Sony's A900 Packs 24.6 Megapixels Under the Hood

I have to admit... whenever I think about cameras, Sony is one of the last companies to come to mind. It might not be for good reason, though. The first time I ever laid my hands on one of their D-SLRs to take it for a spin, it felt cheap, and really didn't impress me in terms of design. But, I might have had a bad impression, because after taking a look at some sample images from the new A900, it definitely seems like a worthy contender.

It's not often that we see a new camera launch for a model over 15 megapixels, unless it's $8,000 or higher, but Sony's new A900 offers a staggering 24.6 MP resolution, resulting in images at 6048 x 4032 resolution. Granted, the megapixel race is a little ridiculous, but the samples shown at DP Review showcase that it actually does have what it takes to give nice results at the full resolution.

Other key features include a full-frame SteadyShot INSIDE sensor, dual Bionz processors, penta-prism glass at 0.74x magnification, 9 points of AF with 10 assist points, 5 FPS speeds, HDMI support and oh so much more. For the $3,000 (body only) price tag, it definitely seems like a camera capable of doing battle with Canon and Nikon's higher-end offerings. But alas, we'll have to wait for the final reviews first.

The success of the Alpha 900 amongst the Minolta, Konica Minolta and Sony faithful seems assured; at a launch price of just shy of $3000 it offers a lot of 'bang for your buck' and there is undoubtedly a significant number of Minolta film SLR users who've been waiting years for a full frame digital body on which to use their existing lenses.

Source: Digital Photography Review

Need Help Choosing the Ultimate Music Codec?

In case you missed it at the top of the page or in your RSS feeds, we've just posted the first part to a three-part series of articles we are very excited about. It tackles something I'm personally semi-obsessive over... audio archiving! Matt Serrano will be tackling all there is to know about archiving your music collection, from choosing the right codec to properly ripping your music to archiving it for safety and much more.

The first article takes a look at the first thing you should consider... audio codecs. The fact of the matter is, while 320 kbit/s MP3 might be ideal for one person, someone else might not even notice the difference at anything past 192 kbit/s. It's at that point that listening tests (ABX Testing) come into play. After all, if you can't hear the finer details of audio, why waste extra disk space?

Follow-ups to this article will get into the finer details of audio archiving, such as the actual ripping process, which is one where many people are inexperienced, but it's understandable as to why. CD ripping sounds like a simple task, but it definitely shouldn't be left up to any old application, because what will result is potentially lost quality or even music that skips. Stay tuned, you won't want to miss it!

Something this article is not...

While Microsoft previously stated that WMA had comparable quality to MP3 at half the bit-rate, most professionals agree that the statement is largely false. Though a WMA file encoded at 64 to 96 kbit/s, in its standard form, may be able to compete with the traditional Fraunhofer MP3 encoder, the real world benefits are considered negligible when paired against MP3 files at equally high bitrates.

Source: Audio Archiving Guide: Part 1 - Music Formats

AMD Launches Mainstream HD 4600 Series

By now, I'm sure most everyone is aware that AMD's latest graphic card launches are stellar... something NVIDIA really wasn't expecting. Up to now though, all cards launched have been higher-end and pricey (although that's change a -lot- since launch with the HD 4850), so it's now time for AMD to dedicate some resources to the vast majority of their customers... the mainstream.

Welcome the HD 4650 and HD 4670 to the fray, models that will retail for $69 and $79, respectively. Each card features 320 stream processors, 256MB and 512MB of GDDR3 (the 4670 is equipped to also handle 1GB). The primary differences between the two cards are raw clock speeds. While the HD 4650 runs at 600 Core / 667 Memory, the HD 4670 gets a healthy boost up to 750 Core / 1000 Memory.

HotHardware has taken the HD 4670 for a spin and are quite impressed overall. In all cases, the card outperformed both the HD 3850 and 9600 GSO and sometimes came close to even the 9600 GT. That's some amazing performance for the price. The downside? As Marco found out, some 9600 GT's can be had for $95 after a mail-in-rebate, so it complicates the purchasing decision. Still, there's no fault with the price as it is... it's a killer card for the cash, and it's amazing to see such great performance nowadays for under $100.

In our synthetic 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage benchmarks, the Radeon HD 4670 trailed cards like the Radeon HD 3850 and GeForce 9600 GT/GSO, but handily outperformed the ATI Radeon HD 3650 and GeForce 9500 GT. However, in our actual in-game tests, which use anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, the Radeon HD 4670 was able to outpace the Radeon HD 3850 and GeForce 9600 GSO more often than not and finished close behind the more expensive GeForce 9600 GT.

Source: HotHardware

HP Promises 24-Hour Battery-Life with New Technologies

Ask any mobile warrior for their biggest complaint about computing on the go, and the answer will be, without fail, "battery-life". The issue becomes worse as your craving for power increases, and some of today's popular notebooks (15.4" and upwards) suffer with less than three-hours of total battery-life... some even as low as two! Clearly, we need a revolutionary battery-type to come along.

Well, HP might just have what we are looking for. They've made an announcement that their new batteries last a long time, and by long, they mean twenty-four hours straight, based on tests with their EliteBook 6930p notebook. Aside from the battery, to reach such incredible lengths, one will also need an efficient SSD, Windows XP, an LED display and a special HP BIOS.

24 hours! That's truly incredible if the claims are true, and given HP's bragging of the 6930p's ability to last the entire duration of the longest flight in the world, they'd better have what it takes to back up their claims. The display-change to LED alone added four hours to the lifespan, which is incredible enough. Hopefully these amazing new technologies will find their way into other company's notebooks soon.

The ultra-capacity battery isn’t all that is needed to get 24 hours of use form the EliteBook. HP says that you also need to be running Windows XP, the latest Intel graphics drivers, and a special HP BIOS on the software side. HP is very specific on the hardware needs as well. The system has to be running HPs Illumi-Lite LED display and the new Intel 80GB SSD.

Source: DailyTech

AeroRacer Chassis Delivers Maximum Airflow with 400mm Fan

I'm one of the furthest things from being a 'chassis guy', but once in a while a news item will hit my inbox that actually makes me stop to look. When I saw the words "400mm side panel fan"... you bet I had to investigate. Such a chassis comes from a company called AeroCool, the model being AeroRacer. The chassis' main benefit is of course to provide insane airflow, and with a fan like that, who would doubt it?

AeroRacer is undoubtedly one of the most unappealing-looking cases out there, but it's not meant to be pretty. It's meant to be functional, and cool the heck out of your components. The 400mm fan is so large, that it takes up almost the entire side panel, so while it should provide great airflow, it's also sure to be a conversation starter as well.

Given that the fan itself is so large, you'd imagine that it'd be slow, and you'd be right. It runs at a constant 400RPM and is extremely quiet at 12 dBA. Despite the slow speed, it still manages to push air through the chassis at 250 CFM. So if you need the ultimate airflow scheme for your next chassis, look no further. I'm still debating on whether a standard chassis with an ordinary house fan would look better though...

Source: AeroCool AeroRacer Product Page

Tech Roundup - September 10, 2008

• ECS GF8200A - Virtual-Hideout
• MSI P35 Platinum Combo - PC Stats

• Diamond Radeon HD 4870 X2 - Tech Spot
• HIS HD 4850 IceQ4 512 MB - techPowerUp!

• Aeneon Xtune PC3-12800 - XS Reviews
• Mega Fifteen-way USB 2.0 Flash Drive Roundup - TweakTown
• OCZ Flex II 4GB PC2-9200 - Legit Reviews
• PQI 8 GB Class 6 SDHC - techPowerUp
• Seagate FreeAgent Go 120GB Portable Hard Drive - Think Computers
• Thecus N3200 3-Bay SOHO Network Storage System - Big Bruin

• be quiet! Dark Power Pro 850 Watt PSU - TweakPC
• Logitech Cordless Vantage Headset - Gaming Nexus
• SilverStone Nightjar ST45NF 450W Fan-less PSU - PC Per
• Razer Piranha Headset - Technic3D

• nPowerTek NPH-775-140HC Heatsink - FrostyTech
• Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer - Overclockers Club

• CoolIT Boreas MTEC Chassis - Hardware Canucks
• Rosewill Conqueror - Tech Report

• Duracell Daylite LED Flashlight - i4u