Earlier today we’ve noticed that the Apple website is now offering the Mac Pro computers with 8 core or quad core Intel processors.

Apple customers can now chose an eight core system with two quad core “Clovertown” Xeon processors clocked at 3.0 GHz or an 4 core system with two dual core Xeon processors. As good as this may sound the performance gain of the new Mac Pro comes at a cost. And for $2,499.00 you can buy the Apple recommended system:

• Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors
• 1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
• 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive
• 16x double-layer SuperDriveHowever

However you can add up to 3 TB of storage, 16 GB of RAM, as well as a 30″ LCD screen. But the price for such an Mac Pro will easily pass the $10,000 and depending on some of the extra features it can even exceed the $15,000.

Special designed gaming gear is the new cool in computer accessories, from laser mouses to specially designed keyboards the new trend is turning into an industry and manufacturers are trying to attract the professional gamers for advertising purposes. This is the situation for the Fatal1ty line of computer accessories from Creative. If you don’t already know, Fatal1ty is one of the most renowned gamers in the whole world as it has won an impressive amount of prizes (and money) by competing in a wide variety of games.

However, even if I agree that special keyboards and mouses help, I don’t think gamers have a really big advantage from using the new headset. Yes the sound quality is better, and there is a microphone for team communications, but sound is not as important as speed and regular headsets provide fine enough sound quality.

However if you are interested in finding out more details about the device be sure to check the product’s webpage at Creative.

Probably everybody knows by now that Commodore, one of the pioneering companies in computing is relaunching its brand
and will present its hardware to customers. I wanted to talk to you on one of its next products, the Commodore xx line of high power computers and I will present you the advertised specifications.

As they are based on the latest Intel Quad core processors (basically 4 CPUsCPUs on the same die) the new computers have under the hood the maximum available computing power for desktops. After the CPU, probably the second most important component is the RAM, and the Commodore xx reaches 4 GB off DDR2 using two modules (2 GB each) of CorsDominator Dominator 2xTwin2×2048-8500C5D modules running at 1066 MHz.

For the best video quality two NVIDIA 8800 GTX graphic cards with 768 MB of dedicated memory are linked together using SLI and extreme audio quality is delivered using the SoundBlasterSoundBlasterXtremeFi X-Fi Xtremed writing optic disks.

The new products are expected to ship starting this April and according to Commodore’s website the specifications are customizable so prices aren’t yet specified but they will certainly won’t be cheap.

It’ s a pretty well known fact that when it comes to processors you want them kept as cool as possible. But with the increase in computing power, the power consumption and therefore the dissipated heat are becoming a real challenge for cooler manufacturers.

Last week Asus has presented one of its solutions to this problem with the Arctic Square cooler. Designed to remove the heat out of even the newest quad core processors (4 cores on the same die), the new model has the base and fins made out of copper (better, but pricier than aluminum). The heat transfer from the warm bottom to the cooler top is boosted with a 4 heat pipes system. For effective air flow control Asus used a 90 mm blue led fan which makes both the processor and the looks cool.

[For more details visit Asus]

Last week Intel announced its own SSD (solid state drive) based on NAND flash memory with the Intel Z-U130 Value Solid-State Drive family to compete with similar products. As the cost for NAND memory is rapidly going down the future belongs to this kind of hard drives as they offer both higher data speeds with considerably lower power requirements.

Intel’s product will deliver read speeds of 28 MB/s (megabytes per second) and write speeds of 20 MB/s leading to better performance due to lower access time for files on the hard drive. Another advantage Intel Z-U130 has over the competition is the MTBF (mean time between failure), meaning the average time a hard drive will end working which is supposed to be around 5 million hours.

Available in 4 flavors (1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB) the Intel Z-U130 has no release date yet and no price has been communicated by Intel either.

AsusAsus just launched a new series of sexy slim computer chassis to complete its previous products available on the market.

If several years ago the only thing you would search in a computer chassis was good looks. Times have changed as the power consumption has grown for bCPU’sCPU’sGPU’sGPU’sf the chassis.

Based on the mATX design, the slim (140 x 360 x 410 mm) TS-8 includes drives for two optical drives, a 3.5″ drive, two hard drives and four expansion cards. All the products in the line feature a 250W power supply, two front USB ports and two front audio connecmATX each.

In early January we have announced the 1 TB (tera-byte) hard disk showcased by Hitachi. Well that product is now available for shipment. In a press release Dell and Alienware announce that the Hitachi hard drive can be included in selected XPS, Aurora and Area 51 computers starting today.

If you don’t realize how much storage the new product can achieve, Dell estimated that a single hard drive can accommodate “a million photos, 16 days of DVD quality video or even a million minutes of music”.

The price for the new hard drive probably depends on the selected system, but we don’t expect it to vary to much from what Hitachi presented in January for the Deskstar 7K1000 ($399). Anyway, additional details can be also found on www.dell.com/XPS and www.alienware.com/desktops.

This small 95.5 x 29.5 x 12mm, 30 g device can help you set up a TV station on your computer as it needs just an USB port to connect to. Using the compact My Joy DT1 you can receive Digital Terrestrial TV and Radio channels directly on the screen of your desktop or laptop computer with minimum effort.

Aside from watching, this device can also be used for video recording so it is a perfect choice for saving your favorite TV shows on the computer’s hard drive. The time shifting functions might prove useful when you can’t get home in time to see the beginning of a program by set ting up the software to start recording at the appropriate hour and you can start watching that show even while still recording. But, the real nice thing about this device is that it also comes with a remote controller making all the important functions available at the tips of your fingers.

However, before buying the My Joy USB 2.0 DT1 product you might want to check if your system meets the necessary minimum requirements:

• Pentium4 or Athlon XP 1.6GHz or above
• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP
• DirectX 9.0-Compliant Graphic Card
• One USB 2.0 Port

Apparently the computer maker is giving into people’s pressure just like with the introduction of AMD based products. Dell recently announced it will start shipping desktops and notebooks with pre-installed Linux on them and consumers are the only ones to blame.

Last week Dell did set-up two websites (www.dellideastorm.com and www.studiodell.com) to get the consumers opinions and suggestions on their products and apparently the number one request was clearly for Linux products. For the time being Dell is only working with Novell, the company behind the SUSE distribution, but, as many distribution have been requested, they intend on letting the users decide what Linux flavor will be installed on their desktop or notebook.

Other open source solutions were also requested to be pre-installed on computers, like the Firefox web browser or the Open Office suite and Dell is looking into that too. However, the company stills recommends Windows to their consumers and this might take years to change.

Glaser is the name under which A4Tech chose to present a new technology that is supposed to make optical mouses competitive on glass surfaces. The product will not only work on normal surfaces but on shinny and even transparent ones too due to the dual focus technology for which A4Tech has a pending patent.

As this new technology is not available on just a single mouse you have a lot of models from which you can choose a design that you like. And if you are a lazy boy, A4Tech also included in the models available a double click button which generates a double action from a single press on this button.

If you are interested in the products from this series you can visit this webpage and select your favorite.