Tech News
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OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240GB SATA 6Gbit/s SSD Review @ Techgage
Published: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 | By: DennisPeople say that SSDs are the way of the future and given the technology going into these drives I would tend to agree. So what excatly is Max IOPS? read on..
When we took OCZ's Vertex 3 SSD for a spin last month, there was no other way to sum up our thoughts than 'blown-away'. How could such a drive get even better? With tweaked firmware and a doubling-up of NAND chips, of course. Let's take a look at the Vertex 3 Max IOPS edition and see if its price premium is justified.
It would seem that "price premium" and "blown away" tend to go together, and well, you get what you pay for.
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Foxconn breaks ground for Taipei IT mall
Published: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 | By: DennisThis goes to show that even though a company is not "big" in the US it doesn't mean they don't have pull and infulance elsewhere in the world.
Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) on July 11 held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Taipei Information Park, an IT shopping mall project based on a BOT (build-operate-transfer) contract with the Taipei City Government.
The shopping mall is a structure with 12 stories above ground and six basement levels on a site of 8,883 square meters (66,110 square feet), with completion scheduled for 2013. It will be operated by Cybermart Worldwide, a Foxconn Group member that operates the Cybermart 3C retail chain in China.This should be a great project, I'll be following it for sure.
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GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 Intel Z68 Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
Published: Monday, July 11, 2011 | By: Dennis
If we were to look at strictly the performance of the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3, I would have no complaints. Unfortunately, I can't look past what I feel are short comings of the Z68X-UD7-B3. It seems to me, that GIGABYTE took the P67A-UD7-B3 motherboard, slapped the Intel Z68 chipset on it and called it good. The problem with doing that is that it pretty much leaves out the features that separate Intel Z68 chipset from the P67 chipset. You would expect that the boards would be priced close to the same, but that is not the situation that we have here today. We found that the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 is currently retailing for $349.99 plus shipping and the GIGABYTE P67A-UD7-B3 is retailing for $294.99 after rebate. That means that there is a $55 price difference between two identical motherboards. What do you get for $55? Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT) for SSD caching...
The P67 and Z68 UD7 boards is one of my personal favorites and so far has done extremely well in a variety of overclocking situations from Air, Water, and Single Stage Phase. I hope to put this board under LN2 in the near future. While I don't expect to get anymore MHz out of my 2600K it should still be a fun time.
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NL: Review Block - Water Water Everywhere
Published: Monday, July 11, 2011 | By: DennisWatercooling kits have become surprisingly easy to install. In the early days you would have to assemble your kit from a variety of individual components, mod your case, and then chase down issues as they arose. These days you simply pick up a pre-made kit and away you go.
- Swiftech H20-220 Edge Watercooling Kit @ Bjorn3D
- Larkooler KU3-241 WaterCooling Kit Review @ XtremeComputingKits like these might be the future of PC watercooling but I still like doing things the old way.
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Gigabyte Aivia M8600 @ LanOC Reviews
Published: Monday, July 11, 2011 | By: DennisThis is actually a really good mouse. It comes with good optics, wireless with a replacement battery back, option to run wired, and rubberized grip for comfort.
In the moments before I sat down in the office to write this review, Wes and I wrestled with the web of cords that we hide behind the monitor. Given the opportunity, I think any user would jump on the chance to eliminate even one from that mess. Attractive of a thought as that is, wireless peripherals aren't always the friendliest, in cost or performance. We visited Gigabyte's Ghost engine last year with the M8000Xtreme, and today we sit down with the newest addition, one that is designed to cut down the clutter of cables.
Be sure to check out our review of the Aivia M8600 gaming mouse. You may need to get used to the shape but depending on your preferences it may not be an issue.
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NL: Review Block - Mobos and Cases, together at last
Published: Friday, July 8, 2011 | By: DennisThese are the peanut butter cups of the computer world.
Motherboards
- Gigabyte X58A-OC Review @ ocaholic
- ASUS Maximus IV Extreme P67 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
- ASUS Republic of Gamers Maximus IV Gene-Z Motherboard Review @ HardwareHeaven
- MSI Big Bang Marshal (Intel P67 Express) Motherboard Review
Cases
- SilverStone Raven RV03 @ Phoronix
- Silverstone's Raven RV03 case @ TR
- Silverstone Raven RV03 Case Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Lamptron Fan Controller Touch @ techPowerUp -
BMW MPower level 10 PC a Mod project @ XtremeComputing
Published: Friday, July 8, 2011 | By: DennisMods like this really give me the itch to start modding again. No total conversions like what is popular now but just a wholesome down-to-earth mod to personalize a chassis.
This all started one day when I spotted the thermaltake level 10 case sitting at show, I thought wow that looks very unique. I had been planning for a little while to do a car themed mod and with the level 10 being designed by one of BMW’s design houses, I thought now was a good a time as any to actually do a BMW 3 series Mpower theme, so the concept was born. Now bear in mind this concept started way back last year
Of course I don't think I would have the balls to mod such an expensive chassis, though after learning that most review sites that were lucky enough to review the Level 10 simply gave them away it might not be so difficult.
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NVIDIA NF200 x16/x16 vs. Intel x8/x8 P67 Performance Analysis
Published: Wednesday, July 6, 2011 | By: DennisWhat an interesting article, the TweakTown guys are looking at the latest Asus Maximus IV Extreme motherboard (ROG Sandy Bridge mobo) and trying to figure out if running their video cards in the Native 8x / 8x PCI Express layout was better than running them in 16x / 16x mode on the NF200 chip.
The results might surprise you. (or not)
"Unlike most performance motherboards that by default carry only an x8 / x8 setup when SLI or CrossFire X is used, the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme offers us the NF200 chip to add more PCI-E lanes to the board. Over the last few years we've seen companies implement the chip to boards to help move the default SLI or CrossFire X setup from x8 / x8 which is offered via the Intel chipset, to x16 / x16 via the NF200 chip.
When you move away from a two card setup and into a three card one, boards without the NF200 chip would run x8 / x8 / x4, while with the NF200 we're able to achieve x16 / x8 / x8 which when having so much power on hand, is extremely appreciated. ASUS do it a little differently, though, and they do it in a way that has confused people. On the Maximus IV Extreme and Extreme-Z, their P67 and Z68 boards, by default they offer x8 / x8 via the Intel chipset. It isn't until you add a third card into the mix that the NF200 chip comes in handy, because in that situation we get a x8 / x16 / x16 setup."'I don't want to ruin the suspense but given the research I have done for the Ninjalane Multi GPU Index I can already predict the outcome.
The overclocking community claims there is a latency added when you use a NF200 chip. Of course if you are running 3D bench after 3D bench looking for that glitch score that will land you a gold cup you will see the latency. It takes a long time to run a 3D bench so I can understand why most overclockers would request a dual mode motherboard. However, in regular games or everyday computing it is clearly not a contributing factor to overall performance.
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NL: Review Block - Return of the Case Kings
Published: Wednesday, July 6, 2011 | By: DennisSome case reviews from the news box.
- Coolermaster Storm Enforcer gaming case @ Madshrimps
- Sentey GS-6000 Optimus Mid Tower Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- Thermaltake Chaser Gaming Case Review @ XtremeComputing
- Corsair Obsidian Series 650D Mid Tower Case Review @ ThinkComputers
- Cooler Master Elite 310 Case Review @ OCModShop
- Cubitek Tattoo Pro Chassis Review @ OCIA
- Cubitek XL Tank Computer Case Review @ APH Networks
- Coolermaster Silencio 550 Review - XSReviews
- Fractal Designs Define R3 Chassis Review @ MissingRemote
- NZXT Source 210 Elite @ PureOverclock
- NZXT Source 210 Elite @ techPowerUp
- 3R System L-900 V.REX F8 PC Case Review @ Real World Labs
- Thermaltake Level 10 GT Full-Tower Chassis Review @ TechgageTechgage is doing something special with their Level 10 GT, be sure to check it out.
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Some Good Hacks Over the Weekend
Published: Tuesday, July 5, 2011 | By: DennisIt would seem that hacking/cracking has once again gone mainstream with no indication that they will be letting up anytime soon.
The first hack that caught my eye was one featuring the president that actually gained some traction since it appeared to come from a trusted news source. News quickly spread and left agencies scrambling to fix their systems. The second hack has yet to be confirmed but has to do with gadget maker Apple and their iCloud service.
A couple of weeks ago a Pastebin post popped up claiming the group had hacked into gadget maker Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iCloud service. The group writes:
You'll have to check out the Daily Tech posting for more details.
On a side note the iCloud hack is a precursor to the dangers of hosting things "in the cloud". A "cloud" is a series of virtual servers linked together to provide better accessibility and uptime over a single server solution. The only problem is items in the cloud are shared so once you gain access to the system there is virtually no security. Given the wealth of data people trust to these services I would fully expect to see more cloud breeches in the future, assuming they haven't already happened.
