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February 2014 |
Thanks to spectrekt and MV this week!
     
     
     
     
Thursday Evening
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Thursday, 27-February-2014 20:10:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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NSW has become the first Australian state to make lane-splitting legal for motorcyclists - up to 30km/h. Lane filtering has been common practice for motorcycle riders across the country and overseas for decades. The benefits of Lane Filtering have been internationally recognised as a solution to traffic congestion in built up areas and will assist in relieving congestion issues on NSW’s major and minor routes thereby assisting drivers with their daily commutes. More info here.
Sandisk have announced the first 128GB microSDXC card. Compared to when the microSD card format was first launched in 2004 with 128MB of capacity, SanDisk has increased storage capacity of microSD cards 1,000 times over in less than a decade with the 128GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card. To enable 128GB of storage on a removable microSD card, SanDisk developed an innovative proprietary technique that allows for 16 memory die to be vertically stacked, each shaved to be thinner than a strand of hair.
WD meanwhile have a new range of purple hard drives, especially intended for surveillance. Designed specifically for video surveillance units, WD Purple hard drives excel in new and existing home and small business security environments with up to eight hard drives and up to 32 high-definition (HD) video cameras. Shipping today, WD Purple hard drives are available in capacities from 1 TB up to 4 TB. Expect a large order from Fort Meade any day now.
Tech Report continue their SSD endurance test, with the drives having crossed the 600TB threshhold. Tweaktown meanwhile compared 18 SSDs for real-world performance. With a new test in hand via Futuremark, we look at worst case and recovery performance to find real differences in SSD performance.
HowToGeek reassures us that the PC is not dead. In reality, there are more different types of hardware and software than ever. Not everyone is forced to use a beige tower running Windows. But PCs aren’t dying just because people have more choice. Some people will always need large screens, multiple windows, mice, keyboards, and all that other good stuff. Not everyone will be done on a 10-inch or smaller touch screen.
ThinkComputers take a look back at 10 rare and unreleased video cards. Many times we get the chance to check out new graphics cards and technology before they are released at trade shows like the Consumer Electronics show. It is often that many of these products do not make it to market for one reason or another. Here we have compiled a list of 10 Rare and Unreleased graphics cards. Strangely, no mention of the Bitchin'fast!3D 2000 or the Voodoo 59000 AGP!
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
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Thursday, 27-February-2014 13:32:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
A.M.P Pulse Bluetooth Wireless Headset on FunkyKit.
Tt eSPORTS CRONOS Headset on FunkyKit.
Sennheiser G4ME SERIES G4ME ZERO Gaming Headset on TechnologyX.
QPAD QH-85 headset on Vortez.
Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1 HD Sound Card on HWAsylum.
Gamdias Hephaestus headset on OCaholic.
Cases:
Antec ISK-600 mITX on eTeknix.
BitFenix Colossus Mini-ITX on TechPowerUp.
Cooler Master Elite 130 SFF on Tweaktown.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Android Curveball: LG G Flex on HotHardware.
Verizon Ellipsis 7 4G LTE Tablet on LegitReviews.
Lenovo ThinkPad X240 Ultrabook on PCPerspective.
Input Etc:
SteelSeries Rival Gaming Mouse on LegitReviews.
Tesoro Lobera keyboard on OCaholic.
Ozone Neon mouse on Vortez.
Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS POSEIDON Illuminated Keyboard on TechWareLabs.
Storage:
Silverstone SST-EP02 USB3.0 to SATA Adaptor & SST-MS07 HDD/SSD Case on eTeknix.
Intel’s 3rd Generation SSD Controller Manufactured By LSI on TheSSDReview.
Synology DiskStation Manager 5.0 Preview on LegionHW.
Crucial M500 480GB SSD on NikKTech.
Toshiba MG03SCA300 6Gb/s SAS HDD RAID Performance Analysis on Tweaktown.
Seagate Desktop SSHD 2 TB Hard Drive on HWSecrets.
Power Supply:
RAVPower Bolt RP-UC07 Four-Port USB Wall Charger on Tweaktown.
Mobee Magic Feet wireless charging on TechnologyX.
Misc:
Kingston HyperX Predator 8GB DDR3-2800 CL12 on FunkyKit.
Antec KUHLER H20 1250 All-in-One Liquid Cooler on PCPerspective.
The Ultimate AMD Kaveri Review: A10-7850K, A10-7700K and A8-7600 on eTeknix.
Win a Netgear Nighthawk!
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Wednesday, 26-February-2014 01:36:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's another contest - this time you can win a Netgear Nighthawk router, thanks to OCAU Major Sponsor Scorptec:
click for more info!
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 26-February-2014 01:13:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Supermicro X9DR7-TF+ (Intel C602J) Server Motherboard on Tweaktown.
ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer on HWSecrets.
Video Cards:
PowerColor Radeon R9-290X PCS+ on Guru3D.
NVIDIA GeForce Power Efficiency: From The 6600GT To The GTX 750 Ti on Phoronix.
MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming 4 GB on TechPowerUp.
Gigabyte GTX 780 GHz Edition on PureOC.
Storage:
MyDigitalSSD Super Cache 2 128GB M.2 SATA 6G SSD on TheSSDReview.
SanDisk Connect 64GB Wireless Flash Drive on LegitReviews.
Thecus N5550 NAS Server on NikKTech.
Audio Visual:
Microlab S325 Soundbar on HWHeaven.
Hands-on with the Lightpack TV Lighting System on Tweaktown.
Antec AMP Pulse Wireless Mobile Headphones on ThinkComputers.
GAMDIAS EROS Headset and ZEUS Esport Edition Gaming Mouse on HWHeaven.
Datacolor Spyder4PRO Monitor Calibration Tool on APHNetworks.
Samsung UN60F8000 60? Smart HDTV on TechnologyX.
Cases:
BitFenix Shadow ATX case on Modders-Inc.
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro Water Cooling System on ThinkComputers.
Razer DeathAdder 4G (2013) Ergonomic Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
Monday Morning
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Monday, 24-February-2014 01:46:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Apple are a little red-faced in the wake of an update which revealed SSL has not been working for a while in some versions of iOS 6 and 7. More info here. A single line in the program and an omitted bracket meant that those certificates were not authenticated at all, so that hackers can impersonate the website being sought and capture all the electronic traffic before passing it along to the real site. So, time to update. Discussion in the iOS Forum.
Here's an online magazine of old computers from the 70's to the early 90's. Plenty I haven't heard of. The Kenbak-1 is considered by the Computer History Museum and the American Computer Museum to be the world's first "personal computer". Only 40 machines were ever built and sold, and only around 10 are now known to exist worldwide. Discussion here.
In case you're wondering what's going on with the whole Toshiba/OCZ thing, HotHardware have the scoop. To say OCZ has had a tumultuous year would be putting it mildly, to say the least. The company took a brutal beating and was knocked down, but not out. Now, thanks to an acquisition by Toshiba, the newly formed and revitalized OCZ Storage Solutions, is poised and ready to make another run at enthusiasts and the enterprise. In an effort to clear up some of the rumors and hear what Toshiba's OCZ Storage Solutions has in store, we reached out to OCZ's CMO, Alex Mei.
If this story is to be believed, Microsoft are slashing the price of Windows, thanks mpot. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is cutting the price of Windows 8.1 by 70 percent for makers of low-cost computers and tablets as they try to fend off cheaper rivals like Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Chromebooks, people familiar with the program said.
Here's a very cool 360-degree video onboard an F1 car. You can scroll around as it drives around, or pause the action and look around. Neato!
Monday Morning Reviews
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Monday, 24-February-2014 00:20:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Intel Core i7-4960X SLI Gaming Scaling on OCaholic.
Gigabyte mITX Z87N-WIFI on MadShrimps.
Cases:
Fractal Design Arc XL Full Tower on eTeknix.
Xigmatek Aquila SFF on Tweaktown.
InWin R400-03 4U Rackmount Chassis on Tweaktown.
Storage:
Sandisk X210 240GB Business Class Solid State Drive on eTeknix.
AKiTiO Thunder Dock Review - eSATA and Firewire for your MacBook Pro on Tweaktown.
ASUSTOR AS-204TE NAS on HWHeaven.
SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on LegitReviews.
Seagate Desktop HDD 4 TB vs. Western Digital WD Black 4 TB on HWSecrets.
Cooling:
Corsair Hydro Series H105 on Vortez.
Antec KUHLER H2O 950 Liquid CPU Cooling System on NikKTech.
Video Cards:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti "Maxwell" On Linux on Phoronix.
The NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti Maxwell Continues Running Great On Linux on Phoronix.
Nvidia GTX 750 Ti 2GB “Maxwell” Graphics Card on eTeknix.
MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming 4G on CustomPCReview.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti on BenchmarkReviews.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB on LegitReviews.
ASUS GTX 750 OC 1 GB on TechPowerUp.
NVIDIA GTX 750Ti & MSI GTX 750 Gaming on OCClub.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti Maxwell GPU on HotHardware.
MSI GTX 750 Ti Gaming 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
Nvidia GTX 750 Ti on LanOC.
Palit GTX 750 Ti StormX Dual 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti on PCPerspective.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB on Tweaktown.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti vs. AMD Radeon R7 265 on LegionHW.
NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti 'Maxwell' on Vortez.
Multiple GeForce GTX 750 / 750 Ti Reviews on Guru3D.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti vs. AMD Radeon R7 265 on TechSpot.
Input Etc:
Mionix Naos 7000 Gaming Mouse on eTeknix.
Mionix Naos 7000 Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
CM Storm Quick Fire TK Stealth keyboard on OCaholic.
Mionix NAOS 7000 Optical Gaming Mouse on NikKTech.
Gamdias Hermes keyboard on OCaholic.
Software:
Banished PC game on LanOC.
System Mechanic on HWSecrets.
Audio Visual:
Dropcam: Socialize Your Home Security on OCModShop.
Microlab H30 BT & H50 BT speakers on Vortez.
SteelSeries Siberia Elite Gaming Headset on MadShrimps.
BitFenix Flo Headset on PureOC.
Misc:
Buffalo BS-G2124U 24 Port Business Gigabit Switch on Tweaktown.
Patriot Viper 3 Series Black Mamba PC3-19200 16GB (2x8GB) memory on OCClub.
LUXA2 P-MEGA 41600mAh Portable USB Power Station on MegaTechNews.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition smartphone on OCaholic.
Friday again!
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 21-February-2014 13:30:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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You might want to update your Flash.. again. Adobe has released security updates for Adobe Flash Player 12.0.0.44 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh and Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.336 and earlier versions for Linux. These updates address vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. Adobe is aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2014-0502 exists in the wild, and recommends users update their product installations to the latest versions.
Toshiba have announced a 5TB 3.5" enterprise HDD. Toshiba Electronics Europe has just announced the amalgamation of the higher platter density with the higher number of platters, in an enterprise level 5TB 3.5” 7200 RPM drive.
Meanwhile Intel have some 15-core server CPUs. For months, there have been rumors circulating of a new Intel 15-core CPU, with a particular focus on Big Data analytics, multi-socket systems, and the enterprise market. Well, this past January, we took a trip to Intel's SAP research lab to see the new processors and the rather substantial update coming down the pipe.
ThinkComputers have a gallery of some insane currency mining rigs. Crypto-Currency mining has really taken off over the past year or so. So much so that we have seen a shortage of AMD graphics cards that are used for mining this currency. There are even motherboards and PC cases made specifically for mining. While many people mining are just using 1-2 graphics cards there some pretty insane setups.
Routers from Linksys and ASUS have some (different) security issues at the moment. An Ars reader by the name of Jerry got a nasty surprise as he was browsing the contents of his external hard drive over the weekend—a mysterious text file warning him that he had been hacked thanks to a critical vulnerability in the Asus router he used to access the drive from various locations on his local network.
Google have a new Project Tango, which seems to be a kind of 3D mapping and augmented reality mobile phone. More info in a video here. As we walk through our daily lives, we use visual cues to navigate and understand the world around us. We observe the size and shape of objects and rooms, and we learn their position and layout almost effortlessly over time. This awareness of space and motion is fundamental to the way we interact with our environment and each other. We are physical beings that live in a 3D world. Yet, our mobile devices assume that physical world ends at the boundaries of the screen.
Microsoft have a new cloud storage service called OneDrive. Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday the global availability of OneDrive, its free, personal cloud storage service. Formerly known as SkyDrive, OneDrive gives people one place to store important photos, videos and documents that is accessible on the devices they use every day.
SAGE-AU's IPv6 Roadshow kicks off next month. SAGE-AU believes that the uptake of IPv6 has been slow due to the requirement to learn how to deal with the new addressing scheme. With our national platinum event sponsor, Megaport, SAGE-AU is delivering the IPv6 Roadshow in March 2014, where IT Professionals will be able to participate in a day of professionally developed and presented IPv6 training in each of seven cities across Australia.
Friday Afternoon Reviews
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Friday, 21-February-2014 13:09:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ECS KBN-I + AMD E1-2100 "Kabini" APU on Phoronix.
Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-UP4 AMD FM2+ on OCIA.
[MSI Z87 XPower on OCaholic.
Gigabyte G1 Sniper Z87 on HWAsylum.
GIGABYTE Z87X-UD4H (Intel Z87) on Tweaktown.
EVGA Z87 Stinger on TechPowerUp.
AMD FX-9590 and FX-9370 Review: Socket AM3+ Platform's Swan-song on XbitLabs.
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC Review: Special for Overclockers on XbitLabs.
TYAN S7053GM2NR (Intel C602) Server Motherboard on Tweaktown.
Audio Visual:
Matsunichi MT20 Streaming Media Player on Tweaktown.
Jabra SPORT Wireless+ Stereo Bluetooth Headset on NikKTech.
LUXA2 Groovy Wireless Bluetooth Speaker on eTeknix.
Video Cards:
NVIDIA Coin Mining Performance Increases with Maxwell and GTX 750 Ti on PCPerspective.
ASUS GTX 750 Ti OC 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
Radeon Dual Graphics Performance with Kaveri and R7 250 on HardCoreWare.
Cooling:
BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 3 Low Noise Heatsink on Frostytech.
Scythe Ashura CPU cooler on OCaholic.
SilverStone Tundra Series TD02 All-in-One Liquid Cooler on PCPerspective.
CRYORIG R1 Ultimate CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Scythe Ashura Shadow Heatsink on Frostytech.
Larkooler SkyWater 330 Liquid Cooling System CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite Notebook on eTeknix.
Cooler Master ROC Tablet & Notebook Stand on ThinkComputers.
Chillblast Defiant Laptop on HWHeaven.
How To Get More Graphics Performance From The Intel NUC on LegitReviews.
Power Supply:
Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 850W Semi-Modular on eTeknix.
ADATA PV100 4200mAh Power Bank on eTeknix.
NZXT HALE82 V2 550W on ThinkComputers.
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W Platinum Modular on Modders-Inc.
Cases:
NZXT H440 Mid-Tower on LegitReviews.
Corsair Obsidian 250D Mini-ITX on BenchmarkReviews.
Bitfenix Phenon Mini-ITX on Bjorn3D.
Thursday Evening Reviews
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Thursday, 20-February-2014 20:20:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Video Cards:
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti WindForce on Guru3D.
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 750 Ti 'Maxwell' graphics processor on Tech Report.
An Upgrade Story: Can the GTX 750 Ti Convert OEMs PCs to Gaming PCs? on PC Perspective.
MSI GTX 750 Ti Twin Frozr Gaming on PureOC.
Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC 2GB on Techgage.
AMD Radeon R7 265 2GB on LegitReviews.
MSI R9 290 Gaming on LanOC.
Geforce GTX 750Ti Launch Review on HWHeaven.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Nokia Lumia 525 on TechSpot.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2014) on HotHardware.
Power Supply:
Xigmatek Vector P Series 700 W on TechPowerUp.
Genius ECO-u821 8000mAh Power Bank Portable Charger on Tweaktown.
ADATA PV100 4200mAh Power Bank on ThinkComputers.
Storage:
ICY DOCK ICYBento MB559U3S External HDD Enclosure on Tweaktown.
MyDigitalSSD OTG (On The Go) 256GB USB 3.0 External SSD on Tweaktown.
8 PCIe & SATA M.2 SSDs Test ASRock’s Fatal1ty 990FX Killer on TheSSDReview.
Vantec NexStar 6G USB 3.0 Storage Enclosure on Tweaktown.
OCZ Vector 150 and OCZ Vertex 460 SSDs on XbitLabs.
Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G3 32GB Flash Drive on APHNetworks.
There's some contests going on in the forums at the moment:
Win one of ten copies of Thief thanks to MSI Australia.
Win a motherboard and RAM thanks to MSI.
Win an SSD or goody bag from Plextor.
Good luck!
Monday Night
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Monday, 17-February-2014 22:08:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Government has signalled a possible crackdown on piracy in Australia, with more info here. The Australian government looks set to overhaul the country's copyright laws with a view to force internet service providers to begin cracking down on users who download TV shows and films over BitTorrent. Discussion here and the actual report is here.
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter have been hacked, with user data compromised, thanks mpot. Though no credit card information was taken, the site said, attackers made off with usernames, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and encrypted passwords. So, you should change your password, and change your password on other places where you used the same one (which is a bad idea). More info on their site.
I didn't realise the new joking-but-serious cryptocurrency Dogecoin is Australian. The rise of virtual currency 'Bitcoin' is changing the way we think about money. But there are plenty of other contenders with an Australian digital coin stamped with the head of a cute Japanese dog leading the pack.
Meanwhile bitcoin has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, with cyber attacks, including a major marketplace and exchange being exploited. Put simply, Mt. Gox has been suffering from a sort of hack that makes its transactions vanish, allowing aggrieved customers to come back and ask for their money again. In fact, however, these vanished transactions are properly processed and the customer is paid twice.
Also close to home, the Government is spending $4.3M on market research, including social media. Among contracts the government has commissioned from dozens of market research agencies are $38,500 to research a possible West Australian Senate election, $20,400 to monitor social media for the Department of Communications and $67,300 to track and monitor the government's ''no boat no visa'' campaign.
Tweaktown have some 3D printing tips and some essential tools for this emerging technology. If you are thinking about getting into 3D printing, I recently asked for an update on the state of things and got some useful replies. For a community printer, I'd suggest not buying a cheap printer. Great for a hobbyist that quickly learns to deal with the various quirks, but for community use it'll just be annoying. The high-end ones are great but can be very expensive to run (mostly because their abilities mean that people print horribly complex jobs on them) and obviously setup cost is high.
Currency mining is affecting video card prices, and Tech Report look into why. The problem is one of supply and demand, of course. While our sources suggest that supply is healthy, demand from crypto-currency miners seems to be very strong. This puts AMD in an awkward position. The company could order additional wafers, which would put more GPUs in the market in a few months. By then, however, the crypto-currency bubble might burst, and AMD might find itself with excess inventory as miners unload second-hand Radeons on eBay.
AOL have sold Winamp and Shoutcast, possibly extending their lives. Returning from the brink of death, music services Winamp and Shoutcast are now officially with a new owner: Digital audio business Radionomy has acquired the both media player and radio platform from AOL. We understand from a reliable source that it is a cash and share deal, worth between $5 million and $10 million, with AOL taking a 12% stake of Radionomy in the process.
Check out this amazing encrusted PC and other bits. Or the opposite, where a laptop is stripped bare for LN2 overclocking. Wytiwx from China noticed that the best performance (after overclock) in HWBOT Prime seems to be achieved by the Penryn architecture and found a solution to compete in the single core category. The processor he chose is the Intel Celeron 900, which is running at 2.2GHz default. Using a notebook motherboard, he managed to overclock the FSB to 363MHz, resulting in a CPU frequency of 4GHz.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
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Monday, 17-February-2014 13:55:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Portable & Prebuilt:
Dell Latitude E7440 Touch Business Ultrabook on HotHardware.
Lenovo IdeaTab S6000 10.1? Android Tablet on eTeknix.
LG G2 smartphone on OCaholic.
MSI GT60-2OK 3K Mobile Workstation on eTeknix.
Intel Bay Trail NUC Linux Performance on Phoronix.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock EP2C602-2T/D16 Server Motherboard (Intel C602) on Tweaktown.
Intel Core i7-4960X vs Intel Core i7-4930K Gaming-Performance on OCaholic.
AMD A10-7850K Dual Graphics Performance on TechSpot.
A quick look at Mantle on AMD's Kaveri APU on TechReport.
EVGA Z87 Stinger Motherboard and GTX 760 FTW on HWHeaven.
Storage:
MyDigitalSSD OTG (On The Go) Pocket SuperSpeed USB 3.0 SSD 256GB on TheSSDReview.
EDGE Memory diskGO Pocket USB 3.0 SSD 240GB on TheSSDReview.
Samsung 840 EVO 256GB & 500GB mSATA SSD on Vortez.
QNAP HS-210 2-Bay Media Sharing NAS on Tweaktown.
Western Digital Black Gen. 2 (WD4003FZEX) 4 TB Hard Disk Drive on TechARP.
QNAP HS-210 Silent and Fanless 2-bay NAS on MadShrimps.
Seagate 1200 STx00FM 12Gb/s SAS Enterprise SSD on Tweaktown.
Power Supply:
RAVPower Qi-Enabled Wireless Charger Charging Pad on Tweaktown.
EnerPlex Kickr IV Foldable Solar Charger on TechWareLabs.
Audio Visual:
Meze 11 Deco Earphones With Microphone on NikKTech.
Bitfenix Flo Gaming Headset on MadShrimps.
Orb Audio Mod4X Custom 7.1 Modular Home Theater Speaker System on TechnologyX.
Cooler Master CM Storm Ceres 500 Headset on PureOC.
Ozone Onda Pro Headset on RBMods.
CMStorm Ceres 500 Gaming Headset on LanOC.
ROCCAT Kave XTD 5.1 Digital headset on Vortez.
SteelSeries 9H Gaming Headset on LegitReviews.
Networking:
Upgrading an Old Dell Latitude Laptop to 802.11AC Wireless on LegitReviews.
Amped Wireless REA20 Dual Band 802.11ac Range Extender on Tweaktown.
Cooling:
Raijintek Pallas Low Profile CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Input Etc:
Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Theron Infrared Gaming Mouse on OCClub.
Logitech G602 mouse on Vortez.
Speedlink Decus 5000dpi Gaming Mouse on eTeknix.
Cases:
BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX on TechPowerUp.
Silverstone PS09 Micro-ATX on eTeknix.
Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 on HWAsylum.
Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 (DS4) Mini-Tower on Tweaktown.
Video Cards:
Sapphire R7 260X 2GB OC on LanOC.
AMD Radeon R7 265 Mainstream GPU on HotHardware.
Sapphire Radeon R7 265 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
AMD Radeon R7-265 on Guru3D.
on PCPerspective.
Mantle Reloaded: We test our Radeon R9 290X with an AMD CPU on Tweaktown.
Misc:
Belkin WeMo Switch + Motion Wireless Home Automation on MegaTechNews.
Thanks to treblid this week!
     
     
     
     
     
Here's some yummy threads from our Geek Recipes forum:
Thursday Morning Reviews
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Thursday, 13-February-2014 01:03:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS Z87I-Pro Motherboard Review with ASUS GTX 760 DirectCU Mini on HWHeaven.
ASUS RAMPAGE IV BLACK EDITION (Intel SKT 2011) on TechPowerUp.
Audio Visual:
SteelSeries 9H Gaming Headset on NikKTech.
SilverStone ARM Two SST-ARM22SC Monitor Arm on APHNetworks.
Cooler Master Storm Ceres 500 Gaming Headset on APHNetworks.
Cases:
Xigmatek Nebula Mini-ITX on Techspot.
Raidmax Horus on OCClub.
Casecom Halcones CL-86 ATX Full Tower on PureOC.
Cooler Master Cosmos II Super Tower on eTeknix.
In Win 904 on ThinkComputers.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Hands-on with the TinyDuino and TinyLily Systems from TinyCircuits on Tweaktown.
Cooler Master WAVE Universal Aluminum Stand for iPad and Tablets on MadShrimps.
Video Cards:
AMD Mantle Radeon R9 290X CrossFire at 4K on Tweaktown.
XFX Radeon R9 290 Double Dissipation on BenchmarkReviews.
Sapphire R7 260X 2GB OC 2x DVI Video Card on LegitReviews.
MSI R9 270X Gaming 4G on LanOCReviews.
Input Etc:
MSI GK-601 keyboard on Vortez.
ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Per-Key Illumination on Tweaktown.
Gamdias ZEUS mouse on OCaholic.
Storage:
MyDigitalSSD Super Cache 2 M.2 SSD on TheSSDReview.
RAID Report: Native mSATA RAID 0 w/ Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSDs on Tweaktown.
Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-Bay NAS on Tweaktown.
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD on Tweaktown.
Matsunichi 500GB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive on ThinkComputers.
Mach Xtreme MX-LX 128GB USB3.0 Flash Drive on eTeknix.
Cooling:
Scythe Katana 4 on TechPowerUp.
nPowerTek NPH-1366-115HC Heatsink on Frostytech.
Cooler Master Glacer 240L All In One Liquid CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc.
Koolance EXT-440CU Liquid Cooling System with CPU-380I Water Block on PCPerspective.
Raijintek Nemesis on OCaholic.
Corsair H75 120mm All-In-One Water Cooler on eTeknix.
Corsair Hydro H75 LCS kit on Guru3D.
Thermaltake Commander F5 Multi Fan Controller on OCClub.
Misc:
Thermaltake Smart M550W Semi-Modular on eTeknix.
Intel 7260HMW 802.11AC Versus Intel 7260HMW BN 802.11n on LegitReviews.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls game on HotHardware.
Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 12-February-2014 01:33:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Today (Australia Time) is The Day We Fight Back, a global protest against dragnet electronic surveillance. Dragnet surveillance is not compatible with democratic governance and new rules must be set to protect privacy in the digital age. Discussion here.
Sony are exiting the PC business, selling their VAIO arm to a Japanese investment fund. Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) will take control of the operation for an undisclosed fee, and Sony will "cease planning, design and development of PC products." For a variety of reasons "including the drastic changes in the global PC industry," Sony says "the optimal solution is to concentrate its mobile product lineup on smartphones and tablets and to transfer its PC business to a new company." Discussion here.
Meanwhile IBM are selling off their x86 Server business to Lenovo. This includes System x, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, x86-based Flex integrated systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software, blade networking and maintenance operations. The purchase price is approximately US$2.3 billion, approximately two billion of which will be paid in cash and the balance in Lenovo stock. Discussion here.
Anandtech wonder if high-res phone screens are worth the hassle. Within this discussion, the key points of contention tend to center upon the various tradeoffs from increasing resolution, and whether an increase in pixels per inch (PPI) will actually have a perceivable increase.
Gunna noticed that HP will be charging for firmware updates, by only providing them to people with support contracts. This decision reinforces our goal to provide access to the latest HP firmware, which is valuable intellectual property, for our customers who have chosen to maximize and protect their IT investments. We know this is a change from how we’ve done business in the past; however, this aligns with industry best practices and is the right decision for our customers and partners. More info here.
PCPerspective talk to AMD about Mantle. Mantle is a very interesting concept. From the various keynote speeches, it sounds like the API is being designed to address the current state (and trajectory) of graphics processors. GPUs are generalized and highly parallel computation devices which are assisted by a little bit of specialized silicon, when appropriate. Meanwhile, LegitReviews checked out BF4 performance with Mantle.
From SiliconAngel: Thought you might be interested to know, BankWest’s Lendnet service stopped working for customers recently – their SSL security certificate is issued by an untrusted authority. The way they’ve decided to resolve it is to advise customers to add security exceptions for both their HTTPS and non-secure HTTP sites, including ignoring security warnings about allowing nonsecure http exceptions. They go on to advise clients to ignore warnings about unsecured certificates. More info and discussion here.
The Day We Fight Back
(69 Comments)
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Tuesday, 11-February-2014 12:01:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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A few people sent word that today (or tomorrow, Australia time) is The Day We Fight Back, a protest against mass surveillance in Australia and around the world. We in Australia are joining in this global effort to pressure our lawmakers to end mass surveillance — of Australians and of the citizens of other countries. Together, and in the name of Aaron Swartz, we are pushing back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyse our every digital action. Dragnet surveillance is not compatible with democratic governance and new rules must be set to protect privacy in the digital age. More info in the press-release here.
Monday Evening Reviews
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Monday, 10-February-2014 18:13:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Intel Core i7-4960X vs Intel Core i7-4930K DDR3-2400 Gaming-Performance on OCaholic.
Intel Atom Bay Trail NUC Kit On Linux on Phoronix.
ASRock Z87 Extreme11/ac Motherboard SSD Storage on TheSSDReview.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Omate TrueSmart Smartwatch on MadShrimps.
Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga on HotHardware.
Video Cards:
ASUS R9 290 DirectCU II OC on Vortez.
XFX R9 290 Double Dissipation Edition on LanOC.
Gigabyte GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition 3GB on eTeknix.
Sapphire Tri-X R9 290X on HWHeaven.
XFX R7 250 on OCClub.
Audio Visual:
Sennheiser MM 550-X Travelling Headset on TechnologyX.
Antec pulse Bluetooth Wireless Headphone on Bjorn3D.
Func HS-260 Gaming headset on Bjorn3D.
Samsung DA-F60 Wireless Speaker on TechnologyX.
Logitech Harmony Ultimate remote on TechnologyX.
Power Supply:
Antec HCP-1300 1300W PSU on NikKTech.
Antec EarthWatts Platinum 550W Non-Modular on eTeknix.
Antec TruePower Classic Series 750W on TechPowerUp.
Practical Meter with Fast Charge Cable on ThinkComputers.
Cooling:
SilentiumPC Fera2 HE1224 Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Cooler Master CM 690 III with Seidon 120 Mid-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown.
Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler on HardCoreWare.
Storage:
Kingston DataTraveler Mini 3.0 (16GB) on TechnologyX.
Matsunichi 500GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive on LegitReviews.
Toshiba Q Series Pro 256GB SSD on Tweaktown.
Silicon Power Jewel J10 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech.
Six Seagate 600 Pro 200GB SSDs Tested on Tweaktown.
SanDisk CloudSpeed 1000E Enterprise SSD on HotHardware.
Thecus brings RAID 50 and RAID 60 to its NASs on Tweaktown.
Asustor AS-302T 2-bay NAS on eTeknix.
Cases:
NZXT H440 White Mid-Tower on PCPerspective.
Corsair Obsidian 250D Mini ITX on LegitReviews.
NZXT H440 Mid-Tower on BenchmarkReviews.
Aerocool GT-S White Full Tower on MadShrimps.
Input Etc:
Shogun Bros. Ballista MK-1 Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews.
Mionix Avior 7000 Gaming Mouse on eTeknix.
EpicGear Blade and Hybrid Pad on OCAholic.
Thanks to mpot, BC and HyRax1 this week!
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Afternoon Reviews
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Friday, 7-February-2014 13:45:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper A88X on Vortez.
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z87 (Intel Z87) on Tweaktown.
Storage:
Thermaltake Max 5 Quad Storage Rack on Tweaktown.
Western Digital Black² Dual Drive 120GB SSD & 1TB HDD on eTeknix.
Western Digital Black² Dual Drive 120GB SSD & 1TB HDD on Anandtech.
OCZ Vertex 460 240GB SSD on CustomPCReview.
Kingfast C-Drive F8 Series 240GB SSD on Tweaktown.
OCZ Vector 150 - 120GB SSD on FunkyKit.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Motorola Moto G smartphone on TechSpot.
Intel NUC DN2820FYKH Bay Trail System on LegitReviews.
Input Etc:
Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition Keyboard on HardCoreWare.
Func KB-460 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Techgage.
Cooling:
be quiet! Dark Rock 3 Silent Wings CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Raijintek Pallas CPU cooler on OCaholic.
Cases:
Raidmax Cobra Mid-Tower on BenchmarkReviews.
Corsair Obsidian 250D on Vortez.
Thermaltake Urban S71 Full Tower on ThinkComputers.
Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 on TechPowerUp.
Raidmax Horus on PureOC.
Fractal Design Arc XL on Guru3D.
Fractal Design ARC Mini R2 Micro-ATX on Tweaktown.
Video Cards:
Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X OC & R9 290 OC on LegionHW.
Audio Visual:
BitFenix Flo PC Gaming Headset on Tweaktown.
Thermaltake eSPORTS Cronos Gaming Headset on Modders-Inc.
Become a Thief!
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Thursday, 6-February-2014 10:42:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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MSI Australia are giving away more goodies to OCAU members - this time 10 codes for the upcoming game "Thief". More info in the thread:
click for details!
Thursday Morning
(6 Comments)
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Thursday, 6-February-2014 01:09:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Microsoft has a new CEO - Satya Nadella. Following recent speculation, the software giant is indeed appointing Satya Nadella as its new CEO to replace Steve Ballmer. The 46-year-old Nadella will take over immediately, allowing Ballmer to retire early. Nadella had been one of a number of candidates that Microsoft is believed to have interviewed for the role; the company originally said it was pushing to name its Ballmer successor before the end of last year. Also, Bill Gates will step down from his role as chairman. Discussion continues in this thread.
Google have sold their Motorola phone business to Lenovo. "Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola Mobility into a major player within the Android ecosystem," Google CEO Larry Page said in a statement. "This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere."
Here's another car for you to download and print. Affordable 3D printers are allowing people to mix art and manufacturing at home and Honda is jumping on board. The company is offering 3D printing data for five of its concept cars for free. The options include the recent NSX concept to the FSR Concept that dates back to 1994. The FSR Concept was supposed to illustrate the company’s vision for safer cars and included a navigation system with real-time updates.
This is a little old now, but it's interesting - HP are offering Windows 7 as an option again, thanks mpot. "The reality is that there are a lot of people who still want Windows 7," said Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research, in a Monday interview. "This is a twist, though, and may appeal to those who said, 'I do want a new PC, but I thought I couldn't get Windows 7.'"
If you have a Yahoo account you might want to change your password. Yahoo! is urging users of its Mail service to change their passwords to something secure and unique to the web giant – after a security breach exposed account login details to theft. The company said that it has reset the passwords on accounts connected to what it termed a "third-party database compromise" – that database contained records on some of Yahoo!'s users.
A new game has some lofty promises about mapping the entire real world for the gaming environment - using drones. Beyond that, the weather and temperature are pulled from the real world too - so if its snowing in Toronto in real life, it'll be snowing in Toronto in the game, too. Discussion here.
You might be seeing Bitcoin ATMs in Australia soon, thanks Paul. Now the company has announced it will soon open 100 Bitcoin ATMs around the country so you can convert your digital currency to physical dollars on the street. The ATMs will facilitate the conversion of Bitcoin to physical currency, and vice versa.
You can help NASA by searching for dusty stars. Scientists are combing our galaxy looking for stars that could be harbouring planet-forming disks. They need your help to explain this puzzling part of stellar evolution!
Wednesday Lunchtime Reviews
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Wednesday, 5-February-2014 12:47:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
MSI Z87M Gaming Motherboard on Guru3D.
AMD Mantle CPU performance in Battlefield 4 on Tech Report.
ASUS Maximus VI GENE motherboard on PCGamers.
Audio Visual:
Rollei CarDVR-110 Full HD GPS Car Camera on NikKTech.
Creative T4 2.1 Wireless Speaker System with NFC on MadShrimps.
Func HS-260 Stereo Gaming Headset on eTeknix.
Video Cards:
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz Edition on HWHeaven.
Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC 4 GB on TechPowerUp.
MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition on OCaholic.
XFX R9 290X Black OC Edition with Mantle on HWHeaven.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Sony VAIO Tap 21 Multitouch Mobile Desktop on HotHardware.
Asrock Vision HT 420D HTPC on TechSpot.
Lenovo ThinkPad T440s Ultrabook on PCPerspective.
CompuLab Utilite: A Tiny, Low-Power, Low-Cost, ARM Linux Desktop on Phoronix.
Google Nexus 5 Smartphone on Tweaktown.
Cyberpower PC ‘Ultra Fusion’ AMD Gaming System on eTeknix.
Cases:
ROCCAT Kone Pure Phantom White on OCaholic.
SilverStone PS08 Micro-ATX on Phoronix.
Input Etc:
CM Storm Reaper Mouse from the Aluminum Gaming Series on Modders-Inc.
ROCCAT Ryos MK Glow Keyboard on HWAsylum.
ROCCAT Ryos MK Glow Mechanical Keyboard on NeoSeeker.
FUNC KB-460 Mechanical Keyboard on TechWareLabs.
Func KB-460 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on BenchmarkReviews.
Mionix Avior 7000 Optical Gaming Mouse on NikKTech.
Cooling:
CM Glacer 240L Expandable Liquid CPU Cooler on LegitReviews.
Corsair H75 CPU Cooler on HWSecrets.
CRYORIG R1 Ultimate CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 on OCClub.
Aerocool DS Dead Silence 120mm & 140mm Fan on eTeknix.
Cryorig R1 Ultimate Cooler on PureOC.
Power Supply:
LUXA2 PL2 6000mAh Battery Power Pack Portable Charger on Tweaktown.
be quiet! Power Zone 850W on ThinkComputers.
Antec EarthWatts Platinum 650W Non-Modular on eTeknix.
Storage:
IntelliProp Hydra SATA Bridge IPA-SA117A-BR with 4x Intel DC S3700 SSDs on Tweaktown.
ADATA DashDrive HV620 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive on APHNetworks.
ToughArmor 6x2.5" SATA HDD Hot Swap Mobile Rack on LanOC.
Angelbird SSD2Go Pro Mobile SSD 640GB on TheSSDReview.
Thecus N2310 NAS on TechPowerUp.
OCZ Vertex 460 SSD Review 240GB on TechnologyX.
Misc:
VisionTek 26 Piece PC Tool Kit on PureOC.
Broken Age PC Game on Tweaktown.
Photography Gallery
(3 Comments)
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Monday, 3-February-2014 20:56:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in our Photography Gallery forum.
Monday Evening
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Monday, 3-February-2014 20:02:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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PM Tony Abbott's YouTube channel was temporarily suspended recently, although it seems to have been in response to user complaints. Soon after it was released, the Prime Minister's video was suspended by YouTube after social media users claimed it contained 'deceptive content'. YouTube's guidelines state videos are reviewed when "a video gets flagged as inappropriate". YouTube then suspended Mr Abbott's entire account. Discussion here.
Toshiba have bought (most of) OCZ as we know, but how will that affect warranties? In theory quite a lot as reported on ArsTechnica and Anandtech. However in Oz you're probably covered by our consumer protection laws, which will presumably result in the distributor or reseller having to wear the warranty expense. As of this writing, Toshiba is planning on honoring the full warranties for most of OCZ's high-end drives: the entire Vertex series of SSDs, most RevoDrives, and Vector-branded drives all fall under this umbrella.
Game of Thrones fans will be upset (or more likely, largely unaffected) by a deal to show it to Australians via Foxtel exclusively. As of this week you’re out of legal options. Foxtel has reportedly signed a deal with HBO which will block the show from airing through any other medium — at all — apart from DVD release, in a move which appears set to drive more Australians to downloading the show via file-sharing protocols such as BitTorrent. A few people have reminded me of this comic, which has some strong language but is very relevant.
Monash University recently became the first organisation with a brand-new top level domain. Following a lengthy application process and detailed review of the University’s technical, operational and financial capabilities, the University has successfully been approved to own and operate the .monash TLD. The New TLD Program includes applications for other globally-influential .brand TLDs such as .google, .apple and .anz, as well as other generic Top-Level Domains such as .book, .melbourne and .cpa.
If you've had a bad day at work, be thankful you didn't accidentally fill your comms room with concrete. Engineers worked through the night to clear quick-drying cement which was accidentally poured into a control room, thanks mpot.
Some AMD Kaveri APU and Mantle headlines: Frame Pacing Fixed on PCPerspective, Memory Performance Scaling and BF4 Performance on HardCoreWare, Mantle Performance Explored on Guru3D and Mantle on Catalyst 14.1 on LegitReviews.
Meanwhile AMD have an 8-core ARM server CPU. Codenamed "Seattle," the processors will be branded Opteron A-series and built on a 28nm process. The first of these will be the A1100. This will have four or eight cores based on ARM's Cortex-A57 design. This is a high performance, 64-bit ARM core, and it will run at clock speeds of at least 2GHz. The chips will have up to 4MB of level 2 cache and 8MB of level 3 cache, with both caches shared across all the cores.
Audio:
Func HS-260 Gaming Headset on Benchmark Reviews
Antec SPZero Bluetooth Wireless Portable Speaker on Benchmark Reviews
CM Storm Pitch In-Ear Gaming Headset on eTeknix
SteelSeries Siberia Elite Gaming Headset on Legit Reviews
A.M.P. SPzero Bluetooth Portable Speaker and Speakerphone on FunkyKit
Motherboard:
Gigabyte Z87X-UD5 TH Intel Z87 Thunderbolt Motherboard on Legit Reviews
Gigabyte Z87X-UD5TH (Intel Z87) Motherboard on TweakTown
ASUS Z87I-PRO (Intel LGA 1150) on TechPowerUp
Case:
SilverStone ML05 HTPC Case on Benchmark Reviews
Corsair Obsidian 250D Mini-ITX Chassis on eTeknix
Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini-ITX Chassis on eTeknix
Cooler Master HAF Stacker 915F & 915R on Neoseeker
NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
BitFenix Ronin Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
Thermaltake Chaser A21 Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
M Storm Stryker Big-Tower Case on OCInside
Akasa Newton NUC Case on TechPowerUp
Silverstone PT13 and AR04 on LanOC
Fractal Design Node 304 Chassis on FunkyKit
Networking:
Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ Starter Kit on NikkTech
Thecus N2310 NAS Video Review on Hardware Heaven
Gaming:
Assassin's Creed Liberation HD on OCC
Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket Video on Hardware Heaven
Maingear EPIC RUSH With Radeon R9 290X Crossfire Gaming PC on Hot Hardware
Couchmaster Pro Microfaser on Ocaholic
Corsair Vengeance 2100 Dolby 7.1 Wireless Gaming Headset on Madshrimps
Videocard:
Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 Graphics Card on Modders-Inc
MSI GTX 760 Gaming ITX on Ocaholic
PSU:
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W CM Semi-Modular Power Supply on eTeknix
Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1000W Semi-Modular Power Supply on eTeknix
SilverStone ST30SF 300-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply on TweakTown
Portables:
Dell Venue 8 Pro Windows Tablet on Megatech Reviews
Asus Transformer T100 on Techspot
Acer Aspire S7-392 Ultrabook on TweakTown
Google Nexus 7 Tablet on TweakTown
Le Pan TC1020 Tablet on Techware Labs
Mouse/Keyboard:
Tesoro Gandiva H1L on Ocaholic
Tesoro Colada Mechanical keyboard on RBMods
Zowie P-TF Rough mousepad on DV Hardware
Cooler Master QuickFire Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard on Techreport
Razer Deathstalker Expert Gamer Keyboard on Tweak.dk
SteelSeries Rival Mouse on BestGamingMouseCentral
Storage:
Lexar microSDHC UHS-I 633x 16GB Card on Legit Reviews
Thermaltake Max 5 Duet 2.5-inch Storage Rack on TweakTown
Misc:
Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity & Sleep Wristband on TweakTown
Dynatron G555 2U Xeon Server Heatsink on FrostyTech
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