Dell Zino HD appears in the UK

Here we go. Dell's previously hinted nettop killer has been officially revealed, and is available on Dell's UK site. The tiny (7.8" x 7.8" x 3.4") machine runs AMD hardware and is sure to crush many Intel Atom-based systems on the market.

Pricing starts at £299. I was right about the CPU choice though (at least partly.) Single core parts consist of AMD's Athlon 2650e and 2850e parts (1.6 and 1.8Ghz respectively,) the dual-core Athlon X2 3250e (1.5Ghz) and a new chip going by the name of Athlon Neo X2 6850e. This is a dual-core part running at 1.8Ghz. (Seems like this 6x50e series is another new CPU line from AMD, with further information revealing 6750e and 6650e models in the same family.)

Moving on, you can choose between Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional (both 64-bit) alongside up to 8GB of DDR2-800 memory, a 320GB-1TB 7200RPM 3.5" hard drive, either ATI Radeon HD3200 integrated or Mobility Radeon HD4330 graphics, and either a DVD writer or a Blu-ray optical drive. Networking includes both Gigabit LAN and 802.11n WiFi from Broadcom. You get two USB 2.0 ports, a headphone output jack and a four-in-one card reader on the front, and a microphone input jack, a line-out jack, VGA and HDMI video outputs, two more USB 2.0 ports and two eSATA ports on the back. A variety of colour choices on the top lid are available, too. As you can see, this is a very feature-packed system for its size.

Availability and pricing on US shores is unknown at this point. The Intel Atom-equipped version of the system hasn't been seen for sale anywhere, either. You can see Dell's product page here.

Asus announces Eee 1101HA-WP, preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium

Asus just made an update to its 11.6" Eee PC 1101HA netbook. While a Vista Home Premium variant of the machine was hinted at one point, this was changed to Windows 7 Home Premium with the arrival of the new OS (better choice too IMO.)

The so-called 1101HA-WP also ups the specs a tad with 2GB of RAM and a 250GB HDD. (This combination looks to be the new standard for netbooks by the way, over 1GB of RAM and a 160GB HDD.) Battery life is down to eight hours from 11 hours for some reason. We don't know why; it could just be the slightly higher demands from the new OS.

Other than that, this 1101HA-WP looks to be the exact same as the older XP-loaded 1101HA models. The computers will start selling in Japan in either white or black on the 14th of this month for 54,800 yen (roughly $410 USD.)

Via PC Watch (JP)

DFI preps mini-ITX P55 motherboard

DFI looks to be the first motherboard manufacturer to produce a mini-ITX P55 motherboard. Yes, now you really can stick a Core i7-870 in a 17x17cm space, adding up to a really, really fast SFF system. Of course we don't know when this board will come out or what it will be priced at, but the folks at Clunk.org.uk have specifications and a few photos to keep us waiting.

You get two DDR3 memory slots, one PCI Express x16 slot and thee SATA connectors. While the back-panel connectors aren't shown, Clunk mentions six USB ports, Intel Gigabit Lan, a Realtek ALC855 7.1-channel audio codec, a powered eSATA+USB port, coaxial/optical S/PDIF audio outputs and two headers for four more USB ports.

Being mainly an enthusiast brand, DFI put some of the features used on its higher-end boards on the MI P55-T36. You get the trademark LanParty logo, alongside an onboard LED POST-code display, a CMOS reset button and six CPU power phases. All capacitors onboard look to be solid-state, as well.

Based on the specs we have, the MI P55-T36 is looking to be one heck of a powerful little board. All we need now are some more ITX cases with better cooling and power supplies.

Toshiba announces amazing 320GB 1.8" HDD

Toshiba has upped capacity once again with its new 33GSG series of 1.8" hard disk drives. These, at first, look like two-platter versions of the 160GB/platter 34GAL series, which were released a little while ago. The similarities end there, however.

The flagship model has an astounding 320GB capacity, paired with a 5400RPM rotational speed and a generous 16MB of cache, while still being smaller and more power-efficient than most 2.5" drives. You also get a SATA 3Gbps interface, which should make these drives good replacement options for Asus' S121 netbook (among others.)

The new drives should allow much thinner ultraportable computers with lots of storage potential to be produced. Of course, these drives will still be slower than similar 2.5" models, but the physical size of the drives will even that out. Indeed, Toshiba aims its 33GSG series at "thin and light mobile PCs and portable external hard disk drives."

The 160GB MK1633GSG model is a single-platter design, while the 250 and 320GB MK2533GSG and MK3233GSG models respectively are dual-platter designs. Toshiba quotes noise levels of 17dB for the former and 19dB for the latter two, and all three pull just 1.3w during load.

Lastly, Toshiba is also releasing a new type of drive alongside the 33GSG series dubbed 35GSL. These are SATA 1.8" drives with a 4200RPM spin speed and 8MB of cache. The first model in this series will be the single-platter 120GB MK1235GSL, which according to Toshiba is "the most power-conservative HDD on the market today." Indeed, 1.1w power usage during seeks is very low, although noise levels seem a bit odd at 19dB during load, the same result the MK3233GSG gets.

Anyway, mass production of the drives will begin in December. While pricing is unknown, Toshiba's older 250GB MK2529GSGs are selling for around $150, so expect prices for the MK3233GSG to be a bit higher than that.

Toshiba product pages for the MK1235GSL and MK3233GSG can be seen here and here, respectively.

VIA's NetNote reference design gets tested

The NetNote is a reference design from VIA, with a 12.1" display and the company's own Nano processor paired with its VX855 chipset. PC Home managed to grab a NetNote and promptly tested it - first running a bunch of benchmarks, then disassembling the whole thing to check out the internals.

As you might've expected, the NetNote outperforms other Intel Atom-based netbooks in most tests, especially in the graphics and video-intensive stuff. Five hour battery life isn't too shabby either.

Other, somewhat odd, features of the NetNote include a built-in TV Tuner and MP3 player functionality while the machine is powered down. We're hoping to see ultraportables based on the NetNote hit the market sooner or later, hopefully with VIA's new 3000-series Nano processors.

Anyway you can check out the results here.

Asus Eee PC 1001HA appears for pre-order in UK

Remember this? The Eee 1001HA netbook, seeminly not much more than a 1005HA with downgraded specs and a new exterior, has appeared on the Asus global site and is now up for pre-order in the UK.

The cost is 200 British pounds, equivalent to $329 USD. You get the 1.6Ghz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 802.11n WiFi, a 0.3mp camera, a three-cell battery and Windows XP over Windows 7 Starter (this may be a plus for some people) for your hard-earned cash. The specs do seem a bit dated, but that's why this netbook is so cheap.

The aforementioned exterior is a definite plus, however - the Eee 1001HA has a faux-carbon fiber coating on the lid and palm rests. Those who hate the glossy surfaces on the other Seashell Eees (and other netbooks in general) will love the 1001HA (if they're willing to put up with reduced specs, although Asus may introduce a more up-to-date variant in the future.)

Availability and pricing over here in North America are unknown. See the Asus page for the Eee 1001HA right here.

Via Netbooked

Western Digital produces a SAS drive

Western Digital looks to be giving the enterprise SAS market a go. Its new S25 hard drive brings 3Gbps and 6Gbps SAS interfaces, a 10,000RPM spindle speed, a 16MB buffer and a 2.5" form factor to the table.

However, the S25 does not appear to be a completely new design. A look at the spec sheet reveals that the S25 could simply be a Velociraptor with some tweaks. Aside from the SAS interface instead of SATA 3Gbps, you get slightly better seek times and a longer MTBF rating - 1.6 million hours, up from 1.4 million hours. The S25 also takes a bit more power, with 5.18w idle and 7.35w during load, compared  to 4.53w and 6.08w respectively for the other drive.

The SAS interface makes the S25 good for "mission-critical enterprise server and enterprise storage applications," according to WD. The drive will come in 147GB and 300GB capacities, and with shipments rolling to "the two largest PC vendors in the industry," the drives should start to appear in new servers and workstations quickly. Individual pricing is unknown.

Model numbers for the drives are as follows:

• WD1460BKFF (147GB, SAS 3Gbps)
• WD3000BKFF (300GB, SAS 3Gbps)
• WD1460BKFG (147GB, SAS 6Gbps)
• WD3000BKFG (300GB, SAS 6Gbps)

See the product page here.

VIA unveils Nano 3000 series processors, up to 20% faster than last generation

VIA has announced its new lineup of Nano CPUs. The new 3000 series of 64-bit single-core Isaiah-based parts are set to compete with Intel's upcoming Pinetrail platform, and, judging by specs, could prove interesting competition.

The lineup consists of these parts:

• U3500 - 1.0Ghz - 800Mhz FSB - 100mW Idle power
• U3300 - 1.2Ghz - 800Mhz FSB - 100mW Idle power
• U3100 - 1.3+Ghz - 800Mhz FSB - 100mW Idle power
• U3200 - 1.4Ghz - 800Mhz FSB - 100mW Idle power
• L3050 - 1.8Ghz - 800Mhz FSB - 500mW Idle power
• L3100 - 2.0Ghz - 800Mhz FSB - 500mW Idle power

Despite the somewhat confusing numbering scheme, 100mW idle power on the U-series parts is pretty impressive. VIA says that the new parts will offer up to 20% higher performance than the current Nanos and consume up to 20% less power. They are still made with a 65nm process supposedly manufactured by Fujitsu, though.

All of them support VIA's VT virtualization extensions, the SSE4 instruction set and VIA's specialized PadLock™ security features. They are pin-compatible with previous Nano and C7 CPUs, which should make model refreshes easy for PC makers (*hint hint* Samsung NC20.) VIA also boasts “flawless playback of high bit-rate 1080p HD video”, which is something that Intel Pinetrail apparently can't handle without a decoder card, leaving the door wide open for VIA.

VIA also did some benchmarks comparing a Nano 3000 at 1.6Ghz with the older Nano processor and an Atom N270, both 1.6Ghz:

As you can see, VIA is doing very well, with a sizable increase of performance over the older Nano. The N270 is slower than both. Hopefully we will see Nano 3000 CPUs adopted by more PC vendors than with the original lineup. Samples are being sent out to PC vendors right now, and mass production will start in Q1 2010, the same time that Intel Pinetrail is supposed to launch.


VIA's press release can be viewed here.

New Lenovo notebook appears on FCC's website

Looks like Lenovo has a slimline 10" netbook coming soon, based on some diagrams filed by Wistron on the FCC website, discovered by Wireless Goodness.

Said diagrams depict a very thin 10.1" machine with very few ports. These include the obvious AC adapter input, a combo headphone/mic jack, one USB port, a mini-HDMI port and a 3-in-1 card reader. A second USB port is hinted to be under a flap on the right side, though of course we don't know for sure. WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G networking is present in addition.

That's just about all we know about this thing. I wouldn't expect an Atom processor hiding inside based on the presence of the mini-HDMI. I would expect Intel CULV or Atom Pineview parts with a Broadcom HD decoder card jammed in a minicard slot.

The machine's codename is 0251 and any updates on this matter will be posted.

Via Wireless Goodness

AsRock announces its 2nd generation of Atom-based nettops

AsRock has fixed most of what was wrong with the original ION 330 model with the new ION 330HT nettops. There are three models in this new series - ION 330HT-BD, ION 330HT and ION 330Pro. As you can probably guess, all of them use dual-core Atom 330 processors and NVIDIA Ion graphics.

The ION 330HT-BD version features a Blu-ray drive and an MCE remote control. The vanilla 330HT model downgrades to a DVD writer instead, and the 330Pro loses WiFi and the remote control. The rest of the specs include 2GB of DDR2-800 memory standard in two SO-DIMM slots (4GB maximum,) up to a 500GB 2.5" HDD with an additional 2.5" bay left over for more storage or RAID0/1, 7.1-channel audio with DTS, VGA and HDMI video outputs, six USB ports and one powered eSATA+USB combo port.

Pricing and availability is unknown.

Via Fudzilla

MSI Wind U230 with Athlon Neo X2, Windows 7 shows up

Although MSI still hasn't announced its Windows 7-preinstalled Wind netbook lineup, the company has put a new 12" ultraportable on their site - the Wind12 U230. It looks physically the same as the other U200 and U210 models, the U230 brings two main differences:

• It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium.
• You can choose between the standard single-core 1.6Ghz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 or a dual-core Athlon Neo X2 L335 part, also at 1.6Ghz.

Essentially this is not much more than a suped-up U210. The rest of the specs include the ATI Radeon HD3200 IGP, a 12.1" 1366x768-pixel screen, up to 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM across two DIMM slots, a 160, 250 or 320GB HDD, 802.11n WiFi, Gigabit LAN, optional Bluetooth, HDMI and VGA video outputs, mic and headphone jacks, three USB ports, a 4-in-1 card reader and a 1.3mp camera.

Battery options are three and six-cell, with the later good for only four hours of runtime (not so great.) The whole thing weighs 1.3kg with the three-cell battery and measures 11.7"x7.5"x1.2"

As the Wind12 U230 hasn't been officially announced yet, availability and pricing is unknown.


Via Netbooked