IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 16/05/2014

Thursday, May 15, 2014

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 16/05/2014

TweakTown

First glimpse of Bruce Lee in new EA Sports UFC video game
EA Sports has provided gamers a teaser of the newest Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) game, featuring martial arts legend Bruce Lee. "EA Sports UFC" is scheduled to be released on June 17 for the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 game consoles.

Lee is one of the most iconic martial arts actors of all time, and has many fans in the mixed martial arts (MMA) community, including fighters and fans alike. Meanwhile, this will be the first EA UFC video game following a licensing deal from THQ.

TweakTown image first_glimpse_of_bruce_lee_in_new_ea_sports_ufc_video_game

Elon Musk to help fund Nikola Tesla Museum thanks to The Oatmeal
According to reports, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX Elon Musk agreed to help fund the Nikola Tesla Museum, thanks to Matthew Inman's illustration in The Oatmeal.

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Inman led the fundraising via Indiegogo to bring up a museum based on Nikola Tesla's invention by using one of his facilities which was going to be torn down. Inman was able to successfully raise $1.5 million to buy the property in time. He needed to raise $8 million more so that the facility can be converted into a museum.
Recently he posted a two-part comic about owning a Tesla Model S. In part One he called it as a 'magical space car' and in Part 2, it was about asking Tesla Motor's Elon Musk to help him fund for the museum via twitter. Inman explained why it would be a good gesture for the electric car company to help fund this project.
Nikola Tesla is one of the most iconic inventors but was also known not to be good with business. He did patent the AC induction motor 126 years ago. When the patent expired, anyone was free to use the technology. Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 and made cars based on the AC induction motors. While Tesla Motors was free to use his surname and his invention without giving any royalties to the Tesla family, they would appreciate a little bit of help.
As a response, Inman said in the part 2 of the comic,"You owe us nothing, and you've done nothing but good things in the name of Nikola Tesla. But the fact remains: Tesla Motors, a company now worth billion, is using Nikola Tesla's name and they're using his technology, and all we want in return is a little bit of help".
Inman also said that this is not a demand or an acquisition, let alone a plea. Rather its a polite request from a humongous fan. As a response, Elon Musk said that he would be happy to help. Though its not yet reported in what capacity he'll help, in any case it should significantly help to forward the project.

Comcast to implement data caps all its subscribers within 5 years
Comcast executive Vice President David Cohen said during an investor call that he is expecting a 'usage-based' billing system to reach all of its subscribers within five years.

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He also said,"I would also predict that the vast majority of our customers would never be caught in the buying the additional buckets of usage, that we will always want to say the basic level of usage at a sufficiently high level that the vast majority of our customers are not implicated by the usage-based billing plan."
Though for a particular number of customers may not be affected by the data cap, different type of users who consume moderate-to-heavy consumption of bandwidth would be affected. Among them would be those who use the internet for video streaming. One would imagine that this will obviously affect movie streaming services.
As of now, the company will be pushing a 300 GB data cap. Once you cross the data cap limit, Comcast will charge $10 for your next 50GB bandwidth. The company is having a trial run in selected areas of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and few other places in other states.

NVIDIA's drivers affected Titan-Z's overall performance
As previously reported, NVIDIA was supposed to release its GeForce Titan-Z flagship video card on April 29th, but the company delayed its plans, moving it to May 8th.

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However since NVIDIA didn't launch that card on May 8th, speculations were on a rise about why it wasn't launched until a leaked benchmarks from a review site indicated that the video card with dual GK110 GPU is slower than AMD Radeon R9 295X2. It was also assumed that NVIDIA was bumping the card's clock speed to boost its performance.
As it turns out, the reason why NVIDIA didn't release Titan-Z yet because the existing drivers stifled its performance. Since the card was slower than AMD's flagship in some tests, it didn't justify the predicted price of $2,999. NVIDIA is trying to fix the problem by developing drivers to make it significantly faster than AMD Radeon R9 295X2 which is costs around $1,499.
It was also revealed that NVIDIA requested retailers and distributors not to sell GTX Titan-Z until they've released the drivers. However, the company didn't reveal any dates to its sales channels.

Sony's financials battered, forecasts losses until 2015
Japanese electronics giant Sony expects a massive $489 million loss during this financial year, as company CEO Kazuo Hirai struggles to turn his company around. Meanwhile, Sony will spend up to $1.32 billion to try and restructure through March 31, 2015, and financial analysts believe it will take some time before Sony can try to recover.

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Earlier in the year, Sony confirmed it would sell off its PC unit and TV business, along with laying off 5,000 employees. The VAIO PC sale will be completed by July, as Japan Industrial Partners will try to add some sales and marketing power to the brand.
Here is what Sony CFO Kenichiro Yoshida said during a financial call: "In previous years the restructuring was mostly within business units and in manufacturing. This time the difference is that we are quitting businesses entirely."

Samsung KNOX smartphone approved for British government
The Samsung KNOX security platform, designed to provide an additional layer of security for Google Android smartphones, has been approved for use by the British government. The UK Communications and Electronics Security Group (CESG) has tested KNOX for a few months, ensuring public sector communications would remain secured.

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Samsung KNOX has been approved in the UK for the following devices: Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S5 smartphones.
"Our technology is widely used in both the UK public and private sector, and with this approval we are committed to working more closely with government departments and agencies that need to maintain high levels of security and data confidentiality on their mobile devices," said Graham Long, Samsung UK and Ireland VP, in a press statement.
BlackBerry smartphones once dominated corporations and government agencies, though has struggled to keep up with Android devices and Apple iPhones.

Amazon opening Silicon Valley distribution center in Newark
Popular e-tailer Amazon is hiring for a new distribution center that will be located in Newark, California, located 20 miles from San Jose and about 40 miles from San Francisco. The new warehouse will be located in a 574,000-square-foot building, and should open up hundreds of new jobs in Silicon Valley, according to Newark Mayor Alan Nagy.

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"That's going to mean, I believe, a couple hundred jobs, which certainly this area can use," Mayor Nagy told the San Francisco Business Times. "I think it bodes well for our Newark residents that want to apply for a job there, that want to work close to home."
In the Bay Area, Amazon Prime members tend to receive product orders in one or two days, shipped from a distribution center located in North Las Vegas. Amazon has a research and development center already located in the South Bay, and with high demand of Northern California shoppers, a Newark-based facility makes sense.

Cybercriminals honing their craft, targeting users efficiently
Cybercriminals are largely motivated by money and are honing their abilities to find new methods to crack through security measures and compromise users. Despite a wide variety of new security measures available, end-users are the last line of defense, and it seems that we are largely failing to help ourselves.

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"If someone really wants to find a way to target you, they will probably find a way, said Jeff Wilson, Principal Security analyst with Infonetics, which continues to be proven true.
Earlier in the year, Microsoft said malware infections tripled in 2013, with security threats continually evolving and causing both researchers and users headaches. To make matters worse, the use of clever social engineering has tricked users to install malicious software, turn over sensitive information, and makes it even easier to be compromised.

Report: Iranian-linked Ajax security attacks continue in cyber wars
Iranian hackers are targeting U.S. private sector defense companies and Iranian dissidents. The Iranian-based Operation Saffron Rose has evolved from simple website defacement to a sophisticated cyberespionage operation utilizing advanced persistent threats (APTs) attacking US defense companies.

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Security researchers are increasingly concerned about the Iranian government's growing cyberwar ambitions, which will largely be used to target the United States. Social engineering techniques, which are continually being improved upon, also leads to an increased number of western Internet users infected with malware.
Here is what FireEye said in a statement: "There is an evolution underway within Iranian-based hacker groups that coincides with Iran's efforts at controlling political dissent and expanding its offensive cyber capabilities," said Nart Villeneuve, senior threat intelligence researcher at FireEye. "We have witnessed not only growing activity on the part of Iranian-based threat actors, but also a transition to cyber-espionage tactics. We no longer see these actors conducting attacks to simply spread their message, instead choosing to conduct detailed reconnaissance and control targets' machines for longer-term initiatives."

Yahoo acquires Blink, SnapChat's biggest rival, plans to shut it down
A growing trend in the tech world seems to be building a product designed to get you noticed by the big tech companies in hopes that they will acquire you for your talent and IP, and that seems to be exactly what has just happened to SnapChat rival Blink. Blink is an app that allows users to send self destructing instant messages, and functions similarly to how SnapChat works, and today the company announced that Yahoo has swooped in and picked it up.

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"I can confirm that the entire team behind Blink will be joining our mobile team in Sunnyvale where they will focus on smart communication products," a Yahoo rep confirmed in a statement. Unfortunately, Yahoo plans to shut Blink down and will use the development team and founders to work on other Yahoo products. Details of the acquisition were not very clear, and at the moment, no word on how much the deal was worth has been released.

Watch out Whatsapp, WeChat has almost 400 million monthly active users
Facebook's Whatsapp may have some contending to do in the coming months for its top spot in the world of mobile instant messaging. Today Whatsapp rival, WeChat, announced its earnings report for the first quarter of its fiscal 2014 year. While this would not usually be major news, the fact that WeChat grew by almost 50 million active monthly users caught our eye.

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At the end of 2013, WeChat had about 355 million active monthly users, and now the company is reporting that during the first quarter of 2014, it managed to grow its user base to 396 million active monthly users. This number covers both WeChat and Weixin, the Chinese version of the app. With user numbers rising this fast, we could see WeChat top 500 million by the end of the year.

Samsung could reveal its Gear Glass wearable in September at IFA
It looks like Samsung may be the first to offer up a true competitor to Google's Glass with its Gear Glass wearable smartglasses. New reports are suggesting that Samsung will launch the new wearable at the 2014 IFA conference held later this year in berlin Germany. The launch would take place in September, with retail sales beginning before the holiday season is over.

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Unlike Google Glass which runs on a version of Android, Samsung's Gear Glass will run a version of its Tizen operating system that has been dramatically slimmed down to only offer the needed functionality. Rumors suggest that this will limit the device to use only with other Samsung Galaxy and Gear products, much like Samsung's Gear smartwatch. Personally, I see this as a major flaw, but it seems to be working out for Samsung so far. Unfortunately no mention was made of what the Gear Glass wearable may cost, but I would not be surprised if it is upwards of $1000 USD.

Humble Bundle is offering a new bundle everyday for the next two weeks
If you have read my past news stories on the Humble Bundle, you know that I am huge fan of the service and today I am happy to report that Humble is taking things to the next level. Every day for the next 13 days, Humble will offer a new Humble Daily Bundle with some of the hottest games from the last few years. The bundles will only be available for 24 hours, so keep checking back every day for a new bundle.

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For anyone looking to bolster their game collection, or even create their first collection, this would be an excellent way to land 50-100 games for less than $150, assuming you pay $10 per bundle. The first bundle available is a reappearance of the DeepSilver bundle and includes games such as Saints Row: The Third, Saints Row 2, Risen 2, Scared 2 and more.

New phishing scam targets Google users, tries to steal passwords
Google account owners are being targeted by a new round of phishing attack, with cybercriminals targeting uniform resource identifiers (URIs) that helps display data in Google Chrome. The attack is mainly targeted at Chrome users, but has also reportedly succeeded against Mozilla Firefox users as well, according to security researchers.

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The initial introduction email mimics something sent from Google, with email subjects of "New Lockout Notice" or "Mail Notice" in the subject line. The email itself is written poorly, with bad grammar and odd capitalizations, though that hasn't stopped users from being tricked due to the email.
"With access to users' Google accounts, hackers can buy apps on Google Play, hijack Google+ accounts and access confidential Google Drive documents," said Catalin Cosoi, Bitdefender chief security strategist, in a statement to Infosecurity. "The scam starts with an email allegedly sent by Google, with 'Mail Notice' or 'New Lockout Notice' as a subject."

IHS says that Google Glass hardware costs only a fraction of the price
At $1500 the Google Glass headset it easily the most expensive wearable on the market. IHS has laid hands-on one of the Glass headsets and is now offering some details on exactly how much it costs Google to build one of the devices. According to the IHS teardown, Google spends only $152.47 to build a Glass headset.

$TweakTown image ihs_says_that_google_glass_hardware_costs_only_a_fraction_of_the_price$

That is a tiny fraction for the $1500 selling price. IHS throws Google a bone and says that much of the costs of a device like Glass can come from things that have nothing to do with the hardware. The additional cost for the device comes from things like engineering costs, software development, and tooling.
A previous teardown from Techinsight's Teardown.com estimated the cost of Google Glass at an even lower $79.98. While it's hard for many consumers to see justification is such a massive markup over build costs, perhaps the huge difference in cost for components and the sales price leaves the door open for a big price cut on the tech in the future.

Google Maps update adds public transportation details in Great Britain
Google Maps has issued an update for the app that adds in public transportation details for people traveling in Great Britain. The update adds in train and bus details across England, Scotland, and Wales. Users can now access public transportation info for London and the South East using the iOS and Android apps.

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Desktop users of Google Maps will also be able to search National Express and Traveline data along with data on other local and national operators. Those operators include Centro and Merseyside. Data in the updated apps include info on almost 17,000 routes and 34,000 stopping points, ferry points, and stations.
Users can get data on routes, departures, and interchanges and how far the distance between each station is. Google plans to eventually add data for Northern Ireland. The recent updates mark one of the biggest integrations of public data Google has ever conducted.

LG set to start selling Lifeband Touch wearable globally
LG is ready to step into the wearables market big time with the Lifeband Touch. The wearable health device will go on sale in North America this weekend. The Lifeband Touch has a small 0.9-inch OLED screen and real-time access to all sorts of fitness data.

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LG designed the Lifeband Touch to offer the user access to data so they can track a workout and adjust their workout plans accordingly. Power for the device comes from a 90mAh internal battery. LG claims that the battery is good for up to five days of use per charge.
LG's wearable can connect to devices running Android and iOS with interaction with the LG Fitness app, MyFitnessPal, Runkeeper, and MapMyFitness. The device will also have clip on heart rate earphones that can measure blood flow through the ears. Three band sizes will be offered and it will launch in the UK, Spain, Italy, and Australia after the North American launch.

Nikon J4 and S2 mirrorless cameras debut with interchangeable lenses
Nikon has added a pair of new digital mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras to its line of offerings. The new cameras include the J4 and the S2 with both of them falling into the Nikon 1 line. The S2 has a resolution of 14.2MP and the J4 has a resolution of 18.4MP.

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The two cameras share the same ISO range up to 12800 and are compact and lighter than the previous cameras in the line. Nikon's J4 will ship this month for $650 including a 3x optical zoom kit lens. In June, the Nikon 1 S2 will ship with an 11-27.5mm lens and sell for $450.
Those two cameras make the mirrorless interchangeable lens series more affordable for entry-level shooters. Features to improve image quality are built into both cameras. Both of the cameras also support 1080p video recording and creative effects. Both cameras can also shoot bursts at up to 20fps.

ZTE announces the Concord II smartphone for T-Mobile and MetroPCS
ZTE has just announced the new Concord II smartphone for both T-Mobile and MetroPCS, a mid-range smartphone that is available for $0 on a two-year contract with T-Mobile. The ZTE Concord II features a close-to-stock version of Android, too.

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Moving onto specs, the ZTE Concord II features a 4-inch WVGA (800x480) display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1820mAh battery, 4GB of internal flash memory which is expandable up to 32GB through microSD. We have Android 4.3 Jelly Bean on-board, so not the latest version of Android, but at least it is closer to stock than most other handsets.
Lixin Cheng, Chairman and CEO of ZTE USA says: "The Concord II from ZTE offers that ideal combination of functionality and affordable pricing so consumers can stay connected with family and friends on a sleek device within their budget. With the arrival of the all-new Concord II at T-Mobile and MetroPCS, ZTE is able to continue our mission of giving consumers a range of choices through a wide variety of smartphone devices".

BlackBerry opens doors to third party management of its devices
BlackBerry has announced a major new change that will allow third party firms to have control over its devices. The smartphone maker has opened its platform up to management by third party mobile management applications.

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The move means that BlackBerry smartphones can now be controlled by AirWatch, Citrix, SAP, and IBM. Third party management is available for devices running BlackBerry 10 as the operating system. BlackBerry is hoping that the new policy will make its devices more appealing to enterprise users in a mixed device BYOD network.
Despite opening the platform up to third party firms, BlackBerry plans to continue to focus on its own Enterprise Mobility Management platform. That platform helps in the deployment and management of work apps and content rather than control over the devices alone.

Yahoo gobbles up mobile messaging app startup Blink, shuts it down
Yahoo has announced that it has purchased a Snapchat-like mobile messaging app called Blink. Blink allowed people to send messages that would self-destruct and allowed them to control who sees their messages and how long those people could see them. Fans of Blink won't be thrilled to hear that Yahoo plans to shut the company down.

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Blink apps on the iOS and Android platforms will be shutting down in the coming weeks. What Yahoo will do with the tech and talent that it acquired with the purchase is unknown. Presumably, Yahoo will rebrand the tech as its own and re-launch it at some point in the future.
Mobile messaging apps like Blink, Snapchat, and others are very popular right now. Snapchat settled charges with regulators in the US recently having to do with deceiving customers about the images and messages they sent using the app disappearing when there were several ways that people receiving the images could save them forever.

Google "very actively" working on autonomous car tech
Google has been working on self-driving cars for years now and it looks like the company is close to making the tech commercially viable. Google has been demonstrating the cars in California and the founder of Google X has said that it is "very actively" working on the technology with a major goal in sight.

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Google wants the tech to be available for drivers in the next three years. Sergey Brin has said in the past that the tech for driverless cars could be available by 2017. One of the goals behind the autonomous car tech Google is working on is to make the cars safer for everyone on the road.
So far, it's rather unclear exactly how Google will package and sell the tech. It could partner with a major automaker to integrate the technology needed for an autonomous car into a vehicle. It might also be able to sell the tech to drivers who can have it installed on an existing car.

AMD slashes the price of its Radeon R9 280 to $249, down from $279
After quite some time of inflated prices thanks to crytocurrency users snapping up Radeon GPUs, AMD has stamped in a new official price cut on its Radeon R9 280 GPU. The price has come down from the inflated MSRP of $279, to $249, starting today.

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AMD has priced its slightly-faster Radeon R9 280X at $299, and the 270X at $199, so there's a $50 increase to the R9 280 from the 270X, or a $50 decrease from the 280X, depending on which GPU you were considering. AMD can now better compete with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 760 which is also priced at $249.
We should see the price drop filter down to retailers over the next couple of days.

Gmail for Android has been downloaded over 1 billion times
Gmail has been the most widely used e-mail service in the world for close to two years, but Google has just reached another important milestone: Gmail for Android has become the first app in the Google Play Store to reach 1 billion downloads.

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The 1 billion number might not represent 1 billion active Gmail users, but the Mountain View-based search giant did report that it had over 425 million active monthly users back in 2012. This is a number that is sure to have exponentially grown, along with its mobile OS, Android.

Rockstar to release its first game on the PS4 and Xbox One next year
We are starting to hear about the first game from Rockstar Games that will hit the next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony, something that the Grand Theft Auto developer will release before April 2015, according to Take-Two Interactive's CEO, Strauss Zelnick.

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Zelnick said: "Rockstar Games is hard at work on their upcoming lineup, and we're excited about what they have in store for the new generation of systems this fiscal year". Rockstar Games' 2015 fiscal year runs between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015. We should expect the studio to unveil this game as Grand Theft Auto V for the PS4 and Xbox One, but we could be pleasantly surprised with something new, too.
We could see it turn into Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA V for next-gen consoles, or something completely different. We will find out soon enough.

Enermax Liqmax 120S AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Introduction, Specifications and Pricing

TweakTown image enermax_liqmax_120s_aio_liquid_cpu_cooler_review

When it comes to AIOs, Corsair, Antec, and a select few others including OEM versions, were the only choices available for quite a long time. While many companies previously offered their own water cooling concepts (like Thermaltake did back in the day), we now see that most companies have conformed to a general standard for AIOs. Everyone who has the money to take on the market is opting to release some form of an AIO to get a cut of this huge market that has really been booming for a few manufacturers over the past couple of years.
This is where Enermax has stepped in. At the same time they are releasing coolers like the ETS-N30-HE we just had a look at, Enermax is also offering us up a trio of new AIO coolers. As with many companies, there will be a slim single radiator design, a better single radiator version for more extreme purposes, and there will also be a dual radiator cooled solution as well. That pretty much covers the market with a mainstream line; there is the slim design, something a little better and trimmed out a bit better, then of course there is the version for those with big dreams of a very heavy overclock on your processor.
It seems they have covered the market pretty well, but how do these AIOs stack up against similar solutions? That is precisely why we are here today as we look at the Liqmax 120S. There are two versions of this cooler though, and that is something to keep in mind when looking at them online.
There is a high performance version designated with the ELC-LM120S-HP naming, but we were given the slightly fancier model, the ELC-LM120S-TAA that comes with the less powerful Apollish fan in the box. Even though we received a model that by specifications should prove to almost underperform, we think the results may surprise you, since they did surprise us when we saw just how well the Liqmax 120S and Apollish 120mm fan combination did in our testing.

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Following the chart as we cover the specifications, we see both models shown at the top, and for the most part, they are identical. They come with a copper cold plate and the ceramic bearing based pump sitting right on top of it, enclosed in a black plastic design that is different from all other AIOs we have seen. The radiator portion of the loop is made of aluminum, and due to the use of mixed metals, a special coolant is used, which travels back and forth through 310mm of FEP tubing with a protective corrugated cover.
While both coolers offer all of the same mounting capabilities, we see where the difference is found when we get to the fans. The left side shows that the HP model offers a 120mm fan capable of 110 CFM, and a huge static pressure rating of 7.4 mmH2O. The version we are testing offers 105 CFM of air flow, but only 3.7 mmH2O. Both fans are rated at the same noise level, and the only other major difference is that the TAA model offers LED lighting in the fan.
As we look around for these coolers, we find some really affordable price tags on these models. From what we can gather, the high performance, or HP version of this kit starts with pricing right around $75 U.S. dollars and goes up from there depending on location. As for the model we've received, there is a $5 premium for the Apollish Advance fan that comes with this kit. As of right now, the pricing seems very reasonable when compared to other AIOs in this category, and we feel the styling is different enough that it may even make you want to swap out an older AIO. Keep reading and see if the Liqmax 120S is the new AIO for you.
PRICING: You can find the ENERMAX LIQMAX 120S for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.
United States: The ENERMAX LIQMAX 120S (ECL-LM120S-TTA) retails for $79.99 at Amazon and the ENERMAX LIQMAX 120S (ECL-LM120S-HP) retails for $74.99 at Amazon.
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Icy Dock ToughArmor Series Overview Review

Introduction

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We've tested Icy Dock's innovative line of storage products for years and used them for even longer. I use a few of the company's products religiously in my test SSD test systems. The reason why is because the products allow me to quickly swap one drive for another and don't degrade performance, a critical issue when measuring performance in a professional manner.
The Icy Dock ToughArmor product series uses all metal construction and allows users to install multiple devices in small spaces. The MB996SP-6SB is a great example of providing a quality enclose that packs six 2.5-inch drives in a single 5.25-inch drive bay. It's impossible to increase density further. That unit also allows the user to decrease clutter inside the computer case because it reduces the number of power cables to the drive location. Adding even more sugar to the mixture, the MB996SP-6SB adds a small--but silent--fan to cool the drives directly and pull air into the system.
We're taking a close look at the entire ToughArmor products series today. We have all five models in the product line up in the lab. All of the enclosures use Icy Dock's EZ-Slide drive carriers in a full metal enclosure for easy and reliable operation.
The ToughArmor series was overbuilt for a reason. The metal is dense and doesn't bend under normal use. If you run over the enclosures with a SUV, you might have an issue, but we'll test that later in this review.
We've tested drive enclosures in the past made of plastic and had issues with sliding the drives in but missing the SATA ports. This puts stress on SATA power and data connector, which can damage the drive and the enclosure. The Icy Dock ToughArmor products we've used never have this issue.
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