December 2014

Gigabyte HWBOT New Year Resolution Comp (1 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 31-December-2014  15:09:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg Gigabyte and the OCAU HWBot team have another overclocking contest underway, running until the end of January. In the wake of an absolutely flat out HWBOT Country Cup, Christmas and hopefully a big New Year celebration it’s time to rest, recuperate and recruit. With back to back wins of the Country Cup, the regular members will need to drive for some new blood and get them into the world of benching. click for the thread! Wednesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 31-December-2014  06:03:52 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Keyboard & Mouse: Func MS-2 Gaming Mouse on PureOverclock FUNC MS-2 Gaming Mouse on Modders-Inc ROCCAT Ryos TKL Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Legit Reviews Razer Deathstalker Expert Keyboard on Benchmark Reviews Corsair Gaming M65 RGB Laser Gaming Mouse on eTeknix Func MS-2 Optical Gaming Mouse on eTeknix CM Storm Octane Gaming Gear Combo on Think Computers Cougar 700K Mechanical Keyboard on eTeknix Cougar 600M Gaming Mouse on eTeknix Storage: Western Digital Red (WD40EFRX) 4 TB NAS Hard Disk Drive on TechARP 6 Terabyte Hard Drive Round-Up: WD Red, WD Green And Seagate Enterprise on Hot Hardware iCirround iShowdrive Wireless microSD Flash Drive on TweakTown Drobo Third Generation USB 3.0 4-Bay Storage Array on PC Perspective Seagate NAS Pro DP-6 Network Attached Storage on Modders-Inc Case: Fractal Design Define R5 on Tech PowerUp Corsair Carbide Series 330R Titanium Edition Case on ThinkComputers.org BitFenix Pandora Window Computer Case on APH Networks Misc: Alienware Alpha Intel-Powered Gaming PC Console on Hot Hardware DXRacer K Series Office Chair on Lan OC Acer XB270H 27-in 1080p 144 Hz G-Sync Monitor on PC Perspective Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G Smartphone on Madshrimps Turtle Beach Stealth 400 Multi-Format Wireless Headset on eTeknix Gigabyte Aorus MMO Mouse Contest (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 30-December-2014  11:59:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg Gigabyte have another review contest in the forums - this time you can have the opportunity to receive and review their first MMO gaming mouse, the Aorus. click for the thread! Saturday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 27-December-2014  21:32:31 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Keyboard/Mouse: Cougar 700K Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers.org Razer Deathadder Chroma on Hardware Heaven Cooling: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate AIO CPU Cooler on Legit Reviews Swiftech H240-X CPU Liquid Cooling Kit on Silent PC Review Storage: Western Digital Red Pro (WD4001FFSX) 4 TB Hard Disk Drive on Tech ARP Synology DiskStation DS415+ on Tech Powerup Patriot Supersonic Bolt XT 64GB Secure USB 3.0 Flash Drive on TweakTown Silicon Power Mobile X31 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on APH Networks Cooler Master Nepton 240M on OCC Asustor AS7004T NAS on Hot Hardware Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SAS 12Gb/s HDD on NikKTech Silicon Power Stream S06 3TB External HDD on TweakTown Inateck FD2002 Dual Bay Storage Docking Station on TweakTown Portable: Samsung Galaxy Note Edge on Hot Hardware Key Ingredient Recipe Tablet on Legit Reviews Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G Smartphone on Madshrimps Case: BitFenix Pandora Micro-ATX Enclosure on PC Perspective Cooler Master Silencio 652S case on Tech Report Motherboard: MSI X99S GAMING 7 Motherboard on Hardware Heaven Asus Crossblade Ranger on LanOC Audio: Arctic P614 BT Bluetooth Headset on APH Networks JDS Labs O2+ODAC Headphone Amplifier And DAC Combo on NikKTech Misc: Lemur Monitors BlueDriver Bluetooth OBD-II Scan Tool on Megatech News StarTech USB Crash Cart KVM Console to USB 2.0 Portable Adapter on TweakTown Alienware Alpha on Techspot Silverstone SFX Series 600W SST-SX600-G on LanOC Misc Pics (7 Comments) (link)  Friday, 26-December-2014  14:02:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg Hope you're having a great break! Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year (54 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 24-December-2014  00:19:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg As usual for this time of year things will quieten down on the news page for the next little while. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable Xmas and New Year. I'll be heading off with my family to a larger family gathering and generally chilling out. Amazingly, 2014 quietly marked 15 years since OCAU started. It's great to see that even in a world with Facebook and other big-name social networks, we still have a vibrant and active community here. 2015 will bring some behind-the-scenes technical changes at OCAU, but it might also be an opportunity to give the site a bit of a facelift and set ourselves up software-wise for the next few years. I still find it very rewarding and exciting to be part of OCAU, and I'm genuinely grateful to all of you for being part of it too. So, take care and I'll see you next year! Wednesday Morning (1 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 24-December-2014  00:05:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg NASA have been using their 3D printer on the International Space Station, emailing a wrench to it. For the first time ever, hardware designed on the ground has been emailed to space to meet the needs of an astronaut. From a computer in California, Mike Chen of Made In Space and colleagues just 3D-printed a ratcheting socket wrench on the International Space Station. “We had overheard ISS Commander Barry Wilmore (who goes by “Butch”) mention over the radio that he needed one,” Chen writes in Medium this week. So they designed one and sent it up. It's been a bit quiet from Yahoo for a while, and mpot sent in this article about Marissa Mayer's effects on it. It was July 21, 2014, almost exactly two years to the day since Mayer took over, arriving at Yahoo’s headquarters to an unfurled purple carpet and Shepard Fairey-style “HOPE” posters bearing her face. During those 24 months, Mayer eliminated dozens of products and rebooted others. She acquired 41 start-ups and even hired Katie Couric. But just one week earlier, Mayer announced the company’s lowest quarterly earnings in a decade. Tweaktown have been playing with the Oculus Rift and Razer Hydra. Using the Oculus Rift and Razer Hydra together is a game-changing way of playing games. Anthony shares his exciting experiences with us here. eTeknix meanwhile recommend the best Oculus Rift experiences you can enjoy at the moment. Oculus demos, games and other types of software are steadily streaming onto the internet, many of them completely free of charge. Most developers haven’t even had their DK2 headset any longer than I have, but many of them have already produced some truly stunning experiences. ThinkComputers look back at the best all-in-one CPU coolers of 2014. It was just a few years ago that the all in one liquid cooling solution really hit the market, but in that short time the AIO has now become a must have for the serious computerenthusiast. This past year ThinkComputers has reviewed many of them for you, some good, some not so great. Vortez checked out the Catalyst Omega drivers. The name - Catalyst Omega – immediately underscores the importance of the update in a way that a simple number cannot. Whilst ‘Catalyst 14.9.3 beta candidate 3’ sends gamers to sleep (unless it contains a critical fix for their game of the month) Omega turns heads and should have even the mainstream user taking note. Of course, that also means that the new driver package needs to be the most stable released, and AMD are hoping that their crowdsourced priority list for bug fixes will have nailed down major problems before they occur. Meanwhile on the NVIDIA side of things, BenchmarkReviews looked at their Enhanced Effects. Earlier this year, NVIDIA introduced the Maxwell architecture and a lot of upcoming features that Benchmark Reviews briefly talked about on the review of the GTX 980 by Olin Coles. These features were demonstrated in detail, but were still pending to be released on actual games, that is until Assassin’s Creed Unity was released earlier this year. Thanks to NVIDIA GameWorks, game developers have the ability to use NVIDIA’s sample libraries and SDKs as well as implementing some of the features mentioned that allow for a more realistic game-play experience. NASA have a 2014 highlights video. As 2014 comes to a close we look back on a few of the events that took place this year at NASA. Tuesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 23-December-2014  23:39:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg Memory: G.Skill RipJaws 4 16GB 2800MHz on OCClub. HyperX Predator DDR4 on PureOC. Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4-2400 16GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers. Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks. QNAP TS-253 Pro Consumer NAS on Tweaktown. Samsung 850 EVO SSD Review (1TB) – Differing Series Controllers Compared on TheSSDReview. Inateck FE2006 Review - 2.5-inch USB 3.0 External Drive UASP on LegitReviews. SanDisk 64GB Ultra PLUS and Extreme SD on PureOC. Samsung Magician 4.5 – RAPID Mode Benchmarked and Works! on TheSSDReview. Input Etc: QPAD UC50 & FX90 Mouse Mats on TechPowerUp. Know Your Type: Five Mechanical Gaming Keyboards Compared on HotHardware. Misc: 17-Way Linux Graphics Card Comparison With Civilization Beyond Earth on Phoronix. Lian-Li PC-05S Wall Mountable Mini-ITX Chassis on eTeknix. Under Pressure: Parvum F1.0 VS NoiseBlocker eLoop B12.2 Static Pressure Fan Comparison on Modders-Inc. AMD FX 8320E processor on Guru3D. Monday Morning Reviews (1 Comments) (link)  Monday, 22-December-2014  10:59:12 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z on LanOC Gigabyte MW50-SV0 (Intel C612) Workstation Motherboard on TweakTown Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 WIFI Motherboard on PC Perspective RAM: Kingston HyperX Savage HX324C11SRK2/16 2x8GB DDR3 RAM on APH Networks Kingston HyperX Savage 1866MHz 16GB DDR3 Dual Channel Memory Kit on Futurelooks Mouse: Razer Taipan Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse on Benchmark Reviews Tt eSPORTS Talon Blu Gaming Mouse on Neoseeker Storage: Silverstone MS06 2.5? USB3 Enclosure on eTeknix Seagate Backup Plus Slim vs. WD My Passport Ultra on Hardware Secrets Patriot Supersonic Phoenix 512GB USB 3.0 External SSD on TweakTown Silicon Power T11 240GB Thunderbolt External SSD on TweakTown Addonics Sapphire Write Protect Storage Enclosure on TweakTown Silicon Power Marvel M70 USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Madshrimps Tablet/Laptop: Dell Venue 8 3000 Series Android Tablet on Futurelooks Lenovo Y70 Touch Gaming Notebook on Hot Hardware Misc: ATEN KE6940 DVI KVM over IP Extender on TweakTown Lian Li PC-O5S Case on Techspot Pivos XIOS XS Media Player on Think Computers Nikon D700 FX 12.1MP Digital SLR Camera on ModSynergy South Park Pinball (PS4) on Gaming Nexus Be Quiet! Straight Power 10 800W Power Supply Unit on NikkTech Misc Pics (36 Comments) (link)  Friday, 19-December-2014  14:21:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot, Andrew and Sciby's friend Tom this week! Friday Midday Reviews (2 Comments) (link)  Friday, 19-December-2014  12:31:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASRock X99 OC Formula Motherboard on TechnologyX. ECS Z97 Machine Motherboard on Guru3D. AMD FX-8350 & FX-6300: Real world power to performance testing on TechSpot. ASUS X99-A Motherboard on LegitReviews. Asus Z97 Pro (Wi-Fi ac) Socket 1150 Motherboard on HotHardware. Core i7-5960X vs. Core i7-5820K - Content Creation performance analysis on OCaholic. Portable & Prebuilt: MSI AG270 2QE-037US Gaming All-In-One on PC Perspective. Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones on TechReport. Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro laptop on TechSpot. Power Supply: Guardian Angel Safety Outlet on LegitReviews. Bracketron SmartLantern 7800mAh Battery Flashlight & Lantern on Tweaktown. SilverStone SX600-G SFX 600W PSU on PC Perspective. Video Cards: MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4 GB on TechReport. ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Poseidon Platinum on OCaholic. Storage: Silicon Power Marvel M70 USB 3.0 Flash Drive (128GB) on TheSSDReview. CalDigit T4 Thunderbolt 2 Quad-Drive RAID Array Storage Unit on Tweaktown. Inateck FE2005 USB 3.0 UASP External 2.5" SATA Enclosure on PC Perspective. Seagate Enterprise Performance 15K HDD v5 600GB HDD on Tweaktown. Asustor AS7004T 4-bay NAS on LegionHW. Lexar Workflow DD512 USB 3.0 Solid State Drive on eTeknix. Thermaltake BlacX Urban Wi-Fi Edition Docking Station on Tweaktown. Cooling: Thermalright Silver Arrow ITX CPU cooler on OCAholic. Thermalright Macho 90 CPU Cooler on NikKTech. Cases: Lian Li PC-O5SX on TechPowerUp. hermaltake Core V51 Mid-Tower on Techgage. Input Etc: COUGAR 700K keyboard on Vortez. Code Keyboard 104 key and TKL models on LanOC. Roccat Tyon Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReview. Misc: The Crew game on OCClub. KGUARD MARS Home MH-4140 NVR Security System on NikKTech. Linksys EA9200 AC3200 Tri-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router on LegitReviews. ViewSonic VX2880ml 28-inch 4K 30Hz Monitor on Tweaktown. Thursday Afternoon (4 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 18-December-2014  13:43:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg Flagger spotted a 6TB HDD Showdown over on Backblaze's blog. We started the process in September when we purchased and deployed our first 6 TB hard drives. We purchased Western Digital (WD60EFRX) and Seagate (STBD6000100) hard drives. We deployed two Storage Pods, each with 45 drives from each brand. The Western Digital Storage Pod was designated UL796 and the Seagate Storage Pod was designated UL800. Each Pod was identical in its design and configuration except for the hard drives used. This seems like quite a big deal - scientists have copied a worm's mind into a robot. Beneath the skin of a simple worm with transparent skin, there are 302 neurons that have been mapped meticulously by researchers in what is known as a connectome. This tiny, one millimeter-long worm has been studied in laboratories around the world, and now it's nervous system has been transplanted into the body of a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot. Meanwhile Neal Stephenson is trying to bring us an alternate reality. Magic Leap's mysterious augmented reality tech promises to "bring magic back into the world." And now Neal Stephenson, who imagined the virtual Metaverse in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, has joined the company. He tells io9 why this technology may "demand a new way of thinking." PlayerAttack report on Australian Xbox servers in time for Xmas. Xbox Australia's given gamers an early Christmas present with the unveiling of locally hosted Xbox Live servers, promising both low pings and centralised local hosting for Australian gamers on a bunch of Xbox One titles. PC Perspective take a look at mechanical keyboard switches. One of the difficulties with purchasing a mechanical keyboard is that they are quite expensive and vary greatly in subtle, but important ways. First and foremost, we have the different types of keyswitches. These are the components that are responsible for making each button behave, and thus varying them will lead to variations in how those buttons react and feel. TechSpot take us back with the most memorable overclocking CPUs. These are but a few of the landmark processors revered for their overclocking prowess. Read on! C300A gets a mention, but notably absent is the C366... where's my pitchfork? Plextor and Gigabyte Contest (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 17-December-2014  14:56:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg Plextor and Gigabyte have teamed up to offer some prize bundles for Xmas. This isn't an OCAU-specific contest but it's worth a go anyway - details in the thread: click for the thread! Wednesday Morning Reviews (2 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 17-December-2014  02:16:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: Western Digital Red (WD60EFRX) 6 TB Hard Disk Drive on TechARP. AMD Radeon R7 240GB SSD on MadShrimps. Kingston SSDnow M2 SATA 120GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix. Mushkin Reactor SSD Review (1TB) on TheSSDReview. Samsung 850 Evo SSD on HWHeaven. Software: MXGP - The Official Motocross Videogame on GamingNexus. The Crew Review: Life In The Not so Fast Lane on Techgage. Cases: Be Quiet! Silent Base 800 on Guru3D. Thermaltake Core V1 mini-ITX on eTeknix. NZXT H440 on OCaholic. SilverStone Raven RVZ01 on TechPowerUp. In Win D-Frame Mini Case on ThinkComputers. Video Cards: MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G on Vortez. Sapphire R9-290X 8gb Vapor-X OC on HWHeaven. Input Etc: Gamdias Hermes Ultimate Keyboard on PureOC. CM Storm Mizar Laser Gaming Mouse on LegitReviews. Cougar 700K Mechanical Keyboard on BenchmarkReviews. Cougar 600M mouse on HWHeaven. Gamdias Combo Keyboard and Mouse on HWHeaven. Misc: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 2800MHz DDR4 memory on OCClub. Fractal Design Kelvin S36 cooler on HWHeaven. Google Nexus 6 With Android Lollipop By Motorola on HotHardware. MEGATech Video Reviews: AAXA LED Android Pico Projector on MegaTechNews. ASRock Z97 Anniversary Motherboard on HWSecrets. Forum Projects (1 Comments) (link)  Monday, 15-December-2014  21:30:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's a few more projects and reviews from people in the forums: jjjc_93 reviewed the GIGABYTE X99 SOC FORCE pinkfloydeffect is joining two laptop screens together mad_mic3 has a custom aluminium case Bern built a model WWII 6x6 Diamond Truck Ripjaws reviewed the Shaw GT-GM5 Gaming Case and windwithme reviewed Corsair's Obsidian 250 ITX Monday Afternoon (6 Comments) (link)  Monday, 15-December-2014  16:01:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg All the best to those caught up in the Sydney seige at the moment. Here's hoping it's resolved as peacefully as possible. Telstra and NBNco have a new deal regarding the existing copper and fibre assets. Telstra will hand over ownership of its copper and hybrid fibre-coaxial networks while remaining committed to its structural separation under renegotiated definitive agreements with NBN Co that retain the $11 billion value of the 2011 deal. Telstra and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull today announced the re-signing of the landmark deal, which will see NBN Co continue to pay Telstra $5 billion in infrastructure payments, $4 billion in disconnection payments and $2 billion in Commonwealth agreements. More info here and here, and a video from Mr Turnbull here. NBN discussion continues here. SimCity2000 is now free for a limited time. Origin required, of course. Now you can design any city you can imagine and SimCity 2000™ will bring it, and its resident Sims, to life. It has all the features, flexibility, art, animation, and power you need to create an environment of your dreams. Man, I lost a LOT of time to that back in the early 2000s.. Monday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 15-December-2014  15:56:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg Portable & Prebuilt: CyberpowerPC SYBER Gaming Windows Console on HWAsylum. E-CEROS Revolution 2 Tablet on MadShrimps. Droid Turbo vs MotoX 2014 on LanOC. MSI GT72 2QE Dominator Pro Gaming Notebook on PCPerspective. ECS LIVA Mini PC Kit on NeoSeeker. Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro Hands-On Video Review on HotHardware. Storage: Silicon Power S60 240GB SSD on Tweaktown. HP Z Turbo 512GB PCIe SSD on Tweaktown. Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD on NikKTech. Input Etc: Cougar 600M mouse on OCaholic. AORUS Thunder M7 MMO Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews. ASUS ROG Gladius Gaming Mouse on LegitReviews. Tesoro Durandal Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard on APHNetworks. Misc: Gigabyte H81M-S2PH motherboard on HWSecrets. Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV Micro-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown. Deepcool GamerStorm Captain 360 watercooler on Modders-Inc. ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 980 Poseidon video card on Guru3D. Friday Night (6 Comments) (link)  Friday, 12-December-2014  22:55:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg Australia Post have advised that a mail truck has been destroyed by fire while travelling from Sydney to WA. Approximately 9000 mail items (letters and parcels) were destroyed in the fire. With Christmas fast approaching, we recognise this is a frustrating and ill-timed incident impacting our customers and we are currently working through the information we have to identify and then contact anyone who may have lost items. On a related note, Lenovo are recalling power cords, thanks mpot. On December 9, 2014 Lenovo announced a worldwide voluntary recall and replacement program in cooperation with government regulatory agencies. This recall is for affected AC power cords distributed worldwide with Lenovo IdeaPad computers. These computers were sold from February 2011 through June 2012. Tabris reminded me of the depressing fact that this week marks 42 years since humans last walked on the moon, or indeed, were outside Low Earth Orbit. Commemorate the event by playing with Google Moon if you like. Misc Pics (28 Comments) (link)  Friday, 12-December-2014  14:37:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot and t1mbot again this week! Friday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 12-December-2014  13:34:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg Electronic Frontiers Australia have an article expressing their concerns about the forced copyright negotiations situation between ISPs, copyright owners and the Government. ISPs and copyright owners have 120 days (over the holiday period) to come to agreement on an issue that they have been at loggerheads over for the past five years. The government hasn’t given ISPs much negotiating power, either. The clear threat is that if ISPs don’t give the industry what it wants, the government will do it for them. Meanwhile The Pirate Bay, EZTV and some other torrent sites were down yesterday, thanks to a police raid. “There has been a crackdown on a server room in Greater Stockholm. This is in connection with violations of copyright law,” Paul Pintér, police national co-ordinator for the Swedish Police, said in a statement. PC Perspective have a guide to building the ultimate Plex media server. My goal with this article twofold. First, as an avid Plex user, I’d like to introduce the software to users have yet to hear about or try it. Second, for those already using or experimenting with Plex, I hope that I can provide some “best practices” when it comes to configuring your servers, managing your media, or just using the software in general. Microsoft seem to be accepting Bitcoins in the USA, thanks mpot. You can now use Bitcoin to add money to your Microsoft account. Once you add money to your Microsoft account, you can use it as a payment option to buy apps, games, and other digital content from Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox Games, Xbox Music, or Xbox Video stores. I like this guy's style, making his son play through video game history chronologically. Eliot was given his first video games on his fourth birthday. Those games were Galaxian (1979), Rally-X (1980), Bosconian (1981), Dig Dug (1982), Pac-Man (1980), Super Pac-Man (1982), Pac-Man Plus (1982) and Pac & Pal (1983). Next was the Atari 2600. Then the NES. Then the SNES. And so on. And by God, whether it was working or not, it sounds like Eliot was kicking arse. Gigabyte recently held a top secret OC session for a new motherboard, breaking a lot of records in the process. The results are impressive; after 7 days of almost nonstop benching by HiCookie, Sofos1990, Dinos22, Vivi, SteponZ, SniperOZ and YoungPRO, the team of elite overclockers achieved a total of 9 World Records, 23 Global Firsts and 25 Hardware Firsts all using the X99-SOC Champion. On top of that, HiCookie also managed to reach the top of the Reference Clock Worldwide Overall Ranking for X99 motherboards with a score of 182.49 MHz! Lastly, 4 additional World Records were also achieved using the already famous Z97X-SOC Force. Friday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 12-December-2014  13:08:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS Dual CPU (Intel C612) Workstation on Tweaktown. ASUS Crossblade Ranger FM2+ board on PCPerspective. Supermicro C7Z97-OCE Motherboard Overview and Overclocking Guide on Tweaktown. AMD FX-9590 AM3+ Processor Performance Review on BenchmarkReviews. Input Etc: QPAD MK-70 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TechPowerUp. CM Storm Devastator mouse on OCaholic. Rapoo 3920P 5G Advanced Wireless Laser Mouse on Tweaktown. Cooler Master Storm Mizar on NeoSeeker. CMStorm QuickFire Rapid-i TKL Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown. Cases: Thermaltake Core V51 Midi Tower on NikKTech. Antec ISK-600M Micro-ATX on eTeknix. Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower on NeoSeeker. In Win D-Frame Mini-ITX on eTeknix. Bitfenix Pandora Small Form Factor Case on PureOC. Storage: Western Digital Red (WD60EFRX) 6 TB Hard Disk Drive on TechARP. Inateck FE2005 USB 3.0 Tool-Less 2.5? HDD Enclosure on eTeknix. Mushkin Reactor 1TB SSD on Tweaktown. OCZ ARC 100 240GB Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers. LaCie d2 Thunderbolt on TechWareLabs. Audio Visual: Astro A38 Gaming Headset on eTeknix. Edifier Tick Tock Bluetooth alarm clock on MadShrimps. Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G 850W on ThinkComputers. Mediasonic ProBox 7800mAh Dual USB Power Bank HE1-78U2 on ModSynergy. Cooling: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme S AIO CPU Cooler on LegitReviews. Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 Liquid GPU Cooler on SilentPCReview. Misc: ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Matrix Platinum video card on OCAholic. Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) Tablet on HotHardware. Contests (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 10-December-2014  21:18:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's a few current contests in the forums: Dinos22 has added some prizes to the HWBot Country Cup to encourage people to bench for Australia using Gigabyte gear. On the motherboard prize, all you have to do is bench with some Gigabyte motherboards and 5 names will be picked for a winner to be voted on as MVP at the end of the comp who will receive the X99 SOC Force as a prize. MSI Notebook meanwhile have some Xmas Goodies including game codes, headsets and dragon toys. To enter you must reply in this thread with your gaming plans this Christmas! Or perhaps a fancy hammock is more your style. These hammocks are built from high strength, UV resistant fabric and feature crossbars to keep the hammock open and spread weight evenly. A hammock like this is absolutely the perfect remedy to any hammock deficiency you may be experiencing this coming hammock season. What we're asking for in return is your backyard Christmas stories! In around about 200 words, what is your best, funniest, or most disastrous backyard Christmas story? Wednesday Afternoon (2 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 10-December-2014  14:41:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg Ralph Baer, who can pretty much be considered the father of video games, has died aged 92. It was simply called the "Brown Box," and it later came to be known as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972 after he licensed out the design. The device set the footprint for home consoles to this date: a computer in a box that was manipulated with controllers and connected to a television. He also developed a "light gun" controller that was bundled with a shooting game. It is widely believed to be the first-ever video game peripheral. Later, he designed the Simon pattern-matching electronic toy that's still available today. The Government have a new press-release outlining new measures to tackle online copyright infringement. The Government has sought the least burdensome and most flexible way of responding to concerns about online copyright infringement, while protecting the legitimate interests of the rights holders in the protection of their intellectual property. There's another highly stealthy Linux trojan that seems linked to government espionage. The previously undiscovered malware represents a missing puzzle piece tied to "Turla," a so-called advanced persistent threat (APT) disclosed in August by Kaspersky Lab and Symantec. For at least four years, the campaign targeted government institutions, embassies, military, education, research, and pharmaceutical companies in more than 45 countries. AMD have released a major new update to their Catalyst drivers. As Tech Report explain: The release, dubbed Catalyst Omega, marks a departure from AMD's policy of posting new drivers on an as-needed basis. Catalyst Omega drivers will be special, yearly releases into which the company will bundle major new features. These releases will complement the more frequent maintenance updates, which will continue to be posted as needed. More coverage of Virtual Super Resolution on TR, and a Performance Analysis on TechPowerUp. More coverage on PC Perspective and Tweaktown. SilentPCReview have a quiet mini-ITX gamer build guide. A quiet system in a smaller form factor is our followup to the Quiet ATX Gaming Build Guide posted in the last couple of weeks. It is another high performance rig, but still quiet enough to be just about inaudible even atop your desk. Your family will never know that you're gaming on this machine unless your sound effects are on speakers and they can see the action on your monitor. TechSpot cover the effect of temperature and cooling on CPUs. If you’re looking for authoritative information on how much cooling is enough for your CPU, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an answer. While we all know that modern processors need some degree of active cooling, very little official information exists to say how different temperatures affect a CPU's performance. Wednesday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 10-December-2014  13:53:56 (GMT +10) - by Agg Audio Visual: Oculus Rift DK2 VR Headset on eTeknix. Noontec Zoro II HD Fashion Hi-Fi Headphones on NikKTech. Motherboard & CPU: ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer Micro-ATX on FutureLooks. Intel Core i7 5960X CPU on TechnologyX. Input Etc: Cooler Master NovaTouch TKL Keyboard on NeoSeeker. Cougar 700M Gaming Mouse on LanOC. Speedlink Prime Z-DW Optical Gaming Mouse on eTeknix. Tesoro Excalibur Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown. Cooling: Fractal Kelvin T12 AIO Watercooling Kit on MadShrimps. Noctua NH-U9S 95mm CPU Cooler on NikKTech. Swiftech H240-X on TechPowerUp. Noctua Fan Round Up: Phase II on PureOC. Cases: Aerocool DS 200 mid-tower on TechPowerUp. Bitfenix Pandora Windowed on OCAholic. In Win 901 Mini-ITX Chassis on eTeknix. Portable & Prebuilt: Zotac ZBox Pico PI320 on Bjorn3D. Nokia Lumia 735 smartphone on TechSpot. Storage: QNAP TS-653 Pro NAS on Tweaktown. Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD on PureOC. QNAP TS-451 Network Attached Storage on Modders-Inc. Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 3D V-NAND SSD on Tweaktown. Samsung 850 EVO 120GB on Bjorn3D. Samsung SSD 850 EVO Solid State Drive on BenchmarkReviews. Samsung SSD 850 EVO SATA Solid State Drive on HotHardware. Samsung 850 EVO SSD on Guru3D. Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD on CustomPCReview. Samsung 850 EVO Series SSD on LegitReviews. Samsung 850 EVO 120GB and 500GB RAID and RAPID on PCPerspective. Samsung 850 EVO on Vortez. Samsung 850 EVO SSD on TheSSDReview. Samsung's 850 EVO solid-state drive on TechReport. Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 3D V-NAND SSD on Tweaktown. Kingston HyperX Fury 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on APHNetworks. Misc: Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 16GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers. Chieftec GPS-700A8 700W PSU on OCAholic. Fractal Design Define R5 Review Contest (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 8-December-2014  15:27:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg Fractal Design are running another review competition in the forums, with 10x Define R5 cases up for grabs for people willing to review them. See the thread for more details: click for the thread! Monday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 8-December-2014  02:25:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg Audio Visual: Lemur BlueDriver Bluetooth OBD-II Scanner on APHNetworks. Speedlink Gantry Portable Bluetooth Speaker on eTeknix. Bayan Audio Soundbook GO Wireless NFC Speaker on Tweaktown. Cooling: Cooler Master Nepton 240M on LanOC. Raijintek Zelos Low Profile CPU Cooler on eTeknix. Cases: Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 on TechReport. NZXT H440 Designed by Razer Mid-Tower Enclosure on PCPerspective. Raidmax Vampire on OCAholic. Azza Z Mini ITX Gaming Case on HWAsylum. Software: Dragon Age: Inquisition Reviewed And Benchmarked on HotHardware. Assassin's Creed Unity on OCClub. The Crew Benchmarked: Graphics & CPU Performance on TechSpot. Misc: TRENDnet WiFi Baby Cam on LegitReview. ROCCAT Apuri Active USB Hub on BenchmarkReviews. Supermicro AOC-S40G-iQ2 Review: A Low-Power 40GbE NIC on Tweaktown. Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphone on HotHardware. Habey MITX-6771: Mini-ITX Board With Quad-Core J1900 Bay Trail on Phoronix. COUGAR 600M Gaming Mouse on NikKTech. Seasonic X Series XM2 1050 W PSU on TechPowerUp. Silicon Power Stream S06 4TB USB 3.0 3.5" External Hard Drive on NikKTech. Misc Pics (25 Comments) (link)  Friday, 5-December-2014  14:34:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg 20 days 'til Xmas! Friday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 5-December-2014  14:34:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg Target and Kmart have removed GTA5 from shelves in Australia. Kmart Australia has joined Target in pulling popular video game Grand Theft Auto V from its shelves after an online petition calling for its removal gained huge support. Discussion here. Tweaktown spoke to AMD, about NVIDIA's new Maxwell GPUs. NVIDIA launched its Maxwell GPUs last month, what does AMD have to say? We interview Roy Taylor, AMD's Corporate Vice President of Global Channel Sales. An Australian bitcoin startup has left the country due to the GST laws here. The move follows news in September that the Australian government would charge GST on Bitcoin rather than treat it as a currency, forcing local operations like CoinJar to charge an extra 10 per cent on top of usual bitcoin prices. CoinJar CEO and co-founder Asher Tan told Business Spectator the UK was taking a much more enthusiastic approach to innovation than Australia, particular with regards to financial technology. Tech Report's SSD Endurance Experiment has reached another milestone. Our SSD Endurance Experiment has reached an astounding two petabytes of writes. Only two drives remain, and they're coping very differently. We've checked in on their health and performance to see how each one is holding up. Two timewasters today: inspirograph from BC and TimeLapse from looktall. I better get on before this storm kills the power again.. Friday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 5-December-2014  05:53:52 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Storage: Synology DiskStation DS215j on Legion Hardware Kingston Class 10 UHS-I SDXC 256GB and MicroSD 128GB on Legit Reviews Case: Thermaltake Versa H34 Mid Tower Case on ThinkComputers.org Raijintek METIS Mini-ITX case on Vortez Thermaltake Core V41 Mid-Tower Chassi on TweakTown NZXT H440 Razer Edition Mid-Tower Case on Legit Reviews BitFenix Pandora Micro-ATX Slim Case on Benchmark Reviews Thermaltake Commander G41 Mid-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown Software: LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Xbox) on Gaming Nexus Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Evolution on Gaming Nexus PSU: Chieftec Navitas 650W GPM-650C on ocaholic Chieftec A80 CTG-500-80P PSU on ocaholic Motherboard: ECS Z97I-DRONE Mini-ITX Motherboard on Madshrimps ASUS Maximus VII Impact Motherboard on PC Perspective Audio: Corsair Gaming H2100 wireless headset on Guru3D Tt eSPORTS BAHAMUT External Sound Card on ThinkComputers.org Misc: Colorful iGame GTX 970 4096 MB on Tech Powerup Rosewill RGB80 Keyboard on LanOC SEENDA IBT-C04 Wireless Bluetooth Music Mouse on TweakTown NASA Orion Launch (20 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 4-December-2014  23:54:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg NASA are hopefully launching their Orion spacecraft in a few minutes. NASA's new Orion spacecraft is set for its first launch this morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch is now scheduled for 7:55 a.m. EST. The un-crewed Orion will orbit 3,600 miles above Earth before splashing down in the Pacific. Orion is being designed to carry astronauts on exploration missions into deep space, including a trip to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. Follow the launch on their video stream and the Orion blog. Forum Projects (9 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 4-December-2014  00:47:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's a few projects and reviews from people in the forums - this time, mostly the winners of a recent case review contest: Mrfocal has a very tidy white and gold WC PC Furious is working on an amazing arcade cabinet datfreak reviewed the Fractal Design Node 804 drummer also reviewed the Fractal Design Node 804 Unframed also reviewed the Fractal Design Node 804 Jimba86 also reviewed the Fractal Design Node 804 photonmoo also reviewed the Fractal Design Node 804 trevor68 also reviewed the Fractal Design Node 804 lui_gough has also reviewed the Fractal Design Node 804 Wednesday Evening Reviews (3 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 3-December-2014  20:55:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg Audio Visual: Corsair Gaming H1500 USB Gaming Headset on eTeknix. COMPRO TN2200 Mini-Dome Cloud Network Camera on NikKTech. Input Etc: CMStorm Mizar Ergonomic Laser Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown. Thermaltake TTeSports Ventus Gaming Mouse on TechnologyX. Tesoro Excalibur Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on LegitReviews. Tesoro Excalibur G7NL Gaming Keyboard on BenchmarkReviews. Cases: Thermaltake Core V51 Mid-Tower on TechnologyX. Aerocool Dead Silence on HWSecrets. Video Cards: GALAX GeForce GTX 980 Hall Of Fame on Guru3D. XFX R9 285 Double Dissipation Black Edition on OCClub. Misc: Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W Gold Quick Look PSU on Techgage. Dragon Age Inquisition PC game on Techgage. Cryorig R1 Ultimate & Universal CPU Coolers on SilentPCReview. BlackBerry Passport Smartphone Unboxing + First Impressions on Tweaktown. ASRock X99 Extreme6 (LGA 2011-3) Motherboard on eTeknix. SanDisk Connect SDWS2 16 GB Wireless Flash Drive on eTeknix. Wednesday Morning (5 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 3-December-2014  01:25:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg If your internet browsing seems slow lately, it may be due to a damaged cable. Australia's second largest DSL internet service provider iiNet is among a number of Australian providers affected by the issue that started on the SEA-ME-WE 3 cable on Sunday. "Our link between Perth and Singapore is currently not passing traffic," an iiNet spokesman told Fairfax Media. "This traffic is taking an alternate path via Sydney to Hong Kong. NBN Co have released details of an updated rollout plan. The company today released the names of the 419 cities, suburbs and towns covering 1.9 million homes and businesses in line for the NBN by June 2016. The former ALP Government had promised to connect 4.8 million premises by the same date in its last construction plan. NBN Co declined to comment directly on why it had so dramatically reduced its targets. NBN discussion continues in this huge thread. Steve Wozniak and Kari Byron are apparently making a technology reality show. The show will feature Woz testing futuristic gadgets hands-on. The press release says it "introduces the audience to facilities where science fiction is quickly becoming reality." NASA will be launching their first Orion Spaceship test this week. NASA is set to launch the first test flight of its deep-space Orion capsule this week, and you can watch activities leading up to the Thursday (Dec. 4) launch live online. Everlong sent in this video making Link's sword. Every other Monday, our team of blacksmiths and craftsman will be building some of your favorite weapons, and some weapons that you've never seen before. This week, we're recreating Link's Fierce Deity Sword (the Double Helix Sword) from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. I don't know if this counts as a timewaster, but there's an internet quiz doing the rounds. The survey—which was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 1,066 internet users—includes 17 questions on a range of issues related to technology, including: the meaning and usage of common online terms; recognition of famous tech figures; the history of some major technological advances; and the underlying structure of the internet and other technologies. More info here. Tuesday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 2-December-2014  12:29:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cases: Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV Micro-Tower on Modders-Inc. Cooltek W2 on TechPowerUp. Portable & Prebuilt: XMG P505 GTX 980M Laptop on HWHeaven. Sony Xperia Z3 Compact smartphone on TechSpot. Cooling: Reeven Okeanos RC-1402 CPU cooler on OCClub. Alpenföhn Brocken ECO CPU Cooler on eTeknix. Input Etc: Cougar 700K Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown. Speedlink Phantom Hawk Flight Stick on eTeknix. Video Cards: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Gaming on PCPerspective. Power Supply: Antec Edge Series 650W on TechPowerUp. Patriot Fuel+ 12000mAh & 6000mAh Portable USB Battery Pack on LegitReviews. Audio Visual: Tt eSPORTS Cronos Gaming Headset on Tweaktown. VicoVation Marcus 1 1080p Full HD Car Camcorder GPS Pack on NikKTech. Monday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 1-December-2014  22:18:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB on Bjorn3D. Mushkin Scorpion 480GB PCIe x2 SSD on NikKTech. Synology DS215j on Vortez. SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB Six-Drive SSD RAID on Tweaktown. QNAP TS-653 Pro SMB NAS on MadShrimps. Motherboard & CPU: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VII IMPACT (Intel Z97) Mini-ITX on Tweaktown. ASRock Rack C2550D4I (Intel Avoton) Mini-ITX Server Motherboard on Tweaktown. Input Etc: Cougar 700K Keyboard on Modders-Inc. Corsair Gaming Sabre RGB Optical on HWHeaven. Cases: NZXT H440 Razer Edition on BenchmarkReviews. NZXT Source 340 Mid-Tower on eTeknix. NZXT S340 on HWSecrets. Silverstone RVZ01 on OCAholic. Fractal Design Node 804 on LanOC.

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