Corsair is not a perfect company, despite some people's claims. Anyway, we can't underestimate the hidden powers of this notorious memory (and not only) manufacturer, the latest event proving the fact that Corsair is one of those companies able to break world records, and we're not talking about market share or popularity, but about raw performance!


On Tuesday, Corsair made public the fact that its engineers broke the world record for the DDR3 memory frequency. Using the new Dominator memory module, together with the Intel X48-based platform, Corsair managed to overclock DDR3 memory to an amazing 2462MHz, using CL9 9-9-24 latency settings, which provided 19.696GB/s of bandwidth in single-channel mode. Impressive!

Regarding this performance, Martin Mueller, senior director of engineering at Corsair, said "Corsair is obsessed with pushing memory technology to its limits and beyond. This world record demonstrates the overclocking and high speed memory expertise within Corsair Labs and definitely pushes the memory enthusiast community to achieve even faster, more outrageous speeds."

Sounds good to me! So...when to expect 3GHz?

There were two important custom gaming rig makers on the market a few years ago: Alienware and Voodoo. In 2006, each of them was acquired by Dell and HP respectively, and the market seemed to be settled. Now Acer comes along and decides to enter the gaming rig business with its brand new Predator line. For the moment, Acer readied only the G7700 model, but we expect that the company should roll out other models for budget-oriented customers, as well as for hardcore gamers.

Acer wanted to make this line special and added a unique case design which comes in orange and black for enhanced contrast and striking appearance. The front door slides up onto the top of the case and reveals two 5.25in drives together with a card reader unit. The top of the case houses a pop-up module that hides the front connectors.

Inside the Predator G7700 we find a standard Nvidia 780i chipset-powered mobo and customers are able to choose among a wide range of Intel dual and quad core processors with bus speeds of up to 1,333MHz.

Another noticeable option is the possibility to include up to 8GB of DDR2 800 or 1,066MHz memory and up to 4TB of storage fitted to front accessible hot-swapable drive cages (under supported RAID modes). Plus you can choose among Blu-ray drives, TV-tuners and even an X-Fi Platinum sound card.

The graphics side must be strongly represented in such gaming rigs, and Acer provides a pair of 8800GT cards in SLI for the most basic system, while higher-end models come with two or three 9800GTX cards in SLI. Other optional accessories include the Logitech G11 gaming keyboard and the G5 gaming mouse alongside various Acer displays, speakers and a remote control.

The press release mentions no prices, but you can visit the official site and keep an eye on availability and pricing.

While VIA retreated from the desktop processors business, it still has a strong position on other markets, and now they even managed to break a world record! No, we're not talking about any performance record, but size, because they just succeeded in creating the smallest x86 computer platform, coming in the pico-ITX form factor!


"Pico-ITX, what is that?" Well, what do you think about 10cm x 7.2cm? Small enough? Daniel Wu, vice president of Via embedded platform division, said "The introduction of the Via Epia PX5000EG elevates the Via Epia range of innovative embedded solutions to new heights of thermal and energy efficiency in an extremely miniaturized form factor. The Via Epia Pico-ITX form-factor continues to evolve, addressing the embedded industry's needs for greater efficiency and miniaturization."

A computer inside a pack of cigarettes, how's that? The Via Epia PX5000EG uses a fanless 500MHz processor from VIA, the Eden ULV, with a TDP of only 1W, supporting up to 1GB of DDR2 memory. The Via VX700 system media processor delivers graphics by using the Via UniChrome Pro II integrated 3D/2D graphics core with MPEG-2/-4 and WMV9 hardware decoding acceleration, as well as pin support for LVDS, DVI and VGA display configurations.

At last, you should know Serial ATA and Parallel ATA connectors are also present, and even an integrated 100/10 Fast Ethernet port was fitted on the tiny board. Even more, there are connectors included to support PS/2 keyboard and mouse, external TV-out, video capture port interface & LPC interface (add-on card required), 1 audio connector for line-out, line-in, mic-in, S/PDIF in and 5.1 channel audio output and 1 Pico-ITX power connector.

These being said, I will repeat the size, so you won't forget - 10cm x 7.2cm, that's the smallest x86 platform available in the world as we speak, and it's really astonishing to think about the fact this may be more powerful than the desktop computers we were using a decade ago!

The world as we know it is about to change. This is not something new, and not even external graphics adapters for notebooks aren't something to make you go "WOW!", but seeing this technology headed towards mainstream, that's something great! After all, no matter what some or others may say, notebook gaming was always a joke, compared to the performance offered by desktop computers for the same price, and when talking about high-end gaming, there was only the desktop PC. Now, a big group of hardware manufacturers has decided to bring the powerful video cards from the desktop realm to the notebook world, as external video adapters...


According to latest reports, ATI, Asustek Computer and Fujitsu Siemens have clear plans of bringing high performance graphics to their notebooks by using external cards, so you won't end up with a portable computer that needs to be carried around using a trailer.

The story starts back in early 2007, when Asustek revealed the XG Station, a desktop computer coming with an external graphics adapter which could also be used for notebooks using the Express Card interface. Unfortunately, that product didn't go beyond the concept/prototype stage, but proved to be pretty popular with users all over the Internet, and various reports claim the XG Station may become reality later this year.

Leaving ASUS behind, it's enough to say ATI and Fujitsu are also on their way to showing us external graphics solutions for notebooks, and despite the fact no official news about this can be seen anywhere yet, but I am looking forward to this. After all, external graphics adapters would make upgrading much easier for everyone, as well as turning a nice office notebook into a gaming monster in a matter of seconds, when needed. Sweeet!

As previously reported, AMD plans to launch the Swift CPU (aka Fusion) in the second half of 2008. Now we know for sure that Swift is going to be exclusively oriented towards notebooks and mobile devices. However, AMD does not want to limit the Fusion architecture to the mobile world and at some point in 2010, a Fusion CPU+GPU is scheduled to hit the desktop market as well.

As related to notebooks, Intel announced that their Nehalem CPUs for notebooks and desktops will be commercialized in early 2009, but mainstream products based on the Nehalem CPU won’t be available until Q4 2009. We assume Intel has some problems with the memory controller integrated directly on the dye and the 45 nm architecture and this could be causing the delay for the mainstream market.

AMD, on the other hand, seems to have a good plan introducing the Fusion chips for notebooks first and foremost. The mobile market will clearly benefit from such a chip as a CPU with an integrated GPU will be cheaper to produce, though the process is a bit more complicated.

To sustain this point, Dave Orton, ATI’s former CEO, claimed a while ago that the integration of two or more chips significantly cuts costs. Apparently, a current Northbridge chip coupled with a cheap discrete graphics card is more expensive than an all-in-one Fusion chip that integrates a Northbridge with a GPU. From the manufacturer point of view, that is.