Tech News
-
The State of Overclocking on Intel Motherboards @ Techgage
Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 | By: DennisI'd hope by now that you've noticed that we like to overclock here in the Ninjalane Labs and have 2000 some HWBot Points to prove it. However while we like the overclocking scene it is a very small segment of the overall enthusiast market and it doesn't always interest everyone.
Regardless of what people think about overclocking and how they proceed to tweak, test, and tune their systems having the right hardware is key to your success. While it has been the long standing suggestion to stay away from "any" Intel branded motherboard it seems they have started taking things seriously and included some overclocking features.
I'd like to think that I'm the kind of person who doesn't hold a grudge, but after bouts of unsuccessful overclocking runs with Intel motherboards in the past, I just about gave up. Until I decided to investigate further to see where things stood today. Have my opinions changed after overclocking with Intel's DP67BG this past weekend?
Keep in mind I'm not going to go out of my way to test the overclocking features of "any" Intel motherboard, however if one happens to land on my doorstep you'll likely get a firsthand look at what the board can really do.
-
NL: Review Block - Video Cards and Cooling - Great Combo
Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 | By: DennisCards and coolers, what a combo.
Video Cards
- MSI Radeon HD 6970 Lightning 2 GB @ techPowerUp
- XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB Black Edition Video Card Review
- HIS 6870 IceQ X TURBO X @ Viperlair
- ASUS GeForce GTX580 DirectCU II: The Ultimate Choice @ InsideHW
Cooling
- Antec KÜHLER H2O 920 CPU Liquid Cooling System Review @ Tweaknews
- Antec Kuhler H20 920 CPU Water Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
- Thermaltake Frio OCK @ HardwareBistroRumor is the next podcast will have a segment on cooling, be sure to check it out.
-
Funky Kit Article - Video Cards Explained
Published: Monday, April 11, 2011 | By: DennisEver wonder what some of those video card terms were but were afraid to ask?? Funky Kit has you covered.
Everyone wants a video card with more ram, a faster frequency, more cuda cores, more stream processors, but do people often know what all of these things actually do? To most they are merely things you compare from one product to another in order to make a relatively informed decision, while not fully knowing what they are for. Sure a 950mhz core clock speed sounds good with 2gb of 5000mhz ddr5 ram, but what does that mean when comparing it to something on a completely different architecture? Read on and you will find out.
Of course some of the terms in this article seem to be self explanatory but it is still a good read if you were ever curious about what a stream processor really is.
-
AMD Radeon HD 6850 Review Block
Published: Sunday, April 10, 2011 | By: DennisWe posted some news about the recent AMD HD 6790 card launch which seemed to have been exciting for everyone; however what are your options if you want a little more power? AMD HD 6850 of course!.
The proverbial ink has hardly dried on our review of Sapphires HD6870 Flex and we are already introducing another member of the Flex family. That’s because Sapphire is hoping to give everyone the option to go Flex no matter the budget or performance requirements. This also happens to be the first HD6950 to come through our office, finally giving us a chance to check out the performance of AMD’s third in command. Talk about killing two birds with one stone, let’s take a look at the Sapphire FleX HD 6950 2Gb.
- LanOC- ASUS Radeon HD 6850 DirectCU V2 @ Pro-Clockers
- Sapphire FleX HD 6950 2Gb @ LanOC Reviews
Personally I'd say hold out for an AMD 6950 or something from the NVidia camp, but what do I know?
-
Confessions of a multi-monitor madman @ Tech Report
Published: Sunday, April 10, 2011 | By: DennisOk here is a candid look at multi monitor setups and one persons view into why they are so great.
I've got 27 monitors in my Newegg cart now... should I check out?
Whoa there, killer. Take a deep breath (sans face-mask). Before you pull the trigger on some extra liquid crystal goodness, there are a few more things to think about. Consider the cost of failure. Just like hard drives in RAID, the more of LCDs you have, the more likely you are to have one fail. When part of your monitor grid goes dark, you realize just how much you used that space and divert all available resources to sourcing a replacement. If the old model is no longer available and you want to maintain a pristine array of identical displays, you might end up shopping for a set of replacements.I will admit I have been sporting dual displays since the days of AGP and so far have not gone a day without having a second display hooked into my primary computer. Heck I have even refused to do any work at my day job until they hooked me up with a second display. While dual displays is not for everyone I find that my productivity is considerably higher but can also prove to be a major distraction depending on what Hulu is playing.
I sampled the above quote from the article because he does have a point. Much like RAID systems if one device fails you could be hard pressed to find a suitable replacement. Case in point, one of my super cool 1600x1200 20" Samsung LCDs decided to have controller issues so I sent it back for warranty repair. It would seem they didn't have any replacements so instead of an awesome 20" monitor they sent me a 22" widescreen with only 1050px vertical resolution!!. Sadly this was unacceptable for a graphics designer like myself. Because of this, and the lack of position to get a proper monitor from Samsung, I opted to buy a pair of 24" HP LP2475w widescreens and have so far never looked back.
-
NL: REview Block - Cases Cooling and Mice?
Published: Sunday, April 10, 2011 | By: DennisWait, What?!? why is there mice in here?
Input Devices
- CM Storm Spawn Gaming Mouse Review @ OverclockersHQ
- Thermaltake Azurues Gaming Mouse Review at Overclockers Online
- Cooler Master Spawn Gaming Mouse Review @ Hardware Canucks
Cases
- Cubitek XL-Tank Case @ Rbmods
- NZXT H2 Classic Chassis Review @ HardwareHeaven
- SilverStone Fortress FT03 @ Phoronix
- Cubitek Tattoo Fire @ PureOverclock
- Lian Li PC-V2120 @ techPowerUp
- Fractal Design R3 Case Review @ ITShootOut
- Thermaltake Armor A30 mATX Case Review @ ThinkComputers
Coolers
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro CPU Cooler Review @ APH Networks
- Prolimatech Genesis @ PureOverclock
- Noctua NH-C14 CPU Cooler Review @ Bigbruin
- Thermaltake Frio OCK CPU Cooler Review @ OCIA
- Prolimatech Genesis Review @ XSReviews
- CHW.net review of Noctua NH-C14Mice are nice, and lately some of the top cooling companies have started selling their own versions to compete with the "big boys", Namely Logitech..
-
How Crytek doomed Crysis 2's PC version
Published: Wednesday, April 6, 2011 | By: DennisThis is a bit old considering that Crysis 2 has already been out for a few weeks now, but this is still relevant.
For starters, the game doesn’t support DX11. Although Crytek stated that they will address that via a patch, this is not what you, me and every PC gamer out there want to. PC gamers don’t want gimmick DX11 effects. As the game is not developed with the DX11 in mind, we won’t get the tessellation results of (let’s say) the Unigine ‘Heaven’ Benchmark. We are certain that when the DX11 patch gets released, Crytek will be stating how gritty those PC gamers are for pirating their game and how disappointed they are as they did what PC gamers asked for. This is not true however.
We were promised DX11, heck they designed the engine for DX11 but instead of branching the code or creating "switches" in the source based on gaming environment they released the next gen game with DX9 and lack luster system requirements. Talk about letting the world down.
btw I have been playing this game and despite the bitching about DX11 I like it, it has a good interface with a map you can wander around in. They did change some things from the previous Crysis but that is to be expected.
-
Babeology: The Stunning Tori Black
Published: Wednesday, April 6, 2011 | By: DennisOne of my favorite film stars in recent years has been Tori Black, and not really because she is an '"adult" film star but rather when I meet her in person the year before her career blew up she was clearly a regular gal and one of the nicest celebs I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Keep up the good work Tori! (says the editor in hopes she might end up reading this
) 
The leggy starlet stops by the Babeology studio for a sexy lingerie shoot. Brand new photos and hot new video.
I have said it before and will say it again. RAWR!!
-
AMD HD 6790 Launch Day - Reviews from around the web
Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 | By: DennisAMD HD 6790 Launch Day, this is a 150 dollar video card which turns out to have higher clocks than the 6800 series but with less shaders to keep performance down.
In recent months, we've seen AMD and NVIDIA go back and forth with releases that are designed to one-up the other at the respective price-point, and with AMD's Radeon HD 6790, it doesn't look like this game will end anytime soon. Set to compete against the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, the HD 6790 launches with the same MSRP of $149.-
- Techgage- Radeon HD 6790 review @ Guru3D
- PowerColor Radeon 6790 @ PureOverclock
- Radeon HD 6790 graphics card @ TR
- Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 1GB Video Card Review
- AMD Radeon HD 6790 1GB Review @ Techgage
- AMD Radeon HD 6790 Graphics Card Review @ HotHardware
- Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven
- AMD Radeon HD 6790 1GB Review @ Hardware Canucks
- AMD Radeon HD 6790 1 GB @ techPowerUp
- Radeon HD 6790: Ace Up The Sleeve @ InsideHWNot a bad card considering what you get.
-
KFA2 GeForce GTX 550 Ti White Edition LTD OC review @ Hexus
Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 | By: DennisNow this is a fun card, a nVidia GTX 550 Ti with a white PCB. We're not likely to ever see one of these cards in the US but I know what I'll be scouting for come Computex time.
Chasing the frequency dragon, the White Edition LTD OC, henceforth referred to as WELO, ships with a distinctive white PCB we first saw on the GTX 560 Ti card. It's therefore no coincidence that the WELO uses the same type of cooler as the more-powerful model.
They call this a WELO for some reason, can't exactly figure out why.
