With college and job stuff, i got no time for myself, so…yes I will have to stop to post in this blog for undetermined time…

Dun think O´m lazy, just no time…

-D0c

The CPU is powered by a 4+1 phase VRM circuit. Expansion includes two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrically x8 when both are populated), a PCI-E x1, and a PCI slot. The 790GX IGP is assisted by 128 MB of DDR3 sideport memory. Display outputs include DVI-D and HDMI. The SB750 southbridge provides six SATA II ports with RAID support. This board will hit the shelves by the end of April.

“The CH-07 unifies all expected and necessary features that gamers require and will soon become one of the leading models in the Dragon series”, says the general manager of Chieftec European branch office, Eddy Shih.

Source: GPU Café
Taken from: techPowerUp!
]]> http://tech0rizon.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/geforce-gtx-275-gets-first-listing/feed/ 0 D0c http://tech0rizon.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/get-famous-on-google-earth/ http://tech0rizon.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/get-famous-on-google-earth/#comments Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:18:25 +0000 D0c http://tech0rizon.wordpress.com/?p=1326 ]]>

Hehe .. too funny really. An 18-year old UK fellah thought the best way to get noticed on Google Earth would be to paint a giant 60 feet phallus on the flat roof of his parent’s mansion. His parents only found out after a helicopter pilot contacted newspaper The Sun.

Andy McInnes, a company director, thought it was an April Fool’s joke, but his son Rory confessed he had painted the penis artwork on the roof a year ago, after watching a programme about Google Earth.

Check out more info at Telegraph via dvhardware.

Source: Guru3D

The motherboard sports the nForce 980a SLI chipset, paired with the nForce 200 PCI-Express bridge chip. The motherboard features a GeForce 8300-class IGP, with DVI-D and D-Sub outputs. It supports NVIDIA 3-way SLI and Quad-SLI. As an AMD platform, the chipset supports AM2, AM2+ and AM3 socket processors, with DDR3 and DDR2 memory support (depending on the processor). A 5-phase digital PWM circuit powers the processor. The nForce 980a SLI and nForce 200 chips are located adjacent to each other, and are cooled actively by a fan-heatsink. The product design looks production-grade and may attract partners to sell it.

The VIA EITX-3000 places the energy-efficient VIA Nano processor and VIA VX800 media system processor on the reverse side of the board, making greater real-estate available for passive cooling apparatus and thus negating the need for system fans. This makes the VIA EITX-3000 an exceptional choice for high performance systems in always-on applications such as high-end POS, Kiosk, ATM, HMI, factory automation, POI and digital signage.

The HP Pavilion Elite m9600 series desktop PC features a powerful Intel Core i7 processor and rich entertainment features for videos, games, photos and more. For an enhanced high-definition experience, the HP Pavilion Elite can be paired with one of HP’s new widescreen monitors.

The 3D capabilities will be integrated in ECMAScript and run in a browser window without the need of a plug-in. JavaScript and Jscript are compatible with ECMAScript, but include features that are not supported by ECMAScript.

Almost all web-browsers have been improving their JavaScript acceleration, which Microsoft has ignored for the most part. If the 3D capabilities are implemented in the form of ECMAScript, Microsoft may have quite a problem on its hands.

“Creating astounding visuals for movies is a tremendous challenge – it has to look absolutely perfect, but time is always of the essence,” said Jabbar Raisani, visual effects expert, Troublemaker Studios. “The ATI FirePro V7750 graphics accelerator helps me achieve flawless effects fast by speeding up rendering so I can focus on creating content rather than waiting for it. I need stable and robust performance graphics hardware to get the job done quickly and the ATI FirePro V7750 is the perfect solution.”

Havok offers a complete modular suite of products that help visual and interactive content developers create more realistic games and cinematic special effects. As the latest software developer to take advantage of ATI Stream technology to leverage multi-core architectures and accelerate execution of highly parallel functions, like real-time cloth simulation, Havok will enable game developers to offer improved performance and interactivity across a broad range of OpenCL capable PCs. AMD has recently introduced optimized platform technologies, such as “Dragon” desktop platform technology, which balance performance between the CPU and GPU with ATI Stream technology to deliver outstanding value.

But will the product be able to keep up with Guru3D’s pace in testing? Let’s find out. Have a look at this link right here to read up on the full article.

Click here.

Source: Guru3D

The second Service Pack for Windows Vista should be available within a couple of weeks. DailyTech wrote today that Microsoft has delivered the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) Escrow build to Connect beta testers. Windows Vista SP2 will add Blu-ray recording, WiFi updates, and various bug fixes and tweaks.

The new service pack delivers many much anticipated features, along with numerous tweaks and bug fixes which should strengthen the Vista experience. Among the hottest additions in the new pack is the ability to record in Blu-Ray format for the first time in Windows. Other key additions include Bluetooth v2.1 connectivity, Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration wireless functionality, faster Wi-Fi resume times after hibernation, Windows Search 4.0, and the ability to configure the maximum number of TCP connections.

Source: Guru3D

IGSE 100 and 200 measure 124 x 96 x 70 mm and 90 x 96 x 140.5 mm respectively, and feature 92 mm fans, while the 300 and 400 measure 126 x 71 x 161 mm and 126 x 71 x 60 mm respectively and use 120 mm fans. Using copper heatpipes as thick at 6 mm, and aluminum fins. Press Release follows:

“The GPU PerfStudio 2.0 suite of tools is extensive, customizable and, most importantly, based on open standards, which is critical for developers looking to integrate them into their existing workflows,” said Neal Robison, director, Developer Relations, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “AMD is committed to arming developers with a full complement of hardware and development tools that help increase their development efficiency and improve 3D performance quality.”

The company uses the 55 nm G92 GPU (G92-283-B1), which has a smaller thermal footprint in comparison to its 65 nm variant. The result: cards that do not require auxillary power from the 6-pin PCI-E connector. The 1 GB variant comes with a full-coverage single-slot cooler, while the 512 MB one comes with a simpler radial cooler. Both cards are SLI capable. Display outputs provided on the card include DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI.

Calibre X250/X250G Graphics Card features a 55nm chip process from TSMC. So It has groundbreaking speeds compared with ordinary GeForce GTS 250 graphics cards on market, the core speed is raised from 738MHz to 761MHz, the shader clock is raised from 1836MHz to 1911MHz, making it can deliver unrivaled graphics performance in the hottest games including Far Cry 2, Mirror’s Edge, and Call of Duty 5: World at War. The Calibre X250/X250G Graphics Card adopts Calibre non-reference PCB design, providing enhanced power circuitry with more phases of vGPU power circuit and vMem circuit. Also it only uses solid capacitors with lower power loss, providing more stable and longer product lifespan.

A true fact is that the Antec Skeleton PC case isn’t exactly a shy and retiring design in itself, which is why entrants to the company’s modding competition have had to reach a little further in order to come up with something eye-catching.  Designs range from repaints, through bizarre furry wings, to doubling-up the case like this spaceship-like concept here; there’s also a very convincing All-In-Antec machine.

The all-in-one design – which looks a little Matrix-like to my novice eye – is perhaps the most successful, tipping the Skeleton onto its side and mounting an LCD onto what would usually be the base.  There’s also an integrated keyboard, and they could have bypassed the separate mouse by using a touchscreen.

The Antec Skeleton in its original form has a 250mm top-mounted fan, a slide-out motherboard tray and, underneath, space for a PSU and drives.  It’s available to buy now, priced at $149.99 .

Check out all kinds of mods right here.

Source: Guru3D

Originally Foxconn is a very big OEM manufacturer. Bright Side of News speculates Foxconn will soon quit its retail business.

The site reports those rumors from last year that electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn will be acquiring ASUS’ Pegatron manufacturing division are true, but that one of the conditions is that Foxconn will need to close its retail business. Last quarter Foxconn wasn’t willing to do this just yet, but the report indicates the recession and the drop in demand for computers has accelerated the move.

Foxconn will reportedly acquire Pegatron by June, and close its Channel unit.

Although this is a rumor as of right now, something that might pop up to confirm this would be an announcement that Foxconn is buying Pegatron. Be on the lookout for this type of announcement to corroborate the Foxconn Chanel closure. With this closure, the way for an acquisition of Pegatron Technologies is wide open. This would not only give Foxconn increased manufacturing capacity but also the clients and contacts already held by Pegatron. ASUS would get rid of a competitor as well as receive some extra funds. ASUS has long been working on establishing channel dominance and at the time of this writing, the company is making a tremendous amount of retail products in addition to its component sales. It looks like this would be a win-win situation for both companies and would allow them even greater penetration into the worldwide markets without the increased cost, as it would divide the market between them: ASUS takes the role as a Global Brand and Foxconn as a Global OEM. Once completed, ASUS can go head to head with the big players in the US like Dell, HP and IBM, while at the same time Foxconn is the company that will manufacture most of components for the brands mentioned above.

Source: Guru3D

Auzentech once again cemented their hold on the audio world and offered products to another market segment; the very large PC gaming market. The highly successful X-fi Prelude 7.1 seemed to command a large audience and it seemed everybody and their brother purchased a Prelude 7.1, which was considered by many to be the best gaming card in existence.

Today in our audio lab we have the new Auzentech X-fi Forte 7.1 soundcard ready to be put through our considerable, majestic yet always fair tests. Let’s see what Auzentech sent over shall we?

You can read ther Guru3D review right here.

Source: Guru3D

Called OnLive, the on-demand platform consists of a web service, an internet connection, and a thin-client, called “micro-console” that connects your input (game controllers), and output (monitor/TV/HDTV). You control the game – whichever you’re subscribed to and playing – the client relays your input to the OnLive servers, that do the processing, including graphics rendering, and send back output to your client. The client then displays the output. Sounds familiar? Cloud computing? Exactly, but for PC gaming. The platform is conceptualized to be advanced-enough to handle any of today’s games, Crysis included. The work-model of this platform is what makes it tick with any game, and is far more future-proof than the present mode of PC gaming (where people own expensive hardware that are in requirement of upgrades, the costs of buying games, buying gaming services separate).

For standard definition television quality, a broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second is required. For HDTV resolution, a connection of at least 5 mbps is needed. The service uses patented algorithms that work to counter lag caused by network constraints. The technology is already gaining attention from major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic. People can buy or rent a game to play it, the usage fees are expected not to be much more than the subscription fees for Xbox Live.

Enter innovation. The company is reportedly redesigning the GeForce GTX 295, this time on a single PCB design, which ATI has been using for its dual-GPU accelerators. Both GPU systems of the GTX 295 will be placed on a single PCB. This is expected to significantly bring down manufacturing costs, allowing the company to keep up with demands and competitive pricing. Expreview sourced the drawings of one of the prototypes, which shows a long single PCB card, with a central fan. You will also observe that there is a back-plate in place. It shows that a number of memory chips will be populated on the back, and both GPU systems on the front. It will be an engineering challenge, to populate five major heat-producing components (two G200b GPUs, two NVIO2 processors, and one BR-03 bridge chip), 28 GDDR3 memory chips, and the VRM area to power it all. The new redesigned card may surface internally in April, and may enter production by May.

This board resembles the X58 Renaissance in most aspects, except for its component cooling, where it uses individual heatsinks over the chipset and VRM areas. Less fancy heatsinks are in place. The new board also does away with the SAS support. The rest of the product’s feature-set stays identical to that of the X58 Renaissance. The company is expected to announce the motherboard soon, at an expectedly lesser price than that of its predecessor. For reference, the third picture below is that of the original X58 Renaissance.

Some of the most audacious designs ever imagined, have taken shape, and may be ready to hit the market. The drawings show Jericho to be a medium-to-large cooler with stacked aluminum-fin blocks, and a fan that circulates air. The Mammoth and Genesis have a peculiar staged heat-column design. For The Mammoth, the CPU contact-block gives out numerous heatpipes that convey heat to two staged aluminum fin arrays with dedicated air-flows, both of which are along the plane of the motherboard. The Genesis, on the other hand uses a slightly different design, with an array perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard. There is no word on exactly when these coolers get listed.

We have a new March update for DirectX 9 and 10 available for download today. This download provides the DirectX end-user multi-languaged redistributable that developers can include with their product. This distro doesn’t just update DX9, but also updates DX10.

This package is localized into Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and English.

Supported Operating Systems:

Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition ; Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 editions; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 x64 editions; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for 64-Bit Itanium-Based Systems; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Web Edition; Windows Small Business Server 2003 ; Windows Vista; Windows Vista Business; Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Business N; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Basic; Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Basic N; Windows Vista Home Premium; Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Starter; Windows Vista Starter N; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition; Windows XP; Windows XP 64-bit; Windows XP Home Edition ; Windows XP Home Edition N; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Professional Edition ; Windows XP Professional N; Windows XP Professional x64 Edition ; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2; Windows XP Starter Edition; Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

The DirectX redist installation includes all the latest and previous released DirectX runtime. This includes the bi-monthly D3DX, XInput, and Managed DirectX components.

Download – click here

Source: Guru3D

Source: Guru3D

“OCZ continues to break barriers in the cost for performance arena by offering high performance gaming products that deliver exceptional features, ergonomics, and performance at an aggressive price,” commented Ryan Edwards, Director of Product Management for OCZ. “The new Behemoth and Eclipse gaming mice are no exception, offering world-class performance designed to provide the discerning gamer and enthusiast with a superior hands-on control experience whether playing first person shooters or getting creative with design applications.”

With near identical features and more, this NIC takes the advantage of the newer leaner components in the market, such as the NPU which may be using a newer manufacturing process, NPU-accelerated audio that provides audio-chat with zero system-overhead, and up to 256 MB of onboard memory to drive this mini “PC inside PC”. The ASIC is done away with, a newer gigabit Ethernet transceiver made by Broadcom is present. The card uses a native PCI-Express x1 interface. It comes in two variants: the 128 MB “Pro”, and 256 MB “Ultra”. Apart from selling these cards under its own banner, Bigfoot Networks has struck an OEM deal with Alienware. Also, the company has an AIB partner (a-la graphics cards), and guess who it is – EVGA. The Xeno Ultra will be priced at US $179.99, and the Xeno Pro at $129.99.

BFG today launched their new EX-1200 power supply. A beast of a PSU that is  reasonably affordable. A power supply that is silent, efficient, has long cabling, is pure quality, has an ATX size chassis, is completely themed dark and perhaps after all these years might be able to replace my kilowatt PSUs. As what BFG is bringing to the table is comforting.

This 1200 Watt  piece of machinery is fairly close to what I consider perfection in terms of design and requirements .. and with a price just under 250 USD, BFG might have something really special on their hands. Guru3D reviews this all new monster.

Check out the Guru3D review right here.

Our colleagues over at Techpowerup have some photos of a custom design Radeon HD 4890 graphics card from ASUS.

As it looks, this model will have an enhanced 100% digital PWM design, 6+2 phase power controlled by VRM controller chips that can be controlled by software, one 8-pin PCIe power connector instead of two, a Fujitsu high-density ML capacitor for better voltage regulation and a high-performance cooler.

• 100% digital PWM design – something the reference PCB features too, but enhanced by a small design change by ASUS
• The 6+2 phase power circuit is controlled by two independent VRM controller chips, the vGPU can be controlled by software, and can be set up to 1.4 V with the included software
• An 8-pin PCI-E power input replaces one of two 6-pin inputs on the reference model. This is said to add electrical stability and increase overclocking headroom
• ASUS added the industry’s highest-quality voltage regulation thanks to the Fujitsu high-density ML capacitor, that facilitates the lowest ESR, and is best suited for digital PWM circuits (the cleanest power makes it to the GPU)
• The GPU is expected to be clocked above 900 MHz, with the GDDR5 memory at 1000 MHz (4.00 GHz effective)
• It will feature a non-reference high-performance cooler, which doesn’t want to be pictured yet

The clockspeeds of this Radeon HD 4890 are expected to be well over 900MHz for the GPU, with GDDR5 memory at 4000MHz. Pricing and availability is unknown, but the reference design should be launched in the second week of April for just shy of $250.

Photo’s courtesy of techpowerup

Source: Guru3D

Judging by the press release from Take-Two Interactive Software, fans of the Max Payne computer game series can look forward to a new title in winter 2009. Rockstar Games is currently developing Max Payne 3 which will be a direct sequel to Max Payne 2.

Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., is proud to announce that Max Payne 3 is currently in development and scheduled for a winter 2009 release on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and PC. Developed by Rockstar Vancouver, Max Payne 3 tells the story of a retired police detective embroiled in a world of corruption, turmoil and intense violence.

The award-winning Max Payne franchise put players in the role of Max Payne, a hard-boiled New York City detective with a penchant for violence, out to avenge the death of his family. The latest installment delivers more of the classic elements and hyper-intense action that fans have come to love, while moving the story of Max in a new direction.

Max Payne 3 will be available in winter 2009 for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PC.

You can visit the official Max Payne 3 web site by clicking: here.

Source: Guru3D

We’ll be reviewing som items for QNAP pretty soon. But for now, QNAP announced first one-bay and two-bay NAS with iSCSI TS-119 and TS-219 Turbo NAS for home, SOHO, and SMB users. The TS-119 and TS-219 are the next generation NAS models that combine a fashionable shiny black diamond design, outstanding system performance, rich features, and high stability. Powered by 1.2GHz CPU and 512MB DDRII RAM, the TS-119 and TS-219 support Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) target service (up to 8 iSCSI devices), Online RAID Capacity Expansion and Online RAID Level Migration (2-bay model only), automatic policy-based IP blocking, schedule power on and off, 2 IP cameras for network surveillance, UPnP/ DLNA media server, mail server, and high-speed BT/FTP/HTTP and eMule download, etc. “The new generation TS-119 and TS-219 Turbo NAS are the most affordable NAS servers with iSCSI application for personal and business users.

The built-in iSCSI target feature allows the users to create an IP-SAN (storage area network) for data backup or storage capacity expansion on the home or office network. The Turbo NAS is also ideal multimedia storage solution for home users,” says Laurent Cheng, Product Manager from QNAP. “The built-in UPnP/ DLNA media server (TwonkyMedia) of the TS-119 and TS-219 supports numerous DLNA media players such as Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming consoles and High-Definition media players (compatible with NFS). The users can even use their iPhone and iPod touch to play the music and video or view the photos on the NAS.”

The TS-119 supports 2TB SATA hard drive and the total storage capacity can be expanded to maximum 4TB by eSATA of USB storage device expansion. The unique fanless design enables an absolutely quiet working environment. Its power consumption is less than 13W which is ideal for operation 24×7 at home or in the office. The TS-219 is a powerful NAS which supports two hot-swappable hard drives, up to 4TB storage capacity, RAID 1, Online RAID Capacity Expansion, and Online RAID Level Migration. The TS-119 and TS-219 come with Turbo NAS beta firmware 3.0 which brings the best user experience with CoverFlow-like AJAX web interface. For more information, please visit QNAP website.

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Source: Guru3D

Microsoft also made an announcement that Virtual Earth will support Silverlight in a beta to be released this summer. The company claims users will be able to access map tiles roughly nine times faster in its Internet Explorer 8 browser, or five times faster in Google’s Chrome browser.

Geosynth is expected to launch sometime later this year.

Source: Guru3D

One of the company’s newest additions to the range, the Z550, could hit the 2.00 GHz mark, while consuming less than 2.4 Watts. Another chip in the making, Z515, will have dynamic clock-speed between 800 MHz and 1.33 GHz depending on the processing load. The Z515 could end up being an MID maker’s favourite, not that Z550 won’t be used in devices that small. Sony just might pack the 2.00 GHz chip on an upcoming variant of the VAIO P.

Oy didn’t we see this with OCZ’s products ? Evercool introduced the Transformer 4 (HPJ-12025) processor cooler, this model has four heatpipes (8mm diameter) that make direct contact with the base of your processor and transfer the heat to the aluminum heatsink. At 843.5g the cooler is a heavy weight, it measures 130mm x 122mm x 160mm and supports up to two 120mm fans.

The fans are painted with bling bling paint, they are rated at 38CFM with a noise level of under 21dBA. The Evercool Transformer 4 supports most recent desktop processors from AMD and Intel, you can find more info at their site.

Source: Guru3D

Another day, another new feature in Gmail Labs. This one could be more useful than most, as it’s something you probably have a reason to use with some frequency. It’s called ‘Undo Send,’ and as the name suggests, it lets you take back a sent email, as long as you act quickly enough.

After enabling the feature, Undo Send works much like Gmail’s other ‘undo’ features. When you send an email, you get a message confirming it has been sent, along with a link to ‘Undo.’ This message lasts for 5 seconds, at which point you lose the opportunity to take it back. While that might not be much time, it’s probably enough to pull back emails where you forget an attachment, forget to cc someone, or catch an obvious typo.

Well, hey .. it’s handy.

Source: Guru3D

In the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC) event, AMD may materialize its plans to bring a GPU-accelerated version of Havok, which has till now been CPU-accelerated. The API has featured in several popular game titles such as Half Life 2, Max Payne II, and some other Valve Source-based titles. ATI’s Terry Makedon, in his Twitter-feed has revealed that AMD would put forth its “ATI GPU Physics strategy.” He also added that the company would present a tech-demonstration of Havok technology working in conjunction with ATI hardware. The physics API is expected to utilize OpenCL and AMD Stream.

The Gigabyte Radeon HD 4890 1 GB (model: GV-R489-1GH-B) is based on AMD’s reference design, which has been pictured earlier, and whose early 3DMark performance figures have began surfacing. The card, features 1 GB of GDDR5 memory, which now seems to be the standard amount of memory on the reference design card. The unboxed card has been pictured from a good angle, which gives us a better indication of its length. It is longer than the HD 4870. Another scoop we can bring to you, is that from the first picture of the RV790 GPU that was published by DailyTech, it has been observed that the die is slightly larger than that of the RV770. What makes it larger is not known at this point in time.

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Panzerbox features the best airflow in its class, boasting two 190mm and one 120mm fans that churn out a combined 300 CFM. The Panzerbox’s pure aluminum design makes it a light and luxurious option for travel and LAN parties and the welded chassis enhances strength and support. Dual radiator support and full expandability with room for high performance 10.5″ cards, 4 hard drives, 3 5.25″ drive bays, and oversized heatsinks offer gamers and enthusiasts even more options to increase performance while a removable motherboard tray makes upgrades easy and painless.

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The case is expected to start selling in late April for the money equivalent of $119.99. To find more info, please click here.