An impressive display to accommodate all that power
Razer has revealed the specs and features for its new Razer Blade laptop. The new 14-inch Razer Blade's biggest feature is the 3200x1800 touchscreen display that features 5.76 megapixels. It is a significant upgrade from last year's model that featured a 1600x900 resolution display. According to Razer, the laptop's state-of-the-art IGZO IPS display panel results in a 250 percent increase in contrast ratio over last year's model.
The laptop, which is 0.7-inches thin, is powered by a next generation Nvidia GeForce GTX 870M GPU that provides 3GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM in conjunction with the laptop's 8GB of DDR3L memory. In addition, it also has a 4th gen Intel Core i7 processor and comes with Windows 8.1 64-bit installed. As for storage, the laptop will come with either a 128, 256, or 512GB SSD.
Other features include three USB 3.0 ports, a built-in 2.0MP full-HD camera, Kensington lock interface, and 150-watt power supply. It weighs 4.47 lbs., measures 13.6x0.70x9.3-inches, and has up to six hours of battery life.
The Razer Blade's starting price is $2,199. Pre-orders are currently being accepted and it is expected to ship in early April.
What time is it? It's time to Build a PC with our Blueprints! This month, we've built three rigs at three approximate price points: Baseline, Performance, and Ultra. Baseline gets you a powerful system for gaming and content creation at 1080p, Performance beefs everything up across the board, and Ultra lets the dogs out. These rigs are lab-tested and editor-approved.
Prices listed here reflect print time and may not match the ones you find elsewhere online. In addition, Newegg has jumped on board to offer packaged deals for each of the builds below in an attempt to offer a better overall value. To see these bundle prices, click the "Buy-or-get-more-info-at-Newegg" button at the bottom of each build. Feedback is welcome. Tell us what you think!
Note: Make sure you disable any adblocker as it can block some of the prices/links listed below.
You could call this "high-performance entry-level." That's where the workhorse Intel Core i5-4670K CPU and the Asus Z87-Pro mother-board come in. This build previously had a Gigabyte Sniper Z87 board, but we favored the Z87-Pro's additional internal USB 3.0 header and integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You do lose the Sniper's Creative sound and two PCI slots, so your mileage may vary. The Thermaltake Smart-M 750W power supply also shot up in price, but we found a Corsair RM750 to replace it. This premium PSU is overkill for one Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 (arguably the best value for gamers right now), but is ready to add a second card in the future.
Compared to Intel's Core i5-4670K in the Baseline build, the i7-4820K in this rig is actually slower sometimes, but we wanted an LGA 2011 motherboard. This socket allows up to four video cards without any bottlenecks, while the i5-4670K's LGA 1150 boards can experience bandwidth limitations running just two cards. The Corsair H100i closed-loop liquid cooler is a reliable 240mm unit that can rival a 280mm-based unit. The Seasonic M12II 850W is now a Corsair HX850 850W, because the latter performs about the same but was decidedly cheaper as we went to press. We swapped out the GeForce GTX 780 Ti for a regular 780 since it packs enough punch and helps keep our budget down a bit.
The Corsair H110 isn't the fanciest or most expensive closed-loop liquid cooler out there, but it's powerful and uncomplicated. Other than that, the Ultra remains largely unchanged from our last build. Its hexa-core Core i7-4930K is a beast, the Asus X79 Deluxe motherboard is high-octane and packed with features, and the GTX 780 Ti is rocket-fueled. The Corsair Obsidian 900D case is cavernous and sturdy, and the high-grade 1250-watt XFX ProSeries power supply should handle three high-end video cards without breaking a sweat. We could shave about $100 off and go with a 960GB Crucial M500 solid-state drive, but we have the budget to justify the Samsung 840 Evo's caching features.
If you want to try something a little different, the Cooler Master Glacer 240L is also an interesting 240mm water cooler. Unlike other integrated units, the Glacer has detachable tubes. That makes the tubes, the radiator and the pump replaceable, and you can add more tubing to expand your cooling to video cards and additional radiators and pumps. It's also an impressive performer in its own right. The problem is that it can be hard to find one in stock.
Winter is almost over, though depending on where you live (like the midwest), you might not know it by the amount of snow that sits unmelted outside. Nevertheless, Nvidia is ready to welcome the spring season by offering two fresh game bundles with the purchase of select GeForce GTX desktop graphics cards and GeForce GTX-powered laptops. One of the freebie offerings is a downloadable code for Daylight, the first game built around the Unreal Engine 4.
To qualify for Daylight, you'll need to purchase a qualifying GPU, among which are the GeForce GTX Titan, 780 Ti, 780, 770, 760, 690, 680, 670, 660 Ti, and 650. If you pick one up from a participating vendor, you'll receive a redemption code, which you can activate beginning April 8, 2014 (the day the game launches).
Nvidia's other bundle is $150 ($50 per title) of of in-game currency for three free-to-play games: Warface, Heroes of Newerth, and Path of Exile. The in-game bounty will be given to gamers who purchase a GeForce GTX 650, 650 Ti, 750, or 750 Ti graphics card, or select GTX 700M/800M-based notebooks.
You can find a full list of participating vendors by going here or here.
LEPA isn't a name you hear that often, though if you subscribe to Maximum PC magazine and/or frequently visit our website, you may recal we equipped last year's Dream Machine with a LEPA G1600-MA power supply. That was a beastly PSU, though LEPA's new MaxPlatinum PSU line has a model that trumps it. It's the P1700-MA-EU, and as you might have surmised, it's a 1,700W model with a peak rating of 1,800W!
The P1700-MA-EU is one of three new PSUs LEPA just unveiled, the other two being the P1050-MA (1,050W) and P1375MA (1,375W). LEPA says the two 'smaller' models are 80 Plus Platinum certified, while all three deliver up to 93 percent efficiency.
As with the model we used in our Dream Machine, all three MaxPlatinum PSUs are fully modular with flat cables, which can make installation easier when you're working in tight confines (and neater when you have a giant chassis with lots of space). They also feature multiple +12V rails -- half a dozen on the 1375 and 1700 models, and four on the 1050 PSU.
Unfortunately the 1700W model is only available overseas (boo!), though the other two PSUs will be available worldwide. No word yet on price.
Nvidia today splashed the mobile market with more than half a dozen new GPUs comprising the company's GeForce GTX 800M Series. This is a top to bottom release, meaning the new GPUs range from entry-level (GeForce 830M) all the way up to what Nvidia claims is the fastest mobile graphics chip in the world, the GeForce GTX 880M. The new releases join Nvidia's already available 820M GPU.
According to Nvidia, the new GPUs are 30 percent, 40 percent, and even 60 percent (in some cases) faster than its previous generation of mobile GPUs, and none more burly than the 880M. Nvidia's flagship part is based on Kepler (not Maxwell) and features 1,536 CUDA cores and 128 TMUs. It has a core clockspeed of 954MHz and supports up to 4GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 5,000MHz (effective) on a 256-bit memory bus.
This release isn't solely focused on speed, however, as Nvidia points out that its Battery Boost technology is one of several new feature additions. This one in particular is supposed to be able to deliver up to twice the gaming battery life when enabled.
"Here's how it works: instead of your notebook pushing every component to its max, Battery Boost targets a user defined frame rate, such as 30 FPS. The driver level governor takes over from there, and operates all your system components, including CPU, GPU, and memory at peak efficiency, while maintaining a smooth, playable experience," Nvidia explains in a blog post.
More details on the GeForce 830M, 840M, GTX 850M, GTX 860M, GTX 870M, and GTX 880M are available on Nvidia's website.
A pair of gaming laptops wielding Nvidia GeForce 800M series GPUs
It never takes long for system builders to release products based around new hardware releases, and with Nvidia having just launched its GTX 800M series of GPUs, you can expect to see a handful of new gaming laptops over the next several days. To kick things off, MSI today unveiled a pair of well-equipped gaming laptops configured with Nvidia's latest silicon. They include the 16-inch GE Apache and 17-inch GT Dominator.
The GE Apache comes configured with either a GeForce GTX 850M or 860M GPU, while the larger GT Dominator offers GTX 870M and 880M GPU options. Both systems feature Intel Core i7 Haswell hardware inside, along with Killer LAN networking, SteelSeries backlit keyboard, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Super RAID 2 technology (allows users to combine three mSATA SSDs for read speeds of up to 1,500MB/s), and more.
MSI's new gaming laptops also incorporate XSplit Gamecaster, a software solution that automatically detects the best streaming settings for the notebook and ISP. XSplit Gamecaster allows gamers to add, resize, and position a webcam feed, draw on screen, and modify videos.
The GT Dominator and GE Apache are available starting at $1,500 and $1,300, respectively.
Little Big Disk boasts transfers of up to 1,375MB/s
With content creators now making 4K videos, high-speed storage solutions are fast becoming a necessity. That shouldn't be a problem for Lacie's new Little Big Disk. Lacie, which is owned by Seagate, says its Little Big Disk is the world's fastest portable storage solution ever, and with speeds of up to 1,375MB/s, it would be hard to argue against that claim. Of course, to be in the neighborhood of those speeds, you'll need to take advantage of the drive's Thunderbolt 2 port.
Inside the Little Big Drive are a pair of 500GB PCI-E Gen 2 solid state drives pre-configured in RAID 0 (RAID 1 and JBOD are also supported). In addition to 1,375MB/s read performance, the Little Big Drive can write data at up to 1,180MB/s. Performance is even better if you daisy chain two of them together.
"Professionals can daisy chain up to five LaCie Little Big Disks plus a 4K display, and connect them to a computer via a single cable," Lacie says. "Now it's possible to create a plug–and–play 4K video editing environment that delivers scalable capacity, incredible speed and convenience to workflows."
To keep heat and noise from becoming a problem, Lacie added two heat-dissipating aluminum plates and a larger thermoregulated fan that only turns on when necessary.
What's not little about the Little Big Drive is the price -- it carries an MSRP of $1,299 and is available now direct from Lacie.
In 50 years, we'll look back and laugh at how primitive today's systems were. Even before then, we're likely to poke fun that we used to consider solid state drives a fast medium and wonder how we ever got by with such slow storage. Well, if you're reading this from a Wayback Machine, go ahead an laugh it up as you prance about with your fancy storage scheme of the future. At the time of this writing -- 2014 -- SSDs are smoking fast, and even reasonably priced. That includes today's top deal for a Samsung 840 Evo 500GB SATA III SSD for $265 with free shipping (normally $270 - use coupon code: [EMCPGWW22]). Sure, it may not be brag worth in the year 2064, but in modern time, this is a fast drive capable of up to 540MB/s sequential read and up to 520MB/s sequential write speeds.
Jumping back into PlanetSide 2 is always fun because, as they say, war never changes. Sure, the maps might get tweaked and new vehicles might be introduced here and there, but it's still a contest of shooting one's enemy in the face repeatedly.
For this edition of Choose My Adventure, you voted for me to play a gutsy heavy soldier fighting for the Terran Republic, someone who's not afraid to run into the thick of battle with guns blazing. This goes against every fiber of my nature, but you might be pleased to hear that I'm really enjoying the polar opposite of what I usually play.
A new press release says that Star Citizen fans will get their first taste of what Kythera can do in April's dogfighting module, while CIG chairman Chris Roberts enthuses over what the tech brings to the table. "The dynamic nature of the technology allows for more realistic dogfights, but at the same time it delivers a very true-to-life universe where planetside environments will be able to display very large scale city simulations all going on at once," he explains. "Kythera will give Star Citizen a true world AI rather than a less dynamic scripted AI which you may find in other games."
For those who like endgame PvE content, Carbine's upcoming MMO WildStar is hoping provide not just lots to consume but a variety of ways to consume it. I'm no longer the type of gamer who has to race to max level, and fortunately for me, WildStar plans to give us that "raid feeling" even while we're leveling via adventures and shiphand missions and world bosses and even public quests. But there's much more to PvE than that. At last week's press event, I sat down with Lead Combat Designer Chris Lynch and Lead Dungeons and Raids Designer Brett Scheinert to talk about endgame and PvE in the next big themepark.
PvE is a staple of MMORPG gameplay, but if you prefer the challenge and adrenaline rush of fighting against another human being while bashing on a keyboard and circle-strafing to dizzying effect, then you, my friend, are a PvPer. And if you've PvPed in other games, you'll be familiar with WildStar's battlegrounds and arenas. But warplots? What's a warplot? That's just one of the PvP-related questions I asked at a press event last week at Carbine Studios with the WildStar team.
Battlegrounds Designer Kevin Lee and Lead PvP Designer Jen Gordy explained to me that PvP is one of the key focuses of the game; all PvP content in WildStar will be on a cross-realm queue. Your level and gear stats will be normalized to provide an equal playing field. WildStar's telegraph system ensures that PvP is extremely reactive, which is typical, but what's not typical is being able to see where your enemy is aiming that AoE or conal attack.
It's official: WildStar is launching worldwide on June 3rd, and as of right this very moment, the NDA has lifted.
Preorders for Carbine's sub-based sci-fantasy MMORPG will be available next Wednesday, March 19th. The $59.99 preorder provides beta events, early access on May 31st, housing deco that grants a rest XP bonus, character and guild name reservations, a 10-slot storage bag, and the exclusive rocket house shown above, in addition to the Standard Edition's 30 days of play time, buddy passes, and more deco. Another $15 gets you a Digital Deluxe version with a hoverboard, costume, title, and dye set.
Stay tuned today for Massively's coverage from the recent press event, and enjoy the newly released images and launch announcement trailer.
One of the big controversies that I remember when World of Warcraft:The Burning Crusade came out was the inclusion of "space goats" and their high-tech crystal starship into some people's sacred fantasy landscape. Personally, I had no problem with it (their Shaman totems looked way cool), especially considering that WoW already had a strong steampunk influence plus a zone with a werewolf theme. It wasn't a game that took its fantasy boundaries too seriously, in other words.
But it made me realize that not everyone is comfortable with other genres invading their game. I guess the issue is one of breaking immersion and lore, and that as popular as these elements might be, they have no logical reason for being smashed together in an unholy Oreo of flavors.
Have there been any genre invasions into your game that really irked, delighted, or puzzled you? How did you deal with it?
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Defiance's newest DLC, Gunslinger Trials, is now available for season pass holders on both the PC and Xbox 360. Forum posters are reporting that the DLC is not yet available for piecemeal purchase on Steam or the Trion store, but we presume it will be soon. Sorry, PS3 players; if you're not subbed with a season pass, you'll have to wait until March 24th to pick it up.
The DLC boasts a new scoring system for events, improved rewards, and co-op arenas. Enjoy the official trailer after the break.
We're growing ever closer to my top picks for MMO theme songs, but we're not quite at the end yet. This week we are on to the third part of our Top 40 MMO main themes countdown. To repeat my self-imposed rules for this list: I limited myself to just one theme from a particular title, even if there were multiple themes in a game. Entries had to be a main theme or the closest equivalent of that; they had to be from MMOs, not from MOBAs; and I had to divorce my weighting of the track itself from the popularity of and my experience with that game. So there were no points added or subtracted based on my love of the game. I'm counting down the best music, period.
If you missed earlier parts of this series, check out themes #40-31 and #30-21. Otherwise, hit that continue button and get listening already!
Beginning March 18th through the 24th, World of Tanks will offer a brand new campaign that's only available for a limited time to players of the game's Xbox 360 version.
Map Madness allows players to combine forces to cumulatively reach a tank destruction quota used to unlock three possible maps. The urban Lakeville map will be unlocked when 10 million cumulative tanks are destroyed, desert-based El Halluf is at 25 million, and the classic Prokhorovka that should be familiar to PC players is at 40 million.
What's new for Wakfu in 2014? Quite a lot according to the game's latest website update. Ankama is prepping class revamps, a crafting revamp featuring the ability to "become a real entrepreneur," and some sort of shadowy spy mechanic that involves "having a secret life" and using it to "fight the nations from within."
Finally, if you'll be anywhere near Lille, France, on May 2nd, you'll want to stop by the Ankama Convention since admission is free.
Perfect World Entertainment is celebrating this week as the most recent financial reports show a revenue increase of 11% for last year, thanks to forward-thinking initiatives aimed at investments in other companies and a focus on mobile gaming for the future.
Most impressive was the Q4 results showing a net profit growth from RMB86.4 million to RMB209.8 million ($34 million), according to a report at Gamesindustry.biz.
All of this, of course, is on the heels of DotA 2's upcoming release in China and Neverwinter's Chinese release later this year which both may play a part in even further growth for 2014.
The free-to-play card game has been widely available for some time now, but now it's all there for keeps. Today's patch includes golden hero and special card backing visuals as rewards for ranked play. Other changes include balance tweaks, a reconnect feature, access to multiple regions, and a whole lotta bug fixes.
Players can also earn a Hearthstone mount for World of Warcraft by winning three games in play or arena mode.
Instanced housing vs. public housing? Oh, the battle is on in this week's podcast, as hosts Justin and Bree battle it out for the most comfortable living spaces and poshest decorations. There might even be a metaphorical throw pillow fight or two during the proceedings.
Get all of our opinions and analysis on the most important stories of the past week right here on Massively Speaking, the industry's leading MMO podcast. And if you have a comment, question, or topic for the podcasters, send an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!
Get the podcast: [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. [iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. [Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio. Listen here on the page:
With all of the fun that players seem to be having with the recent Diablo III pre-expansion patch, it might be easy to forget that there's still more to come with Reaper of Souls -- including a new class, the Crusader.
Blizzard hasn't forgotten, of course, and the studio posted a new video today to spotlight the class' mechanics, lore, and visual flair. On paper the Crusader sounds like a near-invincible melee class, but how does it look in action? Check out the video after the break and you tell us.
Snail Games has published a news post hyping its Black Gold alpha test that starts on Thursday, March 20th. The company says that keys are still available, but interested players will need to fill out a survey and then hope for the best, as Snail will select testers from "the pool of applicants based on their responses."
Black Gold is a free-to-play steampunk fantasy MMORPG. The survey and account registration info are available via the links below.
ZeniMax is sending out a huge wave of invites for the test and reminded players that any previous beta testers are automatically included in the fun. There is no NDA for the weekend, and any participants will be given a monkey vanity pet upon launch.
MJ will be streaming ESO from this beta test on Friday at 2:00 p.m. EST, so if you can't get in the game, definitely give her adventures a watch!
Trion Worlds is getting into the digital gaming platform business, as the studio announced today that it will be releasing its own "lightweight digital hub" called Glyph.
Glyph was created to connect developers with audiences, and is purported to be friendly to use from both sides and DRM-free. The platform will take over the responsibility of being the launcher for Trion's titles, including RIFT, Defiance, and Trove (we'll believe ArcheAge when we see it). Trion says that the studio has already handled "more then 10 million gamers" in the past three years and that Glyph will be a great help to pair those players up with current and future titles.
Glyph will also handle games from Trion's partners, as the studio has already begun signing on developers. It will launch shortly after GDC 2014.
While many people are looking forward to better weather and sunshine come spring, Age of Wushu players will have thunderstorms, blizzards, and even sandstorms thanks to one of the new features in the upcoming Tempest of Strife expansion.
In addition to immersive weather that can trigger mysterious events, this fourth expansion also includes six new sects to join. Players ready to cast off the shackles of their old masters can betray their school and sign up with one of the three sects open to all (Villa of Beasts, Xu Family Manor, and Golden Needle Sect) or one of the three that require a large reserve of talent first (Palace of Shifting Flowers, Peach Blossom Island, Rootless Clan). Want to forgo masters altogether? Become a vagrant!
Additional expansion features include the ability to change your looks through a face-lift and the opportunity to personalize your equipment by inscribing unique names on each piece. Tempest of Strife is due out later this spring.
An impressive display to accommodate all that power
Score Daylight or $150 of in-game currency
For when 1,000W just isn't enough
A top to bottom GPU refresh
A pair of gaming laptops wielding Nvidia GeForce 800M series GPUs
Little Big Disk boasts transfers of up to 1,375MB/s
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's 
