Tech News
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XSPC X20 420 Single Bayres/Pump Combo @ PureOverclock
I have been looking at building a custom watercooler again and am really amazed at how much things have changed. In a way it seems like the innovation has been drained from the niche leaving only a few select brands to choose from.
That isn’t likely to be a bad thing, just a bit of a change. Kind of like this combo unit reviewed at PureOC
With advances in pump, radiator, reservoir and fitting designs, things have gotten to the point where almost anyone can create and install a custom cooling solution specific to their system. XSPC is one of the handful of pioneering companies that made custom liquid cooling so commonplace today. The new X20 420 Single and Twin pump BayRes may save on space and and your hard earned money.
I'm not sure I would ever go combo unless it was a bayres design. They are compact and really are the best of both worlds. Sad thing is, very few cases have 5.25" drive bays anymore.
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Why The National Consumer Electronics Superstore Model Is Obsolete @ Forbes
I noticed this story flipping through my google news feed, (Something that Hardware Asylum has been barred from contributing to, thanks again Google) and found this story at Forbes.
The article takes a stab at why brick and mortar electronics stores are closing. Case in point, Circit City and CompUSA both sold consumer electronics and they were forced to close. Most would say that online shopping took away their consumers and they were forced to go out of business. While I agree with that statement you can also add a lackluster selection of components and poorly trained staff. Of course, with that being said, what about Best Buy, Frys and Microcenter? don't these places sell consumer electronics?
And while online shopping (translation, Amazon,) has no doubt voraciously siphoned market share from physical stores on everything from computers to TVs, e-commerce isn’t the only reason consumer electronics no longer appears to work as a single product category at a national big box chain.
Over the past 15 years, “There’s been a proliferation of competition, from mass retailers to highly specialized retailers, as more and more retailers are carrying electronics since it’s more important to consumers,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis, consumer technology, for market research firm The NPD Group, listing chains as diverse as Wal-Mart, Staples, Kohl’s, Big Lots and Costco, which have dramatically expanded their electronics assortments both in store and online.According to the article the solution is diversity. Diversity to the extent of removing EVERY computer part from their stores OR stocking only cheap mainstream hardware. The idea here is that consumers who actually want good stuff know where to get it leaving the computer illiterate and shoppers with no budget to buy whatever is cheapest item on the shelf.
I was once asked the following questions
- "Why there are no Overclockers in Boise Idaho?"
- "Why doesn't anyone care about Overclocking in the US?"I think this article answers the question and sadly having the US consumer electronics market is being driven by the Apple/Samsung hardware market model "Buy it, Break it then Buy Another" doesn't help.
As hardware enthusiasts it is difficult to draw attention to the hobby in a market situation like this. First of all without a common place to go (like a computer shop) it is difficult to know who in your area is interested in this stuff. Furthermore since the target demographic is buying online there is no incentive for them to even bother going out or anyone pushing them to actually buy higher end hardware. (I shudder to think there are kids out there who are proud of their Dell black boxes).
The one positive is the role of the professional hardware reviewer. Given that you cannot go down to the local computer shop to inspect a product in person you are left reading looking for reviews. Most of these are written by "idiots" complaining about something they didn't understand and a few are the results of doing extensive searches to find the answers. Either way, review sites will play a key role in this ecosystem and with any luck there are a few out there getting it right.
I'll save my opinions on that topic for another rant.
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Springtime is Boring for the Hardware Enthusiast
Springtime is one of the worse for PC hardware. Sure there might be a random awesome speed SSD released, "big whoop" There might even be a video card out there so powerful it has been dubbed the GPU of Power, "meh, needs more VRM" and yes there is always LN2 but after you figure delivery and kneaded eraser invoices you have blown your wad and have nothing left for beer.
I guess it might be time for something new, something totally fresh and new. Something I haven't done in awhile.
Watercooling.
Seems I have one of those "S-Frame" cases and a closet full of hardware but nothing exotic enough in the cooling department to really make the case stand out.
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PNY GTX 980 XLR8 Pro OC Review @ Hardware Canucks
PNY still makes video cards! This is pretty impressive. Not only does it come with a custom (larger) VRM but features a very sleek heatsink design and comes with a custom backplate.
It my be a bit late to the market, but the GTX 980 XLR8 Pro OC is one of the best Maxwell-based cards on the market and boasts a lifetime warranty to boot.
In terms of layout the card looks to be following the 980 KPE with a single loaded site of video connections and has a few voltage test pads across the top. Keep in mind that PNY is still bound by the NVidia rules for overclocking so to get the most from this card you'll likely need a custom bios image and some great overclocking software.
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GIGABYTE Z97X Gaming 7 LGA 1155 Motherboard Review @ [H]
I have always iiked the Gigabyte Gaming motherboards, they seem extremely solid and come with the right amount of features.
GIGABYTE's Z97X Gaming 7 promises solid overclocking and performance. The feature list for the Z97X Gaming 7 is long and includes gamer focused features like a dedicated audio amplifier, Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3 support and more. We've had mixed results with the GIGABYTE lately, so the real question is; does it work?
This might just be my opinion but, I really liked the green and black boards from the G1 series. It would seem that green is just too progressive for some folks or brings back frightful nightmares of that one time with Kermit.
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Gigabyte X99 SOC Champion, Budget Overclocker? @ Bjorn3d
I recenlty reviewed the Gigabyte X99 SOC Champion and felt it was an extremely solid motherboard and does overclocking really well. Thing is the X99 SOC Force seemed like the better board for the mainstream and cost more as a result.
When you’re looking at the 2011v3 Haswell E CPU family, nothing about it is inexpensive. The entry-level CPU is about $390 and it doesn’t even feature 40 full PCI-E lanes. The lowest tier CPU has 28 PCI-E lanes and you have to go to the second tray CPU, the Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5GHz, to get full PCI-E lanes. So for a fully functional 40 PCI-E lane CPU, we are looking at $560 smackers. Decent air cooling will set you back around hundred bucks if you want to overclock. Sixteen gigabytes of quality, high-speed DDR4 memory runs in the $300 dollar range. Just the CPU, CPU cooler and memory means that we are just short of $1,000. If you are looking for a Champion Overclocker but don’t want to break the bank the Gigabyte X99 SOC come in at $300 when you can find it on the shelves.
Whoa. ^ This quote ^ wow
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The end of games consoles according to Twitch Boss
When it comes to gaming hardware there are two ways you can look at it.
The first perspective is from the game developer who sets out to build a game for the latest hardware and spends two years in development. At launch the game runs great on the intended system and even better on a modern PC. From this perspective do you need to upgrade your PC, No.
On the flip side looking at it from content consumers, aka gamers and companies building the hardware they are often annoyed at the development lag in games. To them upgrading isn't because you need to but rather because something broke and the hardware maker no longer has parts to support it. From this standpoint do you need to upgrade your PC to play modern games? Again, No.
The twitch co-founder claims that because of the long 7 year lifecycle of a game console that it will ultimlatly lead to the end of the gaming console completely. Thing is, gaming isn't always about the hardware but rather the game itsself, if the game is good and plays well on a console people will play it. Likewise, if a game plays better on a PC then people will swing to that camp. In fact, the only way to get games off a console is for game developers start building games that won't play on a modern console and is something they will never do.
“The problem is, the seven-year upgrade lifecycle doesn’t work in the face of the two-year upgrade cycles for every other hardware platform,” he said. “It’s so intrinsically built into how consoles get manufactured and made and the full business model, that I’d be surprised to see another generation.”
Shear, who co-founded the live video game broadcasting platform that now has more than 100m monthly users, suggests that future consoles will be more like set-top boxes: designed for a multitude of uses, and with a much shorter life cycle.The above quote (mispellings courtesy of The Guardian) is pure speculation and is basically saying that eventually someone will create an affordable steambox or steam machine style computer that will eventually replace the console. (read: Syber Gaming style or BRIX style) Chances are these game machines will be branded Xbox or Playstation however, the one thing that makes game consoles successful is the guarantee that when you buy a game for Xbox 360 or Xbox One it will be playable on those machines. When you start changing the hardware around you lose that assurance.
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The New Single GPU King Of The Hill: A Look At NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX TITAN X @ Techgage
Seems I missed the Titan X train but, by the looks of it, the sampling of this new GPU was rather limited. Despite this you can find plenty of preformance based reviews including this one at Techgage.
Continuing its TITAN legacy, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX TITAN X gives the gaming world its latest drool-worthy top-end offering. With sights on 4K gaming, TITAN X gives us a sleek black card that boasts 3,072 CUDA cores and an absurd 12GB framebuffer on a 384-bit bus. Words are not needed - let's dive in.
What is really amazing about the Titan X is that from a board design stanpoint it is basically a GTX 980 with super huge GPU. It won't be long before we see ePower and gPower boards attached to them followed by reports of burned up Titans as they attempt for global world record overclocks with a chance that some hardware maker will offer them a job.
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Bitspower THOR EIX99 Full Cover Water Block for EVGA X99 Classified/FTW at Modders-Inc
I do hate email tracking links but the title of this review was good enough for me to get "captured" for marketing purposes.
Water cooling is a great way to remove heat from PC components. There are various types of water or liquid cooling solutions available such as the popular All-in-One (AIO or Closed loop) units, DIY liquid cooling kits, as well as fully customizable water cooling loops. As the name implies, a custom loop option is highly configurable and allows users to
In trying to find a good photo of this block combo I discovered that they make a good number of full coverage motherboard blocks, mostly for Asus and at least one for Gigabyte. Sadly, I couldn't find one for the EVGA block so check out the review for more details.
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ASUS STRIX GTX 960 DirectCU II OC Video Card Review @ [H]
The GTX 960 is a great little chip for us mainstream gamers who might not need or can afford something "good". The chip can deliver some amazing performance at the cost of a few visual effects and screen resolution, HardOCP has posted their review of the Strix 960 DirectCU II OC version of the GTX 960.
Does the long name warrent any attention?
For our GPU review today we have the ASUS STRIX GTX 960 DirectCU II OC, one of the highest factory overclocked GeForce GTX 960 that money can buy. We will compare it to the fastest overclocked Radeon R9 285 that we have at the Underground Bunker to see which reigns supreme at the $200 price point.
I'm curious only because of the DirectCU cooler and promise of street cred. Of course a custom PCB and enhanced VRM would be helpful however, none of that is photo documented in this review and as they say.
Pics or it didn't happen.
