General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Newegg Daily Deals: Samsung 27-Inch Monitor, OCZ Trion 100 240GB SSD, and More!

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 01:31 PM PST

Samsung Monitor

Top Deal:

Display makes have an obsession with packing more pixels into smaller panels, and maybe in a generation or two, we'll have 12K monitors with 8-inch screens. Maybe that's your thing, or maybe you prefer the exact opposite approach, which is a big size panel with a pedestrian resolution. If you lean towards the latter, then check out today's top deal for a Samsung SE390 Series 27-Inch Monitor for $220 with free shipping (normally $250 - use coupon code: [EMCKKAX27]). Say goodbye to squinting and hello to a Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) resolution on a slim panel with a 4ms response time.

Other Deals:

OCZ Trion 100 2.5-inch 240GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive for $60 with free shipping (normally $80)

2x Toshiba 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive Retail Kit for $160 with free shipping (normally $200)

Asus Laptop AMD A10-Series A10-7400P (2.50 GHz) 8 GB Memory 1 TB HDD AMD Radeon R6 Series 15.6" Windows 10 Home 64-Bit for $409 with free shipping (normally $449)

OCZ Trion 100 2.5-inch 960GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive for $250 with free shipping (normally $270 - use coupon code: [EMCKKAX28])

TP-Link Has Two New Dual-Band Wi-Fi Range Extenders

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 01:30 PM PST

TP-LINK RE580D Range Extender

TP-Link introduced on Monday two new dual-band wireless network extenders aimed at the consumer wanting to stream 4K HD video and play PC games online. These two devices are built to expand the coverage of Wireless AC networks in a home or office, covering areas where the base networking router can't reach.

First up to bat is the RE580D AC1900-class range extender offering speeds of up to 1,300Mb/s on the 5GHz band and speeds of up to 600Mb/s on the 2.4GHz band. To eliminate the dead zones, this extender uses three detachable, external dual-band antennas and 700mW high-powered amplifiers. The overall boxy design isn't exactly eye-catching, but does play host to a dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz for handling loads of network traffic.

In addition to the processor, the range extender includes five gigabit Ethernet ports for adding wired devices to the network including Smart TVs, computers, game consoles, set-top-boxes, and so on. This range extender also boasts a "high speed" mode, in which the device can combine both bands to create a single connection. That means a connected device like a smartphone would receive data on one band and transmit on the other. Nifty.

TP-Link RE450 Range Extender

Next up we have the 1750-class RE450 range extender, which is a bit slower than the previous model, providing speeds of up to 1,300Mbps on the 5GHz band and speeds of up to 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. This model is a bit more attractive than the RES80D and is smaller too, capable of plugging directly into a wall socket.

According to the company, the device features three adjustable external antennas complemented by an intelligent signal light that helps you locate the best spot in the office or home for the strongest signal. There's also a single gigabit Ethernet port for a wired device like a computer or Smart TV. The company says this device will boost your coverage up to 10,000 square feet, reaching areas that the base network router is unable to access.

"TP-Link is expanding its product portfolio and giving consumers more options that will eliminate boundaries and dead zones throughout the connected home," said Lewis Wu, executive vice president of TP-Link U.S. "Our new wireless range extenders dramatically improve Wi-Fi speed and reliability and broaden the reach of stable Internet, enabling consumers to enjoy an incredible Internet experience no matter where they are in their home."

The larger RE580D range extender is available now for $150 on TP-Link's online store and at major online and brick-and-mortar retailers. The smaller plug-in RE450 range extender can be purchased for $120 exclusively at Office Depot and OfficeMax. 

Solu Pocket-Sized Computer Has Tegra 4, Coming in 2016

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 01:18 PM PST

Solu Tegra 4 PC

Finland-based Solu Machines is billing its current Kickstarter gadget Solu as the world's smallest computer with a cloud-linked operating system and a touch-based surface. As of this article, the campaign has five days to go, reeling in $233,379 from 565 backers, surpassing the $227,812 goal.

According to the specifications, Solu is based on a Nvidia Tegra 4 chip clocked at 2.33GHz and packed with 192 CUDA cores. This mini-PC also includes 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 32GB of internal storage (for cache), and a 1440x1440 built-in screen with edge-to-edge touch. There's also dual-band Wireless N connectivity, Bluetooth 4.0, a 1200mAh battery, and a USB Type-C port.

The built-in screen also lets you use the Solu as a touch-based input device when it's connected to a display. The device is encased in a wood-based chassis, making it not only light but very attractive and environmentally friendly.

Surprisingly, Solu comes with its own "revolutionary" cloud-dependent operating system, SoluOS. Kristoffer Lawson, CEO of Solu Machines, told Reuters that users won't have to install applications in the SoluOS environment, or worry about drive space or backing up their system.

"Solu introduces the first cloud-linked operating system, where all your data is stored in SoluCloud that is protected with convergent encryption on the device itself," the Kickstarter page states. "SoluCloud will store your data, device status and application settings automatically, without you having to spend a minute managing it."

Solu Tegra 4 PC

Lawson explained that things that are less important and used less will be stored in the cloud. Whenever the user needs that data again, it will be pulled from the cloud "completely transparently," without any indication that it's working that way. The interface itself seems to be based on bubble-like nodes, throwing out the traditional menu bars and windows.

The company plans to sell the Solu directly to consumers in Spring 2016. Until then, it aims to polish the operating system and reel in more applications. Right now, backers are paying at least 349 euros ($375 USD) apiece for the Solu, which will likely keep that pricetag when it goes commercial next year. That's just a guess, but given the Tegra 4 and built-in touch surface, $375 sounds about right.

VIA: Reuters

NEC Working on Augmented Reality Keyboard for Forearm

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 01:06 PM PST

NEC ARmKeypad

Probably one of the biggest pains in typing on a smartphone is the actual use of the virtual keyboard. Sure, there are plenty of people out there who can whiz through sentences with their thumbs as if thoughts magically appear on the device without manual entry. But there are plenty of people who despise the virtual keyboard, even on a tablet. Thankfully, NEC Corp may have a solution.

The drawback, however, is that for the company's augmented reality keyboard to work, you'll need a set of Google Glass-style AR glasses and a smart watch. With these two devices in place, NEC Corp has figured out a way to get a virtual keyboard to work on your forearm. The glasses project the keyboard and detect the user's finger movements while the smart watch detects the timing of the keystrokes and will alter the keyboard's position when the arm is moved.

According to a rough translation of the company's report, the keyboard is activated by simply looking at the user's hand. This virtual keypad seems to have a myriad of applications, for example, they could be used by maintenance workers to input data without having to actually lug around a larger device.

Given that ARmKeypad contains two pieces of hardware, we can't imagine the pricetag being something affordable to the general public. As the company hints, this piece of technology would be great in warehouses and offices. The company didn't say if the glasses and smart watch will have other functions as well, but a video posted by the Wall Street Journal showed another form of input other than the typical keyboard.

ARmKeypad is expected to be commercialized sometime in 2016. The company has not set a price as of this report.

Asus ROG Unleashes Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly Mobo and Matrix GTX 980 Ti

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:14 PM PST

New hardware, new color scheme

Asus Maximus VIII Extreme Assembly

Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) dialed up the hype machine to 11 to announce its new flagship Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly motherboard and Matrix GTX 980 Ti graphics card. Part of the source of the hype is a "Plasma Copper" color scheme that's new to the ROG line.

"To be ROG is to be the rebel. To be ROG is to break every rule. We are rebellious ROG, breaking our own rules to envision a new future," said Derek Yu, Global Marketing Director for Asus ROG. "A future forged with striking distinction. ROG is red. ROG is black. And now ROG is also Plasma Copper: elite assemblies for elite gamers. This is our mark of invincibility — and the new emblem of dominance for the world's best gamers."

Make of that what you will, but the bottom line is, Asus ROG is awfully proud of the Plasma Copper look. Of course, there's more here than aesthetic appeal.

The Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly is an extended ATX (E-ATX) LGA 1151 motherboard based on Intel's Z170 Express chipset for Skylake. It has four DIMM slots supporting up to 64GB of DDR4-3866 (OC) RAM; three PCI-E 3.0/2.0 x16 slots that function in x16, x8/x8, and x8/x4/x4 modes; another PCI-E x16 3.0/2.0 slot that works in x4 mode;' two PCI-E 3.0 x1 slots; DsiplayPort 1.2 and HDMI output; two SATA Express ports; eight SATA 6Gbps ports; an M.2 Socket 3 with M Key; U.2; four USB 3.1 ports; eight USB 3.0 ports; six USB 2.0 ports; 8-channel onboard sound boosted with an ROG SupremeFX Hi-Fi amplifier; and varous other bullet points.

Asus ROG bundles a 10G Express Ethernet card powered by Aquntia and Tehuti Networks with the board. Offering enterprise-class speed, the card equips the board with next-generation LAN speeds of up to 10Gbps.

Asus ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti

As for the Matrix 980 Ti graphics card, each one sports a cherry picked GPU that's been found to be suitable for overclocking. Towards that end, Asus clearly envisions the Matrix GTX 980 Ti being used in overclocking competitions, as it sports things like a Memory Defroster that quickly defrosts the card's memory during below-zero OCing. Unless you're cooling with something like liquid nitrogen (or live in Siberia), you're not likely to encounter sub-zero temperatures 

In Game Mode, the card's GPU runs a base clockspeed of 1.190MHz and boost clockspeed of 1,291MHz, and in OC mode those speeds are bumped up to 1,216MHz and 1.317MHz, respectively.

Asus didn't say when the Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly and Matrix GTX 980 Ti will be available or for how much.

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Comcast Admits in Memo Congestion isn’t Reason for Data Caps

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 11:08 AM PST

Leaked confession

Comcast Van

As consumers, we've always been told that data caps exist for our own good. Just think, without them, Internet users who consume a lot of data with reckless abandon will congest the network and the rest of us will suffer because of it. Oh no! We certainly don't want that to happen, right?

But what if -- and I know this sounds crazy as hell -- data caps exist to squeeze more money out of consumers? Don't worry, if that's too mind blowing, you can still take the blue pill and click out of here -- we have a Fallout 4 rig worth checking out. If, on the other hand, you decide to take the red pill, keep reading to see what Comcast is telling employees about data caps.

As explained by a user on Reddit, an anonymous customer service employee at Comcast leaked a handful of documents that were provided internally to support reps. The documents outline Comcast's data cap roll out and some instructions on what the reps should and should not say to customers in regards to them.

Here's a snippet:

Comcast Policy

The most interesting tidbit is the part at the bottom:

The reason for the Data Usage plan:
*Do Say: "Fairness and providing a more flexible policy to our customers"
*Don't say: "The program is about congestion management." (It is not)

And there you have it -- assuming the leaked documents are real (and Engadget said it confirmed with Comcast that they are), Comcast is admitting to employees that data caps aren't about network congestion, but about "fairness and providing a more flexible policy to our customers."

Um, thanks?

The good news is, not everyone will be affected by this. As some Comcast customers can attest, blowing past 250GB is possible without any repercussions, depending on where you live. Comcast addresses this too, telling support agents not to refer to those areas as having unlimited data usage, but a 250GB "data usage plan" that's not currently being enforced.

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Lawsuit Calls Foul on AMD's Core Count in Bulldozer CPUs

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 09:50 AM PST

Calling BS on Bulldozer

Bulldozer Die

AMD took a unique approach to mutli-core processing with its Bulldozer architecture and that decision has now led to a class-action lawsuit, according to LegalNewsline.

A one ticked off Tony Dickey filed the suit in California alleging that AMD's marketing of Bulldozer processors violated the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and California's Unfair Competition Law. It also accuses AMD of false advertising, fraud, breech of express warrant, negligent misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment.

What the long list of alleged shenanigans ultimately boil down to is how Bulldozer CPUs cram two computing cores into a single package referred to as modules. So, an 8-core Bulldozer processor contains four modules.

What's the big deal with that? According to the lawsuit, that approach hamstrings performance by not allowing each core to operate independently on one another, a result of stripping away components from two cores and packing them into a single module.

Going back to the 8-core Bulldozer example, Dickey's suit alleges it wouldn't be able to perform eight separate instructions simultaneously and independently, and instead functions more like a quad-core CPU the way it's constructed. The suit goes on to allege that AMD was able to essentially pull the wool over consumers' eyes because the average shopper doesn't possess a technical understanding of CPU architectures.

Does the suit have merit? That's for a court to decide. As we pointed out when AMD announced Bulldozer several years ago, the architecture "makes a fairly big break from how today's multicores are constructed."

"With Bulldozer, the basic building block of a multi-core chip changes from a walled off single core to more of a duplex," we wrote at the time. "Two cores are tightly intertwined and share fetch, decode, floating-point scheduler, and dual 128-bit fused-multiply-accumulate units, for FPUs."

This sharing of resources and resulting performance seem to be the crux of Dickey's lawsuit. In our own evaluation of the FX-8150, an 8-core Bulldozer CPU, we noted that it got "beaten up pretty badly by Intel's top clocked Sandy Bridge" processor, which at the time was Intel's quad-core Core i7-2600K. This caused us to muse about core counts in general.

"With GPU and CPU cores starting to blur, does it really matter how many "cores" you have? Just as we once had to keep in mind that a 2.13GHz Athlon XP could kick the crap out of a Pentium 4 clocked up 1GHz faster, perhaps we have to stop looking at CPUs in pure core counts but instead look at, well, the model number," we stated in our review of the FX-8150.

The lawsuit comes to light as AMD readies its Zen architecture.

Rig of the Month: Fallout 4

Posted: 09 Nov 2015 12:00 AM PST
Posted by Shri Krishna

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