General Gaming Article |
- Acer Iconia W510 Tablet Runs Windows 8 FAST (Video)
- Daily Deals 9/27/12: 128GB Flash Drive, Toshiba Ultrabook $550, and More
- Build It: Modern Commodore 64
- Valve Plans Limited Beta Test for Steam on Linux, Only 1,000 Users Invited
- European Union Expects to Fine Microsoft Up to $7.4 Billion for "Technical Error" in Windows
- Intel Responds to 'Unsubstantiated' Reports of CEO's Anti-Windows 8 Remarks
- Nvidia Treats Linux Users to 304.51 Display Driver
- Digital Storm Infographic Pits PC Gaming Versus Consoles
| Acer Iconia W510 Tablet Runs Windows 8 FAST (Video) Posted: 27 Sep 2012 05:05 PM PDT Maximum PC had the opportunity to check out Acer's newly announced Iconia W510 Windows 8-powered tablet today and boy, was the thing FAST. As you can see from the video above, this ain't your uncle's Atom processor. Navigating through Windows 8's touch interface was lightning quick. The W510 is expected to go on sale in October when Microsoft formerly launches Windows 8. The price has not been announced, but competing designs peg it in the $650 range. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Daily Deals 9/27/12: 128GB Flash Drive, Toshiba Ultrabook $550, and More Posted: 27 Sep 2012 12:30 PM PDT
Top Deal:Today's top deal is Centon's massive 128GB USB flash drive which is on sale for $64.99. Considering the stick comes with free shipping and is normally priced at $80, that's roughly 20% off the regular sticker price. Two unique features about this USB 2.0-enabled stick is that it's waterproof and comes with a shock-resistant case to keep your data safe. To start saving on this deal (storage pun intended), head on over to TigerDirect. Laptops: Toshiba Satellite U845-S402 14" Intel Core i3 ULV Ultrabook for $549.99 with free shipping at Toshiba Direct (normally $750 - use coupon code: ULTRA100). Computing Hardware & Peripherals: Dell S2330MX 23" Ultra-slim 1080p LED-backlit LCD Monitor for $161.99 with free shipping at Dell (normally $220 - use 10% Coupon Code: XV4FRKQTP$MF0D). Logitech Performance Mouse MX for $79.99 with free shipping (normally $99.99). Crucial M4 2.5" 512GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD (CT512M4SSD2) for $399.99 with free shipping at TigerDirect (normally $420). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:33 AM PDT How to build a modern-day PC into a replica of the Commodore 64The mission many people wax poetic about the polite '50s, the radical '60s, or the wild '70s, but for nerds, the 1980s was the best decade. A full-on war raged in the new category of "personal computer," no one operating system ruled the world, and, man, you could walk into a Toys "R" Us and buy the world's all-time bestselling PC: the Commodore 64. Whether you want to relive the golden age of PCs or you weren't alive for it, Commodore USA (no relation to Jack Tramiel's original Commodore International) offers its Commodore 64x to recreate that 1980s experience.
The main difference between the original C64 and this replica is the latter's ability to take standard PC industry components. Is the Commodore 64x case/keyboard a perfect recreation of the original? No, but it's damn close. I'm not judging this by my faded memories of the C64 I owned in 1982, either. See how closely the inset shot of the original resembles the new C64x? What's Inside the New C64?I had envisioned using a Core i7-2600K with a notebook GeForce graphics card in the C64x, but I quickly realized that heat would be a serious issue in this thermally constrained PC, which has one puny 4cm fan handling all its airflow. I also considered a mobile Core i7, but the cost and scarcity of parts made me ditch that approach. In the end, I decided that an AMD E-350 Fusion APU would be the most cost-effective and reliable route. The best candidate for the job? Zotac's Fusion ION‑ITX T Series. The board features AMD's E-350 Fusion chip, built-in Wi-Fi, and, best of all, a 90-watt external power brick. Because the C64x doesn't have much room, running an internal power supply is out of the question. Pico-ITX PSUs are an option for standard boards, but that would require cutting a hole into the chassis to route the wiring. The Fusion ION‑ITX T Series takes care of that in one swoop. Thermals also shouldn't be an issue with its integrated heat pipe and heatsink. My previous experience has taught me that the E-350 runs super cool for an 18-watt part. For storage, I opted for Seagate's Momentus XT hybrid drive. It gives the C64x some SSD-like performance but is cheap enough that I can afford to give the machine 750GB of storage space. A Silverstone slot-fed DVD burner rounds out the package, but we did have to add an NZXT internal USB expansion module and an old-style Molex Y power splitter. For tools, a standard Philips-head screwdriver and a small jewelers Philips-head screwdriver are required for the build. I also had to round up a set of system screws, as well as a set of screws that are typically used to mount an internal 5.25-inch optical drive. INGREDIENTS
1. OPEN THE CASE You'll need to unscrew six screws along the perimeter of the C64x first (image A). Then carefully remove the keyboard and place it aside. Now, find a cassette tape player and put in your favorite mix tape of Olivia Newton-John, Survivor, Joan Jett, the J. Geils Band, and the Human League. Yes, all the top artists of 1982.
2. REMOVE THE DRIVE TRAY Unscrew the four screws under the C64x. Note: You will probably have to loosely hold the four nuts inside the case to get them loose. Once the screws are out, remove the tray and mount the 2.5-inch drive (image B). The drive tray is countersunk to fit countersunk screws. Since Commodore USA doesn't include these parts (when they say bare-bones, they mean it), we used four fine screws of the type that comes with a 5.25-inch optical drive to hold the drive in place. This will cause the tray to ride a little higher than it should, but don't worry: The loosey-goosey build quality of the drive opening means the tray should still fit it. Mount the drive tray back in place and screw it into the case using the four screws and nuts.
3. INSTALL THE OPTICAL DRIVE We couldn't find a 170KB 5.25-inch floppy drive, so we settled for this Silverstone slot-fed DVD burner. It comes with four tiny screws. Place the drive in the cage and screw it in place with the jeweler's screwdriver (image C). Now plug in the HDD power and SATA cable as well as the ODD power and data cable.
4. INSTALL THE ALL-IN-ONE MOTHERBOARD Install the I/O shield by sliding it into the slots at the rear of the C64x. Now gently slide the Zotac motherboard into place, making sure the two Wi-Fi antennas feed out the holes in the I/O shield (image D). Take four screws from your spare parts box (because why would Commodore USA bother to include them in the box?) and gently screw the board in place (image E). The board doesn't have metal standoffs, so you'll be boring the screws into plastic. Do not over-torque the screws or you will strip out the mounts.
5. INSTALL THE RAM Install the pair of SODIMMs by placing them into the slots while carefully making sure the notches in the DIMMs line up with the notches in the slots. Apply pressure with your thumbs on the corners until the arms snap into place (image F).
6. EXPANSION NEEDED Since the keyboard is internal, it hooks directly into a USB 2.0 header. Unfortunately, the system's internal media card reader also requires a USB 2.0 header, but the Zotac board we selected has only one internal USB 2.0 header and a USB 3.0 header. To get around this, we used an NZXT 1U01 USB expansion module. The 1U01 needs power, so take the Molex Y-cable splitter and plug it into the Molex output on the motherboard (image G). Now take the Molex-to-SATA power connector that came with the motherboard and plug it into one end of the Y-cable splitter. Plug the other end into the 1U01's power pass-through and then plug into the optical drive's Molex cable.
7. HOOK UP THE KEYBOARD The USB cable isn't labeled, but the wires indicate what functions they do. The red wire is power and the black is ground. Look at the USB pin-out chart we've provided (image H) and match the keyboard connector that has the red wire with one of the +5V pins and then plug it in (image I). If you're still skittish, you can grab one of those USB header adapters that ship with MSI and Asus boards. Plug the power switch and power LED into the board's front-panel connectors (image J).
8. BACK TO THE FUTURE You're ready to turn on the Commodore 64x. If you're wondering where the power button is, it's the red LED dome on the right-hand side.
1)This little fan can get whiny, so use a $7 Zalman Fan Mate 2 to lower its RPMs. 2)The Zotac Fusion ION‑ITX T Series wraps the GPU, CPU, PSU, MOBO, and heatsink into one nice little attractive package. 3)The slot-fed optical drive can be substituted for a standard tray drive or skipped completely, but it wouldn't be quite as classy. Now if we could only fit a 5.25-inch floppy in there. An Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized AgeThe original Commodore 64 packed a 1MHz MOS 6510 processor, which probably has one hundredth of the power of the CPU in your printer. Next to that, the AMD's E-350 "Brazos" would appear as magic from the gods. In our world, though, the E350 is pretty far off the power band as you can see from our tests. The E-350's main weakness is its x86 performance. The Fusion APU is faster than a dual-core Atom 330, but beefier parts such as Intel's Core i5-2430M—even with the i5's low clocks—will leave it in the dust. Where the E-350 in the C64x does well is in 3D performance—its integrated graphics solution has enough power to run older games such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at lower resolutions. The real beauty of the E-350 is its low temps. At 18 watts for CPU and GPU combined, it really stays cool. In our experience, it's far cooler than Intel's own low-voltage 35-watt dual-core Sandy Bridge chips. The E-350 isn't about blistering performance, but neither is the C64x. It's about the cool factor of having a retro exterior with modern computer brains. Benchmarks
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| Valve Plans Limited Beta Test for Steam on Linux, Only 1,000 Users Invited Posted: 27 Sep 2012 08:01 AM PDT
The private beta is only open to 1,000 users, so it's a pretty exclusive club if you can manage to get in. It will include Steam on Linux, a single Valve game, and support for Ubuntu 12.04 and above. It will not include the recently launched Big Picture mode, which is a revamped interface tailored for big screen TVs (check out or How To guide for enabling this optional feature), nor will there be any additional titles offered in the beta. Valve hasn't said which game it's including, but we're willing to bet it's Left 4 Dead 2. The company has been working on porting L4D2 to Linux and even managed to get it running on Ubuntu 12.04 with impressive results.
If you're new to Linux, Valve suggests waiting for a subsequent release with more features before diving in. For everyone else, Valve will announce at a later date when sign-ups are to begin. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
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| European Union Expects to Fine Microsoft Up to $7.4 Billion for "Technical Error" in Windows Posted: 27 Sep 2012 07:25 AM PDT
Let's backtrack for a second. Back in 2009, the EU ordered Microsoft to begin offering Windows users a choice of web browsers in Europe. The so-called browser ballot was intended to even the playing field, and not long after it was implemented, Opera Software claimed it saw triple the amount of browser downloads. Things were fine since then, up until earlier this year when some PCs running pre-loaded copies of Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 shipped to European without the browser ballot. Microsoft blamed the oversight on a technical error, saying it affected around 28 million PCs. European customers who purchased PCs running the original version of Windows 7 or relevant versions of Windows XP and Vista were unaffected. That error could end up costing Microsoft a lot of money. "The next step is to open a formal proceeding into the company's breach of an agreement. We are working on this," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia reportedly told reporters at a conference in Warsaw. "It should not be a long investigation because the company itself explicitly recognized its breach of the agreement."
While Microsoft may be hoping for lenience, especially since it has been, for the most part, complying with the original order, the EU may look to make an example out of the software maker. If we had to venture a guess, we'd say it probably won't be nearly as high as the maximum fine -- $7.4 billion -- but probably several million dollars, if not hundreds of millions. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
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| Intel Responds to 'Unsubstantiated' Reports of CEO's Anti-Windows 8 Remarks Posted: 27 Sep 2012 06:19 AM PDT
According to Bloomberg, Otellini got candid about Windows 8 in a company meeting in Taiwan on Tuesday and was reportedly heard telling employees that the upcoming OS wasn't fully baked yet. But Otellini, Bloomberg's source claimed, did not seem to have a problem with the idea of Microsoft releasing Windows 8 a little prematurely — a practice much more widespread than what most people like to think. With Windows 8 having already received a lot of negative publicity, it did not take Microsoft too long to respond. "With over 16 million active preview participants, Windows 8 is the most tested, reviewed and ready operating system in Microsoft's history. We're looking forward to making Windows 8 available to the world on October 26th," Microsoft said in a statement. A bit later in the day, Intel also issued a statement on "unsubstantiated news reports about comments made by Intel CEO Paul Otellini in a meeting with employees." While the brief statement reminds everyone that Otellini once hailed Windows 8 as being "one of the best things that ever happened to Intel", nowhere does it deny that Otellini made the remarks attributed to him by Bloomberg. "Intel has a long and successful heritage working with Microsoft on the release of Windows platforms, delivering devices that provide exciting experiences, stunning performance, and superior compatibility," reads the statement. "Intel fully expects this to continue with Windows 8." "Intel, Microsoft and our partners have been working closely together on testing and validation to ensure delivery of a high-quality experience across the nearly 200 Intel-based designs that will start launching in October." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nvidia Treats Linux Users to 304.51 Display Driver Posted: 27 Sep 2012 05:37 AM PDT
The driver adds support for the GeForce GTX 660, GTX 650, GT 645M, GTX 670MX, and GTX 675MX graphics cards, while squashing numerous bugs in the process. Some of these include:
That's just a sampling of what's laid out in the full release notes, which is also where you can download the new drivers. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
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| Digital Storm Infographic Pits PC Gaming Versus Consoles Posted: 27 Sep 2012 05:33 AM PDT
The infographic is the creation of DS Unlocked, which is comprised of "an elite team of Digital Storm technicians." It starts off talking about price, and while it's true PCs require a larger initial investment, "the level of graphics and processing power of the average gaming computer means you get a lot more for your money," DS Unlocked says. Consoles are also disadvantaged in that, for the most part, they're stuck with whatever hardware is under the hood. Larger hard drives and add-ons like the Kinect motion sensor offer a bit of upgradeability, but it's not like you can rip open the chassis and upgrade the graphics card or plop more RAM in there like you can with a PC.
Don't get us wrong, consoles have their strengths and we're not hating on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 (maybe a little on the Wii), but if we had to choose just one platform, it would definitely be the PC, and Digital Storm's infographic outlines many of the reasons why. What about you, which is your favorite platform to game on? |
Gabe Newell now 
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