Lenovo have just launched a new IdeaPad laptop, the G560. The new model sports a 15.6 inch backlight display plus a dual layer DVD burner. An Intel i3 processor provides the grunt ‘under the hood’, while the G560 has a ‘sporty new design’ on the surface. It also comes with a Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience certificate which ‘maximises the potential of Windows 7′. Impressed? If so, here’s the full set of specifications for you to admire

* Intel® Core™ i3-330M Processor ( 2.13GHz 1066MHz 3MB )
* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
* Intel HD Graphics
* 4 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
* 15.6 ” WXGA LED Backlight TFT 1366×768
* 320GB 5400 rpm HDD
* DVD Recordable (Dual Layer)
* 6 Cell Lithium-Ion Battery

Whilst not rocking the world with those figures, the Lenovo G560 laptop is certainly not under-specced and with a price tag of $799 it will certainly catch the eye of keen laptop enthusiasts. If you’re interested the G560 IdeaPad is available now over at the Lenovo online shop.

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Today’s the day, Apple unleashed their tablet PC, the iPad, on the unsuspecting world. The iPad sports a 9.7 inch multi-touch screen and comes in a range of sizes, 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. Add in 3G connectivity to the 64 GB version and it’ll set you back $829 to keep up with the Joneses. If that’s your thing then read the full specifications

* 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit widescreen Multi-Touch display
* 1024×768 res at 132 ppi
* 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive
* 1GHz Apple A4 processor
* Accelerometer sensor
* Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
* H.264, Main Profile level 3.1, MPEG-4 video support
* Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
* 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
* Built-in speakers
* Microphone
* 9.56 x 7.47 x 0.5 inch
* 1.5 pounds

The Apple iPad obviously sports Wi-Fi connectivity and for a premium it’ll hook up via 3G. It uses Apple’s Safari browser, handles emails, has a funky photo gallery and cool looking book app, iBooks. Needless to say there will be plenty of apps available for the iPad which will all look groovy and make your friends go ‘ooooo’, but surely the iPad is just a bigger version of the iPhone? We feel the iPad is trying to fit into a market that isn’t really there, but it’ll sell mainly because of the logo on the back and we’re sure its good at what it does but do we really need it? Well that’s your call.

Pricing options

Wifi 16GB – $499, 32GB – $599, 64GB – $699
Wifi and 3G 16GB – $629, 32GB – $729, 64GB – $829

Source: Apple

Featured Tags apple, tablet-pc


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The new MSI Wind U135 sports Intel’s Pine Trail platform and boasts the new 1.66 GHz Atom processor increasing the battery life up to a very respectable 7.5 hours. Here’s the rest of the specification for the snazzy looking U135 laptop

* 1 GB Memory
* 160 GB HDD
* 802.11b/g/n connectivity
* Windows 7 Starter OS
* 10 inch 1024 x 600 res WSVGA display
* 4.3 pounds
* Built-in webcam
* Bluetooth connectivity

Apparently the MSI Wind U135 also has a quieter keyboard so you won’t disturb those around when you’re tip-tapping away plus a 20% wider touchpad for those of us with slightly chubbier digits. Overall though it’s a pretty standard netbook but the battery life is most definitely a plus to make the MSI Wind U135 worth taking a look at. Right now you can hold of one of these suckers at Amazon for a respectable $317.

Featured Tags laptop, msi


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Whilst buying a gaming rig may not be high on the priorities of most gamers right now, if it is then you can do worse than check out Maingear’s latest range, the F1X series. There are three offerings in the range, namely the F1X 750, 500 and 200, all of which feature ePhex, Maingear’s award winning design, space for six, yes six hard drives and a unique dual chamber design which splits out those hard drives from other heat-producing pieces of kit. Here are the hard numbers on the big boy F1X 750 of the series

* Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
* 2 x PCI Slots, 1 x PCI Express X1 Slots, 2 x PCI Express X16 Slots
* 8 x USB Ports, 2 x FireWire Ports, 1 x eSATA Ports
* 5 x Audio Out Jacks, 2 x Line In Jacks, 2 x Microphone Jacks
* 4 x DVI Video outputs, 2 x Display Ports, 2 x HDMI Ports
* Coaxial Connector
* S/PDIF Connectors
* Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 3.33GHz
* 12 GB of DDR3 1333 (PC-10600)
* 6 Memory Slots
* Maximum Memory Supported 24GB
* 80GB Intel X-25M Gen2 SSD
* 1.5TB Western Digital Green SATA HDD
* DVDRW Dual Layer & Blu-Ray Burner
* 24-bit 192kHz High Definition Audio
* 7.1 Channels
* Dual AMD ATI Radeon HD 5870 Graphic cards in CrossFire
* Max res 2560×1600, six total monitors supported
* RJ-45 10/100/1000Mbps
* 20.5 x 8.15 x 25.4 inches

We hope you managed to take all of that in! But of course with such a large list of specs comes a large price tag weighing in at $5160. Of course the F1X 750′s lesser siblings rock in at smaller figures, 500 at $3100 and the 200 at $2250 but if you’re really serious about your gaming it’s gotta be the F1X 750 that catches your eye and wallet. These suckers are all available at Amazon, click below for the specific model

F1X 750

F1X 500

F1X 200

Featured Tags gaming, maingear, pc


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Another day goes by and another upgrade to a HP laptop occurs, this time the HP Pavilion dv7t series gets a bit more oomph with a Core i5 processor option now available on the HP website. While the base unit still sports the Core i3 option, the recommended configuration boasts the following stats

* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-430M processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L2 Cache)
* 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 500GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
* 512MB NVIDIA GeForce G 105M
* 17.3″ diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)
* SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW
* Webcam
* Intel Wireless-N Card
* 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

That little lot will set you back a mere $1148, not bad for a mid-range laptop. Other options include an integrated HDTV tuner, Blu-Ray player, 8 GB of memory and so on. Of course all these little add-ons make for a big price tag but that’s the, err, price you pay. Still keen to check this sucker out then head on over to the HP Pavilion website for further drooling. There’s also a review over at PC Mag which scores the HP Pavilion dv7t a 4 out of 5.

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HP are certainly quick off the mark to produce some hardware offering USB 3.0 connectivity. On the i7 processor versions of their Envy 15 laptop you’ll be able to hook up all those whizzy USB 3.0 gadgets to the unit, like the Brando SATA adaptor. Of course the HP Envy 15 comes with a few other bells and whistles, here’s the low-down on the ‘recommended’ configuration

* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)
* 6GB DDR3 System Memory
* 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
* 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics
* 15.6″ diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen Display (1366×768)
* External Tray Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support with 2 USB Ports
* Webcam
* Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth

That little lot will set you back $2195 which isn’t cheap but then again the unit does sport some nice features on top of the USB 3.0 connectivity. Of course if you get one of these suckers then you’ll have to hope your wallet can handle the strain of all those shiny new USB 3.0 devices out there! For the record USB 3.0 connectivity allows data speeds of up to 5 Gbps plus handling more power thus reducing charging time.

There are some reviews out there which do mention an issue with battery life on the HP Envy 15, so for further info check out Gizmodo, CNET (3.5 out of 5) and Laptopmag (2.5 out of 5).

And of course, if you already have one of these suckers let us know what you think in the comments below.

Source: HP Envy 15

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Want an SSD for a snip just over $120? That’s what you’ll have to stump up at Amazon to get your mits on Intel’s latest SSD offering, the 40GB X25-V SSD. Now 40 GB may not sound like a lot of zeroes and ones but the cunning plan would be to have your OS installed on your super-fast SSD and all your data on the old HDD. This means, in theory that your OS would fly along to free up time for you to actually ‘do stuff’ with your data on the machine. We’ve heard the plan before and we think it is a good idea and with small SSDs priced keenly it even becomes an affordable plan. Anyway should you choose Intel as your SSD provider here are the bits and pieces on their X25-V 40 GB SSD.

* Sustained Read/Write: 170/35 MB/s
* Power: 150mW active, 75mW idle
* 1.2 million hour MTBF
* Read Latency: 65 microseconds, write Latency: 110 microseconds
* 4.3 x 0.8 x 6.1 inches
* 4 ounces
* Model number: SSDSA2MP040G2R5
* Random 4 KB reads up to 25 K IOPS
* Random 4 KB writes up to 2.5 K IOPS

The X25-V is certainly one of the cheapest SSDs around but isn’t the fastest available. However for giving your machine’s OS a helping hand $120 is not a lot to pay. If you’re still keen check out Intel’s 40GB SSD over at Amazon where it also gained 4.5 stars out of 5.

Featured Tags intel, SSD


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