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Latest
News |
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We are back up and
running once more and our thanks to all
that have
contributed in
one way or the other in getting the new site
into place.
Since we closed down the 3D Professor
dot Com website and started afresh with
this new site, we did ask our viewers to
mail requesting the old review they
wanted to see. Many, many
requests have come forth for us to show
the old reviews online what we have
completed in the past on the Quadro's
and FireGL to name but a few.
Therefore to appease our faithful
following within the High-End community
have chosen a few of the most popular
reviews completed here and uploaded them
onto the site over on the
"OLD
REVIEWS" page so that you all may
draw direct comparisons when the new
Quadro's, FireGL cards ETC when they finally
arrive. |
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18th Dec 2009 |
Todays growing market storage demands
are high and for this reason simplicity
is key. Powered by
industry leading storage applications
Supermicro are able to offer the
flexibility of having iSCSI and NAS via
a range of solutions.
Therefore in this rare look at
the Supermicro Storage solution the
SSS-2120-ID-OE (aka The Goliath) we
found some very interesting results in
which everyone can fully understand.
For more information please click here. |
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2nd Dec 2009 |
A month has passed and it's been a
very busy one. Today sees our outing on
the acclaimed
OCZ
Vertex Series SATA II 2.5" SSD.
Now, we have seen many of these items
pass through here and some good others
not so. The Vertex, well this has most
certainly caught our eye with its utter
raw performance.
Just how fast you might ask, well read
on and be prepared for some very
interesting facts and figures. For
the full article please click here. |
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3rd Nov 09 |
WD®
ENTERS TRADITIONAL ENTERPRISE HDD MARKET
WITH FIRST SAS PRODUCT.
The WD S25 delivers ultra-high
performance with its 3 Gb/s and 6 Gb/s
SAS interfaces and a sustained
sequential data rate of 128 MB/sec. In
addition to all the speed required to
service any enterprise need, the WD S25
also provides a 1.6 M hour MTBF rating.
More
here
and
here
Therefore we are fully fitted out here
with a 6 Gb/s SAS 2.0 interface Raid
card, bring on the bad boys please. |
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23rd Oct 2009 |
Supermicro has for the last 6 months
pushed to market
"an
extensive selection of mainboards and
solutions".
Today we
look at one of their high-end mainboard
the X8DA3 with an onboard LSI Raid.
Tie this in with a pair of Intel Extreme
32GB Intel Enterprise SSD's configured
into Raid 0 and watch the results like
you have never seen before.
For the in depth look at how it
performed please click here. |
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15th Oct 2009 |
NVIDIA® Quadro FX1800
Grand successor of the Quadro FX1700,
what's under the hood, is it faster,
more CUDA™
Cores. A few of the
questions many will be asking.
Today sees out first proper look at this
mainstay bread and butter professional
graphics card for NVIDIA
So how did it really perform,
please click here just to find out that
little bit more. |
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1st Oct 2009 |
Following on from the great new outing
seen of the Lynnfield CPU, todays little
offering is that of
Intel's™
FoxHollow
Server,
Grosse
Point Server Mainboard
(S3420GPLX) and
Intel® Xeon® 3470 Processor.
But wait it does not stop there.
Introducing Western Digitals new
2TB RE4 7200RPM Drive. Is this the
winning formula that Small business so
desperately needs.
For the complete in depth look at all
please click here |
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9th
Sept 2009 |
Once
more we now see a significant change in
areas with Intel's new offerings from
the Nehalem family and enter the
Lynnfield variant.
Turbo
Boost settings of 3.6GHz. Three
new P55 mainboards to support the CPU's.
Choice for all in upgrading with a bang.
How did these new offerings from Intel
perform then please click here to see
what unfolded. |
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1st
Sept 2009 |
THE MOST ROBUST DESKTOP PRODUCT WD HAS
BUILT
WD
(NYSE: WDC) today announced that it
is now shipping desktop 2 TB 7200 RPM
hard drives and is qualifying with OEMs
enterprise-class hard drives based on
WD’s 500 gigabytes-per-platter
technology. The popular family of WD
Caviar Black drives, now led by the new
2 TB capacity, is perfect for gaming,
high-performance desktop systems and
workstations; while the WD RE4 2 TB is
suited for servers, network attached
storage and storage networks.
High-performance hard drives by an
industry leader in performance, WD
Caviar Black and WD RE4 2 TB drives
combine 7200 RPM spin speed, 64 MB
cache, dual stage actuator technology,
SATA 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s)
interface, and an integrated dual
processor to deliver ultimate
performance in a maximum-capacity drive.
“WD Caviar Black 2 TB hard drives
maximise the features and functionality
of power computing applications such as
gaming, photo editing, user generated
multimedia and video,” said Jim
Morris, senior vice president and
general manager of WD’s client storage
systems. “With the selection of
WD Caviar Black hard drives, WD desktop
customers receive the best possible mix
of capacity, performance and reliability
that is required for intense desktop
computing.”
“Specifically designed for
enterprise-class applications, WD’s
RE4-GP 2 TB drives incorporate the best
combination of features, optimum
performance, and superior reliability
that customers have come to expect from
WD,” said Tom McDorman, vice
president and general manager of
enterprise storage solutions for WD.
“Our enterprise products are directly
aimed at customers who require
additional features and extensive
testing that are necessary for high-end
enterprise environments.” |
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Introducing the Western Digital 2TB
Black 3 1/2" Hard Drive |
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WD Caviar Black drives combine a high
performance electronics architecture
with a rock solid mechanical
architecture to deliver the perfect
storage solution for your fully-loaded
PC or maxed out gaming machine. Cool
drive operation, no-touch head
technology, leading-edge vibration
protection ensure enhanced reliability.
And we back it all up with a 5-year
warranty.
Product Features
High Performance Electronics
Architecture
•
Dual processor
— Twice the processing power to maximize
performance.
•
Colossal cache
— Bigger, faster cache of up to 64 MB
means faster performance. |
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Rock Solid Mechanical Architecture
• Dual actuator technology
— A head positioning system with two
actuators that improves positional
accuracy over the data track(s). The
primary actuator provides coarse
displacement using conventional
electromagnetic actuator principles. The
secondary actuator uses a piezoelectric
motor to fine tune the head positioning
to a higher degree of accuracy. (2 TB
only) |
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•
StableTrac™
— The motor shaft is secured at both
ends to reduce system induced vibration
and stabilize platters for accurate
tracking, during read and write
operations. (750 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB
models only) |
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•
NoTouch™
ramp load technology
— The recording head never touches the
disk media ensuring significantly less
wear to the recording head and media, as
well as better drive protection in
transit.
Massive Capacity
— WD Caviar Black SATA drives are
available in capacities up to 2 TB.
Compatible
— We perform tests on hundreds of
systems and a multitude of platforms in
our FIT Lab™ and Mobile Compatibility
Lab to give our customers confidence
that our drives will work in their
systems.
5-year limited warranty |
|
A huge
amount of data has arrived, so for now a
brief introduction above. A more
detailed look is to follow over the next
few days. Though we have to add,
the 1TB Black was awesome, just how much
faster is the 2TB Black, we will have to
wait and see. Though for now
the inert feeling is FAST.
To read up on Western Digitals new
drive, pop over to their website and
gather a few more details.
Price and
Availability
The WD Caviar Black 2 TB
GB (model
WD2001FASS)
hard drives are available through select
distributors and resellers.
Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price
(MSRP) for the WD Caviar Black 2 TB
drive is £232.00. The WD RE4 2 TB (model
WD2003FYYS)
drive is currently being qualified by
OEMs. Both drives are covered by a
five-year limited warranty.
More information
about WD Caviar Black 2 TB desktop hard
drives may be found on the company's Web
site at
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=733
and the WD RE4 2 TB enterprise hard
drives at
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=732
Yes the
clocks a ticking and this will be good. |
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12th
Aug 2009 |
Every now
and again something really good sneaks
into the test labs here and today is no
different.
Into the limelight
and stopping the show is Intel's new
offering the
WX58BP
(Banroof Point) supporting the
Intel® Xeon® Processor 3500
series and, for the impatient a
maximum of 16GB of 1333MHz ECC memory.
Therefore we have on paper another
mainboard that just could fulfill the
requirements of the bold who construct
these masterpieces so many take for
granted.
For the complete look into this new
workstation mainboard featuring its
first entry to the world wide web and in
conjunction with the first ever showing
of ATI's new FirePro V7750 professional
graphics card. How did they all
perform together. Then click here
to find out and be somewhat taken by
surprise. |
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28th
July 09 |
Its
been a few weeks since our last outing
when we exclusively revealed Boston
Limited's Venom System.
Today and in our usual fashion, once
more two exclusives.
First out the door and this will catch
many analysts and the likes completely
off guard we showcase ATI's new
CrossFire Pro™
Technology. Yes the power of Two
and the Choice of many. What does
it all mean. Has life in the fast
lane just got faster?
Well for a complete breakdown of our
article then please see here. |
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Our
second exclusive of the day sees the
announcement of the new
ATI FirePro V8750.
2GB of DDR5, 115GB/s bandwidth, and at a
snip of the cost.
How does this little rascal perform,
then please click here to discover. |
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23rd
June 09 |
Boston Limited
announce Venom F1000-4 HPC Solution
1U
compute platform
optimised
with 4 AMD FireStream™ compute
accelerators
HAMBURG, Germany, June 23 2009 -- Boston
Limited launch and showcase their highly
optimised CPU & GPU compute solution
based around AMD’s next generation
FireStream GPU technologies in
conjunction with one of the SS6016XT
series servers from Super Micro
Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI).
Unveiled at ISC’09 (International
Supercomputing Conference), Boston’s
Venom F1000-4 system features four AMD
FireStream 9250 compute accelerators
offering up to 4 TERAFLOPs of
computational power. With each card
operating at less than 120W and all
fitted in a 1U form factor, the Boston
Venom F1000-4 displays incredible
performance per watt in a remarkable
density.
In addition to four AMD FireStream
9250 cards, the 1U Venom still has one
card slot free allowing professional
users to add a high performance network
card such as an Infiniband controller or
10Gb Ethernet card. The solution already
hosts system management as standard via
on-board IPMI 2.0 with additional KVM
Over LAN. Further expansion options are
provided via three hot-swap hard drive
bays, Dual GbE controllers and a slim
DVD. The whole system is driven by a 93%
efficient 1400W power supply, which has
attained the highly coveted Gold Level
rating.
“Our 6016XT SuperServers feature four
full-height, full-length PCI-Express x16
slots and one low-profile slot to
support up to five PCI-Express 2.0
add-on cards," said Dev Tyagi,
General Manager of Supermicro UK.
"With highly reliable thermal
optimization monitoring and control, and
industry-leading power efficiency,
Supermicro has developed the world’s
most optimized GPU-based server
platforms for the HPC community."
Boston’s implementation features 4 AMD FireStream 9250 GPUs with
each GPU capable of providing up to a
staggering 1 TeraFLOP of performance and
more than 200 gigaflops raw double
precision performance. “It is ideal
for the most demanding compute-intensive
and data-parallel tasks,” said
Manoj Nayee, Managing Director of Boston
Limited. “The F1000 is an ideal
and highly power efficient solution
suitable for various industry segments
including financial analytics, seismic
analysis, life sciences and computer
aided engineering”.
“By taking advantage of AMD’s
leadership in performance per watt
Stream computing, and the phenomenal
compute power of 800 Stream Processors
per AMD FireStream 9250 card, Boston
have engineered an excellent 1U solution
with 4-Teraflop performance” said
Robert Jamieson, EMEA Marketing Manager
Workstation Graphics.
Boston’s CPU / GPU offerings span a
range of 1U, 2U, and 4U configurations
providing customers with a range of
optimized and affordable choices.
About Boston Limited
Founded in 1992 Boston Limited has built
up an exceptional reputation within the
IT trade by supplying the latest in high
performance technology backed up by
unrivalled in-house pre and post sales
technical expertise. Boston Ltd prides
itself in the meticulous engineering of
cutting edge Supermicro based server,
workstation and storage solutions that
are offered with Climate Neutral and
Worldwide Warranty support options. For
further details visit
www.boston.co.uk or e-mail
sales@boston.co.uk. |
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16th
June 2009 |
Eight months down the
line we now see the dawning of time and a new
revolution of a speed step faster with the new i7
975 processor bringing a new fabled speed of
3.33GHz.However, within the professional
benchmarking community we are tied to stock speeds.
With this in mind, just how much performance is to
be gained from this magnificent new CPU from Intel.
Please click here for the complete article |
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8th
June 2009 |
It has been a while since a unit has
come in to us directly from distribution for review. Therefore with the advent of AMD's
new 6 Core Opteron was presented to us in a
completed bundle by Boston it did save us a huge
amount of time with build and initial burn in tests.
The sleek Supermicro black chassis supporting the
Supermicro H8DAI mainboard
based upon NVIDIA's MCP 55 Chipset
certainly has the bundled storage
abilities and upgrade paths which will
keep most end users happy for a long
time to come.
Did the Venom from this beast have the required
toxin to maintain our attention.
Please click here for the complete article. |
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31st May 2009 |
*Exclusive Interview*
with
Mr.
Charles Liang C.E.O. and Co-Founder of Supermicro
As many know
the boss from here travels the world extensively on
business, talking to many when he can. On a
recent trip he sat down
in
direct face to face interview with Mr. Charles Liang
the C.E.O. and Co-Founder of Supermicro. Our
relationship here with Supermicro goes back now some
12 years, therefore a huge degree of trust with the
company has been built. Therefore from this
interview what came out? There are many
interesting points within the interview that give
you the reader a very good idea of what to expect
soon as the clues are there.
For
the complete detailed account of the visit and
interview please click here. |
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21st
May 09 |
Golden
Era for Supermicro Green Storage Solutions
Gold Level (93%+ efficiency*)
1200-watt Redundant Power Supplies
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 21, 2009
- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a
leader in application-optimized, high-performance
server solutions, today announced that its latest
generation of enhanced, high-capacity storage
chassis with Gold Level certified 1200-watt
redundant power supplies are shipping in volume.
These chassis feature Supermicro's advanced cooling
subsystem designs to deliver optimal system
efficiency and TCO by reducing customers' energy
bills.
More information can be found on our
Press Release page
or directly from
Supermicro's
website here
http://www.supermicro.com/newsroom/pressreleases/2009/press052109.cfm |
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14th
May 09 |
Supermicro
Creates Dual GPU, 1U Server Architecture
World's Fastest Non-Blocking PCI-E Gen2 GPU Product
Line to be Unveiled
SAN JOSE, Calif.,
May 13, 2009 -
Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a leader
in application-optimized, high performance server
solutions, announced today that it has designed a
new, non-blocking architecture for 1U multi-GPU
(graphics processing unit) systems. Supermicro is
rolling out an entire family of GPU systems,
starting with a 1U server that integrates two
enterprise-class GPUs as well as 2U/4-GPU and
4U/4-GPU models. Strategic customer sampling is
beginning now with production expected in early
June.
"To address the requirements for this emerging
high-performance, highly-parallel computing segment,
Supermicro has developed the world's first truly
optimized GPU servers,"
said Charles Liang, CEO and
President of Supermicro.
"Advancements such as multiple x16 non-blocking
native Gen2 PCI-Express connectivity, highly
reliable thermal optimization, and industry-leading
power efficiency establish Supermicro as a global IT
hardware leader in architecture, performance and
green computing. These platforms feature new Gold
level (93% efficiency) power subsystems and deliver
breakthrough performance-per-watt."
This new family of highly parallel, multi-core,
multi-GPU systems is an exceptional choice for a
wide range of graphics and computationally intensive
applications in fields like medical imaging, oil and
gas exploration, quantum chemistry, financial
simulation, 3D ultrasound and astrophysics. In
general, these system are expected to make the
fastest teraflop clusters much more affordable and
accessible for researchers throughout the world. |
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13th May 2009 |
January saw the launch of Western Digitals 2TB GP
Drive. Keeping up the pace within the industry
they quickly launched their 2TB Enterprise drive a
few weeks back. Today we have a good
look at the drive as a Single Disc and within Raid 1
which is one of the main configurations enterprise
drives of this nature would be found.
How
did it perform,
then click here to be amazed. |
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15th
Apr 2009 |
Two weeks ago we
had a swift look into NVIDIA'S new offering of the
Quadro® FX3800 and promised you an exclusive very
soon. The dawning of time arrived and today we
look into what this little rascal can actual do.
Is it fast and does it perform.
To find out all these answers and more please click
here to see what we have unleashed. |
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SPEC delivers blade server power-performance metric
SPEC introduces new capabilities with
SPECpower_ssj2008 V1.10
More information
please see our press release section |
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9th Apr
09 |
Less than 10 days
ago we caught you all completely unawares with our
mighty launch below of Intel's new Nehalem-EP et al.
Today we follow up very swiftly with a new addition
to the pack, Supermicro's offering of the X8DAi
Workstation mainboard based upon the Tylersburg
chipset. How fast is fast, then take a good
look at just what has been achieved, if you thought
our last outing below was fast - then meet faster
still.
On a foot note, what is next - then be fully
prepared to be completely blown away.
For our full in
depth report of this professional workstation
mainboard
please click here and be prepared........ |
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30th
Mar 09 |
The dawning of time
is now upon us, its a new evolutionary beginning and
the long awaited new era of Workstation Xeon's,
Workstation Platforms and Servers from Intel have
finally arrived. The shattering Intel® Nehalem-EP
Processor. Much anticipation of this new arrival has
been awed at the briefings those of you that have
attended behind the closed doors.
Please remember to check out the exclusive bonus
pages at the end of both the new offerings from both
ATI's FirePro V7750
and the
NVIDIA Quadro FX3800
How has the Intel® Nehalem-EP Processor performed
within the professional graphic's arena,
please
click here to see what we uncovered. |
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30th
Mar 09 |
NVIDIA Quadro FX3800
Its been a long time in coming but the dawning of
time is upon us. Banging right out the starters
gate today we have a brief preview on The NVIDIA
Quadro FX 3800.
More information please click here |
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10th
Mar 09 |
Q & A with Janet Matsuda, Senior Director
Professional Graphics
AMD (ATI) |
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17th
Feb
09 |
Having
already investigated
Supermicro's X8SAX Workstation
mainboard today we turn our attention to
their new C7X58 Multimedia i7 Variant.
A bold move into this heavily populated
market, though with the engineering
skills to hand this should be an amazing
first outing.
How did it fair;
please click here to read our in depth
report. |
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7th Jan
09 |
Last year
we saw the first outing of Western
Digitals
Caviar® Green™
1TB Hard
Disc. A complete year has
passed and we see these discs being used
in many different solutions. Today
we move up a gear and behold the 2TB
version of the
Caviar®
Green™
hits the fore of modern technology.
How does this huge beast perform has to
be one of the few questions sitting on
many lips.
How did it
perform, click here for our exclusive
outing to see
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7th Jan
09 |
mATX
Mainboards most certainly have their
places within the professional
community, especially those who are
pushed for space. A new
solution hot of the press from MSI may
just be another added bonus to SI's and
OEM's alike.
Experience HD playback via onboard
DisplayPort with
MSI G41M-FIDP motherboard
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Today MSI announces its
first motherboard with
onboard DisplayPort. MSI
G41M-FIDP is based on Intel
G41 Express chipset with GMA
X4500 graphics and Clear
Video Technology. It
provides smooth HD playback,
supporting the DisplayPort
or DVI output with 7.1
channel HD audio. MSI G41M
series is also equipped with
Firewire and DVI ports.
Unlike some other boards,
MSI G41M-FIDP’s PCI express
x16 VGA runs at ‘true’ x16
speed, to fully benefit the
available bandwidth.
The first with DisplayPort
MSI G41M-FIDP is the
first motherboard with
onboard DisplayPort digital
output. DisplayPort is the
next generation digital
output which is optimized
for the personal computer.
It delivers twice the
performance compared to DVI.
Users can easily convert its
output with a dongle to HDMI
or DVI. It also supports
HDCP and is compatible with
all video outputs. “MSI
G41M-FIDP is the best
solution for end-user’s
everyday HD content
computing.” says Jason
Lee, Desktop Marketing
Manager of MSI.
Intel GMA X4500 graphics
MSI G41M-FIDP motherboard
with onboard Intel GMA X4500
graphics supports HD Video.
Compared to previous
generation Intel graphics,
MSI G41M-FIDP with GMA X4500
graphics offers smooth and
more detailed HD playback on
video. It also offers more
efficient 3D graphics for
casual gaming with DX10
support. With the hardware
decoding acceleration in
X4500, MSI G41M-FIDP enables
users to play a Blu-ray
movie with lower CPU
utilization.
Product SKU’s
There are several product
SKU’s in the MSI G41M
series:
We hope to see one here
pretty soon, so watch these
spaces...... |
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29th
Dec 08 |
Professional Graphic 64 Bit tests on
Supermicro's X8SAX have been completed.
More information please see here |
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11th Dec 08 |
X58 chipset and i7 CPU's which have
caused an almighty storm within all
walks of life. The
professional community biting hard at
the bit waiting patiently for the Dual
variant to come forth - well that's not
too far around the corner now least we
thinks. We knew up on the
horizon that Supermicro had something
very interesting coming forth with its
X8SAX variant of the X58.
Therefore for those wishing to take that
upgrade path now embracing the complete
advantage of Intel's new offering of the
i7 and X58. Look no further.
Here is the
gold standard.
For a complete look at this article
please click here or on the URL above |
|
3rd Dec 08 |
Take 3
state of the art systems. Add into
the mix one new NVIDIA Quadro®
FX4800
bulging in with 1.5GB of memory and a
very cleverly clocked GPU and DDR3
memory. Most importantly
supporting the new 55nm core process or
for some the GT200GL supporting some
1.4Billion transistors, so this should
in actual theory see some massive
improvements upon it predecessor the
Quadro® FX4600 with the clever
implementation of it's 192 CUDA
processing cores.
Give it all a good mix about on the 3
Test Systems and yes, The Lean Green
Fighting Machine - Its Back. Click on
the URL for our full review and results |
|
17th
Nov 08 |
Supermicro's new
SUPER X8SAX X58 High Performance
Workstation Mainboard is about to
land tomorrow. A sneak look at
some of the mainboards features and of
course a picture. |
|
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-
Intel®
Core™ i7 Processor
-
Intel®
X58 and ICH10R
-
Integrated Memory Controller Hub
-
24GB
of DDR3 ECC or non-ECC UNB at
1333/1066/800 MHz
-
2
PCI-E 2.0 X16, 1 X4 in X8 Slot
-
2
PCI-X 133/100 Slots
-
1
32-bit PCI Slot
-
6 SATA
ports with Raid 0, 1, 5 and 10
Configurations
-
12 USB
2.0 (8 in Rear)
-
Onboard HD 7.1 Audio
-
2
Intel 82574L G/Bit LAN controllers
-
2 IEEE
1394a headers
-
ATX
Format 12" X 10"
|
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 |
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A full review on the board will be
completed very soon with some
interesting components, so watch these
spaces for more information. |
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3rd Nov
08 |
Intel's i7 965EE Has Landed with ATI's
FirePro V8700. For
months now the internet has been abuzz
with what Intel's new i7 CPU has to
bring. Turbo Boost and Triple
Channel Memory to name but a few.
The list is endless, but what's the true
actual performance really like.
Amazing is the word that springs to
mind. But to make this a little
more different we see today also the
exclusive first look at ATI's Ultra High
End Professional Card the FirePro V8700.
Together the two items combined have
made here the fastest stock single
socket Workstation about.
How did they perform together,
well read here for our exclusive first
looks. |
|
14th
Oct 08 |
LSI's
MegaRAID SAS 8888ELP Card. The
debate on is Raid 1 better and faster
than a single drive.
For more information
please click here and watch those
numbers unfold like you have never would
imagined. |
|
5th
Sept 08 |
*Exclusive*
Intel®
80GB
X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive
Review.
Whilst everyone was away at the last IDF,
we had time to sit down and properly
look at Intel's latest offering which
had the IDF
audiences
in whow at just how fast the new 80GB
SSD from Intel was.
For a complete look at this please click
here or on the URL above;
Intel®
80GB
X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive |
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