Automotive hard drives, 4ms monitors tip up

The release that made me scratch my head more than any others this week was about the new Seagate automotive hard drives, also known as the EE25 series. These 20, 30, and 40GB hard drives are meant to take extreme temperatures, from -30 to 85C, high humidity, pressure changes, and everything else you are not supposed to do to a HD. With the increasing amount of computers and data consuming devices in a modern car, it was only a matter of time before HDs invaded this turf.

Next up is Cooler Master expanding its Ice Blue line of coolers to the north bridge. This large finned copper based cooler has a 40mm fan, blue LEDs, and heat pipes to carry the energy around. With the increased power draw of modern north bridges, this type of cooler is a trend that will probably only be continuing. The press release describes it as 'charming small and exquisite outline' somewhat of a stretch, but see for yourself here.

Moving to the more conventional, Benq has two new monitors, the FP71V and the FP91V, 17- and 19-inch respectively with a 4ms response time. This is phenomenally fast, and I would love to see how well they work for real world gaming, or if it is just a spec on paper. Either way, the duo comes with all the goodies, BenQ's automatic adjustment called Senseye, a 550 or 500:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m2 brightness and SRS surround speakers. The speed is what makes them stand out.

Last up, we get to OCZ and its new PC-4000 Gold Edition memory in 1GB sticks and 2GB kits. Technically, these are called the PC-4000 EL, so that would make them Enhanced Latency in OCZ speak. Once again, a little bigger, a little faster. µ