Sunday, May 17, 2015

IT News Head Lines (Overclockers Club) 5/18/2015

Overclockers Club



COUGAR 600M Gaming Mouse Review
COUGAR 600M Gaming Mouse Review

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Grand Theft Auto V Review


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Patriot Ignite 480GB Review


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Noctua NH-D9L Review


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Noctua NH-U9S Review


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Grand Theft Auto IV 7-Years Later Review


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Thermaltake Core X9 Review


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Crysis 2 4-Years Later Review


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Crysis and Crysis Warhead 7+ Years Later Review


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ECS LIVA X Mini PC Review


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Dragon Age II 4-Years Later Review


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Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition 6-Years Later Review


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Be Quiet! Silent Base 800 Review


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ECS Z97-MACHINE Review
ECS Z97-MACHINE

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X Review


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Bringing Atomic Spin Detection to Room Temperature
Spin is a property of many particles and is at the heart of various technologies, but working with it can be challenging. Typically very powerful fields are necessary to measure it. That may be changing soon though, thanks to researchers at the Universities of Waterloo and Basel, and RWTH Aachen University.
One of the technologies that measures spin is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and doing so takes very powerful magnets, with those in MRI machines actually being superconducting electromagnets. This is despite the fact that the spin of particles produces weak magnetic fields. Ideally weak fields could also be used to measure it, but because of the weakness and noise, this has been impossible until now. According to the researcher's work, a small ferromagnetic particle could amplify the weak field, allowing a nitrogen-vacancy qubit to detect it from 30 nm away, and at room temperature. Without the particle, the distance would have to be 1-2 nm, which is infeasible.
The hope is that this theoretical work could be used to develop superior NMR techniques for imaging biological materials, but more still needs to be done. At least this actually classical technique should be less fragile than other, quantum schemes.
Source: University of Waterloo


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Leaked Intel Roadmap Shows Skylake and Cannonlake Plans Into 2016
A roadmap concerning Intel's Skylake plans has recently leaked, and while the roadmap starts from back in 2013, it carries us into next year. We're nearing the end of the Haswell series, obviously, with Broadwell desktop CPUs expected to arrive on June 2. The Broadwell processors are already here on the M, U, and Y series, but then Skylake will replace those right around the start of quarter four this year. The M processors will stay with Skylake until the very end of 2016, when Cannonlake arrives, but the U and Y series will get the Cannonlake replacements in quarter two of 2016. That doesn't give those series a long time on Skylake, but Cannonlake is expected to be 10nm, so reducing the power consumption makes sense with those.
Moving back to the desktop side, the Skylake processors figure to arrive this September, with the Core i5-6500K and Core i7-6700K leading the pack. Those two will be 95W models, but the Skylake series will have 65W and even 35W models. Next year, during the third quarter of 2016, the Skylake processors will receive a refresh, much like the Haswells did, and maybe even a Devil's Canyon-style refresh. On the high-end side, the Haswell-E series will continue a little while longer, with the Skylake-E chips not expected until the third quarter of 2016. It isn't known what motherboard chipset or even socket those will use, but considering the Skylakes are moving to Z170 and LGA 1151, the Skylake-Es will probably move to something else, too. We'll just have to wait and see what those bring, but first, people have the traditional Skylake CPUs to look forward to.
Intel has plenty in the works for the desktop and mobile side for processors, and I imagine many people are planning some upgrades when Skylake arrives in the next few months.
Source: WCCFtech


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Hardware Roundup: Friday, May 15, 2015, Edition
The end of the week is upon us, with some items to help welcome in the weekend. There is a review of the Acer XB270HU IPS monitor, which has a 27" screen, a 144HZ refresh rate, and support for NVIDIA G-SYNC for some truly smooth gameplay performance. It is also the first screen to support G-SYNC and feature an IPS panel, so it isn't one to miss. We also have a look at the Kingston HyperX FURY Pro Gaming Mouse Pad, a 4mm thick mouse pad that comes in four different sizes, including an extra large 420mm x 900mm. The LUXA2 Lavi L Bluetooth headphones are designed for those on the go who don't want to skimp out on the audio fidelity. A new case mod, dubbed Parvum Warfare, is showcased that is an Advanced Warfare-themed build in partnership with Parvum Systems. Ending the day is a podcast featuring the latest news and reviews from the past week.
Monitors

Acer XB270HU 27-in 1440P 144Hz IPS G-Sync Monitor @ PC Perspective
Mouse Pads

Kingston HyperX FURY Pro Gaming Mouse Pad @ LanOC Reviews
Speakers/Headphones

LUXA2 Lavi L Bluetooth Headphones @ ThinkComputers
Miscellany

Case Mod Friday: Parvum Warfare @ ThinkComputers

Podcast #349 @ PC Perspective


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TRENDnet Releases AC750 Wireless Travel Router
TRENDnet, a leading global networking hardware brand, has released its AC750 Wireless Travel Router. The latest product from TRENDnet, model TEW-817DTR, provides ultimate connectivity for travelers who require access to IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac wireless networks by turning a wired Internet connection into a wireless network. Zak Wood, the Marketing Director for TRENDnet, noted that "Our TEW-817DTR keeps all devices connected by broadcasting concurrent Wi-Fi AC and Wi-Fi N networks.” The AC750 offers pre-encrypted Wi-Fi, WISP mode, GREENnet technology, and support for PSec, PPTP, and L2TP VPN passthrough. The AC750 Wireless Travel Router also comes with North American, UK, and Euro electrical plug adapters that allow users to enjoy the product while travelling through various regions of the world.
TRENDnet’s AC750 Wireless Travel Router comes with a three-year limited warranty and features an MSRP of $54.99.
Source: Press Release


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128GB DDR4 Unbuffered Memory Kits Released by Corsair
Corsair, a worldwide leader in high-performance PC hardware components, has announced the official release of the world’s first available 128GB DDR4 unbuffered memory kits. The kits are featured across the company’s Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum Series lines, and offer content creators and other computer enthusiasts with an unprecedented amount of high-speed DDR4 SDRAM. Corsair is touting that while the first available kits comes in speeds of 2666MHz and 2400MHz, higher speed versions will be announced in the near future. All three available 128GB DDR4 unbuffered memory kits are designed for the latest Intel X99 series motherboards, support XMP 2.0, and feature a lifetime warranty.
The 128GB DDR4 kits can be purchased from the Corsair website and the company’s worldwide network of authorized distributors and resellers, with the 2400MHz Vengeance LPX priced at $1754.99, the 2400MHz Dominator Platinum at $1979.99, and the 2666MHz Dominator Platinum coming in at $2119.99.
Source: Press Release


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Material Supercooled and Glows When Touched
Typically when a material's temperature crosses a transition point, it will change phase, but there are ways around this, allowing a phase to persist when you would not expect it. Researchers at the University of Michigan have demonstrated this quite elegantly when they balanced two opposing crystallization mechanisms in a material. This resulted in the material staying liquid about 200 ºF below its freezing point.
The material the researchers were working with is part of a family of organic materials commonly used as pigments in electronics. They all feature a rigid core with two flexible side chains, and depending on the length of the chains, the molecules will take on one crystal structure or another. What the researchers did is balance the chains' length to cause the two modes to counter each other. Normally the material crystalizes at 273 ºF but this balance allowed it to stay liquid at 41 ºF, and cooling it further caused it to solidify into a gas. While in its supercooled state, the material was sensitive to pressure, depending on its temperature. At high temperatures even the weight of a cell would cause it to crystallize, but at room temperature and lower, a stylus was required. Even then, the crystallization was so sluggish that the researchers could write messages in the material, as the crystallized regions glowed under UV light.
This material could have some interesting uses, including as a biosensor and as an optical memory. Its ability to encode information optically could be useful, but much more work is required to develop its potential.





Source: University of Michigan


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New Game Bundles Available For AMD Video Cards
AMD has announced a new bundle, pairing its R200 series video cards with DiRT Rally, perhaps in an attempt to match recent offerings from NVIDIA. The AMD bundle may pale in comparison to the NVIDIA offering of Batman: Arkham Knight and The Witcher 3, but Newegg and GPU manufacturers are hoping to sweeten the deal by also including Grand Theft Auto V. This could be to help "move existing stock before the new R300-series cards arrive," but anyway you view it, it is always nice to get free stuff.
Source: PC World


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Release Date Confirmed For Intel i7-5775C and i5-5675C
Information about the upcoming Broadwell processors from Intel has become available in bits and pieces over the past few weeks. The Core i5-5675C and i7-5775C started to arrive at OEMs about a week ago with an anticipated public release of "soon." Benchmarks using an engineering sample of the i7-5775C were released yesterday by Chinese site HKEPC showing some impressive overclocking numbers. It has now been confirmed that the release date will match earlier speculation of a near Computex arrival, with the official release coming on June 2.
Source: WCCF Tech


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Electron Lenses are Now Closer than Ever
Researchers at MIT have managed to corral electrons in graphene in a new way that allows for tunability and high quality. Corrals have been made before, but these were always static and thus had limited potential. With this new technique though, the researchers were able to create a resonator that could have more applications than can be imagined currently.
This new method is surprisingly simple as it just places the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope over the graphene. This causes a circular barrier to form around the tip, which acts as a curved mirror and creates a whispering gallery effect. In optics, whispering gallery resonators have been used for sensing, spectroscopy, and communication, but have the issue of not being tunable. This is however, as the junction between the positive and negative regions the tip produces can be controlled. Also the tip can be moved around the graphene sheet, which opens up other possibilities. Even without that though, such a resonator could be turned into various devices, including electron lenses that could observe systems a thousand times smaller than light is able to, but without the high-energy electron beams of electron microscopy.
Using the tip of an electron microscope comes with two benefits for this and future work. One is that the tip can both create the resonator and be used to observe the system. The other is that the tips are a well-established technology already, which should make deploying this technology easier.
Source: MIT


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Konami Shifts Its Focus to Mobile Gaming
The recent strangeness that has occured at Konami has finally become clear, as the company's new CEO Hideki Hayakawa states mobile gaming is now Konami's future. Speaking in an interview with Nikkei Trendy Net and translated by a user at NeoGAF, Hayakawa had the following to say:
Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies. We hope that our overseas games such as Metal Gear Solid V and Winning Eleven continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too. With multiplatform games, there's really no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. Mobiles will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world.

After seeing P.T. removed from the PlayStation Store, the cancellation of Silent Hills, and Hideo Kojima's upcoming departure (and removal of his name from digital games), many were left wondering just what Konami was doing. Now we know, and that future is mobile. From a business standpoint it makes sense, since a mobile game can rake in huge amounts of profit for minimal development risk, while big PC/console games take up a lot of resources and may not perform as well as hoped. Going with a mobile gaming focus can mean more games released on smaller budgets, with a potentially larger audience picking them up. It also is perfect to make a ton of money when you factor in micro-transactions, because there will always be some people willing to spend a ton of cash on that one addicting mobile game. The Japanese market is huge on mobile gaming, so this probably played into Konami's decision more than other markets. Nintendo is also delving into mobile gaming, just nowhere close to Konami's level, so maybe this is just a sign of changing times.
Despite all of this, it is rather sad to see a company like Konami change its focus in such a way. Perhaps the last great Konami game we'll have on PC and consoles is Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain when it arrives this September. Things may change later on, but right now, Konami is going mobile-only.
Source: NeoGAF


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Two GTA V Mods Found to Contain Malware
It has been discovered that two mods for Grand Theft Auto V contained malware. These mods are Angry Planes and No Clip, so if you have them, be sure to remove them and you can follow this thread for how to remove the malware: GTA Forums - Malware inside Angry Planes & Noclip Mod.
It appears the malware was designed to hijack active sessions for different sites and systems, including Facebook, Twitch, and Steam. It also contained a keylogger and other modules, some of which have not yet been identified. Besides removing the malware it is recommended you make new sessions at the sites listed and create new passwords for them as well.
Source: GTA5-Mods.com and GTA Forums - Malware inside Angry Planes & Noclip Mod


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Geralt Has "A Night to Remember" in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Launch Cinematic
Yesterday, CD Projekt RED released a short teaser for a new trailer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It was entirely CGI and gave us the briefest glimpse of what was to come, and today we now have the full cinematic launch trailer. Titled "A Night to Remember," this trailer sees Geralt of Rivia doing what he does best: hunting monsters. It opens with a woman singing a fairly haunting tune next to a moonlit lake before she picks up an old doll. Then Geralt steps into the picture and talks to the woman, albeit with his sword drawn. This woman is not entirely what she seems to be, as we soon discover. Geralt quaffs a potion and goes on the hunt. There are some NSFW moments in it, so just be mindful of where you watch it. This trailer is certainly not one to miss, so sit back, relax, and enjoy some witcher's work.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt arrives on May 19 for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is now available for pre-load on GOG, Steam, and Xbox One, if you've pre-ordered it. You can also pick up an Expansion Pass to add 30 extra hours of content to the game, if the 100 or so hours already aren't quite enough for you.
Source: YouTube


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Hardware Roundup: Thursday, May 14, 2015, Edition
The week is drawing to a close, but not before we have some items for you to check out. There is a review of the Fractal Design Define S mid-tower case, which resembles the popular R5 case, but with some revised features and a lower cost. We also have the RAIDMAX Viper GX II case, with its unique look, top vents, and even a hot-swappable hard drive bay. For storage needs, the Patriot Ignite M2 480GB SSD gets put to the test to see what it brings to the table. Finishing off the day is a video review of the AKRACING Ergonomic Gaming Chair, a different model than the one we reviewed, but still quite stylish.
Cases

Fractal Design Define S @ PC Perspective

RAIDMAX Viper GX II @ Benchmark Reviews
Storage/Hard Drives

Patriot Ignite M2 480GB SSD @ LanOC Reviews
Miscellany

Video Perspective: AKracing (AK-6014) Ergonomic Gaming Chair @ PC Perspective


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Windows 10 Will be Available in Six Different Versions
While Windows 10 will apparently be the last major version of the iconic operating system, Tony Prophet, the Corporate Vice President of Windows and Search Marketing at Microsoft, has revealed that Windows 10 will be offered in six different versions, not including the three embedded and Internet of Things versions. The six versions that Windows 10 will be available in include Home, Pro, Enterprise, Education, Mobile, and Mobile Enterprise. The Home version will be focused on the mainstream consumer market, while the Pro version will cater to power users, technology enthusiasts, and mobile workers. The Enterprise edition of Windows 10 will be available to volume-licensing customers and feature the ability to only receive new security updates that Microsoft pushes out, and the education version will be available through academic volume licensing and is developed for staff, administrators, teachers, and students. The Mobile version is developed for small Intel and ARM tablets, as well as Windows Phones, and the Mobile Enterprise version is catered towards volume-licensing customers and offers the latest security and feature updates to users.
Standalone pricing, licensing specifics, and detailed feature sets have not yet been revealed by Microsoft regarding its six versions of the Windows 10 operating system.
Source: ZDNet


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Easier Way of Making Black Silicon Discovered
In general, simplifying a process by reducing steps is a good thing for a number of reasons, such as reducing costs and improving scalability. Researchers at Rice University have recently discovered a way to remove some steps to the production of black silicon for use as solar cells. This discovery could bring the technology closer to commercialization.
Black silicon is silicon with a special textured surface with features smaller than the wavelength of light. This makes it very efficient at capturing light at any angle. The Rice researchers have been working to fine tune the creation process for a while, but were surprised to find that the electrodes were actually able to catalyze the etching process, removing the need for other catalyst particles. Normally the metal electrodes are added last, but when the researchers had applied the electrodes earlier, and then repeated the process without the catalyst, they found black silicon formed near the electrodes.
Interestingly the etching always occurred the same distance from the electrodes, which was actually a tip-off to what was happening. An electrochemical process is causing the etching and the distance away from the electrodes is determined by the conductivity of the silicon, because after a point the charge carriers cannot move any farther. Now the trick is to optimize the process further, which the researchers suggest could be by applying a thin layer of gold on top of the silicon, with titanium sandwiched between, because it bonds well to both.
Source: Rice University


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Available Tags:Gaming , Thermaltake , NVIDIA , GeForce , GTX , Intel , Hardware , Wireless , Router , DDR4 , AMD , Windows

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