Tech News

• ASUS Maximux IV Extreme Motherboard Review @ OCIA

  Published: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 | By: Dennis

  This is one of the great motherboards designed for the Sandy Bridge platform, it offers the user great control over the system and even features switches designed for LN2 overclocking.  (Assuming your chip can handle the cold)

  

  Today we are taking a look at a board from the latter series, the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme, a P67 B3 Revision board that throws caution to the wind by including virtually every bell and whistle one could desire. This board is specifically designed for Intel 2nd Generation Core CPU overclocking and supports Nvidia SLI and ATI CrossFire X multi-GPU configurations in addition to a treasure trove of ROG-specific features and applications.

  Be sure to check out our review of the Asus Maximus IV Extreme, you might find something you didn't know.

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• NL: Review Block - 2/28/2012

  Published: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 | By: Dennis

  New review block covering Cases and Coolers.  Got some good stuff in there.

  Cases
  - NZXT Switch 810 Hybrid Full Tower @ Pro-Clockers
  - Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition Review @ circuitREMIX
  
  Coolers
  - Swiftech Apogee HD @ PureOverclock
  - NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler Review @ Bigbruin
  - ARCTIC's Freezer 13 PRO and Freezer i30 CPU Coolers @ circuitREMIX
  - Noctua's DH-14: Air Cooling Keeps Up With Liquid?
  - SilenX Effizio EFZ-120HA5 Performance CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
  - Coolermaster Gemini II SF524 Cooler Review @ HardwareLOOK
  - Phobya Shrouds Review on Technic3D
  - SilenX EFZ-120HA5 CPU Cooler @ Bjorn3D

  More to come.

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• ASUS Rampage IV Formula BF3 Edition @ Hardwareoverclock

  Published: Friday, February 24, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Have you been dr00ling over the Rampage iV Extreme but get lightheaded when you look at the pricetag?  Maybe the Rampage IV Formula is more to your liking.

  Mit dem Sockel 2011 bieten die neuen Boards jede Menge Features, die für die neuen Prozessoren notwendig sind. So ist das Board vom Aufbau völlig neu. Das Speicher Interface wurde wieder geändert, auf Quad Channel. Dies soll das Tripple Channel Interface des Sockel 1366 ablösen und noch ein wenig an Leistung zulegen. Natürlich ist diese Steigerung mit einem enormen Platzaufwand verbunden, da die Speicher-Bänke jetzt links und rechts vom Sockel sitzen. 

  I'll be honest here and say I have no idea what I just quoted but the pictures look good.

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• Gigabyte 7950 Windforce @ PureOverclock

  Published: Friday, February 24, 2012 | By: Dennis

  It is no secret that the HD7970 has caught the eye of the enthusiast even though it has gotten a lack luster response from nVidia.  I plan to get one and any self respecting overclocker should do as well.

  We're looking at the Gigabyte HD 7950 today, it's a ramped-up version of the AMD design, coming with a customized air cooler called the Windforce. As we've seen in the past from Gigabyte, excellent cooling is characteristic of this Windforce design, so we hope that trend continues with this new card.  We know the 7970 is a perfomance monster, but what about this 7950? Is it strong enough to fend off the GTX 580? Framerates tell some of the story, but what about temperatures? Power consumption? Gaming value? Let's take a closer look at the Gigabyte 7950 and answer those questions for you.

  Windforce is to Gigabyte as the Twin Frozr is to MSI, and I'm gonna say they prolly cool about the same and both suffer from "fan to close to cool" syndrome.

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• NL: Review Block - 2/24/2012

  Published: Friday, February 24, 2012 | By: Dennis

  I'm calling this the dead server edition, not sure exactly why.

  Memory
  - G.Skill Ares 2133 MHz CL9 Quad Channel 16 GB @ ocaholic
  - Kingston HyperX Genesis DDR3-1600 8GB Dual Channel Memory Kit Review @ ThinkComputers
  - Kingston HyperX Red 8GB DDR3-1600 @ PureOverclock
  
  Coolers
  - Coolermaster Hyper 612 PWM Heatsink Review
  - Coolermaster Hyper 612S CPU Cooler Review @ HardwareLOOK
  - Corsair Hydro Series H100 Liquid CPU Cooler Review @ circuitREMIX
  
  Cases
  - Silvestone DC01 Data Center NAS unit reviewed in Metku

  Stay tuned, more to come.

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• The state of DDR4 @ ExtremeTech

  Published: Thursday, February 23, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Looking back you'll notice that the adoption rates for system memory are rather slow and really driven more by price than anything else.  However that was when chipsets handled system memory interfaces and it was up to the motherboard makers to determine how many modules would be supported and what interface would be used.

  Now that processors control the memory to make a jump from DDR3 to DDR4 would require a new processor package and likely a new socket type.  This isn't something you push on the retail consumer unless there were real benefits to be seen.

  Samsung announced a year ago that it had developed the first 2GB DDR4 modules using a 30nm process technology, achieving with them transfer rates of 2.133Gbps at 1.2 volts. Three months later, Hynix came up with its own DDR4-2400 modules operating at the same voltage.

  Given that DDR3 is still being explored any radical change in memory architecture would likely hit the ultra high-end segments first, namely Servers and Workstations (assuming people use them anymore).  

  Personally I'm rather excited to see what DDR4 brings to the table.

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• Google to sell Android-based heads-up display glasses

  Published: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 | By: Garrett

  If you ever wanted your glasses to more than just allow you to read or reduce the glare of the sun, sources from inside Google have shared that glasses with heads up displays maybe be available this year.

  What's more, the Times says that none other than Sergey Brin is a "key leader" on the project, with another being Google engineer Steve Lee, the creator of Latitude. Notably, Bilton also says that Google sees the project as an "experiment that anyone will be able to join," and that the company is not currently thinking about potential business models for the glasses, which could suggest that they may be more of a small-scale hobby than part of a major push into consumer hardware.

  As much as it would be cool to have glasses like this, we are still having issues with people texting and driving.  But it would make Google Maps a lot more interesting.

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• Microsoft Office to Become Available on Apple's iPad? Don't Believe the Hype

  Published: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 | By: Garrett

  In an official statement from Microsoft, Microsoft Office is not going to be available for the iPad anytime soon.

  A Microsoft spokesperson told the New York Times: "The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment." She added that an image with The Daily's article depicting an Office product for iPad was "… not Microsoft's software," she said.

  I would like to think that if Microsoft was going to release Office, that they would go ahead and release it on Windows Phone 7 first before release it on other mobile OSes.

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• New GeForce R295 Drivers! - Time to speed up Skyrim

  Published: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 | By: Dennis

  If you are playing the latest hot PC games like Diablo III, Mass Effect 3, or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you will definitely want to upgrade to the latest GeForce R295 drivers, posting today. These drivers come packed with GeForce-exclusive performance and quality enhancements and are now Microsoft WHQL-certified.
  
  GeForce R295 highlights include:
  

  • Game-changing performance boost of up to 45% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, “the fastest selling title in Steam’s history”
  • Over 90% SLI scaling in Mass Effect 3.
  • GeForce-exclusive quality enhancements with ambient occlusion support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Diablo III, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
  • New 3D Vision and SLI profiles for over 50 titles.
  • New PhysX software for the best experience in top PhysX titles like Alice: Madness Returns and Batman: Arkham City.
  For more details, please read the GeForce R296 article on GeForce.com the link is below.
  
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• Hackers Can Track Your Cellphone Without Your Knowledge

  Published: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 | By: Garrett

  Researchers have discovered that hackers can easily use the data between GSM towers and your phone to get your rough location.

  The tracking of a user happens via data packets that are typically sent to a phone to help a cell tower to locate a phone and allocate the appropriate resources to support a call. Such packets are also sent to tell the phone that someone is calling it. The researchers found that they could force cell towers to send the data and hang up, before the recipient's phone rings. However, by then, the location data is already available. Apparently, there is no need for support from a cellular provider and open source software running on "commodity" platforms will give hackers or anyone else who wants to track cell phone user location access to exploit the vulnerability.

  I always had the understand that getting a cell phone would come with a risk of people, companies, and the government knowing my location.  However, I am not sure if I want hackers to be on that list of people who know. 

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