Tech News
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Computex Starts Today June 2nd 2015 Taiwan Time
One of the biggest computer hardware shows in the world starts in just a few hours. Per the usual I will try to have daily show reports posted highlighting the cool stuff I see at each of the vendors. Also, keep in mind that while some “go-getters” huff around 50+ pounds of gear to bring you show coverage I’m simply armed with a notebook (the paper kind), my Canon DSLR and a Samsung S4 so there might be a little “lag” in getting things posted.
On the positive I have a FULL schedule planned this year including a good mix of old and new hardware vendors and will most likely miss a few I should go see. Some of the few I am most excited to visit include: EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, NVIDIA, Zotac, DeepCool, InWin, beQuiet, Corsair and Silverstone to name a few.
If there is anything you wish for me to see in person fire off an email or send a message via any of the Social media affiliations linked and set forth on this website (usually @HardwareAsylum, #HardwareAsylum +HardwareAsylum, you get the gist)
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Launch Day
It is launch day again and this time it is a new GPU from Nvidia called the GTX 980 Ti. In following with previous launches Nvidia has positioned this card to be the performance king in the retail channels and designed to deliver so much more.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti Video Card Preview @ Hardware Asylum
Given that this is also Computex week there should be a good number of vendors showing off their custom designs and if anything that is what will be really exciting about the launch.
Web Reviews
- The New King Of High-end: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Review @ Techgage
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Review: A Cheaper Titan X Arrives @ HotHardware
- Nvidia GTX 980 Ti @ LanOC Reviews
- Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card reviewed @ Where?
- NVIDIA GTX 980Ti Review @ Vortez
- The NVIDIA GTX 980Ti Performance Review @ Hardware Canucks
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6 GB @ techPowerUp
- The New Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti: Features and Tech Overview @ Bjorn3dI'm sure there are more reviews out there and I might post a few more as the week goes on. Until then watch for my (our) Computex 2015 coverage.
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Intel Z97 OC-motherboard LN2 review: extreme boards, extreme tests
Testing systems with LN2 is usually something you do for fun but it seems HWInfo is taking things to the next level and tried to determine what motherboard is best suited for LN2 overclocking.
ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte and MSI all claim that they have the ultimate motherboard for extreme overclockers. Hardware.Info wanted to see what board is actually the best, so last year we locked Hardware.Info Pro OC members Joost ‘Rsnubje’ Verhelst and Bauke ‘Nedernakker’ Caspers in our test lab for 48 hours with a Intel Core i7 4790K “Devil’s Canyon” processor, gallons of liquid nitrogen and the motherboards that lay claim to being the best at overclocking from all four manufacturers. Their mission was to find our which of these motherboards is actually the best at overclocking and, more importantly, which motherboard is the easiest to overclock with?
The ease of overclocking is usually personal preference or based on past experences so it will be interesting to see what their conclusion will be.
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BeQuiet Dark Rock TF Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
Frostytech brings up a good point in the introduction of their review in that the PC cooling system does require maintenance and traditional aircoolers, heatpipe or otherwise, tend to last longer than any liquid cooler, AIO or otherwise.
On the test bench today we have BeQuiet's Dark Rock TF heatsink - a top-down dual tower heatsink which features a pair of BeQuiet SilentWings fans and stands 130mm tall. The Dark Rock TF heatsink is built around six 6mm diameter heatpipes which link a large primary aluminum fin stack and smaller secondary set of aluminum cooling fins to a chunky copper heatspreader below. The 135mm PWM fans are arranged in a push-pull configuration, exhausting downwards so related motherboard CPU VRM components benefit from the cooling air flow.
I was able to review the beQuiet! Dark Rock TF recently and despite my normal grumblings about the installation method and tight clearances the cooler is actually really good.
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GTX 980 SLI Testing @ LanOC Reviews
To buy or not to buy, THAT is the question. For the money a single GTX 980 is more than enough for modern game titles, especially at "reasonable" resolutions. But, in the hardware world its not about "reasonable" or "enough" and more about pushing the limits and exploring the unknown.
After taking a look at the Titan X last week it really got me thinking. Currently you can pick up two GTX 980s for the price of one Titan X. That leaves me wondering how well two GTX 980s would perform in SLI compared to the Titan X. Well it just so happens I had two GTX 980’s in use in the office so I put them to the test. Today I’m going to take a quick look at their performance and see if they are a better buy than a single Titan X.
So, what does happen when you run a GTX 980 in SLI? In a way I kinda wish I would have tested that myself.
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Deepcool Tristellar @ techPowerUp
This was the case shown at the CyberPowerPC suite during CES and quickly became the talk of the show. I am interested to hear the story behind "why" TechPowerUp has a review sample since I was under the impression that DeepCool built it for CyberPowerPC.
Either way, it is still a great looking chassis.
In 100 years we will look back at our meager existence and when someone quietly asks the question "how did Skynet get started?", the answer could very well go like this: "Once, there was this chassis, the Tristellar...". Deepcool has created a crazy looking chassis which weighs more empty than most ITX systems as a whole. All this with the goal to be a showcase of design & function at the same time.
With any luck I'll get to see this case again at Computex.
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Falcon Northwest Tiki 18-core micro PC Review @ PC World
Overkill seems to be such a harsh word but, is so appropriate.
Remember: The Tiki does packs all that firepower into a chassis 4-inches wide, 13.25-inches tall and 13-inches deep. Impossible! After all, you’re thinking, you can’t get an LGA2011-V3 CPU into such a small machine, much less an 18-core Xeon.
That may have been true last year, but this spring Asrock released its crazy X99E-ITX/AC motherboard, which did what others told me was impossible: Put a massive LGA2011-V3 socket into a tiny Mini ITX motherboard. You see, the X99 chipset and its big-boy CPUs feature quad-channel memory controllers, and that means you need four pieces of RAM.I have my reservations about the Asrock X99 Mini ITX motherboard in that it wastes the main reason to own a LGA 2011v3 processor. The board only has a single PCI Express slot and only supports two memory channels instead of the customary four. Of course, with that being said the Tiki uses this as an excuse to get creative. The system comes with an 18 core Xeon processor and Titan X making it extremely powerful. On top of that the case is super small and can be custom painted to whatever color you desire giving the entire system a footprint close to a first gen Xbox360 and a wow factor beyond no other.
In fact, the only thing more impressive than the raw computing power is the price. > 9k USD.
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CM Storm Mizar Gaming Mouse @ techPowerUp
Now, here is a name we haven't heard in a long time. CM or Cooler Master has a new gaming mouse and it looks like a cross between an old Logitech design and a Razor?
CM Storm's newest gaming mouse is put to the test. Like previous high-end models from CM Storm, the Mizar features the 8200 DPI Avago ADNS-9800 laser sensor. The Mizar's design looks to harken back to the IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0, which is a good thing. We take it for a spin to see how it compares to recent high-end gaming mice.
When it comes to mice I think there is a fine line between good design and innovative for the sake of innovation. Of course one of these is bad and the other is often riddled with copies of copies because the perfect mouse has already been created but for the sake of progress the company feels they need to try something new.
Check out the review and see what you think.
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Now it's even easier to watch questionable movie streams
In the Hardware Asylum Podcast Extra earlier this month Darren and I talked about two crazy things we found on the Internet, Popcorn Time and Massdrop.
Crazy Stuff on the Internet Popcorn Time and Massdrop
Popcorn Time is a fully enabled media streaming application/service that works much like Netflix and HBO GO but instead of using an approved pool of content it searches the Torrent network and will stream just about anything it finds. While watching streams from the Torrent network is largely illegal in the US that isn't the case once you head overseas. In fact in countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong and China pulling media from the Torrent network is the norm.
CNN has a story up about Popcorn Time and says pretty much what you would expect a large news organization to say.
Though not all torrents are illegal, Popcorn Time has had a reputation for disregarding copyrights. The first Popcorn Time website was shut down after the founders decided they were no longer interested in debating copyright infringement. The Popcorn Time app was removed from the Google (GOOGL, Tech30) Play store within 24 hours of its debut there in May 2014, though the app can still be loaded onto Android phones by bypassing the Play store.
Be sure to check out the CNN story and give the Hardware Asylum Podcast a listen to get our views on the service.
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Gigabyte GA-Z97N GAMING-5 Motherboard Review @ Hardware Slave
X99 might be the prized motherboard to have but Z97 rules gaming performance. Match that chipset with a proper set of onboard components and you can expand your gaming experence to 11 while still fitting in a Size 1.
We are big fans of mITX motherboards, though only in recent years. They have come a long way from their beige roots and now will tickle the geekiness of many gamers around the world. For us it’s the fact that we don’t need another big chassis in the office or in our homes, we generally have a few mITX rigs around, as daily drivers and as test machines.
Most motherboard vendors follow the same formula so the deciding factor usually comes down to price and form factor.
