WD Offers 500GB Of Networked Storage For Home And Office

GeForce 7950GX2 Details, Preliminary Benchmarks

Intel Showcases Quad-Core Clovertown

WD Offers 500GB Of Networked Storage For Home And Office

Western Digital announced that its WD NetCenter network storage system is now available in a half-terabyte capacity and with backup and system recovery software, providing multiple users in homes or small offices a convenient way to store, share and back up their data.

WD streamlined the steps required to install WD NetCenter on either a PC or Mac. Each member of a home or office network uses EasyLink, an exclusive WD setup wizard, to cut installation time to less than five minutes. EasyLink establishes the WD NetCenter as if it were a local drive on any computer connected to the network. Individuals with network access then can store, share and back up their digital content.

With EMC Retrospect Express 7.5 backup and recovery software users can choose complete or progressive backups and automatic or scheduled backups, and are assured that all their data is safe with the software's open-file and data encryption features. In the event a backed-up computer should fail, WD NetCenter's disaster recovery feature creates bootable media from which owners can restore all files and system settings.

All WD NetCenter systems will come packaged with the backup and system recovery software. Current owners of WD NetCenter models sold previously without the backup and system recovery software for a limited time can download the EMC Retrospect Express 7.5 software for free.

WD NetCenter features:

• WD Caviar SE 7,200 RPM hard drive inside for fast, quiet and cool operation without a fan
• 10/100Base-T Ethernet connection
• Common Internet File System (CIFS) for platform-independent file sharing
• Two hot-swappable USB host ports
• WD EasyLink utility to set up WD NetCenter as a local drive on any computer on the network
• WD NetCenter Manager software to easily view system status, share folders and printers, create and resize volumes
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client for automatic assignment of TCP/IP addresses
• Automatic power management when the WD NetCenter hard drive is idle
• Kensington security slot

WD NetCenter 500 GB network storage systems are available now at a suggested retail price of $399 USD.

GeForce 7950GX2 Details, Preliminary Benchmarks

DailyTech took a deeper look at the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 video card. NVIDIA's sales material claims the following specifications:

• 500 MHz core clock
• 600 MHz memory clock
• 1GB GDDR3 memory
• Dual dual-link DVI+HDTV-out
• HDCP Support

GeForce 7900GTX 512MB cards typically run core clock speeds around 650MHz, meaning the 7900GX2 is significantly under clocked. However, there are two cores present. NVIDIA's GeForce 7950GX2 is a dual PCB adaptor that is directly derived from the GeForce 7900GX2, which was already derived from the GeForce 7900GTX ASIC. GeForce 7950GX2 takes two GeForce 7900GTX boards, and joins them via 32 PCIe lanes. 16 additional lanes are routed to the motherboard out to the PCIe adaptor. The GeForce 7900GX2 was designed specifically for OEM system builds and as a result nothing was compromised for performance. However, GeForce 7950GX2 is designed to be the retail component, and as such a few things needed tweaking for retail sales.

For example, the cooler on the 7900GX2 has been drastically redesigned and reduced for the 7950GX2. Gone is the large copper heatsink/fan combo in favor of a much smaller aluminum heatsink with a more powerful fan. Furthermore, the majority of the mosfets and capacitors positioned at the rear of the card have been moved toward the DVI inputs instead, allowing engineers to cut down the size of the PCB substantially, down to nine inches. It's also important to note that the SLI bridge is not present on the 7950GX2.

NVIDIA plans to target the Radeon X1900XTX with the 7950GX2 launch. Both cards are approximately the same size and both consume two expansion slots in a standard chassis. The marketing marterial bundled with the 7950GX2 claims that a full system using a Radeon X1900XTX requires just under 400W during peak operation, while a 7950GX2 system will only consume 358W and still provide greater performance. Unfortunately, you will still need an SLI capable motherboard to run the GeForce 7950GX2, since the single board is still technically running in SLI mode.

Like the GeForce 7900 and 7600, 7950GX2 has HDCP support built into the PureVideo portion of the 7950 ASIC. However, once again, it’s up to the manufacturers to incorporate the CyptoROM for AACS keys. Without this additional chip, the GeForce 7950GX2 cannot do DVI-HDCP.

The NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 graphics card will launch on June 6, and will retail for $599-649. Even though the card is designed for QUAD SLI, there will be no four-GPU support at the time of launch with the 7950GX2 due to driver constraints. ATI's Radeon X1900XTX retails for approximately $480 USD.

Source: DailyTech

Intel Showcases Quad-Core Clovertown

Intel held a press event in Taiwan where they unveiled their server production plans.

While there has been enough informaiton about WoodCrest (Xeon DP 51xx), little is known about the next Xeon -- the quad-core Clovertown.

As usually, much attention was paid to energy efficiency and TDP of new processors. According to Intel, the TDP of top CPUs in this series will make 120W. Middle models will have it about 80W.

Clovertown will feature 1066MHz FSB, but don't be surprised if it raises to 1333 MHz -- similar Woodcrest CPUs are to be released already in the third quarter. Processors will have shared cache with total capacity of 8MB (2 x 4MB). And the release is scheduled to Q1'07.

Source: HKEPC

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