General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

How to Build a Computer Test Bench

Posted: 05 Mar 2014 02:38 PM PST

The basics of building an open-air test bench

While we typically follow a standard formula for our Build It section every month, sometimes it's nice to deviate a bit from the norm and explore different types of systems that are a bit more unconventional. One such system is the type of build we use at Maximum PC HQ for testing hardware, known as the open-air test bench. We have several of them deployed throughout the office alongside our standard-issue desktop PCs, and both types of machines serve an important purpose. The standard desktops are great for YouTube and Reddit, and occasional "work," while the open-air test benches are used for most of our component testing since they let us swap a video card, CPU, SSD, RAM stick, or even the entire motherboard with minimal effort. When you're using an open test bench setup on top of a desk, you'll never again have to dig through the guts of your computer while on your hands and knees, with a flashlight clenched in your teeth. All you need to set up one  for yourself is a basic set of spare parts, and it will let you operate like a civilized gentleperson, from the comfort of a chair, without breaking a sweat. With that in mind, we thought we would show you how to build an open air test bench PC!  


Thinking Outside the Case 

There are a lot of reasons any died-in-the-wool hardware enthusiast would want to have a test bench up and running at all times. The most obvious is that it's great for quickly testing a stick of RAM, a malfunctioning piece of hardware, or benchmarking hardware outside of a system that needs to be used for productivity. At Maximum PC, our bench of choice is the Top Deck Tech Station Kit made by HighSpeed PC ($140, www.highspeedpc.com). This is a two-tier workbench, where the motherboard sits on the upper tray, and the power supply and storage devices (or other external bay items) sit on the lower tier. The station's legs, rails, and PCI-card support brace are all made of sturdy and nonconductive materials, and the kit supports a decent amount of hardware, too. The top of the tray looks just like a standard motherboard tray in that it has rubber standoffs for clearance. A nylon guide post helps you align add-on cards with their slots in the motherboard, and a bundled neoprene mat helps prevent items in the lower tray from sliding around. In place of your case's power and reset switches, there are switches you plug into the board's front-panel connectors that allow you to turn the machine on, reboot, monitor drive activity, and hear the PC speaker. Yes, they are pricey, but very durable and able to accommodate hardware not even conceived of yet, due to their open-air design and flexibility. As always, there are several things to consider before diving in, so let's take a look at what's involved in letting your hardware go commando. 

1. On the Rails 

Storage devices slide into rails pre-installed on the underside of the upper tray, and they only accommodate 3.5-inch drives. The rails also have no holes for drive screws, by design—you just slide the drive in, then slide it out when you're done. If you want to install an SSD, you'll need to order a 2.5-inch rail kit separately at HighSpeedPC.com. Or you can skip the adapter, since SSDs don't need to be near the 120mm fan that cools the devices in that area, and since they have no moving parts they don't need to be stabilized at all times like a spinning hard drive. The rails are long enough to support two 3.5-inch drives, and we put SSDs on the lower tray dangling from their SATA power cables.

2. More Able Cables

A modular power supply is extremely useful when trying to keep your cables organized in an open test bench. If you're not using an optical drive, there's plenty of space in the lower tray alongside the power supply to store the bag that contains the unused cables. Orienting the power supply can be a little tricky, since the 8-pin CPU power cable has to go to the top of the board, the 24-pin motherboard cable goes to the side, and the SATA power cables go to the bottom. Therefore, our preferred setup is to have the cables going toward the top of the motherboard, and the AC power plug facing the "bottom" of the motherboard. We also recommend using a stock CPU cooler since it makes accessing the area around the CPU easier, and if you can, just use the CPU's integrated graphics since it gives you one less PCI Express power cable to deal with. If we're testing a CPU without integrated graphics, we just use an old GPU that doesn't require PCIe power.

Click on page two for the rest of the instructions on how to build an open-air test bench PC.

 

3. Pushing Buttons

The buttons and lights on the front of an ATX case are very useful, and allow you to turn on your system, reboot it, and watch CPU and hard-drive activity. Open-air benches have similar buttons and lights—on this model it's called the ATX control kit and features a set of buttons and LEDs that plug into the motherboard's front-panel connectors. It even comes with a PC speaker, so you can hear beep codes in order to help you diagnose hardware issues (unless your motherboard has a debug LED on it, making the speaker redundant). You could always short the power-on circuit yourself with a knife blade, but this is more… dignified.

4. Feeling Pinched

The top tray has an array of standoffs that accommodate ATX, eATX, Mini-ITX, and microATX motherboards. The standoffs sit inside rubberized feet secured with Phillips screws, so you can easily pop them out of one spot and stick them into another. No screws actually touch the motherboard, of course; it just sits on top of the rubber feet. Again, this is by design, to make it easier to swap one board for another. It does complicate plugging in power cables though, as pressing down on one edge of the board can raise the other side. When the connector is large, like with the 24-pin power cable, you have to pinch the top and bottom of the board at the same time, sandwiching the connector, as shown in the photo. When the connector is small, like a USB 2.0 cable, you can just support the board from below with your hand, right underneath where the connector is going in.

5. Getting Some Air

Thanks to the open design of this workbench, there are no limitations to the length of PCI cards (handy when Nvidia and AMD deliver the latest 12-inch monsters). Cards are slid into their expansion slots and secured to the support bracket with the included plastic screws. The support brace is supported by metal posts but is made of plastic to help prevent static discharge. There are a total of seven screw holes in the bracket, which should be more than enough for any mobo configuration.

Once a video card, hard drive, or RAID controller is installed, you may want to add additional cooling that would normally occur by virtue of a case's airflow, but is lacking in this setup. Your best bet is to just place a 120mm fan on the top tray to move air across the components — jerry-rigged, maybe, but effective. Since the fans are easily accessible, we like being able to control fan speeds with a fan mate, which is an inline fan speed controller. HighSpeed PC also sells extension kits for mounting additional fans on the rim of the upper tray, but we've never felt the need to add that much cooling.

6. Dat Masscool

The workbench comes with a pre-installed 120mm Masscool fan with a grill that is mounted in between the bench's two tiers, so it blows air over the top and bottom of the tray, hitting the motherboard and any storage devices sitting in the rails below. The fan is universally compatible too, sporting both a 3-pin and a 4-pin Molex cable, so it'll work with any setup you have. That single fan should provide more than sufficient cooling for a basic workbench. It's surprisingly quiet, but we also use the onboard fan control in our system BIOS to make sure it's silent.

The ATX control kit is not bad, either. Each of the widgets has an embossed triangle indicating the positive wire, so connecting them is simple. It won't damage anything if you install them incorrectly; they simply won't work. Things got a bit tight on our test board when we tried to plug in the semi-stiff PC speaker widget, so we left it off. The workbench also includes an expansion bracket with both power and reset buttons, but it's really cheap and its wires are a rat's nest.

Final Thoughts

It probably takes longer to assemble the workbench than it does to install all of its hardware, but once you remove a conventional case from the equation, building goes 10 times faster. You have superior lighting and there is minimal cable management to work out. We also love not having to worry about feeling crowded or lacking in space when building these rigs. There are some downsides, though. This workbench doesn't really allow liquid cooling, as there's nowhere to mount the radiator. It would also be nice to have a couple of fasteners to pin down the motherboard, and we'd love to have an SSD rail included instead of it being an expensive add-on. Also, $140 is a lot of money, but HSPC also sells a smaller ATX bench for $80 that will be fine for most users.

Probably the biggest problem with these setups is the exposed fan blades on the CPU, GPU, and chassis. We can already see a small child or a pet getting in trouble around this thing, so be sure to take precautions before deploying one in your home.

Asus Unveils Two Motherboards Supporting AMD's AM1 Platform

Posted: 05 Mar 2014 11:15 AM PST

Asus AM1I-AThe first AM1-socket based SoC motherboards from Asus

AMD said there were several planned motherboard releases based on its recently announced AM1 platform, and true to form, they're starting to trickle out. Some of the first are from Asus, which just announced the AM1M-A and AM1I-A, a pair of small form factor (SFF) motherboards built to take advantage of AMD's AM1-socketed System-on-Chip (SoC) Athlon and Sempron series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs).

The AM1M-A is a micro ATX board with two DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of single-channel RAM; a single PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot (at x4 speed); HDMI, DVI-D, and D-Sub (VGA) outputs; GbE LAN; 8-channel onboard audio; two SATA 6Gbps ports; four USB 3.0 ports (two front, two rear); eight USB 2.0 ports (four front, four rear); TPM header; LPT; and COM port.

Asus's other board -- AM1I-A -- is a mini ITX board that also has two DDR3 DIMM slots with support for up to 32GB of single-channel RAM. It features similar specs, but has a PCI-E 2.0 x4 slot, half as many USB 3.0 ports, and two COM ports.

Both boards sport a UEFI BIOS and are slated to arrive in early April. No word yet on price.

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OnLive Reemerges with Two New Gaming Services

Posted: 05 Mar 2014 10:30 AM PST

CloudLiftDown but not out, OnLive returns to the cloud gaming scene

Remember OnLive, the cloud-based streaming game service from several years ago? After imploding and then laying low for quite some time, OnLive is back under new leadership and with a couple of new services in tow -- a new streaming subscription program called CloudLift and a new service it's calling OnLive Go. Why should you expect a different outcome this time around?

For one, there's some new blood flowing through OnLive's veins. Mark Jung, a former IGN and VUDU executive, is OnLive's new executive chairman, while former Electronic Arts director of partner management Carrie Holder is OnLive's VP of business development. OnLive also hired former Disney Interactive VP Rick Sanchez and some other talent.

Secondly, OnLive is taking a different approach this time around.

"After examining what gamers really want and need, we realized that we could do a better job for them by not trying to be their everything, and to do for them that for which we are uniquely suited," OnLive stated in a blog post. "In other words, our new CloudLift service improves the user experience by enabling gamers to both download/play their games locally when they are on a platform capable of it (i.e. gaming computer), while still enjoying the benefits of OnLive's portability when they are not."

CloudLift is a subscription-based service that runs $15 per month (you can sign up for a free 7 day trial). It links your game library with your game OnLive account and syncs cloud saves, allowing you to move from one platform to another and pick up where you left off. It will launch with 20 games and have more added over the next several months.

The other service being introduced is OnLive Go, which adds cloud functionality MMOs and other virtual worlds, including Second Life.

As far as the backend infrastructure goes, OnLive now has half a dozen data centers (up from four server locations), a scalable business model, 95 patents (up from 14), and around 100 employees (down from over 200).

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IDC Expects Continued PC Shipment Declines Through 2013

Posted: 05 Mar 2014 10:02 AM PST

Dell PCComputer shipments dropped 9.8 percent in 2014, IDC says

The PC market has been in a slump for several quarters now, and in all of 2013, worldwide computer shipments dropped 9.8 percent, according to newly released data by International Data Corporation (IDC). On the plus side, the decline was slightly better than IDC's 10.1 percent projection, and fourth quarter results were better than expected, though overall it still ranks as the "most severe contraction on record," IDC says.

PC sales in emerging markets weren't all that hot, declining 11.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Looking ahead, IDC expects more declines, even after factoring in a slight rise from Windows XP replacements (support for Windows XP is scheduled to end next month).

"Emerging markets used to be a core driver of the PC market, as rising penetration among large populations boosted overall growth," said Loren Loverde, Vice President, Worldwide PC Trackers. "At the moment, however, we're seeing emerging regions more affected by a weak economic environment as well as significant shifts in technology buying priorities. We do expect these regions to recover in the medium term and perform better than mature regions, but growth is expected to stabilize near zero percent, rather than driving increasing volumes as we saw in the past."

Despite the reported drops, a bit of perspective is needed. For example, even though PC shipments declined in 2013, the market still saw an influx of 315.1 million shipments, including 136.7 million desktops and 178.4 million portable PCs. In 2018, IDC expects to see 291.7 million shipments.

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Survey Finds Over Half of Antivirus Users Pay for Security Software

Posted: 05 Mar 2014 09:15 AM PST

AV KeyboardAV-Comparatives releases its antivirus survey for 2014

Not only do the vast majority of PC users run some type of antivirus software, but most of them pay for security, according to a new survey by AV-Comparatives, an independent testing lab. There's not a wide gap between those who pay for security software and those who opt for freebie programs -- 51 percent to 47 percent, respectively -- but it is interesting when you consider that Internet security suites have a stigma of being bloated and slow.

We know that's not always true, as evidenced by our annual AV roundups in which some suites barely have an impact on performance. Regardless, the survey also revealed that the performance impact is the most important aspect of AV software, followed by a good detection rate being the second most important and good malware removal and cleaning capabilities ranking third.

According to the survey, Avast is the most popular anti-malware vendor in North America on the desktop, followed by ESET, Microsoft, Symantec, Kaspersky Lab, Malwarebytes, Bitdefender, Avira, AVG, Webroot, Panda, and F-Secure. In terms of mobile, the top 10 list includes (in order) Avast, Lookout, AVG, Bitdefender, Kaspersky Lab, TrustGo, ESET, Webroot, Malwarebytes, and Symantec.

You can view the full survey here (PDF).

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Microsoft Ad Disses Mac for Lacking Touch, Gets Called Sexist

Posted: 05 Mar 2014 08:47 AM PST

Microsoft AdA new ad by Microsoft suggests Macs are bad for planning weddings

Microsoft has come under fire for a new advertisement promoting Windows systems over those inferior Macs that lack touchscreens. Short and to the point, the ad says Macs suck for planning weddings because you can't tap the display. Well, you can tap the display, but nothing will happen, and somehow that will hinder a woman's ability to plan out her wedding. Oh yes, did we mention? Microsoft's ad for a touch-friendly all-in-one PC running Windows 8 is targeted at women, and the way it goes about it, some are crying foul.

Let's first address the easier, less controversial topic, that being how Macs are inept wedding planners. Hey, we love our Windows rig just as much as the next guy, but it surely seems Microsoft missed the mark with this criticism. Assuming the lack of touch support really would hinder one's ability to pick out a wedding dress or tuxedo, couldn't a person just pick up an iPad or an Android tablet? Or use their smartphone?

Whatever, it is what it is, and this wouldn't be the first time Microsoft put out an ad with questionable content. However, it's also not the first to elicit claims of sexism. Just a few months ago, Microsoft made available custom letter templates publicizing the Xbox One console. The letters were supposed to be a fun and humorous way for guys to convince their girlfriends or wives they need an Xbox One, though phrases like "You'd rather knit than watch me slay zombies, but hear me out on this" didn't sit well with female gamers.

With this latest ad, some are suggesting Microsoft is once again being sexist by suggesting all females do with PCs are things like plan weddings and poke around on Pinterest.

"They're funny, sure, but ads that misrepresent the relationship between technology and women aren't harmless. They perpetuate the idea that women are less equipped to interact with technology and imply that specific devices must be marketed to women to be appealing," writes Lily Hay Newman of Slate.com.

Give the ad a once over and let us know what you think about it in the comments section below.

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Newegg Daily Deals: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit, AMD FX-6300 Vishera, and More!

Posted: 05 Mar 2014 06:23 AM PST

Windows 7 Home Premiumnewegg logo

Top Deal:

Like it or not, the end is near for Windows XP. Microsoft will yank support for the legacy OS next month, and if you're a last minute holdout, it's nigh time to start thinking about which OS you want to use next. Not feeling Windows 8? If that's the case, you might be interested in today's top deal for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit (OEM) for $85 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCPGPF43]. It's not the latest version of Windows, but hey, it has a Start menu.

Other Deals:

AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W 6-Core Desktop Processor for $110 with free shipping (normally $120 - use coupon code: [EMCPGPF22])

EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Superclocked 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 Video Card for $700 with free shipping (normally $710; additional $10 Mail-in rebate)

PNY 2.5-inch 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive for $120 (normally $130 - use coupon code: [EMCPGPF28])

Seagate Desktop HDD.15 4TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inc Internal Hard Drive for $140 with free shipping (normally $165 - use coupon code: [EMCPGPF24])
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