Tech News
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Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SOC review @ Guru3D
Published: Monday, November 8, 2010 | By: DennisSOC cards are more than a retooled PCB. They feature things like a hefty factory overclock, voltage adjustments, dual mode bios, and custom WindForce 2X cooler. Basically everything you will need so you won't have to mod the card later.
Gigabyte has released a handful of GeForce GTX 460 cards, based on the reference design with a slight overclock, yet also an SOC series graphics card which is a factory overclocked model with the new WindForce 2X based cooler sitting on top of that GPU.
Now we've already seen a couple of models based on this cooling solution, but the Gigabyte card really is something special as it is the fastest factory clocked 1024MB SKU out on the market.We recently looked at the GTX 470 edition of this card and found it to be quite nice, could even be better with a touch of LN2.
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NL: Review Block - Round Up Style
Published: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 | By: DennisHere are some review highlights that hit our news inbox.
Memory
- G.SKILL Ripjaws F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH 2x4GB DDR3 RAM review @ APH Networks
- OC3D: Kingston H20 6GB 2000MHz DDR3 Review
- Avexir Standard Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 C9 @ reviewstash
- Mach Xtreme Armor 2133 CL9 Review @ XSReviews
- Mushkin Redline Dual-Channel PC3-12800 6-8-6-24 @ ocaholicCooling
- Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Canucks
- DeepCool Ice Matrix 400 Cooler Review @ Tweaknews
- Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
- Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler Review on Technic3D
- Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
Storage
- OC3D: WD VelociRaptor 600GB RAID review
- Seagate Momentus XT 500GB @ Techgage
- OCZ Revo 120GB @ PureOverclockCases
- AZZA Hurrican 2000 @ techPowerUp
- Lian Li PC-V354 Review @ XSReviews
- AZZA Tech Hurrican 2000 Full tower Enthusiast Gaming Chassis Review @ OverclockersHQVideo Cards
- Mid-Range NVIDIA GPU Battle: GTX 460 vs. GTX 470 @ HotHardware
- Lantic Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card in CrossFire Overclocked @ Tweaktown
- HD 6870 and HD 6850 vs. GTX 460 1GB: An Overclocking Study @ Hardware CanucksThe month before the holiday shopping season is typically slow for reviews, but there is still stuff out there.
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GIGABYTE 6 Series Motherboards Exposed
Published: Monday, November 1, 2010 | By: DennisI know we have all seen photos of these new P67 boards from Gigabyte but I don't believe they were ever accompanied with actual specs.
Well, we got em!
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Blogger Sued For Linking To Material Claimed To Be Defamatory @ Techdirt
Published: Monday, November 1, 2010 | By: DennisI've been following this site since they broke a story about hardware review site that plagiarized a review from a press release of all things. Their latest story is something any site owner needs to consider when linking to content on the web.
Even if the content in question was totally defamatory, it certainly raises some pretty serious questions about whether merely linking to content itself can or should be seen as defamatory as well. As noted in the Newton/Crookes case, so far, Canadian courts have been rejecting such claims, and hopefully that holds up with the Supreme Court ruling
The way I see it, if it's on the web, its fair game. However that is also viewed from the standpoint of an outsider looking in. If you're the one on the inside you have 2 options 1) sue to get it removed which will inadvertently bring more attention to your cause, or 2) consider damage control and hope it goes away.
Of course in hindsight the best option would have been to be smart enough NOT to get into that situation, which in some cases is counterproductive depending on what you are attempting to do. (ie attracting attention to yourself doesn't work if you are worried about what others will think). -
Top Twenty Dying Technologies - Kinda
Published: Sunday, October 31, 2010 | By: DennisLeave it to Bloomberg to tell "us" what a dying technology is. We would like to think they can see into the future, but in reality it's just the future the author wants.
On the list we have:
Combustion Engines
Game Consoles
Flash Drives
Optical Disks
Desktop Computers
Dunno about you, but while many of the technologies in this article are a little old, their future is not set until there is a suitable replacement. For instance, combustion engines will likely never been replaced until there is a way we can drive for more than 50miles on a charge. Game consoles and Desktop computers will be replaced by what? Laptops? ha.
Optical disks are questionable and their replacement depends largely on how the media is distributed. Satellites, Cable, and the Internet seem to be the most viable solutions however tend to thrive on micropayments to survive and PPV is extremely difficult to budget for. -
Muscle car makers, Pontiac, closes up shop after 84 years
Published: Sunday, October 31, 2010 | By: DennisThese are sad times for Firebird fans as the brand behind the famed "Trans Am" falls into bankruptcy.
The 84-year-old brand has been moribund since GM decided to kill it last year as it collapsed into bankruptcy and was in decline for years before that.
It was undone by a combination of poor corporate strategy and changing driver tastes.I have mentioned many times, recessions tend to flush out the good and bad in companies. In the case of Pontiac it would seem they are blaming poor corporate strategy and their inability to create something people want to drive.
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Happy Halloween Everyone
Published: Sunday, October 31, 2010 | By: DennisHappy Halloween, Watch that the boogyman doesn't get you.
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Unpopular Science - Proof humans are subject to the laws of physics
Published: Thursday, October 28, 2010 | By: DennisI was trolling google news today and came across this little gem that made me laugh. Here is a little something about Ice Cream, Calories, and Heat.
By the by: I had an idea for a carb-neutral ice cream.
All you need is to freeze a pint of ice cream to -3706 F.
The energy it will take your system to bring the ice cream up to a digestible temperature is roughly 1,000 calories, neatly burning away all those carbohydrates from the fat and sugar.
The only snag is the Third Law of Thermodynamics, which says it’s impossible to go below -459 F.
Bummer.Overclockers (like us) will already know a little something about cold and potential energy.
Be sure to check out the rest of the blog post for the rest of the funny.
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Some cool SSD drives for you to check out
Published: Monday, October 25, 2010 | By: DennisWhile we have no doubt that SSD "might" eventually replace rotational drives it won't be anytime soon. So until then, let's focus on the one redeeming factor of SSD, Speed
Funky Kit Review: OCZ IBIS 160Gb SSD with HSDL
What OCZ has done is to slap 2 x Sandforce controlled 80Gb SSDs sub-units (PCBs) and configured then in RAID 0 mode using a Silicon Image RAID controller. These PCBs are then housed in a 3.5" inch anodised Aluminum casing, and features OCZ's new proprietary HSDL (High Speed Data Link) interface. This new interface basically eliminates the existing I/O bottlenecks and take SSD technology to new levels of performance, with a max read speed up to 740MB/s and max write speed up to 690MB/s.
Think RevoDrive, but faster :)
Speaking of RevoDrive, Hardware Canucks has a review posted of the 120GB model
OCZ RevoDrive 120GB PCI-E Solid State Drive Review @ Hardware Canucks
OCZ has been at the forefront of the SSD market for as long as we can remember. However, the current SATA interface has constrained the performance and solid state drive manufacturers have been left scrambling for alternatives. OCZ has now turned to the PCI Express interface in order to increase performance. But has their gambit paid off?
Can't lie, I really want to get my hands on one of these.
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MSI Geforce GTX 480 Lightning 1536 MB @ techPowerUp
Published: Monday, October 25, 2010 | By: DennisThere are 2 schools of thought about how video cards should be. On one side we have the overclocker and hardware enthusiasts. These people love to push their gear in hopes of smoothing out game play or tinkering on the weekend for more HWBot points. This is a small group of people who are very vocal, and tend to think everyone is just like them. On the flip side you have the mute majority who really don't give a crap.
In true form of the saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" we have started seeing a ton of new products designed and built for the vocal majority with overclocking in mind.MSI's GeForce GTX 480 Lightning promises to be an overclocker's dream. It is build around a completely redesigned PCB and thermal solution with overclockers in mind. The card offers unique features like control for up to three voltages, dual BIOS with liquid nitrogen support and easy to reach voltage measurement points.
I am of the opinion that cooler is better, I may not overclock 24/7, or even run my main desktop in an overclocked profile but I can respect the potential these super overclocked videocards can provide.
