AOpen have announced another Pentium M desktop motherboard to partner the i855GMEm-LFS board released recently. Unlike its sibling that uses Intel’s notebook i855 chipset, the i915GMm is based on Intel’s 915GM chipset and supports Socket 479 Pentium M processors, dual-channel DDR/DDR2, PCI-E graphics and dual Gigabit Ethernet.

Retail versions of the board should be available from early March.

Posted by Simon Crisp on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sonicwalls latest firewall offering is designed to protect your home and office network through deep packet inspection and includes the use of an integrated Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service, -- although adds to the mounting subscriptions faced by end users. -- It is designed to act dynamically against threats, including viruses, worms, Trojans, software vulnerabilities, and other malicious code. Protection is also provided for peer-to-peer and instant messenger applications. This is in addition to usual array of features found typically within Sonicwall products.

Sonicwall TZ 150 £210 (10 user)

Gateway Anti-virus/Intrusion Prevention Service subscription:  £125

Product Information

Posted by Alex Arias on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Proxim latest release in the Orinoco range of wireless access points is the AP700, supporting 802.11a or 802.11b/g mode operation; it is an entry level system for the SMB or Hotspot market. Using Proxims latest OS software release v2.5 it offers extensive security features such as IEEE 802.11i with AES encryption. Whilst Pre-standard IEEE 802.11e QoS means better support for video and voice applications, making this a worthy product to investigate.

Price £249 + VAT

Product Information

Posted by Alex Arias on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Linksys has announced a Mimo (multiple input, multiple output) high-speed wireless router that provides 8x the speed of 802.11g and 3x the coverage.

In an effort to distance the new Wireless-G Broadband Router from the 802.11n standard, which is set to be ratified late 2006, Linksys is not marketing it as a Pre-N product. Instead, it's called the Mimo technology SRX (Speed and Range eXpansion) and it will be appearing in variety of Linksys wireless network equipment.

The Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router will be available in March. For full specifications check out the Linksys web site.

Posted by Will Stapley on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tranquil PC together with VIA Technologies have just announced the world’s first low profile, fanless Media Centre.

Built around a VIA EPIA SP1300 Mini-ITX motherboard, the Tranquil T2e.MCE2005 measures a mere 330 x 255 x 63mm (LxDxH) and weighs just 7.1kg.

The SP series of EPIA boards bring DDR333/400 memory support for VIA’s popular mini motherboards and also includes VIA’s new CN400 Digital Media Chipset.

The Tranquil T2e.MC2005 will be available from March 2005 with a price for a fully configured model (DVD+R plus Dual DVB-T tuner etc) of around £849

For more information visit Tranquil PC's web site

Posted by Simon Crisp on January 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hard on the heels of their DDR500 (PC4000) Ballistix Tracer memory, Crucial have launched a DDR2 version. Available in 1GB or 512MB sticks, the PC2-5300 modules have black PCB’s and heat spreaders like the DDR1 version with blue LEDs at their base with flashing red and green LEDs built into the top of each module.

Prices: 1GB module £225.59 (£191.99 ex VAT)   

 512MB module £119.84 (101.99 ex VAT)

Crucial Technology

Posted by Simon Crisp on January 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

ECS have announced a range of motherboards offering both AGP and PCI-E graphics card slots on the same board. The range includes support for both Intel and AMD processors using Sockets 775, 748, 939, 754 and Socket A and is offered with a wide range of chipset options from Intel, ATI and SIS.

Posted by Simon Crisp on January 28, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Retail versions of ATI’s Radeon X850XT are as rare as hen’s teeth so any addition to the ranks is always welcome.

GeCube’s X850XT UniWise is based on the reference ATI design; 520MHz core and 1.08GHz (540MHz DDR) memory clocks, 16 pixel pipelines, 256-bit memory bus and 256MB of DDR3 memory.

For cooling GeCube have used their own design of heatsink and fan, and by using copper fins and heatpipe technology they have managed to keep the card down to a single slot solution unlike the two slot reference design.

Posted by Simon Crisp on January 27, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)