Filed under: Desktops

There's certainly no shortage of companies out there touting their own ready-made green PCs, but if that's not your thing, the ever-helpful folks at Ars Technica have now let loose a guide for building your own. As you might expect, there's no shortage of compromises involved in this particular endeavor, although Ars has at least laid out a pair of different options to accommodate different needs, including a Green Gaming Box and an Extreme Green Box. All told, that former option will run you just over $1,000, with one of the biggest energy-saving trade-offs coming from the video card (a Radeon HD 3850) which, as we all know, is one of the biggest power hogs in any system. The Extreme Green Box, on the other hand, pushes things up past the $1,400 mark, and includes no-comprise options like a VIA C7 processor, integrated graphics and, of course, a 32GB SSD drive (which is obviously responsible for a huge chunk of that total cost). Needless to say, Ars thinks you'll have to make fewer such compromises in the not too distant future, what with things like cheaper SSD drives and VIA's low-power, high-performance Isaiah processor on the horizon.

[Via Slashdot]

 

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Filed under: Desktops

If Stealth Computer's LPC-450 was just a bit too diminutive for your tastes, you'll be thrilled to know that the latest flavor has been opened up a bit to make room for a PCI card of your choosing. As was the case with the LPC-350PCI Little PC, this iteration includes PCI expansion slot capability along with a Core 2 Duo processor and an anodized aluminum chassis that could probably be dropped from the rear of a moving truck sans issue. Additionally, you'll find Ethernet, USB (x3), FireWire, PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, a 160GB hard drive (or an SSD, if you choose) and an optional DVD burner to boot. Seems as if these are made to be customized, so feel free to give Stealth a ring if you're interested in claiming one as your own.

 

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Oddly, it turns out the photos floating around of the DSC-W300 really don't do the megapixel-packing slim point and shoot justice. That finish actuall looks pretty good in real life, although the lens protrusion was a little puzzling. And, of course, the DSC-H50 is a hefty, solid feeling bugger, not unlike what you'd expect from the H-series. Hit the photos below, it shouldn't be too long before the camera sites post their reviews.

 

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Filed under: Desktops

While one generally associates "Everex" with "bargain basement," we can't exactly see the incredible value in the gPC mini. Hinted at late last month, this minuscule desktop is now getting all official on us and comes loaded with a 1.83GHz T2130 processor, 120GB hard drive, 512MB DDR2 RAM, a DVD writer and Intel's GMA950 graphics set. Furthermore, it's packin' gigabit Ethernet, DVI / S-Video outs, FireWire, four USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 multicard reader and audio / in out. Granted, you'll have to deal with the gOS that comes loaded in, but hey, maybe that's not such a thorn in some folks' sides, anyway. Don't worry, you've got until March 1st to mull it over, after which you can (hopefully) place your order at NewEgg.

 

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Filed under: Laptops

HP apparently wasn't kidding when it said it expected people to buy that hot new UMPC 2133 sub-notebook "without a thought": DigiTimes is now reporting that the company has contracted Wistron to crank out two million units this year. That's an astonishingly high number -- almost 10 percent of HP's worldwide laptop sales last year -- and even wilder compared to the EeePC, which completely blew away expectations by selling 350,000 units worldwide last quarter, or Samsung's Q1, which has only moved a couple hundred thousand in two years on the market. Sure, the 2133 looks sexy as hell, but at an rumored $630, HP's going to have to put some serious sales muscle behind this guy to move that many -- it's just slightly too expensive to be an accessory, and probably way too underpowered to be your primary machine. On the other hand, while this is just a rumor and could be totally wrong, we'd actually like to think HP has a product so good it's going to to roll the dice a little. Guess we'll find out soon enough, eh?

[Via jkOnTheRun]

 

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Filed under: Laptops

Just in case you feared that Walt Mossberg was out on some sort of limb when he proclaimed that the X300 would satisfy road warriors everywhere, we've sourced some other reviews from across the intarwebz to ease your mind. Lenovo's über-stealthy ultraportable, which officially went on sale today, managed to impress one critic after another, with the biggest complaints coming from the high starting price tag, omission of a DVI port and somewhat sluggish performance -- which are pretty much expected given the form factor. Outside of that, everyone was practically in love, with praises addressing the delightful keyboard, integrated WWAN and overall usability of such a minuscule machine. But hey, don't take our word for it -- check out the reviews below in full before you cough up your $2,500 (or more), cool?

Read - PCPro (5 out of 6 shiny stars)
Read - CNET (8.5 out of 10 golden trinkets)
Read - Notebook Review ("big thumbs up")

 

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Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

We thought Sony showed a bit of wisdom and discretion by leaving the PFR-V1s overseas, but we were wrong. The $500 "personal field speakers" are definitely headed Stateside, and it's just as we feared: they may sound decent enough to justify the price, but honestly, no one is going to wear these. Really, no one. Probably not even around the house, even despite the fact that they're not really that uncomfortable. See our pained facial expression after the break.

Continue reading Sony PFR-V1 WTFones ears-off

 

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We've seen some fairly sinister alarm clocks in our day -- ones that fly around, nearly make you go deaf and "explode" if you don't get up in time, for starters -- but this DIY creation is definitely lobbying for top honors. The Turing Alarm Clock, which has admittedly been making the rounds of late, starts making racket just as any other alarm clock when the time comes, but rather than letting you smash the snooze button, it forces you to answer math questions with varying levels of difficulty before quieting down. Evil? Sure. Effective? You betcha. Check the video after the jump.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

Continue reading Homegrown alarm clock tests your math to gauge alertness

 

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Filed under: Storage

Hot on the heels of a pair of roomy 2.5-inchers comes Toshiba with a duo of even smaller drives likely destined for PMPs and cereal boxes of the future. The 120GB MK1216GSG and 80GB MK8016GSG are both designed to the latest SATA 2.6 specification and also feature the micro-SATA connector. Furthermore, the 5,400 RPM units weigh in at just 62 grams apiece and feature 8MB cache and a 489 Mbits/sec data transfer rate. Per usual, pricing on these buggers remains a mystery.

 

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Shocking as it may seem, mainframe computing has never really gone away -- even in this age of modular PS3-based supercomputers, financial institutions, retailers, and other large corporations still buy the big iron, which means IBM still makes it. The company's latest, the fridge-sized System z10, follows up on the million-dollar System z9 released three years ago with faster, cooler processors, more energy efficient designs, 70 percent more computing capacity -- and a smaller price tag, starting at just south of a million dollars this time. Hilariously, the z10 caused a bit of a mainfraime Osbourne effect: eager customers holding off on z9 purchases in anticipation of the z10 caused a 15 percent drop in IBM's mainframe revenue last quarter. Mainframe fanboys? Nothing surprises us anymore.

 

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