General Gaming Article |
- Overclocker Approaches 2GHz Barrier With A Modified GTX 680 In A Kick Ass Setup
- Former Intel Engineer Pleads Guilty To Stealing Itanium Secrets After Jumping Ship To AMD
- AVADirect Unveils Updated Clevo Notebooks Rocking Intel's HM77 Chipset
- Asus Maximus V Gene Carries Next Generation Features in a Micro ATX Form Factor
- Google+ Visits Up 27 Percent in March, Still Think It's a Ghost Town?
- Microsoft, AOL Ink $1.1 Billion Patent Deal
| Overclocker Approaches 2GHz Barrier With A Modified GTX 680 In A Kick Ass Setup Posted: 09 Apr 2012 09:08 AM PDT How did you spend Easter weekend? Most folks spent the time hunting for eggs, prepping a feast or -- if they're not the Easter type -- slaying Droids and Dark Siders in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not k|ngp|n (henceforth referred to as "Kingpin"), an overclocker known for tinkering with EVGA graphics cards. While you and I were busy getting face time in with grandma, Kingpin was busy pushing a GTX 680 right up against the 2GHz barrier.
Videocardz pointed us towards the forum thread highlighting the attempt. Kingpin used an Intel Sandy Bridge-E Core i7-3930k CPU overclocked to 5605MHz, an EVGA GTX 680 (surprise!), 16GB of RAM and liquid nitrogen cooling in his attempt. Alas, Kingpin wasn't quite able to crack 2GHz even with those lofty tools, but he came really, really close, hitting a 1958MHz core clock speed and a mem clock of 3734MHz. None too shabby! The setup hit a whopping P15731 score in 3DMark 11.
Want more nitty gritty details? Head over to this thread and scroll halfway down the page for a screenshot of all the appropriate benchmarks, including GPU-Z and CPU-Z pics. The Kingpin Cooling site also offers up a cheatsheet of helpful GTX 680 physical hardware modifications to make if you want into break into the world of crazy-ass overclocking yourself -- but remember that you're on your own if you bust your new $500 video card. |
| Former Intel Engineer Pleads Guilty To Stealing Itanium Secrets After Jumping Ship To AMD Posted: 09 Apr 2012 09:02 AM PDT
The actual dirty deed went down back in 2008, but Pani only pleaded guilty to the 5 counts of wire fraud last Friday, Reuters reports. As the story goes, Pani left Intel at the end of May, but stayed on the payroll until June 11 to use up some accrued vacation time. Rather than relaxing and unwinding during those two weeks, however, Pani landed himself a gig at AMD while still on the Intel payroll, then got busy downloading Itanium's design and manufacturing documents before being kicked out of Chipzilla's systems. Unfortunately for Pani, Intel caught on pretty quickly, and AMD fired the new hire when the charges where filed in November 2008 -- less than six months after Pani started with the company. (Ironically, Pani's LinkedIn page still lists him as a Senior Staff Engineer at AMD.) According to the indictment, Pani planned on using the Itanium secrets to help him move up the ranks at AMD. AMD had no idea Pani was pilfering documents and isn't charged with any wrongdoing, but Pani's on a mighty big hook for his actions; he faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the five counts, with the sentencing due August. 8th. Crime doesn't pay, kids. |
| AVADirect Unveils Updated Clevo Notebooks Rocking Intel's HM77 Chipset Posted: 09 Apr 2012 07:15 AM PDT
AVADirect rolled out three new Clevo flavored notebooks, including 15.6-inch P151EM and P150EM models, and the 17.3-inch P170EM. All three are ready for the influx of mobile Ivy Bridge processors, and come ready to game with new 600M series graphics from Nvidia. As far as high-end notebook prices go, all three models are relatively affordable. The P151EM starts at $1,277.50 and includes a Core i5 2430M processor, 4GB of Crucial DDR3-1333 memory, GeForce GTX 670M graphics, 750GB Seagate Momentus hard drive (7200 RPM, 16MB cache, SATA 3Gbps), DVD burner, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, GbE LAN, 9-in-1 memory card reader, integrated webcam, fingerprint reader, and various ports. For a bit more coin ($1,582.93), the P150EM upgrades the CPU to a Core i7 2670QM and the graphics to a GeForce GTX 675M. The P170EM starts at $1,637.93 and rocks a Core i7 2670QM processor and GeForce GTX 670M graphics. You can view all next generation Clevo notebooks at AVADirect here. Image Credit: AVADirect |
| Asus Maximus V Gene Carries Next Generation Features in a Micro ATX Form Factor Posted: 09 Apr 2012 06:49 AM PDT
Despite its smallish stature, Asus found room to cram four DDR3 DIMM slots with support for up 32GB of memory clocked at 2800MHz (OC). The Maximus V Gene also features a pair of PCI-E x16 3.0 slots, a single PCI-E 4x 2.0 slot, a PCI-E x1 2.0 slot and SATA 3Gbps port on a mini PCI-E combo card, HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity, six USB 3.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, four SATA 6Gbps ports, two SATA 3Gbps ports, and an eSATA port. Asus says it built the Maximus V Gene for overclocking, and towards that end, the board boasts an 8+2+2 (CPU, iGPU, DRAM) phase design with precise digital power control from two DIGI+ controllers. You'll also find ROG UEFI BIOS functions such as pre-configured memory IC profiles. Asus didn't say when the Maximus V Gene will ship or for how much. Ivy Bridge, however, is scheduled to come out later this month. Image Credit: Asus |
| Google+ Visits Up 27 Percent in March, Still Think It's a Ghost Town? Posted: 09 Apr 2012 06:23 AM PDT
Experian Hitwise provided data to Mashable that shows visits to Google+ growing steadily in recent months. To wit, total visits to Google's social service topped 61 million in March, representing a remarkable 27 percent spike from the previous month, according to the data. It's hard to view a site as a ghost town when it's growing at such a steady clip and logging 61 million visits, though the naysayers will be quick to point out that Hitwise's data says nothing about the activity level on Google+. Just because millions of people are checking it out doesn't necessarily mean they're actually posting content, but then again, there has to be content to attract that many visitors in the first place. While Hitwise is reluctant to talk about Google+'s activity level, Google CEO Larry Page isn't. "It's still in the early days, and we have a long way to go. But there are tremendously important changes, and with over 120 Google+ integrations to date (including Google Search, YouTube, and Android), we are on the right track," Page said a day before Hitwise released its data. "Well over 100 million users are active on Google+, and we're seeing a positive impact across the Web, with Google users being able to recommend search results and videos they like -- a goal we've had ever since we started the company," How often, if ever, do you visit Google+? How would you describe your activity level? Paul Lilly is an active Google+ user (see here) who welcomes online stalkers, and so is Maximum PC, which you can follow here. Image Credit: failbook.com |
| Microsoft, AOL Ink $1.1 Billion Patent Deal Posted: 09 Apr 2012 05:34 AM PDT
The 300 patents and patent applications that remain in AOL's portfolio span core and strategic technologies, such as advertising, search, content generation/management, social networking, mapping, multimedia/streaming, and security, plus a whole bunch more. And while AOL's portfolio is 800 patents lighter (and it's wallet nearly $1.1 billion heavier), part of the transaction includes AOL receiving a license from Microsoft for the transferred patents. "The agreement with Microsoft represents the culmination of a robust auction process for our patent portfolio," said Tim Armstrong, AOL's Chairman and CEO. "We continue to hold a valuable patent portfolio as highlighted by the license we entered into with Microsoft. The combined sale and licensing arrangement unlocks current dollar value for our shareholders and enables AOL to continue to aggressively execute on our strategy to create long-term shareholder value." Investors responded positively to AOL's patent sale by pumping the company's stock price by as much 39 percent to $25.63 in pre-market trading. It's currently up by more than 31 percent at $24.19 before the market opens. Microsoft, meanwhile, is down 0.82 percent to $31.26 in pre-market trading. Image Credit: Flickr (lazzarello) |
Employers look for a lot of qualities in new hires: smarts, an impressive resume, technical skills, and hard workingness are some that often float to the top of the list. Apparently, someone forgot to tell Biswamohan Pani that "willingness to commit massive IP theft" wasn't a major selling point before he showed up at his new job at AMD with $200 to $400 million worth of Intel's deepest, darkest Itanium processor details in tow. 
Boutique system builder AVADirect 
The floodgates have been 
Fair statement or not, the social networking scene consists of Facebook (the largest social playground in the solar system), Twitter (the most popular micro-blog around), and everyone else. That's how it's perceived, anyway, with Google+ viewed by many as not much more than a ghost town, a struggling afterthought that most people are familiar with, but nobody actually uses. If going by the numbers, that perception is wrong.
AOL today entered into a definitive agreement to sell more than 800 patents outright to Microsoft and grant an additional 300 non-exclusive patents and patent applications to the Redmond software giant for $1.056 billion. A "significant" portion of the money raised will go to shareholders, AOL announced.| 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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