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July 2014
Thursday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 31-July-2014  03:46:18 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Gaming:
GRID Autosport (PS3) on Gaming Nexus
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (PS3) on Gaming Nexus

Cooling:
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate 360mm AIO CPU Cooler on TweakTown
Raijintek Themis Evo Pro & Nemesis CPU Coolers on eTeknix
Cooler Master Nepton 280L Liquid Cooler on Neoseeker
NZXT Kraken X31 on OCC

PSU:
Seasonic X-Series XM2-1250 Power Supply on PC Perspective
XFX XTS 520W Passive Modular Power Supply on eTeknix
Seasonic Platinum Series 1200W on Tech Powerup
Seasonic Platinum Series 660W Modular Power Supply on eTeknix

Storage:
Areca ARC-8050T2 Thunderbolt 2 8-Bay RAID Tower DAS on TweakTown
Corsair Force LX 256GB SSD on Madshrimps
Silicon Power Superior SDXC UHS-1 64GB on Madshrimps
Synology Diskstation DS414j 4-Bay NAS Server on Bigbruin
Icy Dock MB981U3-1S Hard Drive Dock on ThinkComputers.org
Samsung 845DC EVO SSD 960 Gigabyte on Ocaholic
Thecus N2310 2-Bay NAS Server on Big Bruin
Virident FlashMAX II 2.2TB Enterprise PCIe SSD on TweakTown
Synology Embedded DataStation EDS14 on Legion Hardware

Csse:
IN WIN S-Frame Open-Air Chassis on TweakTown
Streacom FC8 EVO on Vortez
Antec ISK 600 Mini ITX Case on Nikktech
Tesla H Case on Silent PC Review
SilverStone Raven RV05 on Silent PC Review
BitFenix Neos Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
Aerocool Dead Silence DS200 on ocahoic
NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Case on ThinkComputers.org

Videocard:
HIS Radeon R7 250X and 260X iCooler Graphics Cards on Funky Kit
Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon R9 280X OC Edition on Ocaholic

Audio:
Tt eSports Level 10 M Gaming Headset on Techware Labs
LUXA2 GroovyW Bluetooth Speaker with Wireless Charging Station on TweakTown
Tt eSPORTS Level 10M Gaming Headset on Techgage
CM Storm Resonar Gaming Earphones on eTeknix
Gamdias HEPHAESTUS Virtual 7.1 Gaming Headset on Hardware Heaven
GAMDIAS Hephaestus GHS2000 Headset on Benchmark Reviews

Motherboard:
MSI Z97 MPower Overclocking Motherboard on Hardware Asylum
Gigabyte Z97X SOC Force on NinjaLane

Portable:
Lenovo Yoga 10 HD+ Android Tablet on Benchmark Reviews
Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga Convertible on PC Perspective
Samsung Galaxy Tab S on Hot Hardware
Nokia Lumia 520 Smartphone on Hardware Secrets
Sony Xperia Z2 Smartphone on TweakTown

Keyboard/Mouse:
Nixeus MODA Mechanical Keyboard on Legit Reviews
Zalman Knossos ZM-GM4 Professional Laser Gaming Mouse on TweakTown

Misc:
XTracGear Carbonic, Ripper and Ripper XXL Mouse Pads on TweakTown
XTracGear Carbonic Mouse Pad on Benchmark Reviews
Gigabyte Brix Gaming BXi5G-760 mini-PC on Tech Report
ADATA XPG V3 3100MHz 8GB DDR3 Memory Kit on Legit Reviews
ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q GSYNC Game Monitor on Guru3D



Forum Projects (1 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 29-July-2014  18:13:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Catching up on some more projects and reviews from the forums:


Kommandant33 is working on
making a PC all rusty

mcfee03 reviewed the
Gigabyte P15F laptop

ginger_nuts is building
a chilled test bench


Ameel is making a
10-channel Fan Controller

jompenleet has finished
a Phantom 820 build

and ASIGN_Baz has finished
his backyard observatory



Tuesday Morning (7 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 29-July-2014  01:01:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Illegal downloading is in the headlines once again, with a leaked discussion paper from the Federal Government. A UMR Research study cited in the draft paper found that an estimated 21 per cent of all Australians over the age of 18 had engaged in online piracy. Furthermore, when Game of Thrones’ fourth season premiered in April, more people in Australia illegally downloaded the program than anywhere else in the world. Australia accounted for 11.6 per cent of the piracy, and Melbourne was the worst-offending city on the globe, according to TorrentFreak.

Meanwhile in Sydney, a cartoon character has been arrested. But after police spoke to the man the found that all the “weapons” were plastic fakes and he was dressed as “Spiderman” as part of a charity fundraising campaign called Superhero Week. He was wearing the costume to work to help raise money for Bear Cottage at Manly, a hospice for children. Deadpool, not Spiderman..

ArsTechnica report on a magic fighter pilot helmet. In addition to providing the navigational and targeting information typically shown in a combat aircraft’s heads-up display, the HMDS also includes aspects of virtual reality, allowing a pilot to look through the plane. Using a collection of six high-definition video and infrared cameras on the fighter’s exterior called the Distributed Aperture System (DAS), the display extends vision a full 360 degrees around the aircraft from within the cockpit.

Sniper spotted this video of a couple of Aussies setting up to play Doom on an ATM. Playing Doom on an NCR Personas ATM using the OEM PC and display, plus an i-Pac controller for mapping the side buttons, and eventually, the PIN pad. Seems to be more info here on Hackaday.

Amazon are jumping onto the 3D printing bandwagon with a new 3D printing section (affiliate link). 3D Printers make a variety of objects using a laser that move along an X, Y and Z axis to build an object in three dimensions. 3D printing is considered the future of print and manufacturing, and is set to dramatically change the way we buy and produce products in the future. Browse our selection of 3D printed jewelry, home decor, tech accessories, toys & games, and more. No matter the occasion or budget, there is something for everyone in our gallery of 3D printed products. It'll be interesting to see where they go with this. Discussion here.

From Marc: Thought you might like to know that the Australian gaming/streaming group ‘We Play’ will be hosting a live webcast on the 9th of August in support of the Childs Play charity. It is a day-long event where we play games, get drunk, cook lunch and laugh at each other whilst raising money for a worthwhile charity. There's a Facebook Event here, a Youtube Stream here and a Childs Play Event/Donation Page here.



Monday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 28-July-2014  13:25:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
Intel Core i7-3960X vs Core i7-3930K 3-way SLI Gaming-Performance on OCAholic.
Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE on OCClub.

Cooling:
Noctua industrialPPC Series fans on Vortez.
Enermax Liqtech 240 CPU Cooler video review on HWHeaven.
Gamer Storm Maelstrom 240 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.

Storage:
Kingston SSDNow V310 960GB SSD Upgrade Kit on NikKTech.
OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
ADATA SP610 SSD Review (512GB) on TheSSDReview.
Crucial M550 2.5" SATA SSD Full Capacity Roundup on PCPerspective.

Input Etc:
GAMDIAS HERMES Ultimate Black Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech.
Logitech Illuminated Living Room Keyboard K830 on Techgage.
Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog Flight Stick on Tweaktown.

Portable & Prebuilt:
Lenovo ThinkPad W540 Mobile Workstation Laptop on Tweaktown.
x86 on Android: A quick look at Asus' Memo Pad ME176C tablet on TechReport.
Kingston MobileLite Wireless G2 on LegitReviews.

Cases:
Streacom NC1-GK NUC Chassis on TechPowerUp.
Corsair Carbide Series Spec-01 Mid-Tower on eTeknix.
Cooltek W1 Windowed on OCAholic.
Silverstone Raven RV05 on BenchmarkReviews.

Misc:
HIS R7 260X and R7 250X video cards on PureOC.
XFX XTS 520W on PSU HWareHeaven.
OlliOlli PC Game on Tweaktown.
GamesterGear Cruiser P3210 Gaming Headset on Tweaktown.



Misc Pics (42 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 25-July-2014  14:18:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Thanks to mpot and TonyR this week!









Friday Afternoon (6 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 25-July-2014  13:12:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg

iiNet have a blog post outlining their opposition to Mandatory Data Retention. At the end of this month, iiNet will front a Senate Committee reviewing telecommunications laws concerning interception and access to communications data or metadata, which could include introducing mandatory surveillance and data retention on the communications activities of the entire Australian population. Our statement to the Committee is summarised, in part below. Coverage here and here.

TomsHardware have a list of PSU Brands vs Manufacturers. Do you think that all power supplies are manufactured by the brand on the label? Think again. We show what makes a good PSU and reveal who builds them. You can actually find lots of quality (instead of just scrap metal) behind some of the budget labels.

EA are giving away The Sims 2 on Origin, along with all 18 expansions. Ultimate Collection includes the base Sims 2 game along with "every single The Sims 2 expansion pack and stuff pack." The list of content that entails, as a result, is comically long: There have been eight expansion packs (which add new functionality and major features) and ten stuff packs (which, as you might guess, contain various stuff--primarily clothing and furniture) released since The Sims 2's launch in 2004. Discussion here.

Techspot wonder if virtual desktops & GPU acceleration are the future of computing. While we've long moved away from the early days of the mainframe and thin clients, there are some areas of computing where we're seeing a push back to similar architectures. We'll take a look at some of the more common advantages and disadvantages of virtual desktops, offer our general impressions on using them, and make some educated guesses as to whether virtual desktops truly are the future of computing or if they will likely remain a niche technology.

Telstra will be turning off 2G in 2016, with more info here. Telstra will close down its 2G network before the end of 2016, and is expected to reuse the spectrum for 4G technology once the network's existing customers are migrated onto 3G and 4G. In a blog post titled "It's time to say goodbye old friend", Telstra's group managing director of networks Mike Wright said the 2G GSM network had been in place for more than 20 years and had been surpassed by newer technologies.

Microsoft have a new video explaining Quantum Computing. An introduction to the mind-bending world of quantum computing.



Friday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 25-July-2014  12:31:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS Z97-PRO Motherboard on HWSecrets.
MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX AC (LGA 1150) on eTeknix.
ASUS Z97I-PLUS mini-ITX on Techgage.
ASUS Maximus VII Formula on OCAholic.
Intel Pentium Anniversary Edition & OC Guide on TechSpot.
Core i7-4790K "Devil's Canyon" overclocking revisited on TechReport.
MSI A88X-G45 Gaming Assassin's Creed Edition on PCPerspective.
Gigabyte Z97-D3H Motherboard on Modders-Inc.
ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Motherboard on ThinkComputers.

Storage:
SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD on Vortez.
Western Digital Red 6TB and Red Pro 4TB on PCPerspective.
Seagate Desktop 4TB, 5TB and 6TB HDDs RAID Report on Tweaktown.
SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD (480GB) on HWHeaven.
Thecus N2520 2-Bay NAS on eTeknix.
Crucial MX100 256GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix.
Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series 240GB Enterprise SSD on LegitReviews.
Corsair Voyager Air 2 1TB Mobile Storage Device on Tweaktown.

Cooling:
CRYORIG C1 Top-Down CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
NZXT Kraken X31-X41-X61 AIO Water Cooler Roundup on PureOC.

Audio Visual:
NEC MultiSync EA244UHD 24-Inch 4K Monitor on HotHardware.
CM Storm Resonar headset on Vortez.

Video Cards:
Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X 4 GB on TechPowerUp.
Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 3GB OC on LegitReviews.
HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB OC on Tweaktown.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX Titan Black WindForce on Guru3D.
GeForce GTX 660 Ti vs. GTX 750 Ti on OCAholic.
Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Vapor-X OC on Tweaktown.

Cases:
DeepCool STEAM CASTLE on Vortez.
BitFenix Neos Mid-Tower on eTeknix.
Thermaltake Urban T81 Full Tower on ThinkComputers.
Raidmax Scorpio V on OCClub.
Fractal Design Core 3300 Mid Tower on NeoSeeker.
Deepcool Steam Castle on OCAholic.

Misc:
Tt eSports Poseidon Z Mechanical Keyboard on TechWareLabs.
Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook on Tweaktown.



H. R. Giger Tribute PC (1 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 23-July-2014  21:13:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Here's an amazing mod from MNPCTech, a tribute to H. R. Giger who passed away in May 2014:


click for the thread!



GIGABYTE Contests (1 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 23-July-2014  16:11:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg

GIGABYTE have posted the results of their recent CATZILLA OC contest. GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced the winners of the GIGABYTE CATZILLA OC Contest hosted on HWBOT.org. With $1,000 and two GIGABYTE Z97 series motherboards up for grabs, the GIGABYTE CATZILLA OC Contest invited the overclocking community to push their hardware to the limit by running the custom made CATZILLA benchmark skin on their GIGABYTE 9 Series motherboard.

Meanwhile there's another contest here in our Forums, where you can win a motherboard or some mystery prizes. Each benchmark will award 10 points to the highest score, 8 to the second, 6 to the third, 4 to the fourth and 2 to the fifth. Prize 1 will go to the top scoring individual, with additional prizes going to a prize draw for any individual who submits scores in all 3 benchmarks.

click for the thread!



Wednesday Afternoon (4 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 23-July-2014  15:06:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg

This Friday is SysAdmin Day, when System Administrators hopefully get appreciated for what they do behind the scenes. System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as Sysadmin Day, SysAdminDay, SAD or SAAD, is an annual event created by system administrator Ted Kekatos. The event exists to show appreciation for the work of sysadmins and other IT workers. It is celebrated on the last Friday in July.

After teaching the rest of the world how a viral marketing campaign should be done, Weird Al Yankovic is now #1 in the charts for the first time in his career. The exposure Yankovic earned via mobile and social networks leaped an astounding 3,391% between the weeks of July 7-13 and July 14-20.According to Kontera, the Amobee Brand measurement company for web analytics, Yankovic’s video exposure in that period obliterated not just Mraz’s, but that of every other major music star. His closest competition, Beyonce, had roughly half as much exposure as the satirist. Discussion continues here.

Copyright infringing households in the UK will now get warnings and nothing else, thanks to new laws. From the beginning of 2015, up to four warnings will be sent annually to individuals suspected of online piracy, although if these warnings are ignored no further action will be taken. The scheme is called Creative Content UK (previously known as the 'voluntary copyright alert programme' or Vcap) and is a significant step back from plans outlined in the Digital Economy Act 2010, which would have seen persistent pirates have their internet access cut.

On a related note, |Renegade| spotted some 8TB HDDs from Seagate, with 10TB on the way. Seagate, after hinting in May that it would release 8TB and 10TB hard drives in the next 12 months, has started delivering early samples of its 8TB hard drive to “major customers” (i.e. enterprise customers). Curiously, while Western Digital hit 6TB last year by filling its drives with helium, Seagate appears to be pushing the 3.5-inch spinning disk storage envelope by simply increasing areal density. Western Digital, incidentally, despite being the first to 6TB, hasn’t announced anything new since November 2013. Maybe helium wasn’t quite ready for prime time?

NVIDIA's Shield gaming tablet has arrived, with preview info on Tech Report, HotHardware, PC Perspective, HWCanucks, Hexus and Techgage. Just under a year since the release of the Shield Portable, Nvidia has announced a second member of the Shield family. As expected, it's the Shield Tablet, an Android slate with an emphasis on gaming. Like the Shield Portable before it, the Shield Tablet will sell direct from Nvidia, not from a partner company. The Shield Tablet extends Nvidia's Android gaming focus to a new form factor, making it one of the first tablets anywhere with a fairly pure gaming mission.

Anthony spotted this strange move from Microsoft, blocking Google search on certain Lumia phones. If you buy a Lumia 630 or 930 Windows Phone and want to use Google as your default search engine, you're out of luck: Microsoft has disabled that capability in those phones. For better or worse, you're stuck with Bing. Will this come back to bite Microsoft?

mpot sent word of some iOS backdoors which seem to bypass encryption on Apple devices. When your backup is encrypted, you will need to enter the password when enabling or disabling encryption or when restoring from the backup, but according to Zdziarski, there is a iOS service called mobile file_relay, can be accessed remotely or through a USB connection to bypass the backup encryption. Looks like Apple have denied the claims already, though.

I may not have my flying car yet, but maybe I can have a hoverbike, thanks Ben!



Wednesday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 23-July-2014  12:54:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
Intel Core i7 4790K – Haswell gets a refresh on Bjorn3D.
MSI Z97M Gaming on OCAholic.
Gigabyte Z97X-SOC FORCE Motherboard on MadShrimps.
Intel Pentium G3258 (Haswell) 20th Anniversary CPU Gaming Performance on Tweaktown.

Audio Visual:
TDK A12 TREK Micro Wireless Speaker on NikKTech.
Kingston HyperX Cloud Pro Gaming Headset on HWHeaven.

Storage:
Western Digital Red Pro 4TB NAS WD4001FFSX Consumer HDD on Tweaktown.
Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series 240GB Encrypted SSD on Tweaktown.
Intel SSD 2500 Pro 240GB Solid State Drive on HotHardware.
Plextor M6S PX-256M6S 256GB SSD on NikKTech.
Intel P3700 NVMe SSD Installed In a Win 8.1 Consumer PC on TheSSDReview.

Misc:
BitFenix Fury 550G Alchemy-Sleeved Power Supply Preview on BenchmarkReviews.
Lantronix SLB Remote Branch Office Manager on Tweaktown.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 vs. ASUS Matrix Platinum video cards on HWSecrets.
iOttie Easy Flex Wireless Qi Standard Charging Car Mount on ThinkComputers.



Tuesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 22-July-2014  09:42:11 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Audio:
Superlux HD668B Headphones on Benchmark Reviews
Tt eSPORTS SYBARIS Wired And Wireless Gaming Headset on NikkTech
Ozone Onda Pro Headset on Funky Kit

Keyboard & Mouse:
ThermalTake Level 10 M Hybrid Mouse on PureOverclock
Cooler Master Quick Fire Rapid-i Mechanical Keyboard on Madshrimps

Videocard:
HIS R9 280 IceQ X2 OC 3GB GDDR5 Video Card on Madshrimps
AMD Radeon R9 280X Round-up on Legion Hardware

Case:
Silverstone Raven RV 05 on ocaholic
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full-Tower Case on Legit Reviews
BitFenix Shadow Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
NZXT Phantom 240 Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
Fractal Design Core 3500 Computer Case on Benchmark Reviews

Storage:
Patriot STELLAR 64GB USB/microUSB 3.0 OTG Flash Drive on Overclockers Club
Seagate Desktop HDD 5TB ST5000DX000 on TweakTown
Corsair Voyager Air 2 on HardwareHeaven
Toshiba Nearline MG04ACA500A 5TB SATA III HDD on Nikktech
Crucial MX100 512GB SSD on FunkyKit
SanDisk Extreme PRO 480GB SATA SSD on Custom PC Review
Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 32GB USB Flash Drive on APH Networks
Synology DS414j Budget-friendly 4-bay NAS Server on Madshrimps
OCZ RevoDrive 350 on Vortez
Samsung 845DC Pro SSD 800 Gigabyte on ocaholic
Western Digital Red 6TB NAS Consumer HDD on TweakTown
Lexar JumpDrive P10 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Funky Kit
Toshiba HG6 SSD Review (512GB) on Hardware Heaven
Crucial MX100 256GB SSD on TweakTown
Plextor M6S PX-256M6S 256GB SSD on Nikktech

Cooling:
Thermaltake NiC C5 CPU Cooler on Tech Powerup
Noctua redux Series on Vortez
Aerocool Air Force 120mm Fans on Funky Kit
Be Quiet! Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler on NikkTech
Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 GPU Cooler on Techgage
Enermax Liqtech 120X AiO Liquid CPU Cooler on Think Computers

Powersupply:
SilverStone Strider Gold S ST85F-GS 850W Power Supply on APH Networks
Rosewill Capstone Modular 1000W on Tech Powerup

Tablet/Portable:
Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9 Android Tablet on PC Perspective
LG G3 Mobile Phone on Techspot

Misc:
Kingston HyperX Impact 2x4GB DDR3-1600 1.35V Memory on Funky Kit
Valiant Hearts: The Great War PC Game on TweakTown



Monday Afternoon (7 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 21-July-2014  12:20:51 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Catch of the Day have recently informed their customers to update their passwords after a security breach that happened 3 years ago. In a belated disclosure released late on Friday, daily deals website Catch of the Day sent a message to customers revealing it was hacked in May 2011 in an incident that revealed customer data, including passwords and credit card details.

Good news for Cyclists - Google Maps for mobile now lets cyclists avoid (or head for) the hills with an inbuilt elevation chart for each route entered. The update plots elevation against distance, allowing you to compare the amount of climbing you’ll have to do. It shows multiple routes in the same search display, so you really can judge one against the others.

Electronic DNA perhaps could become the secure login of the future. Unique habits can be used to prove users' identity – but may also reveal if they are drunk, or have had sex, researchers say.

Public transport users in Sydney that use the Opal Card system may be getting watched and tracked by Transport NSW, with NSW Police having access on information on a users' travel history with a warrant. Transport NSW has now defended the practice, saying that it "may only disclose information to a law enforcement agency that is necessary for law enforcement purposes, for the investigation of an offence, for the enforcement of criminal law or to assist in locating a missing person".

Amazon has officially announced their Kindle Unlimited service, providing endless reading and listening for $9.99 a month. Dubbed a “Netflix for books” by our own Darrell Etherington, the service offers over 600,000 books for free reading on Kindle and Kindle-enabled devices as well as thousands of audiobooks from Audible.

Michael sent in this interesting read about how this person met with Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka, and, showed and handed over an old pre-release Genesis ROM version of Sonic back to its creator. Naka looked happy. A few clicks later, and the file was on a USB drive, and then, in the hand of the father of Sonic. The early version of a classic game this man had worked on—one that had been illegally copied many years ago and distributed through illicit means since—was now back in the hands of its creator.

Sverker Johansson is responsible for writing over 2.7 million articles on Wikipedia over the last seven years, which works out to be 8.5% of all the content on the site. His claims to authorship are contested however, as they were created by a computer generated software algorithm, otherwise known as a bot. Johansson has named his Lsjbot.

A bit of useless information - if you fold a piece of paper in half 103 times, it will get as thick as the universe. The myth: You can’t fold a paper in half more than eight times.* The reality: Given a paper large enough — and enough energy — you can fold it as many times as you want. The problem: If you fold it 103 times, the thickness of your paper will be larger than the observable Universe: 93 billion light-years.



Misc Pics (39 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 18-July-2014  14:36:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Our thoughts are with those involved in the MH17 crash - discussion of that topic is underway here. If you're concerned about people who might have been on that flight you should try to contact them directly, but if you are unsuccessful in contacting them, DFAT has more info.

Thanks to gasman and t1mbot for pics submissions this week.









Friday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 18-July-2014  13:08:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
Haswell Devils Canyon Performance on HWAnalysis.
Biostar's Hi-Fi Z97WE on TechReport.
Intel Pentium G3258 On Linux on Phoronix.
ASRock Z97 OC Formula Preview on OCaholic.
Intel Pentium G3258 (Haswell) 20th Anniversary Edition CPU Performance on Tweaktown.

Audio Visual:
ASUS Essence STX II 7.1 Sound Card on Guru3D.
Asus PG278Q monitor on TFTCentral.
SB Inferno Gaming Headset on LanOC.
LOGiiX Blue Piston Chamber Bluetooth NFC Speaker on ModSynergy.

Portable & Prebuilt:
BlackBerry Q10 smartphone on TechnologyX.
EVGA Tegra NOTE 7 & ASUS Transformer Pad TF701T on NeoSeeker.
Shuttle Barebone DS81 on MadShrimps.
Maingear Rush Review With Radeon R9 295X2 CrossFire prebuilt PC on HotHardware.
Digital Storm Vanquish 2 Level 4 Desktop Gaming PC on Tweaktown.

Cases:
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full-Tower on Tweaktown.
Aerocool Dead Silence DS200 Mid-Tower on eTeknix.
Spire Ridge 6602B on OCAholic.
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe on TechPowerUp.
Silverstone Raven 5 (RV05) on TechSpot.

Storage:
ALLONE Cloud Disk Drive 101 RAMDisk Review (32GB) on TheSSDReview.
ADATA SP610 512GB Versus Corsair Force LX 512GB on LegitReviews.
Intel DC P3700 800GB NVMe vs. Intel 730 Series SATA SSD RAID on Tweaktown.
Samsung 845DC PRO 400GB SATA SSD on CustomPCReview.
Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128GB on Vortez.
Crucial MX100 512GB SSD on TechWareLabs.
QNAP TS-451 NAS on LegionHW.
Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Tweaktown.
Synology DS415Play 4-Bay NAS on eTeknix.
Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on LegitReviews.
Kingston SSDNow mS200 240GB mSATA SSD on BigBruin.
Kingston MobileLite Wireless G2 Card Reader on BigBruin.

Power Supply:
Antec HCP-850 850W PSU on NikKTech.
BitFenix Fury 650G Power Supply on PureOC.

Input Etc:
Gamdias Hermes Cherry MX Blue Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on eTeknix.
GAMDIAS HERMES Essential GKB2000 Mechanical Keyboard on BenchmarkReviews.

Networking:
Linksys AC1200 MAX Wi-Fi Range Extender (RE6500) on HWHeaven.
Linksys WRT1900AC Dual Band Smart WiFi Wireless AC Router on LegitReviews.

Misc:
Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3GB video card on Techgage.
DeepCool Gabriel Low-Profile CPU Cooler on NikKTech.



Thursday Morning (1 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 17-July-2014  01:17:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg

The Government has increased the technological power of spy agencies with new legislation. The bill modernises the way ASIO accesses computers - allowing one warrant for a computer to extend to all computers at a location and associated to the relevant person. The act will be amended such that the definition of “computer” in the Act includes all computers operating in a network. “Very frequently, people use innocent computers to attack other networks. We need the ability to track that attack, including through the innocent third party computer,” ASIO Director-General David Irvine said. More here and a radio interview here. Discussion in this thread.

Team.AU have set another record, with the top single-GPU 3DMark03 score in the world. [Team.AU] July 2014 Benching Session SniperOZ, Bob(NZ) and youngpro benching at Lan Plus Plus event, WR LIVE! Benching with Gigabyte Z97 SOC Force, Antec 1300W PSU and MSI Lightning 290X.

Catalyst sent in this story about the Electoral Commission not releasing source code to their voting systems. The Australian Electoral Commission has refused a Senate order to reveal the underlying source code of the EasyCount software used to tabulate votes in upper house elections. A motion moved by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon on 10 July directed Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson to table the source code as well as correspondence between Ronaldson's office and the AEC relating to a freedom of information request for the source code.

If you're a fan of Weird Al, you're in for a treat - he's releasing 8 songs/videos in 8 days this month. Two of them are out already, and I particularly liked the second one. :) Discussion here. I should also mention there's been good news for Pink Floyd fans recently too, with discussion here, and even Monty Python fans.

However if you're an Orkut user, then there's bad news instead. Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut's growth, we've decided to bid Orkut farewell (or, tchau). We'll be focusing our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them.



Tuesday Evening Reviews (1 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 15-July-2014  23:02:31 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Audio:
LUXA2 GroovyW Bluetooth Speaker with Wireless Charging Station on Nikktech
Turtle Beach Ear Force Z SEVEN Gaming Headset on Legit Reviews
LOGiiX Blue Piston Bluetooth Speaker on ModSynergy

Case:
Antec Nineteen Hundred on Ocaholic
SilverStone Precision PS10 Computer Case on APH Networks

Storage:
SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive on Ocaholic
Thecus NAS 5550 Server on TechwareLabs
Synology DS415play NAS on Hardware Heaven
Corsair Voyager Air 2 on Vortez
Thecus N2310 NAS on Vortez
Teratrend TS432U 4-bay RAID Enclosure on Techgage
Silicon Power Slim S55 240GB SSD on Nikktech
Seagate Enterprise Capacity 6TB 3.5 HDD v4 on Overclockers Club

Motherboard/CPU:
Asus Z97-WS Motherboard on PC Perspective
AMD Athlon 5350 and Gigabyte GA-AM1M-S2H Motherboard on Benchmark Reviews

Videocard:
AMD FirePro W9100 vs NVIDIA Quadro K6000 on Hot Hardware
HIS R9 280 IceQ X2 on PureOverclock
MSI GTX 750 Ti OC TwinFrozr II Video Card on Futurelooks
PowerColor Devil 13 Dual GPU R9 290X on Guru3D

Misc:
BenQ XL2720Z 144Hz Full HD 27-inch LED Gaming Monitor on TweakTown
Steelseries Stratus Bluetooth iOS Mobile Gaming Controller on eTeknix
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.org
Sony Cybershot DSC-QX10 Phone Camera on Velocity Reviews
TP-LINK AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit ADSL2+ Modem Router on Madshrimps
Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM on Technologyx
Silverstone Nightjar 520W PSU on techPowerUp



Photography Gallery (1 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 15-July-2014  17:42:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in our Photography Gallery forum.



















Monday Afternoon (2 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 14-July-2014  12:08:20 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

You can now relive the thrill of breaking into the Jurassic Park computer system. Jurassic Systems is an HTML5/JavaScript based recreation of the Irix and Macintosh environments featured in the original Jurassic Park film. In particular, it is a recreation of the scene in which Ray Arnold (Samuel Jackson) attempts to circumvent Dennis Nedry's (AKA Wayne Knight, AKA Newman) leet security on an old Irix desktop only to be taunted by an Elvis bodied Nedry. Thanks mpot

Feel like making some pretty ACSII art? mpot sent this web based drawing program using ASCII code.

This guy apparently got his hands on an Asrock ITX mobo second hand, that hasn't even been released yet. I have a motherboard that has been announced but isn't in stores yet, with the UEFI of a motherboard that hasn't even been announced yet. I have no idea why the dear Hardware Gods have given me this crystal ball view into the future, but I am here to share all the details with you.

Earlier this year, Chinese hackers broke into the computer networks of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, with the intention of accessing the files of tens of thousands of federal employees who applied for top-secret security clearances. It is not yet clear how far the hackers penetrated the agency’s systems, in which applicants for security clearances list their foreign contacts, previous jobs and personal information like past drug use.

Foxconn's human workers are getting replaced with Robots for the iPhone 6 assembly. Foxbots, which are currently in their final testing phase, run $20,000 to $25,000 a pop, with Foxconn planning to deploy at least 10,000 of them in its factories.

You can now use Google Street View technology to explore a cruise ship. Just a few clicks will have you virtually traversing the various decks of the Allure of the Seas. You can check out the Royal Promenade, a boulevard that runs almost the entire length of the ship, or Central Park, an outdoor park longer than a football field with over 12,000 live plants and trees.

Sniper spotted this deep sea ocean explorer, connected to 88km of internet cabling, and you can watch it's live stream here. Each spur runs to a node, which is best thought of as a giant underwater networking switch, where lower voltage power and data connectivity is doled out to NEPTUNE's secondary infrastructure of sensors and instrument platforms.

The Obama Administration has changed its mind over a plan to name pharmaceutical executive Phil Johnson as head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Johnson, a longtime attorney for Johnson & Johnson, was a controversial nominee in part because he helped lead opposition to a bipartisan bill, which died in May, that would have made it easier for companies to challenge bad patents and to seek legal fees from so-called “patent trolls.”

Myce have reviewed Intel's DC P3700 1.6TB NVMe Enterprise SSD. NVMe, is a specification that allows a solid-state drive to make effective use of a high-speed Peripheral Component Interconnect Express bus in a computer.



Sunday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 13-July-2014  20:32:27 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Audio:
Audio-Technica ATH-AG1 Gaming Headset on Hardware Heaven
Creative Sound Blaster ZxR Sound Card on HotHardware

Motherboard:
Gigabyte Z97X-GAMING G1 WIFI-BK (Intel LGA 1150) on TechPowerUp
ASUS Z97 Gryphon Armor Edition (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix
ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ Motherboard on Benchmark Reviews

Cooling:
be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim CPU Cooler on eTeknix
Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler on APH Networks

Storage:
Strontium Nitro Plus 128GB U3 SDXC Memory Card on TweakTown
Vantec NexStar TX 2.5-inch USB 3.0 External Storage Enclosure on TweakTown
OCZ Vector 150 120GB on LanOC
SanDisk Extreme PRO Series SSD on Legit Reviews
LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt 500GB External Storage SSD on TweakTown
Thecus N4800Eco 4-Bay NAS on eTeknix
QNAP TurboNAS TS-121 NAS Server on Nikktech
Transcend JetDrive Lite 330 64GB MacBook Expansion Memory Card on TweakTown

Keyboard/Mouse:
Rosewill RGB80 Keyboard on Techreport
SteelSeries Sensei Wireless Laser Gaming Mouse on TweakTown

Case:
Bitfenix Neos on ocaholic
Corsair Graphite 760T Full-Tower Windowed Case on PC Perspective
BitFenix Comrade M-ATX Chassis on eTeknix

Phone/Tablet:
ASUS MeMO Pad 7 on HotHardware
Motorola Moto G Smartphone on Hardware Secrets

Misc:
PAPAGO! Dashcam P2PRO 1080p on OCC
Roku 3 Streaming Media Player on OCModShop
GeIL DRAGON RAM 8GB 1600MHz Memory Kit on eTeknix
Shovel Knight 8-bit PC Game on TweakTown
Thermaltake ToughPower Grand TPG-0750M 750W Power Supply Unit on NikkTech
AMD Athlon 5350 on Vortez
Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Black on Guru3D



Misc Pics (28 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 11-July-2014  14:58:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Urgh, my Man Flu has returned with a vengeance. :( Thanks to Tony_L, Daniel and Walshy this week!








Friday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 11-July-2014  01:46:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Input Etc:
EVGA TORQ X10 Laser Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown.
Rosewill RGB80 Mechanical 16.8m Color Backlit Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown.
Logitech G502 Proteus Core Tunable mouse on LegionHW.

Motherboard & CPU:
MSI Z97 XPower AC on OCAholic.
ASUS Z97-A Mainboard on XbitLabs.
BIOSTAR HI-FI Z97WE on HWHeaven.
AMD FX-9590 & FX-9370 on OCClub.

Cooling:
Deepcool Gamer Storm Maelstrom 240 CPU cooler on TechPowerUp.
Cooler Master Seidon 120XL Liquid Cooler on NeoSeeker.
XSPC DDC Photon 170 Reservoir/Pump Combo on PureOC.

Cases:
Rosewill Legacy W1 Mini-ITX on BenchmarkReviews.
SilentiumPC Aquarius X90 Mid-Tower on MadShrimps.
In Win S-Frame on TechPowerUp.
Raidmax Horus MX Micro ATX Tower on NikKTech.
NZXT Phantom 240 on NeoSeeker.
Thermaltake Urban T81 Full-Tower on Tweaktown.
DimasTech EasyXL Test Bench on Modders-Inc.

Storage:
SanDisk Extreme PRO 480 GB SSD on Guru3D.
Strontium Nitro Plus 64GB U3 MicroSDXC memory card on Tweaktown.
Plextor M6e Review: Solid State Drive for PCI Express on XbitLabs.
Intel SSD DC P3700 Enthusiast Report (800GB) on TheSSDReview.
Western Digital My Cloud Mirror on PCPerspective.
Thecus N5550 Network Attached Storage on Modders-Inc.
KingFast Encrypted USB Flash Drive on MadShrimps.
Lexar JumpDrive S33 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Tweaktown.

Portable & Prebuilt:
Kingston MobileLite Wireless G2 storage / router / battery on HWAsylum.
ASUS MeMO Pad 7 Tablet on LegitReviews.

Video Cards:
MSI R9 280 GAMING 3G on XbitLabs.
GeForce GTX 660 vs. GTX 750 Ti on OCAholic.
Gigabyte GTX 750 Ti Black Edition on OCAholic.
HIS Radeon R9 290X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo 4GB on Tweaktown.

Audio Visual:
D-Link DCH-M225 DLNA and AirPlay Wireless Audio Extender on Tweaktown.



Wednesday Afternoon (13 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 9-July-2014  16:15:16 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Google now has a Video Quality Report page on Youtube, that suggests why your video might be buffering. More info also here on Gizmodo on how Australian ISPs are fairing in the results. The page also offers a comparison between other ISPs in your area, and it ranks providers as either "HD Verified," "Standard Definition," or "Lower Definition" based on the average performance they achieve on YouTube.

Data retention laws are still getting pushed on Australians with NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione saying "Australians will have to sacrifice some of their privacy expectations in order to stay safe from terrorist attacks and criminal activity". Data retention laws would require internet service providers and telcos to collect and store information about their customers' internet habits in order to help identify potential security risks.

A group of teenagers from Warrnambool have set a world record for the longest time playing a racing game, by playing Mario Kart almost 36 hours straight, and I'd say its going to get broken pretty quickly. According to the official guidelines, only one person had to be playing at any one time and the team got a 10-minute break for every hour they played. Harry said they chose to all play at once and he even decided to save up his breaks, at one stage playing 15 hours straight so he could have a well-earned sleep.

A Samsung Factory has been robbed in Brazil, where $36 million worth of laptops, tablets and smartphones were stolen. Police are currently investigating and believe that the heist was an inside job due to the knowledge the robbers had of the location of the stolen electronics and the access they had to the factory.

VIA is coming back to the x86 processor industry, with it's new Isaiah II chip set to take on Intel Bay Trail and AMD Kabini. VIA is expected to launch the first chips based on Isaiah II in late-August, 2014. VIA is hedging its bets with efficient compact PCs, kiosks, and digital signage, with its new chip.

It may be worth holding off on any new car or electronics purchases, with Australia on the verge of signing a free trade agreement with Japan which is designed to provide Australia with "valuable preferential access" to Japan's $4.9 trillion economy. A delegation of the head of Japanese industrial giants Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Nippon Steel and NEC — whose companies’ market capitalisation is nearly equal to the gross domestic product of Denmark will also arrive in Australia for the signing of the agreement and Mr Abbott has said it will lead to greater job opportunities in Australia.

Google AdWords will no longer accept ads that "promote graphic depictions of sexual acts". Some have speculated that the changes signal hard times ahead for the porn industry, as many companies such as PayPal, Amazon, and Chase Bank have started to disassociate themselves from clients who work in the adult entertainment industry.

A Bill Gates' backed foundation MicroCHIPs, currently have a wireless birth control implant chip in development. The team needs to figure out how to effectively encrypt the microchip to stop hackers from turning the baby switch on and off at whim.



Tuesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 8-July-2014  23:41:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer Motherboard on HWSecrets.
Intel Pentium G3258 Dual Core Processor Gaming Performance on LegitReviews.
BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z97WE LGA1150 Motherboard on MadShrimps.

Input Etc:
Rapoo 8900P Advanced Wireless Mouse & Keyboard Combo on ThinkComputers.
Attitude One Vintorez gaming mouse on OCAHolic.
Cherry MX-Board 3.0 MX Blue, Red, Brown & Black Mechanical Keyboard on eTeknix.
Keyed Up Labs KUL ES-87 Mechanical Keyboard on HardCoreWare.

Video Cards:
HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC on BenchmarkReviews.
HIS Radeon R7-260X iCooler on Guru3D.

Audio Visual:
Roccat Syva High Performance In-Ear Headset on eTeknix.
Creative Sound BlasterAxx Axx 200 Intelligent Wireless Sound System on NikKTech.
Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset on Futurelooks.

Cases:
In Win S-Frame Open Air Case on HWAsylum.
Fractal Design Node 804 Micro-ATX on Tweaktown.
Phanteks Enthoo Pro on ThinkComputers.
Fractal Design Core 3500 on OCAholic.

Storage:
Intel SSD DC P3700 Review (800GB) on TheSSDReview.
Thecus N7510 7 Bay NAS on LanOC.
Samsung Pro microSDXC UHS-1 U1 Card Review (64GB) on TheSSDReview.

Cooling:
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU cooler on OCClub.
LEPA LV12 CPU cooler on OCClub.
XSPC Raystorm D5 Photon RX480 V3 WaterCooling Kit on PCPerspective.

Portable & Prebuilt:
HTC Desire 816 smartphone on TechSpot.
Kingston Mobilelite Wireless G2 storage / router / battery on TechnologyX.

Misc:
GRID Autosport PC Game on Tweaktown.
Antec High Current Pro Platinum 850W PSU on TechPowerUp.



Watercooled Desk PC with Car Audio (20 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 7-July-2014  20:48:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Here's an amazing project from Imfaceroll. He's made a desk PC, watercooled it, added car audio components and finished it off incredibly well:


click for the worklog thread!

Note that there are zillions of pictures so give your browser (and our server) time to load them all!



Monday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 7-July-2014  01:26:56 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Audio Visual:
Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro headphones on OCAholic.
thinksound On1 Monitor Series HD Headphones on NikKTech.

Storage:
Synology DS414slim 4-Bay NAS on eTeknix.
Lexar JumpDrive S23 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Tweaktown.
LaCie 2Big 12TB Thunderbolt 2 DAS External Storage on Tweaktown.
Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB Hard Drive on APHNetworks.
Samsung 845DC PRO SSD on Hexus.
OCZ RevoDrive 350 480 GB on OCClub.

Cooling:
Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV 280(X) GPU Cooler on PureOC.
V3 Voltair High Performance Thermoelectric CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.

Power Supply:
Adata PV100 4200mAh USB Battery on eTeknix.
RAVPower RP-PB14 Xtreme 23000mAh Portable Battery Charger on Tweaktown.

Cases:
Thermaltake Urban T81 Full Tower on NeoSeeker.
Thermaltake Core V71 Full Tower on eTeknix.

Portable & Prebuilt:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 on HotHardware.
Battle of the Galaxy S5s: Exynos vs Snapdragon on TechSpot.

Misc:
Exploring Sony Vegas Pro 13 Rendering with a VisionTek Radeon R9 290 on Tweaktown.
Deck 108 Hassium Pro Mechanical Keyboard on NikKTech.
Intel Core i7-4930K vs Core i7-3930K 3-way SLI Gaming-Performance on OCAholic.
Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB 1866MHz Memory Kit on eTeknix.
ASUS GTX 780 Strix 6 GB video card on TechPowerUp.



Misc Pics (42 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 4-July-2014  12:44:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Almost gotten over the man flu that's been plaguing me for a week and a half..








Friday Morning (7 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 4-July-2014  05:46:16 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Facebook are apologizing for the news feed manipulation pschology experiment, saying it was "poorly communicated", however the Information Commissioner's Office is said to be investigating the stunt to see whether they have mishandled the private data of those affected.

Lindsay Lohan is apparently suing Rockstar Games over her likeness to a character in GTA V. Whether or not Lohan has a case she's able to win here is hard to say, because this could be considered parody which companies and people are allowed to create - at least within reason.

Benchmark Reviews has a look at Steam In-Home Streaming. Steam In-Home Streaming is a new feature that allows you to play games in a low-end computer anywhere in your home as long as you are connected to the same network as your gaming computer.

Sony are recalling one of their latest Vaio Flip hybrid laptops for fire and melting issues. Full story here. The Vaio Flip laptop-tablet convertible came in silver, black, and pink, had an 11.6-inch touch display, and was sold in stores nationwide and online for around $800 between February and April.

TweakTown have been playing with three Intel 4790K Devil's Canyon chips with C0 steppings and seeing how high they can be clocked. The processor was designed specifically for overclocking and features a 4.4GHz TurboBoost speed, HyperThreading, as well as knobs to adjust everything from cache speeds to BCLK dividers.

Andrew sends in news about Paypal recently freezing $275,000 worth of donations to ProtonMail, an e-mail encryption tool, beacause a PayPal representative told the company, the American payment service is not sure if ProtonMail is legal. The email company also told the Daily Dot via Twitter that it "will not re-enable PayPal payments until we receive clear assurances from PayPal there will not be a repeat of this incident."

Google has been forced to delete a link to a factually accurate BBC article about Stan O'Neal, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch. O’Neal led the bank in the mid-2000s, a period when it became dangerously over-exposed to the looming mortgage crisis. When the crisis hit, Merrill’s losses were so great the bank had to be sold to Bank of America.

Tsk tsk, apparently a fan has been found in HP's advertised "fanless Chromebox" If you look at the promotional materials HP is distributing, however, the Chromebox is being pushed as a device that has “silent operation of the fanless design.” HP also uses this feature to promote no dust build up inside the machine..



Friday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 4-July-2014  05:07:11 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Cooling:
Swiftech Apogee XL CPU Waterblock on OCIA
Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler Revisited on TweakTown
Evercool Venti on LanOC Reviews

CPU:
Intel Core i7-4790K “Devil’s Canyon” on Futurelooks
Intel Core i7-4790K “Devil’s Canyon” on eTeknix

Motherboard:
ASRock FaTal1ty Z97 Killer Series Motherboard on PureOverclock
Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK (LGA 1150) “Black Edition” on eTeknix

Mouse/Keyboard:
Mionix Naos 7000 Gaming Mouse on OCmodshop
SteelSeries Sensei Wireless Gaming Mouse on Madshrimps
Thermaltake Poseidon Z Mechanical Keyboard on PureOverclock
SteelSeries Apex Illuminated Gaming Keyboard on Techgage
Rosewill BK-500 Bluetooth Keyboard on TechwareLabs

Portable:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 on HotHardware
MSI GT Dominator Pro Gaming Laptop on OCModShop
WiME Wi-Watch M5 Smartwatch on TechwareLabs
PC Specialist Cosmos II 15.6? Notebook on eTeknix

Audio:
Razer Kraken 7.1 Headphones on ocaholic
Mionix Nash 20 Stereo Gaming Headset on Hardware Heaven

Storage:
ADATA Premier SP610 SSD (256GB & 512GB) on Anandtech
Samsung SSD 850 Pro (128GB, 256GB & 1TB) on Anandtech
Samsung 845DC EVO 240GB SSD on NikkTech
iXsystems FreeNAS Mini 4-Bay NAS on TweakTown
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB on Computing on Demand

Case:
BitFenix Neos on Vortez
NZXT H440 on ocaholic
NZXT H440 on OCC
Cougar MX300 Case on Think Computers

Videocard:
MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB on PC Perspective
HIS Radeon R9-280 IceQ X2 OC on Guru3D
HIS Radeon R9 280 IceQ X² OC 3GB Video Card on Benchmark Reviews

Misc:
Shuttle Fanless Slim-PC DS437T on TechPowerUp
Sony Xperia T2 Ultra Dual Smartphone on Hardware Secrets
LG G Flex Curved Screen Smartphone on TweakTown
1001 Spikes (PS4 Game) on Gaming Nexus
Patriot Memory FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable Battery on TweakTown
GeIL EVO POTENZA 16GB 2400MHz Memory Kit on eTeknix



Forum Projects (1 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 2-July-2014  13:53:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Catching up on some more projects and reviews from the forums:


mad_mic3 has an amazing
scratch-built aluminium desk case

jjjc_93 checked out the
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC FORCE

windwithme reviewed the
Corsair Vengeance K65/K95


STUdog has finished his
CM Stacker build

Phatboy69 checked out the
FiiO E17 & E09K DAC & Desktop Amp

while flu!d shows us
MorphOS, an Amiga-compatible OS



Wednesday Midday (1 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 2-July-2014  12:47:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg

There's an interesting article on TheMonthly about power prices in Australia, and a surprising reason for the recent price hikes. Since 2009, the electricity networks that own and manage our “poles and wires” have quietly spent $45 billion on the most expensive project this country has ever seen. Allowed to run virtually unchecked, they’ve spent vast sums on infrastructure we don’t need, and have charged it all to us, with an additional fee attached. The spending was approved by a federal regulator, and yet the federal government didn’t even note it until it was well underway. Discussion here.

Futurelooks have a Z97 Motherboard Roundup. Naturally, DIY users are wondering what makes the new Z97 chipset any better than the previous Z87 Lynx Point. To answer those questions, we’ve assembled the GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD5H, MSI Z97 Gaming 7, ASUS Z97 Mark-I Sabertooth and ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer motherboards, for a fight to the finish, in this Intel Z97 Motherboard round up!

We haven't heard much about Second Life for a while, but apparently it's making a comeback as a VR social network. This week marks Second Life's 11th anniversary and Altberg says it's still turning a profit. Since its inception, $3.9 billion has passed through Second Life's marketplace, of which Linden Lab pays out "tens of millions" of dollars to in-game creators each year.

Also being dusted off is the VAIO brand. Back in February, Sony sold its Vaio brand and associated operations to a private investment fund called Japan Industrial Partners. Today, JIP relaunched Vaio as a separate company and introduced two new laptops with it. Sadly, it doesn't appear that the new products will be sold outside of Japan.

Google showed off Project Ara at the I/O 2014 conference. Paul Eremenko, the head of Project Ara showed the prototype of Project Ara at Google I/O 2014.
Though the phone failed to fully load, Audience cheered on seeing the Android bootup screen. Project Ara is the codename for an initiative by Google that aims to develop a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones.
Discussion here.

Mpot and Skymaster sent word that Microsoft have seized no-IP domains, affecting legitimate users as well as malware distributors. Microsoft's statement is here, while No-IP have responded here (but unsurprisingly it seems to be unavailable - it's quoted in the ArsTechnica link above). Millions of legitimate servers that rely on dynamic domain name services from No-IP.com suffered outages on Monday after Microsoft seized 22 domain names it said were being abused in malware-related crimes against Windows users.



Wednesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 2-July-2014  08:09:45 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Audio:
Kanto YU2 Desktop Computer Speakers on APH Networks
Wicked Audio Heist Earbuds on ThinkComputers

CPU:
Intel Core i7 4790K CPU on OC Mod Shop
Intel Pentium K 20th Anniversary Series G3258 Processor on Guru3D

Gaming:
EA Sports UFC Xbox One Game on TweakTown
EA Sports UFC PS4 Game on Gaming Nexus
Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack (PS3) on Gaming Nexus
Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland (PS3) on Gaming Nexus

Keyboard:
Rosewill Apollo RK-9100xBBR Mechanical Keyboard on Tech Report
Corsair Vengeance K70 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on OCModShop
Armaggeddon Alien Craft IV G17 Mouse on TechwareLabs

Motherboard:
MSI Z97M Gaming on ocaholic
Gigabyte Z97X Gaming G1 WIFI-BK Black Edition (Intel Z97) on TweakTown
Asus Maximus VII Hero (Intel LGA 1150) on TechPowerUp
ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2 on ocaholic
MSI Z97 XPower Motherboard on PC Perspective

Storage:
SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB SSD on TweakTown
OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB PCIe SSD on PC Perspective
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Tech Report
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on SSD Review
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Hardware Heaven
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on TweakTown
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on PC Perspective
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Techspot
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Hot Hardware
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Legit Reviews
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Custom PC Review
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Legion Hardware
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Vortez
Samsung 850 Pro SSD on Benchmark Reviews

Misc:
Gigabyte BRIX Pro Barebones Ultra Compact PC on Hardware Secrets
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 on MegaTechNews
Cooltek LP53 Low-Profile CPU Cooler on NikkTech



Tuesday Morning (12 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 1-July-2014  10:47:11 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Facebook scientists have been busy manipulating content on user's news feeds for a study to see if emotional states can be transmitted across a social network. It shows how Facebook data scientists tweaked the algorithm that determines which posts appear on users’ news feeds—specifically, researchers skewed the number of positive or negative terms seen by randomly selected users.

A Western Sydney electronics supplier has been raided in a crackdown on unsafe USB chargers following the death of Sheryl Aldeguer who died back in April this year whilst using an unsafe USB charger. Spokesman Matthew Myers says the supplier has been ordered to stop selling the devices and the business faces a fine of up to $87,000.

NBN Co has made significant progress expanding its fixed wireless footprint, now covering 106,000 premises, up from 27.250 premises on June 30 2013. The latest figure includes 20,000 premises in rural and regional areas across the country where the NBN is newly available, including Humpty Doo, Northern Territory and parts of the Mid North Coast, NSW.

Western Australia is considering a ban on R18+ games. An R18+ category for video game classification was only introduced last year when legislation was passed by the Federal Government. Previously, games that were found by country's classification board to be too mature for the MA15+ category were refused classification and banned for distribution.

Apple are under pressure to release a smartphone with a larger screen in Australia, with 40% of survey respondants saying they will only purchase the iPhone 6 if it has a larger screen. Apple has not announced specs for its upcoming iPhone release, expected in September-October. But it is widely rumoured that Apple will release a model with a 4.7-inch display and possibly a 5.5-inch model at the same time or in 2015. The current iPhone 5S has a 4-inch display.

Germany has decided to end its government contract with Verizon, citing concerns over spying by the NSA. The contract will expire in 2015, and the move marks a rare concrete step from Berlin following the October 2013 revelations that the NSA was spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel.

TweakTown have a close-up look and discussion of Crucial's upcoming DDR4 memory. Things are heating up in the DDR4 arena as we get close to the actual release. Let's take a look at two different sets of DDR4 memory by Crucial.

Intel has announced further details of the next generation Xeon Phi processor, the Knights Landing. With last year focusing on the heart of the beast, Intel is spending ISC 2014 explaining how they intend to feed the beast. A processor that can move that much data is not going to be easy to feed, so Intel is going to be turning to some very cutting edge technologies to do it.

The world's first handheld x-ray gun, the Mini Z, has been created by American Science and Engineering which can be used to search for explosives, guns and drugs in inaccessible places. The company said that it took them seven years to miniaturise the technology into a 9-pound handheld device. The gun can be used to scan cramped environments, such as the interior of a boat, or a wall to look for hidden drugs.




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