Would you like to be up to date with my daily activities, projects, this blog, my Trance and House Mix releases?

Here are my latest details:

FEEL FREE TO INVITE!!!

Facebook personal profile:

Oscar Neuman

Facebook fan page profile:

Oscar Neuman (Dj Sm1rn0ff)

Twitter:

http://twitter.com/oscarneuman

ALL MY UPDATES RELATED TO THIS SITE AND OTHER MY ACTIVITIES WILL BE POSTED ON MY PROFILES ABOVE!!

FOR WEBSITE EQUIRIES YOU CAN ADD ME ON MSN TOO:

dirtyplanet@hotmail.co.uk

THANKS! HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON!

If you like my production and would like to become my fan just simply go to facebook and search for Dj Sm1rn0ff.

My profile has just been created and it will be daily updated with latest music stuff from Trance to House and Progressive!

Or simply click on the following link to browse my profile!

Dj Sm1rn0ff (Facebook)

Kingston has announced a new memory kit and a new Solid State Drive, which funnily enough are pretty close in terms of capacity.

The 24GB DDR3 memory kit for Intel Core i7 platforms features six 4GB modules whereas the Core i5 version comes with 16GB worth of the same 1600MHz DDR3 modules. The pricing for the 24GB kit stands at $1,599 whereas the 16GB kit will set you back $1,065.

Also announced was the new addition to the SSDNow V series of SSDs, and this drive is marketed as a “boot drive”. This 30GB SSD comes with Windows 7 TRIM and will set you back $109. Kingston says that this drive is designed to be used in scenarios where a HDD is present, so that the SSD keeps only the OS and the key applications. The specs list read speeds at 180MB/s and write speeds at 50MB/s.

The aforementioned memory modules have already been toyed with, and you can check out the performance yourself on the videos here.

Western Digital will be expanding its high-performance 10K RPM SATA drive VelociRaptor series drives with a new 600GB model that is expected to arrive later this year.

While no actual release details are available yet, WD will be moving to a 600GB two-platter design that will bump up the cache and is expected to use the latest 6Gbps SATA interface, although the interface selection has yet to be officially confirmed.

WD sees the market for a high performance hard drive solution to continue to be a very good balance between space and price when compared to SSD options. The latest 600GB VelociRaptor will represent the fifth generation in the Raptor product line. The increase in size is possible due to advances in areal density, and a single platter 300GB VelociRaptor will be released after the 600GB two-platter version arrives.

Perhaps the most interesting note is that the 600GB model is expected to retail for close to the same price that the current 300GB two-platter model VelociRaptor is selling for. This, of course, just goes to show how much of a value the 600GB model will be when released. While no release date was announced, it is expected that it will arrive in the next couple of months or likely in the spring, according to our sources.

Western Digital has launched its first USB 3.0 products, and not to be outdone, Seagate followed suit with a stylish 2.5-inch unit.

WD’s My Book 3.0 is a 3.5-inch drive and it will be available in 1TB and 2TB capacities. According to WD, the new drives are up to 4.7 times faster than current USB 2.0 models. However, at $179 for the 1TB, the new series is also quite a bit pricier than its predecessors. Both drives are expected to ship later this week.

Seagate on the other hand took a different approach. The BlackArmor PS110 is a 2.5-inch, 500GB drive and it also costs $179. Not cheap either, but we’re used to paying a premium for compact 2.5-inch drives. Segate claims it is 3 times faster than USB 2.0 drives and you can get it here.

First of all, it features DisplayPort, so it’s future proof, and you can be sure that you’ll be able to connect your new notebook or graphics card to it in a couple of years. More importantly, it’s not a cheap TN panel, it is in fact an IPS panel, which means it can wipe the floor with just about any TN panel on the market. The only downside is that it looks a bit, well ugly. Maybe not ugly, just geeky.

Not that long ago, buying an IPS or S-PVA panel would have cost you an arm and a leg, and all the benefits of seeing colours the way God intended was reserved for design professionals and enthusiasts who were willing to cough up a massive premium. However, NEC’s full HD EA231 will set you back a mere €300. It is still much pricier than consumer grade 23-inchers, but it is probably worth it. The brightness is rated at 270cd/m² and its contrast is 1000:1. This might not sound like much in a world of ridiculous PR claims you’ll find on a box containing a cheap TN screen, but believe us, it’s more than enough.

For years, the only technical advantage of TN panels was their extremely fast response time, something that was important for gamers. The IPS panel on the EA231 manages 14ms, which is nowhere nearly as fast as a cheap TN panel. Still, if you’re not that into games, and if your hobbies include photography, video or design, this is a very interesting product as you’ll get pro specs at a consumer price tag.

The EA231 started shipping in Europe in late September, but it’s still not widely available in all markets.

You can find the product page here.

Fudzilla

Mind you, somewhat more serious could be an understatement, as the Aspire Z5610 packs a Pentium E5300 CPU, Radeon HD 4570 graphics with 512MB of memory, 4GB of DDR3 and a 320GB HDD. Pretty nice, although a bit more storage wouldn’t hurt. While most all-in-ones feature 19- to 22-inch panels, the Aspire has a 24-inch HD touchscreen. This should be plenty for the average consumer.

Most all-in-ones are chunks of black gloss and transparent plastic, so the Z5610’s silver finish is a welcome change. The chrome stands might be a bit too much for some, but they’re really not that conspicuous or tacky for that matter.

In spite of the nice spec and great design, Acer is pricing the Z5610 sensibly. The entry level model costs $899. This is rather good value, as an Atom-based AIO with a smaller touchscreen will set you back $500 to $600.

Fudzilla

Logitech has announced the successor to the G11, the all new G110 gaming keyboard. The new one features backlight, fifteen programmable keys, removable palm rest, and almost anything that you would expect to see on a G-series Logitech keyboard.

The new keyboard has red and blue backlightning, twelve programmable G-keys and three M-keys, a switch for “game mode” which disables any Windows related keys, and a removable palm rest.

The new Logitech G110 also comes with a USB port for various external portable devices as well as two 3.5mm audio jacks. It should already be available for pre-order with a price tag set at US $79.99. You can check out more here.

Nvidia has lifted the NDA off its first 40nm DirectX 10.1 cards, the Geforce GT 220 and G210. All Nvidia partners should announce their versions today, and some of them have already found their way on the net.

The GT 220, aka GT216 has 48 processor cores, a 128-bit memory interface and will be available in both DDR3 and DDR2 flavours. The reference card should work at 615MHz for the core, 1335MHz for shaders and 790MHz for 1GB of DDR3 memory. The slower G210, with a GT218 GPU, has 16 processor cores, a 64-bit memory interface and partners will probably stick to DDR2 memory on this one. This one works at around 589MHz for the core, 1404MHz for shaders and 800MHz for DDR2 memory.

The mentioned clocks are reference values and, as far as we know, most of the partners will come up with different and higher clocked versions as every partner is using its own cooling solution. Both cards don’t need an external power connector and most of the G210 cards will probably use a low profile PCB.

According to the first reviews, Nvidia’s 40nm DirectX 10.1 GT 220 and G210 are slower than a year old ATI HD 4670 card which is currently sold for around €50 to €60. So the only thing that can save these is that the price should be lower, much lower than the HD 4670 or the HD 4650 in G210’s case.

The guys from PCPerspective posted a review of Galaxy branded GT 220 and G210 here.

Belinea might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of gaming notebooks, or the second, or third name for that matter, but its X15 is definitely worth writing home about.

We’re really not sure if we should call it a notebook to begin with, as it’s an 18.4-inch behemoth, and it weighs 5.6kg, as much as two average 15-inchers. You probably think there’s some quite impressive stuff under the bonnet, and you’re right. It’s powered by a quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX9300 at 2.53GHz, has 8GB of memory, three 500GB hard drives for a total of 1500GB of storage and most importantly, two Nvidia Geforce 280M GTX cards with 1024MB of memory each. So, it can run circles around most desktops you come across, but after all, it does cost €4449, so you shouldn’t expect less.

It’s also got a Blu-ray drive, HDMI, eSata, and pretty much everything you can expect from such a pricey piece of kit. The only thing it lacks is an OS, and some common sense. The whole thing is utterly senseless, pointless and as bonkers as it gets. Hence, we like it, and if you don’t mind spending that much cash on a notebook, you can get it here.

There’s also a cheaper version, the X10. It is powered by a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo P8700, with just 400GB of storage, and a more reasonable €2199 price tag. In spite of that, you still get the same SLI graphics muscle at half the price.

Fudzilla