DFI launches LANParty BI G41-T33- Best bang for your money

Pursuing top quality and world-class performance, DFI LANParty has launched BI G41-T33 in this month with a quite reasonable price to satisfies the needs of mass consumers for high performance in low cost. In the aim of providing consumers the most valuable motherboard, LANParty insists on using excellent components and materials to provide BI G41-T33 with superior stability and performance without compromise. Incorporating Intel G41+ICH7 chipset, BI G41-T33 supports the latest dual-channel DDR3 memory and comes with exclusive DFI ABS II, the automatic CPU upgrade technology. With this technology, users can upgrade their system easily and reap a great benefit immediately.

How to spend your money more cleverly during the period of economic recession? LANParty offers you the answer!! The newest BI G41-T33 provides users a simple platform with exclusive DFI ABS II, the automatic CPU upgrade technology, to improve system performance in an easy and fast way. Without any difficult or professional skills, when boosting your system at the first time, ABS II will automatically detect the CPU installed and upgrade the efficiency of the CPU. Briefly speaking, consumers can enjoy good efficiency of high-class CPU with low cost of middle-class CPU.

BI G41-T33 accommodates Intel G41 express chipset and integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500. Users can enjoy high definition video playback with no need for additional VGA card. To those who have no frequent use in 3D display, BI G41-T33 is definitely the most valuable choice.

Fujitsu’s first ever mini notebook heralds new era for notebook users in Middle East

Fujitsu is to launch its very first global mini notebook in the Middle East under the Fujitsu brand. The M2010 replaces the current AMILO Mini and will add to Fujitsu’s entry-level notebook portfolio.

“We are witnessing a trend among notebooks users across the region, where the amalgamation of form and function is preferred. Users are also opting for smaller devices with all essential features,” says Chandan Mehta, Product Manager, Fujitsu Technology Solutions. “With the M2010, Fujitsu is brining to the region the ideal device for users who need a portable and lightweight, yet durable device for education, internet, emails or video-telephoning. Besides, with its stylish design and the most attractive high-gloss material finish, the M2010 has the flair to be the darling of lifestyle-oriented end customers as well as first time buyers who want an affordable portable mini notebook to enter the digital world.”

Adds Mehta: “Based on Intel’s Atom™ N280 processor, the Fujitsu M2010 is the perfect choice for either a stationary workplace or as a fully equipped mobile. Depending on the customers’ needs, the Fujitsu M2010 can be fully functional on the road or a light-weight, slim and stylish device for communications and basic functionality. With the Fujitsu M2010 we provide end consumers with a highly attractive mini notebook. As the successor to the AMILO Mini, the Fujitsu M2010 will complete our portfolio on entry-level – and be an excellent choice for lifestyle-oriented users that look for a stylish and highly portable device for daily communication tasks.”

The Fujitsu M2010 packs in more style and functions into a small and affordable package and is available in three different colors: a stylish metallic red, a noble, sparkling black and a shiny and elegant pearl-white. Though it is a mini notebook at a very attractive price point, the cover finish offers a premium look-and-feel. Instead of using conventional painting to achieve the glossy surface, Fujitsu’s developers came up with a method to process the material itself for the gloss that gives the Fujitsu M2010 a unique and elegant appearance of a high-grade model.

In terms of durability and lifespan, the Fujitsu M2010 can also compete with a high-grade model. The notebook had to pass the same quality tests as the top-class LIFEBOOK series from Fujitsu, including a general pressure test that inflicts 200kgf of pressure to the overall cover, and a dot pressure test that randomly inflicts 35kgf pressure to different dots on the top cover. As a result, the Fujitsu M2010 is a highly reliable companion on the move – a virtue that also is reinforced by its long battery life of up to five hours.

With its LED backlight panel – a technology which had not been used in the AMILO Mini – the Fujitsu M2010 offers better color brilliance, higher brightness and more energy efficiency than its predecessor. For increased usability, Fujitsu’s latest mini features a 10.1-inch display (instead of just 8.9-inch), while only weighing 1.2 kg at a size of 258 x 189 x 32-37 mm. Integrated webcam and microphone, as well as excellent speaker sound quality, guarantee high entertainment quality on the road.

The Fujitsu M2010 will be available in the Middle East at leading retailers from mid- August 2009.

Epson launches new compact all-in-one Stylus TX410 Series printer in the Middle East

Epson has announced the launch of the Stylus TX410 Series in the Middle East. The new all-in-one printer integrates individual inks offering printing, scanning and copying in one compact, smart device.

As the Epson Stylus TX410 Series features a crystal-clear 6.3 cm LCD viewer, memory card slots and in-built PictBridge, there is no need for a PC to print photos. The LCD viewer also enables users to copy documents and photos, restore colour when scanning old faded images and view all menu functions with ease. The new series provides excellent value for money as it uses low cost individual inks, so only the used-up colour need be replaced.

The printer uses Epson DURABrite Ultra Ink, an advanced pigment-based technology that encapsulates the ink particles in a protective resin coating. This makes the ink resistant to water and smudging and can be used with highlighter pens. It produces high quality text definition and lab-quality photos which can last over 200 years when stored in an album. The product also features Epson PhotoEnhance technology, enabling users to get the best out of their photos. Images featuring skin tones, landscapes and skylines are detected automatically and reproduced with enhanced colour settings to improve the overall tones and contrasts.

Additionally the Epson Stylus TX410 Series delivers crisp, clear copies of scanned photos using the 1200 dpi scanner, and thanks to Epson Easy Photo FixTM users can restore colour, remove dust and correct backlight when scanning old faded photos. For the best quality photos, Epson recommends its range of glossy photo papers. Available in three finishes – Photo Paper, Glossy Photo Paper and Premium Glossy Photo Paper – the 3, 4 and 5 star rating makes choosing the right photo paper simple. The new Stylus line is also an ENERGY STAR qualified all-in-one which reflects Epson’s ongoing focus to reduce the carbon emissions associated with the use of its products.

Two other key components are Epson Easy Photo Print, which makes it easy to remove red-eye, and ABBYY FineReader Optical Character Recognition software which allows scanned text to be edited.

“Demand for printers that combine business and home functionalities is increasing among today’s young and dynamic Arab families. The Stylus TX410 Series is a welcome addition to Epson’s Middle East line of home-friendly printing products which combine high quality output with economy,” concluded Khalil El Dalu, General Manager, Epson Middle East.

Samsung and NVIDIA Unveil 3D Vision for the Middle East

– Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the number one worldwide brand of LCD monitors, together with NVIDIA, world leader in visual computing technologies, announced today the launch of 3D Stereoscopic technology in the Middle East. The bundled 3D kit comprising of a Samsung 2233RZ monitor, NVIDIA high-tech wireless glasses, a high-power IR emitter and advanced software, combine to form the foundation for a new consumer 3D stereo ecosystem for gaming and home entertainment PCs.

“We are pleased to be partnering with NVIDIA to offer consumers in the Middle East the first 3D vision package,” said Madhav Narayan, Head of IT Division, Samsung Gulf Electronics. ”As entertainment content becomes more readily available, the need for hardware technology to support increasing volumes of software content becomes more important. Combining NVIDIA’s 3D technology with Samsung’s LCD monitor creates an optimal viewing tool – for uses ranging from teaching and using 3D modeling to playing the latest video games and watching movies.”

Mr. Serge Lemonde, Director of Marketing, NVIDIA- EMEA and India commented, “3D Vision will form the foundation for a new consumer 3D stereo ecosystem for gaming and home entertainment. For gamers, 3D Vision for GeForce represents a whole different way of experiencing the game, and for developers, it unlocks the potential of making the game literally pop off the screen. It brings a whole new dimension to photos, movies and games, transforming them into a mind-blowing stereoscopic 3D experience which is truly immersive”.

The Samsung 2233RZ monitor boasts the refined, streamlined and unique design, in addition to its top-class performance, that consumers have come to expect from Samsung products. The display is housed in a thin, glossy black bezel that is a stylish accent to any environment. It provides a compelling 3D experience with incredible picture quality, and users can now set up a shortcut key to easily shuttle between 2D and 3D.

With the environment in mind, Samsung built in an off timer function for energy-saving benefits, enabling the monitor to shutdown at set times. Unlike many other widescreen monitors, the Samsung 2233RZ displays 5:4 and 4:3 images at accurate aspect ratios without enlargement or distortion.
The 2233RZ, in conjunction with NVIDIA’s advanced software, automatically converts over 350 games to stereoscopic 3D without the need for special game patches. High-tech active shutter glasses from NVIDIA, designed with top-of-the-line optics, deliver double the resolution per eye and ultra-wide viewing angles than passive glasses. In addition, the new pure 120Hz LCD monitors unlock crystal-clear, flicker-free stereoscopic 3D gaming that provides 60Hz per eye.
The 3D glasses are designed so that users can simultaneously wear prescription glasses comfortably. This ensures that users with corrective eyewear can view fully-immersive stereoscopic 3D. The glasses are easily powered over a standard USB cable and can last an entire week without a recharge, which helps to minimize battery replacement. In addition, NVIDIA’s “The Way It’s Meant to Be Played” program ensures that future games will support 3D Vision.

AMD Delivers High Energy Efficiency and the Processing Power of Six-Cores in a Consistent Power Envelope

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the immediate availability of three new members of the Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processor family that specifically address rising demand for balanced systems with increased performance yet greater power-efficiency for cloud computing and web serving environments.

• The 55W ACP Six-Core AMD Opteron HE processors are currently shipping for 2-, 4- and 8-P systems and available today in new systems from HP, addressing the needs of dynamic, performance hungry and power constrained data centers. Systems from additional OEMs are expected to come to market throughout Q309.
• These new processors meet the market demand for highly scalable, power-efficient systems that are especially well suited for Web serving and cloud computing workloads and they are available with the same AMD Virtualization™ (AMD-V™) technology and AMD-P technology features and advanced I/O capabilities as the standard power Six-Core AMD Opteron processors.
• The new Six-Core AMD Opteron HE processor offers up to 18 percent lower platform-level power consumption over the standard wattage version.¹ (AMD Opteron™ processor Model 2425 [SPECpower_ssj™2008

1228 overall ssj_ops/watt, 419,277 ssj_ops, & 221W @ 100% target load] compared to AMD Opteron processor Model 2435 [SPECpower_ssj™2008 1228 overall ssj_ops/watt, 487,764 ssj_ops & 270W @ 100% target load]).
• It also delivers up to 18 percent better performance-per-watt compared to the quad-core version.² (Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processor Model 2425 HE [SPECpower_ssj™2008 1228 overall ssj_ops/watt, 419,277 ssj_ops, & 221W @ 100% target load] compared to Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor Model 2376 HE [SPECpower_ssj™2008 1044 overall ssj_ops/watt, 346,326 ssj_ops & 210W @ 100% target load]).
• Processors with even greater energy efficiency are planned to be available later this year for the market segment where low power is the singular priority requirement.
• For customers that require the ultimate performance for mission critical workloads such as database and CRM applications, AMD is also unveiling two new, full-featured Six-Core AMD Opteron SE processors at 2.8 GHz for 2-, 4- and 8-P systems.

“Since our initial introduction of multi-core processors for the server market, it’s been the AMD mission to help IT managers reduce datacenter energy costs without compromising performance,” said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server Business, AMD. “These new lower power Six-Core AMD Opteron processors feature the highest performance-per-watt that we have brought to market, and help drive down power consumption while addressing the shifting cloud and Web landscape of today’s datacenter. And with six cores of compute power and Direct Connect Architecture, these processors deliver no-compromise performance.”

“Customers are using HP ProLiant G6 server solutions, which offer up to 45% better performance than previous generations, enabling customers to get more value out of their IT dollar,” said Jim Ganthier, vice president of Marketing, Industry Standard Servers, HP. “The combination of HP ProLiant G6 server technology and

Six-Core AMD Opteron HE processors provide customers with powerful and energy-efficient technology for a superior return on their server investment.”

“IBM is all about innovation; and since 2003 we have worked closely with AMD to innovate with AMD Opteron processors in our System x and BladeCenter offerings,” said Alex Yost, vice president, IBM Systems & Technology Group. “IBM has collaborated with AMD to offer the LS42, the only scalable blade server in the industry that can grow from 2 sockets to 4 sockets, protecting client investment. We will also introduce the new Six-Core AMD Opteron HE processor in our System x3755 server, including our innovative 3-socket implementation that helps clients to save cost and get competitive performance compared to 4-socket servers.”

ADATA NH92 USB Drive

Today, we take a quick look at what ADATA calls the world’s slimmest hard drive. Launched at Computex 2009, the NH92 is just 12mm thick and weighs a mere 152 grams. It comes in blue, silver and pink colors and the one we received for review was thankfully the blue version. Packaged in a clear plastic case that allows you to see the product, the NH92 comes along with a USB cable was well as a carrying case.

The drive is very light-weight and, um, shiny. I’m not a big fan of the coating material that ADATA uses- its has that LP/Vinyl kind of feel to it. At 12mm, the drive is indeed thin and ADATA’s claims of it being the slimmest drive might be true, but it might not be the only drive in the world that is 12mm thick.

The USB connection is along the cylindrical end and on the side which is different than many drives that like to keep it on the back. I recieved the 250GB version of the drive, however, it is available in capacities upto 500GB. Lets take a look at HD Tach results.

As you can see, the drive performs like almost every other good USB drive on the market. It saturates the USB interface’s throughput and comparing it to the Seagate 500GB FreeAgent Go drive that we looked at recently, proves to be a tad bit faster with lower access times- both of which are good things.

Really, what it comes down to with USB drives is the way they look, the capacity you’re looking for and a price at which they’re available. They will mostly perform similar as far as speed is concerned. The ADATA NH92 is a good looking drive that also slim in size.

HP Reinvents the Workstation

HP Middle East today unveiled the HP Z Workstation series –a reinvention of the product category from the core outward that offers customers unprecedented performance, value and serviceability in a sleek new design.

The HP Z800, HP Z600 and HP Z400 Workstations are the culmination of more than 20 HP design innovations – including a self-checking power supply – and take advantage of the new Intel® Xeon® processor.

HP’s engineering investment in the Z line already is paying off for customers such as Schlumberger, which reports it is realising step-change performance improvements ranging from 300 to 500 percent on its flagship engineering applications.
“The new Z line marks the first HP workstations to be totally serviceable with your fingers – from the power supply to the motherboard,” said Anil Kumar, General Manager, Personal Systems Group, HP Middle East. “Early studies show that an HP Z Workstation may pay for itself in a surprisingly short period with its performance and productivity gains.”

HP workstations are being used by the world’s most demanding power users in industries such as graphic arts, broadcast, computer-aided design (CAD), engineering, medical imaging, finance, and oil and gas exploration. Companies use HP workstations to design everything from running shoes to race cars, animated characters to deep-sea submersibles, and to manage everything from billions of dollars of tradable securities to mission-critical IT environments.

The interior of the Z line offers a totally modular design, in which components slide neatly into place in a cable-less environment for optimal serviceability. On the outside, the Z line features a streamlined brushed-aluminum exterior inspired by automotive and industrial design leader BMW Group Designworks USA.

“Opening the door of the new BMW Z4 and the side panel of the new HP Z Workstation reveals that both are as aesthetically powerful and innovative on the inside as they are on the outside,” said Verena Kloos, president, BMW Group DesignworksUSA.
HP also debuted the HP SkyRoom technology, a professional-quality visual collaboration and conferencing solution that preserves the value of highly personal human interaction. HP SkyRoom is built on the company’s pioneering video and imaging engines. The resulting product is designed to deliver real-time visual communication responsiveness that is four times faster than a blink of an eye.(1) HP SkyRoom is currently in beta testing with customers around the world.

Three workstation lines to meet every customer need
The new HP Z Workstations offer next-generation Intel Xeon processor 5500 series with integrated memory controllers and Intel Turbo Boost Technology along with a new lineup of professional graphics solutions, built-in high-definition (HD) audio and an option for solid-state drives.

The HP Z800 Workstation is HP’s most powerful and expandable workstation for users working with applications such as 3-D animation, broadcast video, oil and gas discovery, and medical imaging. The HP Z800 has an all-new brushed aluminium industrial design with the modular internal design. The quad-core HP Z800 taps the new Intel QuickPath Technology to offer the most sophisticated input/output performance in any application scenario. It also comes with a liquid-cooling option.

The HP Z600 Workstation is designed with the environment in mind, offering high performance in a compact size for professionals in industries such as video production, finance and midrange CAD. Featuring the same brushed aluminum exterior, internal modular design and serviceability as the HP Z800 Workstation, the HP Z600 Workstation can accommodate up to eight displays.
The HP Z400 Workstation is a best-in-class entry-level workstation, offering top Intel processor performance at affordable prices for professionals working in video editing, photography, design and engineering. The HP Z400 is the first single-socket(2) workstation based on the Next-Generation Intel Microarchitecture (Nehalem) and can be built with the latest Intel Xeon processors.(3) The HP Z400 Workstation also comes with a liquid-cooling option.

“The new Intel Xeon processor 5500 series and Intel QuickPath Technology blow the doors off of previous workstation performance benchmarks,” said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager, Workstations and Servers, Intel. “HP has a unique ability to take our processors and highly tune them into digital workhorses. HP Workstation customers will love the intelligent performance, energy efficiency, and expandability that are enabled by the new Xeon processors.”
Designed with the environment in mind

HP is a leader in reducing the environmental impact of its products, including workstations, often acting first to adopt new solutions designed with the environment in mind. For example, only the HP Z Workstation line includes a new HP-exclusive WattSaver(4) feature that manages power in the “off” state at less than one watt.

In addition, the HP Z Workstations include 85 percent efficient power supplies – the HP Z800 Workstation has an option for an 89 percent efficient power supply – reducing both overall energy usage and the amount of waste heat released. The HP Z line already is ENERGY STAR® 5.0 qualified, ahead of the ENERGY STAR scheduled deadline of July.

All HP workstations are more than 90 percent(5) recyclable by weight, and the HP Z line is registered as Electronics Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT™) Gold, the highest rating available.

The HP advantage
HP’s highly tuned workstations give customers an experience much like having an engineer in the box, with HP Performance Tuning Framework software that automatically tunes the workstation, finding and installing the proper drivers. This type of tuning can result in significantly improved performance and system and software stability.
Users of HP workstations will enjoy additional benefits of HP’s precision-tuning:
• To further ensure stability for its customers, HP certifies drivers for commonly used workstation applications from vendors such as Adobe, Autodesk, CATIA, Dassault, Revit, Siemens and SolidWorks.
• Each HP workstation passes through HP’s legendary quality assurance and testing process, which goes beyond PC industry testing requirements.
• Due to superior acoustics engineering, many customers report they cannot tell by listening if the workstation is even running.
• HP offers more choices than any other vendor, with the broadest scope of options and the most specialised configurations, ranging from a choice of graphics cards and multiple display configurations to any operating system a customer selects.

The new HP Z Workstation series is now available in the Middle East. For more information please visit www.hp.com/personalagain

AMD Announces Two Key Leadership Appointments in Middle East

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced two new appointments, growing its sales and marketing team in the META (Middle East, Turkey and Africa) region.

Firstly, Patricia Trodd has been named Marketing Manager for the META region. Patricia is responsible for AMD’s marketing strategy, management and planning for the region’s channel, consumer and commercial activities. She will also head up corporate communications for the company throughout the META region.

Patricia has in-depth experience in the Middle East markets, having worked in regional marketing and corporate communications roles at HP for the past eleven years.

“We are extremely pleased to have Patricia join the AMD team. Her experience and strong profile are great assets for our regional efforts,” said Dr. Gaith Kadir, general manager for AMD META region.

Secondly, Moutaz Saleh has been named AMD’s Business Development Executive for Saudi Arabia. Moutaz will engage with AMD’s commercial customers from government and semi-governmental organizations, as well as with its multi-national partners in the Kingdom. Moutaz is focused on driving enterprise business by taking AMD’s technology leadership story directly to the customers.

Moutaz has held a number of country sales manager and IT consultant roles, most recently in the telecommunications industry. He also has extensive experience in sales training and marketing functions in the region.

“Saudi Arabia is one of our most important markets in the region. Moutaz will work to improve our ability to respond to our Saudi customers who require innovative, energy-efficient and cost-effective technology solutions based on our leading-edge computing and graphics technology. He has the right mix of technology industry and regional market experience to help strengthen our operations,” said Dr. Gaith Kadir

Sony VAIO P Series

I’ve seen it in pictures and I’ve seen it in stores. But it wasn’t until I received the VAIO P for review from Sony a few of days back that I fully appreciated the Engineering marvel this little machine is. Measuring just 245mm x 120mm and weighing 594g, the VAIO P is the most portable and probably the best looking netbook that I’ve come across. Whoops, did I just say netbook as that is not the term Sony like categorizing the P series under.

 

Specifications wise, the VAIO P series I received is somewhat equivalent to most netbooks I’ve recently looked at. It has the 1.6GHz Atom Z530 CPU which is a single core CPU but with Hyper Threading enabled. The integrated chipset is based on the Intel GMA 500 and powers the 8″ screen- more on that below. There is 2GB RAM present onboard while a 64GB Samsung SSD stores your files and the Vista Operating System. Other specs include your usual 802.11g (Draft n) based WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and a 0.3MP Webcam.

 

The left side of the unit has the power input connector along with audio output and one USB port while the right side features an additional USB port and an expansion connector which takes in the included DSUB (VGA) and Ethernet dongle. The front side has SD and Memory stick slots along with switches for power and Wireless and finally, the back side has a removable battery which makes up almost a third of the size.

 

The 8″ screen has a native resolution of 1600×768 which is higher than any netbook I’ve used. Everything on the screen appears incredibly sharp, however, at the expense of text looking incredibly small. I have perfect eye sight and even after setting the DPI to the larger 120 in Vista, my eyes tired easily. A lower resolution such as 1250×600 would’ve made the screen much more readable. Yes, it wouldn’t have been HD capable, but the GMA500 isnt exactly capable of playing Hi-Def content.

Considering the small size of the P series, I wasn’t sure how well the keyboard would turn out. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. The chiclet style keyboard works very well- in fact, I typed this entire article on it without any issues. Because of the size of the P series, a trackpad is not an option and instead, you have the pointing stick found on Thinkpads. I like the pointing stick as the Thinkpad was my notebook of choice before I switched to Macs and am quite comfortable with it.

 

The VAIO P is pretty well equipped for its size, however, the decision to include Vista as the standard operating system makes the usability suffer big time. Most netbook manufacturers with Atom CPUs chose Windows XP for a good reason. Vista takes ages to start-up on the VAIO P even though its equipped with an SSD. Once loaded, it works OK while you’re in one application, but try switching between your browser, email client and media player and it’ll start testing your patience. I didn’t run any benchmarks on the VAIO P because this isn’t exactly your number crunching kind of laptop. It feels slow and it is slow.

 

Battery life is surprisingly good on the VAIO P- I wasn’t expecting much over two hours but I managed to get over three. This was while I was surfing the web mostly, which I think, is probably what this notebook will mainly be used for- along with some office applications.

Overall, the VAIO P series is an excellent piece of engineering that, other than the extremely high-res and small sized screen could be a very usable computer- had Sony decided against Vista. There just inst enough horse power to run something like Vista on the current generation of Atom CPUs. Hopefully Windows 7 or Moblin or some other form of Linux should make the device much more usable. Sure, it still wont run something like Photoshop decently, but it could be ideal for checking emails, creating documents or surfing the web.

The VAIO P is available in black and white colors for the base model which is priced at AED 3495 with a 1.6GHz CPU/1GB RAM and an 80GB Hard Drive. Alternatively, you can also get it in red and golden for the higher price of AED 4995 that has a 1.8GHz CPU/2GB RAM and a 64GB SSD. That might seem overly expensive for a netbook, but this isnt a netbook- at least not by Sony’s definition.

Google’s Chrome OS is definitely interesting

Google and their upcoming Chrome O/S is what the entire industry is currently talking about. Its an intriguing concept that may work at some level which is why Google is smart enough to debut it as a “Netbook” O/S in 2010. Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »