General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Rig of the Month Roundup

Posted: 21 Feb 2014 11:59 AM PST

Weighted Companion Cube

We're looking for the coolest custom computer cases and we want your submissions!

It's been a long time since we've deemed a case mod worthy of our Rig of the Month title. In fact, it's been over three years since we've featured a particularly badass project—see the 8-bit Black Mage. Fortunately, we've come to our senses and we're reviving the series, but we need your help! We know you guys have got some interesting case mods out there and we want to see them! We're also sure lots of other readers would like to gawk and drool over them as well so let us help you share your cool custom computer case with the world!

If you're a case modder with something that deserves the Rig of the Month title, let us know by dropping us an email at mpcrigofthemonth@gmail.com. Make sure to include your name, a 300-word description of why your PC is amazing along with specs (and how it was modified), and no fewer than three high-resolution JPEGs of the build. Please try and use a high-quality camera with good lighting and make sure to bust out your photography skills! We will not accept any blurry, low-res camera-phone grade images because we'd like readers to see your awesome rig in the best light possible! Here are some specific case-shooting photography tips: 

  • Try to avoid using flash and opt for existing natural light. In addition, use things like white curtains to diffuse the bright sun.
  • Make sure your case is in focus! Nothing ruins a picture of a nice-looking case than a blurry shot.
  • Clean your case before you shoot it. No one wants to see all that nasty dust all over the place!
  • Experimenting with shooting from multiple angles.
  • Select the right backdrop. Your system could look cooler with a nice/clean background as opposed to on your messy floor with cables strewn about. 
  • When shooting, use a tripod or if you can't get one, shoot from a stable surface such as a box or even a pillow.
  • If your camera has exposure compensation, try playing around with under-exposing or over exposing until you get the effects you want.

In addition to requiring pretty photos, we'll be judging the rigs based on creativity and craftsmanship.

To kick things off, we've gathered up some of our favorite Rig of the Month winners in the gallery below. Click the gallery image for the full shot and feel free to get more detail on each custom case by clicking on their individual respective links in the descriptions. 

Dell Joins Wireless Power Group to Promote Wireless Laptop Charging

Posted: 21 Feb 2014 11:19 AM PST

Dell LaptopFuture laptops could go completely cordless

The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) scored a big win by adding its first major PC OEM to its ranks. That OEM is Dell, which joins an A4WP alliance that's over 80 members strong. Quite a few heavy hitters are part of the group, including Broadcomm, Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung, Fujitsu, HTC, LG, Panasonic, SanDisk, and more. The group's goal is to standardize a wireless power transfer protocol using near-field magnetic resonance technology.

Called "Rezence," the wireless charging standard has the ability to charge more than one device at the same time without the need for a dock. It also just got a boost in power (literally) through a secondary, higher-powered initiative focusing on wirelessly charging electronic products from 20 watts to 50 watts, which would allow the technology to be used on ultrabooks, laptops, and mid-powered appliances that extend well beyond smartphones and tablets.

"The development of magnetic resonance technology will improve the customer experience when it comes to wireless charging and bring the capability into more homes and businesses over the next few years," said Glen Robson, Dell VP and CTO. "We are excited to work with other industry leaders in the A4WP to deliver on the promise of easy, flexible wireless charging across an array of mobile devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops."

Using near-field magentic resonance technology paves the way for wireless charging solutions to be installed into a variety of products and surfaces, such as cars and furniture.

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HP Sees Spike in PC Sales, Posts Quarterly Revenue of $28.2 Billion

Posted: 21 Feb 2014 09:28 AM PST

HP ProductsTurnaround effort appears to be working for HP

The worst may be over in terms of slumping PC sales that have made headlines throughout the past year. HP, the second largest PC supplier in the world, reported a 4 percent jump in PC sales compared to last year en route to posting a $28.2 billion quarter for its fiscal period ended January 31, 2014. That's actually a 1 percent decline in net revenue compared to the same quarter a year ago, but still higher than Wall Street was expecting.

HP's growth in PC sales is mostly due to commercial customers. Commercial revenue in the PC sector increased 8 percent, enough to offset a 3 percent decline in consumer PC sales. Total unit shipments grew 6 percent with desktops declining 3 percent and laptops increasing 5 percent.

"HP is in a stronger position today than we've been in quite some time," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. "The progress we're making is reflected in growth across several parts of our portfolio, the growing strength of our balance sheet, and the strong support we're receiving from customers and channel partners. Innovation is igniting our comeback, and at a time when many of our competitors are confronting new challenges, two years of turnaround work is setting us up for an exciting future."

HP said it generated $3 billion in cash flow from operations in the first quarter, up 17 percent from the same period a year prior. That represents the eighth consecutive quarterly improvement of over $1 billion. Furthermore, HP returned $843 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases in the first quarter.

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G.Skill Overclocks SO--DIMM Memory to 2600MHz, Proves Little Sticks Have Big Potential

Posted: 21 Feb 2014 08:57 AM PST

G.Skill RipjawsSmaller size systems don't signal the end of overclocking

We still find full tower system sexy as ever, but there's a definite trend right now toward small form factor (SFF) rigs. Valve is partially responsible for the movement as it finds ways to encourage PC gamers to play in the living room via Big Picture Mode and Steam Machines, both of which are proving popular. Wondering what impact this trend will have on overclocking? No doubt trying to overclock in tightly packed systems becomes a bigger challenge due to higher temps, but it's not impossible -- just ask the folks at G.Skill who overclocked a set of Ripjaws SO-DIMM memory to DDR3-2600 speeds.

G.Skill overclocked the memory kit inside of ASRock's latest M8 barebones system. The Ripjaws kit consisted of two 4GB modules of 2133MHz RAM with a CAS latency of 11 and 1.35V. To reach the 2600MHz mark, G.Skill had to relax the timings a tad to 12-14-14-35, up from 11-11-11-36.

"As high end desktops slowly evolve itself into small form factor, G.Skill spared no time expanding its best-in-class quality & overclocking legacy from desktop memory to SO-DIMM memory, by overclocking its 'Ripjaws' 2133MHz C11 8GB (4GBx2) 1.35V memory kit to a whopping 2600MHz under dual channel operation on ASRock M8!," G.Skill said.

SO-DIMM kits have traditionally been used in laptops, though they're also found in some SFF systems. The F3-2133C11D-8GRSL kit G.Skill used is its highest performing SO-DIMM available

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Cougar Takes Swipe at Building Premium Power Supplies for Gamers

Posted: 21 Feb 2014 08:34 AM PST

Cougar GX V3 PSUNew GX V3 series from Cougar boast 80 Plus Gold certification

Gamers are a demanding bunch, and if you're a PC component or peripheral maker, you better bring your A-game or risk being called out for gimmicky features. Cougar, a name you don't hear too often in the U.S., thinks its new GX V3 power supply family makes the cut. These units are being billed as high-end PSUs specifically for gamers, which starts with 80 Plus Gold level efficiency.

Cougar said it built the GX V3 series from the ground up with efficiency in mind. These PSUs employ a bunch of fancy pants features, such as RST (Rapid Switch Technology), DC to DC technology, high quality Japanese capacitors, and a CLC filter design that suppresses ripple and noise to less than 1 percent.

These are partially modular units (with flat cables) measuring a comparatively short 160mm in length. Gamers have three models to choose from -- 600w, 800w, and 1050w. Each one sports a rugged black coating and gold vent grill. All three also make use of dual +12V rails.

MSRPs for the GX V3 models are $189 (GX1050), $149 (GX800), and $109 (GX600).

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Newegg Daily Deals: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Graphics Card, Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD, and More!

Posted: 21 Feb 2014 06:43 AM PST

EVGA GeForce GTX 780newegg logo

Top Deal:

If we woke up today only to find that we'd somehow been transported back 15 years to 1999, we'd be talking about Nvidia's first GeForce-branded graphics card, the GeForce 256 (NV10). In fact, Nvidia marketed the card as having the world's first GPU since it was the first to integrate a geometry transform engine, dynamic lighting engine, 4-pixel rendering pipeline, and DirectX 7 features onto the graphics chip. Returning to the present day, we're still talking about Nvidia's GeForce cards, only today's variants are much more advanced. One of them is also the topic of today's top deal -- an EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Graphics Card w/ ACX Cooler for $517 with free shipping (normally $600 - use coupon code: [EMCPHHP24]; additional $20 mail-in-rebate and Free Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag with purchase). This card has 2,304 CUDA cores and 3GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus -- stats that would have sounded like gibberish 15 years ago.

Other Deals:

Samsung 840 EVO 2.5-inch 500GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive for $295 with free shipping (normally $300 - use coupon code: [EMCPHHP26])

Asus GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 Video Card for $700 with free shipping and Free Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag with purchase)

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor for $220 with free shipping (normally $230 - use coupon code: [EMCPHHP39])

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive for $110 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCPHHP23])
Posted by Shri Krishna

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