Tech News
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Analysis: What is Plan B if China dumps its U.S. debt?
Published: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 | By: DennisThis is a good idea regardless of the circumstances.
When borrowing money it's always good to have a Plan B in case a big creditor pulls the plug. That should be true whether the sum is a few thousand dollars or about a trillion, the size of the United States government's debt to China.
In the case of world economy you have to know who your friends are and make sure they are still happy helping you out. In the case of China they have helped carry a large portion of the US debt for a long time in exchange for some of the things the US can provide them with. Namely exports. Now if China decides it needs money (which seems to be the case given their rapid rise in inflation) they will start selling treasury notes to the highest bidder.
This buying and selling of loans is not new, banks do it without home loans all the time, but in the case of world economy it seems like a much bigger deal.It likely would take something like a massive rise in tensions over an issue like Taiwan or oil exploration in disputed areas of the South China Sea, including possible military confrontation between the two nations. Such a confrontation would also make it easier for Washington to appeal to the American public to buy its debt for patriotic reasons.
Let's hope this doesn't happen (for a variety of reasons). If in fact something like this does go down the US may be forced to have US citizens buy up bonds to support the country. Given the current state of the economy asking citizens to buy up bonds in the numbers they need could be a hard sell, even if it is the responsible thing to do.
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HWiNFO32 v3.67 release
Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 | By: DeanIf you haven't heard of HWiNFO32, its a total system monitor that's worth checking out. The new version is out giving support to quite a bit of hardware.
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NL: Review Block - Storage
Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 | By: DeanSSD
- Patriot Inferno 60GB SSD Review @ OC3D
- OCZ Revo Drive X2 480 GByte Review @ ocaholic
- Samsung 470 Series 256GB SSD Review @ Legit Reviews
- OCZ Vertex 2 Extended 120GByte SSD Review @ Technic3D
HDD
- 2TB Seagate Barracuda LP Green Hard Drive @ TechwareLabs
- Samsung SpinPoint EcoGreen F2 1TB SATA2 HDD Review @ rwlabs
- Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 2.5" Hybrid Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Canucks
USB
- Patriot Xporter XT Rage 32GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Review @ Legit Reviews -
Adding benchmarks in Rev4 @ HWBOT
Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 | By: DeanSome more info on Rev4 changes coming to hwbot.
In Rev4, we will split up the HWBOT benchmark suite in three parts: global, hardware, and beta.
- Global = global and hardware points
- Hardware = only hardware points
- Beta = no points
The idea here is that we will limit the amount of benchmarks you need to run to get a high ranking in the Overclockers League. Diversity is good, but if we add another 10 benchmarks, the ranking will more and more become function of the amount of available time....Gonna be intresting to see what makes it to Rev4, and the changes it will bring.
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Beginners Guide to Controlling your HTPC @ MissingRemote
Published: Monday, January 17, 2011 | By: DeanSo you just finished reading building an HTPC and are wondering how your gonna control your HTPC. Here's a great roundup of controllers for your HTPC.
In continuation of our beginners guide series, this guide is all about controlling your HTPC. One thing that sets a "computer connected to your big screen" and it being a HTPC is how we interface with the system. Controlling your HTPC is all about the hardware and software combination you are using......
As you can see there's multiple ways to get the job done, either with bling, or simplicity. The choice is yours.
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NL: Review Block - Motherboards and Memory
Published: Monday, January 17, 2011 | By: DeanFirst up motherboards
Motherboards:
- ECS A890GXM-A2 @ PureOverclock
- GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD7 @ Bjorn3D
- Gigabyte P67A-UD4 @ PureOverclock
- ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Review @ ocaholic
- FATAL1TY P67 Profess1onal Series @ LanOC Reviews
- ASUS P8P67 Socket 1155 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
- MSI P67A-GD65 Socket 1155 Motherboard Review @ OCIA
- ASRock P67 Pro3 Socket 1155 Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
- ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme: Running SLI With the Lucid Hydra Chip @ Bjorn3D
Can't forget memory
Memory:
- Corsair Dominator 12GB 1600 Kit @ technic3d
- Patriot Viper Xtreme P3-16000 - 2000MHz @ Bjorn3D
- Corsair Vengeance 12GB DDR3-1600 @ PureOverclock
- Crucial 4GB kit, Ballistix DDR3 PC3-12800 @ modders-inc
- OCZ Platinum XTE PC3-16000 4GB Dual Channel Kit Review @ OCIA
- G.Skill Ripjaws F3-16000CL9D-8GBRM 2x4GB Memory Review @ Hardware Canucks -
ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution Review @ ocaholic
Published: Sunday, January 16, 2011 | By: DeanAsus has put together a workstation motherboard for the new intel sandy bridge series of cpus.
With the P8P67 WS Revolution ASUS has a first workstation motherboard in its portfolio supporting Intel Sandy Bridge processors.The board itself should be very stable and there should also be an extensive delivery included. If even the performance is on a reasonably good level that's what we will uncover on the following
pages.Asus looks to have a solid board on their hands, with a decent color scheme. Just be warned the dimm slots are close to the socket, so those large heatsinks my cause clearance issues.
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Afterburner 2.1.0 Beta 6 - Offering 6970/6950 voltage adjustments
Published: Friday, January 14, 2011 | By: DeanAfterburner has released a beta version to allow voltage adjustments for your 6950/6970.
I am glad to tell everybody that Afterburner 2.1.0 Beta 6 is ready. The most exciting thing in this beta is the support of HD 6970 and HD 6950.
Now you can tweak voltage of HD 6970 and HD 6950 by afterburner, no matter it uses Voltera VT1556 or Chil 8228 or Chil 8214 PWM chip! Thanks to superb Unwinder.Only catch is you have to have a non bios modded 6950/6970. But like everything there is a work around. Just start reading at post #26
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Cyborg R.A.T. 3 and R.A.T. 7 Review – the ultimate mice? @ Kitguru
Published: Thursday, January 13, 2011 | By: DeanI've always had a sweet spot for the cyborg line of mice. With a distinct look and feel bar none. Add in the plethora of options and it seems a solid buy.
There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to upgrade to a quality mouse. Thankfully, there are no shortage of killer products on the market from the likes of Steelseries, Razer, Roccat and even Microsoft.
You would not immediately assume that mass market purveyor of distinctly forgettable peripherals ‘Mad Catz’ would be on this shortlist, but if the Cyborg R.A.T. range are to be considered even on appearance......From packing to the feature set, this is truly not your mainstream mouse. One day I just might have to grab one myself.
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Sandy Bridge 2500K/2600K Batch and Serial Numbers @ hwbot
Published: Thursday, January 13, 2011 | By: DeanSo you've decided you're going to get a new 2500K/2600k series Cpu. But you're worried about picking up a dud, and you want to push it to its limits.
Have no fear Massman from hwbot has started a thread collecting batch/wafer information, to help you out. If you're able to check your Cpu prior to your purchase then this will defiantly give you a leg up.
