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May 2015 |
Keyboard/Mouse:
Thermaltake Poseidon Z Forged Keyboard on LanOC Reviews
Ozone Neon Precision Laser Mouse on OCC
Storage:
Crucial MX200 500GB Solid State Drive on APH Networks
Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB SSD on OCC
Asustor AS-7004T NAS on Ocaholic
Patriot Memory Ignite 480GB SSD on NikKTech
Lexar JumpDrive M10 Secure USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Madshrimps
Audio/Visual:
Roccat Kave XTD 5.1 Analog Headset on Benchmark Reviews
Audio-Technica AT2020USB+ Microphone on Hardware Heaven
NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV on Hot Hardware
NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV on PC Perspective
NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV on Legit Reviews
Cooling:
beQuiet! Dark Rock TF Heatsink on Hardware Asylum
beQuiet! Shadow Rock LP Low Profile Heatsink on Hardware Asylum
Thermalright Archon IB-EX2 CPU Cooler on Ocaholic
Thermalright True Spirit 140 BW Rev.A CPU Cooler on TweakTown
Case:
Zalman ZM-T3 Case on Hardware Secrets
AZZA Nova 8000 Full Tower ATX Case on Legit Reviews
Thermaltake Suppressor F51 Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
Corsair Graphite Series 780T White Full-Tower Case on PC Perspective
Misc:
Kingston FCR-HS4 USB 3.0 High-Speed Media Reader on Big Bruin
EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SuperSC Graphics Card on Techgage
LEPA MaxPlatinum Series 1700W PSU on TechPowerup
Current Agg Flu Status: ACTIVE :(
     
     
     
     
     
     
The Federal Government hopes to pass site-blocking legislation next month. Attorney-General George Brandis is hoping the government can push through parliament before the end of June proposed legislation that will force ISPs to block sites linked to online piracy. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull in March introduced the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015 into parliament. The bill would allow representatives of copyright holders to apply for court orders that would force Internet service providers to block access to a website linked to piracy.
In a bizarre twist, it seems even teaching encryption or learning about it could be illegal in Australia soon, thanks mpot. You might not think that an academic computer science course could be classified as an export of military technology. But under the Defence Trade Controls Act — which passed into law in April, and will come into force next year — there is a real possibility that even seemingly innocuous educational and research activities could fall foul of Australian defence export control laws.
I hadn't heard this rumour, but Sniper let us know that Anandtech have dispelled the idea that SSDs will lose data if left unpowered. In the past week, quite a few media outlets have posted articles claiming that SSDs will lose data in a matter of days if left unpowered. While there is some (read: very, very little) truth to that, it has created a lot of chatter and confusion in forums and even I have received a few questions about the validity of the claims, so rather than responding to individual emails/tweets from people who want to know more, I thought I would explain the matter in depth to everyone at once.
TechARP report on the Intelligent Generations showcase from Intel. At the event, Intel officially launched the Intel Compute Stick, as well as exhibited various Intel Atom X3 reference designs. They also gave us a rare opportunity to talk to their Rockstars.
LegitReviews meanwhile have info on AMD's A10-7870K APU. AMD today announced that the A10-7870K Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) will be the companies flagship FM2+ processor, which helps explain why AMD lowered the pricing on their APUs earlier this month. This processor was codenamed Godavari for some reason, but it's basically just a Kaveri refresh as the microarchitecture is still the same as it was on Kaveri and it's still being by GlobalFoundaries on the 28nm manufacturing process.
YouTube are celebrating their 10th birthday with a lot of "looking back" type videos. Has it really only been 10 years?
Today's timewaster is Agar.io, thanks RnR - discussion here.
Photography Gallery
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Thursday, 28-May-2015 16:20:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in our Photography Gallery forum.
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
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Thursday, 28-May-2015 13:51:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS H81M-A Motherboard on HWSecrets.
ASRock X99 Extreme 11 on HotHardware.
X99 Charts: 13 Boards - ASRock X99E-ITX/AC on OCAholic.
Video Cards:
GTX 980 SLI Testing on LanOC.
Sapphire R9 285 ITX OC on PCPerspective.
Storage:
Patriot Ignite 480GB SSD on NeoSeeker.
Samsung SM951 M.2 SSD RAID on TheSSDReview.
Corsair Force LS 120 GiB SSD on HWSecrets.
Crucial MX200 SSD on Vortez.
Patriot Ignite 480GB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
Networking:
Netgear Powerline 1200 on HWHeaven.
Amped Wireless TAP-R2 Touch Screen Wireless Router on LegitReviews.
Cooling:
Noctua NH-L9x65 Low-Profile CPU Cooler on BigBruin.
ID-Cooling SE 214X CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
BeQuiet Dark Rock TF Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Noctua NH-D9L D-Type CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Be Quiet! Dark Rock TF CPU cooler on Guru3D.
be quiet! Dark Rock TF CPU cooler on Vortez.
Audio Visual:
Roccat Kave XTD 5.1 Analog headphones on HWHeaven.
Calyx PaT Portable USB DAC and Headphone Amplifer on PCPerspective.
Grado Prestige Series SR80e Headphone on TechnologyX.
HiFiMAN EF100 Headphone Amplifier & DAC on TechSpot.
Input Etc:
Ozone Strike Battle keyboard on OCAholic.
Cougar 500K Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers.
Thermaltake POSEIDON Z FORGED Keyboard on BenchmarkReviews.
Prebuilt & Portable:
iBuyPower Noctis Intel Z97 prebuilt PC on eTeknix.
Lenovo ThinkPad Helix 2nd Gen Convertible tablet on MadShrimps.
Misc:
Neurio Home Intelligence Review: Adding smarts to ordinary appliances on TechSpot.
Team Group Vulcan DDR4-3000 16GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
Deepcool Tristellar case on TechPowerUp.
Aerocool Aero-1000 PSU on OCAholic.
Here's some interesting things from people in the forums:
Time for some news catchup. Firstly, OCLunatics report on a 5GHz Broadwell overclock using only an air-cooler. Is it me, or has 5GHz been pretty much the wall for years now? China is the first to get unreleased hardware first, and the Broadwell desktop CPUs are no exception. Not only but the first overclocking results are quite impressive. Broadwell can do 5GHz on air, and this on an ordinary 12cm tower cooler, imagine with water or LN2. This are the first results of 14nm CPUs with not 100% compatible motherboards, imagine after some time with better BIOS and support.
iiNet will apparently be providing pro bono legal advice to customers caught up in the Dallas Buyers Club case. The ISP says it will inform customers if their details are passed on to Dallas Buyers Club and Voltage and this will occur at the same time that those details are handed over. As for what happens next, iiNet is getting on the front foot to assist its customers. "If you do receive a letter you may want to get legal advice," the blog post read. "iiNet is working with a law firm that has offered to provide pro-bono services for any of our customers. More details will be provided when agreement is reached on that front."
Here's an interesting idea, something like crowdsourcing 3D Printing. If you have a printer you can list it on there, or if you need something printed you can find someone nearby. If you're into 3D printing, check out our Hobby Engineering forum.
Tony_L sent word that Candy Crush Saga will come free with Windows 10. Why not Minecraft, now that Microsoft own it? King's match-three puzzle game Candy Crush Saga will join the likes of Solitaire, Minesweeper and Hearts as a pre-installed title on future Windows 10 operating systems, according to an announcement today on Xbox Wire.
Meanwhile mpot spotted Windows 10 on a 12-inch MacBook. Here's the real kicker: it's fast. It's smooth. It renders at 60FPS unless you have a lot going on. It's unequivocally better than performance on OS X, further leading me to believe that Apple really needs to overhaul how animations are done. Even when I turn Transparency off in OS X, Mission Control isn't completely smooth. Here, even after some Aero Glass transparency has been added in, everything is smooth. It's remarkable, and it makes me believe in the 12-inch MacBook more than ever before.
Metadata scope creep seems to have already occurred, with the new "Border Force" now having access. The Coalition previously insisted that the bill would "strictly limit and indeed reduce" the number of enforcement agencies with the ability to access retained metadata. However, this week the Government quietly expanded access with the introduction of a completely new bill. The change has been slammed by critics as an example of the Government's power to slowly change the strength and scope of its enforced Data Retention scheme, quietly beefing up the powers of Government agencies to surveil Australian citizens.
HotHardware looked at GTA V PC Performance. Today, we're aiming to give you quick taste of what GTA V can play and look like with an over-the-top system config at super-tight 4K resolution. What does it take to run GTA V at 4K? We'll give you a view of that, as well as how it scales over multiple NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPUs, in the pages ahead, along with some screen shots for just a bit of eye candy as well.
A site called Project Gus takes a look inside a cheap Chinese smartphone, thanks irvo44. This Huami H3 smartphone cost me $34US (210RMB) in January. It’s sold with a 5 inch screen, Bluetooth, WiFi, 4G cell connectivity, Android 4.4 and an 8 core processor. I picked it up in the electronics capital of the world – Shenzhen, China. My hotel was a few doors down from the Mingtong Digital Communications Market, aka “the dodgy cell phone market”.
Monday Morning Reviews
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Monday, 25-May-2015 01:18:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT CPU watercooler on Vortez.
be quiet! Pure Rock CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Intel Compute Stick - A Computer In The Palm Of Your Hands on TechARP.
MSI Cubi mini-PC on HWHeaven.
Audio Visual:
EMTEC Stay Earbuds Wireless on TechnologyX.
ROCCAT Kave XTD 5.1 Analog headphones on Vortez.
Input Etc:
Turtle Beach Impact 500 TKL Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on eTeknix.
SteelSeries Sensei Wireless Gaming Mouse on NikKTech.
Misc:
Corsair CS850M PSU on Guru3D.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Benchmarked, Performance Review on TechSpot.
ASUS GeForce GTX 980 ROG Matrix Platinum video card on Tweaktown.
OCZ Vector 180 240GB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
GIGABYTE Champion Series X99-Gaming 5P Motherboard on PCPerspective.
Friday again! Slightly delayed by me doing the "that thing they cut off my arm turned out to not be skin cancer" dance. But get yourself checked!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 22-May-2015 11:00:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Gigabyte's Z97-HD3 motherboard on Tech Report.
Portable & Prebuilt:
2015 Apple MacBook Pro SSD Performance Comparison on TechARP.
Asus ZenFone 2 Sneak Peek With Lollipop And Intel Atom Z3580 Inside on HotHardware.
ASUS Zenfone 2 on LegitReviews.
Gigabyte Brix S mini-PC on HWHeaven.
Input Etc:
Kingston HyperX FURY Pro Gaming Mousepad on ThinkComputers.
Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse on LegionHW.
Zalman ZM-GM4 Knossos Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews.
Storage:
SSD Charts 2015: 56 SSDs - Kingston HyperX Predator 480GB on OCAholic.
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SATA III M.2 SSD on Tweaktown.
Seagate Archive HDD 8TB SATA III HDD on NikKTech.
AMD's High Bandwidth Memory (HBM)
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Thursday, 21-May-2015 13:13:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD have unveiled some details of their High Bandwidth Memory technology. AMD has been teasing about its next-gen Radeon (R9 390X we assume) graphics cards and processors back in early May. It is without doubt that at least some of the upcoming graphics cards will be the first to feature high-bandwidth memory (HBM), let's call is the turbo-charged offspring to GDDR5 memory, used in today’s graphics cards.
Coverage on Guru3D, Tech Report, PC Perspective, Tweaktown and Hot Hardware.
Discussion here in our Video Cards forum.
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
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Thursday, 21-May-2015 13:06:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cases:
Supermicro SuperChassis S5 Mid-Tower on PCPerspective.
Lian-Li PC-O6s on HWHeaven.
Input Etc:
CM Storm Mizar Gaming Mouse on TechPowerUp.
Sentey Lumenata Pro SP mouse on Bjorn3D.
Motherboard & CPU:
Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK Motherboard on LegitReviews.
ECS Z97I-Drone LEET Gaming (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Dell Precision M3800 Mobile Workstation on HotHardware.
Microsoft Lumia 640 Windows phone on TechSpot.
Storage:
Samsung SM951 M.2 NVME SSD Review (256GB) on TheSSDReview.
Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC Portable Hard Drive on ThinkComputers.
OCZ ARC 100 240GB SSD on MadShrimps.
Silicon Power Armor A60: Rugged, Portable, and Affordable on Bjorn3D.
Memory:
Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2666 32GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 3000MHz on Bjorn3D.
Software:
The Witcher 3 Graphics Performance on Guru3D.
The Witcher 3: Performance Analysis on TechPowerUp.
Misc:
EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1600W 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply on Tweaktown.
Nvidia Titan X video card on LanOC.
NZXT Kraken X61 watercooler on OCAholic.
Tt CaseMOD Invitational Contest
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Wednesday, 20-May-2015 01:05:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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STUdog has completed his entry in the Thermaltake CaseMOD Invitational, representing Australia in the contest. Check out the build log in the forums.
click for the worklog!
It turns out there are prizes to be won just for voting for your favourite entries. So, check out all the entrants (and then vote for STUdog ;) ) by visiting the contest thread.
Tuesday Night Reviews
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Tuesday, 19-May-2015 23:44:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Portable & Prebuilt:
MSI Cubi mini-PC on OCAholic.
HP Stream 7 tablet on PCReview.
LG G4 smartphone on HotHardware.
ASUS Transformer Book T300 Chi convertible on TechReport.
Memory:
G.Skill Ripjaws 4 16GB 2666MHz Overclocking Ambrosia on Bjorn3D.
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 16GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
Storage:
Silicon Power S80 480GB on Bjorn3D.
Kingston HyperX Savage 240 GB on TechPowerUp.
Intel 750 Series PCIe SSD on Vortez.
Input Etc:
Tesoro Lobera Spectrum keyboard on Modders-Inc.
Ozone Argon Advanced Pro Laser Gaming Mouse on eTeknix.
Cases:
Fractal Design Core 2500 on ThinkComputers.
Zalman Z11 Neo Mid Tower on LegitReviews.
In Win 707 Full-Tower on Techgage.
Thermaltake Versa H15 on OCAholic.
Antec ISK 110 90w Mini-ITX VESA Compatible Chassis on eTeknix.
Power Supply:
Enermax Digifanless 550 W PSU on HWInsights.
Efergy Engage Hub Solo Online Power Monitor on Tweaktown.
Cooling:
CRYORIG H5 Universal CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
DeepCool Captain 360 Liquid CPU Cooler on TechnologyX.
Fractal Design Kelvin S36 360mm Liquid Cooler on MadShrimps.
Cryorig R1 Ultimate CPU Cooler on BenchmarkReviews.
REEVEN Ouranos RC-1401 CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate CPU Cooler on HWSecrets.
BitFenix Spectre Pro LED Cooling Fan on APHNetworks.
Misc:
TRENDnet TEW-828DRU AC3200 Tri-Band Wireless Router on Tweaktown.
Gigabyte X99-UD4P on Bjorn3D.
OCAU has been involved in fundraising for Panda's Ear. Alexander (Xander/Panda) was born with Microtia and Atresia affecting his left ear. The aim of Panda’s Ear is to raise money for reconstructive surgery to give Xander the best chance of hearing and having a positive future.
There have been various sales with proceeds going to the cause, and a long-running custom PC project nearing completion. You can find out more info here and find out how to donate here. They're still about $25k short of their goal.
Monday Morning Reviews
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Monday, 18-May-2015 01:49:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
MSI X99A Gaming 7 Motherboard on HWAsylum.
ASRock X99E-ITX/ac (Intel SKT 2011-3) on TechPowerUp.
Power Supply:
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W on OCAholic.
COUGAR GX-1050 V3 1050W on NikKTech.
Efergy Elite Classic Whole Home Power Monitor on Tweaktown.
Video Cards:
XFX R9 280 Double Dissipation on TechnologyX.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition on Tweaktown.
Cases:
Fractal Design Define S Mid-Tower Enclosure on PCPerspective.
RAIDMAX Viper GX II Case on BenchmarkReviews.
Storage:
Inateck FD1005 Top-Loading HDD Docking Station on eTeknix.
ASUSTOR ADM 2.4 Overview on ComputingOnDemand.
Samsung Portable SSD T1 250GB USB 3.0 Drive on NikKTech.
Toshiba MQ02ABF075 2.5'' Mobile Thin HDD on MadShrimps.
Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on APHNetworks.
Input Etc:
Turtle Beach Impact 700 Mechanical Keyboard on eTeknix.
ROCCAT TYON mouse on Vortez.
i-Rocks Golem Series K50E Scissor-Switch Gaming Keyboard on eTeknix.
Kingston HyperX FURY Pro Gaming Mouse Pad on LanOC.
Audio Visual:
Creative Sound Blaster ZxR on HotHardware.
ROCCAT Kave XTD 5.1 Analog Headset on Tweaktown.
LUXA2 Lavi L Bluetooth Headphones on ThinkComputers.
Tesoro Kuven Pro headset on HWHeaven.
Acer XB270HU 27-in 1440P 144Hz IPS G-Sync Monitor on PCPerspective.
Networking:
TP-LINK Archer C9 Wireless Dual Band Router on MadShrimps.
TP-LINK Archer C9 wireless router on HWHeaven.
Misc:
Video Perspective: AKracing (AK-6014) Ergonomic Gaming Chair on PCPerspective.
Intel NUC Kit NUC5i7RYH mini PC on LegitReviews.
Be Quiet! Pure Rock CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Thanks to mpot and Tim this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
I don't normally link Kickstarter stuff, but this one from Chris has an interesting Australian tech focus. For far too long, Australia’s political sector has gotten technology policy completely wrong. I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore. Let’s take Delimiter into the Canberra Press Gallery and literally write the book on tech policy while we’re there.
Meanwhile, it seems internet pricing may go up to cover the cost of the metadata retention scheme. Consumers are likely to face rising internet costs to meet a shortfall in the cost of implementing the government's metadata retention scheme. Reports indicate the government will contribute $131 million to the cost of the scheme, significantly less than the total estimated price tag. Any remaining costs of implementing the new laws - which require telcos and ISPs to keep data about their customers' phone and internet use for two years - will be covered by the industry, which could raise the price of its services to compensate.
Microsoft have provided more details about their new browser, Microsoft Edge. With Microsoft Edge, we want to fundamentally improve security over existing browsers and enable users to confidently experience the web from Windows. We have designed Microsoft Edge to defend users from increasingly sophisticated and prevalent attacks. This post covers some of the advanced technologies used to protect Microsoft Edge, including industry leading sandboxing, compiler, and memory management techniques developed in close partnership with Windows.
I didn't even know AOL was still going, but Verizon are going to buy it for $4.4B. By buying AOL, Verizon is getting much more than the 1990s dial-up Internet company that first introduced many Americans to the Web. Today AOL provides online video services, content and ads to 40,000 other publishers. It brings in $600 million in advertising. It has news sites such as The Huffington Post, TechCrunch and Engadget.
Moore's Law (which I still think shouldn't be called a law, but anyway) turns 50 this month. IHS said today that Moore’s Law has generated a minimum of $3 trillion in incremental GDP and up to $11 trillion when including the indirect impact. At an event tonight, Gordon Moore is expected to highlight that without increasing funding for basic research and focus on STEM education advancements such as Moore’s Law may not happen in the future, potentially hobbling economic growth and increases in living standards.
Friday Afternoon Reviews
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Friday, 15-May-2015 14:25:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS X99-A USB 3.1 on OCAholic.
MSI Z97 Gaming 9 ACK (Intel Z97) Motherboard on Tweaktown.
ASUS X99 TUF SaberTooth on Guru3D.
GIGABYTE X99-Gaming 5P (Intel X99) on Tweaktown.
Core i7-5960X vs i7-5820K Gaming-Performance - FullHD, 1440p, UHD on OCAholic.
MSI Z97I Gaming AC Mini-ITX Motherboard on LegitReviews.
Storage:
LEXAR JumpDrive M10 & M20 on Vortez.
SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco SSD Review (960GB) on TheSSDReview.
Patriot Ignite M2 480 GB on LanOC.
OCZ Vector 180 480GB Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.
Synology DiskStation DS2015xs on LegionHW.
Seagate Wireless 500GB Portable Storage Device on Tweaktown.
Samsung SM951 M.2 PCIe SSD Review (512GB) on TheSSDReview.
Portable & Prebuilt:
NewerTech Nuguard KX Kinetic Absorbing Galaxy S4 Case on Tweaktown.
Intel NUC5i7RYH With Iris Pro Graphics Mini-PC on HotHardware.
Shuttle Fanless Slim-PC DS57U on TechPowerUp.
Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 13-May-2015 11:32:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Netflix have released their first monthly ISP Speed Index for Australia. The Netflix ISP Speed Index is a measure of prime time Netflix performance on a particular ISP and not a measure of overall performance for other services/data that may travel across the specific ISP network. Faster Netflix performance generally means better picture quality, quicker start times and fewer interruptions. Discussion here.
Techspot have a 14-way SSD Roundup. SSD technology grew stale after saturating the SATA 6Gb/s bus, bringing mostly minor improvements and making up for it with price cuts. With new PCIe and M.2 drives presenting an alternative for users seeking maximum performance it's time for a roundup. We'll cover a total of fourteen consumer-grade SSDs that use either the SATA, PCI Express or M.2 interface. As always, we'll be looking at price vs. performance to see where each product stands.
AI geeks in New Zealand are building an angry robot. What could possibly go wrong? Though it may seem aggressive, Touchpoint’s robot won’t come close to experiencing bona fide rage. Instead, the machine will have hundreds of millions of angry customer interactions uploaded to its database and the robot will be programmed to mimic and repeat these conversations.
Skype Translater is now easier to try out. Today, we’re excited to announce that we’re making it easier to obtain the Skype Translator preview by removing the sign-up requirement. Simply download the Skype Translator preview application from the Windows Store for your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 preview PC or tablet – no waiting or sign-up needed – use it as soon as you download it!
Tuesday Night Reviews
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Tuesday, 12-May-2015 23:42:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cases:
In Win 707 Tower on HWAsylum.
In Win 904 on OCAHolic.
NCASE M1 on TechPowerUp.
Fractal Design Define R5 Dual Loop Water Cooling Build Log on Techgage.
Storage:
QNAP Turbo vNAS TVS-463 SMB NAS Appliance on Tweaktown.
Synology DiskStation DS415+ NAS on MadShrimps.
Cooling:
SilverStone Tundra TD02-E CPU Cooler on BenchmarkReviews.
Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX and H80i GT Liquid CPU Cooler on PCPerspective.
be quiet! Shadow Rock LP CPU Cooler on LegitReviews.
Prebuilt & Portable:
CyberPowerPC Syber Vapor I prebuilt gaming PC on NeoSeeker.
Eurocom P5 Pro Review, Taking Devil's Canyon Mobile laptop on HotHardware.
Intel NUC5i7RYH SFF System on PCPerspective.
Misc:
Project CARS Benchmarked: Graphics & CPU Performance on TechSpot.
XTracGear Carbonic XXL Mousing Surface on APHNetworks.
Etekcity RoverBeats T3 Wireless Mobile Speaker on Tweaktown.
ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark S Limited Edition Motherboard on ThinkComputers.
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 - 850W PSU on Guru3D.
Here's some interesting things from people in the forums:
Treasurer Joe Hockey has confirmed a so-called "netflix tax" on digital downloads. The second measure, Mr Hockey said, was designed to level the playing field on the GST by extending the consumption tax to digital products and would deliver an anticipated $350 million in additional revenue, which will flow through to the states. Some of the digital purchases that could be affected by the changes include room rental service Airbnb, car-sharing service Uber, movie download service Netflix, and some Google products. Some digital download services available in Australia, such as Apple's iTunes and Google's Play store, already pay GST. More info here.
There's also a new interactive cyber safety program to keep kids safer online. Online Safety, It Starts With You! is a free course for primary schools to help teach students from Year 1 to 6 how to be safe online. Developed using cyber safety resources from the Australian Federal Police and leading insights from ICT education experts and Disney, the program will help teachers introduce cyber safety into Australian schools. Online Safety, It Starts with You! is available to download for free from iTunes U here.
The New Yorker have an interesting article about the birth of MP3 sharing and the early warez scene back in the 1990s. In 1996, a Scene member with the screen name NetFraCk started a new crew, the world’s first MP3 piracy group: Compress ’Da Audio, or CDA, which used the newly available MP3 standard, a format that could shrink music files by more than ninety per cent. On August 10, 1996, CDA released to IRC the Scene’s first “officially” pirated MP3: “Until It Sleeps,” by Metallica. Within weeks, there were numerous rival crews and thousands of pirated songs.
Microsoft have confirmed there will be no Windows 11. Microsoft says that Windows 10 will be its final release of the iconic operating system that's installed on over 90% of computers. "Right now we're releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we're all still working on Windows 10," said Jerry Nixon, Microsoft's developer evangelist, at the Ignite tech conference. Instead of releasing an entirely new and different version of its desktop OS every few years, Microsoft is taking an Apple-like approach to subsequent Windows releases, standardizing on Windows 10 as its Cupertino-based rival has done with OS X. Under this new strategy, Microsoft will deliver regular improvements to Windows through software updates.
An antivirus developer has been caught cheating. Chinese anti-virus developer Tencent will lose its certifications after it was found to have submitted products with optimisations designed to improve their ratings in independent third-party testing. Tencent is the second Chinese security vendor to be caught cheating recently. Last week, rival anti-virus developer Qihoo 360 was stripped of its awards after it was found to have submitted products for testing with its default detection engine disabled, instead using BitDefender for improved results.
Here's a video from LinusTechTips showing an 18 core Xeon. Intel Xeon 2699 v3, the 18 core MONSTER - we got two for our new rendering machine, but how does one perform on a normal X99 motherboard?
AMD meanwhile revealed roadmap info including CPUs based on its new Zen core. AMD this afternoon kicked off is first Financial Analyst Day in three years. During the hiatus, AMD has had a change of leadership (former CEO Rory Reed parted ways and was replaced by Dr. Lisa Su) and the company has seen its market share erode in the processor and GPU markets — the downturn in the PC market has been especially tough for AMD. Details on HotHardware and Tech Report.
NASA are paying up to USD $5000 for the best ideas about how to survive on Mars, thanks aftahours. If you’re interested, your idea for a surface system should be “technically achievable, economically sustainable, and minimize reliance on support from Earth”. NASA’s aiming for humans to step onto the surface of Mars some time in the 2030s. It officially launched its “Next Giant Leap” programme in December last year, taking the wraps off the next-generation Orion spacecraft and announcing that the Space Launch System (SLS) launching it will be the largest rocket ever built.
Win GTA5 from MSI!
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Monday, 11-May-2015 10:22:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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MSI Australia are giving away Grand Theft Auto 5 to two lucky OCAU members! Head on over to the thread for more details:
click for the thread!
If you're not sure what all the fuss is about, our GTA5 discussion thread is here.
Storage:
QNAP TVS-463 Network Attached Storage on APH Networks
Toshiba TransMemory-EX II 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech
Seagate Personal Cloud 2-Bay Consumer NAS on TweakTown
EasyAcc USB 3.0 Storage Enclosure on TweakTown
Intel SSD 750 on HardOCP
Portable:
Asus ROG GR8 Lan Rig on LanOC
Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi 2-in-1 Ultrabook on Hot Hardware
Dell Chromebook 11 Touch on Anandtech
Keyboard/Mouse:
Cougar 600M Gaming Mouse on OCC
CM Storm Octane Keyboard/Mouse on Bit-Tech
Case:
NZXT H440 Case on Hardware Heaven
SilverStone Raven RV05B-W PC Case on NikKTech
Patriot FUEL iON iPhone 6 Magnetic Charging Case on TweakTown
Motherboard:
Asus X99-PRO Motherboard (Intel X99) on TweakTown
Supermicro C7X99-OCE Motherboard on PC Perspective
PSU:
Silverstone Strider Gold S Powersupply on Hardware Insights
Corsair AX1500i Digital ATX Power Supply on HardOCP
Misc:
Toukiden: Kiwami (PS4) on Gaming Nexus
Crucial Ballistix Sport 2400MHz Quad Channel DDR4 16GB Memory Kit on eTeknix
Etekcity RoverBeats T16 Wireless Mobile Speaker on TweakTown
Thanks to mpot and Andrew this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Audio:
Plantronics GameCom 788 Headset on TweakTown
Fluance Fi30 Bluetooth Speaker System on ThinkComputers.org
Zipbuds Pro mic Never Tangle Zipper Earphones on TweakTown
Cooling:
be quiet! Pure Rock CPU Cooler on Tech Powerup
SilverStone Tundra TD03-E CPU Liquid Cooler on Benchmark Reviews
Noctua L9x65 Low Profile Heatsink on Hardware Aslylum
Raijintek Triton Watercooler on Ocaholic
Noctua NH-L9x65 Low Profile CPU cooler on Guru3D
Scythe Ashura CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers
Portable/Wearable:
Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Weight Scale on TweakTown
Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge on Techspot
Keyboard/Mouse:
Cougar 500K Gaming Keyboard on Techgage
QPAD 8K Pro Gaming Laser Mouse on eTeknix
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4P LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard on Legit Reviews
Supermicro X10DRL-CT (Intel C612) Server Motherboard on TweakTown
Storage:
WD My Cloud EX2100 Dual Bay 8TB NAS on Hot Hardware
Toshiba Canvio Connect 2 TB External HDD on Hardware Secrets
HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe G2 x4 480GB on LanOC
Case:
Zalman Z11 Neo Mid-Tower Case on Benchmark Reviews
Silverstone Mammoth MM01 Chassis on Legion Hardware
Misc:
Grand Theft Auto V on OCC
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection on Gaming Nexus
Patriot Viper 4 16GB DDR4 3000MHz Memory Kit on Neoseeker
Corsair H100i GTX on Hardware Heaven
Corsair CX750M 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply on TweakTown
Thursday Morning
(5 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 7-May-2015 01:22:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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It seems ISPs will have to foot the bill for most of the expenses in the Dallas Buyers Club case. Justice Perram today ruled in the Federal Court that the ISPs should pay 75 per cent of the costs of the proceedings, which centred on an attempt by DBC LLC and parent company, Voltage Pictures, to obtain access to the details of ISP customers it alleges illicitly downloaded the movie Dallas Buyers Club. The initial ruling would have saddled DBC with the costs of proceedings but the judge today made orders on costs that will also see the ISPs liable for paying the cost of flying out Maverick Eye witness Daniel Macek to give evidence.
The Federal Government has backed down on a proposed online shopping tax. The Australian reports cabinet ministers have rejected a proposal to charge a fee on goods bought from overseas internet retailers, amid concerns it would have been seen as a hit on consumers. The move was reportedly proposed as an interim solution while agreement was sought with the states on lowering the current overseas online GST threshold of $1000.
Here's a clever video showing GTA 2 action in real life thanks to a drone camera.
Sniper spotted this simple tweak to remove an NV service which might boost your FPS a small amount. To enjoy the easy performance boost, you will need to disable the NVIDIA Streaming windows service. This service starts up automatically when Windows starts. It mainly helps you stream whatever game you are playing to your NVIDIA Shield console.
Intel have launched some new Xeons. Intel has made some noise in some other markets as well in the same time period but today the company officially takes the wraps off of its latest processors for mission-critical enterprise server and pro workstation applications, the Xeon E7-8800 / 4800 v3.
Meanwhile Tech Report checked out ARM's new CPU core. The Cortex-A72 is ARM's next big CPU core, successor to the Cortex-A57 that currently dominates among premium Android smartphones. Here's a look at the CPU that could drive the next crop of new phones--and how this core might play in servers, too.
Today's timewaster is Touch Pianist, from Sciby.
Motherboard:
Gigabyte X99-UD4 Motherboard on Techgage
Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 Motherboard on Modders-Inc
Gigabyte X99 GAMING-5 Motherboard on Vortez
Supermicro X10DRX (Intel C612) Server Motherboard on TweakTown
Storage:
Thecus N4310 1Gb 4 Bay on ocaholic
Lexar JumpDrive P20 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Legit Reviews
QNAP TurboNAS TS-453S Pro NAS Server on NikKTech
Patriot Memory Ignite M2 480GB SATA III M.2 SSD on TweakTown
Patriot Ignite 480GB SSD on OCC
Case:
Zalman Z11 NEO Case on Thinkcomputers.org
Raidmax Hyperion Case on Tech Powerup
Gaming:
EVE Universe- The Art of New Eden (PC) (PS3) on Gaming Nexus
Ziggurat on Gaming Nexus
Cooling:
Corsair H100i GTX Liquid Cooler on Guru3D
Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU Cooler on TechnologyX
Corsair H100i GTX Liquid CPU Cooler on Thinkcomputers.org
Misc:
Diamond Wireless Video Stream HD 1080P HDMI on eTeknix
TP-LINK AV1200 Powerline Network Kit on Hardware Heaven
Super Flower Leadex Platinum 2000W PSU on Tech Powerup
Kingston HyperX Savage DDR3-2400-CL11 1.65V Memory Kit on ocaholic
Tesla have unveiled a home battery system to smooth out the peaks and troughs of demand. US electric carmaker Tesla Motors has unveiled batteries that can power homes and businesses as it attempts to expand beyond its vehicle business. Chief executive Elon Musk announced the firm would build batteries that store solar energy and serve as a back-up system for consumers during blackouts. The device would allow consumers to get off a power grid or bring energy to remote areas that are not on a grid. Basically a big UPS. I can't decide if this is a big thing or not. Announcement video here, discussion towards the end of this thread.
Music sharing service Grooveshark has shut down after extended legal dramas with the record companies. On April 30, 2015, it was announced that as part of a settlement of the copyright infringement lawsuits between the service and Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group, Grooveshark would be shut down effective immediately, and that the ownership of the Grooveshark service, website, and all of its associated intellectual property had been transferred to the labels.
Ben Grubb has won his battle to get Telstra to hand over his metadata... maybe, depending on appeals. Telstra has breached [National Privacy Principle] 6.1 by failing to provide the complainant with access to his personal information in breach of [National Privacy Principle] 6.1 of the Privacy Act," Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim states in his 37-page decision, handed to both Telstra and myself on Friday and made public on Monday. Mr Pilgrim goes on to state in his ruling that Telstra must within 30 business days provide me with access to my metadata, including Internet Protocol (IP) address information, Uniform Resource Locator (URL) information, and cell tower location information beyond what is on my bills.
Mpot pointed out this somewhat ghetto way to upgrade a Surface to 1TB SSD. By taking some teardown pictures of the Surface Pro 3, printing them out to scale, and aligning them to the device he had in his hand, [Jorge] had a very, very good idea of where to make the incision. A Dremel with a carbide bit was brought out to cut into the metal, and after a few nerve-wracking minutes the SSD was exposed.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
(0 Comments)
(link)
Monday, 4-May-2015 15:37:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Portable & Prebuilt:
Razer Blade Pro gaming laptop on TechSpot.
VKWorld VK2015 Smartphone on MadShrimps.
Motorola Moto E 2nd Gen. Smartphone on HWSecrets.
Cooling:
Fractal Design Venturi HP-12 PWM and HP-14 PWM Cooling Fans on APHNetworks.
Thermalright TRUE Spirit 140 BW Rev.A CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Storage:
Kingston SSDNow KC310 960GB SSD on NikKTech.
Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe 480GB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
Samsung SM951 NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD on LegitReviews.
Thecus N4310 Review (NAS) on HWHeaven.
Audio Visual:
Element Gaming Xenon 700 headset on Vortez.
Element Gaming Neon 250 headset on Vortez.
HIS MusiX Air Wireless Bluetooth IPX7 Water Resistant Speaker on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
Turtle Beach Grip 500 Laser Gaming Mouse and Drift Mouse Mat on eTeknix.
Cougar 200K Gaming Keyboard on LanOC.
Cases:
Fractal Design Define S Full-Tower on eTeknix.
BitFenix Colussus Mini-ITX on ComputingOnDemand.
Silverstone Mammoth MM01 on TechSpot.
Misc:
G.Skill Ripjaws4 DDR4-2800 16GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
A Look At Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC on Techgage.
Tomorrow is the last day to enter our Color Office Supplies Giveaway, so get tidying.. thanks to mpot and Leftarc this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Gaming:
Jamestown+ (PS4) on Gaming Nexus
Grand Theft Auto V (PC) on Techgage
Storage:
Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe SSD on Modders-Inc
Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe M.2 SSD on Benchmark Reviews
Seagate Desktop SSHD 4TB ST4000DX001 Consumer HDD on TweakTown
RAM:
Patriot Viper 4 DDR4-3000 16GB Memory Kit on Think Computers
KLEVV NEO DDR3 8GB 2400MHz Memory Kit on Legit Reviews
CPU/Motherboard:
ASRock X99E-ITX/ac Mini-ITX (Intel X99) Motherboard on TweakTown
Core i7-5820k vs i7-4770K Gaming-Performance on Ocaholic
Asrock X99E-ITX-ac on Legion Hardware
ASRock Fatal1ty X99 (Intel X99) Professional Motherboard on TweakTown
Misc:
HIS 4-port USB Desktop AC Charger on TweakTown
PiPO X7 TV Box on ocaholic
HIS Turbo Charger QC 2.0 AC Wall Charger on TweakTown
Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge on Hot Hardware
Tt eSPORTS Poseidon ZX Blue Switch Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikkTech
Noctua NH-D9L CPU Cooler on OCC
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