Western Digital did it again with the next generation Raptor hard disk drives - the VelociRaptor, 10,000 rpm, 2.5-inch, 300 GB SATA Hard Drive that are actually about 35 percent faster and twice the capacity of the previous performance king - the 150 GB Raptor X drive.

The new WD VelociRaptor hard drives are designed specifically for PC and Mac computer enthusiasts and for use in professional workstations. The WD VelociRaptor hard drives are built with enterprise-class mechanics and pack 300 GB of storage capacity into a 2.5-inch enterprise form factor. The 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor drives are enclosed in the IcePack, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with a built-in heat sink - a customization that fits the drive into a standard 3.5-inch system bay and keeps this powerful drive extra cool when installed in a high-performance desktop chassis.

VelociRaptor Features
- Killer Speed - Built on the performance of the WD Raptor, these 10,000 RPM drives, with SATA 3 Gb/s interface, and 16 MB cache deliver mind-bending performance.
- Rock-solid Reliability - WD VelociRaptor drives are … [ Read the rest of the story ]

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Now that is something that is usually hard to find and a bit expensive, but it might be very handy at times. If you have an old laptop that uses the older PCMCIA (CardBus) standard for extension cards you might be out of luck if you have to insert a new ExpressCard device for some reason. At such time this small Filco ExpressCard to USB adapter can be very useful, although it may not be very convenient to be used while traveling and using the mobile computer. The good news is that you can also use an ExpressCard device designed for your laptop on your desktop PC with the help of this adapter…

The adapter is compatible with both the smaller ExpressCard/34 standard and the bigger ExpressCard/54 devices so you don’t have to worry your device wont be compatible and of course you’ll still have to install drivers for the device in order for it to function correctly.

The ExpressCard to USB Adapter will cost you $39.09.

- To buy this useful adapter … [ Read the rest of the story ]

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The South Korean manufacturer Mtron, a relatively new company, announced three new solid state drive products featuring MSD, MSD PRO and MSD XTM, that are fully optimized for consumer purposes, server applications and industrial purposes. The product lines feature 2.5/3.5 inch SATA SSD drives with capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Mtron will also introduce 1.8 inch form factor and 128GB capacity in the 4th quarter of the year in order to provide more efficient battery life and higher stability for notebook computers.

The company claims its drives can reach a read speed of 120MB/s and write speed of 90MB/s, along with 0.1 ms random access time. This means they are three to four times faster than existing magnetic hard drives and 30 to 40 percent faster than other SSD drives produced by companies like Samsung and San Disk.

The 16GB, 32GB and 64GB SSD drives will be available in later this month, but no pricing is available yet.

- More information about the MSD, MSD PRO and MSD XTM SSDs by Mtron…

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AGEIA Technologies announced the world’s first PhysX Mobile processor, the AGEIA PhysX 100M, for high performance gaming notebook PCs. The new PhysX 100M offers an unmatched combination of power, efficiency and design flexibility enabling innovative hardware designers to take PC notebooks to a stunning new level of excitement.

This is the first mobile processor offered by AGEIA. The 100 indicates that it’s part of the first generation of dedicated PhysX processors and the “M” designates its incorporation of AGEIA PhysX Mobile Technology. The power consumption is as low as 10W under normal gameplay conditions. Optimized PhysX processing resources to deliver the same peak PhysX processing throughput as the original AGEIA PhysX processor.

The new AGEIA PhysX 100M processor is available now. Exciting gaming notebooks powered by AGEIA PhysX Mobile Technology are expected to hit the market very soon.

- More information about the AGEIA PhysX 100M…

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22″ iZ3D is an advanced video monitor capable of displaying impressive into-screen and out-of-screen 3D images with passive polarized glasses. iZ3D is designed to replace standard two-dimensional monitors while maintaining commercial image quality and display brightness. iZ3D supports long-time viewing without causing fatigue or eyestrain. This advanced technology takes three dimensional applications already on today’s market; such as PC games, 3D entertainment and professional stereo applications, and it allows users to experience their favorite 3D animation in a way they never could with a standard two-dimensional (”2D”) monitor.

The new iZ3D monitor features the first S-3D drivers to be equally compatible with both the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series and the cutting-edge ATI FireGL V3600 workstation graphics accelerator. The S-3D drivers are also optimized to take advantage of Intel’s latest Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad processor technologies. iZ3D also features drivers that support Microsoft DirectX 8 and 9 graphics in both Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista. Now the iZ3D drivers offer … [ Read the rest of the story ]

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