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Soltek EQ3701M: new Qbic barebones, now on nForce2

Photo of the day: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card

Shuttle releases four AMD K7 motherboards on new nForce 2

I-O Data MO drive reads 640Mb media

Western Digital Raptor available for for sale

Hynix informs on plans for 0.1µm volume production

Innovatek Innovaset 2 Liquid Cooling kit Review @ MonkeyReview.com

New ECS EZ-Buddie barebone in our lab

Xoxide Dual 6-inch Bubble Light Review @ Bjorn3d

Adaptec DuoConnect for Notebooks — FireWire/1394 & USB2.0



Soltek EQ3701M: new Qbic barebones, now on nForce2

Just after the release of Qbic EQ3000/EQ2000, Soltek Computer announced a new EQ3701M series based on NVIDIA nForce2 IGP (Geforce 4 MX) + MCP-T.


Soltek EQ3701M brief specs:

  • SL-B7A-F motherboard
  • Two 5.25" and 2 3.5" drives
  • AMD Socket 462 with 333/266/200MHz FSB supported
  • Int. GeForce4 MX GPU + AGP 8X for external cards
  • 1 PCI slot
  • 2 DIMM sockets for up to 2Gb of dual-channel DDR400/333/266/200
  • 6-ch. AC97 codec (Realtek ALC650)
  • 6 x USB2.0, 2 x 1394a, Fast Ethernet 1/10/100 LAN, TV-Out, S/PDIF
  • 215x295x230mm dimensions

To make the offer even sweeter, Soltek adds a cooler with a copper heat-sink to each package.



Photo of the day: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card

We are currently testing another product from ATI Technologies — Radeon 9600 Pro. So you can take a look at the photos:







Shuttle releases four AMD K7 motherboards on new nForce 2

Today Shuttle announced four new ATX motherboards for the new AN35 series based on NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 and nForce 2 400.


The series includes:

  • AN35N Ultra — nForce2 Ultra 400 + MCP, LAN
  • AN35 Ultra — nForce2 Ultra 400 + MCP
  • AN35N 400 — nForce2 400 + MCP, LAN
  • AN35 400 — nForce2 400 + MCP

AN35(N) Ultra support dual-channel PC3200; AN35(N) 400 — 64-bit single-channel PC3200. All models support 400MHz FSB, AGP 8X, ATA133; feature 6-ch. audio, up to 6 USB2.0 ports, 5 PCI slots; offer overclocking capabilities.

I-O Data MO drive reads 640Mb media

I-O Data released a portable USB2.0 drive for magneto-optical media, supporting up to 640Mb discs — MOP2-U640P. The package includes a USB cable (75cm), software, bag, vertical support.

Powered by USB, the drive can work under Windows XP/2000 Pro to Windows Me/98SE/98 and Mac OS 9.0.4 — 9.2.2 to Mac OS 10.1 — 10.2.5. Dimensions are 112x150.5x23mm, weight – 420g. For sale the device is expected late in May for about $230. As for the internals, it seems the maker is Fujitsu.

Source: I-O Data

Western Digital Raptor available for for sale

Western Digital announced the availability of its Raptor HDD that had already been tested in our lab. The most impatient can order it online. The package includes SIIG Serial ATA (SATA) host adapter, SATA cable and manual.

Drive’s specs in brief are: MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) about 1.2 million hours, average seek 5.2ms, 5-year warranty, track-to-track 0.7ms, complete read 10.2ms, average latency 2.9ms, 8Mb cache, warm-up 7s, 25.4x147.0x101.6mm size, 0.73kg weight; shock protection 250G in standby, up to 20G at writing, up to 65G at reading. Standby noise 32dBA, seek noise 36dBA. WD360GD capacity is 36.7Gb.

Hynix informs on plans for 0.1µm volume production

Hynix Semiconductor Inc. informed on plans to launch the volume production using the new Golden Chip (0.1µm) process.

The Korean maker intends to focus on 512Mbit DDR and DDR2 SDRAM chips, with 1Gbit DDR2 SDRAM scheduled to H2. According to Hynix, in 2003 about 20% of chips will be made using 0.1µm process, this value reaching 65% by 2004. Currently Hynix utilizes the Prime Chip process (0.13µm).

The company estimates the Golden Chip to reduce general investments by 50% (vs. competitors) and raise the wafer yield by 40% (vs. the Prime Chip).

Innovatek Innovaset 2 Liquid Cooling kit Review @ MonkeyReview.com

"As you can see from the results, the Innovatek muscled out the competition in our testing. The only place it could have done better was in the ambient tests while the system was idle. The system ran very quiet with the kit installed and that in itself is a bonus in my eyes. In all, I was able to push my AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.1GHz) all the way up to 2.45 GHz which is our best OC yet. I imagine someone with better oc’ing skills could push on for a bit better result. I should note, the temps for under load (prime 95) hung around 113 degrees Fahrenheit while at this speed."

Read more at MonkeyReview.

New ECS EZ-Buddie barebone in our lab

With time still more users avoid standard ATX towers, preferring desktops modified for smaller size, style and low noise. One of such PCs, EliteGroup EZ-Buddie, is in our lab being tested now.


EZ-Buddie mini-barebone is just 162x263x310mm big, but nevertheless offers a variety of hardware monitoring tool, and a universal card reader:


The back panel:


CPU overclocking is implemented in such an interesting way: special rotating control enables to adjust FSB, with changes being output to the LCD panel.


Finally, the low noise external 200W power supply produces only 30dB within a half-meter range.

Xoxide Dual 6-inch Bubble Light Review @ Bjorn3d

"I´m sure you´ve seen several cold cathode reviews out on the web, and maybe you´re thinking, "Oh great, here´s another one!" But this kit is a little different from what you´re probably used to. This Dual Bubble 6 Inch Bubble Light kit comes from Xoxide and is supposedly one of the first dual six inch kits ever made! As you can see in the picture below, they look pretty darn cool, but are they really all that cool? Read on to find out."

Read more at Bjorn3D.

Adaptec DuoConnect for Notebooks — FireWire/1394 & USB2.0

Adaptec released FireWire/1394 & USB2.0 interface card — DuoConnect for Notebooks. According to the company, it will enable users to connect several devices to their systems at once.

Featuring one FireWire (IEEE1394) and USB2.0 ports, it provides up to 480Mbps (USB2.0) and 12Mbps (USB1.1) throughput. FireWire/1394 port is OHCI compatible (up to 400Mbps). In retail the card will cost about $130.

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