General Gaming Article

Phanteks Enthoo Primo Chassis Will Hit the Market Next Month
Coolermaster Announces New CM 690 III Case
21 Best Google Chrome Apps and Extensions
Intel's $199 MinnowBoard Sails Into Open Source Waters with Atom at the Helm
Majority of Tablet Buyers Drawn to Small Screen Sizes
Micron Gains a 300mm DRAM Fabrication Plant in Elpida Acquisition
Newegg Daily Deals: Intel Core i5 3470 CPU, Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 and More!

Phanteks Enthoo Primo Chassis Will Hit the Market Next Month

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 07:42 PM PDT

Seems to have the makings of a very "cool" case

Phanteks has so far limited itself to manufacturing PC cooling solutions, but very soon it will have its very first PC case on the market in the form of the Enthoo Primo. To this end, it has now divulged all the vital product details it chose to withhold last month, when it teased its impending entry into the world of PC cases through a couple of short preview videos.

Given the company's background in cooling, it is no surprise that the Enthoo Primo promises "extreme cooling capacity," with as many as 16 fan mount locations. What's more, it will ship with five Phanteks PH-F140SP140 mm fans. There is no dearth of water cooling options either.

"Phanteks' Enthoo Primo features a unique PSU thermally isolated location, multifunctional cable/reservoir cover, exclusive brackets, and massive cooling potential," the company said in a press release earlier this week. "With the PSU located in the back of the case, this allows for a cleaner look and better cable management."

Here are the Enthoo Primo's detailed specs:

Dimension: 250mm x 650mm x 600mm (WxHxD)
Form Factor: Full Tower Chassis
Material(s): Aluminum Faceplates, Steel Chassis
Motherboard Support: ATX, EATX, mATX, SSI EEB
Front I/O: 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, Mic, Headphone, LED Switch, Reset Switch
Side Window: Yes, split-window design
Expansion Slots: 8
Power Supply Slots: 2
Drive bays:
- External 5.25": 5
- Internal 3.5": 6 (2x 3 HDD cages)
- Internal 2.5": 12 (2x 3 HDD cages + 2x doublestack SSD brackets ) *expandable to 3x
Cooling: Up to 16 fan mount locations (120/140mm)
Water Cooling: 5 different installation areas for slim and thick radiators varying from single to quad (120mm and 140mm form factors)
Clearance
- Graphic card
  - 257mm (reservoir bracket installed)
  - 277mm (reservoir bracket installed w/o cover)
  - 350mm (no reservoir bracket)
  - 390mm (HDD cages in front position)
  - 515mm (no HDD cages)
- CPU cooler: 207mm
- Cable management: 30mm

The Enthoo Primo will hit the market next month with an MSRP of $249.99 and a five-year limited warranty.

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Coolermaster Announces New CM 690 III Case

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 03:48 PM PDT

Cooler Master 690 III

It looks a lot like the last one

Cooler Master released its 690 II Advanced case in 2010, and they've now refreshed it with their new 690 III case.

Like the last case, the 690 III is a steel- bodied mesh mid-tower case and comes with a flurry of storage bays. The new case features seven internal hard drives bays and three ODD bays, which can also be used to mount SSDs.

Other specifications include two front panel USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, along with standard audio and microphone inputs. Coolermaster's 690 III also comes equipped with removable dust filters that cover the top, and front of the case as well as the PSU, for easy cleaning.

Cooling in the CM 690 III is covered by a front 200mm intake fan, a rear 120mm outtake fan stock with the option of adding more. The side panel and top of the case support two 120mm fans or can be fitted with one 200mm fan and the bottom supports a 120mm fan. Lastly the case supports a 120mm hard drive cage fan.

Aesthetically, the 690 III hasn't changed much from its last iteration, as the design is very similar to the 690 II Advanced.

21 Best Google Chrome Apps and Extensions

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 12:00 PM PDT

Best Google Chrome Apps

We like building our own PCs because there's a certain satisfaction that comes from hand-picking the right combination of parts, putting them together, and then fine tuning their collective performance both on a hardware and software level. A home brewed PC is never finished -- we can always add, subtract, or upgrade components, and over time, our machines become a living entity that grows alongside us. What started off as a lean, mean, pixel pushing machine may eventually end up as a whisper quiet home theater PC (HTPC).

For many of the same reasons, we're big fans of Google's Chrome browser. The comparison between building a PC and configuring a web browser isn't exactly apples to apples, but the underlying concept is essentially the same. Chrome, with its minimalistic nature, affords us a clean slate to work with, one that we can customize to our own specifications. Instead of picking out physical components, with Chrome, we have thousands of themes and extensions to sift through. This allows us to build a customized browser, both in appearance and function, and like our PCs, Chrome can grow and adapt to our changing needs.

If you haven't given Chrome a test drive yet, we highly encourage doing so. To help get you started, we've put together a list of 21 awesome extensions. You can choose to install just one, all 21, or none at all. That's the beauty of Chrome -- the end result is what you, the user, makes of it! If you have a favorite extension that isn't on the list -- highly likely, since there are so many -- share it with us and other readers in the comments section below.

One final word: You'll notice we don't include AdBlock Plus. That's not because we're haters, though bear in mind that many sites rely on advertising to stay afloat, so if you want to support them, you should disable AdBlock Plus on said site. The real reason why it's not included is because we feel most people already know about it (plus it's getting a shout-out here), so why waste one of our 21 entries highlighting it?

Check out our top picks below and let us know what your favorite Chrome extension is in the comments!

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Intel's $199 MinnowBoard Sails Into Open Source Waters with Atom at the Helm

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 09:36 AM PDT

Intel's first open source PC

The world's largest semiconductor company finds itself hooked on the mini computing craze that was, in part, popularized by the Raspberry PC and other tiny systems that would follow. Intel, along with CircuitCo Electronics, a company that knows a thing or two about open-source motherboards, shipped the chip maker's first open source PC known as MinnowBoard, which is essentially a slice of silicon powered by Intel's Atom E640 processor (1GHz).

At $199, the MinnowBoard is more than five times more expensive than a $35 Raspberry Pi, though there are certain advantages to Intel's approach. The biggest one is that it's a x86 mini PC, whereas Raspberry Pi is based on ARM's architecture. And while it's more expensive than Raspberry Pi, the MinnowBoard is cheaper than most x86 systems.

In addition to an Atom processor, it also rocks 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 4MB of SPI flash (system firmware memory), integrated GMA 600 graphics, microSD card slot, a single SATA 3Gbps port, two full-size USB ports, a micro USB port, GbE LAN, and a few other odds and ends.

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Majority of Tablet Buyers Drawn to Small Screen Sizes

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 09:11 AM PDT

Small tablets gave overall sales a big boost last quarter

The tablet buying frenzy may have started with Apple's 9.7-inch iPad, but these days, consumers are more interested in slates with smaller screen sizes. According to Canalys, 68 percent of tablets shipped in the second quarter of 2013 had a screen size smaller than 9 inches, a buying a habit that may have helped Android nab a majority 53 percent share of the market compared to Apple's 43 percent.

Apple's share of tablets declined 14 percent last quarter, though tablet shipments as a whole grew 34 percent year-over-year. The second quarter alone saw 34 million additional slates enter the market place. Canalys believes the primary reason Apple's share is moving in the opposite direction of the market is simply due to economics.

"When Apple does decide to refresh its iPad range it will not experience the buzz of previous launches," said Canalys Analyst James Wang. "Tablets are now mainstream products and hardware innovation is increasingly difficult. With branded Android tablets available for less than $150, the PC market has never been so good for consumers, who are voting with their wallets."

Apple's least expensive tablet is its iPad mini, a 7.9-inch slate that starts at $329 MSRP, more than twice as much as some similar sized Android tablets from name brand vendors.

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Micron Gains a 300mm DRAM Fabrication Plant in Elpida Acquisition

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 08:11 AM PDT

Micron beefs up its memory portfolio

Micron, the memory maker based out of Boise, Idaho, has completed its acquisition of Elpida, a struggling DRAM player in Tokyo. All of Elpida's equity and assets now belong to Micron, including a 300mm DRAM fabrication facility located in Hiroshima, Japan. Other notable assets include a 65 percent stake in Rexchip, which itself owns a 300mm DRAM plant in Taiwan, and 100 percent ownership interest in Akita Elpida Memory, which owns an assembly and test facility in Akita, Japan.

"We are pleased to bring together Elpida with Micron to form the industry's leading pure-play memory company. This combination will result in enhanced R&D and manufacturing scale, significant cost and production synergies and a stronger memory product portfolio to provide solutions to our customers," said Micron CEO Mark Durcan.

The move also ensures Micron's continued presence in an industry that's made a sharp transition to survival of the fittest in the past several years. Starting around 2008, the DRAM market took a turn for the worse, prompting Adata to say it had been the worst year for DRAM in 15 years.

According to Micron, the manufacturing assets of Elpida and Rexchip together can produce more than 185,000 300mm wafers per month, which represents about a 45 percent increase in Micron's current manufacturing capacity.

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Newegg Daily Deals: Intel Core i5 3470 CPU, Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 and More!

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 07:45 AM PDT

Intel Core i5 3470 newegg logo

Top Deal:

We hate to be the ones to bum you out with bad news, but the back-to-school season is upon us, meaning it's almost time to wave goodbye to summer. Why not turn that frown upside down with a new build for the upcoming school season? To help you along, today's top deal is for an Intel Core i5 3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHz (3.6GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W quad-core desktop processor (BX80637i53470) for $180 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code EMCXMXW22). It's a 22nm chip with integrated Intel HD Graphics 2500.

Other Deals:

Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 CPU Cooler - Intel & AMD Multi-Directional Mount 92mm PWM Fan for $18 with free shipping (normally $24 - use coupon code: [EMCXMXW86])

Razer Naga Molten Black 17 Buttons 1 xWheel USB Wired Laser 5600 dpi Special Edition Gaming Mouse RZ01-00280500-R3M1 for $58 with free shipping (normally $70 - use coupon code: [EMCXMXW54])

Biostar TZ77A LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS for $80 with free shipping (normally $95 - use coupon code: [BIO15])

Samsung B300 Series S23B300B Black 23-inch 5ms GTG Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 Mega Infinity DCR(1000:1) for $140 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCXMXW23])