Desktops -- Engadget

Windows 7 release to manufacturing reportedly on track for July 13th

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 3rd 2009 at 4:04PM

Get out your Bill Gates commemorative calendars folks, 'cause it looks like we now have a few more dates to mark off on the road to Windows 7 availability. While Microsoft still isn't saying anything official itself just yet, a number of different sources are reporting that the company has set July 10th as the date for the final gold build of Windows 7, while the big release to manufacturing date is apparently on track for July 13th. Of course, things could still change if there's a major bug or other problem encountered, but barring any disasters, that'll likely be the same build that finds its way onto your PC this fall.

Packard Bell imedia lineup gets an Acer-inspired refresh

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 3rd 2009 at 4:47AM

Packard Bell recently overhauled its logo in an effort to keep up with the times, but are its offerings up to the same task? The new imedia lineup immediately recalls the recently announced M-series desktops from Acer, and that's no accident. The innards are remarkably similar too, with the top models sporting Core 2 Quad or AMD Phenom II X4 processors, a 1.5GB GeForce GT230, HDMI out, Blu-Ray combo drive and a maximum of 8GB DDR3 memory and 1TB of storage. While none of the specs are on the blistering edge of innovation, there's plenty of power there and keen pricing could make them an attractive proposition. The entry-level Celeron-based units start at £299 ($490) in the UK.

EMTEC dips toes into nettop market with Ion-based G Box

by Ross Miller, posted Jul 3rd 2009 at 1:26AM

We're used to seeing nettops from the likes of Asus and Acer, but EMTEC's the newcomer in this field and let's see what we're working with. At about one inch thick by TechDigest's estimates, the G Box (working title) certainly compact, and we definitely give points to it running NVIDIA's Ion platform, Windows XP, at least six USB ports, and a 160GB hard drive. Unfortunately, there's no HDMI port -- that's coming in a later model -- and at £179 ($293 US), we'd be hard pressed to pick this over the HDMI-equipped AspireRevo, but we'll await judgment until we can try this thing out for ourselves. In the meantime, hit up the read link for a brief video hands-on.

Continue reading EMTEC dips toes into nettop market with Ion-based G Box

Psystar bounces back from Chapter 11, intros new high-end hardware

by Paul Miller, posted Jul 2nd 2009 at 11:16AM

Everybody's favorite fuzzy little Apple clone maker is back from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (we're still waiting on that revelatory outing of creditors that Apple is so hungry for), and already has a new product in the offering. Psystar's new Open(7) hardware runs Intel Nehalem Xeon, which should provide a nice performance jolt to hackintosh land. Psystar is also going to start using a new bootloader called Darwin Universal Boot Loader, which will eventually be released to open source. Oh, and just in case you were wondering: a little bit of bankruptcy hasn't softened the company's confrontational spirit: Psystar says it's ready to "emerge and again battle Goliath," and that when "life gives you apples, make applesauce." It's kind of cute, really.

[Via TUAW]

iBUYPOWER launches Core i7-packin' Paladin XLC desktops

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 1st 2009 at 4:33PM

Nearly a month to the day after iBUYPOWER launched its gamer-centric M865TU gaming laptop, the outfit has now given the desktop gamers in attendance something to consider. The liquid cooled Paladin XLC series is comprised of three well appointed models, the XLC V1, XLC V2 and XLC V3. All three of 'em are stored in the monstrous Coolermaster HAF 922 (the V3 gets a HAF 932), while even the lowest end model gets a Core i7-920 processor. Other specs include up to 12GB of DDR3 RAM, as many as three NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 GPUs, upwards of 1TB of HDD space, optional Blu-ray support and Windows Vista Home Premium. The trifecta can be ordered now for $1,399, $2,159 or $4,299 in order of mention.

Gallery: iBUYPOWER launches Core i7-packin' Paladin XLC desktops

NVIDIA said to be prepping Ion 2 for late 2009

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 1st 2009 at 3:38PM

NVIDIA obviously isn't doing much talking about it itself just yet, but Fudzilla apparently has it on good authority that the company is indeed already hard at work on Ion 2, which promises to bring with it plenty of improvements over the already impressive Ion chipset. Chief among those is a decreased die size, "much faster graphics," and more than twice the shaders of the original Geforce 9400M /MCP79 chipset that the current Ion is based on (which uses 16 shaders). Not many more details than that, unfortunately, but NVIDIA is supposedly looking to launch Ion 2 by the end of this year -- although not before it sells plenty more Ion 1s, of course.

[Via SlashGear]

eMachines intros ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 desktop PCs

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 1st 2009 at 10:47AM

Just a few short weeks after eMachines outed its EL1300 line of SFF PCs, the company is hitting us up again with a new trio of full-size desktops. The ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 are all encased within a luminous white mini-tower and ship with a matching LCD monitor, speakers and a keyboard. As for specs, the $449.99 ET1300-02 checks in with an AMD Athlon X2 4850e (2.5GHz) CPU, Vista Home Premium, NVIDIA's GeForce G100 (512MB), 3GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB hard drive, 18x SuperMulti DVD burner, multicard reader, HDMI / DVI / VGA outputs and an 18-inch E182H display. The $369.99 ET1810-03 steps to a 2.2GHz Pentium E2210 CPU, GeForce 7500 integrated graphics and just a single VGA port, while the $299.99 ET1810-01 cranks it down to a 1.6GHz Celeron 420 and 2GB of DDR2 RAM. The trio should be filtering out to respected retailers as we speak.

Windows 7 Beta automatic shutdowns begin today, RC users safe until March 1st

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 1st 2009 at 3:49AM

You're not still running Windows 7 Beta are you? Tsk tsk, better get your RC build before your system starts spontaneously shutting down every 2 hours. As Microsoft has warned repeatedly, Windows 7 Beta builds will begin bi-hourly shutdowns starting on July 1st in a bid to move you over to the latest release candidate. RC user will suffer the same treatment starting March 1st, 2010 on the way to a June 1st expiration -- well after the October 22nd launch date of Windows 7 to retail. This concludes this Engadget public service announcement, your regularly scheduled snarkiness will return in a moment.

[Thanks, Kyle]

China delays plan for mandatory "Green Dam" internet filter

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 30th 2009 at 6:46PM

There's not exactly much more details than the headline on this one, but China's official Xinhua news agency is reporting that the country is delaying its plans that would require that the so-called "Green Dam Youth Escort" internet filtering software be installed on all PCs sold in China. That requirement was set to go into effect on Wednesday but, as we have seen, it's caused no shortage of controversy during the lead up -- both because of the general nature of the software, and because of some piracy and security issues that could leave PCs with the software vulnerable to an attack. No word on a new date just yet, but it seems unlikely that the delay will be an indefinite one.

[Thanks, James]

Video: AMD's Phenom II X4 TWKR CPU for extreme overclocking lunatics

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jun 30th 2009 at 3:14PM

AMD has recently cooked up a little something they like to call the Phenom II X4 TWKR Black Edition, a hand-picked, limited edition processor that is designed to be overclocked "to the extreme." Currently labeled "Not for Sale," with no serial numbers and only one hundred of these bad boys in existence, just a few lucky folks have got their hands on one, so we've dug up some reviews (and previews) so you can see what the fuss is all about. According to the company, one of these guys could be pushed by 100MHz with air cooling, which doubles to about 200MHz with "extreme cooling." As far as impressions go, the reviewer at Neoseeker quickly decided that the units aren't meant to be overclocked on air only, and that dry ice isn't much better. Hot Hardware says pretty much the same thing. Though they weren't able to test with liquid nitrogen or liquid helium (the only way to get real speed) they did put a Koolance LN2 pot (and about 20lbs of dry ice) to the test for 4.73GHz. For best results, according to Tom's Hardware Guide, bench the processor at -190°C or cooler. But for the real overclocking experience you simply must check out the video of the "world renowned overclockers" K|ngp|n, chew*, and Gomeler as they run the gamut of "extreme overclocking techniques" after the break.

Read - AMD Phenom II TWKR Edition CPU Preview
Read - AMD's Phenom II X4 TWKR: We Give It The LN2 Treatment
Read - AMD Phenom II 42 TWKR Black Edition Processor
Read - AMD Phenom II TWKR Black Edition Processor

Continue reading Video: AMD's Phenom II X4 TWKR CPU for extreme overclocking lunatics

Firefox 3.5 arrives

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 30th 2009 at 11:45AM

After some rather impressive RC builds, Firefox 3.5 is all packaged up and ready for public consumption. Mozilla is saying its new browser is more than two times faster than Firefox 3, but what has us more excited is the support for plugin-free "open codec" video and audio playback using Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora-- it's still in its infancy, but the subtle glimpse we've seen so far of a world without Flash video reducing our CPU to jelly is rather compelling.

Sony now including "Green Dam" filtering software on PCs sold in China

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 29th 2009 at 8:21PM

Well, there was some evidence earlier this month that some piracy issues in China's mandated "Green Dam" content-filtering software could cause PC exports to the country to be stalled, but it looks like Sony has now gone ahead and included the software on its PCs regardless, albeit with a few major caveats. According to the document above (included with a VAIO PC sold in the country, and translated by RConversation's Rebecca MacKinnon), Sony says that it is including the software "in accordance with government requirements," but that it "cannot guarantee the authenticity, legality, or compatibility of the software's content, function, service or any other feature." It's also apparently only including the program on the hard drive and providing installation instructions, rather than providing it completely pre-installed itself. Still no word from any of the other major PC manufacturers, it seems, but you can be sure this won't be the last word on the matter.

[Via TG Daily]

Intel's 32nm Clarkdale CPUs moved up to Q4, a full year ahead of AMD?

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 29th 2009 at 6:20AM

It's just a rumor, but DigiTimes has pretty decent sources within Taiwan's motherboard industry. So what was a Q1 2010 mass production launch of Clarkdale CPUs is now rumored to be coming in Q4, notable as the first Intel CPU to use its new 32nm process technology with an integrated memory controller and graphics core built on a 45nm process. This jibes with what DailyTECH and others were reporting back in Feburary. DigiTimes adds that Intel expects Clarkdale CPUs to account for 10% of its total desktop CPU shipments in Q4 rising to 20% in Q1 2010. That means we should see the chips well before the holiday shopping season (near the October 22nd launch of Windows 7 makes sense) if true. As for AMD, well, last we heard they're still looking to "ramp up" production in the middle of 2010 with mass production capabilities arriving around Q4. Yeah, we know.

Read -- DigiTimes
Read -- DailyTECH

Acer poised to beat Dell, become number two PC maker

by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 28th 2009 at 11:03PM

Interesting piece in the New York Times today about Acer -- the company is about to ride the tidal wave of netbooks and other el-cheapo computers straight to the number two spot on the PC sales chart. That's a big deal -- no non-US company has ever made it so high -- and it's interesting that the strategies Acer took to get there are the same things Dell's been trying to do lately: it's heavy on low-cost, stylish laptops and netbooks, it keeps inventory extremely lean, and it relies on an extensive set of retail partnerships in Europe. What's more, the Aspire One has been the best-selling netbook for a while now, and we'd say Acer's way out in front of the CULV thin-and-light race with the Timeline -- in fact, we'd say the only open question here is whether the company can take all this computing success and translate it to something worthwhile in the smartphone space. Based on what we've seen so far, we've got our doubts, but we'll see what those super-secret Android sets look like before we place our bets.

Acer introduces Aspire M5800 and M3800 desktops, H235H display

by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 28th 2009 at 5:11PM

Acer's been on a tear with the new gear lately, and while we're not going to say we're as hot for the new Aspire M5800 tower as we are for, say, the Timeline, it's still a pretty nice little machine -- you're looking at a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad with 8GB of RAM, 1.5GB GeForce GT230 graphics, a 740GB drive and HDMI out for $800. Not bad at all. Little brothers Aspire M3800 and X3810 are far less interesting, with a 2.5GHz Pentium and integrated X4500 graphics for $450 in a tower or $529 in a low-profile case. Not exactly mindblowing, but you've still got HDMI out, so they could make for reasonably cheap HTPCs if you don't need much more than Flash support. Acer's also got a new display out, the 23-inch H235H, which offers 1080p resolution, 2ms response time, a 160-degree viewing angle, and 100,000:1 contrast ratio for $239.