Tech News
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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.
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HiFiMAN HE-560 Planar Magnetic Headphones @ techPowerUp
This is the second set of headphones I've seen recently with wooden bodies. In an industry coated in varying shades matte and gloss black plastic and steel, it is kind of refreshing to see something with a bit of a unique and vintage style.
HiFiMAN's latest high-end headphones are put to the test. The new HE-560s feature improvements across the board both in terms of sound and comfort. Design wise it is a long departure from the older HE-series headphones in the sense that they feature a suspended headband design and wooden cups.
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Google to Buy Twitch.tv
Over the weekend news broke of the possible purchase of Twitch.tv by Google which brings up some interesting things. Like if the google purchase will destroy what makes twitch.tv so great or will that put a google monopoly on live video streaming? Who really knows but if things do go thru you can be assured that the current twitch partner streamers will likely get more money and even better exposure.
Basically it will be a good time to be a professional streamer.
While YouTube is indisputably the largest pre-recorded video site on the Internet, Twitch is undoubtedly among the Web's largest live-streaming video sites. Still, the scale between the two entities really isn't comparable: Twitch has 45 million monthly users, YouTube has one billion. A deal like this is sure to draw the ire of regulators, and the report says YouTube is gearing up to jump through the necessary approval hoops to get the deal done.
Makes you wonder if One Billion is the asking price or if google talked them down due to the infrastructure problems
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Mini Truckin' Magazine Out of Print
I'm going to let you in on a little, not so secret, secret. I am a bit of a renaissance man when it comes to enthusiast activities. You all know me based on hardware reviews and overclocking but before the computer I was a motorcyclist and rode my '92 Kawasaki ZX-7 Ninja year round and only stopped for ice and snow. I had the leather racing suit, carved the canyons, fancy helmet and tested a variety of different tires just to find the compound that fit my riding style. While I may not ride like I used to I still enjoy it recently bought a '04 MV Agusta F4 SPR #239. This bike is basically the GTX 780 Ti Classified Kingpin Edition of the motorcycle world and 1 of 300 ever made.
Before the motorcycles and computers there were, Mini Trucks. In fact I still drive a mini truck and owned four of them over the years. Sure trucks are designed for work but with a little modification you can drive them like a car and really make them look pretty good. The current ride is a '01 Chevy S10 Xtreme Extended Cab, Black and rolling on generic 20" wheels while I find tires for my 19" Bonspeed Atom rims. I had them custom made and took an entire year to have them built correctly. (long story and worth a dedicated article)
The current truck has gone thru a few modifications. From the factory it features a body kit and is dropped 1.5" from stock. I lowered it another 2" in the front and added 3" blocks to the rear to even out the back. The brakes were also extremely bad and I figured since it needed a brake job why not do a modifications in the process. So, I installed a set of 4 wheel disk brakes off of a Z06 Corvette. Yes, that's right big red 6 piston brakes up front and 4 piston brakes in the rear. Total overkill but they look awesome!.
This summer I have a whole list of modifications I plan to complete and will likely find something else to change in the process.
Dedication like this is what keeps an activity alive and while many custom car builders say "Mini Truckin is Dead" there are still people building up custom trucks and still winning car shows with them. There was one magazine dedicated to the mini truck enthusiast and earlier this year I got a notice in the mail saying they were shutting down. My subscription balance would be filled with issues from another magazine which tells me they were broke.
It saddens me to think that circulation was so bad that they couldn't keep the presses running but the market was already niche and as people grow up so do their hobbies. Much to my surprise there hasn't been a vocal backlash from the community either which tells me it was time to go.
I'll see if I can dig up some old issues from the early days, you'll be surprised to see what people came up with. In the mean time here is one other article about the magazine going away from MiniTruckScene.com
#minitrucking 1988 - 2014
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Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290X - Cooling the Savage Beast @ HiTech Legion
We've seen a lot of aftermarket cooling systems coming out lately for the 290X, from new backplates to custom water-cooling blocks to help keep the temperature gauge low. While Sapphire may be a little late to the races with their entrant, it looks like they have delivered a beefed-up cooling solution for the 290X with no assembly required!
I tested the Sapphire Vapor-X 290X under multiple different scenarios, inside a case with low air flow, inside a case with acceptable air flow and on a test bench. Ambient temperatures room ranged from 74F to 79F and I was unable to raise the temperature of the GPU above 77C at full load while running either synthetic (looped) or gaming benchmarks.
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ZOTAC Unveils New ZBOX Sphere OI520 Series
New ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series delivers powerful computing with a touch of individuality
HONG KONG – May 21, 2014 – ZOTAC International, a global innovator and manufacturer of graphics cards, mainboards and mini-PCs, today unveils the first ZBOX Sphere to let users express their individuality through computing. The new ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series combines a unique orb form factor with a powerful 4th Generation Intel Core i5 processor for computing with a touch of individuality.
“ZOTAC is expanding the ZBOX lineup to go beyond the traditional square form factor and the ZBOX Sphere is our first design concept that we’re putting into production,” said Carsten Berger, senior director, ZOTAC International. “The new ZBOX Sphere form factor is also one of our easiest to customize too, the top twists off for tool-less upgrades.”
Inside the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series is a high-performance 4th Generation Intel Core i5 4200U processor with Intel HD Graphics 4400 for an excellent computing experience rich in high-definition content and snappy multi-tasking responsiveness. Plenty of internal expansion enables the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series to accommodate a 2.5-inch SATA 6.0 Gb/s hard drive or SSD, an mSATA SSD and two DDR3L SO-DIMM slots to easily create a powerful stylish mini-PC.
Support for Intel Smart Response Technology makes supercharging hard disk drives in the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series easy. By combining accelerating the internal hard disk drive with an mSATA SSD, the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series provides the lightning-fast boot and application load times of an SSD with the large capacity of a hard drive.
Wireless 802.11ac and Gigabit Ethernet ensures the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series delivers high-speed networking performance with or without wires. Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity makes adding wireless peripherals to the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series easy and hassle-free.
It’s time to play with the ZOTAC ZBOX Sphere OI520 series!
General details
- ZOTAC Unveils New ZBOX Sphere OI520 Series
- New ZBOX Sphere form factor
- Intel Core i5 4200U
1.6 GHz, dual-core, 3MB L2 cache
TurboBoost up to 2.6 GHz
Intel HD Graphics 4400 - PLUS models available with preinstalled memory and hard drive
4GB DDR3
500GB HDD - HDMI & DisplayPort outputs
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 4.0
- Gigabit Ethernet
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LEPA Introduces 4 New Barometric Oil-less Bearing Fans for Every Build Need
Why I'm normally a fan of single color LED fans, I have to admit that a few of the new LEPA Casino 4C fans would be a wild addition showcased in a nice windowed chassis.
LEPA, the LED fan expert, announces its new series of fans, including the LEPA CASINO 4C Advance; LEPA BOL.QUIET PWM; LEPA BOL.QUIET Tri-Speed and the LEPA VORTEX 88C. The four series feature the patented BOL (Barometric Oil-less) bearing, a self-lubricating design with nano-particles.
