General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Alien Autopsy: We Look Inside the Alienware X51

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 02:07 PM PST

Deep inside the smallest, most powerful gaming rig…ever?

Besides chocolate and coconut, oil and water, gaming and small form factor usually don't mix. That's something Alienware is hoping to fix with its new incredibly small X51 box.

Maximum PC got to dig around inside an X51 unit to see how the company managed to get desktop parts into such a miniature machine and even check out the Nvidia's top secret Optimus technology too.

Alienware had two targets in designing the new X51 desktop: make it small and make it powerful. The Alienware box is slightly bigger than a generation 1 Xbox 360 console and it's very reminiscent of business-class small form factor machines. There's a big difference with the X51 though: It has some juice.

Alienware designers told us with this size of desktop, mobile parts are often used to keep the thermals and size down but because most gamers like to upgrade, the company said it based the X51 on desktop components. Inside is a Mini-ITX motherboard using the H61 chipset and a standard LGA1155 socket with the most powerful being an Intel Core i7-2600. Why no K chip? Alienware said the H61 makes overclocking out of the question so there's no need to pay for an unlocked processor. The board features two standard DDR3 DIMM slots in dual-channel mode and a Mini PCI Express Card slot. The Mini PCI Express Card slot will be outfitted with an 802.11n chip but since it's a standard slot, will take any card. The motherboard itself is an industry standard MiniITX size and could theoretically be upgraded but the I/O shield of the machine is built into the rear plane of the machine so swapping out a motherboard would seem to require Dremelling out the I/O shield area to fit any new board.

To get more hardware inside the box, Alienware had to move from the typical small, loud and hot internal PSU to an external brick. Two options will be available: A 240 Watt brick or a 340 Watt brick. The brick plugs into the rear of the box and AC/DC conversion is done inside the machine on a board in front of the motherboard.

For storage, the X51 will mount a full size 3.5-inch desktop drive, and a slot-fed DVD burner or optional Blu-ray combo drive. There's no mount for a 2.5-inch SSD or mobile drive but Alienware designers said they expect those interested in SSDs to remove the 3.5-inch drive and use a bracket to mount up to 2.5-inch SSDs. Knowing this would be an option, Alienware said they intentionally put three SATA ports on the motherboard. The real magic though is the GPU support. Two configurations will be available at launch: A GeForce GTX 555 or a GeForce GTX 545. These are not specially designed cards with custom coolers either—these are off the shelf cards. Alienware said gamers universally want the option to upgrade cards down the road so it made sure the unit could function with off the shelf cards.

The company said it believes it's possible to run up to a GeForce GTX 580 based on the power and thermal capabilities but it has not qualified the box for it. We only saw two standard six-pin power plugs so don't pin your hopes on anything that requires insane amount of power. Realistically, Alienware said it expects GeForce GTX 560 Ti-level of graphics as a near term upgrade. Keep in mind that as vendors introduce newer GPUs, the power requirements usually go down for mid-range cards so it's not implausible to get GeForce GTX 580 performance later this year with the power needs of a GeForce GTX 560 Ti.

All X51s will also come with Nvidia's long awaited, secret Optimus technology. Optimus lets you seamlessly switch between discrete and the integrated Sandy Bridge graphics. It was actually backdoor announced by board makers when the original Z68 chipset came out last Spring but was quickly denied by Nvidia. Now nearly a year later, Optimus for desktop is finally ready. Configuring Optimus seems fairly easy and straightforward, too. Just go into the Nvidia control panel, select "Manage 3D Settings" and then you're given an option to let Optimus automagically select what to run on by looking at the 3D workload or manually select the integrated graphics or discrete graphics.

Since gamers like bling, Alienware added a dash of that with its trademark lighting on various places around the case. Like the laptop and Aurora, the X51 lets you change the color of the LEDs on the case and the keyboard and mouse using the AFX lighting applet. To show you how much thought the designers put into the box, the signature Alienware head on the front of the box can be rotated to match the orientation of the box.

We'll get a box in for review when we can, but we can say that the X51 is an impressive amount of hardware in a small box. We've seen high-end graphics, even up to GTX 580 cards in small form factor rigs before, but they're generally pretty bulky. That Alienware can stuff a 150-watt GPU into a box the size of a business-class small form factor is pretty damn amazing. To be honest, this isn't the first attempt at a small, thin gaming box. Hewlett-Packard's (Voodoo's) Firebird made a run at it with its Firebird machine, back in 2009.

While interesting and truly silent, the Firebird's use of mobile CPUs and SLI'ed mobile GPUs was a big turn off to gamers. We weren't overly joyed with the Firebird, but we did think that it was a glimpse of one possible future for desktop gaming. Alienware's X51 pretty much cements that: PC gaming is truly getting smaller and cheaper.

Two configuations will be offered, with the cheapest being $699 for a box with a Core i3, 4GB of RAM, a 1TB drive, and a GeForce GTX 545.

Android App of the Week: Dragon Go!

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 11:32 AM PST

The competition for voice activation technology in mobile products has escalated in the last six months in large part due to the launch of Siri, Apple's "personal assistant", on the iPhone 4S. Several developers have attempted to fill in the gap on Android by offering voice-centric apps that provide access to search and other functions, with mixed success. One such app is Dragon Go! by Nuance Communications.

Though it doesn't integrate into Android the way Siri does on iOS, Dragon Go! does provide easy access to a wide range of functions from a central starting point. Dragon Go! integrates with a number of popular apps such as Google Music, Maps, and Netflix, giving you the ability to quickly navigate into those apps using your voice by saying things like "Mythbusters on Netflix" or "Play Tron Soundtrack". The app also integrates with the search functionality on a huge list of websites like Weather.com or Hulu.com using commands such as "San Francisco on Weather.com" or "Last Man Standing on Hulu.com". Expect more app and website integration in future updates.

Dragon Go! is available as a free download on the Android Market.

Washington Post, NPR And The Guardian Take Up Wikipedia's Slack With #Altwiki

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 11:11 AM PST

As Wikipedia sits silent and dark for legions of despondent would-be users (who, apparently, never thought of Googling for some help around the blackout), a trio of old-school publications have stepped into the void to try and replace the collective knowledge of the Internet. The Washington Post, the Guardian, and NPR have been taking tweets from information-deprived Webizens and trying to provide answers to all life's questions, large and small. Just smack an #altwiki tag at the end of a question and the combined brainpower will try to supply you with an honest-to-goodness answer.

Even though chuckleheads have been flooding the tag with ridiculous questions – such as "Shoot, who played that guy in that thing? You know the one." – the trio of publications have still been dropping knowledge about everything from speedy mammals to the speed of light in a vacuum, along with a host of other topics. Don't mistake the help for a Stop SOPA endorsement, however, as Washington Post blogger Elizabeth Flock explains:

#AltWiki, of course, doesn't seek to replace Wikipedia, or indicate that The Post is taking a stand against the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). It does, however, tell us quite a bit about how much 477 million people a month rely on Wikipedia.

Other crowdsource-style hashtags have popped up, too, including #FactsWithoutWikipedia and #WorldWithoutWikipedia. In fact, #FactsWithoutWikipedia seems almost as hoppin' as the #altwiki tag. You have to admire what The Post and others are trying to do here -- unless you're on The Post's research team, of course, in which case today probably really, really sucks.

Twitter user Herpderpedia takes a totally different tact, but one that brings a smile to our faces nonetheless.

Internet Statistics that Boggle the Mind

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST

We're already halfway through the first month of the new year and it's getting a little late to reflect on 2011, but in this case, it's simply taken that long to crunch and compile all the numbers. We're talking about the latest statistics from Pingdom that deal with what happened in 2011 and what the Internet landscape looked like as last year came to a close.

According to Pingom, there were 2.1 billion Internet users worldwide by the end of 2011. which is well over the population of Estonia and Iceland...combined. Nearly half -- 45 percent -- of the world's Internet population is under 25 years old, and 591 million people are rocking wired broadband subscriptions.

Some other interesting numbers:

  • 3.146 billion email accounts
  • 40 years since the first email was sent
  • 555 million websites as of December 2011
  • 95.5 million .com domain names at the end of 2011
  • 100 billion photos on Facebook

This is just a small sample of the many figures Pingdom put together, all broken down into various categories like Social Media, Videos, Images, and so forth. View them all here.

Image Credit: opte.org

Intel Now Offers Overclocking Protection Plans on Select Processors, Still Doesn't Encourage the Dark Art

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 10:26 AM PST

Overclocking is no longer the dark art it used to be, and with a little guidance, even your grandmother can push her system past its rated speed with relative ease. That doesn't mean there isn't some risk involved, and if you're truly worried about frying your processor with an aggressive overclock, then you're exactly the person Intel wants to about its "Performance Tuning Protection" plans.

"Intel is pleased to announce the introduction of a new pilot plan targeted at the enthusiast community. The enthusiast community is a critical market segment for Intel and, as such, when the opportunity arises to try out a service or otherwise address the community's particular needs, we endeavor to do so where practicable," Intel said in a statement. "In this spirit, Intel is announcing a new pilot service plan for 'K', 'X', and LGA2011-socketed boxed processors called the Performance Tuning Protection Plan. This Plan will provide certain out-of-warranty service offerings in the event of damage caused by overclocking or over-voltaging by the user. By purchasing this Plan and meeting the Plan's criteria, the user can receive a one-time replacement processor if the user's over-voltaging or over-clocking causes the original processor to fail. This pilot Plan in no way expands, changes or extends the original three year standard warranty and is simply a Plan the user may want to purchase for overclocking or over-voltaging."

The pilot Plan kicks off today and includes four resellers: CyberPower, Canada Computers and Electronics, Scan Computers, and Altech Computers. On February 13, 2012, Intel will add additional resellers to the Plan. In addition, the chip maker is offering its overclocking warranty direct to consumers at the following prices:

  • Core i5 2500K: $20
  • Core i7 2600K: $25
  • Core i7 2700K: $25
  • Core i7 3930K: $35
  • Core i7 3960X: $35

Intel is quick to clarify in a related FAQ that these plans are in no way indicative of the chip maker supporting or encouraging overclocking, though on the main page, Intel tells users: "Go ahead and push it, we've got your back."

For more info:

Peformance Tuning Protection Plan Homepage
Plan Pricing
Terms and Conditions
Genuine Boxed Processor Warranty Information

Image Credit:

XFX Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition Review

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 10:20 AM PST

XFX says "We don't need no stinkin' reference design!" 

It's not unusual to see factory-overclocked videocards ship with custom cooling solutions—a few months after the GPU launches. This time, XFX hits the ground running with their Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition. This is a factory-overclocked card with a custom cooling solution that aims to take the performance crown. Based on what we've seen to date, XFX has delivered the fastest single-GPU card on the planet.

The Radeon HD 7970 is AMD's latest GPU, with support for DirectX 11.1 and OpenCL 1.2. It's a brand-new new architecture—completely different from past AMD GPUs—built on TSMC's 28nm manufacturing process and sporting a staggering 4.3 billion transistors. In AMD's reference design, the 7970's core runs at 925MHz and its GDDR5 memory is clocked at 1,375MHz. XFX ups the ante significantly, pushing the core clock speed to a whopping 1GHz and running its 3GB of memory at 1,425MHz.


While it wouldn't be fair to call a reference-design Radeon HD 7970 a me-too product, XFX is to be congratulated for offering something special right out of the gate.

As you might imagine, the results are nothing short of amazing. We're seeing genuine performance milestones here, including a 3DMark 2011 performance score higher than 8,000 (for a single GPU), Far Cry 2 hitting 100fps at 2560x1600 with 4x AA, and Batman: Arkham City heading north of 50fps at the same resolution and AA settings. On top of that, the system idle power is just 124 watts, and a dark idle (when Windows 7 blanks the screen) draw of 110 watts. Push the card and you'll see system power consumption climb to 349 watts, but that merely puts its overall power draw into Fermi territory. XFX's Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition is substantially faster than EVGA's super-overclocked, 3GB GeForce GTX 580 Classified, and it's outfitted with just two PCIe power connectors (one 8-pin and one 6-pin). EVGA's card requires three power connectors.

XFX's dual-fan custom cooler, housed within an attractive brushed-metal housing, looks much more elegant than most of the competition. Despite using two fans, this card was noticeably quieter at full load than XFX's Radeon HD 6970, and it was almost inaudible at idle.

Aside from carving its logo into the bracket, XFX took no liberties with the outputs: The mounting bracket has two mini-DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, one HDMI 1.4a, and a dual-link DVI. Use a combination of DisplayPort and DVI-capable displays, and the card can support three-panel Eyefinity setups up to 2560 x 1600. Use one or more 1920 x 1200 (or lower res) monitors, and you can also tap the HDMI for a four-panel setup. And when DisplayPort 1.2 monitors and hubs ship, this card will be capable of supporting as many as six displays.

The XFX Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition has all the earmarks of a winner: superb performance, relatively low power consumption, and better than average noise levels. It's pricey, at $599, but no more so than other cards in its class. If you crave the fastest single-GPU card in the world, it's here—and it includes the twin bonuses of easy multi-monitor support and high efficiency.

$599, www.xfxforce.com

Stop SOPA And PIPA! A Primer

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 10:19 AM PST

You've probably read the soundbites: critics say that the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act working their way through Congress will stifle technological innovation, trample free speech and unravel the Web as we know it. Thousands of websites have "gone dark" and shut down for at least a portion of the day just to protest the depths of the bills' combined sucktitude. But do you really know why SOPA sucks? (Hint: The answer's different now than it was a few weeks ago.) Do you know which websites joined the blackout? Do you know what YOU can do to help? No? You will after reading this.

What Is SOPA?

In its current state, SOPA and PIPA basically require ad networks, payment processors and search engines to stop servicing, paying and indexing (respectively) foreign-based "rogue sites" that host or sell infringing materials ranging from illegal copies of Hollywood movies to rip-off Gucci bags. That doesn't sound too bad! But as always, the Devil is in the details.

Censorship And Shooting The Messenger

As-is, SOPA would force websites, including search engines, to delete links bound for infringing sites – a practice critics, including Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, call censorship. In fact, Schmidt says the bill would "criminalize linking and the fundamental structure of the Internet itself."

Google.com on Jan. 18th

The EFF reports that organizations would need to actively police their websites for "anti-circumvention" materials, such as links to blacklisted domains, or they could be dragged into court. Did some loser just post a comment listing the URL of a "rogue site"? If YouTube and Facebook (or YOU) aren't right on top of things, they could land in legal hot water. In fact, linking to a site that links to infringing material would technically be a punishable no-no under SOPA/PIPA. You can see why Web-based companies have a problem with this!

Proxy and anonymizing tools would also violate the law if they allowed users to visit blacklisted sites. The very services that helped the Arab Spring rise would be illegal in the U.S. itself.

The "Vigilante" Provision

BoingBoing.net on Jan. 18th

Another problem is that ISPs, ad networks and payment processors receive immunity from prosecution if they voluntarily block potentially infringing material without an injunction from a court – even if it turns out the material isn't actually, you know, infringing. The EFF points out that companies will likely trip over themselves to pre-ban content and earn immunity rather than possibly get dragged into court for inaction. Over-zealous policing would likely trample free speech and erase content protected by Fair Use laws. Due process, already a weak spot in SOPA/PIPA, could be bypassed completely thanks to the "Vigilante" provision.

SOPA's Actually Better Than It Used To Be

As bad as that is, the original version of SOPA was much, much worse. It allowed individual copyright holders to shut down ad revenue and payment processing for both foreign and domestic websites – with little proof and no government oversight or intervention required.  It also required ISPs to utilize DNS blacklisting to prevent U.S.-based surfers from connecting to infringing websites at all – a terrifying act of censorship that, if technically implemented, could threaten the stability of the Internet itself. Fortunately, those provisions were recently dropped.

So Why Are Websites "Going Dark"?

Wikipedia.org on Jan. 18th

To spread the word! The major television networks' coverage of the plight against SOPA/PIPA has been almost conspiratorially absent, as MediaMatters.org points out. In the face of mainstream ambivalence, tech companies have taken matters into their own hands – it's hard to ignore thousands of blacked-out websites, after all, especially when they include heavy hitters like:

  • Wikipedia
  • Reddit
  • Wordpress.org
  • Greenpeace
  • Mozilla
  • Flickr
  • Twitpic
  • Wired
  • ICanHazCheezburger
  • Internet Archive
  • Imgur
  • Boing Boing
  • Destructoid
  • Center for Technology and Democracy
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • Minecraft

…and many, many more, some of which are only closed half the day, and most (if not all) of which can be found on SopaStrike.com. Google and Scribd aren't going dark, but they are displaying links and pop-ups to draw awareness to SOPA/PIPA. Craigslist also drops users into an anti-SOPA splash page before allowing them to continue browsing the site.

By the way, if you need to get your Wikipedia (or whatever) on, there's a way around the voluntary black outs.

How Can I Help?

It's easy! Blackout your website using one of the techniques outlined at Daily Dot, or spread awareness by changing your Twitter/Facebook pic to the STOP SOPA pic at BlackoutSOPA.org. More importantly, get in touch with your Congressional representatives and express your distaste for the bills – AmericanCensorship.org and the EFF can help you do just that.

Minecraft.net on Jan. 18

Where Do The Bills Stand Today?

All of our e-bitching seems to be doing some good. Over the past weekend, the crazy DNS blacklisting requirements were sliced from both bills, the White House issued a statement that said it basically wouldn't support the bills as they stand, and SOPA was supposedly shelved in the House (although Lamar Smith, the rep that sponsored SOPA, says he plans on pushing it in February). PIPA is still going strong in the Senate, however, and scheduled for a procedural vote on January 24th.

So there's your knowledge! But knowing is only half the battle – the other half is killing these beasts for good. Contact your Congressmen today!

SOPA Protests: How To Use Google Cache To View Blacked-Out Websites

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 10:18 AM PST

Websites with a beef against over-reaching legislation have drawn a line in the sand; today, many of them are following Reddit's lead and going black to protest SOPA and PIPA. The controversial bills have been under heavy fire recently, and the heat's bound to increase when 25 million Joe and Jill Everymen find Wikipedia cold, dark, and urging readers to contact their Congressional representatives. But you're not Joe or Jill Everyman. You're a Maximum PC reader, a tech-savvy webizen who already understands that SOPA flat-out sucks. What if you need to get your Wikipedia (or Destructoid, or Boing Boing, or…) on today?

Don't worry – there's a way around the blackout if you know exactly what you're looking for, thanks to the magic of Google's all-encompassing cache.

First, boot up your browser and head over to Google, where you'll just so happen to see a link to a page outlining Google's own SOPA/PIPA opposition. Search for whatever blacked-out page you're looking for, but be specific: you won't be able to browse blacked-out sites normally, so you'll need to find deeper links to exact content, using searches like "Reddit why is morrowind so revered" or "Maximum PC Wikipedia".

Trying to click on the link will lead you to the site's blackout message. Instead, hover over the listing, then mouse over the three arrows that appear to its right to bring up the preview pane. Underneath the direct link in the preview pane, you'll see a URL for the page, and to the right of that, you'll see a link to a cached version. Bingo! Click on that.

You'll be taken to a cached version of the page. A message at the top will tell you when Google took the snapshot. This method isn't perfect, however; you won't be able to click on links without being directed to the blackout page. (You can run another specific Google search for the linked-to content, though.) Additionally, the content might not be totally up-to-date, but content that's a few day old beats no content whatsoever, right?

Here's another useful trick for skirting Wikipedia's blackout: just disable Javascript for the site and you'll be able to browse it normally. That should work for other sites using Javascript-powered blackout methods, too, such as Wordpress.org.

When you're done circumventing blackouts, be sure to head over to AmericanCensorship.org and bug your Congressmen/women if you haven't already. And if you don't get what all the fuss is about, check out our primer on stopping SOPA and PIPA, which includes a list of notable sites taking part in the blackout.

Wi-Fi-Equipped Xoom Tablets Snarf Down OTA Ice Cream Sandwich Update

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 10:15 AM PST

When the weather gets cold and the skies turn grey, we usually get a hankering for something warm to eat. Hot cocoa, anyone? But our tummies are rumbling for something a bit cooler in these early days of winter: delicious Android-flavored Ice Cream Sandwich. Just last week, Asus' Transformer Prime received the new OS, and now, an oldie-but-goodie is getting in on the action: the Motorola Xoom.

No, not the as-yet-released Xoom 2 – pardon us, the Xyboard. Slashgear reports that this over the air update (which bears the name "IML77") is targeted for the Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi tablets alone. Interestingly, the unreleased Xyboard still rocks Honeycomb, giving it the dubious distinction of sporting an OS that's older than its older sibling's.

In any case, the update should be available now for U.S. Xoom owners. No word yet on an update for international or 4G Xoom tablets.

MPAA Head Lashes Out At Blackout "Gimmick" While SOPA Co-Sponsors Withdraw Support

Posted: 18 Jan 2012 10:05 AM PST

Hey, did you know that Wikipedia, Google, Craigslist and Reddit are trying to turn you into their corporate pawns? We didn't either, but to hear MPAA honcho Chris Dodd tell it, the "gimmick"y blackout darkening the Internet today isn't actually a way for tech sites to spread awareness about a critical issue to a possibly uninformed segment of the population – instead, it's just a "stunt," an "abuse of power" designed to punish users and elected officials alike. In related news, two of SOPA's and one of PIPA's co-sponsors have asked to have their names removed from the bill.

Normally we'd pick the juicy bits to share, but in this case, all of Dodd's rhetoric is pure gold. So here's the full text of the MPAA press release for your perusal. (Hey, should we be worried about sharing press releases if SOPA/PIPA passes?)

Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging.

It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.

A so-called "blackout" is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this "blackout" to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy.

Meanwhile, PC World reports that two of the Representatives that previously supported SOPA – Benjamin Quayle of Arizona and Lee Terry of Nebraska – have asked to have their name stricken as co-sponsors of the controversial bill. A spokesman for Terry told the publication that the widespread backlash from tech companies and civil rights groups helped convince the Congressman to drop his SOPA support. CNET reports that Misouri Senator Roy Blount is doing the same with PIPA, and says that several other SOPA/PIPA co-sponsors' commitment to the bill now seems much more tenuous.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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