Tech News
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Throw Back Thursday: DFI LanParty nF4 SLI-DR
#TBT Time to throw back 10 years to the year 2005 when DFI launched the LanParty nF4 SLI-DR motherboard. This is arguably one the first SLI ready motherboards on the market and was so popular with the overclocking and enthusiast crowd that it spawned several refreshes including one with high-quality components. The board allowed you to split the PCI Express lanes using a series of jumpers that were removed with a special tool. Other companies used a card and eventually digital switches controlled by the BIOS.
The DFI LanParty also featured an electrically separated audio module that was designed to reduce audio interference. The chip wasn't that good but the effort is something we see on modern motherboards.
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GALAX NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti HOF LN2 Edition
This seems like the right way to offer up a limited edition video card. The cost is a little high but to be expected given that it is designed for overclocking and doesn’t appear to come with a heatsink.
As an owner of a GTX 980 Ti HOF LN2 Edition, you receive access to several privileged VIP extras as well. You will be provided a signature name card by GALAX in recognition of your elite status as an LN2 Edition owner, and this status includes exclusive access to consultation services and technical support directly with R&D engineers and overclock experts.
Only one batch of the GALAX GTX 980 Ti HOF LN2 Edition will ever be produced, and this small quantity will be made available via preorder only for a very short time. GALAX advises any OC enthusiasts seeking to claim a card from this extremely limited edition release to place their orders as promptly as possible in order to secure their place on a very short list of VIPs to own the only production LN2 graphics card in existence.What I really like about the whole situation is that GALAX is offering up this card to the general public instead of building a few and sending them out to a select group of people. I guess the "select group" is now anyone with deep pockets but at least nobody can complain that GALAX didn't try.
BTW the VRM on this card is considerably larger than on the EVGA Classified KPE which should help with high end LN2 overclocking but that doesn't say much about the quality (or ASIC) of the GPU.
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ZOTAC ZBOX P1320 Mini-PC Review @ Vortez
Being a hardware enthusiast is more than gaming on the most powerful hardware or rocking the fastest SSD it is enjoying computer hardware with a purpose and then trying to make it better. Of course, sometimes that sounds better in your head than on paper.
Many small devices require a custom built operating system to match the diminutive size but not this one because the P1320 comes with a fully functional, Windows 8.1 operating system. Nothing has been trimmed away from this OS other than 64bit functionality. At its heart there is an Intel Z3735F quad-core processor running at 1.33GHz (upto 1.8GHz) which also provides the shared graphics. 2GB of DDR3L-1333 memory is available along with a 32GB of storage space (expandable via SD card). Not too shabby for a device that is smaller your average smart phone!
I have yet to physically use a ZBOX but have seen the in action. The larger ones are game ready while the smaller ones chug through spreadsheets like an office admin late for a date. On the surface these trade show demos seem legit but I never know exactly why. One of these times I'll have to find out.
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Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti G1 Gaming 6 GB @ techPowerUp
Saw this card at Computex and am actually a little suprised to see a review of it posted so quickly.
Gigabyte's GTX 980 G1 Gaming comes with a large overclock out of the box, which lets the card surpass GeForce GTX Titan X in performance, at a much lower price. The cooler is also better than the reference heatsink and avoids the 84°C thermal limit at all times. It also turns off its fans in idle and light gaming.
By the looks of it the card is pretty good and keeps the GPU cool under load and overclocking isn't too bad either.
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Computex 2015 Wrap Up
As many of you know Computex started June 2nd and the hellish week put me behind in getting my coverage posted AND by the looks of it there really wasn't that much Computex news coming out of Taipei anyway which is a huge disappointment.
I'd like to say I'm not surprised, of of the editors I ran into a good number of them were from sites at both extremes of the spectrum, (eg large sites and small sites) leaving the juicy middle virtually empty. This middle is where we normally see the bulk of news stories and with that gone it makes you wonder if there is any journalistic future for Computex.
This will be a major talking point in the next Hardware Asylum Podcast so be sure to subscribe to know when that episode drops.
I'll be posting the last three Computex related articles today and then will be getting back to my normal routine of reviews and news.
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Computex 2015 EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Classified Kingpin Edition
This isn’t so much a daily write up but rather a super excited, “I have to get this posted” sort of thing.
As expected with the launch of the GTX 980 Ti EVGA has been refreshing their video card line to accommodate the new chip. The niche flagship is this the GTX 980 Ti Classified KPE (Kingpin Edition). The card features the same VRM found on the 980 Classified with a special bin for LN2 overclocking and a few “warming” features to ensure the best performance when the card is running on Liquid Nitrogen.
The card features a redesigned ACX based heatsink with copper plating over the entire heatsink and then covered with an ornate plastic shroud. Under the heatsink you’ll find a chrome plated heatspreader which is then further reinforced with an EVGA blackplate.
For those of you planning to run this card on air you will of course get exceptional performance but keep in mind that the “special bin” means the ASIC for the GPU is quite poor and will limit above ambient overclocking which is good since when the chip gets colder it should scale quite well.
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Computex Starts Today June 2nd 2015 Taiwan Time
One of the biggest computer hardware shows in the world starts in just a few hours. Per the usual I will try to have daily show reports posted highlighting the cool stuff I see at each of the vendors. Also, keep in mind that while some “go-getters” huff around 50+ pounds of gear to bring you show coverage I’m simply armed with a notebook (the paper kind), my Canon DSLR and a Samsung S4 so there might be a little “lag” in getting things posted.
On the positive I have a FULL schedule planned this year including a good mix of old and new hardware vendors and will most likely miss a few I should go see. Some of the few I am most excited to visit include: EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, NVIDIA, Zotac, DeepCool, InWin, beQuiet, Corsair and Silverstone to name a few.
If there is anything you wish for me to see in person fire off an email or send a message via any of the Social media affiliations linked and set forth on this website (usually @HardwareAsylum, #HardwareAsylum +HardwareAsylum, you get the gist)
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Launch Day
It is launch day again and this time it is a new GPU from Nvidia called the GTX 980 Ti. In following with previous launches Nvidia has positioned this card to be the performance king in the retail channels and designed to deliver so much more.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti Video Card Preview @ Hardware Asylum
Given that this is also Computex week there should be a good number of vendors showing off their custom designs and if anything that is what will be really exciting about the launch.
Web Reviews
- The New King Of High-end: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Review @ Techgage
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Review: A Cheaper Titan X Arrives @ HotHardware
- Nvidia GTX 980 Ti @ LanOC Reviews
- Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card reviewed @ Where?
- NVIDIA GTX 980Ti Review @ Vortez
- The NVIDIA GTX 980Ti Performance Review @ Hardware Canucks
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6 GB @ techPowerUp
- The New Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti: Features and Tech Overview @ Bjorn3dI'm sure there are more reviews out there and I might post a few more as the week goes on. Until then watch for my (our) Computex 2015 coverage.
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Intel Z97 OC-motherboard LN2 review: extreme boards, extreme tests
Testing systems with LN2 is usually something you do for fun but it seems HWInfo is taking things to the next level and tried to determine what motherboard is best suited for LN2 overclocking.
ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte and MSI all claim that they have the ultimate motherboard for extreme overclockers. Hardware.Info wanted to see what board is actually the best, so last year we locked Hardware.Info Pro OC members Joost ‘Rsnubje’ Verhelst and Bauke ‘Nedernakker’ Caspers in our test lab for 48 hours with a Intel Core i7 4790K “Devil’s Canyon” processor, gallons of liquid nitrogen and the motherboards that lay claim to being the best at overclocking from all four manufacturers. Their mission was to find our which of these motherboards is actually the best at overclocking and, more importantly, which motherboard is the easiest to overclock with?
The ease of overclocking is usually personal preference or based on past experences so it will be interesting to see what their conclusion will be.
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BeQuiet Dark Rock TF Heatsink Review @ Frostytech
Frostytech brings up a good point in the introduction of their review in that the PC cooling system does require maintenance and traditional aircoolers, heatpipe or otherwise, tend to last longer than any liquid cooler, AIO or otherwise.
On the test bench today we have BeQuiet's Dark Rock TF heatsink - a top-down dual tower heatsink which features a pair of BeQuiet SilentWings fans and stands 130mm tall. The Dark Rock TF heatsink is built around six 6mm diameter heatpipes which link a large primary aluminum fin stack and smaller secondary set of aluminum cooling fins to a chunky copper heatspreader below. The 135mm PWM fans are arranged in a push-pull configuration, exhausting downwards so related motherboard CPU VRM components benefit from the cooling air flow.
I was able to review the beQuiet! Dark Rock TF recently and despite my normal grumblings about the installation method and tight clearances the cooler is actually really good.
