General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Intel Intros Four New ULV Chips

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 08:13 PM PDT

Intel on Sunday updated its official price list with four new ultra-low voltage (ULV) chips, three of which are second-generation Core i parts, while the fourth is a Celeron. These power-efficient chips have a TDP of 17W, making them ideal for ultrathin laptops - or "ultrabooks" as Intel now likes to call them.

The four new 32nm ULV processors are:

  • Core i7-2677M: 4M cache, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 1.80 GHz (Turbo Boost up to 2.9GHz), $317
  • Core i7-2637M: 4M cache, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 1.70 GHz (Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz), $289
  • Core i5-2557M: 3M cache, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 1.70 GHz (Turbo Boost up to  2.7GHz),  $250
  • Celeron 847: 2M cache, 2 Cores, 2 Threads, 1.10 GHz,  $134

The upcoming Asus UX21, which was introduced at Computex as the first "ultrabook", is known to have the dual-core Core i5-2557M inside. According to CPU-World, the Celeron 847 can be found inside the Fujitsu Lifebook P701, a 12.1-inch ultrathin notebook.

Brief Dropbox Error Allowed Access to Anyone's Account

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:53 PM PDT

dbA little snafu over at Dropbox HQ has served to remind us how imperfect the cloud still is for storage of all our personal data. Over the weekend, an observant user noticed that following a password change, he was able to log into his cloud storage account with any password at all, even if it was just one letter long. Weird, right? Well it turns out it wasn't just him. Anyone could log into any Dropbox with any password.

It was a PhD candidate at Indiana University by the name of Christopher Soghoian that noticed the issue. He clued a friend in, who contacted Dropbox. A quick response from Dropbox founder and CTO Arash Ferdowsi indicated they had found the source of the problem and corrected it. It only took about an hour from the time the user notified Dropbox, but the exploit may have been possible for some time before that. 

We're wondering if this sort of incident changes you opinion of cloud storage. Should we be looking toward local storage of the most sensitive data, or do we just need to demand more accountability? 

Basics of Photography Part I: Taking Better Photos by Understanding How Your Digital Camera Works

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:16 PM PDT

With so many cameras available, figuring out how all the specifications and options translate into your everyday use is complicated. For our first lesson in the Basics of Photography, we're going to learn how cameras work and make sense of what that means in terms of choosing a camera to buy and how it affects your photographs.

The Parts

Your camera is made up of many parts, but there are a few in particular that we want to look at as they are the most important. We'll go into much more detail in a bit, but here's a basic overview of the parts we're going to look at:

  • The body is the housing for your camera. While it has little effect on the quality of your photos, it does affect things like ease of use and comfort.
  • The lens is the eye of the camera, and it's a very complex instrument. Different lenses can provide many different features, so it's important to know the differences between them. In future lessons, we'll also discuss how lenses work and how that affects your photographs.
  • The sensor is basically the digital equivalent of film, in the sense that—like film—the sensor is exposed to light that comes through the lens and it records that exposure. The exposure is then processed and saved to flash memory (generally an SD or Compact Flash card). The caliber and size of the sensor are also very important, as these things significantly impact the quality of your photos.
  • The flash card is where you save your images, and it's a component most people don't think about too much when buying a camera, aside from choosing an amount of storage that suits their needs. Flash cards range in read and write speeds as well, however, and a slow cards can significantly degrade your camera's performance. We'll take a look at what card classes mean and the minimum speed you need for different purposes.
  • The battery matters in a camera just like any other electronic device. While this is a simple part to understand, we'll dive into it a little more deeply to figure out actual, practical battery life for cameras and when cameras with less-powerful batteries may be a better option.

The Body

Basics of Photography Part I: Taking Better Photos by Understanding How Your Digital Camera WorksCamera body design affects the user in a couple of ways. First, the size of the body can have a major impact on comfort when being held and used. Small hands will have difficulty with large bodies and, conversely, large hands will have difficulty with small bodies. Before purchasing a camera, it's a good idea to hold it and take a few pictures so you know if you'll find it comfortable to use with regularity.

Size often impacts the location of buttons, dials, and other parts of the hardware you'll need to touch and press to operate your camera. The positioning on small point-and-shoot cameras tends to be fairly simple, because there are fewer hardware controls, but the moment you step up to a smaller DSLR (such as Canon's Rebel series) that number increases significantly. On higher-end DSLRs, the extra space tends to ensure your hands will always be able to reach and easily access the most important controls. This is a generalization, however, and you'll want to test them out for yourself. When you do, adjust camera settings and see what all the buttons do in manual mode (so you're aware of their full capabilities). If it feels uncomfortable or awkward to make adjustments you'll make often, you may want to consider a different model.

While most cameras are fairly similar, the little differences in body design can have a significant impact on their ease of use. While you can generally judge a camera's abilities without ever using it, you'll need to test it out yourself to make sure it feels right.

The Lens

Certain types of lenses are better for certain situations, so it's important to know their classifications and differences. The first thing worth noting is the difference between zoom lenses and prime lenses. Zoom lenses—as you can probably guess—let you zoom in and out. While they have that advantage, they're generally more expensive, heavier, and larger. Prime lenses, on the other hand, do not allow you to zoom, but they're often cheaper, lighter, and smaller. In many cases, prime lenses will provide sharper images than zoom lenses at lower price points. When you start paying thousands of dollars for lenses, lens performance tends to be a little more equal.

The next thing you want to understand is the difference between wide-angle, standard, medium, telephoto, and ultra telephoto lenses. These terms are all based on a lens' focal length, which is a complex definition that's beyond the scope of this lesson (if curiosity compels you, read about it on Wikipedia). What you need to know is that focal length is measured in millimeters (mm) and you can think of it like the amount of magnification. A low number is like being zoomed really far out, and a high number really far in. Here's what you need to know about each type:

Wide-angle lenses are essentially any lenses with a focal length of up to 35mm. The wider the lens (and lower the focal length), the more the lens can see. Fisheye lenses are extremely wide and often have a rating of around 8-10mm. A regular wide-angle lens is generally around 14-28mm. As you can see from the photo on the left, wide angle lenses capture more stuff in the frame. They also distort space, increasing depth and making it look more spherical. This can be both a wanted and unwanted effect, depending on the circumstances. Some wide-angle lenses include technology that corrects this distortion, but those lenses are almost always significantly more expensive.

Standard lenses are generally between 35-50mm and tend to most closely represent space the way the human eye sees it. Wide-angle lenses tend to distort space and add the appearance of more depth. Telephoto lenses flatten space. Standard lenses are the middle ground and produce images that look realistic to most people. A 50mm prime lens is often the cheapest lens you can buy with a level of quality that rivals zoom lenses priced at several hundred dollars more. Standards are the most versatile lenses because they're a good compromise between the more extreme types, but they're often useless when you're in a small space and need to go wide or are far away from your subject and need the magnification power of a telephoto.

Medium lenses generally fall into the range of 60-100mm and are generally not a type you'll want as a prime unless you have a specific purpose in mind (some prefer 60mm and 85mm prime lenses for portraits, for example). This range is often encompassed by zoom lenses, and that's generally where you'll want it. Many standard zoom lenses start as wide as 28mm and end up at 70mm, at least. A good standard zoom will encompass this range.

Telephoto lenses are what you want for zooming in really far. Pretty much anything over 100mm is considered a telephoto lens, and anything over 400mm is considered an ultra telephoto lens. While telephoto lenses can magnify an image many times over, and are necessary when you can't get close to your subject, they're both heavy, are more subject to motion blur (as a result of camera movement), and do not perform as well in low light. You will find some options that are compact, come with image stabilization (to prevent motion blur), and offer wider apertures (to perform better in low light), but all of these features increase their cost significantly.

The Sensor and CPU

The sensor is the part of your camera that captures the light exposure filtered through the lens. For our intents and purposes, we're just going to call this the image. The way the sensor was produced, and how large or small it is, has a pretty big effect on the end result: your photograph.

First of all, the size of the sensors matters. Compact point-and-shoot cameras have very small sensors and the difference in size between them is a smaller factor when choosing a camera. When it comes to cameras with interchangeable lenses, which include DSLRs and MILC/CSC/EVIL cameras (which are basically compact, mirrorless DSLR-like cameras that often—but not always—have smaller sensors), sensor size has a greater impact. Generally larger sensors provide better low-light performance, greater control over depth of field, and produce higher resolution images with less noise than a smaller sensor.

The majority of DSLRs have a sensor size most commonly known as APS-C. An APS-C sensor is about half the size of a frame of 35mm film and generally magnifies all lenses by a factor of 1.6x. This means that using a 35mm lens on a DSLR with an APS-C sensor is basically the same as using a 56mm lens on a regular 35mm camera. This is good news for telephoto lenses but bad news for wide angle, as every lens isn't as wide as advertised when placed on an APS-C-based camera. A 10mm fish eye lens will produce photos like a 16mm wide-angle lens. It's not a major downside for most people, but it's important to know.

Some higher-end DSLRs contain full-frame sensors, such as the popular Canon 5D Mark II, which is equivalent to the size of a frame of 35mm film. Full-frame sensor DSLRs have the previously mentioned benefits that come with large sensors, but also are not subject to the 1.6x magnification like you'll find with APS-C sensors. Basically, a full-frame sensor DSLR is about as close as you're going to get to 35mm film with a digital camera.

While sensor design is very relevant to the image quality, and the only way you're going to be able to judge that quality for certain is to see or produce sample images, you should pay attention to the sensor's megapixel rating. In general, the more megapixels packed into a sensor the more noise you'll find in a given image. This is why you don't necessarily want to choose a camera with a high megapixel rating—especially when a camera has a smaller sensor. For most people, even a 6.3 megapixel camera is sufficient, but anywhere from 8-10 should be more than sufficient. The point is, don't just buy one camera over the other because it has a higher megapixel count. It may produce noisier, less-desirable results so you should always test first.

The Flash Card

Flash cards come in all different sizes, but they come in different speeds as well. Nowadays you're most likely to end up with an SD or CompactFlash card. The speed of your flash card is important because most cameras nowadays are very fast. You can take many images in rapid succession, but if your card has a slow write speed it can't keep up. For SD cards you'll be best served by a Class 6 card. For CompactFlash, a card rated at 133x should do just fine.

Many DSLRs and compact cameras come with video capabilities, and writing this kind of data requires a fast flash card. Class 6 SD cards will still be enough for most point-and-shoots, but if your video-capable DSLR uses SD cards you'll probably want a Class 10. Class 10 cards are not all created equal, however, and some are marginally faster than Class 6. In most cases any Class 10 should sufficient, and anything with a max write speed of 15MB per second be more than enough. Of course, it doesn't hurt to get a faster card and some Class 10 SD cards are capable of write speeds twice that fast. CompactFlash cards are often used in higher-end DSLRs because they're capable of faster speeds at a lower cost (mainly because they're physically larger and that's easier to achieve thanks to their size). A CompactFlash card rated 233x or higher should handle video in most any DSLR just fine, but faster cards will definitely make things run more smoothly.

The Battery

Most DSLRs pack a battery that will last you all day, but compact point-and-shoot and MILC/CSC/EVIL don't necessarily come with that luxury. When considering something of the more compact variety, you want to weigh both the longevity of the battery and the cost of a second one. Sometimes you can get a better camera with poor battery life, but the cost of an additional battery isn't very expensive. If you don't mind charging two batteries this can be a good option.

With DSLRs you'll often get a good battery but sometimes that battery will perform better in certain circumstances. DSLRs do not require the use of the LCD screen and you'll generally take pictures through the viewfinder. The battery will last much longer when the LCD screen is not powered, so companies will often provide two ratings for the battery life: one in the number of photos you can take and one in the number of hours the battery will last. The number of hours generally refers to the amount of time the camera can be actively functioning with the LCD screen turned on and the number of photos is simply how many pictures you can expect to take without the aid of the LCD screen. When judging battery life for a particular camera, be sure you know if you plan to use it more with the LCD screen on or off first.

Other Considerations

Your camera's processor is also important, but most are so fast these days that it's becoming somewhat irrelevant. If it can handle more than 7 RAW frames in succession, or 20-some JPEGs, it will never feel slow.

If your camera comes with a flash, you may want to find out how bright it is and test if the light it produces is sufficient. In most cases, it won't be. If you really need a flash, you're better off with an external, so don't be discouraged if your camera doesn't have one.

Hopefully this gives you a better idea of how the parts of your camera works and will help you to choose the right one if you're looking to buy one.

Gizmodo is the world's most fun technology website, focused on gadgets and how they make our lives better, worse, and more absurd.

Samsung NC215S Solar Powered Netbook Coming to Russia

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 02:55 PM PDT

solarNow, stick with us here. We know that as readers of technology blogs, the sun is your natural enemy. But the new Samsung NC215S Solar Netbook can use those sun rays to powers your computer. The downside? You'll have to go to Russia to buy one.

The NC215S previously launched in the African market, but the folks in Russia will be able to pick one up for 13,999 rubles ($479) this August. The entire lid of the computer is a large solar panel which boosts the battery life of the NC215S to 14.5 hours in sunlight. We don't know if that includes having the brightness cranked, but that's going to be necessary seeing as you're out in the sun.

Other specs include a 1.6GHz N570 Atom dual-core, 250GB of storage, and 1GB of RAM in a 2.9 pound chassis. Is a fairly conventional netbook with the addition of a solar panel in any way appealing to you? Hoping for a US launch?

Old School Monday: Revving Up 3D Engines

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 02:55 PM PDT

Whether you're blowing baddies away in Call of Duty or roaming the abandoned ruins of New Vegas, it's easy to forget just how far we've come in the video game universe. In 1997, eager gamers were just beginning to wrap their heads around the concept of 3D graphics--Epic's first iteration of the Unreal Engine proudly touted 24-bit color, high-resolution graphics at 8 bit framerates, colored lighting, and continuous levels. This was a time when Microsoft's Direct3D was in an all out war with Silicon Graphics' OpenGL. When's the last time you thought about OpenGL?

So, as a nostalgiac throwback, take a look at this boot article from June 1997, and give some appreciation to the games you've been playing - and look forward to the next development on the horizon.

How to Build a Kick-Ass Gaming Rig for Under $700

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 12:14 PM PDT

Build A Gaming Machine That Will Satisfy Your Cravings Without Breaking the Bank

The thought of a gaming PC might conjure up images of decadent excess—a full-course meal of awesome that moves from an SSD consumé to a filet of Core i7 990X to quad-SLI under glass. While that's certainly a feast worth aspiring to, it's by no means the only fare that will give your gaming needs sustenance.

And, no, we're not suggesting that you ruin your health with an empty-calorie diet of console. In fact, unlike some corners of the gaming world, where there's a fixed menu of parts, the PC offers loads of options that scale from opulent to economical.

Our budget gaming rig is all about instant gratification: a way for you to fill your gaming hunger with a state of the art, speedy machine, capable of playing today's games at 1080p resolutions, for less than $700. With our instructions, you will see how you can build it yourself in less than hour. On top of that, we'll tell you how you can easily supersize your budget box with future upgrades.

Is your mouth watering? Let's dig in!

On The Menu: The Ingredients That Make Up Our $667 PC

GPU: SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6790 - $150

The selection of budget videocard these days is an embarrassment of riches. We've never seen such an assortment of truly powerful, low-cost cards. We decided on AMD's Radeon HD 6790, which is capable of 1080p gaming in such games as Crysis 2, Battlefield 2: Bad Company, and a ton of other premium titles. Is it a Radeon HD 6990 or GeForce GTX 590? No, our entire system was built for less than the price of AMD's or Nvidia's latest dual GPUs.
www.sapphiretech.com

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 - $126

Intel's Sandy Bridge chips are truly wondrous for being fast as hell and cheaper than, well, what Intel could charge. For example, the 3.1GHz Core i3-2100 dual-core is actually faster in most of the benchmarks—even those that are multithreaded—than the similarly priced Athlon II X4 quad-core, and even surpasses the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition in many of our tests. Not bad for a $126 chip.
www.intel.com

MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-H67M-D2-B3 - $90

We had to make tough choices to come in under budget and the Gigabyte board was one of them. That's not to say that it's a bad board, but there were some features that had to be sacrificed. First up, it's microATX, which limits future expansion possibilities. That doesn't hurt as much as the two DIMM slots, though. Ouch. If we had the extra cash, we would have ponied up an extra $30 to get a standard ATX board with four DIMM slots.
www.gigabyte.com

OPTICAL DRIVE: SAMSUNG SH-S222A - $22

A tech media prediction says that optical drives will go away within five years. Sure, maybe if you don't actually use a freaking computer for anything. Our budget doesn't allow for Blu-ray, so Samsung's trusty old 22x DVD burner gets put to work yet again.
www.samsung.com

PSU: ROSEWILL RG530-S12  - $50

When push comes to shove, the PSU budget goes overboard first. That doesn't mean the Rosewill RG530-S12 is junk. Far from it, in fact. The PSU features two 6-pin GPU plugs and didn't hiccup once during our testing. It helps that the Rosewill PSU (the house brand for Newegg) was on instant rebate for $25. So, in many ways, it's actually a $75 PSU that we got for $50.
www.newegg.com

RAM: Patriot 4GB DDR3/1333 - $40

With the Patriot sticker on it, you know there's good support behind it. That's more than we can say for no-name generic RAM.
www.patriotmemory.com

CASE: ROSEWILL R218 - $30

Believe it or not, we spent one-third more on this year's case than last year's. That's because Rosewill doesn't sell the $20 black metal case we used in last year's budget rig. But $30 for an enclosure is still pretty inexpensive, and the Rosewill R218 does the job.
www.newegg.com

HARD DRIVE: WESTERN DIGITAL CAVAIR BLUE 1TB - $60

With a $10 instant rebate, we snagged a massive 1TB of storage for $60. You can't really argue with that.
www.westerndigital.com

OS: OEM WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM - $99

Is there any other choice?
www.microsoft.com

Today's Parts List Specials

GPU Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 $150
CPU Intel Core i3-2100 $126
DVD Samsung SH-S222A $22
MB Gigabyte GA-H67M-D2-B3 $90
PSU Rosewill RG530-S12 $50
RAM Patriot 4GB DDR3/1333 $40
CASE Rosewill R218 $30
HDD Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB $60
OS OEM Windows 7 Home Premium $99
TOTAL COST   $667

1. Prepare The Case

   

First, the Rosewill R218 case. Facing the front of the case, remove the left-hand panel by removing the two thumbscrews in back. The case features several built-in bump-type standoffs. You'll need to supplement these by installing additional standoffs in three spots (above, left). To figure out where to place them, place your motherboard in the case and eyeball which holes in the motherboard do not have mounts under them. If you're a total newb, you should know that the four larger holes around the CPU socket are not for mounting the board: They are for mounting the CPU cooler. The standoffs you need should be in the sealed plastic parts bag that came with the case. Screw them in by hand and then use pliers to tighten them so they don't back out. This is also a good time to remove any expansion card slot covers. You need the top two slots for the graphics card in this case.

Next, remove the I/O shield, the rectangular metal plate that surrounds the PS/2, USB, and audio ports. Simply wiggle it back and forth until the metal tabs break loose. Your motherboard should have come with a metal I/O shield; fit this into the open hole. With our case, we had to remove the rear fan in order to fit it in (above, right). After we installed the I/O shield (below), we then reinstalled the fan.


2. Install the CPU

Before you install the CPU, make sure to touch something grounded to remove static electricity built up on your body. If you're truly paranoid, use an antistatic strap.


First unlock the socket's load plate by opening the little arm on the LGA1155 socket (above).


Now carefully pry the plastic protective cap from the socket (above). Never touch these extremely delicate pins; bending them will kill the board. Keep the protective cap—you will need it in the event you have to return the board for warranty replacement. Now pick up your processor with two fingers and lower it as close as you can get to the socket.


The two notches in the chip should match the two notches in the socket. Keep the chip parallel to the socket (above). Do not drop one side of the chip into the socket and then drop in the other, nor slide it around in the socket, as it may damage the delicate pins. Once the chip is sitting flat in the socket (if it isn't, carefully pick up the chip and try lowering it in again), use the arm to lower the load plate and lock in the arm.

3. Install the RAM

Since the board is out in the open, let's take this opportunity to install the two sticks of RAM. You'll need to first spread open the two arms on each RAM slot. Now, match the notch in the memory stick with the notch in the slot. The DIMM is keyed so that it only fits one way (below, left). With the DIMM perpendicular to the slot, push it straight into the slot until it clicks into place (below, right). The arms should lock in place automatically; if the arms aren't totally locked in place, push them in with your fingers.

   

4. Install the Heatsink


Our retail processor comes with the stock Intel heatsink fan that includes a thin film of thermal paste already on it (above). For newbs: This paste helps fill in the nooks and crannies (yes, like a Thomas' English Muffin) that are formed when you compress the heatsink on the CPU. To install the heatsink fan, line up the four legs of the heatsink with the four holes around the CPU socket, and push the plastic anchor points through the holes by pushing on the knob-like top of each until you hear an audible click (below, top left).

Using a criss-cross pattern, similar to how you would tighten down lug nuts, lock each of the four legs in place. Look at the bottom of the board and you should see the legs protruding through the bottom (below, top right). Also tug on the heatsink from the top to make sure it's locked in place. Now plug in the fan's power lead (below, bottom).

     

5. Mount the Motherboard


It's time to install the motherboard. Although our I/O shield is free of anything that can snag ports, it's very common for the little metal fingers to get stuck in the ports, so on your I/O shield, make sure that the fingers are not jamming into the ports when you install the board. Now, carefully lower the board into the case (above). Use a Phillips-head screwdriver to screw the board in place (below, top left). Make sure the number of screws you use matches the number of mounting points in the case. In this case we have seven mounting points so we use seven screws. If you have seven mounting points but only use six screws, you have a mounting point in the wrong place. You should remove the motherboard and make sure that all of the mounting points line up with the motherboard's available holes. Use just enough force so the screws won't back out from vibrations, but not so much torque that it will damage the motherboard.

You're now ready to hook up the front-panel power, reset, and LED buttons, as well as the USB and audio connectors. To hook up the USB connectors, look on the board for the headers labeled USB and plug them in (below, top right). For audio, the header is labeled Audio. Hooking up the power, LED, and reset switches is also fairly straightforward but takes a little more work (below, bottom). The power and reset switches don't have orientation requirements but the HDD and power LEDs do. Just so you know, the white wire usually indicates negative.

   

6. Install the Video Card

It's time to install the videocard. Before you can do that, you'll have to remove the wacky-ass card-retention device that Rosewill uses on its case (above). Once the retention device is out of the way, install the card by slotting it into the top slot on the board (below). The card should lock into place. If you have installed the card correctly, the gold connectors of the GPU should all be hidden by the x16 PCI-E slot. Reinstall the retention device, or use two standard machine screws to hold the card in place and toss the retention device in the trash.


7. Install the PSU


You're in the home stretch now. It's time to install the power supply. This is done by lowering the PSU into the case (above) and using the four black screws that came with the PSU to secure it in place. Note, the fan on the PSU should face down in the case. If you somehow install it upside down with the fan facing up, the airflow into the power supply will be blocked by the case, causing the PSU to overheat and likely die. It's also time to connect the power cables to the motherboard and videocard. The larger connector is the main power connector. It's made up of a 20-pin and 4-pin plug. Push the two plugs together and insert them into the matching connector on the motherboard (below). The plug is keyed so it will not fit in backwards. You should also take the pair of 4-pin plugs and plug one of them into the 4-pin connector that's just above the CPU socket. Plug the two 6-pin connectors into the GPU.


8. Install Drives and Windows

The last step is to install the optical drive and the hard drive in the case. It's straightforward. To install the optical drive, gently pull the front bezel off of the case and remove the drive bay cover where you want the drive to go. Remember, the front-panel controls and lights are hooked up to the bezel by wires, so don't pull it out too far. Push the bezel back in place, slide in the optical drive (below, left), and use two of the fine-threaded machine screws to lock it in place. This is usually enough, but if you're anal, you can install another pair on the right side by removing the side of the case. Next, slide the hard drive into the hard drive cage and use two of the coarse screws to lock it in place (below, middle).

   

Hook the SATA power cables to the optical and hard drives (above, right). Using the two included SATA data cables, plug the drives in to the motherboard. The Intel PCH has six ports: two are SATA 6Gb/s (white) and four are SATA 3Gb/s (blue). Since both of our drives are SATA 3Gb/s, plug them into the blue ports (below). Now plug the SATA data cables into the hard drive and optical drive.

The Gigabyte board defaults to IDE mode in the BIOS. We prefer AHCI mode these days to access the more advanced features of SATA 3.0, so we went into the BIOS (it's a BIOS interface with EFI) by hitting the Del key during boot and changed the mode to AHCI. While we were there, we also changed the boot order to hit the optical drive first.

Now, place your Windows 7 disc into the optical drive and turn the system on. If all goes well, the machine should boot and begin installing Windows 7.


Super Size It

WHAT WE WOULD UPGRADE

We had to stick to a strict diet when spec'ing the PC Value Meal. We knew we wanted Intel's second-gen proc and a GPU capable of playing games at 1080p. Everything else was just a means to getting there as cheaply as possible. But what would we do if we had just a little more jingle to upgrade?

Honestly, our first upgrade would go toward the motherboard. A full-size board with four memory slots and a P-series chipset, such as the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3-B3 for $130, would be preferable.

The second item that could benefit from more money is the case. The $30 Rosewill is surprisingly solid for an ultra-budget case, but it's not one we think we'd keep long term. Of the items in your PC that will last the longest, the case is high on that list.

If we had the cash, we'd also think about upgrading the stars of the show: our graphics card and CPU. For just a few more dollars, the Radeon HD 6850 gets you up to the next rung on the performance ladder. And for just a few dollars more than that, the new GeForce GTX 560 (non Ti) is an attractive option. If you want a nice uptick in applications, the $185 Core i5-2300 gets you four cores at 2.8GHz, with Turbo Boost taking it to 3.1GHz.

The final upgrade for those concerned with long-term reliability would be the PSU. Normally we'd be apprehensive about an extremely low-cost PSU, but the Rosewill we're running is actually a $75 PSU, not a $50 unit, so we're fairly comfortable with it. Still, we'd ultimately like to step up to a 750-watt PSU; getting there means spending about $100.

Digesting the Benchmark Numbers

APPRECIATING THE PC VALUE MEAL IS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

We just got an email from Captain Obvious: A value meal from WacArnold's isn't quite the same experience as a meal at the French Laundry. It also won't set you back a month's pay. So, if you're expecting a machine that costs $667 to come close to machines whose cases alone cost almost that much, your expectations need to be drastically recalibrated.

We benchmarked our budget rig against our standard system benchmarks and all was as expected: an ass kicking. Our zero-point features an original "Bloomfield" Core i7-920 quad-core overclocked to 3.5GHz and a dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 card. As fine a chip as the Sandy Bridge is, our 2100 is still just a dual-core, and thus has no chance against a quad. If we compare our budget build to a high-end gaming rig, such as the Maingear Shift Super Stock we reviewed in the July issue, the picture gets even bleaker.

But don't despair. Yes, the benchmark charts look ugly and horrible, but you have to have some perspective. For example, the videocard in our zero-point costs more than our entire machine, as does the Maingear's paint job. Our gaming benchmarks are also designed to stress maxed-out machines with gaming at 2560x1600 on a 30-inch panel (which itself can be three times the cost of our budget PC).

To see if the PC Value Meal actually had the chops to perform in less lofty circumstances, we dialed back the resolution to 1920x1080, the resolution that budget PC gamers typically run. (The latest Steam hardware survey shows 21.1 percent of gamers run this resolution, with 1680x1050 being a close second at 19.64 percent.)

We then fired up Crysis 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, Total War: Shogan 2, and Battlefield: Bad Company. All of the games ran with more-than-acceptable frame rates in single-player and multiplayer modes. The upshot is that our PC Value Meal offers surprisingly satisfying gaming capabilities for most of today's games and leaves you enough money to, well, have a real meal to boot.

PC Value Meal PC Vs. Maingear Shift
Maingear Shift Value Meal PC
Vegas Pro 9 (sec) 2,079 6,007 (-65%)
Lightroom 2.6 (sec) 261 435 (-40%)
Proshow 4 (sec) 757 1,749 (-57%)
Reference 1.6 (sec) 1,451 3,840 (-62%)
Stalker: CoP (fps) 131.4 16.1 (-88%)
Far Cry 2 (fps) 217.0 49.6 (-77%)
The Maingear Shift featured a 3.4GHz Core i7-2600k overclocked to 5GHz, 8GB of DDR3/1866 on a Gigabyte P67 motherboard, two GTX 590 cards, two OCZ Vertex 3 SSDs in RAID 0, and Windows 7 in 64-bit.
PC Value Meal PC Vs. MPC Zero-Point PC
Zero Point Value Meal PC
Vegas Pro 9 (sec) 3,049 6,007 (-49%)
Lightroom 2.6 (sec) 356 435 (-18%)
Proshow 4 (sec) 1,112 1,749 (-36%)
Reference 1.6 (sec) 2,113 3,840 (-45%)
Stalker: CoP (fps) 42.0 16.1 (-62%)
Far Cry 2 (fps) 114.4 49.6 (-57%)
Our current desktop test bed consists of a quad-core 2.66GHz Core i7-920 overclocked to 3.5GHz, 6GB of Corsair DDR3/1333 overclocked to 1,750MHz, on a Gigabyte X58 motherboard. We are running an ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card, a 160GB Intel X25-M SSD, and 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate.

Could The Internet Be Shrinking Your Brain?

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 11:37 AM PDT

Remember how your mother used to tell you that sitting too close to the TV could ruin your vision? She was full of crap. But new research indicates that another one of Mother Dearest's little foibles may turn out to be true after after: too much Internet could rot your brain. Well, kinda. Using a very limited testing group, Chinese researchers have discovered possible evidence that excessive Internet use can actually change physical characteristics inside your head.

The study identified 18 college-aged students who fit the bill as an Internet addict by playing online games for 10+ hours a day and answering "Yes" to questions like "Have you taken the risk of losing a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the Internet?" The researchers then scanned the noggins of the Web-heads and a control group of people who've never sold their grandmother's jewelry for Internet.

"The researchers discovered several small regions in online addicts' brains shrunk, in some cases as much as a 10 to 20 percent," Scientific American reports. Interestingly, the shrinkage was more pronounced in people who had been power-using the Web for longer. The tests also showed increased white matter in areas of the brain related to memory and decreased white matter in sections tied to "cognitive and executive functions."

So what's that mean? That's a little less clear. Scientific American theorizes that the changes in white matter could result in "Internet addicts" having poor decision-making abilities and difficulty storing and retrieving memories.

If you're on the Web around the clock, don't go cold turkey quite yet. There's no need to worry – too much – until studies with larger groups show the same results. In the meantime, a little less Minecraft and a little more sunshine may be a good thing.

Harman AKG GHS 1 Review

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 11:36 AM PDT

A stylish headset from a newcomer to the field

Harman's audio products, which comprise brands like JBL, AKG, and Harman/Kardon are known as much for their high-tech aesthetic as for their audio quality and have never included a gaming headset—until now. We were excited to get the GHS 1 into the Lab to find out whether the design-conscious company's first foray into the gaming peripheral landscape was a success.

Like we said, Harman's products are always visually creative, and the GHS 1 is no exception. It's not as out there as, say, the Harman/Kardon crystalline desk speakers, but it's slick and distinctive all the same. There are three color schemes available, but the model we received sports a matte black finish with silver accents and a grey fabric band with orange stitching. The built-in mic is on a sharp-looking, stubby boom, and it folds up for easy transport. The long, bright-orange cable has inline volume/microphone controls and ends in two rubberized connectors that plug in to your analog ports. Good design is always going to be subjective, but as far as we're concerned, this is among the nicest-looking gaming headsets we've ever seen.

The AKG GHS 1's short microphone looks great, but isn't quite as sensitive as a full-length boom.

In terms of comfort, the GHS 1 is a mixed bag. The two-layer fabric and plastic headphone is very comfortable, which, combined with the overall light weight of the set, means your head isn't going to get sore even after long sessions with these. We're less enamored with the earcups, which are of the supra-aural variety, sitting directly on top of the ear. The cups are quite padded, but the padding itself isn't squishy enough to keep the phones from becoming slightly uncomfortable during extended usage. Some people like supra-aural headsets better than others, but if you're not a fan, the GHS 1 isn't going to change your mind.

So is the GHS 1 all style and no substance? Not at all. The sound produced by the set isn't going to blow your mind, but it easily matches the best offered by its competition in the sub-$100 market, with rich, clear mids and highs. The bass isn't quite as strong as we'd like it to be, but on the whole the set delivers a balanced, detailed sound that's equally good for gaming, music, and movies.

The first time we saw the microphone on the GHS 1, two thoughts occurred to us in quick succession. First was, "Hey, that's a hell of a lot cooler-looking than a normal boom mic!" The second was, "But does that even work?" Well, it works, but it's not magic. It's further away from your mouth, and accordingly, picks up a little less sound. It wasn't a major deal, but there were a few instances where we found ourselves having to speak up to be heard.

So on the whole, Harman's first attempt at gaming audio is a success. The set's design is absolutely top-notch, and if you want better sound quality, you'd better be prepared to spend more than the GHS 1's $80 price tag. The only thing working against this set is the small, supra-aural earcups, which don't provide much noise cancellation and can get uncomfortable. If you've used a supra-aural headset before and liked it, this one's a great deal for the money.

$80, harmanaudio.com

Chrome Web App of the Week: Dead Frontier

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 11:22 AM PDT

With brands like Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies available in multiple formats on just about every piece of hardware imaginable, it's never been easier for casual gamers to get their goof on anywhere they go. Sadly, those who prefer a bit of blood with their gaming have far fewer outlets available to them, especially when not in front of their home rig, console or handheld. What's an office drone feeling a bit of bloodlust while trapped in his cubicle on a Monday afternoon to do? Might we recommend embarking on a zombie killing rampage with Dead Frontier? As you may have guessed, it's our Chrome Web App of the Week.

Dead Frontier is a free-to-play massive multiplayer third-person isometric survivalist shooter designed to run in your Chrome browser. After a brief sign up and tutorial process, gamers are dropped in the middle of the sort of zombie apocalypse that we've all come to know and love.

Equipped with a meagre set of weapons and limited ammunition, you are sent out into the dark to explore, loot and kill the undead in the name all in the name of survival. Should you survive long enough, your character will gain the experience and cash needed to become the zombie slaying machine you always knew he could be. Offering an addictive mix of tension, action and familiar game mechanics, for a browser-based game, Dead Frontier offers Chrome users a surprisingly deep experience that'll keep you coming back for more.

Leaked Build Shows Further iPad-ification Of Windows 8

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 11:04 AM PDT

Reaction to Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 OS have been decidedly mixed. The move towards a single OS for both PCs and mobile devices has angered developers and end users alike: worried developers fear that their years of .Net and Silverlight mastery may fall to the wayside as Microsoft shifts focus to standards like CSS and HTML5, and hardcore PC owners hate the idea of iPad-ifying the desktop environment. The latest build of Windows 8 has leaked onto the Net and should only stoke the mixed usage-hating fires.

Redmond Pie's reporting that the leak, dubbed Build 7989, includes hints of SMS and geolocation support. Better known simply as "text messaging," the inclusion of SMS makes sense for an OS that hopes to find its way onto tablets. But what if you don't want SMS capabilities for your business computer? Apparently, Windows 8 includes code for "per-feature" licensing that could possibly allow Microsoft to ship a "bare bones" OS and allow users to purchase upgrades as needed, similar to the optional upgrades currently offered on Windows Servers.

The virtual keyboard built into Windows is also getting a tablet-friendly overhaul, the site reports. The size of the keys have been increased to further enhance the touch screen capabilities coming to Windows 8. Code pointing to a Microsoft App Store has also been uncovered.

While you can't get your hands on Build 7989 without illegally downloading it via torrent sites, you can view the code hinting at the SMS and geolocation applications online.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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