Tech News
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Throw Back Thursday: DFI LanParty NF2 Ultra rev B
In 2003 the Athlon processor was the enthusiast platform to have. Not only was it faster than the Pentium III but had plenty of ways to be overclocked and was quite a bit cheaper. Of course there are downsides to most things and the AMD chipset wasn’t very good and if you installed the heatsink incorrectly you would most often crack the core.
For those that don’t remember this was the time when “flip chips” were popular placing the CPU core on top of the package and before the introduction of IHS, or the integrated heat spreader.
The old 462 Socket A didn’t get worldwide attention until the release of the Nvidia nForce 2 chipset which not only supported dual channel DDR 400 memory but was able to unlock the Athlon multiplier even after the traces were cut on the processor. To do this you inserted a wire into the CPU socket before installing the processor and free multipliers for everyone.
One of the most popular motherboards of the time was the DFI LanParty NF2 Ultra which gave rise to the special Oskar Wu version the DFI LanParty NF2 Ultra Rev B pictured here. It had everything from enhanced DDR memory support to an offset socket location for better cooling and an extra open area to support dual slot AGP cards.
The motherboard also supported SATA RAID and had onboard power and reset buttons for test bench use and LanParty style debugging. Sadly the capacitors have started to burst which is also why Japanese capacitors became so popular some years later.
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Awful Airport Design or Successful College Project?
There are several "worthless" degrees you can get in college. Most of them mean well but very few of them will actually help prepare you for a career in that profession. However, some require you have a degree to even be considered.
Architecture is one such degree. This is considered a professional degree which is a minimum of 5 years learning about various building systems, design and sometimes a little practical knowledge. Of course what it doesn't prepare you for is the 10 years after graduation stuck drawing details and fetching coffee for the project Architect who has already put in their time in the trenches and feels entitled.
Yes, the degree will get you in the door but the fight is long from finished.
This is something I didn't understand during my Architecture studies and instead took my learning serious and applied a good amount of logic to all of my projects, never really experimenting with something that "shouldn't" be built because it wasn't practical or was impossible to achieve.
Alex Sutton, a grad student from Bartlett School of Architecture in London, seems to have thrown all logic to the wind and decided to experiment with a new style of airport that isn't on the ground and far from the city but rather elevated and placed in the empty space between buildings. On paper this looks like a good use of "empty space" however creates a whole list of problems including (but not limited to) excessive noise, wind, broken windows, plane crashes and let’s not forget that once you cover a street with a runway that street no longer gets any light.
Alex positioned one of his airports over water which helps this but still isn’t much better.
Ever wonder why buildings in New York are stepped back after a certain number of floors? Seems people began to miss having sunlight on their streets and didn’t like getting blown over due to powerful winds coming down the sides of buildings so they passed an ordinance requiring a certain amount of "free air" on a building lot.
Overall I say this is a great project, very radical and so horrible that it went viral. Let’s hope it lands him a great job to help offset the pain of being a draftsman with a degree.
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Throw Back Thursday: Corsair Ice T30 TEC Memory Cooler
Back in 2009 Corsair Dominator memory was THE what you bought if you wanted the best possible performance. The modules came in a variety of different speeds and often had the best timings on the market. A specially designed PCB made the modules taller which caused issues with CPU cooling but tended to work better with the heatspreader and keep temperatures under control.
Across the top of these modules was a finned heatsink that not only looked cool but was removable. Why you ask? Well, Corsair sold a variety of accessories for their Dominator line including different colored heatsinks and some that were even taller. To compliment the Dominator line Corsair also offered the DHX+ Airflow GT which was the fancy name for a large dual fan cooler that now seems to be rather common with most memory makers.
In an attempt to really push the cooling envelope Corsair developed the "Ice T30" This is a watercooled TEC powered memory cooler that mounted directly to the top of the Dominator memory modules. It was held in place using a set of longer screws and basically replaced the finned heatsink across the top.
The TEC was powered by a control module that would monitor the relative humidy and cold plate temperature to ensure that there was no condensation. A switch on the module would bypass this and allow the TEC to run at 100%, which is what most overclockers did.
Ironicly enough the Ice T30 didn't sell well however Vince at Kingpincooler used the idea to develop the Dominance Memory Cooler which allowed extreme overclockers to put their memory under LN2.
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Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Mid Tower Chassis
Walnut, California July 9th, 2015 - Phanteks today announce the release of the budget
friendly, Enthoo PRO M. The PRO M’s look is based on the award-winning Enthoo Pro
while the interior is based on the open concept of the Enthoo EVOLV ATX. The PRO M
combines the features of the EVOLV ATX and the design of the original Enthoo PRO.
Unleash unlimited possiblities with the Enthoo PRO M.
Like the original Enthoo PRO, the PRO M retains the brushed plasitc with the aluminum appearance and comes in two color, Black and Titanium Green. The PRO M’s I/O port now resides on the side of the front panel creating a simple but elegant design without the cost.
The PRO M will feature a large interior to support full ATX. A innovative top radiator bracket to allow easy installation of the radiator and/or fans like the Enthoo EVOLV ATX and the EVOLV ITX.
The PRO M now comes with the all new HDD mounting system that can support multiple storage with the optional HDD bracket (PH-HDDKT_02).
The PRO M is designed with watercooling in mind. Multiple reservoir and pump mounting locations, as well as storage capacity are all possible with the upgrade options.“being very versatile, having a spacious and clean interior and of course making it very easy to build water-cooling systems is what the Enthoo Series is all about.” - Boon Tuoh Khor
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Hardware Asylum Builds Section: Asylum Builds
One question I get asked a lot is "I want to build a computer, what should I buy?". The answer to questions like these can sometimes be simple like "Go to CyberpowerPC and buy this" or might be more involved and include discussions around thermal efficiencies in heatsink design and do you need a side window.
In an attempt to help enlighten the budding computer enthusiast I have created a new section on Hardware Asylum called "Builds" or "Asylum Builds". These computer system builds will be different than a limited budget build and instead be purpose built for a certain task.
Every build will fall into one of three categories.
- The Rig: Systems in this section are general purpose machines that can be used for a variety of different situations
- Gaming: As the name suggests Gaming builds will feature hardware designed to get the most out of your games
- Xtreme: Every website has a build like this that often includes a mismatch set of parts (cause: reasons). Xtreme builds take this a step further and adds a purpose which might be Xtreme Gaming or Xtreme Overclocking.
The first of these builds is a simple MiniITX Media Capture box that mirrors what I built for recording the Hardware Asylum Podcast. It features some high-end hardware (cause: reasons) that were all built around an internal Avermedia Game Broadcaster card.
Check out the new section and let me know what you think.
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Lessons Learned From 7 Years of China Factory Visits
My morning ritual usually consists of sorting through my morning email and extracting what is useful and deleting the HAM. One message that caught my attention this morning was from a manufacturer in China asking if I would be interested in their products. Curious I decided to check out their website and noticed that all of the floors in the photos were green.
Having been to a few factories it dawned on me that many of the large factories (the ones with windows) often have green floors but I never bothered to ask why. So, I went to Google.
My search returned an interesting article titled "Lessons Learned From 7 Years of China Factory Visits".
It’s been almost two hours now. There is a hot-ass cup of green tea sitting on the conference table in front of me. A large free-standing air conditioner unit is blowing warm air. Everybody (except me) is barking at each other in Chinese. We’ve been looking at the same mechanical sketches for an hour. The English translations offered by our sourcing agent are remarkably succinct. 5 minutes of aggressive back and forth in Chinese is time and time again reduced to statements like: “This product very difficult to assemble.
”Ya don’t say?
After reading over the lessons you begin to see a clear picture of China and why products are built the way they are. In one of the latest Hardware Asylum Podcast episodes Darren and I talk about Computex and the colorful people I encounter along the way. One discussion centered on the CaseLabs vs Thermaltake and the question on if TT stole their design. I fully believe that TT stole the design however, they won't admit it because to steal a design requires the blueprint. What they did was "reverse engineer" the design based on photos and the actual product to create their own version.
The lessons in this article talk about that and why it is important to basically block China from your e-comm stores. There is no copyright in China and they will do whatever they can to ensure the product is built as quickly as possible even if that means borrowing designs from the last thing they built.
Now, if I could only find my green floor answer
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TUF Tested - Enthusiast Ready - ASUS X99 Sabertooth @ HiTech Legion
Now here is a quote that makes you want to hear the back story.
In the last 3 years performance wise the difference is so minor unless you run statistical benchmarks that break things down to the Nano-second you will never notice a difference.
I have a Sabertooth from the P67 days and aside from the additional fan you could install I didn't find the heat shielding to be all that beneficial, in fact it was a little annoying since the PCI Express tabs were often under the plastic shroud and just beyond finger reach. The added sensors were great if you were into that sort of thing but, I suspect a good majority of users wouldn't even know they were there.
The review at Hi Tech Legion, if you can call it that, is looking at the X99 Sabertooth and is trying to tell us something. Based on the clickbait quote you'd assume the worse but it seems they would have liked Wifi.
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Razer Firefly RGB Backlit Hard Gaming Mousepad @ Custom PC Review
There comes a time in every gamers life when cloth and plastic mousepads are just not enough. Maybe you need more slickness so you add teflon skates for your mouse or maybe you need more resistance so you add weights. Of course if your mouse is perfect then its time to upgrade the pad and while you are at it, why not add some lights??
One day, a Razer engineer took his hand off his mouse and reached for his Chroma’ed out coffee mug. As he slowly sipped his delicious brew that may or may not contain alcohol, the dazzling lights of his mug converged with the blank blueprint on his desk in perfect harmony. The engineer’s eyes glowed (with excitement)...
Plastic with microtextures can make for a very slick surface much like the RatPadz from days gone by. Personally I think lights is a little too much but, I'm sure there is a good number of folks thinking, YES!
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Asylum Review Block: Keeping Cool in the Heat of Whatever
With the onset of summer heatwaves here on the west coast it seemed only fitting to have a review block dedicated to cooling.
Web Reviews
- Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT @ techPowerUp
- Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler Review @ ???
- Noctua NH-C14S cpu cooler @ HardwareOverclock
- SilverStone Tundra TD03-E Closed Loop Water Cooler @ APH NetworksStay cool everyone!
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Throw Back Thursday: DFI LanParty nF4 SLI-DR
#TBT Time to throw back 10 years to the year 2005 when DFI launched the LanParty nF4 SLI-DR motherboard. This is arguably one the first SLI ready motherboards on the market and was so popular with the overclocking and enthusiast crowd that it spawned several refreshes including one with high-quality components. The board allowed you to split the PCI Express lanes using a series of jumpers that were removed with a special tool. Other companies used a card and eventually digital switches controlled by the BIOS.
The DFI LanParty also featured an electrically separated audio module that was designed to reduce audio interference. The chip wasn't that good but the effort is something we see on modern motherboards.
