General Gaming Article |
- No BS Podcast #184: Kepler, Cameras, Kashyyyk
- Rumored GTX 670 Ti Specifications Surface
- Star Wars: The Old Republic Goes Free For Easter Weekend
- Build It: Upgrading an X58 Rig into a Gaming Powerhouse
- Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin Caught Sporting Project Glass HUD In Public
- Z77 Ivy Bridge-Ready Mobos Flood The Streets
- LulzSec Hacker Spills the Beans on Sony Breach, Enters Plea Agreement
- TUL's PowerColor PCS+ HD7850 is a Graphics Card for Gamers Who Fancy Factory Overclocks
- Biostar Launches TZ77XE4 Motherboard for Ivy Bridge
- HTC Profits Plummet 70 Percent in Q1 2012
| No BS Podcast #184: Kepler, Cameras, Kashyyyk Posted: 06 Apr 2012 03:05 PM PDT
They liiiiiiiiive! Exactly on schedule, it's Episode 185 184 of the No BS Podcast! Nathan, Gordon, and Alex are joined by Senior Graphics Card Correspondant and hardware rockstar Loyd Case. This month the gang talks about more Kickstarted games, like Shadowrun and Leisure Suit Larry (which is created by Al Lowe, not Rob Lowe as Nathan originally suggested). Also: EA is the worst company ever? After the news, tech talk! Loyd goes in-depth about Nvidia's brand-new GTX 680 cards, which are flying off the shelves. Then we talk about the Nokia Lumia 900 and its chances for success against a crowded field. Later, there's jawing about Nikon's brand-new D800 DSLR. Also: Mice, mobile gaming, and much, much more. Finally, Gordon's ranting inevitably turns into an argument about Star Wars canon. Next episode goes up May 4th! Computer trouble? A secret to share? Opinions? Need advice? Just need to get something off your chest? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are not standing by. Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337
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| Rumored GTX 670 Ti Specifications Surface Posted: 06 Apr 2012 11:26 AM PDT
The GTX 670 Ti will reportedly still use the same GK104 base as the GTX 680, according to the German 3DCenter.org website (and helpfully reported in English by VR Zone). In fact, the reports say GTX 670 Ti will basically be the GTX 680, but with one of the eight streaming multiprocessors (SMX) disabled -- presumably due to manufacturing defects. Each SMX rocks 192 CUDA cores, so a seven SMX-sporting GTX 670 Ti would have 1344 cores. Most other specs are said to be basically identical to the GTX 680, but with rumored core clock base speed of at least 900MHz and a 1250MHz memory clock (5GHz effective). That means:
So when can we expect to see the GTX 670 Ti? Nvidia's Kepler launch isn't as fast and furious as AMD's 7000 series roll out: all signs -- and by that, we mean rumors -- point to the GTX 670 Ti launching in May. That sort of timeframe would let Nvidia stockpile plenty of cards with a missing SMX block. Price-wise, 3DCenter.org says to expect the GTX 670 Ti to fall somewhere in the $350 to $400 range. The numbers sound right to our ears, but as always, remember to take all rumors with a punch of salt. |
| Star Wars: The Old Republic Goes Free For Easter Weekend Posted: 06 Apr 2012 10:53 AM PDT
If our slightly less than overwhelming review of the game combined with SWOTR's high sticker ($60) and subscription costs ($15/mo.) dropped you on the fence, this freebie window is a great way to try the game out for yourself and discover if you find the story-centric MMO to be more Jedi Padawan or Jedi Master. No commitment or credit card is needed to give the game a whirl, but you can't partake if you've signed up for a free SWTOR pass previously. BioWare plans on storing Free Pass characters indefinitely, so if you decide to pick up the lightsaber again sometime in the future, your trial characters will be ready and waiting for action. Freeloading players do have some restrictions, however, all of which can be read about over at the Weekend Pass Free Trial FAQ page. (Hint: Don't plan on trading items with other players or exceeding level 15!) Interested? Head on over to the SWTOR Weekend Pass page and sign up now. The offer started yesterday so you should be able to jump right in to the action. |
| Build It: Upgrading an X58 Rig into a Gaming Powerhouse Posted: 06 Apr 2012 10:45 AM PDT The Mission: Way back in the recession-bound depths of 2009, we skipped our normal balls-to-the-wall Dream Machine build in favor of three more modest PCs. Rather than a $10,000 ode to excess, we built rigs actual people would build. Our $1,400 midrange system, which we called the Budget Surplus, was kitted out with an Intel Core i7-920 overclocked to 3.5GHz on a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R motherboard with 6GB DDR3, a 1.5TB boot drive, and the finest in dual-GPU technology: a Radeon HD 4870x2. The Budget Surplus is showing its age—nearly three years old! I've had many people with similar systems ask if it's time for a new rig, but I'm hesitant to recommend a major upgrade before Ivy Bridge and Ivy Bridge-E come out. Rather than going all-out on a new machine, I'm going to bring our 2009-era box into the present day with a few upgrades that'll make the machine feel new again, and that I'll be able to bring with me when I do bite the bullet on a new CPU and motherboard.
Strategic Maneuvering
[caption]Our Budget Surplus machine as it appeared in 2009.
As I mentioned above, I'm not going for a whole new build here. I just want to wring some more life out of my X58 system. The Core i7-920 is still a good CPU: it has four cores and multithreading, and it overclocks like a champ. Plus, with Ivy Bridge and Ivy Bridge-E on the horizon, it doesn't make sense to upgrade my CPU just yet. The motherboard is a weird one: it was a budget board in mid-2009, and though it has triple-channel DDR3 support, it only has four DIMM slots instead of the usual six. The fourth DIMM slot, if used, will up the total amount of memory at the expense of bandwidth. When we built the machine, we used three 2GB DIMMs for 6GB total. RAM is cheap these days, and four 4GB DIMMs only cost a tiny bit more than three 4GB DIMMs, so I'm going to buy a 16GB kit and use three of the DIMMs, keeping the fourth in reserve for when I change motherboards later. That still gives me 12GB of RAM—double what this machine had before. As much as I'd like an SSD, I don't want to spend a fortune just yet, so I'll wait until the eventual platform upgrade. Until then, I'm sticking with the hard drive, optical drive, case, and PSU from the old build, since they're still going strong. Well, the hard drive was replaced with a 1TB Caviar Black at some point, but since that happened in the indefinite past it doesn't count. I will add a $30 USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card, because I like USB 3.0 and that's the only way I'll get it without a motherboard upgrade. The graphics card, on the other hand, is four years old, sucks power, and doesn't even support DirectX 11, so that's gotta go. I'm replacing it with a brand-new Sapphire Radeon HD 7950. At $480, it's cheaper and faster than a GTX 580, supports DirectX 11, and draws less power than the ancient card it replaces. With Sapphire's aftermarket heatsink, it's also much cooler. The original configuration called for Windows 7 Release Candidate, but I'm operating under the assumption that anyone who still uses X58 would have updated to a real version of Windows 7 when the RC stopped working, so I don't count Windows 7 as an upgrade. Total cost for the RAM, USB 3.0 card, and GPU? Just $605.
Tearing It Down
Before I began the upgrade process, I uninstalled the drivers for the old videocard. Next I powered down the system and started the upgrade. The first thing I did was remove the old GPU and RAM from the system. I also took this opportunity to remove the heatsink, clean off the old thermal paste, and reapply it.
It's a good idea to do this every year or so, and I've been bad about that. I used Arctic Silver's ArctiClean two-step thermal compound remover ($10, www.arcticsilver.com) and Arctic Silver 5 ($13, www.arcticsilver.com).
I also took this opportunity to move the heatsink fan from pull configuration to push, to give it some distance from the rear exhaust fan which was creating a bit of noisy turbulence.
Tidying Up
While the system's empty, it's nice to do some dusting and rewiring. The Thermaltake Element S doesn't have the cable-routing features we take for granted in more modern cases, but it does have a few routing cutouts, as well as a cover to hide the shameful non-modular power supply cables. We did a good wiring job when we built the thing, but, well, it's been a while. Stuff happens. It's not a big effort to take a few minutes and clean up. The motherboard power cables, for example, can be wired behind the motherboard tray. We Can Rebuild It
Once the case was nice and tidy, it was time for the upgrades. I put the new RAM in the three white slots (I could install the fourth DIMM in the blue slot, but I'd take a bandwidth hit). The USB 3.0 PCIe adapter can go in either of the top two x1 PCIe slots, and the videocard in the top x16 PCIe slot. I connected two 6-pin power connectors, closed up the case, and booted to see how much of a difference the new components made.
Phase-One CompleteSince the Budget Surplus machine's CPU was already overclocked to 3.5GHz, I didn't see any meaningful change in benchmarks that measure processing performance—all CPU-bound benchmarks were within 3 percent of their original scores. Our benchmarks aren't really designed to measure memory size, either, so I didn't see a big change from that upgrade, but in daily use, 12GB of RAM is better than 6GB, and hell, it's cheap! Gaming benchmarks were a different story. "Wait," I hear you cry, "You mean to tell me a brand-new $480 Radeon 7950 outperforms a videocard from mid-2008?" Shocking, but true: The Sapphire HD 7950 was twice as fast in Stalker: Call of Pripyat (which the dual 4870s had to run in DirectX 10 mode) and 35 percent faster than the old setup in the DirectX 10 Far Cry 2. If you're like me, you rarely go three years without updating a single component, and you don't replace every part of your PC when you do update. This upgrade is designed to be the first step in a two-step process: The next step will include a CPU, cooler, and motherboard at the very least, and an SSD and a new case if I'm feeling fancy. All the parts I bought for this upgrade (save the USB 3.0 adapter, which will be rendered superfluous) will carry over into the new build, as will the PSU and drives. The two-step upgrade process serves two purposes: it spreads the financial pain of upgrading into two discrete chunks, and it gives me a performance boost on my current rig. Rather than using a slow machine for longer, I get a slightly faster machine now and another speed boost later. Don't think I'll forget about this build, either—tune in in a few months when I do the second half of this upgrade. We'll ponder the Ship of Theseus paradox. You can Google that.
Our Budget Surplus machine consisted of a quad-core 2.66GHz Core i7-920 overclocked to 3.5GHz, 6GB of Corsair DDR3/1333 on a Gigabyte X58 motherboard, with an ATI Radeon HD 4870x2 graphics card, a 1TB WD Caviar Black drive, and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional. |
| Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin Caught Sporting Project Glass HUD In Public Posted: 06 Apr 2012 10:27 AM PDT One of the reasons Google tipped the "Project" Glass wearable HUD technology so early in the product's lifecycle was because it wanted Googlers to actually, you know, be able to wear the glasses and try them out. It certainly didn't take them long to get on the ball: Project Glass was only officially unveiled this past Wednesday, and Thursday, Google co-founder Sergey Brin was already caught rocking a prototype of the intriguing new Google Glasses in public.
Well-known tech blogger Robert Scoble noticed Sergey's accessory at a Foundation Fighting Blindness charity dinner last night. Scoble quickly took to Google+, appropriately enough, to share the news: He quickly told me it is a prototype. I saw a bluish light flashing off of his right eyeball. I could only guess that my Google+ profile flashed up, or maybe some PR voice said "stay quiet" or something like that. But the glasses are real. Very light looking. Most of the people around us had no idea that these glasses are pretty special. Scoble buddy-slash-professional photographer Thomas Hawk snapped several pics of the Google Glasses-sporting Sergey, which you can see above. The glasses definitely don't look like a big, boxy hindrance. Now, we're left wondering: what does the world look like to Sergey Brin? |
| Z77 Ivy Bridge-Ready Mobos Flood The Streets Posted: 06 Apr 2012 10:05 AM PDT
All of the Z77 boards rock the LGA 1155 socket and come compatible with both the existing Sandy Bridge and upcoming Ivy Bridge chips. As Paul said earlier, though, Sandy Bridge-E chips use socket 2011 and won't work so well -- and by that, we mean at all -- if you try to cram one into an Ivy Bridge mobo. These motherboards and the upcoming Ivy Bridge CPUs support the speedy 6Gbps PCI-E 3.0 standard. Every manufacturer puts its own spin on things, of course, to try and separate themselves from the cloud, and today's announcement are no different. Amongst other things, Gigabyte's Z77 boards include a dual UEFI BIOS and an "All Digital" power controller design; MSI's offerings rock a OC Genie II overclocking button and class III military grade components; and ASRock's Ivy Bridge boards sport performance-boosting XFast RAM, XFast LAN and XFast USB technologies. Hit those links for press releases containing plenty more details about the 7-series boards from each manufacturer. Being flooded with Ivy Bridge mobos makes it feel like the rumors that Ivy Bridge is supposed to launch on the 29th of this month are true, eh? Note, however, that none of those press releases mention any prices or release dates. |
| LulzSec Hacker Spills the Beans on Sony Breach, Enters Plea Agreement Posted: 06 Apr 2012 07:30 AM PDT
"I joined LulzSec, your honor, at which point we gained access to the Sony Pictures website," Kretsinger stated after his guilty plea, according to Reuters. Kretsinger sang like a canary in court, testifying that he handed over stolen information obtained from Sony to other LulzSec members, which then ended up being plastered all over the Web, including Twitter and Pastebin. According to Reuters, he was calm throughout the proceeding. Well known LulzSec members "Sabu" (leader of the group whose real name is Hector Xavier Monsegur) and "Topiary" were also involved in the data breach, according to U.S. Attorney Eric Vandevelde. Monsegur, who previously pleaded guilty to hacking charges, cut a deal with the FBI to rat out his fellow hackers. It's unclear if Kretsinger's plea agreement also includes leniency in exchange for incriminating information. If not, he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years and could have to pay back damages, of which Sony claims is more than $600,000. |
| TUL's PowerColor PCS+ HD7850 is a Graphics Card for Gamers Who Fancy Factory Overclocks Posted: 06 Apr 2012 06:59 AM PDT
The PowerColor PCS+ HD7850 strolls into town sporting a 1000MHz core clockspeed and 1225MHz memory clockspeed. AMD's reference blueprint calls for Radeon HD 7850 graphics cards to be clocked at 860MHz for the core and 1200MHz for the memory. TUL said it armed the PCS+ HD7850 with a 'Gold Power Kit' design, a fancy way of describing a combination of features intended to help keep the card stable. These include DrMos (integrated Driver MOSFET) Digital PWM (pulse-width modulation), and a multi-phase design, all of which work together to provide cleaner, consistent voltage. Cooling chores are handled by a custom heatsink with a 92mm fan and SS-Shape heatpipes with direct touch technology. According to TUL, this allows the card to run 15 percent quieter and 15 percent cooler than AMD's reference cooler. TUL didn't announce when the new card will ship or for how much, though as a point of reference, the PowerColor's stock clocked AX7850 streets for around $260. Image Credit: TUL Corporation |
| Biostar Launches TZ77XE4 Motherboard for Ivy Bridge Posted: 06 Apr 2012 06:29 AM PDT
There are four DDR3 memory slots on the TZ77XE4 supporting frequencies up to 2600MHz and capacities up to 32GB. It also features four SATA 6Gbps ports, four SATA 3Gbps ports, RAID 0/1/5/10 support, an eSATA connector, two PCI-E x16 3.0 slots with support for SLI and Crossfire, a single PCI-E x16 2.0 slot, two PCI-E x1 2.0 slots, two standard PCI slots, two USB 3.0 ports (plus a USB 3.0 header), four USB 2.0 ports (plus two USB 2.0 headers), GbE LAN, and onboard 8-channel audio. Biostar also equipped the TZ77XE4 with a 13-phase power design and 100 percent solid capacitors, features that should help with overclocking stability and overall durability. If that's more than you nead, another new board from Biostar is the TZ77XE3, a slightly toned version of the E4 variant with half as many SATA 6Gbps ports and no eSATA connector. It also doesn't have a DisplayPort, which the E4 does. Biostar didn't say when these new models will ship or how much they'll cost. Image Credit: Biostar |
| HTC Profits Plummet 70 Percent in Q1 2012 Posted: 06 Apr 2012 06:03 AM PDT
HTC also reported (PDF) that total revenues were down by more than a third -- 34.92 percent -- year-on-year in Q1 2012, though to put that into perspective, HTC still collected nearly $2.3 billion (it's lowest since 2006). Still, total revenues stood at $3.43 billion just one quarter prior. In addition to an increasingly popular Android market, HTC's financial results reflect competition from the launch of Apple's iPhone 4S last year, a device all three major carriers in the U.S. (AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint) carry. Going forward, HTC is hopeful that its One series will once again have the company sitting on top of the world. Image Credit: HTC |
All right, the 
Stuck all alone in Mobile while your family gets together in Memphis this holiday weekend? Don't get mopey -- if it's up to EA and BioWare, you won't be flying (Han) solo this weekend. The companies hope to entice hesitant gamers to the dark side with a free helping of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The doors are wide open until the end of Sunday!
"Finally, now the meat of the systems are starting to come out," Maximum PC reader I Jedi exhaled in the comments of our earlier article about 
Cody Kretsinger, the 24-year-old who hid behind his online handle "Recursion," may end up facing jail time for his participation in an organized security breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment last year. There's no need to call Kretsinger an "alleged" hacker, he readily admitted his role in the hack attack, and it's now up to a California judge to decide how much time he'll spend behind bars, if any.
Overclocking a graphics card isn't terribly difficult, and if you're careful, it's not all that dangerous either. But there's always that risk of taking things too far or ending up with components that just don't respond well to faster clockspeeds. Factory overclocked cards get around both problems, and one of the 
Biostar's chefs just 
It really wasn't all that long ago when HTC was on top of the world. HTC was the goose that only laid golden eggs, again and again and again. And now? Competition in the Android market is fierce, more than ever before, with the likes of Samsung and Motorola throwing their weight around. As a result, HTC saw its net profit slide 70 percent during the company's first fiscal quarter of the new year.| You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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