General Gaming Article |
- Interncast Episode #1: Left Behind from E3
- How to Build: All-in-One PC
- iBuypower Revolt Review
- Facebook Puts Instagram in Motion with 15 Second Video Clips
- Toshiba Releases Its First 7mm Solid State Hybrid Drive
- Microsoft Unveils Bug Bounty Program at Black Hat 2013
- Roadmap Suggests Intel Isn't Launching 14nm Broadwell Until 2015
- Newegg Daily Deals: OCZ Z Series 1000W PSU, XFX Radeon HD 5450 GPU, and More!
- Nvidia Lowers Price of Shield Handheld Console to $299
- Microsoft Abandons Planned Xbox One DRM, Used Games Policies; Won't Budge on Price
| Interncast Episode #1: Left Behind from E3 Posted: 20 Jun 2013 03:50 PM PDT
The premier episode of the InterncastHell might have just frozen over because somehow Future US has decided to let the interns from Maximum PC, PC Gamer, Official Xbox magazines create their own explicit podcast! In the 90 minute debut episode of the Interncast the crew discusses the games they liked at E3, they talk about the Xbox One and PS4, and wrap it up with what it's like to be behind the scenes at some of the biggest PC and Gaming magazines in the country. Manning the inaugural episode are Parker Wilhelm (@parkerwilhelm) from Official Xbox Magazine, Jake Godin (@jakegodin) and Ben Kim (@benjkim) from PC Gamer, and host Chris Zele (@chriszele) from Maximum PC. Listen as they talk about E3 and detail how they each nabbed their internships. The crew also offers advice on how to break into the tech and games journalism industry. Also be sure to let us know what you think! You can send questions, complaints, and death threats to futureinterncast@gmail.com. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/interncast Follow us on Twitter @interncast You can also subscribe to the podcast's RSS feed for upcoming episodes! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 20 Jun 2013 01:40 PM PDT Build your own All-in-One PC!The all-in-one PC is predicted to be one of the hottest PC form factors over the next few years. That's great for Joe 12-Pack, but for an enthusiast, an AiO is pretty much as monolithic as you can get. Sure, you might be able to add RAM or swap the HDD, but that's usually the extent of the average AiO's upgradeability.
Enter Intel's new push for the DIY AiO, the first serious attempt at building a standard around this practice. All-in-one bare-bones kits have likely been available before, but Intel's backing formalizes it as a real DIY category. The big change is the Thin MiniITX, which specifies far slimmer mobo profiles than regular Mini ITX, as well as fixing a spot where the CPU can be installed. The fixed CPU location enables standard heat pipe–type cooling solutions as an option, whereas Mini ITX allowed vendors to put the CPU anywhere on the board. To get our feet wet, we decided to build a nicely outfitted AiO to see how it would compare spec-wise to a prebuilt peer. The result? You'll have to read to the end, but we'll be a clock tease and say that a DIY AiO might be just the way to go. Choosing the HardwareThe First step of building an AiO is finding the chassis. Since Intel has been the main driver behind a standard, a good place to start is here. The DIY site has numerous resource for builders. We recommend that you start with the Design Component Catalog as well as the Compatibility Matrix. Remember, the standard is evolving and we're not at the point of desktops, where 98 percent of hardware is compatible. For example, some of the AiO models use proprietary coolers while others can use the standard Intel part. AiO units that don't use the standard Intel heat pipe should ship with their own. Also keep in mind the thermal constraints of an AiO before you buy the parts. Our build started with a Loop L5 LP-2150 chassis. The chassis features a 21.5-inch panel and normally comes without the cooler and power brick for about $265. We did find some sites offering it packaged with the Intel cooler and a power brick though, for a small savings. The board we used is an Intel DH61AG. It supports an external power brick–type connector and up to a 65-watt TDP desktop processor. For our build, we tapped the quad-core 3.1GHz Core i5-3570S chip, which is nearly the same as the Core i7-3770S save for the Hyper-Threading. For storage, the board supports Mini PCIe SSDs and standard 2.5-inch drives. For our build, we opted for an Intel 240GB 335 Series SSD. Finally, we went with a pair of Patriot 4GB SO-DIMMs. INGREDIENTS
Click the next page to see each installation step. 1. Prepare the ChassisTo open the Loop L5, lay it facedown on a clean, nonscratch surface and remove the five screws on back. Now, with the opening for the I/O shield facing you, gently push the tip of your screwdriver on the metal next to the exhaust vent while carefully pulling up on the chassis with your fingers (image A) until the back pops off just a bit. Then, carefully pry off the back, starting at the USB ports and headphone ports (image B). You'll use this same process to access the guts of the AiO for future upgrades.
2. Install Drives, CPU and RAMWe'll skip the usual illustration of mounting the optical drive and SSD/HDD in the caddies and screwing them down, as the process is well known to most Maximum PC readers, but you can go ahead and do this now. (For new builders, Intel provides thorough video instructions for building a system in the Loop here). Likewise, you've seen us install RAM and the CPU dozens of times; now is a good time to do that, as well. With the board out, you should also slot the Wi-Fi card into the Mini PCIe slot nearest the PCIe slot. Then, install the I/O shield. 3. Install the BackplateTo Use the Stock Intel thermal cooler, you'll need to install the backplate that comes with the kit. It sticks on with an adhesive pad (image C). The chassis should also have come with a thick thermal pad that gets mounted to the back of the motherboard, under the voltage regulation modules, or, if you can aim properly, to the chassis itself (image D). It mounts using an adhesive, so choose wisely. Now, mount the motherboard and screw it in place. As always, pay special attention to how the openings in the I/O shield line up with the motherboard before you screw it down (i.e., make sure the metal fingers coming off the I/O shield don't jam into the ports.)
4. Install the CoolerWith the Motherboard in place, it's time to screw the cooler in place. The cooler should have an Intel thermal pad in place. If yours doesn't, or you are mounting it for a second time, add a small bit of thermal paste to the CPU and spread it out with a plastic bag across the surface of the heat spreader. Use the four screws to mount the cooler to the backplate (image E), and also screw down the two screws at the end of the heat pipe.
5. Push aside the SpeakerIt's Pretty tight in the AiO, so for removing or installing cables, you'll have to remove or simply move the speaker on the left side of the machine. Just undo one screw and move the speaker out of the way (image F).
6. Plug in the PanelThe Panel uses a delicate internal LVDS connector. While at first glance it appears to go in either way, the connector is keyed (image G). Carefully insert the cable into the LVDS port and then use a small object, such as a flat-head screwdriver, to carefully push it into place by alternatively nudging on each side of the connector while holding one side with your finger (image H). Once it's in place, don't ever remove the LVDS connector by tugging on the ribbon cable. If you have to remove it, use a small flat-head screwdriver to slowly nudge it out from the sides.
Click the next page to learn how to plug in the audio, wifi, and for the final stages.
7. Plug in the InverterUnlike a Desktop monitor, which is powered by its own power brick or internal AC/DC device, the AiO needs to be powered from the motherboard. To do that you need to plug the 7-pin connector into the red header next to the LVDS connector (image I). This is also keyed to only fit in one way and should snap into place. Once that's done, follow the cable out to the end where you should find another connector. This gets plugged into the inverter board, which is the small orange, rectangular PCB to the left of the speaker (image J).
8. Bring tht NoiseAgain, Everything in the AiO uses internal headers rather than external ports. If you want to use the AiO's internal speakers, you'll need to plug them in using the 4-pin header located near the Wi-Fi card and CMOS battery (image K). It's keyed to only fit in one direction.
9. Connect Wi-FiSome AIO units come with multiple antennas, but Loop chose a single antenna for this chassis. We won't debate the wisdom of a single antenna, but it can create some confusion for newbs. Just look for the small gray antenna lead and plug it into the port labeled "Main 1" on the Wi-Fi card. It should snap into the socket with light pressure (image L).
10. Set the VoltageYou need to configure the motherboard's headers for the correct voltage. First, check the 3-pin header next to the "FPD Power" inverter header that you plugged in earlier. By default, it should be set to pins 2 and 3, or 19 volts, which is correct for the Loop (image M). You'll want to check the manuals for your AiO and your motherboard, as setting the voltage incorrectly can damage the inverter. You also need to set a secondary inverter header to the correct voltage. This header is located near the front-panel connector and should be set to pins 4 and 6, for 5 volts (image N). This is the default position for the Intel motherboard and the correct voltage for the Loop.
11. Connect Final Plugs and Button upYou'll also need to plug in the three USB headers as well as power and data cables for the optical drive and SSD, and you need to plug the SATA power cable into the motherboard. All that needs to be done now is to attach the back cover (while you plug the cover's auxiliary fan into an open fan header) and attach the stand. Now, just plug in your power brick and fire her up! 12. Well, almost...Intel's Motherboard comes in an older rev, the G23736- 503, and a newer rev, the G23736-504. If your board is a 504 or up, drive on. If it's older, you'll need to update the BIOS because the older board defaults to external graphics rather than the LVDS connector. No worries, you can update the board by just dropping the latest BIOS from the Intel website in the root of a USB key, removing the jumper from the BIOS_CFG header, and booting the machine. The board should automatically update after two minutes. Once the rig's blue system LED stops flashing, you can power down, replace the BIOS_CFG header, and move on. Even if you have the newer board, there is one setting you need to change. Go into the BIOS and then into the Video settings, and in the setting for All-in-One Chassis, set it to the chassis in use. In this case, it's the LP-2150. It's recommended that you then lock the settings so they can't be changed without going into maintenance mode. Click the next page to see the system's benchmarks!
DIY AIO SHOWS A LOT OF PROMISEBuilding the average desktop PC has long been a labor of love. Sure, in the old days you could save a serious chunk of change when you built your own rig, but these days it's pretty hard to get a better price than a large or even medium OEM that buys parts by the container-full. That's apparently not the case with all-in-ones, where it's possible for builders to have a price edge. Lenovo, for example, offers a 20-inch AiO with the same CPU, 180GB SSD, and 4GB of RAM for about the same price as our Loop build. Granted, some OEMs offer a feature not available to this platform—a discrete GPU. That's actually one of the holes we see in the current push for a DIY platform. Why no GPU provision? In the past, graphics vendors haven't been the greatest at sticking to specs, so that could be the reason, but we think a unified AiO graphics spec is necessary if this category is really going to take off. As to how our AiO performed—not bad. Our zero-point AiO is an Asus ET2701 INKI-B046C with a Core i7-3770S and GeForce GT 640M. Naturally, the $1,500 Asus, with its 27-inch panel, pricier CPU, and discrete graphics outshines our Loop build, but it's a good reference for what our DIY AiO can do. Clearly, that extra $400 on the zero-point gets you more performance. Our DIY AiO performed respectably though, except in gaming. Intel HD4000 graphics are probably best suited for Portal 2–level and lower gaming. For today's integrated graphics, Metro 2033 is way beyond its pay grade. Overall, we're pretty happy with the brave new world of DIY AiOs. Yes, it has some maturing to do, but giving enthusiasts the ability to customize an AiO to their own needs (or a parent's needs) is a pretty strong argument for doing it yourself. Benchmarks
Best scores are bolded. Our zero-point AiO features a Core i7-3770S, 8GB of DDR3/1600, a GeForce GT 640M, and a 2TB 7,200rpm HDD. Metro 2033 is run at 1280x720, medium quality, DX10 mode, with 4x AA and 4x MSAA. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 20 Jun 2013 01:15 PM PDT IBP combines affordability with good performanceTo revolt is to rise up against an oppressive ruling authority. In iBuypower's case, is the new iBuypower Revolt PC opposing big gaming rigs or game consoles?
The revolt carries on the fight against substandard game consoles. We prefer to believe that the Revolt, along with its fellow revolutionaries from Alienware, Falcon Northwest, and Digital Storm, is part of the first expeditionary force attacking the substandard gaming performance that consoles have subjected its citizens to for years. As we've said of the other small PCs of this ilk, you need only slap a $26 wireless Xbox controller on the Revolt, get it set up with Steam's Big Picture Mode, and you'll not only have a gaming machine that fits in nicely in the living room, but that will also likely blow away the next-gen consoles. The Revolt uses a new NZXT chassis that iBuypower has exclusive rights to. It's slightly wider than three other similarly shaped boxes we've reviewed from Alienware (X51), Falcon Northwest (tiki), and Digital Storm (bolt). iBuypower manages to jam in a 14cm NZXT liquid cooler, which lets the Intel Core i7-3770K hum along at an overclocked 4.2GHz. The rig also sports an EVGA GeForce GTX 670 GPU and is large enough to support both an HDD and SSD. This is significant because the box that spurred it all, Alienware's X51, forces you to pick either an HDD or SSD, not both. While the X51 uses an external power brick, the iBuypower uses an internal FSP 500-watt PSU. There's actually an upside and downside to both setups. The downside here is the noise. Our pre-production Revolt's 1U power supply got shrilly under heavy loads. We had the same issue with Digital Storm's Bolt, which was rectified in shipping units. iBuypower promises improvement in the final units, but ours was just too noisy to be used under load in an HTPC environment. However, seeing how other vendors have been able to tame the issue by tweaking the fan profiles and thermals, we suspect iBuypower will be able to do the same. Performance of the box against our desktop zero-point, with its hexa-core processor, was not pretty but that's hardly a surprise, considering the ZP's size and parts. Lest you think that a quad-core Ivy Bridge ticking at 4.2GHz is Atom-poo slow, however—it's not. Even in the heavily multithreaded Premiere Pro test, the Ivy Bridge was but 31 percent slower than our Core i7-3930K at 3.8GHz. The GeForce GTX 670 also shows pretty well when you consider that the zero-point is housing a GeForce GTX 690. We also stacked up the Revolt against the Falcon Northwest Tiki and Digital Storm Bolt (we didn't have the original X51 on which to run our new benchmarks) and found the Revolt competitive but the slow man out against its two peers. Oddly enough, in our Premiere Pro CS6 benchmark, the similarly clocked Revolt ran about 9 percent behind the Tiki and 11 percent behind the Bolt—that's probably partly due to its single-channel RAM. But there are a couple of ways in which the Revolt excels over those two boxes. For one thing, it has the ability to run when laid flat, which makes it far more flexible for living room use. It also beats both the Tiki and Bolt in the price game. The FNW Tiki we reviewed in September 2012 came equipped with dual 500GB SSDs and a GeForce GTX 680 for $4,126. No doubt 500GB SSDs have dropped in price, but not by that much. The Digital Storm Bolt, reviewed in our January 2013 issue, took the price down to $1,950, using just a 120GB SSD but giving you a GTX 680 card, too. The iBuypower Revolt comes in even lower, at $1,400. Is that a good deal? Spec-for-spec, yes. It's even comparable to Alienware's top-end X51, which gives you a 2TB HDD and 16GB of RAM, but is capped at a GeForce GTX 660 and there's no option for an SSD. That puts the Revolt in a pretty good spot. No, you can't get it as spec'd-out as the Bolt or Tiki, but at this price, a lot of folks won't care. Overall, iBuypower gets a lot right with the Revolt and brings its trademark practice of packing in the performance without packing on the price. $1,400, www.ibuypower.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Puts Instagram in Motion with 15 Second Video Clips Posted: 20 Jun 2013 12:16 PM PDT
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| Toshiba Releases Its First 7mm Solid State Hybrid Drive Posted: 20 Jun 2013 11:53 AM PDT
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| Microsoft Unveils Bug Bounty Program at Black Hat 2013 Posted: 20 Jun 2013 11:27 AM PDT
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| Roadmap Suggests Intel Isn't Launching 14nm Broadwell Until 2015 Posted: 20 Jun 2013 09:40 AM PDT
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| Newegg Daily Deals: OCZ Z Series 1000W PSU, XFX Radeon HD 5450 GPU, and More! Posted: 20 Jun 2013 08:37 AM PDT
Top Deal: Building a new rig for the summer? Not a bad idea with all the new components and platforms that emerged in recent weeks. Just don't forget to set aside some coin for a new power supply. Better yet, take advantage of today's top deal for an OCZ Z Series 1000W Modula 80 Plus Gold High Performance PSU for $140. It ships free (normall $210 - use coupon code EMCXPWM43) and also has an additional $30 mail-in-rebate. Other Deals: Western Digital Red WD30EFRX 3TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive for $140 with free shipping (normally $151 - use coupon code:[EMCXPWM225]) Seagate 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive for $70 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code:[EMCXPWM28]) Corsair Carbide Series 300R ATX Mid Tower Computer Case for $70 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code:[EMCXPWM42]; additional $20 mail-in rebate) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nvidia Lowers Price of Shield Handheld Console to $299 Posted: 20 Jun 2013 08:23 AM PDT
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| Microsoft Abandons Planned Xbox One DRM, Used Games Policies; Won't Budge on Price Posted: 20 Jun 2013 12:48 AM PDT Xbox One owners won't have to put up with any draconian restrictions on offline play or the resale of used gamesAt this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the Playstation 4 emerged as the clear favorite to win the next-generation console race, due to commence later this year. And it wasn't necessarily due to any technical edge over the Xbox One, but on account of a set of controversial restrictions proposed by Microsoft in a bid to curb piracy and the sale of used games. Thankfully, common sense seems to have finally prevailed at Microsoft and there are no longer any clear favorites in this race. Despite initially looking brazenly unfazed by all the criticism surrounding its decision to require daily online checks for offline play and allow publishers to restrict used games sales, Microsoft suddenly capitulated on Wednesday. An Internet connection is no longer an absolute necessity as the console won't be performing any daily online checks as originally proposed, but just require a one-time system setup. Further, game developers won't have any say in the sale of used games and you will be free to "trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today." "Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One," wrote Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, in a blog post. " I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One." "You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world." In related news, Microsoft has made it clear that is has "no plans" to reduce the price of its upcoming console, which, at $499, is $100 more than the Playstation 4. "We are really, really excited about the value we're going to deliver on day one," Marc Whitten, the chief product officer for Xbox, told CNET, alluding to the fact that, unlike the PS4, each Xbox One console will come with a new, improved Kinect sensor built-in. Follow Pulkit on Google+ |
Move over, Vine
Suitable for both ultra-thin and standard size notebooks
Earn big bugs for finding bugs
Don't look for Broadwell chips any time soon
You asked and Nvidia listened
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