General Gaming Article |
- Lenovo is Buying Motorola from Google for $2.91 Billion
- Interview with Case Modding King Bill Owen
- SanDisk Connect Media and Flash Drives Review
- Facebook Built a Prototype Storage System Using 10,000 Blu-ray Discs
- Intel DZ87KLT-75K vs Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Motherboard Reviews
- Samsung 840 Evo 1TB Review
- Lenovo Gives ThinkPad Laptops a Rugged Makeover for K-12 Students
- Battlefield 4 Devs to Shower Players with Free Swag in February
- AMD Flexes Its First ARM Based Server SoC
- Newegg Daily Deals: AMD FX-6300 Vishera, Intel Core i7 4820K Ivy Bridge, and More!
| Lenovo is Buying Motorola from Google for $2.91 Billion Posted: 29 Jan 2014 05:02 PM PST
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| Interview with Case Modding King Bill Owen Posted: 29 Jan 2014 02:02 PM PST We talk to Mnpctech owner and modder extraordinaire Bill Owen about his path to possessing the ultimate geek dream jobBill Owen isn't your run-of-the-mill case modder. Twelve years ago, he founded Mnpctech (www.mnpctech.com) and his life changed forever. Now he's one of the most prolific pro modders in the industry. What started as a hobby evolved into a full-time business that he runs with his wife, completing mod projects for companies like AMD, FrozenCPU, and even Maximum PC. Mnpctech is also a thriving parts business, selling products aimed at the DIY enthusiast market: milled-aluminum fan grills, custom side panels, vinyl appliques, case handles, Modder's Mesh, and even something they like to call the Modder Reference Tool. We sat down with Bill to learn how he went from dabbling in fan grills and case windows to being the king of modders.
MPC: What did you do before you started Mnpctech? Bill Owen: I was really into cars; my hobby was restoring classic cars and tuning import cars. A co-worker who was really into gaming knew that I was kind of tinkering around with cases and stuff as just a casual hobby and he asked me if I would modify his next build as a tribute to his Volkswagen GTI. I thought, OK, well, why don't we do some other things like incorporate the door handle as a carry handle on top, and um, try to implement other things, little cues from the car, too. I was sharing this particular project as a work log, and I was getting a lot of questions about the different types of materials I was using and the different techniques…. At that time, I was kind of working a mundane job at this corporation and thought about getting my A+ certification. And I kind of stumbled into, like, whoa, there's this whole interest in these mods and stuff. And I would just start selling stuff to people through private messages. Like: "Hey, do you have some more of that mesh?" or whatever. And all of a sudden, I'm getting more and more inquiries, and it's interesting and creative. I ended up getting my A+ certification right before Y2K. And after that whole experience, the market kind of just fell out for any kind of tech positions, especially entry level. More creative projects came up; people contacted me: "Hey, I've got a friend who was in Desert Storm, I would love to do a tribute case for him when he comes back, could you help me out?" Just stuff like that. Over time, more opportunities came up, then it led to doing work for manufacturers. At that time, at trade shows, getting consumer enthusiast builds at their booths, it's going to attract the media to come by and check it out. And so I started doing lots of those types of builds and then getting more and more connections in the industry. Over the last few years, what's happened is there's been a transition, where I've gotten away from doing the custom stuff because it's so few and far between. We focus more on making the products, the case-mod accessories that we have, that are now retailed by other stores.
This Rebel Alliance–themed Cosmos II has two separate water-cooling loops for maximum performance. The distinctive red coolant is a custom mixture of Mayhems dyes cooled by two 480 millimeter radiators mounted on the top and front of the case. Photo by Bill Owen. MPC: Like Modder's Mesh and fan grills and bezels and stuff? BO: Yeah, when we started machine-making aluminum parts, they really caught everyone's eye because nobody else was doing it at the time. The Modder's Mesh was selling really well and was making a name for us; people were making their own grills with it, cutting it to make a grill or an intake for their bezel or whatever. I saw that and I came up with a frame, a machined aluminum frame that would have the Modder's Mesh as an insert on the backside. Now it's become a fan grill that you can mount on things. So that kind of took off, and from there I kind of branched into doing other designs. Today, I think we've probably got close to 50 different designs that are machined aluminum. Most recently, we came up with radiator grills because the liquid-cooling market is growing.
This scratch-built tech bench commissioned by FrozenCPU.com is made almost entirely of billet aluminum with a cover that opens automatically to reveal the components inside. Photo by Bill Owen. MPC: Why didn't you transition into professional modifications for cars instead of computer cases? BO: Well, it's funny you bring that up because it seems like the majority of the people I run into, especially local customers, are into their cars. There seems to be that common thread with cars, motorcycles, and building custom PCs. I can get the same satisfaction from building a custom rig on my workbench in a nice cozy shop versus being on a cold, dirty garage floor in a Minnesota winter getting my hands cut up and greasy and dirty. If things dropped out of this market, if this whole bullshit about the "desktop is dead" crap was true and it actually did hurt us, I probably would segue into making aftermarket parts for cars or motorcycles, for sure, because I have a bit of that background. If not that, my wife has talked about getting into making stuff for dogs [laughter]. We love dogs. MPC: Where does YouTube fit into your work? BO: I think YouTube (click here to visit Bill Owen's YouTube channel) is a very crucial, vital part of us. It's brought in a lot of new customers and hobbyists. When I started doing it in 2006, I was one of the first PC case modders to do video and I had kind of an interest already in doing video production. It's not like our production values were all that great or anything; it's just that we knew how to present stuff clearly, but still entertaining, without wasting your time. Also, my philosophy has always been that you have to give back to the community and your customers in some way. You can't just expect them to sit there and order stuff from your store without educating them about how to do things. So, early on, I made an array of basic tutorials, like how to use a hole saw, what is a hole saw, where do you get a hole saw, how do you attach a hole saw? How do you put a window on a case? How do you add different fans? Just the basic stuff that everybody who gets into this hobby will ask about or research. All of that stuff I covered in videos early on, like 2006–2008, and to this day a lot of those videos draw traffic to our website or social media channel. MPC: Can you run us through a day in your life? BO: I'm a very, very early riser. I've got my first cup of coffee, if I can, before 5:30 in the morning. I'm on my computer answering emails, that's always number one. I'm managing the The Mod Zoo (www.themodzoo.com) staff for product reviews, so I have to talk to them on a daily basis and there are things that have to be edited and also the community itself. There are people with projects and stuff and discussions going on, so I try to participate when I can. To always show that I'm accessible. I think that's the most important thing to owning a business today. You have to show that you're accessible to your customers, otherwise they're just going to be turned off if they don't get a response. I'm on my computer from early morning until noon or 1:00, and then if there are international shipments, I'll take those to the post office and then I'll go to the workshop. I'll be at the workshop from the early afternoon up until 5:30, and then I'll go home for dinner. Then, I have two machinists who make our parts, and if needed I'll check in on them. Or if there's a custom project we're working on—like currently we're working on a project for FrozenCPU.com—and there are different aspects of that that have to be made or designed, I oversee that. To be honest, I wear so many different hats it's not even funny, but, I think it's the way I'm wired. If there's nothing going on then I'll find something to do. What's funny is, my biggest production day for like actually doing physical fabrication in the workshop is Sunday. I go into the shop and there's no one in the building, so I can turn up my music really loud and I'm not bothered or interrupted by anybody, so I can just buckle down and focus on something being made.
The Lanboy Apocalypse is a computer masquerading as a makeshift nuclear reactor. Lamborghini-style side panels open up to reveal a massive 250 millimeter fan that cools the Thermaltake radiator inside. Photo by Brian D.Garrity. MPC: How do you feel about the difference between using hand tools like saws and dremels versus CNC mills and laser cutters and stuff like that? BO: It seems to me that it's a bullshit topic. The thing is, regardless of what the resource is, whether it be laser cutter, 3D printer, CNC, water jet, you have to have the skills and know-how to design that part or understand how it has to be made to fit and work, there's still talent there, there's still skill involved. MPC: How long do most projects take you? BO: It always depends on the complexity. Each project I do is always different from the last. I try to not do the same thing over [because] it just bores me. It makes it more special if somebody knows it's not going to be replicated. I mean, I always get people asking, in particular about the Nvidia Cube I did a few years ago: "Oh, could you build me one? I want one, how much is this?" No, that was a one-off, sorry. There's an opportunity where we could really market and sell this, but that doesn't excite me. MPC: It's like a piece of artwork. BO: Absolutely! It's hard to think of it that way, but there are a lot of geeks out there that appreciate it that way. You know, it's a big deal, when you do a custom build, even just a case for somebody, and there's all this planning that goes into it. It's a long, drawn-out process and it can be three months, six months, sometimes longer. Sometimes people have to budget it out, but it's a great experience. I think that's part of the fun, the whole experience of planning and doing it. It's more about the journey than the end result.
Yeah, that's a tachometer for the case temps in this hot rod–inspired mod. With a metallic-orange paint job and some diamond-plate accents, this is a case for car lovers. Photo by Brian D. Garrity. MPC: Do you usually do a lot of research when you're about to do a themed project, like if you're making a computer for Warfighter? BO: Yeah, that was a tough one because when it's a new game, the developer will only give you so much. Even if you're AMD or you're Intel, whoever you are, they only give you some screenshots in advance. You kind of just have to draw off that. In military themes, everybody knows the main aspects of a military build. For Warfighter, there was the Medal of Honor badge. We made these huge milled-aluminum badges that were illuminated for the fronts of the cases and it was based on Team Mako or something like that. That was kind of something from digging around. I try to do a bit of research out of respect to the people that appreciate the genre. Because they see those little subtle cues and they're like, "Oh, yeah, all right." MPC: How do you get past creative blocks? BO: If my gut says I'm not going in the right direction, I just try to get away from it. Decompress—that means watching a movie, playing a game, listening to music, or going and working on something else. And then you just kind of wait, and then maybe the next day in the shower it'll come to you. Or you're driving somewhere and suddenly: Oh, yeah. Or a friend will come in and say something. Yeah, otherwise I find that you're just wasting time if you're trying to force it. MPC: Who are some of the people that inspire you, in and outside of the modding community? BO: Hmm…. When I was a little kid, I used to look at Hot Rod Magazine, and custom builders like iconic Big Daddy Ed Roth who created Rat Fink and was one of the earlier car fabricators was a big inspiration. Because it just seemed like there were no boundaries. Just do whatever you want to do; don't feel like you have to follow the rest of the pack. For people today, it's not necessarily a particular person that I'll follow, it's kind of like a collective of everybody that I'll watch. What inspires me, or motivates me, is just seeing people who have never done it before, enjoy it, and get that high from doing it themselves. When you do something for the first time, you get really excited and you're really having fun, and then time just melts away. That's what you're always trying to recreate or chase after.
Based on the Corsair 400R, this tribute to Firefly looks like a genuine part of the Serenity. Wires and tubes line the inside and outside of the case. Bill's attention to detail is made obvious by the extensive wear and tear along the entire chassis. Photo by Brian D. Garrity. MPC: What would you say is your favorite project of all time? BO: The District 9 one and the Firefly one are probably my all-time favorites, and the Pink Floyd one. Being able to do those projects, and a Blade Runner themed one, too. There are these science fiction movies that I've loved and to have an opportunity to do a project as a tribute to them, and then really dig in and research things about them. It's like you have an excuse to have fun and get paid for it. I mean, how much better does it get than that? MPC: What's your favorite tool? BO: Hand file, because if you make a mistake on something, if you make a cut, the hand file gives you an opportunity to fix it in a way that requires patience. It's kind of like it forces you to take your time. It's almost like a respect for the artisan ways of the turn of the century. I think a hand tool is just as important as high-end equipment, so I like a good hand file.
This battle-scarred Fractal Design R4 was given away as part of an AMD promotion for Medal of Honor Warfighter. The custom Task Force Mako case badge and stellar paint job are accompanied by Mnpctech billet case handles and machined-aluminum fan grills. Photo by Brian D. Garrity. MPC: What's in your PC? BO: The one I use at home is just a Zotac ITX board with embedded video and audio on it because I pretty much only use that for email and online stuff, maybe some photo editing. The shop one that I'm using right now is another Zotac board and it's got a Zotac GTX 470 with an EK water block on it. I can't even remember what processor I have on this… an i7 2.93GHz. It's really nothing to brag about. I'm the guy who drives the piece of crap car to the shop to work on the exotic sports cars. I live vicariously through my customers. I'm a starving artist. Thinking about modding? Click the next page to read what should be in your modder's toolbox!
The Modder's ToolboxAccording to Bill Owen, any modder worth his or her Plexi should have the following gear handy Center PunchThese are absolutely critical if you're trying to drill something. A center punch makes an indentation that your drill bit will fit into. Loose drills are dangerous.
Rotary toolOne of the most useful tools in any modder's toolbox because of its many uses. You can use drill-bit attachments, cutting wheels, sanding wheels, and even engraving bits. Use this for detail work.
JigsawThe ultimate tool for making larger cuts. Perfect for cutting out fan holes and case windows.
24-Volt Cordless Power DrillThey may be pricier than their 18-volt brothers, but 24-volt cordless power drills are an absolute necessity. Use them to drill pilot holes for your jigsaw, screw holes, and occasionally to tighten a loose screw.
PencilMeasure twice and cut once. Use a pencil to mark up what you're cutting before you even reach for your Dremel.
Hand FilesAn easy way to add fit and finish to any project. Sharp and jagged aren't just dangerous qualities, they're also ugly. Sand them down with a hand file.
Measuring SquareAn easy way to make sure that your lines are straight. No one wants a crooked window.
Safety GlassesSafety always comes first and safety glasses are a must-have. They protect your eyes from stray materials and flying particles.
Painter's TapeCover your cutting area in painter's tape to prevent unwanted scratches, nicks, and scuffs. Write and draw on the tape instead of on your case. Plus, you can always use it while painting.
ClampsClampsMake sure that the side panel or window you're working on doesn't move by clamping it down. These are indispensable if you're going to be doing any sort of gluing, cutting, or drilling.
RulerThe ultimate measuring tool. You're going to need one if you plan on making any precise cuts.
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| SanDisk Connect Media and Flash Drives Review Posted: 29 Jan 2014 11:44 AM PST Media streaming for newbsIf you've ever wished you could just leave your USB key on your desk or in your pocket and still access the files on it wirelessly, SanDisk's new media drives are sort of what you're looking for. Unfortunately for power users, these wireless media drives don't quite fit the bill when it comes to file sharing, but they are great for sharing media with portable devices, and they are dead simple to use, too. They also double as pocket-ready Wi-Fi access points.
SanDisk's new media drives are easy to use and make wireless media streaming a cinch. Here's how these devices work. First, you connect them to a PC or Mac and copy files to pre-designated folders for music, movies, pictures, and files. Next, people within 150 feet must switch their device's Wi-Fi to the SanDisk access point, and then run a free SanDisk app to access all the content on the drives. Connected users can also download and upload data to the drive, but all that data is only accessible from the SanDisk app, which is a pain. You can also password protect the access point, but it's not turned on by default, which seems a bit unsafe to us. Both the USB key and the media drive are battery-powered, so you just plug them into a USB port to charge them. The Media Drive offers eight hours of streaming per charge, and is available in 32GB and 64GB capacities, but has an SD card slot, so you could take it all the way up to 192GB. The smaller Flash Drive offers four hours per charge, and is simply a shell for a Micro SD drive. It's available in both 16GB and 32GB capacities. Both drives are USB 2.0, so copying data to them is painfully slow, and is easily their biggest weakness. The free SanDisk app required for media streaming is available on the Google Play, Apple iOS, or Amazon Kindle store (sadly, it looks like Windows Phone users are out in the cold on this one, but they are probably used to it by now). We were also able to access the files from a laptop, but could not send data to the device. We were impressed by how smoothly content streamed from the device. San-Disk says it works at a distance of 150 feet, and we confirmed this in testing. Both devices can stream several movies at once (eight for the Media Drive, three for the Flash Drive), though the built-in player can only stream MP4 files, so AVI and MPG files won't play, which is bogus. Ultimately, we found these devices to be easy to carry, set up, and operate. They are a bit limited in how they function due to their family-friendly nature, but if you're just looking to share media with friends on a plane or in a hotel room, they are hard to beat. Anyone wanting more advanced file sharing will have to look elsewhere—this isn't designed to replace your NAS drive. As it stands, it's one of the easiest ways we've seen to share media to a tablet or phone, but it's not the easiest to work with a laptop. The free iOS app also has limited file-format support. The last major downside is its slow USB 2.0 speeds, which makes file copying agonizing. $50–$100, www.sandisk.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Built a Prototype Storage System Using 10,000 Blu-ray Discs Posted: 29 Jan 2014 11:30 AM PST
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| Intel DZ87KLT-75K vs Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Motherboard Reviews Posted: 29 Jan 2014 11:06 AM PST LGA1150 is here to stay—get used to itWe've seen a mixed reaction to Intel's new Haswell CPU and LGA1150 socket from enthusiasts. Some, like us, see it as a solid piece of hardware with welcome improvements for the platform if upgrading from older hardware. Others have unfurled "Don't Reboot Me" flags and refuse to give up on their LGA1155 socket until we pry it from their warm, moist hands. For the folks not bunkered in, we're reviewing pair of Z87-based boards from Intel and Gigabyte to see how they compare to the Asus Z87-Deluxe we reviewed last month. Intel DZ87KLT-75KYou don't have to subscribe to Obscure Motherboards Quarterly to know that Intel has officially thrown in the towel, waved the white flag, and cleared the CMOS on its consumer motherboard division.
The Intel DZ87KLT-75Kincludes a USB Wi-Fi/Bluetooth adapter that attaches to the inside of your drive bays. In fact, what you're seeing here, the Intel DZ87KLT-75K, is likely the last Intel-branded motherboard that will ever grace our pages. Sure, many of you haters are mouthing, "I didn't even know Intel made motherboards," but the company has been cranking out über-reliable, albeitüber-boring boards for years. The DZ87KLT-75K doesn't stray too far from that tradition but it's unfair to call it boring. The board features, for example, a set of handy and clearly marked LEDs to let you know what stage it's in during POST, as well as a set of LEDs to let you visually see the active load on the VRM. And in a rarity these days, the board even has a built-in speaker to monitor beep codes.Add in Thunderbolt, six fan headers, properly labeled DIMM slots (take a hint, Asus), dual Intel-NIC Gigabit ports, surface-mounted power switches,802.11n and Bluetooth 2 modules, and SLI and CrossFire support,and you get a really feature-packaged mobo for the money. Compare that with the Asus Z87-Deluxe we reviewed last month that tips the scales at $280. Sure, the Asus board gives you 802.11AC and some pretty nifty utilities but the Intel board can be found for $260 and offers Thunderbolt, to boot. The only problem for the Intel board is how it performs. Generally, performance testing of motherboards is a formality, as we rarely see any difference between boards. It's only become more irrelevant as the memory controller and so much other functionality has moved from the chipset into the CPU itself. So imagine our surprise when the DZ87KLT-75K came in dead last in most of the benchmark runs. (For the record, we use the exact same components in all of our motherboard tests and verify clock speeds and bclocks under single-threaded and multithreaded loads in the initial preflight setups. We also use the latest available mobo drivers and BIOS and do clean installs of the OS.) We originally assumed the Asus Z87-Deluxe just pushed the CPU harder on default, but the Intel board also got body slammed by the Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H, which isn't pushing the chip nearly as hard as the Asus board. We honestly can't explain why the Intel board's performance was off the mark. Back in the good-news column, we're impressed by Intel's new UEFI interface on the DZ87KLT-75K. Since UEFI has come along, we've seen just about every attempt at making a functional but pleasing UEFI. Asus has been ahead of the pack for a long time, but we'd have to honestly say that Intel's implementation could actually be our favorite now. On most UEFI implementations, the laggy mouse response usually forces us to switch from missiles to guns—err, from mouse to keyboard—to scroll around, but Intel's UEFI is the most responsive we've seen, and hell, even the right mouse button works. What polish there is in the UEFI runs out of steam in the OS, though. While Asus's and Gigabyte's OS utilitiesshow refinement, Intel's hasn't changed much. Overclocking is also a manual affair in both the BIOS and OS on the Intel board. Phooey. There are really two issues here. The first is that the performance is oddly off the mark, which we're still investigating. Assuming it's just our board sample or some "outlier" Gremlin, the secondproblem is perhaps larger: Intel doesn't intend to make boards after the Z87 chipset. The company says it will support boards for three years, but we'd guess the support in the last 1.5 years won't exactly be sterling. It's true that few board makers bother to update the BIOSafter the first two years but at least they're still in the motherboard business. That won't be the case with Intel. For a lot of people, that's really going to be a deal breaker, which is a shame, because we really wanted to like this board. Intel DZ87KLT-75K Honey Badger Beautiful, fast UEFI; LED diagnostic lights aplenty. Wolverine (the X-Men Is there anything more negative than Intel soon abandoning motherboards?  $260, www.intel.com Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5HThe world's economy may be on the mend but a lot of people still want to justify every cubit spent on technology. For some people, spending $280 for the Asus Z87-Deluxe (reviewed in October) or even $260 for the Intel DZ87KLT-75K may seem exorbitant.
The Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H offers a lot of features for the price. Fortunately for you, budget-minded power user, Gigabyte has its GA-Z87X-UD5H board. OK, we'll admit, $210 isn't really budget, but you'll see that it's a pretty modest price given the board's features. The Z87X-UD5H gives you SLI and CrossFireX support, 10 SATA 6Gb/s ports, dual USB 3.0 headers, dual NICs, a POST LED, surface-mounted power and reset buttons, Creative Labs X-Fi MB drivers, and Gigabyte's trademark dual-BIOS setup. We've had the unfortunate need to resort to the dual-BIOS in the past and it's been an automatic affair. The UD5H offers and automatic and manual mode, which we got to use when we bricked the primary BIOS. No problem, flip a switch and you're back up and running on the backup BIOS. From there, you simply flip the switch back to the primary and reflash the BIOS again. It's pretty damned robust. The last time we reviewed a Gigabyte board we complained hardily about the goofy UEFI (hey, that rhymes), with its faux "3D" mode. Gigabyte has since redone its BIOS with a vastly improved interface. Unfortunately, it's still not in the class of Asus's and now Intel's excellent UEFI. In fact, we went back to "classic" BIOS mode because the sheer amount of information on the UEFI screen is overwhelming. One area where Gigabyte has really improved is in its OS utilities. We haven't been happy with the gear-shifter style interface and confusing options for some time and usually just avoided them. With the UD5H, the utilities have gotten a complete makeover that actually makes them competitive with Asus's excellent utilities. Gigabyte, for example, now has its own equivalent of Asus's Fan Xpert2 that's pretty good. It's not as granular or nerdtastic in settings but it's a stepin the right direction. And Gigabyte even aces Asus is the update utility, which can find and fetch mobo drivers and utilities for you. This isn't a breakthrough feature, as MSI used to do this (although not very reliably), but it's a welcome feature that we'd love to see other board vendors also implement. The upshot is that the utilities are something to actually be used, not just installed once and ignored. In performance, the Z87X-UD5H holds its own. Both the Intel and Gigabyte boards showed default multipliers of 8-39 on our Core i7-4770K, while the Asus had a default multiplier of 8-43. This gave the Z87-Deluxe a decided advantage in several benchmarks—but the Z87X-UD5H got pretty close. It also managed to smoke the Intel by a good margin. In the audio department, the board uses the same ALC898 as the Intel board, but Gigabyte licenses Creative's software algorithms, including its Crystallizer and voice changing-features, among others. We're fans of the Crystalizer,which is a nice upgrade over the stock Realtek audio applets we usually see. We also did some close listening tests using a set of gaming headsets while hammering the USB 3.0 port with gigabytes of data and couldn't discern any snap, crackle, or pop. Our overall view of the GA-Z87X-UD5H is that it's probably the sweet spot for most enthusiasts who could put the money saved byforgoing Thunderbolt or Wi-Fi into the CPU, GPU, or SSD instead. Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H Zee Updated apps are much improved; plenty of bells, no whistle. Zed New UEFI better than "3D" version but still confusing to read  $260, www.gigabyte.com Benchmarks
We used a Core i7-4770K, 16GB of DDR3/1866, GeForce GTX 780, Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB SSD, Cooler Master Hyper-212 Evo, and Windows 8 Enterprise for all our testing. USB 3.0 and SATA 6 performance was tested with a 240GB Samsung 840 Pro. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 29 Jan 2014 10:55 AM PST Fastest. SSD. Ever.The Samsung 840 Pro landed on our Best of the Best list when it was launched in December 2012, and it has remained at the top of the SSD pile ever since, thanks to its blistering speed, impeccable pedigree, and superb software. Shortly after the Pro launched, Samsung debuted a non-Pro drive, named simply "840," that was designed for those who wanted a less expensive drive with a smaller three-year warranty. This month, Samsung is replacing the regular 840 with the Samsung 840 Evo, an all-new drive that slots in below the 840 Pro, thanks to its three-year warranty (the Pro's is five years) and more reasonable pricing. The Evo is also offered in a full range of capacities, from 120GB all the way up to 1TB, making it the first Samsung SSD available at that size and putting the 1TB Crucial M500 directly in its sights, although the Evo does cost $50 more at $650 MSRP
The 840 Evo replaces the company's vanilla 840 drive, but actually threatens the Pro drive. To create the Evo, Samsung added new 19nm MLC NAND, a new controller named MEX (its previous one was called MDX), and new caching technology it calls TurboWrite. This caching method treats a portion of the drive's MLC NAND as if it were far pricier and faster SLC NAND for buffered writes, allowing for a significant boost in speeds when utilized. The amount of NAND reserved for this varies according to the drive's size; on the 1TB review drive we have it's 36GB, which becomes a 12GB "SLC" buffer—3-bit MLC converted to 1-bit SLC NAND. In addition to the TurboWrite thing, Samsung has also added a Rapid Mode, enabled in the Samsung Magician software, that uses the host system's DRAM and CPU for caching purposes. It caches frequently used files in system memory and can dramatically increase read and write speeds. Rapid Mode can be switched on and off in the software, and requires just 50MB of RAM and an 840 Evo SSD to be activated. Samsung says it will eventually bring the caching technology to its 840 Pro drive, but for now it's exclusive to the Evo. To test the Evo drive, we attached it to our SSD test bench, installed version 4.2 of the Samsung Magician software, initiated the AS SSD incompressible data benchmark, and went to get a cup of coffee. When we returned, we were lucky not to have been sipping coffee when we saw the numbers because we surely would have done a spit-take. The Evo racked up a score of 855MB/s for reads and 1GB/s for writes, and over 100K IOPS in 4K random writes, as well. As we progressed through our test suite, the Evo laid waste to all the previous drives and became the fastest SSD we have ever tested by a sizable margin, even beating out its big brother, the more expensive 840 Pro. We also tested the drive with Rapid Mode disabled, and it was still extremely fast, making it a supremely competitive SSD that seems to have no weaknesses other than its short three-year warranty. Note: This review was originally featured in the October 2013 issue of the magazine. $650, www.samsung.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lenovo Gives ThinkPad Laptops a Rugged Makeover for K-12 Students Posted: 29 Jan 2014 09:40 AM PST
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| Battlefield 4 Devs to Shower Players with Free Swag in February Posted: 29 Jan 2014 08:57 AM PST
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| AMD Flexes Its First ARM Based Server SoC Posted: 29 Jan 2014 07:58 AM PST
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| Newegg Daily Deals: AMD FX-6300 Vishera, Intel Core i7 4820K Ivy Bridge, and More! Posted: 29 Jan 2014 06:35 AM PST
Top Deal: It's the wild west out there and if you're looking to wield a six shooter without spending a pile a gold, the weapon makers in Sunnyvale have some solutions. One of them sits in the spotlight as today's top deal -- it's an AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz Six-Core Desktop CPU for $110 with free shipping (normally $120 -- use coupon code: [EMCPWHB22]). This 32nm part features AMD's Piledriver architecture and is equipped with 8MB of L2 cache. It's also unlocked, in case you're into overclocking. Other Deals: Intel Core i7-4820K Ivy Bridge-E 3.7GHz LGA 2011 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor for $305 with free shipping (normally $325 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHB25]) Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 Desktop Memory Model for $165 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHB32]) WD Black Series 4TB 7200 RPM 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $240 with free shipping (normally $259 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHB243]) Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Smart Wi-Fi Router IEEE 802.11ac/a/b/g/n for $70 with free shipping (normally $104 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHB46]) |
Google is selling, not buying
An energy efficient storage system for infrequently accessed data
No. 1 PC maker takes aim at students
DICE to give away grenades and other virtual swag throughout the month of February
AMD's foray into ARM-based server SoCs begins with the Opteron A Series
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