Cooler Master Products Showcase at CES 2011

This year's CES was an exciting time for Cooler Master, as the company expands its CM Storm lineup with a new range of products while finally launching a new water cooling solution after years of absence.

CM Storm Enforcer

CM Storm is introducing a new mid-tower case that focuses on the unique aggressive design seen with the Scout and Sniper chassis. The CM Storm Enforcer Case takes some of the best of the CM HAF series, mixes it with features of the 690 II while featuring its own unique exterior design.





The new case will allow for the perpendicular or parallel rotation of the hard drive bays, offering exceptional cooling with a front 200mm fan, rear 120mm exhaust fan and the ability to install up to two top fans or house an internal 240mm radiator.

CM Storm Gaming Peripherals

Along with a new case, the CM Storm brand is expanding its line of gamer centric peripherals, including a new gaming mouse and surround sound headset.

The CM Storm Spawn gaming mouse hit the market during CES and is intended to be a modestly priced product with a shape for claw grip users. It has a 3500 DPI optical sensor as well as on the fly DPI adjustments and adjustable button assignments.

Rounding off this new lineup is the SIRIUS 5.1 Surround Sound Headset. Powered by four individual drivers, it offers some highly accurate audio for gaming, music and movies. The headset is connected via USB and also includes a desktop control module which allows for individual volume control of each channel. Cooler Master has included a secondary set of backup pleather ear cushions for better noise canceling.

Cooler Master A-L2 CPU Water Cooler

Veteran enthusiasts may remember how Cooler Master was one of the pioneers of the all-in-one water cooling solution with a product known as Aquagate early in the millennium. Unfortunately, while the device received good reviews it was arguably launched too early to be accepted as a viable and reliable cooling solution. The past few years have seen very similar solutions by competitors take off like wildfire and Cooler Master has now decided it is time to redesign a new, better water cooling solution.

The A-L2 (working codename) is a 120mm all-in-one CPU water cooling kit that features a much larger combined block and pump than we are used to but is capable of moving 450L/s. The claim is that it can facilitate better flow and thus improves cooling potential over its rivals.

Another unique feature is the design of the CPU block which uses a patent pending stacked copper fin design instead of the traditional micro-fin system. This design increases the contact area of the cooling liquid and will therefore be able to pull away more heat from the CPU.

Cooler Master is aiming for a release in the first quarter of 2011 and does intend on following it up with a dual 240mm radiator version as well.





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AMD Appoints New CEO, Dirk Meyer Resigns

AMD today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Senior Vice President and CFO Thomas Seifert, 47, as interim CEO following the resignation of Dirk Meyer, 49, as president, CEO and a director of the company effective immediately.

A CEO Search Committee has been formed to begin the search for a new CEO. The Committee is led by Bruce Claflin, Chairman of AMD’s Board of Directors, who has been named Executive Chairman of the Board as he assumes additional oversight responsibilities during the transition period. Seifert will maintain his current responsibilities as CFO and has asked not to be considered for the permanent CEO position.

“Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives including the launch of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel and delivering Fusion APUs to the market,” said Claflin.

”However, the Board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns. We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company’s ability to accomplish these objectives.”

Seifert joined AMD in 2009, and has more than 20 years of general management, global operations and financial management expertise. Immediately prior to joining AMD, Seifert served as COO and CFO of Qimonda AG, where he led the formation and subsequent IPO of the company. At Infineon AG, Seifert served as senior vice president and general manager in its Wireless Business Group.

In commenting on Seifert, Claflin said, “During his tenure at AMD, Thomas helped strengthen the company’s balance sheet while demonstrating strong leadership and winning the respect of his peers. His operations and finance experience make him an excellent choice to guide the company as interim CEO.”

“AMD enters 2011 with considerable product and financial momentum. Our roadmap for the year, including our “Llano” APU and 32nm “Bulldozer” based processors remain on track,” said Seifert. “I believe we have significant opportunities to cement our leadership positions in several key market segments based on the strength of our upcoming products.”

AMD Announces Certain Preliminary Fourth Quarter 2010 Results
AMD is announcing certain preliminary results for the fourth quarter 2010. Fourth quarter revenue increased 2 percent sequentially to approximately $1.65 billion and gross margin was approximately 45 percent. In addition, the company reaffirms its 2011 annual financial guidance as disclosed at its Financial Analyst Day last November.

AMD plans to release its final results for the fourth quarter after market close on Thursday, January 20, 2011, with a conference call at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET to provide additional details.

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Intel to Pay Nvidia Technology Licensing Fee of $1.5 Billion

NVIDIA announced today that it has signed a new six-year cross-licensing agreement with Intel. For the future use of NVIDIA's technology, Intel will pay NVIDIA an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees payable in five annual installments, beginning Jan. 18, 2011. NVIDIA and Intel have also agreed to drop all outstanding legal disputes between them.

"This agreement signals a new era for NVIDIA," said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's president and chief executive officer. "Our cross license with Intel reflects the substantial value of our visual and parallel computing technologies. It also underscores the importance of our inventions to the future of personal computing, as well as the expanding markets for mobile and cloud computing."

Under the new agreement, Intel will have continued access to NVIDIA's full range of patents. In return, NVIDIA will receive an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees, to be paid in annual installments, and retain use of Intel's patents, consistent with its existing six-year agreement with Intel. This excludes Intel's proprietary processors, flash memory and certain chipsets for the Intel platform.

The existing agreement is to expire March 31, 2011.

Pursuant to U.S. GAAP, a portion of the proceeds will be accounted for and attributed to the settlement of prior legal claims. This amount, which NVIDIA anticipates to be less than $100 million, will be included in the company's fourth-quarter results.

The balance of the licensing fees will be accounted for on a straight-line basis over the six-year term of the agreement. Accordingly it is anticipated that this would amount annually to approximately $233 million of operating income and an increase in net income of $0.29 per diluted share, on a full year basis.

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Corsair Shows Off 600T Special Edition and Obsidian 650D At CES 2011

600T Special Edition

In a word: stunning. I personally hate the colour white on peripherals, cases and products of all sorts but when the design looks this good; not even I can complain. With a black interior and a few more splashes of black against the automotive-grade paint, this is one case than can only be fully appreciated in person. The MSRP of $160 isn’t that bad either.

Click on images to enlarge

Obsidian 650D

After releasing the wildly popular Obsidian 800D and the ever so slightly less expensive 700D, Corsair is now following those up with an encore presentation in the form of a lower priced, smaller case dubbed the Obsidian 650D. It maintains the overall design characteristics of the E-ATX cases and yet should appeal to a broader marke. Availability is slated for March of this year.

Click on images to enlarge

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Bulldozer AMD 990FX Based MSI Big Bang Conqueror Motherboard Pictured

MSI let its latest motherboard for the AMD Zambezi platform face the lens. The Big Bang Conqueror is based on the AMD 990FX chipset, and features the latest AM3+ socket to connect to processors based on AMD's Bulldozer architecture. The first set of processors will feature 8 cores, 16 MB cache, and dual-channel DDR3 memory with default DRAM speeds to match bandwidth provided by slower triple-channel DDR3 memory on current Intel Core i7 LGA1366 processors.

The Big Bang Conqueror uses a 10-phase VRM to power the CPU. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory. Expansion slots include three PCI-E 2.0 x16 (electrical x16/16/NC or x16/x8/x8), one PCI-E x16 (electrical x4), two PCI-E x1, and a PCI. Storage includes six internal SATA 6 Gb/s, two eSATA. Other connectivity includes USB 3.0, gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF, and FireWire. Various overclocker-friendly features are also present.



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First Look from CES2011 - "Vulcan" ROG Gaming Headset Video Preview

Antec Introduces One Hundred Gamer ATX-Mid Tower Chasis

In its 25th anniversary year, Antec, Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today announced the One Hundred, its newest gaming case designed to offer PC gamers and enthusiasts an array of advanced cooling and performance options at an affordable price.

The One Hundred boasts four top-mounted USB 2.0 ports (with audio in/out,) a handy storage tray for added convenience, a sleek painted black interior and perforated front bezel that delivers maximum air intake, and a bottom-mounted power supply that isolates heat and noise. This model is also the first in Antec's gaming case series to include a standard case lock slot for integrated anti-theft protection.

The One Hundred's cooling system utilizes one top 140 mm TwoCool fan and one rear 120 mm TwoCool 2-speed switch control exhaust fan for flexible control of fan speeds to balance cooling and quiet performance, and a built-in washable air filter for quick and easy cleaning. Its eight expansion slots can accommodate multiple video cards, providing exceptional expandability, while 10 drive bays (six internal 3.5" drive bays, three external 5.25" drive bays and one internal bottom-mounted 2.5" drive bay) lend flexibility for a wide-range of builds.

"PC gamers and enthusiasts have reason to be excited with the release of the new One Hundred gaming case as it packs a host of useful features at an affordable price point," said Scott Richards, senior vice president at Antec. "With the advanced airflow, upgradeability and control options, this latest addition provides the performance capabilities that the gaming community desires."

Here's the video for the case,



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Corsair Chooses CoolIT To Produce Upcoming Liquid Cooling Products

CoolIT Systems, leaders in advanced liquid cooling technology, has teamed with Corsair to launch a new liquid cooling performance platform starting with the Hydro Series H60. Additionally, CoolIT has worked extensively with the Corsair product team to create a new technology called Corsair Link, a software connected control system for case lighting, cooling systems, fans, power supplies and memory. Through this new product the enthusiast will, for the first time, be able to optimize their entire PC for their own performance, aesthetic and acoustic preferences.

“We are thrilled to be working with one of the biggest names in enthusiast computing.” Says Geoff Lyon, President and CEO of CoolIT Systems, “Through this new partnership, Corsair’s experience and knowledge in the enthusiast computing space has provided invaluable guidance to create a tremendous technology offering”.

“By teaming up with the innovative engineers at CoolIT Systems, Corsair has taken an important step to deliver not just a great cooling product but a platform that allows all Corsair components to be controlled through a software control system” Says Ruben Mookerjee, VP and General Manager for Components at Corsair.

The new line of products will be launched at CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 6, 2011, and include a new low profile head unit and superior cooling performance and acoustics.

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Kingston Showcases Next Generation of Products

The name Kingston should be familiar with the vast majority of you reading this article since they have been a premier manufacturer of memory and flash-based products for as long as many can remember. Recently, they have also jumped onto the solid state drive bandwagon as well.

During this CES, Kingston is showcasing a number of upcoming and current products which mostly focus upon the quickly expanding storage market. With USB 3.0 and SATA 6 coming into the limelight, 2011 will feature a large number of devices from nearly every sector which takes advantage of these two technologies. As usual, Kingston will have these two standards completely covered but most products featuring them will only be available later this year and weren’t on display. However, that’s not to say that Kingston didn’t have anything interesting to show.

One of Kingston’s current focuses is to incorporate all of their upcoming enthusiast products under one general name called HXperience. This naturally includes their upcoming Sandforce-based SATA 6 drives as well as DataTraveller 3.0 flash drives and some overclocker-friendly memory modules.


Speaking of flash drives, Kingston has been rolling out the beta of a program they call URDrive. Basically, this is a simple file management program which runs on the drive and allows for easy access to all of your files. Since it incorporates its own video player and other built-in programs, it is completely OS-agnostic and can be run on any device in nothing is installed onto your system. An updated version will soon be released with yet more features, a virus scanner, media shows and the ability to support custom built applications through user generated content.

One of the more noteworthy items Kingston has been working on is a type of wireless storage device that can stream media or other files to sync’d devices. One of the best aspects of its design is that it doesn’t need an existing network in order to be recognized as a drive. Rather, wireless functionality is built directly into the device so it can easily be recognized as an attached storage device by other storage-starved products like tablets, smart phones and other products that support external drives. Initial capacities should be 32GB and 64GB with larger drives available later on.

Even though this highly compact next generation wireless NAS doesn’t have an official name yet, we can definitely see it having uses for a quickly expanding market.

Kingston also showcased their upcoming HyperX Genesis modules which use a new anodized grey heatsink design and will be considered a limited edition product. There will be two 4GB kits available for P67 boards: one operating at 2133Mhz at CL9 and another at 1600Mhz CL9. They will be priced at $149 and $70 respectively and support XMP technology as well.

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EVGA Displays Non-Reference Dual GPU and GTX570 Graphic Cards

Graphics card vendors seldom display their products based on unannounced GPUs in trade shows, unlike motherboard vendors. That said, a certain new graphics card by EVGA is making waves at CES 2011. The double-slot, long graphics card presumably uses two GF110 GPUs to make a SLI on a stick solution. There are two possibilities about the configuration of the two GPUs looking at the eight 1 Gbit memory chips (four per GPU area) on the reverse side of the card: First being 1 GB per GPU over 256-bit memory interface; and second being 12 memory chips on the other side, amounting for 1280 MB per GPU memory over 320-bit memory interface for a core config identical to that of the GeForce GTX 570.

EVGA treaded carefully as to project the card as one of its own design, which does not conform to any future unannounced NVIDIA dual-GPU SKU. For this reason, EVGA designed its own triple-fan cooler which has fans nested inside the shroud, using a large aluminum heatsink. EVGA used the same styling on a smaller graphics card with two fans. The smaller card is EVGA's non-reference design GeForce GTX 570. It uses a more compact PCB than that of NVIDIA, and provides better display connectivity in the form of full-size HDMI and DP, alongside two DVI connectors.



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