Tech News
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EVGA KPE LN2 Results - Delayed
Just a quick note for those of you wondering when the LN2 results of the KPE (Kingpin Edition) will get published.
As you know, I suggested in my review that the second part of the KPE card review will feature some extreme overclocking under LN2. I'm happy to report that I did do some testing however, the full results of those tests have been delayed while some techncal issues are being sorted out.
Followers of the Hardware Asylum Facebook fan page will know what I'm talking about.
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Gigabyte to ship over 5 million motherboards in 1Q
This is good news for Gigabyte and bad news for all the haters of Gigabyte motherboards. Soon the markets will be filled with excess Gigabyte gear and you will have no choice but to buy an Ultra Durable or generic "blue board"
Gigabyte Technology is expected to ship over five million motherboards in the first quarter of 2014, having a chance to surpass Asustek Computer, which is expected to ship about five million units, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Gigabyte shipped over 20 million motherboards in 2013 mainly thanks to strong demand in China, which accounted for about 40% of the shipments, the sources said.
However, since the high-end motherboard sector is currently being dominated by Asustek, Gigabyte will need to strengthen its competitiveness in the sector in order to improve its profitability, the sources noted.Another thing to note is that less than 30% of those motherboards will actually make it to the US market. #sadpanda
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Silverstone PT13 and AR04 @ LanOC Reviews
In the modern PC world we have seen a great many things starting with boat anchor cases that not only weigh you down but offer no comfort in knowing your life could be so much more. The new trend is to ditch these monster blocks of metal for a more refined system, a system that is small, under powered and looks great on a shelf next to blocks of paper that most people call books.
When it comes to small form factor builds our main focus has been on builds that can fit high powered video cards for LAN use. But the truth to the matter is there are a lot more people who are looking to build small PCs for routers, HTPCs, and just to save room on your desk. As someone who has HTPCs all around the house I completely get it. After juggling a few parts around I realized I had a half height Mini-ITX motherboard sitting around and I decided to make use of it. I came across the Silverstone Petit PT13 case and the AR04 cooler from Silverstone as well. Together they should make for a small but powerful PC, let’s see how performs.
Most would say that the HTPC died a long time ago but there are still some who think otherwise. For those we need a small form factor system that only needs be fast enough to stream a movie.
For them, we have this case, and it looks great.
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Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven
I have been doing a ton of overclocking with the GTX 780 Ti and have come to the conclusion that they really are the fastest GPUs you can buy.
Yesterday we took a look at a recent addition to the high end of the GPU market, a custom design overclocked AMD Radeon R9 290X. It went head to head with the similarly priced GeForce GTX in a selection of the latest games. Today we update that comparison with Gigabytes new GTX 780 Ti in its overclocked form. What does the extra price bump get us? Let's find out!
Lately Gigabyte has appeared lost with their video card solutions. Yes, they have a triple fan cooler and offer excellent cooling and a backplate but the overclocking ranges are meagar at best. It is difficult to tell if this is a custom PCB however, looking at the cutouts in the backplate there is something custom happening there.
It might be time to get a sample in for review.
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MSI Refreshes GX Destroyer Series Gaming Laptops
GX70 and GX60 Destroyers armed with AMD R9 M290X Graphics and SteelSeries Gaming Backlit Keyboard
City of Industry, Calif. – January 5, 2014 – MSI Computer Corp, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, announces the availability of the new GX Destroyer Series featuring AMD A10 processor, AMD Radeon R9-M290X graphics and a variety of gaming features designed to deliver optimal performance.
MSI’s GX Destroyer Series possesses the perfect combination of multimedia capability and gaming performance. Armed with AMD’s state-of-the-art mobile processor, both GX70 and GX60 Destroyers come with AMD’s latest GPU and its proprietary Mantle Graphics technology, which improves gaming performance, ensures higher resolutions and smoother gameplay and allows developers to utilize the GPU more efficiently to create a more immersive gaming experience.
GX Destroyer units are the first gaming notebooks to feature MSI’s Dragon Gaming Center, a gaming shortcut key designed to maximize performance and speed by performing full system check-ups, instantly configuring your machine to your preset gaming environment profile and closing unnecessary background applications to increase processing power. The units also feature SteelSeries’ keyboard customization software that gives users the ability to modify colors, lighting effects, and more.
“The GX Destroyer Series delivers the optimum combination of performance and affordability demanded by both the professional and amateur gamer,” said Andy Tung, CEO for MSI Pan America. “The myriad of multimedia and gaming components in both the GX70 Destroyer and GX60 Destroyer make the units the ultimate portable gaming and entertainment machines.”
The GX Destroyer Series also comes with Killer™ E2200 Game Networking for lag-free gaming, SoundBlaster Cinema for ultra-realistic sound, MSI’s Cooler Boost and Audio Boost technology and AMD’s Eyefinity technology. AMD’s Eyefinity technology allows users to run multiple independent displays simultaneous and supports 4K output displays up to 5760x1080 resolutions.
There are plans to implement the SteelSeries Engine software to provide a deeper level of customization on the GX Destroyer series as well as the upcoming next gen G Series laptops. MSI plans to roll out the software within the next few months and will provide further information on how to obtain the software for current owners of the gaming notebooks once it becomes available.
Select major retailers and e-tailers will also offer Battlefield 4 free for the GX Destroyer series when it becomes available. For more information about the latest generation GX70 Destroyer or GX60 Destroyer, please visit http://www.msimobile.com or http://usgaming.msi.com/.
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Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition Keyboard Review - TKL Cherry MX Blue
Gaming keyboards seem to be all over, We just looked at the new Ryos from Roccat with Cherry Black switches and HCW is looking at a SFF keyboard from Razer called the Blackwidow.
I wonder if the keyboard will kill you when the game is over?
The Razer Blackwidow Tournament is a Tenkeyless mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches. As far as gaming features, it can record macros and that's about it.
I suppose if there is a leeroy jenkins macro that might just work.
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Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive (DTLPG3) @ Custom PC Review
Portable media has a fatal flaw, It can be intercepted by anyone and sometimes those people are not the intended target. To combat this you need to take steps to ensure your data is safe, especially when it isn't in your possession.
Unfortunately, one thing we seem to overlook is data security. While flash drives have become quite convenient for taking lots of sensitive data on the go, it’s also extremely easy to lose, which is bad news for those who sometimes tend to be forgetful. This is why today we’ll be reviewing the Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 16GB. As you may expect...
I really like this device, it gives you an encrypted partition on the flash drive and can only be accessed using the included software and entering the proper password.
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Asylum: Review Block - Boards and Cards 1/29/2014
This time of year is difficult for the hardware reviewer. CES has passed and the next major product launches occur "after" CeBit so new products are difficult to find but there is still pleny to write about, assuming you can find them.
In this review block we'll be clearing out the inbox by grabbing the latest Motherboard and Video Card reviews.
Motherboards
- ASUS Maximus VI Formula Motherboard Review @ ThinkComputers
- ASUS A88X-PRO AMD FM2+ Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
Video Cards
- XFX Radeon R9 290X Double Dissipation Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 Graphics Card Review @ Modders-Inc
- MSI Radeon R9-290X Gaming OC review
- ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP @ PureOverclock
- XFX Radeon R9 290 Black Edition Double Dissipation 4GB Graphics Card @ Hardware 360
- Sapphire R9 290 4GB TRI-X OC Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon R9 270X 2 GB GDDR5 Review @ Hardware-Mag.de
- XSPC Razor R9 290/290X @ PureOverclock
- ASUS Radeon R9-290 DirectCU II OC review
- ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC 4 GB @ techPowerUp
- Gigabyte GTX 780 Ti GHZ Edition Review! @ Bjorn3DIf you get a chance, check back because I'll be putting two GTX 780 Ti Classified cards under LN2 for points and fame.
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AMD Kaveri A10 7850K APU Overclocked IGP Gaming & OpenCL Performance @ HCW
Here we have some more Kaveri processor information, this time with overclocking. I'm still rocking the Richland, assuming you consider rocking as having the processor in its clamshell package tucked away in my box of current processors and memory.
Ya in storage.
Earlier in the week, we looked at overclocked Kaveri CPU performance. Today we take our Kaveri A10 7850K overclocked to 4.7 GHz with the GPU overclocked to 1020 MHz and DDR3 2400 and see how it performs in IGP gaming and OpenCL.
Seems like a healthy overclock and if rumors are true it has no cold bug!
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24-Way AMD Radeon vs. NVIDIA GeForce Linux Graphics Card Comparison @ Phoronix
24 Cards?? Twenty Four GPUs in a row?? That is like one card an hour, all in one review!
After this weekend carrying out a 25-way open-source Linux graphics driver comparison featuring AMD Radeon, Intel HD Graphics, and NVIDIA GeForce hardware, the tables have now turned to look at nearly the same assortment of hardware but when using the high-performance, proprietary Linux graphics drivers. We've also upped the demanding OpenGL benchmarks used -- including the Source Engine -- as we see how the AMD and NVIDIA binary graphics drivers are doing to start 2014.
Seems good and the results are Linux based so folks not on the Windows train can still visit the beverage car.
