Google Taiwan (NASDAQ: GOOGL) launched a tutorial and training program – the Digital Mars Initiative – to help college graduates hook up with local companies and eventually get hired.

“Why ‘Digital Mars Initiative?’ The name ‘Mars’ came into the picture because these ‘Martians’ think differently with more innovative and new ideas and we are helping them to get into the digital marketing field,” said Stanley Chen (陳俊廷), Google Taiwan’s country director.

Chen made his remarks during a press conference at Google Taiwan’s headquarters on Feb. 5. During previous conversations with Google’s vendors, Chen said, he has often heard complaints that employers had hard time recruiting the right talents while college graduates had a hard time getting hired, because what they have learned on the campus may not be the advantage for them to be recruited.

“We decided to offer the chance to help, train and recruit these young men and help our friends in different industries find their right employees at the same time,” Chen said.

Chen said that the 60 companies in 13 industries participated in the program and offered up to 170 vacancies in marketing, gaming, e-commerce and mass communications, while the average monthly paycheck for these jobs would fall between US$967 and US$1,451. The “Digital Mars Initiative” is the largest talent recruiting project across the Asia-Pacific region, Chen said, and is aiming to help at least 2,000 Taiwanese college graduates by the end of this year.

Those who register online will receive free courses by Google, including digital marketing and keyword advertising – the Good Adwords.  After they complete the courses, Google will also offer chances for them to be certified.

“Google is optimistic about the potential and competitive advantage of the Taiwanese workforce and will continue to strengthen local young people’s abilities through diverse and long-term talent cultivation projects,” said Google Taiwan Managing Director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰).

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If you have been using computers for more than a few years it is likely that you have seen plenty of sound cards.  If someone were to ask you about a USB sound card, would you think of a less than ideal dongle with little to no features with entry level sound quality?

Well, that was then and times sure have changed with feature packed external soundcards that are of good quality on the market.  There are even ones out there that will be good with gaming and allowing the user to experience 3D surround sound while wearing headphones to help pinpoint the action.  The Creative Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1 USB soundcard is a shining example of what an external sound card these days should be.

Specifications

• Model: Sound Blaster Omni #70SB156000000
• Channels: 5.1
• Interface: USB

System Requirements

On PC platform

• Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD equivalent processor at 2.2 GHzMicrosoft Windows 8 / Windows 7 / Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows 8 / Windows 7 / Windows Vista
• 1GB RAM600MB free hard disk space
• 600MB free hard disk space
• CDROM / DVDROM driveUSB 2.0 port
• USB 2.0 port

On Mac Platform

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz
• Mac OS 10.6 & above1GB RAM
• 1GB RAM
• 600MB free hard disk spaceInternet connection
• Internet connection
• USB 2.0 portFeatures

Features

• USB simplicity and portabilityBuilt-in dual microphones with CrystalVoice technology
• Built-in dual microphones with CrystalVoice technology
• Sound Blaster Omni Control Panel
• Dolby Digital Live600-ohm headphone amplifier
• 600-ohm headphone amplifier
• Scout mode
• Comprehensive connectivity for all your PC and Mac audio needs

The post You Need a USB Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1 USB Reviewed appeared first on VR World.

Digital Storm has launched the Bolt II Battle Box Titan Z Special Edition –  a Bolt II small form factor system designed specifically to meet Nvidia’s GeForce GTX Battle Box grade gaming standard.

Rather than just upgrade the components in an existing system, Digital Storm redesigned the Bolt II to house the company’s new Hardline Cooling System. The custom liquid cooling components include a 240mm radiator, pump, and acrylic tubing that delivers vibrant yellow coolant to key components in the Bolt II’s tiny chassis.

“Nvidia launched the GTX Battle Box Program to allow gamers to play AAA, combat-focused games at max settings and super high resolutions. But gaming in 4K requires much more than simply upgrading components.  Our Hardline Cooling System allows gamers to unlock the Bolt II’s full potential and experience games in ways they never thought possible,” Harjit Chana, Chief Brand Officer, said in a statement.

The Bolt II Battle Box Titan Z Special Edition is priced at just under $5,000. This is actually a fairly low price point considering the heavy duty and high performing components inside.  The new system features an overclocked Intel Core i7 4790K processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z 12GB graphics card, 16GB DDR3 memory, and a 700W power supply.

The base specs are:

• Intel Core i7 4790K CPU
• 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory
• Nvidia GTX TITAN Z 12GB
• Hardline: Digital Storm Acrylic Tubing Custom Cooling System (CPU Only)
• 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
• 1TB 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda HDD
• Asus MAXIMUS VI IMPACT (Intel Z87 Chipset) (Mini-ITX) Motherboard
• 700W Digital Storm Bolt II Edition PSU
• Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer
• Microsoft Windows 8.1

It also has a base overclock from 4.0 GHz to 4.4 GHz on the CPU.

The Bolt II Battle Box can be purchased here.

The post Digital Storm Launches Bolt II Battle Box Titan Z Special Edition appeared first on VR World.

Digital Storm recently unveiled the VELOX enthusiast-level gaming PC.  The system uses a custom chassis designed to showcase components and maximize airflow. The VELOX is a mid-sized system designed to sit between the small form factor BOLT II and the huge AVENTUM II PCs.

Like the other models, the VELOX features forged steel and exotic cooling elements that are standard on Digital Storm PCs, as well as vented panels designed to maximize airflow. It uses Digital Storm’s new Hardline H2O cooling solution, as well as the company’s proprietary Hydrolux control software which includes detailed temperature graphs, thermal linked LED lighting and automated airflow optimization.

“VELOX completes our enthusiast level offering. We leveraged our experiences with AVENTUM II and BOLT II to create a unique mid-size system gamers are sure to love.”

-Harjit Chana, Chief Brand Officer

The VELOX starts at a base price of $2,108 and is available exclusively at Digital Storm’s VELOX page.

The base specs (Level 1, Good) consist of:

• Intel Core i5 4690K CPU
• 8GB 1600MHz Memory
• NVIDIA GTX 770 2GB
• 120mm CPU Liquid Cooling
• 120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
• 1TB 7200RPM Storage HDD
• ASUS Z97 Chipset Motherboard
• 750W Corsair CX PSU
• DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
• Microsoft Windows 8.1

The highest end default configuration specs (Level 4, Ultimate) consist of:

• Intel Core i7 4930K CPU
• 16GB 1866MHz Memory
• NVIDIA GTX TITAN Black 6GB
• 240mm CPU Liquid Cooling
• 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
• 1TB 7200RPM Storage HDD
• ASUS X79 Chipset Motherboard
• 850W EVGA SuperNOVA PSU
• DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
• Microsoft Windows 8.1

The specifications can be further customized and upgraded as is typical for Digital Storm PCs, the options can be viewed at their VELOX configuration page here.

The post Digital Storm Unveils VELOX Midsized Gaming PC appeared first on VR World.

Today I’m taking another look at Western Digital’s WD RE 4 TB WD4000FYYZ enterprise drives. I reviewed a single WD4000FYYZ in our Western Digital 4 TB roundup, and Western Digital was kind enough to provide us with some more drives to put through their paces.

The WD RE 4 TB FYYZ was the highest performing drive in our earlier roundup, and as an enterprise drive, it’s rated for double the load/unload cycles of the consumer drives. As such, these drives are optimized for RAID arrays.

The specifications of the drive are below:

• Interface – SATA 6.0Gb/s
• Capacity – 4TB
• RPM – 7200 RPM
• Cache – 64MB
• Load/Unload Cycles – 600,000

I’ll start off with the basic configuration, a single FYYZ drive.

In AIDA64, the single drive has a top linear read of 171.0 MB/s, a random read of 148.8 MB/s, and a buffered read of 345.2 MB/s. It has an average read access of 12.19 ms.

In CrystalDiskMark, the single drive provided a sequential read of 176.6 MB/s and a sequential write of 171.8 MB/s.

We had an issue with AIDA64 and the average read access times. For some reason they were coming out as 0.00 ms for the RAID 0 and 1 arrays, which is incorrect. The AIDA64 screenshots below still include the average read access, but any 0.00 ms times should be ignored

Moving on to two of the 4 TB FYYZ drives in RAID 1, a mirrored array, however, an NTFS RAID 1 array won’t provide any speed benefits.

In AIDA64, the two drive RAID 1 array has a top linear read of 173.6 MB/s, a random read of 130.7 MB/s, and a buffered read of 7278.0 MB/s.

In CrystalDiskMark, the two drive WD RE 4 TB RAID 1 array provided a sequential read of 176.5 MB/s and a sequential write of 166.8 MB/s.

Next up are the two WD RE 4 TB drives in RAID 0, a striped array, meaning performance should almost double.

In AIDA64, the two drive RAID 0 array has a top linear read of 339.3 MB/s, a random read of 289.1 MB/s, and a buffered read of 7359.2 MB/s.

In CrystalDiskMark, the two drive RAID 0 array provided a sequential read of 338.3 MB/s and a sequential write of 334.1 MB/s.

Now we get to the behemoth four 4 TB FYYZ drives in RAID 0, for an array 16 TB in size. The performance should be impressive.

In AIDA64, the four drive RAID 0 array has a top linear read of 713.5 MB/s, a random read of 559.7 MB/s, and a buffered read of 7440.5 MB/s.

In CrystalDiskMark, the four drive RAID 0 array provided a sequential read of 657.1 MB/s and a sequential write of 642.6 MB/s.

These figures are better than any consumer-grade SSD currently on the market, and certainly this array provides a much larger capacity.

We also tested four WD RE 4 TB drives in RAID 10. RAID 10 is the same as RAID 1 + 0, meaning that two pairs of drives are striped, and those pairs are mirrored. This array should yield similar performance to the two drive RAID 0 array, however, note the disclaimer below.

Disclaimer: It should be noted that the RAID 10 benchmarks were done via SATA 2.0 (3 Gbps) on an Intel X79 chipset, whereas the rest of the benchmarks in this review were done via SATA 3.0 (6 Gbps) on an AMD 990FX chipset. This will likely have some effect on the performance of the drives.

In AIDA64, the four drive RAID 10 array has a top linear read of 327.9 MB/s, a random read of 265.4 MB/s, and a buffered read of 6902.5 MB/s. It has an average read access of 11.92 ms.

In CrystalDiskMark, the four drive RAID 10 array provided a sequential read of 336.0 MB/s and a sequential write of 322.5 MB/s.

The drives themselves are very impressive, and scale well in RAID configurations. The WD RE 4 TB WD4000FYYZ currently retails for $300. While this might be a bit too pricey for the average consumer, prosumers and businesses interested in drive performance and guaranteed durability should definitely consider the WD RE 4 TB WD4000FYYZ.

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