Tech News

• Asus X79 Sabertooth Motherboard @ Bjorn3D

  Published: Friday, April 6, 2012 | By: Dennis

  We have a new review up of the "classic" Sabertooth P67 motherboard that started the trend of Thermal Armor, be sure to check it out.

  If you are looking for a Sabertooth board "without" a full set of armor and quad channel memory controllers make sure to give this board a look.

  

  The Asus Sabertooth X79 is the Asus offering that represents high quality and high life expectancy parts via the TuF components. Lets see how well it performs with its excellent MTBF components.
  

  Notice the fan on the South Bridge and no heatpipe connecting it to the PWM? ya....

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• Foxconn Nano PC nT-i1500 Barebone Review @ Madshrimps

  Published: Tuesday, April 3, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Those of you who have been following Foxconn (besies anything related to the Apple i(andything)) will have noticed that they have started to migrate away from channel motherboards to AIO barebones systems and multimedia PCs.  the Nano PC nT-i1500 is one such product that will likely change how the mainstream uses a desktop PC.

  Foxconn has brought us to the table the latest generation of Intel Atom CPUs, by using the small Nano PC chassis which features about the same layout inside as the barebones we have tested from them in the past. The system power consumption is very low, temperatures are good in load and the noise generated is decent. Only thing that needs to be fixed to make this product fully functional is the VGA driver which in its current state offers low performance in both 2D and 3D environments, and Intel does not offer any support for x64 OSes.

  Foxconn has always had their hands in barebone system design and found them to be quite profitable since customers buy them as a white box and can rebrand them anyway they wish.

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• Blackle vs. Google Monitor Power Consumption Tested @ PCSTATS

  Published: Monday, April 2, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Ok so as a designer I have nothing against black web designs, they do look badass but also scream "I am a dated bastard you had better like something here!".  Along the same lines it stands to reason that LCDs have to spend less power displaying black designs since most of the lights will be turned off.

  Is the search page, Blackle.com, really an energy efficient alternative to Google? The theory is websites with black background save energy. PCSTATS finds out if this is a blatant green washing, or an earnest energy saving tweak for something we use every day.

  By the looks of it an all black design is more power efficient and LCDs use less power than CRTs but does changing your site from white to black save you more power than simply trashing the CRT??

  uhhh,  no.

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• MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning review @ Guru3D

  Published: Friday, March 30, 2012 | By: Dennis

  One of the first HD 7970's to feature a completely custom PCB the MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning.  I almost bought one of these the other day but when I came to my senses they had sold out at Newegg.

  

  We review the MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning. What a product to look at, the R7970 lightning has a very rare design, comes with only the best components, has voltage monitoring headers, comes pre-overclocked (extensively at 1070 MHz) and allows to be voltage tweaked at many levels.
  
  To pursue Eyefinity they have made the card Eyefinity6 compatible, by use of four DisplayPort connectors and two single link DVI connectors you can get six monitors running. Though realistically nobody does that as you have that ugly bezel from left to right smack down in the middle of you field of view.
  
  There's another feature though, to give the product a little more 'niche' MSI implemented a small add-on board that is called a GPU-reactor which functions as a power supply module which, when installed on the back of the GPU.

  What really surprises me is that we are not seeing more companies take such a radical approach to custom video card PCBs,  Yes they are a little more expensive and people "other" than overclockers will buy them. it's just a matter of cost.

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• Female Ninjas in Iran: Who Knew

  Published: Monday, April 2, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Here is an interesting story, and what is more interesting is that the group is suing Reuters for defamation.

  In February, Reuters sent Caren Firouz to photograph an all-women ninjutsu gym in the town of Karaj. His photos (which we also ran) appeared in a slideshow on Reuters' website. Now, Iranian state-run outlet PressTV says that several of those ninjas are suing Reuters for defamation. The Reuters story, according to PressTV, "accused [the women] of being assassins" whom the state is training "to kill any possible foreign invaders." There's no reason to think that these female athletes are actually state-run killers.

  I guess it's true, when someone says "Ninja" people really do assume there is someone hiding in the shadows waiting to kill them, regardless if they run a hardware website or simply have a super cool motorcycle.

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• Internet Hoax Wrapup

  Published: Monday, April 2, 2012 | By: Dennis

  There were a couple of stories posted last week that actually turned out to be a hoax.  The first was the Tacocopter, that totally awesome service that would deliver a taco via GPS.  While it would seem that many sites discredited the startup from the beginning I had high hopes and figured they would clean it up in post.

  Oh, of course not. Not even close. Tacocopter isn’t a real app or startup. The technical, safety and legal hurdles facing such a taco-delivery system are near insurmountable in today’s environment — as our resident flying drone expert, Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson, was quick to point out when Gadget Lab became just a bit too enthusiastic about the possibility of window-side delivery service. (We’re located on the third floor.) Source Wired

  The next internet hoax was the failed attempt to bring down the internet using Operation Blackout, again I held my hopes high so that I could justify my day of yardwork.  Sadly I could be seen slaving away trimming trees, cleaning flowerbeds and running a power rake over the yard, and for nothing.

  Well at least my yard will look good this year.

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• Operation Blackout - What it means to you and how to cope

  Published: Friday, March 30, 2012 | By: Dennis

  As I write this many people are living in fear that the Anonymous threat supported by Operation Blackout will actually succeed.  If it does then all DNS traffic on March 31st will cease to function and bring the world to a screeching halt.  No more Facebook, No more Twitter, No more online games

  - Or -
  
  This could be just an empty promise supported by an idle threat that was never intended to succeed.  Either way Operation Blackout is a concern and should be addressed.  To help you I have compiled a list of The top 17 things you may have to do if Anonymous brings down the Internet.   Be sure to check it out.
  
  On a more serious note I have to wonder about their timing.  Anyone who has bought a domain name will know it takes a couple days for the domain to populate around the internet.  It stands to reason that if the master DNS servers get overloaded the local DNS caches will continue to function for a couple days and likely ride out the attack.  Next you have to consider the day they plan to do this, a Saturday?.  It is a busy day off for most, a day of leisure.  Wouldn't it make more sense to do this on a Monday?  Finally, if a hacking group was planning something why bother telling the world about it? Doesn't that water down your threats?
  
  Food for thought
  
  One thing is for sure I'll be doing a few of the things on my list regardless if the Internet is up or not

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• HD 7970 Price Cuts? Don’t Count on it @ Hardware Canucks

  Published: Thursday, March 29, 2012 | By: Dennis

  This is kinda sad since I was looking at picking up a HD7970 but had a bit of sticker shock in the process.

  When the GTX 680 was released last week at $499, many thought that AMD would trim a few bucks off of the HD 7970.  Cuts to its $549 price tag yet haven’t happened and if what we hear is true don’t expect any movement on that front — at least not yet.
  
  Before NVIDIA introduced their Kepler architecture, AMD was in a place of dominance within the GPU market.  It was an enviable position and as a result we saw enthusiasts begin a headlong rush towards the HD 7970 and HD 7950.  Unfortunately, AMD’s production of these $549 and $449 cards wasn’t able to keep up with demand and availability suffered.  The GTX 680 rained on that parade in a big way by consistently beating the HD 7970 in performance benchmarks while retailing for “just” $499.

  I was listening to the TR podcast not to long ago and Scott kept going on and on about how the GTX 680 isn't really a "high-end" GPU.  When you compare the specs I would tend to agree.  If that is the case then the price is justified.

  Tis a good read, give it a look.

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• NL: Review Block - Motherboards and Video Cards - What could go wrong?

  Published: Thursday, March 29, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Normally I tend to keep the review blocks rather short and throw the hardware links right into your face but it has been decided that even review blocks need a little love.  The following review block features Motherboard and Video Card review links from around the web.

  Motherboards
  - Funky Kit Review: MSI X79A-GD65 8D Motherboard
  - ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 Motherboard @ Maximum-Tech
  - MSI A75MA-G55 Motherboard @ Rbmods
  - GIGABYTE X79-UD5 Motherboard Review @ Hardware Canucks
  - ASUS P9X79WS Motherboard @ Bjorn3D
  - Gigabyte Z68XP-UD5 @ PureOverclock
  - Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5 Intel X79 LGA2011 Motherboard In-Depth Review @ PCSTATS
  
  Video Cards
  - Sapphire HD 7850 OC Radeon Review @ TechwareLabs
  - GeForce GTX 680 3-way SLI review
  - XFX HD7850 Black Edition Review
  - XFX R7850 Black Edition Double Dissipation Graphics Card and AMD Anti-Aliasing Analysis Review @ HardwareHeaven
  - ASUS GeForce GTX 680 SLI @ techPowerUp
  - nVidia GeForce GTX 680 4-way SLI review

  Just look at all that hardware!

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• Building the Right Box @ Techgage

  Published: Thursday, March 29, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Building computers has almost become second nature for me and when putting a system together it really comes down to how does this person want to use their PC.  Gaming rigs typically need a good video card whereas general purpose systems can get by with ultra low power processors and integrated graphics.

  A lot of effort goes into choosing the right parts for your newest computer, but Senior Editor Brett Thomas thinks the focus can sometimes be a bit off. In this article, he outlines where the best bang for the buck can be spent on your high-performance rig... and believe it or not, it might not be where you think!

  Of course not everyone shares my same views and will base their decisions on things like price.  yuk

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