Official: Futuremark Working Hard on DirectX 11 Benchmark

As the leading PC benchmark provider, Futuremark’s offerings like 3DMark Vantage has been vastly used by PC enthusiasts all over the world. With the release of Windows 7 operating system and AMD DirectX 11-ready graphics cards, we’re curious that when the company is planning to debut their own DX11 benchmark. Thus, Expreview wrote an email to Oliver Baltuch, the president of Futuremark Inc. to ask about this, and was lucky enough to get a reply after several hours.

Oliver said he was unable to discuss the unannounced products, but he told us to be assured that they are “hard at work creating beautiful looking art and fantastic code which will be at the leading edge of technology.”

The new benchmark tool sounds to be something great to look forward to, and we’ll be always ready to share more details with all of you.

http://en.expreview.com/2009/11/03/noctua-reveals-nh-d14-cpu-cooler.html

First unveiled at ComputeX 2009 back in June, Noctua’s NH-D14 has finally made its official debut.

NH-D14 measures 160×140x158mm, has six copper heatpipes, a 120mm NF-P12 and a 140mm NF-P14 fan which has a maximum working speed of 1200RPM and 1300RPM, respectively. According to the company, the NH-D14 in Ultra-Low-Noise mode actually outperforms the NH-U12P at full fan speed, which might give you an idea of the premium performance it delivers.

Bundled with the NT-H1 thermal compound, the NHD-D14 supports Intel LGA 775/1156/1366 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3 processors, and will start selling from middle November for $84.90/?74.90.

EVGA GeForce GTX275 CO-OP PhysX Edition Makes Official Debut

Just as reported in late October, EVGA unveiled a special dual-GPU GeForce graphics card on Halloween, GeForce GTX275 CO-OP PhysX Edition.

The card combines a GeForce GTX 275 (240 processing cores, 633/2268/1296MHz core/memory/shader) and a GeForce GTS 250 (128 processing cores, 738/2200/1836MHz), with the latter one only being used when in-game PhysX processing is required.

EVGA has also shown off the test result which suggests a significant performance improvement.

Bundled with a coupon for the free download of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the GeForce GTX275 CO-OP PhysX Edition is now available for $349.99.

Gelid Presents Tranquillo CPU Cooler

The cooling specialist Gelid Solutions has just announced Tranquillo, which is claimed to “cool any CPU while maintaining low noise levels and at a great price”.

Tranquillo weighs 645g, features four copper heatpipes, a 120mm hydro dynamic bearing fan which operates at 750RPM to 1500RPM with a maximum sound output of 25.5dBA, and includes mounting clips for AMD 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3 and for Intel 775/1156/1366 sockets as well as back plates for Intel LGA 775, Core i5 and Core i7 boards.

Bundled with GC-2 thermal compound, the Tranquillo provides a 5-year warranty, and will retail for $38/?28.

Affiliate reviews today [01-11-2009]

Accessories
Spyder3Express Monitor Color Calibration Device @ TestFreaks | iPhone 3GS / 3G Dock and External Battery Pack Reviewed @ iGadget Life

PSUs
BFG Tech EX-1000 1000W Modular Power Supply Review @ Bigbruin | Ultra Products X4 1050W Modular ATX Power Supply Review @ Futurelooks | ASUS U-75HA 750 W Power Supply Review @ Hardware Secrets | be quiet! TFX-300W PSU @ Technic3d | Spire Blackmoon Series 550W @ Rbmods

Mobile
Nokia 7705 Twist Cell Phone Review @ Hardware Secrets | Motorola VE66 @ PCFoster

Periphery
Steelseries Siberia v2 Review @ XSReviews | Logitech G27 Racing Wheel Review @ Rbmods | Steelseries 7G Review @ XSReviews

Articles
How to find the best Gaming LCD HD TV set @ revHardware

Storage
Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive Desktop Upgrade Bundle @ TestFreaks | Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive Review @ Futurelooks | Seagate Cheetah NS.2 and Cheetah 15K.7 tested @ LanOC Reviews

Games
My Make-Up for Nintendo DS @ TestFreaks | My Secret Diary – Nintendo DS @ TestFreaks

Cases
Thermaltake Element V Case Review @ Hardware Secrets | SilverStone Raven 2 case review @ TweakPC

Kingmax Unveils Hercules PC3-17600 DDR3 Memory

Memory manufacturer Kingmax announced the Hercules line of high-end DDR3 PC3-17600 memory modules for overclockers. Available in dual-channel kits for now, the Hercules can operate at 2200 MHz, with CAS latency of 10T, with DRAM voltage in the range of 1.5~1.7V. Optimized for Intel socket LGA-1156 processors, the modules support Intel Extreme Memory Profiles. Each kit includes two 2 GB modules. At 2200 MHz, each module provides a theoretical bandwidth of 17.6 GBps. There is no word on the availability or pricing.

An Early Look at Asus USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 Expansion Card

If you’ve been looking forward to the USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 support on Intel’s new P55 chipset, you’d be very cheerful to read this.

Asus has prepared an innovative expansion card - U3S6, which provides two USB 3.0 ports and two SATA 6.0 ports. The card has three primary components: an NEC D720200F1 USB 3.0 controller, a Marvell 88SE9123 SATA 6.0 controller, and a PLX PEX8613.

According to MaximumPC, U3S6 performed on par with the USB 2.0 ports in the P55 board they tested. They will get a SATA drive soon and test it then.

Asus said the card is expected to be available soon for about $30.

Thermaltake Launches Element V, Full-Tower Case with Optimized Cooling

Thermaltake, leading DIY chassis brand, launches the newest full-tower PC case for demanding gamers and power-users. The Element V offers optimized airflow characteristics with 5 preinstalled heavy-duty fans, while leaving room for another 3 upgrade fans. Two 120 mm front mounted fans are blowing outside air directly through and over the drive bays with an additional oversized 230 cm ColorShift fan at the side panel taking in a vast amount of outside air and distributing it over graphics cards and CPU. Two exhaust fans in the upper area remove uprising hot air; one 120 mm rear side TurboFan and one big size ColorShift fan in the top panel. No matter how much peripherals you throw at this case, you can always rest assured they won't ever be an air-congestion. You will rather stay cool and calm.

For users you like a vivid look and enjoy giving their case a character of it's own, the three ColorShift fan provide you with 6 color option that can static or in motion. Adjustment of the three ColorShift fans' color scheme and fan speed are conveniently done by a dual-function know on the top front side.

Noctua Serves up the 140mm NF-P14 FLX Fan

Noctua has just announced its first 140mm fan - NF-P14 FLX which promises more airflow and better cooling performance.

The nine-blade fan features Vortex-Control Notches to achieve superb quietness and outstanding efficiency, and has the same hole-spacing as common 120mm fans, making it ideal for those who want to upgrade their 120mm/140mm CPU or case fans.

NF-P14 FLX includes both a Low-Noise and Ultra-Low-Noise Adapter to enable users to choose from three speed settings - 750RPM, 900RPM and 1200RPM. The fan has a sound output of just 10.1dBA at lowest working speed, and outs a maximum noise of 19.6dBA.

Backed by a 6-year warranty, the NF-P14 FLX provides a MTBF of 150,000 hours and will start reaching stores by mid-November with a price tag of $24.9.

Artic RC PRO Keeps Your RAM Cool

Arctic Cooling has just revealed the Arctic RC PRO, its newest RAM cooler which is compatible with both DDR2 and DDR3 memory modules.

The aluminum heatsink measures 126×76mm, weighs 74g, and features fins that extend 5cm. Securely assembled by 3 screws, the included pre-applied thermal pads firmly lay on the modules for best heat dissipation. According to the company’s inner test, the Arctic RC PRO lowers the DRAM temperature by up to 50%.

The Arctic RC PRO will start selling in November and cost about $9.95/?6.95.

PowerColor’s First Watercooled Radeon HD 5870 Looks Pretty

Earlier this month PowerColor announced partnership with EK to design a watercooled HD 5870, and the card has finally emerged online.

The LCS HD 5870 comes with 1600 stream processors, 1GB of GDDR5 memory, a 256-bit memory interface, and core/memory clock of 875/5000MHz. Equipped with copper-made block and support for 3/8″ and 1/2″ fittings, the card has implemented advanced technologies including DirectX 11, CrossFireX and ATI Eyefinity.

Bundled with a coupon for Dirt 2, PowerColor LCS HD5870 is expected to become available from November 6th.

Radeon HD 5970 Seen in All Its Might

AMD did make quite a splash by launching the first ever DirectX 11-ready Radeon HD 5800 series GPUs, and the Radeon HD 5870 has also helped the company to retrieve the performance crown of single-GPU graphics card by beating NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285. Apparently, the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 is something which deserves even higher expectations.

Our fellow site Alienbabeltech has just posted the first pictures and benchmarks of Radeon HD 5970, but the performance screenshots have been cleared up a bit later, due to the pesky NDA, as you can expect.

Radeon HD 5970 features a very long PCB which measures 13.5 inch (i.e.34.29cm), making it to be the longest ever. The reviewer actually had some problems fitting it into a full-sized tower case like the Antec 1200. According to them, the fan worked at 4700RPM under load, not unexpectedly, too much noise as well.

Affiliate reviews today [29-10-2009]

PSUs
Enermax ECO80+ 620W SLI® PSU @ Rbmods | be quiet! SFX-350W PSU @ Technic3D

Mobile
Extra DVD to All MP4 Ripper Reviewed @ iGadget Life

Periphery
Jabra BT3030 Stereo Bluetooth Headset @ TestFreaks | QPad HeatoN Review @ XSReviews | Samsung 50" Plasma 1080p HDTV Review - BCCHardware

Cooling
Cooler Scythe Orochi rev. B @ PCFoster | Thermalright T-Rad2 VGA cooler @ LanOC Reviews | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Secrets

Articles
How Stuff Works: GPS Receivers @ TestFreaks | Apple Tips #4: Play Windows Games on Your Mac @ iGadget Life

Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-EP41-UD3L @ PCFoster

Storage
Vizo Luxon 3.5" External IDE/SATA HDD Enclosure Review @ Madshrimps | Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 SAS 15,000RPM Hard Drive Review @ Benchmark Reviews | Buffalo MiniStation Metro 250GB USB Hard Drive Review @ Bigbruin

Video Cards
HIS Radeon HD5770 Review @ High Tech Reviews | Sparkle Calibre X265 @ LanOC | XFX Radeon HD 5770 Video Card Review @ BmR

Memory
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB Kit DDR3-1600/PC3-12800 OCZ3BE1600C8LV4GK Memory Review @ Ocinside

Games
The Biggest Loser for Nintendo DS @ TestFreaks | My Friends Nintendo DS Review @ TestFreaks

Cases
NZXT BETA EVO Classic Series PC Case Review @ Bona Fide Reviews | Thermaltake Element G Review @ XSReviews | NZXT Beta - a cheap NZXT gaming case @ TweakPC | Silverstone RV02 Raven 2 Case Review @ Ninjalane

Systems
ASRock ION 330 NetTop System Review @ BCCHardware | ZOTAC's New ION ITX-F Series and the MAG ITX System @ MEGATech

Danamics LMX CPU Cooler Detailed

More than one year after unveiling the LM10 CPU cooler with liquid metal inside, Danamics has decided that it’s time to deliver its successor - LMX, just as they planned.

LMX measures 158.2×170.5×90mm, weighs 1180g, includes nickel-plated aluminum heatsink, and two 120mm LED fans designed by SilenX which works at 2000RPM with maximum sound output of 28.6dBA.

LMX provides high-quality thermal compound, full mounting kits for both AMD socket AM2/AM2+/AM3 and Intel socket 775/1156/1366, and support for Danamics PowerBooster.

The good news is the LMX carries a suggested retail price of ?159, seeing a significant price drop compared to its predecessor, LM10, which was sold for ?280 (though it still sounds somewhat expensive.)

To celebrate the LMX launch, the company will add two extra 120mm LED fans to the first customers. This offer will last for four weeks after the launch - we’ll let you know the specific date for the official launch soon.

Click here for the preview video of LMX cooler.

Specs and Pictures of Sapphire HD 5870 Vapor-X Surface

First seen a month ago on the release day of Radeon HD 5800 series graphics cards, Sapphire HD 5870 Vapor-X model is finally ready to debut.

Cooled by a dual-slot Vapor-X cooler which takes advantage of vapor chamber technology, the Cypress-powered card features 1600 stream processors, 1GB of GDDR5 memory, a 256-bit memory interface, and is factory overclocked, with its GPU and memory running at 870MHz and 5000MHz, respectively.

The included large LED fan delivers better cooling performance than the reference cooler as well as promising maximum quietness, and the card also has dual DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.

Expected to reach stores next week, Sapphire HD 5870 Vapor-X is coming bundled with a coupon for Dirt 2.

Kingston Intros Affordable 40GB SSDs for Desktop Users

Kingston has recently announced the release of the SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive, the latest addition to its V family of solid state drives.

Available for as low as $84.99 after rebates (U.S. only) at etailer Newegg.com at launch, the 34nm MLC NAND based SSDs deliver sequential write speed of 170MB/s and write speed of 35MB/s.

Backed by a three-year warranty, the Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive has a MSRP of $115 and will begin shipping on November 9th, 2009.

Unigine Delivers First DirectX 11 Benchmark

Unigine has lately announced release of the first DirectX 11 benchmark “Heaven” that is based on its proprietary Unigine engine.

Heaven benchmark provides the following key features: * Native support of OpenGL, DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11 * Comprehensive use of tessellation technology * Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion) * Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physcially accurate algorithm * Dynamic simulation of changing environment with high physcial fidelity * Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes * ATI Eyefinity support

You may download from here if you happen to have Windows 7 installed and one of ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards.

Hardware requirements: * Tessellation feature REQUIRES a GPU with DirectX 11 support! * ATI Radeon HD 2xxx and higher or NVIDIA GeForce 7xxx and higher (recommended: NVIDIA 8800/AMD 4800 series) * 256Mb of video memory

Western Digital Posts Strong Quarterly Report

Western Digital has recently reported record revenue of $2.2 billion, record hard drive shipments of 44.1 million units and net income of $288 million, or $1.25 per share, for its first fiscal quarter ended Oct 2nd, 2009.

“For the second consecutive quarter, demand for hard drives was stronger than expected as the positive industry conditions that materialized in the June quarter continued throughout the September quarter,” said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer. “We believe this demand is being driven primarily by consumers as a result of the growing social media phenomenon. This is creating demand in mobile and desktop PCs, branded products and enterprise storage. Hard drive inventories remain at historcially low levels, reflecting industry discipline in managing supply and demand.”

Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 Vapor-X Pictured

Sapphire is reportedly planning to release their popular Vapor-X version of the ATI HD 5750 which is targeted to mainstream and price conscious consumers.

Cooled by Vapor-X dual-slot cooler based on Vapor Chamber technology, the upcoming card features 720 stream processors, a 128-bit memory interface, DirectX 11, CrossFireX and ATI Eyefinity support.

The HD 5750 Vapor-X has core/memory clock of 700/1150MHz, boasts dual DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort connectors, and is said to debut on November 3rd.

Аkasa unveils Freedom Tower CPU cooler

Akasa Freedom Series is designed to unleash the performance of your system. Freedom Tower is a multi platform CPU cooler utilizing four nickel plated copper heatpipes with direct contact technology. The extreme cooling capabilities give you freedom to overclock and white LED 12cm fan with PWM provides ultra quiet performance and subtle illumination. Compatible socket type are: Intel LGA775, LGA1156, LGA1366, and AMD Socket 939, AM2, AM2, and AM3.