Tech News
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Serious Sam 3: BFE gets a release date
Published: Thursday, August 25, 2011 | By: DennisOh no, not a prequel !!
Slated for October 18, BFE will serve as a prequel to 2001's Serious Sam: The First Encounter. Set in 22nd century Egypt, the latest entry vows to deliver a modernized Serious Sam experience without altering the formula that earned its predecessors a cult following: relentless action and a wanton disregard for digital life forms. That's all you can really demand in an arcade-style first-person shooter.
I'm gonna buy it, how about you? Be sure to check out the gameplay video, its just like the first 2 Serious Sam games but with better graphics.
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SilverStone DC01: An Entry Into The Linux NAS Market @ Phoronix
Published: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 | By: DennisIf you need to access files from more than one location you have a couple of options. You can buy/build a network server to host those files and deal with all of the headaches associated with it or buy a small NAS box, plug it in and forget about it.
When talking about SilverStone Technology on Phoronix it's commonly about one of their wonderfully-designed computer cases that we have enjoyed reviewing over the past six years, one of their power supplies, or the few other product categories this Taiwanese manufacturer has explored. Among the more peculiar products from SilverStone has been the HDDBOOST, the Raven mouse, and the Treasure RFID Enclosure. What we have our hands on today is SilverStone's first entry into the single-drive Network Attached Storage (NAS) market. The SilverStone DC01 is an affordable Linux-based NAS server.
Most NAS boxes run Linux but so far this is the first one from Silverstone and is worth checking out.
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Cooler Master Notepal U Stand Launch Day
Published: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 | By: DennisOne of the difficult things about using a laptop away from your desk is where do you put it? Your lap tends to work quite well for this but doing so can sometimes lead to nasty burns and system overheating due to reduced cooling capacity.
Cooler Master as a pretty good solution for you that does more than just elevate your laptop for easy access.
Notepal U Laptop Cooler Reviews
- Cooler Master Notepal U Stand @ LanOC Reviews
- Cooler Master Notepal U Stand Laptop Cooler Review @ BigbruinAnd its adjustable too.
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NL: Review Block - Cards and Boards Extravaganza
Published: Monday, August 22, 2011 | By: DennisSeems I have been slacking on the whole posting news thing so here is a review block for your clicking enjoyment.
Motherboards
- Sapphire Pure Platinum H67 Socket 1155 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
- GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD5 @ Bjorn3D
- Asrock Fata1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 1155 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
- Sapphire Pure Platinum Z68 Motherboard Review @ Kitguru
- Sapphire Pure Platinum Z68 @ PureOverclock
- Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 Intel P67 Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
- MSI Intel 1155 Z68 PCI Express 3.0 Motherboard Z68A-GD65G3 @ TechwareLabs
- ASRock Z68 Professional Fatal1ty Gen.3 @ PureOverclock
- ASUS Maximus IV Extreme @ Bjorn3D
- MSI Z68A GD80 G3 PCIe Gen 3.0 motherboard review
Video Cards
- Zotac GTX 560 Multiview Video Card @ TechwareLabs
- ASUS MARS II 3GB Dual GTX 580 Video Card Overclocked
- ASUS Mars II 3 GB Dual GTX 580 @ techPowerUp
- ASUS ROG MARS II 3GB Video Card Preview @ Legit Reviews
- Asus ROG MARS II Graphics Card Review @ Kitguru
- ASUS Republic of Gamers MARS II graphics card review
- ASUS Mars II 3 GB Dual GTX 580 @ techPowerUpThere should be two mobo reviews this week. Be sure to check out our review of the Gigabyte G1 Sniper 2.
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HP Kills TouchPad, Puts WebOS in Hibernation
Published: Thursday, August 18, 2011 | By: DennisOuch!
HP announced it will no longer produce hardware running its webOS mobile operating system, discontinuing operations on future TouchPad tablets and the Pre smartphone devices.
“HP plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones,” the company said in a statement. “HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.”-- snip --
The news comes in the wake of a huge announcement from Google earlier this week, when the Mountain View company announced its acquisition of hardware company Motorola Mobility Holdings for $12.5 billion. Traditionally a software-only company, Google is making its first foray into the hardware business. (The company did test the waters slightly with recent partnerships with Samsung and Acer, which both make the Chrome OS-powered Chromebook.)
The news of the Motorola acquisition set the technology world abuzz, with pundits speculating that Google would alienate its other hardware partners — HTC, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson. The new relationship between Google and Motorola could make Google’s partners wary that competitor Motorola may be privy to inside information on Android, cutting others out of the loop.This isn't really the best time to be killing your mobile platform, but considering how slow HP moves and how poorly WebOS has done the decision was likely driven to stop the cash hemorrhage and stay in the green.
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Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Intel Z68 Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
Published: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 | By: DennisIf you are looking for a mainstream motherboard you can't go wrong with the UD3 line from Gigabyte.
Today, the newest chipset for Intel processors is the Z68 Express and motherboards like the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 which are built around it offer up a mainstream suite of capabilities and a kitchen sink full o'features. On the all important videocard front there are two options - integrated graphics via the board's HDMI/Display Port/DVI-D/Analog video outputs, or PCI Express based discrete graphics cards. In terms of videocards, the GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard will handle one PCI Express 2.0 x16 videocard in x16 mode or a pair of nVidia Geforce / ATI Radeon videocards in SLI or Crossfire, in x8/x8 mode.
It is difficult to get upset with integrated graphics these days since the GPU is part of the processors but having the option to run multiple discrete graphic cards or stick with the onboard option gives you plenty of options when building a system. And, well, this board can give you that.
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Google To Buy Motorola Mobility For $12.5 Billion
Published: Monday, August 15, 2011 | By: DennisLooks like that new android phone I bought will soon be property of google. So will this put Google on the same level as Apple?
Google Inc. (GOOG) agreed to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) for about $12.5 billion, a move that would make Google more competitive in the mobile-computing market.
The deal, which comes just eight months after the split of Motorola Inc., would give Google control of Motorola Mobility's attractive patent portfolio after the Internet giant recently missed out on a bid for Nortel Networks Corp.'s (NRTLQ) portfolio. Google, which owns the fast-growing Android operating system used in millions of mobile phones, has a thin portfolio of wireless and telecommunications patents."They" seem to think so.
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SilverStone Raven RV03 @ PureOverclock
Published: Monday, August 15, 2011 | By: DennisBelieve it or not but there are some people out there, hardware reviewers included, that can't seem to understand the benefits to rotating your hardware 90 degrees. Not only do you get better cooling but you clean up every side of the case with only a single bundle of cables coming out the back.
One of SilverStone's newer chassis is the Raven 3 which is derived from the original Raven case. The Raven 3 is smaller in stature compared to the original but still packs an aesthetically pleasing punch. The Raven 3 has been engineered for innovative heat dissipation, the fact that heat rises SilverStone has turned the motherboard 90°, and stacked all of the gear vertically rather than horizontally like what we typically see in other cases.
The Raven design has improved quite a bit since its inception a few years ago and the 3rd one is looking like it will be the best one yet.
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NL: Review Block - Catch Up Edition - Lots 0 Stuffs
Published: Saturday, August 13, 2011 | By: DennisVideo Cards
- ASUS GTX 580 Matrix Platinum @ PureOverclock
- Diamond Radeon HD 6770 XOC Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- OC3D: HIS HD6770 IceQ X Turbo Crossfire Review
- MSI GTX560 Ti Twin Frozer OC Review @ Madshrimps
Cases
- SilverStone Precision PS06 PC Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full-Tower Chassis Review @ Techgage
Coolers
- Rosewill ZAIO RCX-ZAIO-92 CPU Cooler Review @ Tweaknews
- Thermaltake Frio Overclock King TT OCK 1155 CPU Cooler Review
- GeForce GTX 590 Water Block Roundup @ PureOverclock
- NZXT HAVIK 140 CPU Cooler Review @ Techgage
- NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
Motherboards
- Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H @ techPowerUp
- Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD Intel Z68 Motherboard & 20GB SSD Review
- ASUS Crosshair V Formula review
- ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z (Intel Z68) Motherboard Review
- GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2: A Preview @ Bjorn3DMemory and Storage
- Crucial M4 SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive @ Pro-Clockers
- G.Skill DDR3 RipjawsX 1866MHz Memory @ Pro-Clockers
- Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD review
- Corsair Performance 3 256GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
- OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 - 480GB PCIe SSD Review @ HardwareHeaven
- G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB DDR3-1866 @ PureOverclockMore news to come so stay tuned!
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Z68 vs. X58 - Which Is The Better Gaming Platform?
Published: Friday, August 12, 2011 | By: DennisI do really hate posting this kinda stuff since I am both in awe and disgust that effort was put into an article like this. My awe is that people will likely read this article so I'm a little mad that I didn't think of it first.
Sadly the conclusions drawn from this article are based on hardware assumptions using common software instead of software performance using common hardware.(The first rule of scientific theory is, you will have a control for which to measure your performance against. The second rule of scientific theory is, you will have a control for which to measure your performance against)
For instance this article starts out running 3D benchmarks attempting to determine a platform difference. As anyone can glean from our motherboard reviews CPU power plays a big role in how fast GPUs can process the available data. It is a no brainer that the faster clocked Z68 will always win despite the 8x/8x SLI config.
This is an article I've wanted to do for a while now and as this month started, I told myself it was time to get it done as my testbeds here are making some changes. I've been tossing up if I should make the move to Z68 for our VGA reviews, or stick with the tried and trusted X58 platform. Most people will feel that it's a no brainer with the X58 being the better option due to the fact it natively supports x16 / x16 in dual card setups. For us, that's indeed the biggest draw for the platform; the Z68 one on the other hand has a lot of standout features that make it a better option as well."
The big thing is that the Z68 platform can just overclock so much better. Our X58 / 980X setup is good for 4.2GHz, while our Z68 / 2600k setup is good for 5.2GHz - 5.4GHz. With high end setups, it's so important that we're not CPU limited and even though the 2600k doesn't carry as many cores as the 980x, its +1GHz should yield us more headroom.An accurate test would be to do something like what we did in our Multi GPU Index Introduction article where we matched CPU power across the different platforms to rule that out cpu speed as a contributing factor. In doing so we saw the benefits of architecture over CPU technology which is what you need to determine a platform winner.
