Tech News
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SilverStone PP06B Individual-Sleeved PSU Cables Review @ Pro-Clockers
Published: Tuesday, February 5, 2013 | By: DennisSome people don't like the look of individually sleeved PSU cables claiming that several things died many years ago and looking at PSU cables was one of them. But, in a world where casemodding is still a popular pastime anything different is generally good.
If this last route seems the best avenue for you and if you already own a SilverStone power supply that was manufacturer after 2009, they have some for you to look at. SilverStone has gone the route similar to Corsair and is offering sleeved cables. For a few weeks only black were available but red and white have recently showed up on their site. So, it is some to clean of the interior of one of our test rigs.
The great thing about these cables is that they come with some select PSUs but can also be bought aftermarket for any Silverstone modular PSU.
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NL: Review Block - Coolers and Storage - The good stuff
Published: Tuesday, February 5, 2013 | By: DennisQuick review block showing the latest cooler reviews spiced up with some SSD action. Normally I skip over the SSD stuff but these are pretty good.
The Coolas
- Zalman LQ320 CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Silverstone NT06-Pro Topdown SFF/HTPC CPU Cooler Review @ Hi Tech Legion
- Evercool Silent Shark CPU Cooler Review @ Pro-Clockers
Storage - SSD Style
- Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD Review @ Techgage
- OCZ Vector 256GB @ Bjorn3DNot the end of the world, just the end of this news post
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What Happens When a 900mph Ping Pong Hits Your Paddle
Published: Monday, February 4, 2013 | By: DennisI do love physics in the morning.
There's no shortage of plans online for building a simple ping pong cannon that can fire balls at hundreds of miles per hour. But you're probably not going to find the details of Purdue University Professor Mark French's cannon, since his creation can accelerate a ping pong ball to 900 miles per hour, or just over Mach 1.2.
When I was looking for a college to attend my decision was mostly based on word of mouth from previous students and friends who had attended. Of course cost also had a factor in my decision but in the end I choose my college based on the stuff they were capable of doing.
The video on this article is a great motivator, almost makes me want to head back to school.
Almost
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ASUS ROG ARES II Video Card - Massive Monster or Docile Dog?
Published: Friday, February 1, 2013 | By: DennisFancy new HD7990 card from Asus but instead of the normal stock style cooler they opted to include a self contained watercooler and blocks for each GPU.
Web Reviews
- ASUS ROG ARES II Video Card Review @ [H]
- ASUS ROG ARES II (Crossfire) review
- ASUS Ares II Crossfire X review: the most extreme graphics card times twoNot sure how this compares to the Devil 13 that was featured in the Ninjalane Podcast but one thing is for sure, Asus is late to the party with this one.
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Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card @ techPowerUp
Published: Friday, February 1, 2013 | By: DennisYou don't see many discrete sound cards anymore and my once hardcore belief that you needed one died some time ago. (about the time auzentech stopped targeting hardware sites with their awesome sound cards.)
Creative is still in the game and has really gone to great lengths to showcase their next generation.
Creative's long awaited new line of sound cards is here. Today, we take a thorough look at the new entry-level model called "Sound Blaster Z". The sound card comes equipped with the new Sound Core processor and Creative even bundles it with a decent microphone.I like the shell and window cover on this card. Not only is it read but the whole thing is also backlit!
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Can A New GPU Rejuvenate A 5 Year Old Gaming PC? @ HotHardware
Published: Friday, February 1, 2013 | By: DennisPretty sure the answer to this is. Yes, kinda
Depending on the age and type of video card you have sometimes adding a secondary card is the best move.
New video card launches from AMD and NVIDIA are almost always reviewed on hardware that’s less than 12 months old. That's not an arbitrary decision -- it helps reviewers make certain that GPU performance isn't held back by older CPUs and can be particularly important when evaluating the impact of new interfaces or bus designs. The downside of this policy is that it leaves a gap in product coverage. Gamers with older systems often miss out on whether or not a new graphics card will be a meaningful upgrade for aging systems. That's particularly important as the speed of the desktop replacement cycle has slowed.
Here, we're going to compare the performance impact of upgrading the graphics card on an older system that doesn't have access to any of the substantial performance gains Intel introduced with Nehalem in late 2008. Our upgrade card of choice is an EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SuperClocked with 2GB of RAM:Seems like their idea of an "old gaming pc" is a little skewed.
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MSI 3DMark Challenge @ HWBot
Published: Thursday, January 31, 2013 | By: DennisThe new 3DMark from Futuremark is set to be released on February 4th which also marks the start of the MSI 3DMark Challenge hosted by HWBot.
This competition runs for 30 days and is comprised of a single stage running the Fire Strike benchmark. Fire Strike is the DX11 benchmark designed to test graphics performance meaning that you'll need a monster of a video card to compete (and maybe some LN2)
To enter you'll need to be a HWBot member and own a MSI Z77 motherboard and DX11 compatible graphics card.
For a duration of four weeks, from February 4 to March 3, 2013 Anyone using a MSI motherboards and graphics cards can compete in the most challenging DirectX 11 scene in 3DMark– Fire Strike. The competition will be divided into two parts: the top two challengers using a MSI Z77 MPOWER for the competition with the highest scores will each win great items such as a MSI R7970 Lightning Boost Edition graphics card and a Z77A-GD80 motherboard; the Z77A-GD55 Lucky Draw activity is opened to all challengers using MSI Z77 motherboards.
To enter the Lucky Draw activity, all you have to do is upload your scores before February 10! We believe this will be an extremely fierce competition and expect to see record-breaking performance!Good luck to anyone who enters.
Also be sure to check out Team Ninjalane on HWBot, We're still ranked 6th out of US Based overclocking teams with a great bunch of overclockers dedicated to getting every last MHz.
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New 3DMark Benchmark Gets a Release Date - February 4th
Published: Thursday, January 31, 2013 | By: DennisIt has been almost 2 years since the release of 3DMark 11 and over those two years I have come to really enjoy that software package. Well Futuremark has announced that they will be releasing a new edition of their famous video card benching program called 3DMark.
The benchmark will be available in three editions on the PC, Basic (the free one), Advanced for the PC Enthusiast and Professional for business users. Look for this exciting new benchmark to be launched February 4th. (next Monday!)
The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it's not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It's the most powerful and flexible benchmark we've ever created. www.futuremark.com/3dmark
The latest version of the world's most popular benchmark is simply called 3DMark to reflect its all-round versatility. Not only is this 3DMark the first in the series to offer cross-platform comparisons, it is also the first to test different Direct3D feature levels within one application.3DMark will also be available for IOS and Android so look for those releases soon.
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HEXUS Review: In Win D-Frame
Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 | By: DennisI got to see this case (or frame) at CES this year and must say, for an attention grabber it did an excellent job.
Meet the D-Frame. Soon to be shipping from Taiwanese shores, this is the latest unorthodox PC chassis from In Win, a manufacturer who in recent months has developed a taste for the weird and wonderful.
It started back in mid-2012 with the arrival of the unusual open-air X-Frame, and the follow-up arrived soon after in the form of an eye-catching H-Frame constructed from eleven diamond-cut aluminium plates.How many frames do you think they will come out with?
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3 Ways to Keep Your Firefox Healthy
Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 | By: DennisI have been a long time Mozilla user. I can honestly say I used Mozilla 1.0 when it was launched and every version of Netscape since its inception. While the previous statement may date me a little, the experience has taught me a few things on how to keep my browser healthy to ensure the fastest and most reliable surfing experience.
Mozilla has posted a quick article with the top 3 things you should do to keep Firefox happy with the most important being to keep your plugins clean. Nothing like upgrading your browser to find that the plugin you like and love no longer works or creates a security concern (read: Java)With every Firefox update, we aim to make Firefox trim and slim and perform at its peak as well. But there are some things that you can do to to keep your browser healthy and running at its best as well.
It only takes a few minutes to keep your Firefox in top shape.It is good to see Firefox working for their users, lets hope the trend continues.
