Todays & Tomorrows Technology

Reminding us of Thermaltake’s monster Level 10 PC case, this is actually the Edelweiss PC, the handiwork of Pius Geiger and in fact initially constructed all the way back in 2006. Updated this year with a crisp new white color-scheme, the water-cooled Edelweiss separates out drives, graphics and power-supply, and then illuminates them with a discrete but effective lighting system.
Full hardware specifications of the PC are unknown, but the Edelweiss PC does have a FATAL1TY motherboard, dual graphics cards and a DVD burner. We’re assuming that along with the color update, Pius also slotted in some more impressive hardware to take advantage of the heavy-duty watercooling system, too.

Add in the excellent cable-routing, and you’ve got a mind-blowing case mod. No word on how much all this cost, nor how long it took, but we’re guessing the answer to those questions are something like “a lot” and “a long time”.

NVIDIA will be releasing a netbook that sports the Tegra chip by the end of the year the company confirmed today. This will be the first time the chip has been used in anything other than the Zune HD player.

The Tegra chip sports a 720p resolution for HD video while maintaining low energy usage at 150mW. The prototype is being shown of the netbook that was built by Mobinnova, featuring an 8.9-inch screen.

Other suspected specs include a webcam, Wi-Fi, 3G and Windows CE. However, NVIDIA made a point of noting Android may be used. The pricing is expected to be the equivalent of $244 on Black Friday this year.

Microsoft have announced official pricing for Windows 7, their next-gen OS which will arrive on October 22nd. Both upgrade and full prices have been revealed, the latter being $199.99 for Windows 7 Home Premium, $299.99 for Windows 7 Professional, and $319.99 for Windows 7 Ultimate.

Those upgrading from Windows XP or Vista will pay slightly less: the Home Premium upgrade is $119.99, the Professional upgrade is $199.99, and the Ultimate upgrade is $219.99. From Thursday June 26th, Microsoft will be offering cut-price pre-orders to those in the US, Canada and Japan, where buyers will be able to get the Home Premium upgrade for $49.99 and the Professional upgrade for $99.99. Similar deals will start from July 15th in the UK, France and Germany. However availability at these discounted prices is limited, though Microsoft are keeping quiet as to how many licenses they’ve set aside.

As HP have already announced, there’ll also be a Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program, which will begin on June 26th. Participating retailers and OEMs will be offering free (or reduced cost) upgrades to Windows 7 for machines bought between the 26th and October 22nd.

HP have announced a new range of consumer desktop PCs, together with an update to their MediaSmart Server software for TouchSmart PCs. Slimline, Pavilion and Elite desktops have all been announced, together with a new Compaq Presario desktop. In addition, HP have announced that select consumer PCs bought from today onwards will be eligible for their Windows 7 Upgrade Program.
Both AMD and Intel processors are available across the ranges, and Blu-ray is also an option on some models. The Pavilion Slimline kicks off with an AMD Athlon single-core LE1660 CPU, 2GB of RAM and 320GB hard-drive, climbing to a Pentium dual-core CPU, twice the RAM and a 500GB drive. As for the Pavilion, that kicks off with an AMD Sempron LE1300, while the Pavilion Elite starts with a dual-core AMD Phenom II X2 and rises all the way to an Intel Core i7-920 with 6GB of DDR3 RAM, 750GB storage and a 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4650 graphics card. Finally the Presario machine has an Athlon X2 dual-core CPU, 3GB or RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE graphics.

The HP Pavilion Slimline s500 series begins at $289, while the Pavilion p6000 series starts at $269. Meanwhile the Pavilion Elite e9000 starts at $599 and the Compaq Presario CQ5000 is $379.

Gateway have rolled out two new small-form-factor (SFF) desktop PC ranges, its SX Series and DX Series, offering a choice of AMD or Intel processors, HDMI connectivity and compact desk footprints. The first SX model is the Gateway SX2800-01, a Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz desktop with integrated GMA X4500 graphics, 4GB of DDR memory, 640GB hard-drive and a DVD burner.
Meanwhile the two first DX Series models are the DX3400-03 and the DX4820-02. The former has an AMD Phenom X4 9750 2.4GHz processor with 8GB of DDR2 RAM, a 1TB hard-drive, ATI Radeon HD 4650 graphics (with 1GB of memory) and integrated WiFi b/g. The later uses Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz processor, with 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 750GB hard-drive, and NVIDIA GeForce G210 graphics (with 512MB of memory).

All three systems have gigabit ethernet, a multiformat card reader, at least eight USB ports, VGA or DVI as well as HDMI outputs, and HD audio support. The two Intel-based systems also have Firewire and eSATA ports, while the AMD-based DX model has an integrated TV tuner. Gateway are also hawking their FHD monitor series, the 21.5-inch FHD2101 and 24-inch FHD2402, which both support 1920 x 1080 Full-HD resolution.

The new PCs will be available in the last week of June, priced at $499.99 for the SX2800-01, $749.99 for the DX4300-03, and $899.99 for the DX4820-02 (which also comes with a 23-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD monitor). The FHD2101 LCD display is $199.99 while the FHD2402 is $269.99; both are available now.

Marvell’s SheevaPlug wall-wart Linux PC has finally come of age, with the company announcing mainstream retail partners including Buffalo, D-Link, LaCie and Seagate, together with beginning distribution of the Plug Computer development kit in Europe. The original SheevaPlug has a Marvell Kirkwood processor with a 1.2GHz Sheeva processor, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of flash storage; resembling a wall-wart, it plugs directly into a power socket and offers a single USB 2.0 port and a gigabit ethernet port. Suggested uses included a home server, NAS or other form of network-connected device.

Various companies have partnered with Marvell to offer Plug Computers in multiple form-factors. These range from Axentra, who have a new touch*mediacenter mini designed to store and share digital content, Eyecon Technologies, who are positioning their version as a multi-source UPnP/DLNA aggregator, and CodeLathe, whose TonidoPlug is a home server offering local and remote access to documents, apps and media. Ionics have taken a more general approach, positioning their Plug Computer as a tiny Linux PC, while ProSyst have integrated OSGI and Java to their version, to enable developers to more easily port existing apps and create new software. Finally, WebTView have loaded their own software to discover and play internet TV.

The various form-factors include a simple box that closely resembles the original SheevaPlug prototype, together with more streamlined and even circular designs. Of course, as well as the development device from Marvell themselves, the first retail device based on the reference design is already available, in the shape of the PogoPlug.

According to Marvell, a Plug Computer uses less than one tenth of the power of a regular home server PC. It supports multiple Linux 2.6 kernel distributions, and is available to developers now for $99.

Gateway revealed their LT3100 netbook today and this one is just a little bit different than the first generation. It features an 11.6-inch display with a 1,366 x 768 resolution and is only 3.1-pounds.
Other specs include a 1.2GHz Athlon 64 processor and a Radeon X1270 graphics card. It also features 2GB of RAM and Windows Vista Home Basic. It actually has the specs to support the Aero Glass interface.

This new netbook has a 6-cell battery, a 250GB hard drive, a card reader, a webcam and a touchpad with multi-touch features. You can get the LT3100 netbook starting today in red or black for $400.

LG and NComputing have announced a new range of “Network Monitors“, LCD displays with integrated thin-clients that can be used as virtual desktops or with cloud computing systems. Unlike most thin-client systems, however, LG’s looks straightforward enough for home or SOHO implementation, requiring just an X550 PCI card to be installed into the server PC, the included vSpace virtualization software installed and then up to five N-series monitors hooked up via ethernet cable.


Three N-series monitors will be available initially, the 17-inch N1742L-BF, 18.5-inch N1941W-PF and a 15.6-inch model only on sale outside the US. Each has an ethernet port, for connection to the X550 PCI card, together with PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse. There’s also a VGA port for using the display as a regular LCD with a local computer, plus built-in speakers.

Each server PC can use up to two X550 cards, allowing for a total of eleven users at any one time. Both Linux and Windows are supported and, while no pricing for the displays has been released, LG are calling the X550 a “sub-$200″ product. It, plus the N-series monitors, will go on sale worldwide this month.

Maingear have announced a new PC that can’t decide quite whether it’s for gamers or HTPC enthusiasts. The Maingear Axess HD Gamer has its sights on your living room, and uses a low-profile aluminum case; however inside there’s an Intel Core i7 processor, up to 12GB of DDR3 memory and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT graphics cards in SLI configuration. The Axess HD Gamer is also the first system to come with the Phantom Lapboard.
Other specifications include a Blu-ray drive, 8-channel audio with pre-amp, S/PDIF digital audio output and Vista Home Premium with its media center UI. Storage is courtesy of two 3.5-inch SATA drives, offering up to 2TB of space, or alternatively twin SSDs.

Up front there’s an OLED display for status information – including song or artist for music, or alternatively movie title – plus a multi-format memory card reader. Connectivity includes DVI-D, VGA, HDMI and component out, plus dual gigabit ethernet, eight USB 2.0 ports, two 6-pin FireWire ports and eSATA.

Unsurprisingly, none of this comes cheap. The Maingear Axess HD Gamer range starts from $1,799, but expect to pay far more than that for the kind of maxed-out system the company are talking about here.

If you’ve been looking for a gaming notebook that captures the power of a desktop computer, you might just be in luck. CyberPower just announced their Xplorer X7-Xtreme S1 gaming laptop and this thing packs a punch.

Featuring an Intel Core i7 processor, a 17-inch LCD display with a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution and up to 6GB of DDR3 Tri Channel Memory, this is no ordinary laptop model, that’s for certain.

Other features include an Intel X58 chipset, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M video card and a 320GB hard drive. This laptop comes with a Blu-ray player, Windows Vista Home Premium and a 3.1-megapixel webcam to boot. However, all of these specs can be fully customized, if you wish. The base price for the CyberPower Xplorer X7-Xtreme S1 is $2,335.

Shuttle have announced a new barebones mini-PC, the SA76G2, designed for AMD socket AM3 processors and capable of taking up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM. The 30 x 20 18.5 cm enclosure is backward compatible with AM2 and AM2+, and comes complete with ATI Radeon 3000 onboard graphics.
That graphics chipset is capable of driving two separate displays, and a PCI Express 2.0 slot can take a separate graphics card and – if it’s by ATI – use SurroundView. Six USB 2.0 ports, audio in/out, PS2, VGA and DVI are standard, plus there are mainboard connectors for a further four USB 2.0, two COM, one parallel and S/PDIF digital audio out.

The Shuttle SA76G2 comes with a 250W PSU and heatpipe cooling, and has all the necessary cabling pre-routed inside. It’s available now, priced at €191 ($265).