GENEXTPRODUCTS

Even as the chip market is pretty on a high tempo with the launch of Penryn processors, Intel has gone a step further by revealing details of its upcoming chips called Diamondville processors. The new chips, according to Intel, will power low-cost notebooks and compact desktop PCs. Although single-cored, the Diamondville chips support technologies such as hyperthreading.

Intel has already named its first two chips which are 230 and 270 with configurations of 533Mhz front-side bus, 512KB of L2 cache, and a speed of 1.6Ghz. The chips are expected to be launched either in May or June this year.

Dell and Microsoft partnered on a program called (RED) in conjunction with (RED) co-founder Bono to help fight AIDS in Africa. The program offers special (RED) branded PCs and printer in which part of the proceeds will go to help people in places like Rwanda, Swaziland and Ghana.

For each purchased (PRODUCT) RED branded PC from Dell loaded with a RED branded Windows Vista Ultimate, Dell and Microsoft will contribute between $50 and $80 to the Global Fund of the program. $80 will bring as much as six months of life-saving antiretroviral treatment for a person living with AIDS in Africa. A RED branded printer will generate a $5 contribution.

The (PRODUCT) RED PCs and printer are easily identified with a distinguishable red color and the (RED) branding. The Windows Vista OS also comes with some unique wallpapers, a screensaver, sidebar gadget and a (RED) DreamScene theme. The Dell products available in the RED promotion include the XPS One, XPS M1330, XPS M1530 and the 948 All-in-One Printer. All products are available through the Dell and through Best Buy.

The chassis is clearly the most intriguing aspect of the Blackbird, so let’s discuss it first. The chassis is a custom-made tower that is gigantic and extremely heavy. We don’t have a scale on hand, but it almost requires two people to carry it. It’s quite heavy, around 80lbs to be exact, so it won’t be seeing a lot of LAN party action, that’s for sure.
The case has a wedge shape and stands on a silver “foot” that elevates the chassis up about four inches from the ground to allow for air to enter from below. It looks rather menacing in person, as the back of the case narrows to a slimmer front, and there’s also a V-cut in the top of the chassis as well. The entire case is made from cast aluminum and reeks of quality, strength and bad-assedness.The chassis is completely tool-less. A small lever on the front slides open with minimal effort, revealing the interior of the PC. From there, another easy-to-open latch releases the plastic covering the PCI expansion cards. There is one more piece of plastic hiding the PSU cables at the bottom of the chassis, and it too slides out with ease. The door itself even comes off just by lifting it out of its hinges.On top of the case there is a pop-out bay that holds a media reader, USB and FireWire ports, and headphone/mic jacks. When you’re not using the media reader bay, you can just press it down and it rests flush inside the chassis.

The case has lights too, but they are very soft and subtle. When running, a light blue glow emanates from the top of the chassis, there is white light behind the front panel where the power button resides, and there is a soft white light coming from underneath the chassis as well. There is also a light above the rear I/O ports, which makes plugging in devices much easier.

The front of the case features five hot-swappable hard drive bays that are pre-wired to the motherboard, so you just put a drive in the cage and pop it into a bay. We hate fussing with hard drive cables and are huge fans of this approach. In fact, we think it’s probably the most useful feature of the chassis.
Extreme Computing
A machine this gnarly should have a burly CPU, and the Blackbird does not disappoint. This model features Intel’s new QX6850 CPU, which is a quad-core CPU that has been overclocked from 3.0GHz to 3.3GHz. If you’ve read reviews of the quad-core CPUs, you’ll know that they can run extremely hot, even at stock speeds, but HP has addressed the heat problem with a custom water-cooling setup that is made by Asetek. It features a large internal radiator and is cooled by two 120mm fans. The unit is totally self-contained and requires no maintenance. In this configuration, just the CPU is water-cooled, but there’s an option to water-cool the GPU as well.
Price:$5000.00

Features the new 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo processor with speeds ranging from 1.83GHz to 2.33GHz. The new processor delivers up to 50% more performance than the previous 20-inch iMac. It also doubles the amount of L2 cache, the twin cores sharing 4MB between them. The result? Turbocharged performance, making it easier and more fun than ever to work with digital photos, movies, music, and the web.
iMac comes with iLife '06, a suite of easy-to-use applications that make the spectacular a regular part of your everyday life. Enhance, organize and share your photos via iPhoto. Make an epic starring your kid in iMovie. Turn your photo and movie creations into professional DVDs with iDVD. Create original music in GarageBand, even if you can't carry a tune. Make podcasts and blogs. Then publish them online via your .Mac account and the all-new iWeb.
There's an iSight camera built into every new iMac, so you can start a video chat (or join one) at a moment's notice. There's nothing extra to buy, nothing to attach, no cords to fumble with, no software to install or configure. Simply start up iChat AV, click your buddy's video icon and you're ready to chat with sight and sound , with up to three friends at once. Proper attire suggested.
With iMac, you've got the best seat in the house. The full-screen Front Row media experience ; with its intuitive menus, large text and brilliant graphics lets you browse the music, photos, and videos on your iMac as easily as you browse music on your iPod. And the new Apple Remote lets you do your browsing from anywhere in the room. So gather your friends and dazzle them with a slideshow of your vacation pics, a home movie or a DVD. iMac was born to entertain.

Offering price:$1799

Well we have been talking about it for some time now, but we can now tell you that the Dell 2408WFP is now available to purchase from Dell USA. This 24 inch ultrasharp monitor will set you back a cool $748; however you must remember that this Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor includes DisplayPort.

The image quality truly is superb with a screen resolution of 1,900 x 1,200 a contrast ratio of 1,300 and a brightness of 400 cd/m2. Although these features sound much the same as a host of other monitors on the market, it is not until you read through the connectivity that you understand what makes the Dell 2408WFP.

Connections:

• HDMI
• 2x DVI
• 2x USB downstream
• Component
• Composite
• DisplayPort
• S-Video
• USB upstream
• VGA