Tech News

• Why a String of Characters Can’t Protect Us Anymore @ Wired

  Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 | By: Dennis

  This article is 5 pages long and I would strongly suggest that you read every word because he is spot on.

  Why do kids like Dictate do it? Mostly just for lulz: to fuck shit up and watch it burn. One favorite goal is merely to piss off people by posting racist or otherwise offensive messages on their personal accounts. As Dictate explains, “Racism invokes a funnier reaction in people. Hacking, people don’t care too much. When we jacked @jennarose3xo”—aka Jenna Rose, an unfortunate teen singer whose videos got widely hate-watched in 2010—”I got no reaction from just tweeting that I jacked her stuff. We got a reaction when we uploaded a video of some black guys and pretended to be them.” Apparently, sociopathy sells.
  
  A lot of these kids came out of the Xbox hacking scene, where the networked competition of gamers encouraged kids to learn cheats to get what they wanted. In particular they developed techniques to steal so-called OG (original gamer) tags—the simple ones, like Dictate instead of Dictate27098—from the people who’d claimed them first

  Eventually there will be better ways to prove who you are followed by more advanced ways to steal them, it would seem sometimes the old ways are best.  The bottom line is you are you until someone decides they like what you have, after that, there is nothing.

  Kinda poetic don't you think?

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• NL: Review Block - Cards, Cases and Coolers - Watch out the CCC!

  Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Video Cards (the pretty stuff)
  - PowerColor DEVIL13 HD7990 Video Card Review @ [H]
  - HIS Radeon HD 7970 X Turbo 3 GB @ techPowerUp
  - HIS 7750 IceQ X Turbo @ PureOverclock
  
  Cases (the girl stuff)
  - Cooler Master Storm Stryker Review @ Hardware Canucks
  - Fractal Design Node 304 Computer Case Review @ Hi Tech Legion
  - Fractal Design Node 304 Case Review @ Hardware Secrets
  - Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 Midi Tower Review @ NikKTech
  - Fractal Design Define R4 Video Review at HardwareHeaven
  
  Coolers (the 50's stuff)
  - Cooler Master TPC 812 CPU Cooler Review @ APH Networks
  - Phanteks PH-TC90LS Low Profile CPU Cooler @ PureOverclock

  More news on the way, assuming you can stop playing Black Ops II for 30 seconds.  Oh wait, thats right you beat the game already. 

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• MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 Review @ HCW

  Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 | By: Dennis

  I cannot remember the last time I reviewed an AMD enabled system.  Looking thru the Ninjalane archives I know the last board I touched as the ASUS Crosshair V.  The board was solid but my processor was lacking power and precision.

  It would seem that Trinity is the new face of AMD and promises to deliver where the Althon XP left off.

  Kinda.

  The FM2-A85XA-G65 is MSI's first attempt at a fully digital PWM phase controller, and the results are pretty interesting! We take a deep look at the MSI FM2-A85XA-G65's components, overclocking, and peripheral performance.

  We know that Trinity loves to overclock just like Bulldozer and the other Hex cores but does it justify making a panda cry? 

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• Silverstone Zeus 1350 W @ techPowerUp

  Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Assuming for a second that 220v power was common in the American household AND that you were never satisfied anything out of the box you may be asking yourself, "How can I get more Power!"

  Silverstone has the answer.

  Silverstone decided to bring back their top of the line power supply series named after the "Father of Gods and men". The new Zeus ZM1350 is currently the flagship of Silverstone's PSU offerings, and it promises top of the line performance with 1350W continuous power at 50?C

  Truth be told you can run this PSU on American power (110v) but you won't get much more than 1200w from it.  So either pull an extension from your dryer or move to Europe.

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• Prolimatech MK-26 Review @ XSReviews

  Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Its not every day that you find aftermarket GPU coolers, yes that's right, for your video card.

  Given the advent of hot-clocked cards you can tweak you need a cooling solution that can keep up, especially when the stocker is designed for sound performance and could care less about heat.

  Today we’re looking at the Prolimatech MK-26, Prolimatech’s second GPU cooler. Prolimatech are renowned for supreme quality products and supreme performance. The MK-26 is designed to use two 140mm or two 120mm fans and is compatible almost every current GPU on the market.

  Prolimatech is well known in the CPU world and it would seem logical that what is good for the 130w processor can't be all bad for the 50w video card, or can it?

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• ASRock X79 Extreme11 Motherboard Review @ ThinkComputers

  Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 | By: Dennis

  The Intel X79 platform may not hold the overclocking world record but it is the only modern platform supporting the 6 core LGA 2011 and plenty of PCI Express bandwidth.  You can buy quad core editions of this CPU but that just seems silly.

  If you are planning on a new system build and need/want the most power you can get then X79 is clearly the way to go.  The next question is, what board will you pick? 

  Even with the flood of Ivy Bridge processors and Z77 motherboards out there many people (especially gamers) that still prefer Sandy Bridge-E processors and X79 motherboards.  This is because of the increased L3 cache on Sandy Bridge-E processors and the availability of more PCIe lanes.  So until there is official word when we will see Ivy Bridge-E processors X79 still remains the high-end when it comes to desktop systems.  Today we are taking a look at probably the most feature packed Z79 motherboard we have seen and that is available today.  It is the X79 Extreme11 from ASRock and it features 7 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, 14 SATA ports, 8 USB 3.0 ports and much, much more.  ASRock is marketing this board as the “Ultimate X79 Motherboard” and we are going to see if it is!  Read on as we taking a look at the ASRock X79 Extreme11 Motherboard.

  ASRock seems like an attractive solution but I might suggest checking out a few reviews.

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• Usability expert slams Windows 8

  Published: Monday, November 19, 2012 | By: Dennis

  You don't have to be a usability expert to know that Windows 8 sucks to use, but your experience often depends on how you use your computer.  Non power users looking to check email and play movies may totally enjoy Windows 8 while developers, coders and designers will find the different interface limiting.

  Of course there are some power users who insist on touching their computer monitor to the disgust of their co-workers will find Windows 8 most disturbing, especially when they discover that touching does stuff now.

  Back in June, I called Windows 8 a "design disaster." As much as I like the speed and performance gains that the new operating system brings -- and despite being rock-solid, snappy and responsive -- as a platform to do real-world work, Windows 8 feels utterly unusable. There's too much mystery meat navigation, and the last thing I want is for my PC to force me into playing "hunt the app" every time I want to get something done.

  There are ways around Windows 8, the obvious is to "NOT" use it or simply learn how it operates.  Sadly it is here to stay which is making OSX all that more inviting.

  *shudder*

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• NL: Review Block - Mark of the weekend

  Published: Friday, November 16, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Turkey day is almost here followed by holiday shopping,  If you haven't checked out our latest podcast we talk about our plans for the shopping season.

  Video Cards
  - ASUS Matrix HD 7970 Platinum Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
  - ASUS HD 7970 3GB Matrix Platinum Edition Review @ Hardware Canucks
  - Sapphire HD 7770 FleX Video Card Product Review at TechwareLabs
  
  Cases
  - Corsair Carbide 200R Case Review @ Hardware Secrets
  - Cooler Master Silencio 650 PC Chassis Review @ oc Inside
  - Cooler Master HAF XB Chassis @ PureOverclock
  - CM Storm Scout II Mid-tower Case Review @ Hi Tech Legion
  - Cooler Master Scout 2 Mid-Tower Case Review @ Bigbruin
  - Fractal Design Node 605 Case Review @ Hardware Secrets

  Speaking of podcast, look for a new episode next week

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• CoD Black Ops II: Millions of Copies Sold - Suckers!

  Published: Friday, November 16, 2012 | By: Dennis

  It would seem that people love Call Of Duty, call it a success story, but I call it a sham.

  GameStop Corp. (GME), the video-game retailer, sold more than 1 million copies of “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” yesterday, positioning the new title from Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) to break sales records.
  
  “‘Black Ops II’ is shaping up to be our biggest game launch of all time,” Tony Bartel, president of the Grapevine, Texas-based chain, said yesterday in an e-mail. “GameStop sold more than 1 million units worldwide during our midnight launch period.” 

  I do find it ironic that the previous Call of Duty sold like $400 Million in 24 hours and reports this time around say $500 Million.  That might be true but you have to wonder if they are fudging the numbers.

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• Cooler Master HAF XB Launch Day - Need A Bench?

  Published: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Be sure to check out our review of the HAF XB, I found it to be pretty cool though was missing a few key "must haves" for any high-end system.

  Cooler Master HAF XB Case Review @ Ninjalane

  

  Web Reviews
  - Cooler Master HAF XB @ LanOC Reviews
  - Cooler Master HAF XB Case Review @ Hardware Secrets
  - Cooler Master HAF XB Review @ Pro-Clockers
  - Cooler Master HAF XB Lan Box and Test Bench Case Review @ Legit Reviews
  - Cooler Master HAF XB Review @ Hardware Canucks

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