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Dell 'Fractal' workstation designs revealed
Look, we don't normally get too stoked over workstations, they remind us too much of "work." Also, "stations." Still, a chance to see some unreleased workstations from Dell? That actually look pretty sweet? Sure, we'll go in on that. A tipster found these "Fractal design language" renders just floating helplessly around the internet and forwarded them over. They presumably relate to the upcoming Precision T7600, T5600, and T3600 lines (refreshes for the T7500, T5500, and T3600, respectively). One of Dell's favorite design houses is responsible for the images, but that doesn't necessarily mean the final products will look like this. We also don't know anything about internals, but it seems like a brand new look would fit with those brand new Sandy Bridge chips Intel is about to push out. Oh man, CAD is gonna be so much fun next year. [Thanks, Stephen F.] %Gallery-110508% %Gallery-110509%
Apple engineer uses Lego to rebuild ancient Greek mechanism, will surely try to patent it (video)
The Antikythera Mechanism is what you call truly old school technology. Argued to be the world's oldest known computer, this ancient Greek invention was used some time circa 100BC to calculate and "predict celestial events and eclipses with unprecedented accuracy." Skipping past the two millennia in which it lay lost on a sea floor somewhere, the Mechanism has now been recreated by an Apple software engineer by the name of Andrew Carol, who has lovingly pieced 1,500 Lego Technic blocks together, creating 110 gears and four gearboxes in total. Each box is responsible for performing one piece of arithmetic, and when the resulting machine is fed with appropriate calendar data, it spits out a (hopefully accurate) prediction for the next time a solar eclipse should occur. All well and good, but we're really just amazed by the beauty of those gears working. Check them out after the break.
Dell ships Precision M6500 laptop with 32GB of RAM: drill, baby, drill
Nah, that's not us yelling to dig deeper into oceanic unknowns -- it's a megaphone originating from Dell's campus in Round Rock. As the story goes, Dell's "oil and gas" consumers have been clamoring for more system memory on their mobile workstations, with the revamped Precision M6500 -- which allows them to "review larger slices of the earth to find oil, enabling faster and more accurate drilling to find oil and gas reserves." We say all that to mention the 32GB of system RAM that's now shipping on fully loaded M6500s, but with four RAM slots, that's not as difficult to accomplish as you might expect. Still, having 32GB in a single laptop is a rare sight these days, and if you aren't into coughing up a fistful of Benjamins for that, Dell's Precision M4500 is now available with 16GB of memory. You know, for running Maya with less lag... or something.
Dell Precision M4500 now shipping with $1,549 starting price
With specs and prices easily reaching into the stratosphere, we weren't quite sure where Dell's new 15-inch Precision M4500 workstation would land -- the 17-inch M6500 has a starting price of $1,799, but that's only after $310 of "instant savings." Well, it looks like we're getting off (relatively) easy with the M4500, with a Core i5-520M 2.5GHz model running for $1,549 and still managing to pack in those NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M Graphics. Of course, we imagine you'll quickly be running up that bill -- 2GB of slow RAM, a 1366 x 768 LCD, and no WiFi just aren't going to cut it -- but with tempting options like a secondary 64GB SSD minicard drive and the ever-frivolous Precision ON, it's not like we were sticking near that base price anyway. Expect to spec out something truly delicious in the $2,500+ range. Our biggest disappointment? Backlit keyboard is optional, something that's standard even on the Vostro line these days.
Dell brings next-gen Precision performance to M4500 15.6-incher
The super-high-end 17-inch M6500 is all well and good for giant people, but we're glad Dell's finally giving us regular-sizers a shot with the new Precision M4500. Naturally, compromises have been made, but only just barely. The new 15.6-inch laptop rocks a 16:9, 1920 x 1080 display, backed up by NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800M or 880M graphics (the 6500 supports the 3800M, 2800M and ATI M7740) and your choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors, on up to the Core i7-920XM Quad Core Extreme Edition. This being Dell, there are plenty of tweaks and perks on offer, like a HD+ sRGB LED screen with 100 percent color gamut, a 64GB SSD mini card for dual drive configs without losing the optical drive, a 3 megapixel camera, backlit keyboard, multitouch trackpad, Precision ON, and a multi-carrier-friendly Gobi 2.0 wireless chip. Perhaps most excitingly for us on-the-go regular-sizers, you can supposedly squeeze out 7 hours and 40 minutes of battery with the 9 cell option, and there's a 12 cell battery slice option less than half an inch thick that should send it over the moon. On its own the laptop is 1.1-inches thick and weighs 6 pounds, and while exact pricing hasn't been ironed out yet, it should start at less than $1,700. Start counting out those regular-sized green dollars of yours, the laptop should be out in the "coming weeks." That not enough for you? Dell's also upgrading its Precision T7500, T5500 and T5300 workstations to Intel Xeon 5600 Westmere EP processors for you desk slaves within a similar timeframe. PR and another M4500 press shot are after the break.
Dell Precision M6500 gets upgraded with USB 3.0, Core i5 options
Back in the beginning of December, when Dell outed its business-oriented, 17-inch Precision M6500 laptop, it boasted some pretty meaty specs: Core i7 CPU, up to 16GB of DDR3 memory, a choice of ATI FirePro M7740 or NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M graphics chips, plus support for up to three storage devices, and a 1920x1200 LED-backlit display. Well, it's added some new configuration options today, including USB 3.0 and a Core i5 processor, making this one bad boy all around. There's no word on the pricing yet, but the previously available Core i7 configuration runs around $2,700. We'll let you know when we find out what these new options will cost you.
Dell Precision M6500 mixes Core i7 with business savvy
In typical Dell style, the new Precision M6500 17-inch workhorse laptop has shown up on the company's website with nary a peep of self-congratulatory PR from Round Rock. Notable as the successor to the well-juiced M6400 and its even gaudier Covet variant, the M6500 boasts wallet-busting specs like a Core i7-920XM allied to a maximum of 16GB DDR3 memory speeding along at 1,333MHz, a choice of ATI FirePro M7740 or NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M workstation graphics chips, support for up to three storage devices with optional RAID configurations, and a 1920 x 1200 LED-backlit display. The machine is not quite yet available to purchase, meaning it's safe to go beyond the read link without fearing any heart-stopping sticker shock. [Thanks, Jonty]
Robots from ABB perform amazing feats of coordination, prove better conversationalists than your average Fantana (video)
Given the choice of either a stack of hot, steaming pancakes slathered in butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup or a six-pack of Fanta, we know which we'd choose. So, perhaps its proof of robots' continued subservience to man that the offerings from ABB have given up their flapjack-stacking ways to instead dazzle us with feats of object avoidance. Three of the company's bots are able to move in unison at high speed with a precision of less than 1mm, after what's pledged to be a simple programming process. See the mesmerizing movement after the break, then ask yourself: don't you wanna?
Arcane Brilliance: Reaching the hit cap
Each week Arcane Brilliance chats a bit about Mages and all things Mage-related. You may wonder what Arcane Brilliance likes to discuss the rest of the week. Even if you don't wonder that, Arcane Brilliance is going to tell you: It's still Mages. Yes, Arcane Brilliance pretty much talks about Mages constantly, even when it is wildly inappropriate to do so: at the dinner table...during business meetings...in church...at funerals...off-topic on completely unrelated message boards...Arcane Brilliance doesn't get invited to very many parties, in case you were curious.When people see me in public, they often ask me, "Christian, how can I get my Mage hit capped?" It's probably the most common question I get, right up there with "Why are you so awesome?" and "Where are your pants?"Okay, that's a lie. Nobody ever approaches me in public, and nobody asks me any of those questions, except for maybe the one about the location of my pants. That's a whole other story, and my attorney has advised me not to speak of it. Still, reaching the hit cap is something every Mage should be striving toward, but far too many of us either don't realize how important it is, or don't know enough about how to get there effectively. Fear not. Arcane Brilliance is here to explain the mysteries of the hit cap to you. The good news? It isn't nearly as complicated as you may think.
Dell unveils Nehalem-based Precision T3500, T5500, and T7500 workstations, EqualLogic PS6000S solid state storage arrays
Well, what do we have here? An industry source has sent along information and images for a trio of new Dell Precision workstations using Intel's Nehalem architecture. The T3500 (starts at $999) sports up to 24GB DDR3 ECC memory. Just above that, we've got the T5500 (starts at $1,620) with up to 72GB of memory and dual socket Intel Xeon. Meanwhile, granddaddy T7500 (pictured; starts at $1,800) boasts 192GB of three-channel DDR3 ECC memory up to 1066 or 1333MHz, dual native Gen 2 PCIe graphics slots and supports NVIDIA SLI technology. All models feature an E-SATA port, up to 1.5TB SATA HDD, dual / quad monitor support, DisplayPort connectors, and for those trying to keep some assemblance of eco friendliness, these are all Energy Star 5.0 compliant. We also caught wind of new EqualLogic PS6000 and SSD-equipped PS6000S storage arrays, which start at around $17,000 and $25,000, respectively. Interests piqued? Hit up the gallery below for some pics. Update: Dell releases the official presser for the PS6000S.
Scattered Shots: A PvE gem and enchant guide for Hunters
Welcome to this week's edition of Scattered Shots, which is dedicated to shiny things and dust.So by now you've seen our normal dungeon gear guide, our heroic dungeon gear guide, our reputation gear guide, and our holiday gift guide. Between all of them, you should be able to put together a nice solid set of gear that should let you tackle 10-man Naxxramas pretty easily. But grabbing the gear is the easy part. To go the extra mile, you need to grab those gems and enchantments. Let's look at some of the best gems and enchantments you can take along to secure your place in the DPS charts in Naxxramas.
Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.0.8, or Blizzard's love letter to Arcane Mages
Each week, Arcane Brilliance gains 5,000 reputation with the Kirin Tor by writing a column about Mages. That's right, I said 5,000. Are you reading this, Kirin Tor? I'm declaring myself exalted. Give me my dagger already, you selfish jerks.I may have mentioned this before, but I'm an Arcane Mage.I wasn't always. I spent my initial leveling days as a pure Fire Mage, and loved it. I spent a good chunk of time PvPing as a Frost Mage, and had a glorious time. But now I'm all Arcane, all the time, and I'm as pleased with it as it is possible for an unapologetic cynic like myself to be pleased with a thing.And so, as you can imagine, I look at the PTR 3.0.8 patch notes as Blizzard's Christmas gift to me personally. It's as if they decided, "yes, we would like to keep taking money from your credit card, Christian, and so make our product better specifically for you." Actually, that's probably exactly what they decided, only substituting the names of every person ever for my own. The difference is that for me specifically, they've actually been successful. Anytime you give me a patch that buffs my spec of choice specifically and also fails to nerf it in any way, your "give him what he wants and he will give us money for it" business model has been successful.Follow me after the break and we'll discuss what will hereafter be referred to as patch 3.KeepChristianHappy.8 (ok, maybe not...that's incredibly cumbersome), and all that it will change for Mages, especially those of the Arcane persuasion.
Encrypted Text: I roll on caster loot
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking about hit rating and the seeming lack thereof in Northrend gear.After a few all-nighters in a row and a lot of showing up to work very tired, I finally reached level 80 this weekend. After a few victory laps in Dalaran to celebrate my victory over experience points and blue bubbles and Hemet Nesingwary (not for long, I'm sure); the looming realization of level-cap responsibilities started to enter my mind. Reputations, heroics, arena points, and honor – I had a lot of work to do. So, I took my own advice and decided to start some heroics, but not before spec'ing into my PvP mutilate build. I thought about trying out the truly insane DPS of Honor Amongst Thieves builds, but decided to postpone that until I've got some more gear to give it a real trial. Read on to see what I discovered on the way to my first Emblem of Heroism.
The Queue: Bloody rare
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.We had no maintenance today, what a pleasant surprise! Rolling Restart Tuesdays are always a nice breath of fresh air. Or wait, was that what regular maintenance Tuesdays are for? Hmm. I can't keep this 'fresh air' concept straight at all so let's just start on the Q&A. Etcee asked...Can you explain exactly how rare spawns in Northrend work? I've heard multiple theories - from "Every 20 or so hours for spawn," to "Only one rare mob is alive at a time, and the next one doesn't spawn until that one dies," etc.
Dell lets loose Precision M6400 Covet mobile workstation
Hmmph. And we thought the Precision M6400 was hardcore. Check out the unapologetically named Precision M6400 Covet Mobile Workstation, a hotly colored beast that can't be procured direct from Dell for less than $3,859 (stackable coupons notwithstanding). Aside from the sweet orange paint job, this one also comes packing a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo T9400, Vista Business, a dual-layer DVD writer, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 160GB 7,200 RPM hard drive, NVIDIA's 1GB Quadro FX 3700M GPU, a 2-megapixel webcam, WiFi, 9-cell battery and a 17-inch WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) LED-backlit display. Those who don't mind throwing in a few extra hundies can spring for an optional SSD, WWAN, a Core 2 Quad CPU and 16GB of RAM. You're due for a new lappie at work anyway, right?[Thanks, dualboot]
Dell's 17-inch Precision M6400 powerhouse breaks loose for retail
Well, hiddy ho Dell Precision M6400, nice to finally meet you all retail-like. The 17-inch (LED back-lit 1,920 x 1,200 pixels covering 100% of the RGB color gamut) Mobile Workstation capable of playing host to 16GB of memory, a Core 2 Duo Quad Core Extreme processor, and up to 1TB of data (2x 500GB disks in RAID 0 or RAID 1 configs) is now up on Dell's website. Other specs include up to 1GB of NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M Graphics, Bluetooth 2.1, Ultra-wideband, WWAN, GPS, 802.11a/g/n WiFi, stereo speakers and dual-array mic, 8-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard 54 and PCMCIA slots, Firewire, 4x USB 2.0, DisplayPort, eSATA, and more. All that in a 15.4 x 11.0 x 1.35-inch chassis weighing 8.5-pounds with a biggie 9-cell battery. The only thing missing is Blu-ray and that shuttle controller spotted in the teaser video. Starts at $2,599 with an October 22nd ship date.Update: Ah, we get it: the track pad "works like a jog shuttle" -- it's not a physically distinct device. See it pictured after the break.%Gallery-32564%[Thanks, M.Luczak]
Dell teases with 17-inch quad-core laptop sporting 16GB of memory
This is going to be huge. Unfortunately, we're talking size not marketplace impact when Dell's 17-inch Precision "mobile workstation" rolls out this fall. This portable desktop replacement promises up to 1TB of storage configured in a dual-drive RAID configuration, quad-core processor, and 16GB of graphics memory (1GB for graphics) with enough oomph to power a pair of external 30-inch displays. It also includes a number of unidentified media slots and an integrated jog shuttle controller -- a pretty good hint at the mobile media types this laptop is targeting. Watch it all go down in the video after the break.Update: Heh, this is the same Dell leaked last month carrying the M6400 moniker.[Thanks, Gaurav S.]
Dell Precision and Latitude E series hands-on
Tons of pics of Dell's new Precision and Latitude E series machines? You got 'em, including shots of the crazy-small E4200, which really takes us back to the days of the hot little Samsung-built X1. Hit the gallery below, marvel at some of the machines your IT department may be rolling out in the next 6-18 months.%Gallery-29505%
Dell lets slip new, sexy Precision M6400, M4400 and M2400 mobile workstations
Dell seems to at last put those eye-sore days behind it with its new round of Precision laptops, the M6400, M4400 and the M2400, featuring all-new designs and colored lids, and following up on the 17-inch M6300, 15.4-inch M4300 and the 14-inch M2300, respectively. In the M6400 17-inch flagship "concept" Dell is offering up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB RAID storage, 100% Adobe RGB color gamut in an LED-backlit display, and high-end NVIDIA Quadro graphics. The M4400 starts at $1,569 and has space for up to 8GB of RAM, while the M2400 weighs a mere 4.77 pounds and starts at $1,449. The launch window for these is Fall 2008, hopefully Dell will share a few more tech specs before it expects us to take the plunge.[Via Electronista]
Dell to offer laptops with Qualcomm's Gobi EV-DO / HSPA chipset
HP's already jumped on board, and it looks like Qualcomm's now also managed to convince Dell of the merits of its Gobi dual-3G chipset, which will soon be finding its way into a variety of Latitude, Precision, and other unspecified consumer laptops. For those not up to speed, that welcome addition will let you connect to both EV-DO and HSPA networks the world over without having to carry two different mobile broadband cards with you, with switching between the two as easy as flipping a software switch. Unfortunately, there's no word on the exact models that'll be getting the upgrade, nor is there any word on how much extra it'll cost or exactly when it'll be available, with Dell only going so far as to say that they'll be available "later this year."
