BFG inadvertently outs new Intel Core i7 950 / 975 CPUs in Phobos gaming PC

So, here's an interesting one. Intel has yet to officially launch the two newest members of its Core i7 crew, but that little factoid isn't stopping BFG Technologies from doing the honors. Today, the company has introduced its freshest gaming rig, the Phobos, complete with Core i7 950 (Phobos Advanced) and Core i7 975 (Phobos Elite) CPU options. Furthermore, BFG is claiming that these new machines are the first ever to offer one-touch CPU and GPU overclocking, as all that can be handled on the front-mounted touch panel on the tower itself. Heck, there's even an integrated iPhone / iPod dock on the top of this bad boy. The Phobos rigs are yours to order right now starting at $5000 (Advanced) / $8000 (Elite), and the full release is after the break.

ViewSonic VNB101 gets handled in the wilderness of Taipei

The new ViewSonic VNB101 may be rightly accused of aping the EeePC S101 a little too closely, but if you're going to copy something, it might as well be something sexy. Netbooks News have gone hands-on with an early model, noting a multicard reader, space for a 3G SIM card, and a 3400mAh Lithium-Polymer battery, which should deliver about 5 hours of juice and degrade more slowly over time than its Li-Ion counterparts. Pricing in Taiwan is set for around $485, and for that you'll get your standard dosage of Atom N280, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD inside and a red, black or champagne paintjob on the outside. Europeans can look for these later this year, but with no word of a US release, you'll have to make do with the video past the break.

Medion's Akoya P7700 D PC will do your multimedia right on a budget

Medion has announced another quad-core, multimedia desktop PC, the Akoya P7700 D, that claims to offer top-end spec "for advanced performance".

The P7700 D gets an Intel Core 2 Quad processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 230 graphics card, 1TB hard drive and a Blu-ray optical combo drive.

Other specs include 4GB memory, an eight channel high-definition surround sound system, and an HDMI output so you could hook up the Blu-ray playin' PC to your telly with an HDMI input.

There's also 802.11 Draft-N Wi-Fi and connectivity including USB, Firewire and eSATA for "fast and easy" connection of external SATA devices.

With Windows Vista Home Premium, software-wise there's also Microsoft Works 9 including Office Home and Student Trial Version, Medion Home Cinema Suite (PowerDirector 7, PowerProducer 5, PowerDVD 9 Ultra, Media Show), Corel Draw Essentials 3, Corel Media One, Cyberlink Power2Go 6 and a BullGuard Internet Security Pack.

Complete with a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, the new desktop will be on sale from 31 May priced at £599 (including 3-year warranty) while stocks last at Aldi.

Walmart offers decently-spec'd Compaq laptop for $300

Not sold on the whole netbook craze? Then you might want to consider paying a visit to your local Walmart, which is set to offer a surprisingly well-spec'd Compaq Presario laptop for the low, low price of $298. As you might expect however, that model (the CQ60-419WM) isn't entirely new, but it did just debut in January of this year with a significantly higher $470 price tag, and packed enough features to make it a not terrible deal even at that price. That includes a 15.6-inch 1366x768 display, an AMD Sempron SI-42 processor, NVIDIA GeForce 8200M graphics, 3GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD burner and, of course, Windows Vista for an OS. Good enough for ya? Then look for it to hit Walmarts on July 26th and be available "while supplies last."

Acer launches easyStore Home Server: 1TB expandable storage for $400

Acer's entering the home server market, and its first entry's gonna be the easyStore AH340-UA230N with built-in Windows Home Server. It's juiced up with Intel Atom 230 processor and 2GB DDR2 RAM, and in addition to 1TB of storage, you've got three 3.5-inch hot swappable bays for a possible total of 7TB of storage. Throw in some DLNA 1.5 certification and a $400 price tag, and you've got yourself pretty decent competitor to HP's MediaSmart lineup. According to the presser, it should be available sometime around now-ish. Mosey on after the break for a look at the its innards.

Sony VAIO NW: 15.5-inch Blu-ray notebook from $880

Sony have announced a new VAIO laptop, the NW-series, packing a 15.5-inch WXGA XBRITE display, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processor and an optional Blu-ray drive. The Sony VAIO NW is also being priced competitively: the standard model is $800, while adding Blu-ray to that is just $80 more.

Other specifications include an optional ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card, standard webcam and chiclet keyboard. Connectivity includes three USB 2.0 ports, an ExpressCard slot, SD and Memory Stick card slots, and HDMI; there’s also a dedicated “display off” button to switch off the VAIO’s screen when using an external monitor, and an instant-on mode for speedy internet access without booting into Windows Vista.

WiFi a/b/g/n, a 400GB hard-drive and up to 4GB of DDR2 memory are on offer, while battery life ranges from a paltry 1.5hrs with the standard pack and up to 5.5hrs with the extra-chunky pack. The NW-series will be available in white, grey and brown, complete with a strangely textured lid finish, chiclet keyboard and translucent trackpad.

ASUS U and UX ultraportable specifications confirmed

ASUS have released full specifications for their new U- and UX-series ultraportables, announced back at CeBIT. Five U-series models are detailed, together with two UX-series; processors range from Intel’s CULV line, Pentiums, Core 2 Solo and Core 2 Duo chips. Displays range from the 12.1-inch U20A through to two 15.6-inch models, the U50G and U51Vg.


Each can be outfitted with up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, with hard-drive choice for most models being 250, 320 or 500GB 2.5-inch SATA drives. Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and WiFi a/b/g/n is also present across the board, and the displays are all LED backlit. Several of the models also have integrated optical drives.

Graphics range from Intel’s GMA 4500MHD chipset through to the NVIDIA GeForce G 105M and ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570. Full specifications of all five notebooks, including which versions of Vista they can be bought with, are in the gallery below.

ASUS U50VG, K50AB, K50IJ and K70AB notebooks arrive

ASUS have announced a number of new notebooks, including both Intel and AMD powered machines and with screen sizes ranging from 15.6- to 17.3-inches. Of the new models, perhaps the most interesting is this, the U50VG-XX060C, a 15-6-inch Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 2.1GHz machine with 4GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce G 105M 512MB graphics.

The U50VG has a 250GB hard-drive, 16:9 aspect display running at 1366 x 768, and an HDMI port, together with a 1.3-megapixel webcam and WiFi b/g/n. The chiclet-style keyboard is backlit, and it’s set to land in Italy priced at €943.20 including tax ($1,320).

Meanwhile the similarly 15.6-inch K50-series gets a few new models, in the shape of the AMD Turion 64X2 Ultra ZM-84 2.3GHz K50AB and the Intel Pentium dual-core T4200 2GHz K50IJ. Both have 4GB of RAM, while the former has ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 512MB graphics and the latter uses Intel GMA X4500HD graphics with shared memory. The K50AB is €793.20 ($1,110) while the K50IJ is €628.80 ($880), both inclusive of tax.

The final new 15.6-inch model is the ASUS F52Q-SX071E, another Pentium dual-core machine (the 2GHz T3200) this time with 2GB of RAM and the GL40 chipset. Intended as a business model, it comes with Vista but can be downgraded to Windows XP, and is priced at €643.20 ($898).

Finally, ASUS have two 17.3-inch models in the shape of the AMD-powered K70AB-TY002C and K70AB-TY001C. The former uses an AMD Turion 64X2 RM 74 2.2GHz processor, while the latter steps up to an AMD Turion 64X2 Ultra ZM-84 running at 2.3GHz; both machines have 4GB of DDR2 RAM and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 with 512MB of memory driving a 1,600 x 900 LED-backlit display. The two notebooks will go on sale for €793.20 ($1,107) and €868.80 ($1,215) respectively.

eMachines intros ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 desktop PCs

Just a few short weeks after eMachines outed its EL1300 line of SFF PCs, the company is hitting us up again with a new trio of full-size desktops. The ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 are all encased within a luminous white mini-tower and ship with a matching LCD monitor, speakers and a keyboard. As for specs, the $449.99 ET1300-02 checks in with an AMD Athlon X2 4850e (2.5GHz) CPU, Vista Home Premium, NVIDIA's GeForce G100 (512MB), 3GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB hard drive, 18x SuperMulti DVD burner, multicard reader, HDMI / DVI / VGA outputs and an 18-inch E182H display. The $369.99 ET1810-03 steps to a 2.2GHz Pentium E2210 CPU, GeForce 7500 integrated graphics and just a single VGA port, while the $299.99 ET1810-01 cranks it down to a 1.6GHz Celeron 420 and 2GB of DDR2 RAM. The trio should be filtering out to respected retailers as we speak.

NVIDIA said to be prepping Ion 2 for late 2009

NVIDIA obviously isn't doing much talking about it itself just yet, but Fudzilla apparently has it on good authority that the company is indeed already hard at work on Ion 2, which promises to bring with it plenty of improvements over the already impressive Ion chipset. Chief among those is a decreased die size, "much faster graphics," and more than twice the shaders of the original Geforce 9400M /MCP79 chipset that the current Ion is based on (which uses 16 shaders). Not many more details than that, unfortunately, but NVIDIA is supposedly looking to launch Ion 2 by the end of this year -- although not before it sells plenty more Ion 1s, of course.