It’s also about time someone came out with a camera that aided cam-whoring! Let’s just hope your 4.6X optical zoom and 12.2 megapixel sensor deliver on image quality Samsung! Find out more on the camera advertised here:

• Samsung ST550 product page
• Samsung TL225 product page

And yes, the ST550 and TL225 are simply the same camera under different names, the latter apparently for the US, and the other for the rest of the English-speaking world (am I wrong? Comment below).

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Here are the parts used in this build, all available from NewEgg. Prices are current as of this writing (September 24, 2009):

	Type	Component	Price
	CPU	AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 3.1GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor	$102
	Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P ATX AMD Motherboard	$110
	Memory	OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) OCZ2G10664GK	$70
	Video Card	Two (2) SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 100245HDMI Video Cards	$100 each
	Hard Disk	Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive	$57
	Power Supply	Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power “compatible with Core i7″ Power Supply	$85
	Optical Drive	SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223B	$32
	Case	Rosewill Wind Ryder Black Dual 120mm Fans Computer Case	$40
Total			$696

Yes, I said Tom’s set out to build the PC with a $650 budget, but it seems prices have changed, bumping up the total of the parts above to $700—a figure exclusive of any relevant shipping charges and taxes. However, seven hundred dollars is still a very affordable figure for quality gaming. The two ATI Radeon HD 4850s were able to achieve a 3DMark Vantage 1.02 GPU score of 12,470. Compare that figure to the 16,813 score of the GeForce GTX 295, a high-end video card that costs at least $500.

In other words, for significantly less, this $700 PC represents enough power for the latest and next-generation PC video games. As the folks from Tom’s conclude:

If you look over our SBM articles from the past year, you’ll notice we continually strive to add more graphics muscle to our budget gaming rig. As prices drop, we have stepped up from the GeForce 8800 GT to the Radeon HD 4850, the Radeon HD 4870 512MB, and the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, and now finally to a pair of HD 4850 512MB cards. While we did see instances where more graphics memory would have been useful, this was still by far the most potent graphics solution we have squeezed into our lowest SBM budget.

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The Associated Press reports that the Samsung Reclaim will one-up previous similar phones by providing a complete feature set. Mobile web access, a built-in camera, GPS, and a slide-out keyboard might be standard nowadays, but Sprint wants you to know that no one’s come out with a comprehensively functional yet eco-friendly phone, explicitly calling out competitor T-Mobile’s Motorola Renew.

Sprint also asserts that the phone will cost only $50 as they will pay Samsung “more than the usual amount of subsidies”. Of course, such a low price means a two-year lock-in. However you see it, the fact that the phone’s case is made out of biodegradable plastic composing partially of corn is a catchy news bite, and is sure to elicit some corn-y puns online! See, it has already begun! (Feel free to visit instantrimshot.com)

Pictures to follow once they become available. I for one am expecting a yellow phone.

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Courtesy Tom's Hardware

The financially frivolous exercise (see prices below) was Tom’s Hardware US’s response to an email by Samsung’s PR agency, which apparently showcased a RAID array of 24 Samsung PB22-J flash SSDs achieving 2.12GB/s. Looks like Samsung needs to come out with something new!

Despite the unofficial 2.23GB/s throughput (read/write performance) record, the tech-heads at TH weren’t completely satisfied. With an average claimed speed of 200MB/s per individual drive, hooking up 16 X25-Es should’ve produced a throughput of 3.2GB/s. Ah, but despite applying “all optimizations”—including the use of two drive controller cards to overcome PCIe x8’s limitation of 2GB/s—sometimes the rest of a computer simply can’t keep up with an awesome setup.

Product Links and Prices:

• Adaptec 2244300-R PCI Express SATA / SAS 5805 Controller Card – $519.99
• Intel X25-E 64GB 2.5″ SSD – $669

Yes, ladies and gentlmen, Tom’s setup was worth $9,000!

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Slightly bigger than its predecessor the S1, the Mini S2 takes advantage of the increasingly roomy 2.5″ hard disk platform, offering capacities of up to 500GB. Keeping with the feminine theme, the casing is designed to not look out of place in a handbag, as the pic below illustrates:

The Samsung Mini S2. Courtesy Samsung

No word yet on pricing, but the S2 should be available throughout only South Korea by the end of this month. I wonder if this product was inspired by this old external hard disk design concept?

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