Tech News
-
The 5 biggest tech failures of 2012 @ ExtremeTech
Published: Thursday, December 27, 2012 | By: DennisThis article seems to be spot on when it comes to identifying failures.
Technology marches onward with unrelenting determination year after year. The gadgets that run our lives get cheaper, faster, and more beautiful without fail. However, that doesn’t mean that individual companies can’t pull a boner from time to time, and 2012 was no exception. Let’s take a look at the five biggest technology fails of the past year.
I may not have included HP into the list since it wasn't really a technology failure but rather a failure in "tech". All of the others, yes!
-
MSI Z77 Mpower Motherboard review @ Rbmods
Published: Wednesday, December 26, 2012 | By: DennisSome think you need the most expensive motherboard to get the best performance and in some regards that is correct but, usually only when it comes to LN2 overclocking and other extreme electrical sports.
Z77 Mpower is one of the most powerful Z77 boards MSI has, it comes loaded with features and also a bit more expensive price than other motherboards. Are expensive boards any better than cheaper boards? Lets find out how well this unit performs.
MSI Power edition products offer step down performance from their top-teir counterparts and often with better overclocking results when you consider a "Stock" baseline.
Personally I'm not sold on the MPower line but could be convenced to give one a spin, assuming one was provided.
-
New CPU Overclock, Video Card Overclock, Diagnostic, Benchmark and Backup Tools Roundup @ OCinside
Published: Wednesday, December 26, 2012 | By: DennisThe title to this article sounds more interesting than it "really" is.
Today, OCinside.de updated the overclocking software page with dozens of small tools to tune, benchmark and test the PC components. If you like to overclock, backup, or monitor your PC hardware or if you just like to check your components, this is the right place for you. There are useful older Shareware and Freeware tools, as well as the latest tweakting tools to change the CPU multiplier or FSB and to overclock current nVidia or AMD video cards. Additionally, the latest SiSoftware Sandra, Futuremark 3DMark and PCMark benchmark programs are hosted in the most current version on the ocinside.de Servers. The overview contains direct downloads, links to the developers, a small description and the size of the respective software.
Funny thing, one of the forum members suggested I create a downloads section similar to the one at TechPowerUp and Guru3D. The traffic infusion should be astounding but would require too much time on my part to keep it updated.
Or would it.,,
-
Radeon HD 7970 and GeForce GTX 680 tested with 10 CPU @ HWGroup
Published: Wednesday, December 26, 2012 | By: DennisThe results of this article are what you would expect and split between AMD and Intel, No cross testing was done (in the same chart) which might be my biggest issue with the results and negates the purpose of the article.
Of course, IMO.
To get the most out of a high-end single-GPU graphics card, you need an Intel Core i5 3570K or higher. It's also interesting to note that AMD's low-end processors score better than Intel's cheap processors in combination with high-end graphics cards. The last conclusion we can draw is that the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition suffers less from CPU scaling than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680. That means that the AMD card performs better with slower processors compared to the Nvidia card.
Maybe the best part of this article is the comments. Be sure to read a few of them with a good bowl of popcorn.
-
What the Future Looked Like 100 Years Ago (And 5 Predictions That Came True) @ gizmodo
Published: Monday, December 24, 2012 | By: DennisThis seems pretty accurate, now to find the rest of the list.
In the early 1900s, Ladies Home Journal thought the future would bring a lot of things. The predictions sound funny and old timey, sure, but you know what? Even though we haven't eradicated flies and mosquitos (yet!), a lot of them came true. Including these five:
1) Hot and cold air from spigots: Suck it, past. Warm baths are a thing now.Check out the site for the other four.
You can also find the source of this story over at reddit.
-
Assassin's Creed 3 @ LanOC Reviews
Published: Monday, December 24, 2012 | By: DennisI rarely pay much attention to game reviews and rely on inital impressions when I decide to purchase. So why post a link to a game review on a hardware review site??
I dunno
Innovation is a tough thing in the gaming industry. Not just coming up with something new and exciting that will get fans of all ages to line up to play, but once you have those fans you must innovate to keep them. This is something that the Assassin’s Creed franchise has had great success with. With the original release of Assassin’s Creed, it was something that gamers had never seen before and it was awesome. The gameplay got a bit repetitive and bland at times, but Ubisoft quickly improved on it with the next installment in the series giving gamers more things to do and a more in depth storyline. After that followed multiplayer and countless hours of online fun. I am extremely excited for this review of Assassin’s Creed 3 because it is set around the American Revolution, a time that has not been looked at before in the franchise and an interesting piece of history in my eyes. Sit back and grab your muskets because “The British and coming, the British are coming!”
I was actually given a code to download the game, much like what occured with LanOC, but the ubisoft website snubbed me and wouldn't accept the code. As I wasn't about to buy the game myself it was decided so simply, let it go.
-
Websites Give Deals Based on User Information
Published: Monday, December 24, 2012 | By: DennisThis is an interesting story, and something I have noticed but didn't pay much attention to in the beginning.
A key difference: where Staples seemed to think they were located.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that the Staples Inc. website displays different prices to people after estimating their locations. More than that, Staples appeared to consider the person's distance from a rival brick-and-mortar store, either OfficeMax Inc. OMX +1.34% or Office Depot Inc. ODP -2.31% If rival stores were within 20 miles or so, Staples.com usually showed a discounted price.The question I would have is, does this reflect in the store?? I think not.
-
PowerColor PCS HD7870 Myst Edition Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com
Published: Monday, December 24, 2012 | By: DennisSeems like they are trying to sell a video card based on what games it can play. Sound familar?
PowerColor are taking the Tahiti GPU, usually used in 7900 series cards, and pricing/configuring it at 7870 level. Call it Tahiti LE, 7950 Light... or 7870 Myst with PCS+ cooling. Today we take a look at how it performs in games like Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3 and Hitman Absolution.
Back in the early days having games included with your graphics card was a real value addition and proof that the card will run the latest titles. These days it really doesn't matter.
Sad how things have changed.
-
Sparkle GeForce GTX 650 Ti review @ Guru3D
Published: Friday, December 21, 2012 | By: DennisGonna let the Guru tell you about this one.
We review and benchmark the Sparkle GeForce GTX 650 Ti Dragon series and perform an in-depth test with the latest games available. This graphics card is launched to fill the gap inbetween the Radeon HD 7770 and Radeon HD 7850. Aimed at a pricetag of roughly 150 EUR this product comes with 768 shader processors. Sparkle applies a custom PCB and their dual-fan cooler. Next to that you receive a factory overclock right out of the box. Let's check it out shall we ?
In looking at the card the first thing that comes to mind is that the PCB is HUGE! The cooler is full length with dual fans with a shroud designed to vent outside the chassis. Of course there is a huge gap in the cooler to ensure when the fans ramp up it can still cool the GPU. At this point the GPU will be at its hottest and will dump that air back into your chassis.
As I suggested in my 3-way review of the GTX 650 Ti I felt the lack of SLI and small nature of the "reference" PCB lended the card well to being a dedicated PhysX processor and not a viable solution to your "average" gaming needs.
Mainstream, yes, but for your average gaming rig get a card that can be expanded and offers a good level of performance like the GTX 660 Ti and above.
-
ASUS Says: Intel likely to figure a way to keep LGA design for CPUs
Published: Friday, December 21, 2012 | By: DennisThe rumor that LGA is going away made the headlines a month ago and was even the subject of the NInjalane Podcast were we talked about the leaked roadmap and how the slide may have been leaked on purpose to gauge market reaction.
Well Joe Hsieh, Asustek Computer vice president and general manager of motherboard/desktop business claims that removing LGA from the Intel lineup isn't good for business but will be good for "their" business.
Commenting on Intel's reported plans of abandoning CPU socket designs and changing to directly soldered CPUs after two years, Asustek Computer vice president and general manager of motherboard/desktop business Joe Hsieh has said that the issue will not be as bad as people think, and Intel is likely to adopt a strategy to allow the both methods to coexist.
Hsieh noted that even if Intel's ball grid array (BGA) packaging plans enter the desktop industry, the industry will continue to live on as motherboard makers will figure out how to handle and respond to the change.The part that makes this Digitimes post interesting is that shortly after the rumors died down Intel announced that they will be supporting socketed CPUs for the foreseeable future.
