Link: http://www.betanews.com/article/Toshibas-hard-drive-breakthough-could-herald-megacapacity-drives/1282246111

Bit-patterned drives could hold some 2.5 terabits of data on every square inch of recordable space. Contrast this with the highest densities that Toshiba has currently been able to squeeze out of current technologies -- 541 gigabits -- and the company's breakthrough seems even more stunning.

Such a breakthrough would mean a current standard 3.5-inch HDD could hold at least 8 terabytes of data

It will be a while before you see these on the market though, expect the tech to come to you around 2013.

This is interesting - how long do you think your hard drive would last on a paint shaker? Oddly enough I'm very surprised the standard drive survived at all... we've come a long way from parking hard drives before you moved them desk to desk eh?

Link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-online-sources-finding-buying-computer-parts/

I used to have a room full of old pc parts. Still, every now and then I'd need something for an old rig I was bringing into service for something.

Make Use Of has 3 good sources for you....

Buying a suitable replacement from a typical online retailer, such as Newegg, may no longer be possible. Brick and mortar stores, with their limited space for inventory, are unlikely to carry a part that is even slightly out of date.

There are, however, a few places that still sell numerous old computer parts.

My lad will remember this old S3 video card from when we built our dos lan for Duke Nukem and the dos 4GW games.

Link: http://www.neowin.net/news/swiftpoint-mouse-shipping-tomorrow-set-to-revolutionize-market

I dunno, I still prefer a trackball to anything but this little invention looks promising - specially with the quick charge time and battery life.

The revolutionary device is tiny, held like a pen and designed to be used on a laptop's palm rest, but can even be used to glide across a laptop keyboard. According to Stuff.co.nz, the mouse will sell initially for $125 NZD ($69.95 USD), and is charged through a USB dock. Apparently, a 30 second charge will give just over an hours use and a 90 minute charge will give the mouse almost four weeks of use.

Swiftpoint also claims the mouse is 30-40% more accurate than the laptop touchpad, and says the devices will be available through Amazon.com and its own website beginning tomorrow.

Link: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/dell-ships-motherboard-with-malicious-code/6901

Just on the heels of the Optiplex mess comes this screwup - honestly I'd really think twice before buying a Dell right now.

Dell has confirmed that some of its PowerEdge server motherboards were shipped to customers with malware code on the embedded server management firmware.

The infected motherboard was found on replacement Dell PowerEdge R410 rack servers, according to a post on a Dell support forum.

Link: http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wireless-pcie-allows-remote-graphics-card-setup-15-07-2010/

Graphics cards with wireless ? I'm not sure I completely see the use of it yet but who am I to say?

Atheros and Wilocity are currently working on the next generation of PCIe devices that use Wifi to connect components. wPCIe allows components such as graphics cards to be connected via a 60GHz Wifi connection and the first applications using this new wPCIe technology could be available to sample as early as next year.

Link: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/computer-mouse-invisible/

Well, you'd either look hella cool or like a complete idiot... I don't know which.

In the case of the Mouseless project, the infrared laser and camera are embedded in the computer. When a user cups their hand as if a physical mouse was present under their palm, the laser beam lights up the hand that is in contact with the table. The infrared camera detects this and interprets the movements.

Link: http://gizmodo.com/5576237/dell-knowingly-sold-118-million-computers-with-a-97-failure-rate

I would probably hesitate before buying a Dell at this point, seeing they shipped a huge bunch of Optiplexes (notorious machines in their own right for a really wonky BIOS) knowing the motherboards had failing caps....

The story, as told by the NYT, reveals Dell as a company so desperate to cut costs that not only did they knowingly sell computers stuffed with capacitors that were sure to eventually burst and ooze all over the motherboard (possibly starting fires), they actually refused to fix the 1000 affected computers of the firm representing them regarding the related lawsuit.

Link: http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/6/29/seagate-releases-worlds-first-3tb-hard-drive/

This top of the line big daddy is sure to command a premium price right? Amazingly it looks to be around the $250.00 price range which is astounding.

If you're worried about using this with a 32 bit OS - check this out....

That's not to say that there haven't been problems that needed to be overcome, though. In theory, you need a GUID partition table (GPT) in the hard drive's master boot record in order to go beyond the 2.2TB barrier. This is fine in new 64-bit operating systems such as Windows Vista and Windows 7, but it causes problems with older 32-bit systems, including Windows XP.

However, PC World reports that Seagate has circumvented the partition table issue by using 4KB sectors (the smallest amount of addressable space), rather than the usual 512-byte sectors. In effect, this means the drive requires fewer addresses than a standard drive.

The company's SmartAlign technology then tricks the master boot record into thinking it's using a standard drive with 512-byte sectors to ensure compatibility, and then realigns the partitions without the need for extra software. Seagate claims that it can do this without any notable drop in performance.

Link: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-TechBargains&cm_mmc=AFC-TechBargains-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&Item=N82E16822149103

The TOSHIBA Canvio Plus 1TB USB 2.0 Raven Black Portable Hard Drive is on sale now at NewEgg - so if you have some large amounts of data to back up, you can now do it without too much damage to your wallet.

Link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/why-trim-important-to-solid-state-hard-drives/#more-46425

This article will tell you everything you need to know a bout TRIM support. If you want to save time the bottom line is that I wouldn't buy an SSD without it.

Link: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage/display/20100622172815_Corsair_Initiates_Sales_of_Solid_State_Drive_for_69_99.html

Ok, it's 32 gigs and that isn't much room - but for some applications like a HTPC or Media box this would be perfect and the price is spot on.

Link: http://www.overclock.net/water-cooling/756206-water-cooled-d-link-router.html

Even though this is stupidly unnecessary - I love it... Overclocked too.

My class project was to install DD-WRT Linux on a router. I took this a step farther by installing water cooling. If you are interested in overclocking your router's cpu, water cooling might be a good option for you!

Link: http://www.gearlog.com/2010/06/2tb_hard_drives_crack_the_100.php

If you were cringing at the cost of a new drive, the wait is over. You can now get 2TB for less than a hundred dollars.

2TB drives are down as low as $100 street, a year and a half after first coming to market, at $250 and up. That's $100 on promotional sales, for moderate-performance drives. Over the weekend, NewEgg.com offered the Seagate LP ST32000542AS, a 2TB 5900-rpm internal SATA drive, for $99.99 to its mailing list customers. This drive falls into the energy-consious, moderate-performance part of the spectrum. Other resellers with these Seagates and with competing drives are hovering in the $105-$130 price range. Highest-performance 7200-rpm drives with 6Gb/s transfer rates are in the

Link: http://www.hardocp.com/news/2010/06/07/msi_x58_proe_motherboard/

If you're looking to build a gaming PC but don't have the pile of cash required to go full tilt, take a look at this MSI mobo -

Need an X58 chipset motherboard that won’t break the bank? Well then, I recommend you read our evaluation of the MSI X58 PRO-E motherboard, you might find just what you are looking for.
Think of this one as a budget oriented X58 board that's pretty much all business. It brings SLI and CrossfireX support to a more mainstream price point. The board's packaging sports a "Gaming Series" logo on it which is a telltale sign of who they are targeting with this product.

Link: http://www.hardocp.com/news/2010/06/01/corsair_launches_airflow_pro_memory_parametric_data_display

Holy sweetness for system builders - this is the coolest!

This display reads memory activity and voltage from modules enabled with DHX Pro™ technology, and presents the data on an outrageously cool LED display that mounts above the memory.

Link: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/20/ssd-power-consumption-reduced-by-86-percent-speeds-of-9-5gbps-a/

While this is not something you'll see tomorrow - you can expect SSD's to get way more awesome - boot up Windows in 13 seconds maybe?

Nikon has come up with a new writing method for NAND flash memory that dramatically reduces the already humble power requirements of SSDs. Using their hot new single-cell self-boost technique, University of Tokyo researchers have been able to lower operational voltages down to 1V and thereby facilitate parallel writing to over 100 NAND chips at a time, resulting in the bombastic 9.5GBps writing speed claim.

Link: http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=8784

Wow, I can't believe it. All my high end cards were BFG's. They were an awesome company and I'm sad to see them exit the market.

BFG is backing out of the video card business gracefully; there will be no new cards available which is an unhappy occurrence for those hoping to stick with BFG for their next upgrade. This is also going to be a damper on anyone hoping to take advantage of their popular trade up program. All is not lost for those currently using a BFG card as tech support is still available as is RMA service, ensuring that BFG is making good on the warranties that were offered with the purchase of a BFG graphics card.

This has special nostalgia for me as I had most (if not all) of these soundcards over the years.

Link: http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/lian-li-launches-pc-8fi-mid-tower-pc-gaming-case-18-05-2010/

Lian Li - known for their PC cases - throws down the gaming gauntlet with this new Mid Tower case. This puppy is just asking to be the base for your next liquid cooled rig -

The Lian Li PC-8FI is a mid tower gaming case and it can take up to seven 3.5 inch hard drives, it also has seven plus one PCI slots and two 120mm intake fans and one 120mm exhaust fan.

The Lian Li PC-8FI features a transparent side panel, which features a spider-shaped, transparent window, exposing the interior of the chassis and the rear panel’s exhaust fan, lit with red LEDs.

When I say gaming - I mean extreme ...

The PC-8FI series is designed to give gamers lots of hardware
options. The tool-less, anti-vibration rubber ring suspension hard disk drive rack can hold six 3.5” HDDs. Externally, the chassis’ 5.25” x 3 Optical Device Drive (ODD) bays, with the capability of a 3.5” x 1 bay (use a 5.25” converter), mount without the use of tools and are held in place by a rubber-padded arm to prevent vibration. The eight PCI mounting brackets enable CrossFireX and three-way SLI graphics card setups, and are equipped with a rubber pad to reduce noise and vibrations. The PSU compartment, located directly above a filtered vent at the bottom of the chassis for increased cooling and long PSU life, is lined with rubber pads, as is its tool-less mounting clip. The PC-8FI’s design allows users to mount Micro-ATX or ATX motherboards directly above the PSU for easy access.

Sweet!

Link: http://www.i4u.com/article33198.html

AMD Phenom X3 8550 2.2GHz triple-core processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive, DVD burner, TV tuner, Gigabit Ethernet, memory card reader, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Wow, if you need a new HTPC / Gaming rig and have a tight budget this is a great deal.

Check out this video with 2 identical laptops - one with a standard hard drive - one with a SSD drive. The video starts out kinda slow but when things start firing up it's really quite impressive.

Link: http://firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=22644

Keep this in mind if you plan on buying any RAM in the next 6-8 months.

With PC demand coming back and a lack of more supply, analysts believe shortages could be on the horizon. From the article: "Demand for DRAM will continue to outpace supply in 2010, leading to shortages, Semico said. DRAM average selling prices (ASPs) have increased 108 percent since bottoming out in December 2008, and show no sign of deteriorating.

Link: http://www.everythingusb.com/farstone-totalrecovery-usb-18639.html

Just in case you wanted a pre-made one, or maybe something to give away as a promotion.

This bootable USB key runs a Win-PE system that mounts any attached drives or network resources in a matter of minutes, allowing for restore or backup on even the most fatally compromised systems. Because the entire OS and software are contained on the USB drive, there's no reliance on any of the original system's data or operating system.

Link: http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/commodore-computers-make-a-return-this-year-20100319/

Not exactly the same but designed in a similar fashion - all in one and slim type goodness. It'd be kinda cool to have a Commodore label in the house again eh?

Useful for anything besides the nostalgia angle? Probably not -

no price yet.

Link: http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=13135

It's not huge - but at the price range you can certainly put one to the test as a proof of concept or a "how much faster will my rig be with a SSD" kinda thing.

OCZ has unleashed a bargain-basement priced 32GB solid state drive in their Onyx series, still maintaining decent read and write speeds.

Priced somewhere in the sub-$100 market, the 32GB Onyx SSD packs in 64MB of onboard cache and TRIM support within that 2.5-inch frame. Read and write speeds are set at 125MB/sec and 70MB/sec, respectively.

Link: http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=822

Ever have a hard drive fail? Sure, who hasn't ... oddly there's a high failure rate on certain physical areas of the drive platter and no one seems to know why.

You’d think that after 50 years and many billions sold, disk drives would be well understood. And you’d be wrong. Take the case of the outer-track errors.

Thanks to zoned bit recording the bit density of each track is roughly constant across the disk. But more errors occur in the outer tracks - and on some drives on the inner tracks too. What could be going on?

Link: http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/hard-drive-manufacturers-to-stop-supporting-windows-xp-and-dos-by-2012-20100310/

If you plan on using Windows XP your choice of hard drive models will be thinning soon (2012)

Essentially, what it comes down to is that hard drives keep on getting faster and more efficient… but their evolution is shackled by the need to support a 512 byte sector size. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are free of that burden, but XP and DOS are insistent upon it.

Link: http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/sapphire-radeon-hd-5970-is-the-worlds-fastest-graphics-card-08-03-2010/

Man, just look at the cooling on this thing. It's a safe bet you'll be running the latest games top notch for a few years - and that's good cus even though there's no price yet I'm betting you won't have any money for a new card for quite a while.

Link: http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/05/mini-wireless-keyboard-with-touchpad-and-laser-pointer/

This wasn't nearly as cool till the laser pointer part was mentioned.

There’s the “dazzling bright LED” backlighting, the world’s first touchpad that can be used in both the horizontal and vertical positions complete with advanced “capacitive sensing technology, comparable to a real notebook touchpad,” and the “innovative design of the navigation keys” that’ll make you “feel the thrill” of being able to play games wirelessly.

Link: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/nvidia-pulls-196-75-driver-amid-reports-its-frying-graphics-car/

Official word is that the fan control does not properly throttle up the fan under heavy use - there's already multiple reports of dead and fried cards - if you value your card roll back the driver or uninstall the driver and install a previous one.

Nvidia has pulled the driver and the older one is on the download page.

Link: http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20100302/netgear-rolls-powerline-kits/#more-38764

Netgear has a new ethernet over power kit coming out soon and it looks darn skippy. No word on price yet, check the specs.

they are able to offer greater speeds for bandwidth-hungry applications including lag-free Internet gaming, Voice over IP (VoIP), large file transfers to networked devices, and for home theater enthusiasts, even simultaneous 1080p HD video streaming to multiple TVs throughout the entire home.

I've just got into Readyboost. It's a standard feature of Windows Vista and 7. Basically it uses a USB stick / Memory Card or Drive to speed up your system by caching. Since the memory stick is faster access for some cache operations you get spiffier performance while you have 12 or 15 apps open during your days work.

Is it magic? No, in fact its a typical windows feature ... good but with Caveats. - Some of the good things ... it works... I've noticed an improvement - (I got a 16 gig SDHC class 6 card). It's a great way to use one of those spare cards you got lying around. For laptops - you can stick a card in and really not notice it's there (provided its not a long thin USB stick).

Cons ... Well, it can disappear. You can set the puppy up and on the next reboot it's gone. ... Vista also has a feature where it won't cache to the removable drive unless you go into removable drive properties and tell it to do so... (watch out for that one) - Another con is that it can disappear for other reasons. (I havent nailed it down yet - it's only my second day)

To help people using readyboost you can read the Dev FAQ HERE and decide if it's for you.

Also if your card or stick does not pass the speed test you can hack it to pass by reading THIS.

All in all, I like the feature - keep in mind 4 gigs is the max readyboost cache size so unlike me you don't need to get 16 gigs of memory card ...

Pro Tip - get a SDHC class 10 card 8 gig card and you'll be golden.... watch for that reboot thing.

I've been thinking about making the switch for a while now, the speed- the lack of heat and noise - perfect for laptops and HTPC's and NAS boxes.. two new showings of SSD's

Crucials got a new 6 GB/s model line HERE

and Sandkisk offers up their G3's HERE

They are limited (somewhat) in capacity and yeah, still come in at a premium price, but are certainly more affordable.

Whats holding me back is my laptop has a 300 gig drive and I've become spoiled with all the room. When I see one at that size I'll probably bite.

Link: http://techreport.com/articles.x/18448

Here's something to make you feel better for spending all that hard earned cash on the latest and the greatest. Benchmarking a p4 against today's best provides some damn spiffy results.

Yep, it's like looking back to '95 at the Athlon 1 ghz