Thread: Anandtech News

Following yesterday's announcement of the Lenovo U300s ultrabook, Acer and Toshiba have thrown their hats into the ring: Acer with its Aspire S3, and Toshiba with its Protege Z830.
Let's start with the similarities: Both feature a 13.3" screen with a 1366x768 resolution, Sandy Bridge ULV processors, DDR3 memory, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, wi-fi, a webcam, and bluetooth. Both also feature SSDs of varying capacities, though the Aspire S3 will offer a higher-capacity but slower mechanical HDD option (sources indicate that HDD models will feature an embedded SSD to retain the fast boot times required by Intel's Ultrabook spec, but specifics are hard to come by). Both will also launch later this year: Toshiba is commiting to November, while Acer declined to be more specific.

And the differences: the Toshiba model also features built-in Ethernet, a VGA port, a backlit keyboard, and a third USB port, while the Acer model is slightly thinner at 0.51 inches but heavier at about 3 pounds (the Toshiba is 0.63 inches high and weighs about 2.5 pounds, though it should be noted that the weight of each model may vary based on component selection). The Toshiba will also be cheaper, starting at around $1,000 (compared to the Acer's $1,179).
Looking at these early Ultrabooks, it's becoming clear that these laptops, like netbooks before them, are going to have to fight to differentiate themselves. In these particular models, this is mostly being done with ports: the Acer is the only one to lack a wired Ethernet port, while the Toshiba is the only to offer a VGA out and a third USB port.
This sort of heavy competition can be good, to a point, but I'm hoping we don't see the same thing we already see in the netbook and low-end laptop market: dozens of unexciting computers that are, for most intents and purposes, indistinguishable from one another.
Source: BusinessWire, PCMag



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Corsair started their enclosure business from the top of the market and worked their way down. Their first case was an expensive black monolith, the Obsidian 800D, popular for watercooling setups but less so for air. They fired a shrink ray at it and came up with the Obsidian 700D, roughly $50 less. It wasn't until the Graphite 600T that they produced a case with an enthusiast pricetag but also a design that deviated from the Obsidian standard; we were very happy with the 600T in our review back in December. That case proved to be a real success for Corsair; so many of its design cues were married to the design of the Obsidian series, and the net result was the even less expensive Obsidian 650D. Yet Corsair still hasn't tackled the sub-$100 market...until now.

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In an ironic development following months of public squabbling over digital distribution practices, Electronic Arts is now offering Valve games through its Origin service.
EA is running a buy-two-get-one-free special this weekend, and three Valve titles are included: Counter-Strike: Source, Left For Dead: Game of the Year Edition, and Left 4 Dead 2. The Valve games (each priced at $19.99) are boxed retail copies, and the free games available are downloadable copies of select EA titles.
The promotion is raising eyebrows after EA announced last month that its flagship shooter Battlefield 3 would not be available on Valve’s Steam platform, citing “a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content.” EA issued similar statements after removing Crysis 2 from Steam following Origin’s launch.
Without offering any concrete solutions, both sides have expressed a desire to resolve this dispute. Valve president Gabe Newell recently told Develop, “We want EA’s games on Steam and we have to show them that’s a smart thing to do.” EA’s Jens Uwe Intat told Eurogamer last week that the company isn’t planning on making its games Origin-exclusive. “Competition and choice go hand in hand,” he said. “So the fact we will only distribute our own games on our own platform, I don't see that.”
Neither company has issued a statement regarding the promotion. EA does hold the distribution rights to retail copies of some Valve titles, so this may be less of a sign that the two companies are newly cooperating and more of a message from EA saying they’d like to cooperate.
Source: Origin via Joystiq


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The proliferation of mobile devices, multi-computer homes, broadband internet access, inexpensive mass storage, and the replacement of many other home electronics by the PC (such as media devices like DVD, BRD, and CD players by HTPCs) has resulted in ever-increasing interest in specialized file server computers. Whether you're a typical home user with a desktop and a laptop or a power user with multiple desktops, laptops, netbooks, and tablets who also has remote access to home systems from work or on the road, your computing experience could likely be enriched by shared data access. Whether your budget and storage needs are modest or extensive, we have you covered in the latest builder's guide to file server systems.


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When we reviewed Antec's Sonata IV recently, we found it left a lot to be desired. Antec had updated their Sonata design, but barely, and the enclosure as a whole felt grossly behind the times. Apparently some of Antec's engineers agreed, because we have the brand new Solo II in house now and there's clearly been some serious retooling. But is the Solo II enough of a step forward, or does it still have some growing up to do?

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An unfinished version of Dead Island, the tropical co-op zombie title from Techland, was mistakenly released on Steam in North America. According to Develop, the game’s publisher, Deep Silver, plans on replacing the developer-only version with proper retail code as soon as possible.
Sleuths on Steam and Dead Island forums uncovered code suggesting that the software was actually a pre-release console build:
< X b o x L i v e S u b m i s s i o n P r o j e c t V e r s i o n = " 2 . 0 . 5 0 3 3 0 . 0 " x m l n s = " h t t p : / / w w w . x b o x l i v e . c o m / x l a s t " >
< G a m e C o n f i g P r o j e c t n a m e = " D e a d I s l a n d D i s c X b o x 3 6 0 " t i t l e N a m e = " D e a d I s l a n d D i s c X b o x 3 6 0 " p r o j e c t V e r s i o n = " 1 . 0 0 . 0 9 3 4 . 0 " s c h e m a V e r s i o n = " 1 . 0 8 . 0 0 0 0 . 0 " v a l i d a t e A g a i n s t = " . . \ . . \ . . \ . . \ . . \ U s e r s \ t e c h l a n d \ A p p D a t a \ L o c a l \ M i c r o s o f t \ X b o x L i v e \ 4 B 4 D 0 7 D F . p a r t n e r \ . . \ . . \ 4 B 4 D 0 7 D F . p a r t n e r \ . . \ . . \ 4 B 4 D 0 7 D F . p a r t n e r \ . . \ . . \ 4 B 4 D 0 7 D F . p a r t n e r \ D e a d I s l a n d . x l a s t " c l a s s i f i c a t i o n = " B a s e G a m e " t i t l e I d = " 0 x 4 B 4 D 0 7 D F " m u l t i p l a y e r = " t r u e " t i t l e T y p e = " 1 " a r n = " 0 x 5 5 E 2 C 5 D 2 F 1 4 A F 9 " >
Other errors and undefined variables in the code could explain the vast array of bugs and multiplayer connectivity issues, as well as the ability to clip through environments with the press of a button. Deep Silver hopes to address a whole host of problems (which have been catalogued by Destructoid) with its day-one patch.
If you been eagerly awaiting Dead Island ever since its clever debut trailer released in February, you may want to wait a little longer.
Source: Develop



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Intel has announced a total of 16 new Sandy Bridge processors today, augmenting its lineup in the mid and low-end markets on the desktop and in the high and low-end markets on laptops.
On the desktop side, we have four new Core-series processors, one i5 (the 2320) along with three i3s (the 2130, 2125, and 2120T. Along with these comes three new Pentium processors (the G860, G630, and G630T) and four low-end Celerons (the G540, G530, G530T, and G440). The G440 has the dubious honor of being the only single-core Sandy Bridge of which I am aware.

New Sandy Bridge Desktop CPUs
Name	Cores/Threads	CPU Clock	L3 Cache	GPU	GPU Clock	TDP	Price
i5-2320	4/4	3.0 GHz (3.3GHz Turbo)	6MB	HD 2000	850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo)	95W	$177
i3-2130	2/4	3.4 GHz	3MB	HD 2000	850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo)	65W	$138
i3-2125	2/4	3.3GHz	3MB	HD 3000	850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo)	65W	$134
i3-2120T	2/4	2.6GHz	3MB	HD 2000	650 MHz (1100 MHz turbo)	35W	$127
Pentium G860	2/2	3.0GHz	3MB	HD	850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo)	65W	$86
Pentium G630	2/2	2.7GHz	3MB	HD	850 MHz (1100 MHz turbo)	65W	$75
Pentium G630T	2/2	2.3GHz	3MB	HD	650 MHz (1100 MHz turbo)	35W	$70
Celeron G540	2/2	2.5GHz	2MB	HD	850 MHz (1000 MHz turbo)	65W	$52
Celeron G530	2/2	2.4GHz	2MB	HD	850 MHz (1000 MHz turbo)	65W	$42
Celeron G530T	2/2	2.0GHz	2MB	HD	650 MHz (1100 MHz turbo)	35W	$47
Celeron G440	1/1	1.6GHz	1MB	HD	650 MHz (1000 MHz turbo)	35W	$37

Most of these processors are simple clock bumps of existing processors and their energy-effecient T-series counterparts. What&#39;s new here is the Celeron series of processors, most of which sacrifice 100 MHz of GPU Turbo speed and another MB of L3 cache compared to their Pentium counterparts (according to CPU World&#39;s listings, VT-x and EM64T remain available on all models). It&#39;s also important to remember here that the HD-series graphics has nothing to do with Intel&#39;s last-gen IGP - in Sandy Bridge models, the HD graphics series is basically the HD 2000 series with QuickSync and a few other video features disabled - see our Sandy Bridge Pentium review for more information on this.
The new laptop CPUs are fewer in number, and aimed at both the high-end and very low-end of the market.

New Sandy Bridge Laptop CPUs
Name	Cores/Threads	CPU Clock	L3 Cache	GPU Clock	TDP	Price
i7-2960XM	4/8	2.7 GHz (3.7GHz Turbo)	8MB	650 MHz (1300 MHz turbo)	55W	$1096
i7-2860QM	4/8	2.5 GHz (3.6 GHz Turbo)	8MB	650 MHz (1300 MHz turbo)	45W	$568
i7-2760QM	2/4	2.4GHz (3.5 GHz Turbo)	6MB	650 MHz (1300 MHz turbo)	45W	$378
i7-2640M	2/4	2.8GHz (3.5 GHz Turbo)	4MB	650 MHz (1300 MHz turbo)	35W	$346
Celeron B840	2/2	1.9GHz	2MB	650 MHz (950 MHz turbo)	35W	$86

The Core i7-2960XM is an Extreme Edition processor and is the fastest quad-core chip that Intel currently offers, and it has a pricetag to match. On the other end of the spectrum, the Celeron B840 is a dual-core processor that loses L3 cache and some GPU Turbo speed, though it retains VT-x and the same HD 3000-series GPU that all mobile Sandy Bridge CPUs possess.
Source: CPU World, CPU World


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In addition to releasing 16 new CPUs earlier this week, Intel has also discounted six low-power CPUs and discontinued three Pentium CPUs.
Discounts
All of the discounted CPUs are based on the Sandy Bridge micro-architecture, which Intel released in January 2011. They are all low-power variants as well, meaning that their TDP value is lower than the standard. Low-power models can be identified by an S or T at the end (S stands for 65W while T stands for 35W). The actual price cuts are very modest though, only up to $12. Below is a table listing the CPUs and their old and new prices:

Discounted Sandy Bridge Processors
Model	Core/Thread Count	Frequency	L3 Cache	Old Price	New Price	Price Change
Core i5-2390T	2/4	2.7GHz	3MB	$195	$184	-$11 (-5.6%)
Core i5-2400S	4/4	2.5GHz	6MB	$195	$184	-$11 (-5.6%)
Core i5-2405S	4/4	2.5GHz	6MB	$205	$201	-$4 (-2%)
Core i5-2500S	4/4	2.7GHz	6MB	$216	$205	-$11 (-5.1%)
Core i5-2500T	4/4	2.3GHz	6MB	$216	$205	-$11 (-5.1%)
Core i7-2600S	4/8	2.8GHz	6MB	$306	$294	-$12 (-3.9%)

It&#39;s worth to note that these are the prices in one thousand quantities. Resellers don&#39;t always follow this pricing scheme and for example NewEgg is still selling the i5-2400S for $201, although even the old price was $195. Low-power models can also be harder to find since they aren&#39;t that popular and are more meant for OEM systems with more limited cooling (such as Apple&#39;s iMac).
Discontinuances
The discontinued CPUs are listed under the Pentium brand and are based on Intel&#39;s Core micro-architecture with 45nm manufacturing process. While these CPUs are not based on the latest technologies, they were all released between 2009 and 2010. Intel will still be taking orders until November 23rd and the last shipment date is December 30th.

Discontinued Pentium Processors
Model	Core/Thread Count	Frequency	L2 Cache	Price
Pentium E5800	2/2	3.2GHz	2MB	$64
Pentium E6700	2/2	3.2GHz	2MB	$75
Pentium E6800	2/2	3.33GHz	2MB	$86

Considering that Intel has already populated the same price points with newer and faster CPUs (see our review of Sandy Bridge Pentiums), the discontinuation makes sense.
Source: Intel, Intel


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Once in a while, we encounter a gadget performing a niche, yet handy function. A month or so back, we received a pitch for the portable SATA duplicator (with eSATA / USB dock) from StarTech.com.

My interest was piqued enough to request a review unit. Read on to find out how this nifty little gadget fared.


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Just over a year ago Seagate introduced the world&rsquo;s first 3TB hard drive. Although it shipped in an enclosure for external use, the Seagate GoFlex Desk was available with the very first 3.5&rdquo; 3TB SATA hard drive. A couple of months later Seagate and Western Digital both followed up with standalone internal 3TB hard drives.

Today we&rsquo;re reminded of that announcement as Seagate unveiled the world&rsquo;s first 4TB hard drive. Once again the drive comes to us first in a GoFlex Desk enclosure with native USB 3.0 support. There&rsquo;s an optional FireWire 800/USB 2.0 dock available using Seagate&rsquo;s standard GoFlex connector. The GoFlex dock itself has four LEDs that give a rough indication of capacity.

The 4TB model retails for $249.99 and is available immediately with a 2-year warranty. In our review of last year&rsquo;s 3TB version we were particularly concerned with how hot the 3TB drive was able to get inside the enclosure. Adequate ventilation is a concern for the 3.5&rdquo; GoFlex Desk chassis and something we&rsquo;ll have to reevaluate once we get our hands on a review sample.

The drive inside features five 800GB platters. Seagate didn&rsquo;t announce rotation speed or cache size of the drive, but I&rsquo;d assume 7200RPM given historical releases. If last year&rsquo;s 3TB model is any indication however, we shouldn&rsquo;t expect to find a performance optimized drive inside. Seagate will save that for the internal version in the months ahead.

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