General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Newegg Daily Deals: Western Digital Green 1TB HDD, Zalman 2 Ball CPU Cooler, and More!

Posted: 12 Feb 2015 02:21 PM PST

Western Digital Green 1TB HDDnewegg logo

Top Deal:

Some of our favorite things are green, like the Incredible Hulk, green tea, and money. And some others, not so much, like snot, vomit, and envy. Today's top deal falls into the former category -- it's for a Western Digital Green 1TB IntelliPower HDD for $50 with free shipping (normally $55 - use coupon code: [ESCANKN42]). This 3.5-inch drive has a SATA 6Gbps interface, power saving features (you know, in case you decide to build your data center), and runs cool and quiet.

Other Deals:

Zalman 2 Ball CPU Cooler for $20 with $5  shipping (normally $30 - use coupon code: [EMCANKN66]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate)

Samsung 500GB USB 3.0 Portable SSD for $280 with $2 shipping (normally $300 - use coupon code: [EMCANKN28])

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $70 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [ESCANKN29])

Seagate NAS 3TB SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive for $109 with free shipping (normally $120 - use coupon code: [ESCANKN32])

Unique Phantom One Desktop on Kickstarter Gets an Intriguing Price Cut

Posted: 12 Feb 2015 11:06 AM PST

Phantom One DesktopsHow do you like me now?

Earlier this week we wrote about the Phantom One, a small form factor PC on Kickstarter that's comparable in size to a six pack of Corona beer (or pretty much any brand of suds using 12-ounce bottles). There's also a bamboo option, which adds another unique selling point -- to our knowledge, there isn't another desktop made of bamboo. There hasn't been much action on the Kickstarter page, presumably because the systems are cost prohibitive, so One Technology has gone and dropped the price.

Originally the asking price was $1,900 for the black acrylic and $1,950 for the bamboo model. As we noted, those prices seemed a bit stiff. After receiving similar feedback from others, One Technology has lowered the prices to $1,650 for the black acrylic and $1,700 for the bamboo version, chopping $250 off each model.

My colleagues are in the process of obtaining one of these machines for review and so we'll collectively reserve judgement until then, but in the meantime, I have to admit that these little desktops are suddenly compelling. The price is for the entire system, not just the desktop, and as a refresher, they come configured with an Intel Core i7 4790K CPU, Asus Z97i-Plus mini ITX motherboard with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, 16GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD, GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, 450W PSU, and Windows 7 64-bit.

I went back to Newegg and priced the components a second time and noticed that I forgot to include a power supply last time around. Leaving off both the PSU and case, I again came to about $1,200 worth of hardware -- slightly north or south depending on specific component selection.

Taking that into consideration, the price disparity before factoring in a case and PSU is $450 to $500. To keep the math neat, let's subtract $50 for the PSU, leaving a price difference of $400 (black acrylic) or $450 (bamboo).

So yes, you can build a comparable system cheaper, but considering you get what's supposed to be a high end case (especially the bamboo option) and labor, what was once cost prohibitive is suddenly a lot more compelling. Also, keep in mind these are discounted Kickstarter prices -- retail pricing will be higher.

If that changes things, you can find the Phantom One's Kickstarter page here.

Update

Some of you have been wondering if One Technology would considering selling their unique cases by themselves, so I brought the question to them. Here's what one of the team members told me:

"Depending on the outcome we may be able to just sell the case itself. But we believe it will not be successful as a case due it's design and limitations placed on builders. Each case takes over 3 hours on a precision laser cutter and CNC mill to make and this limits us to a very low number we can produce per month. There is a unique $100 PCI-E riser ribbon that greatly inflates the cost. Our case doesn't offer the flexibility and user friendly design that we would like to offer as just a case.

However, since we only use standard off the shelf components (minus pci-e riser), the possibility is there although it would be very difficult for the user. We accepted this as a sacrifice in order make our case twice as small as competitors (comparison chart below) and give it a unique footprint.

We do have a design for possible mass production for the case only, but it would still need a large overhaul and a lot more funding and manufacturer partnerships (ie. NCase M1 $150k fd + manufacturing partnership with Lian-Li prior to launch). Upgrading individual components are possible though, since the cables are already there and fitted, it is a little more accessible."

Phantom One Size

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Dell Chromebook 11 Boasts Schoolyard Durability

Posted: 12 Feb 2015 10:17 AM PST

Dell Chromebook 11Can withstand the rigors of school life

Where Chromebooks currently thrive is in the education field, so it makes sense to focus on durability when designing new models. That's what Dell did with its Chromebook 11, the company's second generation Chromebook that will be available to order later this week. According to Dell, the Chromebook 11 is "schoolyard tough" and can handle bumps, drops, spills, and other hazards that students encounter on a daily basis.

Dell subjected the Chromebook 11 to MIL-STD 810G testing for pressure, temperature, shock, and vibration. The OEM isn't billing it as a rugged laptop, though there are a few characteristics that sway in that direction, such as a rubberized trim to absorb shock when accidentally dropped, the company said.

It also has a liquid-resistant keyboard and Corning Gorilla Glass to protect to the 11.6-inch TN display. With the latter, Dell wasn't necessarily thinking about scratches -- instead, the OEM told PCWorld that one of the ways students end up breaking Chromebooks is by closing the lid without clearing the keyboard of pencils and other objects.

The Chromebook 11 features an Intel Celeron N2840 CPU based on Bay Trail M, 2GB or 4GB of DDR3L RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, front-facing HD webcam, and up to 10 hours of battery life.

In related news, Dell also announced the Venue 10 and Venue 10 Pro, a pair of new tablets also aimed at education customers. The former runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and the latter is a Windows 8.1 slate, both with a 10.1-inch HD or Full HD display.

Dell's Chromebook 11 will be available on February 12 starting at $250. The Venue 10 Pro will make a debut on March 3 starting at $330 for the tablet or $380 with a keyboard option, while the Venue 10 will launch sometime this spring.

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Box EKM Gives Customers Their Own Set of Encryption Keys

Posted: 12 Feb 2015 06:15 AM PST

KeysChasing bigger customers and thwarting government requests for data

Cloud storage provider Box is experimenting with a new security solution called Enterprise Key Management (EKM). Currently available in beta, EKM adds another layer of security that it hopes will attract big businesses in regulated industries like banking and finance, healthcare, and so forth. There's also a benefit for customers who to make it more difficult for the government to get their hands on data.

"Industries like finance, government, legal and healthcare are facing a new set of challenges when it comes to establishing control over their content – and who can access it – without hindering collaboration and productivity," said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO, Box. "With Box EKM, we've removed the final barrier to cloud adoption for industries that require the highest levels of protection over their information."

The effort is a joint collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Germalto. For customers who sign up for the service, Box will work with them to provision hardware security modules (HSMs) made by SafeNet and provided by Germalto in both AWS and their own data center. The customers manage these HSMs, while Box is connected to them via a secure and dedicated connection.

From there, files that are uploaded get encrypted with a unique encryption key for each version of the file, just as Box currently does for all customers. What's different for EKM customers is that Box sends the key to their HSM, which is then encrypted with the customer's own key.

Box EKM

EKM customers effectively gain complete control over who can and can't access their data. Even Box can't get to it, so if the government comes knocking with a data request, Box's hands are tied.

To be clear, this is a play for big business, not home consumers. But if it works as advertised, this could eventually trickle into the consumer space.

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Posted by Shri Krishna

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