Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Snow Edition Review
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Live Action Short Film for Metro: Last Light Inbound
We may not be getting to experience Metro: Last Light for quite some time, but that does not mean we will be left completely in the dark. If you mosey on over to the Metro: Last Light website, you will see a countdown clock ticking away to a reveal on May 24th. THQ went ahead and announced what will appear that day, as May 24th will be the world premiere of a live action short film to get us ready for Metro: Last Light. Sure, it is not quite the actual game, but I think the short film should hold us over for a while. It will be interesting to see just how the dark tunnels and overwhelming sense of terror translate to live action, but I have faith in the film. We have just a little over a week to go, so try to keep yourselves contained until then.
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New Material for Advanced Metamaterials
Metamaterials are a curious class of materials with highly engineered structures, so as to have unusual characteristics. In the case of optical metamaterials, light can be made to bend backwards, which opens the door to invisibility cloaks and super lenses. Making metamaterials is not easy though, not only because of their intricate structures but also because of the materials they are made of. Currently the best metals to use are silver and gold, which are both expensive and neither plays well semiconductors. Fortunately researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new metamaterial that uses different compounds, and has a few new tricks.
Instead of the traditional precious metals, the researchers used aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and zinc oxide to construct the new metamaterial. With 16 alternating layers of AZO and zinc oxide, the metamaterial creates an extreme anisotropy for the light that passes through. This causes the light to dispersion to be in a hyperbolic pattern, which greatly changes the light's behavior.
Along with being cheaper than silver or gold, this new design offers something current metamaterials cannot; control after creation. The properties of the metamaterial can be altered by either varying the aluminum in the AZO while the material is being made, or by applying an electric field to the finished device. With an external electric field, the optical properties of the metamaterial can be tuned or even switched. Being able to shift the frequencies of light the metamaterial interacts with could greatly impact how it can be used and open up new realms of possibilities.
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Battlefield Premium Service to be Unveiled at E3?
File this one under rumor for now, but it could be fully revealed before long. It seems a new Battlefield Premium service will be unveiled at E3, which aims to reward the hardcore Battlefield 3 gamers. The service will include "a number of unique content drops with in-game items not available anywhere else." The first one will have a "Premium" knife and black dog tag, plus some cosmetic choices like new solider and weapon camos and even dog tags. There will even be "Assignments" to help you stand out on a server and include more personalization options. So far, this all seems like a way to get hardcore players more choices to stand out, but not necessarily break any game balance. A price is unknown, but EA could match Activision's Call of Duty ELITE's $50 annual subscription.
There is also word of a new DLC arriving in March 2013, which would mean around a year and a half of new content after the initial launch of Battlefield 3. Keep it tuned for more information on the DLC and Battlefield Premium.
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Topological Insulators May Bring Spintronics to Room Temperature
Topological insulators are a curious class of materials that are electrical conductors on the surface, and insulators on the inside. As some researchers work to better understand how to make them, others are trying to find what can be done with specific examples. For example, what properties does bismuth selenide (Bi2Se3 ) have, and then how can it be used? According to research from Berkeley Lab it can be used to bring spintronic devices to room temperature.
Spin, or angular momentum, is a property of many particles, including electrons. Because it is a property of the particle and not of a signal, it can be stored without constant energy input, like with modern electronic signals. However transmitting electrons without disrupting their spin is very difficult. As the particles interact others it is possible for the spin states to be altered. Not so with topological insulators. In fact, the recent work at Berkeley Labs found that even coupling with phonons, the quanta of mechanical vibration, will not always scatter electrons, as previous theory predicted was possible.
Bismuth selenide brings more to the table than just a way to preserve the spin of electrons. The researchers carefully examined the material's electronic structure and found something also present in graphene. Like its carbon cousin, Dirac cones define Bi2Se3's electronic properties. This means electrons can flow with incredible ease and speed as the lower energy valence band touches the higher energy conduction band. Unlike graphene though, the direction the electrons flows is determined by their spin. This could potentially be used for some very interesting devices.
Considering topological insulators were only discovered a little over five years ago (at Berkeley Lab, where they were also theorized) this discovery gives us a glimpse of the potential for these materials as we continue to learn about them.
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Cooler Master Announces GeminII M4 CPU Cooler
Cooler Master has announced a new addition to the GeminII series of CPU coolers, the GeminII M4. At first glance this cooler appears unique compared to most coolers I see these days as it has a very low profile. The GeminII M4 hopes to make up for the lack of size with minimal CPU contact gaps and four direct contact heat pipes. The 2.3" cooler is targeted toward the HTPC and small form factor market, and features a 120mm fan that has a thickness of only 15mm, compared to the common size of 25mm. The fan is capable of 58.4CFM of airflow and should prove adequate for your compact computer cooling needs. The GeminII M4 will be available in June 2012 with an MSRP of $29.99.
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AMD Releases New A-Series APU
As mentioned in the Hardware Roundup today, AMD has launched the 2nd generation A-Series APU, which had been code named Trinity. The new chip features a redesign of the previous generation APU from the ground up, and there are several key improvements over the first generation. The new chip features double the performance per watt, CPU performance increased up to 29%, GPU performance increased up to 56%, and up to 12 hours of battery life. Be on the lookout for more news coming about the new APU.
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Berkeley Lab IT Staff Hold Computer Outreach to Second Graders
Not everyone is comfortable with science and technology. Generally this stems from a lack of understanding, and it has the potential to cost them in some way. Staff at Berkeley Lab decided to do something about it by putting together an outreach program for their community's second-graders. The focus was on introducing the children to computers, a tool they will need to use later in life, but may not have been exposed to yet.
The IT staff at the lab worked with second grade teachers to create a lesson plan which introduced the children to the components of a computer, along with helpful analogies (the CPU is the brain and the PSU is the heart, for example), some coding and networking. In fact, the students learned about networking by racing data packets.
While educating the students is definitely important to the Berkeley staff, this program has also helped educate some parents in the community. Not all of the children's parents are tech savvy, but when the kids go home, they are eager to share what they learned. Also, some of the parents did not even know Berkeley Lab existed, despite living in Berkeley.
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Game-Breaking Bug Found in Diablo III
Diablo III has launched after years of waiting, but not everything is all roses. There are problems with the servers and now a game-breaking bug has been discovered in Diablo III. The bug triggers Error 3006, which kicks you out of the game and keeps you from logging back in. Gamers using the Demon Hunter class are the only ones affected right now, as the bug happens when the Demon Hunter equips a shield on the Templar follower. Many people are experiencing the issue and have taken to the Battle.net forums to voice the problem. Blizzard is aware of the bug (and others detailed on its support page) and is working on a fix. Hopefully one can come out relatively soon, as I am sure Demon Hunters would like a Templar to take some of the damage.
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Revealing How to Make Topological Insulators
Materials science has operated by trial-and-error since someone first threw something in a fire to see what would happen. For just one success, like Teflon or Kevlar or Nylon, there were potentially hundreds of failures that may have been close, but not there yet, or just completely wrong. Thanks to very advanced databases and intelligent analysis though, this is changing. We now know enough about what causes certain properties that we can predict a particular material's behavior, or design a material around a behavior. Now researchers at Duke University are doing the same with topological insulators, a class of manmade materials with rather unique characteristics.
While they are called topological insulators, they are actually very good at conducting. In some cases they actually conduct more efficiently than modern wires. Unlike modern wires though, topological insulators only conduct on their surface. In the actual volume of the material, currents are blocked, like in a regular insulator. Potentially these materials can be used in quantum electronic devices.
What the Duke researchers did was take a database of some 2000 topological insulator formulas and ran a 'genetic' profile. Like polymers (though not necessarily to the same degree) we have the ability to predict the properties of a topological insulator based on its makeup and can design a compound around specific, desired properties. Where before the database only stored known information, it is now possible to have it generate instructions on how to create an entirely new kind of topological insulator. Even though these materials are still being discovered and understood, this work could propel them forward as researchers create a much wider variety of them to experiment with.
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Diablo 3's Overloaded Servers Crash on Launch Date
What happens when impatient Diablo 3 fans worldwide finally get the chance to play the game on release day? The mad rush of gamers scrambling to log on to Blizzard's inadequate launch servers caused massive connection problems, with countless players getting repeated error messages or getting disconnected. Blizzard is hard at work to setup new servers to handle the immense load, but it remains to be seen if it's enough to get thousands of copies activated or create player characters, let alone avoid getting disconnected. "The servers and websites are live, and we recommend that if you're encountering any issues you first visit battle.net/support for possible solutions, as well as the tech support and bug report forums at Diablo3.com," advised Blizzard in an updated statement. Had a less stringent activation method been implemented, Diablo 3's online launch problems may have been averted, but hopefully Blizzard gets this whole mess sorted out fast. How's your own Diablo 3 experience going so far?
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Hardware Roundup: Tuesday Edition
AMD has launched its second-generation A-Series APU, codenamed "Trinity", designed for mainstream and ultrathin notebooks and we have a series of previews on the new platform. In cooling, we have a look at the Silenx EFZ-120HA5 cooler and you might want to read this review before making the decision to purchase one. For those looking for quiet performance and a low-profile design suitable for an HTPC build, we have a review of the Noctua NH-L12 low profile CPU cooler. OCC recently reviewed the ECS Z77H2-AX Black Extreme motherboard and there is another review in today's roundup along with a look at the Intel DZ77GA-70K board.
Cases
Lian Li PC 100 “The Hammer” @ LanOC Reviews
Cooling
SilenX EFZ-120HA5 Heatsink @ Frostytech
Noctua NH-L12 Low Profile CPU Cooler @ ThinkComputers
CPUs
AMD A10-4600M Trinity For Mobile Review: Trying To Cut The Ivy @ PC Perspective
AMD Trinity Preview @ Neoseeker
AMD Launches New 2012 A-Series APU (Trinity) @ Bjorn3d
Motherboards
Intel DZ77GA-70K Motherboard Components @ Benchmark Reviews
ECS Z77H2-AX Black Extreme Motherboard @ Madshrimps
Storage/Hard Drives
Testing 10GbE Performance: QNAP TS-879 Pro & Synology DS3612xs NAS @ TechSpot
Video
Kepler in the House: nVidia GTX 670 @ Computer Ed
GeForce 680 & 670 vs. Radeon 7970 & 7950 Gaming Perf. @ [H]ardOCP
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