| Eurocom M5 Pro Review Posted: 23 Oct 2015 01:01 PM PDT aT A GLANCE (+) Outdoor Camping
Fast; customizable; solid build quality; TPM support. (-) FPS Camping
Expensive; somewhat bulky; mediocre battery life. This article was published in the October 2015 issue of Maximum PC. For more trusted reviews and feature stories, subscribe here. One year later, Nvidia's GM204 is still the king of mobile GPUs Last October, Nvidia wowed the world with its potent new Maxwell 2.0 GPUs, and it pulled a doubleheader by launching the mobile variant right after the desktop parts. Since that time, if you wanted a top performance gaming notebook, there has only been one question: Do you want GTX 980M, or will GTX 970M suffice? Eurocom's M5 Pro gives you the power to choose, though our review notebook goes the "more sensible, less extreme" route with a single 970M, and pairs it with a nice 4K Samsung PLS display for good measure. That's going to be something of a challenge for the plucky GPU, as even the fastest desktop cards struggle with 4K gaming. On a gaming notebook, the only real option for 4K is to turn some of the settings down a notch… or two or three. And in some games, you're simply better off running at a lower resolution like 1080p. Thankfully, the super-fine DPI of a 4K, 15.6-inch display means that running at non-native resolutions doesn't result in the blurriness you would normally experience. But DPI scaling in Windows does still have quirks on occasion, and ends up being two steps forward, one step back. So, 4K is perhaps future-proofing, but you're stuck paying $200 or more for what may or may not prove beneficial down the road, and many would find a 1080p IPS display to be a better choice. Eurocom covers both bases. You can control exactly what upgrades you want and which ones you feel like skipping; your M5 Pro can be configured with parts customized to your liking. Eurocom has plenty of options for the CPU, storage, LCD, Wi-Fi module, and RAM (up to 32GB!). The M5 Pro also includes a fingerprint reader and TPM 2.0 module as standard, which is useful for business types. You can even select among three GPU options: GTX 965M, 970M, or 980M, though the 980M uses a slightly thicker chassis to accommodate the increased cooling requirements. You don't buy a gaming laptop to run Office, and when it comes to gaming, the M5 Pro won't disappoint. Our zero-point Alienware 14 is left sucking dust in all of the gaming tests, with the M5 Pro delivering more than twice the graphics performance. At 1080p, the M5 can handle nearly maxed-out settings in most games, and Nvidia's GeForce Experience will happily provide any minor tweaks should those prove necessary. The only sore spot is going to be battery life, where the M5 Pro came in just shy of three hours of video playback, and moderate Internet surfing failed to last more than four hours. Back to Basics Overall, the M5 Pro is a great gaming notebook, and the all-round experience remains good, even when we move on to other areas. The keyboard provides a pleasant typing experience, the touchpad eschews the clickpad trend in favor of two discrete buttons, and the speakers and display don't get in the way. In short, the M5 Pro is a well-built notebook. That may not sound much like high praise, but it's amazing how many laptops—even expensive offerings—manage to screw up one or more of those areas. Other than the mediocre battery life and the size of the notebook, the only potential concerns are pricing and the 980M. The 970M is fast, but the 980M will be another 25–35 percent faster still. The price difference from Eurocom is $268, including the change in chassis, which means that spending 15 percent more for the upgrade is the way to go. You have to deal with a slightly larger notebook, but the M5 isn't small, no matter how you slice it, and for gaming, the 980M is the GPU to beat. If you can't afford to upgrade, however, the M5 Pro is still a potent gaming laptop. Note that other boutiques also use the Clevo P650SE/P650SG chassis, some with slightly lower prices than Eurocom, but most of them don't offer TPM support. $1,700, www.eurocom.com Specifications | CPU | Intel Core i7-4710HQ | | RAM | 2x 8GB DDR3-1866 Corsair | | GPU | GeForce GTX 970M 3GB | | Display | 15.6-inch, 3840x2160 Glossy PLS | | Storage | 256GB Plextor M6e SSD, 2TB Seagate 5,400RPM HDD | | Connectivity | 2x Mini-DP, HDMI, Ethernet, flash memory reader, 3x USB 3.0, USB 2.0/eSATA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 | | Dimensions | 16.7 x 11.5 x 1 inches | | Weight (Lap / Carry) | 6.61 / 7.89lb
| Benchmarks | | Zero-Point | Eurocom M5 Pro | Percent Difference | | Stitch.Efx 2.0 (sec) | 962 | 974 | -1.2% | | ProShow Producer 5 (sec) | 1,629 | 1,572 | 3.6% | | x264 HD 5.0 2nd (fps) | 13.5 | 13.85 | 2.6% | | BioShock Infinite (fps) | 36.1 | 92.9 | 157.3% | | Metro: Last Light (fps) | 30.4 | 85.3 | 180.6% | | 3DM ark 11 Performance (fps) | 4,170 | 9,429 | 126.1% | | Battery Life (1080p video, mins) | 234 | 167 | -28.6% | Best scores are bolded. Our zero-point notebook is an Alienware 14 with a 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ, 16GB DDR3-1600, 256GB mSATA SSD, 750GB 5,400rpm HDD, GeForce GTX 765M, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. BioShock Infinite tested at 1920x1080 at Ultra DX11 settings; Metro: Last Light tested at 1920x1080 at DX11 medium quality settings with PhysX disabled. |
| Ask the Doctor: The Silicon Lottery, Hooking Up 4K, First-Ever Build Posted: 23 Oct 2015 11:14 AM PDT This article was published in the October 2015 issue of Maximum PC. For more trusted reviews and feature stories, subscribe here. The Doctor tackles your questions about: - SSDs
- Thunderbolt Mobos
- Upgrading CPUs
SSDs in RAIDHi Doc. I recently replaced my four 300GB Western Digital Raptors in RAID 0 with two Samsung 850 EVO SSDs, also in RAID 0. My C:/ drive is a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro on which Windows 8.1 Pro resides. The EVOs are drive D:/. Samsung's Magician software came bundled with the EVOs. But when I use it, the program only sees the 840 Pro. There's no D:/ drive at all. Now, when I go into Windows's Device Manager, under Disk Drives, I see the 840 Pro. However, the other drive is listed as an Intel RAID 0 volume. Why can't the striped volume be identified as the 850 EVO SSDs? Is there a way to get them properly identified by Windows, or seen by Magician? Is this going to hurt the drives when Windows defragments them? They are fast; the performance seems to be there. I have tried to update their drivers, but Windows says they're already up to date. I hope you can help. —Ron Shibler The Doctor Responds: Unfortunately, Samsung's Magician software will not recognize SSDs in RAID, as you've observed, Ron. However, consider installing Intel's Rapid Storage Technology driver, which does support your drives in a striped array. Fast as a ThunderboltPlease help. I want to build the best and fastest Thunderbolt motherboard (to which I plan to connect an Apple display). What's your view on the Asus X99-PRO/USB3.1? What CPU would you recommend? How much RAM? —Heather Ravenelle The Doctor Responds: To be honest, the Doc hasn't had a chance to use the X99-PRO/USB3.1. As a result, he's limited to Asus's compatibility list and any helpful hints the company might provide. Visiting the ThunderboltEX II information page suggests the X99-Deluxe and X99-Deluxe/U3.1 are Asus's only two validated X99-based models. However, the X99-PRO/USB3.1 has the same Thunderbolt header, so there's no reason it shouldn't work as well. While that's not a glowing endorsement, if you're brave enough to fiddle with the Thunderbolt Display under Windows, living on the edge might not be an issue for you. It's difficult to make specific recommendations without more information about what you want to do with your new PC, Heather. If you only need one graphics card, the Core i7-5820K's value as an easy-to-overclock six-core powerhouse can't be denied. Twenty-eight lanes of PCIe connectivity might not be enough though, in which case the 5930K buys you another 12. And if eight processing cores make a difference to your application, then the Core i7-5960X is in a league shared only by Xeon CPUs. Wrap the build up with 16 or 32GB of DDR4 memory in a quad-channel configuration. Time to Upgrade?Hello Doc! I've been wondering how much longer my systems will hold up against all of the new games/software out there. Back in 2011 and 2012, I built two desktop PCs. Both are running on LGA 1155 interfaces. They're almost identical except for their CPUs. One has an Intel Core i7-2600K (Sandy Bridge) quad-core processor, while the other has a Core i7-3770K (Ivy Bridge). Each machine has 32GB of DDR3-1600, Mushkin 240GB SSDs, and a Gigabyte GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD GeForce GTX 970. How much longer will these systems be able to run today's games at max settings? We're currently playing MechWarrior Online and Elder Scrolls Online. With all of the CPU power available now, would it be best to upgrade soon, or do I still have a few years of great gaming in store? —Robert Klaas The Doctor Responds: You're being modest there, Robert. Those were the fastest CPUs available when the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge architectures launched. And if we're being honest, Intel didn't improve host processing performance much from one generation to the next (that includes its Haswell and Broadwell efforts, by the way). On top of that, you're rocking tons of memory, speedy SSDs, and some of the fastest single-GPU graphics cards available. It helps that the games you're into aren't resource hogs. The Doc is missing a bit of information, though. What resolution do you game at? Do you have an urge to see what 4K is all about? Do your motherboards support two-way SLI, at least? More than likely, those two machines will serve you well for another couple of years. If you start noticing slow-downs at maxed-out settings, suspect your graphics cards first. Fortunately, adding another GTX 970 is a lot cheaper than starting from scratch. Winning the LotteryHi Doc, I'm new to PC building and have been trying to do my due diligence before tackling my first build. It'll mainly be for Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and a bit of IC layout design. I've decided on an X99 motherboard (haven't picked the board yet; your recommendations are welcome), a Core i7-5820K, a GTX 980, 32GB of DDR4 memory, a 1,000W PSU, and a water-cooling setup. This might be overkill, but I'd like a machine to last for three to five years without choking on Adobe's ever-increasing hardware requirements. I keep hearing the term "silicon lottery." Is there any legitimacy to this expression? Could this variability be the result of installer error rather than manufacturing issues? I plan on using an anti-static wrist strap and mat like most people. But one other thing stuck out in my mind that I can relate to in my field of work. I'm a high-end Italian car mechanic, and I know from experience that, as an example, if you install a lightbulb with your bare hands, skin oils will get onto the glass and create a hot spot that will shorten the life of the bulb. The cure is to wear latex or nitrile gloves. Could this same phenomenon be affecting component installations? I also know that over 80 percent of engine failures or shortened life spans after a rebuild are due to a contaminated environment. From what I've read, manufacturers use clean rooms, so the rate of failure people report with the silicon lottery seems suspicious. —Spencer The Doctor Responds: Winning the "silicon lottery" is less about defective or damaged components and more about finding that one CPU or graphics card that overclocks above and beyond any enthusiast's expectation. A processor composed of hundreds of millions of transistors in a few hundred square millimeters of area is mind-bogglingly complex. There will always be some variability involved in the manufacturing process, and the companies selling those chips do an admirable job of sorting them out into actual products. Now, you're only guaranteed the specifications promised on the box. On your Core i7-5820K, for example, that's a base clock rate of 3.3GHz, and a maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 3.6GHz. Let's say a majority of 5820Ks make it to 4.5GHz with all six of their cores active. A particularly special example might be stable at 4.7GHz under the same conditions. The owner of that processor would be said to have won the silicon lottery. As far as the projected specs for your first build, that should be a well-balanced system. The GTX 980 might be considered overkill for the tasks you mentioned. However, the Doc assumes you'll do a little gaming, too. Oh, and he didn't see any mention of storage. Be sure to snag an SSD with enough space for your OS and those performance-sensitive apps inspiring this project! 
CPU dies are cut from a large wafer, and some variability is inevitable. Winning the "silicon lottery" can be interpreted as coming home with a particularly strong sample. The 4K ConnectionI recently purchased an Acer 28-inch B286HK 4K monitor and am wondering what type of cable I should use to hook it up to my GPU. I seem to remember articles describing restrictions depending on whether I used DVI, HDMI, or VGA. My videocard is a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 installed on an ASRock X79 Extreme4 motherboard with a Core i7-4930K and 16GB of memory. I'm looking to purchase a second GTX 970 at some point in the future for SLI. —Roland Sauer 
The Doctor Responds: Good call on the second 970, Roland. One GTX 970 won't be fast enough for most games dialed up to their highest settings. A word of caution, though: a very limited number of today's titles need more than 4GB (alright, it's mostly just Grand Theft Auto V at this point). But you can see where the industry is headed, right? The fact that 512MB of the 970's 4GB on-board memory is much slower could affect performance in situations when the RAM runs out. Enough alarmism, though. You asked about a monitor cable. Without question, use the B286HK's DisplayPort interface. There's a cable included in the retail package, so making the connection with your Gigabyte card should be easy. Going with DVI or HDMI instead will either result in a resolution lower than 3840x2160 or a refresh rate below 60Hz. Salvaging Old PartsI've never built a PC, but would like to experience the feeling of accomplishment that I'm sure comes from such a project. After hitting up yard sales this past spring, I picked up a couple of used machines (an old Compaq and an eMachines box). Are there motherboards that would work as the foundation for a practical system, given my lack of experience and old hardware? I'm not looking to game. Rather, I just want to bring new life to an old PC. I could use a system that supports TV tuning and video editing. I don't even need much storage. However, a motherboard able to accommodate a CPU upgrade would be nice. I was thinking about going with EVGA's X99 Micro and Intel's Core i7-5930K. If that's overkill for an old eMachine case, could you set me straight? —Jo Shmo The Doctor Responds: There are plenty of ways to compromise and save money as you collect the pieces for your first PC. But if you're in the market for an $800 processor and motherboard combination (that's before getting into the memory, graphics, and storage to balance those high-end parts), don't waste your time trolling yard sales. It's not that the Doc has something against recycling decrepit hardware. He's simply trying to save you the trouble of getting elbows-deep into a chassis that might not even give your Core i7 ample airflow, only to discover it also uses non-standard dimensions that are unfriendly to modern ATX power supplies and microATX motherboards. With so many snazzy cases selling for less than $100, give those high-end parts a home you'll be proud to gaze upon. Submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpc.com |
| Ask the Doctor: Future-Proofed PSU, Storage Dilemmas, Windows 10 Upgrade Posted: 23 Oct 2015 11:09 AM PDT This article was published in the November 2015 issue of Maximum PC. For more trusted reviews and feature stories, subscribe here. The Doctor tackles your questions about:- Prebuilt PCs
- Outdated GPUs
- Coil whine
PSU Prebuilt PerilHey Doc, I purchased a great system at a great price: Lenovo's K450e with a Core i7-4790, 12GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, a 128GB SSD, DVD R/W drive, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, a GTX 750 Ti 2GB, and an Intel B85-based mobo, for $840. But I'm freaking out after discovering its PSU is only rated for 280W. Should I be concerned? —Andy Anderson
The Doctor Responds: As enthusiasts, we tend to over-budget in anticipation of the future. If the Doc builds a PC today, he wants it to handle tomorrow's upgrades, too. But tier-ones like Lenovo put cost above expansion—and understandably so. Fortunately, a little bit of math will help you rest easy. Two components use a majority of your machine's power: its CPU and graphics card. The Core i7-4790 is rated for 84W. That's its average with all cores active under a taxing Inteldefined workload. Nvidia's GTX 750 Ti has a 60W graphics card power specification. Together, they add up to less than 150W, and that's with both subsystems under load. Now, the memory, hard drive, SSD, and mobo all use power, too. But you can see how even a 280W supply could be considered ample. Worry about the PSU when it comes time to upgrade. Swapping out your graphics card for something faster—say, a GTX 980—would put you close to the supply's ceiling and fall well short of Nvidia's 500W requirement. Optimizing StorageDear Doc, as an avid reader of Maximum PC. I find myself needing your advice. Last year, I bought a loaded system from CyberPowerPC. Although I'm not a gamer, I love its performance. It has a 256GB SSD and 1TB hard drive. Foolishly, I assumed the SSD would host my OS and the applications would install to the mechanical disk. Needless to say, that's not what happened. Now my SSD is almost full and my hard drive almost empty. How do I transfer the programs? What should I do? —John Digilio The Doctor Responds: Getting the most out of solid-state storage is a balancing act, John. Naturally, you want Windows on that SSD. But there's a good chance you'll want other games and productivity-oriented apps on it as well. Moving user data should be easy. Movies, music, pictures, and documents can live on the disk; they're not particularly performance-sensitive, and tend to eat up lots of capacity. Software isn't always as modular. Try removing programs through Windows's Control Panel. Then, when you reload them, pay attention to the install path. If One SSD Is Good...Doctor, first and foremost, I love the magazine and read every issue from cover to cover! I do have a question concerning SSDs in RAID 0. I've found so much conflicting information about the benefits of striping SSDs that I'm now rethinking my purchase of two 512GB Samsung 850 Pros to run this way. Please set the record straight. What kind of speed increase can I expect? What are the chances of data loss if a member falls out? If it helps in any way, this is a brand new rig that will be used for general computing, photo and video editing, and gaming (specifically Star Wars: Battlefront). I'll be using a WD Black 3TB drive as my photo and video repository and mass storage. I have a Core i7 chip on an Asus Maximus VII mobo, with 16GB of RAM and Win10. Thank you very much in advance; I'm freaking out that I'm going to do something to hurt performance, rather than giving me an advantage over a single SSD. —Matt Sembrat The Doctor Responds: The Doc uses systems configured both ways. His personal workstation hosts two 256GB SSDs that operate independently and a 2TB disk. Meanwhile, the PC he uses to capture uncompressed video for GPU benchmarking has four Crucial m4s in RAID 0. Their sequential throughput is imperative to avoid dropped frames at 2560x1440, despite the risk of a failed drive bringing down the whole array. This is a judgement call, Matt, but in a "daily driver" machine, the Doc avoids striped configurations. Minimizing vulnerability is key to maximizing uptime, and with so much performance available from drives like your 850 Pros, the risk hardly seems worthwhile. Yes, you'll see significantly higher sequential transfer rates. To what end, though? And if one drive goes out, your data is lost. Then again, you did call out video editing. If you're truly serious about that, why not snag another, smaller SSD for Windows, and use the two 850 Pros in RAID 0 for working with those large files? Where Are They Now?Doc, I built my current system (a Core i7-960 with 6GB of RAM on an MSI Big Bang X power mobo) about five years ago, and it's served me well. I updated the videocard from a Radeon HD 5870 to an R9 290X. But with consumer HMDs around the corner and Win10 out, it's time for a new system. I'd like to cut costs without sacrificing much performance, so I'm going to keep using the R9 290X. Is there any reason I couldn't also reuse my PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1,200W PSU? Also, what happened to PC Power and Cooling? Back in the day, they were the company for PSUs. But after they were acquired by OCZ, they seemed to fade away. —Philip Hodgdon The Doctor Responds: Indeed, Philip. PC Power and Cooling made great hardware. The Doc is still using its Pro-Source 1500 uninterruptable power supply, in fact. When Toshiba acquired OCZ, it wanted to focus on the SSD business. So, PC Power and Cooling was sold to a third party called FirePower Technology. FirePower is supporting OCZ's previous customers by honoring their warranties. With that said, by all means, continue using your Turbo-Cool 1200W. It's a beast of a power supply. 
The GTX 960 is aimed at 1080p gamers. Its 128-bit memory bus is narrow, yet ample for smooth frame rates at that resolution. Fresh Windows 10Dear Doctor, I have a home-built PC running Win8.1. Recently, I signed up to get the free Win10 upgrade. I'm also planning on upgrading my mobo, CPU, GPU, and memory within the next six months. How do I then perform a clean install of Windows 10? Do I have to first install Windows 8, and then upgrade again? Or can I create an ISO once I upgrade my hardware and boot from that? I am soooo confused! Thank you. —Carlos Lozano The Doctor Responds: Microsoft makes available a media creation tool, Carlos, which you can use to fashion your own bootable flash drive or DVD. Download it here: http://bit.ly/1IIFygh. Once you upgrade, it's no longer necessary to start with Win8. Alternatively, if you plan to keep your existing storage subsystem, it's possible to "Reset this PC," cleaning up the existing installation and saving you the trouble of reformatting. Hit Start, select "Settings," click "Update & security," and choose the "Recovery" option. It's a ScreamHey Doc, I've had a Corsair AX850 since 2010, and never had a problem with it. However, I recently upgraded my graphics card from a Radeon HD 7870 to an MSI GeForce GTX 970, and I noticed the new card emits a significant amount of coil whine. I used to hear this occasionally from my 7870, but not to the same extent. Searches online suggest it could be attributable to the PSU. Is that true? Is there a way to alleviate it? —Bradley Burr The Doctor Responds: According to the Doc's contacts at Nvidia, your PSU probably isn't the problem. That's a well-built PSU, and a good match to the GeForce GTX 970. More likely is that you're hearing the whine in a menu or an older DirectX 9-based game, where your frame rates are up in the hundreds (run Fraps in the background to verify). The GTX 970 is significantly faster than your old Radeon, which is why the issue is more apparent now. Try dialing in more demanding settings, running a higher resolution, or turning on Adaptive V-Sync in the Nvidia Control Panel to bring your frame rate down. If none of those help, consider replacing your MSI board. Data CrammingHey there Doc, I just subscribed and I'm already a big fan. I owned a GeForce GTX 960 for two weeks before returning it for a 970, primarily because of the 960's narrow 128-bit bus. Doesn't this make the 4GB version of the card just about as good as the 2GB variant? I understand Nvidia's Maxwell architecture has good compression, but it would still seem to me that, at the very least, the last gigabyte of GDDR5 is next to useless. —Austin Hickey The Doctor Responds: While it's certainly possible to debate certain design decisions, the Doc finds it easier to categorize graphics cards by target resolution and pick the right specs from there. Nvidia's GTX 960 is decidedly optimized for 1920x1080 gaming. In most titles, 2GB of memory is plenty at that resolution, and spending more for 4GB isn't necessary. While it's true a 128-bit memory bus isn't particularly wide, the Maxwell architecture's efficiency enables the GTX 960 to keep up with boards endowed with much more theoretical throughput. In short, you're correct. But the reasons why go beyond just the memory bus. Meanwhile, your GTX 970 sneaks its way into the 2560x1440 category. A wider bus and more GDDR5 are instrumental in maintaining the balance needed to push an additional million-and-a-half pixels per frame. Moral of the story: don't get fooled into buying mainstream graphics cards loaded with more memory than makes sense. They're great for vendors looking to charge a premium, but rarely return much on your extra investment. Submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpc.com |
| Microsoft Delays Edge Extension Support to 2016 Posted: 23 Oct 2015 09:57 AM PDT Delay could push users over Edge  Even though Windows 10 is off to a fast start with over 110 million installs since launching at the end of July, users haven't been as quick to adopt Microsoft's Edge browser. Adding an extensions ecosystem might help, but we won't find out until sometime next year. A Microsoft spokeswoman told ComputerWorld in an email the Edge team is "actively working to develop a secure extension model" and plans to share more about it "in a future Windows 10 update in 2016." Previously, Microsoft promised to support add-ons in Edge in 2015, but that's no longer the case. The spokeswoman also said that "bringing extensions to Microsoft Edge continues to be a higher priority." That's as it should be if Microsoft hopes for Edge to gain any kind of significant market share in the browser market. As it stands now, Edge barely registers a blip with a 2.4 percent share of the browser market, according to data by Net Applications. First place goes to Internet Explorer 11 with a 25.26 percent share, followed by Chrome 45 (15.25 percent), IE 8.0 (11.71 percent), Firefox 40 (7.58 percent), and on down the list. The good news for Microsoft is that Edge continues to inch upwards, albeit slowly. Through the end of August, Edge sat at a 2.03 percent share of the browser market. It's since gone up 0.37 percent in one and half months -- not exactly cause for celebration, but it's better than remaining still or, even worse, losing share. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Ask the Doctor: PCIe Bandwidth, Non-Gaming Builds, Platform Upgrade Posted: 23 Oct 2015 09:55 AM PDT This article was published in the December 2015 issue of Maximum PC. For more trusted reviews and feature stories, subscribe here. The Doctor tackles your questions about: - BIOS Settings
- Bottleneck speeds
- Non-gaming PCs
IDE To AHCIGreetings Doctor. My PC has a 256GB SSD as its primary drive. Back when I installed it, I neglected to tell the BIOS to boot up in AHCI mode. There aren't a lot of clear guides on how to properly make this switch without reinstalling Windows, unfortunately. I know it involves a registry tweak and booting into safe mode to get the ACHI drivers loaded. But is this even recommended? Alternatively, when I make the jump to Windows 10, will I be able to finally tell my motherboard to boot in ACHI mode after a fresh installation? –Kevin Bunkley The Doctor Responds: To answer your first question, Kevin, yes, enabling the AHCI driver through your registry is a perfectly viable approach. In fact, Microsoft has a support page addressing this exact question at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/922976. There, you'll find a "Fix this problem" link able to make the tweak without your intervention. If you'd rather step through the process manually, start by opening regedit. Navigate to either "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci" or "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSetServices\IastorV," depending on the software you currently have installed. On the righthand side of the window, under the column called "Name," you should see an entry titled "Start." Right-click it and choose the default option, "Modify." Make sure the Value data field is populated with a "0" and click OK. Close regedit and restart. AHCI enabled, turn it on in your firmware. When you make the jump to Windows 10, there's a good chance you'll be upgrading. As far as the Doc knows, that process won't touch your BIOS. So make the switch to AHCI first, then install Windows 10. Preventing BottlenecksI'm running a Core i7-4771 (Haswell) on an MSI Z97S SLI Plus motherboard with 16GB of memory, an Intel SSD 750 400GB drive, and a GeForce GTX 770 graphics card. I understand that the two PCIe slots are capable of supporting one device in x16 mode or two in x8. Am I limiting my Intel SSD or Nvidia GPU in any way? Second, does the LGA 2011 interface offer more lanes to the PCIe slots? I've read that they come with 40 lanes, but want to confirm the specifications. –Robert Harris The Doctor Responds: That SSD 750 definitely isn't limited in any way, Robert. It employs a four-lane interface, so a x8 link is more than enough. In theory, your GeForce card is getting less PCI Express bandwidth than it supports, but today's GPUs are not bottlenecked by PCIe throughput. Stick with one GTX 770 and you'll be fine. Where you'll run into trouble is if you find yourself short on graphics processing power in the future. Although MSI's Z97S SLI Plus has three PCIe x16 slots, populating them all divides the CPU's PCI Express into one x8 and two x4 links. Nvidia doesn't allow SLI across four-lane connections, so you're forced to replace that GTX 770. Enter the LGA 2011-v3 interface. Intel currently sells three different Haswell-E chips: Core i7-5960X, -5930K, and -5280K. Two sport 40-lane PCIe 3.0 controllers, while the last gives you 28 lanes. Depending on the motherboard, the highest-end models would let you run a pair of graphics cards in SLI using x16 links. The entry-level version gives you a pair of cards at x8 with the SSD 750 at x4 and lanes left over. Right now, though, there's really no reason to fret. 
Intel's SSD 750 sits on four lanes of third-gen PCI Express to deliver low latency and blistering storage performance. Why Gaming?It seems like all of the kick-ass computer builds emphasize gaming. How about a state-of-the-art system built with video rendering, photography, and business in mind? I imagine it'd need the latest chipset, memory, and processor, but not expensive cooling or video cards. –Bob Elman The Doctor Responds: Games are some of the most performance-sensitive applications available, so it's hardly a surprise that gamers tend to be first in line for hardware upgrades. But while 3D-heavy titles are biased to graphics processing, workstation software can tax your host processor, system memory, or even the storage subsystem. The Doc's advice is to build your PC based on the applications you plan to run. Many rendering engines are tuned for multi-threaded CPUs, utilizing every core you throw at them. The same goes for popular video and photo editing apps, along with many coding suites. Increasingly, though, developers are getting big speed-ups from offloading their workloads to graphics resources, which handle certain parallelized tasks more efficiently. Just be careful—some optimizations are manufacturer- or API-specific. Know the features of your favorite software and you'll have the information needed to configure your next machine. If you're looking for a general (and admittedly unguided) recommendation, try this on for size. The Doc likes Intel's Core i7-5820K with six cores and an unlocked multiplier. Load your favorite X99-based motherboard up with four 4GB DDR4 modules and drop in fairly high-end graphics card—GeForce GTX 770/Radeon R9 290 or better. Of course, if you're working in a modeling program that requires OpenGL, consider a Quadro or FirePro card instead. PCIe-attached SSDs are hot right now, but you'll be fine with a quick SATA drive. Just remember to add plenty of mechanical storage for all of those big project files. The result looks an awful lot like a gaming PC, but it's well-balanced for most pro uses too. The Right BIOS SettingHey Doc, I am upgrading my PC's hard drive to a SSD. From what I have found on the Internet, everyone recommends changing the BIOS settings to AHCI. I seem to have three options available: ICH SATA Control Mode, Onboard SATA/ IDE Device, and Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode. Should all of these settings be changed to AHCI, or will IDE mode work fine? My motherboard is an older Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R running Windows 7 64-bit. –Brett Walton The Doctor Responds: It looks like you're on the Integrated Peripherals page of your BIOS, which is correct. The latter two settings you refer to control Gigabyte's add-on SATA 2 controller. It's a discrete piece of logic separate from Intel's chipset. Assuming your hard drive is attached to one of the SATA2_0/1/2/3/4/5 ports, ignore those fields. Set the first one you mentioned (the manual refers to it as SATA RAID/AHCI Mode, but it might have been renamed ICH SATA Control Mode in a subsequent BIOS update) to AHCI. If you do this before adding an SSD, the Windows installation on your existing disk will display an error as it tries to boot. That's because there's no AHCI driver installed. Fix that by following the Doc's instructions to Kevin Bunkley at the top of this month's column. Alternatively, switch to AHCI before swapping in the SSD and reinstalling Windows. Windows 10 UpgradeDear Doctor, what is the best approach for upgrading a computer to Windows 10 and an NVMe-capable SSD once they're available? I want to retrofit my four-year-old machine running Windows 7 Ultimate, an Asus P8Z68 Deluxe, Core i5-2500K, Radeon HD 7900-series, 8GB of RAM, and Xonar Essence STX sound card. If I update to Windows 10 now and then install the new SSD later, will I need to reinstall Windows 7 in order to get Windows 10 back, or is there another approach? –V Ryan The Doctor Responds: Good news, V. Windows 10 and NVMebased SSDs are available and successfully being used together. If you update a retail copy of Windows 7 to Windows 10 now, it shouldn't be necessary to reinstall Windows 7 when you buy the SSD later (that may not be the case for OEM copies). What happens, in theory, is that your update is initially activated online with Microsoft. From there, you can use the media creation tool, producing a thumb drive or DVD with the install routine on it. When you go to reinstall Windows on the same machine that was originally upgraded, you're able to skip entering the product key. Windows will activate itself automatically online. There may be a twist as you start swapping out hardware, though. Microsoft's original verbiage stated that significantly changing a hardware configuration would trigger a re-activation (similar to previous versions of Windows), and that this would nullify the free upgrade offer. It's now suggested that a retail copy of the operating system can be transferred to this "new" PC. In either case, you'd be entitled to keep Windows 10, though it might be easiest to upgrade after installing the SSD. Upgrade PathsHey, Doc! I need your advice on a future upgrade, as I plan to replace my CPU and motherboard. I do a lot of Lightroom processing, some Photoshop, and very little gaming. I also stream movies to my PS3, browse the web of course, and rip Blu-ray movies to my hard drive for streaming. I looked at Intel's Core i7-4790K and Core i5-4690K. Would I see the difference between them in those applications? Can Lightroom/Photoshop use some GPU cycles to speed up? My current specs include a Core i5-2500K at its stock clock rate, an Asus P8Z68-V LX motherboard, 16GB of G. Skill memory, an XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB, Samsung's 840 120GB SSD, and a 3TB mechanical hard drive. Thanks for your help. –Max Dufresne 
The Doctor Responds: Intel's Core i5-2500K remains a great processor, Max. It'd be disingenuous of the Doc to claim you'll feel the difference between it and a Haswell-based processor in most tasks. There are other reasons to upgrade platforms, though. By the time you read this, Intel's Skylake-based lineup should be available, and the Z170 chipset offers some I/O options not possible with the Z68 board. Given the applications you run, a platform upgrade would probably be more meaningful than a new graphics card. However, Lightroom and Photoshop do utilize your GPU for certain functions. According to Adobe, Lightroom employs OpenGL 3.3 to accelerate adjustments in the Develop module. Photoshop has features accelerated by both OpenGL and OpenCL. If you make heavy use of those filters, then that 6870 might be hampering performance more than you might guess. Submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpc.com |
| Razer Opens OSVR Hacker Development Kit Pre-Orders to General Public Posted: 23 Oct 2015 09:24 AM PDT Let the frenzy begin  Razer is now accepting pre-orders from the general public for its Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) Hacker Development Kit (version 1.3), a head mounted display for VR production, the company announced. This is the first VR headset from OSVR for use by general consumers and industry developers alike. It's already proven popular, as Razer sold out of its first batch of units. The peripheral makers said it experienced "overwhelming demand by over 10,000 pre-registrants" that were granted early access a full 24 hours prior to public availability. "Pre-order for the next batch of units is now available as production is stepped up to make more units available to meet demand," Razer said. Razer first revealed its OSVR platform earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. OSVR is an aggressive attempt to set an open standard for VR input devices and games. It has the backing of Intel, Gearbox, LeapMotion, and a few other industry players. The OSVR headset provides 360-degree positional tacking in combination with an IR camera operating at 100Hz. Razer upgraded the newest build with a 5.5-inch Full HD 1080p OLED display with support for Low Persistence, a technique that's supposed to reduce motion blur. Pre-order pricing is set at $300 direct from Razer. Units will ship starting November 23, 2015. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| EK Launches AIO Water Cooler with Quick Disconnect Posted: 23 Oct 2015 06:33 AM PDT 
Looking for a new, simple way to keep your CPU liquid cooled but don't want the limitations of an all-in-one prefilled solution? Enter the EK-XLC Predator 360, a take on the AIO form factor that provides a nifty quick disconnect (QDC) feature so that you can expand the liquid cooling to string another pre-filled QDC-based water block for the GPU. "Predator utilizes industry standard G1/4 threaded ports and 15.9/9.5mm (5/8" / 3/8") Zero Maintenance rubber tubing (EK-ZMT). It is fully expandable and customizable with all custom-loop liquid cooling gear available in EK's portfolio," says Slovenia-based EK Water Blocks. The company adds that the Quick Disconnect is a "medical grade" product that won't spill a single drop of water. The new Predator AIO cooler contains three in-house developed Vardar high-static pressure fans that are mounted in the 360mm CoolStream PE radiator. This radiator actually measures 415x133x68mm, allowing it to be mounted in most mid- and full-tower cases. It also has a full copper core for better heat dissipation. 
Connecting to the radiator are two ZMT "evaporation free" tubes measuring 3/8 to 5/8 inch. The Supremacy MX CPU water block is enthusiast grade, specifically designed for Intel CPUs. The company says that the copper base is "carefully machined," made of the purest copper available and polished with a mirror finish. Finally, the Predator 360 includes a six-watt DDC liquid-cooling pump that EK says provides up to three times better performance than other AIO solutions on the market. The cooler also sports an integrated fan-splitter hub for cable management, which can tuck away the single SATA molex cable that powers the cooler and the one PWM cable that connects to the CPU fan socket. As previously mentioned, the Predator 360 is designed for Intel processors, specifically LGA-115x and LGA-2011(-3) CPU sockets. AMD fans will have to wait until 2016 before EK provides a version of the Predator 360 for their processors. And as hinted at the beginning on the article, EK also plans to release a version for GPUs as well, which will be launched soon… November 5 in fact. The EK-XLC Predator 360 for Intel processors is available now through EK Webshop and the company's network of resellers for a somewhat meaty price of $240. The company did not say how much the GPU version will cost when it's released, so stay tuned. |
| Build It: Breathing New Life into an Old Box Posted: 23 Oct 2015 12:00 AM PDT This article was published in the November 2015 issue of Maximum PC. For more trusted reviews and feature stories, subscribe here. An upgrade can give your aging PC a new round of usefulness, even with older architecturesLength of Time: 1 Hour | Level of Difficulty: Easy The Flight PlanHere at Maximum PC, we often build new rigs from scratch. We have the option of using just-in, bleeding-edge, nerd-porn-worthy parts, or remixing a fresh build idea from our selection of parts we've already built and reviewed. Either way, builds are usually using newer-generation parts. New! Shiny! This isn't one of those builds. We know that not everyone can or has the desire to go out and build a whole new PC every time. In fact, one of the best parts of building a PC is the fact you can upgrade a system as it begins to show its age. We were digging around in the pile of parts that is the Maximum PC Lab, and we found a frumpy-looking gem: former editor-in-chief Gordon Ung's "Budget Battle" build from our June 2013 issue. Gordon's LGA1155-based Core i5 build won the battle, which pitted three $750 rigs against one another. The battle was over two years ago, and this already less-than-attractive case didn't get any prettier with time. But with a little TLC, we were able to resurrect this rig and get it a little more up to speed. 
InhaleIn Gordon's original build, the PC had a quad-core i5-3350P at its heart. The CPU served the rig well in the competition two years ago, and cost $176 back then. If you can still fi nd it, it now runs about $185. He mounted the CPU onto a $65 ECS H77H2-M3 mobo, which is a basic board that gets the job done. The same mobo is $40 today. For memory, Gordon went with a low-profile Kingston 4GB kit of DDR3 1333. The kit was $26 back then and is around $22 now. The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 OC got replaced with a more modern GTX 970 in our upgrade. The old GTX 660 cost $216 two years ago, and can be found for $150 online today. The storage options were modest as well. The A-Data 32GB SSD, 500GB WD Caviar Blue, and Lite-On iHAS DVD+RW didn't exactly set the world on fire, and cost $45, $55, and $16, respectively. The SSD costs nearly the same now at $40, while the WD Caviar Blue (Western Digital has since dropped the "Caviar" from the product name) is available for about $55 as well. We found the iHAS online for $6. As for the Rosewill case, it's now out of stock on Newegg. When Gordon got it, the basic steel case cost $61. With a copy of Win8, the rig cost $750. Without the OS ($90), the total dropped to $660. With current pricing and without an OS, Gordon's rig would cost $579 today. That's about the same price as a reference model GTX 980. As for our upgrades, we gave this little rig new wings at a cost of $661. | Ingredients | | | | Part | | Price | | GPU | Asus GTX 970 DCMOC | $354 | | Memory | Patriot Viper 3 8GB DDR3 1600 | $50 | | PSU | Rosewill Photon 650W 80 Plus Gold | $90 | | HDD | Seagate Barracuda 1TB | $50 | | SSD | Samsung 850 Evo 250GB | $100 | | Fan | Corsair AF140 White | $17 | | Total | | $661 |
1. The Eye in the SkyThe GTX 970 we upgraded to was by far the most expensive investment in the upgrade. At $354, this GPU is a good $150 more than a GTX 960 that has nearly the same form factor. Since Gordon went with a 660 OC in his original build, we wanted to put in a card that had clear performance gains, but wouldn't let the modest Core i5 hold it back. Even though we regularly build with GTX 980s and above, the GTX 970 is still a very capable graphics card for 1080p gaming. 
The GTX 970's modest TDP of 145W meant that we didn't have to go crazy with our power supply, either. The card only takes a single 8-pin power connector, which is nice considering the lack of cable management options in the case. 2. A Little More LiftWe know that it could be argued that 4GB of memory is plenty for a budget rig, but we really feel that 8GB makes the OS and any games feel a lot more comfortable. After all, there's a good chance you won't be gaming all the time. Browsers, photo editing, and audio applications all get memory-hungry. Eight gigabytes should be enough to satiate them in most circumstances. 
These two 4GB 1,600MHz sticks of Patriot's Viper 3 line were taken from a four-stick 16GB kit we had on hand here. While that kit is a bit more pricey, we looked up the 8GB kit and found it to be around $50. That's about par for the course as far as RAM prices go, so we didn't hesitate to use these two modules. Another thing to notice is that this mobo only has two DIMM slots, so more RAM would require DIMMs with higher capacity. That costs money, another reason to keep it at 8GB. 3. Increased Lung CapacityIf there's one thing we wanted to upgrade, it was the SSD. Solid-state media has gotten cheaper, so we thought it would be reasonable to put money into a higher-capacity and-performance SSD. While the Samsung 850 Evo won't blow your hair back, it's still very speedy. At 250GB, we thought is well worth the $100. For that money, you can have your OS, Steam library, and a good number of apps all on one drive. 
We left in the original 500GB WD Caviar Blue and added in a 1TB Seagate Barracuda. Hard drives can and will fail. Using the Barracuda as a backup for the WD is reasonable. On the flip side, hard drives have a lifespan of about five years. Since this rig is two years old, we could also use the Barracuda as primary storage and the WD as backup for three more years. This should minimize writes and extend the drive's life a little more. 4. Into Thin AirWhen was the last time you saw a case that mounted the power supply up top? For us, it's been quite a while. With few exceptions, modern cases place PSUs on the bottom. There are plenty of reasons for this: to make way for exhaust fans and cooling radiators, to help dissipate heat more effectively, and because installing a heavy PSU above a bunch of pricey components is an unnecessary risk. 
Gordon used a cheapo PSU that came with the case; we decided to replace it with a 650W unit from Rosewill. The PSU is 80 Plus Gold certified, which means that it will actually use more of the power it draws from the wall, not just dissipate it as spare heat. The unit also comes with a five-year warranty, which means that by the time you upgrade the CPU and motherboard in this rig, it will probably still have plenty of life left in it. 5. The Jet StreamOne thing we noticed was the lack of a front fan. With the original configuration, heat wasn't a big issue. And, to be fair, the rear fan has a healthy air-flow rate. However, we felt that with an extra HDD and a stock CPU heatsink and fan, a little extra air couldn't hurt. 
To install the 140mm Corsair case fan, we had to pry off the plastic front panel. From there, we were able to use case fan screws to attach the white LED fan. Easy enough. What we didn't anticipate was the lack of an extra PWM fan connector on the mobo. The H77H2-M3 only has two PWM pinouts: one for the CPU fan, one for a case fan. Lucky for us, the SATA power cables for this PSU have Molex connectors on their ends. We found a Molex-to-PWM connector and plugged it into one of the SATA cables without a problem. 6. Gasp!Immediately obvious with this case was the utter lack of cable management. In terms of PC cabling, this is the stuff of nightmares. What seems like an obvious route for cables—over the horizontal rail and behind the drive bays—is made impossible by a side panel that has an inward (inward!) bevel. When we tried to keep cabling tucked behind the mobo tray, we felt like the case was making fun of us. "Oh, that's cute," it would say. "I bet you'd just love an extra centimeter. Tough luck, hotshot." 
Coupled with the woefully insuffi cient zip ties that came with the PSU, this cable job could have you waking up in cold sweats. We had to stuff the cables behind the drive cage, doing our best to keep them out of the way of the front fan's air flow. The wiring still looks like a mess. 
- We didn't bother adding an aftermarket cooler for this Core i5-3350P. The locked CPU doesn't allow for overclocks and is plenty cool, as-is.
- We didn't go with a Blu-ray and instead stuck with a basic DVD+RW. We popped in a basic Plextor model because, when we found this box, the original drive was missing.
- Only two of the six SATA cables have horizontal ports, which excluded longer GPUs from being used on this mobo. Luckily, our GTX 970 is pretty short.
- The long gray ribbon cable is for the front panel audio. We had to make sure we disconnected this before removing the panel to prevent bent pins.
ExhaleWhen we set out on this project, we specifically wanted to revisit an older build. Oftentimes, upgrading an old PC can feel like reuniting with an old friend you've lost contact with. Some things carry over from the past, but new additions make it much different. However, this wasn't a single cheap upgrade: The total cost of parts we used in the upgrade almost exceeded the original cost of the PC. That said, upgrading the CPU and motherboard would have added another several hundred dollars. By holding on to a slightly older mobo and CPU, we still got a respectable PC for less than the price of a new one. That's not bad, if budget is an issue. And speaking of budget, these upgrades are totally doable as incremental upgrades over time. Adding a fan, storage, and RAM is relatively cheap and easy to do. The graphics is more expensive to modernize, especially since the PSU upgrade is a good idea for the new GPU. As time goes on, upgrading the case, motherboard, and CPU are doable upgrades that could make this PC more current. This rig really chugged along in our timed benchmarks. It took half an hour for it to finish the ProShow export, and almost 20 minutes to finish stitching photos. Even though it had four cores, the modest CPU crunched numbers at a pokey 10.3 frames per second in our X.264 benchmark. In our graphics benchmarks, the GTX 970 made a respectable showing. In 3DMark FireStrike Ultra, this build beat our $800 web Blueprints budget build that sports a GTX 960 and i5-4590. The build scored about 700 points lower than our $1,500 web Blueprints midrange build that has a i7-4790K and GTX 980. That midrange PC's CPU and GPU combo costs $305 more than what's in this entire box, not to mention the midrange's CPU is sitting on a more expensive Z97 board. All things considered, these upgrades provide a marked improvement in performance at a reasonable price. As for the game benchmarks, Batman: Arkham City showed an enjoyably playable 70fps at 1440p, which lets us know that other games will fare well at 1080p, even at higher settings. The GTX 970 couldn't really keep up when it came to 4K gaming, as both Tomb Raider and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor were barely smooth at 28.6fps and 30.6fps, respectively, at 2160p. | Benchmarks | | | | Zero Point | | | Stitch.Efx 2.0 (sec) | 806 | 1,165 (-44.5%) | | ProShow Producer 5.0 (sec) | 1,472 | 1,805 (-22.6%) | | x264 HD 5.0 (fps) | 33.8 | 10.3 (-69.5%) | | Batman: Arkham City 1440p (fps) | 204 | 70 (-65.7%) | | Tomb Raider 2160p (fps) | 87.5
| 28.6 (-67.3%) | | Shadow of Mordor 2160p (fps) | 70.1 | 30.6 (-56.3%) | | 3DMark FireStrike Ultra | 8,016 | 2,484 (-69.0%) |
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. |
