GTX 980 Desktop GPU is Coming to Select Notebooks

Posted on September 22, 2015 by John Williamson

NVIDIA has made a rather surprising announcement which could signify a new era of mobile notebooks with the level of graphical prowess usually consigned to Desktop PCs. The power efficiency and extraordinary heat dissipation on Maxwell GPUs has allowed NVIDIA’s engineers to incorporate the full Desktop chip into notebooks. In theory, this means other desktop GPUs could follow and produce magnificent performance across a wide price range. As a result, supported notebooks will adopt a no compromise approach and features an unlocked core. Therefore, the integrated GPU is designed to be overclocked and shouldn’t encounter any thermal throttling.

This also means the notebook models will be fully VR-compliant and contain the required horsepower to run 90 FPS, low-latency gaming experiences. NVIDIA has already listed a number of manufacturing partners which include:

Along with Aorus, ASUS, MSI and Clevo, they’ll be available from a number of local gaming brands such as Origin PC, Maingear, Falcon NW, Digital Storm , Sager, XMG, PC Specialist, LDLC, Hyperbook, G-Tune, AfterShock, BossMonster, Metabox, ThunderRobot and Terrans Force.”

Gaming notebooks traditionally included mobile versions of their desktop counterparts and involved higher temperatures, louder operating and reduced performance. According to NVIDIA, the manufacturers have constructed each notebook completely around the GTX 980 full-chip design. Perhaps, this could make people ditch their desktop PCs for a very capable notebook system. However, the pricing and lack of upgradability could be a deal breaker for some.

NVIDIA Showcase the Latest G-Sync Notebooks @ Computex 2015

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Rikki Wright

Computex 2015 – Late Sunday night, NVIDIA announced the latest in notebook gaming technology. These are the world’s first 4K, G-Sync enabled notebooks; perfect for the gamer on-the-go. These feature a 75hz panel and come equipped with at least a GTX 970m mobile GPU. The panels themselves pass through extreme scrutiny to be able to receive G-Sync certification and hold up to the highest of NVIDIA standards.

We look forward to reviewing these notebooks in the future. We will keep you updated with the rest of the news and events from Computex 2015.

MSi @ Multiplay i54

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Rikki Wright

We stopped by the MSi stand at i54 to see what they had on offer. No new technology this time, just showcasing their range of gaming notebooks that we had already seen at CeBIT. The systems were coping very well with the LAN set up, with no lag at all during our brief session. We’ve recently reviewed the GS60 2QD which received our highest award, well worth a read.

We will keep you posted with any news updates on MSi for the weekend and hope to see more of their products in for reviews very soon.

Samsung Factory Invaded by Armed Criminals, $36 Million in Gadget Stolen

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Peter Donnell

The Samsung Campinas factory near Sao Paolo was attacked last Sunday night when seven armed assailants took over the factory, took the workers hostage and made off with a staggering $36 million in phones, tablets, notebooks, computers and more.

Seven armed robbers took hostages after stopping the staff shuttle bus. Two hostages were kept on board and eight more were set free. Once the route was clear, the group stole over 40,000 products as 13 other members of their group arrived in trucks. They used pallet loaders to fill the trucks and coordinated their efforts via radio and mobile phones in what was obviously a very well organised operation.

A spokesman for Samsung in Sao Paolo said: “We have cooperated fully with the police investigation that is underway and will do our best to avoid any sort of repeat incident.”

In fairness there is only so much you can do to prevent a situation like this, when weapons and hostages are involved in such great numbers, no one needs to be a hero and try save the day, especially when the goods that were stolen can likely be written off through insurance, when a life cannot.

Luckily none of the 100 employees who were present at the factory are reported to be hurt, although psychologically scars will no doubt be running pretty deep after such a traumatic ordeal.

Thank you PocketLint for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of PocketLint.

PC Specialist Cosmos II 15.6″ Notebook Review

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Ryan Martin

Introduction

When it comes to finding a decent-spec notebook you will be overwhelmed with options. If you’re after something slim and stylish you’re likely to be stung for a hefty premium by Apple, Sony, Samsung and so on. If you’re after something with a decent amount of CPU and GPU horsepower then you’re likely to be dragged into the depths of gaming notebooks (like those made by ASUS, MSI, Alienware and so on) even if you don’t want to game. So where do you go if you’re looking for something in between? Something that has style and is fairly slim but still has a fair amount of performance to allow you to be productive and game? Well PC Specialist are always a good place to start because you can customise just about any base notebook to have anything you want. Today we have a mid-range PC Specialist Cosmos II notebook in for testing and it looks like an epic all-rounder. With a dual core Haswell Core i5, an Nvidia GTX 850M 2GB graphics card, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB SSHD it has a great balance of performance, functionality and most importantly value. The design may be a little plain-Jane for the style conscious notebook buyer but if you’re happy for simplicity then this could be the ideal notebook for you. Below you can see the specifications of our PC Specialist Cosmos II notebook as we have it configured. You can change and configure just about every aspect of the Cosmos II if for whatever reason you need more or less of something.

Specifications

Name: PC Specialist Cosmos II
Case: Cosmos Series
Motherboard: Generic Intel HM86
Processor: Intel Core i5 4210M dual core processor
Processor Cooler: Generic low profile integrated notebook cooling solution
System Memory: 1 x 8GB Kingston HyperX Impact 1600MHz
Main Boot Drive: 1TB Seagate Hybrid Gen3 5400RPM SSHD w/ 64MB Cache
Additional Storage Drive(s): Not included.
Graphics card: Nvidia GTX 850M 2GB DDR3
Power Supply: 120W AC adapter
Optical Drive:Generic 8X DVD-RW/24X CD-RW
Wireless: Intel N135 802.11N 150mbps and Bluetooth
Monitor: 15.6 inch matte Full HD LED widescreen (1920 x 1080)
Peripherals: Integrated chiclet-style keyboard and 2 button touchpad-mouse
OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit
Warranty: 3 Year (1 month collect and return, 1 year parts, 3 years labour)
Price: £697 including delivery and VAT as configured. (Pricing links on final page of review)
Weight: 2.6kg

Packaging & Accessories

PC Specialist are no strangers to building and shipping systems and notebooks to customers so I wasn’t surprised to see our review sample come in virtually bomb proof package. Not only is the notebook box well protected inside another outer box, but you also find the notebook comes with more foam protection inside the inner box.

The notebook box comes with a convenient carry handle, if you ever need to move all the parts around or send it back to PC Specialist for repairs then you should definitely keep hold of this.

Included is a 120W AC adapter, 5600 mAh battery, UK power plug, a user guide, a driver & utility DVD and a Nero12 essentials trial version disc.

The included adapter is manufactured by Chicony Power Technology and is good for 120W of output which is required for this notebook.

The required battery provides 62.16 watt hours and is Lithium-Ion.

CPU-Z

GPU-Z

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CES 2014 Live Gallery

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Andy Ruffell

With another year, comes another CES and as always, the eTeknix team will be at the heart of the event, getting you the latest coverage from the biggest and smallest manufacturers on the market from components to of course; consumer electronics. While this page will be constantly updated with photos of CES 2014 coverage, all CES based content articles will be found here.

This article will be split into pages for each manufacturer that we cover, and at the bottom of the page will be a handy navigation bar so that you can check out pictures of exactly what you want to see and yes of course that will include a page devoted to booth babes.

Stay tuned as we prepare for the first days of CES 2014 in the ever so dry desert that is Las Vegas.

American FAA Approves Use Of Smartphones/Tablets During Takeoff And Landing

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Ryan Martin

Up until now if you were using a tablet, smartphone, notebook/laptop or any other electrical device during the takeoff or landing procedure on a flight then you’d of been asked to turn those electrical devices off – irrespective of what you’re doing on them. For many years this has long been the standard procedure for the airline industry. That’s all about to change though after the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ruled otherwise, reports Engadget. a 28 member committee decided that flyers should be able to use “most” devices during takeoff and landing on the condition that most connectivity is not engaged – e.g. you should not be streaming data and you should not be engaged in voice calls. The FAA recommends that flyers should be able to continue to work away on documents, listen to music or watch videos (providing these are all done from local storage – no streaming).

Amazon was part of the 28 member committee in the FAA which developed this new ruling and they stated that:

“We’ve been fighting for our customers on this issue for years – testing an airplane packed full of Kindles, working with the FAA, and serving as the device manufacturer on this committee…This is a big win for customers and, frankly, it’s about time” Said Amazon’s Drew Herdener.

If the FAA decides to continue with the recommendations it is anticipated changes could come into effect by early 2014, though the airline industry is expected to be slower to adopt the new standards. Indeed the ruling does not necessarily mean anything will change either as the FAA can ignore the recommendations generated by the 28 member committee.

Image courtesy of Engadget

IDC Says Tablet Shipments Will Overtake Total PC Shipments In 2015

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Ryan Martin

A new report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) believes that shipments of tablets will eventually overtake that of PCs by the end of 2015 if data is measured on an annual basis. If looked at on a quarterly basis tablet PCs will drastically out-sell PCs in the last quarter of this year thanks to the festive season. In 2013 PC shipments, of desktop and portable PCs, will still be higher than tablets but the gap between the two is closing rapidly.

The figures make grim reading for PC vendors as PCs gradually become phased out of the overall market. IDC do however imply there is room for growth in the portable PC market which is certainly a way for PC vendors to adapt and survive. Tablet PCs will continue their relentless growth alongside smartphones, both of which are growing rapidly at the expense of PCs. Only desktop PCs will decline between now and 2017. IDC claims the majority of smartphones and tablets worldwide come from the sub $350 tablet and smartphone segments.

Tablet PCs aren’t insulated from the onslaught of smartphones either as IDC expect larger smartphones with 5+ inch displays, commonly referred to as Phablets, to eat into the market share of 7 and 8 inch tablet devices. This will contribute to a slowing of the rate of overall tablet growth. Over the next 12-18 months this “cannibalisation” of small tablet market share by large smartphones will become more evidence according to IDC. IDC expects the overall market to increase by 58.1% between now and 2017 with the average selling price of devices falling from $462 to $323.

Image courtesy of cnmeonline.com

Intel’s Next-Gen Haswell Processors Now Being Shipped To PC Makers

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Roshan Ashraf Shaikh

Intel has started shipping its mainstream processor lineup, the 4th Gen Intel Core Series called ‘Haswell’ to major PC makers. Haswell will be launched later during this quarter by June.

Haswell will be the next generation mainstream processor from Intel and will be powering up many systems, Ultrabooks and notebooks. Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement,”The single largest generation-to-generation battery life improvement in Intel history.”

Intel will also be shipping its next generation “Merrified” Atom chips to their smartphone partners by the end of this year. During the end of the year, the manufacturers who partnered with the Chip maker will also be released tablets with ‘Bay Trail’ Atom chips as well.

But there was a concern about Haswell’s where USB flash drives which are connected on systems powered by Haswell. It was found that these USB drives do not get detected after the system started from standby. Bright Side of News also made a report that in some cases, the removable drives do not get detected by the system even after reconnecting the drive.

Therefore, Intel released a note to the media during Friday Afternoon:

4th gen Core is on track for a mid-year launch. Intel issued a PCN documenting a chipset USB errata and stating that chipsets with the errata will be in production during the initial ramp. But Intel has confirmed that there is no chance of data loss or corruption. This issue has only been observed with a small subset of USB SuperSpeed thumb drives and does not affect other USB peripherals. We take all customer issues seriously and should any customer have a question or concern they can always contact Intel customer support.

It should be noted that the newer stepping will not have this problem, as highlighted by Ryan.

Source: CNET

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