Tech News
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G.SKILL TridentX - DDR3 4400MHz Reached!
Published: Friday, August 9, 2013 | By: DennisCongratulations to professional overclocker “YoungPro” from TeamAU, setting a new milestone for DDR3 memory frequency, officially the new “King of Memory!”
Taipei, Taiwan - 9th August 2013 - G.SKILL International Co. Ltd., the world’s leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and superior solid-state storage, tops the memory frequency world record chart once again with “G.SKILL TridentX” overclocked to an amazing DDR3 4400MHz!
1st Global rank validation on hwbot.org: http://www.hwbot.org/submission/2411631_teamau_memory_clock_ddr3_sdram_2202_mhz
Using 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 4770K, ASUS Maximus 6 Impact and a steady flow of LN2, professional overclocker James “YoungPro” Trevaskis from TeamAU were able to push the factory spec G.SKILL TridentX DDR3 3000MHz C12 4GB stick to the world’s fastest DDR3 4400MHz CL13!
About G.SKILL
Established in 1989 by computer hardware enthusiasts, G.SKILL is a leading memory & Solid State Drive manufacturer based in Taipei, Taiwan. The company's top priority is quality. All of the products undergo a series of the most rigorous tests and strict quality control processes. In addition to a committed, qualified IC testing house to examine the products, all G.SKILL products are 100% tested to ensure the highest yield, reliability and quality. -
Funky Kit Article - Interview with Antec
Published: Thursday, August 8, 2013 | By: DennisI sometimes wonder what Antec is up to and for years the company was guarded to the point where the only way you could talk to them was if they contacted you first. It is good to see they have finally opened up and are also branching out.
My name is Frank Lee, Director of Antec Mobile Products and Director of Global Marketing for Antec. Being in business for over 27yrs, Antec has always been in the forefront of the computer DYI industry
Antec used to be one of the premier Chassis and PSU suppliers but is now focusing on the mobile space which is a huge emerging market. Lets find out what else they have been doing.
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SilverStone Air Penetrator SST-AP123 Cooling Fan Review @ APH Networks
Published: Thursday, August 8, 2013 | By: DennisThese are some of the best fans, hands down, feet down, air down, it doesn't matter they are the best.
Is it an improvement from the past even if the specs don't say so? Let's see how the testing goes.
In checking out the review I rather like the tissue paper test which helps to show directionality. At Computex several years ago Silverstone levitated a balloon with an Air Penetrator fan using the Bernoulli Effect. (the same one that allows planes to fly)
Most case fans exhaust air in a cone which is why you always position fans to pull air thru a radiator when you are watercoolig. With the Air Penetrator you no longer need to do that however, the fans tend to work best cooling cases rather than heatsinks.
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SilverStone Air Penetrator SST-AP123 Cooling Fan Review @ APH Networks
Published: Thursday, August 8, 2013 | By: DennisThese are some of the best fans, hands down, feet down, air down, it doesn't matter they are the best.
Is it an improvement from the past even if the specs don't say so? Let's see how the testing goes.
In checking out the review I rather like the tissue paper test which helps to show directionality. At Computex several years ago Silverstone levitated a balloon with an Air Penetrator fan using the Bernoulli Effect. (the same one that allows planes to fly)
Most case fans exhaust air in a cone which is why you always position fans to pull air thru a radiator when you are watercoolig. With the Air Penetrator you no longer need to do that however, the fans tend to work best cooling cases rather than heatsinks.
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Oculus Rift hires FPS Developer John Carmack to be CTO
Published: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 | By: DennisFor some reason this doesn't surprise me and I think it will be extremely good for both parties involved.
Carmack said in a prepared statement that the first time he wrote code for Oculus, it stood up to many firsts he's experienced in modern gaming: "the intensity of the first-person experience, LAN and internet play, game mods and so on." Additionally, he believes VR "will have a huge impact in the coming years" -- Carmack is the first announced big new hire at Oculus.
The key word in the above snippet is "coming years". We all know that VR exists and that past versions of the technology were limited by the very technology that created it. Of course the Oculus implementation is considerably better there are still issues with the technology.
Sadly enough, those issues are with the 2D content that is digitally converted to 3D and then displayed on the screen. Movies recorded in 3D are usually pretty good but games where the pictures are generated in real time often suffer from motion sync issues and just poor 3D implementation.
Let's hope that Carmack can make a difference. Given his track record in the FPS world, I'm sure he can. -
Oculus Rift hires FPS Developer John Carmack to be CTO
Published: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 | By: DennisFor some reason this doesn't surprise me and I think it will be extremely good for both parties involved.
Carmack said in a prepared statement that the first time he wrote code for Oculus, it stood up to many firsts he's experienced in modern gaming: "the intensity of the first-person experience, LAN and internet play, game mods and so on." Additionally, he believes VR "will have a huge impact in the coming years" -- Carmack is the first announced big new hire at Oculus.
The key word in the above snippet is "coming years". We all know that VR exists and that past versions of the technology were limited by the very technology that created it. Of course the Oculus implementation is considerably better there are still issues with the technology.
Sadly enough, those issues are with the 2D content that is digitally converted to 3D and then displayed on the screen. Movies recorded in 3D are usually pretty good but games where the pictures are generated in real time often suffer from motion sync issues and just poor 3D implementation.
Let's hope that Carmack can make a difference. Given his track record in the FPS world, I'm sure he can. -
NL: Review Block - Random Stuffs Part Tre
Published: Monday, August 5, 2013 | By: DennisJust a quick list of hardware reviews to start out the week.
Keyboards(?)
- Rosewill Helios RK-9200 Gaming Keyboard @ Hardware Asylum
- Corsair Raptor K50 Review @ Ocaholic
Coolers
Funky Kit Review: Thermaltake NiC 5 - Untouchable CPU Cooler
Noctua NH-U14S and NH-U12S High Compatibility CPU Cooler Review @ HiTech Legion
Noctua NH-U14S CPU Cooler Review
Games
Civilization V: Brave New World Review @ TechgagePutting the game in there was a stretch but people like Civ 5 right?
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GPGPU performance of modern graphics cards
Published: Monday, August 5, 2013 | By: DennisI considered adding this benchmark to my reviews but not to showcase raw performance but rather to expose PCI Express bandwidth between the GPU and CPU. As you can imagine that didn't work out so well, especially considering how much data actually travels the PCI-E lanes in DX11 vs DX10/9.
While not that many consumer applications are available yet, we can still say that GPGPU has reached maturity. For now the main benefits can be found in photo and video editing software.
The interesting thing to notice is how even the slowest GPU is still faster than a CPU at this stuff and that the speed of the GPU doesn't dictate overall performance. Drivers maybe?
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Microsoft Drops $100 from Surface Pro Price
Published: Monday, August 5, 2013 | By: DennisWho saw this one coming?
Following the drastic price cuts on Surface RT tablets the Redmond giant has slashed $100 from the Surface Pro price in hopes of selling a few.
Microsoft is discounting its Surface Pro tablet this weekend, following heavy reductions to its Surface RT costs recently. The 10 percent price cut to Surface Pro reduces the cost of the 64GB and 128GB models by $100 each in the US. Not all regions appear to have Surface Pro price cuts just yet, but the US, Canada, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are all showing price cuts on both models.
I am not surprised it came to this, assuming Surface Pro is a failure. Microsoft is accustomed to meeting expectations but in terms of selling computer hardware they have a lot to learn. The first lesson: "just because you build it doesn't mean people will buy it". Most content creators don't like Windows 8 and hardware reviewers still compare Slate style tablets to the iPad and those things aren't good for selling powerful tablet devices.
Of course some have speculated that Surface Pro 2 might be coming out which would explain the price drop. Still, i'm not holding my breath, Haswell is a great processor and should help with battery life issue but when it comes down to actually using the tablet you're going to be faced with "meh" performance and a butthurt wallet. -
Microsoft Drops a C-Note from Surface Pro Price
Published: Monday, August 5, 2013 | By: DennisWho saw this one coming?
Following the drastic price cuts on Surface RT tablets the Redmond giant has slashed $100 from the Surface Pro price in hopes of selling a few.
Microsoft is discounting its Surface Pro tablet this weekend, following heavy reductions to its Surface RT costs recently. The 10 percent price cut to Surface Pro reduces the cost of the 64GB and 128GB models by $100 each in the US. Not all regions appear to have Surface Pro price cuts just yet, but the US, Canada, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are all showing price cuts on both models.
I am not surprised it came to this, assuming Surface Pro is a failure. Microsoft is accustomed to meeting expectations but in terms of selling computer hardware they have a lot to learn. The first lesson: "just because you build it doesn't mean people will buy it". Most content creators don't like Windows 8 and hardware reviewers still compare Slate style tablets to the iPad and those things aren't good for selling powerful tablet devices.
Of course some have speculated that Surface Pro 2 might be coming out which would explain the price drop. Still, i'm not holding my breath, Haswell is a great processor and should help with battery life issue but when it comes down to actually using the tablet you're going to be faced with "meh" performance and a butthurt wallet.
