Data interface Thunderbolt from Intel company entered the market in February 2011 in the Apple MacBook Pro laptop. By combining in the one interface PCI Express and DisplayPort, it now offers data rates up to 10 Gbit / s. On the more common personal computers the interface began to be applied recently, as part of the laptop and PC top price category.



Intel plans to introduce a new controller interface Redwood Ridge Thunderbolt for use in personal computers in the second quarter of next year. It is likely that the new controllers will form the platform of the Shark Bay for next generation processors under the name of Haswell.


Controllers Redwood Ridge will support completely the same data rate 10 Gb / s, interface DisplayPort v1.1 and function DisplayPort v1.2 Redriver. At present, even the cheapest chips Thunderbolt, 2-channel Cactus Ridge, cost motherboard manufacturers at about $ 20, and many consumers expect that emergence of new generations of controllers will reduce …

All those people who look for a small-sized and classic chassis for HTPC system have got a wonderful opportunity to implement their longing into life. PC-Cooling GmbH has introduced its new PC case, codenamed Coolcube, under Cooltek brand. Such an engaging name totally corresponds to the case's framework: cubic case made of anodized aluminum and painted black. Featuring 210x200x240 mm dimensions, the product is estimated for the installation of mini-ITX motherboards. The case itself contains a large number of ventilation holes in the side and rear parts.



The number of PCI expansion slots equals to two, but there is no a dedicated bay for 5.25-inch drives. However, there is room for the installation of a single 3.5-inch drive and one 2.5-inch drive. The length of supported graphics cards should not exceed 185 mm, while the height of supported CPU coolers should not exceed 80 mm.


The most striking thing is that this chassis model is compatible with the majority power supply …

SSDs designed by MSI Company, which are based on the controller LSI SandForce SF-2200 will soon be announced officially. MSI company is known by producing of effective hardware components and laptop series, now they decide to show their abilities in developing new products: they are storages SSD series. Such decision by the company is not surprising, as it has certain knowledge and position on the computer market.



New SSD will have commercial codename Reflex Series and will be available in three options of 60, 120 and 240 GB.


According to preliminary information, the drives provide maximum read / write speed at 560/525 MB / s for the flagship 240GB, 550/515 MB / s for 120 GB and 525/495 MB / s for 60 GB. The claimed amount of IO with 4 KB data blocks (IOPS), respectively, will be 90,000, 90,000 and 85,000.


According to the high performance, the success of the debut SSD MSI Reflex will entirely dependent on the stability of the firmware, as SandForce (with 32nm NAND …