7500
Latest
Alienware Area-51 desktops first to score NVIDIA GTX 280 graphics
NVIDIA just launched its new GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards earlier today, but you know the crazy kids over at Alienware don't like to wait for the latest and greatest -- Dell's gaming division has already announced Area-51 configurations that include the new cards. The Area-51 7500 will support one GTX 280-based card, while the top-of-the-line Area-51 ALX will offer a three-way SLI option that's sure to render an image of your empty wallet in no time -- it's a $1,700 option. No word on when these are scheduled to ship, but seeing as the cards are out tomorrow, we'd guess it'll be soon.
Mtron says its Pro 7500 is the fastest SSD around
We've had a little love affair going on with storage vendor Mtron ever since we saw that "battleship" SSD RAID array, and it looks like the company is after our hearts once again, this time with the Pro 7500 series of SSDs, which it says are the fastest around. That's really only half-true -- while the 120MB/s write speed is definitely the fastest we've seen, the 130MB/s read speed is the same those Greenhouse DH-SSDGD drives we just saw a couple days ago. Still, that's mighty fast -- too bad these are probably going to be priced into the stratosphere like Mtron's other SSDs.
Alienware introduces 4x Blu-ray drives for desktops
Alienware, never afraid of spec'ing its machines just a little bit ahead of the curve, has just introduced 4x Blu-ray drives into its Area-51 7500, Aurora 7500, Area-51 ALX, and Aurora ALX desktops, making the systems the first in the industry (or so they claim) to carry the faster drives. The new additions to the PCs will offer a significant performance increase in reading and writing Blu-ray discs (a 100 percent increase, in case you're not doing the math), which should make burning those massive discs just slightly more tolerable. Of course, the whole shebang is backward-compatible with CD and DVD discs, per typical Blu-ray spec, and will set you back an additional $600. Available right now.
Nokia makes Prism collection officially official
Despite Asian availability for a few weeks now of the 7500 model, it seems Nokia has just today decided to make its so-called "Prism collection" official. Perhaps a great gift for the mathematics professor or physicist in your life, the two span the spectrum of radio coverage and features; the 7500 is naturally the lower-end of the two, featuring a QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera, and data topping out at EDGE speeds. The 7900 adds a fourth band of GSM coverage (Americans may want to stay away from the 7500 thanks to an absence of GSM 850), WCDMA 850 / 2100, 1GB of internal storage, and a trick 2 inch OLED screen. Both phones ride atop Series 40 3rd Edition and should be in shops this quarter -- if they aren't already -- for €210 and €400 (about $288 and $549) respectively.
Hands-on with the Nokia 7500 Prism
If you close your eyes and think of a Nokia candybar -- even a particularly stylish one -- we're guessing the 7500 Prism is about the furthest thing from what you'd envision. The oddities don't stop with the unusual geometric pattern adorning the phone's surface, either; despite using the latest and greatest version of Series 40, the 7500 is merely a 2.5G handset, unusual for even a midrange Nokia in the year 2007. But wait, it gets even better: take a gander at the bottom of the phone and you'll find a mini USB port where you might expect to find a Pop-Port (yeah, we know Nokia's been doing this as of late, but it's still a little bit of a shocker every time we see it). Was Nokia's little venture off the beaten path worth it? Read on to find out.Update: Our bad, it turns out the 7500 is running Series 40 3rd Edition, not 5th. Still a solid platform, we reckon!Thanks to the good folks at Wireless Imports for the hookup!%Gallery-5582%
Nokia debuts totally fugly 7500 Prism in China
By all accounts, Nokia's designers are either on a cutting edge so far into the future and so deeply advanced that we can't understand it, or they've all gone off their medication. The bizarre 7500 Prism (which may or may not be the similarly styled 7900) made its debut at a Nokia fashion event in China today, along with the 8600, 8800 Sirocco, 6110 navigator, 5700 XpressMusic, 6500 classic, 6500 slider and the 3500 -- though none of them were as totally zany looking as the Prism. The phone's specs are at least fairly normal, featuring a 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, a QVGA screen and rocking the S40 (version 5) OS. It's unclear at this point why the company believes people will want a diamond shaped keyboard, but since the FCC has already approved this model, we'll soon learn if they really do.
Nokia's geometric 7500 gets pictured
No word on official specifications or anything of that caliber just yet, but it looks like the geometry-inspired 7900 handset has an awfully similar sibling as well. Nokia's 7500 was caught on camera initially in a "spy picture" that resembles a horrific attempt at creating a Microsoft Paint masterpiece (seriously, it's after the break for your protection), but an entirely more stunning iteration hit the 'net shortly thereafter giving more legitimacy to its reality. Finally, the perfect gift for your child's seventh-grade math teacher, no?Read - Nokia 7500 spy pictureRead - Nokia 7500 "official" picture
Blu-ray, SLI-equipped Alienware Area-51 7500 reviewed
Alienware's Area-51 7500 desktop has certainly been on the chopping block before, but the inquisitive folks over at Bit-Tech were able to land a refreshed unit that not only featured dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card and a 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor, but a built-in (unbranded Matshita) Blu-ray drive to boot. Instantly, reviewers expected the snazzy looking machine to spin right on through every benchmark laid in front of it, and for the coin you'd be paying, we can't say that's such an unrealistic request. During 2D / 3D testing, the SLI-equipped system simply dominated in terms of FPS, image quality, and smoothness, as reviewers actually stated that current games couldn't even take full advantage of all that horsepower just yet. Also of note was the Blu-ray playback, which ended up being practically flawless after the review crew had their (understandable) doubts about how well the unit itself and HDCP films would operate within a PC environment. After trying out both analog and digital monitor connections, the player streamed out films in crisp 1,920 x 1,080 resolution without a hitch after PowerDVD 6.5 was loaded up, officially allowing for a collective sigh of relief. With a system this pricey, however, criticisms come easier, and they were quick to note that the included Patriot RAM was likely hindering performance somewhat due to "faulty memory timings," and also stated that the lackluster audio card should have been spruced up given the lofty cost. Overall, Bit-Tech was quite pleased with Alienware's latest, but while the machine itself landed an 8 out of 10 rating, the £3,434 ($6,780) pricetag resulted in a paltry 5 out of 10 in the "Value" department, which is about par for the course for these guys.
