Posts in PC & Peripherals
LG drives slip in Blu-ray and HD-DVD
Darius Chang | Jan 09, 2007
Soon after announcing its hybrid Blu-ray and HD-DVD player for the living room, the Korean chaebol raises the bar with a similar optical drive for desktops.
At CES 2007, LG launched the GGW-H10N optical storage device which is compatible with both competing standards, thereby allaying consumer consumers should either format become obsolete in the future. The limitation, however, is the drive can read only HD-DVD discs. On the flip side, the GGW-H10N can store up to 50GB of data, equivalent to 4.5 hours of high-definition video or 22 hours of standard-definition movie on a dual-layer Blu-ray medium.
The LG GGW-H10N should be out in Q1 2007 with a retail price of US$1,200.
Linksys announces a draft-N router for gamers
Darius Chang | Jan 08, 2007
Gamers rejoice. LAN parties will never be the same again as Linksys draft-N router offers higher bandwidth for your online killing and pillaging.
The Linksys WRT330N gaming router offers four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and one Gigabeat Ethernet WAN port in addition to its wireless service. To ensure smoother online play, the router is based on the Quality of Service (Qos) implementation which prioritizes gaming packets.
But would draft-N machines get shown the door once the N standard has been formalized? According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the final N specifications can be implemented on current draft-N devices with a simple upgrade. The WRT330N gaming router has a retail price of around US$200.
HP TouchSmart PC
Darius Chang | Jan 08, 2007
The HP TouchSmart PC is a widescreen giant that aims to take over your living room as an all-in-one entertainment machine.
Running an AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core TL-52 processor and Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card, this PC offers the best that Windows Vista Premium edition has to offer. Though it comes with wireless keyboard and mouse, you can quickly scribble a note or navigate the menu with a stroke of the stylus. Unfortunately, it decided to integrate a normal DVD writer instead of a next-generation optical drive. Other notable features are the 1.3-megapixel camera and HDTV tuner card.
It is set to launch on January 30 in the US with a recommended retail price of US$1,799.
Click here for a larger image
Big or small, Sony has it all
Darius Chang | Jan 08, 2007
DVDs are so yesterday's news. Sony is gearing for the future with a skew of desktops that ride on the high-definition video wave.
At CES 2007, the Japanese giant announced the VAIO XL3, VAIO RM HD Video Editing system and the petite VAIO TP1. Each of these desktops fits into distinct niches and provides varying capabilities for the demands of HD-quality movies.
The US$3,300 VAIO XL3 is designed to meld with the living room decor. Comprising a Blu-ray DVD burner, CableCard support for digital cable reception and Windows Vista Home Premium, this VAIO should have no issues delivering the latest Blu-ray titles to your large-screen TV. An Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, and a GeForce 7600 GTL graphics card with an HDMI output imply a competent gaming machine as well.
If homemade videos are your thing, the high-end VAIO RM HD Video Editing system, which comes with a US$3,500 price tag, juices up performance with a Core 2 Duo processor, Blu-ray optical drive, 1TB of hard drive storage, a USB jog dial input device for sliding frames around on the Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 editing software as well as Windows Vista Business edition.
The baby of the group, the VAIO TP1, has a unique cylindrical chassis and looks nothing like a typical desktop. Priced at US$1,600, it does not incorporate the latest Blu-ray optical drive, instead opting for a cheaper DVD writer. It does, however, have a Core 2 Duo processor, 300GB hard drive, a TV tuner card and HDMI output for clear delivery of movies to your display.
Images: VAIO XL3 | VAIO RM HD Video Editing system | VAIO TP1
Desktop harddisk hits the terabyte mark
Darius Chang | Jan 08, 2007
You can never have enough money or storage memory. Though we can't help with your bank book, Hitachi has the answer to the latter.
At CES 2007, the harddisk manufacturer officially announced its 1TB Deskstar 7K1000 drive with a retail price of US$399 (S$614.24). With this much storage capacity, Hitachi claims this allows you to keep 330,000 3MB photos or 250,000 MP3s. For those who dabble in high-definition video editing, 1TB lets you hold approximately 250 hours of HD movies. Its competitor Seagate is expected to roll out its own 1TB drive some time in the first half of 2007.
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