Tuesday night Seagate said it’s now shipping the industry’s first 4 TB 3.5-inch HDD via the new GoFlex Desk 4TB external drive. In addition to its massive storage capacity, the HDD also showcases a new look for the GoFlex family, sporting a streamlined, industrial (and less round) design that “better reflects the aesthetic of today’s modern offices” while retaining a smaller footprint than its predecessors. The entire line of GoFlex Desk products will also adopt the new industrial design in the coming weeks, the company said.

“Yet another industry first for Seagate, we have reached a new high-capacity in the 3.5-inch hard drive form factor. At Seagate, we are committed to pushing the limits for our customers and will continue to adapt and innovate our products based on customer needs,” said Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Retail products for Seagate. “This latest GoFlex® Desk drive offering, with its new industry-leading capacity point, is a statement of our continued commitment to meet consumer needs.”

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The AMD E-450 dual-core APU comes clocked at 1.65 GHz (which combines two Bobcat architecture x86-64 cores) with a Radeon HD 6320. The Radeon HD 6320 has a base clock of 508 MHz but goes to 600 MHz in Turbo mode and is DirectX 11 compliant. It is capable of a max resolution of 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz (HDMI / DVI) and 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz (RGB). The board measures 9.6″ by 7.2″.

The board features two DDR3-1333 MHz integrated memory slots in single-channel mode, which is capable of DDR3 1600 (OC). The board is powered by a standard 24-pin and 4-pin 12V ATX power to host one PCIe 2.0 x16 (operates at x4 mode), one PCIe 2.0 x1, and two PCI slots. A large heatsink keeps the APU and Hudson M1 chips cool during use, within an optional CPU fan. Storage needs are managed through five SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports and one eSATA 6 Gb/s.

In addition, E45M1-M PRO features Realtek ALC887 8-Channel HD audio, two USB 3.0 ports (back panel), gigabit Ethernet, Firewire, and twelve USB 2.0 ports (4 on back panel and 4 internal headers supporting two USB 2.0). The board is driven by UEFI BIOS, including Asus’ EZ-Mode GUI setup program.

Read more about the Asus E45M1-Pro at their product page

Intel released 11 new “Sandy Bridge” processors for the LGA 1155 socket. The release looks to address some price points in the below $100 range and take aim at AMD’s “Llano”. The Core i3-2125 is one chip designed to take aim directly at the “Llano” with its clock speed of 3.3 GHz and HD 3000 video for around the same price as the current AMD A8-3850 ($134 vs $140). The Core i5-2320 has 4 cores (no HyperThreading), 6 MB of L3 cache, HD 2000 integrated graphics and 95W TDP to lead the pack at the $ 177 price range.

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Tuesday Hitachi announced the worldwide release of its new line of Deskstar 7K1000.D 3.5-inch HDDs featuring a single 7200RPM platter offering up to 1 TB of storage and a maximum areal density of 569 gigabits per square inch. The company is also offering an additional Deskstar 5K1000.B model using the same 1 TB platter, but instead relies on Hitachi’s CoolSpin technology to deliver “a new level of power efficiency and quiet operation.”

Arriving in 250 GB, 320 GB, 500 GB, 750 GB and 1 TB capacities, the Deskstar 7K1000.D line is seemingly built for PC gaming systems and desktop RAID arrays. The drives use Advanced Format which increases the sector size on HDDs from 512 bytes to 4096 (4K) bytes, thereby increasing capacities and improving error correcting capabilities. Other features include a 32 MB data buffer, an SATA 6 Gb/s connection and a maximum media transfer rate of 1822 Mbits/sec.

As for the stand-alone 1 TB Deskstar 5K1000.B, this model is focused on energy-conscious, environmentally friendly computers and is nearly identical to the 7K1000.D line save for the rotational speed. According to Hitachi, CoolSpin is “an optimization of motor speed to provide an ideal balance of performance, power utilization and acoustics.”

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Wednesday OCZ Technology announced the shipment of its RevoDrive Hybrid, a unique PCI Express-based storage solution that combines SSD and hard disk drive (HDD) technologies on one add-on card.

By bypassing the SATA bottleneck, OCZ’s RevoDrive Hybrid promises transfer speeds up to 910 MB/s and up to 120,000 IOPS (4K random write). The SSD aspect reportedly uses a SandForce SF-2281 controller and the hard drive platters spin at 5,400rpm. On a whole, the hybrid drive makes good use of the company’s proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture.

But because the PCIe drive partially relies on old-school HDD technology, the overall product only has a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 600,000 hours – a third of the typical MTBF for SSDs. That said, the shortened lifespan is a tradeoff for the zippy speed across the PCIe bus, as even the PCIe-based RevoDrive X2 SDD only manages up to 740 MB/s reads and up to 720 MB/s writes, depending on the capacity.

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This week we see Thermaltake announcing the Massive23 GT, which is geared towards gamers. The Massive23 GT features a mini-USB port, two USB ports, 200mm red LED fan, while measuring 13.86″ x 11.54″ x 1.63″ and weighing in at 2 lbs. The fan speeds can be adjusted from 500 to 800 RPM, with a rated fan noise of 24 dBA (max). If the red LED light isn’t your style, the Massive23 GT features an on/off control for the light.

In addition, the Massive23 GT offers an anti-slip rubber design, black metal mesh stylish design, along with an adjustable stand with five specially designed ergonomic angles for the best possible viewing positions. For more information on features, pricing, and availability of this notebook cooler, please visit Thermaltake’s product page.

Intel is expected to release the Intel 710 Enterprise SSD in mid to late September, as a replacement to its X25-E series. The Intel 710, codenamed “Lyndonville”, will come in three capacities (100 GB, 200 GB & 300 GB), a 2.5″ form factor and will utilize the SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) interface. The new series is setup to succeed the previous generation X25-E series just as the Intel 320 series replaced the X25-M series. The “Lyndonville” is design to give the enterprise segment a SSD with a lower price per gigabyte cost and endurance comparable to the X25-E.

To address the price per gigabyte concerns with single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory SSDs, Intel introduces the High Endurance Technology Multi-Level Cell (HET-MLC) NAND flash memory chips built on the 25-nanometer fabrication process. You get the write endurance comparable to a SLC SSD, while getting the capacity advantage that MLC offers to users.

The 710′s performance stays on par with many of the other MLC SATA II SSDs on the market but with the write endurance needed for server based drives. The 4K random read is 38,500 IOPS for all three models. The 8K random reads is 26,000 IOPS on the 100 GB and 27,000 IOPS for both 200 GB and 300 GB. Over-provision on these drives effect both the 4K random write speeds and 4K random write endurance, as seen in the charts below.

With a 20 percent over-provision on the 100 GB model, the 4K random writes jump from 2400 IOPS to 4000 IOPS and 4K write endurance goes from 600 TB to 900 TB. The 200 GB model sees similar performance increase through a 20 percent over-provision with 4K random writes jump from 2400 IOPS to 3300 IOPS (less than the 100 GB model) and 4K write endurance goes from 1000 TB to 1300 TB. The 300 GB sees 4K random writes jump from 2000 IOPS to 2400 IOPS and 4K write endurance goes from 1300 TB to 1500 TB.

In terms of sustained sequential speeds, all three models offer up to 270 MB/s read speeds. The 100 GB model has sequential write speeds up to 170 MB/s, while the 200 GB and 300 GB drives have sequential write speeds up to 210 MB/s.

Read more about the Intel 710 Enterprise SSD at VR-Zone.

Friday during the IFA electronics show in Berlin, networking company TRENDnet demonstrated a new Powerline AV Adapter that transmits network signals at 500 Mbps across existing electrical lines. What’s more, the adapter featured four Ethernet ports, allowing up to four media center devices to access the Internet simultaneously – not via Ethernet, not via Wi-Fi, but by way of the local electrical system.

“Network-ready Internet televisions now make up to 50-percent of total television sales in select markets,” said Sonny Su, Director of Technology for TRENDnet. “The need to connect multiple media center devices to the Internet is already here and we are excited to be able to bring compelling Powerline solutions to market.”

A Powerline AV-based network system typically comprises of two components: one that bridges a router to an electrical socket, and one like the 4-port TPL-405E that connects to another power outlet located anywhere in a house or office building (while staying on the same electrical system). TRENDnet adapters connect automatically to each other over a secure encrypted signal with no CD installation required. Encryption keys can even be changed simply by pressing the Sync button.

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Thursday Creative announced its new Sound Blaster Recon3D line of audio cards that’s powered by the “world’s first” quad-core sound and voice processor, the Creative Sound Core3D. This new line consists of three different sounds cards – the Sound Blaster Recon3D, the Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional and the Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Champion – and a headset bundle called the Sound Blaster Recon Omega.

“Designed by Creative’s in-house team of audio scientists and engineers, Sound Core3D is engineered for low power consumption and high performance,” the company said. “It incorporates Creative’s innovative patented Quartet digital signal processor (DSP) with four independent processor cores, and is the first processor to integrate an array of DSP cores with high-quality HD audio codecs of over 100dB on a single chip, giving it tremendous versatility for PC and embedded configurations.”

All three Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI Express sound cards will feature 6-channel 24-bit 102dB DACs, 4-channel 24-bit 101dB analog-to-digital (ADC) converters, integrated headphone amplifier-out, a digital microphone interface, S/PDIF inputs and outputs and general purpose inputs and outputs (GPIO). And thanks to the quad-core processor, all three cards will provide hardware-accelerated THX TruStudio Pro and select CrystalVoice audio technologies including Acoustic Noise Cancellation, Smart Volume and more.

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AMD FX-Series’ final specifications revealed on Gigabyte’s AM3+ – AMD 990FX – GA-990FXA-UD7 (rev. 1.0) CPU support list. Now available for full perusal is a list of supported Bulldozer processors from a Gigabyte CPU compatibility list. We see the final stepping will be B2 for the upcoming Bulldozer release, which is rumored to be in the September/October release window. The FX-8150 is clocked at 3.6 GHz, 8-cores, TDP of 125W and system bus at 5200 MT/s (up from 4000 MT/s of previous generations). You’ll notice the FX-8120 listed both TDP of 125W and 95W. You should expect on initial launch, the 125W TDP models will be the first to the market, later followed by the 95W TDP chips.

The FX-6100 is clocked at 3.3 GHz, 6-cores, TDP of 95W, along with system bus at 5200 MT/s. The FX-4100 is clocked at 3.6 GHz, 4-cores, TDP of 95W, along with bus at 5200 MT/s. One might begin to piece together that the FX-6100 and FX-4100 are likely to be Zambezi with 1 module and 2 modules disabled, respectively, rather than native 3-module / 2-module dies. (Do I see an unlocked FX-4100 to an FX-8150 in my future?)

All CPUs feature 8MB L3 cache and are based on 32nm process. To get a better understanding of the artiture of the Bulldozer, check out the latest information here: AMD’s Bulldozer: More Design Details Surface