General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

The Proof is in – The Switch From Fluxless Solder to Thermal Paste is the Cause of Poor Ivy Bridge Overclocking Temperatures

Posted: 13 May 2012 09:52 AM PDT

ChipAfter a ton of speculation, a bit of denial, and a ton of testing we finally have our answer. The thermal interface material change made by Intel when it went from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge is indeed the cause of the excessive temperatures we've observed while overclocking. The first accusation was made in late-April by Overclockers.com, however proving it wasn't easy. The Japanese division of PC Watch somehow managed to remove the integrated heat spreader from a Core i7 3770k, along with the stock binding and grease. They then proceed to replace it with aftermarket alternatives, and the results speak for themselves. 

The findings are undisputable. By swapping out the TIM with OCZ Freeze and Coolaboratory Liquid Pro, they were able to lower the temperatures by up to 18% off a stock clocked chip, and a whopping 23% when overclocked from 3.5GHz to 4GHz. Chips with the aftermarket TIM were also able to sustain higher core voltages, which of course will lead to better overclocking potential.

The report concludes that Intel's decision to move away from the fluxless solder used in Sandy Bridge has unfortunately crippled the overclocking potential of this generation of CPU's. Its possible Intel may eventually change the design back, however with AMD lagging pretty far behind these days they really don't have much incentive to do so. Enthusiasts really only have one place to shop for CPU's these days.     

Ivy Bridge is still an amazing push forward performance wise, it's just unfortunate that the potential for even more is there and we can't get at it.

(Image Credit = PC Watch)

Bing Scoops Up 30% of the US Search Market

Posted: 13 May 2012 09:04 AM PDT

bingThe geek community at large seems to be pretty loyal to the Google brand, however, out what seems like nowhere, Bing is finally picking up steam. According to a Hitwise report, Bing now accounts for 30% of all U.S. web searches, and most of their gains seem to have come at the expense of Google. 

Bing has managed to grow its US search quarries by an impressive 11% over the last twelve months, while Google in contrast has dropped by the exact same amount. They are still a distant second at this point, however it's hard to argue with this type of growth.  

Bing just recently started rolling out its new social search design to compete with Google's "Search Plus Your World", however it remains to be seen if this will accelerate their growth, or drive everyone off.

Dropbox’s Dropquest Scavenger Hunt Offers 1GB of Extra Storage

Posted: 13 May 2012 07:42 AM PDT

DropboxDropbox may have taken a temporary dip in the popularity polls with both Skydrive and Google Drive offering a better value proposition, so how do you keep your customers? Easy, change the subject. Yesterday the company took the lid off Dropquest 2012, its annual virtual scavenger hunt which awards those who manage to make it all the way to the end with an extra 1GB bump in their storage quota.

Dropquest is a series of puzzles that the company claims were inspired by MIT's mystery hunt, and it turns out to be more than a little challenging. It's by no means impossible, but it certainly will eat up more than a few hours. Asking for help on the company support forums will lead to instant disqualification, however if you find yourself stumped I don't think they can do much about the tons of great Google Doc answer sheets popping up.  

If you find yourself in desperate need of an extra gigabyte of online storage may we suggest you check out Skydrive or Google Drive? If on the otherhand you just get a kick out of puzzles, as least this one comes with a reward.  
Posted by Shri Krishna

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