Tech News

• VisionTek Radeon 7970 @ PureOverclock

  Published: Friday, February 10, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Visiontek was one of my favorite video card builders on the ATI side, the cards were usually reference design but they were good about putting custom coolers on their cards when they could.

  We're looking at the VisionTek Radeon HD 7970. It's a reference design, and comes a standard cooler and clocks that look to put the hurt on Nvidia's current offerings. 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 VisionTek HD 7970 and answer those questions for you.

  Last I heard VisionTek was shutting down so, if anything, it is good to see they are back to building cards.

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• Security vulnerability that affects all users found in Google Wallet

  Published: Friday, February 10, 2012 | By: Garrett

  For all those rooted users with Google Wallet, be careful, your wallet is not protected.

  The new exploit works like this: a person could take the phone of a Google Wallet user, go into the app settings section for Google Wallet and press clear data, which then resets the app and PIN code. The thief can then open the Google Wallet app and create a new PIN and then add the same prepaid card - and any funds that were on it - back to the Google Wallet account. The thief can then go about their merry way buying things until the funds on the prepaid card run out.

  While Google is working on a fix to correct this, it is a good reminder that with the wonder benefits rooting offers, we have downsides like extra exposure to hacks like this.

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• Gigabyte and CyberpowerPC Partnering to Offer Intel OC Warranty for Free

  Published: Friday, February 10, 2012 | By: Garrett

  As mentioned in a previous post, Intel has started to offer OC warranty for a $20-$35 fee.  Gigabyte and CyberpowerPC take it one step further and is offering to pay that fee with purchase of select systems.

  The Performance Tuning Protection Plan being offered by Intel is a chance for users to experiment with the overclocking features of your processor without the worries of what will happen if you push the processor too far. GIGABYTE and CyberpowerPC are teamed up to bundle Intel’s Plan free of charge, and allows you a single processor replacement through CyberpowerPC’s customer support if the CPU fails while running outside of Intel specifications.

  Saving some money to put into additional upgrades or even faster shipping sounds like a good deal to me, especially if you were planning on buying a CyberpowerPC to start with.  Just remember OCer, just because the CPU has a protection plan doesn't mean it covers the other parts.

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• NL: Review Block - Motherboards, Video Cards, Cases and Coolers

  Published: Thursday, February 9, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Motherboards
  - ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 @ PureOverclock
  - MSI Big Bang Xpower II @ ocaholic
  - GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD7 Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
  - Funky Kit Review: Gigabyte X79-UD3 Motherboard
  - Biostar TPower X79 @ Bjorn3D
  - MSI Z68A-GD65G3 Motherboard @ Rbmods
  
  Video Cards
  - Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB OC Review @ Hardware Canucks
  - XFX HD 7970 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Review @ Hardware Canucks
  - Radeon HD 7950 Overclock Guide with Vtweaking
  - AMD Radeon HD 7950 vs. HD 7970 - at the same clocks
  
  Cases and Cooling
  - SilverStone Air Penetrator SST-AP121-USB Review @ APH Networks
  - Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX HTPC Case @MissingRemote
  - Azza Fusion 3000 Full Tower Chassis Review @ OCIA
  - NZXT Phantom 410 Case @ TechwareLabs
  - Antec P280 Super Mid Tower Case Review @ Bigbruin
  - Cooler Master Gemin II Review - XSReviews
  - Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 PC Case @ Pro-Clockers
  - Cooler Master Cosmos II @ techPowerUp

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• Moto Exec on Android Upgrade Delays: It's The Hardware

  Published: Thursday, February 9, 2012 | By: Garrett

  Motorola talks upgrade delays and how its the hardware that usually causes it.  It would seem that Ice Cream Sandwich might help reduce those delays and get the good stuff in your hands sooner.

  Motorola understands that consumers want their Android upgrades sooner, but the process is complicated, she said. First there's hardware support, then the layering in of custom software from manufacturers like Motorola, and finally, phones must be re-certified by carriers, taking more time.

  As a Motorola Droid X owner, there are two things that normally happen when Motorola talks about updates; they don't say anything or they make excuses.  Seems like this time, we get the latter and instead of talking about one phone they talk about their entire brand.

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• Hackers release Symantec pcAnywhere source code

  Published: Thursday, February 9, 2012 | By: Garrett

  A heads up to anyone that uses Symantec pcAnywhere, update it now!

  The files were uploaded to The Pirate Bay Tuesday, leaving anyone without an updated patch of the software vulnerable to hackers taking control of their computers. PcAnywhere is software that enables users to control their computer remotely.

  Hackers sure do know how to upset not only corporations but the public as well.

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• How Computer Geeks Aim to Put a Stop to Fake Online Reviews

  Published: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 | By: Garrett

  When researching a product to buy one of the major things to check for are the reviews from both professions and users.  Businesses have taken notice of the reviews posted on websites and add fake reviews in order to promote themselves.  This deception has not gone unnoticed and we are seeing groups of researchers and websites start to track fake reviews.

  Just how prevalent are fake online reviews? One indication is how overtly some businesses pay for them. Fake Review Writer is one of the categories of gigs listed at Freelancer.com. The Web page doesn’t beat around the bush, boldly encouraging businesses to “Outsource fake review writer projects!” Nobody’s getting rich writing fake reviews; the pay might be as little as $1 for 500 words. But online ratings and reviews affect consumer perceptions as well as how high a business appears in online search results, both of which can translate into big money.

  While these efforts might not stop all the fake reviews, the less I have to wonder the truth in a glowing 5 star review in a sea of 1 and 2 star reviews for the same product.

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• Engineers boost AMD CPU performance by 20% without overclocking

  Published: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 | By: Garrett

  Using a new technique, engineers have been able to take the strengths of the CPU and GPU and improve performance by up to 20%.

  To achieve the 20% boost, the researchers reduce the CPU to a fetch/decode unit, and the GPU becomes the primary computation unit. This works out well because CPUs are generally very strong at fetching data from memory, and GPUs are essentially just monstrous floating point units. In practice, this means the CPU is focused on working out what data the GPU needs (pre-fetching), the GPU’s pipes stay full, and a 20% performance boost arises.

  This will be interesting to watch out for as AMD is already going down a similar road.

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• The TR Podcast 105: Eye candy and SSD scaling

  Published: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Another episode of the Tech Report Podcast.

  We've got a short and sweet episode of tech reporting this week, featuring Scott's scratchy Bluetooth headset, Jordan's favorite podcasts, and Geoff's sexy SSD roundup. We also answer some listener mail, pore over Scott's review of the Radeon HD 7950, and hear Cyril's critique of the two leading stereo 3D solutions from AMD and Nvidia.

  Pretty good episode, its a bit long but worth a listen.

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• 5 free operating systems that aren't Linux

  Published: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | By: Garrett

  When you think of PC OSes, there are normally three that just about anyone can name: Windows, Mac, Linux.  Tech 2 found 5 free OSes that you might never heard of before.

  The war of operating systems started decades ago, and the first mainstream desktop OS war took place between the Macintosh and Windows operating system. Operating systems are the first bit of software that go into our computer. As PCs dominated the market, Windows became the most used and most popular operating systems ever. It’s stayed that way for close to two decades.

  While may they may not be a daily driver, it might be nice to have to change pace from everyday Windows/Mac use.  Personally, with most able to be installed in a virtual environment, I am temped to see what ReactOS has to offer.

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