General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Silverstone RL04 Review

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 03:11 PM PDT

A budget case that's more incomplete than fun

Budget is as budget does, but the Silverstone RL04 just feels incomplete—or ill-designed—across a number of key areas. We suppose this case is worth looking into if you're tired of running all your parts and pieces on an open-air design—as in, propped up on cardboard boxes or Styrofoam. Otherwise, it's worth your while to explore some of the other cases in the sub-$80 category; the RL04 just isn't all that compelling.

A few parts on the case—like the holes for water-cooling tubes—require you to punch them out in order to use them.

A few parts on the case—like the holes for water-cooling tubes—require you to punch them out in order to use them.

For starters, imagine our delight to find that our review case shipped with one of the side panel screws missing. Sure, one screw holds a door on, but two screws would give us double the confidence that the RL04's extruded, grilled side-panel was properly attached to the rest of this mid-tower chassis.

The case's four 5.25-inch drive bays don't require you to pop off any kind of front panel in order to install new devices, just the smaller bay covers. We like that. We don't like the unpleasant, screwless connectors that keep one's devices locked into place, however. They feel a bit flimsy and we're not crazy about the turn-and-remove locking mechanism itself.

Five drive bays use handier trays to keep your 3.5- or 2.5-inch drives in place. You still have to use screws to attach said drives to said trays and, slightly more annoying, you install the drives from the case's right side, not the more conventional left. While you'd likely have to pop both panels anyway just to address the cable management, we still prefer to install or manipulate all of a case's guts from one side of the chassis.

Continuing its pattern of omissions, Silverstone neglected to preinstall any screws for the case's PCI expansion slots. It's not a deal-breaker, given that the slot covers will stay in place without them, but, again, a bit of an annoyance—you're hosed if you happen to misplace your little baggie of case screws.

Silverstone includes a two-fan-wide filter to install on either the case's top or side (it attaches magnetically). However, no matter where you stick it, the rectangular design of the filter doesn't perfectly line up with the case's angular accents—in other words, it looks bad.

The case itself comes with a single fan: a red, 12cm fan stashed in the case's front. There's no way to turn the fan's light on or off, but that's kind of a moot point since you don't get much of a glowing effect through the case's front-panel design.

The motherboard tray comes with a number of holes of various sizes for routing cables, and a huge area behind the CPU cooler itself is cut away—if you're looking for an easy aftermarket CPU-cooler upgrade, this one's a godsend. However, the case's angled design leaves little room for running cables on the extreme top and bottom of the chassis. This mainly affects the cable for the 4/8-pin ATX12V power connector; it's a tight squeeze, depending on the size of the cable your power supply is sporting.

Silverstone slaps the case's two USB 3.0 connectors on the front of its left side, a slightly odd place to store them. Your system's small reset button is located above that; the case's power button is actually Silverstone's giant snowflake logo—hrmph.

In general, we're a bit let down by the inner-workings (and deficits) of Silverstone's RL04. Even for a budget chassis, we find it a less satisfying product than, say, a similarly inexpensive case such as Fractal Design's Core 3000. Steer clear.

$55, www.silverstonetek.com

Steam’s Summer Sale is Finally Here!

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:20 PM PDT

Steam Meme

Epic PC gaming discounts await

Steam's much-anticipated summer sale is officially here! Beginning today, Valve will be offering massive discounts, some up to 75% off, to a plethora of PC games on its digital distribution service. The deals change daily and some of today's hot offerings include BioShock Infinite for $30 (normally $60), Defiance for $14 (normally $40), and Hotline Miami for $2.50 (normally $10). 

The summer sale also includes Flash Sales that last just eight hours. Games that are included in the current flash sale are Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition for $9 (normally $40), Counter Strike Global Offensive for $5 (normally $15), Skyrim Legendary Edition for $36 (normally $60), and newly released GRID 2 for $30 (normally $50).

Like in past sales, Valve is also letting customers vote between three games they would like to see go on sale. Games currently being voted for the community's choice are Dishonored, Borderlands 2, and Far Cry 3.

The Steam Summer Sale...it's a big deal

The summer sale will last until July 22, 2013. You can check out the full list of games on sale at http://store.steampowered.com/.

Column: Intel’s Power Games

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 11:33 AM PDT

Watt's Up?

What's a watt? Depends how you measure it. Electrical engineers agree that watts equals volts times amps, but they start disagreeing when measuring the power dissipation of a microprocessor. Power consumption varies with the software workload, which can be anything from a program's idle loop to a high-frame-rate videogame.

watt cpu

Intel recently provoked controversy while announcing a third-generation Core processor (an Ivy Bridge variant) for ultrathin notebooks and tablets. The company said its new Y-series Core processor will use 7 watts of "scenario design power" (SDP). Nobody had ever heard of SDP, so the general reaction was "WTF?"

Usually, Intel specifies "thermal design power" (TDP). That rating is the maximum power dissipation that engineers should consider when designing the cooling system. TDP isn't quite as high as "maximum" power (a worst-case rating), but it's higher than "typical" power (another common but poorly defined specification). So SDP is Intel's new definition of typical power.

But what's the scenario? Without specifying the software workload under which the SDP was measured, Intel was telling us nothing. With a light workload, the new processor could sip less than 1 watt. When heavily loaded, it could gulp more than 10 watts. Although the scenario remains vague, the company is admitting some outsiders to its labs to observe power measurements.

Conclusion: The scenario varies. Intel engineers are running many different tasks while carefully monitoring power dissipation and temperatures. The heaviest workloads are graphics-intensive action games, which slow to virtually unplayable frame rates when the Y-series Core processor stays below its SDP of 7 watts. Most other common tasks, including video playback, don't break this power budget. So, the new processor isn't an eye-popping game platform, but that's no surprise.

Generally, Intel's TDPs are honest. SDP could be a good thing if Intel standardizes the rules and encourages everyone to adopt it.

Maximum PC's Geek Quiz 2013

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 11:09 AM PDT

geek quizUpdate: Annoying Quiz Timer Removed!

Since time began, the fittest of any species have found ways to test their mettle in the fiery cauldron of competition. First there was the Olympics, then Jeopardy, and finally – the Maximum PC Geek Quiz. Though you are probably cracking your knuckles, keep in mind that we've designed this timed quiz, not to entertain you, but to destroy you. Yes, those are fighting words. And yes, we mean it. Don't worry – we've made this a fair fight by mixing softballs with knees-to-the-groin-region, so if you're a regular reader of Maximum PC, and don't go running off to your Google mommy, you should come out the other end of this a better man, woman, or child. 

Note: We have listened to your feedback and have removed the pesky timer on the quiz! Now you'll be able to enjoy the test at your own pace. To take it a step further, we encourage you to discuss the questions and answers in the comments below!

Steve Ballmer Outlines Plan to Reorganize Microsoft Into a Lean, Mean, Streamlined Machine

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 09:26 AM PDT

Steve BallmerMicrosoft embarking on ambitious realignment effort

In a long-winded open email to employees, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer talked at length about the company's "far-reaching realignment" strategy that has been rumored in the media for about the past week. Though he goes on and on (and on...), the underlying message is that Microsoft is ready to rally behind a single strategy as one company as opposed to a collection of divisional strategies. It's a streamlining of its operations, if you will.

"This means we will organize the company by function: Engineering (including supply chain and datacenters), Marketing, Business Development and Evangelism, Advanced Strategy and Research, Finance, HR, Legal, and COO (including field, support, commercial operations and IT)," Ballmer stated in his memo to employees. "Each discipline will help drive our overall strategy. Each discipline will also be charged with improving our core capabilities in its area. We must improve in all aspects of the business."

Ballmer assured employees (and the masses, as it were) that Microsoft will continue to deliver multiple devices and services, but with a single core strategy. "We will see our product line holistically, not as a set of islands," Ballmer said. The end goal is to bring products to market faster and encourage users to adopt Microsoft technologies on a variety of devices.

Part of the restructuring effort includes having four new engineering groups: Operating Systems, Apps, Cloud, and Devices. There will also be teams focused on marketing, research, finance, and various other housekeeping chores. One of the casualties of the reorganization process is Kurt BelBene, president of Microsoft Office, who will now be retiring after more than two decades of service.

On the consumer side, there's not a lot to pump your fist about here, not yet anyway. Reorganizing Microsoft is one thing, but being successful in that endeavor and showing an ability to evolve with the market place is another. Time will tell whether or not Ballmer's reorganization strategy turns out to be a savvy business move.

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Zotac Upgrades Select Zbox Nano Systems with Intel Ivy Bridge

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 07:17 AM PDT

Zotac Zbox Nano ID65New Core processor options for Zbox Nano

Small form factor systems are vogue, and that's just fine by Zotac, which has been cashing in on the craze for palm-sized systems with its Zbox Nano line. These aren't wimpy little systems, either, especially now that some of them have been upgraded with Ivy Bridge processors from Intel. These include Intel's Core i3 3227U, Core i5 3337U, and Core i7 3537U processors.

"Our engineers have done a phenomenal job combining the raw CPU power of Intel Core processors and Intel HD Graphics 4000 into our tiny zbox Nano platform. The performance and customizability available in these palm-sized Zbox Nano is unmatched by any of our competitors," says Carsten Berger, senior director, Zotac International.

You'll find the above mentioned processors in Zotac's Zbox ID63 (Core i3 3227U), ID64 (Core i5 3337U), and ID65 (Core i7 3537U) systems, each of which features a single SO-DIMM memory slot, support for a single 2.5-inch drive or two mSATA drives, HDMI and DisplayPort output, 7-in-1 memory card reader, eSATA port, GbE LAN, onboard 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, and audio ports.

Plus models also come pre-populated with a 500GB hard drive (5400 RPM) and 4GB of DDR3 memory.

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Everyone Exhale, Google is Up and Running Again

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 06:36 AM PDT

Google Data CenterSouthern states briefly affected by Google outage

Have you ever wondered what would happen to the Internet if Google suddenly decided to shut down its operations? It wouldn't quite be on the scale of what some people feared prior to Y2K (planes wouldn't drop from the sky, for example), but it sure would lead to online chaos, given our dependency on Google's varied services, Users in several southern states and parts of the midwest got a taste what a Google-less life would be like yesterday during a temporary outage.

Google search and other services were down for more than an hour yesterday morning, from around 9:20 AM ET to 10:40 AM ET. According to CNN, Google received reports of problems of its service being offline from users in West Virginia, North Carolina, Nebraska, and Georgia. Maximum PC can also confirm that the outage affected parts of South Carolina as well.

"The issue was quickly resolved and is now over. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our users there," Google said in a statement.

According to updates posted in Google' App State Dashboard, the outage was ultimately caused by a failure of a Google networking component in the Atlanta region. Google says the outage affected less than 0.5 percent of its traffic.

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Newegg Daily Deals: G.Skill 16GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM, Seagate 1TB HDD, and More!

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT

G.Skill 16GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMMnewegg logo

Top Deal:

Notebook vendors seem to be getting skimpy with RAM these days, and worse yet, they sometimes charge outrageous premiums for capacity upgrades. Take matters into your own hands with today's top deal for 16GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM laptop memory for $92 with free shipping (normally $115 - use coupon code EMCXNL45). This dual-channel kit is rated at 9-9-9-24 @ 1.5V.

Other Deals:

Seagate 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive for $70 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [EMCXNXL26])

AMD Trinity 3.8GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD for $110 with free shipping (normally $130 - use coupon code: [EMCXNXL34])

Cooler Master 800W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply 4th Gen CPU Haswell Ready for $135 with free shipping (normally $170 - use coupon code: [EMCXNXL43]; additional $35 mail-in rebate)

NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case for $105 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCXNXL39]; additional $25 mail-in rebate)

Federal Judge Finds Apple Guilty of Conspiring to Raise E-Book Prices

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 05:30 AM PDT

iBookstoreApple finds itself in a legal pickle

U.S. District Judge Denise Cole has found Apple guilty of colluding with five major U.S. publishers to drive up prices of electronic books (e-books), saying that the company played a "central role" in the conspiracy. Damages will be determined at a new hearing in which Apple could end up owing millions of dollars, though in the meantime, the Cupertino company maintains its innocence and plans to appeal the ruling.

The Justice Department took issue with the way Apple maneuvered into the e-book business. As explained by The Wall Street Journal, Apple preyed on publishers' dissatisfaction with Amazon's e-book discounts to give itself an in. Apple then proposed that publishers would be able to set their own prices, which in turn led to Amazon being unable to price most e-book best sellers at $9.99, leading to higher prices all around.

"Understanding that no one publisher could risk acting alone in an attempt to take pricing power away from Amazon, Apple created a mechanism and environment that enabled them to act together in a matter of weeks to eliminate all retail price competition for their e-books," Cole wrote in her decision.

Apple disagrees with Cole's decision, saying that the introduction of its iBookstore led to customers having "more choice" and that it "inject[ed] much needed innovation and competition into the market, breaking Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry."

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Lenovo Overthrows HP From PC Shipment Throne

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 05:15 AM PDT

Lenovo BusThe king is dead, long live the king

Well, it finally happened. According to newly compiled data from two separate market research firms, Gartner and International Data Corporation (IDC), Lenovo is now the top supplier of PCs in the world, overtaking Hewlett-Packard (HP) for pole position. While Gartner and IDC report a slightly different number of PC shipments for each OEM, both report Lenovo as having a leading 16.7 percent share of the market, versus HP's 16.3-16.4 percent share.

IDC said worldwide PC shipments dropped to 76 million units in the second quarter of 2013, a 10.9 percent decline from the same period a year ago. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of declining shipments and the longest duration of decline in the PC market's history.

"We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "In emerging markets, inexpensive tablets have become the first computing device for many people, who at best are deferring the purchase of a PC. This is also accounting for the collapse of the mini notebook market."

Of those shipments, Lenovo accounted for 12.67 million units, versus HP at 12.4 million (16.3 percent).

IDC painted a similar picture, noting that global PC shipments totaled 75.6 million units, down 11.4 percent compared to a year ago. However, IDC said it expects to see some growth in the second half of the year, adding that one positive sign is that HP and Dell saw growth improve compared to recent quarters.

Lenovo Building

"The U.S. market is beginning to reflect some of the Windows XP to Windows 7 transition we've been expecting in the commercial PC space, as evidenced by the strong growth in the enterprise-focused Dell PC business," said Bob O'Donnell, Program Vice President, Clients and Displays. "We're also starting to see more stabilization in shipments, which we think is a reflection of PC lifetimes finally starting to even out after a long period of gradual increase. The end result should be more PC replacements, even if consumers and companies are selective in making replacements and wait until PCs are older before replacing them."

Lenovo, meanwhile, was all smiles at being recognized by both firms as the top PC supplier in the world, saying that this marks the first time it's been the "clear global leader in PCs." Company chairman and CEO Yang Yuanquing said his company is grateful to its customers and global team for the achievement, adding that the battle for PC leadership will certainly go back and forth.

"The PC market is changing, but it still represents a $200 billion opportunity," Yuanqing added.

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