While 2 GB seem to suffice even for the infamous Windows Vista, PC games are likely to require more and more RAM coupled with a powerful GPU and CPU combo in the years to come. Take for example Crysis Warhead which requires more than 2 GB of ram to run at relatively smooth framerates. Sure, that might point to the fact that some game developers are unable to optimize their software, but the need for more memory isn’t limited to games and video encoding. The server sector is another important RAM devourer.

Taking all these things into consideration, Hynix Semiconductor, one of the major memory chip manufacturers, announced that it will soon launch MetaRAM's new DDR3 technology in its next generation R-DIMMs. This will bring the world's first 16GB 2-rank DIMM (HMT32GR7AER4C-GD) to the masses. The new modules have already been demoed at Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco last week.

According to Digit-Life, DDR3 MetaRAM is similar to the previous generation of DDR2 technology that enables significantly more memory in a server. However, Hynix had to find a way for the DDR3 MetaRAM technology to enable larger memory capacity without negatively impacting the operating frequency of the DDR3 memory channel. The system on display at IDF had 24GB of DDR3 SDRAM and was capable of 1066 million transactions per-second (MT/s). Since Nehalem CPUs enable triple channel configurations, users may include up to 96 GB running at 1066 MT/s.

Hynix also announced 8 GB modules but the press release discloses no info on availability and price.

The audio card market is clearly dominated by Creative, but this supremacy doesn’t always seem to prove beneficial to end-users. Sure, there still are Realtek, Terratec and M-Audio, which target specific groups like professional musicians or budget users. However, multimedia and game support has been with Creative ever since Aureal died. Creative seems pretty happy with X-Fi and, because there’s no real threat coming from other companies, no new technologies got previewed as of lately, except for some diversified products based on X-Fi. The latest addition to the X-Fi lineup is the X-Fi Go!

The product is quite ambiguous to say in the least. It integrates 1GB of flash memory which Creative says is meant to be using for storing save games, game profiles and just about anything else. Fudzilla reports that Creative managed to squeeze support for Alchemy, to make it backwards compatible with older games, plus the newer CMSS-3D and EAX Advanced HD. The USB dongle has a headphone and mic connector and it includes all the drivers you need. I’m trying to figure out the actual use for such a device. Maybe it’s meant for people who want quality sounds on their office PCs.

X-Fi Go! Is set to cost S$79, but it will be available only in Singapore for the time being.

Zotac is known for overclocked video cards (mostly NVIDIA-based) and, although the company is relatively new to the market, it seems it’s selling pretty well. To mark this achievement, Zotac now aims to diversify its product array. So, instead of presenting yet another oc-ed card at the Games Convention this year, Zotac came with a sort of innovative device designed for overclockers.

According to Fudzilla, the Nitro overclocking device allows gamers to overclock their cards in real time, without having to use the infamous al-tab key combination and leave their games. The overclocking procedure is dead simple: you just press one of three keys located at the front of the device. Those three buttons will allow you to overclock the GPU, memory and even the shaders clock.

Zotac Nitro can also act as a hardware monitor, showing the current clocks of the card, its temperature and the fan speed. The product showed at GC ’08 was not finalized. The final version could also include a customizable display screen at the bottom part of the LCD screen.

Apparently, Nitro will be released in October and will work with Zotac’s cards, possibly with other NVIDIA-powered cards. At first, the device is going to sold separately, but Zotac says they could later bundle it with premium graphics packages. Nitro is set to be available for $99.

The new Intel Nehalem CPUs will fit the current-gen mobos, although, in order to get the most out of them, you’ll have to switch to a X58-powered motherboard. Asus and Gigabyte have already announced their upcoming models which should be launching at the same time the first Core i7 CPUs hit the market. MSI is also preparing an X58 model and Syndrome-OC have some exclusive info on this one.

The mobo is known as the Eclipse X58 and from what we can see in the pictures provided by the French site, MSI still has to add several things to the design before they actually get to commercialize it. The official specs are not yet out so what we see in the pictures is prone to suffer some slight modifications. Thus, it appears that the current layout includes three X16 PCIe, with the bottom two ones sharing bandwidth via a digital switch. There also are two PCIe x1 slots and two PCI slots on top of that. Since Nehalem offers support for triple channel DDR3 configurations, the MSI comes with six DDR3 memory slots that can be stuffed with up to 24GB of memory.

MSI included its latest DrMOS technology on this board, while the MOSFETs have been redesigned, coming now with a 10 phase PWM. Also present on the board are the Power, Reset, DLED and Turbo buttons, which hint at a overcloker-oriented solution. The Turbo button may instantly overclock your CPU or it could be enabling the Core i7 Turbo feature that Intel announced during IDF earlier this week.

Other features include a CMOS reset button, two PS/2 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, two eSATA ports and a FireWire connector. There are no audio connectors, which could mean that MSI is going to include a separate PCIe sound card, possibly and X-Fi one. An outstanding feature is represented by the inclusion of no less than 10 SATA ports, with four of these connected to a third party controller.

More info can be found on the S-OC site.

Several days ago I was telling you about OCZ and its new PSU lineup, but that’s not all OCZ got to update. In a recent event, OCZ has also presented the second generation of its gaming mice - the Dominatrix.

The Fudzilla guys were present and managed to play around for a while with the new mouse. Their first impression was that the new Dominatrix could be regarded as a much more serious gaming mouse than the previously released OCZ Equalizer. However, OCZ claims that the new mouse is rather a budget gamer type as it comes with exchangeable weights, on-board memory for multiple button schemes and the DPI of 2000 in standard mode or up-to 3200 DPI which can be defined by the user. The design and the rest of the functions seem to be standard with most of the budget mice out there, although the mouse again features the blue and black combination of colors which was also present on the OCZ Equalizer. Looks like OCZ is trying to build a signature color scheme for their mice.

OCZ didn’t exactly mention when the new mouse is going to be released, but we already know it’s going to be priced at around €30.