| No BS Podcast #213: State of the GPU wars, Windows 8.1, and Battlefield 4 Posted: 18 Nov 2013 04:01 PM PST 
No BS Podcast #213: State of the GPU wars, Windows 8.1, and Battlefield 4 On episode #213 of the No BS Podcast we continue our reporting from the front lines of the GPU war between Nvidia and AMD. Next, we break down Battlefield 4's launch issues and compare them to Battlefield 3's. Finally, we ruminate over the arrival of Windows 8.1 and the state of Microsoft before wrapping things up with our editor picks. Gordon then delivers an epic rant on the ever-present anti-PC bias in the media. Editor's Note - This podcast was recorded on November 8th in both audio and video formats. Since then we have been working on editing and uploading the video portion, but have experienced issues with the feed, post production, and Youtube. Rather than delay things any further we are releasing the audio instead of waiting for the video to be finished. Thanks for your patience.   
Editor's Picks Tom McNamara: Deus Ex Human Revolution Director's Cut
Josh Norem: First Gen Google Nexus 7 Can I Stream It? Jimmy Thang: PdaNet+ Gordon Ung: Nvidia Shield
Katherine Stevenson: Trailer Addict Can't get enough Maximum PC? Check us out on the following sites: Subscribe on iTunes Fan us on Facebook Tweet us on Twitter Subscribe to us on Youtube Check out our Windows 8 app in Microsoft's app store Subscribe to our RSS feed If you have any feedback or questions feel free to: Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or Leave us a voicemail at 877-404-1337 x1337 Subscribe to Maximum PC in Print or on Google Play, itunes, Kindle, Nook and Zinio. Thanks for listening! |
| ASRock Z87 Extreme11/ac Mobo Sports 22 SATA and SAS-3 Connectors for Storage Junkies Posted: 18 Nov 2013 11:47 AM PST  More storage ports than you can shake a stick at
Fancy yourself a digital packrat? If oodles of storage options float your boat, you're going to love what ASRock has done with its new Z87 Extreme11/ac motherboard. This slice of silicon is, according to ASRock, "the most high-end Z87 motherboard on the face of the earth!" It's certainly one of the most storage friendly with 22 SATA3 ports, including 6 SATA3 ports by way of Intel's Z87 chipset, and another 16 SAS-3 12.0GB/s ports from the added LSI SAS 3008 controller plus 3X24R Expander. Storage isn't the only selling point. ASRock's newest board features support for 4-way CrossFireX and 4-way SLI with its four PCI-E 3.0 slots at x8/x8/x8/x8 mode. It also has two Thunderbolt connectors, four DDR3-2933+ (OC) DIMM slots, HDMI output, built-in dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth 4.0, dual GbE LAN ports, and various other bullet points. 
Overclockers will appreciate ASRock's premium design decisions, such as gold capacitors, digital PWM, 12-phase power design, 8-layer PCB, multiple filter caps (MFCs), dual-stack MOSFETs, and more. No word on when the Extreme11/ac will be available or for how much. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Nvidia's Tesla K40 GPU Accelerator Offers Monster Performance for Supercomputing Chores Posted: 18 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PST  High power card wields 12GB of GDDR5 memory
Nvidia on Monday took the wraps off of its Tesla K40 GPU accelerator, supposedly the world's highest performance accelerator ever built. The card is intended for extreme performance applications in the fields of scientific research, engineering, high performance computing (HPC), and enterprise applications. For heavy duty tasks, the Tesla K40 GPU boasts twice as much memory as its predecessor (Tesla K20x) and up to 40 percent higher performance, Nvidia says. It also features 10 times higher performance than today's fastest CPU. Such is the strength of Nvidia' Kepler's compute architecture. In this case, the Tesla K40 offers 4.29 teraflops of single-precision and 1.43 teraflops of double-precision peak floating point performance. "GPU accelerators have gone mainstream in the HPC and supercomputing industries, enabling engineers and researchers to consistently drive innovation and scientific discovery," said Sumit Gupta, general manager of Tesla Accelerated Computing products at Nvidia. "With the breakthrough performance and higher memory capacity of the Tesla K40 GPU, enterprise customers can quickly crunch through massive volumes of data generated by their big data analytics applications." Nvidia equipped the card with 12GB of GDDR5 memory and 2,880 CUDA parallel processing cores; memory bandwidth is rated at 288GB/s. On the software side, Nvidia said that there are over 240 professional software applications that take advantage of GPU acceleration. The Tesla K40 is available now and in the coming months from a variety of server manufacturers, Nvidia says. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Sony's 1 Million PlayStation 4 Console Sales in 24 Hours Marred by Complaints of Faulty Hardware Posted: 18 Nov 2013 10:03 AM PST  PlayStation 4 is off to a fast start, but not all owners are happy
At long last, Sony's PlayStation 3 is a last generation console. It took a good seven years to officially reach that status, but with the PlayStation 4 launching to retail over the weekend, Sony can look ahead to a new era in gaming, just as soon as it can figure out what's causing so many reported "Blue LIght of Death" errors. Otherwise, the PS4 is off to a great start with 1 million units finding new homes in the first 24 hours. "PS4 was designed with an unwavering commitment to gamers, and we are thrilled that consumer reaction has been so phenomenal," said Andrew House, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. "Sales remain very strong in North America, and we expect continued enthusiasm as we launch the PlayStation 4 in Europe and Latin America on November 29. We are extremely grateful for the passion of PlayStation fans and thank them for their continued support." Serving as somewhat of a black eye over what's otherwise been a successful launch, some gamers have complained that their consoles were dead on arrival, The Verge reports. Complaints have surfaced on Reddit, Amazon, Sony's support forum, and other places on the web, many of which indicate a persistent blue light. Sony told The Verge that it is "closely monitoring" the situation. The rep also said these reports are an isolated incident and that less than 0.4 percent of units are affected. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Western Digital Plays with Seagate's HAMR Technology, Start Thinking 60TB Hard Drives Posted: 18 Nov 2013 09:17 AM PST  Heat-assisted magnetic recording technology could increase HDD areal density to 4 terabits per inch
We've come a long way from when hard drives were measured in megabytes, and then gigabytes. Today the biggest drives are measured in terabytes, and while that probably won't change for a long time to come -- we're not quite on the cusp of the petabyte era -- owning massive capacity hard drives that dwarf today's offerings could be a commonplace practice in the next few years if Seagate's heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology lives up to the hype. Though HAMR was developed by Seagate, Western Digital thinks it can achieve fives times the areal density of current drives using its own implementation of the technology, TechSpot reports. Well on its way to implementing HAMR in consumer drives, Western Digital recently demonstrated the tech at a Chinese trade show. HAMR is unique in that it temporarily heats up the HDD's surface with a laser while the magnetic head records data. This causes the bits to shrink, thereby significantly increasing area density. To put the technology into perspective, today's drives top out with an areal density of 750 gigabits per inch. HAMR could raise the ceiling to over 4 terabits per inch. Western Digital hasn't made any storage claims with HAMR at the helm, though Seagate has previously said its technology could lead to 60TB desktop hard drives by 2016. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Apple Makes $345 Million Offer for PrimeSense, 3D Sensor Tech Firm Behind the Kinect Posted: 18 Nov 2013 07:04 AM PST 
Acquisition would open a world of opportunities for Apple Perhaps hinting at a future feature of its iPad, iPod touch, and iPad mini devices, it's being reported that Apple snatched up PrimeSense, a fabless semiconductor company in Israel that specializes in low-cost, high-performance 3D sensing and machine vision technologies. The start-up's technology is represented in more than 24 million devices around the world, including Microsoft's original Kinect sensor for the Xbox 360 console. It can also be found in 3D scanning applications like the Asus Xtion. A Calcalist financial newspaper report says the deal went down for $345 million, according to CNET, though AllThingsD says the acquisition has yet to be finalized as the two sides try to negotiate "end-game" issues like liquidity preferences (who gets paid first). In any event, Apple is clearly interested in 3D sensing technology, though it's not clear what the Cupertino company would use it for. There are a number of possible applications, from controlling on-screen AppleTV content through motion controls, to countering Samsung's hands-free swiping capabilities in smartphones. "We are focused on building a prosperous company while bringing 3D sensing and natural interaction to the mass market in a variety of markets such as interactive living room and mobile devices," a spokeswoman for PrimeSense told Reuters. "We do not comment on what any of our partners, customers or potential customers are doing and we do not relate to rumors or recycled rumors." This isn't the first time these two companies have been linked in acquisition reports. It was reported back in July that Apple was trying to buy PrimeSense for around $280 million. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Intel Core i3 3240 Processor, MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard, and More! Posted: 18 Nov 2013 06:26 AM PST |
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