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September 2010 |
Thursday Evening Reviews
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Thursday, 30-September-2010 19:55:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Video Cards:
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 - The Super-Affordable Fermi on TechGage.
Sparkle Geforce GTX480 on TechWareLabs.
VisionTek Radeon HD 5550 1GB PCIe on ReviewStash.
Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 on NinjaLane.
Memory:
Kingston HyperX H2O PC3 16000 3x2GB Cas 9 on OCClub.
2500MHz Patriot Viper-II Sector-5 Memory Kit on BenchmarkReviews.
Audio Visual:
Zotac Blu-ray HD-ID34 Nettop / HTPC on HotHardware.
brite-View CinemaTube Mini/CinemaGo Media Player on Tweaktown.
BOSE VideoWave HDTV on DigitalTrends.
USB Portable Media Player w/Card Reader on BonaFideReviews.
Psyko 5.1 Gaming Headset on PureOC.
CiragoTV Platinum CMC3000 Multimedia Player on TestFreaks.
ASUS CineVibe Rumble Feedback USB Gaming Headset on Guru3D.
Input Etc:
Logitech Gaming Keyboard G510 on HWHeaven.
Mionix Naos 5000 Gaming Mouse on Bjorn3D.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS & Gigabyte X58 Motherboard Roundup on NeoSeeker.
Biostar TA870+ AM3 board on iXBTLabs.
Asus M4A88TD-V Evo/USB3 AM3 board on RBMods.
GIGABYTE X58A-UD9 Tested in Three-Way SLI w/ GTX 470 Super Overclock on Tweaktown.
Power Supply:
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 750W on HWSecrets.
NZXT HALE90 750W on ThinkComputers.
Cases:
Antec LanBoy Air testbench case on HWSecrets.
Thermaltake V9 BlacX Edition on FunkyKit.
Storage:
OCZ IBIS HSDL Solid State Drive on HWHeaven.
OCZ Ibis High Speed Data Link (HSDL) 240GB SSD on PCPerspective.
HighPoint RocketRAID 2760 Switch Architecture 24-Port SAS/SATA 6Gb/s Controller on Tweaktown.
Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7
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Thursday, 30-September-2010 12:21:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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OCAU Forums regular DiGiTaL MoNkEY has sent in his first review for us. He's taken a look at Gigabyte's GA-890FXA-UD7, a feature-packed motherboard for AM3 CPUs:
click for the review!
Geek Food
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Wednesday, 29-September-2010 15:45:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's some yummy things from our Geek Food forum:
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 29-September-2010 14:19:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some new footage of the first moon walk has been uncovered and restored in Australia, thanks Sniper. The footage of mission commander Neil Armstrong descending the ladder of the lunar module will be shown at the Australian Geographic Society Awards next Wednesday, Australian Geographic said in a statement.
Quite a few people sent word that the millionare owner (but not inventor) of the Segway business has died after riding one off a cliff. Heselden made his fortune when his Leeds-based firm Hesco Bastion developed the "blast wall" basket, which protect soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, as a replacement for traditional sandbags. Last year he led a British team which bought the US-based Segway firm that makes and distributes the distinctive two-wheeled self-balancing scooters.
Tech Report cover NVIDIA's focus on GPU computing. Nvidia's efforts to promote GPU computing are getting real traction in scientific research, engineering and design, and other fields.
Internode have scored well in a recent ISP customer ratings survey. In a survey of ten leading ISPs, Internode was the only broadband provider to get an overall five star rating, the highest possible score, while heavyweights Telstra and Optus brought up the rear of the field.
Gaming TV show Pure Pwnage is coming to the ABC, report GamePron. Will Jeremy remain world champion, even if he has nowhere to live? How will that new hot girl affect his plans? We’ll find out Monday October 4th at 9:05pm, on Australia’s ABC. Speaking of which, GamePron have their own gaming TV show now. The second edition of GamePron News has been prepared for your viewing pleasure, covering such things as APB’s closure, StarCraft II opening North American servers to gamers from South East Asia / Australia / New Zealand, the amazing new BioShock Infinite footage, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition‘s piracy woes and Steve Wiebe reclaiming his crown as the King of Kong.
dasuperham sends word that a new commercially-sponsored fork of OpenOffice has been launched. The OpenOffice development community have today announced the launch of a new foundation – The Document Foundation – that will oversee, guide and develop a new fork of OpenOffice named ‘LibreOffice’. ... Oracle, whose acquisition of Sun Microsystems last year made it owner of OpenOffice.org’s assets and branding hence the renaming, are not yet a member of The Document Foundation although have been invited to join.
Meanwhile from Skymaster: It appears that MS have released SBS 7 Beta - Incorporating Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Windows Software Update Services. Built around Win2008 R2.
HotHardware have a gaming headset roundup. There are two ways to take advantage of the positional audio capabilities of most modern games. You can either get a set of nice speakers or some nice headphones. There are plenty of advantages and disadvantages to either option but for gaming we would argue that headphones, or a headset, is the way to go.
An OCAU member has discovered that Chuck Norris's powers extend to the world of mobile phone reception. Chuck Norris' mere presence allows an iPhone 4 to gain reception, and only when he is around. Amazing! ;) Discussion here.
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 29-September-2010 02:27:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some interesting things from the forums:
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 29-September-2010 01:36:56 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
MSI P55A-Fuzion LGA1156 board on FunkyKit.
AMD's Athlon II and Phenom II Refresh on LostCircuits.
Cases:
Lian Li PC-Q08 Mini-ITX Mini Tower on SilentPCReview.
Lian Li PC-Q11 Mini-ITX on TechPowerUp.
AZZA Hurrican 2000 Gaming Tower on Pro-Clockers.
Video Perspective: Corsair Graphite Series 600T Chassis on PCPerspective.
NZXT Phantom on OCOnline.
Antec LanBoy Air Blue Mid Tower on Tweaktown.
BitFenix Colossus full-tower on DVHardware.
Chenbro RM41416B Rack Mount Server Case on TechWareLabs.
Antec LanBoy Air Modular Full Tower on LegitReviews.
Video Cards:
MSI N460GTX HAWK GeForce GTX 460 on BenchmarkReviews.
Galaxy GeForce GTX 480 Super OC 1536MB Overclocked on Tweaktown.
Axle GeForce GTX 460 ACE on Guru3D.
Palit GTS 450 Sonic Platinum on Bjorn3D.
InnoVISION GeForce GTS 450 iChill on MadShrimps.
PNY GeForce GTS 450 1GB on PureOC.
Palit GTS 450 Sonic Platinum on OCClub.
Audio Visual:
Apple TV Preview on RBMods.
Ozone Oxid Gaming Headset on OCClub.
ASUS Xonar DG sound-card on OC3D.
ViewSonic VX2739wm monitor on InsideHW.
21.5" Compaq Q2159 1080p Widescreen LCD Monitor on BonaFideReviews.
Sharp LC-46LE820UN TV on DigitalTrends.
Arctic Sound P321 Headphones on Pro-Clockers.
Input Etc:
ROCCAT Kone[+] mouse on Vortez.
CM Storm Inferno Mouse on HWSecrets.
Zowie EC1 Gaming Mouse on OC3D.
Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse G700 and Gaming Keyboard G510 on TechSpot.
Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard on EverythingUSB.
Archos 32 Media Tablet on TechReviewSource.
Memory:
OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 8GB Gold Edition on TestFreaks.
Mushkin Blackline PC3-12800 on XSReviews.
Corsair Dominator PC3-12800 (1600MHz) 4GB Kit on Tweaktown.
Geil Ultra 2000MHZ on XSReviews.
Cooling:
Thermalright HR-02 CPU Cooler on Vortez.
Corsair A70 Performance CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
ZEROtherm ZT-10D Premium CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Thermaltake Mobile Fan 12 on ThinkComputers.
DeepCool Killer Whale CPU Cooler on Tweaknews.
Storage:
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 64gb USB 3.0 Flash Drive on DragonSteelMods.
Thermaltake BlacX 5G HDD Docking Station on Techgage.
Mushkin Mulholland 16GB & 32GB Flash Drive on OCClub.
QNAP TS-559 Pro+ Network Attached Storage on APHNetworks.
OCZ Enyo USB 3.0 SSD on HWHeaven.
QNAP TS-859U-RP 8-Drive Rackmount NAS on Tweaktown.
Western Digital Velociraptor 600 GB Hard Drive on TechWareLabs.
WD Scorpio Black 500GB Notebook Hard Drive on LegitReviews.
Power Supply:
Corsair Gold: AX850 Power Supply on SilentPCReview.
PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W PSU on PCPerspective.
Prebuilt & Portable:
Gateway FX 6840-01e Desktop Gaming System on OCIA.
ASUS N61Ja laptop on TBreak.
Acer Aspire Z5700 desktop on TechReviewSource.
Misc:
muvee Reveal 8 video editing software on TestFreaks.
Contest Update
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Monday, 27-September-2010 17:26:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Our two current contests finish at the end of September, so there's only a few days left. You can still win a Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel for PC or PS3 from Pagnian Imports or a pair of bookshelf speaker kits from The Loudspeaker Kit.
ASUS meanwhile are running an overclocking championship for the next few weeks. If you're thinking you don't have a chance, you might be wrong, because this week's contest is to get the lowest clock speed. Not much Australian representation in the contest so far, but you can find more details in this thread.
Monday Lunchtime
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Monday, 27-September-2010 13:34:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Game On 2.0 exhibition in Launceston finishes after this weekend, thanks John. Game On 2.0 tracks the development of videogames from the earliest computer games to arcade-era hits and the very latest from today's billion-dollar industry. With more than 120 playable games, as well as rarely seen consoles, controllers and collectables, this is a showcase of games history like no other.
Virgin Blue and Jetstar customers have been impacted by a computer glitch, causing long delays. ‘‘We’ve been advised the cause is an external supplier’s hardware failure,’’ Mr Lippiatt said. ‘‘We are working with them to get that fixed as soon as possible.’’
Google, Apple, Intel and some other tech giants are in trouble for not poaching from each other. Sounds innocuous - Google just doesn't want to irritate its buddies! - but the government saw an anti-competitive cabal instead, one that "restrained competition for affected employees without any procompetitive justification and distorted the competitive process," according to Assistant Attorney General Molly Boast.
IT contractors are healthy, wealthy and generous, thanks AirQ. IT contractors were generally happy with their lot. Despite being hit by the fallout from the recession harder than their peers in other fields (32 percent of IT contractors had their pay cut compared to 23 percent overall) the sense of freedom 86 percent reported led to higher feelings of contentment.
US video giant Blockbuster are going bankrupt, although it apparently won't affect the financially-separate Australian shops. Blockbuster plans to reinvent itself as a leaner competitor with more digital video offerings, including offerings on mobile devices. It said business is continuing as usual with its roughly 3,000 U.S. stores still open. USNews have an article on how Netflix killed Blockbuster. Blockbuster's long-anticipated bankruptcy filing is clear proof that the company clung far too long to an outdated strategy and failed to understand changes that others eagerly exploited.
Some people are saying that Stuxnet is the first worm designed to target real-world infrastructure, in this case, seemingly particularly in Iran. Some have speculated that it could have been aimed at disrupting Iran's delayed Bushehr nuclear power plant or the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.
mpot spotted this amusing pen and paper SQL attack in Sweden. The second to last field is the actual text on the ballot. Could it be that Little Bobby Tables is all grown up and has migrated to Sweden? Well, it's probably just a joke but even so it brings questions since an SQL-injection on election data would be very serious.
AirQ sends word of some new industry standards for comparing SSD endurance and reliability. As SSDs are subject to different levels of demand depending on the applications in use, the new standards define two application classes: Client and Enterprise. The standards also establish specific requirements for each, an approach intended to help consumers and enterprise IT managers choose products that are the best fit for their needs.
A Melbourne teenager says he was the unwitting cause of a recent Twitter XSS worm. Delphin, who lives with his parents in Melbourne, said he tweeted a piece of "mouseover" JavaScript code which brings up a pop-up window when the user hovers their cursor over the message. But the idea was soon taken up by hackers who tweaked the code to redirect users to pornographic sites and create "worm" tweets that replicated every time they were read.
Today's very additive timewaster is entanglement, from nyah8. Mouse scrollwheel to turn rotate the tiles, left mouse button for a new one, try to make the longest path, keeping away from the walls and middle.
Interesting Forum Threads
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Sunday, 26-September-2010 20:53:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in the forums:
Gigabyte's First Black-PCB Motherboards: P67A-UD5 and P67A-UD7 in Overclocking & Hardware.
[TeamAU] PCMARK Vantage 39.3K in Overclocking & Hardware.
Solution to cleaning heatsink monthly? in Overclocking & Hardware.
10 Core Westmere-EX in Intel Hardware.
Rumour: VIA plan quad-core Nano by end of 2011 in VIA Hardware.
VIA PadLock Security Engine in VIA Hardware.
AMD Readies Phenom II X6 1100T, 1065T, Phenom II X4 975 in AMD Hardware.
Terabytes for backups for the home user in Storage & Backup.
Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i/e 8 Port 6Gb/s SAS Controller in Storage & Backup.
New SAS expander on the block in Storage & Backup.
Interesting - External PCI Express Expansion Backplane in Storage & Backup.
IT Security training for end users in Business & Enterprise Computing.
Small Server room Cooling / Aircon recommendations in Business & Enterprise Computing.
This might bring back some good memories for the "older folks" in PC Audio.
Valve/AMD Now providing ATI Catalyst Updates on Steam in Video Cards & Monitors.
"hardly anyone plays first-person shooters on the PC anymore" - Microsoft employee in Games.
Ferrari Virtual Academy in Games.
Retro 386DX40 Build in Retro & Arcade.
IBM (Microsoft) Adventure version 1.0 in Retro & Arcade.
GOG gone! (not really) in Retro & Arcade.
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 26-September-2010 02:19:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Foxconn A88GM MicroATX AM3 board on NinjaLane.
MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition AM3 board on OC3D.
ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 AM3 board on PureOC.
ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 AM3 board on HWSecrets.
Cases:
NZXT Phantom Steel Full Tower on DragonSteelMods.
Thermaltake Armor A60 on HWLogic.
Storage:
OCW Multi Mount bay converter on PureOC.
Plextor PX-B120U External BD-ROM Drive on TechWareLabs.
A-DATA Nobility N005 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Tweaktown.
Hitachi LifeStudio Mobile Plus External Drive on BenchmarkReviews.
Cirago CST6000 250gb USB 3.0 Hard Drive on TestFreaks.
Video Cards:
GeForce GTS 450 on HWSecrets.
ECS GeForce GTX 460 1GB Black on LegitReviews.
KFA2 GeForce GTX 480 LTD OC Anarchy on Guru3D.
Asus GTX-460 TOP on Bjorn3D.
Cooling:
Thermaltake Massive23 LX Notebook Cooler on OCIA.
Scythe Ninja 3 SCNJ-3000 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Deepcool Gamer Storm CPU cooler on OCClub.
Cooler Master V6GT CPU cooler on TechPowerUp.
SilenX EFZ-120HA3 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Cooler Master NotePal U3 Notebook Cooler on Tweaktown.
Scythe Ninja3 CPU Cooler on HWSecrets.
Input Etc:
CM Inferno and QPAD Q5 Gaming Mice on Metku.
Logitech Wireless Mouse M305 on OCOnline.
Audio Visual:
Kodak EasyShare M580 digicam on TechReviewSource.
Compro IP70 Network Camera on PCReview.
Vivitek H1080FD projector on GamingNexus.
Arctic Sound P531 USB Headset on Tweaktown.
Corsair HS1 USB Gaming Headset on HWHeaven.
Genaudio Astoundsound Audio Expander 3.0 audio software on LegitReviews.
Misc:
MX-Tech Armor Series DDR3-1600 4GB Kit memory on FunkyKit.
Cryo PC Helix gaming system on XSReviews.
Thanks to gecko, Steve and Allen this week!
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Comparing VelociRaptor, SSD and RAM Drive
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Friday, 24-September-2010 03:11:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Dirtyd has been playing around with three storage options: WD's VelociRaptor (singly and in RAID), their Silicon Edge Blue SSD and a RAM drive. These are all available to enthusiasts without too much hassle, but which is the most worthwhile?
Click for the article!
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 24-September-2010 01:13:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Power Supply:
Corsair AX850 850W on OCClub.
Cougar SX850 850W on ThinkComputers.
Galaxy GeForce GTX 480 Super OC 1536MB on Tweaktown.
Motherboard & CPU:
AMD Phenom II X6 1075T & X4 970 CPUs on NeoSeeker.
ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 Socket AM3 Motherboard on Pro-Clockers.
AMD Athlon II X4 645 3.1GHz CPU on TechWareLabs.
GIGABYTE X58A-UD9 (Intel X58 Express) LGA1366 board on Tweaktown.
Phenom II x4 970 Black Edition CPU on TechWareLabs.
Audio Visual:
Toshiba BDX2700 Blu-ray Player on Tweaktown.
Wicked Audio Reverb Headphones on MegaTechNews.
Storage:
Thecus N8800 Pro 8-Drive Rackmount NAS on Tweaktown.
Hitachi/LG BH20L 6x Blu-ray Burner on BigBruin.
Cooling:
Thermaltake Jing CPU Cooler on FunkyKit.
Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler on Tech-Reviews.
Spire TherMax Eclipse II CPU Cooler on HWSecrets.
Cases:
Thermaltake Armor A60 Mid Tower on LegitReviews.
Thermaltake Armor A60 on BenchmarkReviews.
Misc:
Asus RT-N13U Wireless-N Internet Router on Tweaknews.
Novatech - The Revolution Full System on HWHeaven.
ASUS EAH5850 TOP video card on HWSecrets.
Thursday Morning
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Thursday, 23-September-2010 01:37:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Foxmulder881 is organising an OCAU Linux Spring Code 2010, where teams can work on software projects together. The idea for this event is based on the Google Summer of Code concept, but in a much simpler form and structure. The event is as open as Linux itself and comes without any obligations. It's all about code, mingling with other Linux users and community members, having some well earned fun and enjoy ourselves, doing what we love most about computer technology and IT - Linux, kernels, code and programming.
NVIDIA have unveiled their GPU roadmap at the GPU Technology Conference. A few snippets: GPU roadmap and new DX11 demos on PCPerspective, Kepler and Maxwell on Tech Report, glasses-free 3D for smartphones on LegitReviews and Tegra 3 imminent on HotHardware.
Here's a cool visit to a soviet video game museum, with more photos on Flickr. It was pointed out in the articles I’d read that none of these games featured a high-score list. This originally jumped out to me as a fantastic cultural difference – you could be rewarded for a high score by a free game, but in the spirit of Communism, there was no recognition of individual achievement. Discussion here.
It seems Australians can't get enough data. A report released yesterday by the Bureau of Statistics shows the amount of data downloaded in the June 2010 quarter increased by more than 50 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier.
From AirQ, information on France's anti-filesharing laws coming into effect. Copyright holders are currently in the process of sending out tens of thousands of IP-addresses of alleged infringers to Internet service providers, and this will increase to over a million in a few weeks. The ISPs have to hand over the identities of the associated accounts to the authorities within a week, or face a fine of 1500 euros per unidentified IP-address.
Phoronix have info on DX11 on Linux. Luca says this is just the initial version, but it's already working and can run a few DirectX 10/11 texturing demos on Linux at the moment. This is not a matter of simply translating the Direct3D calls and converting them to OpenGL like how Wine currently handles it, but is natively implemented within Gallium3D and TGSI to speak directly to the underlying graphics driver and hardware.
I haven't played too far into it, but today's timewaster is Every Day The Same Dream, from scon.
Wednesday Night Reviews
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Wednesday, 22-September-2010 23:11:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
Ozone Strato 5.1 Gaming Headset on OCClub.
Arctic Sound P321 USB Headset on Tweaktown.
Video Cards:
ECS GTX 460 Black Series on HWSecrets.
Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum 1GB on PureOC.
Extreme Overclocking Experience Starring Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum on XbitLabs.
Asus Matrix 5870 on XbitLabs.
HIS HD 5570 Low Profile on Tweaknews.
Gigabyte GTX 470 Super Overclock on Bjorn3D.
Power Supply:
Scythe Kamariki 4 650W Modular PSU on Tweaktown.
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 750W on JonnyGuru.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 Socket AM3 Motherboard on Pro-Clockers.
Intel Core i5-760 CPU on XbitLabs.
AMD Athlon II X4 635 AM3 Processor Video Review on eTeknix.
AMD Phenom II 560 X2 Processor on TechWareLabs.
Cases:
BitFenix Colossus on MadShrimps.
Thermaltake Armor A60 on APHNetworks.
NZXT Phantom Full Tower on BigBruin.
NZXT Phantom Crafted Series on FutureLooks.
Storage:
Patriot Xporter XT Rage 32GB USB Flash Drive on TechWareLabs.
OCZ RevoDrive PCI-Express RAID-0 SSD on BenchmarkReviews.
Software:
R.U.S.E. (PC) on GamingHeaven.
GFI Backup 2010 Business Edition on BusinessComputingWorld.
Cooling:
Gelid Icy Vision VGA Cooler on HWSecrets.
Swiftech H20-X20 Edge Liquid Cooling Kit on OCIA.
Evercool Hawk 1 Notebook Cooler on ThinkComputers.
GlacialTech Alaska CPU Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Input Etc:
Arctic ultra-slim keyboard K381 on RBMods.
Logitech G700 Wireless Gaming Mouse on EverythingUSB.
Roccat Taito Kingsize mTw Edition mousemat on DVHardware.
AMD Releases New CPUs
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Wednesday, 22-September-2010 00:31:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD have unveiled a range of new processors, including a 3GHz 6-core part - and eight others! Coverage on TomsHardware, Tech Report, LegionHW, HWHeaven, HotHardware, TechPowerUp (and here), PureOC, BenchmarkReviews (and here and here), NeoSeeker, Overclockers.com, OCClub, Guru3D, Bjorn3D, TechSpot, OC3D, TechWareLabs and ExtremeOC.
Discussion here.
Tuesday Night Reviews
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Tuesday, 21-September-2010 23:21:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock P55 Extreme4 (P55 Express) LGA1156 board on Tweaktown.
ASRock X58 Extreme3 Intel X58 LGA1366 board on OCWorkbench.
Audio Visual:
Hercules XPS 5.1 70 Slim 5.1 Multimedia Speaker System on TestFreaks.
DXG DXG-595V 5MP 1080p HD Digital Camera/Camcorder on MonsterHW.
AOC e2237Fwh 21.5-inch LCD Monitor on Tweaktown.
Cases:
Antec DF 30 on XSReviews.
Thermaltake Armor A90 on OCOnline.
Lian Li PC-T7B Mini-ITX Test Bench on Modders-Inc.
Cooling:
Arctic Accelero Xtreme 5970 video card cooler on Bjorn3D.
Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 5870 video card cooler on OC3D.
Zerotherm ZT-10D CPU Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Zalman CNPS8000A CPU Cooler on HWSecrets.
Video Cards:
ECS Black GTX 450 on TBreak.
ASUS ENGTS450 TOP on NeoSeeker.
Storage:
Team Group Xtreem S1 120GB SandForce Solid State Drive on Tweaktown.
OCZ Vertex 2 - 120Gb SSD (3.5" inch version) on FunkyKit.
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on LegitReviews.
Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 3TB on Techgage.
Iomega eGo USB 3.0 external HDD on TechReviewSource.
Misc:
Kingston HyperX blu PC3-12800 (1600MHz) 4GB Kit on Tweaktown.
Choiix Cruiser 2.4GHz Wireless Mouse on ThinkComputers.
HP Envy 17 laptop on TechReviewSource.
Photography Gallery
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Monday, 20-September-2010 20:40:56 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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By popular demand ;) here's some recent photos from our Photography Gallery forum.
Monday Evening
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Monday, 20-September-2010 20:10:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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People are up in arms over Intel's plan to charge to enable CPU features. Certain PCs, such as Gateway's SX2841-09e, are running an artificially limited Pentium G6951 processor and asked to buy a $50 Processor Performance Upgrade Card to get the built-in feature set. More here and discussion here.
The ACCC are taking Optus to court over their "supersonic" internet plans. The ACCC fingered 11 television, print, billboard and internet advertisements that state Optus "Supersonic" services are "four times faster than standard broadband" but fail to disclose the near dial-up shaping speeds.
Forget 3DTV, how about retinal projection? The prototype Retinal Imaging Display (RID) projects safe, fast-moving light directly onto your retina that appears to the viewer as a 16-inch display floating transparently at a distance of about 3 feet.
Games.on.net report that Internode are providing Australian CoD: Black Ops servers soon. Internode customers will enjoy free, unmetered data to and from all GameServers.com hosted servers. Of course, any member of the gaming public can join and play on these servers, regardless of their choice of ISP.
On a similar note, StarCraft II players will have access to north american servers soon. You, along with your New Zealand and South East Asian brethren, will be able to access the North American Battle.net servers from this Thursday, September 23. That’s when the upcoming Patch 1.1.0 for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will be launched, including a handy region selector, so you’ll be set to go without needing any extra downloads.
From dasuperham, PCI Express 3.0 will be finalised soon. The third-generation incarnation of PCI Express has numerous advantages over existing bus specifications. The PCIe 3.0 will operate at 8GT/s (8.0GHz) speed, will have different electrical models and will move to 128-bit and 130-bit encoding schemes (from 8- and 10-bit schemes). In 2008 Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett Packard proposed a number of extensions for PCI Express 3.0.
Meanwhile TG Daily expect USB 3.0 to take off in 2011. "The high-rate of SuperSpeed adoption illustrates that USB 3.0 is a thriving and advanced ecosystem. It is already driving and creating a new generation of devices and components," USB-IF president and chairman Jeff Ravencraft told TG Daily at IDF 2010.
Tech Report went to the MSI OC Arena finals in Taipei. TR contributor Matt Trinca was on the scene, and he's shared the results of the competition and some impressions of the event, which included a stormtrooper dance routine that words simply can't describe. But we have video.
BenchmarkReviews meanwhile examined NVIDIA's APEX PhysX. While adding PhysX support to a video game is nothing new for NVIDIA, allowing APEX PhysX features to be computed by the computer's central processor is new territory. For this NVIDIA APEX PhysX: CPU vs GPU Efficiency demonstration, our tests compare GeForce and Radeon GPU's against the Intel Core i7 CPU.
Terry Pratchett was recently knighted, and of course made his own sword. Using meteorites. Pratchett, believing the sword would not truly be his own unless it was made from metal he had produced, found a field with deposits of iron ore near his home in Wiltshire, west of London. Thanks Ohmigosh.
Monday Evening Reviews
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Monday, 20-September-2010 19:38:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cases:
Corsair Obsidian 700D Full-Tower on BenchmarkReviews.
Antec Dark Fleet DF-35 Mid Tower on ThinkComputers.
Audio Visual:
Logitech Wireless Gaming Headset G930 on OCIA.
WowWee Rovio Mobile Webcam on PCPerspective.
Corsair HS1 USB Circumaural Gaming Headset on LegitReviews.
Turtle Beach Ear Force Z2 headset on OCClub.
Power Supply:
Nexus RX-7000 PSU on RBMods.
Cooler Master USNA 95 Ultra Slim Notebook Adapter on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 on ReviewStash.
Brando Rii Mini Bluetooth Keyboard with Touchpad on MadShrimps.
Video Cards:
HIS HD5870 iCooler V Turbo 1GB on Metku.
ECS Black GTX 460 1GB on PureOC.
nVidia’s GeForce GTS 450 on FutureLooks.
Misc:
Thermaltake BlacX 5G USB 3.0 Hard Drive Dock on BonaFideReviews.
Thermaltake Mobile Fan 12 USB Desktop Fan on Tweaknews.
ASUS TUF Sabertooth X58 LGA1366 motherboard on Guru3D.
Logic Supply SolidLogic Montivina Fanless Mini-ITX System on SilentPCReview.
Gigabyte's H55 Mini-ITX mobo squeezes into the Silverstone SG07 on TechReport.
OCAU received a nice mention in PC PowerPlay and Sabz was kind enough to send along a scan of a few pages. It's an article about building a gaming PC on the cheap, and they recommend our trading forums as a place to look for bargains:
   
I think it's in the current issue, with the next issue coming out later this week. So if you want to check out the rest of the mag, get on down to your local newsagent!
Sunday Aaaarrrrfternoon
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Sunday, 19-September-2010 14:04:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Avast, mateys! Once again it be that most chumbuckety of days, International Talk Like A Pirate Day. So hyaarr I am, the Dread Pirate Aggbeard, with news from across the seven seas!
Firstly, some scurvy dogs have stolen rickbishop's, err, not-so-scurvy dogs. So if you're moored near Mackay or Rockhampton and have seen these dogs, give rickbishop an ahoy. Pet thieves be givin' us pirates a bad name.
Blisterin' barnacles, Dell have a flippy tablet, which is tricky enough to make me eyepatch spin! The 10" screen flips so you can enjoy a touch screen tablet or netbook with keyboard. This Dell tablet features a dual core Intel Atom processor.
Speakin' of spinnin', here's some spacey tidbits: Pluto has new neighbours, the Ozone layer is feeling better and Boston.com have some stunning photos of the solar system. Collected here are recent images gathered from around our solar system, at scales ranging from mere centimeters to millions of kilometers.
Those mangy currs at Microsoft are makin' us test their new browser, which is the internet equivalent of keehauling, surely. Actually, early reports are that it doesn't suck. You be the judge, assuming you're on Vista or Windows 7, and report back hyarrr! There's even a review here, thanks Morsolo!
Captain Conroy has returned a salvo at Commander Turnbull, sayin' the filter has full sails and a strong tailwind. "It has no impact on speed and anybody who makes a claim that it has an impact on speed is misleading people. If you want to be a strict engineer, it's 170th of the blink of an eye, but no noticeable effect for an end user. So there is no impact and the accuracy is 100 per cent."
If you're a land-lubber who prefers wheels to sails, ye pack of skirts, you'll enjoy this new Ken Block video where he goes around and around and sideways and smoking and yarrr, I shouldn't have had all that grog for breakfast. Shot just south of Paris, France in Linas at l'Autodrome de Linas --Montlhéry, this 1.58 mile oval track, built in 1924, features banks as steep as 51 degrees, which is more than double the standard incline of most NASCAR ovals.
AMD's Zacate looks like it could rip Atom's barnacles off, with more info here, thanks dasuperham. Known as Zacate, the new chip was shown giving Intel's much more complex and expensive Core i5 processor a spanking in several popular PC games.
Finally, some folk have forgotten that ye can search OCAU with Google, usin' our fancy-dancy custom search page. Ye can find yer goodies on the main site, or the public-browseable forums, for when the in-built search lets ye down.
And as a special bonus, here's OCAU's Pirate Day mascot:
Ahoy there!
That's it from me, till next yeeaaaarrr!
Saturday Night Reviews
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Saturday, 18-September-2010 21:18:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Gigabyte X58A-UD7 LGA1366 board on Bjorn3D.
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T CPU on LegitReviews.
Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H AM3 board on HWSecrets.
Video Cards:
NVIDIA Surround featuring 3D Vision and the Zotac GTX 480 AMP! SLI on HWHeaven.
AMD ATI FirePro V9800 Workstation Graphics Card on HotHardware.
EVGA GTX460 SLI on OC3D.
Galaxy GeForce GTS 450 Super OC 1GB in SLI Overclocked on Tweaktown.
Zotac Geforce GTS 450 (1GB GDDR5) on FunkyKit.
AMD FirePro V9800 4GB Professional Graphics Card on PCPerspective.
Cooling:
Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro VGA Cooler on HWSecrets.
Antec Notebook Cooler 200 on Tweaktown.
Corsair H70 liquid-cooling kit on Guru3D.
Cases:
Corsair's Graphite Series 600T on TechReport.
NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Full Tower Case on HWLogic.
NZXT Phantom on Overclockers.com.
Xion Predator Gaming Series AXP 970 Mid Tower on Pro-Clockers.
Misc:
Antec LanBoard case trolley on ThinkComputers.
Epson B-510DN Ink Jet Printer on HWSecrets.
HP Mini 5103 dual-core netbook on TechReviewSource.
ASUS CineVibe USB Gaming Vibration Headset on Tweaktown.
Mionix Naos 3200 Gaming Mouse on Tech-Reviews.
Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT25664FN1608 memory on OCClub.
OCZ Enyo 128GB USB 3.0 External Solid State Drive on Tweaktown.
Thanks to TonyR, Emupp, Spectrekt and Carl this week!
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Sponsor Specials
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Friday, 17-September-2010 14:20:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Remember to keep an eye on our Sponsor Specials Forum if you're shopping around. In there our various sponsors have specials and info on driving wheels and games, clicky keyboards, media players, iPad/iPhone accessories, USB3 drives/controllers, fitness supplements, headphones, data recovery, SSDs, games, routers, office chairs, Blu-Ray players, video cards and a range of other goodies. Check 'em out!
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 17-September-2010 02:09:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Prebuilt & Portable:
Lenovo IdeaPad V460 on DigitalTrends.
Sony VAIO P VPCP115KG on TBreak.
Motherboard & CPU:
Asus P7F7-E WS SuperComputer LGA1156 board on Overclockers.com.
Asus Rampage III Gene LGA1366 mATX board on ITShootOut.
ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 Socket AM3 on Pro-Clockers.
MSI 890FXA-G70 AM3 board on PC Perspective.
Biostar TA890FXE AM3 board on iXBTLabs.
Storage:
Kingston SSD Now V+ 256GB on OC3D.
PhotoFast GBOX Mini - SATA to USB3 Adapter on PCPerspective.
Star Wars Stormtrooper 2GB Mimobot flash drive on ThinkComputers.
Cooling:
Prolimatech Samuel 17 CPU Cooler on HWSecrets.
SilenX EFZ-100HA1 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Corsair Hydro H70 on PureOC.
Xigmatek Aegir SD128264 CPU Cooler on FunkyKit.
Cases:
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Mid-Tower on LegitReviews.
Lian-Li Pitstop T7 Mini-ITX Test Bench Video Review on eTeknix.
Thermaltake Armor A60 on OCIA.
Lian Li PC-V352R Red Aluminum MicroATX/ITX Desktop on BonaFideReviews.
Antec DF-85 Dark Fleet on Tweaknews.
High Speed PC "Top Deck" Tech Station (Large) on BurnedIn.
Audio Visual:
Apple iPod touch 4 on EverythingUSB.
Sony BDP-S370: Bluray DVD Player, Internet Video Etc on RamblingThoughts.
Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex TV HD Media Player on LegitReviews.
Misc:
Galaxy GeForce GTS 450 Super OC 1GB in SLI on Tweaktown.
VisionTek CandyBoard mini keyboard on PureOC.
Scythe Chouriki 2 1000W Modular PSU on Tweaktown.
Forum Projects
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Thursday, 16-September-2010 01:52:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some interesting things from the forums:
Uncle-Fester also posted info about an LGA1156 overclocking contest from MSI.
Thursday Morning
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Thursday, 16-September-2010 00:14:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Malcolm Turnbull has been appointed Shadow Communications Minister, and has come out swinging at the Government's policies. “I am a notorious internet junkie — I love it,” Turnbull told the ABC’s PM radio program this afternoon. Turnbull was famously an investor in one of Australia’s first major ISPs — OzEmail — from which he made a fortune in the late 1990s. And the MP also carries around an iPad, which replaced his Amazon Kindle. Discussion here.
Sony have a new site championing gaming with buttons, as opposed to Microsoft's Kinect jumping-around gaming. Spotted by the folks at Joystiq the site basically points out that Kinect isn’t going to be your tool of choice for the next instalment of COD or Halo, but we already knew that – didn’t we?
Maslander pointed out this response to the "accidental pirate" website, Deliberate Pirate. A parody of accidentalpirate.com.au a campaign launched by the Australian copyright lobby. Clip made for Pirate Party Australia by Simon Frew.
Finnish-born Linus Torvalds has become a U.S. citizen. We've been in the US for over a decade, and it's definitely "home", and we like living here. But being an alien means that you can't vote, and seeing all the news being about the presidential election (and all the streets here locally littered with signs about the local school bond) tends to remind you about that issue.
It turns out people don't like 3DTV because they don't like the glasses. More than half said the glasses were a "hassle" and 57 percent said they were "not likely" to buy a 3D TV set for that reason, the survey found.
VooDoo sent in this Mad Max slideshow showing various scenes from the movie compared with the present day. Cool idea, but I think it's been too long since I've seen the movie, coz I don't remember any of the urban stuff in that slideshow.
A Google engineer has apparently been fired for spying on people. According to a report by Gawker, in at least four cases, David Barksdale spied on minors' Google accounts without their consent, according to a source close to the incidents. The report claimed that Barksdale accessed contact lists and chat transcripts, and in one case quoted from an IM that he had looked up behind the person's back. Discussion here.
Koopz sent in this super slimline car. I have been building 'crazy' cars since 1984 when I built a 9 foot tall street legal DALEK.
More Intel Developer Forum coverage: Day 2 CEO Keynote on HotHardware, Turbo Boost and Overclocking on Sandy Bridge on PC Perspective, Dell demos tablet/netbook on TechReport, Sandforce using Intel 25nm MLC Flash on LegitReviews.
Wednesday Night Reviews
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Wednesday, 15-September-2010 22:25:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
A.C. Ryan Playon!HD and mini media player on LostCircuits.
Aten VanCryst VM0404H HDMI Matrix Switch on OCClub.
JH AUDIO JH|16Pro Custom In-ears on TechPowerUp.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS P7P55D-E Deluxe LGA1156 board on ExtremeOC.
ASUS P7H55D-M Evo LGA1156 board on Modders-Inc.
i7 970 - The Search for 5GHZ on Modders-Inc.
ASUS M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 AMD 890GX Socket AM3 on ThinkComputers.
Cooling:
Evercool Transformer 4 HPJ-12025 CPU Cooler on Tech-Reviews.
Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler on HWSecrets.
Storage:
Kingston Data Traveler Ultimate 3.0 64GB USB 3.0 Flash drive on TestFreaks.
Lenovo (Toshiba OEM) THNS128GG4BAAA 128GB Solid State Drive on Tweaktown.
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on PureOC.
Synology DiskStation DS411+ NAS on BigBruin.
Vantec Nexstar CBSATA-U3 SATA to USB 3.0 Adapter on Tweaknews.
Memory:
Kingston HyperX DDR3 on InsideHW.
Patriot DDR3 Viper II ‘Sector 5' Series 1600MHz on BonaFideReviews.
Misc:
MAINGEAR F131 P55 SLI Custom Gaming PC on Tweaktown.
ThermalTake V6 BlacX case on DVHardware.
Zowie G-RF and G-TF on XSReviews.
Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 15-September-2010 02:18:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There's been piracy raids across Australia recently. Twenty-one homes and businesses were searched in Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney this morning. Thousands of pirated goods were seized, including music, DVDs, rip-off designer jewellery and Microsoft software worth tens of thousands of dollars.
But could you be an accidental pirate?! Tony_L sent in this handy online guide. Most of us appreciate and respect the TV and film industry, but, sadly, 1 in 3 Australians participate in content theft or "piracy" without knowing it! Golly.
Bing has passed Yahoo to become the second most popular search engine, according to Nielsen. Anyone out there use a non-Google search engine as their primary search engine? If so, let us know which, and why, in the comments. Although Google saw little change in its month-over-month search volume, it still dominates the search market, accounting for 65% of all U.S. searches.
Intel's Developer Forum is on at the moment, with interesting things like ray-traced Wolfenstein, new Gigabyte motherboards. HotHardware have keynote coverage and and OCZ RevoDrive X2 sneak peek. Tech Report blogged the keynote while LegitReviews looked at an Intel DP67BG Burrage Motherboard. PCPerspective have more on the cloud-based ray-tracing for games.
Not to be left out, AMD have more info on their Ontario and Zacate APUs, while InsideHW interviewed their marketing boss. Tech Report have more on the Zacate APU. AMD showed a Zacate test platform running in a direct-comparison demo against a Core i5-based laptop.
There's a new Portal 2 trailer which was released at PAX 2010. It's good to see GLaDOS is 'supportive' as ever. Right now, my mind is bugging out just trying to comprehend the puzzles when we can expect when the game releases in early 2011. Hrm, I hope they don't spoil the simplicity that made Portal so great.
aXLe has a new site conducting a survey of public transport in Australia. Our mission is to provide a free community service platform for the voice of any public transport commuter. Our vision is to leverage this platform to drive the improvement of service and commuter satisfaction for all public transport systems in Australia. Discussion here.
If you're still in a survey-taking mood, an ANU student has one on DRM and game pricing, with discussion here. The survey is aimed at investigating an area of consumer behaviour and considers factors such as Downloadable contents, Cloud Services and Digital Rights Management that may influence purchase decisions for software products.
Finally, LethalCorpse has a survey about DNA and DNA evidence. The study explores ways to inform jurors of some key issues relating to forensic evidence in criminal cases and aims to improve juror knowledge in Australian criminal trials.
Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame has written a book. It is a discovery of a role in life and set around an NPC in a sophisticated near-future MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) world and the book is basically around him transcending the role he has been given and experiencing the oddities about the world and eventually learning the truth behind it.
Sciby spotted this quite clever shoot the bear ad/video. If you find some funny suggestions, share them!
Tuesday Night Reviews
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Tuesday, 14-September-2010 23:55:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Memory:
MX-Tech Black Diamond DDR3-1600 4GB Kit on FunkyKit.
G.SKILL 2133MHz DDR3 Pi-Series Memory Kit on BenchmarkReviews.
Video Cards:
GeForce GTS 450 review roundup with 10 cards on Guru3D.
Zotac GTS450 AMP! on OC3D.
MSI GeForce GTS 450 Cyclone 1GB on Tweaktown.
Gigabyte GTS 450 on Pro-Clockers.
Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum SLI on HWHeaven.
Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum 1GB on Tweaktown.
MSI Geforce GTS 450 Cyclone OC Edition on Funkykit.
Motherboard & CPU:
MSI 870A Fuzion AM3 board on OCIA.
Biostar TA890FXE AM3 board on OC3D.
Audio Visual:
AC Ryan Playon!HD mini Media Player on Techgage.
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W350 digicam on Techgage.
Canon PowerShot S95 digicam on DigitalTrends.
SteelSeries Siberia V2 Full-Size Headset Video Review on eTeknix.
Cooling:
Corsair A70 Dual 120mm Fan CPU Cooler on ReviewStash.
Thermolab BARAM 2010 Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Evercool Zodiac II cooler on OCClub.
Cases:
nMEDIAPC 1080p HTPC Chassis on MissingRemote.
NZXT Phantom on BonaFideReviews.
Lian Li Pitstop T60 on OCOnline.
Thermaltake Silent 1156 CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Input Etc:
Rosewill RK-V1TP Multimedia Keyboard and Touchpad Combo on Bjorn3D.
ZOWIE GEAR G-TF & SWIFT Black Mouse Pads on MadShrimps.
Storage:
Patriot Xporter XT Rage 32GB on NeoSeeker.
Patriot Gauntlet USB 3.0 Enclosure on TechWareLabs.
Misc:
CyberPower Gamer Dragon Phenom II X6 Gaming System on ThinkComputers.
Seasonic X-400 Fanless 400W PSU on JonnyGuru.
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
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Tuesday, 14-September-2010 20:36:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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NVIDIA have released their GeForce GTS 450. To quote HotHardware's review HotHardware's review: As its GTS moniker denotes, NVIDIA's new GeForce GTS 450 is targeted at the mainstream market. That card's reference specifications call for a 783MHz GPU clock, with 1566MHz CUDA cores, and 902MHz GDDR5 memory (3608MHz effective data rate). With those frequencies, stock GeFore GTS 450 cards offer 57.7GB/s of memory bandwidth with a 25.1GigaTexel/s textured fillrate. As is typically the case with mainstream NVIDIA GPU’s, however, board partners will be releasing cards clocked somewhat higher than the reference specifications recommend.
More coverage on Guru3D, TechPowerUp (and here and here), LegionHW, HWHeaven, PC Perspective, Tweaktown, BenchmarkReviews, PureOC (and here), BenchmarkReviews, TechSpot, NeoSeeker, TechReport, NinjaLane and OCClub.
Discussion continues in this thread.
Monday Afternoon
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Monday, 13-September-2010 14:34:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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On the heels of Google Instant comes YouTube Instant, which interestingly is not an official product, but was made by some clever guy who unsurprisingly got offered a job by the CEO of YouTube. It started out as a bet with my roommate, Jake Becker. I bet him I could build real-time YouTube search in less than an hour. Sadly, I lost the bet - It took me 3 hours to finish it, and another couple hours to polish the user interface into what you see now at YTInstant.com. But, I’m happy with the result.
The European Parliament has opposed the ACTA again. Today 377 members of the European Parliament adopted a written declaration on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in which they demand greater transparency, assert that ISPs should not up end being liable for data sent through their networks, and say that ACTA "should not force limitations upon judicial due process or weaken fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and the right to privacy."
ArsTechnica also report on ARM's Eagle CPU. Codenamed "Eagle," the A15 architecture is ostensibly aimed at netbooks and tablets, but a look at the spec sheet leaves no doubt that ARM is absolutely gunning for the server market that Intel and AMD currently dominate. Indeed, even going by what little ARM has revealed about the A15, it's very hard to imagine this thing in a smartphone when it launches at 32nm in 2012 or 2013.
Continuing the "unmasking of The Stig" story, Joanna spotted James May's explanation of it all. Eventually, inevitably, I couldn't cope with it. I didn't know who I was when I was talking to people, or if I could even speak at all. I became depressed and started making a new series about drinking. I told the producer I didn't want to be the Stig any more. They should find a new one – I didn't need to know who it was. I could carry on as Captain Slow.
ThinkUKnow has a new video highlighting the dangers of sexting. This video depicts a teenage girl's experience of sexting. It highlights that once something is created in a digital format and then shared, you lose control over who sees it and what they do with it. Think you know what happens to your images? Who will see them? How they will affect you?
PAX 2010, Penny Arcade's gaming expo, was on recently. Coverage of Wil Wheaton's keynote and Booth Babes, on OCModShop, console games and discussion panels on FutureLooks. Meanwhile Intel's developer forum starts soon, with Sandy Bridge transcoding acceleration on PC Perspective and pre-show at Intel Labs on HWSecrets.
HotHardware have a range of shopping guides. Here we will look at small form factor or all-in-one desktops (meant to fit nicely in dorm rooms and transport easily for those heading off to out-of-state schools), notebooks, netbooks, smartphones and a couple of novel accessories that may have less to do with studying and more to do with keeping you entertained once it's time to blow off steam after exams. Tech Report have a system guide also.
TechSpot checked out some budget SSDs. Today's round-up is comprised of the following contenders: OCZ Agility 2 40GB ($135), OCZ Vertex 2 40GB ($124), OCZ Onyx 64GB ($130), OCZ Onyx 32GB ($85), ADATA S596 Turbo 32GB ($83), Intel X25-V 40GB ($100), and the Kingston SNV425-S2 64GB ($125). In addition to these affordable SSD offerings we have added to the mix the Seagate Momentus XT ($135), a highly-touted hybrid drive that attempts to deliver the best of both worlds by offering huge storage capacity at a reasonable price, with the added performance boost of NAND flash memory for caching data.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
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Monday, 13-September-2010 13:50:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Corsair A70 Dual 120mm Fan CPU Cooler on ReviewStash.
SilenX EFZ-120HA4 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Cases:
Lian Li PC-T60 PitStop Test-Bench on Tweaknews.
Lian Li PITSTOP T60 Open Air Test Bench on Tweaktown.
Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower on TechSpot.
Video Cards:
Palit GTX460 Sonic Platinum 1GB Video Cards in SLI on Bjorn3D.
Point of View GeForce GTX 460 TGT Beast 1 GB on TechPowerUp.
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 SLI Video Card Review w/ ASUS, EVGA & MSI on LegitReviews.
Misc:
HP LaserJet Pro P1102w on TechReviewSource.
Cooler Master Choiix BoomBoom Notebook Travel Speaker on LegitReviews.
V3 Gaming Move 3DS Water Cooled SFF PC System on LegitReviews.
Sunday Afternoon Reviews
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Sunday, 12-September-2010 13:18:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Portable & Prebuilt:
Sony VAIO VPCZ125GX 13.1-inch Notebook on Tweaktown.
Dell Inspiron M101z Laptop on HWHeaven.
Asus Eee PC 1215N Netbook on HotHardware.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS P7H55D-M EVO LGA1156 board on PureOC.
ASRock 890GX Extreme4 AM3 board on PureOC.
Cooling:
Titan Fenrir EVO TTC-NK85TZ/CS2(RB) CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Zalman VF3000A VGA Cooler on BenchmarkReviews.
NZXT Sentry LXE High Performance Touch Screen Fan Controller on ThinkComputers.
Video Cards:
XFX Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition Limited on OCClub.
ECS GTX 460 Black on OCClub.
PowerColor Radeon 5770 Single slot Quad CrossfireX on Guru3D.
Cases:
Cooler Master HAF X on Modders-Inc.
Thermaltake Armor A90 on BenchmarkReviews.
Thermaltake Armor A60 on Tweaknews.
Power Supply:
Cooler Master USNA 95 Ultra Slim Notebook Adapter on ThinkComputers.
Cooler Master USNA95 Ultra Slim Power Adapter on Pro-Clockers.
Enermax PRO87+ 500W on HWSecrets.
Storage:
Asus SBC-06D1S-U Slim External Blu-ray Combo Drive on OCIA.
Western Digital Scorpio Black 500 GB on TechARP.
OCZ RevoDrive 50Gb SSD PCI-Express Card on FunkyKit.
Friday again!
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Friday Midday Reviews
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Friday, 10-September-2010 12:37:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboards:
Asus ROG Crosshair IV Extreme - Hands on Preview AM3 board on OC3D.
MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition AM3 board on OC3D.
Asus Rampage III Extreme LGA1366 board on NeoSeeker.
ASUS Rampage III Extreme Intel X58 LGA1366 board on LegitReviews.
Cases:
Corsair 600T on HWHeaven.
Cooler Master HAF 912 on HWSecrets.
Cooler Master HAF 912 Gaming Case on Pro-Clockers.
Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Mid Tower on LegitReviews.
Cooler Master HAF 912 on OCClub.
Video Cards:
ECS Black GTX 460 on TBreak.
ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU 1GB on TechPowerUp.
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5770 Silent Cell 1GB on Tweaktown.
ATI FirePro V9800 4GB on Phoronix.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 470 Super Overclocked Edition on NinjaLane.
PNY GTX 460 XLR8 1GB on PureOC.
MSI 870A Fuzion X-Mode Testing w/ R5870 Lightning & N465GTX Twin Frozr on Tweaktown.
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 on Bjorn3D.
Audio Visual:
iPod Nano (2010) on Engadget.
Compro VideoMate E900F Dual Tuner PCI-Express TV Card Video Review on eTeknix.
Samsung BX2350 LED Monitor on Tweaknews.
ViewSonic NexTV VMP75 Full HD Network Media Player on Tweaktown.
Cooling:
CoolIT Systems ECO A.L.C on OCOnline.
Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler on OCCafe.
Corsair H70 Self-Contained Liquid CPU Cooler on Techgage.
DeepCool Gamer Storm Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Thermaltake Jing CPU cooler on LegionHW.
GlacialTech Igloo Alaska Cooler on TechWareLabs.
Thermalright HR-02 CPU cooler on Guru3D.
Mini & Portable:
Gateway GT350 F1 Server on BusinessComputingWorld.
Zotac ZBox Blu-Ray Mini PC on FunkyKit.
Power Supply:
Kingwin Lazer Gold 1000W Modular Power Supply on ThinkComputers.
Cougar GX-700: 80 Plus Gold on SilentPCReview.
NZXT HALE90 850W Modular on Tweaktown.
Storage:
Patriot Inferno 120GB SSD on NeoSeeker.
A-DATA S599 128GB Solid State Drive on Tweaktown.
Memonex Race R310 16GB Flash Drive on OCClub.
Seagate FreeAgent Go 500GB Portable Hard Drive on TestFreaks.
Misc:
TRENDnet TEW-691GR 450Mbps WiFi-N Router on BenchmarkReviews.
Zowie HeatON EC1 gaming mouse on XSReviews.
Kingston Hyper-X 2133MHz Dual Channel memory on OC3D.
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 9-September-2010 12:59:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Google have a new trick up their sleeve, Google Instant, thanks mpot. Using the new system, as a query is typed, the search box immediately jumps to the top of the search page, and a constantly changing list of suggested pages appears. If the user finds the right site, they don't need to finish typing or hit "enter." More info here, and a couple of explanatory videos here and here.
They also have plans for a TV service in Australia next year. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said the service, which will allow full internet browsing via the television, would be free, and Google would work with a variety of programme makers and electronics manufacturers to bring it to consumers.
Part of the deal that Labor with the rural independents covers affordable regional internet. "Whether you're on the broadband in Tamworth or on the broadband in CBD Sydney, seeking to communicate with another business in CBD Sydney, the wholesale price for your broadband will be the same," she said.
Speaking of which, there's some more photos of the NBN rollout in Tasmania. ZDNet Australia has obtained some more photographs of the National Broadband Network roll-out taking place in Scottsdale, Tasmania. The build will be coming to the mainland this month.
Australian scientists have made a tractor beam! Andrei Rhode, a researcher involved with the project, said that existing optical tweezers are able to move particles the size of a bacterium a few millimeters in a liquid. Their new technique can move objects one hundred times that size over a distance of a meter or more.
Unsurprisingly, Sony have issued a PS3 firmware upgrade which disables the jailbreak. Version 3.42 is a “minor” upgrade, and too-new to be featured on the official website. John Koller, Sony‘s Director of Hardware Marketing explains that it includes “additional security features” – and doesn’t mention anything about the high-profile crack.
Clifford Stoll is a little red-faced after an article he wrote in 1995 has resurfaced, about why the Internet will fail. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we’ll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.
Ergotron LX Desk Mount LCD Monitor Arm Review
(5 Comments)
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Wednesday, 8-September-2010 20:34:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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FearTec has checked out this very nice looking LCD monitor arm from Ergotron:
Click for the review!
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 8-September-2010 13:09:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Thermalright Venomous X-RT CPU cooler on PureOC.
Glacialtech Igloo 5760 PWM Heatsink on Frostytech.
Thermaltake Mobile Fan 12 on Pro-Clockers.
NZXT Sentry LXE LCD Touch Screen Control Panel on TechWareLabs.
SilverStone SST-AP121 120mm Case Fan on OCOnline.
Power Supply:
Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 800W on HWHeaven.
PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk II 650W on HWSecrets.
Antec High Current Pro 1200W on JonnyGuru.
XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular on eTeknix.
NZXT Hale90 850W on JonnyGuru.
Video Cards:
GeForce GTX 460 Roundup on iXBTLabs.
ECS Black GeForce GTX 460 1GB on Tweaktown.
PowerColor HD 5750 Low Profile 1GB on TechPowerUp.
ASUS EAX5870 V2 on InsideHW.
EVGA GTX 460 SC on BenchmarkReviews.
Input Etc:
ROCCAT ARVO Compact Gamer Keyboard on MadShrimps.
Arctic Cooling ARCTIC K381 Keyboard on APHNetworks.
Audio Visual:
Canon LEGRIA HF S21 camcorder on TBreak.
Choiix Boom Boom Slim Travel Speaker on MegaTechNews.
Patriot's Box Office Video Appliance on OCModShop.
Cases:
NMediaPC 1080P HTPC Case on PCPerspective.
NZXT Tempest Evo on XSReviews.
Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower on Tweaktown.
Thermaltake Armor A60 Gaming Mid Tower on ThinkComputers.
Lian Li PC-Q06 testbench on PureOC.
Storage & Memory:
G.Skill Flare F3-16000CL7D DDR3 AMD Memory Kit on MadShrimps.
Synology DS210j NAS on ASELabs.
OCZ Technology Enyo 128GB Portable USB 3.0 SSD on LegitReviews.
Corsair Force 40GB Solid State Drive on Tweaktown.
Synology DS411+ 4-Bay NAS on Tweaknews.
Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 60GB on OCClub.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Asus G73Jh-A1 Gaming Notebook on BurnedIn.
Zotac ZBOX HD-ND22: A CULV Nettop at last on SilentPCReview.
Interesting Forum Threads
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Tuesday, 7-September-2010 21:00:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a snapshot of what's going on in some of the forums. You can also find new interesting things you might have missed via the Who's Online page, the New Posts page and the Live forum view. Also try the Today's Posts link (find it on the Quick Links menu) and the handy Who Quoted Me? feature.
EVGA rolls out X58 SLI3 USB 3.0/SATA 6.0 Motherboard in Overclocking & Hardware.
$300 Gaming PC Project in Overclocking & Hardware.
Hotway 4-Bay non-RAID USB3.0/eSATA Enclosure Review in Overclocking & Hardware.
Equipment you have lost in disaster in Business & Enterprise Computing.
2x AA batteries nearly burned my house down in Electronics.
Company of Heroes dev killed in car crash in Games.
Arctic Intros Accelero Xtreme Plus VGA Cooler, Supports GF100-based GPU's in Video Cards.
Tessmark Benchmark Results - New DX11 Tessellation Benchmark in Video Cards.
Mafia II Benchmarks in Video Cards.
E3300 OC, Not Bad For a $50 CPU in Intel Hardware.
Sandy Bridge Performance Preview (Anandtech) in Intel Hardware.
Crosshair IV - AMD beast V2 in AMD Hardware.
Apple Updates iPod Range With New Models..Forgets Classic in Apple Hardware & Software.
Apple revamps Apple TV again..Hopes for better success in Apple Hardware & Software.
Apple iOS 4.1 coming next week, 4.2 for iPad in November in Apple Hardware & Software.
Epic Citadel demo on the App Store -- the most amazing graphics ever in Apple Hardware & Software.
British schools teaching BBC Micro games programming again in Retro & Arcade.
Retro, the sounds and the music in Retro & Arcade.
Yahoo!7 Catch-Up TV Coming to the PS3 in Sony Consoles.
Why are we not building thorium power plants? in Science.
Max of 1.2L engine car for driving from the UK to mongolia in Motoring.
F1 Simulators Revealed in Motorsport.
Training at Cirque Du Soleil. My experience in Career, Education & Finance.
Also a quick extra note, redheads or people pretending to be redheads get a free slurpee at 7-11 tomorrow to celebrate our ginger Prime Minster. :)
So, it seems we have a result in the 2010 Federal Election at long last, with Labor winning over two of the independents, giving them the 76 seats needed for victory. Discussion about the result continues here.
Tuesday Morning
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Tuesday, 7-September-2010 02:52:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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In an interesting twist to the now somewhat dormant issue of internet filtering, it seems the recent audit of politician' internet use mis-classified websites as "adult" when they weren't. Both news.com.au and smh.com.au were classified as adult sites in the audit. "The definition of what has been classed as an adult site is something we're reviewing," she said. "What surprised us... the biggest (site) of what is classed as an adult site being hit by the parliament is the news.com.au site.
Internode have unveiled what they're calling the first true 1TB internet plan in Australia, with more info here. Significantly, all these new Easy Broadband plans allow customers to use their data quota whenever they want - rather than quarantine them to the wee hours with off-peak quotas.
Here's an interesting look at some soldier food packs from various troops in Afghanistan, thanks w0ng. Each year, among the countries with troops in Afghanistan — the current number is 47 — tens of millions of dollars are spent researching how to fit the most calories, nutrition and either comfort or fun into a small, light package. The menus and accompaniments are intended not just to nourish but also to remind the soldier of home.
Guru3D checked out the eVGA Classified SR-2, and threw some LN2 into the mix. In the end the processors are going to be cooled with liquid nitrogen, and for the sake of it we will pop in four GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards as well, these will also be cooled with liquid nitrogen. That's six Liquid Nitrogen pots on one motherboard... consuming 40 to 50 liters of liquid nitrogen with each hour of testing.
The PS3 jailbreak ban has unsurprisingly been made permanent by the federal court. The court ruled on Friday that a ban on distribution of the PSJailbreak "dongle", first issued on 27 August, would be made permanent. However, on Thursday the software code behind a similar hack was released free on the internet as PSGroove.
YouGamers have a gaming PC specs guide. Another year, another pile of new shiny PC components on the market. The product cycles have slowed down a bit - it may be the worldwide economy taking a nosedive, it may be that it is just harder to squeeze more performance out of those pieces of silicon. Yet PC performance keeps improving and manufacturers keep fighting over marketshare just as hard as ever.
Stagea sent in this article with more on The Stig's unmasking. If Ben has been worried about losing his job on Top Gear after unveiling himself as the man who has appeared as The Stig for the past seven years, he certainly isn’t showing it.
There's an AMD competition for Australians. Get an AMD Phenom™ II X4 or X6 processor between 1st July and 30th September 2010 to be in the running to win a trip for two to Germany plus other great prizes. Discussion here.
Here's a couple of amusing Knowledge Base articles: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music and PowerPoint Centimeters Different from Actual Centimeters. To improve its usability, PowerPoint slightly misdefines the size of a centimeter to make the invisible gridlines fall at convenient points on the ruler.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 7-September-2010 02:08:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Hexa-Core AM3 CPU Video Review on eTeknix.
ASUS AT3IONT-I Deluxe on PureOC.
Cases:
Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower on LegitReviews.
Lian-Li Pitstop T7 Mini-ITX Test Bench Unboxing Video on eTeknix.
Corsair 600T on OC3D.
Coolermaster HAF 912 on XSReviews.
In Win Dragon Slayer on Tweaknews.
Cooler Master HAF 912 on OCIA.
Cooler Master HAF 912 on BenchmarkReviews.
Case Appeals AVZ Test Bench on PCPerspective.
Cooler Master Sileo 500 Mid Tower on ReviewStash.
Audio Visual:
Logitech Revue - Google TV - Hands-on Impressions on DigitalTrends.
Headset Battle Review: Steelseries 7H vs Sharkoon RHS200 on FunkyKit.
Turtle Beach Ear Force DSS headphones on OCClub.
Memory:
Kingston HyperX 6GB 2250 MHz DDR3 Triple Channel Memory Kit on FutureLooks.
Patriot 4GB PC3-19200 2400MHz DDR3 on RBMods.
Input Etc:
SmartFish ErgoMotion Mouse on EverythingUSB.
Siig Wireless Multi-Touchpad Mini Keyboard on iGadgetLife.
Cooling:
Zalman VF3000N GPU Cooler on Techgage.
Thermaltake Mobile Fan 12 on BonaFideReviews.
Misc:
InnoDisk nanoSSD 64GB on ITShootout.
Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11-U Next-Generation ION Nettop on Tweaktown.
Contest Update
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Monday, 6-September-2010 20:38:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Lunarmorph contest winner has been drawn and it is.. *drumroll* .. Tantalum! So, congrats to him. The correct answer to the question was Delia Derbyshire. If you didn't win, there's still time to buy your tickets to Lunarmorph, an alternative fashion show with synthesizer orchestra, as well as a Steampunk Symposium in the foyer.
The other two contests are running until the end of September. So, you can still win a Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel for PC or PS3 from Pagnian Imports or a pair of bookshelf speaker kits from The Loudspeaker Kit.
For full details of how to enter, see the previous news post. Good luck!
Here's some yummy things from our Geek Food forum:
Monday Morning
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Monday, 6-September-2010 03:09:53 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD's desktop "Bulldozer" processors will use a new AM3+ socket, thanks dasuperham. Advanced Micro Devices said that its next-generation desktop processors code-named Zambezi will use socket AM3+ platforms, which will be backwards compatible with the firm's existing AM3 products. While the latter is an advantage for the platform, it may be a disadvantage for eight-core processors based on Bulldozer micro-architecture. Some more on the 8-core CPUs here.
Symantec's marketing folk have decided a Norton rap is going to whip the kids into a buying frenzy, thanks again dasuperham. Chorus: I got that Norton.... Norton You ain't heard? I got that Norton...Norton Yeah, you know I got that Norton...Norton You ain't heard? I got that Norton...Norton (Antivirus)[ repeat] Verse: 4.0 that's what I use/ Norton 360, protection you can't refuse/ You should get yourself a copy, maybe even two/ And so on.
Similarly bizarre is this floppy disk self defence, thanks Matt. 101 Weapons for Women is probably a lovely book with plenty of great suggestions as to what can be used as an improvised weapon in case of danger, but I really don’t think a floppy disk belongs among those things.
InsideHW have info on Ontario, AMD's next netbook platform. Meanwhile NVIDIA have new mobile GPUs, with coverage on LegitReviews and TechReport. At long last, Nvidia has a top-to-bottom lineup of DirectX 11 mobile graphics processors. The company has introduced seven new GeForce 400M-series graphics processors, which will complement the company's existing, GF100-based GeForce GTX 480M.
InsideHW have an ultimate CPU roundup. We subjected all CPUs to various types of load, which should outline the differences made by memory controllers, number of cores, frequencies and cache memory quantities well. We tried to obtain motherboards with a chipset as modern as possible, so that CPUs could display all their potential.
Saturday Night
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Saturday, 4-September-2010 21:17:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Sniper spotted Directory Select, which seems to be a way to tell Telstra to stop sending you dead trees.
Certain Toshiba laptops have been recalled due to a fire risk. The computers involved are the Satellite T135, Satellite T135D and Satellite ProT130. Toshiba's (kinda) fix is here, discussion here.
Also busting into flames and needing a recall are Ferrari 458 Italia sportscars, thanks Sebastian. So if you have one of those, get Jeeves to arrange for it to be serviced. Eight wealthy Australians will have to take their shiny Ferrari 458 Italias back to the dealership to fix a problem that could lead to a fire. Ferrari has recalled its 325km/h 458 Italia after a number of incidents in which the supercar caught fire due to a design flaw.
mpot has the solution though - instead of a burning car, drive a shark boat. It looks like a great white shark, complete with dorsal fin, gaping jaws and rows of dagger-sharp teeth. At 16.5ft in length, it is even the same size as one. Unlike the real thing, it also has a 260hp engine, which powers it to 50mph above water, and 20mph below it.
The Escapist say that Duke Nukem Forever is real, really really real this time, and you'll be really playing it for real, real soon now. Forever is true Duke, through and through, and all the absurdity that implies. The game finds Duke fighting in the name of an extremely noble cause: Aliens are abducting our women. More specifically, our hot women. Clearly, this is a transgression that a hero like Duke simply cannot abide. More info here, thanks Avatar. I'll believe it when I see it. :)
There's a bit of a buzz about Samsung's Galaxy Tab iPad competitor - there's a video sneak preview on YouTube. We managed to get a sneak peek at Samsung's 7-inch Galaxy Tab Android tablet, which is currently doing the rounds at IFA - Europe's biggest tech expo.
IBM have a new fastest processor at 5.2GHz, which is not going to be in a PC near you anytime soon. At the Hot Chips 2010 conference in Palo Alto, IBM executives described the z196, which will power its Z-series of mainframes, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not over a million.
Sony have a 3D laptop in the works. The company showed off prototypes of a forthcoming Vaio laptop at the IFA electronics show here Wednesday, models that come with a "3D" button and active-shutter glasses to separate what the right and left eyes see. "3D Vaios will debut next spring," Howard Stringer, Sony's chief executive, said in a press conference touting 3D technology and Sony's commitment to it. Sony also touted other 3D products and content at the show.
Saturday Night Reviews
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Saturday, 4-September-2010 20:11:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
Genius HS-03U USB Gaming Headset on BenchmarkReviews.
WD TV Live Plus Media Player on Techgage.
Compro VideoMate C200 Plus on DVHardware.
Cooling:
Prolimatech Super Mega CPU cooler on PureOC.
Scythe Ninja 3 CPU cooler on Guru3D.
CoolIT ECO ALC - Advanced Liquid Cooler on FunkyKit.
Thermaltake Massive23 LX Laptop Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Motherboard & CPU:
ECS A890GXM-A AMD 890GX AM3 board on LegitReviews.
Asrock P55 Extreme4 LGA1156 board on TechSpot.
Biostar TA890FXE AM3 board on Overclockers.com.
Biostar TPower i55 LGA1156 board on OC3D.
ECS P55H-AK LGA1156 on MadShrimps.
Asus Crosshair IV Formula AM3 Motherboard Video Review on eTeknix.
Video Cards:
PNY GeForce GTX 460 OC XLR8 on BenchmarkReviews.
MSI GeForce GTX 460 HAWK on Guru3D.
XFX HD5970 Black Edition on Bjorn3D.
Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum 1GB on PureOC.
Point of View GTX 460 Beast Edition on HWHeaven.
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 Flex on PCPerspective.
Power Supplies:
Choiix Power Fort Backup Battery on NinjaLane.
Antec TruePower New TP-750 on SilentPCReview.
Corsair AX850W on HWSecrets.
Cases:
Antec DF-85 on OCClub.
Thermaltake Armor A60 on OCClub.
Lian Li Pitstop PC-T60 Open Air Test Bench on LegitReviews.
Thermaltake Armor A60 on HWSecrets.
Cooler Master Sileo 500 Mid Tower on ReviewStash.
Storage:
Iomega eGo USB 3.0 on DigitalTrends.
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD on Phoronix.
Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 60 GB SSD on TechPowerUp.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Samsung X130 Ultra-Mobile Notebook on FunkyKit.
Dell Streak Android Tablet on HotHardware.
Lenovo ThinkPad T410s on TechReviewSource.
Misc:
Cisco Valet Plus M20 Wireless Router Video Review on FutureLooks.
IRISCard Anywhere 4 software on BusinessComputingWorld.
Logitech Wireless G700 Gaming Mouse on HWHeaven.
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
(30 Comments)
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Thursday, 2-September-2010 22:08:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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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)
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Thursday, 2-September-2010 15:01:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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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
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Thursday, 2-September-2010 14:01:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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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)
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Wednesday, 1-September-2010 15:15:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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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.
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