Tech News
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EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classfied Kingpin Edition
For the past few days EVGA has been posting teaser shots of their latest creation the GTX 780 Ti Classified. Details on the card are still a little sketchy but by the looks of it they have customized the ACX cooler found on the GTX 780 Classified to make the plastic translucent and added the K|ngP|n Cooling logo to the back of the PCB.
Knowing that the GTX 780 and 780 Ti are basically the same GPU there is reason to believe that the PCBs will be almost identical in terms of VRM power phases and voltage controls. EVGA did add a third 6-pin PCI Express power connection bringing the total power pairs up to eleven! (2x 8-pin + 1x 6-pin).
EVGA did that on the GTX 580 Classified back in the day but that was a power hungry GPU, the GTX 780 is considerably more efficient. Does the extra power connector mean more power phases?? I guess we will find out when the review samples hit the test bench.
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Are retail Radeon R9 290X cards slower than press samples?
In one of the latest Tech Report Podcasts the question was asked about the speed of press sample cards over the retail equivalent. This has actually been an age old question with some proof to back it up. For instance Intel ES chips are usually made from first generation silicon and binned differently than chips for the retail market. It stands to reason that the ES parts will be faster.
The truth is, they have the same performance out of the box but tend to overclock better. When it comes to video cards the same "could" be true and in the past each card was locked to a certain frequency. That isn't the case with new AMD cards, provided you can keep them cool they will actually clock higher.
Better silicon usually means cooler running.
Well, from here, things get kind of complicated. Although the retail R9 290-series cards appear to have the same basic hardware and specifications as the review samples, the zillion-dollar question is what happens during everyday operation. You see, like the Turbo Boost mechanism in Intel CPUs, the Radeons' PowerTune algorithm adjusts clock speed dynamically, from moment to moment, in response to current chip temperatures, the GPU workload, and the video card's pre-defined power limits. For one reason or another, folks found that at least some retail R9 290-series cards seemed to operate at lower clock speeds than those initial review units.
Keep in mind this is TR and they tend to get wordy but, it should be a good read.
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ROCCAT Ships White Hot Gaming Mouse for the Holidays
Limited edition Kone Pure Color Phantom White celebrating five-year anniversary of multi-award-winning Kone series available in stores now
Hamburg – December 2, 2013 – ROCCAT today announces the availability of the Phantom White variation of the limited edition Kone Pure Color. Like the original Kone Pure, the Color edition features a high-end 8,200 DPI Pro-Aim R3 laser sensor and high quality Omron® switches. With features like Easy-Shift[+]™, Easy-Aim and ROCCAT Talk®, the Kone Pure Color is a powerful weapon in the hands of gamers fighting for point-streaks, lanes and bases. It is one of a series of limited edition products released over the course of 2013, which marks the “Year of the Kone” – celebrating the five-year anniversary of the Kone series. The Phantom White variation of the mouse follows the Inferno Orange, Hellfire Red and Polar Blue Kone Pure Colors, as well as the Kone Pure Optical.
ROCCAT Kone - Evolution of a Gaming Mouse
The original Kone was the first product ROCCAT™ developed in 2008. CEO and Founder René Korte, reminisces about the beginning days of ROCCAT™: “Early on, I was involved in the professional gaming scene. So, I was aware of the many professional players who were dissatisfied with their gaming devices. Since then our overall mission has been to build high-quality peripherals that satisfy the needs of all ambitious gamers.”Five years later, known for its powerful performance, the Kone series is one of the most successful gaming devices in the world. Although the Kone series has set new standards for gaming mice, the evolution will continue.
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Noctua NH-U14S Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
I really like Noctua coolers which is saying a lot since I don't often consider "silent" heatsinks to be all that effective. The benefit to Nocuta is that they are oversized to handle large amounts of heat and have very advanced fans to keep the air moving.
In this review Frostytech will be testing out Noctua's NH-U14S heatsink, a 170mm tall thermal solution built around six 6mm diameter heatpipes and featuring one 140x150mm fan called the NF-A15 PWM. The Noctua-branded NF-A15 fan features all kinds of fancy attributes designed to decrease noise, increase airflow, lengthen bearing life and cancel out errant vibrations. Given the pride Noctua have in their fans, Frostytech will be taking the extra step of testing the NH-U14S heatsink in stock and dual fan configurations, on 85W, 150W and 200W synthetic thermal test platforms.
I reviewed the Noctua NH-U14S not long ago and found it to work extremely well on the LGA 2011 and could even handle a 4.6Ghz overclock.
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Gigabyte BRIX i7-4500 Barebones Mini-PC Review
Gigabyte launched a new Mini PC computer system at Computex that they called BRIX. The idea behind it is to provide a barebones computer system that could power industrial systems like signs and television displays but also give retail customers the option for something smaller than MiniITX.
I wasn't all that interested in the BIRX when I first saw it at Computex but I cannot be the only one who secretly wanted to take one home.
With modern computer components continuing the trend of shrinking in size while also increasing in performance, the small form-factor (SFF) market is big business. Taking size reductions to the extreme, can Gigabyte’s BRIX prove its worth to downsizing system builders?
Personally the Mini PC has a place in the computing world. I'm just not sure it will replace a real desktop anytime soon.
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OCZ Filing for Bankruptcy, Toshiba to Purchase Assets
Big news this week. OCZ is filing for bankruptcy with their assets being purchased by Toshiba. It is hard to imagine that OCZ started out as a overclocking reseller who would take stock video cards and tweak the BIOS to increase the clock speed. With that they also added custom coolers and basically started the factory overclocking movement. A short time later the company went under with the name being purchased by a memory company.
Not many people know this but OCZ started in Idaho. Of course that information has since been purged from the google results.
Shares of solid-state drive technology vendor OCZ Technology Group (OCZ) remain frozen since 9 am, Eastern this morning, and the reason came across the transom just a short while ago: The company has received an offer from Toshiba (6502JP) to purchase all the company’s assets in a bankruptcy proceeding.
OCZ said it believes all the “material terms have been agreed to,” though there are a number of conditions that have to be satisfied, such as retention of employees. OCZ would file for bankruptcy right after agreeing to a deal, but it would also file even if it doesn’t reach agreement with Toshiba, it said.
I am glad to see that the company will remain intact during the buyout which means that current products will continue to be sold, at least until Toshiba figures out what stays and what goes.
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Deep Silence 5 Now Available from Nanoxia
Now available: Deep Silence 5 and Deep Silence 5 Window
The Deep Silence 5 is the first big tower of our case series. It is perfectly fitted for installing gaming systems with extra-long VGA-cards and high-end CPU coolers and can be equipped with E-ATX or XL-ATX motherboards. For users who prefer more insight into their cases, the Deep Silence 5 is also available as Window-Edition with an elegant window side panel.
The case is fully soundproofed with two noise-insulated front doors. Included are three 140 mm Deep Silence fans and a stepless two-channel fan control for up to 6 fans. The Deep Silence 5 offers a broad variety of awesome features.
One of the main features of the Deep Silence 5 is the outstanding versatility. The case comes with a total of 4 fully modular HDD-cages for up to 11 HDD/SSD. Thanks to the modular system, customers can easily remove or add HDD-cages, depending on their personal desire. This also makes it easy to accommodate extra-long VGA cards or a water cooling system in the big tower. With all cages in place, 338 mm mounting space are available. By removing HDD-cages, VGA-cards with a maximum length of 468 mm can be installed in the big tower.
The Deep Silence 5 is – as are all Deep Silence cases – “Watercooling ready”. Thanks to the versatility of the case, users can for example install a 240/280 mm compact water cooling solution behind the case front. With the secondary cage in place, it is even possible to set up a push-pull configuration with up to four 120/140 mm fans cooling the radiator while still keeping at least three HDD-bays. And on top of that there is always the possibility to place a water cooling solution with a slim radiator under the top cover.
More features of the Deep Silence 5 are, for example, the “Easy Access Fan Trays” behind the lower front door, equipped with easy-to-clean dust filters and silent running 140 mm Deep Silence fans. Under the bottom of the case a dust filter protects both the PSU and the additional 120/140 mm fan mounting space from dust. Two Nanoxia VentCovers can be found in the top cover, which can easily be removed to mount two 120 or 140 mm fans, while keeping dust and dirt out of the case when no fans are installed.
The I/O-Panel in the front of the top cover offers 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0 and the usual audio connectors. Four 5.25 inch bays are available behind the upper front door, 10 PCI expansion slots allow the installation of multi GPU systems. The case rests on specially designed, decoupled “HiFi” style case feet, which add another layer of sound insulation to the case while at the same time offering an exquisite look.
Thanks to the intelligent design of the Deep Silence 5, high-end CPU-coolers with a maximum height of 185 mm can be placed in the case. -
Building an HTPC: Planning, Part Picking & Building @ Techgage
I did this once, it was good fun until I discovered that nVidia HDMI never fit the screen of television monitors resulting in a manual adjustment and thus a decrease in resolution. AMD on the other hand had perfect HDMI to TV synchronization.
Today, most of us are always on the hunt for tools that can make our lives easier. Enter the HTPC. We have the Internet, movies and photos on our phones – why not on our TVs? Come along on a voyage of technological discovery that is fraught with peril, as we cover the good and potentially bad of building one of these handy systems.
Personally after having built a HTPC and used it off and on for almost a year I have come to the conclusion that for the cost of the HTPC I could have bought a high-end OPPO Blu-ray player and got the same basic functionality I a package that just worked out of the box.
Which is precisely what I did and I haven’t looked back.
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Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 16GB DDR3 1866 MHz Review @ HCW
I am often disappointed in Crucial reviews, not in who reviews them or if they get good marks/scores but rather that I could actually throw rocks at the Crucial HQ and yet I get nothing of theirs to sample. In contrast sites halfway around the world getting sample after sample and are loving every minute of it.
We look at the Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 16GB kit at 1866 MHz. Is it worth upgrading to 1866 with Haswell? What about IGP performance? Let's find out!
Here we have the Ballistix Sport XT modules running at 1866Mhz. Sadly, as an overclocker I rarely pay attention to anything slower than 2133Mhz since EVERYONE has a kit running that speed these days.
But hey, they look good
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Asylum: Review Block - Cards and Cases
I told myself I wouldn't do any more of these review blocks but, it seems I get more news than I get time to post.
On this list we have a basic breakdown do Video card reviews and Cases. Many of them on this list I have already reviewed including the famed EVGA GTX 780 Classified and AMD R9 270.
Cards
- EVGA GTX 780 Ti SC ACX Review @ Hardware Canucks
- PowerColor Devil Radeon R9 270X 2GB Review @ Hardware 360
- ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC 2 GB @ techPowerUp
- ASUS MARS 760 review: dual GTX 760 graphics card
- ASUS GeForce GTX 760 MARS review
- Powercolor Radeon R9-270X Devil @ Bjorn3D
- Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X OC Edition Video Card Review @ ThinkComputers
- PowerColor Devil R9 270X 2GB @ Custom PC Review
- HIS Radeon R9-290X review
- EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Classified ACX Review
- MSI R9 270X Gaming @ LanOC Reviews
- MSI R9 270 Gaming 2GB @ Custom PC Review
Cases
- Cooler Master Cosmos SE @ HW-Journal
- Cooler Master Cosmos SE @ techPowerUp
- Fractal Design Arc XL High Airflow Full Tower Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- Cooler Master HAF Stacker Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Cooler Master Storm Stryker PC Chassis Review
- SilverStone Raven RV04 Case Review @ OCIAOf course, more news to come.
