Tech News
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SteelSeries Rival Review @ Vortez
This article (aside from reviewing a very gorgeous optical mouse) hits on an interesting point during their review about modern mice posting crazy DPI figures. I've been wondering the same thing. Is the latest seeming one-upsmanship with DPI simply a case of posting numbers for the sake of bragging that you have the highest number regardless of if it's even usable. I saw a laser mouse the other day with a 16k dpi setting, and I wondered would anyone even be able to control it to use it accurately at that speed?
At what extreme point does it all simply become too much, too uncontrollable, and fall off into the upper tail-end of the standard curve? To examine that question from another angle, is this why many optical mice are feeling more like laser mice recently, because their polling and DPI settings have gotten them up into that comfortable sweet spot where precision meets speed for a mass majority of the population at large.
The SteelSeries Rival is an optical mouse but could quite easily be mistaken for a laser device for the figures match up to many laser devices. Couple this with SteelSeries know how when making a gaming device and the Rival presents us with, on paper at least, a very well specced peripheral suitable for any gamer from any level.
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RSI Gives First Look at Life in Space with Arena Commander Pre-Alpha Launch
In gaming news today, Roberts Space Industries, the developing studio and crowdfunding paragon behind the upcoming space combat sim Squadron 42 and perpetual universe Star Citizen, gave their early adopters a taste of what they've been working on. Late last night, the long anticipated pre-alpha release of Arena Commander, their space flight and combat training module was launched.
Originally dubbed the Dogfight Module, the team at RSI has been working to crush the showstopping bugs in order to get a stable build into the hands of it's fans for additional testing. As of late last night, the green light was lit, and testers took to the stars.
An interesting stats tidbit from the RSI site regarding the launch.
For now, we’re extremely happy that Citizens everywhere are getting into space. To share a little data about Arena Commander’s launch:. As of 1 PM PST (about twelve hours after launch), 33,813 people have successfully played an Arena Commander match! We’ve served 820 TB of data, which means that in half a day we put out more data than we did in August, September, October and November of last year combined!
Currently the module is a little bare bones, only offering a free-flight mode, or flying against bots in a wave-style survival match. However, RSI does plan to continue to iterate on the initial build, adding additional ships, as well as additional game modes and player vs player combat as well. -
Intel Devils Canyon receives support on ASUS Z87 @ Madshrimps
Interesting news development today. ASUS released a BIOS update for their Z87 fleet in order to provide compatibility with the newer Haswell Refresh chips. So the question is, how long before other manufactuers release updates for their own Z87 boards, or will ASUS end up standing alone with this decision? My prediction is that the wait won't be too long, as consumer pressure should hopefully win out to add extended life to the older Z87s and motivate the manufacturers to follow suit.
Till now all motherboard manufacturers were sticking to Intel's plan to ensure compatibility with the upcoming Intel K SKU processor aka the Devils Canyon. ASUS released today a BIOS update for the Z87 chipset-based Gene VI providing official support for the new unlocked flagship Haswell Refresh processors.
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Corsair unveils Vengeance K95 RGB Fully Mechanical Gaming Keyboard at Computex
Monday at Computex, Corsair pulled away the curtain to reveal the fruits of their labor from the RGB Project debuted in Vegas at CES earlier this year, a project utilizing Cherry MX's multicolor LED mechanical switches for their next generation of programmable keyboards.The end result is absolutely stunning...Meet the Vengeance K70 RGB.
It comes with a long list of features popular on flagship gaming keyboards. Aside from the stylish aluminum body and the per-key multicolor lighting with a Panasonic display controller for visual effects, every key is also programmable for macro building through the software suite, along with onboard memory to remember all your settings. Currently it does appear that the only switch available with the new RGB models currently will be the MX Red switches. They will also be releasing a larger sized K95 keyboard with 18 more dedicated macro keys using the same RGB switches and software, along with a gaming mouse. Release in the new Vengeance RGB lineup is scheduled for late August. -
AMD A10 7850K + Dual Graphics Review @ Vortez
A dodeca-core processor, with integrated R7 GPUs? I really only have two words... Yes please!
Seeing this next leap has made me excited for what may continue to develop after the die shrink coming with the Broadwell release.
Using the now mature 28nm fabrication we are likely to see an improvement in performance per watt as well as various improvements in regards to the GPU. The R7 GPU is using AMDs GCN architecture that has 8 compute cores and a total of 512 shader cores.
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Asylum: Review Block - Pre Computex Round Up
It has been awhile since I did a review block so here goes. This is a pre-Computex round up with some good stuff from cheap 4k monitors to an entire list of mousing type products.
Accessories
- Genius Widecam F100 @ LanOC Reviews
- Genius Ergo 8800 Wireless Mouse Review @ Bigbruin
- Genius Ergo 8800 Wireless Mouse Review @ OCmodshop
- Corsair Raptor M45 Gaming Mouse Review @ HardwareHeaven
- Logitech G502 Proteus Core Gaming Mouse @ Legit Reviews
Audio
- AudioFly AF56 Earphones Review @ TechwareLabs
- X2 Aurel Noise Cancellation Headset Review @ OCIA
Cooling
- Enermax ETS-T40 White Cluster CPU Cooler Review @ ThinkComputers
- Enermax Liqtech 120X AIO Liquid CPU Cooler @ [H]
Visuals
- 4K for $649: Asus PB287Q monitor reviewed
- Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X OC Review @ Hardware Canucks
Cases
- SilverStone RVZ01 mini-ITX case review @ Hardware.Info
- In Win 901 Case Review on Technic3DComputex coverage has started already with our In-Win D-Frame release. Expect more as the week continues.
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Vortex KBC Poker II Compact Mechanical Keyboard Review @ HCW
I have to wonder about keyboard design sometimes. There are several generic categories for keyboards from the type of keyswitch to form factor and everything in between. Of those the ultra compact designs are most disturbing. Sure I can see the benefits if you are going to cart them around but the usability and typing safety drops dramatically when you reduce the size.
That may not be a bad thing in the gaming world but why bother with a standard layout? why not create a custom gaming version and be done with it.
The Poker II is an ultra compact "60%" layout mechanical keyboard that moves a lot of keys to a function layer to be as small as possible. You do give up some functionality for the compact size, but is it still usable?
It looks like a Cooler Master design from a few years ago.
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MSI unleashes new Z97 GAMING 9 AC motherboard
MSI, world leading in motherboard technology, is pleased to announce its unleashing of the Z97 GAMING 9 AC motherboard to the public. The Z97 GAMING 9 AC from MSI is a custom designed motherboard, decorated with luscious new heat-sinks and unique Dragon Armor that highlight an arsenal of new features found on the board. It's masterpiece being Xtreme Audio DAC, a premium dedicated onboard sound card with specially selected high quality audio components, set up and tuned by professionals delivering 120dB Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) 192kHz / 32-Bit of purest sound quality for studio-grade Hi-Fi solutions and gaming headgear. The MSI Z97 GAMING 9 AC also comes with an Intel® Wi-Fi AC module with Bluetooth 4.0 and Intel® WiDi support.
World's best onboard Hi-Fi GAMING audio
Having superior sound quality while gaming is the decisive factor between a kilI or be killed. The MSI Z97 GAMING 9 AC motherboard comes with a premium Hi-Fi sound card, delivering 192kHz / 32-Bit 120dB SNR bit-perfect audio quality, onboard! Premium audio components like a C-Media HD Audio Processor, Wolfson WM8741 DAC and Texas Instruments TPA6120A2 amplifier are selected for the truly amazing sound quality. Enjoy pure sound quality and a breathtaking, never heard before, gaming sound experience that gives you the upper hand on your enemy.
Dragon Armor
Much like the design of the I/O Cover, this awesome looking piece of Dragon Armor isn't just for great looks but also works as a protective shield to help keep the audio signal pure, preventing interference from other components. This is extremely important when demanding high quality sound.Speed, sound & stability
With the focus on Speed, Sound and Stability, MSI GAMING motherboards provide every essential component of a true gaming system and then some! Xtreme Audio DAC, Audio Boost 2 powered by Creative Sound Blaster Cinema2 and USB Audio Power give your ears the detailed and richness in sound they need. On-board M.2, SATA Express (optional) and Killer™ LAN provide the best networking and storage performance through unprecedented transfer speeds up to 67% fast than SATA3 and extremely low latency while gaming online. GuardPro and Military Class 4 provide all the stability you need through carefully selected and thoroughly testedcomponents and materials. To top this off, every MSI Z97 GAMING motherboard comes with a XSplit Gamecaster premium license to kickstart your on-line streaming of gameplay for both young and aspiring, and seasoned professional gamers. With the MSI Z97 GAMING 9 AC you get all the weapons to truly dominate, conquer and destr0y.
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Intel Z97 Review - M.2 vs SATA @ Vortez
I ran across this interesting read today on the future of SSD computing, and emerging technologies to surpass the current transfer rate ceilings being hit currently. Also included were some testing benchmarks on some current SSDs already taking advantage of it.
In this review we're taking our first detailed look at a M.2 drive thanks to Plextor's 256GB M6e SSD and the new ASUS Maximus VII Ranger, based on Intel's Z97 chipset. We'll seek to compare it to the existing SATA III interface, and discuss some of its pros and cons.
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GIGABYTE Z97X-Gaming 7 Review @ Vortez
Are you counting down the days to an early Christmas. Do the words "Devil's Canyon" and "Broadwell" give you goosebumps? Well, we understand how you feel. But, while we all (im)patiently wait, here is another Z97 board from Gigabyte's G1 lineup ready for the upcoming release.
The Z97X-Gaming 7 sits within the well-regarded G1 gaming line. This motherboard upholds many of the features and characteristics from the Gaming G1 motherboard but doesn’t end up costing the earth.
