Latest OCAU News

Misc Pics (18 Comments) (link)  Friday, 3-September-2010  14:51:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to Peter, Gibbon and scruff this week! And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive - and is now sorted with the new stuff at the top, thanks to scruff. :) Das Keyboard Model S (21 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 2-September-2010  22:08:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg I've taken a look at the Das Keyboard Model S Professional Silent, a fancypants mechanical keyboard. It's heavy, it's clicky and it's got some quite handy USB ports on the side - but is it any better than a cheapy? click for the review! Thursday Afternoon (8 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 2-September-2010  15:01:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg Remember there are three contests for OCAU readers running at the moment. The Lunarmorph one will be drawn tomorrow, so get yourself into the draw before then if you're keen! Apple had their Fall 2010 Live Event last night. I haven't looked into the details yet but no doubt a few new shiny things were unveiled - coverage on GDGT. One new thing is the tiny Apple TV. Apple joins an increasingly crowded and risky scrum of companies trying to reinvent television for the internet age. Along those lines, RamblingThoughts considers how the future of TV is looking very fragmented. Microsoft have enlisted the double rainbow guy for a Windows Live ad. OK, what marketing maven came up with this idea? Microsoft has enlisted Paul Vasquez, who likes to be called Bear but is best known to the world as the "double rainbow guy," for a new ad for Windows Live Photo Gallery. Good on him, but as one commenter says: You are probably the all-time capitalizer on your 15 minutes of fame. They also have a new shape-shifting mouse. Meremortal spotted this daisy-chain of Xpanders, which looks like a cool idea but presumably won't work. :) PCPerspective have part 2 of their Sandforce SSD Roundup. Today we look at current offerings from Corsair, OWC, and Patriot. AMD's Bobcat and Bulldozer are examined in more detail by HotHardware, RealWorldTech and Tech Report. AMD has also revealed info on their Llano Fusion platform and even an 8-core Orochi CPU. Here is what we know for sure about the upcoming Orochi processor: it is going to be the second 32nm product from AMD after the upcoming Llano Fusion core is built, it uses a set of 4 Bulldozer modules that bring 8 processing cores and 8 threads with integration of AMD's unique SMT alternative. The BBC have lost their battle to keep The Stig's identity secret. The BBC took the Top Gear driver to court because he wanted to publish his autobiography. The broadcaster, which makes millions from selling the program around the world, wanted to keep the Stig's identity secret and claimed it was a breach of contract for the Stig to name himself publicly. Apparently the PS3 jailbreak thing is in the wild now, with more info here. First PSJailbreak splayed wide the PS3's security model, now PSGroove has arrived calling itself the "open source PSjailbreak." But it's not all bad news for Sony, with an Australian gamer losing his "Other OS" case against them. Today's timewaster is Electric Box, from FAT245. Finally, here's some interesting pages from the OCAU Wiki, seeing I haven't mentioned it in a while but it's been quite busy lately: Australian Internet Filtering National Broadband Network CUDA Parallel Computing Aquariums Mobile Networks in Australia Greatest Films of All Time Starcraft 2 Thursday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 2-September-2010  14:01:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg Audio Visual: Plantronics GameCom 777 Surround Sound Gaming Headset on PCPerspective. Western Digital TV Live Plus on ASELabs. Cooling: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 CPU cooler on OC3D. Cooler Master V6 GT CPU Cooler on Techgage. GELID Icy Vision Dual Fan VGA Cooler on SilentPCReview. Thermolab BADA2010 Heatsink on Frostytech. Storage: Patriot Gauntlet PCGT25S USB 3.0 2.5" Enclosure on OCIA. OCZ RevoDrive 120GB on Guru3D. ioSafe SoloPRO Waterproof / Fireproof USB 3.0 Hard Drive on EverythingUSB. Ineo I-NA309D Pro Dual-Bay RAID Enclosure on Bjorn3D. ICY DOCK MB991IK-B 2.5-inch SATA Bay Enclosure on ThinkComputers. Video Cards: MSI GTX 460 HAWK 1 GB on TechPowerUp. MSI N460GTX Hawk on TBreak. Portable & Prebuilt: HP ProBook 4720s Notebook PC WH287UT on TestFreaks. Apple iMac 27-inch (Core i5) on DigitalTrends. ASUS 1215N: A Netbook With Dual Graphics on InsideHW. Toshiba's Nile-powered Satellite T235D notebook on TechReport. Foxconn NetBox-nT330i Barebone on MadShrimps. Lenovo IdeaCentre A300 on TechReviewSource. Cases: SilverStone Precision PS05B on PureOC. Cooler Master Elite 430 on Metku. BitFenix Colossus Full Tower on LegitReviews. In Win Dragon Slayer MicroATX Mini Tower on LegitReviews. Motherboard & CPU: ASRock 880G Extreme3 AM3 board on LegitReviews. ASUS AT3IONT-I Deluxe Mini-ITX ION board on BigBruin. Jetway NC98-525-LF mITX ION board on APHNetworks. Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H and 870A-UD3 AM3 board on MadShrimps. MSI 870A Fuzion (AMD 770) AM3 board on Tweaktown. ASUS P6X58D-E (Intel X58 Express) LGA1366 board on Tweaktown. Input Etc: Coolermaster Inferno Gaming Mouse on Pro-Clockers. Coolermaster Storm Inferno gaming mouse on XSReviews. Mad Catz Eclipse Wireless Litetouch Keyboard With Trackball on MadShrimps. Software: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game on Bjorn3D. Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty on HotHardware. Adobe Captivate 5 on BusinessComputingWorld. Power Supply: Cooler Master USNA95 Ultra Slim Notebook Power Adapter on OCClub. Monaco Mobile Phone Solar Charger on CCEReviews. Misc: Microsoft XBOX Kinect Human Body Game and TV Controller on RamblingThoughts. Canon PIXMA MG8120 Photo All-in-One Inkjet Printer on TestFreaks. NZXT Internal USB Expansion Module Model IU01 on Tweaknews. Wednesday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 1-September-2010  15:15:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg Portable & Prebuilt: Maingear F131 System on PCPerspective. ASUS Eee 1215N 12.1-inch Netbook on Tweaktown. Audio Visual: Sharkoon X-Tatic Digital headphones on OCClub. Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX5 digicam on TechReviewSource. ASUS Cine5 Speaker and Xonar D2X Sound Card on OCIA. Phiaton PS 20 NC headphones on DigitalTrends. Cooling: Corsair A50 Performance CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. ThermalTake Frio CLP0564 CPU Cooler on OCOnline. SilenX EFZ-80HA2 Low Profile Heatsink on FrostyTech. Corsair Hydro Series H70 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown. Evercool Hawk 1 CPU cooler on OCClub. Storage: Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 120GB SSD on PureOC. Buffalo TeraStation WSS NAS on BusinessComputingWorld. ASUS SBC-06D1S-U External Slim Blu-ray Combo Drive on ThinkComputers. Kingwin DM-2535U3 Dock Master on OCClub. Video Cards: ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series GDDR5 on HotHardware. ASUS EAH5850 TOP, Gigabyte GV-R575SL-1GI, MSI R5770 HAWK Graphics Cards on iXBTLabs. Gigabyte Radeon HD 5770 Silent Cell (1Gb GDDR5) on FunkyKit. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 1GB on PureOC. XFX Radeon HD 5970 4GB Black Edition Limited with Eyefinity on HWHeaven. Cases: BitFenix Colossus on TechPowerUp. BitFenix Colossus Full Tower on Tweaktown. Antec Two Hundred V2 on NeoSeeker. Tuesday Night (10 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 31-August-2010  22:49:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg I haven't tried it myself yet, but Dopefish sent word that a free 1-year subscription to AVG AV Pro can be snaffled from V3.co.uk. This promotion is available between midday CET Tuesday 31st of August and midday CET Wednesday 1st of September 2010. CET is "Central European Time". If the promotion runs out of serial codes before midday CET 1st of September 2010, this promotion will expire automatically. A video blog called DataCenterPulse has checked out a very cool converted cold war bunker in Sweden which now houses a datacentre. It is located in a bunker 30 meters under solid bedrock. It was a cold war bunker that was converted into this datacenter and is said to be able to withstand a Hydrogen bomb blast. It is very unique and reminds me of a James Bond movie! There's a patent war brewing over Marty McFly's shoes. Based on Marty McFly's auto-lacing shoes from Back to the Future II, they feature a motorised self-lacing system and the video of them in operation drew over a million views on YouTube. The latest sites to tackle Mafia II performance are TechSpot and TechGage. So with a new full version copy of Mafia II loaded onto our test system and two dozen graphics cards lined up ready to test, we set about to deliver another GPU & CPU performance article. Not only have we tested a huge range of graphics cards, but we will also look at the impact PhysX has on performance with and without a dedicated card. As usual, we'll also take a quick look at CPU scaling performance for those concerned if they have the necessary guts on that front as well. Wynode sent in an article clarifying the earlier plane crash malware story. But even if the headquarters office had maintained its PC perfectly, the plane would still have taken off. The mechanics were still entering their report at the time of the crash, and as a May 2010 report in the same newspaper noted, the headquarters office had a custom of entering data 24 hours after it was received. Tuesday Evening (1 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 31-August-2010  20:31:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg Daron sent word of a handy website from the NSW Fire Brigades that helps you assess your home fire safety. The easy-to-use online audit guides families through various rooms in their homes including the kitchen, bedroom, laundry and garage to identify key fire risks particular to their home and habits. I experienced a relatively minor house fire in 1993, but that was terrifying enough! Cats and candles are a bad mix. Gmail has a new feature, the Priority Inbox. Email is great, except when there’s too much of it. Priority Inbox automatically identifies your important email and separates it out from everything else, so you can focus on what really matters. NASA have released a new collection of historical photos on Flickr. Three compilations of images from more than half a century of NASA history are available for comment on a section of the photo-sharing site Flickr known as The Commons. Visitors to NASA on The Commons can help tell the photos' story by adding tags, or keywords, to the images to identify objects and people. From Tony: To celebrate the MSI BEAT IT competition in China this weekend MSI are giving 3 lucky winners the chance to walk away with a brand new GT660 Laptop. Australia's very own Team Immunity flies out tomorrow in order to compete against some of the best teams in the world. In order to win you need to simply predict the winners of the competition and enter your details on the website. It's a great opportunity for Australian gamers to take part and win some great prizes. Monday Night Reviews (2 Comments) (link)  Monday, 30-August-2010  23:51:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg Audio Visual: Samsung EX1 10-Megapixel Digital Camera on ThinkComputers. ATI Eyefinity Active DisplayPort Adapter on NeoSeeker. Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Micro Four Thirds Camera on FutureLooks. Motherboard & CPU: ECS P55H-AK Black Series LGA1156 board on TBreak. Gigabyte H55M-USB3 LGA1156 board on Bjorn3D. Gigabyte X58A-UD9 LGA1366 board on Guru3D. Storage: ADATA S596 Turbo 128Gb SSD with JMicron's new JMF616 controller on FunkyKit. Vantec Nexstar CX SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure on Tweaknews. Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB External USB Hard Drive on EverythingUSB. Power Supply: NZXT HALE90 750W on OCOnline. Cooler Master USNA 95 mobile power supply unit on InsideHW. Cooling: Nexus FLC-3000 R2 vs. CoolIT ECO A.L.C on RBMods. Scythe Ninja 3 CPU Cooler on XbitLabs. Corsair H70 CPU cooler on OCClub. SilenX iXtrema EFFIZIO EFZ-120HA4 Extreme Silent CPU Cooler on Tweaktown. Prolimatech MK-13 VGA Cooler on OC3D. Misc: AXLE GeForce GTX 460 Ace 1GB video card on TechPowerUp. Genius MaxFire Pandora-Pro USB Mini Gamepad on BenchmarkReviews. Cooler Master Choiix Comforter Lapdesk on LegitReviews. QPad K5 vs Sharkoon FireGlider mice on FunkyKit. Monday Night (3 Comments) (link)  Monday, 30-August-2010  20:46:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg AMD have announced they will be officially killing off the ATi brand, replacing it with AMD branding. Info on Tech Report, Anandtech and PC Perspective. Furthermore, AMD tells us it feels confident in making this change right now because its graphics business is "on a roll," having surpassed rival Nvidia in discrete graphics shipments last quarter, according to analyst estimates, and having secured high-profile design wins with the likes of Apple. Discussion here. XbitLabs have a few comparisons, with GeForce GTX 460 SLI vs. Radeon HD 5970 in the video card arena, and Thermalright Silver Arrow vs. Noctua NH-D14 and Thermalright HR-02 vs. Noctua NH-D14 on the cooling side of things. Thermalright is trying to regain its leading positions in the market by launching two new air coolers for central processors. Have they managed to accomplish their ultimate goal? BnH1 sent in this interesting article about startups by ex-Googlers. Many of these Xooglers (yes, that’s what former Googlers call themselves) have decided to scale down and start-up. Xoogler-founded businesses are making headlines everywhere as they are acquired by Google (Google), its competitors, find funding from other Xooglers, and blaze new trails on the web. Here are 15 companies that have sprung forth from the minds of those who once staffed the web giant. iXBTLabs have done some CPUID fiddling to see how Intel's compiler deals with different CPUs. There's also a dispatcher that selects the needed code path. Thanks to Agner Fog, who has found out how to change the CPUID data of the VIA Nano processor, we now can conduct an independent "fairness" test and see what's going on. Today's timewaster is Type Racer, where you can compete with other fast typists.

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