Tech News
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NL: Review Block - Sliced Bread Edition - Video Mobo LiLo
Published: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 | By: DennisMotherboards
- ASRock 890GX Extreme4 Motherboard Review @ KitGuru
- GIGABYTE X58A-UD9 (Intel X58 Express) Motherboard @ TweakTown
- ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 @ PureOverclock
Cooling
- Cooler Master V6GT @ techPowerUp
- 8 triple radiator comparison @ Hardwareoverclock
Video
- ECS GeForce GTX 460 1GB Black Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- Gigabyte GTS 450 1Gb @ LanOC Reviews
- Axle GeForce GTX 460 ACE review Guru3D
- Palit GTS 450 Sonic Platinum @ Bjorn3D
- InnoVISION GeForce GTS 450 iChill Video Card Review @ Madshrimps
- PNY GeForce GTS 450 1GB @ PureOverclock
- Zotac GTX 460 AMP! Edition Review @ Technic3D
- PNY GeForce GTS 450 1GB XLR8 Review @ Hardware Canucks
Storage
- Thermaltake BlacX 5G HDD Docking Station @ Techgage
- OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB SSD review @ Hexus
Memory
- Mushkin Blackline PC3-12800 Review @ XSReviews
- Geil Ultra 2000MHZ Review @ XSReviews
Big list of reviews this time. Be sure to check out our reviews as well, there is a Cooler Master V6 GT review and several video cards. -
The New-Age Nickel & Diming @ Techgage
Published: Monday, September 27, 2010 | By: DennisThere is an interesting editorial over at Techgage that tackles the issue of modern day "nickel and dime(ing)" For those of you that don't know "Nickel and Dime" is an old saying that described how some products end up costing you more than the original price with various add-ons or fees along the way.
A good example is buying a new car. Say the sticker price is $20,000, when you go in to buy the car the salesman says, "With this car you should also get our special fabric spray for $300, and a set of floor mats for $50, and the upgraded spare tire for $150". By themselves these sound like a deal, and a great way to protect your investment, but also raises the price of the car up to $20,500.
Over the course of the past couple of years, there's been a growing trend that's both frustrating and expensive to consumers. It also shows no sign of slowing down, and ironically, many of us contribute to it. As the title of this editorial suggests, this trend amounts to what I like to call new-age nickel and diming.
The Editorial covers downloadable game content, playability of games, micropayments and the hardware unlocks offered on Intel processors. I can't say I agree with everything in the editorial, especially since the current trends are a direct result of a thrifty public. These are the same people that not only has extremely short attention spans, but is unwilling (or unable) to pay the asking price for anything. These people often turn to piracy (for games and movies) or wait until the price comes down to what they understand to be a reasonable level, basically forcing publishers and manufactures to become creative in their pricing structure.
Micropayments and downloadable content (for games) is one way for game developers to re-coop their costs. Think about it, which sounds better? Spending $60 on something, or $10 on something? $10 is usually accepted, so they lower the base price by $10 and offer an upgrade later.
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NL: Review Block: A Little Bit of Everything
Published: Thursday, September 23, 2010 | By: DennisJust cleaning out the news box, here are some of the notable reviews from the past few days.
Cases
- Thermaltake Armor A60 Mid Tower Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- NZXT Phantom Full Tower Case Review @ Bigbruin
- Thermaltake Armor A60 Computer Chassis review @ APH Networks
- Corsair Graphite 600T Mid Tower Case Video Review @ Hardware Canucks
Storage
- GSkill Phoenix Pro 120GB Solid State Drive Review @ Real World Labs
- Corsair Force 40GB Solid State Drive Review @ Hardware Canucks
Cooling
- Swiftech H20-X20 Edge Liquid Cooling Kit Review @ OCIA
Video
- Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum 1GB @ PureOverclock
- HIS HD 5570 Low Profile VideoCard Review @ Tweaknews
- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclock Review @ Hardware Canucks
Mobos
- Asus Rampage III Gene Motherboard Review @ ITShootOut -
MSI's Master Overclocking Arena Grand Final @ TechReport
Published: Thursday, September 23, 2010 | By: DennisOverclocking competitions are a great way for hardware manufactures to put famous names behind their products. It also highlights what these famous overclockers can do given full access to hardware and all the LN2 they can handle.
The Tech Report has a short 2 page report from the MOA show floor, however it seems he was more into the dancing storm troopers than the overclocking competition.
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Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 750W Power Supply Review @ JonnyGURU
Published: Thursday, September 23, 2010 | By: DennisHere is the new face in PSU designs, rounded corners for that go fast visual appeal.
For as long as I can remember, power supplies have been coming to my load tester in the same old rectangular boxes. Once in a while the size of the box will change, but never the form factor itself. Thermaltake has dropped their latest and greatest into my lap today, and to my surprise they've actually tried to do something different. The Toughpower Grand series doesn't just come in a regular metal box, it comes in a box with fancy rounded corners.
Now this is a PSU I could actually get excited about, tasteful lighting design, ornate shell design, mesh grill. Give it a nice paintjob and show it off.
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Gigabyte GTX 470 Super Overclock@Bjorn3D
Published: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 | By: DennisVideo cards are one of the few pieces of computer hardware that can actually be sold as an overclocked unit. In fact factory overclocked video cards are big business, and if done correctly can offer considerably more to the end user than the reference design ever could.
The Gigabyte SuperOverclock 470 is one of those cards. It comes with a custom designed PCB, increased voltage control and delivery, higher clockspeed for performance, and several additional enthusiast friendly features.
Bjorn3D has posted a review of this card, and here is one of the best lines in a review, ever!It is interesting to note that there are 12 LED's on the back of the card. We have not seen LED's on the back of a graphics card since the Sapphire 4870. Users who do not like LED's in their case may want to stay away from this card.
Who doesn't like LEDs?, and of those people (who don't like them) how many of them have windows in their case?
We reviewed the Gigabyte SuperOverclock GTX 470 not to long ago, be sure to check it out. -
A quick primer on Sandy Bridge @ Tech Report
Published: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 | By: DennisIDF just finished up a few days ago and while the gathering is designed to help educate developers the media is often invited to report on the event, and in some cases dr00l over much of the new hardware.
Sandy Bridge is the code name for the next great processor platform designed to replace/enhance the Lynnfield/Clarkdale 1156pin processors. Pricing, and naming schemes are still under NDA but the basic architecture has been released along with some basic performance metrics.
The first things to know about Sandy Bridge are that it's a chip built using Intel's high-speed 32-nm chip fabrication process, with initial variants expected to have four traditional CPU cores, an integrated graphics processor, cache, and a memory controller located together on the same piece of silicon. Intel essentially skipped building a quad-core processor at 32-nm, opting to accelerate the schedule for Sandy Bridge instead.
Always a good read over there at TR. Also keep in mind that along with the release of Sandy Bridge we'll be getting a new chipset called the P67 and an entirely new cycle of motherboard designs.
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Pi record smashed as team finds two-quadrillionth digit - BBC
Published: Monday, September 20, 2010 | By: DennisCloud computing to the rescue! While a cloud computer can be made from any ole computer the current push is to use MiniITX systems for lower power consumption and space savings. (read: Atom processors) multiply the power of the Atom by 1000x and you have some serious number crunching.
Nicholas Sze, of tech firm Yahoo, said that when pi is expressed in binary, the two quadrillionth digit is 0.
Mr Sze used Yahoo's Hadoop cloud computing technology to more than double the previous record.
It took 23 days on 1,000 of Yahoo's computers - on a standard PC, the calculation would have taken 500 years.
500 years on a standard PC ?!?, that is a long time. Then again an EVGA SR-2 equipped with 2x HyperThreaded 6 core processors running at 6Ghz each isn't a standard PC? Sadly you would still run out of LN2 long before the calcuation had completed.
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HDCP Master Key Confirmed - Blu-ray Content Hacked
Published: Monday, September 20, 2010 | By: DennisNoticed this last week, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out the encryption key. Thing is the solution isn't as elegant as the DVD solution
As a practical matter, the most likely scenario for a hacker would be to create a computer chip with the master key embedded it, that could be used to decode Blu-ray discs. A software decoder is unlikely, "but I'd never say never," Waldrop said.
Create a decoder chip, and use that to extract the data you want to save. Seems like a lot of work, esp considering people have been posting ripped Blu-ray films for quite some time now. I guess this post is confirming the key they discovered is legit.
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VisionTek CandyBoard @ PureOverclock
Published: Friday, September 17, 2010 | By: DennisHere is a product we don't normally feature, its a small keyboard that resembles the slide out keyboards you'll find on mobile phones with a touch pad attached.
The body of the keyboard has a gorgeous black finish, and is comprised primarily of plastic. Aesthetically pleasing to the eye, this little keyboard packs quite a punch in more than just looks. The CandyBoard has built-in mouse functionality; namely right, left, and scrolling center button, just below the touch pad. As far as the DPI goes, it is set at 500DPI.
The options for something like this are endless, however appear to be limited to non-pc activates, usually having to do with size and laziness issues related to watching TV on your computer
