Oracle’s fraud claims, saying that the “alleged fraud did not prevent Oracle from participating in the negotiations” between the two companies to settle the issues over Oracle’s hiring of Mr. Hurd “or deprive Oracle of the opportunity to negotiate.”

HP said in a press release that it was “pleased” the court had ruled in its favour in rejecting Oracle’s attempt to use a fraud claim to nullify its contract with HP.

“We look forward to seeing the facts made public that demonstrate how Oracle’s March 2011 announcement to no longer develop software for Itanium servers was part of a calculated business strategy to drive hardware sales from Itanium to inferior Sun servers,” an HP spokesperson said in a statement celebrating the company’s victory.

Although Oracle’s fraud claim has been dismissed, the legal battle between the two companies is far from over. The two are due back in court in April to continue the fight.

Oracle claimed  it was “delighted” with the court ruling that rejected HP’s attempt to “hide the truth” about Itanium’s certain end of life from its customers, partners and own employees.

“We look forward to seeing all of the facts made public that demonstrate how HP has known for years that Itanium is end of life,” the company said.

Data stored on MegaUpload’s servers was expected to be destroyed late this week, but according to the Washington Post the company has secured a two week reprieve from hosting companies.

“It is our understanding that the hosting companies may begin deleting the contents of the servers beginning as early as February 2, 2012,” U.S. District Attorney Neil MacBride wrote in the letter to MegaUpload’s lawyer last week.

Ira Rothken, MegaUpload’s attorney, said that the company is in talks with the Department of Justice to unfreeze some of its assets so it can pay to have the data recovered. Mr. Rothken said that the hosting companies — Cogent and Carpathia — have been “very open to negotiating” to preserve the data.

Mr. Rothken also hopes that some of the data recovered will be used in the company’s defence, proving the digital storage locker was not only used for copyright infringement.

Last week a number of details emerged about Microsoft’s next generation Xbox, dubbed the Xbox 720. As Microsoft was mum on details at CES, an official announcement was expected for June’s E3. However according to Cedrick Delmas, marketing director of Microsoft France, all rumours about an announcement are “premature”.

In an interview with French online magazine Lepoint.Fr, translated by VG247, Mr. Delmas said: “We’re in an industry that talks a lot, that likes to tell stories. I am not convinced things will happen this year. Xbox 360′s cycle is not at all finished.”

“The proof is that we don’t see the logic in cutting the price this year. E3 is still premature. What’s certain is that there will be nothing new in 2012.”

Mr. Delmas claimed Microsoft won’t be making any moves to counter Nintendo as they officially announce Wii U at E3, then launch the system at Christmas.

“We’re not here to counter Nintendo and they’re not here to fight the other manufacturers. Nintendo has put itself in a different cycle, they’re advancing at their own pace.”

Sony says that they will be last to announce plans for a next generation console.

Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH, the European subsidiary of Shuttle Inc., one of the leading developers and manufacturers of compact PC solutions such as the world-renowned XPC Mini-PC barebones, today announces its new top-of-the-range XPC Barebone model SZ68R5.

It is the first time a Shuttle Mini-PC integrates Intel’s Z68 high-performance desktop chipset with Smart Response Technology (SSD caching). An SSD is used here to speed up the boot process and to ensure ultra-rapid application startup. Space-saving mSATA-SSDs can be fitted in the corresponding Mini-PCIe slot on the motherboard.

The Intel Z68 Express chipset combines the numerous features of the H67 Express with the performance benefits of the P67 Express chipset. The new XPC Barebone SZ68R5 is able for the first time to accommodate four add-on cards: 1x PCIe-x16-2.0, 1x PCIe-x4-2.0, 1x Mini-PCIe-x1-2.0 and 1x mSATA. On the motherboard there are four sockets for up to a total of 32 GB DDR3 memory. Of particular interest to experienced users are the diverse performance-enhancing BIOS parameters for fine-tuning the machine. The “TurboBoost” function gets the most out of the machine’s processors when under full load. In addition, new power-saving features ensure low energy consumption and less heat buildup. There is an extremely wide range of LGA 1155 processors supported by this barebone, including Intel Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7.

The SZ68R5 has an HDMI port and DVI-I port – ideal for many second-generation Intel Core processors with integrated graphics. The new Intel HD graphics are normally sufficient for casual gaming and enable the smooth playback of HD content. With an additional graphics card fitted in the PCIe-x16-2.0 slot, up to four screens can be controlled at once.

A Smart USB port on the front with 2 Amp power feed is suitable for devices with high charging requirements (e.g. iPhone/iPad). In total, the machine offers the following host of external connectors: 4x USB 3.0, 6x USB 2.0, 1x eSATA/USB Combo, 7.1 Audio, S/PDIF. On the UEFI motherboard, there are 2x SATA 6 Gbit, 2x SATA 3 Gbit, 2x USB 2.0 and 1x RS232 ports waiting for the user. There is even a 500 Watt 80 PLUS-certified power supply unit already built in providing the juice to power all this.

“The long-awaited XPC Barebone based on Z68 Express has now landed in Europe,” states Tom Seiffert, Head of Marketing & PR at Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH. “Not often in our long history has the sales launch of a new model been so keenly awaited. In fact, there were already requests for this development as soon as the first model with LGA1155 was introduced.”

With the HD 7970 sitting firmly at the forefront of today’s GPU market, it was only a matter of time until its performance trickled down into lower end products as well.  Today marks the launch of AMD’s HD 7950, a $449 card that’s supposed to go head to head against NVIDIA’s GTX 580.

XFX has always been at the forefront of enthusiasts’ mindsets and their newest HD 7950 looks to take things to the next level.  In order to create this card, they took a custom designed PCB, installed a highly overclocked core and then topped everything off with a high performance heatsink.  The result is one of the best HD 7950 cards available on launch day.

The  HD 7950 Dual Fan OC carries on Sapphire’s longstanding tradition of offering great value in an appealing package.  This card seems to have everything; a great heatsink, relatively high clock speeds and a reasonable price but there is plenty of competition out there as well.