HGST makes use of a “hermetic seal technology” which makes it impossible for helium to leak through the HDD’s seals. According to HGST helium “”dramatically reduces the turbulence caused by the spinning disk, cuts power consumption and results in a lower temperature within the disk drive.”

HGST’s product marketing VP, Brendan Collins, talks about this revolutionary HDD:

“With ever-increasing pressures on corporate and cloud data centers to improve storage efficiencies and reduce costs, HGST is at the forefront delivering a revolutionary new solution that significantly improves data center TCO on virtually every level – capacity, power, cooling and storage density – all in the same 3.5-inch form factor. Not only is our new Ultrastar helium hard drive helping customers solve data center challenges today, our mainstream helium platform will serve as the future building block for new products and technologies moving forward. This is a huge feat, and we are gratified by the support of our customers in the development of this platform,”

The Ultrastar He6 comes with a 5-year warranty. There is no word on how much each He6 HDD costs.

Sony has demonstrated the face-recognition and tracking capabilities of the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld, using the portable console’s front-facing camera to track head movement and have on-screen avatars respond accordingly. In the demo, filmed by Siliconera and which you can see after the cut, Sony showed a two-way video chat being held between a pair of animated avatars, the head, mouth, eye and other movements being mapped to those of the gamer.

Although head-tracking has been done before, the system Sony demonstrated was able to track minor details like eye-blinking and eyebrow twitches, for a more lifelike animation. Sony wasn’t saying a video calling app would necessarily be the final use of the technology, 4gamer reports, but that the software was merely a demonstration of the power of the Vita’s abilities and its potential in augmented reality (AR) gaming.

Rather than using specific glyphs that can be identified and tracked by an AR system, Sony’s Yoshikatsu Kanemaru suggested that objects and even people could be distinguished by the Vita and have computer-generated graphics overlaid. It’s a technology that appears to have borrowed from Sony’s previous SmartAR research, which can intelligently spot unique elements -such as posters, magazines or more complex forms, like body outlines – in the camera’s frame and then track them accordingly.

All of the boards in the series use the dual intelligent Processors 2 tech with DIGI+ VRM power delivery for precision power adjustment and control. The boards also provide extra DRAM power to increase stability and has a feature packed BIOS. It sounds like the family will be overclocker friendly.

The mainboards also supports SATA 6Gb/s storage interface with RAID 0/1/10 support. The chipset in the boards also supports USB 3.0 natively with no need for a secondary controller. Intel still lacks native support for USB 3.0 and all Intel chipset boards are using a secondary controller for USB 3.0 ports. There is no word on when these boards will land and how much they will cost.

The recent refresh of the GeForce GTX 460M into the 560M was a welcome one, bringing Optimus support and higher clocks to what's liable to be their crown prince of budget mobile gaming. The GTX 560M is beginning to materialize in the market, but we were still left with an odd hole in NVIDIA's lineup at the top. That hole has now been filled, and thankfully it's at least a little more than the usual speedbump that goes along with a new moniker these days. Now every part in the 500M series can switch over to Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics while running on the battery, offering the best of both worlds.

NVIDIA's new top dog is the GeForce GTX 580M. Every spec on the press sheets is listed as "up to," but that's really par for the course. While NVIDIA's reps declined to comment on what chips are being used for the GTX 580M, you'll find the specs are a dead giveaway. The 580M seems to be a mobile version of the GF104/114 (more likely GF114), with 384 CUDA cores, with a main clock of 620MHz (yielding 1240MHz on the shader cores). Riding shotgun is a 256-bit memory bus supporting up to 2GB of GDDR5 clocked at an effective 3GHz. Those of you keeping score at home will note that's an improvement of 45MHz on the core (and thus 90MHz on the shaders), with the memory speed remaining constant. All told I'd expect performance in the neighborhood of the desktop GeForce GTX 460 1GB version (or at least, the original NVIDIA spec): not too shabby, but still an incremental improvement on the shipping GTX 485M. The major selling point is, again, Optimus support in the 580M.

On the heels of the GTX 580M is the GeForce GTX 570M. The 470M was a bit of an oddity in that while the 480M and 485M were easy enough to find, the 470M was largely a rarity. While the 580M sees the minor speedbump we've come to expect, the 570M is a major improvement over its seldom-used predecessor. The 570M likely uses the same silicon as the 580M (which is, again, more than likely a GF114), but while the 470M only had 288 CUDA cores, the 570M gets a healthy upgrade to 336. The 470M's 535MHz core clock also sees a boost to 575MHz, with the shaders clocked at 1150MHz. The 570M still retains the 470M's 192-bit memory bus, and will be configured with either 1.5GB or 3GB of GDDR5 clocked at an effective 3GHz, a marked improvement on the 470M's 2.5GHz memory clocks. All told performance should be somewhere between the desktop GeForce GTX 460 768MB and the GTX 460 SE. For mobile gaming, that's still not bad at all, and again it benefits from Optimus support.

NVIDIA also was able to point out specific models of notebooks that will be shipping with these parts. Availability in 17" Clevo notebooks should surprise no one, with the P270WN in particular supporting both 3D Vision and SLI'd GeForce GTX 580M's. Alienware's new M18x (which we have en route for review) will also be supporting the GeForce GTX 580M in SLI. And finally, the MSI GT780R shown above will be shipping with the GeForce GTX 570M.

NVIDIA expects notebooks featuring the new GPUs to be available for order from OEMs today.

Razer is back and that DeathAdder mouse is getting dressed up for fans of the Transformers franchise. The mice are for the tie in to the new flick that opens this week in theaters everywhere. The DeathAdder comes in both Autobot and Decepticon versions with the good guy mice in red for Optimus Prime and yellow for Bumblebee. The bad guys are in silver for Megatron and purple for the new baddies that pop out of the dust on the moon.

All of the mice have the same 3.5G sensor and 3500dpi sensitivity. You can pick up any of the four designs for $69.99 each. To complete your Transformers desk swag you can also get a Transformers Vespula dual sided gaming mouse pad with Optimus on one side and Megatron on the other for $44.99. Razer also has a line of laptop sleeve cases in Transformers style for $49.99 each.

Memory Upgrades for Desktop and Notebook PCs Offer Speed, and Energy Savings

Ridgefield Park, NJ (June 9, 2011) – Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a market leader
and award‐winning innovator in digital consumer electronics and information
technology, today announced the introduction of 30‐nanometer‐class1 DDR3
synchronous dynamic random‐access memory (DRAM) modules for PC upgrades. This
new generation of faster, more energy efficient DRAM modules will be available
through consumer retail channels this summer.

“Replacing your DRAM can be one of the easiest, most cost‐effective ways to upgrade
your PC’s performance, and these new products offer the most energy‐efficient option
currently available to consumers,” said Reid Sullivan, senior vice president of mobile
entertainment marketing, Samsung Electronics America. “Samsung is committed to
bringing performance‐enhanced computing to consumers, and our 30nm‐class process
technology offers an outstanding combination of advanced low‐power DDR3
technology, with blazing speed up to 1,600 megabits per second (Mbps).”

Samsung’s new DDR3 DRAM modules are available in 2 and 4 gigabyte capacities, in
very low profile (VLP) unbuffered dual in‐line memory module (UDIMM) configurations
for desktop PCs, and small outline DIMM (SODIMM) configurations for notebook PCs.
Backwards compatible with systems designed for previous DDR3 and DDR2 memory,2
the modules are available in single or dual‐pack quantities.

Thanks to its leading‐edge 30nm‐class manufacturing technology – which achieves
higher memory capacity while using less power – the latest generation of Samsung’s
DDR3 DRAM modules use up to two‐thirds less energy than those manufactured with
the industry‐standard 60nm‐class technology. This improvement in energy efficiency
does not come at the expense of performance. The new modules transfer data at up to
1,600 Mbps, 20 percent faster than Samsung’s current 40nm‐class generation of DDR3
DRAM.

Samsung has been leading the advancement of DRAM technology since it developed the
industry’s first DDR DRAM in 1997. In 2001, it introduced the first DDR2 DRAM. In 2005,
it announced the first DDR3 DRAM using 80nm‐class technology, and in January 2011, it
announced the development of the industry’s first DDR4 DRAM modules.

Availability
Samsung’s new 30nm‐class DDR3 DRAM modules will be available in the U.S. through
numerous online and retail suppliers, including Amazon, Fry’s, Micro Center, Newegg
and TigerDirect. Estimated street prices for single pack modules will range from less
than $30 to less than $55; dual pack modules will range from less than $55 to less than
$110.

About Samsung Electronics America, Inc. Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA),
based in Ridgefield Park, N.J., is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. The
company markets a broad range of award‐winning consumer electronics, information
systems, and home appliance products, as well as oversees all of Samsung’s North
American operations including Samsung Telecommunications America, LP, Samsung
Semiconductor Inc., Samsung Electronics Canada, Inc. and Samsung Electronics Mexico,
Inc. As a result of its commitment to innovation and unique design, the Samsung
organization is one of the most decorated brands in the electronics industry.

For more information, please visit www.samsung.com. You can also Fan Samsung on
www.Facebook.com/SamsungUSA or follow Samsung via Twitter @SamsungTweets.

1
30nm‐class means a process technology node somewhere between 30 and 39 nanometers.
2
Check with your PC manufacturer to assure compatibility.

Given the current price of memory, Patriot expects the default configuration for SNB-E systems to be a kit of four 4GB DIMMs for a total of 16GB. Sandy Bridge E isn’t expected until the Fall at the earliest so memory pricing isn’t certain, but Patriot expects a 16GB SNB-E memory kit to sell for around $130 when Division4 is released later this year.