General Gaming Article |
- Dell Jumps on Mini PC Movement with Inspiron Micro Desktop
- Welcome to Maximum PC 2.0
- Oculus Rift PC Requirements Leave Out Aging Hardware
- Nvidia Brews Up Game Ready Drivers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Maximum PC's Turbo Build, Spring 2015
- Maximum PC's Midrange Build, Spring 2015
- Maximum PC's Budget Gamer Build, Spring 2015
- The Maximum PC Freeze, and Thaw
- Best of the Best: Cooling
- Meet Maximum PC's New Senior Editor
- Best of the Best: Storage
- Terms and Conditions
- Advertise With Us
- Best of the Best: Motherboards
- Best of the Best: GPUs
- Best of the Best: CPUs
- Best of the Best: Gaming Displays
- Contact Us
- Nvidia Starts Streaming Grid Games at Full HD 60 FPS
- Newegg Rolls Out New Line of Business Class PCs Starting at $649
- Updated: Lenovo Fesses Up to Hastily Pushing Flawed LaVie Z 360 to Market
- How to Use GIMP Photo Editor
- How to Rip, Convert, and Stream Your Media
- Newegg Daily Deals: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Video Card, Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD, and More!
- Corsair RGB Keyboard Owners Can Now Share Lighting Profiles
- Gordon Moore Sees His Self-Titled Law Lasting 10 More Years
- G.Skill Finds New Frequency Ceiling for Retail Ripjaws 4 DDR4 Series at 3,666MHz
- Build It: Big Capacity, Small Form
- Newegg Daily Deals: WD Green 4TB Intellipower HDD, Asus GeForce GTX 970, and More!
- JEDEC: Your SSD Needs a Power Source to Avoid Losing Data
- FCC Denies Request to Delay Implementing Net Neutrality Rules
- Ask the Doctor: Upgrade Timing, Software Updates, SSD Form Factors, and More
- Fixstars Announces World’s First 6TB 2.5-Inch SATA SSD
- Microsoft: Surface 3 Not Yet Ready for Windows 10 Preview
- Thousands Flock to Fund $9 Computer on Kickstarter
- 20 Best Android Games
- How to Root Android
- Android Guide (Version 4.2)
- Build It: Putting Together a Haswell-E Box
- Newegg Daily Deals: Asus GeForce GTX 980 Graphics Card, CM Storm Trooper Case, and More!
- Don't Look Beyond Windows 10, It's the Last Version of Windows
- Newegg Daily Deals: Motherboard Madness Edition!
- AMD Announces 7000 Series Mobile APUs, Cuts Price of Desktop Chips
- Gigabyte P55K is First in a New Line of Gaming Laptops
- Dell XPS 13 Review
- Myst to Make a Return (as a TV Series on Hulu)
- Google Lets Slip Forthcoming Android M Announcement
- Linksys EA8500 is First Wireless-AC Router to Support MU-MIMO
- How To Use Licensed Music in Your YouTube Videos
- Newegg Daily Deals: XFX TS Series 550W Power Supply, MSI GTX 960 Video Card, and More!
- Intel Eyes Real Time Analytics with New Xeon Processor E7 v3 CPU Line
- Oculus Rift Will Ship to Consumers in First Quarter of 2016
- Newegg Daily Deals: Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2, Asus ROG GL551 Gaming Laptop, and More!
- EVGA Bundles Witcher 3 and Arkham Knight with GeForce GTX 980 and 970
- Microsoft Releases Surface 3 Tablet, Offers Up to $150 Trade-In for Older Models
- Mushkin Expands Reactor Series SSD Capacity Options
- Build It: Your Own Super-Charged Set-Top Box
- A Visual History of PC Game Graphics
- Newegg Daily Deals: LG Internal DVD Burner, Asus 24-inch Monitor, and More!
- Microsoft Expands Availability of Office 2016 to General Public
- Microsoft CFO Discusses Windows as a Service Strategy
- Microsoft Acquires Surface Pen Technology from Israeli Firm N-trig
- Lenovo’s Impossibly Light LaVie Z Laptop is Now Available
- Microsoft Puts Windows Media Center Out to Pasture
- SolidRun CuBox-i is a 2-inch Cube with Quad-Core ARM SoC, 4GB of RAM
- Newegg Daily Deals: Sapphire Dual-X Radeon R9 280, WD Green 2TB HDD, and More!
- How to set up RAID 10 in Windows 8 and Linux
- Microsoft’s Age Guessing Algorithm is a Jerk
- PC Gamer Creates the E3 for PCs
- The New Maximum PC is Coming
- How To Set Up a RAID 5 Array in Windows 8 and Linux
- Unreal Engine 4 Adds Support for SteamVR
- Razer Seiren Digital Microphone Goes Pro, Now Available to Pre-Order
- Falcon Northwest's Tiny Tiki PC Feasts on 18-Core Xeon E5-2699 V3 CPU
- Newegg Daily Deals: Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Router, Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Laptop, and More!
- Microsoft Lays Groundwork for Android and iOS Apps to Run on Windows 10
- Acer C720-3404 Review
- Asus Strix Radeon R9 285 Review
- Doctor: SSD Migration, Office 2010, and Wireless Mice
- Dell XPS 18 Review
- Mighty Maxwell Video Card Roundup
- MSI GS70 Stealth Pro-210 Review
- MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming 4G Review
- MSI Dangles Prestige Series Laptops in Front of Creative Professionals
- We're Hiring
- NZXT Noctis 450 Adds a Glow to Mid-Tower Case Market
- HyperX Releases Mean Looking Savage SSD Line Into the Wild
- A Brief History of Steam
- Origin PC Genesis Review
- Origin Chronos Z Review
- Newegg Daily Deals: Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB SSD, Asus GeForce GTX 970, and More!
- LG Makes Fashion Statement with Leather Clad G4 Smartphone
- Asus Starts Shipping Fancy Zenbook Pro UX501 Ultrabook with 4K Display
- Valve Closes Door on Steam Workshop's Paid Mod Program
- How To Build a New PC
- Lenovo U31 Notebook Could Hit U.S. Store Shelves After All
- Newegg Daily Deals: MSI GP60 Leopard Pro 825 Gaming Laptop, Two OCZ Arc 100 120GB SSDs, and More!
- Lenovo's ThinkCentre Chromebox Targets Education and Small Businesses
- Take a Moment of Silence for Google's Discontinued Nexus 7 Tablet
- Play Ghost Recon Phantoms, Get Maximum PC
| Dell Jumps on Mini PC Movement with Inspiron Micro Desktop Posted: 18 May 2015 12:30 PM PDT Think smallDell apparently has big aspirations to compete in the mini PC market that's gaining a bit of steam. Over on the company's website, you can now configure an Inspiron Micro Desktop with Bay Trail-D inside and running Windows 8.1 with Bing starting at $179. That's the first two available models. The $179 configuration comes standard with an Intel Celeron J1800 dual-core processor (2.41GHz to 2.58GHz, 1MB L2 cache), 2GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM, 32GB solid state drive, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI and DisplayPort output, one USB 3.0 port, three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet jack, SD card reader, and Windows 8.1 with Bing 64-bit. The second configuration bumps the processor up to an Intel Pentium J2900 chip, which is a quad-core part clocked at 2.41GHz to 2.66GHz with 2MB of L2 cache. Neither processor supports Hyper Threading. These types of machines are neat for basic computing chores. It's not clear if the Inspiron Micro has a VESA mount, which would allow you to attach it to the back of a monitor. Add a wireless keyboard and mouse, and you have a home brewed all-in-one of sorts. If you're interested, you can configure and purchase an Inspiron Micro here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 18 May 2015 11:35 AM PDT You may have noticed that we look much like our sister site, PC Gamer. This is a good thing. The site is responsive now, and changes to fit whatever resolution and device you may be using to view it. More and more people are browsing Maximum PC on their phones, and we're happy to say that the site is actually readable on mobile devices now. There were two options: Launch late in the year and get a more customized Maximum PC look, or launch earlier and look similar to PC Gamer. The decision was made to launch early so that the Maximum PC staff could start using a much more modern and faster CMS for producing content. So, we took the path that would allow us to produce better content more quickly. The aesthetic aspects of the new site, fine-tuning the look, will come later. Priority: content. You may also have noticed that there's a lot more content that's readily available on the main page. How-To guides, Best of the Best, news, and reviews. It's easier to glance through the homepage now and filter out what it is that interests you and what doesn't. It's clean, easy to read, and just overall a lot better. For launch, we're bringing you not just a new site, but new content. We rewrote and updated the entire Best of the Best section. We covered critical components, and more components are on the way. Check them out: Best of the Best: GPUs And in case you missed them: Choosing the best AMD Graphics Card Choosing good gear wouldn't be any good if we didn't also look at fully building out systems. So we did. Over the last two weeks, we gathered the parts for three killer builds at three different price points: entry-level, midrange, and high-end. We'll be doing these builds and other builds regularly, so take a look! Maximum PC's Budget Gamer Build For May 2015 We're noticing that there are still a few emails rolling in about wanting Linux coverage, so in case you're a Linux fan, we started doing more articles for you! How to Set Up a RAID 1 Array in Windows 8 and Linux For those who subscribe to the magazine, we have a big Linux feature in the June issue as well, and more content to come. In case you're wondering where the PDF archives, RSS feeds, and podcasts are: http://www.maximumpc.com/pdf-archives/ And RSS feeds are to the social menu on the top right. We're currently indexing the podcast section, so that'll be a lot more complete soon, and we'll add PDF archives as a permanent link to the footer. If you're noticing that there's some missing content from the last few days, no worries, we're still syncing our old content with the new site and it should be complete anytime now. The old commenting system is now gone, replaced with Disqus. If you don't yet have your name, go register for it now! With Disqus, you'll be able to use one login for multiple sites. A great number of popular publications use Disqus, and if you're a regular reader of some of them you'll now be able to comment on, track, and follow conversations in a single dashboard. There's a lot more to do, and there's a lot more coming. We're working on a few site features that you're sure to enjoy, and we're hammering away at a very special magazine issue, too. So given all that, we hope you like where we're headed! The future is bright, and all of us at Maximum PC are already plugging away at more kick-ass ideas. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oculus Rift PC Requirements Leave Out Aging Hardware Posted: 18 May 2015 10:12 AM PDT Is your PC up to the task?Hype has been high for the Oculus Rift VR headset ever since it first debuted on Kickstarter what seems like a century ago (in reality, it was nearly two and a half years ago). Know what else is high? The system requirements to run Oculus Rift (we would have also accepted as answers "Snoop Dog" or "Snoop Lion"). Let's get right to it. In order to partake in the virtual worlds served up by Oculus Rift, it's recommended that your PC look like this:
Those are the recommended specs. Aside from those, you'll need Windows 7 SPI or newer, two USB 3.0 ports, and HDMI 1.3 video output supporting a 297MHz clock via a direct output architecture. "Today, that system's specification is largely driven by the requirements of VR graphics. To start with, VR lets you see graphics like never before," Atman Binstock, Chief Architect at Oculus, explained in a blog post. "Good stereo VR with positional tracking directly drives your perceptual system in a way that a flat monitor can't. As a consequence, rendering techniques and quality matter more than ever before, as things that are imperceivable on a traditional monitor suddenly make all the difference when experienced in VR. Therefore, VR increases the value of GPU performance." There's a lot of raw rendering needed for Oculus Rift to work its magic, as it runs at 2160x1200 at 90Hz split over dual displays. That equates to 233 million pixels per second, versus a traditional 1080p game at 60Hz that requires 124 million shaded pixels per second. "At the default eye-target scale, the Rift's rendering requirements go much higher: around 400 million shaded pixels per second. This means that by raw rendering costs alone, a VR game will require approximately 3x the GPU power of 1080p rendering," Binstock added. So there you have it -- Oculus Rift is taking no prisoners. The scheduled launch is sometime in the first quarter of 2016, so there's still time to fill up that coin jar and upgrade your PC, if needed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nvidia Brews Up Game Ready Drivers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Posted: 18 May 2015 09:31 AM PDT Optimizing for Witcher 3CD Projeckt Red's much anticipated The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt releases to PC in just a matter of hours (at the time of this writing), as well as Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Just in time for its Windows debut, Nvidia has made available a new set of WHQL drivers, release 352.86, that are "Game Ready" and optimized for Witcher 3. On top of that, Nvidia has put together a tweaking guide on how to squeeze the most performance out of the new title. The Game Ready driver includes support for SLI and one-click optimizations via GeForce Experience when playing Witcher 3. In addition, it also adds or updates SLI profiles for a handful of titles. They include:
Nvidia also included a handful of fixes, which you can digest in the release notes (PDF). Once you've downloaded and installed the drivers, you'll probably be itching to jump into Witcher 3. Understandable, though if you have some time to kill, you can check out Nvidia's Graphics, Performance, and Tweaking Guide for a wealth of information on the various settings available. You can download the drivers here, and if you haven't yet ordered Witcher 3 (but would like to), you can grab it from Steam for 15 percent off if you're quick (it will go back to normal price once it unlocks later today). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum PC's Turbo Build, Spring 2015 Posted: 18 May 2015 07:46 AM PDT For the first web edition of Blueprints, we went big for our Turbo build. Big case, big on memory, and big on video performance. The Turbo is meant for gamers and enthusiasts with deep pockets, so we didn't have to hold back (well, at least not too much). The Turbo budget allows a lot of flexibility in our builds, and we get the most room to play. And trust us, we had fun picking parts and building this rig. So, what did we choose for this beast? Check it out:
Priced at a little under $3,000, the Turbo build took advantage of technologies like RAID and SLI to boost performance. After all, why have one when you can have two? The CM Storm Trooper provided a comfy home for all of our components, with plenty of room to spare. We took out the top hard drive cage and re-inserted it with the fan toward the front rather than the side, to provide extra airflow to the GTX 980s. Cable management in the case was a breeze, and we had plenty of room to mount the Nepton 280L up top. The two 980s outperform a single GTX TITAN X for nearly the same price, and handle 4K gaming pretty well. The GPU pair had no problem with any of our benchmarks. The omission of an optical drive is no mistake (okay, maybe a little one), because we only ever use one to install Windows. If you still crave a Bluray player, you can pick one up for as little as $50. The 1300W SuperNOVA is little on the high side for power requirements, but we prefer having plenty of headroom for additional graphics cards and storage drives. On top of that, the 10-year warranty on SuperNOVA PSUs sounds pretty bangin' to us. So, how did it perform? Take a look at these scores.
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| Maximum PC's Midrange Build, Spring 2015 Posted: 18 May 2015 07:45 AM PDT Our midrange build is anything but average. As you know, we like power. We like speed. We like pretty, shiny things. Our midrange build attempts to give you all of that at a sensible price. You won't find TITAN Xs in SLI here, but what you will find is a solid gaming machine that can handle damn near everything you throw at it. We keep our midrange build at $1,500 and below, which is what many people would expect to pay for a new laptop. We went shopping at Newegg to see what we could build, and here's what we came up with:
While the choice of a larger cooler like the H110 is a little on the tight side for the Source 530, we were able to get it to fit by moving the DVD drive down to the second drive bay. We also were able to squeeze in our CPU power cable through the corner to the upper-left of the motherboard, which made for tidier cable management. The NZXT case's sexy and stylish flat sides don't allow for lax cable management, so you really have to tie down your cables if you ever hope to get the right side panel closed. We managed to stow our cables with a little bit of work. The modular PSU helped out a lot in reducing the clutter. The 850W PSU also gives headroom for upgrades, in case you want to add a video card or a drive or two. The SSD isn't massive enough to hold all of your Steam library, but it will be enough to hold Windows, some key apps, and a game or two. For an extra $120, you can add another EVO and RAID them together with the motherboard's onboard Intel Rapid Storage Technology, and get a screaming-fast 500GB SSD array. This build had a respectable showing in our benchmarks, and won't leave you disappointed in any games. That is, unless you're attempting to run them at 4K with the settings cranked up. For that, you'll need something more like our Turbo build.
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| Maximum PC's Budget Gamer Build, Spring 2015 Posted: 18 May 2015 07:45 AM PDT Everyone would like to have the biggest, meanest, and hungriest PC out there. Some of us, though, just can't afford to go too big or crazy. We get it, homie. There's rent to be paid, and the landlord won't take 3DMark scores as currency. But that doesn't mean you can't game like a boss on less than executive pay. Limited budgets mean compromises, and we like the challenge of finding out how to get the most out of each dollar. And for budget builders, we know that your rig is a work-in-progress. You might not have the coin for all the parts you want, so you have to leave room for upgrades. That's what we attempted to do for you here.
With our Budget Gamer build, we try to stick close to the $800 mark, but we went a tad bit over here. The good news is that when we looked up the prices, there were $45 in rebates to be had. Rebates and prices fluctuate and rotate all the time, so you might find some of these parts for less if you spring on a Shell Shocker deal or holiday sale. The motherboard we chose is solid for AM3+ processors, with plenty of options and features. We mounted it in Cooler Master's High Air Flow chassis, which is spacious as hell for a mid tower. Our only real complaint is that the case only has USB 2.0 front ports. That's not damning for this build, though. We included a rather beefy 750W power supply for this build, because this is a base for upgrades. You shouldn't be forced to buy a new PSU with your first upgrade, so we opted for a little headroom in the wattage department. During our CPU benchmarks, the back exhaust fan spit out air that was a good bit warmer than our ambient 72 degree Fahrenheit office environment. In 3DMark Fire Strike, temps topped out in the high 40s Celsius. That's a bit warmer than our Intel chips, but still not nearing the danger zone. We can attribute that to the air-cooled solution we chose for the build. It is cooling with air, you know. The heat's gotta go somewhere. For even cooler temps, we'd recommend going with a closed-loop cooler, as a cooling upgrade to accommodate overclocking. In benchmarks this system did quite well for the price point, just don't expect to play anything besides movies at 4K.
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| The Maximum PC Freeze, and Thaw Posted: 18 May 2015 03:41 AM PDT New site, more content, a lot more Kick-Ass A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article letting everyone know that Maximum PC would be going through a transition . It's here. During this weekend, www.maximumpc.com will go through a short content freeze. The new site and platform will go live on Monday around noon PST . That means, you'll have enough time to be productive at work before drifting away into PC information land. So what exactly will you see? The current website is aging, and there's a lot of content coming that we want to highlight and make finding easier. The current platform that we use to publish on will change too. We're doing this for two main reasons: more articles presented in an easier to digest method, and making publishing less painful for our staff. It takes some wrangling in our current CMS to get articles to appear just right, and we would like to make everything as efficient as possible. So the site will change. Some may not like it and that's okay. Since it's all code and software, we can improve and tweak things as time goes on. We can do that because the new platform is more flexible and modular. Comments will change over to Disqus, so make sure you snatch the name you want. If none of this matters to you and you just want more content, we have that too. We're going to launch with a rewritten Best of the Best section. We'll keep it more frequently updated on what we think are the top picks for your money. But this time around, we're going to split categories into three: The best choice, the smart choice, and the value choice. We'd like to get a section on the worst stuff to avoid too, but that'll come a little later on. Our build guides are also relaunching with a focus on three price points: $2000, $1500, and $800. We attempt to pick smart choices in components for each one, with a lean towards being open for future upgrades. You'll see that go live on Monday as well. Reviews are being increased as well. You'll see more products and more product categories, and you'll also be able to see real time price tracking. You may have also noticed that we have some new friends on staff. I'd like to mention them now in case you didn't already see their names pop up on the site and the magazine. Say hi to: Jarred Walton, Senior Editor Jarred comes to us most recently from The Wirecutter , and AnandTech before that, where he spent 11 years distilling through an ocean of hardware and tech. Jarred is versed in everything from CPUs to GPUs to displays to laptops. Alex Campbell, Associate Editor Alex is our build commando and in-house Linux aficionado. He deeply cares about the Linux community and previously spent several months writing at IDG. Alex authored some of the new Linux guides you've been seeing. He also tends to stay at work until late at night, tinkering with hardware and benchmarks. We're moving in this direction: more tech, more how-tos, more builds, more gear. There are other things in the works that I'm excited to introduce but are in the cooking stages, so I'll have to leave you hanging for a little. Rest assured, they're features you will like. So, as we prepare for the new platform, enjoy the weekend! We'll see you on the other side. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 16 May 2015 04:29 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meet Maximum PC's New Senior Editor Posted: 16 May 2015 05:48 AM PDT Old school meets new school! Hello Maximum PC ! It's great to be here. As the latest addition to the Maximum PC team, it's tradition for me to take a moment to introduce myself. I could tell you all about what I've done, about how I'm something of the "Old Man of the Mountain" now, but that's no fun. Instead, if you'll grant me some lenience as this is my first post here, join me as I reminisce about my computer history. Like many of our readers, I've been involved with computers and technology since a young age, hailing all the way back to the time of the Commodore 64 and BASIC – or if you want to really dig, the first computing device I can remember using was the Magnavox Odyssey2, chugging along at 1.79MHz. Yeehaw! That showed up under a Christmas tree when I was just six years old, but we could all tell what was in the package. My brother "ruined Christmas" when he decided to get a sneak peak on Christmas Eve…the cartridges weren't all that robust, and he broke one of the games. Oops. But as I was saying, my computer addiction (no, really, I can quit any time I want!) started with the C-64 and its rocking 1MHz processor, playing games like the Bard's Tale, SSI Gold Box D&D, Wasteland, Neuromancer, and many others. I also spent time typing in programs from a book and learning a bit of crude BASIC in the process. I didn't know what all the commands and instructions did at the time, but I knew how to load games and it was a start. I later learned how to dial the local BBS (Bulletin Board System) as a precursor to the Internet. Watching ASCII stream across the screen using a 300 baud (300 bits per second) connection resulted in about one 40 character line per second. When we later upgraded to a 2400 baud modem, let me tell you, it was amazing! For the younger generation, talk of such crazy slow computing devices likely sounds incomprehensible. But then even for someone of my generation – those that grew up with computers being taught in elementary schools – the earlier days of vacuum tubes, ENIAC, and punch card readers seem equally absurd. Our job here is to look at the present and future of computing, however, so I think it's great to also remember where we started. The changes in my youth came fast and furious (no, not the movies). We went from an early IBM compatible PC XT to a PC AT within a year, and the first time I used a hard drive was a revelation. I was twelve and used to waiting minutes to load games or other programs from floppy disks; now we had a computer that could load up a game in seconds. I was hooked. Goodbye C-64, hello DOS! The graphics were crude on those early ASCII games, sometimes worse than the C-64 sprites, but thankfully my father was enough of a computer geek that he fueled the fire within me, moving to a 286, adding an EGA card then VGA... Image courtesy of theoldcomputer.com As soon as I came of age, I saved up my pennies for an entire summer and plunked down a not-insubstantial chunk of money on a custom 386 with a whopping 4MB RAM, 40MB HDD, an early Cirrus Logic SVGA card with a 15-inch SVGA monitor, an AdLib sound card… and thanks to Origin Systems and Sierra Online, I just had to have a Roland CM-32L sound module. If Maximum PC had been around at the time, we would have been recommending the Roland MT-32/CM-32L for those that absolutely had to own the best sound money could buy. I was able to play Wing Commander in all its glory. Huzzah! And just like today's high-end GPUs that cost $500+, the life of such a component was relatively short and it was retired from active use four years later. When people complain about how expensive PCs are today, they're forgetting the past. My $3000 system wasn't even top of the line at the time, and in today's dollars that would be like spending closer to $6000 on a new PC. You can certainly do that, but $1500 will buy a system that can handle any reasonable task, including QHD gaming. We've never had it so good! It was also money well spent as far as I'm concerned. My passion for technology has allowed me to play all the latest and greatest games, but more importantly it got me involved with PCs and hardware at a much deeper level, with job opportunities always around for computer geeks. Anyway, that's where my passion for technology was born, and I've kept it over the following decades. From my "Dream Machine" back in 1990 to the present day, I've used and abused more processors and components than I could hope to recall. I've run just about every major x86 CPU at one point or another, from the 8088 and 8086 through the latest Core i7 Haswell parts, and everything in between – including the AMD K6/K6-2/K6-III, Cyrix 5x86/6x86, and Transmeta to name a few. From CGA to EGA and VGA, then later to the 3dfx Voodoo paired with a ViRGE/325 and now the GeForce GTX 980, I've had the joy of sampling the best – and also the worst – that computer graphics chips have to offer. These days you can reasonably expect to run the latest and greatest PC games on a $200 GPU, though not necessarily at maximum quality or resolutions above 1080p. Again, we've never had it so good. I've spent most of the past decade writing about technology, covering systems, displays, notebooks, and more. And as much as I enjoy a good laptop, tablet, or smartphone, when it comes time to get "real" work done or play "real" games, I still typically end up at my desktop PC. There's just no beating the large displays, powerful processors, and amazing graphics you can get with a PC. My personal system is about due for an upgrade – not because I really need it, mind you – and it's as good a place as any to wrap things up. Here's what I'm running right now: Intel i7-4770K (Overclocked to a mild 4.1GHz on all cores) Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Z87 motherboard 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1866 CL9 RAM 2x ZOTAC GTX 970 4GB GPUs in SLI 480GB Corsair Neutron GTX SSD 1TB Samsung HDD be quiet! 850W Straight Power 80 Plus Gold PSU Corsair Obsidian 350D Case Acer XB280HK 4K G-SYNC Display Truly Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard Model 229 Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex Mouse With Intel's Broadwell and Skylake looming ever closer, not to mention Fiji, NVMe, Pascal, Oculus Rift, Windows 10, and dozens of other topics, it's a great time to be a technology enthusiast. I've been building, troubleshooting, upgrading, and enjoying PCs and all they have to offer as far back as my memory goes. At times, it amazes me just how far we've come...but then I read a sci-fi book and wonder where we'll go next. The Internet is both more and less than William Gibson's cyberspace, but we're not done with it. Companies are investing heavily in VR, software continues to improve, and smartphones are all part and parcel of our daily lives now. How do we make the most of these new technologies? When will the next quantum leap strike and what will it be? I'm as eager to find out as the rest of you, and I'm looking forward to the journey. Along with all the computing hardware I've used over the years there are stacks of computer magazines buried somewhere that I poured over. I used to dream about working for a computer magazine and I thought it would be the coolest job in the world. And you know what? I was right. I'm excited to join the team at Maximum PC, writing about the technology that makes our digital realm possible and sharing my passion with the world. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 16 May 2015 03:48 AM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Posted: 15 May 2015 02:07 PM PDT Interested in advertising in Maximum PC? Contact: Stacy Gaines Vice President of Sales [p] 415-260-5294 [e] sgaines@futureus.com 2015 Media Kit link: http://www.futureus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/MaxPC-2015_MediaKit_WEB.pdf Subscribe link: http://www.maximumpc.com/fuscorp Subscriber Service link: https://w1.buysub.com/servlet/CSGateway?cds_mag_code=MAX Disc Replacement link: http://www.futureus.com/customer-service/disc-replacement/?magazine=maxpc Advertising Terms link: http://www.futureus.com/advertising-terms/ Upload Ad Materials link: http://filetransfer.futureus.com/action/login?domain=Future To upload advertising materials: Click on Upload Ad Materials and enter the below information when prompted Username: pmxpc / Password: Adv3rts5 Buy Now link: http://shop.futureus.com/tech/maximum-pc.html?sourcekey=WSCORP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best of the Best: Motherboards Posted: 14 May 2015 11:14 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 14 May 2015 09:44 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 14 May 2015 09:43 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best of the Best: Gaming Displays Posted: 14 May 2015 09:41 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 14 May 2015 07:03 PM PDT So you want to get in touch with the most bad-ass tech publication? Here's how: AddressMaximum PC Feedback: letters@maximumpc.com The Doctor: doctor [at] maximumpc.com Review pitches: jarredwalton [at] maximumpc.com Magazine customer service, North America: maxcustserv [at] cdsfulfillment.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nvidia Starts Streaming Grid Games at Full HD 60 FPS Posted: 13 May 2015 08:50 AM PDT A new experience Nvidia this week improved its Grid cloud-gaming service by adding support for streams at Full HD 1080 at 60 frames per second (1080p60) . While movie services are already streaming content at 1080p (and beyond), Grid becomes the first Internet-based streaming game service to offer 1080p60, which comes by way of yesterday's Shield Hub beta release. The 720p60 option streaming is still available as well. To take advantage of 1080p60 streams, you'll need a fast Internet connection -- at least 30Mbps, and Nvidia recommends 50Mbps if there are multiple devices competing for bandwidth on your home network. By comparison, 720p streaming requires around 5-10Mbps of bandwidth. The reason Nvidia recommends so much more bandwidth at 1080p60 is because it's processing over twice as many pixels in real-time as 720p. And unlike movie services that might buffer on occasion, the combination of real-time encoding and maintaining a low latency requires some heavy lifting, both at the front end and presumably the backend -- Nvidia brought on board two new data centers bringing the total to six, and it wouldn't surprise us if Nvidia upgraded or added faster graphics cards to Grid. In any event, more than 35 games in the Grid game library support 1080p60, including Batman: Arkham Origins, Devil May Cry 4, and Dirt 3 Complete Edition. You can join the new Shield hub beta here . Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Rolls Out New Line of Business Class PCs Starting at $649 Posted: 13 May 2015 08:02 AM PDT These PCs mean business Newegg carries all kinds of pre-built systems from third-party vendors, but in case you didn't know, the popular online vendor also builds PCs through NeweggBusiness, a wholly-owned subsidiary. As such, NeweggBusiness today announced its new ABS N Series of desktop PCs . Starting at $649, the ABS N Series is aimed at small and medium business (SMB) and education customers. There are five configurations to choose from, each one packing an Intel Core i5 4590 Haswell processor inside. These aren't systems that will knock your socks off with raw power, nor will they sufficiently run Crysis (before anyone asks). However, they're all priced at under $750. "These machines are filled with options all too rare these days: Samsung SSD, three types of monitor connections, USB 3.0 ports, a quiet power supply and Windows 7 Pro (upgradeable to Windows 10). The included Logitech keyboard and ambidextrous mouse round out the bundle, making the N Series the perfect machine to serve the computing needs of any busy office environment," NeweggBusiness says. The $649 configuration includes the aforementioned processor along with 4GB of DDR3-1600, 120GB SSD, DVD burner, and Windows 7 Professional. On the front panel are two USB 2.0 ports flanked by microphone and headphone jacks. Around back are four more USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, GbE LAN, HDMI, DVI, and D-Sub connectors. As for the other four configurations, they offer varying amounts of RAM and storage while retaining the rest of the specs laid out above: $680: 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD $700: 4GB RAM, 250GB SSD $730: 8GB RAM, 250GB SSD $740: 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD + 1TB SSD You can find these new systems here . Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Updated: Lenovo Fesses Up to Hastily Pushing Flawed LaVie Z 360 to Market Posted: 12 May 2015 05:05 PM PDT Update : Lenovo reached out to us with the following clarification: "Recently when the product went on sale on Lenovo had the wrong product info on the website regarding LaVie being capable of four use modes. To be clear, LaVie works in laptop mode and in tablet mode with full screen rotation. It was never designed to work in tent or stand mode's [sic]. These were specific design decisions. With the best intentions in an effort [to] clear up any confusion Lenovo sent a letter to those who had ordered the product during the period when this information was on the website. However the letter wasn't very clear on explaining the situation." Also, contrary to what the article originally claimed, Lenovo says the device hasn't shipped yet. It's worth mentioning here that if you are not satisfied with the LaVie Z 360, you could avail of Lenovo's 30-day refund policy and get the whole amount back. The original story follows below: Offers buyers a partial refund Touted as the "world's lightest" 13.3-inch laptop, Lenovo LaVie Z was one of the most talked about products at this year's Consumer Electronics Show , but it has all been downhill since then. When the device became available a few days back, it became clear that the Chinese vendor had over-promised and under-delivered on at least two counts : weight and price . Sadly, the unwelcome surprises don't end there. The fine folks over at Consumer Reports were among those who ordered the LaVie Z 360 (variant with 360-degree rotatable screen) when it came out but were shocked by an email that arrived ahead of the machine. It was a contrite letter from Lenovo North America's web sales manager Steve St. Amant, in which he admitted to the company committing a "couple missteps" in trying to bring the product to market as quickly as possible. "We showed the product on Lenovo.com as having a Tent Mode and a Stand Mode. You may be used to hearing of these usage modes from our Yoga products. However, in Tent Mode, the image on the display does not auto-rotate, causing the image to present upside down," Amant wrote, adding that it's possible to correct this behavior using Windows shortcuts but that does not make for a great experience. "In Stand Mode, the keyboard does not deactivate. A user may be okay in Stand Mode with LaVie Z lying down on a table, but if it were on your lap for example, the keys may depress and once again cause an unsatisfactory experience. I am very sorry that this happened and I hope that you can accept my sincere apology." The LaVie Z 360 product page has been modified so as to not plug the aforementioned modes. The company is now marketing the device as something that can alternate between tablet and laptop mode. Further, it is offering a 5 percent refund on the $1,699 purchase price. Follow Pulkit on Google+ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 12 May 2015 03:29 PM PDT Basic photo editing with GIMP If Microsoft Paint isn't enough for your photo-editing needs, GIMP is the next logical step. It's totally free, open-source, and can go toe-to-toe with Photoshop—at least in terms of basic image manipulation. Need to crop a photo? Look no further. Want to add some basic filters or effects? GIMP has you covered. Despite being free, it's actually surprisingly intuitive for anyone familiar with image-editing software. If you're comfortable with any feature-rich photo editor, the learning curve for GIMP should be fairly short. Regardless, whether you're a Photoshop pro or an image-editing newbie, we'll hold your hand while you learn the ins and outs of GIMP. Getting Started Keep calm and turn Single-Window Mode on. Before you even import an image, we recommend setting GIMP to Single-Window Mode. It'll consolidate all of the controls and sub-windows into a single, unified window. For beginners, it's a life saver and will help keep you organized. The main downside here is that you can only manipulate one image at a time, although GIMP provides a handy tab-view to easily switch between images. That big white circle is in its own, distinct layer and hasn't changed the original image. You'll also want to be familiar with the Layers Dialog, which displays all of the different layers of an image. This is one of GIMP's (and most other powerful photo-editing software's) greatest features because it you lets separate images into multiple parts that you can manipulate individually. If you want to annotate an image or edit only parts of it, you can create a new layer (right-click in the Layer dialog and select New Layer) to keep your drawings separate from the original image. Click the eye icon beside each layer to toggle visibility—this is handy for quick A-to-B comparisons. Also keep in mind that the order of layers matters. The uppermost layers are literally overlaid on top of the lower layers. The Tool Options dialog gives you immediate access to tool-specific settings like size. We haven't gone over specific tools yet, but it's important that we introduce the Tool Options dialog. It automatically updates with options specific to whatever tool you've currently selected. If you're on the Paintbrush Tool, it will present you with options for settings like Size, Opacity, and Brush types. As with most programs, basic hotkeys are all functional in GIMP. Ctrl+Z lets you undo the last edit, Ctrl+S lets you save the image, and Ctrl+O lets you open an image. We'll cover tool-specific hotkeys later in the guide. Tools Here's GIMP is all of its open-source glory. The heart of any photo-editing software is the toolbox or toolbar. GIMP presents this by default as a three-by-eleven set of colored icons on the left side of the window that denote the essential tools and functions of the software. We won't cover everything, but we'll go over all of the basics. The most important tool is probably the Rectangle Select Tool. It's the first one on the toolbar and lets you select portions of your image by clicking and dragging an expanding rectangle—think Windows desktop style. Once you've drawn a selection box, a square will appear in each corner. Grab a square and drag in or out to expand or shrink the selection box. Once you've got a section selected, you can copy, cut, fill with colors, or do pretty much anything else you'd like. The Ellipse Select Tool should be self-explanatory at this point—it does the same thing, but with ellipses instead of rectangles. At any point, Ctrl+Shift+A will deselect everything and Ctrl+A will select everything in the image. If you want to make multiple selections, hold Shift as you draw your selection box. Hold Control if you want to remove parts of your selections. The Free Select Tool is on the left and the results of the Fuzzy Select Tool are on the right. Next up are the Free Select Tool and the Fuzzy Select Tool. Just like the aforementioned tools, their names are fairly descriptive. The former lets you connect lines to select a region defined by a limitless number of straight lines. Simply click anywhere to drop an anchor point and click somewhere else to connect that point with another. Think of it as a game of connect the dots. Once you're done, you simply click the first circle you created to finish up the selection. At any point you can also press Enter to finish the selection. The Fuzzy Select Tool will use a built-in algorithm to select sections of the current layer on the image by color. Click an area of the image that's yellow and the Fuzzy Select Tool (or Magic Wand) will grab everything that's yellow. If you aren't getting acceptable results, try tweaking the Threshold setting in the bottom left Tool Options window. Increasing the threshold increases the sensitivity of the tool and will usually expand the area selected. All we want are those tires and a bit of the step ladder next to it. The Crop Tool is super simple and lets you easily crop images by selecting a section of an image with a rectangular selection tool. Press Enter to perform the crop. As with the selection tools, you can use the square in each corner to resize the selection. 13.81 isn't the prettiest angle, but it's fine for demonstration purposes. As with the Crop Tool, the Rotation Tool is relatively simple and doesn't take much know-how to operate. Simply create a selection or select a specific layer and click-and-drag the item in either direction to rotate it. A window should pop-up with options asking you to confirm the rotation. You can select a specific angle and adjust the Center X and Y coordinates before confirming the rotation. The Scale Tool makes scaling easy. Image resizing is also a cinch with GIMP's Scale Tool. Select the tool and click your image to resize. A pop-up dialog presents options for width and height in a variety of measurements. Click the link icon to lock the dimensions—this is helpful if you don't want to stretch the image outside of its original aspect ratio. Click on to the next page to read about a few more tools and how to get your images out of GIMP. Tools Continued The Color Picker Tool is great for finding exact colors. Another essential tool is the Color Picker Tool (or Eyedropper). As its name suggests, the tool gives you the ability to click anywhere on your image to find the color at that exact point. By default, the tool will set your foreground color as the color that you've clicked on. You can click the white double-sided arrow (see the image above) to swap the foreground and background colors. Click on the foreground or background color to open the Color Selector. Fine-tune your color selection with specific RGB or CMYK values. After selecting a color, you can use it in conjunction with the Pencil, Paintbrush, Bucket Fill, Airbrush, and Ink tools to draw on or annotate your images. Keep in mind that if you've got an area of your image selected, your tools will only function within the boundaries of the selection. Use the Eraser Tool to get rid of any marks you've made to the image or to erase parts of the image itself. Make sure you're in the right layer before you start making any marks or erasures. The Text Tool in action. The Text Tool is also super useful for adding text to any image. Click anywhere on an image to create an undefined textbox that will expand to fit your text. Click and drag to create fixed text boxes that will wrap text to fit. Type your message or labels and click another tool or anywhere else in the window to finish. When you click on the text, GIMP will automatically re-open the text editing window, which has options for adjusting the font face, size, baseline, kerning, and color. By default, GIMP will create a new layer for each instance of text, so the words won't be permanently added to the image. This means that you're free to move text around the image with the Move Tool (denoted in the toolbar by two intersecting arrows). Behold the glory of the Clone Tool in action. The Clone Tool is one of GIMP's supremely cool features. It's used to clone a section of an image and overlay that section onto another part of the image. This can be used to correct mistakes, as seen in the image above, or to remove imperfections on photos, such as acne. Simply select the Clone Tool and set a reference point by holding Ctrl and clicking on the image. Then click and hold (as if using a paintbrush) to apply the selection area of the reference point onto the area underneath the cursor. Another advanced feature is the Heal Tool. It's a lot like the Clone Tool, but it uses a hidden algorithm to analyze the destination before applying the source area. Use it for jobs where the clone tool just isn't working. This tool works really well for smoothing subtle features like wrinkles and can also remove acne, freckles, or small marks. Exporting the Finished Product We don't even recognize half of the potential output file formats supported by GIMP. Once you're done working on your image and you're happy with the results, make sure you select Export As… in the File menu—don't click Save or Save as unless you're happy with the original file format. This option provides you with a laundry list of potential file formats. Once you've clicked Export, you'll be presented with some more options that usually include a Quality setting and an estimation of the final file size. Learning MoreThere's a whole host of features and capabilities—most notably: plug-ins—that we haven't even touched on in this crash course. Fortunately, there are resources available for people interested in diving deeper. Head on over to the GIMP website and check out the official User Manual for an abundance of in-depth information. Already a GIMP power user? Tell us your favorite features or suggest some tips in the comments below! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How to Rip, Convert, and Stream Your Media Posted: 12 May 2015 03:29 PM PDT Liberate your music, videos, and moreYou've likely moved onto Netflix or Hulu or some other direct streaming way to watch "television." But what about that massive collection of discs collecting dust in your AV room? Or the gigabytes of videos you want to share with relatives who haven't figured out how to watch videos on your photo-sharing site? Or the eBooks for the reader that long ago died? Today, there's simply no reason to let your valuable collection rot away in isolation. To help you, we put together a guide that shows how to easily free the media you own to use it where you want it—on your phone, on your tablet, or streamed across your network.
How to… put your videos on a DVD in one minuteThe optical disc is dead. You know it, we know it, the American people know it. We also know that is a complete load of bantha dung. The truth is that even if you have moved to a fancy-schmancy cloud existence where you watch your entire transcoded video library at the coffee bar from your hybrid, convertible, solar-powered tablet, a lot of people are still living in the land of the DVDs and physical media. So when you want to show Aunt Peg the video of your kid snorting milk out of his nose, you have to burn it to DVD.
After you've added video via drag-and-drop, you'll want to change the title to something appropriate by clicking Project Settings and selecting General. 1: Download DVD Flick
Perhaps one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get this chore done is to use DVD Flick. This app is free and handles most of the messy chores of creating title menus, transcoding, and burning to disc that scare most people off after five minutes. As far as combo disc burning/transcoding apps go, DVD Flick is pretty much fire and forget. First, download the program from www.dvdflick.net (it should link you to Sourceforge.net) and install it.
There's a basic functional menu system isn DVD Flick that works adequately.
2. Pick your videos Once you've launched it, you start a new project and being to drag-and-drop to it. You can also select "Add title" and browse to the folder that holds the file you want DVD Flick to add. The default for DVD Flick is to burn to a standard disc. If you want to burn a double-layer disc because Aunt Peg wants to see the hours of video at a higher bitrate, click the "Project settings" button; under General, change the target size. From there you can also pick how many threads you want the program to take during the encode and choose the encoder priority. If you intend for the disc to viewed on PAL, you can change that using the Video settings of "Project settings." If you're putting multiple videos on the disc, you can change how the disc plays back on a DVD player. By default, it will proceed to the next title, but you can click on Playback and change it return to menu or loop the particular title. Under Burning, you can also choose to create an ISO image rather than burn it directly to disc. This can be useful if DVD Flick has issues burning to your particular DVD burner.
Under Project Settings > Playback, you can change the playback behavior of the disc. 3. Create menus By default, the disc you create with DVD Flick should just play on any commercial deck, but Aunt Peg probably wants a menu. Click on the Menu settings button and pick from several pre-canned menus that work fine. Just note that the title menu of the disc will be taken from the Title field of "Project settings." To change it to "Kids Video," click on "Project settings" and General, and change the title to suit your preference.
4. Burn it Once you're ready, just click "Create DVD" and DVD Flick will begin transcoding the titles and burning the disc. Keep in mind that while we said we'd tell you how to put your videos on a disc in one minute flat, that time doesn't include the encoding and burning. If DVD Flick for some reason can't burn to your DVD player, you can either create an ISO and burn that or use another app such as CDBurnerXP ( www.CDBurnerXP.com ), Ashampoo Burning Studio ( www.ashampoo.com ), or ImgBurn ( www.imgburn.com ) to burn the files to a disc. The video files you need to burn are typically located in C:\Users\Your Login\Documents\dvd\dvd. Using CDBurnerXP, for example, you'll want to choose "Video DVD," select the contents of the Video_TS folder, and then burn it.
The time it takes to encode the media is lengthy, so you'll want to do something else for an hour or so during the creation process. 5. Final advice The real secret to DVD Flick is its ability to transmogrify (not an actual technical term) just about anything. The program supports 45 file formats, 60 video codecs, and 40 audio formats. From what we've seen, it'll take anything from 3GP to MP4 and convert it without complaining. One weakness of the program you should be aware of, though, is that it's not for editing video. It's not a full-service video editor nor does it claim to be. If you want to edit out the part of your phone video where you whacked your privates on the hand-rail while trying to perform a skateboard trick, you can't do it. (Although in today's world, skateboarders actually want to edit in the part where privates are smashed on handrails.) And yes, videos that you shot with your phone held vertically (it's officially called Vertical Video Syndrome) will typically be displayed sideways. DVD Flick does try to flip videos correctly when it can, but it isn't consistent. If you want to edit video or add transitions and effects, you'll need a real editor such as Adobe Premiere Elements or CyberLink Power Director. Neither are difficult to learn to use, but aren't apps that you can fire and forget like DVD Flick.
If DVD Flick can't burn it to disc, you can just use another program, such as CDBurnerXP, to dump the contents of the Video_TS folder onto a disc. How to... rip discs to stream on your network
Let's face it: Optical media is a pain in the butt. If you're a real cinephile, you have to set aside a huge chunk of space on your bookshelf for all the Blu-ray discs and DVDs that you've been accumulating thanks to your love of film, TV episodes, and whatever else you happen to enjoy watching. The raw act of playing a movie can also be a bit annoying. You have to get up off your comfy sofa, chair, or beanbag-type creation; walk over to your movie stash; decide what you want to watch; and slap it in your player of choice. You then have to (likely) suffer through all those stupid advertisements and trailers that Blu-ray player manufacturers will never allow you to skip through. You'll probably have to navigate some creatively designed menu or two just to triple-check that the Blu-ray's audio tracks align with your home setup. And then, finally, you'll get a chance to press play. By then, your popcorn has burned. It's a lot easier to fire up a desktop or NAS box—or plug a USB key into your DLNA-friendly router—and stream your files around your house instead of fiddling with scratch-prone discs. To do that, you first have to convert your physical media into digital format. And that's what we're here to show you: how to convert your Blu-ray collection into multi-gigabyte files that are a lot easier to manage and view. 1. Own the movie
If only ripping Blu-ray discs were as easy as popping one into your drive, waiting for Windows to fire up a "Rip Disc" Autoplay option, and sitting back while your OS did all the work. Unfortunately, the biggest hurdle between you and digital file-making glory are the digital-rights-management schemes that the movie studios slap onto their discs in an attempt to prevent you from doing everything we're about to tell you how to do. Everything, that is, with an asterisk: We're not going to tell you how to bypass this encryption directly. We're going to assume that you're simply using this article's knowledge to rip all sorts of other films that aren't locked down by annoying AACS encryption. Should you want to do the not-so-legal thing, you'll just have to figure out that part on your own. The actual ripping process is the same; we just can't tell you how to go about bypassing copy protection. Sorry! That all said, the first thing you'll want to do is make sure that you have a Blu-ray drive either installed into your PC or attached somehow (yes, USB-friendly external Blu-ray drives exist). You don't need anything super-fancy or super-speedy, since you'll likely set the process to start and go off to make yourself a sandwich (or a three-course meal) while it churns along. Plenty of simple Blu-ray drives can be had inexpensively; don't concern yourself with a writer, or Lightscribe support, or any of that—just get a simple Blu-ray/DVD combo drive. 2. Download MakeMKV Once you're checked that one off your list, you'll want to hit up your search engine of choice and track down a program called MakeMKV. If you casually do a search for "Blu-ray ripping app" beforehand, you'll find that there are plenty (and we mean plenty ) of programs that will allow you to convert the contents of a disc into a digital format. Some will work with AACS-encrypted discs; some won't. Finding a perfect app for Blu-ray ripping is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack, given the proliferation of software that exists. MakeMKV's website makes it look like it's a dodgy download; trust us, it isn't. MakeMKV, we argue, is that app. First off, it's free; that already gives it a pretty strong advantage over most other contenders. Second, it couldn't be much more user-friendly for ripping-newbies. With but a few clicks of some fairly large buttons, your system will be processing that which you've placed into its optical drive without hassle (usually). Third, it works very well with a wide range of discs we've thrown its way. Before you start ripping, you need to register MakeMKV—the program will, in fact, prompt you to do so before you can do anything else. If that sounds like a bit of a contradiction, given that we just gushed over the app for being completely free, hear us out. MakeMKV is technically in beta, and has been for some time. The developer continually releases updated registration keys via the official MakeMKV forums, which enable the program's full functionality for a set period of time. Once that time runs out, you have to head back to the MakeMKV website to grab a new key (and often an updated version of the app). MakeMKV's registration key can be found in its online forums. If that sounds like a minor annoyance, you're right. However, it's a very, very small price to pay for MakeMKV's killer functionality. The ability to rip the contents of Blu-ray discs and automatically convert them into full-fledged MKV files, thus preventing you from having to learn about the complicated world of media encoding, fiddle with all sorts of settings, and use more than one app to go from disc to digital file, is pretty amazing. 3. MKV doesn't stand for "make killer videos"
A quick note about these MKV files, though. For the uninitiated, an MKV file is an open-source "container" that can combine multiple audio and video streams (as well as subtitle tracks) into a single, easy-to-modify file. The streams themselves can be encoded in any number of ways; MakeMKV doesn't actually do any encoding itself, which is why the MKV files this app outputs tend to run a bit on the huge side. It just bundles. If you want to shrink your MKV files down to more a manageable size, you'll need to do a bit of post-processing, which we'll cover in a bit. And, naturally, since MKV is an open file format, a number of third-party developers build support for MKV right into their software players: VLC, MediaPlayer Classic, MPlayer, etc. You'll still likely need a decoder for the apps to play your movies correctly. For that, we recommend the easy-to-install, crap-free Combined Community Codec Pack—give it a Google and a download, and you'll be one step closer to playing the files you have yet to actually rip. 4. Start your ripping
Enough with the wind-up to the main event; let's get ripping. Place your Blu-ray disc into your optical drive and fire up MakeMKV. When you do, the program will immediately perform a quick analysis of the disc and, presuming there aren't any issues upfront, you'll see a giant icon of an optical drive sitting below the Source drop-down menu. If for whatever reason you don't, and your source isn't actually your Blu-ray drive, click that menu and select the correct option. This home video Blu-ray only has one title, so it's easy to make your choice, but on a disc with multiple titles or videos, justmcheck off the ones that you want to convert.
You'll notice that there aren't really any options you can edit within this screen on MakeMKV. That's intentional. When you're ready to begin the ripping process, click on the giant optical drive icon. MakeMKV will give your disc a thorough scan to ensure that there aren't any abnormalities that could otherwise interfere with the ripping process. It'll also build out the list of titles and chapters on the disc itself, which you'll see in the leftmost portion of the window once the scanning process is complete. Here's where things get fancy. You can either rip the entire disc as-is, or you can go through and piece together a custom MKV based on the various parts of your Blu-ray that you do (or don't) want to keep. The caveat about that is that MakeMKV can't identify the various segments it's identified on your disc; you might see 15 different titles (corresponding to 15 individual MKV files that the app might make), but only one of these will be your "primary" movie file. The rest will be other media elements that are also on the disc, which you may or may not want to rip as well. Our recommendation? Don't worry about the individual titles; you can rip the entire disc and delete them later, if you'd like. What's more pressing are the audio and subtitle tracks, as you might not want to, say, rip a Blu-ray disc's full 5.1 track (adding to your file size) if you're just planning to watch the movie on a two-speaker system. Or, for that matter, you might not care about subtitles; no need to increase the file size of your eventual film with features you aren't going to use. Expand the various titles by clicking on the arrow next to each title's checkbox (which determines whether or not MakeMKV will be making an MKV of that title). You can't change the video (obviously), but you can select which audio tracks you want the app to pack into that title's MKV container. Select and deselect audio tracks to your heart's content; that's the easy part. Subtitles are a bit trickier. 5. Leave on subtitles
You might see subtitles split into two options: A Subtitles option and a second nested Subtitles option beneath it that contains the same language reference as the higher-level subtitle, but with the words "forced only" appended to it. If you'll recall your favorite fantasy movie of choice, you've likely noticed times when non-human people speak languages that you can't actually understand ( Avatar , anyone?) Forced subtitles are often the words that appear during these parts—different from normal subtitles, in that they'll appear on screen regardless of whether you've turned on a movie's subtitles or not. We recommend you leave forced subtitles on when ripping your films (for the English subtitles, at least). If you notice that you still aren't seeing the subtitles you should be seeing during parts you can't otherwise understand, you might want to go back and re-rip your movie with the full English subtitles enabled; you can always flip them on and off in your media player of choice. Once you're ready to rip, click the big icon that looks like an optical drive. Your Blu-ray player will be off to the races—the very slow races, as ripping a full disc's worth of data is going to take a decent amount of time. MakeMKV quoted us around 45 minutes to an hour for our test disc, a 25,799MB source being read at a rate anywhere between 9–12MB/s. Sit back and relax; it takes MakeMKV a bit of time to rip a packed Blu-ray disc.
How to... convert movies for your phone or tabletSo, you've ripped your movies into MKV files and you're ready to watch them. You could always pull up a chair and hang out on your computer all day long, but you're a busy person. Places to go. People to see. You're not always going to have the luxury of being within arm's reach of your little home cineplex. Thankfully, devices exist nowadays that allow you to carry and watch your films wherever you happen to be. We're talking about your smartphone (or tablet), of course. Don't forget to bring earbuds or headphones, lest you tick off everyone around you with your home movies or whatnot. 1. It's too big
There's just one fatal flaw in our mobile movie plan: Those MKV files we previously created are downright huge. Even when we split out everything but the raw movie—no added features, no anything—our test disc provided us a file that was 20GB in size. That's a little too much for your average smartphone. And, even then, you're not going to want to be deleting and transferring new movies to watch all the time. Remember, when we first ripped our test movie as an MKV, we ripped the whole thing: video and audio in its uncompressed, raw form. Compressing your film will allow you to sacrifice a little bit of quality (likely imperceptible to you) for a great deal of space-savings. Plus, you'll be able to shrink the beefier 5.1 audio that you likely ripped alongside your film to a more manageable stereo output—we have yet to see anyone rocking a smartphone in a 5.1 speaker setup, and highly doubt that will ever come to pass. A word about compression, though: If you really want to squeak out the best combination of file size and quality, you're going to have to fiddle with a number of fairly complex settings. We won't send you down that path if you're just looking for a way to optimize your huge MKVs for Android or iOS sans hassle, but know that there are plenty of additional options you can play around with if you really want to—it's all a matter of personal preference and just how much space, and what kind of quality, you're looking for. 2. Use 720p to save space One thing we'll recommend right off the bat: Go 720p. While it's true that a number of today's smartphones have 1080p-resolution screens, and your picture might look a smidge more pixilated than if you were running it at your screen's native resolution, we found that we couldn't notice a difference when playing a 720p and 1080p movie on our HTC One smartphone. We'll gladly take the space savings: 49MB for 11 minutes of the 720p film versus 87MB for 1080p—a 44 percent decrease. The app that we'll be using to do our conversation is a tried-and-tested bit of freeware: Handbrake ( www.handbrake.fr ). It costs you nothing to download or use, and it combines basic functionality—in the form of presets that you can pick from, for the casual converter, with advanced options for those who want to experiment with what the app can do to their movies.
Handbrake initially scans your files so it can figure out your default options. Handy!
3. Don't get overwhelmed Once you've downloaded and installed the app, fire it up and try not to feel overwhelmed by the number of options that you can play around with. For our basic conversion task, you won't have to fiddle with much.
Before you start editing video options, pick a destination folder (and name) for your movie. Start by clicking the Source button, selecting "Open File," and browsing over to wherever you stashed your MKV file(s) on your system. Select the one you want to convert and hit "Open." Pick whichever device on Handbrake's sidebar matches what you'll be watching your movies on—iPhone or Android, for example. This will automatically modify a number of settings within Handbrake, including the size the video itself that the program will output. In the case of Android, this defaulted to a 720p video automatically when we were using a 1080p video as our source file. While you could just slap the big green start button and call it a day right now, there are a few other settings worth exploring when converting your movie for mobile use. If you want to bump up the quality of your film, go to the Video tab and look for the slider for the preselected "Constant Quality" setting. The more you move the slider to the right (lower numbers), the higher the overall quality of your video—and the greater the file size. Go left, and you'll reduce the file size at the expense of quality. Why does this matter? We're normally fine sticking with Handbrake's presets quality-wise (especially given the size of the screen we'll be watching the film on), but it might be worthwhile for you to know if the file size of your film is still especially large after Handbrake converts it on the app's default settings. If you don't mind a bit of quality loss—or test various iterations of the Constant Quality setting and find that you can't really see much of a difference at all—it might be worth your while (and your ability to pack tons of movies onto your device) to reduce the movie's overall quality and tighten up its file size. Otherwise, you'll want to do a little more tweaking in Handbrake's Audio tab. In there, go to the drop-down menu for the movie's audio Mixdown and chage it from whatever it happens to be to Stereo. Since your smartphone isn't a 5.1 device, you don't benefit from (nor do you need) the extra audio tracks, and that should help you shrink movie's file size a bit. If you want to play with quality settings on this screen, the Bitrate option is where you'll be able to dial down the audio track's quality in order to shrink the final file size even more.
The right-hand presets are pretty useful for those who want to encode movies sans fuss.
4. Start your transcoding
Ready? Ready! Click the green Start button at the top of Handbrake's window to start the transcoding process, which transforms your MKV file into a more universally accepted MP4. While your video churns along, hit up the Google Play or Apple App Stores and look for two particular apps for playing your final films. We're big fans of VLC—especially for iOS—but it's currently in beta on the Android platform, so your mileage may vary as to just how well the app works on your particular hardware. If you're finding that VLC is giving you a bit of a headache on Android, try switching over to MX Player. It's one of the more popular Android apps for video viewing, but it doesn't support any videos encoded with DTS audio. We already fixed that by converting our MKV file to stereo, but in case you passed up our advice, that might be the reason why you're possibly seeing video and hearing nothing when you go to watch a ripped movie on your smartphone.
Ditch that 5.1 surround sound if you're only going to watch movies on a stereo device. By now (plus an hour or so, depending on your system's speed and the size of the MKV you're converting), your video should be just about done. If not, and Handbrake is reporting that the total estimated time for converting is going to be some hideous amount, you can always go to Tools > Options. Once in the General section of Handbrake's preferences, look for the option that allows you to set what the app should do "When Done." Change that to Shutdown, and your system will power off as soon as Handbrake is done converting your movie—a useful option for when the app has to run all night long.
How to... make your own audiobooksThe average American spends almost 2.5 hours a day in the car—that's not counting those poor souls trapped in grid-locked cities on a 95-degree day. One way to keep your mind from turning to mush is interesting audio choices. In today's world, though, that's not easy, what with FM radio being a wasteland of pop music that drops your IQ by the second, and the AM band a wasteland of kooks and cranks screaming about the PC being king (kidding). Once you've burned through the free offerings on Librivox.org, you'll need a new source of entertaining audio as you mash the gas and brake pedals for the next 27 miles. For some of us, that's making your own audio books. Well, we loosely call it an "audio book," but it's really taking the audio track from your favorite movie or television show to listen to during your commute. 1. VLC to the rescue
Ideally, car makers would use disc players (yes, people still use those) that could play just the audio track of a DVD in their default audio systems, but the best you can do in most cars today is play an MP3 file from a disc. So how do you listen to Star Wars IV on the way back from your 9-to-5? The cheapest (but not necessarily the easiest-to-work-with) piece of software that'll solve this dilemma is that Swiss Army knife of media tools: VLC Media Player. The basics are fairly easy but not as straightforward or full-featured as a commercial app. We've also found it to be little flaky on extraction at times, too, but it's hard to argue with the price tag of "free." Go download VLC from www.videolan.org and install it, then insert your disc in your optical drive and fire up the program.
Is there anything VLC won't do?
2. Set your quality level
If you intend to rip multiple discs, you can set your quality preferences by hitting Ctrl + p and clicking the "All" radio button under "Show Settings" on the left-hand side. Drill down and look for "Input /Codecs" and select Twolame under Audio codecs. This lets you set your default audio encoding quality. Click save. Now hit Ctrl + d or click "Media / Open Disc," and confirm that the DVD radio button is selected. You'll also need to tell VLC which title to select. Typically, this is Title 1; you can also watch the movie using VLC to try to determine what the Title number is. If you're trying to grab a secondary audio track, you'll also need to play with the disc to determine which audio track you want as well. We've found that the -1 input on Audio track seems to work for most movies.
You can set the encoding quality and mode for all encodes. This gets reset if you install an update, though.
3. Select convert On the bottom of the "Open Media Dialog" window, click the triangle and select convert. Then, under destination, click the Browse button, and give the file a proper name. Be aware, if you don't browse to the location where you want VLC to put the file, it won't convert the file. Now, under Profile, select "Audio - MP3." Click Start and VLC will begin ripping the audio track. When you're done, you should have a meaty little MP3 file that can be moved onto your audio playback device of choice.
Make sure you select the Destination file location and name, or it won't work.
4. Gets the job done
For the most part, VLC will do the job for most folks, but if you're really serious about producing your own audio discs, we actually recommend investing in a commercial product. We've had great luck with ImTOO DVD Audio; it lets you rip the audio track into small 10MB chunks that can then be burned onto a CD in chapters (make sure you burn the disc as a gapless disc) and can perform normalization of audio across the disc. ImTOO DVD Audio will set you back $29, though, and it doesn't handle encrypted discs.
How to... archive your CD collection properly
What's that? You actually have physical discs for your music? You haven't yet subscribed to the digital age of downloading all of your jams in a friendly MP3 or AAC format, for use on almost any device you can get your hands on? You still use your car's CD player? We don't mean to be (too) glib; there are people who still purchase physical discs for their music (this writer among them), especially when bands pack all sorts of extras and lovely design work in a deluxe, physical package. However, that doesn't mean that you should just hold onto your discs forever. Ripping them to your computer ensures that you'll always have a copy of their contents should the unthinkable happen: your precious, impossible-to-repurchase disc gets a scratch, you accidentally break it, or the disc just becomes unreadable for a variety of random, annoying reasons like disc rot. You can pull down information for your disc from the Web, and edit it. 1. Let's talk formats
Thankfully, converting your musical tracks to digital files is one of the easiest things you can possibly do on your PC. If you've ever used a handy little program called iTunes, the software practically does all the heavy lifting for you. If it's set up correctly, you just have to fire up iTunes, pop in your CD, wait a few minutes, and you'll be able to enjoy the fruits of your (minimal) labors via your iTunes library. However, we think you can do better. First off, let's talk formats. MP3 is pretty much the standard for digital music tracks at this point, but it's a lossy format. While it might sound indistinguishable from a CD track to your ears, it's not a picture-perfect digital representation of the original source audio. For that, you have to turn to a lossless codec like Apple Lossless or FLAC—the latter, an open-source codec that does a slightly better job with compression at the expense of encoding speed. One secondary advantage of a lossless codec: You can copy and convert that file to a lossy codec sans issue. If you start lossy, like ripping all your files as super high-quality MP3s, then reconvert these files to another lossy codec at some point down the road (lower-quality MP3s that you want to fill your smartphone with), that's definitely going to affect the audio quality. 2. Download FLAC
If you're not an Apple / iTunes fan, we recommend you grab the all-encompassing app Foobar2000 ( www.foobar2000.org ) for ripping and converting your CD into FLAC files. When you go to install it, make sure you're performing a Full installation, which will also install the various converter utilities the app uses during the ripping process. Also grab the FLAC Windows binaries from Sourceforge, ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/flac/files/flac-win ) and install them, too.
Make sure you pick FLAC as your output format (and have FLAC preinstalled!). 3. Make perfect archives
Open up Foobar2000 and go to File > Open Audio CD, select your correct optical drive from the presented list, and then click Rip. We like to then click the Lookup button to ensure that Foobar2000 has correctly matched all the information it can glean from the MusicBrainz or freedb online databases to your disc (you can select either to use). After that, click the "Proceed to the Converter Setup dialog" button. The Converter Setup window is simple. For the output format, select FLAC. In the Destination options, you can customize the file names of what Foobar2000 will be creating; we like adding "%track%" to the beginning of the file names so that we can keep a CD's contents in its correct order. Otherwise, those are the major options you have to consider; we didn't add any processing effects, as we want our files to be faithful digital recreations of the original CD audio. Click the Convert button, select a destination for the files, point to the location where the FLAC executable was installed (likely in your Program Files x86/Flac directory), and wait! If you want to jam what you've previously ripped, you can play your FLAC files directly from Foobar2000, as well. For an app that's a bit more comprehensive music library–wise, check out MediaMonkey ( www.mediamonkey.com ). How to... put your e-books on any deviceSo, you've been on a spending binge, buying e-books from wherever you like, whenever you like, as well as healthily partaking of the offerings at Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org). You've been using various apps to read all of your willy-nilly acquisitions, but now you'd like to consolidate everything into one tidy, centralized location. One where you can then push out your books in any format to most common e-readers and tablets. Heck, maybe you'd even like to get fancy and store your e-books in the cloud or have a piece of software function as a content server so you're never without the written word. Enter Calibre and its plugin feature to the rescue. 1. Install and setup Calibre
There are other software programs that can do parts of what Calibre does—and some even do a few select things better, like offering prettier virtual bookshelves—but we much prefer just how comprehensive this program is. You can read, manage, format, sort, and convert all the books in your library, and even manage the books on your e-reader or tablet, as well. To get started with Calibre, first download it from http://calibre-ebook.com/download_windows and install it. Next, Google for Apprentice Alf's plugin for Calibre and download it from AA's WordPress site. Be sure to uncheck the box that asks you to use the download manager, and also be careful to only click on the gray "Download" button to avoid installing unwanted, extra things. Then unzip the file and install the plugin via Calibre's Preferences menu.
This is what Calibre first looks like when you fire it up, but there's one more step to do before adding all your books —install Apprentice Alf's plugin.
In the Plugin menu, choose "Load Plugin from File" to get started with the process.
2. Build your centralized library Close and restart Calibre, then make sure you've installed the Kindle application to download e-books bought from Amazon (.azw/.mobi formats) or Adobe Digital Editions for just about everywhere else (.acsm format). To import your e-books, click on the "Add Books" button on the menu, then navigate to the folder where each program keeps its library. (For Kindle, the default is "\Documents\My Kindle Content"; for Adobe Digital Editions, "\Documents\My Digital Editions.") You can add whole directories at a time, or just individual files. Unless you're running Calibre on a netbook (which we're pretty sure you're not), the importing should go very quickly for each book. Grab as many files as you like at one time, or just dump the whole directory into Calibre at once.
3. Convert to your preferred format Now here's the fun part: converting your e-books to the format you want them in. Select which books you want to process, then click on the "Convert Books" button, which will automatically bring up the "Bulk Convert" dialog box. (If you prefer to tweak each individual book's settings before conversion—like tags, series information, and cover image—click instead on the drop-down arrow next to the Convert Books button and select "Convert Individually." You can edit these settings after conversion, too.) Once everything's set, click "OK," and Calibre will take care of its task in a jiffy. 4. Take it further You can also use cloud storage as your library location to both backup your collection (for those paranoid about losing all their books to a hard-drive crash) and access your books from multiple computers. If you want to take it even further, you can also experiment with using Calibre function as a content server. Time to get fancy!
Review: Roku Streaming Stick
Now that you've liberated all of your media, what to do with it? Sure, you could load it onto a NAS or home server, but that requires more work—it would be really nice if you could just buy a device for the time being so you could toss up videos and music from your smartphone or tablet to your big-screen TV as you wanted. One contender for being such a solution is the Roku Streaming Stick, the company's most compact addition to their lineup of cable-box replacements—but does it actually work well in that capacity? Not quite
Among its other touted features (namely, being able to choose from over 1,000 channels and 31,000 movies for entertainment), the Roku allows you to view photos, listen to music, and watch videos that you have stored locally on your device. The only problem? It can't handle large videos without a fair amount of buffering, nor those not formatted as .mkv, .mp4, .mov, or .wmv using the H.264 codec. So if you've spent your time ripping all of your Blu-rays as .avi files, or you've got anything larger than a couple hundred MB, you're out of luck. However...
If you want an expansion of all the media you have on hand, though, the Roku Streaming Stick works great for that—and even offers some competition for the Chromecast. Like Chromecast, you can cast Netflix and YouTube to your TV, but you've access to more than just a handful of integrated services—try over 1,000 channels. And unlike Chromecast, which requires you to install separate apps for each service you use, Roku's "channels" are all accessible directly through its interface (which you can navigate with the included remote). The caveat, though, is that much of its channels require purchase, a paid subscription, or a cable subscription to take advantage of them. The freebies, while a nifty perk, offer rather scant viewing selections; generally, we got the most out of watching the news clips and PBS. We also weren't fans of having to sign up for an account at Roku.com in order to add channels—particularly because we also had to add a credit card to even complete setup of the unit. Sure, it might be "convenient" to buy content under this system, but we rather resent being strong-armed into participating their walled ecosystem. So, which to get?
Certainly, the Roku isn't the only streaming stick around. But it occupies a different space than the Chromecast—the latter is more geared toward folks who like to do everything from their tablet or laptop. Video streaming from non-YouTube sites, though, is now quite smooth (a far cry from Chromecast's early days), meaning if most of what you want to view is on the web, saving $15 could be a better bet. If you're the sort to want more of a TV/cable experience, though, the Roku Streaming Stick is a better bet. While you can use a smartphone or tablet to control the stick via the Roku app, the included remote means you'll never have to dig around (or charge) a second device in order to zone out in front of the boob tube. With the addition of easy setup (even if it includes that dratted required account signup), it's a worthwhile addition to your living room for media junkies. It just won't play all the stuff you've ripped.
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| Newegg Daily Deals: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Video Card, Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD, and More! Posted: 12 May 2015 12:57 PM PDT Top Deal: With so many awesome games having come out lately and even more on the horizon, is your rig prepared to play them? If not, take that tax return and do yourself a solid by checking out today's top deal for an EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card for $325 with free shipping (normally $335; additional $15 mail-in-rebate; Free EVGA backplate and free games w/ purchase, limited offer). This is the Superclocked version with EVGA's ACX 2.0 cooler. Plus you get a bunch of freebies, including the aforementioned backplate and a pair of games, Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Batman: Arkham Knight. Other Deals: Samsung 850 EVO 2.5-inch 1TB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $380 with free shipping (normally $390 ; Free 1TB portable external hard drive w/ purchase, limited offer) Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 Desktop Memory for $110 with free shipping (normally $125) WD Black Series 1TB 7200 RPM 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $70 with free shipping (normally $75 - use coupon code: [ ESCASKN22 ]) EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card for $250 with free shipping (normally $260 - use coupon code: [ EMCASKN26 ]; additional $15 Mail-in rebate) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Corsair RGB Keyboard Owners Can Now Share Lighting Profiles Posted: 12 May 2015 12:36 PM PDT Light up someone's life Corsair today announced a new thing called RGBshare, which is an online ighting profile browsing and sharing feature for Corsair RGB keyboard owners. We'll give you a moment to compose yourself. After all, you must be thinking, 'By Thor's hammer, this is the greatest development since sliced bread!' Okay, maybe not. But it does open the door to the possibility of snagging some cool lighting configurations. The neat thing about Corsair's RGB keyboards is that they offer per-key backlighting. And with 16.8 million color options (assuming previous issues have been ironed out), there's the potential for what seems like an endless amount of customizations. You can create and share effects, too. Corsair reckons there are already thousands of advanced lighting profiles out there, and with RGBshare, it's easy to upload and share with other RGB keyboard owners. "RGBshare give Corsair keyboard owners instant access to the largest collection of lighting effects on the market," said Greg Agius, Director of Gaming and Community at Corsair. "Gamers who just want to enjoy their keyboard out of the box can now download these lighting works of art without any programming on their part, while RGB artists have a great platform to showcase their work." If you need added incentive to share to your lighting profiles, Corsair said it plans to host profile contests throughout the year. These will kick off in the "coming months." Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gordon Moore Sees His Self-Titled Law Lasting 10 More Years Posted: 12 May 2015 09:41 AM PDT Still following Moore's Law Intel co-founder Gordon Moore noted way back in 1965 that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits doubled every year. It became known as Moore's law and was later revised in 1975 to reflect the doubling of transistors every two years, not one. The prediction has proved accurate since then, but after a 50-year run (40 years since being revised), is it time to rescind Moore's law? Not just yet. According to Moore, the shrinking of computer circuits will continue at this pace for at least another 5-10 years . In speaking with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Moore called the 50-year run "amazing" but also noted that "no exponential can go on forever." "Five to 10 years is reasonably clear," Moore added. "And then it looks like you hit an insurmountable barrier, but that's been the case for the past 30 years," PCMag reports . Indeed, that's what makes the persistence of his law so amazing. There have been numerous challenges over the past several decades, both technological and economical. Nevertheless, Intel and other semiconductor players have managed to overcome them. Looking ahead, Intel should be at around 1nm in about a decade, provided it can overcome even more technological hurdles, including unique ones that crop up once transistors get relatively close in size to atoms (atoms used in chip fabrication are around 0.2nm). Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| G.Skill Finds New Frequency Ceiling for Retail Ripjaws 4 DDR4 Series at 3,666MHz Posted: 12 May 2015 08:15 AM PDT Breaking the speed limit Back in January, G.Skill announced the availability of its Ripjaws 4 DDR4 Series RAM in memory kits clocked at 3,400MHz. The kits came with their own cooling fans, and soon after, we began seeing other DDR4-3400 kits, such as Corsair's Dominator Platinum DDR4-3400 kit for Gigabyte's X99-SOC Champion motherboard. Apparently G.Skill didn't like having company, so now it's come out with a new Ripjaws 4 Series DDR4 memory kit clocked at 3,666MHz . G.Skill's new RAM kit is rated to run at 3,666MHz with just 1.35V. It uses "premium class" Samsung 4Gb IC chips and will initially be offered in 4GBx4 kits (16GB total). According to the email and screenshots G.Skill sent us, the new kit was validated on the aforementioned Gigabyte motherboard with timings set at 18-18-18-38. "DDR4 memory has come a long way since its release nine months ago in August 2014. With this latest achievement at 3666MHz extreme memory speed, the full potential processing power of the Intel X99 platform can now be realized," G.Skill says. "Your ultimate gaming system or workstation can now run smoother than ever as you progress from level to level in-game or switching from workload to workload." The new kit comes with Intel XMP 2.0 support and should work in any X99 chipset motherboard. No word yet on price or availability. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Build It: Big Capacity, Small Form Posted: 11 May 2015 02:29 PM PDT Can we combine compact size, high performance, and loads of storage? We'll give it a shotLength of Time: 1–2 Hours | Level of Difficulty: Low The Mission If you couldn't tell by now, we're performance junkies here at Maximum PC. Just last summer, we were crazy enough to build a $30,000 liquid-cooled computer with two PCs inside it. But you can't drive in the fast lane all of the time. Sometimes it's better to take a quiet Sunday drive down to the park and have a picnic. That doesn't mean the meal has to be bland, but we will be shifting gears for a new palate (with a side of mixed metaphors). Rocking Out If you want to cram a large number of drives into a mini-ITX system, special gear is required. We were originally going to go with the Asrock C2550D4I, which has 12 SATA ports and an integrated lowpower Avoton quad-core CPU, and support for ECC RAM. Unfortunately, we discovered it's quite finicky about what RAM it will accept, and appears to strictly adhere to modules on the qualifi ed vendor list. After many failed boot attempts and different slot confi gs and half a dozen DIMMs, we had to give up. It's not just us either, the Internet is rife with people reporting similar problems. 1. Step on Board 1.) These funny-looking cylinders are capacitors that help provide power to the storage devices in the 3.5-inch drive cage. 2.) With 8TB 3.5-inch drives on the way, this eight-tray cage could hold 64TB of data—plus the four-drive 2.5-inch cage. 3.) We wanted to add a third-party CPU cooler for overclocking, but the space here is just a little too tight. 4.) We added a grill to the rear fan, since there's a non-trivial amount of wiring hanging around the area, even after tidying up. Fancy Toys Bring High Price and Mixed Results Ironically, we started with the Asrock C2550D4I because we wanted a more straightforward build. With an integrated CPU and cooler, it cut down on the steps we needed, giving us more time to fiddle with Ubuntu (the CPU on the original board doesn't support desktop versions of Windows, and we couldn't justify $700 Server 2012). It's been a while since we gave desktop Linux a spin, but that'll have to wait. Problem Fans The other half of the equation was Silver-Stone's cable kit, which is short and flexible. At $30, it's not a cheap kit, but with over $3,700 already invested, it's a relatively small expense. You could try using your own cable set, but, for safety reasons, we don't recommend it. Each power supply's set of cabling is designed for a specific range of tolerances. Our original power supply was 300 watts and had integrated cables, but only one PCIe connector. We needed two for the GTX 780. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: WD Green 4TB Intellipower HDD, Asus GeForce GTX 970, and More! Posted: 11 May 2015 11:28 AM PDT Top Deal: Solid state drives are the sexy storage option these days, but mechanical hard drives still have their place. They're comparatively cheap, capacious, and generally offer superior data retention if you need to unplug it from a power source. If you're looking for a new drive for your expanding data needs, check out today's top deal for a WD Green 4TB Intellipower Internal Hard Drive for $130 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [ ESCASAW27 ]). This is a cool and quiet drive with a SATA 6Gbps interface and 64MB cache. Other Deals: WD Black Series 750GB 2.5-inch Internal Notebook Hard Drive for $55 with free shipping (normally $62 - use coupon code: [ ESCASAW26 ]) Seagate Hybrid Drive 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s NCQ 3.5-inch Desktop SSHD for $90 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [ ESCASAW24 ]) Seagate NAS HDD 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive for $110 with free shipping (normally $115 - use coupon code: [ ESCASAW25 ]) Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card for $330 with free shipping (normally $350 ; Free Games: Witcher 3 & Batman w/ purchase, limited offer) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| JEDEC: Your SSD Needs a Power Source to Avoid Losing Data Posted: 11 May 2015 10:56 AM PDT SSDs without a power source could begin losing data in just a single week It's more affordable than ever to build a new PC with a solid state drive as the primary storage device, and as capacities increase, some people are using SSDs for storage chores, too. That's fine and dandy if your SSD is receiving a constant or near-constant stream of power, but should you take an SSD out of your PC and set it aside, you risk losing data , the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) warns. KoreLogic Security took notice of a presentation by Alvin Cox on JEDEC's website titled " JEDEC SSD Specifications Explained " (PDF), and in the presentation is information on data retention when SSDs are powered off. For consumer/client SSDS, the power-off retention period standard is one year, while enterprise SSDs have a power retention period of just three months. These can (and do) vary wildly depending on a number of different factors, including temperature. One of the more interesting slides is No. 27. It shows the relationship of temperature to data retention and how even just a 5C change can cut the data retention period in half. Here's a look: Client SSD stored at 25C: 105 weeks Client SSD stored at 30C: 52 weeks Client SSD stored at 35C: 26 weeks Client SSD stored at 40C: 14 weeks Notice that storing a client SSD at 25C (77F) results in a data retention period of just over 2 years, but if the temperature rises 5C to 30C (86F), the data retention period is halved to 1 year. It's interesting to think about this in terms of legal situations where a PC with SSD storage might be held as evidence. When confiscated, not many are likely to think about active and power-off temperatures, though both are obviously important, especially for a case that might not go to court for a long time. If someone fails to back up the data in a timely manner, it could be bad news. This isn't just a theoretical thing, either. What prompted KoreLogic Security's investigation into data retention was an imaging job of a laptop SSD left in storage for well over the three-month minimum retention period quoted by the drive's manufacturer. "Later, I learned that the drive was functioning well when it had been placed into storage. When returned to its owner a couple of months after the imaging, the system would not even recognize the drive as a valid boot device," KoreLogic Security noted. Something to keep in mind the next time you rip out an SSD for storage. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FCC Denies Request to Delay Implementing Net Neutrality Rules Posted: 11 May 2015 10:17 AM PDT FCC will forge ahead with new neutrality rules The Federal Communications Commission wasn't moved by a joint petition filed by a group of U.S. cable companies and telecom providers seeking to delay implementing new net neutrality rules until a court can rule on the matter. For that to happen, the petitioners would have to show that it would likely win its case and suffer irreparable harm if a delay isn't granted, among other criteria. The FCC didn't buy the claims and denied the petitioners' request for a delay . According to the petition, cable companies and telecoms (including wireless carriers) aren't opposed to the rules that have been laid out, such as not being able to block legal traffic, not being able to throttle traffic, and disallowing paid prioritization (otherwise known as Internet fast lanes). Their collective concern is reclassifying broadband as a utility and what "future conduct" might follow, PCMag reports . In addition to the above mentioned criteria, petitioners must also show that interested parties will not be harmed if a stay is allowed, and that the public interest would be in favor of the decision. "We established by looking at the petitions, the opposition, and the language of the Commission's Order that Petitioners have failed to meet the test for this extraordinary equitable relief," the FCC motion said. Barring anything unexpected, the new net neutrality rules will go into effect on June 12. In the meantime, you can read the Petition (PDF) and FCC Motion (PDF) . Image Credit: Got Credit Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ask the Doctor: Upgrade Timing, Software Updates, SSD Form Factors, and More Posted: 11 May 2015 09:53 AM PDT The Eternal Question I would like to build a gaming PC with a budget of $1,800. Will there be a major hardware upgrade this fall? Should I wait or just upgrade now? — Fahd Boukhtioua The Doctor Responds: With your budget, you should indeed wait and see how Intel's upcoming Haswell-E LGA2011-3 platform is received. Haswell-E will offer native 8-core chips as well as 6-core chips with additional PCIe lanes that aren't included on the normal LGA1150 platform. For a gaming PC though, the real question is whether you need to pay the premium and wait for a six-core CPU. Most games are perfectly fi ne with quad-core chips with Hyper-Threading, and less. There is, however, a fear that once developers begin to take advantage of the number of cores on game consoles, more cores will be better going forward for all PC games. It's just a theory at this point though, and most games run just fine on quad-core and even dual-core chips. One thing we do like about Haswell-E is its additional PCIe lanes, which can help with multi-GPU configurations. Since Haswell on LGA1150 and Haswell-E on LGA2011-3 are the same basic cores, you can't lose with either on the CPU front. It's everything around them that will matter. Haswell-E motherboards are likely to be premium-priced, and DDR4 memory—which will only be available on Haswell-E—will also be pricey. If the Doc had to pick between an LGA1150 box with a $700 video card or an LGA2011-3 with a $400 video card, the latter would be the choice for a gaming rig. Windows Update Woes My PC has been having freezing every now and again, and my friend who helped me build it using Maximum PC tips and tricks said that I have a lot of stuff that's not updated. I thought whenever Windows updates that it updates all programs on the computer, but I guess I was wrong. So my question is this: What program do you recommend I use to monitor every single program and driver on my computer to keep them updated? The Doctor Responds: Keeping all your programs up to date is of critical importance. Malware authors target these programs (as well as Windows) to exploit vulnerabilities in them, so frequent updates are the only way to keep your system safe and running at top speed. As far as the Windows Update program goes, it's a selfish program in that it only updates itself, though it also updates and downloads other Microsoft programs such as Bing Desktop, so be careful before allowing it to update and install all by itself. We always recommend that you let it download updates, but then you go through and install them manually. In terms of third-party software though, Windows Update totally ignores installed programs, so to keep them up to date you'll need to run a separate utility. There are a lot of paid apps out there that do this, but we've never used any of them. Our favorites are both free—SlimDrivers and Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI). SlimDrivers just shows you what drivers need to be updated, if any, and lets you update them right from the utility. You can also schedule it to check for updates on a daily or weekly basis. And if things go sideways after a driver install, it lets you uninstall drivers and restore older drivers from backup. Secunia PSI is a second option, and it's a handsfree updater in that it updates programs for you, unless for some reason the programs don't allow that to occur. In those cases, PSI notifies you from the system tray that you need to update them yourself. Both programs get the job done well and are free, so try them out and go with the one you like the best. Refurbing an Aged Dell My Dell XPS 200, running Windows XP, had been the workhorse computer for the family for several years, and has served us well. In light of the end of support for XP and the desire to improve the performance of my PC, is it possible to upgrade/rebuild the computer using the XPS case? If so, would you be able to suggest some components and price range for such an upgrade/rebuild? — Erik Gilliam The Doctor Responds: Given that the XPS 200 is a small form factor case, and Dell that uses a number of semi-proprietary features on it to aid in the production-line building of it, the Doc thinks any upgrades would have to be pretty limited. To be honest, with the XPS 200 being based on the Pentium D, the Doc would recommend that you pull the hard drive and optical drive and recycle the rest in favor of building a more modern small form factor box. It's just not worth the heartache and headache to figure out how to maneuver hardware into that proprietary box. Sometimes, however, people want to do it just to do it. In that case, dropping in a modern SSD, more RAM, Windows 7, and a lowprofile GeForce 750 card will make that machine faster, but ultimately, the Pentium D will be the bottleneck on system performance. The Doc likes to that Pentium D probably should have been named Pentium F because its performance isn't deserving of a D. SSD Form Factor Confusion I've just completed a new Haswell build with an MSI "Gaming Series" Z97 motherboard, which has an M.2 interface. I'm a little confused about what exactly I'll get over a regular 6Gb/s SSD using M.2. And I don't quite get which is better: M.2, SATA Express, or the PCIe SSDs that I've seen popping up in a few articles lately. Since I have the M.2, I've been looking around and trying to find one (and can't), but now I'm thinking I probably don't need it anyway (and do they fail easily?). Can you give a layman's explanation on the benefits/differences of these three formats, and why I would need an even faster storage device? My Samsung 240GB 840 EVO is already plenty fast, for me at least. — Ken Browning The Doctor Responds: Things are a bit confusing right now in the SSD world, Ken, because we're seeing the final days of SATA as an interface for storage while simultaneously witnessing the transition to PCI Express–based devices like M.2 and PCIe SSDs. These transitions take time, and if you recall when SATA first arrived, all hard drives had both SATA and PATA connectors on them for a year or two before the PATA connectors finally disappeared and everyone was onboard with SATA. The same situation will likely play out in the SSD world, where we'll see SATA stick around while we wait for everyone to get on the PCI Express train. In the meantime, a lot of motherboards are expected to use a PCI Express interface for SATA drives named SATA Express. Just like its name implies, SATA Express is a bridge between the old SATA interface and the next-gen PCI Express drives. It allows a SATA drive to connect to a motherboard's PCI Express lanes, and will also eventually allow PCIe drives to connect to it as well. Your M.2 drive is a full-blown PCI Express drive though, so unlike SATA, which is capped at roughly 550MB/s, PCI Express can scale much higher, and will allow us to quickly and easily double and triple the amount of bandwidth available for data transmission. For what it's worth, M.2 currently supports faster speeds than SATA 6Gb/s, but only up to around 800MB/s at this time, so we doubt it will "feel" any faster than your 840 EVO. One other thing to note is that SATA drives use the AHCI protocol to talk to the OS, but that's a protocol designed in the hard-drive days. When PCI Express comes online for real, we'll see a new protocol named NVME, which stands for Non-Volatile Memory Express. This protocol is designed specifically for solid-state drives, and will allow for major increases in performance in the future, as it gives the drives more headroom to run as fast as they can instead of being hobbled by a hard-drive protocol. Long Load Times Doc, I currently have an ASUS PC with a 3.4GHz Core i7-3770 CPU, 16GB RAM, Windows 7, and a GeForce GT 620 2GB video card. When I open an existing slideshow project in Adobe Premiere Elements, it takes an extremely long time for all the pictures to load. The project opens and then I sit and wait for each photo to load. Am I waiting for the processor to read each image file, or am I waiting on the video card? Would upgrading to a Gigabyte GTX 750 speed this up? — Arthur Lang The Doctor Responds: Arthur, your system is actually fairly well spec'd for running Premiere Elements. The Ivy Bridge-based Core i7-3770 is a quad-core part with Hyper-Threading, you have 16GB of RAM, and you have discrete graphics. One you thing did not mention, and the Doc believes to be the main culprit, is your storage setup. First, don't bother upgrading to the GeForce GTX 750. Unlike Premiere Pro, Premiere Elements doesn't use the GPU to enhance previews or encoding. There is some GPU support but not enough to switch from that GeForce GT 620 card. The Doctor really suspects the issue lies with a slow HDD or an HDD that just seriously needs to be defragged and cleaned up (HDDs get drastically slower as they get full). The other possibility is that malware is to blame for dragging down your box, but to be honest, it's usually a cop-out to blame "malware." Still, it's never a bad idea to root out malware, so run a full scan and get second opinions from Malware Bytes and AdwCleaner, too. One final thought—you didn't say which version of Elements you're running. Premiere Elements 12 has 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, and chooses which version to run based on what OS it's running on. The Doc believes that only Premiere Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 12 actually have 64-bit support. If you're running an older version, you are likely running 32-bit mode, which isn't the best environment for video editors, even if your machine has 16GB of RAM. Submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpc.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fixstars Announces World’s First 6TB 2.5-Inch SATA SSD Posted: 11 May 2015 06:08 AM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft: Surface 3 Not Yet Ready for Windows 10 Preview Posted: 11 May 2015 01:51 AM PDT Preview build lacks key drivers So you just received the Surface 3 tablet you had pre-ordered a while back and are now planning to install Windows 10 on it? Not so fast. That's not what Microsoft would like you to do — and it has strong reasons for it. The Surface 3 is, for the time being, incompatible with Windows 10. That's because Intel has yet to release Windows 10-optimized drivers for the Atom SoC (system-on-chip) found inside the tablet. "Please do NOT try to install Windows 10 on the new Surface 3. There are no drivers for the Intel x5/x7 Atom processors. There are no drivers in the Preview Build because Intel has not yet provided drivers. There is no block/check for these processors in current builds," Microsoft's Barb Bowman wrote in response to a question on the company's Community site , adding that Intel is working on the said drivers but it is unclear when they might be ready. The particular SoCs she was referring to is a Cherry Trail (codename) Atom x7 part based on the 14nm Airmont CPU architecture. Airmont is basically a die shrink of the 22nm Silvermont architecture, or, in other words, a tick in the company's tick-tock cadence. As for using Windows 8.1 drivers with the Windows 10 preview, here is what she has to say: "Those are Windows 8.1 drivers, not optimized for Windows 10 - which you can obviously use at your own risk. I can't personally confirm that there will not be issues with these drivers. The 'proper' Win 10 experience would be to have optimized drivers in the build or have the W10 optimized drivers installed via WU during the install process." Follow Pulkit on Google+ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thousands Flock to Fund $9 Computer on Kickstarter Posted: 11 May 2015 12:57 AM PDT CHIP is a single-board computer that runs Linux Raspberry Pi is probably the first name that springs to mind when one thinks of single-board micro computers, but if the folks at Next Thing Co. are successful with their latest product the micro PC movement could soon have a new poster child . Founded last year, the Oakland, California-based startup is soliciting funds from the Kickstarter community for a tiny Linux computer called CHIP . This may not be its first stab at crowdfunding — it raised over $71,000 for a $249 Raspberry Pi-based animated GIF camera last year — but it is arguably the most ambitious (and coolest) yet. Believe it or not, CHIP is a $9 computer. That unbelievably low price tag appears all the more incredible when one takes a glance at its specs. There is a 1GHz R8 ARM processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a USB port. And for $49, you can get all of the above in a form you can use on the go. We're talking about the Pocket CHIP (pictured below), a device with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, and 5-hour battery life. The Kickstarter campaign has been a resounding success so far. The company has already outstripped its original funding goal of $50,000 by more than eleven times and still has nearly four more weeks to add to that figure. Of course, the real test will come when it's finally time for Next Thing to redeem its pledge. It expects to begin delivering backers their CHIP and Pocket CHIP units in May next year. Are you going to chip in? Let us know in the comments section below. Follow Pulkit on Google+ Image Credit: Next Thing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 10 May 2015 08:37 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 10 May 2015 08:37 PM PDT Learn how to root your Nexus Android, HTC One, and Samsung Galaxy S4Android offers a wide variety of advanced customization options, but that's only scratching the surface of everything you can do with Google 's open source operating system. With root access you can get down to the system level and tweak things to your liking, even going so far as completely replacing the OS.
This is not an operation for the faint of heart, though. Rooting your device will probably void the warranty and could potentially leave your device in a nonfunctional state. Take extreme care before proceeding. If you need help deciding what to do, let's go over the benefits of rooting. Benefits of rooting androidGaining root access on Android is basically running your phone or tablet as an administrator. Android is based on Linux, but it does not include the superuser support a desktop OS running the Linux kernel might. If you want to make changes to the fundamentals of the system or install unapproved components, root access is needed. There is a whole subset of root-only apps in Google Play that allow some really interesting advanced options. Everything from UI tweaks to ad blocking, to system partition file explorers are possible with a quick app install as long as you have root.
With root access you can also make complete backups of your device so it can be restored in the event of a mishap, or so you can restore application data to a new phone or tablet. Another reason many users decide to get root is that it opens the door to installing custom operating systems, or ROMs. Installing a ROM is a bit more involved than simply gaining root access, but rooting is the first step. ROMs like CyanogenMod and Paranoid Android offer extra features and a cleaned up collection of apps. Installing a third-party ROM will also allow you to break free of the sluggish update cycle likely imposed upon you by the carrier (Nexus devices being the exception). As soon as a new version of Android is out, ROM makers start building on it. You're looking at a few weeks for a beta build, and just a bit longer for stable ones. How To Root AndroidThe rooting process will vary from one device to the next, but the first step is usually to either unlock, or bypass the bootloader. A bootloader is a piece of software that loads before anything else on the device. It verifies the authenticity of all the software running on the phone. So if you want to install something like a root package, that needs to be blocked. Let's go over the Nexus devices first, as they offer a good and straightforward introduction to rooting. Before you get started with any root procedure, backup EVERYTHING. Unlocking bootloaders wipes everything on the device as a security measure. Nexus device:1 - Download and install the Android SDK from Google and install the USB drivers package and Android tools. 2 - If it is not present, download the fastboot.exe file (available on various places online, like here ) and place it in the SDK/Tools (or Platform-Tools) folder. This will be the same folder with adb.exe in it.
3 - On your phone or tablet, go into the settings and open the About Phone/Tablet menu. Tap the Build Number seven times. This will enable Developer Options in the main settings menu.
4 - Turn on USB Debugging in the Developer Options, and plug the device into your PC via the USB cable. 5 - Back on the PC, go to the folder where you placed the fastboot.exe file and open a command prompt window there. We're going to use a tool called Android Debug Bridge (ADB). This is a way to issue commands to a device from your PC. 6 - In the command prompt, type adb devices , then hit enter. The window should show a device ID. 7 - Type adb reboot bootloader in the command prompt and hit enter. Your device will reboot into bootloader mode.
8 - Now type fastboot oem unlock and hit enter. The device will pop up a warning as seen below. Select yes, but be aware this is the step that wipes the phone or tablet.
9 - On your PC download the TWRP recovery or ClockWorkMod (varies by device) and SuperSU root package. The versions change as new OS updates come out, but a quick search on XDA will get you the most recent version. Put the recovery file in the folder with ADB. Get your device back into Android and transfer the SuperSU zip to the internal storage. 10 - With your phone or tablet in bootloader mode again, type the following into the command prompt: fastboot flash recovery twrp.img , then hit enter. Substitute the MWN file name if you used that. This installs a new recovery over your old one so you can flash unsigned zip files.
11 - Finally, disconnect the device from your PC and use the volume rocker to navigate through the list of options in the bootloader. Choose the Recovery option and select it using the power button. Once in the recovery, find the option to Install a zip from the SD card, then select the SuperSU zip. And that's it. You're rooted.
A word about the toolkits: This is a separate program that can be used to automate the process above. It's best that you know how to use ADB anyway, so we recommend that route. Sometimes things go wrong, and ADB might be the best way to fix it. However, you are welcome to try the Nexus Root Toolkit from WugFresh. It's the best one by far.
Just plug in the device, click Unlock, wait, click Root, wait some more, and you're done. If something goes wrong, it's not easy to figure out exactly what it was. Click the next page to learn how to root the HTC One, the Samsung Galaxy S4, and what to do once you have rooted your phone.
How to root the HTC OneThe new HTC flagship device is pretty hot right now, and it serves as an interesting middle ground between a Nexus-style root, and the more hackery ones. Like the Nexus, we need to unlock the bootloader, but it's encrypted on this phone. To unlock, you need to register as an HTC developer on the HTC Dev site (it's free). Just like above, you'll need the Android SDK, USB drivers, and fastboot drivers. Installing the HTC Sync Manager will get you the drivers you need, but the HTC Dev site will provide you with Fastboot and a few other files. Backup the phone, as unlocking the bootloader will reset everything.
1 - Go to the HTC Dev site and follow the instructions to get into bootloader mode. You will disconnect the device from PC, turn it off, press and hold Volume Down and the Power button to access the Bootloader. 2 - Use the volume keys to select fastboot mode, and select it with power. When the device does its thing, connect it to the PC again. 3 - On your PC, go to the folder with all the ADB and Fastboot files and open a command prompt. Type fastboot devices and hit enter. The HTC One should show up as a device ID. 4 - Enter fastboot oem get_identifier_token . This will spit out a big block of text, which you will then copy and paste into the HTC Dev site when it asks for it. Wait a bit, and HTC will send you the unlock token. Place it in the Fastboot folder.
5 - With the HTC One still in Fastboot mode, type fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin . Now you're unlocked, so it's time to root. Reboot the phone normally and download the SuperUser zip file from Koush. Transfer it to the device. 6 - Download TWRP recovery for the HTC One and place it in the directory with your Fastboot and ADB files. 7 - Open another command prompt and get your device back into Fastboot mode just like above. Type fastboot flash recovery twrp.img and hit enter.
8 - Turn off the HTC One and turn it on in Bootloader mode by holding the Volume Down + Power button. Select Recovery and wait for the device to load.
9 - In Recovery, go to install and select the SuperUser zip. The zip will flash, and that's it. You're rooted. How to root the Samsung Galaxy S4The Galaxy S4 is an interesting device as it's simultaneously easier and more difficult to root. Unlike the HTC and Nexus devices, Samsung doesn't offer an official bootloader unlock system for the carrier-locked phones. These are the overwhelming majority of GS4s, so that's what we're going over here. Some carriers have more bootloader security than others, and just like the previously detailed phones, we need to get around that. Instead of using ADB, we need a tool called ODIN, which allows efficient communication with Samsung devices over a PC connection. 1 - Install ODIN and run it. Click on the PDA button.
2 - ODIN will ask you to select the root file, which it came with. 3 - On your phone, power it completely off, then hold power and volume up to enter download mode. 4 - Connect the Galaxy S4 to the PC and click the Start button in ODIN. 5 - ODIN will churn for a moment and tell if your phone is supported for automatic root. Most are, and it will push the file over. Once you've seen the SuperUser Android logo, you've got root installed. 6 - Reboot the phone, and you're (hopefully) done. Note: None of this replaced the recovery or unlocked the bootloader. The device is still more restricted than other rooted Android phones. A different method that replaces the recovery will give you more control and helps get around some of the roadblocks that stop ODIN from running the process automatically. The process is the same as above, except you will point ODIN toward ClockWorkMod recovery, which you can find over here . Then use ClockWorkMod to flash the SuperUser zip (reboot with power, volume down, and home pressed). Depending on your model, you may need to use the Loki tool instead of ODIN. A quick search on XDA will tell you which version of the device needs which tool.
Samsung changes the security settings frequently, but as long as you know which version of the phone you have, you can probably gain root. Just remember: i9500 is the international variant, and i9505 is the Snapdragon US version. Carrier locked models have their own models sometimes, like the SCH-i545 for Verizon. There are a few versions of GS4 software that don't have active roots yet, so you may have to be patient. For other devices, you're going to be doing the same basic things outlined above, or some variation of them. Check XDA for the most up-to-date root files for your device, and get ADB ready. Most devices don't have encrypted bootloaders, so it's easy to get a custom recovery installed. From there, it's clear sailing. What To Do With RootSo now that you're rooted, what can you do with it? Before you do anything else, do a full device backup. You will probably have a custom recovery after rooting, but if not, you can flash one manually with ROM Manager in the Play Store (it's easy if you have root access). Boot into recovery, and find the backup option. In some recoveries, it's called Nandroid. This is essentially a full backup that makes an image of the device. That way, if you break anything the phone can be restored to a working state. These backups can be big, so you might want to store it elsewhere. Making use of root-only apps is one of the main goals of this endeavor, so dive in. Root Explorer is one of the first apps you'll want to grab. This is a no-frills file manager that lets you manage permissions and access files in the system directory. Quick Boot is a very useful app that can replicate some of those ADB commands we were using up above. This root app can reboot the phone, boot into recovery, bootloader, and power off in one step. This one is essential.
OTA RootKeeper is always a good idea. This app backs up your root files so that an OTA update can't wipe them out. Just back up, and restore after the update through the app. Should work on most devices. Greenify lets you designate apps that you don't much care for, but don't want to uninstall to be silenced. If, for example, you don't want Facebook running in the background because it's a buggy, terrible app that often wastes battery (it is), then you can add it to Greenify. Greenify will wait a minute after you leave the app, then force it into hibernation mode. It won't be allowed to carry out any operations until you open it, but you can still use it when you want. This is a great app, but use it wisely. You should also grab Helium or Titanium Backup to save your app data and sync it to other devices. This lets you transfer saved games and settings between old and new phones/tablets. Helium is a bit more streamlined and user-friendly, but Titanium is more powerful. Helium also works without root, but its functionality is better with it. Finally, pick up Cerberus . This is a security app that can track, lock, and wipe your phone if it is stolen. It can even take pictures with the camera and email them to you in hopes of catching the thief in the act. This app has a root capability allowing it to be installed to the system partition so it can survive device resets. The standard functions work on non-rooted devices, though. ROMsOkay, this is the ultimate endgame in rooting. If you want to completely change how your device works, installing a custom ROM is how you do it. There are several big names in Android ROMs, and that's probably where you should start. CynaogenMod supports a huge number of devices, and its very stable. Recent developments include a secure messaging platform and inproved data security. Visit the CM site for instructions on flashing this ROM.
Paranoid Android is also quite popular, and it includes some unique features like Halo floating app multitasking. This ROM has a very fast update cycle, but it's a bit more buggy than CyanogenMod. This ROM is more distributed, so there's not a main site. The developers run a Google+ page, linked above. Keep up with news there, and grab the latest builds on XDA or in ROM Manager. In general, all the ROMs you want to install can be flashed through recovery. Just transfer the zip file over, then use recovery to install it just like we installed root up above. For a slightly easier time, grab ROM Manager from Google Play. It can do much more than install a custom recovery. This app lists a ton of ROMs and can download them, then install in one step. You should only do this if you're familiar with ADB, though. Rom Manager won't give you any feedback if something goes wrong, and that might mean a real pain to fix your device. ConclusionYou can get more out of your Android device by rooting, but it's not for everyone. There is always risk in doing this. It's possible the device could be damaged beyond repair, or that you'll simply want to take advantage of the warranty in the future only to find you've voided it by rooting. Undertake this at your own peril, but there's a massive community or experienced modders on sites like XDA and RootzWiki to help you if you get stuck. Best of luck! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 10 May 2015 08:36 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Build It: Putting Together a Haswell-E Box Posted: 08 May 2015 01:04 PM PDT It may not seem it at first, but Intel's Haswell-E "Lite" is a sweet deal and a solid foundation for a buildLength of Time 2-4 hours | Level of Difficulty: Medium We've found there are really two kinds of PC builders today. Those who are content with Intel's "consumer" LGA1150 socket, and those who always go for the big-boy socket. Yes, these are the folks who opted for an LGA1366 instead of LGA1155, and when faced with LGA2011 or LGA1150, they went for the larger pin- and core-count again. For you, the LGA2011-V3 and Haswell-E means it's time get building with Intel's "bargain" Core i7-5820K part. This $390 chip gets you six cores without paying the $560 premium pricing Intel applied to its previous six-core processor. Not a Budget Box This is a six-core, fire-breathing enthusiast machine meant to keep your computing needs satiated for the next 36 to 48 months. And just as you don't buy a Mercedes with manual-crank windows and AM radio, we didn't skimp here. We outfitted this rig with very nice components befitting its six-core royalty. Yes, there are ways to cut costs. If we really wanted to budget-out this baby, we could have used a cheaper case, cut the SSD size, and gone with RAM without a heat spreader. We could also notch down the GPU and ditch the optical drive, too. At that point, you might as well have built a Pentium K box. 1. LGA2011-V3 What?
Here's the PSA for folks who don't follow current events: LGA2011-V3 is not, repeat, NOT, compatible nor the same as the previous LGA2011 socket. You may snicker, but there will be people buying mobos and CPUs that are incompatible and not realize it until they've trashed the motherboard. Installing the LGA2011-V3 part isn't all that different from its predecessor. Unlatch both arms on the socket, remove the plastic cap, and line up the chip by referencing the small triangle in the corner of the CPU with the triangle on the socket or motherboard. The notches in the CPU should also line up. Now, lower the CPU into the socket without sliding it around or touching the pins in the socket, and latch it in place. Don't throw away the plastic cap. You'll need it if you have to return the board for service. 2. Because It's One Better
You don't have to put RAM in with the motherboard outside of the case, it's just a lot easier. DDR4 is the new hotness and offers eventual higher capacity and higher speeds, too. As Haswell-E features a quad-channel memory controller, you should consult your motherboard manual on which slots to put your four DIMMs in. On boards that feature latchless connectors on one side, you need to ensure the RAM is fully seated; we've botched installs by not fully seating the RAM. There is a slight curve in DDR4 modules to aid seating it, but you should still make sure RAM is fully seated—it's the typical rookie builders mistake. You should also now install the back plate that comes with the cooler, too. 3. Put In Your Foundation
You're now ready to install the board. First, install the I/O shield in the case firmly. Now, count how many mounts are in the case and make sure they are properly torqued down and cannot unscrew. The mounts should match the number of holes in your motherboard. Screw down the motherboard and begin connecting fans to available fan headers and the like. With this motherboard in particular, plug the wire from the I/O shield into the nearby header for it. This powers the nifty blue and red LEDs integrated into the I/O shield. If it bugs you, you can control this LED from within the Gigabyte utilities in the OS, which let you turn it off, turn it on, or even have it blink. You should also plug in the rest of the umbilicals you need, such as USB 3.0 and frontpanel controls. You should install your PSU now, too. 4. SATA Confusion
One of the most common mistakes is to use the wrong SATA ports. Unlike that gimpy X79 chipset that only had two native SATA 6Gb/s ports, X99 has all SATA 6Gb/s ports. Still, rooks will plug into a third-party SATA port that isn't as fast or isn't even on. We prefer to run off of the native chipset ports first because they generally perform the best and there's no need for drivers for most OSes. On this board, there's also a SATA Express port that shares the SATA ports. Don't worry about it. We haven't seen a SATA Express device yet, and storage vendors seem pretty blasé, so for now, don't sweat it. As with RAM, we recommend basic RTFM protocol before plugging in any drive. We also recommend installing the GPU after plugging in and running the SATA cables, as the card will block access to the ports.
5. Yolanda, What's Fonzie Like?
To cool this rig, we recommend mounting the radiator first so as not to put undue pressure on the hoses and motherboard. To do that, though, you'll need to put the cooler in the top of the case and hold it in place with one hand while screwing down one of the corners. Keep the rest of the screws handy, too. Once you have one corner of the rad in place, put a screw in the opposite corner from the first point you mounted it. Only after you have done this can you remove your hand from the radiator. Now, just mount the pump and cold plate to the CPU and plug it into power. As this cooler is "smart," you'll need to plug it into an available USB header and download software from NZXT's website for it, too. 6. Bezel Removal
This normally wouldn't be a step we would bother mentioning, but just this once, we wanted to let those of you who are running optical drives in your Obsidian 750Ds know how to remove the bezel. If you're like us and can't read the manual, you might be tempted to pry off the front of the case, but hold back a sec as it's actually easier than that. The bezels are held in place rather tightly but can be removed by reaching inside the case and squeezing the two arms that secure it while pushing it out. It may seem like overkill but it's better than bezels that pop out every time you look at them too hard. With it out, just slide in your ODD. Also add your SSD and HDD and plug them into power and data. 7. Overclock It
With this CPU and a nice liquid cooler, there's simply no reason not to overclock it. To start our overclock, we first consulted the Internets to get an idea of what others were getting from their retail CPUs and what methods they were using. Haswell-E has an additional "gear" or "strap" that allows you to run the b-clock at higher than a standard Haswell chip's 100MHz, such as 125MHz. We, unfortunately, didn't get very far with that method and so, with the clock ticking on our build, we fell back on a basic Turbo Boost overclock. To do that, we went into the Advanced CPU Core settings in the UEFI and manually set the turbo ratios based on the core loads. To hit our overclocks, we also increased the core voltage to 1.296 volts. 8. Validate!
Validation of an overclock's stability is always an open debate. Is running your favorite game enough? We initially reached for our old standby: Prime95. We know board makers don't recommend it as it's "too stressful," but, for a quick test that gets you into the ballpark, we rely on it. However, it was too stressful on Haswell-E within a few minutes. Still needing to vet our settings, we used AIDA64 Extreme set to FPU mode and completed multiple runs. We'll note a recommended AIDA64 by some is 12 hours. When you're looking at 100MHz increments that means days of testing. We instead erred on the side of caution. We think Haswell-E can go further, but we wanted to be realistic about it, too. Intel's "Lite" Is a Heavyweight Contender First, let's point out something. The predecessor of the six-core Core i7-5820K is the four-core Core i7-4820K, which cost $325. When you factor in that you're getting the same core count of the $580 Core i7-4930K, this Haswell-E "Lite" is looking pretty damned good. To find out just how good, we took our zero-point system with its Sandy Bridge Core i7-3930K CPU overclocked full-time to 3.8GHz (on air) and its GeForce GTX 690 and put it against this month's build. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Asus GeForce GTX 980 Graphics Card, CM Storm Trooper Case, and More! Posted: 08 May 2015 12:31 PM PDT Top Deal: Life is too short to be stressed out, don't you agree? Stress results in all kinds of nasty side effects, like diminished health, anxiety, graying of the hairs, and just plain bad moods. Want punch stress square in the face? Then check out today's top deal for an Asus GeForce STX 980 Graphics Card for $534 with free shipping (normally $550 -- use coupon code: [ EMCASAW29 ]; additional $15 mail-in-rebate). It's tough to be stressed when you're playing a game with all the eye candy turned up (well, until you get stuck on a level), and the GTX 980 will certainly oblige! Other Deals: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card for $329 with free shipping (normally $350 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAW76 ]; additional $15 Mail-in rebate) Asus Radeon R9 290X 4GB Video Card for $300 with free shipping (normally $310 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAW32 ]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate) CM Storm Trooper Gaming Full Tower Computer Case for $145 with free shipping (normally $150 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAW77 ]; additional $15 Mail-in rebate) Acer G276HL Black 27-inch 6ms LCD Monitor w/ Built in Speakers for $190 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAW38 ]) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Don't Look Beyond Windows 10, It's the Last Version of Windows Posted: 08 May 2015 08:33 AM PDT Windows 10 is the end-game, and the beginning We know that Windows 10 is coming and will arrive sometime this summer. Microsoft has said as much. But what comes after Windows 10? Windows 11? Windows 12? Yes and no. There's been plenty of chatter about Microsoft transitioning to a Windows as a service model, though for the first time, someone in Redmond's camp pretty much confirmed that Windows 10 is the end of the road for Windows . Don't mistake that to mean Windows is going away -- it isn't. It's just that the business model is changing into one that will see frequent updates rather than major new releases every few years. "Right now we're releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we're all still working on Windows 10," said Jerry Nixon, developer evangelist, while speaking at the Microsoft Ignite conference earlier this week. That sort of sounds like a death knell for Windows, but that's not how he intended it. Microsoft was quick to clarify things to The Verge , saying that "recent comments at Ignite about Windows 10 are reflective of the way Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner, with continuous value for our consumer and business customers." Microsoft also said that it isn't talking about future branding just yet, but wants to make it clear that Windows 10 will remain up-to-date. The move to Windows as a service ties in with the elimination of Patch Tuesday . Instead of a bundle of updates rolled out on the second Tuesday of each and every month, with Windows 10, Microsoft will dole out updates as they become available. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Motherboard Madness Edition! Posted: 07 May 2015 01:48 PM PDT Top Deal: You've lived your life the philosophy of "Go big or go home," right? Hey, we can dig it! We're all about excess, though at the same time, while going big can be pricey, there are still opportunities to save a bit of coin. Case in point, check out today's top deal for an Asus X99-E WS Motherboard for $431 with $4 shipping (normally $507 - use coupone code: [ EMCASAV38 ]). This beastly board is big, bad, and ready to be the centerpiece of your own dream machine. Other Deals: Asus Z87-C LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $115 with free shipping (normally $135 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAV38 ]) Gigabyte GA-X99-Gaming 5P LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard for $264 with free shipping (normally $310 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAV38 ]) MSI X99S Gaming 9 ACK LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard for $357 with free shipping (normally $420 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAV38 ]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Asus X99-A LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $217 with free shipping (normally $255 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAV38 ]) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMD Announces 7000 Series Mobile APUs, Cuts Price of Desktop Chips Posted: 07 May 2015 01:37 PM PDT New APUs, new prices AMD decided to shake things up at its 2015 Financial Analyst Day by announcing new AMD 7000 Series APUs for mobile systems (formerly codenamed Carrizo-L and part of the Carrizo platform in the 2015 AMD mobile APU family roadmap), new Radeon 300 Series desktop graphics cards for OEMs, new Radeon M300 Series mobile graphics, and price cuts for existing A-Series desktop APUs. Starting with the new Carrizo-L parts, here's a look: AMD A8-7410: 4 cores, up to 2.5GHz, 2MB cache, 1866MHz max DDR3, 12-25W AMD A6-7310: 4 cores, up to 2.4GHz, 2MB cache, 1600MHz max DDR3, 12-25W AMD A4-7210: 4 cores, up to 2.2GHz, 2MB cache, 1600MHz max DDR3, 12-25W AMD E2-7110: 4 cores, up to 1.8GHz, 2MB cache, 1600MHz max DDR3, 12-15W AMD E1-7010: 2 cores, up to 1.5GHz, 1MB cache, 1333MHz max DDR3, 10W These are all System-on-Chip (SoC) designs that combine CPU, GPU, AMD Secure Processor technology, and system I/O on a single chip. AMD intends for these SoCs to end up in laptops and all-in-one systems. The company didn't talk too much about its new M300 Series and 300 Series Radeon graphics, though it did list new prices for existing for A-Series desktop APUs. Here they are: AMD A10-7850K: $127 AMD A10-7800: $127 AMD A10-7700K: $117 AMD A8-7650K: $95 AMD A8-7600: $85 AMD A6-7400K: $60 AMD A4-7300: $42 These are suggested retail prices, meaning it's still up to individual vendors to price them accordingly. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gigabyte P55K is First in a New Line of Gaming Laptops Posted: 07 May 2015 01:12 PM PDT Let the games begin Gigabyte is tapping into NVIDIA's newest mobile Maxwell GPUs to power its P55K , a 15.6-inch notebook that's the first of a new generation of "powerful gaming laptops." In this instance, Gigabyte chose the GeForce GTX 965M with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory. Combined with the other parts, including an Intel Core i7 4720HQ processor (Haswell), up to 16GB of RAM, and a storage scheme consisting of an mSATA SSD up to 512GB paired with up to a 2TB hard drive, Gigabyte says the P55K tops 7,000 in 3DMark 11 (Performance). The 15.6-inch display sports a Full HD 1080p resolution. Other features include a DVD or Blu-ray burner, four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and D-Sub output, GbE LAn port, headphone jack, SD card reader, two 2W speakers, HD webcam, Kensington Lock, and a full-size keyboard with backlight and 2.2mm of key travel. We're seeing gaming laptops shrink in size, and while this one isn't quite sitting in Ultrabook territory, it's not a behemoth at 15 inches (W) by 10.6 inches (D) by 1.1 to 1.3 inches (H). The P55K starts at $1,249. No word yet on when it will be available. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 07 May 2015 10:56 AM PDT At A GlancePros Cons The new standard for UltrabooksDell's XPS 13 line of laptops has been around for many years now, and while the company's 2015 model doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, Dell has made enough improvements to it to claim that it has the best Ultrabook on the market. We'll see about that… The compact chassis gives the notebook some sex appeal. Measuring 11.9x8x.5 inches and weighing just two pounds, 12.4 ounces, it's extremely portable. While a chassis this small usually sports an 11-inch panel, Dell impressed us with its finesse in squeezing in a 13.3-inch 10-point touch display. This is done through what Dell calls its "Infinity Edge" display. That's marketing jargon for what amounts to really thin, flush bezels that measure 5.2mm across. While the panel isn't huge, the resolution is enormous at 3200x1800. Certain Windows programs might look small but, surprisingly, it looks fine for most applications. Some users may also be put off by the glossy panel, but the viewing angles on this IPS display and the vibrant colors it offers are undeniably fantastic. The body shape puts it in the MacBook Air category of laptops, and while it even sports a downward slope that's similar to Apple's popular notebook, it's got its own thing going aesthetically. The XPS 13 is mainly composed of machined aluminum, and has a carbon fiber palm rest. Most of the notebook is black, with the exception of its silver back; here you'll also find the Dell logo etched in. It would be nice if the logo had a lighting option (all the cool kids are doing it), but maybe Dell designers thought it would be best to go minimal this time around. Luckily, it does have a backlit keyboard, which is more important. Because the laptop is small, some people may be bothered by the compact keyboard, but it didn't bother us. We weren't too crazy about the trackpad, however, which offers a little unwanted acceleration. The notebook's speakers have a surprising amount of firepower, but we're a little let down that they're side-firing as opposed to front-facing. In terms of ports, you've got your charging port, two USB 3.0 ports, mini DisplayPort, headphone jack, and SD card slot. We wish the laptop offered Mini-HDMI, but it's got all the bare essentials otherwise, and offers more ports than other leading notebooks (ahem, Apple, we're looking at you). When it came to performance, our Dell XPS 13 and its 2.2GHz Core i5-5200U processor didn't blow our socks off. It performed better than our Acer S7's Ivy Bridge processor in our Stitch CPU benchmark by eight percent, but lagged three percent behind in our multithread-heavy x264 test. It's worth noting that this isn't an apples-to-apples tier comparison, however. Our zero point uses a Core i7-3517U processor that has a max turbo frequency of 3GHz, which trumps the i5's 2.7GHz top speed. Also, when our S7 zero point goes full blast, it's almost leaf-blower loud. The XPS 13, on the other hand, plays it cool and quiet. In graphics territory, the XPS 13 was gave our zero point a thorough thrashing. Intel has been making very noticeable improvements when it comes to integrated graphics; the fruit of its labors means a performance delta between 40–70 percent here. If you're thinking this means you'll be able to do some hardcore gaming on this thing, however, you'll want to think again. Even with everything turned low, we got unplayable framerates (mid-20s) running Tomb Raider at 1080p. This proves that gaming laptops aren't getting pushed off the table by lighter fare anytime soon. There were a few other areas where the laptop failed to impress, battery life being chief among them. In our video-rundown test, the XPS 13 lasted 223 minutes, which is fine for even the lengthiest of Peter Jackson movie edits, but if you're hoping for something that will last an entire workday, this particular model isn't for you. Dell says its 1080p configuration will last longer, since the laptop doesn't have to push as many pixels, but as we don't have that unit to test, we can't validate the claim. Another gripe we had with the XPS 13 is that the camera is located on the lower left-hand corner of the monitor, as opposed to the top-middle, where most laptops place it. This placement sort of validates the old saying that the camera adds 15 pounds, at least that's the excuse we're going with in our case. Finally, the laptop does get a little warm underneath, but it won't singe your lap. These knocks against the XPS 13 prevent us from awarding it a Kick Ass score, but quibbles aside, this is still a great Ultrabook. Its 12.9-second boot-up time is among the fastest we've ever seen, and the laptop is ultimately quite sleek, incredibly portable, and priced fairly. It's not perfect, but it may very well be the best Ultrabook out there at the moment. Price, $1,400; www.dell.com
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| Myst to Make a Return (as a TV Series on Hulu) Posted: 07 May 2015 10:45 AM PDT Blast from the past I remember back when optical drives were new (and expensive), there was a game called Myst that helped drive sales. The point-n-click adventure game was just too massive to fit on floppy, so if you wanted to play it, you needed a CD drive. This is the early 1990s I'm talking about here, back when adventure games were as popular as FPS titles are today. Would it surprise you that Myst is coming back? It is, just not as a video game. According to Deadspin , Hulu has snagged the rights to Myst and is using the IP for a new drama series. Matt Tolmach (producer of The Amazing Spider-Man and Sinister) and Evan Daugherty (Divergent writer) are said to be involved in Myst's return. The first episode will show a man waking up on an island with no recollection of who he is, where he is, how he got there, and so forth. Not exactly an original plot, though one that works with Myst. It will be interesting to see how much interest the show attracts. Myst, while known in the geek community, particularly old school gamers, isn't a franchise that most people are likely to recognize. However, the franchise seems to be in good hands, so we'll cross our fingers and hope for the best. Now, if only someone would pick up the rights to Sam & Max and create a TV show around that! Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Lets Slip Forthcoming Android M Announcement Posted: 07 May 2015 09:40 AM PDT Android M is just around the corner It's not really a secret that Google uses its Google I/O convention to unveil major versions of its mobile operating system known as Android. In case you were in doubt anyway, for a brief period, Google's schedule for Google I/O later this month included a mention of Android M . The sultan of search has since pulled any reference to the next Android build, but as we often say, there are no mulligans on the Internet. The quick-fingered folks at ArsTechnica captured a screenshot of the listing before Google had a chance to yank it offline. Before it was pulled, Google's reference to Android M fell under a section titled Android for Work Update. "Android M is bringing the power of Android to all kinds of workplaces. This opens huge new markets for hundreds of millions of devices to workers at small business, deskless workers, logistics, and warehousing jobs; all be empowered by adoption of Android devices at Work (Note: This Sandbox talk will be offered twice throughout the event. Check the schedule to confirm timings," Google wrote. The big question is, what tasty treat will Google M be named after? So far we've had Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, and Lollipop. It isn't known if Google will partner up again with a player in the candy industry like it did with KitKat. Perhaps Android M&M, a candy that's seen quite a bit of TV time lately. Beyond the name, there's of course the question of what Android M will bring to the table, and unfortunately Google didn't leak out any details. So, we'll have to wait and see. Google I/O is scheduled to run from May 27-29. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Linksys EA8500 is First Wireless-AC Router to Support MU-MIMO Posted: 07 May 2015 09:11 AM PDT For multi-device networks Linksys today announced the availability of what it claims is the industry's first MU-MIMO (multiple-user, multiple input, multiple output) enabled 802.11ac wireless router, the EA8500 . Or if you prefer long product names, you can also find it listed as the Linksys Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router. No matter what you call it, the point of interest here is the router's ability to treat multiple devices as if they're all connecting to their own dedicated router. There are routers on the market that claim they're MU-MIMO-ready, but to the best of our knowledge, all of them are still waiting on official firmware to support the feature. That's not the case with the EA8500 -- it's ready to go right out of the box. Supporting MU-MIMO is an important part of the evolution of routers. According to Linksys, the average home now has more than eight connected devices. The router you're using now can only accommodate one of those devices at a time, meaning all the others have to get in line. You might not notice it much, if at all, because single-user MIMO routers are fast, they're just not as speedy or efficient as MU-MIMO enabled routers. Where it's probably most notable is watching a streaming video -- if the video temporarily degrades or hiccipus and there are several other devices in your home connected to the Internet, this could be a reason why. By way of MU-MIMO, the EA8500 can dish out bandwidth to all your devices at once, so it's like they're all connecting to their own router, provided your devices also support MU-MIMO. If not, well, we suppose the EA8500 amounts to future-proofing your home network, at least to the extent that home networks can be future-proofed. Linksys rates the EA8500 as an AC2600 router, though as we always feel the need to point out, the rating is a bit of marketing fluff because it combines the speeds of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies -- up to 800Mbps on the 2.4GHz channel and up to 1,733Mbps on 5GHz, or 2,533Mbps. Apparently that rounds up to AC2600, but aside from that, you can't combine the total bandwidth of both channels. We're not picking on Linksys here, as all router makers have adopted this way of marketing their devices. Other specs and features include a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU, beamforming support, four removable external antennas, four Gigabit ports, USB 3.0 port, and a combo USB 2.0/eSATA port for cloud streaming and sharing data across a network. The Linksys EA8500 is available now for $280 MSRP. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Use Licensed Music in Your YouTube Videos Posted: 06 May 2015 02:47 PM PDT Follow these steps to avoid having licensed music removed from your YouTube videos If you've ever tried to legally inject a copyrighted song into your YouTube video (meaning you licensed it or otherwise own the song in question), you know it can be an exercise in frustration. It's not that using music is difficult—the problem stems from YouTube's sometimes overzealous efforts to keep everything on the up and up. Even though you have permission to use an audio track, or own the copyrighted song, YouTube may take down your video, essentially claiming you're a copyright crook. Have it happen enough times and you might even find yourself banned. Part of the issue has to do with Content ID, which is a system YouTube uses to look for copyrighted music. It automatically scans every video that gets uploaded and sniffs out potential copyright violations, but one of the problems with Content ID is that it only identifies the song, not the license. Alternately, someone can file a copyright claim on music contained in your video and, well, it can be a hassle. Well folks, the good news is there's a relatively easy way avoid the headache of having your video removed from YouTube over false copyright concerns . Here's how. Obtain Permission The first thing you need to do is make sure you have permission to use the copyrighted song you want in your video. Depending on the song, this can be relatively easy or a bit of pain in the backside, and potentially time consuming. Be that as it may, it's necessary if you're not trying to skirt the law. You can request permission from major music labels by using the following links: WMG Music Licensing Sony Music Licensing Universal Music Special Markets EMI Music Publishing BMC E-License For other labels and music rights holders, you'll need to do some digging on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, or whatever happens to be your search engine of choice. Or Use YouTube's Catalog of Music If you don't want to go out and license music on your own, you can swap out audio tracks on your video using YouTube's audio swapping tool. Here's the thing—YouTube possesses over 150,000 tracks that are free to use, and since they've all been pre-approved, you don't have to worry about a copyright claim yanking your video offline. YouTube provides plenty of free music to add to your videos. You can find step-by-step instructions by clicking here , though if your click finger is sore, here's what you do: Go to your Video Manager page , and click the arrow next to Edit on the video you'd like to edit In the drop-down menu, click the Audio button Select a track by clicking on it and preview your video with the music track added Search for a track using the search box, or browse by genre using the Featured Tracks tab Once you've found a track you like, click the Save button, and the new audio will be applied to your video. Audio tracks can be positioned in a precise part of your video using the Position Audio feature. That's it, you're finished, there's nothing more to see here. For the rest of you, move on to the next step. Be Audacious and Grab Audacity If you routinely work with music files, then you've probably heard of Audacity. And if not, well, here's your chance to get acquainted with the program. It's free, open-source, and works on multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux. You can grab Audacity here . What we're going to do with Audacity is ever-so-slightly alter the speed and pitch of the copyrighted song that you licensed. By doing this, it throws YouTube off the scent and greatly reduces the risk that your video will be taken down. Once you've installed Audacity, fire it up and load your song inyo the program. You can either drag-and-drop the music file into Audacity, or load it the old-school way: File > Open and select your song. With your song loaded into Audacity, go ahead and highlight the length of the track. Since there's no "Select All" option, the easiest way to do this is to click the gray area on the left-hand side. Alternately, you can scroll until you reach the end of the track, click in the gray area, and drag left until you've highlighted the entire song. Don't go overboard or your altered track will sound noticeably different from the original. After you've selected the length of the song, it's time to alter the speed. Click on Effect > Change Speed. A pop-up box will appear giving you the ability to speed up or slow down a track, either by dragging the slider or entering a percentage. You don't want to go crazy here, or the song will sound funky, but at the same time, a slight change won't be enough to duck YouTube's filter. We recommend changing the speed by 0.3 percent—it doesn't matter if you speed it up or slow it down. It will take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to process, depending on the length of the song and your PC. When it's finished, give the altered track a listen. With such a small change in speed, only the most discerning ears should be able to notice a difference. You'll need Lame to save to MP3 files with Audacity. If you're happy with the result, go to File > Export Audio and save the track to WAV or MP3. If you choose MP3, you may get a message letting you know that Audacity needs the file lame_enc.dll. Don't sweat it—just hit the Download button (or click here ) and follow the instructions. Pitch Imperfect If changing the speed doesn't do the trick and/or you want to err on the side of caution, you can also alter the pitch. The steps are mostly the same—load up your music file and highlight the entire track, but this time select "Change Pitch" from the Effect menu. Alter the pitch too much and it will sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks hijacked your track. Under the Frequency heading, there's a Percent Change box. We suggest changing the pitch anywhere from 3 to 5 percent in either direction (for slower songs or tracks with an emphasis on instrumentals, like bluegrass, you'll probably have better results with negative percent changes). Try it one way and give it a listen. If you don't like the result, go to Edit and select Undo Change Pitch. Try again in the other direction and/or alter the percentage. Upload and Enjoy! All that's left now is to upload your slightly altered, licensed music track to your YouTube video. It's still possible that a person could manually report your video, so you may want to leave a note letting viewers know that you licensed the copyrighted song(s) in your video. NOTE: Maximum PC does not condone the stealing of copyrighted material, so we do suggest that you ask for permission whenever possible. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: XFX TS Series 550W Power Supply, MSI GTX 960 Video Card, and More! Posted: 06 May 2015 11:01 AM PDT Top Deal: Protip: Very few people actually need a massive power supply that takes wattage into four-digit territory. It's easy to overspend on a PSU, though you'd be surprised at how much PC a well-built PSU with a modest wattage rating can handle. If you're looking to save a bit of coin by being prudent with your power needs, than check out today's top deal for an XFX TS Series 550W PSU for $52 with free shipping (normally $62 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAS22 ]; additional $25 mail-in-rebate). This is an 80 Plus Bronze certified PSU that's SLI and Crossfire ready, and backed by a 5-year warranty along with a True Wattage Guarantee (XFX says it's wattage rating is based on operating conditions at 50C/120F). Other Deals: MSI GTX 960 2GB Video Card for $200 with free shipping (normally $220; Free Game Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with purchase, limited offer; additional $15 Mail-in rebate) EVGA 850W SLI Ready Modular Power Supply for $90 with free shipping (normally $100; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Samsung 850 Pro 2.5-inch 256GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive for $160 with free shipping (normally $170; Free Kmart $25 Gift Card (Email Delivery) w/ purchase, limited offer) OCZ Arc 100 2.5-inch 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $100 with free shipping (normally $110; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Intel Eyes Real Time Analytics with New Xeon Processor E7 v3 CPU Line Posted: 06 May 2015 10:01 AM PDT Will 18 cores suffice? We've seen a lot of action in the micro server market as of late, but lest anyone forget, there's still a need for servers on the other end of the spectrum, ones that deal with machine learning, real-time data analytics, and other mission critical tasks suitable for scale-out data centers. It's that market Intel is targeting with its new Xeon E7 v3 product line consisting of a dozen different processors. The Xeon E7 v3 product family consists of chips with up to 18 physical cores with Hyper Threading (for 36 threads), up 45MB of last level cache, and clockspeeds ranging from 1.9GHz to 3.4GHz. That represents a 20 percent increase in cores compared to the previous generation Xeon family, and combined with the other upgrades, results in up to 70 percent more decision support analytic sessions per hour, Intel claims. Intel's newest Xeon processors are serious workhorses designed to compete with RISC alternatives. According to Intel, it's Xeon E7 v3 family delivers up to 10 times more performance per dollar while delivering up to an 85 percent lower total cost of ownership compared to RISC solutions, claims it makes based on reducing the cost of hardware costs and power and cooling. Hardware partners have already pounced on the new chips, with 17 system manufacturers around the globe starting to announce platforms based on Intel's Xeon E7 v3 product family. The chips themselves range in cost from $1,224 to $7,175 in 1,000-tray quantities, meaning that retail costs will be a bit higher. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oculus Rift Will Ship to Consumers in First Quarter of 2016 Posted: 06 May 2015 09:30 AM PDT At long last, a release date! It's been over two years since Oculus Rift captured the hearts and imagination (and over $2.4 million) of backers willing to pledge support for something billed as the "the first truly immersive virtual reality headset for video games." There's been a lot of movement in the VR space since then, as well as some skepticism ( and anger ) after Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion -- the idea of Candy Crush VR just didn't seem appealing to many folks. But the excitement remained, and after all this time, we finally have a launch date. Oculus Rift will be shipping to consumers in the first quarter of next year , Oculus VR announced today. In the coming weeks, Oculus VR will reveal more information about the final hardware, software, input, and even some unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to Oculus Rift. As for all the technical specifications, those will be revealed next week. "Virtual reality is going to transform gaming, film, entertainment, communication, and much more," Oculus VR said in a blog post . There have been several iterations of the Oculus Rift since it was announced, the most recent of which is dubbed Crescent Bay. It brought about numerous improvements over the Development Kit 2 model, including a higher resolution display (unspecified, though DK2 rocked a Full HD 1080p resolution, or 960x1080 per eye), 360-degree head tracking, expanded positional tracking volume, improved weight and ergonomics, integrated audio, and more. It's a much more crowded field now than it was several years ago. Google, HTC, LG, Samsung, and Sony all have skin in the VR game, and there are a handful of up-and-comers as well. However, there's been so much hype and positive impressions posted about Oculus Rift that it's likely to see a flurry of pre-orders later this year. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2, Asus ROG GL551 Gaming Laptop, and More! Posted: 05 May 2015 02:07 PM PDT Top Deal: If you routinely have to call the fire department to come and cool down your rig, it's time to reevaluate things. The good news is, you don't need to spend a fortune getting adequate cooling, nor do you have to dabble in liquid if you don't want to. Just check out today's top deal for an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 CPU Cooler for $18 with free shipping (normally $25 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAS25 ]). It's inexpensive, cools well, is quiet, and is backed by a 6-year limited warranty. Other Deals: Seagate Expansion 1TB 2.5-inch Portable External Hard Drive for $53 with free shipping (normally $60 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAS43 ]) Asus ROG GL551 Gaming Laptop i7 4720HQ 16GB Memory 1TB HDD GTX 960M 2GB 15.6-inch Windows 8.1 for $999 with free shipping (normally $1099 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAS95 ]) Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive for $85 with free shipping (normally $90 - use coupon code: [ ESCASAS99 ]) Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB 7200 RPM 128MB Cache 3.5-inch Enterprise Internal Hard Drive for $78 with free shipping (normally $85 - use coupon code: [ ESCASAS32 ]) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| EVGA Bundles Witcher 3 and Arkham Knight with GeForce GTX 980 and 970 Posted: 05 May 2015 01:36 PM PDT Free games, anyone? We have to hand it to graphics cards players -- they've been pretty good about bundling high-end titles with their cards over the last couple of years. That doesn't just apply to Nvidia and AMD, but their hardware partners as well. Case in point, EVGA today announced that for a limited time, qualifying GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce 970 graphics cards will be eligible to receive The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Batman: Arkham Knight . As always with these sorts of promotions, they apply to specific SKUs. You also must make your purchase either direct from EVGA's website or a participating etailer. You can find a list of qualifying cards here , along with instructions on how to obtain and redeem your free game codes. Additionally, you can find a list of participating etailers here , just make sure to double check the model number. The offer is good for purchases made on or after today, May 5th, and while supplies last. And if you're not looking to jump up to a GTX 980 or GTX 970, you can still score The Witcher 3 with the purchase of a GeForce GTX 960, details of which can be found here . Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Releases Surface 3 Tablet, Offers Up to $150 Trade-In for Older Models Posted: 05 May 2015 09:22 AM PDT A shiney new Surface Surface 3 (non-Pro) is Microsoft's thinnest and lightest Surface tablet ever, and it's now available to purchase in the U.S. and several other territories, including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Pricing starts at $499, though you can knock up to $150 off the cost by trading in your Surface 2 or Surface RT, so long as it's in working order. The amount you get in trade-in depends on which model you're trading in. All working Surface RT slates command $100 in trade-in value, regardless of whether they're equipped with 32GB or 64GB of storage. And all Surface RT models go for $150. Microsoft's offer doesn't increase if you include a Type Cover or Type Keyboard, so you're better off hawking those on eBay or Craigslist. Surface 3 is a toned down version of the Surface 3 Pro. It's more tablet than laptop, whereas you could argue the reverse for the latter (at least when pairing it with a keyboard). The models that are available now include: Surface 3 w/ 2GB RAM, 64GB storage, Wi-Fi ($499) Surface 3 w/ 4GB RAM, 128GB storage, Wi-Fi ($599) Surface 3 features a 10.8-inch display with a Full HD 1080p resolution, 3-position kickstand, quad-core Intel Atom processor, full-size USB 3.0 port, mini DisplayPort, microSD card reader, headset jack, cover port, micro USB charging port, and Windows 8.1. Models with 4G LTE connectivity baked in are "coming soon," with no mention of price just yet. For the sake of comparison, the Surface Pro 3 has a 12-inch display with a 2160x1440 resolution, multi-position kickstand, Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processor options, the same collection of inputs/outputs (save for the micro USB charging port), and Windows 8.1 pro. Battery life is slightly less at 9 hours versus 10 hours. If you're a student, parent of a student, or faculty member, you can save 10 percent by shopping through Microsoft's Education Store . For everyone else, you can go here to order a Surface 3 at regular pricing. Trade-in site is found here . Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mushkin Expands Reactor Series SSD Capacity Options Posted: 05 May 2015 08:52 AM PDT New capacities and a new contest Mushkin seems awfully excited about the expansion of its Reactor Series solid state drive line , which in addition to its existing 1TB capacity option, will soon be made available in 256GB and 512GB capacities. To celebrate the new SKUs and perhaps earn some street cred in the crowded SSD market, Mushkin is also holding a contest where the main prize is a Mushkin Extreme Gaming PC. First let's talk about the drives. The Reactor SSD family uses Silicon Motion's SM2246EN controller and is equipped with a SATA 6Gbps interface. Rated sequential read and write speeds are up to 560MB/s and 460MB/s, respectively, along with up to 74,000 IOPS for random 4K reads and up to 76,000 IOPS for random 4K writes. Note that those are the performance figures for the 1TB capacity -- Mushkin hasn't said whether the 256GB and 512GB drives will boast the same metrics. As far as the 1TB drive goes, it's reasonably priced on Newegg at $340 , or 34 cents per gigabyte. Pricing for the lower capacity drives hasn't yet been announced. Now, about that contest. "To celebrate the expansion of our very popular Reactor SSD starting May 1, 2015, gaming fans can enter our Ghost Recon Phantoms Sweepstakes for a chance to win up a custom built Mushkin Extreme Gaming PC and much more," said Nicolas Villalobos, Director of Global Marketing at Mushkin Inc. "As part of the celebration fans who purchase select Mushkin products through Newegg.com will also receive a Ghost Recon Phantoms $30 Value game code – free" There are several prizes up for grabs, including various gaming gear from Razer and DXRACER. You can read the official rules here and enter for a chance to win here . Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Build It: Your Own Super-Charged Set-Top Box Posted: 04 May 2015 02:48 PM PDT Put Intel's Next Unit of Computing to work as a combo streaming unit, DVR, retro-gaming station, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Visual History of PC Game Graphics Posted: 04 May 2015 02:48 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: LG Internal DVD Burner, Asus 24-inch Monitor, and More! Posted: 04 May 2015 01:31 PM PDT Top Deal: Everything is cloud this and cloud that. Remember when we used to burn these things called CDs? Ah, the era of optical media. It was a fine time, and if you ended up with a bad burn, well, you had high-tech coaster for your coffee mug (or 1980s style earring). If you still own optical media and/or want to amaze onlookers with a piece of history, then check out today's top deal for an LG Internal 24X DVD Burner w/ M-Disc Support for $13 with $1 shipping (normally $20 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAK28 ]). This drive boasts 24x DVD+R and 48x CD-R write speeds and has a 0.5MB buffer. Other Deals: Raidmax Vortex ATX-403WB Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case for $35 with free shipping (normally $40 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAK25 ]; additional $10 Mail-in rebate) Raidmax Hybrid 2 RX-630SS 630W Modular Power Supply for $47 with free shipping (normally $55 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAK27 ]) TP-Link TL-WDN4800 Dual Band Wireless N900 PCI Express Desktop Wireless Card for $30 with free shipping (normally $40 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAK45 ]) Asus VE248H Black 24-inch 2ms LCD Monitor for $160 with free shipping (normally $180 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAK69 ]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Expands Availability of Office 2016 to General Public Posted: 04 May 2015 11:09 AM PDT Getting situated in a new Office Make no mistake, Microsoft's head (and heart) is in the cloud, hence the growing number of subscription-based services. But if you're more grounded to the desktop, fear not, the Redmond giant hasn't forgotten about you. In fact, Microsoft today expanded the availability of its Office 2016 Preview suite as it seeks feedback from a broader audience leading up to the software's general availability this fall. Office 2016 introduces several changes and improvements to the productivity suite. Starting with Word, Microsoft is bringing co-authoring capabilities to Office 2016. When you and your team are online, you'll be also to what other editors are working on and what changes they're making, and see it in real-time. Individual applications will get smarter the more you use them, too. "Applications will learn as you work, taking advantage of subtle cues and clues to help you stay on task and get more out of Office," Microsoft explained in a blog post . There's a new search tool called "Tell Me" available in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel that brings up commands you need just by typing what you want to do. In addition, the suite introduces Clutter, a new Exchange feature that lights up in OUtlook and uses machine learning to analyze your email patters and de-clutter your inbox. It does this by moving lower priority messages into a dedicated Clutter folder. You can grab the Office 2016 Preview by going here . Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft CFO Discusses Windows as a Service Strategy Posted: 04 May 2015 08:05 AM PDT Reacting to declining Windows sales Microsoft surprised a lot of folks when it announced that Windows 10 would be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users, especially after explaining that the new operating system was such a departure over previous versions that it warranted skipping a version number . As many speculated, the free upgrade is part of Microsoft's strategy of shifting to Windows as a service. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood talked a little about the shift and where the company is headed. Transitioning to a Windows as a service business model essentially means that Microsoft will be more focused on generating revenue from search, apps, and cloud-based subscription services that tie into the operation system. But why now? As Hood explained during a meeting with Wall Street analysts last week, as consumer PC shipments weakened, so did Microsoft's Windows sales. "We adjusted our approach in terms of SKU strategy, making sub 9-in. devices free," said Hood, according to ComputerWorld . "We added new pricing strategy for opening price point devices. And we had programs to drive genuine Windows attach in high-piracy markets." Microsoft hopes that by reducing and in some cases eliminating the cost of Windows of licenses, it will drive up device sales, creating a larger customer base for its services and ads. With the introduction of Windows 10, Microsoft will be taking a big step in that direction. Surprisingly enough, Bing is one reason why Microsoft can afford to gamble on this strategy. The revenue from Bing advertising, which has increased, has mostly made up for declining revenue of Windows licenses. PC gaming revenue also helped in that regard, just to a lesser degree. There's still the question of whether Microsoft's Windows as a service strategy means it will transition to a subscription cost of Windows. That could still be in the cards, though it's worth noting Hood didn't talk about or hint at such a model, and instead focused on revenue from tie-in services. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Acquires Surface Pen Technology from Israeli Firm N-trig Posted: 04 May 2015 04:19 AM PDT Rumors of a deal between the two companies first began to swirl in February For many Surface users, the Surface Pen is critical to the whole device experience . It is one of the things that sets Microsoft's device apart from most other tablets on the market. And who else would know this better than Microsoft itself? The Redmond-based tech giant has acquired the technology behind the digital pen from Israeli firm N-trig. "Today we are excited to have acquired advanced digital pen technology from N-trig Ltd., with whom we've partnered closely for several years," Microsoft announced Friday. "We can't wait to show you what we'll deliver for our Surface Fans in the future. Digital pens have a ways to go to be as good as pen and paper on some dimensions, and we'll get there. But more importantly, adding the ability to capture and share the work you do with a digital pen opens up possibilities that traditional pen and paper just can't match. Today's investment is another step that will let us push that innovation forward." A deal between the two was first rumored in February, when Israeli media outlet Calcalist claimed Microsoft had bought N-trig for a whopping $200 million . Late last month, however, the venerable Wall Street Journal entered the scene and brought that figure down to $30 million. It's not clear which — if any — of those figures is accurate. Follow Pulkit on Google+ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lenovo’s Impossibly Light LaVie Z Laptop is Now Available Posted: 04 May 2015 01:07 AM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Puts Windows Media Center Out to Pasture Posted: 04 May 2015 12:36 AM PDT Active development ceased in 2009 Windows Media Center hasn't been part of Microsoft's plans since at least 2009, when Microsoft disbanded the team behind it and ceased active development . And the Media Center add-on that has been available for Windows 8 is a paid offering, even though it boasts nothing new over the Windows 7 version. But Microsoft, it seems, has finally had enough. When the Windows 10 Technical Preview first came out in late 2014, some people noticed it was possible to get the add-on to work with the new OS by providing a valid Windows 8.1 Media Center Pack product key . This method was, however, fraught with several issues, and Microsoft advised users against adding the software to Windows 10 Technical Preview, saying it "did not intend for you to be able to use a purchased product key on a preview build." Looks like that was just a mistake, of which there won't be any repeat. According to ZDNet's Ed Bott, a Microsoft exec told him during the course of a private conversation at Build that there would be no update to Media Center for Windows 10 . Nor will the current version be available as an add-on. So, in other words, existing Media Center users will have to bid farewell to the software the moment they upgrade to Windows 10. Seeing as how only a small subset of Windows users ever used it and given the rapid increase in the population of so-called "cord cutters" and "cord nevers", Microsoft didn't have much of a choice. Or do you disagree? Follow Pulkit on Google+ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SolidRun CuBox-i is a 2-inch Cube with Quad-Core ARM SoC, 4GB of RAM Posted: 04 May 2015 12:17 AM PDT Will come pre-installed with Android and Kodi home-theater software Around two years back, Israeli company SolidRun launched CuBox-i, a line of ARM-powered 2-inch cube PCs with a starting price of $45 . It's now upping the ante on that front with a device it says is the "smallest ARM quad core 4GB mini computer" out there. The new CuBox-i 4X4 marries a quad-core i.MX6 chip from Freescale with 4GB of DDR3 RAM. While the particular quad-core SoC (system-on-chip) isn't new to the range, the most amount of RAM seen in the current crop of CuBox-1 devices is 2GB. Other specs include two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, MicroUSB port, eSATA, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, Ethernet, optical audio out, and IR. It will come with Android 4.4 KitKat and Kodi (formerly XBMC) pre-installed, though you'll be able to install your favorite flavor of Linux should you want to. "The CuBox-i 4X4 module addresses the growing need for increased high capability power efficient fan-less mini-computers," Dr. Atai Ziv, CEO of SolidRun, was quoted as saying in a press release. "Its unique nonmoving parts and passive cooling design increase reliability in various home, city and industrial floor environments targeting multimedia & digital signage, industrial and IoT applications." Quite clearly the CuBox-i 4x4 packs quite a serious punch for such a tiny device (although nowhere near as much as this bad boy ), but how much will it cost? The company's website has the device listed for pre-order for $169.99, with shipping expected to begin in late May. Follow Pulkit on Google+ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Sapphire Dual-X Radeon R9 280, WD Green 2TB HDD, and More! Posted: 01 May 2015 01:44 PM PDT Top Deal: The only thing better than a new car smell is unboxing electronics for a gaming PC. Remember when you opened up that shiny GeForce4 Ti 4200 and just held it in your hands for a bit before plugging it into your mobo's AGP port? If you miss the anticipating and excitement of a new GPU, then check out today's top deal for a Sapphire Dual-X Radeon R9 280 Graphics Card for $178 with free shipping (normally $188 - use coupon code [ AMDSAPMAYSAL ]; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). There's a lot of gaming goodness to be had with this card, just don't try shoving it into an AGP slot! Other Deals: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 2400 (PC4-19200) C14 Memory Kit - Black for $150 with free shipping (normally $180 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAK65 ]) WD Green 2TB 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $70 with $1 shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [ ESCASAK59 ]) Intel Core i5-4590 Haswell Quad-Core 3.3GHz LGA 1150 84W BX80646I54590 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600 for $190 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAK22 ]) Sapphire Tri-X OC Radeon R9 290X Video Card for $290 with free shipping (normally $300 - use coupon code: [ EMCASAK23 ]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How to set up RAID 10 in Windows 8 and Linux Posted: 01 May 2015 12:58 PM PDT RAID 1 and 0: Together, foreverWhen you're trying to get the best performance out of multiple drives, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is your best bet. There are plenty of RAID modes levels (modes) to choose from, but many favor RAID 10 for its reliability and speed. RAID 10 is an example of nested RAID, where two or more arrays are integrated into another RAID that is then visible to the system. In the case of RAID 10 (also known as RAID 1 + 0), this means having two or more RAID 1 arrays combined into a RAID 0 array. RAID 10's sibling is RAID 0 + 1, where the top level RAID 1 array is comprised of two or more RAID 0 arrays. RAID 10 is an example of nested RAID. As a result, RAID 10 offers both the great resiliency of RAID 1 with the hot striping action of RAID 0. The only downside is that it requires at least four drives to work. Since RAID 10 stacks a series of RAID 1 arrays together, expanding storage means adding at least two drives, not just one. As far as speed is concerned, you get all the speed benefits of RAID 0, but instead of speed as a function of the number of drives, speed is calculated as a function of the number of RAID 1 stripes. To use RAID 10, there are two methods we're going to show here: software RAID and FakeRAID. Software RAID is implemented by the OS, and the OS handles the logic for the array. FakeRAID is often denoted by motherboard manufacturers as "onboard RAID." FakeRAID is still software driven, but that software works at the BIOS level, rather than the OS. If you're only running one OS, or you'll only need your RAID in one OS, go for software RAID. If you're going to need to share the RAID 10 array between two OSes, or plan on installing an OS on top of your RAID, go with FakeRAID. Prepare your hardwareIf you've been following along in our series, you'll know that it's always best to use drives of identical make, model, and capacity when constructing a RAID array. Even if you're forced to use different makes and models (as we were in our examples), you have to make sure that the drive capacities are identical. Mixing drives will at best result in an array that will performs as if each drive were the slowest one. When connecting your drives for use in RAID, be sure to use the same interface for the drive. If two drives in your array are using SATA 6Gbps, use the same interface for every other drive you intend to add to the array. If your motherboard has multiple SATA controllers (our Gigabyte board had the built-in Intel controller as well as a Marvell controller), make sure you use the main controller if you plan on using FakeRAID. We had problems getting our BIOS to detect drives that were attached to our motherboard's additional Marvell controller. It's also a good idea to make sure all of the drives in your array are using the latest firmware. Firmware fixes can result in better speeds and fix potential bugs that can wreak havoc on your data. If you're going to use FakeRAID, make sure your motherboard has "onboard RAID." Most recent motherboards do, but if you're building a server out of an old machine, this is something you should check. Windows: Storage Spaces and Disk ManagementUnlike with other RAID levels like 0, 1, or 5, Windows 8 doesn't have an obvious option for creating RAID 10 arrays using Storage Spaces. Similarly, Windows 8 can't combine RAID arrays in its Disk Management utility either. It can however combine RAID 1 arrays created with Storage Spaces with RAID 0 in the Disk Management utility. To start, hit Win+S and search for "storage spaces" and open the utility. Next, click create a new pool and storage space . You'll be prompted for administrator access. You'll be greeted by a windows showing all the unformatted disks that can be used. Here, you'll have to decide how you want your disks spread out in your arrays. Remember that you'll need at least two drives for each RAID 1 stripe. Since we used four drives in our example, we selected the first two drives for our first stripe. Select the drives you want to use and click Create pool .
Each pool will represent a RAID 1 array that will be a stripe for RAID 0. Choose your drives for your storage pools accordingly. Next, the wizard will prompt you to create a storage space in the pool. For Resiliency type, select "Two-way mirror." This is the equivalent to RAID 1. Don't worry about the filesystem or drive letter: that will be rendered irrelevant later. However, label each stripe something memorable (like Mirror 1, Mirror 2, etc.) so you'll be able to find it later. When you're ready, click Create storage space to create the array.
Give your storage space a drive label so you can find it later. Once you're done with the first pool, repeat the steps for every other stripe that you'll be creating. In our case, we repeated the steps with our remaining two drives. To tie these RAID 1 arrays all together, we're going to use Windows' Disk Management tool. To open it up, search for "Disk Management." When Disk Management is open, you should see your disks (RAID 1 arrays) in the bottom part of the window, identified by the labels you gave them. Now, we're going to get rid of the filesystems on those drives. For each disk, right click on the blue segment and select "Delete Volume." Be careful to leave your system disks and any other attached drives intact. When in doubt, double-check and cross-reference the drive label with the one shown in Storage Spaces.
Deleting a volume will remove the selected partition on that disk. Once all the RAID 1 disks are clear of filesystems, it's time to create our RAID 0 array. Right click one of your RAID 1 disks and select "New Striped Volume..." In the popup window that follows, add each of the RAID 1 disks you want to use and click Next . Assign the RAID 10 array a drive letter. This isn't necessary, but if you want to use your drive right away, it's the fastest method to do so. The next screen of the popup window, select the filesystem you want (NTFS or ReFS), and enter a drive label. You can also enable drive compression here. If you forget, you can always change it later in Windows Explorer.
You've done the hard part. Now all you have to do is give the volume a name. The last screen will ask you to review your options. When you're satisfied everything looks good, click Finish. A final popup will ask you if its okay to convert your drives into dynamic disks. This basically is warning you that you'll lose any data on them, and that other OSes won't be able to see them. We're okay with this, so click Yes. That's it! It will take Windows a while to format the drives for use, but when it's all done, you'll have a shiny new RAID 10 array. Next, we're going to see how Linux and FakeRAID handle RAID 10. (Spoiler alert: It's much easier.)
Linux and mdadmThe great thing about creating RAID volumes in Linux is that it's so easy. RAID is really important for servers, and like most server software on Linux, it gets a lot of development attention. In our example, we used Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Desktop on a live USB stick. Ubuntu Desktop doesn't come with the driver that handles RAID out-of-the-box, so we'll need to download and install it. Open up a terminal and enter the following command: sudo apt-get install mdadm Installing mdadm only takes a couple seconds. From here, we can create the RAID 10 array with GUI tools or the command line. If you prefer GUI, search for "Disks" and open the Gnome Disk Utility (it will appear as "Disks"). When the window open, look for a check mark at the top of the list of devices. Click the checkmark, and you'll be able to select a bunch of devices. If you select more than one writable storage device, a button at the bottom will appear with the label "Create RAID." Select the drives you want to use and click the button.
Make sure to only select the disks you want to use for your array. In the popup window, select "RAID 10 (Stripe of Mirrors)" as the RAID Level and give the array a name. You can adjust the chunk size (the size of striped data) as well. When you're done, hit Create. That's all there is to it. Easy, right? If you want to feel a bit more like a wizard, you can do the same thing with a couple of command line entries. First, we need to know what devices are called in the filesystem. You can use lsblk to figure that out: lsblk -o name,mountpoint,size,type,model
lsblk is handy when you can't remember devices' names. Once you've identified the drives you want to use, use the mdadm command to create your array. In our example setup, we used the following: sudo mdadm --create /dev/md10 --level=10 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde We got a couple errors because we had previously used the same drives in another RAID 10 array, so mdadm asked us if it was okay to write over that data.
How's that for a one-liner? Easy peasy. You'll have to wait for Linux to synchronize the drives before you use them, however. Once the array is synchronized, you'll need to partition, format and mount the array to actually use it. FakeRAIDOnboard FakeRAID is harder to set up, but is your only real choice if you want your RAID array to be accessible to both Windows and Linux. You can also install an OS on top of a FakeRAID array. Once your drives are physically installed, boot into your BIOS by tapping the key prompted on startup. The message will say "Press DEL to enter Setup…" or something similar. Once you're in your BIOS, look for an option called "SATA mode." This option is in different places for each motherboard manufacturer, so refer to your user manual if you can't find it. Once you've found the setting, change it from AHCI to RAID. This will let your onboard RAID software know that there are possible RAID devices to be started. When you're done, save and reboot.
For FakeRAID, switch the SATA mode from AHCI to RAID. On the next boot, you have to get into the RAID software to set up your arrays. If you have an Intel RAID controller, you may be prompted to hit CTRL+I to start the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) RAID software. The software varies by vendor, so consult your motherboard manual on entering the RAID utility. In this example, Gigabyte's implementation let us use the RST tools from inside the UEFI BIOS utility. In Intel's RST menu, you should see some options and a list of hard drives on your system. Select "Create RAID Volume." Give your volume a name and select "RAID10 (0 + 1)" as the RAID level.
Intel RST FakeRAID only supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. Next, select the drives you want to include in your array. Other RST implementations may have you select drives first. Make sure that the drives you select are the correct ones; you'll lose any data saved on the drives that you use in a FakeRAID array. On the next boot, your FakeRAID array will appear as a single disk to the operating system. Additionally, RST may display the status of your RAID disks during the boot process, before the operating system loads. In order for Windows to be able to repair any drives in your FakeRAID setup, you'll have to install the appropriate driver. For Intel RST, the driver is available on Intel's website. In Linux, you'll have to install mdadm to use the array. RAID 10 arrays aren't cheap due to the number of drives you need in order to set them up, but if you've got the coin (and the spare SATA connections) to implement it, RAID 10 offers a rock-solid combination of resiliency and speed for your data. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft’s Age Guessing Algorithm is a Jerk Posted: 01 May 2015 09:24 AM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PC Gamer Creates the E3 for PCs Posted: 30 Apr 2015 05:08 PM PDT No gaming system beats the PC E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is a show held in downtown Los Angeles that focuses on pretty much all things games. But, if you've ever been to E3 or followed E3 coverage, you'll quickly realize that E3 is all about consoles. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, all push games for their latest big consoles, and well, the PC is really where things shine. So why is it that the gigantic and technologically superior PC platform doesn't get more of a showing at E3? PC Gamer decided to solve that . Launching at E3 is The PC Gaming Show Powered by PC Gamer , which is going to be so crazy and big, you'll ask yourself how come this was never E3 itself. The PC Gaming Show brings together all the best parts of the PC gaming ecosystem, and gives it stage presence at E3. Supported by a whole host of PC gaming related companies, and lead sponsored by AMD, PC Gamer's show is poised to show the entertainment world that nothing beats the PC. "We're living in a golden age of PC gaming, but unlike other platforms the PC has no format holder, no marketing department, and--until now--no event during E3 week purely devoted to it," said Tim Clark, global Editor-in-Chief at PC Gamer. "We think a show like this, which brings together people from every corner of PC gaming to celebrate the exciting things happening, is long overdue. We hope you'll join us, in person or on stream to be part of it." The show will be hosted by Sean "Day[9]" Plott, and the show will feature appearances by Dean Hall of DayZ fame, Cliff Bleszinki of Boss Key Productions, and developers from studios including Blizzard, Bohemia Interactive, Cloud Imperium Games, Tripwire Interactive We at Maximum PC are thrilled to support this event. There's truly no better gaming platform, and that's coming from someone who owns all the latest consoles. The performance and utility of a PC is unmatched, and at any given time, you can change or upgrade as your needs and wants changes. We love the PC and we're super happy to support the show. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Apr 2015 04:13 PM PDT Maximum PC is moving forward I love cutting-edge technology. It would be natural to think that all of us who read Maximum PC have an affinity for the latest and greatest. But instead of talking about the newest graphics card, or the next motherboard, I'd like to talk about what's happening with Maximum PC itself from a technology point of view. The website that you're reading right now is going to change. These changes will be both visible and invisible. Let's talk about the invisible changes first. The back end From a content production point of view, we are overhauling the entire CMS back-end for Maximum PC . That means that there has been a tremendous amount of development from our tech team in an effort to help our team of editors and writers produce better content. Every part of the writing process has been streamlined and trimmed. Anything that wasn't needed is no longer there. Processes that used to take multiple steps will now take just one. It's a much more efficient platform, overall. Right now, the new site is on a staging server where we're squashing out the remaining bugs. We're also importing all the current content into the new database to ensure that when the switch is flipped, everything will go smoothly. We have a target launch time frame of mid-May. The exact date is going to be somewhere around the 19th of May, but I will provide a second notice once the date is set in stone. Now, let's talk about the visible changes. Website front end The site you see before you now will cease to exist. Maximum PC will relaunch with a brand-new front end that embraces a far more modern and visually appealing design. The actual content, as in the stuff you read, will be easier to consume, too. Clearer font choices, color palettes that are easier on the eyes, and a very clean layout that's both browser-width friendly as well as mobile friendly. There are, however, some critical changes that may impact some readers. We believe these changes are for the better. Scoring Maximum PC will adopt a new 20-point scoring system. This means that after the new site is live, all reviews thereafter will have a score that's between 5 and 100, in multiples of 5, for example 65, 70, 75, 80, etc. This will allow us to be more granular in our rating. It will also provide us room to indicate if one product that's similar to another has a feature that's worth noticing. The difference between a score of 80 and 85 may not be much at first glance, but it may be useful in say, a roundup of motherboards. Comparing the new system to the old 10-point system is not entirely 1 to 1, as in, an 8 in the old system isn't necessarily 80 in the new system. A product that we would have given an 85 to may have ended up with just an 8, simply because we rounded down. Since the scale of the old system was small though, the point gaps were relatively smaller, too. For example, getting a 9 out of 10 score feels better than receiving a score of 90 out of 100. Also, any products that score 95 or 100 will automatically get our Kick Ass seal of approval. As we continue to use the new point system, comparing products will be easier. For now, we will point out where old products would be on the new system if they're referenced in new content. Editorial content Maximum PC will be introducing several new features in the coming months, and we actually already started on some. For example, we are producing more content with Linux users in mind. Our recent RAID guides for examples, provides information not only to Windows users, but Linux enthusiasts, too. Many readers have asked for this. We are committed to doing more. You'll also see in increase in how-to guides with a split focus on both hardware and software. The two obviously go hand-in-hand, and you're building your PC—or buying a pre-built—for a purpose, so we want to touch base on the "purpose" of things. We are also working on more in-depth buyer's guides too. More price points, more options. But we're not going to hold back from telling you what we think is good. In the new Best of the Best section, we're rewriting everything. There are some things that we're baking right now that I can't talk about yet, but they're really exciting. A lot of the new content that's coming through is a result of your feedback. Thank you. Comments In an effort to improve the user experience across the site, reduce the large number of spam comments, and bring a cohesive user experience, we will be transitioning to using the Disqus community platform. There are a number of beneficial reasons behind our choice to go with Disqus. 1. Disqus is fast. Site load times can be slowed if articles containt lots of comments. This is true on the current comment system. With Disqus, load times will be improved significantly for articles with a large number of comments. 2. Spam reduction and filtering. Disqus maintains its own spam-filtering system that's both comprehensive and redundant. I'm personally tired of someone trying to offer me some work-from-home scheme that can add an additional $6,000 to my monthly income. 3. User experience. With Disqus, you're able to track your comments, and see everything on your dashboard. And since thousands of popular websites use Disqus, you'll only need one login to comment on any of them. You'll see all your comments across all the websites you read, and be able to follow conversations more effectively. The current comment system will be turned off later this week, and Disqus will take its place. This means your current comment login will no longer work, and you will need to sign up for Disqus. 'Foreword' Nine years ago, I lost something very precious to me: a binder containing all my pencil sketches that spanned years. In fact, it was more than a loss, it was taken away from me and never returned. I was devastated, and was haunted for a long time. One day though, a friend of mine told me that if I didn't let go of those old drawings, I would never draw anything better. This totally changed my perspective for the better. I decided then, that I would stop looking at where I had been, and look toward where I was headed. Although some may not agree with the changes, we truly believe that we're heading in the right direction. I personally invite you to join us in the changes we're making, and continue to provide feedback. I'm really excited, and can't wait for the all the new goods to arrive! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Set Up a RAID 5 Array in Windows 8 and Linux Posted: 30 Apr 2015 12:18 PM PDT Striping and parity across three drives, oh my!Of all the RAID levels that consumers are likely to use on their home systems, RAID 5 is one of the more exotic choices. While RAID 0 and 1 are pretty straightforward, RAID 5 is a little more complex. As we discussed in earlier articles, RAID 0 stripes data across an array of drives , making reads and writes faster, while also sacrificing redundancy. RAID 1 does the opposite , writing identical data across every drive in the array, creating a redundancy in the event of failure. RAID 5 is somewhere in between. Like RAID 0, RAID 5 stripes data across an array of drives. However, one of the drives is reserved as the redundant copy of the piece of data. As each block of data is written, the stripes and redundant copy rotate places, so that no single drive fills up with redundant copies (this is called distributed parity). For this to work, RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives. When a drive in a RAID 5 array fails, the data can be located somewhere else in the array. If failure occurred on a drive that held a striped copy, the entirety of the data can be found on the drive that holds the parity copy. If the parity is missing, you still have a copy of the data striped across the other drives. On the flip side, if you lose more than one drive, you'll lose the entire array because parity is distributed across all the drives. In terms of performance, read operations will be similar to that of RAID 0, as the striped data can be read from several drives at one. Write operations, however, are more like RAID 1, since the parity data is written to only one drive. Drive space is also pooled, but less so than in RAID 0. In RAID 5, it works a bit differently. Due to the way parity works, if you have three drives, the available space will be equal to a RAID 0 array with two drives. In our examples, we used three 120GB SSDs, which resulted in arrays with 240GB of space. If you want install an OS on top of a RAID array, RAID 5 will work fairly well, so long as you're not trying to use it atop an array of multi-terabyte spinning drives. RAID 5 offers more resiliency than RAID 0, as well as significant gains in read operations for loading programs and games. A note about RAID 5 and SSDsWe talked to software engineer Sam Baughman about SSDs in RAID 5. He told us that RAID 5 has the potential to wear out SSDs faster than normal due to the way RAID 5 parity data works. " TRIM doesn't work as you'd expect; 1/(N) of each of the N drives will always be allocated, even when the array is empty, due to presence of RAID 5 parity data," he said. " The fewer drives in the array, the more significant the impact on SSD lifespan." Baughman has been a software engineer for over 15 years and specializes in device drivers for stoage devices. TRIM, in case you didn't know, helps the OS extend the liffetime of an SSD during delete operations. TRIM basically says, "Hey, these blocks aren't being used, you're cool to clear and write over that data." "I've tested this on Linux, you will definitely see TRIM on the data blocks, but at least on the kernels I used in the 3.10 series, you'd never see a TRIM of the parity chunks, because parity is never 'freed'," Baughman said. " Logically it's possible for MD (Linux's RAID driver software) to do it, but the overhead would be significant and require its own metadata." So basically, RAID 5 could chop down your SSD's lifespan if there are a lot of delete and write operations you're performing. Spinning HDDs don't have this problem at all, since TRIM isn't an issue. We used SSDs in our example because that's what we had lying around. Before using RAID 5 with SSDs on your system, consider if you're willing to absorb the extra wear and tear. If you think you might replace the SSDs before they start to wear out, it may not be an issue. " RAID 0 and RAID 1 rock with SSDs though, and TRIM works flawlessly with Linux MD on those levels," Baughman said. Good to know, Sam. Prepare your hardwareIf you've been following along in our series, you'll know that it's always best to use drives of identical make, model, and capacity when constructing a RAID array. Even if you're forced to use different makes and models (as we were in our examples), you have to make sure that the drive capacities are identical. Mixing drives will at best result in an array that will performs as if each drive were the slowest one. When connecting your drives for use in RAID, be sure to use the same interface for the drive. If two drives in your array are using SATA 6Gbps, use the same interface for every other drive you intend to add to the array. It's also a good idea to make sure all of the drives in your array are using the latest firmware. Firmware fixes can result in better speeds and fix potential bugs that can wreack havoc on your data. If you're going to use FakeRAID, make sure your motherboard has "onboard RAID." Most recent motherboards do, but if you're building a server out of an old machine, this is something you should check. Windows: Storage SpacesCreating a RAID 5 array in Windows is just as easy as creating RAID 0 and 1 arrays. It's important to remember Microsoft uses the name "Storage Spaces" instead of RAID, but the function is pretty much the same. To start, hit Win+S and search for "Storage spaces" and launch the utility. Next, click "create a new pool and storage space." You'll be prompted for administrator access. Click Yes to continue. You'll be greeted by a windows showing all of the unformatted disks that can be used. Select all the disks you want in the array and click "Create pool." You'll have to select at least three to be able to create a RAID 5 array. In a perfect world, we'd use identical drives, but sometimes you have to use what you've got lying around. Reliability and speed could be negatively affected by using different drives. Next, give the pool a name and drive letter. The name will appear as the drive label. Select NTFS as the file system. For Resiliency type, select "Parity," which is the equivalent to RAID 5. When you're ready, click Create storage space to create the array. If you want to remove a RAID array for any reason, simply click Delete next to the storage space you want to remove. To remove the pool, remove all of the storage spaces in it first. Linux: mdadm and disksCreating a software RAID 5 array in Linux takes only two terminal commands. In Linux, the program mdadm (we like to pronounce it "madam") is what we'll use to set up the array. First things first, you need to get the RAID software. You'll need to download and install mdadm from your software repository. It's pretty common, and is included in most software repos. In Ubuntu, type the following command: sudo apt-get install mdadm The command will install mdadm for you, along with a dependency called Postfix. Postfix is an SMTP service that sends emails. The reason it's included is because if a drive fails or something else happens to your array, the system can alert you with an email. That's great for IT administrators, but Postfix is a PITA to administer. In many cases, you can just set the program to use no configuration if you like. If you do take the time to set it up, it can give you early warning when drives fail. Once mdadm is all set up, all you need to do is use the following command: sudo mdadm --create /dev/mdX --level=5 --raid-devices=[number of drives (3 or more)] [drive name] [drive name] [drive name] [etc] The above command will vary based on the size of your array, and how you'd like to name it. RAID devices are generally named /dev/md X where X is the index of the array. Drive names can be any valid Linux device path, e.g., /dev/sda or /dev/disk/by-uuid/[UUID] . If you're not sure how Linux has identified your drives, you can use lsblk to identify them: lsblk -o name,model,mountpoint,size Once you create your array, you'll have to wait while the drives synchronize, which may take several minutes. The Disks utility is an easy-to-use GUI that allows you to create RAID arrays out of disks and partitions. You can also create RAID arrays in Linux using the GNOME disk utility. In Ubuntu, search for "Disks" and open the utility. On the left side of the window, click the checkbox above the list of drives. Then, select the drives you want to use to create an array and click Create RAID . Using onboard FakeRAIDOnboard FakeRAID is harder to set up, but is your only real choice if you want your RAID array to be accessible to both Windows and Linux. You can also install an OS on top of a FakeRAID array. Once your drives are physically installed, boot into your BIOS by tapping the key prompted on startup. The message will say "Press DEL to enter Setup…" or something similar. Once you're in your BIOS, look for an option called "SATA mode." This option is in different places for each motherboard manufacturer, so refer to your user manual if you can't find it. Once you've found the setting, change it from AHCI to RAID. This will let your onboard RAID software know that there are possible RAID devices to be started. When you're done, save and reboot. On the next boot, you have to get into the RAID software to set up your arrays. If you have an Intel RAID controller, you may be prompted to hit CTRL+I to start the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) RAID software. The software varies by vendor, so consult your motherboard manual on entering the RAID utility. In this example, Gigabyte's implementation let us use the RST tools from inside the UEFI BIOS utility. In Intel's RST menu, you should see some options and a list of hard drives on your system. Select "Create RAID Volume." Give your volume a name and select "RAID5 (Parity)" as the RAID level. The Gigabyte motherboard we used allowed us to access Intel RST from inside the UEFI BIOS utility. Each motherboard manufacturer will do things differently. Consult your user manual to figure out how to access Intel RST. Next, select the drives you want to include in your array. Other RST implementations may have you select drives first. Make sure that the drives you select are the correct ones; you'll lose any data saved on the drives that you use in a FakeRAID array. On the next boot, your FakeRAID array will appear as a single disk to the operating system. Additionally, RST may display the status of your RAID disks during the boot process, before the operating system loads. RAID 5 is a bit different and a little more complex than RAID 1 or 0, but it offers a compromise between the two extremes. This special RAID level will give you some wiggle room, just be sure not to ignore a drive failure. If all the drives are identical and one goes down, others may soon follow. UPDATE: We got in contact with a software enginer who writes drivers for storage devices. He told us RAID 5 can wear out SSDs faster than normal, so we added the section "A note about RAID 5 and SSDs" with an explanation why. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unreal Engine 4 Adds Support for SteamVR Posted: 30 Apr 2015 12:15 PM PDT Let's get virtual The value proposition of using Epic Games' Unreal Engine keeps getting better. Just under two months ago, Epic ditched the $19 per month subscription free, opting instead to give budding developers free and unfettered access to its complete C++ source code hosted in GitHub while continuing to collect a 5 percent royalty on gross revenue after the $3,000 per project. Now Epic is adding support for SteamVR in Unreal Engine 4 , the company announced today. Support for SteamVR will roll out in next week's first preview release of Unreal Engine 4.8, thereby giving developers the tools they need to create expansive virtual reality environments and experiences. SteamVR is being completely integrated into UE4 across Blueprint visual scripting and native code, which allows projects to be built without dependency on programmer support. This is entirely new ground for UE4 -- it already has the tools to support platforms like Oculus Rift, Samsung's Gear VR, and Sony's Project Morpheus. But SteamVR is a different beast. It allows for a greater range of motion that extends to about the size of a small room. By comparison, Rift and Morpheus are limited to just a few steps, at best. "This technology is incredibly freeing," said Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic. "There is a magical sense of immersion in walking around a VR space and directly interacting with it." The HTC Vive Developer Edition kit (headset, two single-handed controllers, and tracking system) that's built to take advantage of SteamVR will be out in spring of this year. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Razer Seiren Digital Microphone Goes Pro, Now Available to Pre-Order Posted: 30 Apr 2015 11:32 AM PDT Now with XLR recording and a high-pass filter Razer's best known for its line of PC gaming peripherals, especially mice, though it's been branching out into several different directions through the years, including audio recording. The company tossed its hat into the audio recording ring last December with its Seiren digital microphone . Now here we are a little more than four months later and Razer is announcing its Seiren Pro model , an upgraded version of the original. The Seiren Pro adds XLR connectivity for plugging directly into mixing boards and cameras, along with being able to chain multiple microphones and instruments while making on-the-fly adjustments during live sessions. Like the original model, the Pro version also supports USB. "With the success of YouTube, Twitch and the likes, there is a greater demand for high-fidelity recording equipment than ever before," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. "Our second condenser microphone, the Razer Seirēn Pro, delivers what video game streamers are looking for and provides great value to YouTubers, musicians and anyone looking to capture sound clearly." Razer also added a high-pass filter that's supposed to remove low-end ambient noises. If you're in a recording environment that's susceptible to hums, rumbles, traffic, wind, and things of that nature, this could be the model you've been waiting for. Pricing for the Seiren Pro is $250. There's also a Shock Mount accessory accessory available for $50 and a Pop Filter that also runs $50, or a bundle that includes everything for $300. It's likely the Seiren/Seiren Pro is a redesigned and rebranded Blue Yeti, the latter of which are a little cheaper. However, there are some subtle differences, mostly aesthetic. Here's a decent YouTube video that compares the original to a Yeti: The Seiren Pro is available to pre-order now and will ship on May 8. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Falcon Northwest's Tiny Tiki PC Feasts on 18-Core Xeon E5-2699 V3 CPU Posted: 30 Apr 2015 09:04 AM PDT Small form factor PC gets new 6-core and 8-core CPU options There was a day when the size of your desktop was a pretty good indicator of the performance inside, or at least potential performance. That's all gone out the window lately with the emergence of high performance small form factor (SFF) PCs, some of which are specifically intended for living room gaming. Enter Falcon Northwest and its 4-inch wide Tiki PC, an SFF that can now be configured with Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition and Xeon E5-2699 V3 processor options for up to 18 cores of computing muscle. Support for Intel's Core i7 5000 Series and mighty Xeon processor come courtesy of an option to configure a Tiki PC around the Santa Clara chip maker's X99 chipset, though a top-end CPU is only the beginning. If your pockets are overflowing with cash and weighing you down (a problem we'd all like to have), you can configure a Tiki PC with up to 32GB of DDR4 memory and a fast graphics card like Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan X. "Tiki is proving once more that the micro-tower is the size and shape of PCs of the future," said Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest. "While Tiki has remained unchanged at 4 inches wide and 13 inches tall, its power-per-cubic inch has skyrocketed. This latest leap has doubled its maximum memory capacity, and more than quadrupled its CPU core count. With 8 Terabytes of internal drive storage capacity and 4K-capable graphics, there are now very few scenarios when a system larger than a Tiki is actually necessary for most users." Configuring a Tiki PC based on Intel's X97 chipset starts at $1,858 while an X99 foundation begins at $2,490. We went a little crazy and spec'd out a loaded system consisting of the aforementioned Xeon chip and 32GB of DDR4 RAM, plus a painted case, Titan X graphics card, 1TB Samsung 850 Pro SSD (RAID), 6TB Western Digital Red HDD, Blu-ray burner, SilverStone 600W modular PSU, and Windows 8.1 Professional. The finally tally? Almost ten grand ($9,830). Dream big, right? There are also Quadro graphics card options if you're looking to be a small but potent workstation (the Tiki PC has dual LAN ports, eSATA, USB 3.1 connectivity, and Ultra M.2 PCI Express x4 storage support). And come this fall, Falcon Northwest will offer the Tiki in official Steam Machine variants. In the meantime, upgraded Tiki PC options based on Intel's X99 chipset are available now . Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Router, Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Laptop, and More! Posted: 29 Apr 2015 01:40 PM PDT Top Deal: Life's too short to be angry, but try telling that to the wireless router you picked up on clearance. It won't think twice about dropping your connection, and it get some kind of devious joy out of watching how high it can ramp your pings. Grr! Thankfully, not all routers are junk. Case in point, check out today's top deal for a Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band Wireless Gigabit Router (R7000) for $170 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [ EMCARNX27 ]). It's fast, sports a USB 3.0 port, and boasts fancy features like Beamforming. Other Deals: PNY XLR8 2.5-inch 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $85 with free shipping (normally $90 - use coupon code: [ EMCARNX26 ]) WD Blue 500GB 7200 RPM 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $45 with free shipping (normally $50 - use coupon code: [ ESCARNX23 ]) Acer G6 Series G276HLGbd Black 27-inch 6ms LED Monitor for $180 with $1 shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [ EMCARNX22 ]) Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition Gaming Laptop i7 SSD GTX 960M 15.6-inch Windows 8.1 for $1150 with free shipping (normally $1200 - use coupon code: [ 0428DYUGD59 ]) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Lays Groundwork for Android and iOS Apps to Run on Windows 10 Posted: 29 Apr 2015 01:27 PM PDT One big 'appy family Even though Microsoft's been giving us a glimpse of Windows 10 by way of Technical Previews and a spattering of blog posts, the Redmond outfit kept more than a few tricks up its sleeve. One of those tricks is getting Android and iOS apps to run on Windows 10 without tasking developers with rebuilding their code. How? Microsoft is offering a couple of SDKs that will make it relatively easy for iOS and Android developers to port their apps to Windows 10 . For iOS apps, the solution is called Project Islandwood. This is a set of tools that will allow iOS developers to use their existing Objective C code with minimal changes. The magic happens via middleware that offers APIs their code is already looking for. Developers who've tested Project Islandwood say they've only had to make minor changes, including Candy Crush Saga's developers, who said they only changed a "few percent" of code for their Windows 10 port, according to ArsTechnica . Android's toolkit is called Project Astoria. The idea is to get Android apps to run on Windows Mobile, now the official name for Windows 10 on phones and sub-8 inch tablets. Project Astoria will include an Android runtime layer capable of running existing Android apps written in both Java and C++. What's unique about Project Astoria compared to Project Islandwood is that no recompiling is required on the part of the developer. "We want to enable developers to leverage their current code and current skills to start building those Windows applications in the Store, and to be able to extend those applications," Microsoft's Terry Myerson told The Verge . These toolkits should go a long way towards that goal. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 29 Apr 2015 01:23 PM PDT At A GlanceReal Books Gives even the Google Pixel a genuine run for the money. iBook Relatively pricey for a Chromebook. Powerful, but why?Powerful and Chromebook? That's about as useful, to be crude, as a right-mouse button on a Mac. And yet that's what Acer is pushing on the latest iteration of its C720 notebook. You'll recognize the model number, of course, as we've reviewed it before and have long recommended it as our Chromebook pick for its performance, cost, and battery life.
Getting Tanked The world isn't all about benchmarks, though. We also put the Chromebooks though some "hot" gaming action, which on a Chromebook means Flash-based gaming in the incredibly popular Tanki Online. Using separate accounts, we threw the Chromebooks into the same Tanki Online server match and then adjusted the graphics settings manually. There's no benchmark but there is an active frame rate counter. For the most part, the Celeron-based C720 and the Google Pixel sat in the low 30s. The new Core i3 C720 with its HD4400 integrated graphics managed to put out 50 to 60 frames a second in the same match. Winner: Haswell.
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| Asus Strix Radeon R9 285 Review Posted: 29 Apr 2015 01:18 PM PDT At A GlanceHabenero Great price for the performance it delivers; cool and quiet; sturdy. Bell Pepper Its slightly tricky to install. AMD's newest Radeon tech runs the gauntletAMD seems to like the shot gun method, churning out a series of Radeon video cards with fairly incremental differences. The R9 285 is its latest salvo, fitting between the 280 and 280X in performance and price. The company didn't say this card is supposed to replace its nearest neighbors, but we get the impression they'll be discontinued by the time you read this. Yet those cards are not the ones in AMD's crosshairs. That honor belongs to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 760. With an MSRP of $230, it sat in a particular spot where AMD was not competing until now (minus the occasional mail-in rebate). And as far as we can tell, AMD's aim is true. In short, the R9 285 is a stronger performer for about the same price.
Tonga Time Let's also talk about this Asus card in particular. It draws about 190 watts under load, versus about 225 watts for the R9 280 (and 170 watts for the GTX 760, Nvidia's most comparable card). This improvement over the 280 allows the new card to run more quietly. Only a single fan operates when you're not gaming or otherwise stressing the GPU. And the fan doesn't even start moving until the chip hits 62 degrees Celsius. Under load, the card didn't get past 72 C in our testing, and we could barely hear its fans working. And this is with a factory overclock that increases the GPU's core clock speed from 918MHz to 954MHz. These gains come from AMD's new "Tonga" generation of GPUs, which are an evolution of the Hawaii generation in its more powerful (and power efficient) R9 290.
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 8.1. All games are run at 2560x1600, except for Fire Strike. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Doctor: SSD Migration, Office 2010, and Wireless Mice Posted: 29 Apr 2015 01:14 PM PDT SSD and HDD Together When installing an SSD drive besides the OS, what other programs should be installed on it? I had an SSD drive on my PC, but it died, and I had a computer tech move everything over to my regular drive. The original SSD drive was only a 60GB one, but I'm planning on buying a larger drive. Should I move all of my programs over or just my web browsers? I've been a longtime subscriber since you were known as Boot Magazine. —William R. Miller II The Doctor Responds: Our recommendation is that you put just your OS and all its associated programs on the SSD, while keeping all of your "data" on your regular hard drive. You should have a second regular drive, either onsite or in the cloud, to back up all that data as well. What you do is disconnect your regular drive from the system and hook up the SSD. Perform a fresh install of your OS, run Windows Update, and install drivers for your video card and any other addons you have. Next install all the programs you need, such as web browser, PDF reader, and so on. Once your OS is running, turn off the machine and attach the regular drive with all your data and programs on it. From there you can move any data over, such as the files on your desktop and browser bookmarks. Next, change the "save file" locations from their defaults of the C: drive to the other drive. You do this by right-clicking the locations in Win8 and selecting Properties. Click the button labeled "Set save location" and navigate to the appropriate folder on the other drive. Do this for Music, Documents, Photos, Videos, and any others. Now when you save files to Photos, for example, they will go to the "regular hard drive." You can also just right-click the location in Windows Explorer, select Properties, go to the Location tab, and select "Move…" to accomplish this. Once it's set up, your OS will be on the SSD and your data will be saved to the hard drive. Kernel Chaos I've been having problems with my system randomly running incredibly slow and freezing for a minute or two before speeding back up. I'm generally not doing anything system intensive, just web browsing or listening to music. I've pulled up Task Manager and it will show the process labeled as "System" at 100 percent disk utilization. I've identified it is "ntoskrnl.exe" causing this problem. Searching the web I've found this is a common problem but there are no solutions. Any ideas? I'm running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit with all the current updates, Intel Core 2 Duo Quad-Core processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and an MSI G41M-P34 motherboard. —Kyle The Doctor Responds: This is a tricky problem Kyle, and based on our research can be caused by a number of issues. First, update all of your drivers. And we mean every driver, including those for a Bluetooth mouse, your Ethernet card, headphones, mobo chipset, and more. You can do it manually, but we recommend using SlimDrivers as it makes everything incredibly easy. If that doesn't work, it's possible the Windows Search Indexer is to blame. This is a utility that indexes files when the system is idle. Disable this to see if it helps. Type "services" from the Win8 Start Screen, or in the Run dialog type "Services.msc." Scroll down to Windows Search, right-click, and select Properties. Then set it to "Stopped." You can also set it to "Manual," so you can stop and start it at your command. You can easily change the target for file saving and access via the Properties tab of any folder in Windows. MS Support Woes I added an SSD to my computer and reinstalled my OS and applications, including MS Office 2010. I'm using a Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD, Win7 Home Premium, and a 1TB HDD for programs. My CPU is an Intel Core i5-4670 with an Asus Z87-Pro mobo. The problem is MS Office Pro didn't activate because the software is for three PCs, and Microsoft thinks it's on more than three because I've had to reactivate it several times. I called MS support, allowed them to take remote control, and they activated it. However, recently, every time I turn on my computer it detects new security updates for Office, which download but will not install. I tried to uninstall (to reinstall) and repair MS Office through the Control Panel but I got an error. I called MS Support and was told the warranty is only for three months and that I need to pay $100 for a one-year warranty. I'm outraged that MS Support somehow "locked" their software and then want to charge me to do something about it. Please advise me what alternatives I have. —John The Doctor Responds: The Doc thinks there are two things being mixed up here. The first is direct support for Office 2010. That is likely over, depending on when you bought your Office 2010. The warranty is usually tied to the first date it is activated. The key word here is activation. Microsoft will not give you free warranty support, but it should activate the product on the machine it's on without having the warranty support. It always has in the past. Your real problem is not being able to uninstall and reinstall it. Frankly, on a clean install of Win7 with a clean install of Office 2010, there should be no issues. You may want to do a clean install with only the SSD in place. Install the drivers for your hardware, update Win7, and then install Office 2010. Also download the two Service Packs for Office 2010 and install those. Once those are installed, fire up Word. If it asks to activate, attempt it across the Internet. If that doesn't work, perform a phone activation. You'll need to be in front of your PC to read off enough digits to think you've just authenticated the launch codes for a ballistic missile. If that fails, the phone activation will usually let you speak to a live person. Explain that your drive failed and you had to reinstall and they should give you the code to activate it. Once it's activated, start Word. It will ask you if you want Windows Update to check for updates for it. Say yes. Run Windows Update no less than three times with reboots in between until all of the updates are installed. If Microsoft gives you a hard time, you should know that Office 2010 retail ties the keys to the device but they're not permanently attached. You can rebuild, swap mobo, or move the license to your laptop. It should not matter. With Office 2013, Microsoft tried to change that, but facing an intense backlash, the company reversed its policy. Windows Search Indexer likes to suck on your CPU's teat when the system is idle. Luckily, you can stop it any time you like. CPU and GPU Turf War I have a Toshiba X875-Q7190 laptop. It has a GPU built into the CPU and a discreet GPU. With some files, particularly PDFs, it takes a tremendous amount of time to render successive pages. My thought is that it's utilizing the CPU-based GPU. How can I get the laptop to always use the discreet videocard? —Chris The Doctor Responds: A more worthwhile endeavor might be to try other PDF readers. Foxit Reader, for example, is both good and free. If that still doesn't do it for you, you can force your notebook to run on its discrete GPU by right-mouse clicking on the desktop. Select Nvidia Control Panel, then Manage 3D Settings, click the dropdown menu under Preferred Graphics Processor, and then select your "high performance Nvidia processor." You can use the Nvidia Control Panel to force your laptop to use discrete graphics, but battery life will suffer. Rodent Rage I'm running Windows 8.1 on my new Digital Storm PC. I connected my Razer Mamba 2012 wireless mouse and from time to time, it freezes. The battery lights on the mouse stay on, but the pointer freezes. When I plug the wired cable into the mouse it works like normal. I'm using the latest mouse firmware and have reapplied it as well. I'm also using the latest Synapse software and have uninstalled and reinstalled it. I've even changed USB ports where the mouse is plugged in. I've contacted Razer and they told me to do the things I already did. Beyond that, they said the mouse is not in warranty any longer and can't help further. Any thoughts? —Jav The Doctor Responds: Troubleshooting wireless problems from afar is near impossible, but we can suggest a few steps. First of all, it sounds like you've done all the basic steps we'd recommend for any hardware that is acting up, which includes updating drivers, trying a different port, and making sure the firmware is up to date. You clearly know what you're doing. The next thing is to try and isolate the issue—is the mouse broken or is it your PC? Take the mouse to work or to a friend's house and see if it works in wireless mode there. If so, we know the problem is with how it's communicating with your rig, but that it still works. If it's broken in a second location with a different PC, then you have a lemon, but at least you know what the problem is. Lastly, we'd recommend seeing if the wireless communication is being interferred with where your PC is residing. We know you can't easily move your rig but we'd recommend trying the wireless setup somewhere else in your house just to rule out one final cause of disruption. Since it's out of warranty, there's not much you can do if it's broken (which all signs indicate it is), but at least you can sleep at night knowing what's causing the issue. Submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpc.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 29 Apr 2015 01:13 PM PDT At A GlanceHaswell Good battery life; improved CPU and GPU performance; SSD. Has-Been Performance gains are a little weak; lack of ports; relatively small SSD. A step in the right directionIf you recall from our first Dell XPS 18 review in the August 2013 issue, we were surprised by how much we liked the 18-inch AIO/tablet hybrid. As much as we enthused, however, there were a few issues that kept us from recommending it outright. Haswell was right around the corner, which would have offered better CPU, GPU, and battery performance over its then aging Ivy Bridge processor. We also didn't like that it only had a paltry 32GB caching drive. With the XPS 18 Mark II, Dell is attempting to address those issues.
Aesthetically, it uses the exact same design as its predecessor, with a chassis measuring 11x18.2x0.6 inches. It has a one-inch bezel around its glossy 1080p display. The 10-point capacitive touchscreen uses an IPS panel and still looks as good as ever. While its 5lb weight doesn't make it as portable as a traditional tablet, it is lighter than most gaming laptops we've reviewed. It also has two feet that kick out, so you can either use it standing on a desk or flipped to lay nearly flat. Our unit also came with a stand that raises it 3.5 inches off the table and gives you about 40 degrees of tilt, so you could use it standing up. Frame Rate Fail Luckily, improvements have been made under the hood. Our configuration sported a 2GHz Core i7-4510U along with 8GB of DDR3. There's still no discrete GPU this time around, but it's excusable in this relatively portable form factor. Compared to its Ivy Bridge predecessor, it performed roughly 47 better in 3DMark 11. While that sounds fantastic, it's really more of a reminder of how bad Ivy Bridge's integrated graphics were. When we fired up Valve's Left 4 Dead 2, a notoriously non-taxing game to run, we hit an average 13fps trying to max out the game. Ouch!
Our zero-point all-in-one PC is an Asus ET2300 with a 3.0GHz Intel Core i5-3330M, 8GB DDR3/1600, 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive, a GeForce GT 630M, and Windows 8. Metro tested at 1280x768 with Medium settings, Tessellation enabled. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mighty Maxwell Video Card Roundup Posted: 29 Apr 2015 01:01 PM PDT Say hello to Nvidia's new performance graphics chips, the GeForce GTX 980 and 970. We think you'll approve Sometimes, things don't go according to plan. Both AMD and Nvidia were supposed to have shifted to 20nm graphics chips by now. In theory, that gets you lower temperatures, higher clock speeds, and less noise. Instead, the Taiwanese company that actually manufactures most of AMD and Nvidia's GPUs has been struggling to get its 20nm technology rolling. The result? The whole PC graphics industry remains stuck at 28nm. That single fact explains an awful lot about Nvidia's latest high performance graphics chip, codenamed GM204, and the Maxwell architecture that underpins it. The GM204 chip is not a direct successor to the GTX 780, which has more transistors, texture mapping units, and that 3D rendering jazz. It's actually the next step beyond the GTX 680, aka GK104, which was launched way back in March 2012. And yes, GK104 was a 28nm chip, too. What's really impressive is that despite all that, our testing indicates the fastest version of GM204—the new GeForce GTX 980—is meaningfully quicker than the GTX 780 and 780 Ti. It's usually quicker than AMD's Radeon R9 290 and 290X as well, though there are a couple of games that are better optimized for Radeon hardware. So yup, we've a new single-GPU performance king from Nvidia despite the limitations of the 28nm process. If that's not impressive enough, Nvidia has also managed to create one of the most power-effi cient graphics chips ever seen. Time to find out how. Nvidia's Mean 28nm Machine Maxwell ups Nvidia's ante while we wait for 20nm When 20nm processes become available sometime in 2015, we'll probably see the actual successor to the GTX 780. But the GTX 980 is here right now, and comes in at $500. That seems high when you consider this isn't the fastest GPU that will come out of Nvidia's new Maxwell family. But remember, the GTX 680 launched at this price and wasn't the best of the Kepler chips. And keep in mind the GTX 980 is simply faster than the 780 and 780 Ti, which currently cost more. (As we wrote this, AMD announced it was dropping the base price of the R9 290X from $500 to $450, so that war rages on.) However, if the GTX 980 looks like decent value, the GTX 970 at $329 is a spectacular deal. More on that in a moment. Price Wars In other news, Nvidia told us they were dropping the price of the GTX 760 to $219, and the GTX 780 Ti, 780, and 770 are being officially discontinued. So if you need a second one of those for SLI, now is a good time to invest. Take a look at the key numbers below. The 980 and 970 don't look like much of a jump from the 680. In fact, the 980 has only 128 shaders (aka "CUDA cores") per streaming multiprocessor (SM). Performance tends to increase with a higher number of shaders per SM, so how does the 980 GTX perform so well, despite having a worse ratio? Well, Nvidia claims it has improved the performance of each CUDA core by 40 percent. If that calculation is accurate, the GTX 980 effectively has about as many CUDA cores as a 780 Ti. Add the GTX 980's higher clock speeds, and performance should be better. You probably also noticed the 970's unusually low price. In comparison, The GTX 670 launched at $400 in May 2012, and the GTX 570 launched at $350 in December 2010. But those two earlier cards were closer in spec to their bigger brothers. For example, the GTX 570 had 480 CUDA cores, while the 580 had 512 cores. That's a difference of just 6.25 percent, although the memory bus was reduced from 384-bits to 320-bits. In contrast, the 970 gets nearly 20 percent fewer CUDA cores than the 980, though its memory bus remains unchanged. Nvidia also says the official boost clock on these new Maxwell cards is not set in stone. We witnessed our cards boosting up to 1,253MHz for extended periods of time (20 seconds here, 30 seconds there). When the cards hit their thermal limit of 80 C, they would fall down as low as 1,165Mhz, but we never saw them throttle below the official base of 1,126MHz. In SLI, we also noted the upper card would go up to 84 C. These cards have an upper boundary of 95 C, says Nvidia, when they'll throttle below the base clock to avoid going up in smoke. We weren't inclined to test that theory, for now. You may also spot these new high-end cards stick with modest 256-bit memory buses. Could that be an issue in this age of 4K monitors and massive pixel grids? Perhaps. But Nvidia says its delta color compression (DCC) algorithms have improved bandwidth efficiency by about 25 percent on average (it varies between games). Since DCC directly impacts pixels, this effect should scale with your resolution, becoming increasingly helpful as you crank your res higher. Twist and Shout You can also combine these gains with Nvidia's new Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing (MFAA). This technique rotates a pixel's sampling points from one frame to the next, so that two of these points can simulate the visual results of four sampling points whose locations remain static. The effect starts to shimmer at about 20fps, whereupon it's automatically disabled. But when running well, Nvidia claims it can be 30 percent faster, on average, than the visually equivalent level of Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA). Like TXAA (Temporal Anti-Aliasing), it won't be available on AMD cards (or if it is, it will be built by AMD and called something else). Unfortunately, MFAA was not available in the version 344.07 beta drivers given to us, but Nvidia says it will be in the driver after this one. This means the package will not be complete on launch day. Support will trickle down to the older Kepler cards later on. Nvidia hasn't been specific about times, but it sounds like the 750 and 750 Ti (also technically Maxwell cards) will not join this party. Light Fantastic Another major upgrade is Voxel Global Illumination, or VXGI. Nvidia positions this as the next step beyond ambient occlusion. With VXGI, light bounces off of surfaces, in real time, to illuminate nooks and crannies that would otherwise not be realistically lit. Ordinarily, light doesn't bounce around in a 3D game engine like it does in meatspace. It simply hits a surface and illuminates it. Sometimes the effect is just painted on. So there's a lot more calculation with VXGI. Per-shader performance has been improved by 40 percent, claims Nvidia. But Nvidia has not made specific performance claims because the effect is highly scalable. A developer can choose how many cones of light they want to use and the degree of bounced light resolution, so Nvidia balances this result against a performance target. Since this is something that has to be coded into the game engine, we won't see it right away by forcing it in the drivers, like Nvidia users can with ambient occlusion. Next is Dynamic Super Resolution (in the 344.11 drivers released recently, so we'll be giving it a peek soon). This combines super sampling with a custom filter. Super sampling takes a higher resolution than your monitor can display and squishes it down. It's a popular form o f antialiasing, but the performance hit is steep. The 13-tap Gaussian filter that the card lays on top can further smooth out jaggies. It's a post-process effect that's thankfully very light, and you can also scale DSR down from 3840x2160 to 2560x1440. It's our understanding that, for now, it's only available with the 980 and 970. Double Vision Nvidia is also investing more deeply in VR headsets with an initiative called VR Direct. Its main aim is a reduction in average latency from 50ms to 25ms, using a combination of code optimization, MFAA, and another new feature called Auto Asynchronous Warp (AAW). This displays frames at 60fps even when performance drops below that. Since each eye is getting an independently rendered scene, your PC effectively needs to maintain 120fps, which isn't going to be easy with more demanding games. AAW takes care of the difference. However, we haven't had the opportunity to test the GTX 980 with VR-enabled games yet. Speaking of which, Nvidia is also introducing another new feature called Auto Stereo. As its name implies, it forces stereoscopic rendering in games that were not built with VR headsets in mind. We look forward to testing VR Direct at a later date. Benchmarking the Beast Mixed results mean questions remain over the GTX 980's launch price We tested the GTX 980 in two-way SLI and by itself, at 2560x1600 and 3820x2160, comparing it to roughly equivalent cards. Let's take a look at our results, customarily using the highest preset provided by each game, at 2560x1600 with 4xMSAA. Put simply, the 980 delivers, especially given its pricing. It's not leapfrogging the 780 and 780 Ti, but Nvidia indicates it's not supposed to. It dominates the GTX 680, but that card is discontinued. The R9 290X, meanwhile, is hitting $430, while the not-much-slower 290 can be had for just $340. And you can pick up a 780 Ti for $560. So the 980's launch price is going to be a hurdle. Performance in Metro has vastly improved, but Hitman in particular doesn't appear to favor the Green Team. Loyal Radeon fans probably won't be swayed. While a solo 980 is already a respectable competitor, its success is more pronounced when we add a second card—as is the gap between it and the 780 Ti. It still continues to best the GTX 780, getting us over 60fps in each game with all visual effects cranked up. It also looks like Nvidia's claim of 40 percent improved CUDA core performance may not be happening consistently. Is 4K Too Far? So, what happens when we scale up to 3840x2160, also known as "4K", when we have four times as many pixels as 1080p? Can the GTX 980's 256-bit bus handle this much bandwidth? It still scales well, but the 384-bit 780 and 780 Ti are clearly scaling better, as is the 512-bit 290X. As for power consumption, with a TDP of just 165W, a respectable 650-watt power supply should have no trouble powering two 980 GTXs. Meanwhile, the 290-watt R9 290X really needs at least a nice 850-watt unit to have some breathing room. Overall, we still need to do some testing with VR to get a full picture. But as it stands, the 980 is another impressive showing for Nvidia. However, its 4K scaling isn't as good as we'd like, especially considering Dynamic Super Resolution. If you want to play at that level, it looks like the 290 and 290X are better choices, price-wise, while the overall performance crown at 4K still belongs to the 780 and 780 Ti. But considering the price difference between the 980 and the 780, its similar performance is commendable. For 2560x1600 or lower resolutions, the 980 GTX emerges as a compelling option, but we're not convinced it's over $100 better than a 290X. Then again, you have MFAA, DSR, and VR Direct (plus the overall GeForce Experience package that's a bit slicker than AMD's Gaming Evolved). That might work for some people, or for Nvidia loyalists who've been waiting for an upgrade from their 680 but don't want to spend what's been asked for a 780 or 780 Ti. SLI vs. Crossfire Maxwell shows its class with PhysX What about SLI and Crossfire multi-GPU rendering? All our tests are still conducted at 4xMSAA, which is total overkill at 4K, but we want to see just how hard we can push these cards. The raw memory bandwidth of the 780, 780 Ti, and 290X certainly come in handy, despite the optimizations of Maxwell CUDA cores. That Metro: Last Light score remains pretty interesting. It's the only one we run with PhysX enabled (to balance out using TressFX in Tomb Raider). It really does look like Maxwell is much better at PhysX than any other GPU before it. That tech isn't quite common enough to change the game. But if the difference is as good as our testing indicates, more developers may pick it up. Even a blisteringly fast card can be brought down by high noise levels or prodigious heat. Thankfully, this reference cooler is up to the task. Keep in mind that this card draws up to 165 watts, and its cooler is designed to handle cards that go up to 250W. But even with the fan spinning up to nearly 3,000rpm, it's not unpleasant. With the case side panels on, you can still hear the fan going like crazy, but we didn't find it distracting. These acoustics only happened in SLI, by the way. Without the primary card sucking in hot air from the card right below it, its fan behaved much more quietly. The GTX 980's cooling is nothing like the reference design of the Radeon R9 290 or 290X. Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming Cool, quiet, and deliciously quick, Gigabyte's overclocked GTX 970 nails it If the new GeForce GTX 980 is a killer with a steep price, the much cheaper GTX 970 looks one hell of a card for just $329. Unlike with the 980, the fi rst iterations of which are mostly stock-clocked reference boards, there won't be any 970 reference boards, so our fi rst taste comes courtesy of Gigabyte. And it's really gone to town on the new 970 with the G1 Gaming, a factory overclocked card with custom cooling. If you want to take it further than its factory-overclocked settings, you can even get mighty close to the performance of a reference-clocked GTX 980. And that means achieving superior gaming performance to a $1,000 GTX Titan Black. For not much more than £300. Yes, really. It's great. The overclocked 970 delivers $1,000 performance for not much more than $300. Yes, we like it. Inside the GTX 970 you'll fi nd the same Nvidia GM204 GPU that made the GTX 980 such an impressive graphics card, with just a few little nips and tucks to allow the lower price point. The big change is on the traditional streaming microprocessor units front. The SM count for the 970 is down from 16 to 13. That still gives you 1,644 CUDA cores for your money, but it's a pretty severe slicing from the 2,048 cores in the GTX 980. However, the GTX 970 still has the same 2MB of L2 cache, the same 64 ROPs, the same 256-bit memory bus, the same speed and algorithmic advances in the actual memory itself, and crucially, the same 4GB frame buffer. It's the common memory capacity between the two latest Maxwell-powered cards that allows them to be such key players at the highest resolutions. Cool Runnings Right from the outset then, it's clear that Gigabyte's G1 Gaming GTX 970 is aiming squarely at the bigger 980 beast. The base clock is 128MHz higher than the standard GTX 970, so this new card is running faster than the GTX 980 out of the box in terms of pure clock GPU terms. But that's just the base clock. The G1 Gaming's boost clock goes even further than the GTX 980's, hitting 1,329MHz as a standard turbo setting compared to the 1,216MHz of its bigger brother. That's thanks to Gigabyte's powerful Windforce cooling array. The large triple-fan/triple-heatsink setup means it's a longer card than the standard GTX 980 design, despite having a shorter PCB, but also makes it a seriously effective cooling solution. With the factory-overclocked GPU working its silicon socks off, it was still only just about hitting a maximum temperature of 58 C. That's incredibly cool running for a proper high-end GPU, especially one that's capable of hitting 30fps at top 4K settings in Battlefield 4. Even when we worked our own overclocking magic on the G1 Gaming, it was still only very occasionally hitting a maximum 64 C. With the GM 204 running at an incredible 1.5GHz, that's a staggering technical achievement. In fact, it's enough to have this Gi Gaming match a reference clocked and cooled GTX 980. Game On If that was the end of the story, you might still put your money on the reference GTX 980. After all, its GPU isn't being pushed as hard in order to achieve those speeds. But the Windforce cooling array really does make a tremendous difference; even operating at 1.5GHz, the G1 Gaming was running over 15 C cooler than the reference card. Then there's the price. The stock GTX 970 starts at $329, and this factory-overclocked version is another $60 on top. But it's still way cheaper than a basic GTX 980. As for AMD's Radeon R9 290X, it's in trouble. Even the overclocked Tri-X version from Sapphire can't cool to the same extent, or provide performance to beat this cheaper card. Even if AMD reacts by slashing prices, the Nvidia ecosystem arguably feels a little more vibrant right now, with some funky new technology (such as MFAA, VXGI, and DSR) making the Green Team seem more of a value proposition. In real terms, however, it's the additional straight-line gaming performance that gives this new Gigabyte card the overall win for us. It's a Wrap: Over to You, AMD Cheaper, faster, better. That's what new computer chips used to be about. More recently the rate of development in PC graphics has seemed to slow. With these new GPUs, Nvidia has taken us back to the golden age of graphics. OK, the GeForce GTX 980 and 970 aren't massively faster than everything we've seen before. Indeed, the fact Nvidia's relatively ancient GK110 chip—in cards such as the GeForce GTX 780 Ti and Titan Black—is still pretty competitive just goes to show what an awesome bit of kit it really is. But in the GTX 970, Nvidia has come up with something seriously special. For $329 you can have a card that will deliver pretty much the same gaming experience as the very fastest and most expensive 3D graphics from the outgoing generation. Yup, that's $329 for a $1,000 experience. That Nvidia has pulled this off despite being stuck at 28nm through no fault of its own just makes these new Maxwell GPUs even more impressive. We can hardly imagine how insane Maxwell will be when it gets an inevitable shrink down to 20nm next year. If there is a negative, it's the $550 pricing on the GTX 980 model. It's simply too big a premium to justify and that's a pity. As for AMD, it doesn't look pretty. All Nvidia's main rival can do is cut pricing to position its GPUs more competitively. And while that may be enough to deliver a great price-performance package—the Radeon R9 290 and 290X remain awesome GPUs—it will still leave AMD lagging on metrics like heat and overclockability. And it will also leave AMD selling big, expensive graphics chips for not a lot of money. As far as we know, it won't be until 2015 and AMD's 20nm Pirate Islands chips that there's even a chance it will have something that can truly take on Nvidia's Maxwell. Until then, it looks like times will be tough for AMD. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MSI GS70 Stealth Pro-210 Review Posted: 29 Apr 2015 12:59 PM PDT At A GlanceStealth Bomber Great GPU performance; good amount of fast storage; relatively portable. Noisy Cricket Hot; loud; average CPU performance; 1080p TN panel. Not so stealthyIn an ideal world, a gaming laptop would be powerful, have a large screen, and still be portable. Oh, and how about running stealthily quiet? Until now, no manufacturer has been able to marry these qualities together, but MSI is attempting to win us over with its latest offering.
Too Hot to Handle Though the Stealth Pro is still quite powerful for a notebook, it comes at a cost. With great power comes great heat (in a thin notebook), and this thing is loud. It's not leaf-blower loud, but it teeters on the edge of tolerability, and the fans really go on the offensive under load. Another drawback is that it exhausts heat on the right side of the notebook. Considering most people are right-handed, this could amount to some warm fingers. The exhaust is tucked away on the far corner, but a less offensive design would be to exhaust heat from behind the monitor, like the Asus ROG G750 does.
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| MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming 4G Review Posted: 29 Apr 2015 12:59 PM PDT At A GlanceChocolate Milk High-end performance and design; very quiet. Chocolate Soda On the expensive side; slightly tricky to install. A quiet riot of a cardThe arrival of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 and 750 Ti a few months back marked an interesting new plot twist in the video card wars—greatly reduced power consumption. In the AMD versus Nvidia arms race, greater performance and wattage usually go hand in hand. But with Nvidia's GTX 980, we've a card pulling up to 165W (without overclocking), compared to 250W for its 780 Ti, and 290W for AMD's Radeon R9 290X. This difference has a profound effect on cooling and fan acoustics.
MSI is using its "Twin Frozr V" cooler design on this new card. That means dual customized 100mm fans, several large nickel-plated heatpipes running through a plate that sits atop the GPU, and a heatsink that goes the length of the card. There's also a heat spreader covering part of the PCB, sandwiched in between the heatsink and the card. It's overkill, but not the bad kind. Standing Tall There are a couple of downsides, but they're mild. The reference card, for example, uses two 6-pin PCIe cables, but the MSI version uses two 8-pin connectors. There are some power supplies out there with just one 8-pin and one 6-pin. MSI includes an adaptor in the box, but a certified 8-pin cable is preferable, for safety reasons. The card is also about an inch taller than the reference model (to accommodate MSI's 100mm fans), so the screw for the card slot is a little trickier to install. The fan nearest to the PCI power connectors is also a millimeter or two taller than the farther one, so some SLI configurations may leave it a bit starved for intake. But all in all, these are not major issues. The 980 Gaming 4G's eye-popping performance and acoustics can make up for a lot of relatively minor issues.
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 8.1. All games are run at 2560x1600, except for Fire Strike. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MSI Dangles Prestige Series Laptops in Front of Creative Professionals Posted: 29 Apr 2015 12:53 PM PDT Look at the colors! If your livelihood depends on a display with accurate color reproduction, then not just any old monitor will do. The same applies to laptops, and according to MSI, it's new Prestige Series with True Color Technology offers more lifelike and balanced images than you'll see on other laptop panels . That's because it goes through a calibration processor that adjusts the screen's color temperature, visible color range, and gray level stage. We're weary of such claims, especially when taking into account the $1,200 starting price. That's for the 15.6-inch model with a Full HD 1080p resolution, Intel Core i7 4720HQ processor, 12GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM, 1TB hard drive (7200 RPM), Nvidia GeForce GTX 950M graphics, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Killer Gaming Network, DVD burner, memory card reader, three USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 2.0 port, HDMI output, 720p HD webcam, four 2W speakers, and Windows 8.1. There's also a 17.3-inch model that's spec'd nearly the same, save for more RAM (16GB), that costs $1,300. Both are decent configurations for the money, which makes us question if the panel is truly professional grade. "MSI's Prestige Series laptops showcases 6 different color profiles to maximize performance; sRGB default mode for optimum graphics, Gamer to increase brightness, Designer with increased clarity for ultra-clear lines, Anti-Blue to reduce harmful blue light, Movie to optimize contrast for even more vivid graphics, and Office to minimizes eye strain after long term use," MSI says. Alternatively, you can connect up to three external monitors simultaneously at 4K resolution via mini DisplayPort and HDMI. Both the PE70 2QD-062US (17.3-inch) and PE60 2QD-060US (15.6-inch) Prestige laptops are supposed to be available now. The ones we found online were out of stock, though that should change soon. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 29 Apr 2015 09:47 AM PDT Think you have the chops? Hit us up then! We're hiring! Actually, we're hiring for more than one spot. If you got a passion for the PC and tech, there's no better place than Maximum PC to hone in on that passsion. Without further rambling, here is what we're looking for: TECH EDITOR Ideal candidates should: Previous experience working for a media company. Be well-versed in the PC hardware/software scene. Breadth and depth of knowledge is paramount. Have excellent writing/reporting and presentation abilities including livestream and podcast interview skills. He or she should be agile and able to manage impromptu requests, while meeting deadlines. Strong industry contacts is a plus and key to your success. Strong sense of humor, objectivity, and keen eye for details. Candidate must have a positive, problem solving, attitude. The ability to work out of our office in South San Francisco is a huge plus and those who can are given priority consideration. Job Responsibilities: Write/contribute content (news, features, and reviews) for the magazine and website Edit articles for the magazine and website Build PCs/assist with running PC benchmarks Upload articles to the CMS/website Participate in Maximum PC's No BS Podcast Cover events/tradeshows as needed Daily tasks as assigned Candidates should have in-depth knowledge in the following areas: CPU GPU Motherboards Storage (SSDs, HDDs, etc.) Software (Windows/Linux/Multimedia Production/Editing) Cases Cooling Overclocking Peripherals (headset, keyboards, mice) PAID INTERN Candidates should have: A strong interest and knowledge of PC hardware Writing/reporting abilities A good sense of humor and positive team-player personality Must be able to work at our South San Francisco office Among the tasks you'll do: Edit Maximum PC's podcast/videocast Shoot and edit unboxing videos, demos, interviews, discussions, product previews, video reviews, etc. Write editorial copy that supplements video content for the website as needed Assist with mailing duties Upload articles to the CMS/website Daily tasks as assigned What we offer: Excellent employer paid medical, dental and vision plans (HMO or PPO) Pet insurance 401K Matching Costco Membership Corporate Donation Matching Program Work From Home / Flex Scheduling Programs Equipped gym Free shuttle service from BART and CalTrain to the office Entertainment An arcade And other goodies All positions are paid . Please submit your resume and writing samples to us. You can email them to me directly if you wish at tuan at maximumpc dot com . Keep in mind, there's a certain style and attitude to Maximum PC . We like excitement, and we gag at writing that's dry. So if you're mucking about with PC hardware all day long, and you love getting dirty with the latest hardware, you might as well do it with us. The best part is, you get to shape the PC industry as you do it! Submit away! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NZXT Noctis 450 Adds a Glow to Mid-Tower Case Market Posted: 29 Apr 2015 06:08 AM PDT Bringing the bling When NZXT partnered with Razer to build a special version of the H440, one of the standout characteristics was that it had a green underglow. Turns out you're going to see more of that, at least from NZXT, which added an underglow to its newly announced Noctis 450 mid-tower case . This is in addition to NZXT's "signature" I/O LEDs, and to accommodate the additional lighting, NZXT updated the lighting switch to allow for multi-step adjustments. Beyond the LED bling, NZXT focused its efforts on cooling. So-called floating panels on the top of the case purportedly offer 10 times more ventilation surface area compared to the H440. It also has a built-in PWM fan hub that supports up to 8 case fans. Users can connect the PWM fan hub to their motherboard or to a Kraken product and adjust fan profiles. NZXT starts you off with three 120mm fans in the front and a 140mm in the rear. You can add more from there, or slap up to a 360mm radiator for liquid cooling. Other features found in the Noctis 450 include a fully modular hard drive system, SSD mounts, and a power supply shroud that's supposed to make hiding unsightly cables as easy as it was shoving toys under your bed as a kid. The NZXT Noctis 450 is available now for $140 MSRP in black and red or white and black color options. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HyperX Releases Mean Looking Savage SSD Line Into the Wild Posted: 29 Apr 2015 05:40 AM PDT A Savage solution to storage Kingston's HyperX division has begun selling its Savage line of solid state drives that we first spied at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. These drives combine a SATA 6Gbps interface with the Phison S10 quad-core, eight-channel controller for high read and write speeds, though clearly HyperX is also hoping to win consumers over with aesthetics. The drives sport a red steel and aluminum case that looks somewhat aggressive, though unless you have a case that's capable of showing off SSDs, it becomes a see-it-once-and-forget-it kind of deal. Nevertheless, maybe blinged out SSDs are the future -- remember Intel's 730 Series with a skull graphic? Getting to what matters most, here's a look at capacity and performance options: 120GB: 520MB/s read, 350MB/s write (100,000 random 4K read IOPS, 84,000 random 4K write IOPS) 240GB: 520MB/s read, 510MB/s write (100,000 random 4K read IOPS, 89,000 random 4K write IOPS) 480GB: 520MB/s read, 500MB/s write (100,000 random 4K read IOPS, 88,000 random 4K write IOPS) 960GB: 520MB/s read, 490MB/s write (99,000 random 4K read IOPS, 89,000 random 4K write IOPS) Not the fastest we've ever seen in SATA 6Gbps territory, though still peppy. The 7mm-high drives are available now, both as standalone offerings and in upgrade bundle kits. Pricing on Kingston's website is set at $130 (120GB), $219 (240GB), $444 (480GB), and $929 (960GB). Word to the wise -- prices are significantly cheaper on the street Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 28 Apr 2015 08:46 PM PDT Everything you need to know about Steam's storied history There's no question that Steam has become an ubiquitous part of PC gaming. Some have hailed it as the savior of PC gaming , while others have seen it as more of a necessary evil. Whether or not you're a fan, Steam is here to stay. Its massive storefront contains over 4,500 games, and some 125 million people actively use the service. The question we're trying to answer here is this: How the hell did Steam get to where it is today? It all started with an announcement at GDC 2002, where Valve first unveiled the digital distribution platform that we now know as Steam. Valve originally pitched it as a service that would provide an easier way for gamers to update their games, but the company's obvious motivation was to create a digital storefront for PC games. Gamers could purchase CD copies of their favorite Valve games—at the time, Half-Life and Counter-Strike—and register those CD keys with Steam. Installing a game from a disc would speed up the installation process, but the CD would no longer be necessary with the advent of digital DRM. The iconic, all-green Steam UI. Photo by willxcore . Gamers were obviously nonplussed by what they saw as a dishonest attempt to lock them into a single platform. Games sold on Steam were protected by DRM that required gamers to log into their libraries to access registered games. Think back to late '90s and early 2000s, and it's hard to stomach not being able to swap discs with friends (or in the case of games like StarCraft, simply guess CD keys at random). Add in the fact that the client required online authentication—with a convoluted offline mode available as a sort of back-of-box bullet point—and a multitude of client-crashing bugs, and Steam was a hot mess. Its ugly green UI wasn't helping things either. Skip forward a few years and Valve has managed to smooth out most of the service's bigger problems. Crashing isn't as frequent, and the client was more than usable. Steam had gotten to the point in 2005 where it could plausibly replace retailers like GameStop, EB Games, and Best Buy as a point-of-sale for PC games. Valve established its very first distribution deals with third-party publishers that same year, and for the first time, independent games like Darwinia were available on the platform. Strategy First was one of the very first—no pun intended—bigger publishers to sign on to Steam. A 2004 post on Geek.com covering the release of Half-Life 2 with a snippet of the debate brewing in the comments. By 2004, Half-Life 2 graced the world with a stunning caveat: gamers would be required to register and install the game through Steam, even if the game was purchased in physical form at a retail store. If the hubbub surrounding Steam wasn't already big enough, gamers were outraged that the hotly anticipated game would be unplayable independent of Steam. The usual fears—launch woes, problems authenticating, and issues registering CD-keys—were warranted, but after the initial hiccups, Steam was well on its way to becoming the ultimate platform for PC gamers. Badges are an evolution of the achievement system and they're entirely unique to Steam. Gamers collect trading cards and complete event-related activities to earn and collect badges, XP, and levels. As the years went on and the trove of games available on the platform increased, Valve implemented new features that solidified Steam's role as the ultimate system for gamers. Steam Cloud provided a way to store and access game saves across multiple systems, while Steam Achievements helped PC gamers get some sort of parity with the Gamerscore metric popularized by the Xbox 360. Steam Community expanded upon the friends list and chatting system by establishing groups with group chats, and Valve even added voice-call support to the client. 2010 was an important year for Steam because the classic green skin was replaced with a more modern design that also acted as a starting point for the Mac and Linux clients that were released later that year. The UI change was followed by a slew of additional features like Steam Workshop , Big Picture mode, non-gaming applications, and more recently, Steam Greenlight . Steam Workshop, now with over $57 million in payouts since its inception. The important thing to notice here is that Valve hasn't sat on its laurels with Steam. It's in a position now where it can do pretty much whatever it wants with the huge audience that it's attracted. After all, its only competition exists in the form of significantly smaller services like GOG.com and EA's Origin. Instead of milking the cash cow for all it's worth, the company has also been doing what it can to expand the experience for gamers—although the business implications of each of these moves is obvious. Steam Workshop provides endless user-created content for a whole host of games available on Steam. These downloadable files range from maps for Counter-Strike Global Offensive to hats and skins that users vote on for Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2. More recently, Valve has pushed Steam even further into our lives with SteamOS and the SteamOS-powered Steam Machines. These rigs aim to provide a gaming experience akin to console gaming in a small form factor PC, running a Linux-based operating system that provides easy access to Steam. It's an interesting expansion of Steam. Steam Big Picture Mode is Valve's 10-foot UI for the living room. If you think that Valve is immune to backlash, however, think again. Fast forward to today, and Valve has recieved a lot of criticism over its idea to allow for the monetization of mods. Many users think that mods should be free, and that if anyone should be getting the lion's share of the profits, it should be the modders and not the game developers that don't contribute to the mod. Valve has since reversed its stance, stating that it had good intentions with the system, but didn't execute well on the implementation. Despite the seemingly endless resources of Valve, Steam.com is one of the few things that remains outside its grasp. One thing we're still curious about Steam is why Valve hasn't gobbled up the Steam.com domain. It's still sitting pretty at www.steampowered.com , which is a bit weird considering the absolute popularity of Steam. Then again, Steam.com's pretty clear that it's not for sale—see the picture above. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 28 Apr 2015 03:52 PM PDT At A GlanceSega Genesis Beautiful chassis; smoking fast; gorgeous internal aesthetics; external fan controller. Sega Saturn Overclock is too aggressive, PCI-e configuration issues, plastic doors. Aggressive in more ways than oneYou already know that Nvidia's Titan X is Kick Ass, but do you know what's even more bad-ass? Three of them in SLI. With that philosophy in mind, Origin PC sent us its new Genesis rig to review. The box has three of those bad boys, all water-cooled, coupled with a 5960X CPU and 16GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM, wrapped up in the company's own bold full-tower chassis. Externally, the chassis still looks as striking as ever. Ours came in an all-black finish, but there are different color options available. You also have some fancy lighting options, both on the inside and outside of the case, that you can control via an included wireless remote. While the frame of the chassis is mostly metal, we're not too fond of the external casing, which is mostly composed of plastic; it feels a little fragile. Both doors also come off completely, but don't re-attach as easily as they should; we often found ourselves having to push them back on snugly before we could securely lock them into place. And like the Cooler Master stacker chassis before it, this case also has an expandable bay on the bottom. In our case (no pun intended), the bottom bay houses most of the chassis fans. The black-and-red aesthetic gives it that HAL 9000 vibe. Speaking of cooling, the beautiful-looking water setup comes by way of EK, which water cools both the CPU and GPUs. In terms of performance, Origin PC's box flew. In anticipation of some of the monster rigs to come, we've updated our desktop zero point PC to have three GTX 980s and a 5960X CPU, but this Origin rig completely blew it out of the water. Three 980s is a plenty fast setup, but in our newly updated suite of graphics benchmarks, three Titan Xs smokes it by 20–60 percent. It is worth noting, however, that we did not initially see these graphical performance gains. As a matter of fact, in both the Batman and Tomb Raider tests, Origin's system actually performed worse than our ZP. We tried playing around with and re-downloading drivers, but nothing worked. After scratching our heads for a few days and working with Origin to resolve the issue, we discovered that the system's Asus X99-Deluxe motherboard had its PCI-e configuration set to auto, and wasn't scaling up to Gen 3 mode. When we manually switched it over in the BIOS, our performance issues went away. Origin says it is working with Asus to solve this issue moving forward, and luckily it's not hard to fix, but when you're paying more than $9K for a PC, this shouldn't be an issue. The CPU performance also ended up being really impressive, besting our own closed-loop water cooled 5960X by 13–24 percent in our benchmarks. That's a huge difference when you consider that both systems are running the same CPU. You can attribute that to Origin's aggressive overclocking. Unfortunately, however, it appears that Origin might have gone overboard with its overclock by bumping its proc to 4.5GHz, as we encountered a CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT blue screen twice while running our multithread-heavy X264 benchmark. When we spoke to Origin about this, the company said that it might have been a result of the overaggressive overclock and said it is willing to help customers downclock their CPUs through multiple means of customer support if necessary. Still, when you're spending so much cashola on this box, things like this shouldn't happen. Finally, another small gripe we had with the system is that one of its front-facing USB ports didn't work right out of the gate. When we opened its internals, we found the USB connector to be a little loose on the motherboard, so we plugged it back in and that solved the issue. While you could chalk that up to a rush job, it could also have happened during shipping. As you can see, the box is not perfect, and our various issues with it hold us back from giving the Genesis our Kick Ass seal of approval. Fortunately, these issues can be solved with a few simple tweaks. If you can stomach what might be isolated incidents, you'll be left with one beautiful and bad-ass PC. $9,278, www.originpc.com
Our desktop zero point PC uses a 5960X CPU, three GTX 980s, and 16GBs of RAM. Arkham City tested at 2560x1440 max settings with PhysX off. Tomb Raider at Ultimate settings. Shadow of Mordor at Max settings. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 28 Apr 2015 11:03 AM PDT At A GlanceDream Machine Fast; small; cheaper than comparable micro-towers. Scream Machine Expensive; too loud under gaming loads. Tiny but loud computingIt's hard to believe it's been two years since we marveled at the first modern "micro-tower" and how much performance you could cram into the tiny space. We then promptly bashed it for not having "enough." You know, like dual-card performance or more than 1TB storage. Fast forward two years and we have the latest challlenger in Origin's new Chronos Z . As the "Z" implies, this slightly-bigger-than-an-Xbox 360 features Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan Z inside. While people snicker at the Titan for being overpriced and underperforming, it's the only answer for those wanting dual-GPU performance in a tight space. Elsewhere, Origin PC manages to put Intel's top LGA1150 proc, the Core i7-4790K, in place with an overclock that ranges from 4.4GHz to 4.8GHz using a customized Asetek 550LC CLC. To get the 550LC into the SilverStone RVZ01 chassis, Origin had to use a very narrow fan. Although we had concerns about how effective it would be—our own Build It experience on the same chassis and a CLC was disappointing—the Chronos Z was fine.
The amazing thing here is that Origin PC stuffs the Titan Z in at all. It's technically a three-slot card, but it will fit into two slots with a different backplate. Not that this is the first time we've seen a Titan Z in a micro-tower—Falcon crossed that off the PC-builder bucket list back in September, with its Tiki Z. However, Falcon's case is custom-built to its specs. For the most part, the chassis Origin PC uses appears to be off-the-shelf and varies little from the stock SilverStone RVZ01. Taking on the Tiki That is perhaps one area where the Chronos Z is at a disadvantage against Falcon's Tiki Z. With this much hardware inside, thermals are a major obstacle to overcome. Adding to that is the cooler design of the Titan Z. Single-GPU cards intake air and blow it out the rear of the card. The dual-GPU design on the Z, however, intakes air in the middle and blows it out of the back and front of the card inside the system.
Our current desktop test bed consists of a hexa-core 3.2GHz Core i7-3930K overclocked to 3.8GHz, 8GB of Corsair DDR3/1600, on an Asus Sabertooth X79 motherboard. We're running a GeForce GTX 690, an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB SSD, Asus GeForce GTX 970, and More! Posted: 28 Apr 2015 10:36 AM PDT Top Deal: Times are changing. Owning a solid state drive used to mean taking out a second mortgage and dipping into the kids' college funds, all for that might boost in speed. And now? Check out today's top deal for a Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 240GB SSD for $85 with free shipping (normally $99). For less than a Benjamin, you can make the jump to SSD territory and enjoy up to 450MB/s read and write speeds, and a 3-year warranty. Other Deals: OCZ ARC 100 2.5-inch 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $160 with free shipping (normally $180) Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB Support Video Card for $330 with free shipping (normally $340) Acer K242HL Bbid 24-inch 6ms LCD Monitor for $120 with free shipping (normally $130 - use coupon code: [ EMCARNW23 ]) OCZ Vertex 460A 2.5-inch 120GB Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $65 with free shipping (normally $75; additional $10 Mail-in rebate) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LG Makes Fashion Statement with Leather Clad G4 Smartphone Posted: 28 Apr 2015 09:45 AM PDT LG's new flagship phone It's been an interesting past few months in mobile as handset makers come out with new flagship devices, each with unique features. There was Apple with its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the largest iPhone models to date; Samsung with its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, the latter with a curved edge display; and now the LG G4 is official, complete with a curved display and leather backside . After months of leaked photos and speculation, LG finally unveiled its much anticipated G4 smartphone today at events in New York, London, Paris, Singapore, Istanbul, and Seoul. As such, we can finally confirm the specs, which include a 5.5-inch Quad HD IPS display (2560x1440, 538ppi), Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of LPDDDR3 RAM, 32GB of internal storage + microSD card slot, 8-megapixel front camera, 16-megapixel rear camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Blueooth 4.1LE, NFC support, USB 2.0, 3,000mAh removable battery, and Android 5.1 Lollipop. The handset measures 148.9 x 76.1 x 6.3-9.8mm and features a Slim Arc design that runs along its entire body, adding a subtle curve to the display. Over on the backside what LG says is handcrafted, genuine full grain leather available in half a dozen color options. As with many smartphone makers these days, LG is really emphasizing the rear camera. It features a wide f1.3 aperture lens that allows 80 percent more light to reach the sensor. It also benefits from second generation Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) technology that expands the range of image stabilization from one degree to two degrees on the X and Y axis, while also adding a third axis. And if you really know what you're doing, there's a new manual mode that allows owners to adjust the focus, shutter speed, ISO, exposure, and white balance, and save photos in RAW format. LG plans to launch the G4 on all major carriers in the U.S. at the end of May or early June. No word yet on pricing. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Asus Starts Shipping Fancy Zenbook Pro UX501 Ultrabook with 4K Display Posted: 28 Apr 2015 09:15 AM PDT May cause MacBook Pro owners to have buyer's remorse Asus last month announced its Zenbook Pro UX501, a sexy looking laptop that many are comparing to the MacBook Pro. Of course, the Zenbook Pro UX501 runs Windows 8.1, but that's not the only difference. Arguably the highlight of the laptop is its 4K Ultra HD (3,840x2,160) In-Plane Switching (IPS) display that boasts 100 percent sRGB color coverage. There's a bit more to drool over, and most important of all, Asus has begun shipping the Zenbook Pro UX501 in the U.S. today . This is a 15.6-inch Ultrabook measuring just 0.81 inches thick. The model that should appear on store shelves soon boasts an Intel Core i7 4720HQ processor, 16GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM, 512GB PCIe solid state drive, Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 720p webcam, three USB 3.0 ports, Thunderbolt port, HDMI output, 2-in-1 memory card reader, and backlit keyboard. From the pictures we've seen, it's a nice looking notebook with a spun-metal finish that's supposed to echo the spirit of Zen. It also has diamond-cut highlights and brushed-metal surfaces with a ripple-effect pattern that's laser engraved on the lid. Hopefully we can get this one in for evaluation soon, as the collection of hardware seems solid. Speaking of which, that PCIe SSD? It's rated to deliver read and write speeds of up to 1,400MB/s -- snazzy! As the price, world on the web is it will go for $1,799 Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Valve Closes Door on Steam Workshop's Paid Mod Program Posted: 28 Apr 2015 07:55 AM PDT Easy come, easy go Mere days after opening up the Steam Workshop to paid mods , Valve has decided to reverse course and go back to the way things were . In other words, modders can no longer sell their Skyrim mods, which was the first (and only) game to kick off the short-lived initiative. In a statement explaining the reversal, Valve said that jumping into a years old modding community was a pretty poor decision. Valve went into this newest venture with good intentions, and of course to make money -- modders would only receive 25 percent of the revenue they generated, which was one of the knocks against the program. Nevertheless, Valve says that in the past, allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards has been received well, but it's now obvious that this is a different animal. "We underestimated the differences between our previously successful revenue sharing models, and the addition of paid mods to Skyrim's workshop. We understand our own game's communities pretty well, but stepping into an established, years old modding community in Skyrim was probably not the right place to start iterating," Valve said. "We think this made us miss the mark pretty badly, even though we believe there's a useful feature somewhere here." The hotly debated program received criticism from a number of different angles. In addition to taking issues with royalties, gamers feared that paid mods would divide the community, many of which want to keep these things free. There was also concern over policing the mods for stolen content, along with crappy mods being put out by people looking to make a quick buck. All these concerns led to a petition on Change.org that received over 133,000 signatures. This no doubt played a role in Valve's decision to end the program, along with the "dump truck of feedback" that flooded its inboxes. On the flip side, some big names supported the program, including Garry Newman (Garry's Mod) and FMPONE (Counter Strike modder). You can throw Gabe Newell into the mix as well, who recently took to to answer questions about the now defunct program. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 27 Apr 2015 03:07 PM PDT Grab your screwdriver, it's time to buid a new PC!Build it. DIY. Roll your own. Whatever you call it, there's nothing more satisfying than putting together your own computer. Sure, you can argue that there's no point to it anymore—OEMs get such a big price break that at best, your DIY rig will cost $100 more than a buying a pre-built PC—so why even bother? The most obvious reason to build your own rig is that you get to pick every single part. Want a teal-and-pink case for your Miami Vice homage PC? You can do it. Want to stuff a $1,500 GPU into a machine with a $75 CPU? You can do that, too. The Five-Minute Abs of PC Part-Picking Don't get overwhelmed, we'll teach you how to be a PC partpicking expert in no time. How to Pick a CPUAMD or Intel? This is a tough question, but let's generalize this way: Intel's CPUs are better than AMD's CPUs right now in actual CPU chores. If you want the best performance per chip, Intel is the answer. The only time this flips on its back is if you're going to run integrated graphics with entry-level gaming as your primary goal. If so, choose an AMD APU. But even AMD fan boys agree Intel's CPUs are in front today—so, OK, so it's Intel. Now, you need to decide how many cores: 2, 4, or 6? For most people, a quad-core chip is the right choice for general computing, gaming, and photo or video editing on the task list. Six cores is too much for 90 percent of people's needs; two cores will work, but if you're a heavy multi-tasker or do even a modicum of content creation, you will feel the dual-core's weaknesses. We're not saying it can't be done, but our recommendation for all but the budget buyer is a quad-core CPU. Since you're buying Intel, you still have a choice between older Ivy Bridge CPUs and the newer current Haswell parts. Today, frankly, there's no need to buy Ivy Bridge parts. Haswell offers better performance and more modern amenities. How to Pick a Mobo With most of the performance of a motherboard relying far more on the CPU, mobo buying today is more about getting the features you need and no more. If you need Thunderbolt 2, it'll cost you, but if you don't need Intel/Apple's highfalutin interface, don't pay for it. Build a list of your needs: How many USB 3.0 ports, how many SATA or PCIe, and whether you want M.2 or SATA Express. Also think about the future: Do you really intend to run multiple GPUs? If so, make sure your board has support for it, as not all do. Some, for example, have CrossFire but not SLI. How to Pick a GPUIt's actually not as hard to pick a GPU as you may think it is. Basically, the more expensive it is, the more powerful it is. Yes, a $300 GPU is faster than a $250 GPU. It's just a question of how much you want to spend. Before you pick, though, consider what resolution you want to game at. If it's a single monitor at 1920x1080, generally—and this is a very general guideline—a $250 GPU will give you a solid 50-plus fps performance in 95 percent of today's games, with occasional dips. As you scale up in resolution, or if you simply want a solid higher frame rate all the time, pay more. If you intend to run at 2560x1440 on a 27-inch panel, you're solidly in the $550-or-more range in GPU expenses. For most people though, $250 is the sweet spot in GPUs, and will give you a solid experience at 1080p in most games with few compromises in visual quality. How to Pick a CoolerFor the person who will never overclock, the stock cooler is actually a good option. It's free and AMD or Intel have done the actual engineering to ensure that it works under 95 percent of situations. If you intend to overclock though, an aftermarket cooler is mandatory. Our rule of thumb is don't spend more than $35 to $45 for an aftermarket air cooler. Once you've passed that mark, our advice is to buy a closedloop liquid cooler. There's no maintenance, and they're generally quieter and outperform most air coolers. CLC's come in all shapes, sizes, and prices, so buy on your needs. If you intend a mild to medium overclock, a single 120mm CLC is enough. If you intend to push the overclock harder, a dual 240mm CLC gets you better cooling performance or less noise than a 120mm-size CLC. How to Pick RAMFor the most part, RAM is a commodity like pork bellies. The chips are made by a handful of players and then sorted by the memory makers you mostly recognize. Unless you get no-name generic RAM, memory from any of the respected RAM makers will get the job done. That's not all, though. You need to think about how much and how fast. For capacity, 8GB is our recommendation for a normal build. We'd keep 4GB in the budget category. Going to 32GB or for many, 16GB, won't net much difference. Your second decision is clock speed. Today, we think the sweet spot is DDR3/1866. Anything more is luxury but does actually net some performance gains on Haswell CPUs. If you intend to run integrated graphics though, get the highest clock speed you can afford (and that your mobo will run), as it directly impacts gaming performance. How to Pick an SSDYou can spend two days trying to decide between this type of X NAND or that type of Y NAND, but the truth is that with the performance of SSDs gated by the SATA interface, your primary influencers should really be capacity, price, software, and warranty. These matter much more than whether one SSD is five percent faster in one type of disk-intensive task than another. That doesn't mean a low-end or old SSD is the answer. Newer SSDs almost always use more current technology and are preferred over older drives. For capacity, 128GB is the entry level on SSDs and 240GB or 480GB and up is preferred to make your life better. Basically, a mid-range or higher SSD from a trusted brand is enough to avoid heartache today. Finally, remember to have a backup going. SSDs die just as HDDs die, so plan on dealing with it. How to Pick an HDDThe HDD is important but we've come to the conclusion that it should only be used as a primary storage device on the most budget of builds. So, forget about the RPM or access times—that's 2009 thinking. The only real factors in an HDD are capacity, price, and warranty. For most people, a 1TB drive is the minimum for a new system, with the true sweet spot today being 3TB. As far as the all-important "reliability" factor, we recommend that you don't bank on that. Yes, a longer warranty usually tells you how long the company thinks it might last, but it won't tell you how long your particular HDD will last. We recommend backing up your SSD to your HDD and then backing up your HDD to a NAS or a secondary HDD. How to Pick a CasePicking a case is the most personal decision you make. There's really no easy way to answer this question for you, but just know that most people will want a standard ATX case. Niceties to look for include generous cutouts to access the back of the motherboard, wiring ports, and removable drives cages. New builders often overspend on unnecessary motherboard features. If you don't need Thunderbolt 2 or Wi-Fi, go for a different board. How to Pick an ODDThis is a category you don't have to burn too much brain power on. A $20 Asus/Samsung/ LG/etc. SATA DVD Burner will get the job done. If you are contemplating using a slim USB-based drive, just know that if you intend to use it for a lot of burning and ripping, laptop drives in the slim cases usually stink in performance, and it's not USB's fault. Laptop drives tend to be significantly slower than desktop SATA drives. How to Pick a PSUYour first criteria in picking a PSU is the obvious: Will it power my hardware? There are about a dozen different PSU calculators you can use on line. The most popular is Outervision's at http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine. According to the calculator, for a standard single processor, single high-end GPU system with SSD, HDD, and 16GB of RAM—believe it or not—a 500-watt PSU is acceptable today. We'd agree with that assessment, but we'd add a little more wattage for summer months and potential future hardware. You may be confused over the multi-rail vs. single-rail, but for normal PCs, don't sweat it. Only when you get to extreme builds do you need to pay attention to per-rail amperage needs. You will definitely want to make sure the PSU has the ability to run the number of GPUs you will use. Finally, consider the warranty as a good measure of the quality of a PSU. A PSU with a one-year warranty is very likely to be inferior to one with a five-year or seven-year warranty. The rest is really just gravy: digital control, monitoring, and modular cables. Web Help You've got a rough idea of what you might want in your PC, but now you're overwhelmed by the sheer amount of parts out there. A balanced system for general use should see that the CPU and GPU get equal attention. What We Built and Why Before we walk you through how to build your first PC, we'll show you the parts we picked and tell you why. The two most important were the CPU and GPU. For the CPU, there are cheaper CPUs to be had, but Intel's Core i5-4670K delivers the most bang for the buck. It easily overclocks beyond its base clock of 3.4GHz and its four cores easily outrun dual-core parts. It is, essentially, the part to have for a budget enthusiast who does some content creation and gaming. Our box is a "balanced" build, so we spent a reasonable amount of cash our video card. At $249, the Asus GeForce GTX 760 gives us solid 1080p gaming with the latest games. Mind you, it's not a solid 60fps on max settings, but with a few tweaks that most would never notice during game play, you could get there. The other important part here is the SSD. We thought about foregoing an SSD and making a few other trims to get the price under $800 but decided that any new machine you build should make you smile—and nothing makes you smile more these days than an SSD. We could have dropped the capacity to 128GB as well, but it's just too hard to live with a boot drive that small, and doubling the capacity only costs about 30 percent more. You should know the Core i5-4670K comes with a stock Intel heatsink. If you never intended to overclock, this would be fine, but since we intend to take advantage of the free performance from the Core i5- 4670K, we plunked down the cash for the Silverston AR01 cooler. Step 1: The CaseThe NZXT Source 530 is a full-tower case with two 120mm fans in it. That's a pretty standard fan size, though 140mm is increasingly common. These fans attach to the case with specifically designed screws. They have a fatter bore and a coarser thread than normal. Our case came with a small box full of little baggies containing a variety of screw types for different applications. Thumbscrews are a popular type, and our case uses two in the back to keep the side panel on. When attaching a fan, don't put the first screw all the way in. Just most of the way. Then go diagonally across to the second hole, putting that screw in most of the way, too. Then, attach the other two screws (again, most of the way) in any order you like. Once all four screws are attached, you can finish tightening them. Waiting until this point to tighten gives you more room to wiggle the fan around if it's not lining up perfectly with the holes. When you put the motherboard in later, you'll plug the fan cable into a case fan connector on the board. Our case has a fan hub, however, so we plug our fan into that instead, then plug the hub directly into the power supply unit (we'll talk about the PSU in a bit). Step 2: The CPURetail motherboards get shipped inside an anti-static bag. Place the motherboard on top of this for now. The CPU tray is protected by a plastic cover. You can pop that off by pulling a tab on one of its sides. Do not throw this cover away. If you need to return the board for service, the maker may not accept any motherboard without this cover in place. Next, there's a metal lever that secures the actual CPU bracket. Pull the end of this lever out, then pull up to free the bracket. It should swing clear of the tray. Now, look for a small gold triangle on one of the corners of your CPU. There should be a corresponding marker on the motherboard. You want to line up these two markers to make sure the CPU is oriented correctly during installation. Once you've set the CPU in the tray according to the markers, put the bracket back on top, and return the lever to its original position. Step 3: The RAMOur motherboard has four slots. We'll be using slots 1 and 3 (counting from left to right). Your board manual will tell you which slots to use for different RAM configurations (please follow it). Each RAM slot has tabs on either end. At least one of these can move out of the way to allow RAM installation. Each slot also has a notch that corresponds to a notch on the stick. Line up these notches, and press the stick gently but firmly into the slot until you hear the tab click. You may need to use a see-saw motion to get the stick in. Step 4: The CPU Cooler (Phase One) You could use the stock cooler that comes with a retail Intel CPU, but we chose an "aftermarket" variant, the Silverstone AR01, since we want the option to push the CPU beyond its factory settings. This cooler is comparable to a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo. We use the Evo a lot, so we wanted to switch things up a bit. This backplate will not end up perfectly square, and it may take a minute to line up. The cooler comes with a set of screws that attach on the other side of the board. Each screw also gets a spacer to help prevent damage. Like with the case fan, don't put the first screw all the way in. Go most of the way, then go diagonally across and do that screw next. Then go most of the way with the third and fourth, then fully tighten all four screws. Step 5: The CPU Cooler (Phase Two)You can set the motherboard back down now. The AR01 comes with two sets of brackets—one for AMD CPUs and the other for Intel CPUs—and the manual will show you which to use. Pay close attention to how the brackets' screw holes are oriented. Basically, you want to be able to draw an invisible "X" over the CPU, using the diagonal line of the bracket's screw holes as a guide. Now, attach four nuts to the brackets to set them firmly in place. At this point, you're ready to put thermal paste on top of your CPU. Apply a small pea's worth, peel the protective plastic off the bottom of the CPU cooler, and set the cooler on top of the CPU. The AR01 has another bracket that goes underneath the cooler's radiator fins, connecting the first two brackets to each other. This third bracket has two bundled screws. As with the case fan and the backplate screws, don't put the first screw in all the way. Just part way, then attach the other and put it in part way. Alternate between the two until they are tight. Lastly, connect the cooler's fan to the appropriate connector on the motherboard. Step 6: The MotherboardThis motherboard comes with an individually packaged I/O shield. The shield does not use any screws. Instead, you just press it into the rectangular hole in the back of the case, and it uses tension to stay put. You may need to tap a corner or two with the handle of a screwdriver to get the shield to pop in all the way. Now, you can set the motherboard down inside the case. Since the Source 530 has built-in standoff, we don't need to install those separately. However, you still need to apply some pressure against the I/O shield to get the screw holes on the motherboard to line up with the screw holes in the standoffs. But after one of those screws is in, you can take the pressure off. There are usually nine holes in all. Your case should come with screws sized for motherboards. Step 7: The Power Supply Unit Step 8: The Video Card Take that PCIE power cable we connected to the power supply earlier and plug the other end into the card (after feeding it behind the motherboard, if you like). This card uses an eight-pin cable, and our cable is "6+2," meaning that it has two pins that can detach if you only need six pins in total. Like the CPU and motherboard power cables, this one will snap into place when it's secure. If the connector isn't going in, try rotating it 180 degrees first, rather than trying to force it. Step 9: Storage Step 10: Optical Drive, and Some WiringThe large drive bays on the front of our case have tabs to help remove their covers. We chose the top-most one, making it easier to reach if the case is on the floor. The side of this drive bay has a latch you pull out before sliding the drive in. Once the front bezel of the drive is flush with the front of the case, you can put the latch back down. No screws are required here. Next, we connect the SATA power and data cables like we did with the SSD and mechanical hard drive. Install Windows 8.1 Your box is built, time to use it! As Windows starts the install, it'll first ask you for your Product Key. That's the serial number for this copy of Windows. Mind you, this is for the retail version of Windows. An Enterprise version that you install for a 90-day trial won't ask for a product key. Input it and press enter. You'll soon be greeted by a licensing terms screen that you'll have to agree to. Then, Windows will ask you what type of install you want, an upgrade or custom. Select Custom, which will bring you to a screen that should show you both drives you can install the OS to. Select your SSD as the target. You can tell it's the SSD by its smaller capacity. If you did reuse an older SSD or HDD and don't want the data, you'll see all of the partitions to select from in Windows. Since you don't want that old data (right?) we recommend that you delete all of the previous partitions on the target drive by selecting each partition and pressing the Delete button. We don't recommend that you ever have any "hot" drives with data you want to keep plugged in during and OS install, to reduce the chances of you wiping your data by accident. Overclocking 101 Because factory settings are for wussies. When we push the multiplier past 42x with this particular CPU, its core voltage needs a boost, too. A setting of 1.3V should be fine, up to 4.4GHz. We generally don't recommend pushing your voltage past 1.4V, but everything else is fair game. You may also need to increase the power to the motherboard's voltage regulator modules (VRMs). In this BIOS, those settings are in the "DigitALL Power" submenu. Each increment raises your OC ceiling, but it also makes the VRMs run hotter, which impacts stability. We'd stick to tweaking just a couple things like Phase Control and Vdroop Offset, one or two increments at the time. If your PC stops booting, you can reset the BIOS itself with a labeled button on the board (the manual has a diagram showing its location). You can test stability with a free program called Prime95 ( http://www.mersenne.org ), using its Large FFT torture test, accessible from the Options menu. Do this for at least one hour. Some enthusiasts will go a full 24 hours before they consider their OC stable. For Intel, as long as the chip stays at or below 85 degrees Celsius in Prime95, your temperature is fine. When this CPU hits 90 C, it ordinarily kicks into a lower gear to avoid burning up. Overall, we were pretty happy with this build. The case has a solid feel to it, though we would move the top exhaust fan to the front as an intake. Built-in motherboard standoffs are a nice bonus, and 4.4GHz is a nice overclock for an air cooler with a single 120mm fan. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lenovo U31 Notebook Could Hit U.S. Store Shelves After All Posted: 27 Apr 2015 02:45 PM PDT Laptop seen in FCC filing At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Lenovo introduced the U31 laptop, a 13-incher the Chinese company said it did not plan to bring to the North American market. A recent filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), however, seems to suggest otherwise. According to Liliputing , the 13-inch laptop cropped up in documents Qualcomm Atheros filed with the FCC recently. Therefore, while this could be an indication that the U31 is headed toward U.S. shores, there is no guarantee that this is indeed the case. The U31 starts at $499 and can be configured with up to a Core i7 Broadwell processor , Nvidia GPU (optional), up to 8GB of RAM and a maximum of 1TB hybrid storage (or 500GB HDD storage, or 256GB SSD). It boasts a full HD 13.3-inch display. Watch out, though: the Windows 8.1-running laptop may end up getting sold as the Lenovo S31 in some markets. Follow Pulkit on Google+ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: MSI GP60 Leopard Pro 825 Gaming Laptop, Two OCZ Arc 100 120GB SSDs, and More! Posted: 27 Apr 2015 11:57 AM PDT Top Deal: The pool's closed, it will be several hours until breakfast is served, and you've flipped through all the channels on the TV in your hotel room, but there's nothing to watch. It's a good thing you brought a gaming laptop. You did bring one, right? If you're in need of one but don't want to spend a fortune, check out today's top deal for an MSI GP Series GP60 Leopard Pro 825 for $849 with free shipping (normally $999 - use coupon code: [EMCARNR46]). It's a 15.6-inch laptop with an Intel Core i7 4720HQ CPU, 8GB of RAM, 1TB HDD, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 950M graphics. Other Deals: 2x OCZ ARC 100 2.5-inch 120GB Solid State Drive (SSD) for $110 with free shipping (normally $130) LG 34UM94-P Black 34-inch UltraWide WQHD Monitor w/ Built-In Speakers for $750 with $1 shipping (normally $900 - use coupon code: [ EMCARNR44 ]) Corsair Vengeance 1400 Dual 3.5mm Connector Circumaural Gaming Headset for $40 with free shipping (normally $50) G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB 204-Pin DDR3L 1600 Laptop Memory for $28 with free shipping (normally $33) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lenovo's ThinkCentre Chromebox Targets Education and Small Businesses Posted: 27 Apr 2015 11:31 AM PDT First Chromebox to support to Lenovo's Tiny-in-One display Is there room for Google's Chrome OS in the mini PC market? Lenovo aims to find out by launching its ThinkCentre Chromebox , a system purposely designed for education and small business users looking to live high in the cloud. For those users, the ThinkCentre Chrombox offers a compact and relatively affordable system that's ready to rock in Google's ecosystem. One thing that's unique about the ThinkCentre Chromebox is that it's the only Chromebox in the world that can hook up to Lenovo's ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One , which is essentially a 23-inch monitor with a Full HD 1080p resolution. It features a 5ms response time, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 250 cd/m2 brightness, Kensington Lock Slot, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a mini USB 2.0 port, audio output, and a few other bullet points. The pitch from Lenovo is that you can attach the two devices together for an instant 23-inch all-in-one solution. Otherwise, you can use the Chromebox on its own. The device measures 7 inches (H) by 1.4 inches (W) by 7.2 inches (D). It has four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, microphone/headphone combo jack, and Ethernet connectivity. Oddly enough, there's no mention of the hardware and features in the press release or on the product page , just that it will be available in June starting at $199; the Tiny-in-One is available now for $279. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Take a Moment of Silence for Google's Discontinued Nexus 7 Tablet Posted: 27 Apr 2015 09:40 AM PDT Popular Android device is officially defunct It took some time before Android tablets hit their stride. In the beginning, they were expensive, as manufacturers tried to compete with Apple's iPad on price, which negated one of the primary benefits of Android -- it's an open source platform and products should be cheaper than their proprietary counterparts. It took Amazon's Kindle Fire (now just Fire) line to drive the point home, though it was Google's Nexus 7 that finally got things right. Fast forward to today and Google's Nexus 7 is sadly discontinued . There's no official announcement, but if you head over to Google's Nexus 7 product page , you'll see a message in red that reads, "The Nexus 7 is no longer available for purchase." That's it -- no farewell message or anything of the sort, just a curt notification that you're too late to the party. What made the Nexus 7 so awesome was that it found the balance between features and price, while avoiding the third-party bloat that wireless carriers and hardware partners like to shovel onto devices in an attempt to differentiate themselves. The Nexus 7 was simply a fast tablet with a stock Android experience backed by Google, meaning new Android builds would roll out in a timely manner, the latest being Android Lollipop. The good news is, you can still find Nexus 7 tablets, assuming you're interested in what's now a two-year old device. Amazon has some in stock, and of course there's eBay and Craigslist. Otherwise, you can pick up an updated model from Google, the Nexus 9 , which is larger, faster, and more expensive. Follow Paul on Google+ , , and | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Play Ghost Recon Phantoms, Get Maximum PC Posted: 27 Apr 2015 08:45 AM PDT Giving back to the community always feels good At Maximum PC , we do a lot with our computers: work, content consumption, and game. We love gaming. Gaming is the one major industry that really pushes the PC ecosystem forward. So what better way to support the community than to give back? Ubisoft is celebrating the one year annivesary of Ghost Recon Phantoms —previously called Ghost Recon Online. There's a new team deathmatch mode that's being introduced to celebrate the anniversary. I've been a fan of the Tom Clancy series of games since the beginning. So, I figured it would be a nice gesture to say hey Ghost Recon, happy birthday, here are some subscriptions we can give to the fans! To participate, all you have to do—if you play Ghost Recon Phantoms—is to gift a Birthday Box to a friend between today and April 29th, which is when the giveaway ends. Ubisoft will then enter you in a raffle, automatically. We're putting up a bunch of one-year subscriptions, either in full print form or digital, the choice will be yours. The promotion is available globally, so wherever you may reside, we will get Maximum PC to you! Are you guys fans of the Tom Clancy series of games? If any of the games could be remade, which one would it be? Let us know in the comments. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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