ASUS Crosshair V Formula Z Motherboard Review
A Comprehensive look at ASUS Flagship 990FX motherboard the Crosshair V Formula Z.
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New MSI Gaming Laptops with Haswell and GeForce GTX 700M Series Graphics
With the recent releases of NVIDIA's GeForce 700 series of GPUs and Intel's Haswell platform, gamers have some new, powerful hardware to start playing with. MSI has recently updated its GT and GE models of gaming laptops with the newer hardware, to give gamers the best experience currently available.
Intel's 4th Generation Core processors were designed for graphics and are able to push 4K video, while still doubling battery life. Of course sometimes you will need more graphics power than Intel can offer, so the G Series of laptops will also include a GTX 765M, 770M, or 780M GPU. These GPUs currently represent some of the most powerful mobile graphics solutions available.
Rounding it out, the some of the laptops feature MSI's Killer DoubleShot technology for lag-less wired and wireless gaming and up to 32 GB of DDR3 RAM. Also the RAID storage system for some models has grown to include three SSDs, to deliver over 1500 MB/s of speed.
Source: Press Release
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OCZ Showcasing New Hardware at Computex
OCZ Technology Group, makers of high quality computer hardware, is at Computex showing off a new series of power supplies and SSDs for consumer and enterprise use.
The power supplies, part of the new Fatal1ty Gaming Series, are fully modular 550 W and 750 W models with 80-Plus Bronze rating (85% efficiency at typical loads). They use specialized DC-to-DC converters for best compatibility with the new Haswell platform from Intel. They also have a single +12V rail and their 135 MM load-controlled fans have red LEDs; a trademark of the Fatal1ty Series.
On the storage side, OCZ is going to be demoing the upcoming Vector PCIe SSD, with its high IOPS, bandwidth, and capacities. The current lineup of consumer SSDs will also be shown off, including the new Vertex 450 SATA III SSD. For enterprise storage solutions, the SATA Deneva 2, Talos 2 SAS, and Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSDs series will be displayed.
Source: OCZ Technology
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Corsair Reveals Vengeance Pro Series DDR3 RAM
Corsair has taken the wraps off its newest RAM at Computex: the Vengeance Pro DDR3 line. It's available at up to 64GB capacities and speeds up to 2933MHz, making it ideal for Intel's new Haswell processor line. Corsair has designed the Vengeance Pro line to be the perfect component for gamers, overclockers, and enthusiasts, with eight-layer PCBs and RAM ICs specifically selected for the highest speed and greatest overclocking potential. Each kit also includes XMP 1.3 profiles for quick and easy overclocking, provided your system supports XMP. If you're aiming to reach new overclocking heights and are worried about temperatures, you can purchase a Vengeance Pro Airflow fan to keep things running cool. It includes a 60mm ball-bearing fan and adjustable mounting brackets for precise fitment on various sockets.
The Vengeance Pro RAM is available now, although no prices were mentioned. Each kit does come with a lifetime warranty and Corsair technical support.
Source: Press Release
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Two New Cases Unveiled by Corsair at Computex
In addition to the keyboards and mice shown at Computex, two new cases are on the way from Corsair: the Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow and Carbide Series 330R. The Air 540 is a unique wide form factor with two "side-by-side" chambers and a Direct AirFlow Path design. It offers supreme cooling capabilities and a silent build for the best of both worlds. The main part of the Air 540 is where the motherboard and hot swap 3.5" bays reside, while the other part contains the power supply, 2.5" drives, and 5.25" devices. Its design means a much easier build time, improved cable management, and, of course, superior cooling. It can hold everything from Mini-ITX to Extended ATX motherboards, video cards up to 12.5" in length, six 120mm fans or five 140mm fans (or a 240/280 rad on the side and a 360/280/240 rad in front), and four 2.5" drives.
The Carbide Series 330R is also designed for quiet computing and high airflow, as it features the Direct AirFlow Path, but in a more conventional shape. The Direct AirFlow Path begins with the front 140mm fans to provide cool air over the hottest components, and continues with up to three extra fans (two 120/140mm up top and one 120mm in the rear). Noise dampening material is included on the top and side panels, as well as the front door. Its top panel can even be removed so a 240mm radiator can be installed. Internally it can fit the same sizes of motherboards as the Air 540, plus four 2.5/3.5" hard drives, and even includes built-in cable routing.
The Carbide Air 540 and 330R are available now for $139.99 and $89.99, respectively.
Source: Press Release
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Corsair Announces New Keyboards and Mice at Computex
Corsair, one of the leaders in many things computer related, has annouced a slew of new products at Computex. Keyboards, mice, cases, and RAM are all included, with something for everyone to drool over. First up are the keyboards and mice, with Corsair introducing some new switches for the Vengeance K70 keyboard, the brand-new Vengeance K65 keyboard, the Raptor K50 gaming keyboard, and the Raptor M40 and M30 gaming mice. The K70, introduced a few months ago with Cherry MX Red switches, has now been decked out with both Cherry MX Blue and Brown switches to give users more of a tactile feel (along with a distinctive 'click' on the Blues).
The Vengeance K65, meanwhile, is Corsair's first compact mechanical keyboard. Eschewing the number pad yet keeping the key spacing of a full-size keyboard, Corsair is able to offer a more portable version of its popular mechanical keyboard line. The K65 features a 100% anti-ghosted matrix, full key rollover, and a detachable cable for easy transport to LAN parties.
Corsair's Raptor K50 gaming keyboard is of the membrane variety, and it features customizable backlighting of 16.8 million colors. It also includes 18 fully programmable macro keys, with three profiles to enable up to 54 macros in total stored in the onboard memory. There's also six dedicated multimedia keys, a Windows lock key to disable it, and 100% anti-ghosting with full key rollover on USB. The Raptor M40 and M30 gaming mice both feature an Avago ADNS-3090 4000DPI optical sensor, large PTFE pads for smooth gliding, DPI switching, and a right-handed design. The M40 resembles the Corsair M60/65, while the M30 is all smooth contours.
The Vengeance K70, K65, and Raptor K50 keyboards are going to be available in July for $129.99, $89.99, and $99.99, respectively, with the Raptor M40 and M30 mice available this month for $49.99 and $39.99, respectively.
Source: Press Release
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G.Skill Launches 32GB DDR3 3000MHz RAM Kit for Intel Haswell Processors
Intel's new Haswell line is starting to roll out to the masses, and G.Skill wants to make sure the overclocking crowd is taken care of on the RAM side. The memory giant has announced a new addition to its TridentX series of RAM with a 32GB DDR3 3000MHz kit. Featuring four 8GB sticks, this new kit is designed for the Intel Haswell line and Z87 motherboards. There are a variety of other kits available too, with capacities ranging between 8 and 32GB, but it's that 32GB 3000MHz kit that G.Skill is most proud of. The entire line features timings of either 12-13-13-35 or 12-14-14-35, with voltage at 1.65v for each kit. If high capacity and insane speed are what you're after, odds are the G.Skill TridentX 32GB DDR3 3000MHz kit is on your radar.
All G.Skill TridentX RAM comes with the latest Intel XMP profiles for the Intel Haswell processors and Z87 motherboards. Each kit also includes a lifetime warranty and free technical support from G.Skill. No word on price or availability was mentioned, but expect that soon.
Source: Press Release
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Hybrid Material for Flexible and Transparent Electronics
Displays are everywhere around us as entertain us, provide information, and let us know who is calling, and many of these displays rely on indium tin oxide (ITO). The reason this material is so common is that it is transparent and conductive; an uncommon combination. Researchers at Purdue University decided to produce a combination of their own that looks to possibly replace ITO, while also bringing the valuable property of flexibility.
For our displays to be thin, they need transparent electrodes to conduct electrons to the pixels we see, but not just any transparent conductor will work. The reason ITO is predominately used is because it is highly conductive while also being very transparent; the winning combination. Other materials, such as silver nanowires and even graphene, are transparent and conductive, but have faults that make them unusable in displays. The chaotic alignment of the nanowires and boundaries between cells in graphene increase the materials' resistances too much to be useful on their own. The researchers decided to combine the two and found that together, they overcome these issues.
Actually, the hybrid material does more than just overcome its components individual issues as it has a fraction of the electrical resistance of ITO. Also important is that the hybrid material would likely be cheaper than ITO to use, as indium is a rather rare element.
Source: Purdue University
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NZXT Introduces H230 Silent Mid Tower Case
Computex is officially underway this week, which means more new computer products are going to be announced than you'll know what to do with. NZXT is at the show and wants to introduce the world to its new H230 case that is sure to be of interest to anyone wanting a silent system. The H230 features an enclosed, sound dampening design like the H2 and H630, just in a smaller package. It features tool-free latches on the three 5.25" bays, a removable HDD cage, support for six 2.5/3.5" hard drives, seven PCI slots, and room for four 120mm fans. The top of the case has two USB 3.0 ports and audio in/out, while the entire case presents a minimalistic look that should fit right in with any décor.
The NZXT H230 comes in white or black, and is available soon for $69.99.
Source: Press Release
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ZOTAC Announces New ZBOX ID90 Mini PC
ZOTAC has released a new prebuilt mini PC, the ZOTAC ZBOX ID90. The new system boasts double the processing power of previous ZBOX mini PCs, utilizing a quad-core Intel Core i7 chip and integrated HD4000 graphics. The system also incorporates Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, as well as both HDMI and DVI outputs.
Network connectivity is achieved with an integrated 11N wireless adapter, as well as dual Gigabit ethernet ports. Standard peripheral connectivity is achieved via 2 USB 2.0 ports on the rear, as well as 2 USB 3.0 ports on the top and front of the case. ZOTAC offers a ID90 Plus model, which comes preinstalled with 4GB of DDR3 memory, and a 500GB hard drive for storage.
Source: Press Release
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Microsoft May Cut Windows RT Pricing to OEMs
According to a recent report published on CNET, Microsoft may be considering cutting the price it charges tablet manufacturers for its Windows RT operating system. Windows RT is essentially a version of Windows 8 which is capable of running on ARM-powered devices such as tablets.
The initiative behind this is that the lower cost of the operating system will encourage more manufacturers to begin offering Windows RT devices. The actual pricing of the operating system is confidential, however any price drop is likely to lead to a drop in device cost to the end-user, as well as an increase in profit for the manufacturer.
Source: CNET
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More Efficient Machine Learning Algorithm Developed
With the plethora of artificially intelligent machines in science fiction, and the general lack of robot companions in reality, many people think that AIs are purely fictional. While we may not have machines able to understand and tell a joke (though those are being worked on) multiple institutions have computers capable of machine learning; a form of AI. Now researchers at MIT have developed a new machine learning framework for reinforcement learning that can complete experiments in a fifth the time of other algorithms.
Reinforcement learning requires two components; an agent and the reward function. The agent is the machine learning what it needs to complete a task and the reward function scores its policies on how effective they are. This kind of algorithm works well for scenarios such as network administration, but can become cumbersome as millions of combinations of actions may have to be considered. The researchers have gotten around that though with their reinforcement learning and Python, or RLPy, framework. This software allows the computer to construct a tree of every possible combination and work its way from the simplest to most complex combinations. What makes it more efficient though is that once the computer realizes that the descendants of a specific combination always return the same result, because of that combination, it will stop testing descendants of that combination.
The RLPy software has already be released online along with its source code, so anyone can use and develop it further. For the time being the researchers are using it to teach an autonomous vehicle how to drive.
Source: MIT
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Hardware Roundup: Monday Edition
A new week is beginning, and we have plenty of reviews for you to check out. Intel officially took the wraps off its Haswell line of processors with the Core i7 4770K this past weekend, and today we have another look at it and the Core i5 4670K. A new socket and motherboard line is introduced alongside the Haswell series, and there's reviews on multiple Z87 boards from ASUS and MSI. If you need a new video card, then perhaps the Gigabyte GTX 780 WindForce OC 3GB could be the solution. For the console gamers out there, we have a replay of Microsoft's Xbox One launch event so you can see what to expect when the system arrives later this year.
CPUs
Intel Haswell 4th Generation CPU: i5-4670K and i7-4770K @ Madshrimps
Motherboards
MSI Z87-G45 Gaming @ LanOC Reviews
ASUS Z87 Pro and ASUS Z87 Plus @ LanOC Reviews
MSI Z87 MPower MAX @ Benchmark Reviews
Video Cards
Gigabyte GTX 780 WindForce OC 3GB @ Madshrimps
Gaming
Microsoft's Xbox One Launch Event Replay @ NGOHQ.com
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Available Tags:ASUS , MSI , Gaming , GeForce , GTX , OCZ , Hardware , DDR3 , Intel , ZOTAC , Microsoft , Windows ,
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