Tech News
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ASUS Maximus V Gene @ Bjorn3D
Published: Friday, May 25, 2012 | By: DennisTo make up for the weak article snip in the notification I'll be including a picture of the motherboard in question.
ASUS jumped into the Z77 chipset head first with many models and of course a ROG offering in the Maximus V Gene.
I won't lie, the Gene edition motherboards work great but are a little small for my tastes.
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NL: Revierw Block - Cards Coolers and Memory - 5/25/2012
Published: Friday, May 25, 2012 | By: DennisNot much to say here but we have a good list of Video Cards (with a 3) CPU Coolers and Memory products. This is where I usually make note of Crucial Memory and how they HQ in my town and yet are not ones to send out samples. No real issue for me since they got out of the overclocking game awhile back.
Vid3o Cards
- MSI R7850 Power Edition 2 GB @ techPowerUp
- Inno3D iChiLL GTX 670 HerculeZ 3000 Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven
CPU Coolers
- Spire Coolgate 2011 CPU Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews (For some reason I think toothpaste when I read this)
- Thermaltake Frio OCK Review @ HCW
- Funky Kit Review: ARCTIC Accelero Twin Turbo II VGA Cooler
- Thermaltake Frio Extreme Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
- Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro Liquid Cooling System @ Pro-Clockers
- Funky Kit Review: ThermalTake Frio Extreme CPU Cooler
- Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler @ Maximum-Tech
Memory Modules
- Quad-Channel DDR3 Memory Round-Up: Kingston, Corsair, Patriot and G.SKILL @ HotHardware
- Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR3 1866 16GB Quad Kit @ Pro-Clockers
- Crucial BallistiX Elite 16GB 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit ReviewI'm planning a 4-way (for CPU Coolers
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Extreme Overclocking Session III ( EOS ) Event 2012 @ Madshrimps
Published: Friday, May 25, 2012 | By: DennisLittle events like this are pretty common in Europe but not so much in the US. Yes, we Americans do have parties and such but the whole community aspect of it all is rare to see, much less exploit for internet linkage.
Once in a while Team Madshrimps gets invited to attend a Team Overclocking event. Is it because people like us for who we are? Because of our looks? The knowledge we can share? Well to be honest we don't care about the previous. Most important thing on our own list is the abundant presence of free food and drinks. Secondly if the event is related to torturing PC Hardware, then we don't mind a long drive. Wickedly enough after each event, we get invited to the next upcoming one. So at least we must be doing something good. Time to get in the HWBot company war (in reality it's Massman's dad) and start the drive towards the 3rd EOS event at the cute town, called Heilbronn in Germany.
Looks like the Madshrimps overclockers went to Germany to overclock, I wonder how it went?
Click the link below to find out.
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Thermaltake Frio Advanced Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 | By: DennisBelow is the quote that accompanied this review link. It describes the heatsink quite well but seems to be lacking the most important aspect of the cooler.
Thermaltake's Frio Advanced heatsink stands 161mm tall and weighs upwards of 954 grams, it is rated to heat loads of 230 Watts by the manufacturer. The heatsink ships with two 130mm PWM fans arranged in a push-pull configuration that rotate at 2000-800RPM. Behind each fan shroud is a 110mm tall aluminum fin tower connected by five U-shaped, 6mm diameter copper heatpipes which are exposed at the base. Thermaltake's Frio Advanced heatsink is compatible with Intel socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775 and AMD socket AM2/AM3/FM1 CPUs.
I have seen this heatsink up close and feel the first paragraph in the review is a little more descriptive.
Thermaltake's Frio Advanced heatsink is basically a reboot of the Jing heatsink, but this time around the copper heatpipes are exposed at the base, none of the aluminum surfaces are nickel plated and the heatpipes not soldered to the cooling fins. We mention this seemingly minor point of construction, since the Frio Advanced's heatpipes are pressed into each aluminum fin with a new type of swage joint we haven't encountered before.
I'm hoping to have a have a massive Thermaltake round up in the next couple weeks, look for this guy to be in the bunch.
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Hacks Decimate Diablo III Debut @ HotHardware
Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | By: DennisLots of chatter about Diablo III and for good reason between failures to launch, fat guys complaining and hotties being out of the country you have to wonder if they sold any copies at all.
One of the biggest issues is with hacking and Hothardware is hot on finding out why.
Diablo 3 players don't need any more bad news. The game is already staggering from a debut marred by enormous lag spikes, dropped games, and auction house errors. Now, widespread allegations of hacking are taking further chunks out of Blizzard's hide. This time though, there's an added twist: A significant number of those hacked claimed to be using Blizzard Authenticators. This has led to counterclaims that the victims must be lying, as well as a great deal of confused discussion over whether or not such a thing is even possible.
To that end, there's something all of you need to understand up front. The Authenticator that Blizzard sells is not guaranteed proof against having your account hacked...Makes you wonder why WOW never got this kind of press. oh wait...
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Bill Gates, fellatio and media, and how all three relate to a profile of Gates
Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | By: DennisOk so this is not related to computer hardware directly but today I caught myself asking the question. "Where is that video showing Bill Gates saying that 640k would be enough for anyone?" A quick google search returned a variety of sites quoting the quote and all of them were pointing at this article at wired.
Earlier this week, in a column on Bill Gates, fellatio and media, and how all three relate to a profile of Gates in last week's Time magazine, this column daringly offered free software into the millennium to anyone who remembers one thing Bill Gates ever said. We were taking issue with the notion advanced in the magazine that Mr. Gates is shaping this or the next century as a visionary leader, as opposed to just selling lots of software.
Within minutes of the column's postings, the first challengers had emailed, all offering the same quote.
"I've got one for you," messaged a hacker from Cambridge. "Some years back, Gates said '640K is more memory than anyone will ever need.' Where do I pick up my software?"So I am guessing the video I saw was a fake or as the FBI says when they want to cover up the truth. "I must have mis remembered". Either way the wired article is hella funny and the quotes at the end are to die for.
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Crysis 3 Studio Reminds You It Still Owns Your Copy Of The Original Crysis
Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | By: DennisI was an early adopter when it came to laying the first Crysis and bought one of the first copies to hit the shelves. It would seem to have been a good decision on my part since later editions came with a key activation scheme that would limit how many times you could install it.
to celebrate the release of the game Crysis 3, the studio has raised the activation limit on the original Crysis from 5 to 50. It seems like a nice gesture, but it doesn't really make any sense—why not just remove the limit entirely? The game is nearly four years old and cracked copies are easy enough to obtain, and it seems like they aren't that worried about piracy, since otherwise I don't imagine they'd make the limit so high. But the real slap in the face is that, when you get down to it, this is still them restricting your legitimate use to their arbitrary terms.
I never liked activation installs since it limits how you can use your software and opens up a list of privacy issues. On the flip side it does prevent the piracy of legit software by forcing legit owners to crack the copies they paid for once their activations run out.
Or better yet download and run the cracked copies and bypass the whole purchase program to begin with.
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Ivy Bridge PCI-Express Scaling with HD 7970 and GTX 680 @ techPowerUp
Published: Monday, May 21, 2012 | By: DennisWith the advent of PCI Express 3.0 and Ivy Bridge some people are left wondering if PCIe3.0 is really something you must have or can you slowly move into it as you upgrade.
TechPowerUp has published a scaling article to discover just that
Today's latest graphics cards come with support for PCI-Express 3.0, which promises twice the bandwidth, while still being compatible with older motherboards and graphics cards. In our article we analyze differences in PCIe performance on Intel's Ivy Bridge with GeForce GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7970, using 20 games at five resolutions, each at all three PCIe generations and x4, x8 and x16 link width.
When I created the Multi GPU Index I looked at similar things and tried to determine if a full 16x really mattered or if 8x would be enough. The results were mixed but indicated that more is better but the technology update from 1.1 to 2.0 was the most important aspect.
Be sure to check out the vintange photo of an early DFI SLI enabled motherboard with the movable jumper blocks, brings back memories.
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NL: Review Block - Two Motherboards you must see!!
Published: Monday, May 21, 2012 | By: DennisHere are a couple of motherboard reviews for you to check out. The first is an Asus Z68 LGA 1155 motherboard for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors. I have a similar board in the lab and will be posting a mini writeup in the next couple days.
The second motherboard is the Gigabyte X79 G1 Assassin 2 for the LGA 2011 super Sandy Bridge extreme. This board is designed for gaming and comes with the onboard components to support that intention.
Motherboard Reviews
- ASUS P8 Z68-V/GEN3 @ LanOC Reviews
- GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 Motherboard Review @ TechgageGaming motherboards were never much for hardcore overclocking but I suspect Gigabyte might start following the ROG model going forward.
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NZXT Switch 810 Full-Tower Chassis Review @ Techgage
Published: Friday, May 18, 2012 | By: DennisI have to be honest when I say the NZXT Switch 810 might be the worse chassis I have ever used. The panels are thin, there is way too much plastic, the top panel vents are difficult to operate and the plastic fan covers use push clips to attach to the main bezels, if you bump these wrong the panels fall off.
I'm sure NZXT ment well with the design, and some review sites seem to love the chassis but in my opinion they tried a little too hard.
Techgage on the other hand really enjoyed the case and the points they made were valid.
From cases to cooling, NZXT has something for everyone - and for every budget. With this review, we're taking a look at the company's Switch 810 full-tower chassis, designed for those who want solid design, big space, effective cooling, and can appreciate other smaller features not often seen on the competition's products.
Look for a capsule review of this chassis in the next couple of weeks, it could have been done sooner but I wanted to make I used the case for awhile before doing the write up.
