Celestron VistaPix IS70 Digital Spotting Scope

Celestron's stylish and versatile VistaPix IS70 Digital Spotting Scope lets you see and capture the action closer than ever before. This fully integrated unit consists of a high-power 70mm spotting scope with 14x magnification combined with a dual-power, side-mount 3.1-megapixel digital camera with 6x digital zoom. The result is an amazingly efficient, high-performance product that allows you to view, capture and save vibrant, high-resolution images and video from a distance. A 2-inch color LCD screen previews the image and includes a digital focus meter to ensure sharp shots. A video cable and shutter cables and easy-to-install VistaPix software are included in the package, so you can view your video and images on your television or PC.

Whether viewing wildlife, performing surveillance, watching sports or even bringing the night sky into closer view, the IS70 works great in a wide range of viewing environments. We first used the scope to view and image a close-up of a small outbuilding over 2,400 feet away, and the IS70 delivered a sharp image thanks in part to its easily adjustable focus wheel. We then sighted the scope on an Asian pear tree about 100 yards away. The image was brought into crystal-clear focus with amazing details. We could see each leaf, and the fruit seemed so close that we wanted to reach out and take a bite.

We recommend a tripod when viewing or shooting, because since the IS70 lacks a focus lock, even the slightest movement may cause you to lose focus. Camera controls are well laid out, although we feel the setting buttons should be easier to press. You'll be using this device outdoors, so it is unfortunate that the LCD screen is hard to see in bright light. On the plus side, the high-quality aluminum hard case is a standout and gives great protection when traveling.

Despite the need for a few improvements, Celestron's VistaPix IS70 Digital Spotting Scope really brings the action up close and personal.


Pros: Combines a high-power spotting scope with a digital camera, bright and razor-sharp images, easily adjustable focus wheel, setting buttons easy to use, high-quality protective carrying case
Cons: Focusing a bit touchy, no focus lock, LCD screen washes out in some light conditions, buttons a bit hard to press, a tripod makes viewing and shooting much easier 

Amazon Kindle E-Book Reader

The Amazon Kindle is a great way to carry all those books, magazines and newspapers around with you while you are on the go.

Those unfamiliar with e-books are usually wary of the idea of reading from portable computers. Screens perform poorly in direct sunlight, and your eyes get tired. But the Amazon Kindle is about to change a lot of people's minds. The device uses a high-resolution display technology called an electrophoretic (or electronic paper, or "e-paper") display that is not backlit. Instead, it basically imitates a printed page, so you can read books the way you normally do, whether you're in a beach chair or beside a lamp.

The entire device is about the size and weight of a standard paperback book (10.3 ounces, and measures 7.5x5.3x0.7 inches). Meanwhile, the screen is 4.9x3.6 inches and its contrast is adjustable, as is the font size. Overall, the quality of the "printed" page looks exceptional, and reading for long periods poses no different eyestrain than one would normally encounter from a regular text.

The delivery mechanism of the Kindle is one of the handiest features. EV-DO technology is built into the unit, so as long as you are within Sprint's mobile phone network, you can immediately access the Kindle/Amazon library, as well as newspapers, blogs, Wikipedia, and the rest of the Internet. The latter two services are free, but you have to pay subscription charges for both the newspapers and the blogs, which is rather ridiculous given that they are free online. Access to the high-speed EV-DO network, however, does not have a charge, and a monthly service plan is not required.

There are no cables or computers required for the Kindle, but if you are outside of Sprint's network (say Europe), you can download books to a computer and then transfer the files via USB. Most new releases cost $9.99, and older titles are offered at a discount. You can also read the first chapters of many books for free. The other products that you can download to the Kindle are audiobooks and MP3 files, for which a headphone jack sits on the side of the unit.

Among the newspapers that the Kindle can include are The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many others. There are some major concerns here, though: Because it is auto-delivered each day, you do not get to view the same information as someone on a computer; namely, you lose all of the breaking news and basically you have the morning edition in your hands. Given that the Kindle has a wireless connection, this seems lazy. And the formatting of the newspaper is not particularly pleasing (it's as if it's been converted into a book). You can actually access the sites for free over the device's Internet connection, but the browser offered with the Kindle is unexceptional and does not format the pages particularly well, nor are they in color.

Magazine subscriptions are a more suitable media for the device, as their content is not as dynamic. Some of the magazines that the Kindle can access include TIME, Atlantic Monthly, Forbes, and many others. There are some formatting issues here too, but over time this will probably be resolved with future firmware updates, which happen automatically over the high-speed network.

Nonetheless, books will be the consumer's primary focus here, and downloading them from Amazon's site is exceptionally easy. You simply go to their library through a dedicated button and then select a title. After one click, the book begins downloading, and generally takes about one minute to arrive in full. Another great thing is that if you need to delete books for space, or if you lose your Kindle, Amazon tracks all of your purchases so that you can download the book again, free of charge.

Reading your purchases is surprisingly smooth because the designers have done a great job in virtually creating printed text. Once you finish one page, pressing a button on either side of the screen will flip to the next. It takes just a second or two for the words to refresh. Below the screen there is a full QWERTY keyboard that you can use to type in requests, web pages, or other notes, and there is a scroll wheel beside it so you can move through web pages. Whenever you run across a word you don't know, either online or in a book, you can indicate it and all the words in that line are looked up in a dictionary for you. The device also remembers where you left off reading, and you can dog-ear pages where important information resides. Also on the keyboard is a button that takes you to your own home page where all of your works are displayed. Once there, you need only to scroll around until you find what you want to read.

The capacity of the Kindle is 185MB of internal memory, which holds roughly 200 titles, but there's a SD memory card slot on the back of the unit that can accommodate cards up to 4GB in capacity. In addition to books, The Kindle can also store your personal files and pictures, which can be loaded via USB or e-mailed to the Kindle. The latter feature is a bit obnoxious, as you have to pay per attachment (even if it is just ten cents each).

Probably the biggest drawback of this device is its design. The plastic shell feels cheap, and when you're spending 400 bucks and downloading hundreds of books that you're paying for, a little bit of confidence in the device's ruggedness would be nice. As for battery life, you should get about a week's worth of reading done before you need to recharge. If you leave the wireless connection on all of the time, the battery will be drained in about a day and a half.

Overall, the Kindle is definitely a handy way to tote your books around with you, but a few design issues and subscriptions deals need to be ironed out before the public will embrace it.

Pros: Easy-to-read screen, quick access to downloading books, large internal and external memories
Cons: Must pay for periodicals and blogs, design not very rugged, e-mail transfers awkward and pricey

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Electronics to Make This Year a Success

It's back-to-school time already. Summer is winding down, and it is time to gear up for the new school year. You may need new clothes, new pencils and a new backpack, but the items that really kick the school year off right are electronics. Whether it is a new laptop, a more powerful digital camera or a nicer LCD monitor, Consumer Guide and HowStuffWorks have found some of the best educational tools that will put you on the right path.


HP Pavilion dv9500t

The HP Pavilion dv9500t laptop is like bringing your old desktop tower to class with you (but way more convenient). This notebook starts with an ample 1GB of DDR2 memory, and is easily upgraded. This unit also features "QuickPlay," so you can watch DVDs and listen to music without fully booting up the system. Add a TV tuner, and this system is a personal video recorder so you can record TV shows onto a sizable 160GB hard drive.


HP Pavilion dv9500t laptop

HP Pavilion dv9500t laptop


And to go with your new HP laptop, you need an HP LaserJet 3050 all-in-one printer/fax. For less than $300, you can get a laser printer that can spit out 19 pages a minute in draft, meaning that the term paper that you worked on all night can be ready before that 8 o'clock class. If you aren't able to make it all the way across campus, no sweat: You can fax your paper into the office at 20 pages per minute!


Canon PowerShot A710IS

It is a good idea to pack a digital camera before heading off to school. (Our advice is to take a picture of yourself with a big stack of books at the library to send to your mom.) To get that done, the Canon PowerShot A710IS is a 7.1 megapixel digital camera with a 6X optical zoom and image stabilization. This is an impressive piece of equipment, and it is widely available for less than $300. Another piece of advice: Keep the library image, while making sure you delete the images that you need to delete before winter break.


Apple iPod shuffle (2nd Generation)

Want a bunch of tunes, but don't have a pile of cash? The new Apple iPod shuffle is the smallest and one of the most stylish MP3 players available. This little unit can hold 240 songs and boasts 12 hours of uninterrupted playback. An added bonus is that you can use the shuffle as a portable flash data storage drive, so that you can transport presentations to class or study groups. And the shuffle fully recharges in only 4 hours.


Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor

When you are in the middle of writing a huge term paper, you'll be glad that you went out and got the Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-inch widescreen LCD Monitor with a height-adjustable stand to hook up to your laptop, rather than relying only on the laptop's display -- especially true if you have an older notebook. And if you watch a lot of DVDs through your computer, this monitor will really make the images pop, unlike a typical notebook display. The SyncMaster 225BW has six preset display options, including documents, Internet and movies, that really show off the versatility of the monitor.


Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor

Logitech QuickCam Orbit MP

With the face-tracking technology that the Logitech QuickCam Orbit MP web cam employs, you might never be out of frame. This model pans and tilts and can cover 189 horizontal and 102 vertical degrees of a room. So if you are on a video call across campus, you can move all over the room and still be in the picture. And with its integrated microphone, you can make the call hands-free and without that dorky phone headset.


Flash Memory

Remember that you can take it with you: Flash memory cards and sticks such as SmartMedia, CompactFlash and Memory Stick are different types of removable flash memory that transfer information from devices like digital cameras and PDAs to computers. It is important to know which type of memory storage is the one that will work with your device. With the right kind of memory storage, you can easily store your key documents, pictures, music and video clips.


Educational & Reference Software

There are so many educational titles available that you can easily find help in any area that you may need, from math to writing to typing to science. There are software packages to help you scrapbook, learn French and play piano. And reference software is available to make research a breeze. For every level of student, from toddlers to college students, and every interest that you can have, a detailed software package is available to help you out.

Back to School: College Time is Study Time

Soon, college students will be heading back to school, so your scholars will need to stockpile all that is needed for a dorm or apartment. And although thoughts of room decor might dominate the packing process, students should remember the essentials that can be used to create an ideal atmosphere for studying; after all, that's the main reason they're at college, right?


Concentration

The music produced by an MP3 player can help to block surrounding noise and put a student in a serenely focused state. These devices are pint-sized and easy to load with songs, and can provide hours of music for on- and off-campus use. Additionally, some new cell phones, such as the Apple iPhone, can hold music as well as download files, access websites, and -- of course -- make calls. The iPhone can be a great companion for any college student who is studying on the go.

Some students prefer studying in their room and do not need a portable music player. In this case, consider a functional, affordable clock radio. The alarm offered by a clock radio assures that your student will always be on time to his or her classes, and the built-in radio, CD player or MP3 player supplies audio that is needed for concentration and entertainment; the Coby CD-RA145 clock radio provides a CD player, whereas the Emerson iTone iC200 includes an iPod player and charger. Many clock radios can be set to play programmed tracks as an alarm, and some clock radios have headphone jacks, so if your student has rowdy or sleepy roommates, he or she can still listen to music quietly.

Focus with music.
Apple iPhone 2nd Generation

Organization

Laptops serve students well throughout the course of their education. However, additional storage can be used so precious memory space is not overwhelmed by several years' worth of work. Long gone are the days of floppy-disc storage; a USB flash drive can carry files to and from the dorm room, campus computer labs and classrooms. Students can take their work with them and make changes to papers and notes during classes and study time.

Blank CDs can also be used for information storage; they are handy for storing term papers, portfolios and projects that need to be handed in to teachers or saved for future reference. When shopping for blank CDs, be aware that there are many different types; they vary by recording format and space. Some are rewritable, whereas others are not. If a CD is rewritable, information can be burned to the disc over and over again; a non-rewritable CD can only be burned once.

A book light can help a student study into the night.

Comfort

It's hard to study when you're not comfortable. Four years or more at a desk is liable to take a toll on any student's body and focus. Many of today's college students will spend many more years behind desks after they graduate, so it is important to learn how to be comfortable. For example, a lack of proper lighting can strain eyes; if this occurs, fatigue can set in. Long term, strain caused by low light can lead to a decline your quality of vision, so you should find a desk lamp that will give off the right amount of light at all times. An adjustable lamp can help to position the light at the right level for maximum comfort. Some students, however, simply prefer to study in the dark, in bed or when everyone else is sleeping; to make this easier, you should consider a book light; a small LED bulb often provides more than enough light with which to comfortably study. These lights can clip to books or bedposts and can be plugged into outlets or run by batteries.

Position and posture are also important to comfort at the desk. To ease long term wrist and hand strain, consider investing in wrist rests for mouse pads and keyboards. Often filled with gel or beans, these rests sit in front of the keyboard and/or mouse pad for support and protection from strains and arthritis. The Fellowes Memory Foam Wrist Rest/Mouse Pad is an example of a comfortable wrist rest. A student should also have a comfortable chair that supports the spine and lower back. Consider using a back supportto make lengthy study sessions much more comfortable.

Corsair at CES 2011

Prior to CES 2011's official start, Corsair hosted a press conference in the classy V Bar inside of the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. There, we were given a brief run-down of the company's success over the years, and also what's on the horizon.

For those who might not remember, Corsair began out as a company which created Level 2 Cache add-in modules for the PC, which of course happened long before the L2 Cache became a part of the CPU itself (yes, it's true).

Fast-forward to the year 2000 and the company began releasing overclocking modules, although at the time, overclocking was still an extreme niche. In fact, it hadn't even considered overclocking or knew what it was, until enthusiasts said that its modules were great for it. History was made.

Continuing onto 2003, Corsair released its hugely popular PRO line-up, and in 2005, the XPERT LED-equipped modules were released. Then in 2006, power supplies were introduced into the company's portfolio, and since then, little has begun to slow down. Just last year, it began to get into audio (headsets) and also released professional-grade PSUs.

So what's up for 2011? At the event, several products were unveiled, all of which we'll tackle here. No new categories were introduced, but follow-up products to newer categories were, including the SP2200 and SP2500 2.1 speaker sets.


Corsair SP2500 and SP2200 2.1 Speaker Sets
As the numbers imply, the SP2500 is the higher-end of the two, to be priced at around ~$239.99. Sounds expensive for the regular Corsair purchaser, but make no mistake, this is a higher-end set of speakers. Despite being just a 2.1 set, it outputs a total of 232W RMS, which is far, far more than most cheapie 5.1 sets.

 

A common complaint of these higher-end setups is that they might be good for gaming or movies/music, but rarely great for both. Corsair has tried to work around this by using a high-quality digital signal processor to shape and properly balance the audio, and if the effect doesn't suit you, you can of course change it.

The SP2500 includes two-way bi-amplified satellites, which uses ferrofluid-cooled silk dome tweeters and 3-inch mid-range drivers, along with mesh metal grilles for physical appeal. Each one of these sats deliver 56W RMS, which is 16W for the tweeter and 40W for the mid.

The woofer uses an 8-inch driver with durable rubber surround, a bridged dual 60W class D amplifier for a total power output of 120W.

Another perk of the SP2500 is a robust remote control with allows you to alter the EQ and program modes, all of which Corsair has manually created to best-suit each use. You can of course alter the EQ to your heart's content, but you might just be fine with the company's configurations.



The SP2200 speaker set is similar to the SP2500, but much less powerful and doesn't feature the remote. This set outputs at 46W and is deigned to be affordable, but also a major upgrade to most of the speaker sets some gamers might be using. It's also priced at a more accessible price-point, ~$99.

Corsair HS1A Headset
A couple of months ago, Jamie took a look at Corsair's brand-new gaming headset, the HS1, and had quite a bit of praise for it in the end. The HS1A is not an upgrade per se, but removes the USB connector and gives us a regular audio jack, allowing us to take advantage of the add-in audio cards in our PC for even better audio.



You'd imagine (or at least I would) that the USB model would cost more than the one with a regular audio port, but no. The HS1A will cost about $10 more than the HS1, when it it becomes available this quarter.


Corsair Graphite 600T
Care for a white chassis with some internal appeal? Corsair's Graphite 600T special edition might just be for you. It takes all of what made the original appealling to enthusiasts and turned it into a white glossy offering.



In addition to that minor color change, there are black accents on key areas and also a mesh window. The chassis will become available later this month and should retail for around $160.

Corsair H60 Liquid CPU Cooler
At Techgage, we've been using the Corsair H50 CPU cooler in quite a number of our test machines, so it was of great interest to see the H60 announced. But as we began listening, it became clear that there's a lot more than meets the eye. This wasn't entirely a Corsair developed design, but rather a result of a partnership with CoolIT Systems.

 

As I mentioned in our news section, this partnership marks the end of CoolIT's offering of products to consumers under its own name. Going forward, the company will be working with others to develop products and also focus on the enterprise market.

The H60 uses a large copper cold plate to transfer heat more effectively and uses a "split-flow" design to cover more of the heatsink area when passing water through. Because the block is constructed from a single piece of copper, you can expect the best performance possible from such a unit. The cooler will become available soon, although I am unsure of its price.

Corsair Graphite 650D
Building off of the massive success of the 800D released last fall, Corsair has followed-up with the 650D mid-tower. It features clean lines, a builder-friendly design, aluminum and steel construction, and as Corsair states, it's a mid-tower on the outside but a full-tower on the inside.



The chassis has a 200mm front-mounted intake fan and a top-mounted exhaust fan, a generous CPU backplate cut-out, toolless drive bays, 8 PCIe expansion slots, and of course, the signature cable-routing system that first launched on the 800D.

This chassis will become available in the early spring and retail for $200.

Corsair Link & Final Thoughts
Wrapping up the press event, Corsair talked a bit about "Corsair Link", which is a software/hardware platform that allows a user to monitor a variety of system components from within Windows. This could include RAM temperatures, voltages, hard drive SMART information and more. It would of course work best with Corsair's own hardware, but it is designed to work with others as well.

Corsair Link is still in development, so there are no screenshots or a ton of information out about it. This kind of thing has been attempted before and hasn't had major success (NVIDIA tried it), so we'll see where Corsair's try will go.

Corsair's unveilings were quite interesting, with the SP2500 taking the cake for me. I love higher-performance audio, and it's clear that Corsair has put in the time and effort to make this one a winner. I can't wait to be able to hear it live in person.

GIGABYTE at CES 2011

uring GIGABYTE's press conference at CES 2011, the company had a major focus on its motherboards and talked about how things have changed over the past couple of years, while also discussing its upcoming enthusiast offerings. Due to a tight schedule, we were unable to attend this press conference, but we were still able to get the important details after-the-fact.

It's a secret to no one that GIGABYTE has in the past produced some of the most colorful motherboards on the planet, and depending on personal taste, it was something that was either appreciated or hated. It seems that most people were weighted more toward the latter, as GIGABYTE has since decided to tone things down.

The last couple of GIGABYTE launches have featured boards with a blue PCB and blue components, and overall, they've looked quite nice. But, it's hard to compete with a black PCB and darker-colored components, and the company proves that it agrees with the help of its higher-end P67 line-up.



I prefer darker-colored boards, so I think GIGABYTE has done a great job with its P67 series, and as I've mentioned in other content, I'd be willing to say that its P67A-UD7 is the best-looking board ever released.



Am I wrong?

Going forward, GIGABYTE will continue to use the blue/blue color scheme, but it will be dedicated to the lesser-expensive product-lines, such as UD3, UD2H and so forth. The higher-end boards will be the ones that see the black/dark-color schemes, or "matte black" as GIGABYTE calls it. Those models include the UD3R/P straight up through to the UD9.

Aesthetics aside, the company decided to talk a bit about its power configurations on its higher-end motherboards - schemes that help make the boards more attractive to overclockers. Kicking things off, it quoted The Overclocker online magazine, which stated that GIGABYTE's CPU VRM configuration is the best for overclocking, from both an efficiency and stability standpoint.

I'm not a hardcore overclocker, but I still think that 24 power phases on a board is overkill. GIGABYTE disagrees, though, because it continues to employ such configurations and stresses that they increase the efficiency to a major degree over "traditional" designs (I am not sure what the company considers to be traditional).



Helping efficiency further, GIGABYTE is utilizing a better VRD12 design by using an "Intel Approved" Intersil PWM controller, which uses the SVID technique of regulating voltage to the CPU. Adding to the "Intel Approved" fray, GIGABYTE is also using "Driver MOSFETs" which is in essence an additional chip added to each MOSFET that improves power efficiency - lowering the power leakage and also the temperature.



GIGABYTE also talked about "Dual CPU Power", which it claims doubles the VRM phase lifespan and improves energy savings. Since all of the additional phases that the high-end boards offer is primarily only useful to overclockers, more phases are triggered when things start getting heavy. A regular overclock might only require 12 phases, but after cranking things way up, all 24 phases could be used.

Of course, we can't forget the "Dual BIOS", a feature that GIGABYTE has really been the only one to heavily use and promote over the year. Should one BIOS fail, the backup can save the day. Simple, but effective and potentially night-saving.

Prior to CES, GIGABYTE teased about its "G1" motherboard line-up, and of course, these boards were shown off during the event. In essence, G1 boards are designed for gamers, those who want a full-featured offering and plan to use dual or even triple GPU solutions. Three variants were unveiled, the Assassin (highest-end), Sniper (high-end) and Guerrilla (mainstream).



Here's GIGABYTE's Colin Brix holding the larger-than-usual motherboard box:



I'm not going to exhaust all of the details of these boards for this article, but we do hope to receive a sample of one in the near-future and we can go into more details. What makes the G1 series so interesting is that all of them utilize Killer Networks' E2100 network card, or "network processing unit". This has a dedicated 1GB of DDR2 memory to help offload network traffic from the CPU, and is meant to provide the best possible networking solution for gamers.

With the NIC taken care of, the audio is all that's left. To fill that void, GIGABYTE has contracted Creative to use its X-Fi chip on-board as well. This is a real X-Fi solution, not an emulated solution that has been used on many motherboards in the past. You can see the audio card's full circuitry on the left side of the board, along with its chips.

The lowest-end G1 offering is the only one to forego the real X-Fi solution in lieu of a software-based one (similar to other boards we've seen in the past).

One of the more interesting aspects of the G1 boards is the faux bullet cartridge with bullet on top. I had asked GIGABYTE if it had considered having the bullet fire off if someone gets too carried away with their overclocking, but sadly, I was reminded of potential legal issues.

Moving away from motherboards, GIGABYTE had some other things to talk about when I visited its suite at the Venetian hotel. The first is the Super Overclock versions of AMD's Radeon HD 6800 series. These cards feature a WINDFORCE cooler that looks to be extremely effective (we will find this out in the weeks to come when our sample arrives). It allows a ton of airflow, has a good design, and takes up two slots in total. You can see a side-view of the card here.



A couple of months ago, we took a look at GIGABYTE's first "Aivia" offering, a gaming keyboard. Overall, our thoughts of it were quite good, and it even received our Editor's Choice award. At the suite, it showed off an upcoming wireless gaming mouse, replete with removable cable. This mouse will be similar to the GM-M8000 in that it's catered toward gamers, but GIGABYTE states that it will be the first wireless solution that's truly reliable enough for gamers to want to use it.



Remember that Swarovski luxury mouse we saw from GIGABYTE at Computex two years ago? Well, now it comes in black leather, not only brown. And that's really all there is to say about that!



Before wrapping up, I have to post a couple of PCs that were used in the suite, because they look excellent:





GIGABYTE had a lot to show off during CES, and its G1 motherboard has intrigued me quite a bit. I look forward to receiving a sample to give it a good test, and give both the on-board Creative X-Fi card and Killer NIC card an honest go. Stay tuned for a review!

OCZ Technology at CES 2011

At an event as huge as CES, it's inevitable that we'll run into a couple of companies with such a large number of product unveilings that it will be overwhelming, and at the same time, there will be others with more modest line-ups. This CES, OCZ Technology falls into that latter category, thanks solely to its dwindling number of product categories.


At CES 2010, I remember walking into OCZ's suite at the Aria hotel and thinking to myself, "Wow, where are all the products?", and this year, it was much of the same. But it's understandable... SSDs for OCZ have been a majorly successful endeavour, so the focus there should be just as major.


During our meeting, I was told that OCZ would soon be phasing out all of its RAM products, and a mere couple of days later, that became public. But, despite the end of an era within OCZ, the company did have a couple of RAM kits to show off, which one of its employees sombrely mentioned where the best-looking modules the company had ever released:





Rest in peace, OCZ RAM!


But onto happier things! OCZ of course had lots of SSDs on display, and the first I was shown off was the Z-Drive R3, an upcoming release that follows in the footsteps of the successful Z-Drive series designed for enterprise environments. Thanks to its modular design, purchasing a Z-Drive doesn't mean what you get back to the office is what will remain forever, as it's completely upgradeable.






The R3 features a shorter form-factor, so that it can be used in even smaller server chassis. Perhaps we'll see a solution like this on the enthusiast side someday?


One of OCZ's most successful SSD line-ups has been the Vortex series, so it was of little surprise to see the Vertex 3s on display, including the SLC-based EX and MLC-based Pro. The EX has a read speed of 550MB/s, a write speed of 525MB/s and 4K IOPS performance of 80,000. The Pro is nearly identical, except its 4K IOPS performance is 75,000.





A couple of months ago we talked a bit about OCZ's fast HSDL interface and its IBIS SSD, but until our meeting I hadn't seen the final product on display. It looks somewhat similar to the company's "Colossus" 3.5-inch SSD, but a little more attractive.





A brand-new HSDL product was also on display, the "IBIS XL", a product that's designed to offer mass storage but still in an SSD format. As far as I understood, the smallest model offered of this will be 4TB, which puts even desktop mechanical drives to shame. The unfortunate thing is the $8,000 price tag.





For some reason, OCZ rejected my request for a review sample. Figure that one out!


Among all power supplies, PC Power and Cooling's Silencer line-up is a bit of a legend, and as a result, OCZ has decided to bring some new launches back to their roots and give fans what they want. For some reason, the Silencer II series weren't the best-received, so these 760W and 910W models should give people just what they're looking for. Both models are 80 Plus Silver certified.





Under OCZ's own brand, a couple of new power supplies were also announced, with a 80 Plus Bronze certification. The series, ZS, will be released in 500W, 600W and 700W sizes, and not feature a modular design.





To help fill that 80 Plus Gold void, the company also showed off the ZX series, which is a modular design... a 100% one to be exact. They are designed to power even the beefiest PCs, with dual 8-pin motherboard connectors and a total of six eight-pin power connectors. It looks great and thanks to its small form-factor, it could be the go-to choice for many a builder.





OCZ Technology has many products en route to retailers in the months to come, and I'm sure we'll be taking a look at many of its SSD products in the near-future. Stay tuned!