IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 7/12/2013

Thursday, July 11, 2013

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 7/12/2013

TweakTown

Google updates Maps for Android, will hit iOS devices soon
Today, Google released a complete refresh of its Google Maps for Android app. The company says that the new app brings forth an entirely new mapping experience that makes exploring the world and getting to the places that matter to you a lot faster and easier.

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Google says that the new Google maps for mobile builds on the design that was released last year for iPhone and improves on it with new search and navigation features. Additionally, this is the very first dedicated Google Maps for Android tablets and iPads.
The new app brings forth an explore feature that the company says is a fast and easy way to visually browse and discover new places without even typing. Users must simply tap the search box and you'll see cards that show great places to eat, drink, sleep, and shop.
Google says that the enhancements made to navigation will bring in current traffic condition notifications as well as alert you to incidents and problems on the road ahead. Additionally while en route, Google will alert you if a better route becomes available and will reroute your navigation to aid you in getting to your destination faster.
Additionally, the new app has been designed with tablet functionality in mind. The company says that it has increased resolutions and refined scrolling to be much more fluid, smooth, and fun. Google has a full write up over on their blog about the new app and it lists many more features. Check it out yourself by heading over to Source #1.

One Laptop Per Child XO tablet to arrive exclusively at Walmart next week
Next week on July 16, One Laptop Per Child's OLPC XO tablet will launch exclusively at Walmart. This hybrid notebook/tablet will then make its way to other top retailers in the US, Europe, and North and South America in the weeks following.

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This kid-friendly tablet first debuted last August and was described as a major leap forward in getting a smart device in the hands of every child. Back then, we were told that the XO would feature a 7.5-inch optical touch display and would be powered by Marvell's ARMADA 2128 40nm SOC. No word yet on what the tablet will cost, but we are expecting a number somewhere around the $199 point.
In a recent blog posting the company said:

OLPC is very excited about its current projects in the USA and abroad. OLPC is delivering the first batch of XO-4 Touch machines to Uruguay, in addition to a large order of XOTablets.OLPC has also begun the production of a large order for the government of Rwanda. The feedback from focus groups and educational institutions with respect to OLPC's new devices, the XO-4 Touch and the XO Tablet, has been extremely positive.

ARM will boost mobile processor clock speeds to the 3GHz range by 2014
It was just two years ago that a 1 GHz processor in your smartphone was considered a big deal, but by today's standards 1 GHz is pretty slow. Today, ARM announced that it will be ramping up clock speeds in its mobile processors to the 3 GHz range in 2014.

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A statement from the company reveals that it has plans to move away from the 28nm process and begin manufacturing chips on a 20nm process which will set the stage for the 3GHz core speed. TSMC, the fabrication house which has signed a deal to manufacture Apple's new line of chipsets, has said that the new process is expected to deliver a 30 percent increase in clock speed while at the same time a 25 percent reduction in heat. These gains can be attributed to efficiency gains from the next-gen manufacturing process.
ARM says that most of the new transistors added will be dedicated to graphics processing performance. The 25 percent reduction in power function will translate into a 25 percent boost in battery life. Since battery life is still the top complaint when it comes to smartphones ARM says that consumers should look forward to the new 20nm process.

HTC to continue metal unibody chassis for its future smartphone products
During a recent interview, HTC's senior manager of design and innovation, Justin Huang confirmed that HTC is committed to utilizing the all-metal construction that has helped boost the HTC One to the top rankings of the Android smartphone market. He said that the company has learned lessons in fabrication from the production of the One which will be applied to upcoming products.

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He said that the first of its next-gen smartphones to feature a metal unibody will be the HTC One Mini which will be formally unveiled at some point next month. The HTC One Mini looks very much like its larger counterpart but features a lower resolution screen that comes in at 4.3 inches and 720p resolution.

North Carolina State University researchers develop liquid metal 3D printer
Anyone who knows me or follows my DIY/maker posts here on TweakTown knows that I am one of the biggest fans of 3-D printing that has ever lived. Since the original RepRap project began back in 2005, I have lived 3-D printing. This next tidbit of news is probably some of the most exciting I have ever reported here TweakTown.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have managed to produce an alloy of liquid metals--gallium and indium--that allows droplets to retain their shape when placed upon each other. This led to the development of a liquid metal 3-D printer. Normally liquid metal reacts the same way any other metal does when more is added, by this I mean it all congregates into a single mass.
The researchers discovered that when combining gallium and indium, the metals combined to make an alloy that forms a skin around the material. This allowed researchers to create structures by piling drops on top of each other using a very tiny syringe. Naturally, this process was automated and through the use of CNC robots, a liquid metal 3-D printer was born.

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While there are not many images of the printer itself, the researchers have posted an impressive video showing off the process and how it might be used to one day rapid prototype circuits, microstructures, and maybe even real 3-D printed transistors. Unfortunately at the moment, the process is said to cost more than 100 times that of its plastic counterpart which puts it at roughly $10,000 for 5 pounds of the liquid metal.

LeakedTT: More iPhone plastic shells appear, 5 new colors shown
Twitter user Sonny Dickson has just posted an image of what appears to be five new colored backs for the upcoming low-cost iPhone. We've seen others in the past and these look very similar but with a more pastel color palette.

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The colors shown appear to be fuchsia, blue, lime green, pastel yellow, and white. One thing worth noting is that the corners are a little more squared off than previous leaked images, which leads us to believe that these could be replacement skins or protective covers designed by a third party manufacturer.
With news earlier today concerning Foxconn ramping up its workforce in a push to bolster new iPhone production numbers and with yesterday's news of Apple cutting current iPhone production by 20 percent, we can bet that sometime in the coming weeks we will see more information on the so-called low-cost iPhone.

Ubisoft serves up Splinter Cell Blacklist gameplay trailer to fans on YouTube
Fans first got a glimpse at the upcoming addition to its popular Splinter Cell franchise yesterday when NVIDIA announced that it would be bundling Splinter Cell Blacklist with its GeForce GTX video cards. Seizing the opportunity to further whet gamers' appetites, Ubisoft has just released a glimpse of the game's single player action.

In the trailer, we can see that the developers have retained the stealthy combat that Splinter Cell is famous for. The game's protagonist, Sam Fisher, is equipped with the usual array of technological weaponry and still retains the grace needed to sneak up on unsuspecting enemies.

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Iran launches national email service for all Iranian citizens
Iran has followed through with its plans to launch its own national email service which requires all citizens to sign up for it as a "safe" way to communicate with government officials. Each citizen was given an email address but before they can use it, account holders will have to provide their local post office with a full name, their national identification number, and their postal code.

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Mohammad Hasan Nami, Iran's minister for information and communication technology, said: "For mutual interaction and communication between the government and the people, from now on every Iranian will receive a special email address along with their postcode." He added that "With the assignment of an email address to every Iranian, government interactions with the people will take place electronically."
Independent experts doubt the plan, however, and say that the plan will most likely not materialize across the country as the newly elected president Hassan Rouhani, who has taken a softer line on Internet and web censorship, is due to be sworn-in in August.

Sega files million dollar lawsuit against THQ over Company of Heroes 2 pre-orders
Last year, we saw the end of an era come to pass as long time game publisher THQ closed up shop and bid the gaming world farewell forever. Unfortunately, there are some who feel that the now-defunct company still owes them a slice of the pie.

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This morning, the once great gaming giant Sega has announced its intentions to sue the bankrupt publisher for almost $1 million over pre-orders of the game Company of Heroes 2. According to Sega, just over 20,750 pre-orders for the game were placed on Steam between September 2012 and January 2013. This equates to around $1.3 million in revenue from pre-order sales alone.
Website Eurogamer has pointed out that after Valve takes its one-third cut, Sega is left with a payout of $941,000 after THQ's filing. Sega claims they are owed this money because they purchased the developer of Company of Heroes 2, Relic Games, in late 2012 and is owed the revenue from those pre-orders taking place on Steam.

Google experiences outages earlier this morning, internet panics
Some Google users were shocked to find the service not available this morning, which caused a small bout of mass hysteria on social networking sites such as Facebook. The outages began around 9:30 AM ET and reports began to surface on Facebook and Twitter shortly thereafter.

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An hour later, around 10:30 AM ET, all of Google services had appeared to be restored and back to their full functionality. Among the services affected were Google+, Google Drive, YouTube, and Gmail. The outages appear to have only affected those living in the southeast region of the United States, however, this reporter experienced no interruptions at all.
Of course, the interruption of Google's services created quite the uproar in the online community and CNN.com managed to capture a few of these reactions for our viewing pleasure. I have listed them below for your enjoyment.

Adam Sullivan, in one of many similar comments, tweeted, "If Google is down... How will I ever Google "why is Google down?"
"Oh dear God it's the end of humanity as we know. Need to go buy bread and milk.#googledown," added Rebeccah Connelly.
The outage drove some users to rival search engine Bing, while prompting jokes on Twitter about the apocalypse.
"Looks like the Mayans were only off by 6ish months... " quippedErica Arbetter.
"I feel a great disturbance, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. #googledown," added Matt Braddick.
Others were stunned that Google, a foundation of the Internet for many users, could be shut down.
"Google is like Walmart and Waffle House. It's supposed to be open 24/7. #GoogleDown," wrote Grant McFerrin.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V may be coming to PC after all
Pretty much every PC gamer on the planet was disappointed when they learned that Rockstar Games had no intentions of publishing its upcoming Grand Theft Auto V title on PC. The series began on the PC and has a following unlike any other game, not to mention an entire community based around modding the game on PC.

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This morning it appears that there may be a little hope for those eagerly anticipating a GTA V PC launch. In a since-removed job advertisement, Rockstar appears to be seeking a graphics programmer to work at the company's Leeds studio "to help bring our latest titles to the PC platform." The advertisement was first spotted by fansite RockstarWatch.
The advertisement explained that the graphics programmer would be working with Rockstar Studios world-wide to port existing titles to the PC. With all of the company's previous titles being available on the PC, this can only mean that Grand Theft Auto as well as Red Dead Redemption will be coming to the PC in the future.

Google rolls out public alert and crisis map for Taiwan as a Typhoon barrels down on the island
As typhoon season approaches, Google has expanded its Public Alerts system to include Taiwan and has launched a dedicated crisis map for the country in preparation for the rainy season. These new additions come just in time as weather agencies are currently monitoring a typhoon that can hit the island any day now.

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In a blog post this morning, Google said that starting today, the Google Public Alerts page (Source #2) will feature severe weather alerts for typhoons and flood-related events in Taiwan. Additionally, these alerts will also appear on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Now. For example, if a typhoon alert is issued, the alert will be displayed once you search for relevant information on Google Search and Google Maps. Google Now on Android or iOS will also display a card with information about any typhoon alert if the warning has been issued near your location.

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Google has also launched a dedicated Google Crisis Map for Taiwan (Source #3) that provides details in the event of a crisis such as shelter locations, evacuation routes, and much more. Google has teamed up with Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau, Water Resource Agency, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, Directorate General of Highways, and the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction to get such a project up and running.

Plants vs Zombies 2 for iOS "soft-launches" in Australia and New Zealand
Pop Cap Games has announced this morning that it has soft-launched the long-awaited Plants vs Zombies 2 for iOS in both Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, it appears that the rollout stops there. Unlike traditional App Store launches, there will be no additional rollouts to other regions at midnight as the rest of the world will have to wait until later this summer to get their zombie killing on.

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Electronic Arts, the parent company of PopCap, says that the reason for this delay is so that the company can test out all of the new systems and features that have been built into the game. Originally a global rollout was scheduled for July 18, but it appears that EA is not taking any chances and wants this launch to go better than some of the titles it has released earlier in the year.
In a statement EA had the following to say:

We've added a bunch of new features that allow us to take advantage of new technologies to make a better experience for our players, and those innovations require us to perform some large tests to make sure we are ready for our worldwide audience to play.

RumorTT: Foxconn said to be hiring new "skilled" workers in preperation for upcoming iPhone production
This morning, China Business News is reporting that Foxconn has began recruiting on a large scale for new workers in preparations for the manufacturing ramp-up of both of Apple's new iPhones. They're reporting that recruiters in Zhengzhou in the Henan province of China have been seeking out skilled labor on a massive scale.

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The Foxconn facility in Zhengzhou reportedly has capacity for an additional 90,000 workers which would bring it back up to its 300,000 workers we saw back during the 2012 holiday season. If last year's demand for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini are any indication of how this year's iPhone 5S and low-cost iPhone sales will go, it makes sense that Foxconn bolster its labor force sooner than later.
In addition to the two new iPhones, the company is expected to also release updated versions of its iPad and iPad mini and some analysts even expect a newer model of Apple TV to be released just before the holiday season.

Digital Storm unveils 13.3-inch VELOCE gaming notebook, features a balance between power and portibility
Earlier this morning, Digital Storm unveiled its new VELOCE gaming notebook, which is being touted as the ideal balance between power and portability. The 13.3-inch gaming notebook packs a serious punch while weighing in at only a mere 4.6 pounds. Digital Storm says that the 1.26-inch thick VELOCE is ready to go to battle anytime, anywhere.

"VELOCE is the gaming notebook the industry has been waiting for," said Rajeev Kuruppu, Digital Storm's Director of Product Development. "The notebook strikes the optimal balance of power and portability without sacrificing gaming performance and is the first Haswell based slim gaming notebook to offer a stunning full 1080p HD display."
The VELOCE features an Intel Core i7 4800MQ Haswell processor, 8GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GTX 765M GPU, and a 13.3-inch full HD 1920x1080 display. Other key features include room for two storage drives (mSATA & 2.5") with RAID capability, a dedicated internal network port, SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 1.4, VGA video out ports and Bluetooth connectivity.
Aesthetically, the VELOCE aggressively matches its powerful configuration with Digital Storm's signature blood red logo slicing across the notebooks black top cover, while the silver and gray interior surrounds the backlit keyboard. Digital Storm says that the VELOCE will be available on July 17 on their website with prices starting at $1,535.

Google resurrects calling from Gmail with Hangouts, makes calls to the US and Canada free
This morning, Google announced that it will once again allow users to make phone calls from within Gmail through the use of Google Hangouts. The company says that it doesn't matter whether its users are on Gmail or on the web; all users will be able to call the US and Canada for free.

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Google says that it heard the cries from many users who were disappointed that they could no longer make calls from within Gmail and this was the major factor in their decision to return the service. Calls can be made to anyone in the US and Canada for free from any country in the world where Hangouts are available. Calls can also be placed outside of North America through the use of Google Voice. A call to India will cost users $0.02 per minute while a call to Mexico will run users $0.15 per minute.
Users do not need to make calls through Gmail alone as Google+ and Chrome extensions also support the feature. The company tells us that with Hangout calls up to 10 people can converse through the video chat while up to five people can participate in voice only. This gives the ability for 15 people to be on the same call it one time.

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Over the past month or so, Google has been testing this through a small group of users. I have had the feature for about five weeks now and through the use of Google Voice, I have been able to answer incoming calls from my cell phone straight through Google Hangouts. The company says that over the next few days it will roll out the service to everyone in North America.

SAPPHIRE bolsters offerings with two new graphics cards from their HD 7700 series
This morning, SAPPHIRE Technology has introduced two new models to its popular HD 7700 series line of discrete graphics cards. Built around AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, this series delivers an affordable yet powerful alternative to more expensive graphics processing units.

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SAPPHIRE's HD 7700 series is an extensive family of graphics cards that target the enthusiast on a budget as well as mainstream users looking for a bump in graphics performance. They are based on AMD's latest generation of GPU's that are built on the 28 nm process. Up first is the new HD 7730 which is available in both 1 GB and 2 GB flavors. The GPU shares many of the features of the higher performance models in the HD 7000 series but features fewer Stream Processors.
Bot versions of the HD 7730 have 384 Stream Processors and both feature a core clock speed of 800 MHz. The 1 GB model features a memory clock speed of 4500 MHz while the 2 GB model has its memory clocked in at 1800 MHz. As with all HD 7700 series cards, both of the new models are DirectX 11.1 compliant and feature the usual DVI, HDMI and VGA connections.

Western Digital WD Se Enterprise HDD Review

Introduction

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WD has released a new SATA 6Gb/s 7,200 RPM HDD in the 3.5" form factor specifically geared for scale-out and NAS environments. This new WD Se makes several trade-offs to provide an economical means of storing massive amounts of data, but also utilizes new technologies to create the desired balance of capacity, performance, reliability and price for users. The WD Se line of HDDs is available in capacities of 2TB (WD2000F9YZ), 3TB (WD3000F9YZ) and 4TB (WD4000F9YZ), at lower pricing than other enterprise HDD's ($160-310 USD).
We have all read about the continuing data explosion. As mobile computing continues its expansion, and higher resolution video and images proliferate, the need to store this vast amount of data is becoming paramount. A recent Digital Universe study revealed that the amount of data created, replicated and consumed in a single year is growing at an annual rate of 46%. This is leading to a future literally overran with data, as evidenced by the prediction that we will be generating 40,000 Exabyte's of data per year in 2020.
This flood of data has created a quandary for many organizations. Through the magic of big data and analytics, even the most mundane unstructured 'disposable' data is valuable. This has led to a redesigning of the datacenter to meet the changing demands of data storage. Facebook is leading the way with new datacenters designed specifically to handle these large amounts of unstructured data in a cost-effective manner.
The WD Se enterprise-class HDD looks to offer these type of applications an economical means of storing large amounts of data in NAS and replicated environments that do not require high performance. The WD Se fits well for users with a need for mass storage for bulk cloud storage, Big Data storage, backup and archiving. Providing this class of HDDs with enterprise features that ensure a higher level of reliability is key. WD accomplished this by leveraging the design and components of the WD Re HDD's.

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WD began by revamping their datacenter portfolio to provide a solution for all levels of performance required in the datacenter. Our focus immediately jumps to the Tier-0 and Tier-3 categories, where we notice that WD has a new SSD in the works, and a future HDD that looks to fulfill the need for massive storage requirements.
The WD Xe resides in the Tier-1 slot and provides high-density performance storage for demanding applications. The Xe is followed closely by the WD Re, which comes in both SAS and SATA flavors. This splits the Tier-2 into two categories, one focused on durability and the other focusing on scalable high capacity storage. The Xe and Re are well suited for RAID environments with higher performance and reliability.
One of the primary differentiators between the Re and the Se is the throughput rating per year. WD is using this new metric to fine-tune their offerings for customers with specific workloads. The WD Re fulfills the durability requirement for Tier-2 with its higher workload rating of 180 TB/year. This higher workload averages out to 1.5TB of data transfers per day. For those with less demanding workloads the WD Se fills out the lower portion of Tier-2 with 550 TB/year or 500 GB per day of use.
The Se also features a markedly lower power consumption in comparison to the Re and Xe HDDs. The Se features a power draw of 9.5W, a reduction of 2 Watts. This is accomplished in large by the relaxed Advanced Format 4K sectors and disabling of unnecessary features in the SOC. The lower performance of the Se will not result in vastly improved IOPS-to-Watts measurements, but in replicated environments the overall power reduction is a welcome addition.
While the Se offers less durability than the Re HDD's, it still provides plenty of enterprise-class features to provide a great solution for those looking to store large amounts of data reliably. TLER, StableTrac, RAFF, an SED option and a five year warranty round out the feature set of the WD Se. Let's take a closer look at these technologies on the following page.
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Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Chassis Review

Introduction

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I am pretty sure that a company like Corsair needs no introduction, and I am also sure most TweakTown readers here have owned at least one part from their vast lineup of components over the years. Since they have jumped into the chassis market with the Obsidian 800D, Corsair has turned the chassis world on its ear, and made quite an entry into the vast and overfilled chassis segment. As I have always said though, it doesn't take a huge company to get recognized, you just have to develop something the masses of buyers out there will absolutely fall in love with. It just happened to be that for Corsair; they were and are a large company, and all the stars aligned for them when they released that chassis into the world.
Along the line, since that release, we have seen more Obsidian chassis designs, but why stop there? Corsair also brought forth two other new series' of cases with the Graphite and the Carbide series lineups. While most of these designs have been a logical evolution in the original design, maybe shrunk down in form factor, but they all seemed to fit a specific mold that made them easily recognizable in each respective series. That was until now. Corsair has again come up with something revolutionary, and while not exactly the first to deliver this concept to the public, they are the first to deliver this concept to me. This truly is a chassis that breaks the mold when you think of what a Carbide series chassis is supposed to be.
Today we are venturing into looking at the Carbide Series Air 540. That bit of the name isn't so much different, but as the title stated, this is an ATX Cube chassis. The main concept with this design was to compartmentalize the motherboard, CPU and video card from the rest of the build. To do this they had to develop a much wider chassis than we normally see. In the second section of the chassis, if you will, is where you can put extra storage drives, optical drives, the power supply, as well as having plenty of room for the wiring. On top of just the basic idea in the frame design, Corsair also offer things like good water cooling compatibility, HDD bays with back planes, and most importantly this chassis is very well ventilated in all aspects.
With all of this information swimming in your head, I say we get to covering all of the technical bits so we can move on to the images, where I am almost certain that the Carbide Air 540 ATX cube will win your heart over.
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GIGABYTE Z87X-OC (Intel Z87) Motherboard Review

Introduction

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GIGABYTE are really one of those companies when it comes to the motherboard segment who do a really fantastic job of catering for all audiences. Some are big, some are small, but no matter what you're looking to do with your computer, GIGABYTE always seem to have a model that will suit your needs.
Today we're looking at the Z87X-OC which of course follows the OC Series of boards from the company. I've become quite a fan of these motherboards for a few reasons. The first is the black and orange color scheme that is present. This is really something different and helps the board stand out against others. The other is the price, you'd think that a board designed for overclocking would be expensive, but to the contrary, they are generally priced quite aggressively.
GIGABYTE are also a board that we tend to have very little issues with when it comes to getting them up and running. But we must admit that any time we're greeted by something that is more performance orientated, we do become a little bit more concerned as more and more options are thrown in front of us.
We won't say much more. We've had a chance to look at a couple of GTX 700 series based video cards in the past few days and from there we've jumped into a motherboard based on the new Z87 chipset. Next up we'll be looking at a new kit of RAM. For now, though, it's all about the new GIGABYTE Z87X-OC. Let's take a look at the package and then move from there to find out just what exactly GIGABYTE are offering us with their latest OC based motherboard.

Package

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There's not exactly a ton to the front of the GIGABYTE box and we have to say we really love the new design that we're seeing on the Z87 based motherboards. Turning over, though, we've got a ton of information on offer with a picture of the board and then a number of the main features highlighted.
Some of these we'll be looking at in more detail in just a moment, but some of the key features include the OC-Touch buttons, OC Ignition, OC Connect, All IR Digital Power Design and 15u Gold Plated CPU, Memory and PCIe power connectors.

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Going inside the box you can see there's not a whole lot to the package. We've got the normal line up of paperwork, along with a driver CD and GIGABYTE sticker. Also included are four SATA cables, I/O backplate, along with a CrossFire and SLI cable.

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Added extras in the box include this new "OC Brace" which can be installed for people not using a case. It makes sure that your video card has proper support when outside of a case. Of course if you're using a case you'll have no need for this. We've also got a number of V-Check Point cables. We'll talk about these a little more when we move onto the motherboard itself on the next page.
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