Examples of what each card looks like can be found below, as well.  For more information on pricing and availability, follow the link to the product page.

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Head on over to www.ZOTAC.com to pick up yours today!

Press Release

Typically you would see a dual GPU graphics card, whether it be from AMD or NVIDIA, priced at two to three hundred dollars more than its single GPU sibling. You would also see a significant decrease in clock speeds, sometimes core count, memory speeds, etc., in order to keep the behemoth cards within a certain TDP. Although these dual chip offerings use the same GPUs, they are almost always crippled in some form or another. The difference with the GTX 690 is that this card uses untouched, as far as hardware is concerned, GK104 chips. The only difference between this card’s GPUs and those found in a GTX 680 SLI setup is the slightly reduced clock speeds.

What this boils down to is that you are getting 90-95% of the performance from an SLI GTX 680 setup in one dual GPU, dual slot graphics card. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is what about TDP? Well, a typical reference GTX 680 is rated at 195W. Combine two of them and you are looking at 390W. The GTX 690 is rated at 300W. A slight decrease in base clock and boost clock results in a graphics card that gives you 90-95% of the performance at 90W less power. The GTX 690 also runs much quieter as a result of the beautifully designed dual GPU cooler. How much? We will have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

Since we are getting 90-95% of the performance of an SLI GTX 680 setup along with an average of 75% performance increase in games(compared to a single GTX 680), and AMD still has no competitive product to pit against the GTX 690, we end up with the highest price tag for a reference designed, dual slot graphics card in the history of graphics cards. The GTX 690 price tag of $999 beats out the bloated price of the 8800 Ultra, the former record holder. As the count down continues to tomorrow, we eagerly await reviews of this monster card and we will continue to wait for an answer from the only other competitor in the PC graphics consumer industry, AMD.

The big question now is: Are you getting one?

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Earlier today, Microsoft announced the availability to consumers of its highly anticipated and very risky Windows 8.  If you have not heard, Windows 8 is Microsoft’s attempt to bring multiple devices under one operating system.  We have seen similar steps made in Apple’s OSX with the inclusion of iOS app experiences in Lion and the upcoming Mountain Lion.  Android has also made strides in bringing its fragmented devices under one OS, Ice Cream Sandwhich.

Microsoft’s plan has taken more time and as a result, Windows 8 is the first OS where we see all devices, with the exception of smartphones, falling under one OS.  Of course, there will be a slightly different Windows 8 for ARM devices, but the underlying code is essentially the same.  Without going in to much detail, some of the enhancements we can find in Windows 8 Consumer Preview are:

• Semantic Zoom
• Notifications
• Switcher
• Microsoft account integration
• Skydrive integration
• Consistent Charms access
• Start preview thumbnail
• Start screen improvements
• Improved Metro style apps
• New app previews
• Internet Explorer 10
• System-wide spellchecking

These are just a handful of the improvements Microsoft has made to Windows 8 since the developer preview.  We plan on going into much more detail about what these new features/improvements bring to the end user in an upcoming review.  For now, you can try the Windows 8 Consumer Preview by following this link:

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

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What drew us to this particular version was the aluminum unibody construction and the use of Cherry MX red keyswitches.  As you can see in the pictures below, the keys ‘float’ on top of the aluminum frame.  Cleaning your keyboard of unwanted dirt and food just got easier.  One quick spray with a can of compressed air will take care of any unwanted bits finding their way from your hands to the keyboard.

The brushed aluminum accented by the black keys and subtle blue backlighting make this a visually stimulating piece of hardware to look at. But beyond the good looks lay precision engineering made to give a gamer that ‘edge’. What do you mean ‘edge’, you may ask. Well, if you pit two identically skilled players against one another, what is left to differentiate them? The answer is in their peripherals.

If all esle is equal, then the only place to find an advantage is in the input devices themselves. As an example, in Unreal Tournament 3, Cherry MX Red switches would be most beneficial due to the quick double tap response time after the key has hit its actuation point. The time it takes to travel back from the actuation point to where the key can be repressed for quick double tap movement, is much faster than say Cherry MX Blue switches or the more traditional rubber dome switches found on most common keyboards. If one opponent has this advantage over the other, then movement in fast, brutal confrontations in UT3 result in a win for the user with the mechanical Cherry MX Red keyboard. It may seem insignificant, but having this type of advantage is what can set you apart from the rest.

With all that in mind, let us take a closer look at the Corsair Vengeance K90 MMO Mechanical keyboard. We will start with the keycaps. This particular component of the keyboard is often overlooked. But a keycap is what covers the switches and takes the harsh pounding gamers can hand out to a keyboard. The keycaps on the K90 are hard plastic, not rubber. In fact, there is very little rubber found on this keyboard. Note that not all the switches on the K90 are Cherry MX Red. The following keys are tuned silicon dome keyswitches: F1 through F12, Esc, PrtScn, Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, Insert, Home, Page Up Page Down, Delete, and End. FPS(First Person Shooter) gamers may gawk at the use of silicone dome keyswitches in these keys, but, to be honest, you will not make much use of them. Unless you use a ton of macros. MMO gamers may find that annoying, but with the 18 programmable Cherry MX Red G1-G18 keys, they can rest easy knowing Corsair had them in mind when designing this board.

Take a look below and you can see up close the high quality, laser etched keycaps.

Looking underneath the keycap we can see that the outside is painted and the inside is white in order to give the etched portion visibility when the single led located above each Cherry MX Red switch can illuminate the letter/number/symbol. The silicone domes are illuminated from directly underneath the switch as opposed to the led directly above the switch. You can see the difference in the following pictures.

Above is the silicone dome and below is the Cherry MX Red switch.

Some may question the use of painted keycaps like the ones on this board, but we have personally tested them with hardcore gaming over the past few months.  And, as you can see, there is no sign of wear or tear on the keys used most: AWSD and SPACEBAR.  Our previous testbed keyboard was a Logitech Illuminated keyboard with chicklet style keys similar to those found in laptops.  The same keys on that board were unrecognizeable.  Below is an the exact board we used. In the event that you do need to replace a keycap, a flat head screw driver and replace cap is all you need to make the switch.

As we finish up our review of the Corsair Vengeance K90 MMO Mechanical keyboard, we will cover the other specifications that make this an MMO board.  In addition to the programmable G1-G18 keys, you have the ability to lock the Windows key.  That allows you to hit that key, on accident of course, while in game and not effect your gameplay. Macros can be saved on-the-fly and stored in the onboard memory.  The Cherry MX Red switches have an actuation force of 45g with a 2mm actuation point and 4mm to bottom.  Gold contacts help rate this board for 50 million operations.

There is 36Kb of onboard memory that allow for storage of up to three sets of eighteen G keys for on the go gaming. With this ability,  you can plug and play your keyboard on any system and not have to worry about loading software and profiles.  It is all done via your keyboard’s memory!  Six multimedia keys allow for simple control of your media via keyboard shortcuts.  The volume rocker is a weighted ‘drum roller’ made of solid metal.  There is a USB passthrough port for hooking up a peripheral to your keyboard.  The 2m non-tangable cable is plenty long for larger desktops and underneath storage of your PC box.  The K90 sports 20-key rollover anti-ghosting via USB which is well above the standard 6-key rollover normally seen on USB keyboards.

Priced at $129.99, this mechanical keyboard comes with many bells and whistles. Yet, even with all that, there are some areas for improvement.  Offering PS/2 with a USB adapter would have been ideal for a true gaming keyboard as PS/2 does not take up precious CPU cycles(we will cover this more in our mechanical switch dedicated review).  PS/2 also has no limit to rollover as you see on USB devices. Offering this board with more options like Cherry MX Blue or Black switches would have also been a much better route.  Blue switches are preferred by MMO gamers whereas Black switches suite FPS’ers a bit more than Red.  Of course, those suggestions are subjective and what key switch suites what gamer can be argued to a point.  Again, we will cover in detail the differences between mechanical switches in our dedicated review.  As for now, Corsair has built an excellent mechanical keyboard that will look stunning on many desktops.  Check one out for yourselves, sometime.

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- Trouble free with super large CPU coolers -

Taipei-Taiwan – February 8th 2012. G.Skill, the worldwide leading high performance memory designer and manufacturer, has announced the brand new Ares series low profile performance DDR3 memory.

Stylish Low Profile Heat Spreader

Featured with low profile heat spreader design (3.2cm in height), G.Skill Ares series DDR3 memory modules are the perfect choices for building high performance PCs with large CPU coolers, small form factor desktop computers or any other systems with more restricted space.

The Best Compatibility and Reliability

Every Ares memory kit is hand-tested with G.Skill rigorous internal validation process to ensure the maximum stability and compatibility with both Intel and AMD platforms.

XMP Ready

Compliant with the latest Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) function, G.Skill Ares series DDR3 memory provides PC enthusiasts and extreme gamers a trouble free

overclocking experience on Intel platforms, while enjoying the enhanced memory bandwidth.

G.Skill Ares specifications are listed as below. Specifications are subject to change without notice. For further details please check the G.Skill website at www.gskill.com

All G.Skill memory products come with a lifetime warranty and the G.Skill technical team is always ready to provide consumers with complete technical support via online forums, telephone and email.

The Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W PSU is rated at 80 Plus Gold.  On a 115V circut, the unit maintains around 88% efficiency and peaks at nearly 90%.  With 230V feeding the power supply we see in increase in efficiency up to 92%.  Of course, all these numbers come straight from Cooler Master, but we will have a full review of this PSU soon.

Included with the SPH 1300W is a front case mounted fan controller that lets you control the power supply fan by auto or manual and up to three system fans.  The SPH 1300W is fully modular allowing the user to install only those cables which are needed.  The cables included are compatible with the other two units included in the new Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid series.  What this means is that if you start with a lower rated power supply and need a larger unit, all you have to do is replace the PSU.  The cables will work with all three units.

Other impressive specs include a single 12V rail and it is rated up to 105A.  Below you will find the unboxing pictorial.  Stay tuned for our testing review of this new hybrid PSU!

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• 10.5mm thickness
• 1GHz CPU
• 4GB internal storage
• 512MB RAM
• 5MP rear flash camera
• 1400mAh battery

No word on which, if any, carrier in the US would be getting this phone.

What was really happening, however, was that a modder took some special nonconductive liquid engineered by 3M which has a boiling point of 34 degrees, and used it to cool all the really hot components in his case. Once the liquid hits the hot spots, such as the overclocked CPU or the graphics processor, the liquid boils and carries the heat away. At which point the gas is transfered back to a liquid and then the process repeats itself.

The rest of Zotac’s product displays included some microATX Z68 motherboards and some newer ZBox mini PC’s with upgraded CPU’s from Intel and AMD. One new Zbox with AMD internals includes an E-450 APU running at 1.66GHz and an HD 6320 graphics chip.

• Dual Core 1.5GHz Processor
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB EMMC internal storage
• MicroSD card slot with support for up to 64GB of additional memory
• 4.3″ qHD AMOLED display at 960×540
• 1650mAh battery
• Android 4.0.1

Next, we ran into the LTE version of the Ascend P1. Besides having an LTE chip, this version had several other variations from the P1 S. The Ascend P1 LTE comes packed with a larger, 2000mAh battery. The same 8MP camera can be found on the back, but a 1.3MP front facing camera is also included. At 9.9mm thick, it does add some bulk to its frame and also weighs in at a slim 129g.

Our last stop in the Huawei booth was at the MediaPad 4G section. The 4G HSPA+ tablet comes stock with Android 4.0, 14.4Mbps DL speeds, a 7″ IPS LCD WXGA 1280×800 resolution display, dual core 1.2GHz processor and 5MP rear, 1.3MP front cameras. At 10.5mm thick, it makes for a decent sized and seemingly powerful 7″ tablet.