Tech News
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Noctua A-series NF-A9, NF-A8 & NF-A4x10 5V Review @ Vortez
Noctua has always produced quality fans that walked the line between quiet operation and good airflow. Now to help cool smaller applications and builds, they've released a whole collection of mini fans in 40mm, 80mm, and 92mm, along with all the standard size fans most enthusiasts are accustomed to.
Noctua has added to their A-series by giving us a collection of smaller fans. Their line now runs from 40mm to 140mm. But do the smaller fans hold up their end? Do they perform as well for their size as their larger brethren do? Noctua sent us 40mm, 80mm and 92mm fans. Let us run them through their paces and see how they do.
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Roccat Tyon Mouse Review @ HardwareHeaven
Looking at the new Tyon from Roccat, it does look like they built on the success and shape of their popular Kone line, and just added more buttons and switches on the top and inside faces. MMO's and other games needing more control and macro abilities on the mouse has been a niche that Roccat mice have not directly catered to, until now.
The Tyon is shown above and in many ways it looks like an extreme evolution of the Kone XTD. The body is 13.5×7.8x4cm, weighs 126g and has a top surface which is rubber coated with Roccat branding applied. On the edges of the left and right buttons we have two extra buttons which are configurable as is the clickable scroll wheel. The we have the Dorsal Fin Switch. It features a left and right click and is designed to allow quick execution of commands.
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ASUS X99 DELUXE (Intel LGA 2011-3) @ techPowerUp
Right before the launch of X99 ASUS had contacted me asking about doing a X99 podcast. Given that they were traveling around visiting and working with other hardware review sites it seemed like a really good idea.
Sadly, that never materialized however, given what I know about X99 the segment would have been a little boring and more centered on ASUS marketing than tech talk about the new chipset. All things considered the new X99 boards from ASUS look amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on one.
We take our first look at ASUS's LGA 2011-3 products, starting with the ASUS X99 DELUXE. Wrapped in new clothing, the ASUS X99 DELUXE not only has DELUXE looks and DELUXE features, it also has a DELUXE socket for you to place your new Haswell-E CPU into, with an additional 48 pins.
Be warned this review features box shots showing static bags which are the hardware equivalent of a winter coat and snow pants. Personally I prefer the bikini approach to hardware photos but that isn't any of my business. ~kermit
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI @ techPowerUp
It is no secret that I strongly support multi GPU setups. I have created a Multi GPU Index for the Hardware Asylum motherboard reviews and usually try to run more than one video card when I can.
Most reports claim that the GTX 980 isn't as fast as the GTX 780 Ti but once you put two of them in a single system things change.
NVIDIA's $550 GeForce GTX 980 shook up the high-end graphics card market, today we are testing two of these cards in SLI. This killer combination will let you build an Ultra HD capable gaming system, or enjoy smooth fragging with G-SYNC Surround.
In a way this also begs the question of "Is GTX 980 SLI worth it?". Hardware enthusiasts will say "yes" but when it comes to high-end hardware your choices depend on what you plan to run and in this case unless you are running NVidia Surround or a high-resolution monitor you're not going to see much difference.
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SecureDrives GSM-Equipped SSD Will Physically Self-Destruct With a Simple Text Message @HotHardware
In a trick recently adapted from smartphones with remote data purging, and pretty much every superspy story in the history of ever, remotely self-destructing hard drives are now available for public purchase. Apparently the drives are also tamper-resistant, so any attempt to physically break into the drive will also trigger it to pop. So if you're needing to make sure your data absolutely, positively doesn't fall into the wrong hands, now peace of mind is just a text message away.
The drives have a SIM card embedded onto them, and the worldwide roaming capabilities mean that the right text message to the right number will render the drive useless and impossible to salvage. There's a physical destruction mechanism onboard, so you best be sure that you really want things gone forever before sending the text.
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The Unpatchable Malware That Infects USBs Is Now on the Loose @ Wired
So, a new, nasty little piece of malware was released out into the world recently. While more exposure to the problem at hand can help create a potential fix faster, I'm torn on the method used. It's like some researchers from the CDC releasing bird flu out into the world just to show everyone how devastating it could be, in order to accelerate a cure. Agree or disagree, it's loose... so make sure you're using protection when plugging into unknown ports.
Like Nohl, Caudill and Wilson reverse engineered the firmware of USB microcontrollers sold by the Taiwanese firm Phison, one of the world’s top USB makers.
"People look at these things and see them as nothing more than storage devices,” says Caudill. “They don’t realize there’s a reprogrammable computer in their hands.
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Asylum Review Block: CPU Coolers
With all the big excitement still around the X99 E-Haswell launch, our focus once again turns to the best ways to keep those chips cool. Large vacuum flasks full of industrial grade refrigerants aside, we'll shine the spotlight on some of the newest tower and radiator coolers on the market for everyday use.
Liquid:
- Enermax Liqtech 240 @ techPowerUp
- Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate Water Cooling System Review @ ThinkComputers.orgAir:
- Coolermaster Hyper D92 Heatsink Review @ FrostyTech
- Cooler Master Hyper 612 V2 Cooler @ Technic3D
- CRYORIG H5 Universal Review @ Vortez
- Noctua NH-D15 Heatpipe Tower CPU Cooler Review @ Bigbruin.com
- Silverstone AR06 Cooler Review @ Hardware Heaven
- Lepa LV12 CPU Cooler Review @HiTech LegionHonorable Mention:
- NZXT Kraken G10 Liquid GPU Cooling Bracket Review @ Kitguru -
More PSU Torture Tuning with the Thermaltake DPS App
Last month I did a little experiment to see just how much power certain systems were pulling. To do this you could use a device like a kill-a-watt or the power consumption log on a high-end UPS but those register current draw to the PSU and don’t take into account efficiently ratings of the PSU. The only “true” way to know exactly how much power is being used is from the source and the Digital Toughpower DPS from Thermaltake can do just that.
When sizing a PSU your goal is to buy a PSU that is large enough to power your gear with enough headroom to operate in the most efficient manner. Given that most PSUs are 80Plus certified that means you need to take your estimated power draw and add 20%. I have already determined that you can Core i7 5960X @ 4Ghz and two GTX 780Ti video cards in SLI with an 850w PSU. The question now is, can you also run two AMD Radeon 7970’s in Crossfire on the same Core i7 5960X and stay below 80% of 850w??
Lets find out.
The System as it was Tested
The system is an EVGA X99 Classified running a Core i7 5960X @ 4.0Ghz with 16GB of DDR4 ram. 128GB Micron SSD and HP DVD Burner. The processor is being cooled by a dual fan AIO watercooler and I have Two Radeon 7970 graphics cards running in Crossfire. One is a reference design while the other is the famed MSI R7970 Lighting Boost Edition. My power supply is the Thermaltake Toughpower DSP G 850w.
After playing Borderlands 2 at 2560x1600 with high settings I discovered the following.
Yes you are reading that correctly, the whole system was pulling a little over 600w?!? Efficiency during this run was around 90% and PSU temp topped out at 42c using the silent fan profile. If you followed my post from last month and compare the results you will notice that the 7970’s in Crossfire pulled, on average, 100w more power than the GTX 780Ti which translated into more heat at the PSU. This did impact efficiency but, not enough to really notice. I’m still rather impressed since we are still operating just below 80% of 850w.
Stay tuned for more torture tuning using the Thermaltake DPS App
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ASUS Strix Edition GeForce GTX 970 Graphics Card Review @ Techgage
It is good to finally see some custom PCB work on the latest 9 Series cards from nVidia. I know there is more but ASUS is usually at the forefront when it comes to releasing custom versions early.
With the help of Maxwell, NVIDIA has hit a definite home run with its GeForce GTX 900 GPUs. In our look at the GTX 980 last week, we were left thoroughly impressed, but little did we realize at the time, the GTX 970 – and ASUS’ Strix edition in particular – was about to impress us even more. Simply put, you need to check this card out.
Of course the important thing to note is that there are different degrees of "custom pcb". Some cards feature improved VRM circuits and require a different board while others tweak the board layouts to match a cooler design.
By the looks of it the Strix isn't so much custom for overclocking but rather visual appearance and compatibility.
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Palit GTX 970 JetStream 4 GB @ techPowerUp
I suspect there will be 9 Series card reviews coming out for the next couple months and we will see just about everything from heavily modified monsters designed for LN2 power usage down to reference cards with custom coolers.
By the looks of it this design from Palit is reference based but comes with two large fans to help with the cooling efforts.
Palit's GTX 970 JetStream is one of the highest clocked, custom design GTX 970s out there. It features a triple slot, dual fan cooler that will completely stop the fans in idle and light gaming. Palit's card is also the most affordable custom design, with just a $15 price premium.
It will be interesting to see how the new 970 and 980 stack up to the competition and if the performance gains and power efficiency will be enough to get GTX 780 owners to trade up. Sure benchmarks say a lot but it comes down to scale and right now these guys are damn spendy.
