General Gaming Article

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• Cooler Master Rolls Out Cosmos SE Computer Case
• Sapphire Edge VS8 Review
• HP Envy 23 TouchSmart Review
• TSMC Surpasses Intel as World's Largest Chip Maker
• Toshiba Refreshes Mainstream Laptops with Haswell and Other Upgrades
• Cash and Prizes Up for Grabs in Cooler Master's 2013 Case Mod Competition
• Corsair's Obsidian Series 750D Full Tower Case is Now Available
• Newegg Daily Deals: PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1,200W PSU, Asus 24-inch LCD, and More!
• Firefox Metro for Windows 8 Hits the Aurora Channel
• Microsoft Intros Surface 2, Surface Pro 2 Tablets

Cooler Master Rolls Out Cosmos SE Computer Case Posted: 24 Sep 2013 01:19 PM PDT It's a more compact version of the Cosmos and Cosmos II The busy bodies over at Cooler Master launched a new computer case under a familiar name. It's the Cosmos SE, and like its predecessors (Cosmos and Cosmos II), the design is supposedly inspired by sports cars, only this version is more aggressive, nimble, and compact. Built in part for the road, it has curved aluminum handles and a sleek outer exterior. "Its divergent styling comes from a more forceful, road hugging, and compact sports car feel," Cooler Master says. Marketing fluff aside, the Cosmos SE supports up to 8 fans, half of which come preinstalled, including two 120mm blue LED fans in the front with LED on/off controls, a single 140mm in the top, and a 120mm fan in the rear. If you prefer liquid cooling to air cooling, you'll find built-in support for 120mm, 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm radiators, with users being able to install a 120mm, 280mm, and 360mm radiator at the same time. For storage chores, the Cosmos SE accommodates up to 8 hard drives / 18 solid state drives via removable HDD/SSD cages. It also supports multiple graphics cars up to 15.5 inches long and CPU coolers up to 6.9 inches high. Price and availability will vary by region, Cooler Master says. In the US, we're scheduled for an October 9th release date, and the windowed version (the right-hand case pictured above) will have an MSRP of $169.99. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Sapphire Edge VS8 Review Posted: 24 Sep 2013 12:41 PM PDT A feisty little machine Considering how poorly AMD's A-series APU did in our Budget Builds story, you'd think that type of chip would be outclassed by its AM3+ siblings and Intel's crew in all scenarios. But, while that's true in the case of big desktops, when you miniaturize the chassis to something you can slip into your murse, things get a bit more competitive. Such is the way with Sapphire's Edge VS8 mini PC. Built around AMD's A8-4555M mobile chip, this quad-core proc boasts a 1.6GHz chip that Turbo Clocks up to 2.4GHz. Boxes this small have typically included Intel Atom and AMD E-450 series chips, and though both are getting better, they are pretty weak CPUs. AMD's A8-4555M, on the other hand, uses the fairly powerful Piledriver dual-core modules on the x86-side of things, and a Radeon HD 7600G for graphics. Initially, we thought we'd compare the Edge VS8 to an older E-450 or Atom-based mini PC, but the pricing of the Edge VS8 puts it firmly in the neighborhood of Intel's Core i3-3217U-based NUC. That's because to get the $300 NUC up and running, you'd need to add an mSATA SSD, RAM, wireless card, and OS, pushing the price to $600. An SSD would greatly help the performance of this tiny PC. In general compute performance, we found the A8-4555M couldn't quite go head-to-head with the Core i3-3217U, but it put up a decent fight, and was nowhere near as dog-slow as an Atom or E-450 processor. In ProShow Producer, the Edge VS8 was about 17 percent slower than the i3-based NUC and 34 percent slower than the NUC in Stitch.Efx 2.0. In gaming, the Edge VS8 got its payback, cranking out a 3DMark 11 score that was about 47 percent faster than the NUC's HD4000 graphics. When performance was isolated to just the GPU, the Radeon HD 7600G produced a score about 61 percent higher. We put the NUC's graphics capability in real games at something akin to Portal 2 on low settings. The Edge is definitely better equipped for gaming, but at 1600x900 rather than 1080p. In our opinion, the Edge VS8 is better suited for HTPC applications. Here it excels with enough computing power to drive even the new PowerDVD 13 and its new real-time frame-by-frame sharpening algorithms. PowerDVD 13 played HD-res files as well as Blu-ray discs just fine. There were a couple of hitches when trying to skip forward several chapters, but it quickly smoothed out after a few blips. Of course, you'll need a USB Blu-ray drive to play actual discs, but the Edge VS8 had plenty of pep to do that. Overall, Sapphire's Edge VS8 does a great job of fulfilling all our HTPC streaming needs. Our primary complaint is probably with its 500GB laptop drive. We've become so accustomed to SSD performance that we forgot how slow laptop hard drives can be. Any enthusiast can quickly swap out the drive for an SSD, though, by opening the case. Once inside, you'll also see a pair of SO-DIMMs and the machine's sole source of noise: a small heat pipe and fan. Externally, the Edge VS8 features a nice rubberized finish with a built-in stand. The machine can lie on its side but it will wobble a bit. An SSD would greatly help the out-of-the-box performance but it would also exacerbate our other complaint, which is that once an OS is added (yes, it ships sans OS), the cost tips $550. That's within striking distance of the NUC outfitted with a 128GB mSATA SSD and 8GB of RAM, plus OS. We wish the Edge VS8 was about $100 cheaper, but once you get down to the $350 range, you're back into the sluggish territory of Atom and E-350/E-450 parts. Still, it's a powerful enough box with a healthy graphics advantage over the NUC. $450, www.sapphiretech.com

HP Envy 23 TouchSmart Review Posted: 24 Sep 2013 11:38 AM PDT Clean-and-simple design at a premium price We have to hand it to HP. Despite all the trendy all-in-one PC/tablet hybrid designs coming out, its new HP Envy 23 opts for a more traditional space-efficient AiO. The included keyboard and mouse can be neatly tucked under the monitor. The 23-inch panel sits atop a sturdy base and is adjustable to 40 degrees. A 3-inch gap between the monitor and the 17x8-inch base lets you stow the keyboard under the monitor when not in use. Though hardly innovative, it gets the job done. For amenities, the Envy 23 offers a slot-load Blu-ray combo drive and an HDMI-out port on the right; four USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, an external audio-out on the back; and two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone/mic jack, and an SD card reader on the left. Finally, the power button is located on top of the display, which isn't exactly ideal, as we found ourselves accidentally turning it off when adjusting the monitor. The monitor itself is a 1920x1080-resolution TN display that looks sharp and sports a very glossy, mirror-like finish. The panel's vertical off-axis is OK; its horizontal off-axis wasn't particularly impressive, but that's par for the course for TN panels. The display supports 10-point touch and is fairly responsive, but compared to, say, this month's Razer Edge tablet, it was perceptibly slower when dragging a digit across the screen. Beneath the screen, the Envy 23 is equipped with a 3.1GHz Core i7-3770S, 12GB of dual-channel DDR3/1600, and a GeForce GT 630M. Our particular unit was also loaded with a beefy 3TB hard drive, which is much heftier than our zero-point's Asus ET2300 1TB solution. The Envy's Core i7 processor allowed it to easily lump up the ET2300's quad-core Core i5-3330 in all of our CPU tests, especially in the multithread-hungry TechArp x264 benchmark, where the Hyper-Threading gives the i7 a 37 percent advantage. To our surprise, though, despite the Envy and ET2300 both sporting GeForce GT 630M GPUs, HP's offering lagged by 15.5 percent in both our Metro and 3DMark 11 graphics tests. Why? It might be because the Envy's 630M features a slightly slower .2 GTexel/s texture fill rate and 10MHz slower GPU clock, or it could simply be driver differences. Note to those who want reference drivers: Neither the Asus nor the HP allowed us to run the latest reference drivers. As a more real-world game workload for the box, we played Portal 2, a nontaxing Source game, and achieved average frame rates in the low 30s on max settings at native resolution, but inconsistent dipping makes this setting ill-advised. On BioShock Infinite, we got an average 31fps on the lowest settings at 1080p, which suggests the game is only playable if you scale down the resolution. On the audio front, the Envy 23 features Beats Audio, which gives the built-in speakers a nice bassy low end, which even works with headphones plugged-in. The speakers sound better than the ET2300's flat-sounding thumpers, but they still pale in comparison to a quality 2.1 speaker setup. The included wireless keyboard is a bit flimsy, but it does its job. The mouse is equally competent, though you'll probably want to adjust the sensitivity out of the box. Whereas our zero-point features a detachable USB dongle that occupies a USB slot, the Envy's dongle is built into the PC itself. While that does free up a USB port, it also means you won't be able to use the peripherals on other computers. The Envy 23 doesn't aim to reinvent the wheel and ends up being a decent PC in the process. While it certainly won't replace your gaming rig, it is a capable workstation/family PC. But at $1,840, it costs a whopping $540 more than the ET2300 without giving our zero-point much to be envious about. $1,840, www.hp.com

TSMC Surpasses Intel as World's Largest Chip Maker Posted: 24 Sep 2013 09:19 AM PDT Not quite a changing of the guard You can't drive two miles without seeing at least half a dozen people with a smartphone wedged up against their ear or down in front of them as they fire off a text message, some of which do so while behind the wheel. And if not wielding a smartphone, many people at this point own a tablet. Mobile is where it's at right now, and it explains why TSMC is now making more money from semiconductor chips than Intel. TSMC sold $11.98 billion worth of semiconductors in the second quarter of 2013, edging out Intel, which sold $11.79 billion in the same time frame, Fudzilla reports. The news and rumor site says it pulled its data from market research firm IC Insights. Things figure to get even better for TSMC as it upgrades its four 8-inch wafer plants to supply parts for the wearable device market. IC Insights believes the global semiconductor market will be worth $271 billion this year, with wafer foundries accounting for more than 16 percent. Intel isn't sitting idly by, mind you. The Santa Clara chip maker is forging ahead with Bay Trail T, and though TSMC took a small lead in chip sales, Intel's revenue and profits are more impressive. TSMC's total sales revenue reached $17.1 billion in 2012, versus Intel's reported full year revenue of $53.3 billion. Image Credit: TSMC Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Toshiba Refreshes Mainstream Laptops with Haswell and Other Upgrades Posted: 24 Sep 2013 08:55 AM PDT New laptops start at $360 MSRP Toshiba announced several updates to what it classifies as its "mainstream laptop" lineup, though one of the new additions is the Qosmio X75, a 17.3-inch gaming laptop with an unidentified 4th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, four memory slots, Nvidia Geforce GTX 770M graphics with Optimus technology, and a 1.5TB hard drive. Pricing starts at $1,400, which isn't too shabby for a gaming laptop. Other features of the Qosmio X75 include 1TB hybrid hard drive and SSD storage options, Full HD 1080p display, Blu-ray burner, Harmon Kardon speakers, UltraHD output via HDMI,and full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premier Elements 11. Moving down the line, Toshiba introduced its revamped Satellite P Series starting at $800. These systems have been "thoroughly modernized with near-Ultrabook thinness" but still offer solid performance. These have 15.6-inch Full HD 1080p touchscreen displays, frameless LED backlit keyboards, Nvidia GPU options, improved USB Sleep & Charge technology, and UltraHD output via HDMI. Next up is the Satellite S Series starting at $600. These come in 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch flavors and have backlit keyboards, Harman Kardon speakers, Core i5 and i7 Haswell and AMD A10 processor options, up to 1TB of storage, and up to 16GB of DDR3 memory. Second to last is the Satellite L Series starting at $530. These are described as thin, everyday PCs that are almost as thin as an Ultrabook. These have also been given the Haswell treatment and feature 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch display options, DTS Studio Sound, up to 1TB of storage, and up to 8GB of DDR3 memory. Finally, Toshiba tweaked its Satellite C Series starting at $360. For a little more coin, you can upgrade to a touchscreen display. Other features include up to 750GB of storage, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch options, and full size keyboards. All of these upgraded systems will be available on September 29, 2013. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Cash and Prizes Up for Grabs in Cooler Master's 2013 Case Mod Competition Posted: 24 Sep 2013 08:30 AM PDT Calling all modders We're big fans of the modding movement, and though we never play favorites, it's always awesome when a company decides to a hold a contest to reward creative individuals for thier hard work. Such is the case today, with Cooler Master announcing its 2013 Case Mod Competition. The competition runs until January 31, 2014, and there will be plenty of cash and prizes given away. Up to $20,000 is up for grabs in Cooler Master's contest, which is being sponsored by Asus, Geil, and Plextor. There are two categories you can enter, including "Tower Mod" and "Scratch Build." Each category will have a single 1st place winner, two 2nd place winners, and three 3rd place winners, all of which will be calculated based on public votes (30 percent of score) and judges' scores (70 percent of score). "This year includes cash prizes for 1st and 2nd place winners in both categories of US$1,000 or US$500 respectively. We also have exciting hardware prizes, such as Cooler Master cases, V1000 power supplies and a Nepton liquid cooler, Asus Maximus VI Formula and ASUS TUF Sabertooth Z87 motherboards, aluminum peripherals form CM Storm, Geil Evo Potenza 2666+MHz Limited Edition Frost White 16GB Dual Channel Kit, Plextor SSD and more," Cooler Master says. Check out the official contest page for more details, and best of luck if you decide to enter! Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Corsair's Obsidian Series 750D Full Tower Case is Now Available Posted: 24 Sep 2013 07:54 AM PDT If it were any bigger, it'd be a 900D Hide your NUC because if you bring home an Obsidian Series 750D chassis, it may just eat your mini PC for breakfast. Corsair's newest full-tower enclosure isn't quite as big as its massive 900D, but the company says you'll still find ample room for high performance components and sophisticated cooling. The 750D is also supposed to make complex builds a bit easier thanks to tool-free side panels and drive bays, cable routing grommets and mount points, rear CPU access on the motherboard, and alignment pegs, to name a few of its features. "When we launched our enormously successful, supersized Obsidian 900D case, enthusiasts raved about its sleek design, solid metal construction, and expandability, but not everyone needs so much room," said Xavier Lauwaert, Director of Product Marketing at Corsair. "Obsidian 750D is built for those users that demand full-on Obsidian quality in a standard full-tower form factor with plenty of innovative features and cooling options." Though it's not as overbearing as the 900D, there's still a lot going on here, like 9 expansion slots, half a dozen tool-free 3.5-inch/2.5-inch combo drive bays, four tool-free 2.5-inch side mounted cages for SSDs (out of the airflow path), three tool-free 5.25-inch bays, and four front-mounted USB ports. Modular drive cages can be situated in four separate mounting locations, while cooling duties are handled by three AF140L high-airflow 140mm fans (two in the front, one in the rear). There's room for up to 8 fans in all. If you're into water cooling, radiator options include 360mm or 280mm up top, 28mm or 240mm out front, 240mm in the bottom, or 140mm or 120mm in the rear. The Obsidian Series 750D measures 21.5 inches (L) by 9.25 inches (W) by 22 inches (H) and weighs 21.4 pounds. It has an MSRP of $160. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1,200W PSU, Asus 24-inch LCD, and More! Posted: 24 Sep 2013 06:23 AM PDT Top Deal: We didn't go with a PC Power & Cooling power supply in our latest Dream Machine, but historically speaking, no other PSU maker has been in more Dream Machines than PCP&C. We're still fans, and if you are do, check out what Newegg's serving up as its top deal. It's a PCP&C Silencer Mk III Series 1,200W Modular PSU for $216 with free shipping (normally $270 - use coupon code IVYEPSU20; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). This is a burly PSU that's 80 Plus Platinum certified and all Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors,  Other Deals: Raidmax Smilodon Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case for $64 with free shipping (normally $75 - use coupon code: [RMXSEP16]; additional $15 Mail-in rebate) Asus VE248H Black 24" 2ms Monitor w/Speakers for $162 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [PRTDAYAR02]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 Motherboard for $175 with free shipping (Free 4GB Crucial Ballistix memory w/ purchase, limited offer) EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB SuperClocked w/ ACX Cooling Graphics Card for $410 with free shipping (Free Batman game + Rise of the Triad w/ registration, limited offer; additional $10 Mail-in rebate)

Firefox Metro for Windows 8 Hits the Aurora Channel Posted: 24 Sep 2013 05:05 AM PDT Expected to hit the release channel in late January Over the weekend, Mozilla pushed a new build of Firefox to the Aurora channel. Built from the ground up for Microsoft's Windows 8 Modern UI, this pre-beta build brings with it, among other things, a tile-based Firefox Start experience. This touch-friendly Firefox build also supports Windows 8 touch and swipe gestures, Snapped and Fill views, and Windows Share integration, the open-source outfit said in a blog post Saturday. While the new interface is said to be more "streamlined, modern and beautiful", not a lot has changed under the hood. "Because this new version of Firefox uses the same powerful Gecko rendering engine as in Firefox desktop, there's also support for WebGL for compelling 3D graphics and asm.js which supercharges JavaScript in the browser, allowing developers to port high performance C++ games to the Web," Mozilla wrote in the blog post. " Hardware accelerated full HTML5 video is also supported, including open video formats like WebM and proprietary formats such as H.264." "To test it out, first make sure that Firefox Aurora is your Windows 8 default browser. Then visit the Windows Start screen (if you're on Windows 8) to locate the Firefox Aurora tile. Visit the All Apps screen if you're on Windows 8.1 where you can locate the Firefox Aurora tile and pin it to the Windows Start screen." Despite having been under development for well over a year now, Firefox Metro is still a fair way from general availability, which Mozilla recently pushed back to late January, 2014 on account of slower-than-expected development. Follow Pulkit on Google+

Microsoft Intros Surface 2, Surface Pro 2 Tablets Posted: 24 Sep 2013 04:51 AM PDT Surface Pro 2 boasts up to 75 percent longer battery life than predecessor Microsoft on Monday introduced the world to the second generation of its Surface tablet family. According to Microsoft, the Surface 2 and the Surface Pro 2 both pack "significant" improvements in everything from processing power to battery life. Significant perhaps, but surprising the updates are definitely not, with most, if not all, of the improvements and new accessories having been rumored over the last few months. Predictably, where the Surface 2 runs Windows 8.1 RT and packs an Nvidia Tegra 4 SoC, the Surface Pro 2 runs Windows 8.1 and boasts a 4th generation Intel Core i5 chip. The Surface 2 has a silver magnesium chassis, full HD display, 3.5-megapixel front camera, 5-megapixel rear camera and a USB 3.0 port. According to Microsoft, the Surface 2 is capable of lasting up to 10 hours on a single charge. The Windows RT-toting tablet will be available in 32GB and 64GB versions. The much more powerful Surface Pro 2 will be available in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB configurations, with the first two models packing 4GB of RAM and the latter two having 8GB of RAM. Per Microsoft, the Haswell chip inside the Pro 2 not only delivers a performance boost, but also up to 75 percent longer battery life. Scheduled to begin shipping on October 22, 2013, the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 will soon be available for pre-order, starting at $499 and $899, respectively. Image Credit: Microsoft Follow Pulkit on Google+

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