Tech News
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A Sneak Peek at the New Dual LGA2011 from EVGA
Published: Thursday, October 20, 2011 | By: DennisBrace yourself this is going to hit you in places you never thought possible,
Below we have a sneak peek at the new dual socket LGA 2011 overclocking motherboard from EVGA. The board has yet to be named officially but we can feel fairly certain it will carry on the Super Record and Classified mongers.
Looking at the motherboard we see a total of seven PCI Express video card slots, dual cpu sockets and what appear to be independent digital PWMs. The reason for the mismatched memory sockets is unclear though it likely has something to do with total memory support, PCI Express lane allocations or an attempt to space the modules further away from the CPU socket.
Beyond the CPU sockets you'll find the chipset and what appears to be a NF200 chip. Assuming that to be true you can be assured extremely fast SLI across four independent graphics cards.
Keep in mind that PCI Express lanes are rumored to be part of the CPU, like on the Sandy Bridge. It is my guess that when dealing with dual processors you'll get to use PCIe lanes from the primary CPU socket and just add processing cores from the secondary.
Click the link below for a full size version.
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Gigabyte GTX580 Super Overclock Review @ OC3D
Published: Thursday, October 20, 2011 | By: DennisThe Gigabyte SOC series video cards are quite unique in that they follow the standard ATX sizing restrictions and still overclock quite well. Of course most hardware review sites don't subject their cards to LN2 testing but if you happen to have that itch there is a LN2 button on the card to help you along.
As you can see out of the box it appears to be a fairly standard GTX580. Then you note those clock-speeds and get a feel that something special is going on with the Gigabyte GTX580 SOC. As is often the case though the specifications don't tell the full story. So let's grab a look at the card shall we.
With any luck we'll have one of these cards in the lab just to see how they do under LN2.
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Sneak Peak! GIGABYTE X79 G1.Assassin2 Motherboard
Published: Thursday, October 20, 2011 | By: DennisFor all of you who loved the the previous Gigabyte G1-Killer motherboards we have a treat for you.
The G1-Killer in LGA2011 clothing.
Surely the most eye-catching feature on the G1.Assassin 2 is the revised and updated ‘Locked and Loaded’ heatsink array. After all, what’s the point of assembling one of the deadliest and fiercest 3D gaming rigs ever, if doesn’t actually look the part?
Be sure to check out the Gigabyte Tech Daily blog for more photos and watch their Facebook page for more sneak peeks.
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MSI R6870 Hawk Review @ Madshrimps
Published: Monday, October 17, 2011 | By: DennisIt goes without saying that video cards have come a long ways over the past two years from cards that only featured stock VRMs and were nothing more than a reference card with a fancy cooler. Now days you can still get those stock video cards but you can also get extreme cards like the HD6870 Hawk with upgraded cooling and twice the PWM power for the GPU.
In this review we take a closer look at this AMD based HD6870 video card. With the special built Twin Frozr III Cooler and a 8+2 Phase PWM design this one stands out of the crowd. MSI provides this card with a dual speed fan switch. And for a price around € 180 not even much that more expensive to the regular HD6870's. Even cheaper for a few models.
The bonus of a card like this, beyond the obvious overclocking benefits, is better stability at the "hot clocked" settings and peace of mind that you have something better than anyone else.
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NL: Review Block - Storage Cooling and Stuff
Published: Monday, October 17, 2011 | By: DennisStorage
- Silicon Power Velox Series V30 120GB Solid State Drive Review
- OCZ Revo 3 X2 240GB @ PureOverclock
- OCZ RevoDrive 1TB SSD Review @ The SSD Review
- Corsair Force 3 120GB SSD Review @ Legit Reviews
- Patriot Torqx 2 128GB SSD Review at Overclockers Online
- OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 1TB HDD/SSD Review
- OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid review
- OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid PCIe SSD/HDD Review @ HardwareHeaven
- OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480GB PCI-E SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
Cooling
- Coolermaster Hyper 612S CPU Cooler @ Rbmods
- Thermaltake FrioOCK Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
Memory
- G.Skill RipjawsX 8GB F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM Memory Kit @ Bjorn3D
Cases
- Lian Li PC-Z60 Computer Case Review @ APH Networks
- News: Corsair's Carbide 400R mid-tower chassis
- Lian Li PC-V600F @ techPowerUp -
GeForceLAN 6: Gaming on the high seas!
Published: Monday, October 17, 2011 | By: DennisEver wonder what it would be like to have a LAN party on an aircraft carrier?
- GeforceLAN 6 LANing on a boat @ LanOC Reviews
Hey guys sorry for the radio silence yesterday but I will give you guys a quick recap. We will be updating this post with our day to day coverage and also with links to other related coverage. Check back all through the weekend to see whats happening at GeforceLAN 6 on the USS Hornet!
- NVIDIA GeForce LAN Day 1 Coverage @ Hardware Canucks
Earlier in the year NVIDIA announced the latest edition of their GeForce LAN events and PC gamers eagerly grabbed tickets to what promised to be one of North America’s largest LAN parties. Once registration was complete, over 600 people had applied to be part of the 48 hour Bring Your Own Computer LAN. We've got full opening day coverage here.
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CM Storm Sirus 5.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset Review @ Techgage
Published: Monday, October 17, 2011 | By: DennisThe nature of 5.1 channel sound is one that requires sound sources to be a certain distance from your ears. This distance and the timing of the sound reproduction is what gives your brain the illusion of depth, despite how real it is.
What is difficult, is simulating that when the sound sources are mounted directly on your skull.
Finding a 5.1 gaming headset isn't hard, but finding one that's not riddled with problems is. Many companies have been entering the audio market in this way lately, and Cooler Master proves that it's not about to be left out. With its Sirus, we're given one of the best-looking options to date, so let's see if it lives up to the hype.
Basically there are two ways to simulate 5.1 channel sound from a headphone and Cooler Master did it right.
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Thermaltake Toughpower 1500 W @ techPowerUp
Published: Monday, October 17, 2011 | By: DennisLooking for a monster of a PSU? Need a monster PSU? 1500W is about as big as you can go on 110v.
Recently Thermaltake has added three new models to the Toughpower series, which are intended for power hungry systems with triple or even four-way SLI or Crossfire configurations. Today our load testers will have some extra work to do since we are going to test a monstrous Toughpower unit with 1500W capacity.
The real question is, how do you test a 1500w PSU?
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Beavis and Butt-Head's Triumphant Return
Published: Sunday, October 16, 2011 | By: DennisFor those of you old enough to remember, and enjoy, Beavis and Butt-Head will find this story to be very interesting.
It would appear that Mike Judge's comedy senses have only sharpened over years. This pilot was easily one of the show's funniest, with the hilarious duo attempting to become werewolves so they can "pick up chicks," just like in Twilight. Naturally, it doesn't go as planned, and Beavis and Butt-Head end up getting bitten by a homeless man they mistake for a werewolf. There was an amusing second short as well that revolved around Butt-Head mocking Beavis for crying during a dumb made-for-TV drama.
I do not know about you, but this could very well be the holy grail of cartoon sequels. Or it could be painful like watching some of the current South Park episodes, time will tell. One thing is for sure, I will have my DVR set.
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A roadmap for next-generation mobo firmware @ TR
Published: Friday, October 14, 2011 | By: DennisHere is an interesting look at UEFI replacements for the classic BIOS structure found on most modern motherboards. I like how the author talks about the current Asus UEFI bios layout and claims there is room for improvement. Of course there is room to improve, that is the nature of these things and since UEFI is more like an actual GUI program that opens up a variety of possibilities.
The BIOS was never that exciting, but its EFI replacement has the potential to make motherboards much sexier than they've ever been before. We have some rather specific thoughts on what should be incorporated into new firmware, and we're curious to hear what you think, too.
The truth of the matter is (and is something we purposefully didn't address in our reviews) is that UEFI is too new. I will gladly admit that Asus has the best implementation out of any we have used but when you remove the fancy graphics what you are left with is the standard American Megatrends layout, no changes just out of the box features and layout. Heck even the menu is the same. Yes they added some innovation like being able to take screenshots and the EZ layout screen but that only proves they spent more time on making things right.
What I would like to see is some company really pushing the boundaries, break the mold, include some new stuff, change the format, make things point and click or direct entry, don't just wrap pretty pictures around menu selections and call it good, that is what architects do when they attempt to hide bad design it didn't work for them so why would it work for this.
Maybe X79 will bring improvement or maybe it will be the same old stuff with a different color. So far the rumors claim ALL X79 motherboards will come with UEFI interfaces. The question will be, does the company draw from what they think people will find comfortable or will they push the boundaries and actually design something good??
Time will tell.
This is a good read, be sure to check it out.
