Following Synology’s massive launch of no less than five NAS systems, Synology is announcing yet another in preparation for the holiday season.

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The new NAS is a 4-bay NAS Synology calls the DiskStation DS418Play and it’s a slightly upgraded variation of the DS418 which was recently released. [...]

In preparation for the holiday shopping season, Synology is announcing no less than five new NAS systems ranging from a two to six bays. According to the announcement, the new NAS systems include the DS218+, DS418, DS718+, DS918+ and the DS3018xs.

 

Synology DS218+ and DS718+

The Synology DS218+ and DS718+ are two bay NAS systems designed for the home and business.

The Synology DS218+ is powered by an Intel Celeron J3355 dual core processor, 2GB DDR3L RAM (Expandable up to 6GB) and features one Gigabit LAN port for networking.

The Synology DS718+ is powered by an Intel Celeron J3455 quad core processor, 2GB DDR3L RAM (Expandable up to [...]

This week Intel launched the latest in their Celeron series of processors, based on their latest-generation 14nm Skylake microarchitecture. While these new CPUs won’t be landing in the enthusiast desktops that most of our readers will be using, they are meant for HTPCs, low-end desktops and basic office workstations.

The Celeron processors released include the Celeron G3900 which is a dual-core clocked at 2.8GHz with a TDP of 51w. The  G3920 is similar to the G9300 with the exception of a faster clock speed 2.9GHz. Finally, we have the G3900T clocked at 2.6GHz and a TDP of 35W. All of these CPUs include Intel HD 510 Graphics and 2MB of L3 cache and compatibility [...]

Several weeks ago, we had the opportunity to review the Syber Vapor Xtreme, a new PC gaming console from CyberPowerPC’s newest sub-brand, Syber. Since we were fairly impressed with what Syber had done with their first PC gaming console, we stopped by their suite at CES 2015 to take a look at what’s coming next.

While Syber didn’t have too much to show us just yet, they did have a couple products under development that looked quite promising.

First up is the Syber Vapor SLIM, which is still very much a prototype at this time. As you’d expect from the name, the Syber Vapor SLIM carries most of the features of the original Syber [...]

As one of the more prominent players in the mini-PC space, Zotac showed off a number of new systems here at Computex, but one of the more interesting systems on display was the Zotac Zbox Sphere OI520, which as its name implies is pretty much a Zbox in a chassis that resembles a sphere. For those who remember the Google Nexus Q, the Zbox Sphere OI520 is literally a splitting image of Google’s now defunct device; however, unlike the ARM A9 powered Nexus Q, Zotac’s Zbox Sphere OI520 packs a serious punch with the Haswell based Intel Core i5-4200U processor and Intel HD 4400 Graphics. The Zbox Sphere OI520 also includes 802.11 AC Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 4x USB [...]

According to a recent press release, Acer recently unveiled two new 11.6″ inch notebooks today – the Aspire V 11 (Touch) and the Apire E 11, both featuring Acer’s new FlowCurve design. Acer’s new FlowCurve design is unique as it takes the rear of the notebook and curves it inside, creating a more seamless and stylish appearance while also allowing the laptop to stay comfortably cool and whisper-quiet despite being completely fanless.

The Aspire V 11 (Touch) will pack an Intel Pentium Quad Core while the Aspire E 11 comes with an Intel Celeron CPU.  Both models have up to 8GB of onboard DDR3, a 1366 x 768 HD display, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, 2x [...]

Intel appears to be preparing to launch their next generation Haswell “refresh” processors sometime in May following it up with the launch of the 9 series (Z97/H97) chipset in April. 

According to Digitimes, “Intel will release about 20 new processors for its Haswell Refresh platform in the second quarter including Core i7-4790, Core i5-4690, Core i5-4590, Core i3-4360, Pentium G3450 and Celeron G1840 and low-power Core i7-4790S, Core i5-4590S and Core i3-4150T.”

It’s unknown whether the upcoming refresh processors are actually Broadwell processors or simply a new stepping of current generation Haswell CPUs. Intel’s next [...]

According to a recent press release from the folks over at Gigabyte, they’ve recently announced the latest update to the BRIX ultra compact PC, which for those who aren’t familiar, is Gigabyte’s custom designed ultra compact PC based off Intel’s NUC (Next Unit of Computing) formfactor. Whereas our previous run-in with the BRIX at Computex Taipei included Ivy Bridge based mobile processors, the latest update now come included with Haswell based mobile processors along with a slightly refined chassis as well.

The updated BRIX ultra compact PCs are expected to be available with either the Haswell based Intel Celeron 2955U, Core i3-4010U, [...]

Mid-Range Price, High End Features

Only introduced a couple of months ago, Z77 boards have become all the hype these days. Sporting all the features of the Z68 chipset and a bit more, the Z77 chipset is looking to kick things up a notch with native USB3.0 support (up to 4) , Rapid Start for faster boot times, Smart Connect to keep web pages refreshed while your computer sleeps, and more. Of course, for many of these features such as native USB 3.0 support, an Ivy Bridge processor is required; however, Z77 motherboards will have full support for any LGA 1155 CPU, so both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge processors will apply.

Today we’ll be doing reviewing Gigabyte’s [...]