General Gaming Article |
- Newegg Daily Deals: Two Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB SSDs, Intel Core i5-4590, and More!
- Asus Shrinks the Workstation with $280 X99-M WS Motherboard
- Fire Hazard Prompts Nvidia to Recall 88,000 Shield Tablets
- Mozilla Trips Over Edge Browser in Windows 10, Chastises Microsoft
- Giddy Microsoft Reports 14 Million Devices Now on Windows 10
- Maximum PC's Midrange Build, Summer 2015
- Build It: Double Trouble: X Marks the Spot
| Newegg Daily Deals: Two Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB SSDs, Intel Core i5-4590, and More! Posted: 31 Jul 2015 10:56 AM PDT Top Deal: So you've decided that for your next build, you'll use solid state storage for your OS. Awesome, you're going to love it! But what if you want to go RAID 0? That will cost a fortune, right? Nope! Just check out today's top deal for not one, but TWO Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 240GB SSDs for $150 with free shipping (normally $176). That's 480GB of SSD storage, which works out to less than 32 cents per GB. Other Deals: WD Blue WD7500BPVX 750GB 5400 RPM 2.5-inch Internal Notebook Hard Drive for $45 with free shipping (normally $49 - use coupon code: [ESCAVPK26]) WD Green WD40EZRX 4TB IntelliPower 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $130 with free shipping (normally $136 - use coupon code: [ESCAVPK27]) TDK 4.7GB 16X DVD+R 100 Packs Spindle Discs for $15 with $1 shipping (normally $26 - use coupon code: [EMCAVPK36]) Intel Core i5-4590 Haswell Quad-Core 3.3GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor for $190 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [EMCAVPK39]) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Asus Shrinks the Workstation with $280 X99-M WS Motherboard Posted: 31 Jul 2015 10:21 AM PDT Building a compact workstation The small form factor movement grows stronger with each new generation of hardware, though it's not only home consumers looking to build a compact game box or general purpose PC who are buying in. There are also DIYers who are interested in small sized workstations, and for them, Asus is offering its new X99-M WS motherboard. The X99-M WS is a micro ATX board based on Intel's X99 chipset with an LGA 2011-v3 socket. It supports Intel Core i7 and Xeon E5-2600/1600 v3 processors, and if you choose a Xeon chip, you can also plop ECC memory into the motherboard. It also boasts support for up to two dual-slot graphics cards at full PCI Express 3.0 x16 speeds. Combined with its other features, the X99-M WS will appeal to a variety of power users, including gamers and overclockers, despite being marketed as a workstation board. Speaking of which, the X99-M has an M.2 slot for fast storage, onboard 3x3 802.11ac Wi-Fi, four DIMM slots with support for up to 32GB of DDR4-3200 (OC) memory), dual LAN ports, two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, four USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, 8-channel audio with DTS support, a third PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot (x8 link), 8 SATA 6Gbps ports, and a few other odds and ends. Whether for mission critical applications or overclocking chores, Asus equipped the X99-M WS with high end components, such as Japanese capacitors rated for 12,000 hours at 105C (1.2 million hours at 65C), gold treated chokes, and an 8-phase power design. The X99-M WS is priced at $280 MSRP. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fire Hazard Prompts Nvidia to Recall 88,000 Shield Tablets Posted: 31 Jul 2015 09:47 AM PDT Too hot to handle Nvidia is voluntarily recalling tens of thousands of Shield Tablets that were sold between July 2014 and July 2015. These include models that were sold in GameStop brick-and-mortar locations, along with online sales at Amazon, BestBuy, GameStop, Newegg, TigerDirect, and other web retailers. Not to be confused with Nvidia's Shield handheld console, the Shield Tablet has a faulty lithium-ion battery that can overheat and pose a fire hazard. If you own an affected model, Nvidia will replace the tablet free of charge. The recall affects 83,000 Shield Tablets sold in the U.S. plus another 5,000 that were sold in Canada. To check if yours is one of them, Nvidia says you first need to update your Shield to the latest software. You can do this by going to Apps > Settings > About Tablet > System Updates. The latest software will be dated July 1, 2015 or newer (you may need to do this more than once if your tablet is out of date). Only certain battery types are affected. Once you're running the latest software, go to the Home screen and click Settings > About Tablet > Status. Under the Battery category, you'll see Y01 or B01. Only models that say Y01 are affected by the recall. Though Nvidia asks that you update the software and then check the battery type, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says you can look at the model and serial numbers etched on the left side of the tablet. Model numbers P1761, P1761W, and P1761WX and serial numbers 0410215901781 through 0425214604018 are included in the recall. There have been four reports of batteries overheating in the Shield Tablet. Two of those cases resulted in damage to the floor. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mozilla Trips Over Edge Browser in Windows 10, Chastises Microsoft Posted: 31 Jul 2015 09:03 AM PDT Browser battle Though the initial reviews for Windows 10 (read ours here) have been mostly positive, much to Microsoft's delight, Mozilla isn't all that pleased with the initial rollout. It isn't that Mozilla doesn't like Windows 10, it's the way Microsoft is handling the upgrade process in regards to the default browser selection. "We are deeply disappointed to see Microsoft take such a dramatic step backwards. It is bewildering to see, after almost 15 years of progress bolstered by significant government intervention, that with Windows 10 user choice has now been all but removed," Mozilla CEO Chris Beard lamented in a blog post. "The upgrade process now appears to be purposefully designed to throw away the choices its customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience Microsoft wants them to have." The way Beard sees things, even though it's technically possible for a user to keep his or her settings when upgrading to Windows 10, including the use of Firefox as the default browser (if it's setup that way), it's not easy or obvious, especially compared to previous versions of Windows. In an open letter to Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, Beard called the update experience "very disturbing." He also chastised Microsoft and the Windows 10 team for essentially ignoring Mozilla's pleas about this issue prior to the OS's launch. "It now takes more than twice the number of mouse clicks, scrolling through content and some technical sophistication for people to reassert the choices they had previously made in earlier versions of Windows. It's confusing, hard to navigate and easy to get lost," Beard said. How It Works When you upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, if you choose "express settings," Windows 10 will reset your default apps and file associations, including the default browser (which will be changed to Edge). Alternatively, you can choose "customize settings" instead of going the express route, though the smaller size button for this option seems to suggest that Microsoft would prefer you didn't click it. Even so, there will be another button a few pages later to alter the default apps. Like previous versions of Windows, you can always change your default browser in Windows 10, though there are a few more steps. In previous versions, if you opened a browser that wasn't the default and clicked "Use this as my default browser," Windows would make the proper adjustments and you'd be all set. But in Windows 10, clicking that option brings up the Settings app with the "Choose default tabs" tab. You then have to scroll down to "Web browser," click on "Microsoft Edge," and then choose a new default browser. Here's a look, courtesy of a tutorial Mozilla posted to YouTube: What do you think, is Mozilla right to be ticked off at Microsoft at how it's handling browser defaults and changes in Windows 10, or is this a non-issue? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Giddy Microsoft Reports 14 Million Devices Now on Windows 10 Posted: 31 Jul 2015 08:24 AM PDT Start of a new era Windows 10 has officially arrived and now that we're more than a day removed from its launch, Microsoft can breathe a sigh of relief. Unlike Windows 8, which was met with heavy criticism even before it was released to the public, the response to Windows 10 has been, for the most part, pretty positive. Microsoft is rolling out Windows 10 to PCs in waves and it will take some for Microsoft to deliver it to everyone who is eligible for a free upgrade. Even so, the first 24 hours has seen a flurry of installs -- Windows 10 is now on more than 14 million devices. "We still have many more upgrades to go before we catch up to each of you that reserved your upgrade. Rest assured we are working 24×7 to continue the upgrade process and are prioritizing the quality of your upgrade experience over anything else," Microsoft said in a blog post. "We are grateful for your excitement and enthusiasm and we appreciate your patience over the days and weeks ahead as we carefully roll out Windows 10 in phases to all of you that have reserved." Microsoft's goal is to eventually get Windows 10 installed on a billion devices. Though 14 million is far cry from 1 billion, it's a start. And according to Microsoft, the demand for Windows 10 has been unprecedented. "It has been an incredible 24 hours for Windows and our fans. We're humbled and grateful to see the response to Windows 10," Microsoft added. Windows 10 is a new beginning for Microsoft. Gone are the days of Microsoft releasing a major OS followed by a Service Pack or two en route to another major OS. Instead, Microsoft has transitioned to a Windows-as-a-Service (WaaS) model in which it will continually dole out security updates and feature upgrades to Windows 10. Unless something changes, Windows 10 will be the last major version of Windows ever. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum PC's Midrange Build, Summer 2015 Posted: 31 Jul 2015 12:00 AM PDT So you've set aside some cash for a rig, but still aren't looking to max out the credit card. No problemIt's that time again. You've had your trusty rig for a few years, and it's starting to show its age. It's time for an upgrade, but the parts that are now available make your older parts bottleneck, so you decide to spring for a new system. We've been there. For our Midrange build, we go for power at a moderate price. Granted, for PCs, a moderate price is much more than console gamers expect to pay. We set out to browse Newegg with a $1,500 budget to try for the best rig we could, with what we think is a solid price point that many would drop on a well-equipped laptop. After all, the "cheaper" 15-inch MacBook Pro comes in at $2,000. For that, we could get another GTX 980. Our Midrange budget allows us to create a well-equipped build, but we can't go all-out with the choicest of components. We did make a compromise here and there, but the build still packs a lot of power for the dollar. Gamers should be able to play most games comfortably at 1440p, and can court 4K resolutions if a few effects are turned down. Let's take a look at what we got from Newegg:
Prices reflect in-cart prices at time of procurement. Prices and availability are subject to change. This is a solid build and was loads of fun to put together. Let's take a look at some of the details. CPUThe reliable i7-4790K Devil's Canyon makes a comeback in our Midrange build, as its still the premier CPU for Z97 boards at this time. We like dancing with the devil when it comes to CPUs, since the sinful silicon delivers solidly powerful results. The quad-core CPU is unlocked, so you can squeeze even more performance out of it. Think of it as a "free" upgrade. While we kept this CPU at stock clocks for testing, this rig is primed for overclocking. We paired this CPU with Corsair's powerful H100i GTX closed-loop cooler, allowing for stability in overclocks. The cooler fit snugly into the top of the mid-tower case, although the point where the tubing connects to the radiator intrudes on the to 5.25-inch drive bay. There are no worries, since we didn't bother adding a DVD drive. (A standard DVD drive runs about $20.) If you really want to add a drive to the bay, you'll have plenty of room if you use the second bay from the top. While we love the Devil's Canyon, the upcoming release of Intel's Skylake line of CPUs may mark the end of its hellish reign. GPUWhen we put this build together, AMD's entries into the lower high-end realm of GPUs—the 300 series—had yet to be tested in our labs. We wanted to make sure that this GPU would hold its own for a while, and we went with the Nvidia's GTX 980. The GTX 980 is a workhorse here at Maximum PC, and we have three of them in our new zero-point machine. With 4K gaming now a possibility in higher-end machines, the GTX 980 is the standard we measure other cards by. The downside to the 980 is its price compared to the similar GTX 970. The upside is that the 980 beats out the 970 in just about every benchmark, save power consumption. Those extra frames per second count when it comes to relative future-proofing. It's also worth noting that the GTX 980 scales well in SLI, and two of the cards will beat a single Titan X. This implementation features a factory overclock, which ups the price a little more than a reference 980 would set you back, but offers more performance. Rest assured, if (and when) it comes time to upgrade your CPU and motherboard, chances are this card will be worth holding on to. Adding another one of these cards will also render a significant upgrade that will keep up with newer models. MotherboardThe Gigabyte motherboard we chose feels like it's a smaller cousin to the X99 SOC Champion. This mobo has a lot of the same overclocking controls in the BIOS. We also chose this board for its inclusion of an M.2 port. Even though we didn't use it in this build, M.2 offers the option to add a screaming-fast SSD at the price of some SATA lanes. The board also features six USB 3.0 ports on the back panel, with the two USB 2.0 ports placed up by the PS/2 keyboard and mouse connector where they belong. Everything ElseGoing big with a GTX 980 comes at a price, and that price was storage capacity. We made sure to get a fast SSD from Kingston that had admirable sequential and random I/O speeds coupled with a capacity that allows room to play. We can say that an extra $100 for an extra SSD would be money well spent when pairing the SSDs in a RAID 0 or 1 setup. We also went with a relatively small (imagine that, a terabyte is small these days) 1TB spinning HDD. We could have gone with a cheaper Seagate drive, but the longevity and warranty backing Western Digital's drives let us justify the jump in price. Even then, the prices for the WD Black drives have gotten a little cheaper, making them a little closer to Seagate's offerings. When we take a look at our RAM, we can see a relatively modest 8GB. While 8GB is plenty for most games and applications, grabbing another kit to fill out the DIMM slots with 16GB will give you plenty of memory for all those Chrome tabs. We stuffed all of this gear into a black NZXT Phantom 240 case which is inexpensive, but big enough for everything we needed. We ended up removing the top drive cage for a little extra space and to improve air flow for our GPU. Some may like the look of empty drive cages (who are you?), but some of us like to think that it makes a build look more cluttered. We tend to opt for cases with removable cages for this reason. That's not too big of a deal, since removable cages come pretty standard for all but the cheapest of chassis. And finally, we're happy with the 750W power supply from EVGA that we chose, even if it's a bit more than what we needed. We tried to leave a little headroom so that adding another GTX 980 would be within the realm of possibility. We also liked the fact it came with a 10-year warranty. A decade is a long, long time for a PC, so we can sleep easy knowing that this PSU won't let us down. BenchmarksThis rig performed pretty well, but was just shy of providing performance that we'd recommend for 4K gaming. It was poorly equipped when compared to our beast of a zero point, which uses a 5960X CPU, three GTX 980s, and 16GBs of RAM. However, it did provide a very sizable improvement over our Budget Gamer build. But hey, that's what an extra $430 in CPU and GPU power gets you. With nearly twice the budget of the Budget gamer, we get big jumps in performance for our Midrange build. The Budget build couldn't touch the 4K benchmarks, while the Midrange nabs scores that put frame rates on the low-end of playability. In 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra, the Midrange lands at nearly double the score of the Budget Gamer, while getting nearly double the frame rate in Batman at 1440p. It is also worth noting that the Devil's Canyon beat the 5960X in the single-threaded timed benchmarks. More cores are better, but only in applications that can make use of them. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Build It: Double Trouble: X Marks the Spot Posted: 31 Jul 2015 12:00 AM PDT This article was published in the June 2015 issue of Maximum PC. For more trusted reviews and feature stories, subscribe here. Dual Nvidia Titan X cards await within this treasure chestLength of Time: 1-3 Hours | Difficulty: Medium The MissionOver the past six months or so, we've seen an impressive new slate of hardware arrive on store shelves, from Intel's Haswell-E generation of workstation CPUs sporting 6–8 cores, to futuristiclooking cases from Corsair, to the return of Nvidia's flagship GPU in the guise of the GeForce GTX Titan X. We decided it was high time to bring this all together, while also checking out the viability of an older power supply and a new closed-loop liquid CPU cooler from Silverstone. To a degree, this is an "out with the old, in with the new" kind of build, where we bid farewell to a venerable piece of gear that's been eclipsed, while embracing the future of enthusiast gear. We usually build with parts that have been released roughly within the past year, but not everyone is so fortunate. And sometimes you have equipment that's a little long in the tooth but still works fine. Might as well integrate it into a new build, right? And as we learned, the "old" stuff can still scale to handle cutting-edge gear, though the margin can get pretty thin. Here Be DragonsAs much as we like the portable form factor of a Mini-ITX case, a full tower like the Corsair Graphite 780T is more forgiving. It also looks pretty cool. Since our power supply uses rounded cables, we need a little more leeway than usual for cable management (most vendors are moving to flat cables, which take up less space). Our PSU is the well-regarded Silverstone Strider Gold, which came out about three years ago. This 1,200-watt version can supply up to eight PCI Express cables, so it's pretty expandable. The unit is also relatively compact, with a length of only 7 inches. For reference, the Corsair AX1200 is 8 inches long. Compactness has long been a hallmark of Silverstone PSUs, and it's something we've often relied on. We've paired our videocards with the Intel Core i7-5820K. This one has six CPU cores. It's slotted into an Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 motherboard. As its name implies, it has integrated USB 3.1 ports, and it can do NVM Express as well. Last but not least is the 240mm Silverstone TD02-E closed-loop CPU cooler, which is a recent update of the original TD02. Also in the mix is a 1TB 840 EVO we wanted to give one last run, and 16GB of 2,800MHz Corsair Vengeance low-profi le DDR4. We opted to not put a hard drive in this particular system, since we almost never use them in Build It. 1. Thar She BlowsWe've come to enjoy these handy fan grills that pop out really easily when you give the top corners a simple click. Once you've experienced them it's hard to go back to the days of wrenching off the front of a case in order to access fan mounts and drive bays. Behind this grill, we then discover two pre-installed 140mm intake fans, which glow bluish-white when powered up. You've also got the option to mount three 120mm fans, or one 200mm fan. If you remove the drive cages found just behind these fans, you can also install a variety of radiators, all the way up to 360mm. The cages are just screwed in—there's no need to reach for the hacksaw. These fans can plug into the case's integrated fan controller, which we'll talk about further on. 2. Batten the HatchesThe 780T also has a clicky grill on the top. Below is a recessed set of fan mounts, so you can put fans up here without obstructing things inside the case proper. This spot will take three 120mm fans, or two 140mm fans. If you have a 25mm radiator, there's enough space for "push-pull," which puts fans on both sides of the rad. We installed the Silverstone cooler's fans below the rad, to reduce noise. This required mounting the rad with some longer screws than those provided, because the 780T's mounting holes are padded with rubber grommets whose thickness adds another 3mm or so. Luckily, you can get inexpensive machine screws in a variety of lengths from a home improvement store. Take the shorties to act as visual aid. 3. Check Your RiggingThe 780T'S integrated fan controller has four connectors (three shown here, because we're using three case fans), and they're all within easy reach of the case's pre-installed fans. Sometimes the rear exhaust fan's cable isn't long enough, but that wasn't a problem here. The controller itself is powered via a SATA cable, so make sure you have an extra when building with this case. It has three speeds, but these fans didn't get loud even when maxed out. The controller is handy because it frees up your motherboard's connectors for additional fans. We also note the connectors here are industry-standard 4-pins, instead of being proprietary. 4. Anchors AwayAs has become common on the high end, the 780T's undercarriage has some niceties, as well. Down here, we have not one but two dust filters that can slide out for easy cleaning or replacement. Observant readers may also note the fan mounting holes peeking out. The bottom of the case has one 120mm fan mount that's immediately accessible, and another 120mm when you remove the lower drive cage, which means you have space for a 240mm radiator. That's useful for a water-cooling loop attached to a videocard. This case has some impressive airflow potential. The black ABS plastic feet on either side of these filters elevates the case about one inch off the floor, giving your power supply's intake fan plenty of clearance to get cool external air. Each corner of the feet is also rubberized for stability. 5. The Poop DeckNot the cleanest wiring job we've ever done, but that was kind of the point. We wanted to demonstrate how messy things could get, while still allowing the side panel to go on without any effort. We've six rounded power supply cables coming through, a SATA data cable, three fan cables, a variety of front panel cables, and even cables from the CPU cooler mounted in the top of the case, which we tucked back here just to make things look nice and clean up front. The Strider Gold's 24-pin motherboard cable was just barely long enough, but we had no trouble with the 8-pin power cable that went to the upper right-hand corner. The SATA power cable had to terminate at a 90-degree angle to fit into the back of the SSD, but that's not unusual. Once we were done back here, the tool-less side panel just angles in at the bottom and snaps shut at the top. To remove it, just pull the handle and lift it away. 6. In the Crow's NestIn case you haven't seen how the 2.5-inch drive trays work, here's a close-up. It's another tool-less container, where you just slide the drive in from the side. The tab at the bottom snaps in when the drive has slid all the way to the left. The installation of the tray is also tool-less. There's a bracket mechanism on the other side of this tray that snaps in. It can be a little tricky to put it back in once you've taken it out. We recommend a flashlight and some patience. There are usually four of these trays in the back, but we removed the bottom-most one to make room for our cabling shenanigans. Admittedly, these trays are not snug. That's fine for an SSD, which has no moving parts. If you're using a 2.5-inch mechanical drive, the top of the tray has two screw holes to create a tighter fit. Whichever type of drive you choose, we recommend a flat SATA data cable if you need to face the drive outward like we did. 1.) Thanks to the height of this case, the radiator and fan disappear completely inside this upper shroud. 2.) With one PCIe cable removed, you can more clearly see that we're only using two of them, thanks to this cable design. 3.) We left the drive cages in so that you could visualize how much space a 10.5-inch card takes up. The 780T is deceptively large. 4.) Based on its size, you wouldn't think that this PSU could put out 1,200 watts. But Silverstone is known for compact designs. Land Ho!You may have heard that the Intel Core i7-5820K has fewer PCI Express lanes than the other Haswell-E CPUs, and that's true. But 28 lanes is still more than two videocards know what to do with, so we don't need to bump up to the 5930K, which would also cost us another couple of hundred dollars. Of course, we're already blowing two grand on our videocards, but we had multiple reasons for that. Besides having top-end performance, these cards also draw a healthy amount of power. We're also overclocking our hex-core CPU from a base clock of 3.3GHz to 4.2GHz, on all cores. And there are five case fans in this system. This combination of parts gives us a solid testing environment to see how this 3-year-old power supply still handles itself. Like we were hoping, it didn't break a sweat, and its fan made hardly any noise. Sadly, this PSU can't be a mainstay any longer, because its PCI Express cables have a total of "only" four 8-pin connectors. Reference versions of a card like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 use two 6-pin connectors and seem to signal lower requirements than we've seen before; vendors can produce cards like the MSI Gaming 4G, which requires two 8-pin connectors. This PSU's combined PCIe cabling is nice, though. Each has both an 8-pin and a 6-pin connector. So if the card doesn't need more cables than that, you only need one per card. That helps with cable management and makes the case interior look cleaner. The company's TD02-E closed-loop CPU cooler, meanwhile, came out earlier this year. Despite having to cool six Haswell-E cores running 900MHz faster than their base clock, our temps never got above 72 degrees Celsius. You could definitely hear the fans working to keep things cool, but it was never distracting. Part of this is thanks to the radiator's dense fin array, and that requires fans capable of moving a lot of air, but Silverstone is no slouch in the fan department either. The two bundled units are rated to move up to 92.5 cubic feet per minute. For reference, the Corsair H100i is rated to move up to 77 CFM. For an 8-core CPU, we'd still recommend at least the H110i GT, if not custom water cooling. But the TD02-E did impressively well with our respectably overclocked i7-5820K. Overall, we enjoyed building this rig and finding out what this gear was capable of. |
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