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Our news archive search is now powered by Google. You can search the main site or the guest-viewable forums. To search the entire forums, log in and use the forum search engine. Search the main OCAU site with Google: Search OCAU Forums with Google: View News : Last 7 Days, Last 14 Days, Last 30 Days. View Monthly Archives. Misc Pics (10 Comments) (link)  Friday, 17-May-2024  13:17:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg My shoulder seems much improved. Thanks to mpot and Tim this week! Forum Projects (2 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 15-May-2024  21:07:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg Time to catch up on some more cool projects and reviews from the forums. Another good way to see what's going on is to hit the New Posts link. RnR posted info on a new CAMM2 memory standard Phido is converting a Tronxy 3D printer to a Mega Vxbot QuinRiva has a hardline Lian Li V3000 Plus build mR_CaESaR has cleaned up an Atomiswave arcade machine Radiant posted their impressions of a Minisforum BD770i mobo aeries has a very tidy water cooled mini-PC with gold bits Kelvin reviewed an ITX gaming PC as well as a Mini Nuke compact NUC PC while Deftone2k has refitted their shed Wednesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 15-May-2024  21:00:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: Corsair MP700 PRO SE - PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD - 14GB/s on Guru3D. Lexar Professional SL600 Portable Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers. Patriot Viper VP4000 Mini 2TB M.2 2230 Gaming SSD on FunkyKit. Patriot Viper VP4300 Lite 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 Gaming SSD on MadShrimps. Corsair MP700 PRO SE Gen5 SSD Review (4TB) on StorageReview. Power Supply: FSP Hydro Ti PRO 850W ATX 3.0 Power Supply Unit on NikKTech. Enermax REVOLUTION D.F. X 1200 W on TechPowerUp. Portable & Prebuilt: Google Pixel 8a Review: Possibly The Best Midrange Phone Yet on HotHardware. Razer Blade 18 Gaming Laptop Review: Thin, Stylish And Potent on HotHardware. Alienware M16R2 Gaming Laptop on Tweaktown. Misc: Corsair iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT AIO CPU Cooler on FunkyKit. ASRock B650 Steel Legend WiFi Motherboard on OCInside. Homeworld 3 Performance Benchmark Review - 35 GPUs Tested on TechPowerUp. Logitech G ASTRO A50X Wireless Gaming Headset + Base Station on Tweaktown. Shelly BLU Door/Window and Shelly H&T Gen3 smart home sensors on FunkyHome. Interesting Forum Threads (2 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 14-May-2024  21:56:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg It's been a while, but here's a few random forum threads that have caught my eye lately. You can keep on top of things in the forums via the recent activity feed or the new posts page. To see activity in threads you subscribe to, check out your latest alerts. It's also worth checking your watched threads list from time to time in case you missed an alert. Photo/Video hoarders - how do you sort/categorise? in Storage & Backup. AOOSTAR 2bay mini-PC NAS in Storage & Backup. napp-it cs web-gui for (m)any ZFS server in Storage & Backup. OpenSolaris/Solaris 11 Express/ESXi : BYO Home NAS for Media and backup images etc in Storage & Backup. REVIEW Techfast ITX Gaming (March 2024) in Portable & Small Form Factor. Framework Modular Laptop in Portable & Small Form Factor. Smallest Windows Device in Portable & Small Form Factor. Alienware Graphics Amplifier (AGA) adventures in Portable & Small Form Factor. I'm at my witts here! in Troubleshooting Help. Power usage meters for appliances in Electronics & Electrics. Public DNS audit tool feedback in Business & Enterprise Computing. Generative AI Assistants (ChatGPT, Grok, Copilot, Gemini etc.) in General Software. AI / neural networks / language models in General Software. Pie Reviews in Geek Food. Epic's Pho king Sunday Lunch Reward Journal in Geek Food. Bypassing the evil empire of Colesworth. Purchasing direct from farmers. in Geek Food. 2024 F1 Silly, Pre-season and Season Discussion in Motorsport. Anime Modelling in Other Hobbies. Slot Car thread. If and or when in doubt, Flat out. in Other Hobbies. Bambu Lab A1/P1S/P1P/ X1C 3D Printer Thread in Hobby Engineering. The VR game / Software thread (What are you playing) in VR - Virtual Reality. Tuesday Evening (1 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 14-May-2024  19:37:56 (GMT +10) - by Agg You should update Chrome if you use it. Fortunately it's not the drama it used to be as Chrome is quite good at keeping all your open tabs across various windows. Left unpatched, a remote attacker without physical access to a system would be able to compromise the render process "to potentially perform a sandbox escape via a crafted HTML page," hence the High security rating. Put another way, a user running a vulnerable (unpatched) Chrome build could suffer a range of undesirable consequences simply by visiting a malicious website, with a browser crash being the best case scenario. Corsair are looking to acquire Fanatec. Over the years, Fanatec has established itself as one of the most popular brands for racing sim hardware. It offers a premium lineup of racing wheels, pedals, shifters, and more, which virtual racing enthusiasts can hook up to their console or PC when playing games like Gran Turismo 7 and Assetto Corsa. Steam have released their monthly hardware survey for April 2024. The Steam Hardware Survey & Software Survey results for April 2024 paint a pretty disappointing picture for cards like Radeon RX 7700 XT and Radeon RX 7800 XT. They show that when it comes to RDNA 3, anything outside of the flagship 7900 XTX has failed to find a PC gaming audience. Meanwhile a recent Steam Deck OS update allows overclocking. Overclocking controls have been added to the Steam Deck LCD version, allowing those owners to squeeze out some more performance from their hardware. Accessible in the Steam Deck BIOS, this overclocking support should prove modest for most, as cooling considerations are still paramount for this tightly-packed unit. This overclocking feature was already in the the newer OLED model, which has some internal differences versus the LCD Steam Deck. Tweaktown report on the low rate of Windows 11 adoption. According to new data from Statcounter, a renowned web analytics service that has tracking code on more than 1.5 million websites, market share figures between Windows 11 users and Windows 10 users is trending - at least in the short term - toward more Windows 10 adoption, as global desktop share between February 2024 and April 2024 dropped from 28.16% to 25.65%. On the other hand, Windows 10's market share grew from 67.26% to 70.03%. Never mind your fancy GPUs - turns out you can do AI image generation on a Commodore 64. Kinda. AI image generators are very popular these days, and the results are used in all sorts of creative projects. This made me wonder what it would have been like if image generators had existed during the early personal computer revolution in the 1980s. What would they have been like, and what would the images have been used for? Someone who really needs to go back and watch Black Mirror again has decided that fitting firearms to robot dogs is a good idea. What's next, sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads? The evaluation of armed robotic dogs reflects a growing interest in small robotic unmanned ground vehicles for military use. While unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been remotely delivering lethal force under human command for at least two decades, the rise of inexpensive robotic quadrupeds—some available for as little as $1,600—has led to a new round of experimentation with strapping weapons to their backs. If you long for a simpler time, perhaps a re-born Nokia 3210 might be for you. Let’s throw back to Y2K, when conversations mattered more than likes and shares. A legendary phone returns with a long-lasting battery and a redesign for modern times. And of course, it’s got Snake. This is newstalgia at its best – the return of the Nokia 3210. Sunday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 12-May-2024  23:54:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: Samsung 990 PRO vs 990 EVO, What’s The Difference And Which One To Pick on ThePCEnthusiast. ANACOMDA I4X Fiery Serpent 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD on NikKTech. PNY XLR8 CS3150 M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 5×4 1TB SSD (with RGB Heatsink) on FunkyKit. Corsair MP700 Pro SE 4TB SSD Review - As Fast as They Come on Tweaktown. Corsair MP700 Pro SE 4 TB on TechPowerUp. Corsair MP600 Mini 2024 Edition 1TB SSD Review - Fastest Tiny Drive on the Planet on Tweaktown. Input Etc: Razer Firefly V2 Pro Mouse Mat Review: Slick, Rigid, With RGB on HotHardware. ThundeRobot ML903 NearLink mouse on TechPowerUp. Misc: Artillery Genius Pro 3D Printer on NikKTech. Bykski CPU-XPR-C-I CPU Water Block Review - Amazing Value! on TechPowerUp. Corsair 6500X Mid-Tower Dual Chamber Chassis on Tweaktown. ZMF Caldera Closed Planar Magnetic Headphones on TechPowerUp. Crucial Pro Overclocking DDR5-6000 2x16GB DDR5 RAM on APHNetworks. MINISFORUM Venus NAB9 Core i9-12900HK Mini PC on Guru3D. Retro Racing May 2024 (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 10-May-2024  21:19:00 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN This month's Retro Racing game is Over REV from 1997. Developed by Jaleco for Sega's Model 2 arcade board, Over REV features four nicely rendered tracks across the Greater Tokyo Area. Although it has some serious issues with driving and collision physics, if you stick with the game long enough to overcome its intricacies, it can be pretty rewarding. Like Jaleco's other Model 2 racer, Super GT 24h, you'll want to use an automatic transmission. click for the thread! Retro Misc Pics (7 Comments) (link)  Friday, 10-May-2024  11:49:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg I have Done Something Bad to my shoulder at hockey last night, so here's some one-handed Retro Misc Pics from June 2011, while I go get X-Rays etc.. 3 Jun 2011: 10 Jun 2011: 17 Jun 2011: 24 Jun 2011: Campaign to Stop Publishers Destroying Video Games (12 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 8-May-2024  21:59:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg This from DrFrag: There's currently a campaign to stop publishers destroying games, like when servers get retired and games people have paid for become unplayable. The official site is here: stopkillinggames.com. There's also a short summary video here. One of the early attack vectors is for Australians, which includes a government petition here. The petition closes on 20th May. There's a longer explanatory video in the comments for this news thread. Wednesday Review (1 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 8-May-2024  15:33:38 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN We're still a month away from Computex but the reviewers are ramping up !! Audio Visual: Eizo FlexScan EV3240X Monitor @ OCinside AQIRYS ALYA 2.0 Wireless Gaming Headset @ Madshrimps Meze Audio LIRIC 2nd Generation Closed-Back Headphones @ TechPowerUp AOC U27G3X 27-inch Gaming Monitor @ TweakTown OBSBOT Tail Air AI Powered 4K PTZ Streaming Camera @ NikKTech Mouse: CHERRY XTRFY M64 Pro @ TweakTown Finalmouse UltralightX @ TechPowerUp Cases and Cooling: Corsair iCUE Link RX120 RGB 120 mm Fan @ TechPowerUp DeepCool Mystique 360 Liquid CPU Cooler @ ThinkComputers EK Water Blocks Nucleus AIO CR360 Lux D-RGB @ NikKTech Fractal Design North XL Full-Tower Chassis @ TweakTown DeepCool Mystique 360 All-In-One Liquid Cooler @ aphNetworks Thermaltake The Tower 300 Chassis @ FunkyKit Montech Sky Two GX @ TechPowerUp Storage: Lexar SL500 1TB Portable SSD @ OCinside Crucial X9 2TB Portable SSD @ FunkyKit Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD @ TweakTown TerraMaster F2-212 NAS @ Neoseeker Samsung T5 EVO 8TB SSD @ HotHardware Memory: V-Color 32GB DDR5-5600 SODIMM Memory Kit @ FunkyKit Silicon Power XPOWER Zenith RGB 2x32GB DDR5 6000MHz @ Madshrimps PSU: FSP Hydro PTM X Pro 1000 W Platinum ATX 3.0 PSU @ guru3D Cooler Master V SFX Gold ATX 3.0 850W Power Supply @ aphNetworks Video Card: SAPPHIRE Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB OC @ NikKTech PowerColor RX 6500 XT Fighter 8GB @ LanOC Portable & Prebuilt: Dell XPS 14 @ HotHardware Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gaming Laptop @ HotHardware ASRock NUC BOX-155H @ TechPowerUp MSI Vector GP68HX Gaming Laptop @ TweakTown Misc: Corsair Platform:6 Elevate Modular Desk @ TweakTown True Lies (1997) 4K Blu-ray @ TweakTown Cougar Hotrod Royal Gaming Chair @ TechPowerUp OdinLake Standing Desk S450 @ ThinkComputers Network: NETGEAR BE18400 Tri-Band PoE 10G Insight Managed WiFi 7 @ guru3D Misc Pics (8 Comments) (link)  Friday, 3-May-2024  13:41:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday again! CPU Vending Machine (12 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 1-May-2024  16:09:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg You might remember my article from last year about Japanese Gachapon vending machines, the cute little server rack kits, and me losing my mind. A few people including metamorphosis sent word that there is one that dispenses used CPUs. I know, because Sciby and I saw it last year! He got a few CPUs out of it, and here's some some photos from inside the shop that I forgot to post earlier: Newsy Nuggets, Just in case you missed them... (4 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 30-April-2024  17:49:50 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN A LED touchscreen that's also a PV charger and reads fingerprints. Tech is awesome QDEL wants in on that action Australia's biggest radio dish, DSS-43, it's the only antenna remaining capable of comms with Voyager 2 Agg was happy to hear Voyager 1 has resumed sending engineering data No radio dish out here said the NASA laser Nintendo really really dont like emulation MSI dont like AMD GPU's much either Boston Dynamics' new Atlas robot is freakish PC enthusists; There's nothing left to RGB. Hold my beer says Razor Apple Vision Pro sales tank, but also used in ground breaking surgery US manufactured chips will cost more Spiders, Mars, but no David Bowie IntelInside wants you to get Win11 on the cheap (possibly) Tuesday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 30-April-2024  17:44:02 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN Audio Visual: Dangbei Atom 1080p Laser Projector @ TweakTown Dell UltraSharp 40 5K Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW) @ ThinkComputers Creative Outlier Pro Bluetooth Earphones @ aphNetworks SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4X Wireless Gaming Headset @ TweakTown Philips 27E1N1300AE Monitor @ OCinside Storage: Lexar PLAY 1TB M.2 2230 NVMe SSD @ NikKTech Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus @ TechPowerUp Motherboard, Memory: V-Color Manta X-Prism RGB DDR5 6800 MHz CL34 2 x 48 GB @ guru3D Team Group T-Force Vulcan ECO DDR5-6000 32 GB CL38 @ TechPowerUp ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi II Motherboard @ ThinkComputers ASRock Phantom Gaming B760I Lightning WiFi Motherboard @ FunkyKit Crucial 64GB Kit (2x32GB) DDR5-4800 SODIMM @ Madshrimps Snapdragon X Plus @ HotHardware Keyboard: WhiteFox Eclipse Mechanical Keyboard @ HotHardware Cooling: Yeston x Zeaginal Sakura 360 AIO CPU Cooler @ Neoseeker PSU: XPG Core Reactor II VE 850w 80 PLUS Gold ATX 3.0 PSU @ TweakTown Sunday Night (2 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 28-April-2024  22:12:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg I spent much of the weekend in a home-automation monitoring deep dive, after initially just wanting to measure how much electricity some devices were using. The core of it is Home Assistant, which is open-source and runs on a Raspberry Pi. I've ended up with a fairly ugly dashboard (next stop Grafana) which shows info from my home solar setup, the mains power usage, 6 (and counting) smart power plugs, the Starlink usage, etc. If your high-end i9 machine is acting unstable, Gigabyte may have a fix. Intel's been under some fire recently for issues affecting its top-end Core i9 processors from both the 13th- and 14th-generation Core families. Some of these chips, even when set to "BIOS defaults", will crash or otherwise fail in certain tests, most commonly Cinebench 2024 and especially, games using Unreal Engine. The release of Tekken 8 really brought the issue to the forefront, as gamers started to struggle with stability on these high-end CPUs; one report noted as many as ten returns per day in Korea. MSI have some tips also. But if you need a new Z80, you may be out of luck, thanks Callan. Zilog is retiring the Z80 after 48 years on the market. Originally developed as a project stemming from the Intel 8080, it eventually rose to become one of the most popular and widely used 8-bit CPUs in both gaming and general computing devices. The iconic IC device, developed by Federico Faggin, will soon be phased out, and interested parties only have a few months left to place their orders before Zilog's manufacturing partner ends support for the technology. Some more info here and discussion here. Net Neutrality has been reinstated by a recent ruling in the US. Policymakers at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines Thursday to reinstate net neutrality principles, which mandate that internet service providers can’t interfere with how online content is transmitted. A laptop with external watercooling? Sounds.. inconvenient. The difference between the models lies in their GPU configurations and cooling methods. The company has announced RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 models, both housed in the same chassis with attachable liquid tubes at the back. Gamers can choose to use the external radiator or rely on the integrated dual-fan cooler. This design resembles that of many OEM brands like XMG Neo, indicating a similar approach. While the laptop chassis may differ, the external radiator seems to be largely the same. I'm a sucker for a nostalgic Amiga article - and here's another one. Personally? I really did love the Amiga. I had more glorious evenings with it than any other machine, in terms of hours played and the quality of those hours. It provided the best party game ever in Sensible Soccer, the best futuristic (and best looking) sports game in Speedball 2 and the best time-swallower with Championship Manager, just edging out Sim City. And I am not sure there has ever been a more mathematically precise sports game than Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker. Misc Pics (22 Comments) (link)  Friday, 26-April-2024  14:03:53 (GMT +10) - by Agg Shout-out to those who took today off and made a sneaky long weekend out of it: Friday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 26-April-2024  13:04:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cooling: Corsair iCUE Link XC7 RGB Elite CPU Water Block on TechPowerUp. DeepCool AK620 Digital CPU Cooler on NikKTech. Gigabyte AORUS WATERFORCE X II 360 ICE All-in-One CPU Cooler on FunkyKit. HYTE THICC Q60 Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. Corsair iCUE LINK RX120 RGB Cooling Fans on FunkyKit. HYTE THICC Q60 240 mm AIO on TechPowerUp. Audio Visual: GravaStar Sirius P5 Combo Earphones on MadShrimps. FiiO K19 Desktop DAC/Headphone Amplifier on TechPowerUp. ASUS ROG Swift Pro PG248QP Gaming Monitor on Tweaktown. MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK In-Ear Monitors on TechPowerUp. iFi audio hip dac 3 Portable USB DAC & Headphone Amplifier on NikKTech. Mobile Pixels Duex Plus 13.3-inch 1080p Portable Laptop Monitor on FunkyKit. Storage: Lexar Professional CFexpress Type A Silver Review (320GB) on StorageReview. UGREEN DXP6800 Pro NAS on StorageReview. Building the Ultimate Home Entertainment Server with an ASUSTOR NAS and Viper Gaming NVMe SSDs on Tweaktown. Cases: Thermaltake CTE E600 MX Computer Case on APHNetworks. Corsair 6500X Mid-Tower Dual Chamber PC Case on Guru3D. Cooler Master TD500 MAX on APHNetworks. Furniture: Atlasio SHD Mini Office Desk and Dynamic Chair on OCInside. FlexiSpot C7B-Mesh Ergonomic Office Chair on Tweaktown. Portable & Prebuilt: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 on Tweaktown. Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 on StorageReview. ACEMAGIC AD08 "Core i9 11900H" Mini PC on Tweaktown. Input Etc: Glorious Model D 2 Pro 4K/8KHz Edition mouse on TechPowerUp. Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Keyboard on TechPowerUp. FiiO Jade Audio KB3 Mechanical Keyboard on NikKTech. Power Supply: Seasonic PRIME TX-1000 Power Supply Unit on NikKTech. Seasonic Prime Titanium 1600W TX-1600 ATX 3.0 PSU on Guru3D. Misc: EcoFlow Wave 2 mobile air conditioner video on FunkyHome. ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER OC video card on Guru3D. KLEVV Bolt V DDR5-6800 32 GB CL34 memory on TechPowerUp. ANZAC Day (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 25-April-2024  01:09:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg They shall grow not old As we who are left grow old Age shall not weary them Nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun And in the morning We will remember them Lest We Forget

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