Tech News
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Crucial MX300 2TB SSD Review
Two Terabytes, say it with me. Two Terrabites, oh wait. tara byte(s), dyno bytes?
Nevermind, 2TB is a big deal in the SSD world and while more storage is better for remembering data it also makes doing backups even more difficult. Not a bad thing when the drive is super fast so why not enter the SSD world with the help of Crucial.
the t0o t3rr@by+e world of oysters and non-index(able) news according to google.
Crucial recently released new versions of the MX300 SSD series, among them a huge 2 Terabyte model which we will review. The MX300 series should offer a bit more storage space yet remain more price-competitive at mainstream to high-end class SATA3 performance.
I reviewed the Crucial MX300 750GB last month and have to say it is a solid drive, plenty fast and one of the least expensive drives you can buy with that kind of capacity. We can thank technology for the cost savings.
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AVerMedia Pioneers MPEG-DASH Patent Pools
High-Quality, Uninterrupted Online Media Streaming
December 15, 2016 – Taipei, Taiwan – AVerMedia is officially licensed for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), also known as MPEG-DASH. As one of the world's leading solution providers in digital imaging, AVerMedia is dedicated to the field of streaming ultra-high definition video (UHD) over networks and the internet.
MPEG-DASH is an adaptive-bitrate streaming standard utilizing encoders (such as AVerMedia's live streaming solutions, AVerCaster HEVC series RS9260/ RS9280 and AVerCaster Premium series RS7310/ RS7170/ RS7190) to send high quality videos in sequential, fragmented segments through existing HTTP web servers onto portable devices, set-top boxes, digital video recorders, or software solutions receiving audio/video feeds. The adaptive bitrate automatically adjusts to network conditions to offer hours of flawless streaming of seamless videos while minimizing lag or re-buffering during playback.
In addition to AVerMedia, other licensed companies include Amotech Co., Ltd.; Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.; Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETR), South Korea; Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V, Germany; Hitachi Maxell, Ltd., Japan; Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Japan; Siemens AG, Germany; SK Planet Co., Ltd., South Korea; and The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, USA.
About AverMedia
Established in 1990, AVerMedia is a multinational company specializing in hardware and software for image capturing and video transmission solutions, aiming to enrich entertainment experiences and provide effective communication between people in a wide range of professional fields. With the pursuit of continuous research and development of digital imaging technologies, AVerMedia has become one of the world's leading digital imaging brands for consumer, corporate and industrial markets. “Embedded Vision” and “Encode & Live Stream” solutions are core technologies of AVerMedia. In addition to hardware development, AVerMedia is also devoted to the development of proprietary software. Together with outstanding services, AVerMedia is able to offer a total solution that is tailored-made to meet your needs. For more information please check AVerMedia’s website: http://www.avermedia.com/professional -
Throwback Time: Gigabyte GA-7DXR
For this edition of Throwback Thursday I've decided to go back to a time when Gigabyte motherboards were actually blue. Believe it or not but before black was the PCB color of choice there was a land rush to brand products based on PCB color. Gigabyte choose Blue, Soltek was all over the place but really Red, DFI did Red and Black boards and Asus did baby sh1t brown.
The GA-7DXR is an Socket A based motherboard using the AMD 761 chipset and VIA south bridge. It came with AGP Pro and a vareity of onboard jumpers used to configure your CPU speed and voltage. (read: overclocking controls). There were even holes in the motherboard for heatsink mounting.
Socket A overclocking was "the thing" during this time and this motherboard offered exceptional performance and way too many overclocking combos between CPU and Memory speed adjustments. It used standard DDR memory in what I believe was a single channle configuration. NVidia would start the dual channel movement on the nForce.
Many of the feaures we find on Gigabyt emotherboard today were present on the GA-7DXR inlcuding dual BIOS, overclocking and a very confusing VRM. If memory serves this one is a 4-phase design and was long before the VRM land rush of "later".
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SilverStone Redline RL05 @ techPowerUp
When it comes to "cheap cases" we are often conditioned to accept that we might be adding some blood to our builds or won't be able to use that 140mm AIO watercooler we got for Christmas last year.
However it doesn't have to be that way, in fact there are plenty of inexpensive cases on the market with features you wouldn't expect and even come standard without any razor sharp edges.
The Silverstone Redline RL05 aims to offer a modern I/O and interior design at a budget price. With two 140 mm fans right out of the box, it'll be interesting to see whether it can hold its own when redlining in the crowded sub-70 dollar price segment.
Be sure to check out my review of the Silverstone Redline RL05, the case is pretty good and a good starting point for any modding project.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 PCI-Express Scaling @ techPowerUp
TechPowerUp has been doing this test for many years and while it is an interesting experiment with a lot of benchmarks across even more pages you may be wondering "why"?
Well, the tests go along with my Hardware Asylum Multi GPU Index testing that is included with each motherboard. For the best performance you want to make sure your video card has what it needs to work well.
In looking at the TPU charts you'll see some rather confusing numbers and they all make a really pretty curve and based on your system you can get an rough idea as to what your performance factor may be.
In this article, we investigate how performance of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 is affected when running on constrained PCI-Express bus widths such as x8 or x4. We also test all PCIe speed settings, 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0. One additional test checks how much performance is lost when using the chipset's PCIe x4 slot.
Many of us get hung up on the numbers, we are enthusiasts, that is what we do. However, for the average user a 5 or even 10 FPS difference in XYZ game at QRT resolution using LMO settings is hardly a reason to say a certain video card is bad. Or, that running 8x vs 16x is the end of the world.
#justsayin
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Asylum: Review Block - Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5t
One of the coolest cases I have ever seen was released last week and is the epitome of what a factory modded case should be. No more of this:
"we removed the external drive bays, yay mods" or
"oh look we have a side window, you can see your stuff, yay mods" of even
"We used exotic materials in our case, you can't do this, yay mods"Instead we have a Cooler Master MasterCase 5 with tempered glass side panels, locks on both panels, a single carry handle, soft rubber grip, three 140mm fans included and hooked to a fan bus and LED controller. magnetic LED strip included and a factory metallic red applied to the motherboard tray and accented across the exterrior.
Stunning!
Web Reviews:
Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5t Case Review @ Hardware Asylum- Cooler Master MasterBox 5T Review @ Vortez (I guess in the UK they were sending out MasterBox editions, fear not the MasterCase Maker is better)
- Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5t Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5t Review at Modders-Inc
- Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5t Case Review @ ThinkComputersThis should be the last major Cooler Master release until CES so stay tuned for more CM Extras!
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SeeMeCNC Rostock MAX v3 @ LanOC Reviews
With a name like SeeMeCNC you would assume they make CNC machines but, that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact this is a 3D printer.
Would have been nice to see that in the title but, SEO or something right? Make'em click and all that jazz. Some of you may have seen this machine before, they seem to be in every mall kiosk and shown in the background of many popular YouTube shows.
Most of you know the saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. Well when it comes to trinkets and other cool stuff, 3d printers are the same. You Can buy small items or you can print your own cool stuff. Early this year I did just that. I covered SeeMeCNC’s new at the time Eris and even well past my coverage I had one and then later two printers running all of the time in the office. I was having a blast but I really needed to go BIGGER. Well, a few months ago they sent over their new v3 model of their Rostock MAX, the big guy. With vacation and everything it took me a little while to get going, but I have been running the printer for a long time now and it’s about time I sit down and tell everyone about my experience with SeeMeCNC’s new printer. You might want to get comfortable, this might be a long one.
Its almost like they are taking the easy way out when it comes to advertising, e.g. let others do it for you.
Despite how complex the device looks it appears to be controlled by a single PCB and a rather large PSU (likely to heat the plastic) Designs are likely programmed in using a regular PC. -
GeIL EVO X GEX416GB3200C16DC 2x8GB DDR4 RAM Review @ APH Networks
Pretty short description for such a cool chunk or RAM.
The GeIL EVO X GEX416GB3200C16DC 2x8GB is lit. Literally.
For those of you who don't know the GeIL EVO X is a dual channel DDR4 kit with an RGB LED module attached. You can manually change the colors using a slide switch across the top OR you can plug them into a RGB motherboard header and control them using the motherboard software.
Ideally you could also use a manual controller if you happen to use one of them fancy "mega button" remotes.
Be sure to check out our capsule review of these modules along with some of the lighting effects.
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NZXT S340 Elite Case Review @ ThinkComputers
Tempered glass is everywhere, in your shower, in your car and now on your PC. Given how popular tempered glass side panels have been it is no surprise that case makers are scrambling to figure out how to retrofit their popular designs to handle the heavy glass.
They can even give them new names like "Elite"
One of the best parts of PC building is the seemingly limitless number of choices available when it comes to hardware. But sometimes this can be a bad thing and you are simply overwhelmed with options and choosing what part is best for you can be tough. Take cases for instance, there is literally a sea of computer chassis’ on the market and picking which one suits your needs and desires can be a daunting task. Luckily we here at ThinkComputers have your back and today we are taking a look at NZXT’s latest mid tower chassis, the S340 Elite. This mid tower comes equipped with a full Tempered Glass side panel and several features that should make it very friendly to VR. Follow along as we find out if the S340 Elite stands out of the crowd or if it should be thrown back with the other fish.
Oh, and i guess VR is a thing now too. The technology has been around for years and is just now getting a resurgence and enough attention to get people excited. I guess that is two things now. tempered glass and... VR in the same package.
Who knew?
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An Interesting Discussion on Reddit about Overclocking
I'm a firm believer that reddit (https://www.reddit.com/) is a rather pointless web platform filled with millennial idiocy and pr0n but, every once in awhile there are interesting things to be found. For instance, in the /r/overclocking subreddit you would image there to be discussions about overclocking but, instead you normally find folks asking for technical help with questions formed as clickbait to find out if water in their PSU is bad. *roll*
One thread caught my eye and I’m going to repost my interaction here, just for fun.
Title: Good, cheap X79 Motherboard?
I'm looking for a good and cheap X79 motherboard to pair along with my Xeon E5-2670, but I can only find Intel X79 motherboards under $200 and I don't have much of a budget for the motherboard so I'm scrambling to find a good and cheap X79 motherboard for overclocking the E5-2670 and as an overall good motherboard. Do you guys have any recommended X79 motherboards?Also, I'm beginning to dabble into overclocking and GPU overclocking seems easy enough with MSI Afterburner, you just max out the settings and look at the stress, right? (I'm a newb at overclocking. Will be using a EVGA GTX 1060 6GB SC as my GPU.)
I'm completely lost on overclocking CPUs, though, so if anyone could help me with overclocking an E5-2670, that be amazing.
Will use a Cryorig H7 and Kingston HyperX 16GB 1600mhz DDR3 RAM.
Thanks everyone!
Ok so the question mark is suspect but I figured hey, let’s reply and see what happens.
What really bothers me about reddit is that some readers really are asking for help while others appear to be unable to make a decision on their own. This poster appears to frequent Overclock.net given their knowledge of the LGA 2011 Xeon so it makes me wonder why they even bothered asking.
Here was my reply.
GTX 1060 isn't all that good for overclocking, Sure you can crank a few extra Mhz but the performance gain isn't all that much. Then again I'm speaking from LN2 exp and for me "on air" overclocking is kinda pointless.
As for the X79 mobo it depends on what you want to do. Not many of them support Xeon CPUs so you'll be limited by making sure the UEFI supports your CPU "and" has overclocking adjustments. For the most part all of the big mfgs support what you will need so it comes down to features you want and if you plan to go subzero at some point.
No solid recommends but, I'm a fan of the X79 Dark, X79 ROG "whatever" and the MSI X79 Xpower. All do great on LN2/SS, if you want air the Asus P9X79 is good along with most anything from Gigabyte or MSI. (seeing a trend here? thought you might)
Whatever you decide make sure the VRM is cool else you'll run into stability problems and invest in a decent cooler. Not saying the Cryorig H7 is a bad cooler but, I find it difficult to take any heatsink you can buy at Walmart serious. #justsayin Think AIO or a single 6-pipe tower with dual fans (push+pull).
It would seem my GTX 1060 comment ruffled some feathers and spawned three independent replies and by far this is the best one.
[–]flipmatthew 1 point 1 day ago*
You saying air overclocking is pointless is stupid, sounds elitist, and goes againstthe point of overclocking: Get the most performance for you dollar. I have a full water loop, I get that it's better, but don't shit on it. Air does really well now too.[–]redmax_4930K@5.1Ghz 1.45v 1 point 1 day ago
I'm not trying to sound like I am against overclocking, I do it all the time and even have special equipment to get the most from my overclocking. The point is the actual performance gains from overclocking are getting smaller (duh). Sure, you can say I have a GTX 10XX card running at 2Ghz but if you're already pushing 100FPS in a game that extra 10 isn't going to do you any good.Likewise getting the most from your dollar is an illusion when you can't buy a waterblock for a GTX 1060 or cannot buy a VRM block for an X79. Same is true when board makers overbuild a PCB but are unable to offer the tools required to unlock the card.
Casual (air/water) overclocking is bought these days and how far you push it is based entirely on how much you spend.
[–]flipmatthew 2 points 22 hours ago
Great points!! Always nice to hear a different perspective (also, it's sad but true that a lot of it is bought todayThere were some others, mostly arguing that the GTX 1060 overclocks soooooo well and how could I ever say it didn't. The way the NVidia marketing is written (which is evil good btw) it makes it seem like the Pascal cards are amazing overclockers. And they are if you look at base clock vs overclocked boost clock. Thing people don't realize is that the cards run on boost 100% of the time and often boost past what is advertised when conditions are good.
So ya, the card is overclocking itself and most manual tweaks just cause the card to become unstable. #thanksnvidia
