General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article


Win a Custom-built Crysis-themed Maingear Rig from AMD!

Posted: 18 Apr 2013 03:45 PM PDT

Maingear F131

Crysis-themed rig comes equipped with Maingear F131 case, i7-3770K, and two Radeon HD 7970s

Everybody loves tent-pole releases like Crysis 3. Not only does it mean more shooty fun in the post-apocalyptic ruins of the greatest city in the world, but in this case it also means you might win a totally sweet Crysis-themed Maingear gaming rig courtesy of AMD. This choice system is stocked with bad-ass componentry, and includes the following hardware:

Case:  Maingear F131 with VRTX Cooling Technology, black brushed aluminum and a SilenX 15dB Fan Package (2x120mm, 2x80mm) affixed with artwork from the Crysis 3 game

Motherboard: Asus Maximus V Gene, featuring Lucid Virtu MVP, SupremeFX III Sound, CrossFire, and SLI

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K

CPU Cooler: Maingear EPIC 120 Liquid Supercooler 

MAINGEAR Redline Overclocking Service: Intel Turbo Boost Advanced Automatic Overclocking 

RAM: 8GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3-1600 (2x4GB)

GPUs: 2x AMD Radeon HD 7970 6GB Total GDDR5 in CrossFire 

SSD: 60GB Corsair Accelerator SSD Caching Drive

Hard Drive: 1TB Seagate 7,200RPM

Power Supply: 800-watt Corsair Gamer Series, 80-Plus Certified

Optical Drive: Slot-Loading 8x Dual-Layer DVD RW

LAN: On-board Gigabit Ethernet

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Note that this system does not include a monitor, keyboard or mouse. Hey, we spent all of our budget on the system itself, and had nothing left for some of the small things. Besides, you probably already have your own personal favorite peripherals so we're sure you'll survive.

Maingear Contest Rig

How to Enter

"Like" or already be a fan of Maximum PC on Facebook.  Then, write an email to contests@maximumpc.com with the subject "AMD Maingear Crysis F131 Contest" and in the body put your answer to this question – The Intel CPU architecture that will succeed Ivy Bridge goes by what name? Along with the answer, email us your complete name, address, city, state/province, zip/postal code, country, birthdate, and phone number. One prize winner with the correct answer in alignment with reporting by Maximum PC will be randomly selected by April 19, 2013. This contest is available to readers in the USA (excluding Arizona) and Canada (excluding Quebec). This giveaway has rules, so please read them on the next page.


OFFICIAL RULES  

Maximum PC's AMD Maingear Crysis F131 Contest

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.  

1. SPONSOR; ADMINISTRATOR: This promotion (the "Contest") is sponsored by Future US, Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ("Sponsor(s)"), is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Inc., Maingear Corporation, Crytek GmbH, or Electronic Arts Inc., and is subject to the following terms and conditions.  Contest is being administered by Future US, Inc. ("Future US"), 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080, United States of America, +1 (650) 872-1642.  

2. ELIGIBILITY: Contest is open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia (excluding Arizona, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. military installations in foreign countries, or in any other U.S. territories or possessions) and Canada (excluding the province of Quebec).  Void where prohibited by law.  Entrants must have attained the age of majority in their state and country of residence and citizenship (usually at least eighteen (18) years of age) at time of entry; possess a valid form of unexpired government-issued photo identification; and have a valid email address.  Employees of Sponsor(s), its/their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, advertising, promotion, or production agencies, any companies who are promotional participants or prize providers, web masters and web suppliers, and the foregoing employees' household or immediate family members (defined as parent, spouse, child, sibling, or grandparent) are NOT eligible to enter Contest.  By their submission of entry, entrants warrant they are legally entitled and authorized to make such submission, either on their own behalf, or as to information submitted upon the express authorization of another on whose behalf the information is submitted.  In the event of a dispute as to the winner's identity for online entries received from multiple users having the same email account, entries will be deemed made by the authorized subscriber of the email account associated with the entry.  The authorized account subscriber is the natural person who is assigned the email address by the internet service provider (ISP), on-line service provider, or other organization responsible for assigning email addresses.  Invalid or ineligible entries shall be excluded from consideration.  

3. TIMING:  Contest begins at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time on April 8, 2013 and ends at 12:00 p.m. Pacific time on April 19, 2013.  Future US' computer will be the official time clock for the Contest.  Online entries must be received by Future US by 12:00 p.m. Pacific time on April 19, 2013 to be eligible.  

4. HOW TO ENTER:  Send an email to contests@maximumpc.com with the subject "AMD Maingear Crysis F131 Contest" and in the body submit your answer to the question: "The Intel CPU architecture that will succeed Ivy Bridge goes by what name?" You must also include your complete name, address, city, state/province, zip/postal code, country, birthdate, and phone number in your email.  No team entries and no corporate or institutional entries are permitted in Contest.  

Limit one entry per household.

5. PRIZES AND ODDS: The prize consists of one Crysis-themed Maingear F131 gaming desktop PC that has been customized by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. as described above ("Prize").  The Prize has an approximate retail value of US$3,000.00.  Prize must be delivered to address listed on Winner's entry, and delivery may take six to eight weeks.

The odds of winning will be determined by the number of eligible entries received.

Prizes cannot be transferred, assigned, substituted, or redeemed for cash, and must be accepted as awarded, but Sponsors reserve the right to substitute any prize with a prize of equal or greater value should the advertised prize become unavailable for any reason.  Prizes will not be fulfilled: outside the United States and Canada; in Arizona, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. military installations in foreign countries; in any other U.S. or Canadian territories or possessions; in the province of Quebec; or where prohibited or restricted by law.  Winners will be responsible for all taxes (federal/national, state/provincial, and local) and all expenses not listed herein related to acceptance and use of any prize.  Any person residing in the United States and any United States citizen living abroad, who wins US$600 or more worth of prizes from Sponsors in a calendar year will receive an IRS form 1099 after the end of the calendar year in which the prizes were awarded, and copy of such form will be filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  

Limit one Prize per household.

6. JUDGING: One (1) winner will be selected by a judging panel comprised of the editors of Maximum PC ("Judges").  The Judges will randomly draw entries from all entries received, until they find an entry containing an answer that is accurate in alignment with Maximum PC's report on the question.  Judging will be completed by April 19, 2013.  Sponsors' decisions on all matters related to Contest, including Judges' selection of the winning entry shall be final and binding and within their sole discretion.  Winning is contingent upon compliance with all terms and conditions set forth in these official rules; any entry or any potential winner identified thereby found at any time to fail to comply with these official rules will be held invalid and ineligible for award.

7. NOTIFICATION:  

The Winner will be notified by phone by April 26, 2013.  The Winner so notified must within three (3) business days of notice of prize award, complete, execute and return the provided Affidavit, Waiver, Release and Indemnity Agreement including, where lawful, a Publicity Release (plus any additional documents required at the discretion of Sponsors).  Failure to comply with the requirements of this paragraph (or the return of any prize or prize notification as non-deliverable) may result in disqualification and in the forfeiture of any right to a prize.  

To obtain any legally-required winners list, send a self-addressed envelope with sufficient prepaid postage to: Maximum PC's AMD Maingear Crysis F131 Contest, c/o Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080, United States of America.  (Residents of Vermont do not have to include return postage.)

8. PRIVACY POLICY:  By participating in the Contest, you acknowledge and agree that Sponsors may collect the personal information submitted by you and use the information pursuant to Future US' standard privacy policy, the terms of which can be found at http://www.futureus.com/privacy.php , which terms and conditions entrants accept and agree to by submission of entries pursuant to these official rules.

9.  RELEASE:  

By participating in the Contest and/or accepting a prize, an entrant/winner agrees to defend, release and hold harmless the Sponsor(s), Facebook, Inc., Maingear Corporation, Crytek GmbH, and Electronic Arts Inc., and their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, divisions, advertising, production and promotion agencies, any companies who are promotional participants or prize providers, web masters and web suppliers, and the foregoing companies' officers, directors, shareholders, employees, representatives and agents (collectively "Releasees") from and against any actions, claims and/or liability for injury, loss or damage of any kind to persons, including death, or property (including the violation or infringement of any proprietary or personal right of any individual or entity) resulting in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from participation in the Contest, and/or the use, acceptance, or possession of a Contest prize, and/or participation in a Contest prize-related activity, including any action, claim or liability arising from the unauthorized submission of any information, and/or for any printing, production, technical, typographical, human or other error in the printing, offering or announcement of any prize. 

By participating in the Contest and/or accepting a prize, an entrant/winner consents to and gives the Sponsor(s) the right to use, publish, and display a winner's (and where applicable an entrant's) name, likeness, city and state, and prize awarded, for the purpose of advertising, trade, publicity and promotional purposes in any media now known or hereafter discovered, worldwide, and on the Web, in perpetuity, without review, notification or approval, and without additional consideration, unless prohibited by law.  Each entrant/winner also understands and agrees that he/she is providing information to Future US, Inc. and not to Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Facebook, Inc., Maingear Corporation, Crytek GmbH, or Electronic Arts Inc. 

10.  LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY:  

Entrants agree that by participating in the Contest they release the Releasees from any liability in connection with: (a) Entries that are ineligible as a result of being lost, late, illegible, damaged, incomplete, inaccurate, delayed, unintelligible, non-delivered, stolen, postage due, or misdirected, or the failure to capture any such information; (b) Any typographical or other human or technical errors in the offer or administration of the Contest, including but not limited to errors in advertising, these official rules, the selection and announcement of a winner(s), or the distribution/awarding of a prize(s); (c) Any omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay, misdirection, damage, availability, accessibility, miscommunications, injury, technical malfunctions or traffic congestion on the Internet/telephone network, or at any website (including Facebook, Inc.'s), satellite, computer, telephone, cellular or cable transmissions or lines, or any combination thereof; (d) The unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries; (e) Jumbled, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions, computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties, or for any other errors of any kind, whether human, technical, mechanical, electronic or network, including, without limitation, any errors which may occur in connection with the administration of the Contest or in any Contest-related materials; and (f) Damage to en entrant or other person's system or equipment occasioned by participation in this Contest or downloading materials from the Contest website, or any combination thereof.  Persons who tamper with or abuse any aspect of the Contest or website, as solely determined by the Sponsor(s), will be disqualified (and all associated entries will be void), and Sponsors reserve the right to terminate such entrant's eligibility to participate in this or any other promotion offered by Sponsor(s).  Entries generated by robotic, programmed, script, macro or other automated means or by any means which subvert the entry process will be disqualified.  

Sponsor(s) reserve the right to modify these rules for clarification purposes without materially affecting the term and conditions of the Contest.  In the event that the Contest is infected by a computer virus/worm/bug, or is not capable of running or being executed as planned (as a result of but not limited to an error, omission, defect, delay, misdirection, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, action of entrants, or technical failure) or any other cause which in the sole opinion of Sponsor(s) corrupts or affects the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Contest, Sponsor(s) reserves the right in their sole discretion to disqualify any suspect entry or entrant and to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest.  In the event of such cancellation, termination, modification or suspension, notice thereof will be posted at the entry website(s) mentioned above, and winner(s) will be determined solely by Sponsor(s) from among all eligible non-suspect and/or non-disqualified entries prior to action taken or as otherwise deemed fair and appropriate by Sponsors.  In such event, Releasees shall have no liability to any entrant who is disqualified due to such an action.  Failure to enforce any term of these official rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.

IN NO EVENT WILL THE RELEASEES BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOSSES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE WEBSITE OR DOWNLOADING FROM AND/OR PRINTING MATERIAL DOWNLOADED FROM THE ENTRY WEBSITE(S) MENTIONED ABOVE, OR ANY OTHER WEBSITE ASSOCIATED WITH SPONSOR(S).  WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, EVERYTHING ON THE ENTRY WEBSITE(S) IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.  CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS FOR ANY RESTRICTIONS OR LIMITATIONS REGARDING THESE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS.

11.  LAW:  Subject to all federal, state, and local laws and regulations.  Void where prohibited or restricted.  All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation, and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of entrants or Sponsors in connection with any drawing or award, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of, the State of California, without regard to conflict of law principles.  Any cause of action by you with respect to the offer (and/or any information, products or services related thereto) must be instituted within one (1) year after the cause of action arose or be forever waived and barred.  All actions shall be subject to the limitations set forth in above.  The language in these official rules shall be interpreted as in accordance with its fair meaning and not strictly for or against either party.  All legal proceedings arising out of or in connection with the offer of these official rules shall be brought solely in San Mateo County, California, United States of America.  You expressly submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of said courts and consent to extraterritorial service of process.

Microsoft Exec Dismisses Surface Phone Rumors, Disses Android and iOS

Posted: 18 Apr 2013 12:41 PM PDT

Terry MyersonSo much for not throwing stones from within a glass house.

Microsoft may seem destined to launch its own brand Surface Phone, and though it's possible the company eventually will, there are no immediate plans, said Terry Myerson, corporate vice president of Redmond's Windows Phone Division, at AllThingD's Dive Into Mobile conference earlier this week. Fair enough, but it was Myerson' comments about competing mobile platforms that we found most interesting.

When the conversation turned to mobile apps, Myserson called Android a "mess" and basically said iOS has become stale.

"It's a challenge, but if you look at the top 50 apps globally, we've got around 48 of those. There's tremendous innovation happening in apps. We love checking them out and promoting them, and it's exciting to watch them," Myerson said, according to AllThingsD. "At the same time, our unique experience comes from the built-in features. With iPhone, I sense that it's running out of steam. With iOS, [Apple] just added a fifth row of icons. Android is... kind of a mess. Look at Samsung -- there's clearly mutiny going on. The only OEM making money off of Android is Samsung."

Despite his criticism of the competition, Android and iOS sit at the top of the heap and collectively account for around 9 out of 10 mobile devices sold. Can Microsoft's Windows Phone platform compete? That remains to be seen, but one thing Myerson said his company is doing is focusing on just a handful of partners.

"We want the partners that are building Windows Phones to be successful," Myerson added. "We aren't going out and pushing for lots and lots of OEMs. For us, seeing HTC and Nokia successful is most important to us right now."

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Build the Ultimate AMD Gaming PC

Posted: 18 Apr 2013 12:30 PM PDT

We build a machine that's red and black to hopefully beat our benchmarks black and blue

Variety is the spice of the Lab, so this month we decided to eschew our traditional builds and go with one you don't see every day—an all-AMD gaming PC, built with (most of) the best parts we could get our hands on. We're sure some of you will question the purpose of this build, so our pre-emptive answer is we built it because we could, and we were curious to see how a balls-out AMD build would benchmark, as we haven't seen over-the-top AMD rig since The Matrix: Revolutions let us down. Plus, everyone is always ragging on us for ignoring AMD, so here you go AMD enthusiasts—an entire PC built just for you.  

amd pc

The AMD Gaming PC

We ended up pairing AMD's relatively new "Vishera" Piledriver CPU, the 4GHz FX-8350 (or "Octomom," as we like to call it) with a totally jacked HD 7970 from Asus and a small army of AMD-ish components, which we figured would make for an interesting build. Finally, we've heard your feedback about how you don't need to see another picture of RAM being inserted into its slot, so this month we're going to talk about our component selection and the building process instead of showing you how we actually built it.  

It's Time to Choose 

The impetus for this system was the release of the relatively new "Vishera" CPU from AMD along with an updated version of the Asus Crosshair V Formula Z motherboard running the 990FX chipset. We had just received both of these parts, so we knew what we had to do—take a lunch break to consider our options. While tossing back root beers we formulated the basis of the system—an AMD processor and motherboard were a given, but what else? We had yet to sample the overclocked HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP from Asus, so we added that to the equation. We then remembered AMD-branded RAM had just been announced, so we added that to the ticket as we ordered another round of brewskies. To finish the system, we settled on the Thermaltake V3 AMD edition chassis, some red-band Corsair AF120 case fans, and a red Corsair Force GS SSD, as well, to tie the room together.

The Operating System: Not only do you need extra peripherals before you can get started, the Raspberry Pi is also missing an operating system. To make it work, you need to get a hold of a compatible operating system and write it to the SD card.  We'll show you how, below. Note: It's wise to read through all of the steps first before actually embarking on the process.

INGREDIENTS
PART URL Price
Case Thermaltake V3 AMD Edition www.thermaltakeusa.com

$50

PSU Corsair TX750M 750W www.corsair.com $115
Mobo Asus Crosshair V Formula Z www.asus.com $230
CPU AMD 4GHz FX-8350 www.amd.com $220
Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus www.coolermaster.com $20
GPU Asus Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP www.asus.com $450
RAM 8GB AMD Performance Edition DDR3/1600 www.amd.com $50
Hard Drive WD RE 4TB www.wd.com $460
SSD Corsair Force GS SSD 240GB www.corsair.com $220
Fans Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition (x2) www.corsair.com $28
OS Windows 7 Professional 64-bit www.microsoft.com $140
Total     $1,983
Click the next page to see our CPU, motherboard, and video card specs


1. The CPU and Motherboard

AMD's new CPU is the first proc we've ever seen that comes clocked from the factory at 4GHz, and it's a surprisingly affordable eight-core processor, too. Though 4GHz is the highest stock-clock speed we've ever seen, don't get too excited. The FX-8350 is not even in the same universe as something like a hexa-core Intel Core i7-3960X, despite having two additional cores and a clock-speed advantage.

The motherboard is the latest version of the Asus Crosshair V and has every feature imaginable, including an actual digital kitchen sink. It's running the AMD 990FX chipset and dishes up a total of eight SATA 6Gb/s ports and two eSATA 6Gb/s ports as well as a new SupremeFX III audio chip and three PCI Express x16 slots for three-way SLI or CrossFire. Plus, the paint job is totally righteous.

Asus's Crosshair V Formula Z is the perfect home for a flagship CPU like the FX-8350.

 2. OUR TOP PICK

Of course we went with a Radeon HD 7970 for this build—you would do the same thing if you were in our statically shielded shoes. But instead of just going with a Nilla Wafer card, we rang up Asus and requested its overclocked bitch-maker, the HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP. In English, this means the card is a 7970 but it has the company's ludicrously huge DirectCU II triple-slot cooler, and TOP means its core clock speed is nudged up to 1GHz from its stock speed of 925MHz. This card requires two 8-pin connectors and can power up to six displays at once, and did we mention it's effing massive?

This overclocked, triple-slot pixel-pusher runs neck-and-neck with the GTX 680 and is totally silent.

 3. WE MAKE OUR CASE

We can already hear the smack-talk about taking a $50 case and stuffing two-grand worth of gear into it. Point taken—and yes, we chose it for its color scheme. But since our build wasn't too ambitious, the case actually worked out OK, though we did experience a few issues. The first sign of trouble was a warning in the manual not to use a video card that exceeds 10.4 inches. We stared at our 11-inch GPU, gritted our teeth, and wedged it into the PCIe slot with... no problem at all. It worked perfectly. The second issue was the rear-facing 3.5-inch hard drive bays, which we haven't seen in a while and did not miss. Installing drives once the mobo and GPU are inside is a PITA, plain and simple. The biggest issue we had was a lack of holes to route our PSU cables, so please cut us some slack on that (we know you won't).

amd case

Thermaltake's V3 AMD is specifi cally designed for AMD processors and RAM. OK, we made that up.

Click the next page to check out the PC's SSD, PSU, and RAM


4. STORAGE DUTIES

Our SSD selection will probably be another controversial choice, but we picked it for two reasons. First, it's red. Second, it's fast. The second part is crucial, because if the drive was red and slow, it would not be in this rig, period. But since it's fast, and red, in it went. Though we never officially reviewed this drive, it's the flagship of Corsair's previous Force lineup, and features fast MLC Toggle NAND and a SandForce SF-2281 controller, so it's got some hardware cred. In testing, it hummed right along at 464MB/412MB read and write speeds. Since no man can survive on an SSD alone, we paired it with WD's cavernous 4TB RE enterprise drive, which spins at 7,200rpm and is big enough to hold our multimedia stash, barely. Since the Thermaltake case only has 4 3.5-inch drive bays, we figured we had better go big on this one.

A SandForce SSD from Corsair and 4TB of rotating storage should serve our file-hoarding needs nicely.

5. MORE POWER

Our PSU choice was made interesting by the fact that the original no-name model we chose failed during testing. The system would boot fine and run normally until we really stressed it out, at which point we found ourselves staring at a matrix of orange squares on our LCD. We tried updating the mobo's BIOS, updating our video drivers, and even swapping the power cables, but nothing worked. Finally, we grabbed the Corsair TX750M and plugged it into the 24-pin and 8-pin connectors, leaving the original PSU attached to the GPU, and everything worked just fine. Eventually, we yanked the original PSU out and went with Corsair. This just reinforces an ageold lesson: Don't get cheap when it comes to your rig's power supply. It's not worth the headache.

An inadequate power supply put a halt to our benchmarking. Thankfully, Corsair stepped in and saved the day.

6. RED RAM

AMD has begun selling branded memory, so we figured we'd plop some sticks into the machine to see if anything bad would happen. The RAM is made by Patriot and VisionTek but is validated by AMD for use with its CPUs and chipsets, so take that for what it's worth. The company is offering branded sticks in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB modules in four flavors: Value, Entertainment, Performance, and Radeon. We used 8GB of Performance RAM, which was clocked at 1,600MHz at 1.5V out of the box. Even though AMD warns users against overclocking, it also indicates on its website that it can be safely run at 1.65V in order to achieve more aggressive timings.

We tried some AMD Performance Edition RAM and are happy to report it was rock solid and stable.

Click the next page to see our overall conclusion and benchmark numbers

 


 

1. The V3 case only comes with one 12cm exhaust fan, but we replaced it with two Corsair AF120 Quiet case fans because they look snazzy and are whisper-quiet.

2. We originally wanted a Phanteks cooler in red, but a time crunch forced us to go with our favorite cooler of the past year, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus. It's still the best bang for-the-buck cooler in the land and is amazingly quiet.

3. Thermaltake says this case isn't made for extra-long GPUs and extra-tall CPU coolers, but both of ours fit with zero clearance problems.

4. The Thermaltake V3 AMD edition lacks holes for cable routing, so we ended up with a traffic jam in the lower quadrant of the chassis.

THE NUMBERS AREN'T PRETTY

As you look at the benchmark chart below, you should hear the sad trombone sound from The Price is Right playing in your head because this system got smoked by our zero-point rig, which has a hexa-core Sandy Bridge-E and GeForce GTX 690 video card. Its best result was in the x264 HD 5.0 encoding test, where our AMD rig lost by 30 percent to Core i7-3930K, its least punishing defeat, which was likely the result of the AMD part's higher clock speed. In every other test the extra cores and clocks that AMD brings to the table didn't make a difference against Intel's more efficient microarchitecture, even if it's an older generation. We witnessed a beatdown in all the CPU-based tests, including Adobe Premiere Pro 6, where the Vishera system took almost 1.5 hours to complete a test that took our SNB-E machine just 33 minutes. We saw the same disparity in every other test, but it's not a surprise since Vishera was not designed to go head-to-head with a $1,000 Intel Core i7 CPU. Sadly, our HD 7970 also got smacked around in both 3DMark and Batman, where it was picked on by the zero-point's GTX 690 GPU. You can interpret this two ways: the first is, hey, it's no so bad, considering that the ZP's CPU and GPU cost twice as much as the AMD's parts. The other way is, damn, those Sandy Bridge-E CPUs are fast.

Benchmarks

ZERO

POINT

Premiere Pro CS6 (sec) 2,000 5,160 (-61%)
Stitch.Efx 2.0 (sec) 831 1,489 (-44%)
ProShow Producer 5.0 (sec) 1,446 2,902 (-50%)
x264 HD 5.0 (fps) 21.1 14.8 (-30%)
Batmans Arkam City (fps) 76 51 (-33%)
3 DMark 11 5,847  3,122 (-47%)

Our current desktop test bed consists of a hexa-core 3.2GHz Core i7-3930K @ 3.8GHz, 8GB of Corsair DDR3/1600, on an Asus Sabertooth X79 motherboard. We are running a GeForce GTX 690, an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

Puget Systems Silences Genesis II Dual Xeon Workstation

Posted: 18 Apr 2013 11:49 AM PDT

Puget Systems Genesis II Quiet EditionCool, quiet, and fully loaded.

Boutique builder Puget Systems put its penchant for building whisper quiet PCs to the test by attempting to silence its Genesis II workstation featuring a pair of Intel Xeon E5 processors. No small task considering the system's waving around some high-end hardware, though Puget claims it was successful in piecing together what it considers the "most powerful quiet PC" it's ever built.

Pricing starts at a little under $2,500 for a system that includes two Xeon E5-2603 processors, 16GB of DDR3-1600 ECC RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 610 graphics card, 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue hard drive, 24X DVD burner, and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. It's cooled by quiet versions of Geild's Tranquillo coolers. Higher end components are available, if your budget allows.

Puget also upgraded the cooling scheme on their standard Genesis II from a closed loop liquid cooler with a 120mm radiator per CPU to now using a pair of 140mm radiators per CPU. To give an idea of well it cools, Puget says temps maxed out at just 45C when testing a configuration consisting of two 135W Xeon CPUs, 128GB memory, multiple hard drives, and a GeForce GTX 680 graphics card.

"The all new Genesis II Quiet Edition is the result of iterative testing of dozens of component combinations and configurations, making heavy use of thermal imaging to ensure the workstation is extremely well cooled, and quiet," Puget says.

The Genesis II Quiet Edition is available to configure and order now.

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MSI Builds a 27-inch All-in-One PC for Gamers

Posted: 18 Apr 2013 10:59 AM PDT

MSI AG2712A discrete GPU gives MSI's AG2712 some gaming cred.

The all-in-one (AIO) form factor has its strengths, gaming just isn't usually one of them, right?. Ah, but that's starting to change. We were relatively impressed with Maingear's Alpha 24 Super Stock, a powerfully equipped AIO system, and now MSI is joining the fun by announcing what it claims is the world's first 27-inch AIO for gamers, the AG2712. The heart and soul of MSI's newest machine is its GeForce GTX 670MX graphics card.

It takes more than a discrete GPU to qualify as a gaming rig, and with that in mind, the AG2712 also features an Intel Core i7 3630QM processor clocked at 2.4GHz (3.4GHz via Turbo), up to 16GB of DDR3-1333 memory (4GB comes standard), 1TB hard drive (7200 RPM) or 128GB solid state drive, DVD burner, 3-in-1 card reader, 802.11n Wi-Fi, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, two HDMI ports (input and output), VGA port, 2MP webcam, and Windows 8.

"Furthermore, the AG2712 is equipped with an anti-glare Full HD display, for a perfect aim while playing games. With the HDMI-in port and MSI's Instant Display Technology, the AG2712 can also be connected to other game devices such as a PS3, turning the AG2712 in a multi-platform engine for watching Full HD movies or playing the latest games on its large screen," MSI says.

Sounds promising. We've reached out to MSI for a release and pricing information, and will update when we hear back.

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Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair Neutron 480GB SSD, MSI GeForce 650 Ti, and More

Posted: 18 Apr 2013 10:22 AM PDT

Corsair Neutron GTX 480GB SSDNewegg

Top Deal:

Is your clunky mechanical hard drive slowing you down? And are you hesitant to make the jump to solid state storage because capacities are too low? Fret no more, because today's top deal is for a Corsair Neutron Series GTX CSSD-N480GBGTX-BK 2.5-inch 480GB SATA III SSD for $410 with free shipping (normally $460). Capacious and fast, it offers the best of both worlds.

Other Deals:

Corsair CX430M 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 Plus Bronze Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply for $50 with free shipping (normally $60 - additional $10 mail-in rebate)

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $175 with free shipping (normally $200)

MSI Power Edition N650TI PE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card for $119 with free shipping (normally $150 - use coupon code: EMCXSWP236 + additional $20 mail-in rebate; Free Gift: Nvidia $75 value in-game coin coupon)

Asus VS Series VS238H-P Black 23" 2ms HDMI LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 50,000,000:1 for $140 with free shipping  (normally $200 - use coupon code: EMCXSWP49 + additional $20 mail-in rebate)

Toshiba Trots Out "Luxurious" Kirabook Ultrabook Starting at $1,600

Posted: 18 Apr 2013 08:50 AM PDT

Toshiba Kirabook UltrabookToshiba's Kirabook will test the limit of how much Ultrabook shoppers are willing to spend.

Intel and its hardware partners have made a concerted effort to bring Ultrabook pricing down, but just because we're seeing lower sticker prices across the board, does that mean the market for premium Ultrabooks is dead? Toshiba's committed to finding out, as evidenced by its new 13-inch Kirabook with PixelPure display. The Kirabook boasts a Retina-like resolution of 2560x1440, though the cost of ownership begins at $1,600.

If there's a single Ultrabook model that compares in style to Apple's MacBook Air, this is it, based on the press photos we've seen. It features clean lines, rounded edges, brushed aluminum, and a tapered design that gets as thin as 0.7 inches while weighing a mere 2.6 pounds.

Toshiba put considerable effort into building what it feels is a luxury Ultrabook. Constructed with a pressed magnesium alloy and a honeycomb-base, Toshiba says it's 100 percent stronger than aluminum alloy. It has a multi-fan phase cooling system, a stabilizing hinge that won't bounce around when you swipe and tap the 10-point multi-touch display, Harmon Kardon stereo speakers, and more.

"At the core of the Kira brand are products derived from inspired engineering," said Carl Pinto, vice president of marketing, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "Products that will carry the Kira name will be more than a collection of the latest hardware technologies, but a statement of craftsmanship, fit and finish, and features built for the consumer's benefit, not technology's sake."

Toshiba Kirabook Display

One of the main selling points is the display, which delivers 221 pixels per inch. Touchscreen models utilize Corning Concore Glass to protect against damage, especially since you'll be tapping away.

Other hardware consists of third generation Intel Core i5/i7 processor options (Ivy Bridge), 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory, and a 256GB solid state drive. Depending on the exact setup, pricing will range from $1,600 to $2,000, Toshiba says.

Interested? If so, you can place your pre-order beginning May 3 at places like Amazon, BestBuy, Microsoft Store, B&H, Adorama, and direct from Toshiba. Availability is scheduled for May 12.

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