General Gaming Article |
- Newegg Daily Deals: MSI GeForce GTX 980, Samsung 850 Pro 128GB SSD, and More!
- Microsoft to Push Automatic Upgrades to Windows 10 Next Year
- Treat Yourself to a Scary Game During Steam's Halloween Sale
- G.Skill Brings High Speed DDR4 Ripjaws RAM to Laptops
- Build It: What Gloriousness Really Looks Like
| Newegg Daily Deals: MSI GeForce GTX 980, Samsung 850 Pro 128GB SSD, and More! Posted: 30 Oct 2015 11:50 AM PDT Top Deal: In case you missed it, Steam is running its annual Halloween sale. It's the perfect excuse to beef up your games catalog, and once you've done that, you then have an excuse to upgrade your graphics card. See how that works? It makes perfect sense to us! And if it does to you too, then check out today's top deal for an MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Video Card for $480 with free shipping (normally $510 ;Free MSI Mouse Pad and free game w/ purchase, limited offer). It's a fast card, has a custom cooler, and comes with some nice extras! Other Deals: Asus PB287Q 28-inch 4K UHD 1ms 10-bit HDMI Pivot adjustable 300 cd/m2 100,000,000:1 for $450 with free shipping (normally $470 - use coupon code: [EMCKANX83]) Corsair AX series AX760 760W 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply for $130 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCKANX35]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate) MSI Z97 Gaming 5 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $125 with free shipping (normally $150 - use coupon code: [EMCKANX23]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate) Samsung 850 Pro 2.5-inch 128GB SATA III 3-D (SSD) for $80 with free shipping (normally $90 - use coupon code: [ESCKANX26]) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft to Push Automatic Upgrades to Windows 10 Next Year Posted: 30 Oct 2015 11:40 AM PDT Getting pushy Are you using Windows 7 or Windows 8/8/1? Microsoft would really like for you to upgrade to Windows 10. Like, really badly. So bad, in fact, that Windows 10 will soon be officially listed as an optional update (not really new) and will be upgraded to a recommended update in 2016. Microsoft has been testing the roll out of Windows 10 as an optional update for several weeks now, though it did so quietly until it goofed up and had the option checked by default. That's not how optional updates are supposed to work -- they're supposed to be unchecked by default, and if the user wants to install them, he or she can simply check them and they'll be added to the list. Sometime soon, Windows 10 will return as an optional update in Windows Update for all Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users, presumably unchecked. And come next year, Windows 10 will become a recommended update for anyone running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. "Early next year, we expect to be re-categorizing Windows 10 as a 'Recommended Update'. Depending upon your Windows Update settings, this may cause the upgrade process to automatically initiate on your device," Microsoft explains in a blog post. "Before the upgrade changes the OS of your device, you will be clearly prompted to choose whether or not to continue. And of course, if you choose to upgrade (our recommendation!), then you will have 31 days to roll back to your previous Windows version if you don't love it." The change in classification is going to result in a lot of automatic upgrades, as many Windows users have their PCs configured to install recommended updates. As it stands right now, Windows 10 is installed on more than 110 million devices. Microsoft also said it's updating its Media Creation Tool that's used to create Windows 10 DVD ISOs and USB keys. It's working to create a single image capable of upgrading any 32-bit or 64-bit Home or Pro device. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Treat Yourself to a Scary Game During Steam's Halloween Sale Posted: 30 Oct 2015 10:48 AM PDT Candy for adults While the kids get ready to dress up as their favorite characters and go beg for sugary sweets from your neighbors, you can treat yourself to some discounted candy -- eye candy, that is. Just head over to Steam, pick up a discounted game, and crank up the visual quality settings. Steam's annual Halloween sale (one of many sales it runs throughout the year) is in effect now and runs until November 2, ending at 10AM Pacific on that day (this Monday). The tagline is "save big on spooky titles" and there are plenty to choose from, such as Left 4 Dead 2 ($3.99, down from $19.99), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ($41.99, down from $59.99), and Killing Floor 2 ($20.09, down from $29.99). If you've been waiting for Grand Theft Auto V to go on sale, you'll find a reduced price for that title, too ($40.19, down from $59.99). There are pages and pages of marked down games, which you can narrow down by category such as "Zombies," "Horror," "Survival Horror," "Dark," and "Psychological Horror," which appear at the top of the list. There are also discounted games that aren't "spooky" in any sense of the word, like Timberman ($0.66, down from $0.99) and PixelJunk Nom Nom Galaxy ($4.99, down from $9.99). Check them all out by clicking over to Steam's website. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| G.Skill Brings High Speed DDR4 Ripjaws RAM to Laptops Posted: 30 Oct 2015 09:54 AM PDT Level up your laptop Now that Skylake is here, the DDR4 era has begun in earnest. That applies to both desktops and laptops, the latter of which G.Skill is targeting with the addition of DDR4 SO-DIMMs to its Ripjaws series. These are high performance modules with rated speeds of up to 2800MHz, available in capacities up to 64GB in kit form (4x16GB). Lower capacity kits are also available -- the new RAM comes in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB kits at various frequencies and timings. Here's how they break down:
G.Skill says that each DDR4 SO-DIMM Ripjaws kit is assembled with only "specially screen components" with chips that it hand picks from a "rigorous and highly selective binning process." In other words, only the best of the best make the cut for this line of RAM, according to G.Skill. The Ripjaws line is the only DDR4 SO-DIMMs G.Skill currently carries. It's sort of slim pickings in DDR4 SO-DIMM territory altogether, though with laptop makers embracing 6th Generation Intel Core processors, we suspect it won't be long before there are a lot more options. As for the Ripjaws, G.Skill didn't announcing any pricing or availability. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Build It: What Gloriousness Really Looks Like Posted: 30 Oct 2015 12:00 AM PDT This article was published in the December 2015 issue of Maximum PC. For more trusted reviews and feature stories, subscribe here. A build based on a poll published by reddit.com/r/PCMasterRaceLength of Time 1 1/2 Hours | Level of Difficulty: Easy The MissionThere are plenty of places on the web where PC enthusiasts congregate. Countless forums, social media accounts, and blogs abound with folks showing off their PC builds and talking about hardware. You'd better believe www.reddit.com/r/PCMasterRace is one such place. Even though the words "Master Race" may make some uneasy (and for very good reason), you can rest assured the vast majority of the subreddit's members are just PC enthusiasts who love to build and use PCs. The subreddit derives the name from the belief that PCs are inherently superior to consoles. In many ways, we can get behind that idea. The forum is full of stories about console users ascending to join the ranks of PC users. The thing is, the title "Master Race" may suggest that all the members of such a forum have high-end PCs that would warp space-time or have conveyor belts that make bacon grilled cheese sandwiches all day. As it turns out, this isn't always the case—though if someone has a PC that has a grilled cheese maker built into it, we want to see it yesterday. We found an infographic posted on the subreddit that was based on a poll of the members of PCMR. The infographic showed the percentage of users who used different kinds of parts, e.g., air versus water cooling, and a host of other specs. We thought it would be interesting to find out what the "master race" rig actually looked like, so we set out to build one based on the most common features, as described by the infographic. A Master Case for the Master RaceOne thing we noticed when we set out to build our PCMR machine was that the common specs are strikingly similar to the recommended specs for Oculus Rift. As a result, we were able to reuse some of the parts Jarred used for his Oculus Rift build in our September issue. We plucked the short Asus GTX 970 and ASRock Z97 mobo out of that build and put together a rig using parts from around our lab. One of the new impressive pieces of gear that went into the build was Cooler Master's conveniently named Master Case 5. This midtower case is fully modular, and most elements come off with an easy-to-reach tab or thumb screw. We also have a box full of "extras" for the case, but we decided to stick with the "stock" version. The parts we chose all fit well within the midtower chassis, without overdue effort from us. For the brains of this build, we went with the Core i5-4590, which is also the recommended CPU for Oculus Rift. For memory, we pulled the two Patriot Viper 3 DDR3 modules from last month's upgrade build and pressed them back into service. Ingredients
1. Plus Five IntelligenceWhen it comes to CPUs, PCMR is pretty damned clear about what the preferred chips are. Eighty percent of PCMR builds use Intel processors. The survey also broke down what the preferred processor lines were. The subreddit chose the Core i5, with 41.1 percent of the vote, over the Core i7 (32.4 percent) and AMD FX (13.1 percent). Only 36.3 percent of ascended members overclocked. We chose the Core i5-4590 as our CPU. While it's not unlocked, this quad-core has plenty of power for most applications. The CPU is also fairly inexpensive, and coupled with a Z97 board, allows for future upgrades. A quick look at Intel ARK reveals that the 4590 is made with conflict-free materials. That little added bonus means that this CPU, while less beefy than its bigger cousins, can give you the warm fuzzies while you blast your foes to bits with a rocket launcher. 2. Heart of a WarriorWhen the PCMR flexes its muscles, it prefers green to red by a wide margin. Nvidia claimed 67.7 percent of the vote while AMD only clutched 28.9 percent. Intel's integrated graphics made a small showing with 3.4 percent of the vote. Most respondents also preferred a "high-end" videocard (one that costs between $300 and $500). The short version of the GTX 970 by Asus that we chose falls squarely in that price range at $355. We left the GPU at stock clocks too, as only 38 percent of the ascended said they overclocked their GPU. Even if we had overclocked the GPU, this little card had plenty of room to breathe in this case. Nvidia's next step up, the GTX 980, falls into the survey's "flagship" category at $550. 3. Never ForgetWhen we looked at what PCMR members used for storage solutions, we found that 55 percent do the same thing we do in most of our builds: use an SSD for the OS and apps and regulate media files and other storage to spinning hard drives. For our SSD, we went with an M.2 version of the Samsung 850 EVO. The read and write performance of the M.2 model is about the same as the SATA version, as is the price at a little over $100. This particular motherboard had two M.2 slots to fill, so we figured: hey, why not? For the spinning drive, the 1TB WD Black gives us enough archive space to start out with at a decent price ($71). The flexibility of the Master Case lets us put the drive almost anywhere forward of the motherboard, but we opted to keep it at the bottom of the mounting rail to optimize airflow to the CPU and GPU. 4. Advanced Mental CapacityMemory is one of those things that can differ greatly depending on the application of the machine. Games tend to not need a whole lot of RAM, but big data-heavy design applications do. When it comes to the ranks of the PCMR, about half (51.3 percent) of users only need 8GB of RAM. Meanwhile, 33.7 percent made the jump to 16GB. The overwhelming majority use DDR3. The RAM data gave us another interesting insight: Since only a small minority of respondents (9 percent) are using DDR4, we can derive that not a whole lot of people are sporting X99 Haswell-E systems. We love our Haswell-E systems here in our lab, but in the wild, they're clearly not as widespread. 5. The Source of PowerEvery being has to get its power from somewhere. With PCs, that source is without a doubt the power supply. The members of PCMR seem to be fairly evenly spread across the power requirement spectrum, with over 70 percent of PSU rated somewhere between 550W and 850W. THe most used power tier—the 750W to 850W level—came in first with 29.3 percent of the overall vote. Few people dipped below the 550W mark, and even fewer needed more than 850W. Over 60 percent of respondents used a semi or fully modular PSU, so we went with EVGA's SuperNOVA NEX 750G. This 80 Plus Gold certified PSU delivered plenty of juice to our CPU and GPU combo. Like many other cases, the Master Case 5 has a PSU partition. This makes thermal regulation a of the motherboard compartment a bit easier, and makes for cleaner cable management. Not that we needed crazy cable management for this build anyway. We only plugged in four cables: CPU, motherboard, a VGA and a single SATA. Simple. Clean. It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but we mounted the PSU fan-side down. The Master Case 5 has a bottom vent wait a removeable dust screen so the big copper-filled block can scoop up cool air from under the chassis. 6. Divine WindsTo keep things cool, a case needs air flow. With the Master Case, the included single 140mm front case fan just didn't cut it with us. We replaced the single fan with a trio of Corsair's AF140 white LED fans. When it comes to cooling, we tend to go with closed-loop, prepackaged water cooling to chill out our CPUs for overclocking. But as it turns out, only 36.3 percent of PCMR overclocks their CPUs, and nearly 70 percent use air cooling. That let us justify keeping Intel's stock CPU fan, while also pushing a bunch of air through the case. The ASRock Z97 Extreme has four PWM case fan pinouts to connect to, which was perfect for us. We stacked the three fans up front to push a wall of air towards the GPU, CPU, memory and mobo to keep things happily ventilated. The stock side panel of the Master Case lacks a window, which means that the three fans won't create too big glowy light leaks. The three fans look handsome on the front of the case, without looking too showy. The plain cool white color also helps keep gaudy flashiness at a minimum.
AscensionWhen it comes right down to it, gaming PCs come in all calibers. To members and readers of /r/PCMasterRace, the most important thing is to prefer gaming on the PC to gaming on a console. As we found out, that PC doesn't need to be a Dream Machine. Even though the average PCMR specs are modest compared to the stuff we usually build and review, the i5-4590 is still a good CPU. While we often use the GTX 980 as the yardstick by which to judge other GPUs, the GTX 970 is still plenty powerful, and offers great performance for the price. When it comes to the time, single-threaded benchmark tests, the Core i5-4590 wasn't far behind the Core i7-5960X. Considering that the i5-4590 is only a fifth of the price of the 5960X, its performance is actually quite impressive. Once we ran our multithreaded x264 benchmark, the octa-core 5960X left the little quad-core 4590 in the dust. While you can cut, slice, and encode video, we'd definitely go for a hexa-core CPU if you have the budget for it. Even if you can't go that high, the clocks of an i7-4790K Devil's Canyon will get things done much quicker than the i5 can. Since we transplanted the GTX 970 from last month's upgrade build, our video benchmarks remained about the same. A single GTX 970 versus three 980s in SLI isn't really a fair fight in any sense of the term, but that doesn't mean that the 970 is a weakling. The GTX 970 performs well at 1440p, and is the recommended GPU for Oculus Rift. Audiophiles make up a minority of the PCMR, since only about 21 percent of respondents used a sound card (10.7 percent), digital-to-analog converter (8.5 percent), or a digital audio workstation-grade setup (1.8 percent). About 79 percent settled for onboard audio, so we did, too. This time. Building a PC can be intimidating. Helping others with their first rig is a chance to help spread the joy of building PCs. After all, we've all had our moments of peasantry where we break down and play a game or two in the living room, too, console controller in hand. But for PC enthusiasts, a mouse, keyboard, and a wicked-fast and sharp gaming experience will always reign supreme. Benchmarks
Our desktop zero-point PC uses a 5960X CPU, three GTX 980s, and 16GB of RAM. Arkham City tested at 2560x1440 max settings with PhysX off; Tomb Raider tested at Ultimate settings; Shadow of Mordor at Max settings. |
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