General Gaming Article

Top 13 Maximum PC Articles of 2013
Newegg Daily Deals: Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Router, AMD FX-8350, and More!
New Record: Over 7.6 Million Gamers Signed Into Steam at the Same Time
Whiz Kid Who Impressed President with Marshmallow Cannon is Now Intel's Youngest Intern
Samsung's 8Gb LPDDR4 Mobile DRAM Will Lead to Faster, 4K Ultra HD Phones

Looking back at the biggest feature stories of the past year

2013 was a big year for technology, specifically for the enthusiast PC market. We saw a bunch of new high-end graphics cards come out in addition to a new major CPU line from Intel and even a new, updated OS from Microsoft.

In addition to our roundup of the top news stories of 2013, we wanted to commemorate the year by compiling the biggest articles that held your interests and got you talkin'. The following 13 articles are brought to you by a combination of traffic, comments, and editorial discretion.

So come review the year with us and let us know what stories you enjoyed reading over the past year!

Newegg Daily Deals: Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Router, AMD FX-8350, and More!

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:39 PM PST

Linksys EA6200 newegg logo

Top Deal:

Old school tech ballers, sing it loud with us - "You down with 802.11ac, yeah you know me! You down with 802.11ac, yeah you know me!" For those of you who are not yet down with 802.11ac, here's yet another chance to upgrade your home network at a discount. Today's top deal is for a Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Smart Wi-Fi Router for $70 with free shipping (normally $150; use coupon code [EMCWVVN47]). Not only does this router get your up to speed (literally), it also features a USB 3.0 port, built-in 4-port gigabit switch (pretty standard, though we've seen some cheap-o routers forgo gigabit speeds for cost savings), DLNA certification, and a few other tricks.

Other Deals:

AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8350FRHKBOX for $190 with free shipping (normally $200; use coupon code: [EMCWVVN23])

Seagate Hybrid Drives ST500LM000 500GB MLC/8GB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s NCQ 2.5-inch Laptop SSHD -Bare Drive for $70 with free shipping (normally $80; use coupon code: [EMCWVVN26])

G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10D-8GZH for $77 with free shipping (normally $85; use coupon code: [EMCWVVN27])

Corsair CX series CX750 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 Plus Bronze Certified Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready for $80 with free shipping (normally $100; use coupon code: [EMCWVVN29]; additional $$20 Mail-in rebate)

New Record: Over 7.6 Million Gamers Signed Into Steam at the Same Time

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 11:01 AM PST

Steam's winter sale is drawing a record number of concurrent users

If you missed out on Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC, you can snag it on Steam for just $4.99, which is 75 percent off its normal selling price. Fallout: New Vegas is also marked down 75 percent to the ridiculously low price of $2.49, and you can find scores of other games at discounted prices as part of Steam's Holiday Sale for 2013. Not by coincidence, while all this is going on, Steam just recorded the largest number of concurrent users.

The number of gamers logged into Steam peaked at 7,679,286 on December 29, trumping the 7 million record that was set over Thanksgiving weekend and a high of 6 million last year. At the time of this writing, there are more than 7.4 million gamers on Steam, according to the Steam & Game Stats page.

Steam is home to around 65 million users. Out of those logging in, the most popular game right now is the free-to-play title Dota 2, which hit a peak of 601,749 users today. After that, it's a steep drop off to the second most popular title, Left 4 Dead 2, with a peak of 111,035 users.

What PC games have you been playing lately?

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Whiz Kid Who Impressed President with Marshmallow Cannon is Now Intel's Youngest Intern

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 09:44 AM PST

Marshmallow cannon shoots 16-year-old prodigy straight into an internship at Intel

Most 16-year-olds probably spent their holiday vacation playing video games, hanging out with friends, cruising the mall, and doing whatever it is that teenagers do in their free time these days. Joey Hudy did something different. Hudy, who made headlines for wowing President Barack Obama with his marshmallow cannon in February 2012, attended Intel's New Hire Orientation (NEO), officially making him the Santa Clara chip maker's youngest person ever hired through the company's Corporate Internship Program.

The high school sophomore first met Intel chief Brian Krzanich at the Rome Maker Faire last October. According to an article on Hudy's blog post, Krzanich hired the teen on the spot.

"We hope to forge a lasting relationship with Joey, and all our interns, as we support their professional development," Vaadra Martinez, U.S. Internet Program Manager in HR, said in a statement.

Hudy, a math and engineering whiz named one of the 10 smartest kids in the world by Brilliant.org, is one of around 1,500 interns Intel hired this year, and the only one without a driver's license. His mom Julie drove him to NEO. Once school is out for the summer, he'll be working in the New Device's Group's Product Development division before going back to class in the autumn.

Remember his name -- we have a feeling we'll be hearing more about Hudy's accomplishments and professional career in the years to come.

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Samsung's 8Gb LPDDR4 Mobile DRAM Will Lead to Faster, 4K Ultra HD Phones

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 07:28 AM PST

Mobile DRAM will soon become the most popular type of DRAM around

Samsung is closing out the year by introducing what it claims is the industry's first 8-gigabit (Gb), low power double data rate 4 (LPDDR4), mobile DRAM built a on 20nm-class manufacturing process technology. Using the new chips, DRAM players can cram 1 gigabyte (GB) on a single die, which is the largest density available for DRAM components today, Samsung says. The chips are also fast and power efficient.

According to Samsung, the new LPDDR4 interface provides 50 percent higher performance than even the fastest LPDDR3 or DDR3 memory interfaces, and it does it while consuming around 40 percent less energy at just 1.1 volts. This combination of speed and power efficiency will translate into faster, more responsible applications, advanced features, and even higher resolution displays, all while maximizing battery life.

"This next-generation LPDDR4 DRAM will contribute significantly to faster growth of the global mobile DRAM market, which will soon comprise the largest share of the entire DRAM market," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We will continue introducing the most advanced mobile DRAM one step ahead of the rest of the industry so that global OEMs can launch innovative mobile devices with exceptional user convenience in the timeliest manner."

Samsung's 8Gb LPDDRD4 uses a new Low Voltage Swing Terminated Logic (LVSTL) I/O interface that the company originally submitted to JEDEC and has since become a standard specification for LPDDR4 DRAM. This interface will enable a data transfer rate per pin of 3,200 megabits per second (Mbps), or twice that of the 20nm-class LPDDR3 DRAM that's now in mass production.

What this means for end users is that device makers can start building premium mobile products such as large screen UHD 4K smartphones, tablets, and ultra-slim notebooks.

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