IEEE adopts WiGig (802.11ad) capable of 7Gbps wireless speeds
Wireless is a funny thing, it pretty much controls most people's everyday lives, and because it is mostly invisible, there's never an afterthought. If it 'just works', then that's fine. Well, a new wireless standard is on its way as the IEEE have adopted a new standards known as 802.11ad.
802.11ad will boast some incredible speeds of 7Gbps over 60GHz frequencies and should be baked into consumer devices as soon as 2014. The consumer-friendly marketing name that will find its way plastered all over 802.11ag is going to be WiGig. WiGig won't be replacing your wireless network, it will be complimenting it.
The hopes of the new technology will be that it'll provide an insanely fast, direct link between devices. The reason behind this is because of the 60GHz frequency it finds itself surfing along. As higher radio frequencies are used, they aren't so good at penetrating solid objects like walls, fridges, desks and more. High frequencies are really only good at shorter ranges, so WiGig will have its place in the market, but not where you'd like it to be.
802.11ad already has some partners, with Dell's upcoming Latitude 6430u Ultrabook sporting the new wireless technology. Marvell, Qualcomm and Atheros are also all working on chip implementations, which will see both 802.11ac and 802.11ad technologies crammed into the single module. This will give those devices with these chips baked in access to simultaneous use of 2.4-5GHz and 60GHz bands.
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AT&T promotion offering $100 credit to Nexus 7 owners on two-year contracts
If you haven't already picked up the incredible Nexus 7 tablet, maybe AT&T's latest promotion might sway you toward the Jelly Bean-powered, 7-inch slate from both Google and ASUS.
AT&T customers who sign up on an eligible two-year data plan will receive a $100 bill credit on their new contract. This promotion from AT&T only lasts until Valentine's Day, or February 14, 2013.
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Valve to talk about VR and Team Fortress 2 at GDC 2013
Gaming really feels like it's about to have a second wind with next-gen consoles, portable solutions from Razer, NVIDIA and countless others, Oculus' Rift VR headset and more. The Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2013 is set to have Valve take the stage where one of their talks will be based on porting Team Fortress 2 to virtual reality goggles - in other words, most gamers' wet dreams.
The TF2 talk will be called "What We Learned Porting Team Fortress 2 to Virtual Reality", and will be lead by Valve programmer Joe Ludwig. The second talk will have Valve's R&D guy Michael Abrash discuss "Why Virtual Reality is Hard (And Where it Might be Going)". Abrash will focus his talk on head-mounted displays.
GDC 2013 is being held at San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 25-29.
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Analyst estimates that Microsoft sold just 1 million Surface tablets last quarter
It's a fairly gloomy outlook for the Surface RT tablet. An estimate by analyst Brent Thill places the number sold around one million for last quarter. This is down from a previous estimate of two million. To put that estimate in perspective, analysts are expecting Apple to have sold around 20 million iPads during the same period.
That means that Microsoft has been estimated to have sold just 5 percent of the number of tablets that Apple did. Now, when you add in tablets running the Android operating system, Microsoft's share of the tablet market is even less.
Surface Pro could help Microsoft's weak numbers. Since it runs Intel chips, it would give corporate users an alternative to the iPad, though numerous other Intel-based tablets are coming out as well.
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Judge rules news outlets improperly used pictures tweeted over Twitter
Agence France-Presse and The Washington Post are in a bit of hot water after using pictures that were tweeted by a photo journalist. The story goes something like this: after the Haiti earthquake back in January 2010, AFP and The Washington Post used pictures tweeted by photojournalist Daniel Morel. Morel accused AFP of copyright infringement, so AFP sued Morel to get him to stop.
Morel countersued and the court battle has ended in a ruling saying that AFP and The Washington Post improperly used the photos. AFP argued that because the pictures were provided publicly, Twitter's terms of service allowed those pictures to be used. While Twitter's terms do allow some use of the pictures, such as retweeting them, Twitter maintains that users own their content.
"As has always been our policy, Twitter users own their photos," a Twitter spokesman said. There are still more issues to be settled in a trial, though the judge has limited damages that could potentially be recovered by Morel. The main takeaway is that you should not use Twitter pictures commercially without first obtaining permission to do so.
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Stream the US Presidential Inauguration live to your smartphone with new app
Interested Americans, historians, or really anybody who owns a smartphone will be able to live stream the Presidential Inauguration straight to their device, thanks to a new app released for iOS and Android. Released Monday morning, the official Inaugural 2013 app features photos, videos, and a livestream that will go live January 21 and stream footage of the ceremony.
It features numerous other features, such as a map if you will be in DC for the inauguration, and information about volunteering opportunities for the Inaugural Committee's National Day of Service on January 19.
The app was produced by AT&T and is a free download for both
iOS and
Android devices.
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Windows Phone satisfaction higher than that of Android, still behind iPhone
The iPhone remains the number one desired device in the United States, with half of American's planning to buy a new device in the next 90 days planning on getting an iPhone. That's down from 71 percent in September 2012, while Samsung's numbers have jumped from 13 percent to 21 percent, respectively.
More interestingly, 71 percent of iOS customers say they are "Very Satisfied," while only 53 percent of Windows Phone customers say they are. However, both groups are ahead of Android, which only sees 48 percent very satisfied. RIM lags behind with only 26 percent of its base being very satisfied.
Because of this, Windows Phone could very well see some great growth in the coming year, as long as those satisfied customers are getting the word out. The data above comes from 451 Research. They surveyed 4,061 people, with 88 percent of those being US-based.
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Comcast invests $150 million in Arris, maker of set-top boxes
Comcast has purchased a stake worth $150 million in Arris, a set-top box maker. Cable still relies on users having set-top boxes, so it's probably not a bad investment for Comcast to be making. In return for the cash, Comcast will receive around 10.6 million shares of common stock in the company.
Comcast's purchase will close along with Arris' purchase of Motorola Home from Google. The value of Motorola Home is valued at $2.35 billion. Both Comcast and Google will end up with roughly a 7.85 percent stake in Arris once the deals are complete.
"We are very pleased that Comcast has agreed to make this significant investment in Arris," said Bob Stanzione, CEO of Arris. "We believe this investment by one of our largest customers is a strong indication of customer support for the Motorola Home acquisition and its potential to accelerate innovation to the benefit of the industry and consumers."
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Tesla opening 25 new stores in 2013, including first store in China
The all-electric vehicles made by Tesla are awesome pieces of technology. Not only should they help advance battery technology, they look great and, apparently, drive great. Tesla is planning to open 25 more stores during 2013, which is almost double that of the 13 stores it opened in 2012.
Half of those locations will be in the United States and the other half will be in foreign countries, including Tesla's first location in China. The new location in China is set to open this Spring.
Tesla has also redoubled its commitment to rolling out Supercharger charging stations across the United States. Currently only eight are in operation, most of which are on the west coast. Tesla plans to cover both coasts and then connect them in the middle so that someone can travel from Boston to LA without using any gas.
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Samsung was most popular brand on Twitter during CES 2013, according to Salorix
Data from Salorix suggests that Samsung was the top brand on Twitter during the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, which isn't too surprising. Salorix looked at over one million tweets related to CES to come to these conclusions. While Samsung led the pack, Sony, Panasonic, Lenovo, and LG weren't far behind.
As far as top products go, 4K "Ultra HD" TV's and mobile devices were given the most attention, which is also unsurprising for someone who attended the show. This year's CES was pretty much entirely dominated by mobile devices and 4K televisions. Samsung was on top of the Twitter heap every day, save for Day 1, when Sony was on top.
Day 2, which saw Samsung's keynote, was dominated by Samsung, with over 30 percent of CES-related tweets being about the company. It's prototypes, including a flexible cellphone and curved TV, were especially popular among the Twitter crowd.
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Want to know how SSDs are made? Crucial takes you behind the scenes in this new video
Ever wonder how an SSD is made? No longer will this burning question keep you up at night as Crucial has just posted up to YouTube a behind-the-scenes video detailing the creation of a solid state drive, from inception to delivery.
In the video, they explain the process in a quick manner, so pay attention. They cover silicon design, wafer production, individual chip production, testing, assembly, more testing, packaging, and delivery. Watch the video and let us know something cool you learned from it that you didn't know before.
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RumorTT: iPhone 5S to be mass produced in March, launch in June/July
Jeffries analyst Peter Misek has released another research report, which continues to assert that the iPhone 5S will be coming June or July. New to the report is the assertion that mass production of the next iPhone will begin in March. If this is the case, I would expect to start seeing leaks soon, and definitely by March, as long as Apple continues to be as leaky as they have been in the past.
Our checks indicate that preliminary builds for the iPhone 5S will start in March for a launch in June/July. As word of the earlier production schedule starts to spread, we believe we could see a slight slowing of demand CQ1 in anticipation of the new product launch and Apple will likely start curtailing channel inventory.
Along with rumors and predictions for the iPhone 5S, Misek provides some insight into the possibility of a cheaper iPhone:
Similar to the iPad mini, we expect a concentrated low-cost iPhone rather than a "cheap" one. Likely specs: polycarbonite case with 4" non-Retina display and no LTE. We believe a new low-cost iPhone would increase Apple's share, decrease [gross margins], but have little impact on [earnings per share].
We'll see if any of this comes true in just a few short months, so keep your eyes peeled for all news iPhone 5S related.
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Red October attacks also used Java exploit, according to researchers
The Red October cyberespionage attacks were thought to have used Excel and Word exploits solely, but new data by a different set of researchers suggest that a Java exploit was also used to spread the infection. Israeli IT security firm Seculert was analyzing the Command and Control servers for the attack and found a special folder containing a malicious Java applet.
The applet used an exploit that was patched back in October 2011, which suggests that the attackers preferred older, known vulnerabilities and not zero-day ones. The applet was compiled in February 2012, which furthers this theory. This discovery is being credited to the fact that the attackers switched from a PHP server-side scripting language to CGI on the C&C servers.
They left up older PHP-based attack pages, which allowed the source code to be viewed. Full analysis is now impossible as the attackers have shut the C&C servers down, likely to cover their tracks.
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Facebook's big thing is Graph Search, allows you to search through its social graph
Facebook's big announcement today was the preview and beta launch of Graph Search, a new tool that will help you sift through the massive amounts of connections and data that Facebook has in its social graph. For the questions that can't be answered by Facebook's data, Bing will try and provide the answer from the Internet.
The current version is available in a limited preview for English users only. Zuckerberg stressed that privacy was an important issue when building the search engine. For instance, you should only be able to search for content shared with you, however, you can search for something like "TV shows watched by doctors" or "Music liked by people who like Mitt Romney."
The ability to do searches such as the examples above could allow researchers to sift through connections to see if there are any connections. According to Zuckerberg, there are currently 1 billion people, 240 billion photos, and 1 trillion connections in the social graph. How it works:
"Graph Search will appear as a bigger search bar at the top of each page. When you start typing to search for something, it will make suggestions of searches you're looking to perform and once you select the search it will return results on a page that you can further customize and filter."
Only "hundreds of thousands" of users will be getting the initial roll out of the Graph Search feature.
You can sign up to be on a waiting list to try it out on
Facebook's website.
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NRA releases shooting game 'NRA: Practice Range' for the iPhone
NRA, an organization that stands for the Second Amendment, recently spoke out against violent video games, using them to explain recent school shootings. However, the NRA has released an iPhone game, which involves shooting targets, albeit non-human targets. The app also offers safety tips, such as "Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction."
The game comes with handguns and rifles, which players use to shoot at targets. Gamers can pay extra money to use an AK-47 or MK11 sniper rifle. The game itself is a free download from
iTunes and is more about spreading safety information than anything, but the release timing is certainly not the best choice the NRA could have made.
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ReportTT: Data shows US federal employees continue to illegally download TV episodes, movies
The people in charge of the United States government are apparently not above illegally downloading movies and music, if data by ScanEye is to be believed. ScanEye tracks IP addresses downloading files from BitTorrent and matches those IP addresses to a physical location by utilizing MaxMind.
The data shows that "dozens" of films and TV shows have been downloaded by computers in the House of Representatives. Remember, this was the group of legislators responsible for creating SOPA and PIPA. Among the downloaded TV shows and movies were Glee, Dexter, Lawless, The Cabin in the Woods, and Life of Pi, which doesn't even release until March 5.
You can check out the
full ScanEye report at Scribd.
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NYPD to add GPS chips to prescription bottles to try and help New York City drug theft
Prescription drug theft is a major issue in New York City, and the NYPD have plans to try and prevent it from growing. Pharmacies across the city could receive "Dummy bottles" that contain GPS tracking chips in an effort to catch thieves.
"In the event of a robbery or theft, we'll be able to track the bottle, which may lead us to stash locations across the city", Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly writes in a speech he'll be giving in California today. Kelly has asked researchers to examine the feasibility of placing chips into fake pills that could be tracked by GPS.
The NYPD is also educating local pharmacies on how to better secure their premises in what is being called "Operation Safety Cap." What do you think about this? Is this just another money wasting effort or do you think that this could really clean up the streets of prescription drugs? Either way, I am happy to see more Law Enforcement Agencies embracing modern technology.
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Netflix to begin offering Adult Swim and other animated shows starting in March
Netflix has announced that it will begin offering animated shows from Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Warner Bros., and normal shows from Turner Broadcasting beginning in March.
Fans of such shows like Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Dallas will be able to queue up past episodes via their Netflix account starting in March. Also coming to the service is Sony Pictures Television's The Boondocks and from Warner Bros, Children's Hospital.
"We are delighted that Netflix will become the exclusive over-the-top streaming subscription destination for past seasons of favorite Cartoon Network and Adult Swim titles," said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer of Netflix. "We're also thrilled to be able to offer the latest seasons of Dallas, one of the greatest all-time guilty pleasures."
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Archos GamePad should launch in February, Android gaming inbound
Tablet-like game-pads running Android are going to be a huge thing this year, and a new game pad is set to launch in February from Archos. The GamePad is both powerful enough to run most Android games, and still retains a sleek, lightweight, configuration.
The GamePad is fueled by a 1.6GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 and 1GB of RAM. Graphics crunching is handled by a very capable quad-core Mali 400MP GPU, and internal storage is set at 8GB. Storage can be expanded up to 64GB by adding a Micro SD card. Also featured is a 1.2MP front facing camera with the rear camera weighing in at a mere 2MP.
The company has included its own Media Center apps which include music and video apps and 1080p video decoding thanks to multiple codecs. The GamePad also features integrated physical controls and still retains a touch interface as well.
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Foremay releases world's first 2.5" SATA 2TB SSD
Foremay, an OEM SSD manufacturer, has released the world's first 2TB SSD drives with a standard 2.5" SATA interface. Both new models seem to only be available for OEM and industrial applications though at this stage.
Foremay is offering the SC199 (for mission-critical applications) and TC166 (for terminal computing) product families in either commercial or industrial grades to suit end-user's specific applications. Features include Advanced Power Management, Advanced Error Correction, Military Secure Erase, and hardware based encryption.
"By leveraging Foremay's patent pending technologies, we are proud to deliver the world's first 2 TB SSD in standard 2.5" SATA form factor," said Jack Winters , Foremay's CTO and co-founder. "We hope our high reliability 2 TB SSD drives can help create more design freedom and storage space for both mission-critical and enterprise applications."
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SpaceTT: Astronomers discover largest objects in known universe
A multinational team of astronomers have discovered the largest objects in the known universe. In research led by the University of Central Lancashire, the team recently observed a large quasar group comprised of dozens of highly energetic "star-like" objects.
Each object averages about 500 Megaparsecs, with the entire group being close to 1,200 Megaparsecs at its widest point. If that makes no sense to you, the distance between our Milky Way, and our closest neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, is about 0.75 Megaparsecs. If this new object was within 100 light-years of Earth, it would dominate the entire night sky. For those who are curious, 1 Megaparsec equals 3,261,633.44 light years.
This discovery will have huge implications on the study of cosmology. Einstein's Cosmological Principal states that the universe looks the same regardless of the observation point when viewed at a large enough scale. If you combine this principal with modern theories, we shouldn't be able to find objects larger than 370Mpc. This new quasar group is not the first to question Einstein's theory either. Other smaller objects have been discovered that add weight to the challenge.
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BitFenix releases Prodigy side panel window accessory and Alchemy Mixed Cables
BitFenix just released two exciting new products to their growing line of custom PC hardware. The company said that "overwhelming response from the community" lead to the development and release of a side panel window accessory for the popular Prodigy mini-ITX chassis, as well as a full line of Mixed color Alchemy Cables.
The Prodigy Side Panel Window Accessory is billed as a "hassle free" option to obtain a clear view into the inside of your Prodigy Mini-ITX Chassis. It mounts without any "clips, or tacky mounting hardware" meaning your sleek Prodigy chassis will retain its good looks.
The Alchemy Mixed Cables are a fresh twist to the companies existing line of custom sleeved cable extensions. Featuring a red / black or black / blue color scheme the cables are sleeved with BitFenix's ultra-dense NanoSleeve braiding. Both the Alchemy Mixed Cabled and the Prodigy Side Panel Window will be available mid February.
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Myspace launches new look, ignores conventional social networking layout
Myspace, the once king of social networking, has been hard at work completely redesigning the website and business model as well. The new design has been in beta for some time now, with only users who requested early access being able to participate, but now it's open to everyone.
The new site is bright, vibrant, and (thankfully) not full of glittery GIF images. Users can upload a "cover" photo as their background, "connect" to friends, celebrities, and entertainers, and even update your status. The social network also allows users to build playlist from what appears to be a music library that rivals Spotify.
As you can see above I did create an account for this article, and one interesting thing that popped up is that you can now sign up to the service by using Facebook or Twitter via OAuth. You can also access Myspace classic at the sign up page. Myspace says the redesign is focused around following artists and consuming content such as music, film and photographs.
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Aliens: Colonial Marines gets some system requirements, pre-purchase on Steam now
I really have my fingers crossed for Gearbox Software's upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines. The sci-fi, first-person shooter set in the Aliens world is shaping up quite nicely, and now we have some PC system requirements to look over:
Minimum Specs: Operating System: Windows XP SP3. Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core Processor. RAM: 2GB RAM (XP),2GB RAM (Vista). HD: 20GB free hard disk space. Optical Drive: DVD. Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible. Video Card:NVIDIA GeForce 8500/ATI Radeon HD 2600 (256 minimum).
Recommended Specs: Operating System: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Windows 7. Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Quad Core Processor. RAM: 2GB RAM. HD: 20GB free hard disk space. Optical Drive: DVD. Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible. VideoCard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX560/ATI Radeon HD 5850 (512 minimum).
Other Requirements: Initial installation requires one-time internet connection for Steam authentication; software installations required (included with the game) include Steam Client, DirectX 9, Microsoft .NET 4 Framework, Visual C++ Redistributable 2005, Visual C++ Redistributable 2008, Visual C++ Redistributable 2010, and AMD CPU Drivers (XP Only/AMD Only).
So we're not looking at anything too crazy, with recommended specs only asking for a mid-range GPU and quad-core processor. You can pre-purchase the game on
Steam right now.
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Rumors shot down of a Nexus 5 unveiling at Google I/O 2013
I'm still absolutely smitten with
my Nexus 4, but we're still hearing about supply constraints all across the world. LG are now saying that nobody is to blame during an interview with a Korean website.
An LG official stated that the Nexus 4 production is going "without a hitch" at their Pyeongtaek-based planet, and that there is no problem with supply. The biggest part of this news is that there have been rumors of another teamup between Google and LG for the Nexus 5, which would be unveiled at Google I/O in a few months time.
According to LG, though, this won't be happening. We've heard this before, from countless companies. I'm still going to hold my breath and hope for a Nexus 5 unveiling at Google I/O.
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Noctua NH-L9i Low-Profile CPU Cooler Review
Introduction
For those who don't know who Noctua is, I kindly ask that you take a peek from under your rock a bit more often. Noctua has been on the edge of cooler design long before I got my humble start reviewing them. With my first glance at some of the older tower coolers, I wasn't quite sure what it was that made them so good, but then I grabbed it and could instantly feel that there was a more professional grade feel to the cooler. Then I was told to connect it up to the PC and spin it up. At this point I stood in amazement from the lack of volume coming from inside the PC while I looked at a screen in disbelief of the thermal results.
Since that time Noctua may no longer be the only silent offering out there, but they have kept their heads in the game and are always looking for new or better ways to innovate coolers. Whether we are discussing the D-14 behemoth, or even some of the C-Style coolers, Noctua has been delivering top-end performance even when the coolers had to be limited in size. On that note, Noctua has now developed one of the smallest coolers I have ever tested, and that includes low profile Intel stockers, and that SilverStone cooler that was essentially the same thing. Knowing Noctua as I do, and knowing they wouldn't just send out a cooler that was small enough to fit, but didn't have the ability to control the heat. While there is a strict set of TDP guidelines, if followed correctly, this new cooler will have no issues cooling your processors where most other larger coolers have no chance to.
The CPU cooler I am looking at today from Noctua is one of a pair of coolers. There is the NH-L9a for AMD processors, and there is the NH-L9i for Intel processors that we received. In this design you not only are going to be getting a very compact and short set of fins, but you will also be using a 14mm thick 92mm fan to do the cooling.
Right off the bat you can tell this isn't a cooler for extreme overclockers, but for those with the need to use as little CPU cooler as possible to tame the heat inside of an HTPC or some other SFF chassis, I strongly urge you to continue reading as the NH-L9i is impressive for its super compact size.
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Fractal Design Integra R2 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review
Introduction
Those who enjoy our case and cooling content will be familiar with Fractal Design and some of the products that they have to offer. Chad has always spoken highly of them with few complaints when writing about their products. So, I was quite interested in seeing what they had to offer when he told me they had power supplies. Fractal Design uses a minimalistic design approach where less is more, but do so without compromising the important factors of quality, functionality and pricing.
That philosophy can certainly be seen in today's product on the test bench, the Integra R2 750W power supply. Sometimes it is the subtle differences that you see right away in a product and that can be seen with the rounded edges on the power supply. On the surface, the Integra R2 is just a simple 750W unit without modular cabling, but there are a few details that help it stand out amongst the crowd of 80 PLUS Bronze units on the market today.
Specifications, Availability and Pricing
The I/O specifications aren't anything over the top, but there are a few things worth noting. While most manufacturers have gone to a single rail design, especially with lower wattage units, the Integra R2 utilizes dual 12V rails. Each are rated for 30A and have a maximum combined output of 672W. As for the minor rails, the 3.3V rail is rated for 24A, while the 5V rail is rated for 20A. Together they have a combine maximum output of 150W. This is quite a bit for a 750W unit. The 5VSB rail is rated for 3A or 15W. Maximum combined output for the Integra R2 is 750W.
Being an entry level power supply, it is typical that we don't see the feature summary full of green check marks. Most of the protections are present, but the Integra R2 is lacking Over Temperature Protection. While the unit does not feature modular cabling, all of the native cables are fully sleeved with nylon mesh. The Integra R2 manages to score an 80 PLUS Bronze rating for efficiency. While Fractal Design does not certify the unit for 100% continuous output at 50C, they do guarantee the unit at 40C.
Fractal Design has an MSRP of $79.99 on the Integra R2 750W model. It is currently available at Newegg for $89.99 and Fractal Design says they will have additional partners carrying the product line in the near future. This should alleviate the inflated price a little bit. Warranty for the Integra R2 is a rather short three years.
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NZXT Respire T20 CPU Cooler Review
Introduction
It has been quite a long time for me since I have mentioned air cooling and NZXT in the same sentence, but today that all changes. The last inception of an air cooler we had looked at from them was the HAVIK series of CPU coolers, and if memory serves me correctly, they were really good solutions for the time they were released. This time around with the new Respires Series of CPU coolers, the idea is to be compact using as many heat pipes as could be used in such tight confines to deliver , in their words, "ultra-high thermal transfer performance". While trying to stay within the tiny space allowed for tower coolers without cutting into other things like memory or hitting a GPU, this cooler should "vanquish heat without breaking the bank".
My first thought as I was reading the features page of the cooler was that "compact" doesn't mean it will perform poorly, just look at the Hyper 212 line. There are a lot of things that come into play, and as long as you get most of them right, you should be able to keep almost any processor in a reasonable temperature range. It isn't all about CFM these days, more coolers are relying on static pressure to rid new towers of the heat accumulated there, taking a page from the book of Noctua. Since I am already aware of the specifications, I can say the fan that comes along is capable in both CFM as well as static pressure, so it seems we should be good to go.
The new line of Respire Series coolers from NZXT comes with two offerings. First, and the one we will be looking at today, is a three pipe variant labeled the T20. There is also a slightly larger four pipe solution in the T40 that we will be looking at as well very soon.
As I said, these both were placed on the market to be affordable solutions with a bit of style, that should not just replace the ugly stock cooler, but as described, should allow a bit of headroom to overclock the CPU a bit. On that note, I say we look at the details, cruise through the images and get right down to what the Respire T20 is going to offer its users.
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Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [14 January 2013]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!
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Zalman ZM1250 Platinum 1250W 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply Review
Introduction
Most enthusiasts will associate Zalman with quiet computing due to their quality fans and heatsinks, but they have much more to offer beyond that. In fact, there will be many who read today's article that aren't even aware Zalman is a competitor in the power supply market. Almost two years ago, we took a look at one of their units and it has been long overdue that we take a look at another.
Zalman isn't like many other companies that turn out product after product and rotate their lineup on a rapid timeline. Their units are built with quality from the start and are meant to last, which is why we haven't seen much from them in the way of power supplies since we took a look at the ZM1000-HP Plus.
The unit we are looking at today is the ZM1250 Platinum. As the name suggests, it is a 1250W power supply rated for 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency. It promises quite a bit all the way around, so let's start digging into it to find out just what all it has to offer and how well it performs.
Specifications, Availability and Pricing
Taking a look at the I/O specifications reveals that the ZM1250 Platinum is a dual rail power supply. The first 12V rail is rated for 45A while the second is rated for 65A. These two have a combined maximum output of 1250W. The 3.3V and 5V rails are rated for 25A each with a combined maximum output of 150W. The power supply's 5VSB rail is rated for 4A or 20W. Maximum combined output for the unit is 1250W.
Just as we would hope out of such a high-end unit, Zalman makes sure the ZM1250 Platinum is packed full of features. All protections are present, including Over Temperature Protection. All natively wired cables on the power supply are fully sleeved in nylon mesh while all modular cables are of the flat ribbon type. The ZM1250 Platinum is rated for 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency as well as 100% continuous output at 50C.
Zalman has an MSRP of $299.99 for the ZM1250 Platinum. Usually we can find somewhere online selling the power supply cheaper, but that wasn't the case with the ZM1250. We actually couldn't find it for sale anywhere though we suspect that this is due to some listing errors on multiple websites since we were able to find several other units of theirs available and it has been on the market for many months. Zalman backs the ZM1250 Platinum with an industry standard five year warranty.
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Patriot Memory for Ultrabook PC3-12800 8GB LoVo SODIMM Review
Introduction
If you follow our SSD reviews you know we recently acquired a Lenovo W530 notebook for measuring battery life across our SSDs. The new test is so good it stuck and is now a standard test for all of our SSD reviews. Now that we have the test procedures locked down we can use the same platform to test other essential components. Most of these tests are to satisfy my own curiosity. At some point I may track down a few different mobile processors in the mobile Ivy Bridge family to see how different models affect battery life, but don't expect us to test 50 memory kits in 2013 for battery life performance.
At this time, it would be difficult to make this a regular product category anyhow. Newegg only lists two 8GB 1600MHz with ultra-low 1.35V. There are a number of 1.35V 4GB memory sticks at Newegg, but only Mushkin and Patriot have 8GB sticks available.
Our Lenovo W530 has four memory slots, but when trying to maximize battery life, lower is better. One memory stick will give you better battery life than two, three or four sticks. Our Lenovo W530 shipped with a 4GB 1600MHz 1.5V memory stick.
Can the Patriot Memory for Ultrabook double our DRAM density and still increase the battery life? We'll see today.
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Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD Review
Introduction
I have to admit I wasn't a big fan of the Samsung 830. We only tested the 128GB model and no matter what firmware we loaded on the drive, the write latency on that capacity size was always an issue. This year Samsung released two drives, a mainstream model with spectacular low power consumption and an enthusiast model. We've already published two articles on the mainstream drives, 250GB and 500GB capacity sizes. Today we start working through the Pro models; the 128GB is up first with the 256GB on deck.
The Samsung 840 Pro uses the same MDX three-core controller found in the 840 base model. The main difference between these two classes of SSDs is the NAND flash. The 840 non-Pro uses triple-level cell flash, the first consumer SSD to use TLC flash. The 840 Pro uses Samsung's new 22nm MLC flash. Samsung pairs the MLC flash with a DRAM buffer, also from Samsung's catalog. All of the main components used in the 840 Pro come from Samsung and they are one of just a few SSD makers who are in a position to make such a product a reality.
A few weeks ago we told you we're lining up several 128GB capacity size SSDs after spending most of the year focusing on the larger capacity sizes. Today, we have benchmarks from the three fastest 120/128GB drives on the market today - Samsung 840 Pro 128GB, OCZ Vector 128GB and SuperSSpeed S301 SLC 128GB.
We have a few more high performance drives in route to the lab including the Corsair Neutron, Neutron GTX and the Plextor M5 Pro (with new Extreme firmware). We're also retesting several new, next gen 256GB products, but you'll have to wait till CES for those to hit the site.
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LG Optimus L7 Smartphone Review
Introduction
We covered the introduction LG's L-series of phones in our review of their Optimus L5, so there's not much to add here. The Optimus L7 finds itself being the middle child of the L-series of smartphones, with the L9 being the bigger sibling in this series of phones.
LG's L-series are exclusive to not only Australia, but to telcos Optus and Boost Mobile. This unfortunately cuts their exposure to consumers to a much smaller market as Telstra and Vodafone are left out of the game.
The L-series aren't here to compete with the high-end market, and the issue we have here is that the Google Nexus 4 is here (also made by LG) and is priced at $399 in Australia, with the Optimus L7 being priced anywhere between $149 and $209, depending on where you buy it from.
Specifications, Pricing and Availability
The specs on the Optimus L7 have been bumped up from its little brother, so that is something to look forward to when we start our testing on the device. There are actually some serious improvements in the hardware, and best of all, the screen resolution which was really poor on the Optimus L5.
LG have given the Optimus L7 a 4.3-inch WVGA screen with an 800x480 resolution - compared to the Optimus L5's 4-inch 480x320 resolution - this is a huge, huge difference, and very welcomed. Internal memory stands at 3GB with expandable memory available up to 32GB through microSD cards.
On the rear of the phone we have a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and auto-focus as well as a 4x digital zoom. The battery found in the L7 is a 1700mAh unit capable of up to 350 minutes 2G talk time, and up to 350 minutes 3G talk time.
Inside the device we find a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A chip, which is a 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A5 processor with Adreno 220 graphics.
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Infortrend EonNAS Pro 200 2-Bay NAS Review
Introduction
Before Infortrend contacted us about the EonNAS Pro 200, we'd given up on dual bay NAS products. Before today, we've never seen a dual bay unit that we would even consider a true NAS as we know them as today. Most of these products just aren't worth the box they are shipped in. We see them advertised all of the time, gigabit Ethernet, but the true speed never breaks 30MB/s, feature-rich, but only if you consider instability a feature. The list goes on and on, but those aren't the kinds of features we'll talk about today.
Infortrend choose to take the effective route and gave the EonNAS 200 a real processor. The Intel Dual-Core 1.8GHz is the same processor we see in four and five bay NAS appliances. This unit also ships with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, double what has become standard in some of the larger units as well.
Looking over the spec sheet we can't find any place where Infortrend cut any corners unless you take offence to this unit only having two HDD bays. We say that because this NAS has the internals that we hope to find in four and five bay NAS products.
Today we're taking a look at the entry level EonNAS Pro models, the 200. This is the first dual bay unit we've actually enjoyed testing in our lab and if you're looking for a lower cost NAS, this is your starting point.
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Mushkin Chronos DX 480GB SSD Review
Introduction
For the last eight months we've tried to get this drive in for review and we've finally made it happen. The Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 480GB isn't highest performing drive on the market today, although it was very close to the top when we started working with Mushkin to get this model over to us. It doesn't come with an extravagant accessory package and it's not even that cool to look at with a fairly dull gray case. So why did we want one in for a review so bad? The price.
For nearly a year now the Mushkin Chronos DX 480GB has led the price war in this capacity size. Others have dipped into the DX's price territory on a few occasions, but nothing has been there for long. At the time of writing, Newegg had the 480GB model in stock and listed at $339.99. A year ago 240GB SSDs sold for around that same amount. Several times in the last eight months Newegg had a special on the Chronos Deluxe and the price dipped to just $299.99.
There are two Chronos models, the base Chronos with asynchronous NAND flash and the Deluxe model with synchronous flash….i.e.
the good stuff. It's important to point out, this isn't the drive you want to overlook, this is the good stuff and its current price is less than many others async flash drives.
For this price you are getting a whole lot of drive with a whole lot of storage space.
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Wreck-It Ralph (2012) Cinema Review
Disney have had a hard time these last few years, with some deep soul searching regarding what the company stands for. Under the leadership of Michael Eisner, the company ceased producing traditional animation features in 2004. Since the corporate upheaval which saw Eisner ousted in 2005, Disney vowed a return to traditional animation, along with the acquisition of Pixar animation studio, but since then has only released two traditionally animated features, along with three computer generated features.
With
Wreck-It Ralph Disney have produced their most Pixar-like animation. In fact, it's only since I sat down to write this review did I even realize that this wasn't a Pixar film!
With shades of
Tron,
Wreck-It Ralph is set in the world of arcade games (remember those?). Tired of playing the thankless task of the bad guy in the
Rampage inspired game 'Fix It Felix Jr', Ralph decides to go 'turbo' - that is, jump from the confined world of 'Fix It Felix' to the first person shooter 'Hero's Duty' where he obtains a medal - and the attention he so desires.
Unfortunately for Ralph, in the process of porting from 'Hero's Duty' to 'Sugar Rush', a candy infused racing title, unleashes a Cy-Bug which has the power to obliterate any virtual reality world it infests. In doing so, Ralph continues to live up to his name, but the consequences of his latest actions may mean the obliteration of every game in the arcade, and the denizens that inhabit them.
Filled with an array of video game characters including Bowser from Nintendo's
Super Mario franchise, numerous characters from
Street Fighter,
Pac Man and
Sonic The Hedgehog,
Wreck-It Ralph already has an in-built fan base of video game lovers, and I think for the most part they'll be pleased with the film. It's clear that the filmmakers are big fans too.
In many ways
Wreck-It Ralph is one giant homage to the games of old, and the juxtaposition between them and modern franchises such as the fake
Call of Duty rip-off
Hero's Duty. At one point Ralph asks, "when did video games become so violent and scary?", a question many who grew up with the blue skies and upbeat tunes of the Sega Mega Drive may also ask.
At its core,
Wreck-It Ralph is indeed a children's film, and one perhaps as 'adult' as Pixar's offerings. I found the character Venellope von Schweetz a saccharine pain in the ass, although I generally find voice artist Sarah Silverman to be the same in live action form. John C. Reilly voices Ralph with a well-meaning, naive tone, but sometimes when prominent actor's voice animated features it just takes me out of the movie completely, and I think the film suffers for it.
I frequently wish Disney would return to the days of
The Little Mermaid and
Aladdin where voice artists were chosen on their individual merits - not just to create an eye-catching bullet point on the movie poster.
Still, I really enjoyed
Wreck-It Ralph, and I get the feeling that those packed in to the somewhat full advance screening did too. And with the early financial numbers coming in, I fully suspect Disney have a burgeoning new franchise on their hands.
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Case Smithing: "Peeping Tom's" BitFenix Prodigy Window Mod
Introduction
As computer builders and modders we spend hours on getting the inside aesthetics of our computers just right. We add things like water cooling and lighting along with whatever else we can think of to make our individual PC stand out from the crowd. In realizing this, the market has adapted offering windows in a majority of today's mainstream chassis, although like most things, there are always exceptions to the rule.
Perhaps you have decided on a case that has exactly the features that you need, but has one downfall - it hasn't got a window. A prime example of this is the BitFenix Prodigy or Cooler Master Cosmo II. Other examples where a window mod may be handy are cases like the Antec DF-85 or Cooler Master HAF-X.
Both are factory installed with a window in the side panel, but these cases have uniquely designed windows that don't really take full advantage of the size of the panels, and instead concentrate on airflow. However, maybe airflow isn't your thing, and you would rather add a huge window showcasing your PC's glorious interior.
Join me as we venture into the world of window modding!
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GIGABYTE U2442F Ultrabook Laptop Review
Introduction
Today in the lab I have one of GIGABYTE's latest Ultrabooks. To be classified as an Ultrabook, the notebook has to meet certain specification criteria as set forth my Intel, the champion of the form factor. In exchange, Intel has been advertising the Ultrabook form factor and has set aside money to help companies engineer Ultrabooks.
Specifications for an Ultrabook include size, weight, boot time, and others, but not present is the requirement for a discrete video card. Due to the size and weight restrictions, most Ultrabooks don't include a discrete GPU, something that this offering does.
The GIGABYTE U2442F is going to be one of the best choices in the Ultrabook category if you want to be able to do any sort of modern gaming. Thanks to its discrete GPU, it can hang with systems that outweigh and outclass it.
During our testing, you'll want to keep an eye on how the GIGABYTE U2442F compares to the HP Folio 13 and ASUS S56C as they are both Ultrabooks. Based upon price, you'll want to compare the U2442F against the GIGABYTE P2542, as they are roughly the same price.
With the introduction out of the way, let's move on to the specifications.
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HIS Radeon HD 7970 6GB IceQ X2 (Dual GPU) Video Card Review
Introduction
In October of last year we looked at the
PowerColor Devil 13 HD 7990 6GB video card which brought with it two HD 7970 cores on a single PCB to make for an absolutely massive video card. We found ourselves extremely impressed with what PowerColor offered us, but found ourselves a little disappointed that it was tested just before we introduced our new benchmark line up.
Thinking that it was probably the first and last card of this type we'd see it was a little upsetting that we wouldn't get a chance to see how this dual GPU offering would perform in our updated benchmarks. Jump forward just a couple of months, though, and we find ourselves looking at another dual GPU offering based on the HD 7970.
This particular one comes from HIS and falls under the IceQ naming scheme which as we've mentioned before is one we really enjoy. What does the IceQ name mean to a video card that has such a large focus on power, though? Well there's only one way to find out.
Normally the first thing we'd do from here is check out the bundle to see what exactly HIS is offering us. Because this card hasn't hit retail yet, though, the final retail package hasn't been organized. Instead we've just got a black box and the card itself. It's fairly safe to assume we'll see a fairly standard HIS bundle, though, with a couple of convertors and power connectors. The normal line up of paperwork a driver CD and no doubt another CD that will include the iTurbo software. Of course we can't say with 100% accuracy this is what we're going to see, but it's a fairly safe assumption.
Because we don't have the package to look at we'll instead jump straight into the card itself where we'll take a look at what exactly HIS is offering us today. Once we've done that we'll head into the specification side of things to take a closer look at the clocks before we finally get into our testbed section.
We'll quickly cover our testbed and from there we'll quickly talk about the cards that we'll be including in our graphs here today before we of course get into the performance side of things to see just what this beasty dual GPU video card is capable of doing.
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iBUYPOWER Chimera 4SE Desktop Gaming PC Review
Introduction
iBUYPOWER is a well-known name when it comes to custom laptops and desktops. Today I have the joy of taking a look at its latest Chimera system, the 4SE. The design of the system is something you can only get from iBUYPOWER, as the sides of the Phantom are custom with a flame version of their logo.
The nice thing about buying from system integrators, such as iBUYPOWER, is the massive amount of customization that is available. The only other way to get this degree of flexibility is to build your own system, not a task everyone is up to.
iBUYPOWER was great and allowed us to develop our desktop testing methodology on the system. We feel that the tests ran should be able to separate the machines we test in the future based upon several different categories.
The entire testing methodology culminates with a benchmark we know you've been waiting for. That's right, with our return to desktop reviews, we're introducing Battlefield 3 as one of our tests.
With that introduction out of the way, let's take a look at our review machine.
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PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card Review
Introduction
I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that AMD decided to bring something a little new to us in time for the holiday season. The new Tahiti LE based HD 7870, though, seems to be extremely limited with only a few companies choosing to pick up the new variant. AMD themselves don't have the new model on its website, though, and it seems that only a few companies have decided to pick up the model.
Alongside Sapphire the other main company we know that has bought the new Tahiti LE based video card to us is PowerColor and it comes in the form of the PowerColor PCS+ HD 7870 2GB Myst Edition. The main problem is that you're not quite sure that the model is based on the new Tahiti LE chip. Hopefully today, though, we'll be able to give you a bit of a clearer picture of what exactly we're dealing with.
While we'll go into a bit more detail on the next page when we look at the specifications side of things the main thing to remember is that this is an "LE" based chip. The Tahiti chip is used on the HD 7900 series while the Pitcairn chip is used on the HD 7800 series. What I like here is that while they're using the Tahiti chip, AMD have decided to bring the "LE" based version of it to the HD 7800 series.
In the end from a specification point of view it looks good for the consumers because by bringing it under the HD 7800 series name we feel like we're getting a supped up HD 7870 where if it was called the HD 7950 LE, the impression of a cut down HD 7900 series based card just doesn't sit as well.
Anyway we don't want to go into too much detail when it comes to the specifications side of things as we'll cover that in the next page. Before we get there, though, we'll quickly see what's going on with the package before taking a closer look at the card itself. Once we've done that we'll check out the specifications, our testbed, the cards we'll be using in our graphs today and finally get into the performance side of things.
Package
I always love the box design from PowerColor; it looks great and you can see on the front we've got the main information we need. Including the fact it's a HD 7870, PCS+ cooler and the Myst Edition card which helps let us know it's based on the Tahiti LE chip. As for the back of the box you can see we've got information on some of the components and a large chunk is dedicated to showing off the cooler and the benefits it brings.
Moving inside the bundle we don't have a whole lot going on with a Quick Installation Guide and Driver CD being included alongside just a single cable which is a Mini DP to DisplayPort connector.
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OCZ Vector 512GB SSD Review
Introduction
The holidays are over, hopefully you and your wallet made it through OK. Most high technology friends don't receive too many packages to unwrap since our wish list is made from a lot of exotic, far from mainstream items. If your loved ones didn't ask for a specific URL then the chances are good you received a few cards full of cash. So, what does everyone want to spend their Xmas loot on this year? A Ducati 1199 R, of course. Second on that list is a new high capacity, ultra performing SSD.
High capacity SSDs are coming into their own right now. In the past reaching for the highest capacity size meant compromising performance for large capacity. Running a 480GB SSD meant living with reduced 4K performance when compared to the 240GB models. The introduction of Vertex 4 changed the trend and 512GB became the true flagship in both capacity and performance.
Vector builds on the foundation laid by Vertex 4 and once again we have a full capacity drive with its full performance capability intact. Let's take a look!
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) Cinema Review
With a worldwide cinema gross approaching $3 billion USD (even before we include home video sales and merchandising) it would seem that a film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's 1937 prequel to
The Lord of the Rings trilogy would have been a sure thing. That it's taken seven years since the release of
Return of the King is somewhat of a surprise, owing much to the bankruptcy of partial rights holder MGM and a global financial crisis, coupled with a change of director - Guillermo del Toro who originally signed on for two films before leaving after expressing frustration with the stalled project.
Set decades before the events of
The Fellowship of the Ring,
The Hobbit details how Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) was persuaded to leave the comfy confines of The Shire and how he came into possession of the Ring of Power. When a party of Dwarves, and the mysterious wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) invade Bilbo's Hobbit hole (not a euphemism) promising a dangerous adventure to liberate the city of Erebor from the dragon Smaug, the Hobbit cautiously joins the adventure, but quickly discovers that the larger world is a much more dangerous place than the relative obscurity and shielded safety that his home provides.
With the home video extended cuts now seen as the de facto way to view the
Lord of the Rings films, Warner Bros. could be excused for indulging Jackson with regards to the bloated running time, but this is one of the biggest problems with the film. The entire first half of the film takes so damn long to get going, that it nearly needs to defibrillate the audience when the gears finally grind into action. And just when you think you've had enough - nope, you will listen to the song and dance. And then when you think surely you've seen enough - no, it's time for another 'hilarious' meal. We get it - Dwarves love food. We get it - Bilbo will be invariably peeved.
But when it does finally gets going,
An Unexpected Journey features some extraordinarily thrilling sequences which rival some of the most breathtaking sequences from the earlier trilogy. The battle between rock monsters is truly exhilarating, as is the escape from the clutches of the Goblin King at the films finale. Other sequences, such as the Dwarf party, and the kidnapping by trolls meander on for far too long, giving the film a wildly uneven pace that had me looking at my watch multiple times.
But I guess this is what happens when you take a book that's a few hundred pages and then stretch it thinly over what will now be three films, extending some nine hours of screen time. And with rumors of a forthcoming Blu-ray extended cut, the mind does truly boggle.
For many fans, the standout of the film is the return of the villainous Gollum, who is allowed to shine in an extended sequence which is both comedic and unnerving, a creature of such vicious and calculated malice that will stop at nothing to reclaim what is his. A few extra years of computer generated advances has benefited the film exponentially, and Andy Serkis whom returns to provide both the motion capture and voice of the character is as great as ever. Credit also goes to star Martin Freeman for really selling the interaction, which the audience really buys.
Ultimately, I liked
An Unexpected Journey, and its final moments which provide a tantalizing glimpse at film two -
The Desolation of Smaug, but lightening invariably strikes twice. While Peter Jackson and company try hard (some would say against the odds) to bring back the magic once more, it's an uphill battle - and not least for the audience whose forgiveness may or may not extend past the first plodding hour.
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Kaiser Baas Photo and Negative Scanner Review
Call it "
first world problems", but I'm somewhat envious of the under 18 year old crowd. They'll never know the inconvenience of rewinding a VHS tape. They'll never know how aggravating it was to span a 14 MB file over 10 floppy discs with WinZip, and wait 20 minutes only to have it fail at the last disc. And they'll never have to spend $15 to develop a roll of 24 exposure film to find that only five of them are any damn good. Everyone else probably has a dusty box full of printed photos hidden away somewhere in the house. Kaiser Baas has attempted to make it easier to give these relics a new lease of life.
Digital scanners are certainly nothing new, but over the last few years we've seen a move away from standalone printers and scanners, to the all-on-one type devices which favor convergence over quality. And scanning photo after photo while opening and closing the top, whilst individually saving each photo and cropping to the dimensions is a huge pain in the rear, not least is it time consuming and beyond the scope of the less technologically adapt. Best of all, because the unit scans directly to SD card, you don't even need to access a computer to use it. This product is for them.
The Kaiser Baas Photo and Negative Scanner is a simple affair, with everything in the box to get you started, although you will need to bring your own SD card to the table. Let's take a look at the inclusions. Inside the box, we have the scanning unit itself, 1x AC power cable, 1x USB A cable, 1x 35mm slide adaptor, 1x cleaning tool, 1x sheet protector and 1x brief set of instructions.
The unit can be powered via the supplied AC power adaptor or via 6 AAA batteries (not supplied). The unit requires a few seconds start up time, but then you're good to go. There is no on-screen display, just an LED button which indicates the scanning resolution. If it's green, it's scanning at 300 dpi, if it's orange then it's 600 dpi, the highest resolution available. Whilst 600 dpi is a good general resolution, it's a shame that the unit cannot go any higher, considering that at that resolution it wouldn't be scanning the full resolution that a standard 6x4 photo can resolve. Still we soldier on.
First we need to insert any standard SD card (formatted FAT32) into the rear of the unit. The scanning process is very simple. Simply place the photo vertically and move the slider to the size of the photo so it scans straight. Failing to do so will result in a skewed image, or potentially damage to the photo. The scanner will automatically feed the photo through and place it to the other side. Once it's done processing (around 60 seconds for 600dpi), you can move on to the next. Each photo will be saved to the stick as a separate JPG file.
Ditto for 35mm film negatives. Simply insert the scan adaptor into the grove and place the film into that. The scanner will automatically feed it through, although scanning time is a little longer. Surprisingly, the unit scans each slide and cuts them into its own JPG, which is a nice touch. The unit will scan negatives at 1200 dpi.
So, what's the quality like? Well, I guess that depends on your expectations, and the quality of the original images. The limitations are quite clear. The maximum resolution for photos is set to 600 dpi, the unit can only output lossy JPG's and the compression level of the unit is quite high, with each image only around 600 kilobytes in size.
There is no setting to loosen up the compression. Further, the unit does not come equipped with Kodak's Digital Ice algorithm which automatically cleans images of dust and scratches, a feature found in more expensive flatbed scanners.
Still, the little unit does scan a surprisingly good image. My observation is that it does output a rather dark image, with crushed blacks which works well to hide any surface scratches and dust inherent in the original. However, if you have the time to input the scans to a photo editing program such as Photoshop, you can instantly see that the unit does scan a high level of detail. Brightening up the image and turning down the contrast can show a significant improvement to the scan and in many of my test images - even the original photo.
I realize this is a somewhat unscientific method, but to illustrate, I have included an original digital photo of my 2011 trip to Japan (downsized), and the scanned version of a professionally printed 6x4 version of the image. Instantly you can see that the overall image is darker with a slight variance in colors. Note the crushed blacks visible on my shorts, and the darker cracks and lettering in the rock.
Be careful with images with a fine layer of dust and grime, you may find these build up and result in scanned images with nasty vertical lines, which sadly I learnt the long way - losing around 70 scanned images that I had to re-scan. To rectify, insert the supplied cleaning tool to the rear of the unit and wipe back and forth a few times to clean the optical sensor. Kaiser Baas have included no instructions or warning about this - which may stumble the more inexperienced.
Negative scans, despite the increase in resolution to 1200dpi, do not fare as well. Images are frequently blown out and harsh and abrasive looking. You won't be doing much with these images other than perhaps Facebook uploading, however short of taking the negatives to a professional printer, it's perhaps better than nothing.
So can I recommend the Kaiser Baas? Yes, I can. It does a very good job for a $229 AUD ($238 USD) product and fills a hole in the market for the mum and dad crowd who just want to digitize their old photos, without whizz bang results. For the more discerning, the Kaiser Baas is still a very good option, but the best results will require some light manipulation with Photoshop, which to a degree begins to undercut the benefits of the unit in the first place.
In the future, I would truly love to see Kaiser Baas release a more professional version of the scanner, equipped with a small LCD with access to more manual scanning controls, such as increased resolutions, looser JPEG compression and codec choices and the inclusion of Kodak's Digital Ice software, which would go a long way to repairing light damage and visible dust. Still, for what it is (and short of spending an additional couple of hundred dollars on a higher end flat bed scanner), the Kaiser Baas unit offers very good value for money, with a simple to operate product that virtually any one can pick up and use, and gives instant results.
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Far Cry 3 PC Review
If publishers want a case in point in how to build hype at an E3 reveal, Far Cry 3 is the perfect case. Ever since we first heard Vaas utter those now famous words, "Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?", we have waited with baited breath. The video had action, intense gameplay and also psychological elements that sent the hype levels of the game through the roof. And so now 18 months later it's time to determine if the developers have delivered on the promise from that video and aside from a few quirks here and there and a poor ending to the story, the answer is a resounding yes.
In Far Cry 3 you take control of Jason Brody, a young college kid with rich parents enjoying life to the max on an island paradise when things go awry. Jason and his friends are captured by pirates and the infamous Vaas. Taken for ransom from their wealthy parents, Jason manages to escape with his brother and from there the story becomes that you as Jason must rescue your friends, but also as you build acquaintances on the island, decide how you want the future to be for those people. There is a point where the story just becomes boring and formulaic unfortunately, but until then it's one of the best stories of this generation.
As expected based on the first two games, Far Cry 3 puts you in a massive open world with side missions and main story to complete. One of the key facets of the title is exploration and the game significantly rewards you for exploring. Whilst there are scripted elements to some of the missions, sometimes it's just interesting to wander about the island and see what the enemy and other NPCs are doing. One example was we were closing in on an enemy kill, only to see a crocodile jump out of the water to take him alive. If someone else was to go to that exact spot, it may not happen because those sequences are not scripted.
In fact, Far Cry 3 gives one of the best representations of a living breathing world in a video game to date. You can of course choose to main line the story if you wish, but that is to completely devalue the amount of effort that Ubisoft has not only put into the side missions, but also the world itself. You will miss a lot of the awesome areas of the island and some interesting, story building sequences as well. There is also a meta game within the game where you can hunt animals present throughout the world to improve Jason's overall abilities and weaponry.
For example, if you get some shark skins, you can craft a new pouch which improves your inventory level - something which is a lot more interesting to do than just buy a new pouch. You can pick up leaves and plants to help you concoct medicine to heal Jason. At no real point in the game are you forced to buy things. For example, one area which encourages exploration is the local stores. If you manage to take over the local radio tower, the shops will give you free weapons as a reward whilst that tower is not held by the enemies. It's a really interesting mechanic that rewards exploration in a manner that is tangible rather than just 'let's see this entire island'.
For the most part the missions are also enjoyable to play as well. There are over thirty campaign missions with quite a number more side missions to complete. To complete Far Cry 3 without doing side missions will take you about 10 hours and so it is a fairly meaty game when you compare it to most releases. The game does contain fast travel once you have visited a location although sometimes it is better to just explore and see the world on offer.
What Far Cry 3 manages to achieve is a believable world. This island could be a real world thing (although it's not), and the developers have clearly put a lot of work into building a fantastic world for the game. It has the crazy professor and the tribal warriors to complete the mix. But what takes it to the next level is the various fauna milling about the place. You can be swimming quietly in the rivers or ocean and the next minute a shark or crocodile attacks. The first time this happens you will literally jump in your seat and it's generally over before it even starts. You can imagine this is how it happens in the real world as well with most victims attacked before they even know it's happening.
The design of the island also allows for some open world elements to creep into the campaign missions as well. Whilst you are somewhat restricted as to the zone you can move in during missions (we guess to not break the mission entirely), you are given leeway as to how you approach the mission. Go in guns blazing? Or snipe from the mountain side? Many different ways are available to generally complete each mission and it is this variety that keeps the game fresh to the end.
On the PC at least, Far Cry 3 is a visual tour de force and one of the best games graphically we have ever played. If you have the hardware and video card to push this to the max you will see a visually stunning world with amazing graphics. Tone the graphics done a little and the game still shines even on older hardware, so it is clear Ubisoft has done its job in optimizing this game for fairly run of the mill systems as well. This is something that the original Far Cry game was criticised for not doing.
The game also features a co-operative multiplayer portion for up to four players to take part in. It is set six months before the actual events of the single player campaign and so in many ways is its own story. Introducing co-operative into such an awesome, open world game is something that Ubisoft had to do to take this game to the next level. With a length of about six hours, you certainly get your money's worth even though it's not the main campaign.
Far Cry 3 started out with a great E3 presentation that put the hype levels through the roof. Usually when this happens games significantly let us down, but in this case Ubisoft has delivered. No doubt they felt the pressure of such an awesome opening with Vaas and our main character, but instead of crumbling, they produced what is sure to be one of the best games of 2012.
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Hitman: Absolution Xbox 360 Review
As a series Hitman has been quite successful and this is why it's puzzling that we are now only just getting the return of the game. Hitman Blood Money was one of the better games from the earliest times of this generation, but IO Interactive decided to put that to the side and come up with the new IP.
This game became Kane & Lynch which had middling success in both sales and critical format. So six years later we have the return of Agent 47 and it's not without changes. Absolution completely changes up the series in many ways and we still aren't sure if all the changes and decisions made were the right ones.
Absolution picks up with Agent 47 being tasked to kill his agency handler Diana. She has gone rogue and has been selling secrets to enemies of the agency so his final contract becomes her. The agency has produced another agent from a child, Victoria with Diana on her deathbed asking 47 to protect her at all costs. This is what the story primarily revolves around; the protection of Victoria and escaping from the agency that 47 once called home. From the outset this shows just how much of a departure Absolution is to the regular format with previous games tasking 47 with contracts to fulfil for the agency.
In terms of the gameplay there are a lot of elements that have returned from previous games. On some of the missions you will be tasked with taking down a target and you can either choose to go in all guns blazing or make the death look like an accident with the latter not only scoring you more points, but generally being more satisfying to do as well. Hitman can be seen as a puzzle game - trying to concoct together various environmental elements such as leaking oil and a bullet to take out enemies unseen.
This is only apparent on some of the levels. On many levels within the game there are no targets and instead it is 47's goal to reach another area to continue the story. As well as this there are times where the game takes control from you and performs kills in cut scenes. For a series which has focused so much on clean quiet kills from a gameplay perspective, to have this happen is frustrating. There are some sections in the game where quiet kills just cannot occur.
This is where you will like this game or not. Whilst in the past each mission was one huge environment for 47 to traverse and come up with sneaky ways to take out the target, in this game you are instead tasked with basically getting from point a to point b. Hitman in many ways becomes a third person shooter with the amount of sandbox missions able to be counted on less than two hands. Given that there are 20 missions overall in the game, this is a bit disappointing.
However, on those levels which do give you the freedom to explore and come up with various ways to take out the targets, the game absolutely shines. Previously seen at E3, the King of Chinatown level is one such example where there is many different ways to take out the target such as poisoning fish or blowing up a car. And it is these missions that you will revisit over and over again to try and come up with different ways to end the mission without being seen.
As well as the actual targets each mission contains a number of challenges to complete. Sometimes these challenges are to take out the targets in various different ways whilst other times it can be tasks such as finishing the mission only using 47's suit. Given that you very often traverse areas where you should not be, doing this is harder than it sounds.
Many of the elements we have seen in previous titles have again come back. You can still take the disguises of other characters although this is a bit harder than last time around.
Enemies will spot that you are not one of them quite easily and so it becomes a case of still having to focus on stealth even when blended in. To aid with this, 47 now has an instinct ability which allows you to see enemies through walls and walk near enemies in disguise without being spotted. You gain more instinct by performing quiet kills and tasks.
One of the more frustrating elements of Absolution is the change from limited save games to checkpoints. Instead of being able to save at any point in the game (within a limited number), you now have to track down and find checkpoints in the level. They are generally off the beaten track and this can be very frustrating especially on the tougher levels. The checkpoints also do not get retained if you leave your game which we have no idea why IO Interactive decided that was a good idea.
The enemy AI generally revolves around them being able to determine you are 47 rather than actually being tough. When things go bad you generally can get out of a tight spot with your bullets except towards the end of the game where that type of tactic just gets impossible due to the weaponry they have. Once they spot you the game moves into a very Metal Gear like alarm system. At the highest level they hunt you and shoot on sight whilst if you can manage to hide long enough, they will give up and lower the alarm level. Of course the best way is to not be spotted at all and in general this is possible on every mission.
On the visual and environmental side of things the game is generally impressive. Whilst there is quite a variety to the locations that you will visit during your time with the game, it is not as varied as it was in Blood Money with some locations being visited more than once. Some of the missions are quite large in size whilst others are almost corridors only. It goes without saying the larger missions are the ones where 47's abilities can really shine. One thing that is true is that in general IO Interactive has used the environments to the best of their abilities with 47 being able to perform numerous environmental based kills on his targets.
Multiplayer comes in the form of contracts mode and in an ironic twist this system is much closer to that of the older games. You can either build or download contracts from other users and basically you are dropped into a world and have to kill targets silently to fulfil the contract. As you do so you gain money which can be used to upgrade your weaponry in multiplayer. This is an interesting take on multiplayer and we hope that users really embrace this system because it's entirely possible this could give the game a lot of legs.
Hitman: Absolution is a game that made us think about how we review games in many ways. Should we review a game based on what the name is on the box, or what the content actually is. Of course the latter is the answer, but we can't help but feel that this is not the greatest Hitman game. It's significantly different to other Hitman titles, but it's also not a bad game. If you come into the game expecting Blood Money 2 you will be disappointed, but if you look past this you will find a competent Hitman game that has just enough elements of its predecessors to ensure you should play as 47 again.
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Assassin's Creed III: Liberation PlayStation Vita Review
It's fair to say that whilst the Assassin's Creed II series of games were some of the most well received games this generation, the portable versions of the game haven't really set the gaming world on fire. Appearing only on the PSP (aside from the iOS games that were not 3D), the games focused on Altair, the original protagonist, rather than the very likeable Ezio.
However, with the release of a new platform, the PS Vita, Ubisoft decided to give the portable space another crack with the AC series and have come out with mixed results. Liberation is not necessarily a bad game, but there are some areas which can be quite infuriating to play.
Liberation for the first time introduces a female character as the main lead. You play as Aveline, the black daughter of a rich businessman in the 1700's. A result of infidelity, Aveline lives with her step mother and father in New Orleans as one of the wealthy and famous. However, Aveline wants to rid the world of slavery, especially for her people and sets about trying to bring down the tyranny which existed in the time. Set in the 1700's, the game takes place during the same timeline as that of the main console game, and to get the most out of the story, you need to play both.
There are a few major changes for the franchise aside from the fact you now control a woman. The game introduces for the first time personas. Aveline has three; wealthy lady, slave and assassin. Depending on the persona (clothing) you are currently wearing will limit or improve the abilities Aveline has available to her. For example, in the wealthy dress, Aveline cannot climb buildings or walls whilst in the assassin clothing she will draw suspect looks from the guards right away.
This is probably the most interesting change to the franchise because it means you often have to change your clothing to complete tasks. Having to change clothing to complete a task can be a tad tiresome (especially when it's not clear which clothing you should be wearing), but all the same the addition enhances the franchise.
As well as the main city, you will also visit the bayou of New Orleans which gives you the opportunity to partake in tree climbing and jumping. Ripped directly from the console game with Connor you can at will climb trees and often have to when completing assassination tasks. The game controls well and it's very obvious when you can and cannot climb trees. The Bayou has a very Metal Gear Solid 3 feel to it - a large, lush jungle full of crocodiles and other animals that can hurt Aveline. The main difference being that Aveline does not need to eat animals to survive.
The structure of the game takes on that of its console big brothers. The game includes nine sequences to complete which is a little on the short side and you will have this game down in around six to eight hours depending on how good you are at it. There is no difficulty setting so once you finish it, that's it really.
There are a number of side tasks to complete and there is a meta game where you can control a shipping company to gain money, but really in the grand scheme of things, you can ignore these and easily complete the game. One of the interesting elements is that the story you get if you just play the main missions is not the actual story. To get the real ending you need to take out a particular hidden character in each sequence.
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One of the biggest bugbears we have with the game is the PS Vita controls. The main controls themselves are fine, but when the developer is trying to shoe horn in the touch mechanics of the game, it just starts to break. For example, the game will at times ask you to put the Vita camera near a bright light. It took us a while to find a light that would give the Vita what it wanted, and there was no indication at all whether we were getting closer or not.
There are also other sections of the game which use the back touchpad such as paddling a canoe. There is nothing wrong with trying to include Vita specific controls, but when they work like they do in Liberation (it's a lucky dip as to whether your motions will be picked up), it would have been best to leave them out.
The environments that the game is set in are impressive for a handheld product. The city of New Orleans is beautifully represented by period buildings and the actual city itself is quite large, but nowhere near what you find in the console games of course. The split of the bayou and the city is an interesting feature with both environments having graphical problems as well as also some impressive sections. Voice acting on the system is impressive especially for a handheld and whilst the soundtrack can become repetitive, it suits the game and setting well.
There is no doubt that Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is the most impressive handheld version of the series yet. Ubisoft has used some of Vita's power well, but also included some utterly frustrating mini games based on the touch and camera features. It is on the short side and that means it's not really suitable as something for a long distance trip, but for short spurts on the way to work, it works almost perfectly.
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Enermax Announces NAXN ADV Line of Mainstream PSUs
NAXN series have been entry-level products of Enermax for several years. In the competitive global market, it wins all the battles and becomes unbeatable. Not only 80plus series for beginners, but also Bronze and Gold series for DIY enthusiasts, NAXN series can perfectly satisfy various demands from all groups. In 2013, in order to go further and reflect users' opinions, Enermax launches NAXN ADV certified by 80plus Bronze. Except for original premium NAXN DNA, Enermax adds in more mainstream features.
Three main features of brand new NAXN ADV:
- Flexible cable management- 100% flat cables: NAXN ADV is designed with all flat cables including 24pin connector for M/B, PCI-E connectors for initiating graphic cards, and SATA & Molex connectors for peripheral components. 100% flexible flat cable design can facilitate system installation, reduce cable clutter, and enhance internal airflow and cooling performance. Definitely, NAXN ADV series helps you install your system fast and easy.
- Stable performance- high quality electrolytic capacitors: Providing stable and sufficient power output has been the basic condition for Enermax. As a matter of fact, long-term stability is a key factor to select the power supply. NAXN ADV focuses on quality stability by high quality electrolytic capacitors, including the Japanese made main capacitor, to greatly enhance good performance of stability and safety.
- Durable and high performance double ball bearing fan: In addition to provide sufficient airflow and ventilation, it is an ideal cooling fan of power supply to meet the picky requirements of silence from users. NAXN ADV matches special double ball bearing fan which is not only less noise but also more durable.
All the NAXN ADV series can provide the stable and powerful 12V single rail power output under all year-round temperature of 40℃/104℉ and 100-240VAC with automatic adjustment and active PFC for global usage. To provide the safety to your critical system, it employs multiple protection circuitry of OVP，SCP，OPP，DC UVP，SIP Protection. Additionally, the unique Cordguard can fix the AC cord tightly to avoid accidental shutdowns of your PC. It can further contribute to the green environment, while meeting ErP Lot 6 2013 standard by the high efficient 5V standby circuit, which can profit from reduced power consumption in standby mode (
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VIA Announces Ultra Compact VIA ARMOS-800 IPC
VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today announced the VIA ARMOS-800, an ultra-compact, fanless system designed around the tiny VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board. The VIA ARMOS-800 provides embedded customers with a ruggedized system that delivers advanced multimedia features in an extremely power efficient design for a diversified range of embedded applications.
Featuring an 800MHz Freescale ARM Cortex-A8 SoC with two integrated GPUs for dual display support, the VIA ARMOS-800 is optimized for both performance and power to meet the high-end demands of advanced industrial and in-vehicle applications. Boasting a ruggedized, fanless system design with a wide operating temperature range from -40C up to 80C, the VIA ARMOS-800 delivers a typical power consumption of a mere 3.14W TDP.
"The VIA ARMOS-800 is the first ARM-based system in our ruggedized AMOS systems series," said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. "The high performance and ultra-low power consumption provides an exciting combination for a wide range of industrial embedded applications where robustness is critical."
VIA ARMOS-800
The VIA AMOS-800 is specifically designed to support the VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board, which features an 800MHz Freescale ARM Cortex-A8 SoC, creating a completely fanless system within a robust chassis measuring 15cm x 4.6cm x 10.8cm (WxDxH). The VIA ARMOS-800 has a certified operating temperature range from -40C to 80C and offers ultra-low power consumption of only 3.14W TDP under typical operating conditions.
On-board storage includes 4GB of eMMC Flash and can be expanded with the MicroSD Card slot. Front I/O includes one COM, one DIO and one CAN port, as well as Line-in/out and Mic-in, while rear I/O includes, one VGA and one HDMI port, one 10/100 LAN port, and three USB 2.0 ports. An on-board USB pin-header can be utilized to support the optional VNT9271 Wi-Fi USB module.
For more information about the VIA ARMOS-800, please visit:
this page.
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EKWB Proud to Announce Official Partnership with HWBOT
We are proud to announce that as of January 1 2013, EK Water Blocks will be joining the HWBOT force as partner. EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium computer water cooling gear manufacturer, founded in 1999 by Edvard Konig, is determined to excel in a niche market of performance upgrades for computers. With continuous research and development, EKWB has established a portfolio of products for water cooling. Quality and breathtaking design on the technological edge is the philosophy.
HWBOT, main office located in Belgium, is a dynamic team of international hardware fanatics as well as internationally recognized overclockers, dedicated to gathering specifications and benchmark performance results of computer hardware as well as serving a non-stop overclocking competition platform for amateur and die-hard overclockers. One can use HWBOT to compare processor or graphics card specifications, to compare the performance of different products using the HWBOT Hardware comparator which gives people a more balanced view on the overclocking capabilities as well as the performance of hardware in comparison to one-man based reviews.
EK Water Blocks support will make HWBOT financially viable and enable them to continue promoting overclocking and supporting its communities. With EK Water Blocks's support, HWBOT have found extra motivation to make the site as pleasant as possible for the overclocking community!
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Mushkin Announces US Availability of Atlas 480 GB mSATA SSD
Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, today announces the U.S. availability of the 480 GB Atlas mSATA solid-state drive. Mushkin's 480GB Atlas mSATA solid-state drive (Model No.: MKNSSDAT480GB) is initially available in the U.S. at Newegg.com, with worldwide availability scheduled for end of January. MSRP on Mushkin's 480GB Atlas mSATA SSD is $499.99 USD. The Atlas mSATA SSD is covered by a three-year limited warranty.
Specifications:
- SandForce SF-2281 SSD processor with unthrottled IOPS
- mSATA III (6 Gb/s) interface
- Supports ATA APM, Security Set, NCQ
- TRIM support (OS/driver support required)
- S.M.A.R.T. support
- Built-in BCH ECC (Up to 55 bits correctable per 512 byte sector)
- High speed MLC NAND
- MO-300 (mSATA) form factor (50.80 x 29.85 x 4.85 mm)
- Mini PCIe Interface
- User-upgradeable firmware
- RoHS, FCC, CE
- 3-year limited warranty
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Foremay Launches World's First 2 TB 2.5-inch SATA SSD
Foremay, Inc., a leader of technology innovation in solid state drives and one of the world's Top SSD OEMs, today announced its 2 TB SSD drives with a standard 2.5" SATA interface and a thickness of 9.5 mm. The 2 TB SSD drives are offered in Foremay's SC199 (for mission-critical applications) and TC166 (for terminal computing) product families. Users can opt for either industrial or commercial grade to suit their specific application. Foremay's 2 TB drive is the largest SSD in the world today in standard 2.5" SATA form factor.
"By leveraging Foremay's patent pending technologies, we are proud to deliver the world's first 2 TB SSD in standard 2.5" SATA form factor," said Jack Winters , Foremay's CTO and co-founder. "We hope our high reliability 2 TB SSD drives can help create more design freedom and storage space for both mission-critical and enterprise applications."
In additional to integrated flash management technologies such as Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T. ), Advanced Power Management (APM) and advanced error correction algorithm, Foremay's 2 TB SSD drive also provides optional features such as fast erase, military secure erase methods, hardware based encryption and conformal coating.
Product Availability
Both the 2 TB SSD and 1 TB SSD in 2.5" SATA form factors are in production now, offered at both industrial and commercial operating temperatures.
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EK Water Blocks Announces VGA Bridge Edition
EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear provider, officially introduces the EK-VGA Supremacy Bridge Edition water block, the successor of renown EK-VGA Supreme HF Bridge Edition GPU-only water block. EK-VGA Supremacy Bridge Edition is a highest performance universal GPU water block built off EK-Supremacy cooling engine. It is a special edition of world-renown EK-VGA Supremacy waterblock designed specifically for the use with EK-FC Bridge Parallel CSQ interconnects in multiple graphics card system.
EK-VGA Supremacy is a direct successor of the world renown EK-VGA Supreme HF waterblock launched in 2010. It's main improvements are:
- better flow: due to improved design up to 20% higher flow compared to EK-VGA Supreme HF
- better cooling performance: up to 2C lower GPU temperatures
The EK-VGA Supremacy cooling engine uses similar, yet refined as per needs of modern microprocessors, fin design as its ancestor. The cooling liquid accelerates through jet plate's nozzle and turbulently continues its path through numerous very thin channels which provide extreme cooling surface area. Specifically designed and carefully machined copper base (sometimes referred to as 'cold plate') is made from purest copper available on the market and is further polished to absolute mirror finish. This alone greatly improves the cooling performance of EK-Supremacy.
The top is made of quality satin finish acrylic- or POM Acetal material (depending on the variant). Acrylic top variant water block top has a slot for easy installation of one 3mm LED diode.
EK-VGA Supremacy series waterblocks supports majority of modern nVidia and AMD high-end graphics cards. Please check compatibility at EK's CoolingConfigurator. Graphics cards with the following square mouting holes pattern are supported:
- min: 53x53mm
- max: 58x58mm
This product can be upgraded for further compatibility using additional mounting plates.
EK-VGA Supremacy Bridge Edition is compatible with the following EK-FC Bridge CSQ interconnects only:
- EK-FC Bridge SINGLE CSQ
- EK-FC Bridge DUAL Parallel CSQ
- EK-FC Bridge DUAL Parallel 3-Slot CSQ
- EK-FC Bridge TRIPLE Parallel CSQ
- EK-FC Bridge TRIPLE Z77 CSQ
- EK-FC Bridge QUAD Semi-Parallel CSQ
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ASRock Announces 990FX Extreme9 Flagship AM3+ Motherboard
Leading motherboard manufacturer ASRock has announced today the debut of its most deluxe motherboard of the AM3+ Series - introducing ASRock 990FX Extreme9. Even though packed with the same chipset, this motherboard has added multitudes of features to stir up anticipation for the AMD product lines. Features such as premium gold caps, rock steady power phase design, top notch Intel gigabit LAN solution and also the ASRock exclusive X-Boost for easy and efficient overclocking.
ASRock 990FX Extreme9 is composed by the most luxurious hardware components. It uses AMD 990FX and SB950 chipsets and supports AM3+ processors with up to eight cores, the CPU is provided with high quality power solutions. Premium gold caps that extend the motherboard's life span 2.5 times longer than usual, Digi Power for smoother CPU Vcore voltages, 12+2 power phase design for stable performance and revolutionary Dual-Stack MOSFET for larger die area, lower Rds(on) and better CPU Vcore power efficiency.
The memory includes dual channel DDR3 DIMM slots that support up to 2450 MHz when overclocked. Another 4 PCIe 2.0 x16 expansion slots for supporting NVIDIA 3-Way SLI and AMD 3-Way CrossFireX technology, so users may immerse themselves in mind blowing graphics. As for LAN, ASRock 990FX Extreme9 promises to offer the best internet experience with Intel 82583V Gigabit LAN. With the 7.1 CH HD audio by Realtek ALC898 which supports THX TruStudio, audiophiles won't be disappointed either. Storage devices and other peripherals are more than welcomed with the 8 SATA3 and 8 USB 3.0 ports, and with the free bundled ASRock exclusive front USB 3.0 panel users may connect two USB 3.0 devices and also find enough space to install 2.5 inch HDDs or SSDs. Moreover, the High density power connectors reduce over 23% power loss and also lower the pins' temperature by 22 degrees Celsius.
Game Changing Software
If you're thinking that ASRock 990FX Extreme9 has hardcore hardware specifications, then wait till you hear about the rich software support it has to offer. The ASRock exclusive X-Boost technology allows anyone to overclock their computer by merely hitting the X key during POST, the system is automatically unleashed with up to 116% performance boost!
Other software surprises include the exclusive XFast 555 technology for 5 times faster USB/LAN/RAM speed; the amazing Fast Boot for ludicrous 1.5 second Windows 8 log in and it will boot up so fast that you will definitely need "Restart to UEFI" to enter the UEFI setup page; ASRock Dehumidifier to prevent dampness, Easy RAID Installer, etc.
Were you patiently waiting for the dream motherboard with cool specs and rich features? If so, we have saved the best for last with ASRock 990FX Extreme9. Let the sturdy components, overwhelming performance and futuristic design change your computing style.
For more information, visit the
product page.
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Prodigy Window Side Panel and Alchemy Mixed Cables
BitFenix Design Lab, January 15, 2012 - With overwhelming response from the community, users have requested greater personalization for their BitFenix cases and accessories. Today, BitFenix is pleased to announce the Prodigy Window Accessory and Alchemy Mixed Cable Series.
Prodigy Window Side Panel Accessory
Displaying a clear, non-obstructive acrylic, the Prodigy Side Panel Window Accessory is a hassle free option to obtain a clear view of your full sized video card. Without any clips or tacky mounting mechanisms in sight, your Prodigy Black or Prodigy White can maintain its sleek design while having no
compromises to the hardware inside.
Custom individual sleeving is a great way to add flare and cleanliness to a computer. But without the right tools, it can be very time consuming and messy. BitFenix Alchemy Cables proved to be a modder's favorite when it comes to shrinkless and flexible cables. Featuring our ultra-dense NanoSleeveâ„¢
braiding in an alternating pattern of colors, Alchemy Mixed Cables make customizing and color coordinating your system an incredibly simple affair.
Both the Prodigy Side Panel Window Accessory and Alchemy Mixed Cables will be available at the middle of February.
For more information on other BitFenix products and new releases, please visit
http://
http://www.bitfenix.com.
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Soft PC Shipments in Fourth Quarter Lead to Annual Decline as HP Holds Onto Top Spot
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 89.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12), down 6.4% compared to the same quarter in 2011 and worse than the forecasted decline of 4.4%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. Although the quarter marked the beginning of a new stage in the PC industry with the launch of Windows 8, its impact did not quickly change recently sluggish PC demand, and the PC market continued to take a back seat to competing devices and sustained economic woes. As a result, the fourth quarter of 2012 marked the first time in more than five years that the PC market has seen a year-on-year decline during the holiday season.
The lackluster fourth quarter results were not entirely surprising given the spate of challenges the PC market faced over the course of 2012. IDC had expected the second half of 2012 to be difficult. Consumers as well as PC vendors and distribution channels continued to be diverted from PC sales by ongoing demand for tablets and smartphones. In addition, questions about the use of touch on Windows PCs vs. tablets slowed commercial spending on PCs.
"Although the third quarter was focused on the clearing of Windows 7 inventory, preliminary research indicates the clearance did not significantly boost the uptake of Windows 8 systems in Q4," said Jay Chou, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "Lost in the shuffle to promote a touch-centric PC, vendors have not forcefully stressed other features that promote a more secure, reliable and efficient user experience. As Windows 8 matures, and other corresponding variables such as Ultrabook pricing continue to drop, hopefully the PC market can see a reset in both messaging and demand in 2013."
"As anticipated, the U.S. market had a rough ending, dropping 4.5% in the fourth quarter and contributing to a decline of 7% for the full year 2012," said David Daoud, research director, IDC U.S. Quarterly PC Tracker. "Consumers expected all sorts of cool PCs with tablet and touch capabilities. Instead, they mostly saw traditional PCs that feature a new OS (Windows 8) optimized for touch and tablet with applications and hardware that are not yet able to fully utilize these capabilities. Despite a generally weak performance, some leading brands managed do to well relative to the market. HP, Lenovo, Asus, and Samsung were among the top performers, taking advantage of some consumer interest in Windows 8, and a push to build up their presence ahead of 2013."
Regional Highlights
United States - The U.S. market struggled in the fourth quarter of 2012, although to a lesser extent than expected given the channel replenishment activity that occurred in December. Some consumer activity took place in conjunction with the release of Windows 8. However, limitations in product offerings, in particular for touch screen Tablet PCs, led consumers to once again delay purchases. Consumer-focused vendors like HP and Asian majors like Lenovo, Asus, and Samsung managed strong performances, partly in response to modest consumer demand, and partly due to channel activity in December ahead of the anticipated 1H13 Windows 8 push. The rest of the industry continued to take a wait-and-see approach as consumer attitudes toward Windows 8 are clarified.
EMEA - The EMEA PC market performed in line with expectations in 4Q12, with shipments declining at a mid single-digit rate from a year ago. Although sell-in of Windows 8 systems accelerated by early December, helped by the new Ultra Slim offerings, consumers continued to shun PC purchases in favor of attractively priced tablets and smartphones, particularly during the end-of-year Christmas season. Commercial purchases also remained weak, softened by persisting uncertainty in the economic situation across the region.
Japan - Japan registered growth that was slightly positive, but still several points below forecast. Consumer demand was expected to be weak as the first batch of Windows 8 machines was markedly more expensive than previous generation models. However, the impending ending of Windows XP support helped to boost commercial volume, where companies have been steadily upgrading to Windows 7 for the past several quarters.
Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) - The Asia/Pacific region came in slightly below forecasts, as channels in most countries focused on clearing out existing Windows 7 inventory before bringing in fresh Windows 8 stock. China was not too far off target, though ongoing sluggishness in the economy as well as a slowdown in public sector projects kept the PC market there suppressed this quarter.
Vendor Highlights
HP continued to defend its top position in IDC's worldwide ranking, recovering somewhat from past weakness in key markets. An aggressive push for Windows 8 volume helped the vendor make gains in Asia/Pacific and its home turf in the U.S. HP struggled in EMEA but posted the first year-over-year growth in Asia/Pacific in four quarters. Total volume was nearly flat from a year ago, but better than the overall market.
Lenovo outpaced the market with growth of over 8%. Volume reached a new record-high of more than 14 million units, with continued success in channel wins in the U.S. and EMEA. Despite the positive performance, Lenovo's gains remained significantly smaller than several quarters ago when the company was besting market growth by nearly 30%.
Dell continued to lose ground as it faces aggressive competition from other leaders and looks for better margins. Worldwide shipments were down over 20% year over year - faster than declines over the past several years - with U.S. volume declining almost as much. The firm did manage sequential growth in most other markets.
Acer Group, like a few other vendors, remains heavily dependent on consumer spending. As a result, it has continued to suffer as consumers focus on other products. At the same time, Acer's cautious approach to the Windows 8 transition has contributed to slower notebook shipments.
ASUS held onto its top 5 spot globally and stretched the distance between itself and other consumer-focused vendors with growth of 5.6% year on year. The firm racked-up strong gains across many regions, where its often innovative yet price-conscious offerings still managed to take root in spite of an increasingly tough landscape.
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Other World Computing Announces Mercury Viper 3.5-inch Solid State Drive
Other World Computing (OWC) a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today the Mercury Viper Solid State Drive, the next generation of high performance OWC Mercury brand SSDs. Designed for professional users and gamers who require uncompromised workflow performance, Mercury Viper is the industry's fastest 3.5 inch 6G Solid State Drive with speeds that nearly eclipse the fastest internal data interface - SATA 3.0 6Gb/s - offered in today's Mac and PC computers.
OWC will highlight the Mercury Viper along with its broad line of award-winning SSDs in its booth #5812 in the LVCC North Hall during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Capacities for Any Need
In addition to offering data rate performance up to 600 MB/s, the Mercury Viper is available in capacities from 240 GB to a massive 2 TB (1920 GB) to handle any user's data storage needs. Pricing and shipping dates for the Mercury Viper SSD models will be announced in the next sixty days.
"The introduction of the Mercury Viper spotlights OWC's continued leadership role in the evolution of Solid State Drives," said Larry O'Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. "Offering up to 600 MB/s speed and capacity up to 2.0 TB, Viper truly is a performance beast that will more than satisfy the most demanding Mac and PC user who seeks nothing but the best."
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Icy Dock Ships the FlexCage MB974SP-2B
Introducing the FlexCage MB974SP-2B, a 4-in-3 Tray-less SATA 6Gbps HDD Cage for 3.5" SATA hard drives. The FlexCage brings enthusiast preferred features such as: plug & play Tray-less design, replaceable 80mm cooling fan, 3 speed fan control with Smart Cooling Technology, integrated USB 3.0 hub, and full control of your drive with individual childproof power buttons. It is designed to be used in consumer and enthusiast systems such as, gaming / media computer cases, and home servers that hot swap frequently.
The MB974SP-2B is designed to maximize space use by allowing up to 4 x 3.5" SATA 6Gbps hard drives, while only consuming three 5.25" device bays. The FlexCage also only requires two 15-pin power ports to power up to four 3.5" hard drives. The FlexCage is equipped with our renowned tray-less technology - no screws or tools are necessary to insert or eject the drives, making hot swapping a completely hassle free experience.
Intelligent Cooling
The FlexCage MB974SP-2B uses a large 80mm rear cooling fan to pull cool air from the front ventilation slots, over the drives, and exhaust the warm air out through the rear ventilation slots.
The MB974SP-2B gives the user freedom to choose the speed of the fan, or to select "auto" so that the fan adjusts its speed using our Smart Cooling Technology. Our auto function determines the temperature of your drives, and changes its RPM accordingly. This results in decreased power consumption, an increased lifespan for your fan, and unnecessary excess noise. Along with the auto function, the user can also choose a high setting, best used for intense applications such as home server use, or a low setting, best used with lighter work loads, such as hourly back ups or audio recording / editing.
The included 80mm cooling fan is easily replaceable and maintainable, as it is compatible with most aftermarket cooling fans of the same size. To expand the range of compatible fans, both 2 and 3 pin standard fan power ports are available and can be easily accessed. To support the cooling system in place, the FlexCage body is built using full aluminum to help dissipate heat even further.
Built for Enthusiasts
Keeping up with the latest external storage technology, the MB974SP-2B has an integrated USB 3.0 SuperSpeed hub to easily connect the latest external storage peripherals, especially for systems that do not have top / front USB 3.0 port access.
The MB974SP-2B features the Active Power Technology+ power system, giving you full control of your hard drive environment. To power up your hard drive, the front of the device includes childproof power buttons for each drive which require the button to be pressed slightly deeper than normal to ensure that a drive is not accidentally turned off by bumping into or rubbing against it. These power buttons double as an LED indicator showing drive power and activity. When one drive is turned on, the 80mm cooling fan will also turn on to start cooling your hard drive.
Similarly, each drive door has a multi-locking latch mechanism in order to prevent a door from being opened easily. Each door panel is built with a solid aluminum panel, making it an ideal solution for systems that need a reliable and durable door design. Lastly, to ensure a peace of mind, the FlexCage is backed with our 3 year warranty, equivalent to a hard drive's warranty.
Key Features:
- Fits 4 x 3.5" SATA III HDD into 3 x 5.25" Device Bays.
- Supports SATA 3 (6 Gb/s) hard drives.
- Compact and space saving design to fit multiple drives.
- Designed for consumers & enthusiasts gaming / media computer cases and servers.
- Tray-less design for genuine plug & play and hot swap use.
- Front and rear ventilation slots.
- 80mm cooling fan for maximum air flow.
- 3 speed fan control, including auto setting featuring Smart Cooling Technology.
- Lightweight aluminum body construction for durability and heat dissipation.
- Fan is replaceable with aftermarket fans that use standard 2-pin or 3-pin connectors.
- SuperSpeed USB 3.0 hub built into front of device for performance and easy access.
- Active Power Technology+ - cooling fan and drive only powers up when the child proof buttons are pressed.
- Multi-locking door latches to prevent accidental drive ejection.
- ICY DOCK 3 year warranty equivalent to hard drive manufacturer warranty to ensure maximum reliability and long life.
For more information, visit the
product page.
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QNAP Debuts TS-x69L Turbo NAS Series
QNAP Systems, Inc. today announced that its recently released Turbo NAS TS-x69L series, available in 2, 4, 5, 6, 8-drive configurations, can now utilize its built-in HDMI port and new HD Station feature, turning the Turbo NAS into a comprehensive media player, allowing users to enjoy high-definition videos, pictures, music, and more right on the big screen TV in the comfort of home.
"This amazing new HD Station feature is provided free of charge. Users now can easily enjoy a Full HD experience at home just by connecting the Turbo NAS with an HDMI cable to a big screen TV," said Jason Hsu, product manager of QNAP. The new HD Station, in conjunction with the intuitive XBMC media player, allows users to easily enjoy movies, home videos, photos, and music collections using the Turbo NAS at home.
"In addition to enjoying movies or photos, additional features are included with the HD Station, including Google Chrome and YouTube, to enrich home entertainment," added Hsu. Users can surf the Internet and enjoy YouTube contents on TV right from the comfort of the sofa. The HD Station makes the Turbo NAS a versatile multimedia hub, bringing forth rich entertainment options to everyday life".
The HD Station supports various remote control options for controlling playback on the Turbo NAS, including QNAP IR remote control, USB wireless keyboard and mouse, or MCE-compatible remote controls. In addition, handy remote control apps are provided for users to use their mobile devices as a remote control for HD Station, including the Qremote app that is available for iOS mobile devices, and the official XBMC Remote app for iOS and Android devices. Whether a physical gadget or a mobile app, users can enjoy full flexibility in choosing a remote control that fits their needs for enjoying the HD Station.
TS-x69L series Turbo NAS are designed to fulfill the needs of home office users as a reliable cross-platform networked storage and file sharing solution. In addition to the newly introduced HD Station for home entertainment, the series also provide cross-platform file sharing; centralized storage and backup center for Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX users; IP video surveillance solution to safeguard home environment with the compatibility with over 1,400 IP cameras; multimedia content sharing with DLNA compliant devices; various applications for storing and sharing music, photos, and videos over the Internet, and the cloud-friendly service MyCloudNAS that provides quick setup and helps users access the NAS in several convenient ways, including via the web browsers and mobile devices.
Moreover, QNAP enriches home entertainment with the TV Station and Website Subscription Service, enabling users to enjoy ultra video experience at home. The TV Station extends Turbo NAS users' multimedia experience to digital TV watching, recording, and playback on browsers with easy installation of a DVB-T USB TV tuner.
The Download Station's Website Subscription function, HappyGet, available in Google Chrome Web Store as an add-on, helps easily back up online videos to the Turbo NAS, and supports music playlist, all within the Chrome web browser. It also includes HappyCut function to easily make ringtones for iOS and Android devices by choosing a song and cutting it at a desired length. "The introduction of HD Station and the support of TV Station and HappyGet are our commitment to bringing forth the new era for home entertainment and the best NAS products to home users," commented Hsu.
The Turbo NAS system installation has become extremely easy with the Auto Setup option. As more and more laptops come without a CD/DVD drive, the Turbo NAS system setup now can be done without a CD. Simply visit the web setup portal
http://start.qnap.com to get started. Step by step instructions are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users to easily finish system setup process.
Availability:
The TS-269L, TS-469L, TS-569L, TS-669L and TS-869L are currently shipping. The HD Station is available for the complete Turbo NAS TS-x69 series, with firmware 3.8.1 or newer.
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GIGABYTE Aivia Krypton Dual-chassis Gaming Mouse Wins iF Product Design Award 2013 - The world's 1st customized gaming mouse lighted up the jury's face!
Taipei, Taiwan, 14th January 2013 - GIGABYTE, the world's leading premium gaming hardware manufacture, is pleased to share that the Aivia Krypton Dual-chassis Gaming Mouse won iF Product Design Award 2013 recently! Two years ago, GIGABYTE created the premium gaming peripheral series named Aivia. Soon after, Aivia K8100 Gaming Keyboard won a red dot award 2011, and then Aivia M8600 Macro Gaming Mouse also won an iF Design Award 2012. This year, our very new hero product Aivia Krypton Dual-chassis Gaming Mouse stood out from more than 3,000 entries and won another iF Design Award! By the distinguishing features of all-aspect-customization, Aivia Krypton was honored with the world's best-known prestigious award, iF Award, also seen as Oscar Award in design industry.
GIGABYTE is committed to fulfill the needs from gamers. GIGABYTE knows very well that different using habits and different games will lead to different demands from gamers. Therefore, GIGABYTE designed the Aivia Krypton Dual-chassis Gaming Mouse! The world's first all-aspect-customizable gaming mouse taking gamers' habits in different types of games into consideration.
By swapping the revolutionary dual bases, gamer can personalize preferred gaming experience. Speed Base made by abrasion-free ceramic mouse feet for immediate reaction. Control Base made by Teflon mouse feet for precision movements.
Symmetrical design with innovative weight distribution system ensures personal perfect center of gravity, either right or left hand user can optimize weight and balance easily. Gamer can always adjust resolution from 200 to 8200dpi and edit portable macros up to 70 sets of Aivia Krypton. On-board GHOSTâ„¢ Engine supports massive macros and easy-to-use drag-and-drop software with smart macro manager.
The charm of Aivia Krypton Dual-chassis Gaming Mouse has already widen the jury's sight! GIGABYTE recommends you to experience the customization and the ergonomic of the best gaming mouse!
For more details about GIGABYTE Aivia Krypton Dual-chassis Gaming mouse, please visit our official site at:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4103#ov
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/GIGABYTE.VGA
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Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [14 January 2013]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!
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1 comment:
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