Tech News
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MSI Z77 GD65 Gaming motherboard review @ Guru3D
Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 | By: DennisMSI Gaming motherboards, can't wait to see one in person.
I hear they have an OC edition that is completely blacked out with no trace lines, or text.
We review, test and benchmark the MSI Z77 GD65 Gaming series motherboard. The Z77 gaming themed mainboard is intended for Intel's 22nm Ivy Bridge processors on Socket LGA1155. It is the new flagship product amongst the MSI gaming series LOADED with features and overclock potential, it has the latest Killer E2200 chip and SoundBlaster Cinema audio. Oh and of course new gorgeous looks.
According to the flavor text the board comes with SoundBlaster Cinema audio which could simply be software or could include a full SoundBlaster SPU. Which one do you think it will be?
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MSI Z77A-GD65 GAMING Intel LGA 1155 @ techPowerUp
Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 | By: DennisI'm not sure what to think about the new motherboard designs coming from MSI. On one hand we have an excellent gaming platform similar to the G1 Killer line however, given their track record for high-end board offerings I can only hope they release them in significant numbers.
From within MSI's high-tech laboratories, the MSI Z77A-GD65 GAMING motherboard is a dragon unleashed to deliver the best in gaming performance from every angle. Equipped with a KillerNIC E2205 Ethernet Controller and a high-end Realtek Audio CODEC, the board also has the looks and the performance to bring the latest game to its knees.
Black and Red, I do love the color combo.
KillerNIC, Yes!
Realtek Audio? -
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB Intel Z77 Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 | By: DennisFull service motherboards like the UD5H are a prized gem for any system builder since they come with most everything you need onboard. Sadly, most end-users are too focused on price and will skimp on their motherboard choice just to save a couple bucks.
The Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB motherboard is a fully featured mainstream-gaming platform based around the Intel Z77 chipset and bundled with a Wireless 802.11bgn + Bluetooth 4.0 PCI Express x1 card, not to mention all the bells and whistles of a highly expandable workstation platform and a good set of overclocking tools.
The key thing when choosing a motherboard is making sure it has what you need with enough expandability to support what you want. Another important thing is to be realistic, don't buy a 4-way motherboard if you only have money for a single video card, instead pick a lower end board and spend more money on a processor/memory.
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Overclocking With Gigabyte Z77X Motherboards @ HotHardware
Published: Friday, April 19, 2013 | By: DennisI think by most of Ninjalane readers know that I'm a bit of an overclocker and have dabbled with just about every cooling method you can imagine including a single stage phase backed waterchiller with some rather surprising results. The one thing my overclocking experence has taught me is that motherboards, despite what anyone tells you, play a very small role in the maximum achievable overclock in a modern PC.
In fact you can look at it this way. CPU is the most important, with a bad processor you'll get a bad overclock regardless of how much voltage or power stability you have. Next would be memory which is quickly followed by your motherboard. BIOS(UEFI) programming helps to tune a link between everything and if you have a solid BIOS you'll have a solid overclock.
It is no surprise that the Hothardware reviewer was limited to 4.6Ghz in his overclocking tests given that was the frequency limit of his processor.
Although on paper the UP7 looked like it would be the toughest board in the bunch, it couldn’t quite push past the 4.6GHz mark, either; however, it did manage to achieve stability at that clock speed at just 1.18V, which was a bit batter than both the UP5 TH and UD4H. Keep in mind, to maintain stability while overclocked, it's not just a higher voltage that helps, but clean, smooth power delivery as well. And the UP7's beefier power array seems to have paid off here.
At the end of the day, then, all three mainboards achieved the same 4.6GHz overclock, but at three different voltages. The UP7 was the winner by a hair.Of course those had he included memory frequency and results under LN2 I think the end result would have been more definable however, under air/water cooling your maximum clock frequency isn't so much determined by the motherboard but rather the quality of the BIOS programming and how good your particular CPU is.
Funny thing about the UP7, it is an amazing motherboard but due to the complexity of the motherboard design you'll find that memory overclocking isn't all that great. Now, if you roll down to a lower end board like the UD4H you'll find that signal integrity is better and just makes memory overclocking that much easier.
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Five Reasons Why PC Sales Are In The Crapper
Published: Thursday, April 18, 2013 | By: DennisThere are several reasons why people are buying fewer PCs. The biggest one I see is speed, as computers have gotten faster there is less need to actually upgrade. So, unless you're a gamer or hardware enthusiast there is little need to upgrade your hardware.
Case in point, one of my network clients is still using old Dell machines with 3.0Ghz P4 processors. Yes they are slow but for what they do they are plenty fast.
Since the numbers have been released, technology experts and pundits have hypothesized about the causes of the ailing personal computer market. IDC, specifically, cited Windows 8, Microsoft's new computer and tablet operating system, as one of the main reasons people turned away from buying computers.
Money is also a factor and when companies aren't making much they can't afford to be spending it on things like a PC upgrade
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NL: Review Block - Cards Cases and Coolers
Published: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 | By: DennisNew episode of Cards Cases and Coolers. For this block of reviews we'll be all over the map with reviews from around the globe by all manner of folks.
Cards
- Club3D Radeon HD 7870 Joker review
- MSI GTX 650 Ti Boost Twin Frozr OC @ PureOverclock
- MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB Twin Frozr Edition Review @ Hi Tech Legion
- EVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost SC 2 GB @ techPowerUp
- ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 TI Boost Edition at Modders-Inc
- GTX 650 Ti Boost SLI @ LanOC Reviews
Coolers
- Scythe ASHURA CPU Cooler Review @ Madshrimps
Cases
- Corsair Obsidian 900D 'Godzilla' Full Tower PC Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 Advanced Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Cooler Master Storm Stryker Case at Modders-IncBe sure to check out our very own MSI GTX 650 Ti Boost review.
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Microsoft's Windows 8.1: Bring back the Start button and boot to desktop
Published: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 | By: DennisThe hot news of the morning is surrounding a rumor that Windows 8.1 (Blue) will allow you to boot straight to the desktop which also opens up more possibilities that the start button could come back making it more like Windows 7.
I'm not alone in thinking that Windows 7 is by far one of the best operating systems Microsoft has released and had hoped that Windows 8 would have continued down that path. But, as it would turn out M$ was forward thinking enough to consider the mobile space with Windows 8 but in the process alienated a good majority of their user base.
Booting directly to the desktop is something I had hoped would have been in the initial release and so far there is no guarantee that it will make it to Windows Blue until it is released. So, we'll just have to wait and see.One of my sources confirmed this is now looking like the plan and added that Microsoft is also considering bringing back the Start button as an option with Windows Blue.
It's not 100 percent sure that either/both of these options will be baked into the final Blue release, which is expected to be released to manufacturing on or around August 2013. I guess we'll have a better indication once the next milestone build, a.k.a. the Blue Preview, leaks - or when the public version of that preview goes live around June.
"Until it ships, anything can change," said my source, who requested anonymity.WinBeta.org also had a story claiming that Microsoft is working on two operating systems in parallel. The first being Blue and the second would be a "backup" if Blue goes "Vista". Or, in this case Windows 9.
As a programmer I know that it is always good to have a backup plan in the works in case things go south, and having two in flight gives you an active codebase to make drastic changes to if the market shifts. It's an agile coding method and so far seems to work well, especially when it takes a considerable amount of time to build. -
Attack on WordPress sites could create super BotNet
Published: Monday, April 15, 2013 | By: DennisOne of the biggest fears of using any "off the shelf" software, paid or otherwise, is that someone will find a flaw and exploit it for something that wasn't intended. As many of us know hackers target the largest install base since you can get the most reward from it and in the web world that starts with servers (Web/Email/FTP,etc) and moves down to software like PHPBB, vBulletin, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc..
Some of the allure is the fact that these programs are open source giving hackers plenty of ammo for finding security holes but also because much of the web is run using those software peices.
Security analysts have detected an ongoing attack that uses a huge number of computers from across the Internet to commandeer servers that run the WordPress blogging application.
The unknown people behind the highly distributed attack are using more than 90,000 IP addresses to brute-force crack administrative credentials of vulnerable WordPress systems, researchers from at least three Web hosting services reported. At least one company warned that the attackers may be in the process of building a "botnet" of infected computers that's vastly stronger and more destructive than those available today. That's because the servers have bandwidth connections that are typically tens, hundreds, or even thousands of times faster than botnets made of infected machines in homes and small businesses.
"These larger machines can cause much more damage in DDoS [distributed denial-of-service] attacks because the servers have large network connections and are capable of generating significant amounts of traffic," Matthew Prince, CEO of content delivery network CloudFlare, wrote in a blog post describing the attacks.Tasty target indeed. Be sure to check out the source of the Ars news posting and read some of the replies. I almost busted up.
What is worse is that everything seems to be a big phjear tactic to enable monitoring software.
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Resident Evil 6 - Too Much Action for Horror? @ Techgage
Published: Monday, April 15, 2013 | By: DennisI have always been curious about this game but never enough to actually buy it. Given that it started as a console title may have been part of the issue but after the awards AND the fact there are 6 of them might explain why people are still talking about it.
Techgage has a quick write-up of the game, check it out.
The Resident Evil series has been at the forefront of horror games since its first game on the PlayStation in 1996. Does this latest Resident Evil maintain the same level of creativity and bouts of genuine horror, or does it prove that the game has become a follower rather than a leader?
Oh wait, I remember why I never picked it up. Its 3rd person see, when I want my horror helpings I prefer them to be "in my face" like Doom 3 and FEAR.
Omg FEAR was spooky.
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Iron Man Helment Case Mod at Modders-Inc
Published: Monday, April 15, 2013 | By: DennisHere is a quick mod featuring the Iron Man helmet from the modern movies.
Case Modder Franco “warboy” Martinelli created this tribute to Iron Man. Created from scratch the Iron Man Case Mod was made entirely made by hand, including the helmet.
I'm not sure what material the helmet is made from but it looks like resin coated construction board that was later covered with fiberglass and painted.
Be sure to check it out.
