Western Digital started the winning of HDD market almost ten years ago. Since that time the company has managed to dramatically improve its manufacturing process and achieve the desirable heights. Its latest HDD solution, codenamed VelociRaptor WD1000DHTZ, deserves special attention thanks to its performance showings and low operational temperatures.



General Peculiarities


Flagship HDD VelociRaptor WD1000DHTZ goes in 1TB volume capacity and is destined for the employment primarily in workstations. It combines high performance along with reliability to become an efficient solution for professional office needs, compact servers, high-end workstations, rendering processes, and for the management of graphics content of high resolution. Upon the whole, this model stands somewhere between the entry level SSDs and winchesters of 3.5 inch form-factor.


Additionally, Western Digital delivers modifications of VelociRaptor which go in more modest capacities (250 GB and 500 GB). …

Right after the release of FM2-A75MA-P33 motherboard, MSI has taken a decision to design one more model for AMD Trinity platform. Codenamed MSI FM2-A85XMA-E35, a new model is based on a more efficient chipset – AMD A85X. This motherboard is a typical representative of entry-level solutions, though can boast a number of attractive facilities.



MSI FM2-A85XMA-E35 is developed in micro-ATX form-factor for Socket FM2 CPU sockets. The model is known to support AMD A and Athlon II processors. This board accommodates two DIMM slots for the installation of DDR3 memory modules, the overall volume of which can rise up to 32GB. The supported memory operating frequencies might vary: DDR3-1066 MHz, 1333MHz, 1600 MHz, 1866 MHz, and 2133 MHz. Power subsystem features a rather unpretentious framework and consists of five phases; thus, this model isn't intended for overclocking purposes.


Expansion facilities implemented in MSI FM2-A85XMA-E35 can be found in any other entry-level …

MSI is glad to introduce its own version of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 960 GPU. This time the company offers three graphics cards, one of which keeps an etalon design (GTX 960), whereas the other two take an original design (GTX 960 OC and GTX 960 Gaming 2G). The triple differentiates not only by external features but by operational clock frequencies as well.



The heart of all three models is Nvidia GM206 GPU with 1024 CUDA cores, 32 ROPs and 64 TMUs. MSI GeForce GTX 960 runs at 1127 MHz (nominal)/1178 MHz (dynamic) frequency; at the same time, MSI GeForce GTX 960 OC and MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2G run at 1178 MHz/1241 MHz & 1216 MHz/1279 MHz correspondingly. All three new-comers are equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory having 128-bit interface; it operates at 1800 MHz (nominal)/7200 MHz (efficient) frequency.


MSI GeForce GTX 960 OC employs Armor 2X cooler with black-and-white cover design. It consists of two 90-mm fans, a middle-sized heatsink, and a couple of copper …