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Asus has scored an industry first with its recently announced G71V notebook.  The 17-inch notebook will be the first true mobile quad-core gaming notebook to be released in the market.  While others may have quad-core processors in their machines, the fact that the Asus G71V got it in a mobile computing machine gives the company some bragging rights. 

For those who are fond of overclocking their notebook to achieve maximum performance, they will be glad to know that despite the G71V’s stock Core 2 Extreme chip running at 2.53GHz, Asus didn’t put any hardware restriction on the G71V notebook.  Hence, users can pretty much push the notebook’s performance to rival desktop PCs.  More details after the break.

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MSI has announced a new addition to its line-up of gaming notebooks - the 14.1-inch GX400. Boasting of powerful features when it comes to graphics and processing power, the GX400 is equipped with an nVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT 3D graphics card with a built-in DDR3 512MB VRAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Intel PM45 Express Chipset.

Complementing those features are the GX400’s vivid image enhancement technology, Dolby Surround Sound, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, DTV receiver, HDMI, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a long battery life which is perfect for Blu-ray movie playback. In addition, the GX400 also features a quick launch touch sensor for switching to its five different modes - gaming, movie, presentation, office and turbo battery. The GX400 comes with up to 500GB or hard drive space, and either a DVD Super-Multi or Blu-ray optical drive.

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Just in time for the school openings in the US, Gateway has released a new gaming notebook called the Gateway P-7811 FX. Since this machine is geared for the gaming community, it has to come with a powerful graphics card. Fortunately for the P-7811 notebook, it is loaded with NVIDIA’s GeForce 9800M GTS graphics card complementing its fast Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor with 2.2GHz running speed.

Lest we forget, the P-7811 FX sports a 17-inch widescreen display with a 1920 x 1200 resolution. In addition, this notebook also features a 1.3-megapixel webcam, Wi-Fi 802.11 n, 4GB RAM and a 200GB hard drive. It is equipped with three USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, HDMI v1.3 and its DVD burner supports LabelFlash. For its operating system, the P-7811 FX is loaded with Windows Vista.

This notebook is exciting especially for both habitual or hard core gamers. It is currently selling at Best Buy for $1449.99.

Product [Best Buy] Via [I4U]

A new live image showing off the upcoming Motorola Alexander has surfaced, which, personally I am not really sure what to think of it. At first glance it looks as if it will be a nice, comfortable feeling handset with the slider closed, however it looks slightly awkward with the keyboard out. On a positive note, the keyboard does look rather user friendly.

Other than the overall look, the handset is expected to have a decent set of specs. First off it will be running Windows Mobile 6.1. In addition it will also have an NVIDIA chip that will be able to handle 3D graphics, aGPS, and a camera that is rumored to be somewhere in the 5-8 megapixel range.

Otherwise, the details are still a little on the light side, not to mention we are going to have to hold back a final judgment on the overall design until we can either get our hand on one, or at least see some more images, preferably some with other popular handsets side by side for comparison. The Motorola Alexander is expected to be available in Q4 2008, no mention yet of any pricing.

Via [BGR]

Yet again, Nvidia unveils another next-generation multi-core GPU to satisfy all the gamers and performance freaks out there. Enter the Nvidia GeForce GTX 200 series.

Holding true to their multi-GPU design (starting from the 9800 GX2), this series is a dream for Nvidia’s power-hungry enthusiasts. But the GTX 200 series is also incorporating NVIDIA CUDA technology – the world’s only C language environment that enables developers to write software to solve complex problems in a fraction of the time by tapping into multi-GPU technology – which means that this video card series is potentially a strong platform for numerous CUDA-enabled rich-media and visual-computing applications. Such applications are becoming more commonplace in the medical and scientific field because of the phenomenal boosts that CUDA gave programs when it was released. The series’ tagline “Beyond Gaming” really is not such a far-off notion because of CUDA.

Nvidia is also hyping on the boost that this series can give to everyday media tasks – video transcoding, for example. What would normally take hours could become a task that could be finished in minutes.

For gamers (who would normally be the first partakers of this new series), 448 to 512-bit processing is available, with GDDR3 already being a standard for Nvidia’s high-performance cards. Combined with PhysX (Nvidia recently acquired AEGIA) and SLI technology (Nvidia is moving now from three-way SLI to Quad-SLI), enthusiasts and gamers could be in for a whole new world of facial animation, flowing smoke and fog effects, awesome clothing flow simulation, staggering physical debris and explosions – all the standard eye-candy that we require to be norms.

Believed to be released in 2 variations, the GTX 260 and 280 (868MB and 1GB models respectively), expect a lot more hype and innovation as game developers and software designers move to catch up with the multi-GPU revolution.

Read [ZDNet]

For our German friends, Cizmo is already popular with its production of high-end notebooks. It’s no wonder they were able to come up with a powerful laptop such as the recently released Cizmo CX15. Just don’t mind the hefty price that you have to pay for this computing machine, which is roughly around $2,400, as it may be well worth all its nifty features.

These features include an Intel Core 2 Duo processor which can either be the 2.26GHz P8400, 2.4GHz P8600 or the 2.53GHz P9400. The CX15 is also loaded with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics card, DDR3 RAM, optional Blu-ray drive, eSATA port and 32 or 64GB SSD drive. The CX15 laptop will hit the European market sometime in June, no word yet on whether it will see the light of day in the US market.

Product [Cizmo] Via [Engadget]

BenQ has unveiled a new model in its Joybook R laptop series with the Joybook R45. Sporting an unusual leather-like finish on the exterior, the BenQ R45 also has a latch-free closure which adds to its sleek design as well as to its durability.

The R45 is powered by a 2.10GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a Mobile Intel PM965 Express Chipset and features a 14.1-inch widescreen display with BenQ’s patented UltraVivid technology, nVIDIA GeForce 8400M G graphics card with HDMI support, Wi-Fi, a 2-megapixel webcam, built-in microphone and speakers with smart noise suppression and echo cancellation. The notebook comes standard with 512MB of RAM with support for up to 4GB as well as storage options ranging from 120 up to 250GB.

The BenQ R45 is set to be released in China, Taiwan, South East Asia and Russia sometime this month. No pricing details have yet been announced.

Via [Far East Gizmos]

Toshiba has unveiled two new powerful gaming laptops, the Satellite X205-SLi5 and the X205-SLi6. Both laptops are powered by Intel’s 45nm processors and offer NVIDIA SLi technology that is sure to delight hardcore gamers.

Both models of the X205-SLi laptops feature HDMI ports to allow gamers to play games on their 1080i high-definition HDTV display. For added excitement, Toshiba has thrown in an S/P DIF output port that gives 5.1 stereo surround sound when combined with Dolby Sound Room technology. The two Toshiba laptops come with Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 3GB RAM, 320GB-400GB hard drives that run at 7200 RPM, DVD multi-drives, wireless gaming features with Bluetooth V.20+EDR technology and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.

The X205-SLi5 and X205-SLi6 will sell for around $1,999 and $2,499 respectively. Ready to shell out that amount of money for your gaming pleasure?

Read [Toshiba Direct]

If you were an early Windows Vista adopter, you might have had a rough time with Microsoft’s newest operating system last year. Crashes? System hangs? BSODs? Shockingly, Microsoft isn’t at fault for your less than perfect experience. Ars Technica has reported that a 158-page bundle of email correspondence (PDF) regarding the ongoing “Vista Capable” lawsuit has been made public. The data reveals that NVIDIA accounted for 28.8% of Windows Vista crashes last year. In total, 1,663,748 system crashes had been reported to Microsoft in 2007 and NVIDIA was the problem in 479,000 of those cases. In comparison, Microsoft was responsible for 19.9%, ATI took 9.3%, and Intel with 8.8%.

Microsoft was quick to release a statement:

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Alienware has re-launched its Area-51 7500 into the Area-51 desktop which now supports the most robust gaming platform in the PC gaming industry. The Area-51 is now packed with NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI-based motherboard and NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 dual GPU single graphics card to deliver high definition PC gaming with high frame rates and smooth Blu-ray disc playback.

The nForce 790i Ultra SLI is the only nForce platform that supports DDR3 memory up to 2GHz. This gives out record-breaking memory speeds that support even the most graphics intensive PC games. The nForce790i motherboard is compatible with 1600MHz FSB Intel CPUs and allows unmatched visual computing through NVIDIA 2-way, 3-way and Quad SLI technology.

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