Tech News

• Gigabyte P67-UD7-B3 @ PureOverclock

  Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 | By: Dennis

  One of the latest great motherboards from Gigabyte is the P67A-UD7 now in B3 trim that should resolve the SATA2 error prompting the recall. 

  Today we have the Gigabyte P67-UD7-B3, a flagship board that looks great and comes with some more features than what we see on the UD4 version. Coming with a price tag of about $329, the UD7 is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Does it measure up? Worth the cash? Let's take a closer look and find out

  We have used this board quite a bit here in the lab, and even set a sizeable overclock of 5.7Ghz using a 2600K and Single Stage Phase cooler.  Stay tuned we'll have a review posted in the next few days.

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• Secret Space Plane Cannot Hide Forever

  Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Space travel after the shuttle program appears to be split between traditional rockets and robot space planes.  While the new traditional rocket based vehicles have yet to be put into service the space plane is already making headlines.

  

  The second time around was easier. The U.S. space plane was discovered just four days after it blasted into orbit, earlier this month. Cape Town, South Africa’s Greg Roberts — “a pioneer in using telescopic video cameras to track spacecraft, chalking up exceptional results over the years,” according to Space.com — spotted this second secret spacecraft, just like he found the first.
  
  The X-37B has generated intense interest, long before it ever left the ground. Boeing originally developed the 29-foot unmanned craft — a kind of miniature Space Shuttle — for NASA. Then, the military took over in 2004, and the space plane went black. Its payloads were classified, its missions hush-hush.

  The missions are still a secret and will likely remain so until long after their military service has expired.

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• Redmax and NrKissed talk headphones - Podcast Extra

  Published: Sunday, April 3, 2011 | By: Dennis

  While doing a sound test for the upcoming Ninjalane Podcast Episode 4 Darren and myself digress a bit and start talking about headphones.  It is no secret that we have been looking for a good set for awhile now, both for the podcast and for our personal use, and just can't find a set we both can agree on.

  Check out this Podcast extra and let us know what you think.  Also stay tuned the real episode 4 should be going live later this week.

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• April Fools: Sorry no gag this year

  Published: Friday, April 1, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Lots of April Fools jokes are floating around today.  Saw the P67 UD13 on Facyspaces, and how Techpowerup and Fudzilla switches sites but I didn't have time to come up with a gag this year.

  If you find come cool ones post them up in the forum. 

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• Homefront (PC) Review @ GamingHeaven

  Published: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 | By: Dennis

  I was extremely excited about this game.  The backstory was awesome, the fact they hired the writer of Red Dawn to help with the storyline was the right move, but in typical game developer fashion they concentrated on the console aspects of gameplay and totally ignored what makes for a great PC game.  At least from the single player aspect of the game.

  The single player part of Homefront left me wanting more, A LOT more, the reason being that they spend a ton of time on the story but totally failed to deliver on that story.  For instance on the Homefront website there is a map that explains what is going on in different parts of the country, Sadly you are not able to visit those parts or even have a mission there.  Instead you are limited to breaking out of a town in Colorado to deliver fuel to the US Military in San Francisco. (spoiler blah) What happened to the irradiated Mississippi river?, or the mining camps? if you can't go there so why even mention it??

  While I can agree with the views of GamingHeaven on this game I cannot even remotely support their rating of it

  As we fired up the game we were greeted by one of the most amazing introductions to any game we've come across. The video documents the "past" 16 years up until the year in which the game is set, 2027 and it begins with various news flashes and headlines documenting the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, with the subsequent rise to power of the dictators son, Kim Jong Un. A revolutionist, the youngster manages to unite both North and South Korea, forming the Greater Korean Republic. At the same time as the rise of Korea we witness an America gripped in crisis, oil shortages have ravaged the military thanks to an on-going war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
  

  I will still suggest that everyone play Homefront and try out the mulitplayer but buy the game because it's a different take on the FPS shooter genre and not because you are looking for something more than your standard shooter since it hardly delivers the story it promises. 

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• OC3D: MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 Review

  Published: Monday, March 28, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Out of everything that MSI makes this one board really caught my attention this year at CES, but I am also a sucker for the overkill. .  The review, if you can call it that, is extremely short but does cover all of the features of the board, minus how MSI opted to split up the PCI Express lanes to accommodate 4 full video cards.

  Regardless they seem to like it, lets hope future reviews include a little more information.

  Today we're taking a look at the latest high-end motherboard from MSI, the Big Bang Marshal. How does it perform?

  We do hope to get a sample of this board in for testing, just as soon as they go on sale.

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• Funky Kit Article: Voltmodding an old GPU to increase performance

  Published: Friday, March 25, 2011 | By: Dennis

  As overclockers we are often limited by the tools provided to us by the mfg.  While many of these limitations have gone away in recent years we are still often plagued by not having enough voltage to make our overclocks "stick".

  Volt modding is a way around that but requires skill with a soldering iron and the steady hand of a surgeon.

  In the video card end of things, the benchmarks involve rendering specific scenes either as fast as possible, or with the largest number of frames per second possible.  The higher you can overclock, the more frames you can render and the higher your score will be.  Overclocking to the extreme limit requires very good cooling, and rather more voltage then the manufacturers want you putting through the cards, that means it's time to bust out the soldering iron and have some fun! 

  Personally I stil have yet to take on the voltmodding challenge myself but that doesn't mean you shouldn't. 

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• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Review @ Techgage

  Published: Friday, March 25, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Picking a midrange video card for your gaming rig can be a difficult task but with the help of good reviews you can make an informed decision or reaffirm what you already know.

  Catering to those who demand great GPU performance for a modest price, NVIDIA has launched its $130 GeForce GTX 550 Ti. Compared to the GTS 450 which it replaces, the GTX 550 Ti delivers faster performance, a beefier memory bus and what NVIDIA touts as being one of the best performance per watt ratios around.

  We have looked at two different versions of the GTX 550 Ti, one reference design and another GTX 550 Ti from EVGA.  While we often look at much faster cards for our systems you cannot ignore the efficiency of these lower end products.

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• nVidia GTX 590 Introduction - The Worlds Fastest Single Card System

  Published: Thursday, March 24, 2011 | By: Dennis

  When dealing with competitive benchmarking you are always lusting after the super high-end hardware since that is the gear to get you real performance points.  That's not to say you can't get points using cheaper and more common components, however the points are simply not the same.
  
  This is where having the fastest GPU on the planet can really help your points position and the GTX 590 is the new speed king.  Check out our introduction article for more information on this new dual GPU video card based on the awesome GTX 580.

  As we mentioned before the GTX 590 is the world's fastest GPU, but what makes it the fastest GPU?? Is it a mystery chip discovered in the basement graphics lab? Or is it an innovative product that leverages the best that nVidia has to offer in a compact package? Actually, it's a little of both.
  

  
  The card looks awesome, however the card architecture is designed for raw speed and not so much for overclocking.  Yes there is a 10 phase PWM on board, but 5 phases pre GPU seems a little low considering some of the enthusiast friendly GTX 580s you can buy.

  Then again overclocking the primary driver behind what makes the GTX 590 so cool.

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• nVidia GTX 590 Launch Day - Need Speed?

  Published: Thursday, March 24, 2011 | By: Dennis

  Would you like to have the fastest GPU on the planet??  Of course you would.  Not only could you rule HWBot but you could also run triple displays and 3D Vision Sourround from a single PCB.

  

  Here are some reviews from around the web

  - ASUS GeForce GTX 590 @ PureOverclock
  - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590: Dual GF110s, One PCB @ HotHardware
  - Nvidia's GeForce GTX 590 graphics card @ TR
  - ASUS GeForce GTX 590 3GB Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
  - Nvidia GeForce GTX 590: The Dual-GF110 Beast @ Bjorn3D
  - NVIDIA GTX 590 Dual GF110 Review @ ocaholic
  - ASUS GeForce GTX 590 3 GB @ techPowerUp
  - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 3GB Review @ Hardware Canucks

  Be sure to read the reviews carefully, I have seen at least one instance today where the review was nothing but a rehash of stock photos and estimated performance numbers.

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