Highpoint launch Rocket 600 SATA PCI Express cards

November 2nd, 2009

Highpoint Rocket 600 SATA PCI Express cards

Looking to unleash the speed of SSD drives without upgrading your motherboard and you have a PCI-Express slot available? Well Highpoint have a couple of PCI Express cards just for you, namely the Rocket 620 and Rocket 622. Both offer SATA 6 Gb/s connectivity to enable you to take advantage of SSDs with transfer speeds of 600 MB/s. The Rockets are also backward compatible with SATA I and II devices allowing you to hook up older, slower drives. Here’s the full list of features and specs on the Highpoint Rocket 620 and 622 SATA III PCI Express cards

* Interfaces SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s
* Connector Types SATA (620) and eSATA (622)
* Bus Types PCI-Express 2.0 x1
* 600MB/s per (SATA and eSATA) port
* AHCI Compliant
* Supports Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
* Out-of-the-Box Ready for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X 10.6 and above
* Compatible with SATA (III, II, I) Hard Drives and SSD
* Support up to 2TB Hard Drives

According to Electronista these units will be priced at $70 for the 620 and $80 for the 622. Not bad upgrade prices to enable your system to utilise those blistering SSD speeds.

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Western Digital’s TV Live at Best Buy

October 12th, 2009

Western Digital TV LIve Media Player

Western Digital have a media player out there called the WD TV Live and is only $120 at Best Buy. The TV Live sits between your PC and HDTV and enables you to view various media from the internet on the HDTV whilst providing an ethernet connection to enable media on other PCs in your home to be viewed too. Western Digital’s TV Live simply hooks up to the PC via a USB 2.0 connection and provides a 1080p display. Other specifications as follows:

* Supports AAC, MP3 and JPEG. H.264/AVCHD formats
* Dolby Digital and DTS decoders
* High quality progressive-scan picture
* HDMI port
* Ethernet connection
* 1.6 x 4.9 x 3.9 inches
* 10.7 oz

And over at Best Buy it’s a mere $120. We must admit we can’t see why you wouldn’t just hook up your PC directly to the HDTV but that’s just us. If someone out there has a TV Live please let us know why we should have one too!

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Posted in Home Entertainment | 2 Comments »

Hannspree HannsNote 10″ laptop

August 23rd, 2009

Hannspree HannsNote 10″ laptop
Hannspree have unleashed their latest laptop, the HannsNote, in the USA. US$380 (or US$320 at Amazon) will get you either a Pearl White or Pearl Black version which weighs in at only 2.9 lbs (1.17kg) including a six-cell Li-Ion battery which will last six hours at full charge. Sounds good to you? Well, read on for some more bits and pieces on Hannspree’s lightweight laptop.

* Intel® Atom™ N270 1.6GHz Processor / 512KB Cache / 533MHz FSB
* Windows® XP Home Edition SP3
* 1GB DDR2 (Up to 2GB Max)
* 10 inch 1024 x 600 TFT res LCD display
* Intel GMA 950 Graphics
* Mic & headphone sockets and built-in stereo speakers
* 160GB SATA 2.5″ Internal HDD
* 1.3MP webcam
* 3-in-1 Card Reader: SD/MMC/MS
* 802.11b/g/n, 10/100 LAN, Bluetooth® 2.0 connectivity
* VGA Output, USB 2.0 x3
* 6-Cell Li-Ion Battery (Up to 5 hours of operation with full charge)
* 10.2″ x 1.8″ x 7.1″ (with battery)
* 2.9 lbs. with 6-Cell Battery

An optical drive is optional add-on but that’s the way with all these ultra-portable laptops these days and for portability the HannsNote is difficult to beat. So if you are on the look out for a lightweight laptop then the HannsNote may just be what you are looking for.

Source: Hannspree HannsNote

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$300 Compaq laptop at Walmart

August 3rd, 2009

HP Compaq CQ60-419WM laptop

According to FatWallet, Walmart are offering the HP Compaq CQ60-419WM laptop for only US$300 at their stores only. There’s no indication if the offer has a time limit and the Walmart website states the Compaq is only available in-store giving no pricing details. This offer makes the HP laptop as cheap as a netbook but sporting laptop specs and of course laptop weight. For a full list of details on the Compaq CQ60-419WM read on

* AMD Sempron SI-42 Processor 2.10 GHz with 512Kb L2 Cache
* 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
* 160 GB Hard Drive SATA
* CD/DVD Writer (DVD+/-RW)
* 802.11 b/g WiFi & 10/100Mbps Wired Ethernet
* 15.6″ Diagonal High Definition HP BrightView Display
* Three USB 2.0 ports, headphone and mic jacks, VGA output, 56k Modem and LAN port
* 6 cell battery for up to 4 hours of laptop time
* Vista Home Basic OS
* 9.9″ x 14.88″ x 1.72″
* 9.55 lbs

Along with the $300 price tag all this makes the HP Compaq CQ60-419WM a great purchase and this is backed up by the 21 out of 30 customers who rated this as 5 out of 5 stars on the Walmart site. If you’re on the lookout for a cheap laptop and netbooks are not your thing, then it may well be worth a visit to your local Walmart, but we reckon you should be quick!

Source: FatWallet

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Dell Studio 14z laptop

May 29th, 2009

Dell Studio 14z

Usually a lightweight laptop means sacrificing processor speed, but not with the Studio 14z laptop from Dell. The 14z weighs in at 1.95 kg with the six cell battery option which isn’t bad for a laptop sporting a 14 inch display. Dell have achieved this weight by removing the optical drive, that’s right, there’s no internal DVD or Blu-ray player, so if you’re after a fast light-weight laptop but aren’t stressed by the absence of an optical drive then Dell’s Studio 14z may be an option for you. Here are the rest of the specs on the 14z

* Intel® Pentium™ Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)
* Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
* 14.0” High Definition (720p) LED Display
* 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
* 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
* NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400M G
* Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card
* 56 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
* 13.23 x 1.22 x 9.02 inches
* 1.95 kg

And all this for a very respectable US$650. Dell offer a portable CD/DVD-RW drive with the Studio 14z for a mere $90 if you must absolutely have an optical drive. Plus the 14z is available in a range of colours from Ruby Red through to, err, Promise Pink. Actually moving away from the standard Black option will cost you an extra $40 but who wouldn’t do that to be able to say they have a Plum Purple laptop.

After a plethora of under-powered laptops around, it’s nice to see Dell offering a slimline option that doesn’t skimp on processing power and still has a reasonable price tag with it.

Source: Dell

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Asus unleash midrange K40 Series notebook

May 16th, 2009

Asus K40IN notebook

Known more for their petite netbooks, Asus have launched a distinctly middle of the road notebook for us. The Asus K40 Series K40IN-A1 sports 4 GB of memory along with a 14 inch 1366 x 768 display. Like we said distinctly mid-range, however if you’re a kind of average person then read on

* 14 inch Wide Screen LED backlight 1366 x 768 res display
* Windows Vista Home Premium OS
* Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2.0GHz CPU
* 4GB DDR2 RAM
* 320GB HDD
* DVD Super Multi Optical Drive
* NVIDIA GeForce G102M 512MB DDR2 VRAM Integrated Graphics Card
* 13.4 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches
* 5.3 lbs
* 10/100/1000Mbps LAN connectivity
* 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity
* 4 USB and 1 VGA ports
* Internal Speakers
* SD, MMC, MS card reader
* 6-cell lithium ion battery

Fortunately the price tag is average too at US$850 over at NewEgg. So if you’re kind of an ‘Average Joe’ then the K40 may just the laptop you’re after.

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LG Lotus, is it too square?

January 20th, 2009

LG Lotus

At first look the LG Lotus looks like an early design for a cellphone, a little bit hideous or a design gone horribly wrong. Yet here it is, a modern cellphone that looks, well just kinda weird. All due credit to the designer on the functionality front, QWERTY keyboard, internal and external displays, yet a square cellphone, what was he thinking or should we say drinking? But hey we’re not ones to get hung up on looks, what about the details?

* QWERTY keyboard
* Sprint One Click customised home screen
* SD slot for up to 12 GB of memory
* 2.0 Mp camera for stills and action
* NFL Mobile Live access
* Sprint Music Store
* GPS
* Web and email capable
* Speakerphone
* Blue-tooth connectivity
* Dual displays
* 3.3″ x 2.4″ x 0.7″
* 3.7 oz
* 5.5 hours of talk-time
* Text, Pic and Video Messaging
* MP3 player

All that for US$100 over at Sprint with black or purple options plus that good old two year plan. If you’re dead set on an unshackled unit, that’ll be US$300 thank you very much.

So is 2009 the year to be square? Well, obviously LG think so and we’re gonna take our hats off to them for coming up with such a unique design, but we’re just not sure if the LG Lotus is gonna sell.

Source: LG Lotus

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