Tech News
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Gigabyte X99P-SLI Motherboard Review @ Hardware Canucks
Some may say that the X99 has fallen out of popularity after the launch of Skylake. Given the number of X99 reviews out in the wild it may seem that way or, just a product of an expensive motherboard that the marketing departments cannot afford.
I, for one, would love to see more X99 reviews followed by some more performance testing in the overclocking and GPU space.
The X99 platform may not be known for affordability but Gigabyte's new X99P-SLI aims to change that opinion with USB 3.1, M.2, great overclocking, quad GPU support and more for less than $250.
This board from Gigabyte is following the traditional 4-way GPU slot configuration with upgraded audio and normal compliment of Ultra Durable features. It even comes with the PCI Express slot reinforcements for extra strength when that unsupported video tries to get away while you throw your computer around like a crazed delivery driver.
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MP4Nation Brainwavz HM5 Headphones @ techPowerUp
Brain Head Wavz, These are all very interesting words which prompted me to give the link a click. Visually these look like some pretty amazing headphones.
MP4Nation's HM5 has a tremendous reputation for being one of the best sub-$150 circum-aural headphones around. We put it to the test to see if it is still as relevant today as it was when it first launched.
As the description suggests these are over ear style headphones which I find to be quite good for compfort and sound quality. Drivers are a little small at 42mm but must be good at $150.
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Fractal Design Define S Window Mid-Tower Chassis @ [H]
I met with Fractal at Computex last year, they had this unique "one night event" where they rented out a night club near the convention center and invited media in for a 30minute marketing meeting and offered free drinks and food while you waited.
It was a nice change of pace, if not extremely brief.
I don't believe that the case in the HardOCP review was on display but many of their design concepts are carried through the entire product line making them all uniquely, the same.
Fractal Design is known for utilitarian designs that make installing PC hardware easier and keeping it cooler. Its new Define S chassis makes claims enthusiasts will want to see come to true, namely a "layout, providing a perfectly straight airflow path to the CPU heatsink for air cooling set ups or extensive radiator mounting possibilities for water cooling set ups.
Personally I'm not a fan of the outer style given that the front bezel is completely flat which indicates a door is hiding everything. Side vents provide restrictive cooling and the door is always getting in the way. Sure it looks sleek, the side window it huge and you can move the drive cages around inside the case but its just a box with holes. how unique is that?
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Cryorig A40 Ultimate AIO watercooler @ HardwareOverclock
Even though the review isn't in English you can tell the AIO cooler is pretty unique.
HardwareOverclock.com has just posted another review. Last week we have taken a look at the Cryorig A40 Ultimate AIO watercooler. The Cryorig A series is the first hybrid liquid cooler with an extra fan on the pump unit. The CRYORIG HLC Airflow Fan can be orientated in both push or pull directions. No matter where the hot spots are around your CPU, be it overclocked RAM or a high-end GPU card, or hot Voltage Regulators just point the Airflow fan in the direction you need!
Maybe one of the coolest "features" is the secondary small fan over the pump block that helps move air around the CPU keeping the VRM cooler and memory chilled.
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G.SKILL Announces 3rd Annual “OC World Cup 2016” Extreme Overclocking Competition
Taipei, Taiwan (4 March 2016) – G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world’s leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, thrilled to announce the commencement of the 3rd annual “OC World Cup 2016” overclocking competition!
Each year, G.SKILL hosts the OC World Cup overclocking competition with the live four-day finals at the G.SKILL booth during Computex. This year, G.SKILL will be providing a $16,200 USD total cash prize pool for the winners. Following the tradition of the event, the Grand Champion of the OC World Cup 2016 will walk away with a grand cash prize of $10,000 USD!
OC World Cup Structure
G.SKILL OC World Cup is split into three rounds: Online Qualifier, Live Qualifier, and Grand Finals. Live Qualifier and Grand Finals will be held live at the G.SKILL booth during Computex from 31st May to 3rd June 2016.Online Qualifier Rules
The Online Qualifiers round will be held on HWBOT (hwbot.org) from 7th March to 11th April 2016, featuring 3 benchmarks: Highest DDR4 Frequency, 3Dmark 01 with IGP, and 3DMark 11 with IGP. The benchmarks are selected to challenge the memory tweaking skills of overclockers on G.SKILL DDR4 memory, 6th Gen Intel® Core™ processor, and Z170 platforms. The top 6 Online Qualifier contestants will win the tickets to participate in the OC World Cup 2016 Live Qualifiers at Computex 2016.For more competition rules and details, please visit the event page at HWBOT:
http://oc-esports.io/#!/round/gskill_ocworldcup_2016_qualifierPrizes include:
Champion: $10,000 USD
2nd: $2,500 USD + Trident Z DDR4 4000MHz 16GB (8GBx2)
3rd: $1,500 USD + Trident Z DDR4 4000MHz 16GB (8GBx2)
4th: $1,200 USD
5th: $1,000 USDAdditionally, all 6 contestants of the OC World Cup 2016 Live Qualifiers will receive one kit of DDR4 3600MHz CL15 16GB (8GBx2), one kit of DDR4 4000MHz 8GB (4GBx2) memory, and win sponsorship of G.SKILL’s new upcoming DDR4 memory for the next-gen DDR4 platform.
About G.SKILL
Established in 1989 by PC hardware enthusiasts, G.SKILL specializes in high performance memory, SSD products, and gaming peripherals designed for PC gamers and enthusiasts around the world. Combining technical innovation and rock solid quality through our in-house testing lab and talented R&D team, G.SKILL continues to create record-breaking memory for each generation of hardware and hold the no. 1 brand title in overclocking memory. -
'Dying Light' Gets Better Shadows Today- NVIDIA PCSS
The new patch adds NVIDIA PCSS to the original game and to The Following Expansion pack. NVIDIA HBAO+ and NVIDIA Depth of Field are GameWorks technologies found in the original Dying Light game.
PCSS is used to make shadows more realistic. NVIDIA PCSS is an algorithm that closely mimics the behavior of shadows in nature. Shadows progressively soften as the distance from the casting object increases. PCSS provides the added benefit of reducing the prominence of shadow aliasing (jagged lines on the edges of shadows).
PCSS has been added to a vareity of games including Grand Thieft Auto V, Assassins Creed and Far Cry 4. This will go a long way to enhance the visuals in an already impressive game title.
The above screenshot shows the game shadows with PCSS enabled.
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Case Mod Friday: My 1995 IBM Aptiva @ ThinkComputers
I normally don't repost these sorts of things but this 1995 IBM Aptiva mod is really quite cool. The modder took a soon to be recycled IBM Aptiva and decided to give it some new life while keeping the exterior completely stock down to a fully operational DVD drive and 3.5" floppy.
Kinda
Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have gilmour509's “1995 IBM Aptiva” build. Here is what he had to say about it, "I wanted to share my build, as it's really been a labor of love for the past month. I trash picked it from a local computer store in December, and it's come a long way since then. It started life in 21 years ago 1995 with a 486dx2 running at a mind blistering 66mhz, with a massive 4mb ram, and 1mb video memory. The 3.5 floppy disk could hold a maximum data capacity of 1.44MB. As of a few days ago, it now has a an Intel i7 6700k running at 4.3ghz, 16GB's of 3000mhz ddr4 ram, and 8GB's video memory. The 3.5 floppy drive can read up to 512GB of data from a single diskette. This was not a plug & play build. Massive amounts of cutting, fabrication, welding, grinding, a filing were required. It was awesome
The 3.5" floppy drive mod got some massive exposure after being posted on Reddit and then reposted on some mainstream media sites. It is worth checking out, assuming you remember what a 3.5" floppy disk actually is.
Be sure to check out the modders project in imgur.
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Firewatch Developer Offers Response To Steam Refund Request
In case you haven't heard, Firewatch has been in the news lately after getting rave reviews for being good. Per the suggestion of a gamer friend I decided to purchase the game and give it a play.
What I determined is that while the reviews and teasers made the game sound amazing I was shocked to discover that the game was nothing more than a digital "choose your own adventure" story. Thing was, the choices didn't change the adventure. Don't get me wrong, the story is done extremely well and the dialog was amazing however the game is seriously kited and progresses in a very linear fashion.
A mission comes up, you head into the wilderness and talk on a walkie talkie responding to dialog. When that mission is done you start the next one.
Heck it only has 5 Achievements!!
After playing the game for a couple hours it became clear that it didn't matter what response I choose as the only thing that changed was the dialog track and when it was over the story mode kicked back in with canned responses. I was also surprised to never encounter anything that would endanger my persona in the game and aside from reading a map there were virtually no challenges.
Much like the person in this article I felt a little ripped off having paid real money to act out a story which could have been watched on YouTube. What is interesting about this story is that while the person who bought the game is having buyers remorse one of the developers convinced him otherwise.
thought about not responding, because normally ppl who want to refund are rude and unpleasant and I choose to not engage and dwell on it.
You seem nice and I figured what the heck, why not have a conversation about this, now that I have read it and it’s right here in front of me.
So here is what I think. As the developer. Sorry if it’s a bit stream of consciousness because I want this to come from the heart.Honestly I still feel a little misled with the game. Sure it is a great way to waste four hours and maybe that is a good use of 18 bucks. Thing is I can spent about that on some open world game with real challenges and puzzles and get months of enjoyment from it.
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4 Weeks with NVIDIA TITAN X SLI at 4K Resolution @ [H]
Ever wondered what it would be like to run two monster video cards at 4K? Seems HardOCP has tackled that challenge and is ready to report.
What do you get when you take two NVIDIA GeForce TITAN X video cards, configure those for SLI, and set those at your feet for four or more weeks? We give our thoughts and opinions about actually using these behemoth GPUs in our system for weeks and weeks and focus on gaming performance, sound profile, heat generation, and general usability.
It is good to see other editors using Silverstone products. In this article Kyle talks about how he likes the Raven 3 which is also the case I used for my LAN Party build. I used a X99 motherboard and 980Ti Classified in my build so almost the power of a Titan X in a nice overclocker friendly package.
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SilverStone Tundra TD-02 Slim AIO CPU Cooler Review @ [H]
I was able to review the Tundra TD-02 several months ago and found the system to be extremely good. The cooler uses a custom designed radiator and is matched with superior multi blade fans for good airflow.
One obstacle that often stands in the way of adding an AIO to your system is space to do so. In a smaller computer chassis, many times the thickness of the radiator can be an issue. Silverstone is looking to solve your space issues with a new Tundra series All-In-One cooler that is specific to this footprint need.
HardOCP is looking at the "slim" version of this cooler which features a much thinner radiator, 15mm thick fans and slightly redesigned internals. The loss in water volume will have an impact on overall heat capacity but the large dual 120mm radiator makes up for some of that.
