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April 2015 |
Thursday Midday
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Thursday, 30-April-2015 12:11:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Valve has backtracked, removing the paid mod system from Steam Workshop after widespread negative feedback. A representative from Valve has announced that the company will remove Steam Workshop's controversial paid mods functionality. In a post today, Valve employee Alden Kroll confirmed that the functionality will be removed, and all customers who have paid for mods will be refunded. Discussion continues here.
Meanwhile EA's Origin has to provide refunds to Australian gamers, after being tackled by the ACCC. Under the terms of its undertaking with the ACCC, EA has agreed to offer refunds to customers who purchased faulty games through Origin after January 1, 2012. Customers who has not previously contacted EA may do so to have their claim assessed, whereas customers who had been denied a refund can have their claims reassessed.
Microsoft will be bringing Android and iOS apps to Windows 10. The broader theme of Microsoft's work is to make Windows 10 the platform for developers. It will give them one app platform that spans phone, tablet, PC, hybrid, and console, and thanks to the free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users, it should be much less fragmented than Windows in the past. The company has the incredibly ambitious goal of having 1 billion users on the Windows 10 family within 2-3 years of launch.
iiNet's acquisition by TPG may have been trumped by a $1.6B offer from M2, owners of the Dodo and iPrimus brands. Mr Malone told Fairfax Media he had sent emails and text messages to shareholders detailing why he preferred M2's share-swap offer valued at $1.6 billion over the all-cash deal TPG has proposed in his first detailed interview since the bidding war commenced. Mr Malone is one of several key players attempting to influence the outcome of iiNet's acquisition, which could be the biggest telco deal of the decade and create Australia's second-largest provider of fixed-line internet services.
Kevin Rudd's website was blocked from parliament computers recently. A spokeswoman said the website was mistakenly blocked when the the vendor behind Parliament House's internet filter changed the classification of the website to "weapons" without notice. Other content to do with illegal gambling and pornography is also blocked.
HWAsylum toured a gaming PC manufacturer. What I found to be most surprising during my visit is not really what they build but rather the scale of what they do it. For instance they often assemble over 100 systems a day and will send out three or more semi trailers full of systems a week. On top of that they have an onsite call center 24/7 and handle RMA issues in a special area next to the production line.
PCPerspective have some details on ARM's Cortex-A72 processor. On February 3rd, ARM announced a slew of new designs, including the Cortex A72. Few details were shared with us, but what we learned was that it could potentially redefine power and performance in the ARM ecosystem. Ryan was invited to London to participate in a deep dive of what ARM has done to improve its position against market behemoth Intel in the very competitive mobile space.
A buggy iPad update recently delayed several flights. Dozens of American Airlines flights in Dallas, New York City, and Chicago, experienced unexpected delays yesterday when pilots’ iPads unexpectedly crashed. The reason for the widespread crashes was a buggy update to the app that pilots use for everything from flight planning to checking the weather.
ASIGN_Baz's Iron Man in Steel
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Wednesday, 29-April-2015 21:07:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I thought this project deserved an update post of its own. ASIGN_Baz has been working on an Iron Man suit in steel for a few years now and it's starting to really take shape:
click for the thread!
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 29-April-2015 14:42:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's some interesting things from people in the forums:
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 29-April-2015 13:03:51 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cases:
Raidmax Viper GX II Mid Tower on NeoSeeker.
Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 Mid-Tower on Tweaktown.
Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 Rev B. on OCAholic.
Input Etc:
ASUS ROG Gladius Gaming Mouse on ThinkComputers.
COUGAR 600K keyboard on Vortez.
Turtle Beach Peripherals (keyboard, mouse & surface) on HWHeaven.
Video Cards:
Gigabyte GTX 960 OC 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming 4G LE on Tweaktown.
Misc:
MEGATech Reviews: Xiaomi Mi Band Fitness Tracker on MegaTechNews.
Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB SSD on LanOC.
Astro Gaming A40 Headset with MixAmp Pro on Tweaktown.
Gigabyte X99-UD3P Motherboard on TechnologyX.
Corsair H80i GT Liquid CPU Cooler on BenchmarkReviews.
GTA V GPU Performance on eTeknix.
Tuesday Evening Reviews
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Tuesday, 28-April-2015 18:15:28 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer on OC Inside.
ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ on Hardware Secrets.
Asrock X99E-ITX/ac on Techspot.
Asus Z97-P on The Tech Report.
Storage:
Thecus N4310 NAS on Vortez.
Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB SSD on TweakTown.
Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB SSD on ThinkComputers.
Kingston HyperX Savage SSD on Benchmark Reviews.
Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB SSD on Bjorn3D.
Strontium Nitro Plus 64GB OTG Pen Drive for Android on TweakTown.
Memory:
Crucial DDR4 2133 MHz 32 GB (4x 8 GB) on TechPowerup.
Crucial Ballistix Elite 2666MHz Quad Channel DDR4 on eTeknix.
Power Supplies:
Antec VPF550 Strictly Power 550W PSU on NikKTech.
SilverStone 500W SFX-L Series on PC Perspective.
Seasonic S12G on Hardware Insights.
Audio:
Ozone Rage ST Headset on Modders-inc.
Syllable G700 Noise Reduction Hi-Fi Bluetooth Headphones on TweakTown.
Mobiles & Portable:
Meizu MX4 32GB Smartphone on Madshrimps.
Apple Watch on Hot Hardware.
Misc:
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock LP CPU Cooler on Guru3D.
ASUS RT-AC3200 Tri-Band Wireless Router on Legit Reviews.
Phanteks Enthoo Primo White Computer Case on APH Networks.
NBN Co have ditched the "Co", simply being known as NBN now. Questioned on whether the name change would be confusing for end-users and internet service provider partners in differentiating the company from the network, a spokesperson said the response from ISPs so far had been "ovewhelmingly" positively. "They believe that the more aspirational and inspirational positioning will help them spur sales of broadband products". The name change, new logo and motto earned a marketing company about $700k. Far out.
Valve have announced a paid mod system, which hasn't met much of a positive response. Obviously, paying for mods — even just as an option — is a pretty big change from what people are used to. It’s not uncommon for people to ask for donations, a nickel or two going clink in the cup, but charging upfront? Definitely not the standard. Some, however, are worried that it could become the norm, not the exception, which would fundamentally alter the mod scene. More here, thanks Tekin, and discussion here.
Google are a little red-faced after realising that blindly allowing anyone to edit Google Maps wasn't a great idea. Google says it’s working to improve its spam-detection systems in its Google Maps platform after yet another prank allowed a user to upload an inappropriate image to Google Maps. This most recent image, which showed the Google Android mascot urinating on the Apple logo in the style of those unfortunate Calvin and Hobbes bootleg decals, was apparently uploaded by a Map Maker user “nitricboy” yesterday, according to his user profile page on Map Maker.
HWInsights are building a database of UPS waveforms. This overview is an attempt to built a database of real output from different uninterruptible power supplies running in battery mode. In other words, database of UPS inverter waveforms. Many devices are built to operate with sine wave input with 50/60Hz frequency and it is not really a good idea to feed them with something completely different. And you may be surprised how many UPSes have some very strange output, which definitely does not make different kinds of devices happy (like pumps, fans and other motors, transformers). Depending on the waveform, often even active PFC power supplies have problems. And with some UPSes, you can see even lightbulb flicker with naked eye.
Tech Report have an article about making semiconductors. Have you ever wondered how the chips in PCs, smartphones, and other devices go from initial ideas to final products? Rys Sommefeldt walks us through the entire process, from conception through mass production.
Case:
Lian-Li O7S Chassis on Guru3D
Fractal Design Core 2500 Case on Benchmark Reviews
SilverStone Fortress SST-FT05B-W Full-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
Gaming:
Olliolli 2: Welcome to Olliwood (PS4) on Gaming Nexus
Flame Over (Vita) on Gaming Nexus
GTA V PC on TechnologyX
Keyboard/Mouse:
Tt eSPORTS Challenger Prime Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers.org
Cougar 600M Gaming Mouse on Techgage
Topre Type Heaven on LanOC
All-in-one:
Nox Xtreme lanbx on techPowerUp
Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140 Convertible on Madshrimps
MSI Cubi Mini PC Kit on Hardware Asylum
Videocard:
NVIDIA Quadro M6000 on Hot Hardware
Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB Graphics Card on APH Networks
Audio:
Sound Blaster X7 on HardwareHeaven
OAXIS Bento Close-Contact Induction Wireless Speaker on TweakTown
Ozone Rage ST Headset on Modders-Inc
CPU/Motherboard:
AMD FX 8320E Processor on PureOverclock
ECS Z97-PK Motherboard on PC Perspective
Storage:
OCZ Vector 180 960 GB on ocaholic
ASUSTOR AS5102T 2-Bay Enthusiast NAS on eTeknix
Samsung SM951 512GB SSD on Legion Hardware
Crucial BX100 500GB SSD on TweakTown
Seagate Enterprise NAS HDD 6TB SATA III HDD on NikKTech
Intel SSD 750 NVMe PCIe SSD on Legit Reviews
Intel 750 Series SSD on HardwareHeaven
Misc:
Patriot FUEL iON Magnetic 2100mAh Battery Pack on TweakTown
Patriot FUEL iON Magnetic Charging Pad on TweakTown
Corsair H110i GT vs NZXT Kraken X61 on Vortez
They shall grow not old
As we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them
Nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them
Lest We Forget
Friday again - thanks to SM this week!
     
     
     
     
     
Color Office Supplies Giveaway
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Thursday, 23-April-2015 17:17:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's something different - we've got some packs of office supplies to give away, from Color Office Supplies. So if your desk is lacking goodies, check out the details in the thread:
click for the thread!
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 23-April-2015 16:14:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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I hope the crazy weather in Sydney hasn't affected any of you too drastically.. we got off pretty lightly and it seems to be blue skies again at the moment.
Intel have a new "Compute Stick", which aims to turn any TV into a PC. Powered by a quad-core Bay Trail processor, the Compute Stick has a surprising amount of horsepower to power multimedia playback, office applications, and typical web usages. It does not have enough performance compete with a standard notebook by today’s standards, but it doesn’t intend to with its $150 price point. Coverage on LegitReviews, HotHardware, Tweaktown, Tech Report and PC Perspective.
If you'd prefer to DIY, TechSpot have a powerful mATX PC guide. Every enthusiast dreams of building a budgetless rig with nothing but the best hardware. Thus, we're throwing caution to the wind by cramming the priciest and most powerful gaming hardware into a 32L chassis. The end result should be a ridiculously powerful mATX system ready for any and all tasks.
Fastmail have posted their take on the metadata laws and how they are affected, thanks Owen. This means that FastMail is not obligated to retain metadata relating to email sent/received by our users, nor are we required to provide Australian law enforcement agencies with access to such metadata without a warrant. That's presumably true of other overseas-hosted services, although I haven't noticed an official statement from gmail yet.
In the meantime you can download your Google search history. Google just gave Chrome users a little feature with big implications: You can now download your search history. It might seem silly—and somewhat frightening—to download a massive file containing everything you have searched for since enabling the web history setting, but the list is an interesting peek into how Google sees you.
Given we just passed the 81st anniversary of an iconic Loch Ness Monster photo, Google want you to help search for Nessie via Street View. The internet is really good at over-analysing photos, and Google is good at bringing the internet into our homes. So for armchair amateur sleuths, this should be The Dream: a chance to find the Loch Ness Monster without having to go to dampest darkest Scotland. However it's worth bearing in mind that the BBC performed a comprehensive search of the Loch in 2003 and didn't find anything..
Closer to home, it's being suggested that the NBN might give us the world's most expensive internet. "The ACCC, NBN Co and [Communications Minister] Malcolm Turnbull need to accept that the model is broken," he said. "We need to drastically reduce the [connectivity virtual circuit] charge … by 70 per cent immediately ... otherwise the NBN will be the most expensive broadband network in the world."
Netflix traffic continues to grow, with Optus apparently considering breaking net neutrality by asking Netflix to pay a fee for guaranteed delivery. Speaking at the CommsDay conference in Sydney today, Optus chief Allan Lew floated the possibility of a premium service provided to streaming services like Netflix. To ensure end-users got the best customer experience, Lew said Optus needed to make sure over-the-top providers "understand they need to work collaboratively with Optus to preserve network quality".
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
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Thursday, 23-April-2015 14:38:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Input Etc:
Cougar 500K Keyboard on Modders-Inc.
Aorus Thunder K7 keyboard on OCAholic.
Jamstik Guitar Controller on TechnologyX.
Arion Bluetooth Mini Keyboard with Speakerphone on eTeknix.
Corsair Gaming Sabre Optical RGB Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
Cases:
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Micro Tower on NeoSeeker.
be quiet! Silent Base 800 Full-Tower on Tweaktown.
Antec P70 Mid-Tower on Techgage.
Fractal Design Define S on TechPowerUp.
In Win D-Frame Mini on Modders-Inc.
Cooling:
CRYORIG R1 Ultimate CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Corsair Hydro H100i GTX watercooler on BenchmarkReviews.
Storage:
Diamond DS3900V2 Ultra USB 3.0 Docking Station on Tweaktown.
Kingston HyperX Predator 480GB PCI-Express Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.
Inateck HBU3VL2-4 USB 3.0 Hub and HBU3VL3-4 Hub with Ethernet on eTeknix.
Audio Visual:
Razer Seiren microphone on HWHeaven.
Etekcity RoverBeats T12 Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Speaker on Tweaktown.
Portable & Prebuilt:
ASUS TS700-E8-RS8 Barebones Workstation on Tweaktown.
Boston Venom 3401-7T Workstation on eTeknix.
Patriot FUEL iON Magnetic Charging S4 Case and Stand on Tweaktown.
GameBench Compares iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 in Real-World Mobile Games Testing on PCPerspective.
Misc:
Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion motherboard on LanOC.
Linksys WRT1200AC Wi-Fi Router on Tweaktown.
GeForce GTX TITAN X video card on HWSecrets.
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4 memory on Vortez.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 21-April-2015 10:43:49 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Samsung SM951 512GB M.2 PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 on Legit Reviews.
Samsung SM951 PCIe SSD 512GB on Techspot.
QNAP TVS-463 8G AMD Powered NAS on techPowerUp.
Patriot New Ignite Series M2 SATA SSD on Modders-Inc.
Cooling:
Scythe Mugen Max SCMGD-1000 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Phanteks PH-TC12LS & PH-TC14S CPU Cooler on PureOverclock.
Cases:
Fractal Design Define S Window on Vortez.
Enermax Thormax GT Full-Tower Case on Modders-Inc.
SilverStone Kublai KL05 on APH Networks.
Fractal Design Define S on Guru3D.
Lian Li PC-V1000L/B Special Edition Full-Tower on TweakTown.
BitFenix Aegis on ThinkComputers.
Notebooks & Systems:
Intel NUC5i7RYH Broadwell-U Iris NUC on Anandtech.
ACER Switch 11 Pro 2-in-1 Laptop on Legit Reviews.
ASUS EeeBook X205TA Review: $199 Windows Laptop on PC Perspective.
Misc:
Inateck BR1001 Bluetooth Audio Receiver on APH Networks.
TRENDnet AC1900 Dual Band Wireless Router on NikKTech.
SiliconAngel's FreeNAS Guide
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Monday, 20-April-2015 21:01:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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SiliconAngel has a very detailed FreeNAS build log over in the Storage & Backup forum. If you've been thinking about building a FreeNAS machine, this guide is a great place to get started:
click for the thread!
Sunday Afternoon Reviews
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Sunday, 19-April-2015 17:19:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Storage:
Samsung SM951 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD on LegitReviews.
QNAP Turbo Station TS-431 4-Bay
SOHO NAS on eTeknix.
Strontium Nitro iDrive 64GB iOS Flash Drive on Tweaktown.
Crucial BX100 500GB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
Kingston HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe SSD on HotHardware.
Eluktronics Eluktro Pro Performance SSD Review (250GB/500GB/1TB) on TheSSDReview.
Intel 750 Series PCIe SSD 1.2 TB on TechPowerUp.
Samsung 850 EVO M.2 and mSATA SSD on Guru3D.
Thecus N4310 NAS Server on NikKTech.
Audio Visual:
Asus Strix 7.1 Gaming Headset on LanOC.
iClever IC-BTH01 Bluetooth Stereo Headset on Tweaktown.
Camera Shootout: Galaxy S6 & Galaxy S6 Edge Vs. iPhone 6 on TechARP.
Cooling:
Noctua NH-U9S CPU cooler on OCClub.
Phanteks PH-TC12LS Low Profile Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Cases:
InWin D-Frame Mini Mini-ITX Tower on Tweaktown.
Supermicro Gaming S5 Mid-Tower on Tweaktown.
Software:
Grand Theft Auto V benchmarked at 1080p, 1440p and 4K on Tweaktown.
Grand Theft Auto V for PC - How Does It Run? on TechnologyX.
Grand Theft Auto V PC Benchmarked on TechSpot.
Grand Theft Auto V: R9 290X 8GB v GTX 980 v Titan X at 4K on Tweaktown.
Misc:
Neet Cable Keeper on TechnologyX.
A bit early today.. thanks to TaXy DriVar this week!
     
     
     
     
     
2K Australia, the studio that made Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel among other things is shutting down. We can confirm we have taken steps to begin the studio closure process for 2K Australia in order to better manage ongoing development costs while improving the working proximity of our creative teams. We are very grateful for the team’s valuable contributions to numerous 2K projects, and are working with affected staff to explore reassignment opportunities where possible.
People in hot water for downloading Dallas Buyers Club might be able to name their price. If brought to Australia, such an approach could help Dallas Buyers Club meet its legal obligations not to send aggressive letters of demand or "speculative invoices" to internet users - while maximising what the film's owners might be able to recoup. Last week's Federal Court judgment requires the film's owners to seek judicial approval on the wording of correspondence sent to up to 4726 customers of ISPs including iiNet and Dodo.
Netflix apparently regret unmetered usage deals with ISPs in Australia. "In Australia, we recently sought to protect our new members from data caps by participating in ISP programs that, while common in Australia, effectively condone discrimination among video services - some capped, some not," Mr Hastings told shareholders. "We should have avoided that and will avoid it going forward." I hadn't really thought about it before, but I guess in a way it's almost a net neutrality issue.
A chess grandmaster has been accused of cheating with a smartphone. “Nigalidze would promptly reply to my moves and then literally run to the toilet,” Armenian grandmaster Tigran Petrosian said. “I noticed that he would always visit the same toilet partition, which was strange, since two other partitions weren’t occupied.” Petrosian complained to the officials. After Nigalidze left the bathroom once more, officials inspected the interior and say they found an iPhone wrapped in toilet paper and hidden behind the toilet.
NBN supplier Alcatel-Lucent are being bought by Nokia. French technology vendor Alcatel-Lucent has long been associated with the NBN and won a contract worth up to $1.5 billion when the $41 billion project was still being run by a Labor government. It continues to play a key role and is set to supply fibre-to-the-node equipment. But most industry experts believe the merger is designed to boost the wireless communications and cloud computing divisions of both companies. This leaves the future of its Alcatel-Lucent's fixed line division, which supplies NBN Co, up in the air.
HardOCP have an article about the difficulties of benchmarking SSDs. Many of our readers embrace our "real world" approach with hardware reviews. We have not published an SSD review for almost 2 years while we have been looking to revamp our SSD evaluation program. Today we wanted to give you some insight as to how we learned to stop worrying and love the real world SSD benchmark.
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 17-April-2015 00:08:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Core i7-5930K vs i7-4960X Gaming-Performance - FullHD, 1440p, UHD on OCAholic.
GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WIFI (Intel X99) Motherboard on Tweaktown.
Audio Visual:
SpotCam HD Wi-Fi Video Monitoring Camera on ThinkComputers.
SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism headset on HWHeaven.
Sound Blaster E5 Review (USB and Smartphone DAC/headphone Amp) on HWHeaven.
Storage:
CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 2 Docking Device on Tweaktown.
Samsung Magician 4.6 and 840 EVO EXT0DB6Q Firmware Review - Finally Fixed on PCPerspective.
Portable & Prebuilt:
ASUS Republic of Gamers G751JY 17-inch Gaming Laptop on Techgage.
Blackview Breeze Smartphone on MadShrimps.
Motorola Moto E 2015 Review: Lollipop and LTE on PCPerspective.
HTC One M9 Review: Lollipop, Octa-Core Snapdragon, Boomsound Impress on HotHardware.
Oppo R5 smartphone on TechSpot.
Posh Mobile Titan HD E500 Octa-Core 1.4GHz Smartphone on ModSynergy.
Input Etc:
ROCCAT Tyon Gaming Mouse on ThinkComputers.
Rosewill's RK-9000V2 mechanical keyboard on TechReport.
Software:
Grand Theft Auto V Graphics Performance Review on Guru3D.
Grand Theft Auto V Performance Analysis on TechPowerUp.
Misc:
Kwikset SmartCode 916 Electronic Deadbolt on BenchmarkReviews.
VisionTek Radeon R9 270X 2GB OC video card on Tweaktown.
Thermaltake Core X9 case on OCClub.
QuantaCool MHP Cooling Solution Tested at GTC 2015 on Tweaktown.
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 2400MHz memory on PureOC.
Tuesday Night Reviews
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Tuesday, 14-April-2015 23:43:08 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS X99-A (LGA 2011-3) Motherboard on eTeknix.
Asrock Z97E-ITX/ac (LGA-1150) Motherboard on eTeknix.
Audio Visual:
Ozone Rage 7HX 7.1 Surround Headset on TechnologyX.
Seek XR Thermal Camera for Android on Tweaktown.
BenQ's XL2730Z 'FreeSync' monitor on TechReport.
Divoom Voombox Travel Bluetooth Speaker on ThinkComputers.
Roccat Kave XTD 5.1 Analog on OCAholic.
Netgear Arlo HD Wireless Smart Home Security Camera on Tweaktown.
Cases:
Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX on Vortez.
SilverStone Kublai KL05-W Enclosure on PCPerspective.
Lian-Li DK-01 Aluminium Desk Chassis on eTeknix.
Power Supply:
Adam Elements Bella Power 6000mAh Portable Power Bank on NikKTech.
Andyson Titanium N 700W on TechPowerUp.
SilverStone Strider Gold S ST75F-GS V2.0 750W on APHNetworks.
Cooling:
be quiet! Pure Rock CPU cooler on OCAholic.
Raijintek Triton CPU Water Cooler on BenchmarkReviews.
Phanteks PH-TC14S Slim Tower Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Cooler Master Hyper 612 Version 2 CPU Cooler on LegitReviews.
Phanteks PH-TC12LS CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Storage:
QNAP TS-431+ NAS on LegionHW.
Thecus W5000 NAS on ComputingOnDemand.
Crucial MX200 500GB SSD on Tweaktown.
Intel Series 750 1.2 TB PCIe SSD on Guru3D.
Crucial MX200 1TB & BX100 500GB Series SSD on TechSpot.
RaidSonic ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3 External RAID Enclosure on NikKTech.
Misc:
ADATA XPG Z1 DDR4-2400 Memory on TechnologyX.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone on Tweaktown.
Interesting Forum Threads
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Monday, 13-April-2015 15:42:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a snapshot of what's going on in some of the forums. Remember that OCAU now has official Twitter, Facebook and Google+ pages - if you can follow or like us on those, it helps us keep you up to date.
Unreleased Intel 750 SSD Preview in Storage & Backup.
All of the exciting new hardware for 2015: NVME, A-Sync, Skylake, Radeon 300 in OC & HW.
GTX 970 lawsuit - what does this mean for Australians? in Video Cards & Monitors.
Smokin Whale's Custom Ubuntu Image Collection in Other Operating Systems.
Renderman is now free in Graphic Design & Digital Art.
Get your USB PID's HERE!! Get'em while they're hot! in Electronics & Electrics.
Why does wireless have high latency? in Electronics & Electrics.
Lifehacker Watercooling Article in Ectreme & Water Cooling.
Who said there's no money in collecting old gear? in Retro & Arcade.
Dawn probe closes in on Ceres in Science.
San Francisco Trip Log in Holidays & Travel.
Reaper Paste (15+/10) in Geek Food.
Aussie Pitmasters - Guide to Australian Brisket in Geek Food.
Educating your Aussie Butcher - A Pitmasters Guide to American Cuts in Geek Food.
2015 Barry Sheene Festival of Speed (Eastern Creek) in Motorsport.
2015 MotoGP Championships in Motorsport.
Resume - Foreign Names in Career, Education & Finance.
X-Files - Season 10 - [G.Anderson, D.Duchovny] in Entertainment.
Game of Thrones - TV Show Discussion Only in Entertainment.
Books: Epic High Fantasy in Entertainment.
Can anyone recommend a free, non biased, online newspaper? in The Pub.
Downloaded Dallas Buyers Club? iiNet just lost their case in Current Events & Serious Discussion.
Monday Afternoon
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Monday, 13-April-2015 14:40:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There's a new super small computer. Claimed to be the smallest autonomous computer in the world, the M^3 is smaller than a grain of rice. Despite its miniature size the computer is said to be capable of taking pictures, reading temperatures, recording pressure, radio communication, and more. The flexibility afforded by its compactness means that the device will be popular in medical, industrial and IoT applications.
Anonabox have recalled their routers due to some embarrasingly fundamental security flaws, thanks mpot. While the miniature routers do direct all of a user’s Internet traffic over Tor as promised, the company has confirmed to WIRED that its first batch lacked basic password protection, with no way to keep out unwanted users in Wi-Fi range. And worse yet, the faulty Anonaboxes have another bug that would allow those Wi-Fi intruders to completely hijack the device, snooping on or recording all of a user’s traffic.
Russia has declared celebrity memes illegal. According to Roskomnadzor, it’s now illegal to use a celebrity in a meme that has no association to the pictured celebrity. The controversial policy was introduced after a Moscow court ruled Russian singer, Valeri Syutkin, had his privacy violated by a particular meme.
It's nice to see people are still making old hardware do new things - like 1024 colours on a CGA 8088 PC! Because there are so many technological world-firsts in the demo, and because we’re bending the hardware in ways that people have never thought to do so, it’s only fair that we try to explain exactly how this was achieved. One of my roles was “organizer” for the demo, so I’ll break it down scene by scene, covering the basics of each trick.
Also on the retro side of things, here's an Apple ][ running on an Arduino Uno. I’ve always been fascinated by the early days of the computer revolution. Today we take tremendously powerful machines for granted but it was not always that way. As a personal project I decided to implement an early eighties era microcomputer on the Arduino Uno to demonstrate just how powerful even the most basic of our microcontrollers are today.
This story is a few months old now so I'm not sure if it's still a concern, but with all the talks about VPN use in Australia lately, Dean spotted this flaw with VPNs. VPN users are facing a massive security flaw as websites can easily see their home IP-addresses through WebRTC. The vulnerability is limited to supporting browsers such as Firefox and Chrome, and appears to affect Windows users only. Luckily the security hole is relatively easy to fix.
This from Matt: Just noticed Win10 will make secure boot non-optional. Meaning possibly dubious future for support of alternative OS's on Windows machines. Here's a FSF page with a petition (now quite old) to encourage manufacturers to support alt OS's with Secure Boot. ... Microsoft has announced that if computer makers wish to distribute machines with the Windows 8 compatibility logo, they will have to implement a measure called "Secure Boot." However, it is currently up for grabs whether this technology will live up to its name, or will instead earn the name Restricted Boot.
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 12-April-2015 08:20:34 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
ASRock X99 Extreme6/ac on TweakTown.
GIGABYTE X99-SOC Champion on PC Perspective.
Storage:
QNAP TVS-863+ AMD Turbo vNAS on Madshrimps.
OCZ Vector 180 480GB SSD on eTeknix.
HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 on Legit Reviews.
Western Digital My Passport Ultra Metal / Anniversary Edition (2 TB) on Tech ARP.
Cooling:
Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO Liquid Cooler on Neoseeker.
Fractal Design Kelvin S24 AIO Watercooler on ocaholic.
Audio:
SteelSeries Siberia V3 Prism Gaming on APH Networks.
ASUS Strix 7.1 Surround Gaming Headset on Legit Reviews.
Mobile & Systems:
Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook on ChannelProNetwork.
Sony Xperia Z3v Smartphone on Hot Hardware.
Misc:
Netgear Arlo Security System on techPowerUp.
Patriot Viper DDR4 3000MHz 16GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown.
LG 34UM67 AMD FreeSync Monitor on Guru3D.
AKRacing Rush Gaming Chair on Benchmark Reviews.
Cherry MX-Board 3.0 on LanOC.
WIN a SteelSeries APEX M800 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
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Saturday, 11-April-2015 15:20:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Is the SteelSeries APEX M800 the world's fastest mechanical gaming keyboard? Find out, if you win one from Scorptec:
click for the thread!
Misc Pics delayed this week by car shenanigans, grr.
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 10-April-2015 08:03:13 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
Gigabyte X99-UD4 Motherboard on ThinkComputers.
Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 on Modders Inc.
Storage:
Intel SSD 750 Series 1.2TB on Legion Hardware.
Asustor AS5102T Two-Bay Prosumer NAS on TweakTown.
Seagate Barracuda ST5000DM000 5TB Desktop Hard Drive on Legit Reviews.
Kingston HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 in The SSD Review.
Cases:
Raidmax Viper GX II on ocaholic.
Antec P380 on TechReport.
BitFenix Pandora mATX on Neoseeker.
Cooling:
Noctua 9 Series CPU Cooler on PC Perspective.
Noctua NH-U9S CPU Cooler on Vortez.
Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler on TechnologyX.
Audio:
Creative Sound Blaster E3 USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier on ThinkComputers.
Razer Leviathan (Soundbar) on HardwareHeaven.
Mobile & Systems:
MSI GS30 Shadow Notebook on PC Perspective.
Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 (10-inch) Android Tablet on TweakTown.
LG G Flex 2 on Techspot.
Moto 360: Android Wear-Powered Time Piece on Hot Hardware.
Misc:
Netis AC1200 Wireless Dual Band Adapter on LanOC.
Tesoro Excalibur RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech.
Wedneday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 8-April-2015 13:44:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Australia's Federal Court has ruled that ISPs must hand over details of people who downloaded Dallas Buyer's Club. The Hollywood studio had requested that iiNet (and a few other Australian ISPs) divulge the identity of customers whose IP addresses were found to have shared the film Dallas Buyers Club illegally. The company owns the rights to the movie and identified a total of 4726 IP addresses that engaged in the illegal activity. The ruling means that the company will now be given the contact details of the offenders and will be able to pursue them directly for compensation. Discussion here.
Linux Australia have advised of a server breach and recommend password changes for anyone who has registered for their conferences in the last three years. In a message to the Linux-aus mailing list, Hesketh encouraged conference attendees who had registered for the events to change their passwords on other web services or use a password service if the same passwords had been used when registering for the conferences.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 8-April-2015 07:28:26 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
A10-7800 CPU on Hardware Secrets.
AMD FX-8320E CPU on Techgage.
Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion on TweakTown.
Graphics Cards:
Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X 8GB CrossFireX on eTeknix.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming 4GB on Guru3D.
GeForce GTX 980 vs GeForce GTX 780 - Should I upgrade? on ocaholic.
Storage:
Kingston HS4 Memory Card Reader on Legit Reviews.
Samsung 850 EVO mSATA SSD on The SSD Review.
Samsung 850 EVO mSATA SSD on Benchmark Reviews.
Cooling:
Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT AIO Liquid Cooler on Legit Reviews.
DeepCool CAPTAIN 360 Liquid CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Raijintek Triton Liquid Cooler on techPowerUp.
Bitspower MSI GTX 970 Full Cover Waterblock on Modders-Inc.
Asetek 510LC, 550LC, 570LX & 591LX Liquid CPU Coolers on ThinkComputers.
Scythe Ashura SCASR-1000 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Cases:
Antec P70 Case on ThinkComputers.
NZXT Source S340 Mid-Tower on PC Perspective.
Misc:
BenQ XL2730Z Review (FreeSync) at HardwareHeaven.
Apacer Commando EK DDR4 3200MHz 16GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown.
Tuesday Morning
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Tuesday, 7-April-2015 00:17:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Hope you had a great Easter break and are getting back up to speed..
Speaking of which, people are concerned about the effect of Netflix on Australia's internet infrastructure. During Friday night, traffic peaked at about 13 gigabits per second. On Sunday it peaked again at about 11Gbps at the same time. For context, search engine Yahoo peaks at about 0.8Gbps on IX Australia's network and Microsoft about 2Gbps (although this goes up when software updates are released).
OCInside report (in English) on CeBIT 2015 Hanover, with 222 photos. Our CeBIT report focus each year at current PC hardware and shows some new desktop and server motherboards, mobile products, chassis, coolers, power supplies, SSD, NAS, memory and wireless storage solutions. It contains products from AMD, Antec, ASRock, ASRock Rack, Asustor, AVerMedia, AVM, BMW, Buffalo, DXRacer, Cooler Master, CM Storm, DeepCool, Enermax, LEPA, LiteOn, nVidia, OCZ, Plextor, Samsung, Seagate, Terratec, Toshiba, TrekStor, Ultron, WD and many more. Have fun browsing through the latest CeBIT hardware and trends.
There's an amazing story on BuzzFeed about someone who lost his phone and became a celebrity. Long but definitely worth the read. I’ve broken this story up into three chapters. It should never have gone this far, but the internet works in mysterious ways. None of this should have ever happened. It makes absolutely no sense at all. It’s truly crazy.
TechSpot wonder what you really get when you choose between i3, i5 and i7. The Core i3 is intended as an entry-level option, the Core i5 is geared for mainstream usage, and the mighty Core i7 is meant for high-end systems and enthusiasts. Many will wonder which one is right for them. Do they need a Core i7 or will the Core i5 be just as fast for their needs? Should they spend less on a Core i3 and allocate the savings elsewhere, or is the Core i5 worth a premium?
Tweaktown have a guide to choosing a mouse, while over on eTeknix they show how to beef up your old gaming rig on a tight budget. Have you been looking at the latest graphics cards, then looking at your own PC and thinking you’ve got a gutless gaming rig? I know the feeling, the new cards can be very tempting, at least until you check your bank balance and remember you’re not rich. High-end hardware is great, but do you really need a $1000 Titan X to enjoy your favourite games? Nope. If you’re thinking that your current system is a little outdated, that you need to upgrade the whole thing to be able to enjoy the latest games, you’re wrong and I’m going to prove it.
Google Maps is pretty cool, but now you can explore the human body with it too - thanks to UNSW. A new project by researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia has been borrowing the algorithms used to assemble and run Google Maps to create large, explorable depictions of human tissue, right down to the individual cell. The first example brings together terabytes of data acquired from imaging a hipbone with a scanning electron microscope. One day maybe the entire body will be in there.
Here's a flashback from w0ng, back to the announcement of the first iPhone - some of the comments are pretty funny in hindsight. Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touch-screen is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here.
If you're stuck for something to do, try one of the 600 free movies that SBS On Demand just made available. Hrm, looks like some interesting ones in the documentaries section..
Monday Morning Reviews
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Monday, 6-April-2015 00:59:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
XSPC X20 420 Single Bayres/Pump Combo on PureOC.
BitFenix Recon Fan Controller on APHNetworks.
Storage:
Intel 750 PCIe SSD Review (1.2TB) on TheSSDReview.
Intel SSD 750 SSD on TechSpot.
Crucial BX100 1TB Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.
Patriot Ignite 480GB SSD on Tweaktown.
Samsung 850 EVO mSATA & M.2 on PureOC.
Audio Visual:
Sentey Symph SP GS-4531 Elite Gamer Series Headset on Tweaktown.
CM Storm Sirus-C Gaming Headset on TechPowerUp.
Sentey Arches Black GS-4730 Headset on Tweaktown.
Element Gaming Neon headset on Vortez.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Blackview Omega Smartphone on MadShrimps.
XMG A505 Gaming Laptop on HWSecrets.
Cases:
BitFenix AEGIS on Vortez.
Cooler Master Silencio 652S Mid Tower on LegitReviews.
Misc:
AVM FRITZ!Powerline 1000E Set on NikKTech.
Gigabyte G1.Sniper B6 motherboard on Guru3D.
AMD Radeon R9 295X2 versus GeForce GTX Titan X SLI at 6480x3840 on Tweaktown.
If you're feeling confused by clocks today, it's because daylight saving ended early this morning in affected states. If your forum timestamps are out, fiddle with the settings in UserCP.
If you haven't seen it, here's a great movie trailer about Daylight Saving. :)
Hope you're having a great Easter break!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Videocard:
ZOTAC GTX 970 AMP! EXTREME & CORE on Vortez
AMD Radeon R9 290X 8GB CF vs Titan X SLI vs GTX 980 SLI at 4K on TweakTown
NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X on Techgage
Motherboard:
EVGA X99 Micro (Intel X99) Micro-ATX Motherboard on TweakTown
AMD A8-7650K APU and A68H chipset on Guru3D
ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer on Bjorn3D
Case:
Bitfenix Aegis Case on Ocaholic
Bitfenix Colossus Mini-ITX Case on Bjorn3D
BE QUIET! Silent Base 800 Case on PureOverclock
SilverStone Kublai KL05B-Q Case on Benchmark Reviews
Misc:
DXRacer Formula Gaming Chair on PureOverclock
Crysis and Crysis Warhead 7+ Years Later on OCC
Netgear Nighthawk X4 AC2350 WiFi Router on Legit Reviews
HIS Multi-View X2 USB Docking Station on Madshrimps
Xigmatek Maverick S 500W PSU on TechPowerUp
Samsung Galaxy A5 Smartphone on Hardware Secrets
Keyboard/Mouse:
Tesoro Excalibur Spectrum Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers.org
Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse on Techspot
Audio:
Creative Sound Blaster X7 Deskop DAC & Amplifier on eTeknix
Creative Sound Blaster E3 USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier on MegaTech Reviews
Patriot BeatStreet Bluetooth Speaker and Clock on TweakTown
Speedlink Solitune Portable Soundbar on Ocaholic
Storage:
Crucial BX100 SSD on Benchmark Reviews
Samsung's 850 EVO M.2 SSD on Techreport
Samsung 850 EVO mSATA and M.2 SSD on Legit Reviews
Samsung SSD 850 EVO mSATA and M.2 Drives on HotHardware.com
Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SATA and mSATA 120GB, 500GB, 1TB SSD Roundup on PC Perspective
Samsung 850 EVO mSATA and M.2 on Bjorn3D
Samsung 850 Evo M.2 & mSATA on Techspot
Samsung 850 Evo mSATA/M.2 SSD on Hardware Heaven
Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SATA SSD on The SSD Review
SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive on TweakTown
Silicon Power S80 240GB SATA SSD on Modders-Inc
Patriot Ignite 480GB SSD on LanOC
Seagate Seven Steel External USB 3.0 Drive on NikKTech
SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive 3.0 32GB OTG for Android Flash Drive on TweakTown
Intel 750 1.2TB NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 AIC SSD on TweakTown
Intel SSD 750 Series NVMe PCI Express Solid State Drive on Hot Hardware
Intel 750 Series SSD on Techreport
Intel SSD 750 Series 1.2TB PCIe X4 Card on Futurelooks
Intel SSD 750 Series 1.2TB PCIe and 2.5" SFF on PC Perspective
Intel SSD 750 Series PCIe SSD on LanOC
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 1-April-2015 17:35:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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You have to be a bit wary of what you read and believe today and tomorrow, but Google have a cool feature today, playing PacMan on Google Maps - thanks to everyone who sent that in.
Other April Fools pranks include square potatoes, a Police Cat Squad (on FB), a new Big M flavour (also on FB). I haven't seen too many more but Kotaku and Lifehacker have roundups. Post any more you've seen into this thread!
Inno3D have announced a 3D printer, which is interesting - have any other big-name component vendors entered that market? Will we one day see Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI etc making 3D printers? Although, it is dated April 1st..
Tech Report check out PCI SSDs. SSDs have been bumping up against the limits of the Serial ATA interface for a while, but they don't have to be stuck behind the 6Gbps link. Native PCIe drives with way more bandwidth have made their way onto the market over the past year. We've tackled a trio of them—Plextor's M6e, Samsung's XP941, and Intel's server-grade DC P3700—with a fresh slate of benchmarks to see how the new breed stacks up against the SATA incumbents.
PCPerspective get us up to speed on G-Sync and FreeSync. Zoomed in on the area of interest, you get a better view of how G-Sync and FreeSync differ. Effectively, G-Sync has no bottom window for variable refresh and produces the same result as if the display technology itself was capable going to lower refresh rates without artifacting or flickering. It is possible that in the future, as display technologies improve, the need for this kind of frame doubling algorithm will be made unnecessary, but until we find a way to reduce screen flicker at low refresh rates, NVIDIA's G-Sync VRR implementation will have the edge for this scenario.
Tweaktown meanwhile spoke to AMD about their vision for the future of gaming. AMD outlines the future of gaming: FreeSync, DirectX 12, LiquidVR, VR gaming, Asynchronous Shaders and more. Good times!
Increased PM Mailbox Size
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Wednesday, 1-April-2015 10:08:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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We have increased the size of PM mailboxes for full "Member" users to 10,000 messages! This is based on projections of how much space is required by heavy users over two years. We encourage you to use OCAU PMs to store critical data such as your credit card details, your address, lists of your friends and business associates, regular updates of your location etc. We promise(1) not to disclose(2) your data and guarantee(3) to keep it safe. Obviously this is going to cost an enormous amount of money, so we'll update you on the cost structure soon. Remember, data sent via OCAU PMs has the Messaging Electronic Text Advantage!
(1) not legally binding
(2) unless someone asks for it, with or without a warrant
(3) unless we get hacked or disclose it via human error
April Fools! Of course, this was a bit of a jab at the recent metadata legislation. Having said that, I am taking the opportunity to raise Member PM allowances from 100 to 250. Enjoy!
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