General Gaming Article

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• New Chroma Feature to Give Select Razer Products Access to Full Color Spectrum
• Free Copy of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel with Purchase of Select GeForce GTX GPUs
• 4K Monitors: Everything You Need to Know
• Minecraft Beginner's Guide
• Newegg Daily Deals: Dell 23-Inch IPS Monitor, Western Digital RE 4TB Hard Drive, and More!
• Digital Storm's Velox Gaming PC Invites Voyeurs to Gawk in Awe
• Finalized USB Type-C is the Connector You've Been Waiting For
• OCZ Builds an ARC 100 Solid State Drive, Invites Value Conscious Users to Hop Aboard
• Falcon Northwest Tiki-Z Micro Tower Totes a Titan Z Graphics Card
• EVGA Announces Passively Cooled GeForce GT 720 Graphics Cards

New Chroma Feature to Give Select Razer Products Access to Full Color Spectrum Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:45 PM PDT 16.8 million customizable colors If you feel that more color is needed in your life, then Razer has you covered. Razer has announces a new Chroma feature that enables Razer devices to access full-spectrum, color-customizable lighting. "Our new range of peripherals that feature Chroma customizable backlighting is another step towards full personal customization and to interconnect our gaming tech," said Razer co-founder Min-Liang Tan. "Chroma represents more than just multicolor, it opens up limitless personalization options for gamers to play with and we even have a Chroma Software Developer Kit for game developers to integrate their games to provide even more customization in the future." Chroma will also allow multiple devices to sync lighting patterns and colors. According to Razer, it will begin updating products with the Chroma feature starting with the BlackWidow Ultimate keyboard, the DeathAdder gaming mouse, and the Kraken 7.1 headset.  Once updated, these devices will have access to 16.8 million customizable colors and a selection of lighting effects through the Razer Synapse, Razer's hardware configuration software. These lightning effects will include patterns such as Spectrum cycling which slowly cycles through the entire color spectrum and the Breathing effect that gently pulses the user's color of choice every seven seconds.  Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Free Copy of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel with Purchase of Select GeForce GTX GPUs Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:45 PM PDT Offer available at participating retailers If you have been looking to upgrade your GPU, then now would be a good time to do so. Especially if you are a fan of the Bordelands franchise. Those who purchase select Nvidia GeForce GTX GPUs will get a free copy of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. To get a free copy of the FPS, consumers will need to purchase the GeForce GTX Titan, 780Ti, 780, or 770 desktop GPUs from a list of participating retailers.  However, the deal is only good while supplies last.  Like Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will make use of Nvidia's PhysX technology. "If you have a high-end Nvidia GPU, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will offer higher fidelity and higher performance hardware-driven special effects including awesome weapon impacts, moon-shatteringly cool cryo explosions, and ice particles, and cloth and fluid simulation that blows me away every time I see it," said Gearbox Software ceo Randy Pitchford. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel takes place during Borderlands and Borderlands 2. In it, players will learn about Borderlands 2's villain, Handsome Jake, and how he rose to power while shooting and looting their way through the game as his henchmen. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will be available in North America October 14 and October 17 Internationally.  Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

4K Monitors: Everything You Need to Know Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:28 PM PDT Ultra HD (UHD) is the next-gen PC resolution—here's why you have to have it Dream Machine 2013 had some bitchin' hardware, but most of it was available at retail for any well-heeled hardware hound. One part, though, was not available to the unwashed masses: its glorious 4K monitor. You see, 4K was an other-worldly resolution back in mid-2013, simply because it offered four times the resolution of 1080p—at a wallet-busting expense of $3,500. Now, though, 4K is available and relatively affordable, and all modern games support it, making it one hell of an upgrade. Over the next pages, we'll tell you all about 4K, show you what you need to run it at its maximum output, and explore 4K gaming benchmarks, too. But as sweet as it is, it's not for everyone, so read this guide before making the move. What is 4K? a slight misnomer, but catchier than ultra hd To put it simply, 4K doubles the standard 1920x1080 resolution both vertically and horizontally to 3840x2160, which is quadruple the pixels. We can already see you folding your arms and scanning the page for a downvote button, saying, "That's obviously not true 4K. It only sums up to 3,840 pixels." "True" 4K resolution is a term used in the movie industry. When you hear about movies being shot in 4K, they're typically shot at 4096x2160 with an aspect ratio of 17:9. On the PC side, we generally run with television makers, who have mostly settled on a resolution of 3840x2160, which uses the same 16:9 aspect ratio as 1080p. Despite this being far short of 4,000 pixels horizontally, television and monitor makers have all settled on 4K as the term to push, rather than Ultra HD. In other words, we don't make up the buzzwords, so hate the game, not the player. In a historical context, 4K is simply the next rest stop along the path of technological progress. Way back in the day, we ran our displays at 640x480, then 800x600, then 1024x768, and then 1280x1024, and so on. As graphics cards became more powerful, we were slowly able to bump up our display resolutions to where they are now, which for a large majority of gamers is 1920x1080, or 1080p. Society has settled on 1080p as the go-to resolution right now, simply because those monitors (and TVs) are very affordable, and you don't need a $500 graphics card to run today's games at that resolution. Not everyone is average, though. Many enthusiasts today run 27-inch or 30-inch monitors at much higher resolutions of 2560x1440 or 2560x1600, respectively. That may seem like a step up from 1920x180, but a GeForce GTX 780 ti or Radeon R9 290X isn't even stressed  by 2560x1440 gaming. Factor in PCs with multiple GPUs, and you start to wonder why we've been stuck with 2560x1600 for more than seven years, as everything else has leapt forward. We won't question that wisdom, but we do know that it's time to move forward, and 4K is that next step. Looking ahead, the industry will eventually move to 8K, which quadruples the pixels, and then 12K, and so forth. In fact, some vendors already demonstrated resolutions way beyond 4K at CES 2014, including Nvidia, which ran three 4K panels at 12K using four GTX Titans in SLI. For 2014 and beyond, though, 4K is the new aspirational resolution for every hardcore PC gamer. It's All About the Pixels Per Inch You know how every time we pass around the sun once more and it's a new year, people joke about their "New Year's Resolution" being some sort of super-high monitor resolution? Well, we do it, too, because as hardware aficionados there's always room to grow and new boundaries to push. We want our hard drives to get bigger right alongside our displays, so the move into 4K is something we have been looking forward to for more than a year; as resolution scales up, so does the level of detail that is rendered on the screen. The official term for this spec is pixels per inch, or PPI, and it's a good bellwether for how much detail you can see on your display. To see how PPI varies according to screen size, let's look at a few examples. First, a 24-inch 1920x1080 display sports roughly 91 pixels per inch. If you bump up the vertical resolution to 1,200 pixels (typical on some 16:10 ratio IPS panels), you get a PPI of 94. If you crank things up a notch to 2560x1440 at 27 inches, the PPI goes to 108, which is a small bump of about 20 percent, and probably not very noticeable. Moving on to 2560x1600 on a 30-inch panel, you actually get lower density, arriving at a PPI of 100. To put this in the context of a mobile device, the Google Nexus 5 smartphone has a 4.95-inch display that runs a resolution of 1920x1080, giving it a crazy-high PPI of 445. The iPad's 9.7-inch screen delivers a PPI of 264, and the iPhone 5's PPI is 326 pixels. Clearly, there's a lot of room for improvement on the PC, and 4K is a step in the right direction.  Pixel Peeping Now, let's look at the PPI for a few of these fancy new 4K monitors that are coming down the pike. We'll start with the model we used for Dream Machine 2013, which is an Asus PQ321Q. With its resolution of 3840x2160 spread across 31.5 luscious inches, its PPI is a decent 140, a noticeable increase from a 2560x1600 display. Not enough for you? Dell has a new 24-inch 4K monitor dubbed the UP2414Q that shrinks your icons for you while retaining their sharpness. Still, it has the highest PPI yet for the desktop panel at a skyscraping 185 pixels. Slightly below the Dell is a new Asus LCD named the PB287Q, which at 28 inches has a modest PPI of 157 pixels. Keep in mind that in some cases, this is a 50 percent increase in the number of pixels per inch, so when you tally that up across the entirety of the display, it equals quite a few more pixels, which results in a lot more detail that is visible even to the naked and semi-clothed eye.   Why it's a big deal Just like going from a 24-inch 1080p monitor to a 30-inch 1600p monitor is a life-changing experience, so is going to a 32-inch or smaller 4K panel. The level of detail you can see on the screen is surprising, and when you fire up Battlefield 4 for the first time, you'll most likely be staring at the screen with your mouth open, and not just because the server dropped you again. Gaming at 4K looks simply incredible. And unlike television, where there's a dearth of content, almost all PC games support the resolution, and some developers are even including higher resolution textures now, too. Of course, both Nvidia and AMD are also pushing 4K because you need one hell of a GPU setup to push those pixels around. Since 4K is still extremely new and not quite ready for prime time, the hardware required to run it is in the same embryonic stage, which translates in layman's terms to "almost there but not quite."  Even a GeForce GTX Titan with its 6GB frame buffer or a Radeon R9 290X and its 4GB frame buffer can barely eclipse 30fps at 4K with all settings maxed. Sure, you can turn down some of the settings and get a flagship GPU to run pretty well at 4K these days, but we'd rather castrate ourselves with a soldering iron than turn down the eye candy. We didn't spend $3,500 on a monitor, or have our friends die face-down in the muck, to turn down graphics settings, so we're not budging on that. With all settings turned up, gaming at 4K is truly cutting-edge, and is really the only application that currently stresses today's crop of high-end GPUs, aside from a multi-monitor setup. Today, getting any single GPU to run 4K at the magical 60fps is not possible. There's even a telling statement on the Nvidia website: "In order to power games at this resolution (4K) with settings turned up, NVIDIA recommends GTX 780 SLI or better." Is 4K 'Retina'? First off, you have got some balls to compare a glorious 4K display to a marketing term such as "retina display." However, for the sake of argument, we'll humor you. As noted elsewhere, a 4K display can have as many as 185 pixels per inch (PPI), which is almost double what is found in today's 1080p displays. However, the term "Retina" as coined by The Jobs is usually more than 200 PPI for a notebook, and more than 300 for a mobile display. You see, a PPI rating's significance all comes down to how close you are to the display. Apple defines a Retina display as having enough pixels that the human retina can't distinguish between them, which is quite easy to pull off at a distance of 16 inches, but much less so at six inches.  Therefore, mobile displays, which are held closer to your face, oftentimes have crazy-high PPI ratings. Interestingly, despite being the first to heavily push high-PPI displays, Apple has been out-Retina'd these days. The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a PPI of 441 PPI, and the Sony Vivo Xplay sits at an insane 490 PPI. The iPhone, with its rating of 326, actually isn't even in the top ten of high-PPI devices. Still, if you ask the average Joe, he'll say Retina is better. The bottom line: At a far enough distance, everything is a retina display, because pixels are indistinguishable. Go Big or Go Home Full HD, Ultra HD, HD HD—what does it all mean? HD 720p A resolution with more than 700 horizontal pixels was the original "HD" resolution and was used to sell a zillion television sets the world over. On a 1600x900 20-inch display, you get a reasonable PPI of 92. Full HD 1080p After vanilla HD came Full HD, which cranked it up a notch to 1920x1080 resolution. Full HD is just a marketing term, though, as there's no HD-sanctioning body. Full HD on a 23-inch panel delivers a PPI of 96, so, not much better than HD. Quad HD Though usually not referred to by its proper name, Quad HD refers to a panel featuring 2560x1440 resolution, which is four times the pixels of HD. A 27-inch panel at this res features a so-so PPI of 108. Ultra HD This is actual 4K resolution, meaning 4,000 horizontal pixels. It is four times the resolution of Full HD, and features a PPI of 144 pixels on a 32-inch panel. The term refers to how professional film is produced and projected though, so it's not really a PC term since PC displays are slightly less than 4K at 3840x2160. 4K confusion cleared up How to pick the right 4K monitor It used to be easy to pick a monitor when your biggest decision was choosing between an IPS or TN panel, and your choice at the high end was either 24 or 30 inches. Today, it isn't so easy. Besides the thorny question of whether to choose an IPS model for its superior color accuracy and off-axis viewing or going with a speedier TN panel, you now have to factor in very high refresh rates, pixel density, resolution differences, and even such technology as Nvidia's new G-sync. We can't pick for you, but we can help you make your decision. As with all things in computing, there is no one-size-fits-all product. How much monitor you need depends on your specific usage. Are you a gamer? A content creator? A multi-tasker? On a budget, or a baller like Carlos Slim? For a professional or advanced amateur editing photos or video, the color accuracy of TN panels still isn't good enough. Today's budget 4K panels, such as Dell's $699 P2815Q or Asus's $799 PB287Q, both use TN panels, so pixel peepers will want to move along. The Dell P2815Q also features a major flaw in that its refresh rate is limited to 30Hz at its native resolution. For professionals, the only real answer for now is to go big (and expensive) with the Asus 32-inch PQ321Q for $3,000, or go dense with the 24-inch Dell UP2414Q for $1,300. The Asus model uses an IPS panel from Sharp with indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) to help it pack the pixels so closely. The Dell is also an IPS panel, but other details of the panel technology have yet to be disclosed. Both will hit 60Hz, but you'd better have a gnarly GPU or two if you want to use these panels for gaming. The Dell's pixel density is to die for, with 183 pixels per inch. That's about double that of a standard 24-inch 1920x1080 panel. There are PC panels that are denser, but not in a desktop form factor. Remember: You'll need bionic vision, too, if you intend to use these monitors without scaling cranked up a few notches, because windows and icons will look like miniatures—and we're not happy with how Windows scales up right now. That brings us to the refresh rate debate. For gamers, 60Hz IPS or TN panels are OK, but if you've ever played on a 120Hz panel with a powerful GPU pushing it, you know just how beautifully blur-free they can be. We dare say it, if we gamed more than we edited photos or videos, we'd take a pass on the lowly 60Hz panels. The problem with high-refresh monitors has been their pedestrian resolution of 1920x1080 in 24 inches. There are 120Hz 27-inch monitors as well, but their 1920x1080 resolution gives them a remarkably low pixel density of just 81 PPI. Asus thinks it has the gamer's ultimate fantasy monitor with its new ROG Swift PG278Q. This 27-inch TN monitor has a respectable resolution of 2560x1440 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. While its pixel density doesn't approach that of a 4K monitor, the 120Hz refresh may compensate for gaming purposes—for those with hefty GPUs. For those with lesser graphics cards, though, the Asus Swift monitor also boasts Nvidia's new proprietary G-sync technology. (The Titan, 7-series, and several 6-series are supported in G-sync.) This tech syncs the monitor's refresh rate to the GPU's rendering, translating to smoother and sharper images, even if the frame rate dips below 30fps. G-sync, of course, won't work with AMD cards, but for gamers not hung up on color accuracy or off-axis viewing, the ROG Swift might be the ultimate monitor right now in the green camp. And yes, we know AMD has talked of FreeSync—the free method to sync refresh with GPU rendering. It's just not clear if FreeSync will work with desktop monitors yet, although it is promising on laptops, which are typically fairly low-powered in the graphics department. The Asus ROG Swift is the first 2560p monitor with a 120Hz refresh rate. What about a 120Hz panel that also runs at 4K? That's coming too, but remember that you'll need an inordinate amount of graphics grunt to push twice the pixels of a single 4K panel.   What you'll need to run 4K We hope you got a huge tax refund You'll need new cables If you're like us and have been running DVI or dual-link DVI for the past—oh, we don't know, forever?—4K requires a different connection, as the Digital Visual interface tops out at 2560x1600 at 60Hz—far short of 4K's needs. To run 4K resolution, you will need to run either DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 2.0. For those on the DisplayPort train, version 1.2 is available today and will let you run 4K at 60Hz when using a Multi-Stream Transport (MST) mode. In MST mode, the graphics card generates several signals, or "streams," which are combined over the DisplayPort cable in order to run the panel at 60Hz. If you were to use a DisplayPort cable and run the panel in Single Stream Transport (SST) mode, you would top out at 30Hz. If you're more interested in running HDMI for some reason, it's more complicated. A single HDMI 1.4 connection is only able to hit 30Hz at 4K resolution, which is unacceptable. Some posters on our website have said "30Hz is fine for porn and web browsing," but we disagree. Just dragging a window around the screen causes it to shear and stutter in a manner similar to how it looks when you run your PC without graphics drivers installed. Some monitors and GPUs allow dual-HDMI connections to achieve the bandwidth needed, but it's a kludge and few support it. The fix for HDMI will come with HDMI 2.0, which will easily allow 60Hz at 4K, as well as multi-channel audio, but no monitor nor any GPU we know of currently has the new interface. So, be sure to verify what your panel supports before buying; if you get a 30Hz panel, you will be very, very sorry. And forget about trying to game on that thing. The monitors We're still in the beginning stages of 4K monitor growth. Throughout the year, you should see 4K panels offered from all the usual suspects. The good news is that prices have already dropped from the $3,500 mark down to under $1,000, and we expect many more manufacturers to be offering panels in this lower price range. Whether or not we'll get an affordable 4K IPS panel is a different story. Although, for gaming, TN is fine. The Dell 24-inch IPS panel is relatively affordable at $1,299—just don't expect to see it hit the $500ish prices of today's 27-inch and 30-inch panels until at least 2015, if not later. The GPUs If you thought purchasing a 4K monitor was financially painful, you ain't seen nothing yet. That transaction was merely foreplay for the real pain and suffering that will occur when you have to buy enough graphics firepower to run that display at its native resolution on today's games. As we stated earlier, Nvidia itself recommends at least two GTX 780 cards in SLI, so that's $1,000 worth of GPU, on top of the $800 to $3,500 for the monitor. The cheapest way to get into the 4K ballgame at this point would be to buy two Radeon R9 290 cards—assuming you can even find them for sale anywhere—which will set you back $800. Or you could get two GTX 780s, which will cost you roughly $1,000. You can pretty much forget about anything less powerful than these $400 to $500 GPUs though, as we can guarantee you they won't pack enough of a punch to drive a 4K display to anywhere close to 60Hz. Even the last generation of dual-GPU boards, such as the GTX 690 and Radeon HD 7990, aren't up to the ask on their own. In most cases, the price of a 4K monitor will pale in comparison to the GPUs needed to game on it. 4K benchmarks Before you look at the benchmark chart below, we recommend that you walk over to your PC and put a blanket over it. Seriously, it doesn't want to see you staring at these benchmark numbers. When you see how incompetent even the most high-end GPUs on the planet are for running 4K, it will probably make your PC seem, well, inadequate. What we mean is, look at these numbers. Even a $700 GeForce GTX 780 Ti can only hit 23fps in Unigine Heaven 4.0 with everything maxed out, and it hits only 19fps in Metro: Last Light. If there's one takeaway from this benchmark chart, it's this: Most of today's high-end GPUs are still not capable of running 4K at an acceptable level of performance. We're sorry, but that is a fact. Sure, all these games are playable—some more than others—but none of these cards, or combinations thereof, could hit 60fps in any of the games we chose for benchmarking. For this generation of GPUs, this is the reality. Since 4K is gaining so much traction, it's very likely that whatever is coming from AMD and Nvidia will be better equipped to handle this resolution, and we certainly hope it is.  We've heard nothing about what AMD has up its sleeve, as we expect its Hawaii cards to have a long shelf life. The impending Mantle API update should give the cards a shot in the arm, so to speak. As with Nvidia, though, the current generation is barely capable of running 4K, so we can expect the next-generation cards to be much more capable. The good news is that by the time these newfangled cards arrive, we should have a whole flock of new 4K panels on offer, so it'll be glorious times for well-heeled PC gamers. Benchmarks   Nvidia GTX 780 Ti Nvidia GTX 780 Nvidia GTX Titan AMD Radeon R9 290X AMD Radeon R9 290X Crossfire Nvidia GTX Titan SLI EVGA GTX 780 ACX SLI Driver 332.21 332.21 332.21 13.12 13.12 332.21 332.21 Unigine Heaven 4.0 (fps) 23 23   21 18 17 37 30 Unigine Valley 1.0 (fps) 30 30 28 26 23 37 16 Tomb Raider (fps) 28 26   25 27 52 44 44 Metro: Last Light (fps) 19 17 17 18 29 26 26 Battlefield 4 (fps) 40 36 35 38 64 60 57 Batman: Arkham Origins (fps) 44 43 41 38 66 57 57 Hitman: Absolution (fps) 44 39 40 44 75 55 55 Best scores are bolded. Our test bed is a 3.33GHz Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition in an Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard with 16GB of DDR3/1600 and a Thermaltake ToughPower 1,050W PSU. The OS is 64-bit Windows 8. Our monitor is a 32-inch Sharp PN-K321. All games are run at 3840x2160 with no AA.

Minecraft Beginner's Guide Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:07 PM PDT How to get into Minecraft Minecraft is a veritable juggernaut in the PC gaming world, with a bustling mod community, dedicated Let's Play streamers, and hundreds of variations on play to keep things fresh. Nearly everywhere you go, even in department stores, you see the gaping mouths of Creepers, blank stares of Steve heads, and even diamond pickaxe styluses. It's a phenomenon that's only picking up steam, so what better time than now to get your hands dirty in the wide world of Minecraft? Whether you've been digging up informational videos here and there and have a basic understanding of the world or you've never even survived your first night, we're here to help you out. Grab a shovel, your best avatar skin, and let's get started. 1. Getting Minecraft The first step, of course, is procuring a copy of the game. You can purchase a copy at the official website (minecraft.net) for $26.95 or you can pick up a game card at the store for the same amount. You can also purchase gift codes from the website as well, just in case you happen to need a mining buddy. Registering for an account is free, and if you'd simply like to test the waters, there is a Minecraft demo available for trial purposes. 2. Getting Acquainted Once you've gotten everything installed and customized to your liking, it's time to get started. Choose the single player button to create your very first world. It will be a completely randomized spawn, so you will be working with the luck of the draw. Choose Create New World and you'll be prompted to name your new stomping grounds. If you can't come up with any inventive names, don't worry. You can always alter it later. After creating a world, you'll need to choose a game mode. Game Modes Survival: Minecraft players usually flock to this game mode, usually viewed as the "standard" version. Monsters will attack you at night, and you must create shelter, find sustenance, and craft items to stay alive. You will likely die, but if you do, you simply respawn. You can choose between difficulties within Survival Mode as well. Creative: If you're enamored with the ornate and elaborate creations you see time and time again in the Minecraft community, then Creative mode is for you. Think of it as a safe "sandbox" with unlimited resources, building materials, and no survival elements to get in the way of your genius. Hardcore: If you're reading this guide, chances are you won't want to choose this challenging game mode. It's aimed at experienced miners and those looking to sharpen their "pro skills." If you die, everything will be lost. Think carefully before choosing this mode, as it may be more than you bargained for. After you've chosen a game type, click Create New World and your very first Minecraft kingdom will be generated. 3. The Basics Depending on what was randomly generated for your world, you'll now find yourself smack dab in the middle of verdant greenery, a beachside scene, a desert, or even snow-capped mountains. This terrain is now yours to begin cultivating as you see fit. It's the start of a brand new day, and a cycle that you will want to become acquainted with. Each day cycle lasts ten minutes, so it's prudent to remember to complete important tasks during the day, since monsters roam the countryside at night. The basic Minecraft UI Let's take a look at the user interface quickly before advancing. The bottom of the screen with the boxes is a quick look at your inventory. You start off with nothing, but once you pick something up, your inventory boxes start to fill up quickly. Above the boxes are hearts to the left and what look like delicious pieces of meat. The hearts represent your HP, and the meat on the right is your hunger meter. Periodically you must eat in order to keep yourself full, or you will start to lose hearts. When your hearts reach zero, you'll die. When your hunger is low, you may not sprint, either. Additional bars you may see when playing include the armor bar, which will appear above your health meter. This displays the integrity of the armor you have equipped. You may note a bar that looks akin to the progress bar in any standard RPG. That's your experience level, displaying your progress toward the next level. You earn experience by collecting glowing green orbs that are dropped when you kill something.  You can open your full inventory screen by pressing E. When your toolbar is full, you can go here to see what else you have in your possession. The toolbar can be seen in the grid have as well, and for quick access you can click and drag from here. To the left of your character are slots for armor that you will want to equip later on in the game. The crafting area (2 x 2 squares) is for quick crafting. You can slot raw materials here to create specific items. Organizing your items from the inventory is simple. Use the left mouse button to pick up and rearrange the entire number of items. Drag it over to another slot to move. Double-click to collect items into one stack. Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button to pick up half of a group of items, place one from the group into an empty slot, and hold and drag to place the items across multiple slots. By now you should have a clearer picture of the user interface and how specific parts of the game work. It's time to use the daylight to our advantage! 4. Survive the Night! The night is dark and full of terrors. Melisandre had something there. She must have been referring to Minecraft, because the baddies all come out at nightfall. You could technically just dig a hole and cover yourself with it, but our method will end up being much more convenient and helpful. We have 10 minutes to gather resources and create some sort of makeshift shelter, so let's make the most of it. Start by looking around for trees. Trees can be "punched" using your fist and will break down into wood blocks. Just hold down the mouse button and punch away until a block of wood topples down. Keep doing this and repeat with several other trees for a quick score of wood. Keeping 5-10 blocks of wood will be more than enough for our crafting purposes. Once you've collected wood, you can chop with that same piece of wood. While punching trees, keep a lookout for sheep as well. You'll need them for wool, so any you find wandering the landscape will need to die a swift death. Once you've topped up your wood supply, it's time to start crafting. Crafting is integral to survival, so it's best to get started learning it. Go into your inventory screen and choose the entire stack of wood blocks you gathered earlier. Drag it to the crafting area in your inventory. You'll see a new image appear in the box beside those four. These are wooden planks, and they're important building blocks for other equipment you'll need in the future. Right now we need to build a crafting table to make more advanced objects. Take four wooden planks and arrange them in the corresponding blocks here in the crafting area. Ta-da! You now have a crafting table. Go ahead and set the crafting table in your toolbar, then close the inventory and select it. The crafting table will appear and you'll see a 3x3 square in which you can place materials. Take two planks and place them on top of the other. This will create wooden sticks. Once you have a series of planks and sticks, arrange three planks in the top three squares of the crafting table. Place two sticks stacked vertically beneath the middle planks. Congratulations! You've just created your very first tool. You can use the wooden pickaxe to accomplish a number of things like digging, chopping, and killing creatures. Once equipped with a pickaxe, you can chop down more trees for more supplies. It's always a good idea to carry more than you need, especially when you don't know what you might be facing up against. Once you've got your tools and some extra supplies squared away, it'll be time to start looking for a suitable location to stay for the night. While searching for a good place to camp, keep in mind that you shouldn't wander too far from landmarks you recognize or far from your original spawn point. While exploring, it can be prudent to keep an eye on your surroundings, leaving a breadcrumb trail of blocks if you need to. We're going to scout out a place to build your own happy little home. Look out for a nice hill or cliff you can carve into. We're going for function over aesthetic value, after all. On your way to finding some prime real estate, be on the lookout for items like coal (black specks on rock), sand, sheep, and more trees for wood. Collect as much as you can, as these items will prove quite beneficial in the long run. When you've settled on a suitable location, start digging with your pickaxe. Leave a space for a door and enough room inside to set up your crafting table. Opening your crafting table up after setting it up in the new pad, you'll want to make some torches. Torches are extremely important. The light will keep monsters at bay and shine into the darker areas you find yourself in, like the mines you will eventually create. Place torches all around your room, and revel in the brightness of the sanctuary you've created. Neat! Now you need a door to keep the nasties out. Use six wooden planks and fill up the first two columns of your crafting table, vertically. You should have a suitable area for your door in your small home, so right click on the floor in the doorway area and place the door. Make sure it's closed, and voila! You're ready to have a fun-filled night at home in your very first Minecraft house. You shouldn't venture out into the dark if you've been slow about gathering your items. If you have some daylight to kill, it's safe to putter about in your home to see what you can accomplish as far as upgrades and augments. For now, this is the basic setup and enough to get you through the night alone. See, that wasn't so hard, was it?

Newegg Daily Deals: Dell 23-Inch IPS Monitor, Western Digital RE 4TB Hard Drive, and More! Posted: 13 Aug 2014 09:43 AM PDT Top Deal: It's said the eyes are the windows to your soul. Computers don't have eyes, but they do have monitors, which are the eyes to their souls, or at least to what you're trying to manipulate them to do. Since you'll be gazing into your PC's monitor every time you use it, why short change yourself on a crappy panel? There are better options, including today's top deal for a Dell S2340M 23-inch LCD Monitor for $120 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCPBWH22]). It has an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel, Full HD 1080p resolution, and is virtually borderless. Other Deals: EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 770 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card for $294 with free shipping (normally $330 - use coupon code: [EMCPBWH24]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Crucial MX100 2.5-inch 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive for $202 with free shipping (normally $214 - use coupon code: [EMCPBWH32]) Western Digital RE 4TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Enterprise Internal Hard Drive for $280 with free shipping (normally $300 - use coupon code: [EMCPBWH228]) G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin  DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $153 with free shipping (normally $163 - use coupon code: [EMCPBWH45])

Digital Storm's Velox Gaming PC Invites Voyeurs to Gawk in Awe Posted: 13 Aug 2014 09:00 AM PDT Go ahead, take a peek inside If you're the type that likes to flash your parts at family and friends (we're talking about computer parts, of course), you're going to appreciate Digital Storm's new Velox, a mid-sized system designed to "shatter benchmarks"  and showcase the components inside with a side panel window. The Velox slides in neatly between Digital Storm's small form factor Bolt II and big size Aventum II systems. "Velox completes our enthusiast level offering," said Harjit Chana, Chief Brand Officer. "We leveraged our experiences with Aventum II and Bolt II to create a unique mid-size system gamers are sure to love." The Velox sports a forged steel construction and Digital Storm's new Hardline liquid cooling solution, which is further aided by vented panels on all sides and dedicated front intakes positioned as close to heat sensitive components as possible, Digital Storm says. Cost of entry starts at $2,018 for the Level 1 "Good" configuration. It includes an Intel Core i5 4690K processor, Asus Z97 motherboard, 8GB of DDR3-1600 RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 GPU, 120GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD, 1TB hard drive, DVD burner, 750W Corsair power supply, and Windows 8.1 There are three other levels you can start with, including Level 2 (Better, $2,460), Level 3 (Best, $3,103), and Level 4 (Ultimate, $3,750), the last of which includes an Intel Core i7 4930K CPU, 16GB DDR3-1866 RAM, GeForce Titan Black, 250GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD, 1TB  HDD, DVD burner, 850W EVGA SuperNOVA PSU, and Windows 8.1. The customizable Digital Storm Velox is available now. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Finalized USB Type-C is the Connector You've Been Waiting For Posted: 13 Aug 2014 08:51 AM PDT No more plugging in your USB devices the wrong way! Plugging in a USB gadget typically entails a four-step process. The first step is to attempt to jam it in the wrong way. Step two involves reversing the orientation only to discover that you had it right the first time. Step three is to mutter a string of curse words, followed by step four, which is to reverse the orientation back to its original position so that it plugs in as intended. It's a crappy process, and it's going to be alleviated by the new USB Type-C specification that's now been finalized by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group. What's special about USB Type-C connectors is that they're totally reversible, meaning it doesn't matter which side is up or down. It's just like Apple's Lightning connector, except the connector on each end is the same size. This seemingly simple design change is a much needed convenience, especially when fumbling around with cables in dimly lit areas or when reaching around to the back of devices trying to plug a cable in. "Interest in the USB Type-C connector has not only been global, but cross-industry as well," said Brad Saunders (PDF), USB 3.0 Promoter Group Chairman. "Representatives from the PC, mobile, automotive and IoT industries have been knocking down our door anticipating this new standard. This specification is the culmination of an extensive, cooperative effort among industry leaders to standardize the next generation USB connector as a long-lasting, robust solution." You won't be able to plug a USB Type-C connector directly into an existing USB port, though you can still use existing products with the new cable by way of an adapter. In that sense, USB Type-C, which will be part of the USB 3.1 standard, is backwards compatible. Speaking of USB 3.1, the new cable and connector will support theoretical maximum transfers of up to 10Gbps while delivering up to 100W of power. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

OCZ Builds an ARC 100 Solid State Drive, Invites Value Conscious Users to Hop Aboard Posted: 13 Aug 2014 07:30 AM PDT Respectable performance at a reasonable price When Toshiba acquired OCZ's storage division and rebranded it as OCZ Storage Solutions, it freed the bankrupt company to concentrate solely on building solid state drives rather than balancing the business side of securing affordable NAND flash memory and trying to contend with shortages. We're starting to see the fruits of this relationship, as OCZ today announced its new ARC 100 SSD Series intended to deliver "exceptional performance an an enticing price point." The new drives use next generation Toshiba A19nm NAND flash memory paired with the familiar Barefoot 3 M10 controller, which OCZ says emphasizes real-world performance. Reliability and endurance are also areas of focus -- OCZ rates its ARC 100 SSDs as being able to deliver 20GB of host writes per day under a 3-year warranty. OCZ's ARC 100 comes in three capacities: 120GB: 475MB/s max read, 395MB/s max write, 75,000 random read IOPS, 80,000 random write IOPS 240GB: 480MB/s max read, 430MB/s max write, 75,000 random read IOPS, 80,000 random write IOPS 480GB: 490MB/s max read, 450MB/s max write, 75,000 random read IOPS, 80,000 random write IOPS A point of emphasis in introducing these drives is OCZ's new "ShieldPlus Warranty" that's intended to eliminate the hassle of dealing with support claims. If a drive goes bad, no original proof of purchase is required -- just provide the ARC serial number and, if deemed defective, OCZ will advance ship a brand new ARC SSD of the same capacity, along with a pre-paid return label for the faulty drive. The 100 ARC Series will be available in the next few weeks and priced at $75 for the 120GB model, $120 for the 240GB model, and $240 for the 480GB model. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Falcon Northwest Tiki-Z Micro Tower Totes a Titan Z Graphics Card Posted: 13 Aug 2014 06:33 AM PDT A tiny system with the gaming performance of a Titan Z Of all the systems featuring an Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics card, the Tiki-Z Special Edition from Falcon Northwest might be the most impressive. That's because the Tiki-Z Special Edition is a micro-tower measuring just 4 inches wide and 13 inches tall --the same size as the standard Tiki and roughly equivalent to the original Xbox console -- yet has enough space to accommodate Nvidia's Titan Z, which is powered by a pair of Kepler GPUs. "Tiki-Z gives our customers the dual GPU option they've wanted since Tiki was first released," said Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest. "They can now play truly demanding 3D games at 4K resolution in a slim PC that can easily fit on anyone's desk. Tiki-Z takes our power-per-cubic-inch mission to an entirely new level." In order to make room for Nvidia's largest graphics card and keep it cool, Falcon Northwest had to make several modifications, including laser-cut venting with a special exhaust, and the addition of a side window with lighting, which also serves as a custom air intake duct. It also needed help from its hardware partners -- SilverStone created a new version of its tiny 600W PSU. Pricing for the Tiki-Z starts at $5,614 and, for a limited time, will come with an Asus PB287Q 28-inch 4K monitor at no extra charge. Other features include an Asus Z97I Plus motherboard, Intel Core i7 4790K processor, Asetek liquid cooling, 8GB of DDR3-1866 RAM, GeForce GTX Titan Z, Crucial M550 256GB SSD, DVD writer, Windows 8.1, and three-year warranty. The Falcon Northwest Tiki-Z Special Edition is available now. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

EVGA Announces Passively Cooled GeForce GT 720 Graphics Cards Posted: 13 Aug 2014 06:31 AM PDT Available in 1GB and 2GB models EVGA this week added the GeForce GT 720 with passive cooling to its graphics card lineup. Compared to integrated graphics, Nvidia says you can expect up to 2x faster web browsing, 5x faster video editing, and 8x faster photo editing. And when it comes time to game, the jump in performance can be up to 70 percent faster, all while taking up just a single slot in your PC, Nvidia says. The EVGA GeForce GT 720 comes with 1GB or 2GB of GDDR5 memory and is available in low profile and full height form factors. Other than the amount of RAM and physical size, the specs are the same -- 192 CUDA cores, 797MHz base clock, 1800MHz memory clock, 64-bit bus, 1.43ns memory speed, and 14.4GB/s of memory bandwidth. Connectivity options include VGA, DVI, and HDMI. If you're so inclined, you can drive up to three separate displays at the same time using a single card, Nvidia says. The EVGA GeForce GT 720 will be available soon. No word yet on price. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

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MMORPG News

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• Elder Scrolls Online: Spotlight on the Latest PvP Changes
• General: Heroes of Might & Magic VII Announced
• General: Shadow Realms Announced by Bioware
• Guild Wars 2: ArenaNet Announces Competitive Tournament
• Dragon Age: Inquisition: The Enemy of Thedas Trailer Released
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: Making Your Mark on the Galaxy in Galactic Strongholds
• Guild Wars 2: Got Season 2 Questions? We Need Them! (Beware Spoilers)
• World of Warcraft: Blizzard to Immortalize Robin Williams In Game
• World of Warcraft: Blizzard Trolls Fans in Latest Artcraft
• SMITE: Headed to XBox One in 2015
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: New Developer Diary Gives Insight Into Setting
• Star Trek Online: Voyager's Journey Paves Way for Delta Rising
• General: You've Been Chosen "Fire" Trailer Arrives
• General: SOE Live Via Stream Announced
• ArcheAge: Archeage Closed Beta Event 3: Blood & Bounty
• Risen 3: Titan Lords: So Far, So Cheesy
• Destiny: Cooperative Multiplayer Shines in Gamescom Trailer
• Champions Online: Steel Crusade to Arrive September 4th
• Risen 3: Titan Lords: Factions Introduced in New Release Day Trailer
• Warhammer 40.000: Eternal Crusade: Oorah! Taking a Look at Chaos Space Marines
• Warhammer 40.000: Eternal Crusade: Live Stream Episode 5 - Tank vs Tank Action
• General: Armored Warfare Urban Warfare Trailer Released
• General: Alienware Console to Bring Steam to the Couch
• World of Warcraft: Fond Memories of World of Warcraft’s Early Days
• Guild Wars 2: The Dragon's Reach Part 2 to Launch Today

Elder Scrolls Online: Spotlight on the Latest PvP Changes Posted: 11 Aug 2014 05:41 PM PDT ESO offers me something that I can't figure out, it keeps me entertained, it keeps me busy. I'm always trying to figure out new and better builds, and before WoW changed its talent system to incredibly simplified system, it too offered me this. However, there are aspects in ESO's PvP that have me questioning their design idea. In this week's column I want to address some of them and provide my ideas as to what would make ESO an even better experience for players.

General: Heroes of Might & Magic VII Announced Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:16 AM PDT Ubisoft has announced Heroes of Might & Magic VII is in development and has released a new trailer to entice fans of the iconic series. It's an amazing video with Duke Ivan calling together the Shadow Council in an effort to end a war.

General: Shadow Realms Announced by Bioware Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:00 AM PDT During Gamescom, Bioware has finally unveiled its latest project, Shadow Realms. In SR, a team of four hero players take on a single player-controlled enemy. The game is set in the modern world and will be released episodically in chapters.

Guild Wars 2: ArenaNet Announces Competitive Tournament Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:29 AM PDT During Gamescom this week, ArenaNet announced that it will be starting a competitive tournament for Guild Wars 2. The World Tournament Series will take place in North America, Europe and China and players will compete for a $150,000 prize pool. In addition, the next Feature Pack will be focused on PvP in game.

Dragon Age: Inquisition: The Enemy of Thedas Trailer Released Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:17 AM PDT Bioware is off to a big start at Gamescom with the release of the latest Dragon Age: Inquisition trailer. Called "The Enemy of Thedas", the video shows a lot of explosive action and raises many questions for fans of the series including the appearance of Hawke and the Grey Warden late in the trailer. Check it out!

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Making Your Mark on the Galaxy in Galactic Strongholds Posted: 12 Aug 2014 11:36 PM PDT Galactic Strongholds, the latest digital expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, is set to launch for subscribers in a couple of days here and we recently had a chance to take a tour of the new content with SWTOR senior producer Bruce MacLean and Galactic Strongholds producer Jack Wood.

Guild Wars 2: Got Season 2 Questions? We Need Them! (Beware Spoilers) Posted: 11 Aug 2014 09:47 PM PDT After today's launch of The Dragon's Reach: Part 2 in Guild Wars 2, we're now headed for a mid-season break until the Fall. But there's one more Points of Interest show before the Living World team goes quiet, and we need your questions to give ArenaNet!

World of Warcraft: Blizzard to Immortalize Robin Williams In Game Posted: 11 Aug 2014 06:01 PM PDT After a passionate petition drive from World of Warcraft players to see Robin Williams immortalized in the game with a special memorial, Blizzard has responded that it is "taking care of it" with a Robin Williams NPC. Robin Williams played WoW for several years and was an avid gamer. Mr. Williams died on Monday, August 11th.

World of Warcraft: Blizzard Trolls Fans in Latest Artcraft Posted: 11 Aug 2014 05:30 PM PDT The latest Artcraft developer diary for World of Warcraft has been posted. This week's entry features a look at the new Troll character models that will arrive with Warlords of Draenor. Both male and female models are included!

SMITE: Headed to XBox One in 2015 Posted: 12 Aug 2014 04:15 PM PDT Hi Rez Studios announced that it will be bringing SMITE to the XBox One via the ID-Xbox self-publishing program. The announcement was made at Gamescom with the additional news that SMITE would be available on XBox One in 2015.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: New Developer Diary Gives Insight Into Setting Posted: 12 Aug 2014 03:44 PM PDT The developers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have released a fantastic new diary that gives players and fans an inside look at the game's setting, as well as some insight into Geralt himself. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is due out in early 2015. Check it out!

Star Trek Online: Voyager's Journey Paves Way for Delta Rising Posted: 12 Aug 2014 02:59 PM PDT As part of the build up to the Star Trek Online expansion, Delta Rising, the official site has been updated with a new blog post that gives the story of Voyager's journey. Voyager is integral to Delta Rising as the expansion takes place thirty years after Voyager's return.

General: You've Been Chosen "Fire" Trailer Arrives Posted: 12 Aug 2014 02:44 PM PDT Ahead of tomorrow's Bioware announcement about the mysterious "You've Been Chosen" campaign, a new video called "Fire" has been released. It lives up to the title so check it out and let us know what you speculate will be announced tomorrow.

General: SOE Live Via Stream Announced Posted: 12 Aug 2014 02:34 PM PDT For those unable to attend this week's SOE Live in Las Vegas, there is good news on the horizon. SOE will be live streaming over twenty events and panels to be held during the annual convention. Check out the image below for more information.

ArcheAge: Archeage Closed Beta Event 3: Blood & Bounty Posted: 12 Aug 2014 01:49 PM PDT MMORPG.com is pleased to present our third round of Archeage beta keys! These keys are for the all new 'Blood & Bounty' beta event that will run from 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7) on Thursday, August 14 and run through 10:00 AM PDT (GMT-7) on Monday, August 18. These keys won't last long so get yours now while supplies last!

Risen 3: Titan Lords: So Far, So Cheesy Posted: 12 Aug 2014 07:33 AM PDT It was with trepidation that I booted up Risen 3: Titan Lords, Piranha Bytes' newest entry to the RPG franchise. Out today on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, Risen 3 is still rife with the campy voice overs its forebears are famous for, but I'd also say my first couple of hours have been... surprisingly fun. Titan Lords isn't going to sweep awards at year's end, but so far it's been an enjoyable RPG. Read on for more of our first impressions.

Destiny: Cooperative Multiplayer Shines in Gamescom Trailer Posted: 12 Aug 2014 12:05 PM PDT Bungie has released a trailer for Destiny, what it calls "the most preordered game in history". The trailer shows off cooperative multiplayer and was shown for the first time at this week's Gamescom convention in Germany.

Champions Online: Steel Crusade to Arrive September 4th Posted: 12 Aug 2014 11:49 AM PDT Perfect World and Cryptic Studios have announced that the next major content update for Champions Online will hit official release on September 4th. Steel Crusade will see Millennium City under attack by an evil super robot named Mechanon. The first wave of Steel Crusade will introduce three new instances and pave the way for a second release later in the fall.

Risen 3: Titan Lords: Factions Introduced in New Release Day Trailer Posted: 12 Aug 2014 11:45 AM PDT Deep Silver has announced that today marks the official release for Risen 3: Titan Lords has officially arrived. Players can check it out on PlayStation 3, XBox 360 or PC. To celebrate the day, the team has also released a new video to introduce players to the game's factions.

Warhammer 40.000: Eternal Crusade: Oorah! Taking a Look at Chaos Space Marines Posted: 10 Aug 2014 06:33 PM PDT This week we will be talking a look at Chaos Space Marines, their arms and armor, a peek at the Chapters and what they are all about, and speculate a little bit on their future.

Warhammer 40.000: Eternal Crusade: Live Stream Episode 5 - Tank vs Tank Action Posted: 12 Aug 2014 10:15 AM PDT In case you missed last Friday's Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade live stream event, Behaviour Interactive has posted it to their YouTube channel. In this episode, the team showed off tank vs tank action and fielded fan questions during the stream.

General: Armored Warfare Urban Warfare Trailer Released Posted: 12 Aug 2014 09:38 AM PDT Obsidian Entertainment and My.com have released a new trailer in celebration of this week's Gamescom convention. Called "Urban Warfare", the video shows off tank warfare in modern vehicles. In addition, players are invited to head to the official site to sign up for beta testing.

General: Alienware Console to Bring Steam to the Couch Posted: 12 Aug 2014 09:33 AM PDT Alienware has announced that its console, set to be released later this year, will bring Steam gaming to the living room. The Alienware Alpha console will set users $549, with more powerful versions also available.

World of Warcraft: Fond Memories of World of Warcraft’s Early Days Posted: 10 Aug 2014 06:22 PM PDT For me, my 2004 game was World of Warcraft. I eagerly awaited both EQ2 and WoW, but after getting into the Closed Beta for the latter, my fate was sealed. Everything about those early Azerothian days seems great in hindsight... until I remember why I quit the first time (lack of level 60 content). But today, I thought I'd pull out one of my fondest Azerothian memories from the fall and winter of 2004, when we were all noobs slinging Chuck Norris jokes in General Chat.

Guild Wars 2: The Dragon's Reach Part 2 to Launch Today Posted: 12 Aug 2014 07:21 AM PDT ArenaNet has announced that the Guild Wars 2 Living Story Part 2, Dragon's Reach Part 2, will launch today. The world leaders are gathering together to figure out how to stop Mordemoth's growing menace.

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