Gigabyte have always thought a little different with their ultraportables, and their latest model is no different. The Gigabyte Booktop M1305, like the Booktop M1022 we reviewed back in June, comes with a desktop docking station; however, the M1305 is a 13.3-inch 1,366 x 768 machine and uses Intel’s CULV processors, rather than the paltry Atom N270, and squeezes an NVIDIA GeForce GT220 GPU with 1GB of DDR3 memory into the dock for improved graphics performance.
Been waiting for some of that sweet NVIDIA 40nm GPU action, but aren’t keen on buying a new PC with an OEM card installed? You’ll be pleased to hear that the first retail versions of NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 220 and G210 video cards have emerged, initially courtesy of Gigabyte, and both carrying prices well under the $100 mark.
NVIDIA have confirmed that they plan to launch their second-generation Ion 2 chipset sometime in 2009, after rumors of such plans circulated in early July. According to Fudzilla the confirmation came from NVIDIA’s head of chipsets, with the Ion 2 expected to deliver a smaller die, far faster graphics and many more shaders.
Sony’s final new VAIO announcement this week is the VAIO CW Series, a range of 14-inch 16:9 aspect notebooks available in a series of moderately striking colors. Chubbier than the VAIO X, certainly, the CW Series uses that extra heft to slide in an optional Blu ray burner together with NVIDIA GeForce GT230M 512MB or GT210M 256MB graphics and both VGA and HDMI ports.
ASUS have outed two new Republic of Gamers notebooks, the G60 and G71X, offering Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors respectively. The two new laptops each have NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 260M with 1GB of dedicated memory, driving a 16-inch 1,366 x 768 display in the case of the G60, and a 1,920 x 1,200 in the G71X. Both machines have Blu-ray drives, dual HDDs set up in RAID arrays (640GB total in the G60; 1TB total in the G71X) and both HDMI and eSATA ports.
BFG Technologies have announced their latest liquid-cooling system, this time for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 and GeForce GTX 295, promising maintenance-free performance cooling. The two cards come pre-fitted with BFG’s ThermoIntelligence advanced cooling systems, with the company claiming running temperatures of up to 30-degrees centigrade cooler than standard air-cooled models.
Acer Japan have announced a new version of their Predator desktop gaming PCs, the ASG7710-A41. Fitted with Intel’s 3.06GHz Core i7-950 processor, 6GB of DDR3 memory (with up to 12GB supported) and twin NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB video cards, the Aspire G Predator comes bundled with Acer’s G15 keyboard and G9 mouse.
Gaming notebook manufacturer Rock have announced two new models, the Xtreme 790 and Xtreme 840, each offering NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M 1GB graphics, Blu-ray and up to 6GB of DDR3 RAM. The Xtreme 790 has a 17-inch Full HD display, up to 1.5TB of storage via three 500GB 7,200rpm HDDs (with RAID support) and Intel Core i7 processors, via the Xtreme 840 steps up to an 18.4-inch Full HD display, Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad CPUs, and the potential for two GTX 280M GPUs.
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.
Yesterday’s rumored NVIDIA 40nm GPUs have been made official, in the shape of listings for two new OEM cards: the NVIDIA GeForce G210 and the GeForce GT 220. Both support DirectX 10.1, OpenGL 3.0 and CUDA, with the G210 having VGA, DisplayPort and DVI outputs while the GT 220 has VGA, HDMI and DVI.
Full specifications for both cards after the cut
JP
