General Gaming Article

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• Cooler Master Intros QuickFire XT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
• Build a PC: Recommended Builds (July 2013)
• Who Wants Some Free Stuff?
• Ask the Doctor
• Newegg Daily Deals: Logtiech G19 Black Gaming Keyboard, Corsair 430W PSU, and More!
• Thousands to Join "Restore the Fourth" Protests Against NSA Spying
• Gigabyte Aims to Ship Record 20 Million Motherboards in 2013
• Newegg Launches a Daily Deals Site for Impulse Shoppers
• Neatgear's R6100 Router Boasts 802.11ac Connectivity for a Benjamin

Cooler Master Intros QuickFire XT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Posted: 03 Jul 2013 04:21 PM PDT Available now in Blue and Red Cherry MX Switch models Gaming peripheral maker Cooler Master on Tuesday announced the addition of yet another product to its mechanical keyboard lineup. The all new Cooler Master Storm QuickFire XT is for those whose passion for numpads is just as intense as their love of gaming. In its press release, the company described QuickFire XT as  having "the same extremely solid construction that won the hearts of QuickFire Rapid owners," and the similarities in their designs are quite obvious. In fact, the QuickFire XT is, as the company put it, the numpad-less QuickFire Rapid's sibling, albeit a sibling with the full complement of 104 keys. Like the Rapid, the QuickFire XT also uses Cherry MX switches and laser-marked keycaps (comes with extra keycaps and key puller). All mechanical Cherry MX Keyboard Embedded Steel plate for extreme stability and durability Super slim keyboard body – more ergonomic and comfortable typing angles N-KRO for unlimited simultaneous key presses (PS/2) Command rate adjustments via key-combo (PS/2) Windows Keys can be disabled via key-combo Multimedia shortcuts via key-combos Detachable braided cable with full size USB plug The QuickFire XT is available now from the Cooler Master store in Blue and Red Cherry MX Switch models for $89.99 and $99.99, respectively. Although mentioned in the press release, Green and Brown Cherry MX Switch options aren't available yet. Follow Pulkit on Google+

Build a PC: Recommended Builds (July 2013) Posted: 03 Jul 2013 02:23 PM PDT Baseline, performance, and ultra PC builds! What time is it? It's time to build a PC with our Blueprints! This month, we've built three rigs at three approximate price points: Baseline, Performance, and Ultra. Baseline gets you a powerful, no-compromises rig, suitable for gaming and content creation at 1080p. Performance gets you more, and the Ultra is for those who want a killer PC. These rigs are lab-tested and editor-approved. Feedback is, of course, welcome. Tell us what you think! Don't confuse "baseline" with "underpowered," as the Intel Core i5-4670K hauls ass, and the rest of this rig is plenty powerful. This month, we upgraded the video card from an AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition to the Radeon HD 7950, since the 7950 also has more horsepower and an additional gigabyte of video RAM, which is handy for high-res textures and long draw distances. To get there, we downgraded the PSU and SSD, going from a 720W Cooler Master to a 500W Corsair, and a Samsung 840 Pro to the SanDisk Extreme. The new SSD is plenty snappy, and 500 watts is sufficient for a system with a single GPU. We're also retaining last month's transition to the OEM version of Windows 8. Most of the parts previously selected for this tier still deliver great performance for the price, so not much has changed this month. Corsair had a deal on its HX850 power supply, though, so we took advantage of that. It has superb build quality and a long seven-year warranty. Also this month, the 256GB Samsung 840 Pro was about the same price as the 240GB Neutron GTX we had in here previously, so we swapped them since the 840 Pro is a bit faster. As with the Baseline system, we're sticking to Windows 8. These are the OEM versions, which means that the activation code is tied to the motherboard. The trade-off is that it costs much less than the "full" version. After seeing two Nvidia GeForce GTX 780s work their SLI magic in our test rig, we were compelled to put them in the Ultra system, which had a single GTX Titan in it last month. The GTX 780 is basically a gaming-oriented version of the Titan, with two SMX units and double-precision compute removed. When overclocked, a GTX 780's gaming performance comes within spitting distance of its big brother, so two of them are truly a dream come true. This motherboard and power supply will also handle a third 780 without breaking a sweat. The BEFX power supply is one of the best in its class and comes from Seasonic. Since it's fully modular, you can replace all the cables if they get damaged or if you want to make cosmetic changes, and it makes for less clutter too. Its fan also uses a "hybrid mode" setting, where it doesn't even spin up when the system is idle, ensuring quiet operation when you're just surfing around or watching videos. The overall build quality is reportedly a bit better than the Cooler Master Silent Pro unit it replaces.

Who Wants Some Free Stuff? Posted: 03 Jul 2013 01:43 PM PDT We're giving away a Crucial M500 120GB solid state drive and a three-year license for iolo's System Mechanic software We know there are two things that our readers love; Pure PC Power, and free stuff. Since we've always got your PC power needs covered, we figured you might need some gear, and we love running contests, so here's our newest one. In this contest one winner will receive both a Crucial M500 120GB SSD and a three-year license to iolo's System Mechanic software. You can check out the review of Crucial M500 SSD here on the Maximum PC website. Though we haven't reviewed System Mechanic software, we've heard good things about it.  Here are the official blurbs about the contest prizes: Crucial M500: http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT120M500SSD1  System Mechanic: http://www.iolo.com/company/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=cebfe631-c315-4aac-8a86-2629b29da1c3  How to Enter Send an email to contests@maximumpc.com with the subject "Crucial and iolo Contest" and in the body your answer to this question – When discussing flash memory, what does MLC stand for? Along with the answer, email us your complete name, age, adress and zip/postal code. One prize winner with the correct answer in alignment with reporting by Maximum PC will be randomly selected by July 05, 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 1. SPONSOR; ADMINISTRATOR: This promotion (the "Contest") is sponsored and administered by FUTURE US, INC., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080, is in no way sponsored by Facebook, Inc., Crucial.com (Micron Technology, Inc.), or iolo technologies, LLC, and 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, +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, and possess a valid form of unexpired government-issued photo identification. Employees of Sponsor, its 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 mail 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 12:00p.m. Pacific Time on June 24, 2013 and ends at 6:00p.m. Pacific time on July 3, 2013.  Sponsor's computer will be the official time clock for the Contest.  Online entries must be received by Sponsor by 6:00p.m. Pacific Time on July 3, 2013 to be eligible.     4. HOW TO ENTER:  Submit an answer for the following question "What is MLC stand for?" to contests@maximumpc.com along with your complete name, age, and zip/postal code.  No team entries and no corporate or institutional entries are permitted in Contest.   Limit one entry per household. 5. ORIGINAL WORKS.  You hereby warrant and represent that (a) you own all rights to all materials that you submit to Sponsor in connection with Contest ("Entry Materials"); (b) you have never submitted Entry Materials in another contest; and (c) all such Entry Materials are original works or authorship on your part and have not been copied, in whole or in part, from any other work and do not violate, misappropriate or infringe any copyright, trademark or other proprietary right or any privacy right of any other person or entity.   6. PRIZES AND ODDS:  There is one grand prize package, which consists of a Crucial M500 120GB solid state drive and a three-year license for iolo's System Mechanic software ("Prize").  The Prize has an approximate retail value of U.S.$279.94.  Prize must be delivered to address listed on Winner's entry, and delivery may take 6-8 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 Sponsor reserves 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; will not be fulfilled in 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; will not be fulfilled in the province of Quebec; and will not be fulfilled where prohibited or restricted by law.  Winners will be responsible for all taxes (federal, 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 U.S.$600 or more worth of prizes from Sponsor 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 one per household. 7. JUDGING: There will be one winner who is selected by a judging panel comprised of Editors of the Maximum PC staff ("Judges") who will take all of the correct answers and randomly select a winner from that pool of entries.  Judging will be completed by July 10, 2013.  Sponsor's decisions on all matters related to Contest, including Judges' selections of winning entries, 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. 8. NOTIFICATION:  Each Winner will be notified by email by July 10, 2013.  Each 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 Sponsor).  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, Crucial M500 120GB SSD and System Mechanic Contest, c/o Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080.  (Residents of Vermont do not have to include return postage.) 9. FUTURE US' USE OF ENTRIES.    You hereby grant Future US a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide license and right to utilize the Entry Materials you submit in connection with Contest.  The Entry Materials become the property of Future US and will not be acknowledged or returned.  Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you acknowledge that Future US shall have the right to use, modify, reproduce, publish, perform, display on all forms of media, distribute, make derivative works of, sublicense, and otherwise commercially and non-commercially exploit the Entry Materials in perpetuity and throughout the universe, in any manner or medium now existing or hereafter developed, without separate compensation to you or any other person or entity.  You agree to take, at Future US' expense, any further action (including, without limitation, execution of affidavits and other documents) reasonably requested by Future US to effect, perform or confirm Future US' rights as set forth in this paragraph. 10.  PRIVACY POLICY:  By participating in the Contest, you acknowledge and agree that Sponsor may collect the personal information submitted by you and use the information pursuant to Future US, Inc.'s 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.  Each entrant/winner also understands and agrees that he/she is providing information to Future US, Inc. and not to Facebook, Inc. 11.  RELEASE:   By participating in the Contest and/or accepting a prize, an entrant/winner agrees to defend, release and hold harmless the Sponsor, Facebook, Inc., Crucial.com (Micron Technology, Inc.), and iolo technologies, LLC, 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 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. 12.  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, 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, will be disqualified (and all associated entries will be void), and Sponsor reserves the right to terminate such entrant's eligibility to participate in this or any other promotion offered by Sponsor.  Entries generated by robotic, programmed, script, macro or other automated means or by any means which subvert the entry process will be disqualified.   Sponsor reserves 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 corrupts or affects the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Contest, Sponsor 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 from among all eligible non-suspect and/or non-disqualified entries prior to action taken or as otherwise deemed fair and appropriate by Sponsor.  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.  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. 13.  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 Sponsor 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.  You expressly submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of said courts and consent to extraterritorial service of process.

Ask the Doctor Posted: 03 Jul 2013 01:33 PM PDT The doctor tackles Recovering a Laptop RAID, PSU Questions, Wireless Uploads, and more Recovering Data from a Laptop RAID I have an MSI GT683 laptop with two 500GB hard drives in RAID 0. My motherboard failed under warranty. The laptop is not worth repairing, so they are sending me a new laptop. The new one is an MSI GT783R with two 750GB hard drives in RAID 0. The techs did send back the drives from the old laptop in the hopes that I could recover data from the RAID. Could someone explain how to remove the data from two hard drives in RAID 0 and reinstall on my new laptop? I have a stand-alone hard drive dock used to clone hard drives and also an adapter used to transfer info from one hard drive to another. Unfortunately, neither device works in my situation. How do I get the data from my old drives? - Dan Tiefenbach The Doctor Responds: It's difficult to restore data from a RAID without using the same chipset/RAID controller as was used to create it. However, given how similar the new laptop is to the old one, you may be in luck. Since you were able to remove the drives from your old laptop, you ought to be able to do the same on your new laptop. And since both are Sandy Bridge notebooks in the same general product line from the same vendor and both use the same HM67 chipset, your old RAID should be visible on the new computer once you have enabled it in the BIOS. Replace the 750GB drives in the new laptop with the 500GB drives from the old laptop. Hopefully, the RAID will be recognized and you can boot from the drives. If so, copy the data you need to an external drive. Then remove the 500GB drives and replace the 750GB drives in the same configuration they were in when you got the new laptop, and move the recovered data to the new laptop. If you're a bit skittish about swapping the drives, you can try file recovery software such as Quetek's File Scavenger available from Quetek.com. We've long been fans of File Scavenger as a recovery tool. Set your default Library locations to a storage drive to keep space-hogging files off of your SSD No More Room on the SSD Nine months ago, I put together a sweet little system. Almost every article I read recommended a 120GB boot SSD paired with a bigger mechanical-storage drive. This may have been practical then, as SSDs were notoriously expensive at the time of this build. However, it is nine months later and my SSD is nearly full! I have 6.89GB free! I wish I had bought a bigger boot drive, even with the exorbitant prices of the time. You are still recommending these small drives for your budget and intermediate builds. Let me give my advice to anyone considering building a computer with these miniscule drives: don't! I don't even have any games on mine. I've picked up bits and pieces of articles about how to conserve space on boot drives, but apparently not enough. Could you go through step-by-step all the ways you know of to make Windows send the proper data to the storage drive so I could at least put one game on my boot drive? Could you also recommend a good program that could clean the junk off of my boot drive? - Paul Lamb The Doctor Responds: You're right, SSDs are now cheap enough that you should be getting at least a 250GB model as your boot drive, to avoid the kind of trouble you're having now. Let's see if we can't free up some space on your 120GB drive now, though. First, make sure the default save locations for each of your media Libraries points to a folder on your storage drive. By default, those libraries save to your SSD. That's bad. Go to Explorer and right-click your Documents library and select Properties. Under Library Locations click Add, go to your storage drive, create a new folder called Documents, and then select Include Location. Back under Library Locations, select the folder you just created and hit "Set save location." Do this for each Library—music, documents, video, pictures, and any other libraries you've created. Be sure to move your public libraries, too, if you plan on sharing music on your network. Now, move any documents from their original locations on your boot drive (say, My Music) to the new location on your storage drive. Make sure they've copied over correctly and then delete them from your C:\ drive. This should free up a lot of space. You should also go back to each Library's Properties menu and remove the old C:\ drive locations. You should also make a Downloads folder on your storage drive and make sure your browsers download to that folder rather than the default, which is in My Documents. Finally, download WinDir-Stat (free, www.windirstat.info). Run it on your C:\ drive and it'll give you a visual representation of exactly what's taking up space. Move any lingering documents to the storage drive. Don't just go deleting large files willy-nilly, though. Three Questions about Power Supplies I recently upgraded my HP Blackbird 002 with a P9X79 Deluxe with a Core i7-3820, a Samsung 840 Pro with a Barracuda 3TB for archive, and 16GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866. I'm still using the water cooler that came with the original system, and have two XFX Radeon HD 6950s in CrossFire. Every once in a while, the computer will trip a breaker forcing me to switch the computer onto one circuit and have my peripherals plugged into another. My questions are these: Would swapping out the 3-year-old power supply for, say, a modern Corsair modular PSU be more energy efficient? Is 1,100W overkill for my system as listed above? Would I be better served with an 860W PSU? Last, if I swap out PSUs, can I use the existing modular power-cabling or is that just a horribly bad idea? - Matthew Bryington The Doctor Responds: Yes, a modern power supply should be more efficient than the behemoth that came with the Blackbird. You mentioned Corsair and an 860W PSU, so you've clearly been doing some research. Corsair's AX860 PSU is 80 Plus Platinum certified, so it's very energy efficient. It's also fully modular and it should be more than enough power for your system. To answer your third question, no, you can't use the same modular power cabling. It won't fit and even if it did, it's a bad idea. Take the opportunity to do a fresh rewire. And don't worry—even though new PSUs don't have that 10-pin power connector for the SATA backplane, HP in its wisdom enabled the backplane to be powered by one 4-pin Molex connector or two SATA power connectors instead. That backplane will work just fine for your current drives, even the SSD, if you get a 3.5-inch-to-2.5-inch adapter that fits (IcyDock makes one). The backplane is just a straight pass-through and you will still get 6Gb/s SATA speeds out of a 6Gb/s SATA drive as long as it's plugged from the backplane into a 6Gb/s SATA port. You didn't ask, but the Doc thought he'd mention it anyway, since he had to figure this out recently.

Newegg Daily Deals: Logtiech G19 Black Gaming Keyboard, Corsair 430W PSU, and More! Posted: 03 Jul 2013 10:22 AM PDT Top Deal: You wouldn't bring a knife to a grenade fight, so why hop on the battlefield wielding a run-of-the-mill keyboard? You deserve better! Have a look at today's top deal for a Logitech G19 Black 104 Normal Keys USB Wired Standard Gaming Keyboard for $120 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code EMCNXV35). It has a color LCD game panel, 12 fully programmable G-keys, and custom color backlighting. Other Deals: Corsair CX430M 430W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply for $50 with free shipping (normally $70; additional $20 mail-in rebate) Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 Video Card for $190 with free shipping (normally $240 - use coupon code:[EMCXNXV23]) Toshiba 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive for $115 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code:[EMCXNXV22]) Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory for $119 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code:[EMCXNXV25])

Thousands to Join "Restore the Fourth" Protests Against NSA Spying Posted: 03 Jul 2013 10:05 AM PDT Will NSA hear the rally cry? While many people in the U.S. are planning barbecues with family and friends, an evening of fireworks, and other ways to celebrate Independence Day, thousands of others are planning to join nationwide rallies in protest against recently revealed spying activities conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). Dubbed "Restore the Fourth," the effort was put together by Reddit and has drawn support from a number of other online entities, including Mozilla. "Reddit didn't take well to all the information about the news leak as far as NSA goes," says Michael Reed, Restore the Fourth's director of communications, according to Time. "So we started organizing there, and the next thing you know, we're organizing in over 100 cities and it's only getting bigger." Indeed it is. Rallies will take place all over the U.S. in cities both big and small. And in addition to Mozilla, the campaign has drawn support from WordPress, 4chan, Fark, and Cheezburger.com, along with certain celebrities. "How long do we expect rational people to accept using terrorism to justify and excuse endless executive and state power?," actor John Cusack said during a press conference announcing the protests, according to PCWorld. "Why are so many in our government, our press, our intellectual class afraid of an informed public?" Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about the NSA's surveillance program and the Internet companies it's been working with. He now faces a number of charges, including theft of government property. Restore the Fourth is, in part, an effort to draw the spotlight away from Snowden and back on the issue at hand. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Gigabyte Aims to Ship Record 20 Million Motherboards in 2013 Posted: 03 Jul 2013 09:40 AM PDT DIY sector is still going strong Is the PC market in a slump? That's all we keep hearing about from market research firms, but over here on the do-it-yourself (DIY) side, there's plenty to be excited about. We have new Haswell processors to play with (or Richland if you're rolling with AMD), and AMD and Nvidia continue to try and one-up each other with faster graphics cards and beefier bundles. Now is a great time to be in the market for a new build, and Gigabyte expects to cash in. According to Digitimes, Gigabyte shipped 4.8 million motherboards in the second quarter of 2013, bumping its total to 9.9 million units for the first half of the year. Gigabyte expects to ship even more in the second half, and if it does, the company will set a personal record of 20 million motherboards shipped in a single year. Not too shabby given all the gloom and doom in the headlines. Though Gigabyte's motherboard business is strong, the company has also resumed production of it own brand notebooks and tablets, of which it hopes to ship 230,000 units combined in 2013. In addition, Gigabyte dabbles in smartphone devices, though they're mainly sold overseas. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Launches a Daily Deals Site for Impulse Shoppers Posted: 03 Jul 2013 09:13 AM PDT An online sanctuary for spendthrifts It's getting easier by the day to blow through a paycheck, isn't it? Sure, gas prices are high from coast-to-coast, but if you're an impulse shopper with a Internet connection, you have about as much chance as Bill Paxton did in Aliens. That's because daily deal sites are all over the web. It's become such a 'thing' that even Newegg is getting in on the action with its NeweggFlash portal. Through NeweggFlash, Newegg offers daily bargains in a wide variety of categories, everything from technology and consumer electronics to housewares and skincare. Designed to sell out of inventory, you'll find deals for up to 75 percent off the regular selling price. Deals are refreshed each day at 9 AM PST. "We're thrilled to launch NeweggFlash and join in on the flash sale phenomenon," said Soren Mills, chief marketing officer at Newegg. "Newegg is proud of the deep relationships we've built with our vendor partners over the years. It's these relationships that allow us to offer very compelling deals on NeweggFlash and give us an edge over competing flash sale sites." Deals are for members only, though joining is free. If you already have a Newegg account, simply sign in and you're good to go. To kick off the grand opening of its deals site, Newegg is giving away a number of items, culminating in a grand price award of an Asus Automobili Lamborghini VX7SX-DH72 15.6-inch Core i7 2670QM laptop with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. You have until August 31 to enter. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Neatgear's R6100 Router Boasts 802.11ac Connectivity for a Benjamin Posted: 03 Jul 2013 08:36 AM PDT A cheap upgrade to 802.11ac territory Now might not be the best time to upgrade your home networking equipment to 802.11ac since a final standard has yet to be ratified, but if you're gung-ho to make the leap anyway, there are plenty of companies that will oblige. Count Netgear among them. Not only is Netgear offering an upgrade path to 802.11ac, it's new R6100 dual-band router is $100, a relatively cheap price tag considering it's a next-generation router. The R6100 offers combined Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1,200Mbps (300Mbps at 2.4GHz 802.11n + 866Mbps at 5GHz 802.11ac), though that's a bit misleading since you can't actually create a super connection out of the two. Even still, 867Mbps is pretty fast, provided your networking equipment is compatible with 802.11ac. "In the last couple of years, there's been an explosion in the number of Wi-Fi devices connected to the home network. If it doesn't already, your house will soon have smart TVs, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, and media servers in addition to smartphones, desktops, laptops and tablets," said Sandeep Harpalani, Netgear's director of product marketing for core networking products. "To future-proof your network and keep it humming along at peak performance, you're going to need to upgrade to AC wireless. The newest smartphones and Macs already have 802.11ac inside. It enables you to be more productive at home and to experience the world of entertainment available through the Internet in a seamless fashion." Other features include DLNA support, guest network access, built-in parental controls, advanced QoS, ReadyShare USB access, and a few other odds and ends. For wired connections, be advised it's equipped with four 10/100 LAN ports rather than 10/100/1000. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

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