Dell’s XPS 13 ultrabook just received a significant performance upgrade and enhanced asthetics.

The new XPS 13 now uses Intel’s 8th gen Quad-core i5-8250 and i7-8550 CPUs. The CPUs have a baseline TDP of 15W, but can be configured for to up to 25W. Dell states that the new cooling solution in the new XPS 13 can handle up to 27W, so it’s likely that the CPUs had their TDPs increased accordingly. Despite the robust cooling, the weight of the is kept at  just 2.67 lbs.

The Dell XPS packs a display that guarantees a peak brightness of 400nits. It covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut and 72% of the Adobe RGB color gamut. Full HD and 4K [...]

AMD’s former Radeon Technology Group Chief, Raja Koduri, has had an eventful week. After Hexus recently reported on an internal memo Koduri sent to his staff announcing his departure from AMD, Intel recently sent out a press release announcing that Koduri has joined Intel’s newly formed Core and Visual Computing Group.

Back in September, Koduri announced that he’d be going on a sabbatical for personal reasons. In an email, he explained to his staff that he was taking a temporary break to spend some time with his family. Given that Koduri had just overseen AMD’s launch their latest Vega GPU, it didn’t seem like a huge deal at the time. [...]

Aorus, Gigabyte’s gaming-centric laptop branch, has released the world’s thinnest gaming laptop that packs two Nvidia GTX 1070 GPUs in SLI.

The Aorus X9 is designed for gamers looking to play at QHD/UHD resolutions and is more than VR ready. Complimenting the dual GTX 1070s is an Intel Core i7-7820HK quad-core CPU. The CPU is unlocked, meaning users can overclock it on their own.

Two display options are available: a 17.3″ UHD 3840x2160p IPS display with 100% Adobe RGB color gamut, or a 17.3″ QHD 2560x1440p 120Hz WVA high-refresh rate display. All displays are factory calibrated for the best color accuracy.

To [...]

Microsoft released the update Surface Book 2 in a surprise announcement this morning, bringing some much needed specs upgrade to the almost archaic Surface Book.

The new Surface Book 2 is now equipped with Intel’s 7th/8th Gen dual-core and quad-core CPUs. Graphics have been boosted to either the integrated Intel UHD 620, or discrete Nvidia GTX 1050 and GTX 1060 for the higher end models. RAM and storage options remain unchanged with options up to 16GB of LPDDR3 and up to a 1TB  NVME PCIe SSD.

Both the 13″ and 15″ model carries the always-sexy PixelSense display with a pixel density of 267ppi for the 13″ model and 260ppi for the [...]

64-Layer 3D NAND, USB 3.1 Gen 2

Last year I was fortunate enough to be among the first to review the Samsung T3 Portable SSD. The drive was small, durable, fast, available in capacities up to 2TB, and relatively good looking making it not only my favorite portable SSD, but also my most highly recommended as well.

Of course, with Samsung’s annual release cycles, Samsung recently launched the new Samsung T5 Portable SSD which we’ll be reviewing today.

Samsung Portable SSD T5 Specifications Manufacturer Samsung Model T5 Capacity 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB Interface Type-C USB 3.1 (Gen 2), USB 3.0, USB 2.0 Transfer Speed Up to [...]

Microsoft has recently slotted yet another addition to its already populated Windows lineup. The Windows 10 Pro Workstation edition brings some trickled down features from the enterprise edition, namely resilient file system support, persistent memory, faster file sharing, and support for server grade hardware.

Resilient file system (ReFS) uses a host of techniques to make data more fault tolerant. It can automatically perform auto correction using mirrored storage space and integrity streams. It’s also optimized for handling large data volumes.

Persistent memory uses non-volatile memory modules (NVDIMM-N) to store data and is designed for [...]

For FMS 2017, Seagate made a slew of new announcements including a new 64TB NVMe PCIe SSD, updates to the Nytro SSD lineup, a new RealStor storage appliance, and Nytro Q-Boost technology.

When Seagate announced their 60TB SAS SSD last year, it was an impressive feat however, Seagate and its partners quickly realized that there were limited use cases for the SSD. The capacity was simply too large for the relatively performance limited SAS interface.

For 2017, Seagate went back to the drawing board and announced a new 64TB NVMe SSD which is simply a full height, half-length form factor add-in card containing eight M.2 22110 PCIe Gen 3 x4 [...]

Just a few months after the launch of their mainstream Ryzen CPUs, AMD is launching their highly anticipated HEDT Ryzen Threadripper CPUs based on the Zen micro-architecture. The new AMD Threadripper 1950X and 1920X now make up the most powerful CPUs in AMD’s consumer CPU lineup.

Manufacturer AMD Model Threadripper 1950X Threadripper 1920X Core Count 16 Core / 32 Threads 12 Core / 24 Threads Base Clock 3.4GHz 3.5GHz Max Turbo Clock 4GHz 4GHz L3 Cache 32MB 32MB Unlocked Yes Yes TDP 180W 180W PCIe Lanes 64 64 Memory Support Quad-Channel 2,667MHz DDR4 (ECC) Quad-Channel 2,667MHz DDR4 (ECC)

It’s no secret that Intel was the dominant [...]

After the successful release of the Force MP500 PCIe SSD earlier this year, Corsair is adding another PCIe SSD to the mix with the new Corsair Neutron NX500.

The new SSD will be available in capacities of 400GB, 800GB, and 1600GB will come in an HHHL form factor and feature support for NVMe over a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. Performance of the Neutron NX500 is rated at up to 3,000/2,400 MB/s sequential reads/writes and 300K/270K IOPS 4K random reads/writes. The NX500 will also feature MLC NAND for greater performance and reliability compared to TLC NAND.

The Corsair NX500 400GB and 800GB capacity drives are now available with the 1,600GB capacity drive available [...]

For FMS 2017, Samsung shared several new releases along with its SSD/NAND flash roadmap for the coming years. Among the new releases include Samsung’s 96-Layer QLC (Quad Level Cell) NAND and a few new enterprise SSDs.

 

64-Layer 3D V-NAND Transition

Samsung is already transitioning its entire line of products to utilize 4th Generation 64-layer 3D V-NAND. Their 64-Layer 3D V-NAND has been in mass production since June of this year and promises to be 30% faster, 30% more power efficient, and 20% more reliable than previous generation 48-layer 3D V-NAND.

This could potentially mean that Samsung’s successor to the 960 Pro and 960 [...]