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As mainstream as it gets: Corsair announces the Carbine 100R case
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As mainstream as it gets: Corsair announces the Carbine 100R case

Two years ago, Corsair released the Carbide 200R and the $59 case proved to be a remarkable budget-friendly solution. Back then we were wondering “how low can you go” and the Carbide 200R served as the least expensive enclosure Corsair had in their ranks for a long time. That changes today, as Corsair announced the 100R, a slightly smaller version of the 200R that has a MSRP of $49. The small 100R can still hold normal ATX motherboards and PSUs, as well as 5.25″ devices and up to four 3.5″ drives.

The 100R will be available in two versions. The windowed and windowless (silent) versions will have an MSRP of $49 and $59 respectively. No, that is not a typo, the windowless version is a little more expensive because it includes a layer of sound-dampening material. Visually, the 100R is very similar to its larger, older brother, the 200R. From the pictures that Corsair provides with their press release, we can tell that the major differences lie with the drive cages; there is one less 5.25″ bay and the 3.5″ cage has been remodeled to use plastic trays. The top exhaust fans are limited to 120mm as well, but they ought to be more than sufficient for a budget-level system.

“The Carbide 100R shatters the stereotype that budget-friendly cases have to be gaudy and poorly designed, ” said George Makris, Product Manager for Cases and Cooling at Corsair. “Now gamers and PC enthusiasts have a subtle, functional, and affordable foundation for their next PC.” A presentation of the 100R by George Makris can be seen in the following video.

Synology's BeyondCloud Series - NAS Units made User-Friendly
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Synology’s BeyondCloud Series – NAS Units made User-Friendly

Synology has put out some interesting updates (both expected as well as unexpected) in the lead up to the new year. At CES 2015, the focus is on a new series of NAS units to complement the traditional Disk Station (DS) lineup. The BeyondCloud (BC) package takes the traditional DS unit, preconfigures it with disks and sets up an appropriate volume. Certain packages (such as the multimedia-focused Photo Station and Video Station) are also pre-installed.

Newly purchased BeyondCloud NAS units are up and running immediately after purchase. As I have mentioned before in previous Synology reviews, setting up a JBOD or RAID-1 volume with fresh raw disks involves optimization of the configured file system. It often takes the better part of a day. The BeyondCloud series manages to hasten the setup process, and it is particularly useful for SMBs and busy tech-savvy users

On the other end of the spectrum, we have this new lineup making NAS units more friendly to the average consumer – those who are not comfortable with aspects such as shared folders and mapping network drives. In this area, I think Synology has a chance to jostle for space with the Western Digital EX2, Seagate Personal Cloud, LenovoEMC EZ Backup and Media Center and other such products which come with disks pre-installed and target home users. Given the ease of use of the DSM UI, home consumers should find the BC series a welcome competitor in this space.

The BC series currently has three members:

  • BC115j 1200: 1-bay, 2TB hard disk pre-installed for $180
  • BC115j 1300: 1-bay, 3TB hard disk pre-installed for $240
  • BC214se 2300: 2-bay, 2x 3TB hard disks in RAID-1 for $370

The units are based on the DS115j and the DS214se. Both of them have a Marvell ARMADA 370 as the main SoC. The concept is great (albeit one that Western Digital and Seagate have already implemented in their consumer-focused personal cloud solutions). Synology can differentiate a bit by offering higher-end systems (4- and 5-bay ones) in a BeyondCloud configuration.

We met up with Synology at Pepcom, and they had the units on display, along with the SMB-focused DS2015xs and the DS414slim. On the CES show floor, they will also be having demonstrations of the new Surveillance Station (which doesn’t require Java on the client systems anymore) as well as other features of the latest DSM.

 

Synology's BeyondCloud Series - NAS Units made User-Friendly
  • Comments are Closed

Synology’s BeyondCloud Series – NAS Units made User-Friendly

Synology has put out some interesting updates (both expected as well as unexpected) in the lead up to the new year. At CES 2015, the focus is on a new series of NAS units to complement the traditional Disk Station (DS) lineup. The BeyondCloud (BC) package takes the traditional DS unit, preconfigures it with disks and sets up an appropriate volume. Certain packages (such as the multimedia-focused Photo Station and Video Station) are also pre-installed.

Newly purchased BeyondCloud NAS units are up and running immediately after purchase. As I have mentioned before in previous Synology reviews, setting up a JBOD or RAID-1 volume with fresh raw disks involves optimization of the configured file system. It often takes the better part of a day. The BeyondCloud series manages to hasten the setup process, and it is particularly useful for SMBs and busy tech-savvy users

On the other end of the spectrum, we have this new lineup making NAS units more friendly to the average consumer – those who are not comfortable with aspects such as shared folders and mapping network drives. In this area, I think Synology has a chance to jostle for space with the Western Digital EX2, Seagate Personal Cloud, LenovoEMC EZ Backup and Media Center and other such products which come with disks pre-installed and target home users. Given the ease of use of the DSM UI, home consumers should find the BC series a welcome competitor in this space.

The BC series currently has three members:

  • BC115j 1200: 1-bay, 2TB hard disk pre-installed for $180
  • BC115j 1300: 1-bay, 3TB hard disk pre-installed for $240
  • BC214se 2300: 2-bay, 2x 3TB hard disks in RAID-1 for $370

The units are based on the DS115j and the DS214se. Both of them have a Marvell ARMADA 370 as the main SoC. The concept is great (albeit one that Western Digital and Seagate have already implemented in their consumer-focused personal cloud solutions). Synology can differentiate a bit by offering higher-end systems (4- and 5-bay ones) in a BeyondCloud configuration.

We met up with Synology at Pepcom, and they had the units on display, along with the SMB-focused DS2015xs and the DS414slim. On the CES show floor, they will also be having demonstrations of the new Surveillance Station (which doesn’t require Java on the client systems anymore) as well as other features of the latest DSM.

 

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Zotac ZBOX CI320 nano Review: A Fanless Bay Trail-M mini-PC

Over the last couple of years, mini-PCs in the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) have emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Zotac is no stranger to this segment. In fact, their nano xs units came to the market before the Intel NUC, even though the NUC is credited with kickstarting the UCFF trend. Intel’s Bay Trail family of SoCs has proved to be an affordable and low-power candidate for UCFF PC units. We have already evaluated a couple – an actively cooled GIGABYTE BXBT-1900 and and the fanless ECS LIVA. This review provides some insights into what the passively cooled Zotac ZBOX CI320 nano brings to the market.

  • Comments are Closed

Zotac ZBOX CI320 nano Review: A Fanless Bay Trail-M mini-PC

Over the last couple of years, mini-PCs in the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) have emerged as one of the bright spots in the troubled PC market. Zotac is no stranger to this segment. In fact, their nano xs units came to the market before the Intel NUC, even though the NUC is credited with kickstarting the UCFF trend. Intel’s Bay Trail family of SoCs has proved to be an affordable and low-power candidate for UCFF PC units. We have already evaluated a couple – an actively cooled GIGABYTE BXBT-1900 and and the fanless ECS LIVA. This review provides some insights into what the passively cooled Zotac ZBOX CI320 nano brings to the market.