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August 2015
Monday Morning (4 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 31-August-2015  00:43:15 (GMT +10) - by booj

New laws passed by parliament come into effect on October 13th, effectively bring an end to online privacy in Australia. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies will have immediate, warrantless and accumulating access to all telephone and internet metadata required by law, with a $2 million penalty for telcos and ISPs that don't comply.

AMD have taken the wraps off of their tiny R9 Nano. Coverage on Anandtech, PC Perspective, and Guru3D.

The CSIRO and NICTA have merged to form Data61, a new government scientific and technology research organization. The new organization is to be led by Australian technology entrepreneur Adrian Turner who said today he was joining CSIRO at an exciting time, and his vision for Data61 is to “harness the start-up culture of NICTA and multidisciplinary strength of CSIRO to deliver maximum benefit to Australia.” We'll see how this turns out.. Thanks Stephen.

Who wants life sized Lego blocks? EverBlocks assemble more or less like any other modular building blocks, but on a larger scale. But as the blocks get bigger, building with them gets more complicated. “When we first started, I envisioned that people would know instinctively how to build with them,” Rosan says. At least the pain of stepping on normal lego would be avoided..

TweakTown look at 3 of the worlds gaming prodigy's. Here's three kids that will put your gaming skills to shame. All under 18 and all traveled the world owning noobs, jealous? We are a little.

Microsoft have made changes to the Windows activation system with Windows 10. With Windows 10, Microsoft has rewritten the rules for how it performs product activation on retail upgrades of Windows, including the free upgrades available for a year beginning on July 29, 2015. The net result is that clean installs will be much easier--but only after you get past the first one. Thanks Metamorphosis.

Changes may be coming to Youtube. According to multiple sources, the world’s largest video-sharing site is preparing to launch its two separate subscription services before the end of 2015 — Music Key, which has been in beta since last November, and another unnamed service targeting YouTube’s premium content creators, which will come with a paywall.

NASA scientists have chosen a new target for the New Horizon probe following its successful Pluto flyby. The destination is a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO) known as 2014 MU69 that orbits nearly a billion miles beyond Pluto.



Misc Pics (35 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 28-August-2015  14:29:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Friday again! I hope nobody is suffering too much with the extreme weather we've been having lately.









Thursday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Thursday, 27-August-2015  23:56:07 (GMT +10) - by booj

Motherboards & CPUs:
Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 on Bjorn3d.
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 on ocaholic.
Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 on Legit Reviews.
ASUS Z170-A on HardOCP.

Graphics Cards:
ASUS Strix Radeon R9 Fury on PC Perspective.
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G on ocaholic.

Storage:
Super Talent TeraNova 480GB SATA III SSD on TweakTown.
Synology DiskStation DS415play 4-bay NAS on Techgage.
QNAP TVS-471-4G NAS on Bjorn3d.
OCZ Trion 100 480GB SSD on NikKTech.
QNAP TS-563 on Legion Hardware.

Input etc:
Tesoro Excalibur Spectrum Keyboard on Modders-Inc.
EVGA TORQ X5 Mouse on Bjorn3D.

Cases:
SilverStone SG12 on Bjorn3d.
Silverstone Sugo SG12 on Hardware Asylum.
Cooler Master MasterCase 5 on Anandtech.

Audio:
Razer Leviathan 5.1 Channel Gaming Sound Bar and Sub on Tweaktown.
Thermaltake Tt eSports Shock Console Gaming Headset on TechnologyX.

Misc:
SilverStone SX600-G SFX Series Power Supply on eTeknix.
ECS LIVA x2 Mini PC on Anandtech.



Wednesday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 26-August-2015  13:06:56 (GMT +10) - by booj

Graphics Cards:
Asus R7 370 Strix on LAN OC Reviews.
MSI GeForce GTX 950 Gaming 2 GB on techPowerUp.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 AMP! Edition on TweakTown.
ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 980 Ti Poseidon Platinum on Guru3D.
PNY GTX 980 XLR8 on OCC.
ASUS GeForce GTX 950 STRIX on Techgage.

Storage:
Thecus N5810 Pro 5-bay NAS on techPowerUp.
Crucial MX200 1TB and 500GB SSD on Hot Hardware.
Samsung 850 EVO 2TB on PureOverclock.
Vantec NexStar USB 3.1 2.5-inch Portable Storage Enclosure on TweakTown.

Cases:
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX SE on Modders Inc.
BitFenix Prodigy M Micro-ATX Case on ThinkComputers.

Cooling:
DeepCool TF120 Fans on Vortez.
Alphacool Custom 480mm Watercooling Kit on NikKTech.
Optimized CPU Cooling with Top-Down Heatsinks on Benchmark Reviews.

Input etc:
Tesoro Excalibur Spectrum on TechnologyX.
Tt eSPORTS' Poseidon Z Forged on Techgage.

Misc:
Nixeus Vue 24-in 1080P 144Hz TN 30-144Hz FreeSync Monitor on PC Perspective.
CM Storm Pitch Pro Gaming Earphones on TweakTown.
EVGA Z170 FTW Motherboard on Modders-Inc.
Netis WF2150 N600 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter on eTeknix.
Dell Venue 10 7000 Series tablet on PC Perspective.



Tuesday Night (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 25-August-2015  23:46:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg

You can now explore some NSW National Parks from the comfort of your PC desk, thanks to a partnership with Google. NSW National Parks is the first Australian organisation to partner with Google as part of the Trekker Loan Program. Using a Google Street View trekker, we've visited 225 attractions and captured over 1100km of imagery.

Or, send your name to Mars. Mars enthusiasts around the world can participate in NASA’s journey to Mars by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard NASA's InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year.

OCClub report on the GeForce GTX 950 and in particular the GameStream feature. But the real star is that Stream option. Clicking on the Stream option accesses the new GameStream Co-Op feature, allowing users to invite a friend to join their game by sending an email invite or copying/pasting an invite URL. Your friend doesn't have to download Steam or the game; he or she simply has to use the Chrome web browser to launch the link. Your friend can then watch you play, take over the controls, or even join you if the game supports multi-controller play; all with integrated voice chat.

If you've bought an Intel 6600K or 6700K CPU (or are planning to buy one soon), you could be in the running to win a 1.2TB Intel 750 crazy-fast PCIe SSD. THERE ARE THREE TO WIN! WINNERS WILL BE DRAWN ON THE 16th OF OCTOBER 2015, THE 16TH OF NOVEMBER 2015 AND THE 16TH OF DECEMBER 2015, AND ANNOUNCED HERE THE FOLLOWING WEEKDAY.



Monday Afternoon Reviews (1 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 24-August-2015  13:08:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg

CPU & Motherboard:
Intel Core i5 6600K Skylake Linux CPU Benchmarks on Phoronix.
BIOSTAR N3150NH ITX Motherboard on MadShrimps.

Networking:
Tenda W568R Wireless N900 Concurrent Dual-band Gigabit Router on eTeknix.
Netis PL7500 Kit AV500 Powerline Adapter Kit on eTeknix.

Storage:
Lexar Professional 2000x SDXC UHS-II Card 64GB on TheSSDReview.
Kingston DataTraveler 4000 G2 64GB USB Flash Drive on Futurelooks.
QNAP TurboNAS TS-431+ Consumer NAS on Tweaktown.

Input etc:
Das Keyboard 4 Professional on NikKTech.
Corsair Strafe Mechanical Keyboard on MadShrimps.

Cases:
Zalman Z11 Neo Mid-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown.
LEPA Lenyx LPC801A-B Full-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown.
Cougar QBX Mini-ITX Gaming Chassis on eTeknix.

Video Cards:
MOBA Gaming Performance - Is The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Worth It on LegitReviews.
MSI GTX 950 Gaming 2G on Modders-Inc.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 2GB on LegitReviews.
The Extreme Cases Where A Sub-$200 NVIDIA GPU Can Beat A $550+ AMD R9 Fury On Linux on Phoronix.
The GTX 950 arrives as the ASUS STRIX DirectCU II OC on BabelTechReviews.
Inno3D iChill GeForce GTX 980 4GB Ultra on NikKTech.
Nvidia GTX 950 Round-Up Review: Three Cards Go Head to Head on eTeknix.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Roundup featuring ASUS and MSI on NeoSeeker.
Asus GTX 950 Strix on LanOC.
Palit GeForce GTX 950 Storm Dual 2GB on Guru3D.
ASUS GeForce GTX 950 STRIX on Guru3D.
MSI GeForce GTX 950 Gaming + 2-way SLI on Guru3D.
GeForce GTX 950 on HWHeaven.
Nvidia unveils the GeForce GTX 950 on TechReport.
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 950 Is A $150+ Bargain For Linux Gamers on Phoronix.
MSI GeForce GTX 950 Gaming 2G on Tweaktown.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Review: Affordable Maxwell For The Masses on HotHardware.
EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 on TechSpot.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 on LegionHW.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 OC 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
Asus, MSI, EVGA GTX 950 on OCClub.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 AMP! Edition 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
ASUS GTX 950 STRIX OC 2 GB on TechPowerUp.

Misc:
Silicon Power Xpower PC3-19200 2x8GB DDR3 RAM on APHNetworks.
Dell Venue 10 Series 7000 Android Tablet on MegaTechNews.
ASUS PB258Q Frameless 25-inch WQHD IPS Monitor on PCPerspective.
Nerf N-Strike Rough Cut 2 x 4 Shotgun on OCAholic.



Misc Pics (18 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 21-August-2015  14:25:12 (GMT +10) - by Rezin

Friday again!







Friday Morning (9 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 21-August-2015  00:51:36 (GMT +10) - by booj

The Intel Developer Forum was held this week in San Francisco. There's plenty of Coverage from HotHardware, TechReport and Anandtech amongst many others.

Techspot ask the question: How much memory should you get? They tested 4Gb, 8Gb and 16Gb configurations.

Divorce lawyers the world over may be the real beneficiaries of a massive leak of member data from cheating website AshelyMadison.com. The files appear to include account details and log-ins for some 32 million users of the social networking site, touted as the premier site for married individuals seeking partners for affairs.

If you are curious or interested in Ln2 benchmarking, check out this beginners guide at TechnologyX. The main focus of this guide is to show you what you need to start of on LN2 or DICE. We will look at what is needed and some terminology on CPU and Graphics subzero overclocking and benchmarking.

One of the first DirectX 12 benchmarks has been released. Legit Reviews tested cards in DX12 vs DX11 Ashes of the Singularity was developed with Oxide’s Nitrous game engine and tells the story of an existential war waged on an unprecedented scale across the galaxy. The Ashes of the Singularity Benchmark was never designed as a synthetic stress test, but a real world test that was used internally to measure overall system performance.

It looks like changes are coming to Bitcoin. An ongoing debate wracking the bitcoin community became significantly more heated this weekend after two high-profile developers released a competing version of the codebase — risking splitting the digital currency in two.

Boffins at M.I.T. have released research into solid electrolytes, which could lead to revolutionary new batteries. New research paves the way for rechargeable batteries with almost indefinite lifetimes, researchers say.

Finally, check out this cool interactive feature on the Curiosity Rover courtesy of NASA. Thanks Agg! ;)



Thursday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 21-August-2015  00:11:04 (GMT +10) - by booj

Motherboards & CPUs:
ASRock Z170 Extreme 7+ on eTeknix.
Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 on ThinkComputers.
Intel Core i7-6700K on Techgage.

Storage:
ADATA XPG SX930 Gaming SSD on Benchmark Reviews.
Samsung SSD 850 Evo 2TB on Techspot.
Synology Diskstation DS414slim 4-Bay NAS on Bigbruin.

Video Cards:
HIS R7 370 IceQ X2 OC 2GB on Madshrimps.
Sapphire Nitro R7 370 on LanOC Reviews.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming G1 6GB on ocaholic.
Intel Skylake HD Graphics 530 Performance On Linux.

Cases:
Rosewill WolfAlloy on Hardware Asylum.
Cooler Master MasterCase 5 on TechPowerup.
be quiet! Silent Base 800 on Legit Reviews.
Cooler Master MasterCase 5 on TweakTown.
Element Gaming Hyperian on eTeknix.
Thermaltake Suppressor F51 Midi Tower on NikKTech.

Cooling:
Noctua NH-D15S on TweakTown.
be quiet! Shadow Rock LP on techPowerUp.
Enermax Liqmax II 240mm AIO CPU Cooler on eTeknix.

Audio:
Tt eSports Cronos (Bass Boosted) on Vortez.
Shure SE112m+ Sound Isolating In-Ear Headset on TweakTown.

Misc:
Azio MGK1 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Neoseeker.
GT Omega Pro Blue Gaming Chair on ocaholic.



Tuesday Afternoon Reviews (2 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 18-August-2015  15:12:55 (GMT +10) - by booj

Motherboards & CPUs:
ASRock Z170 Extreme4 on TweakTown.
ASUS Maximus VIII Gene Preview on ocaholic.
MSI Z170A GAMING M7 on eTeknix.

Cases:
Fractal Design Define S on APH Networks.
MAINGEAR Shift on Modders-Inc.
Cooler Master MasterCase 5 (Pro) on Guru3D.
SilverStone Sugo SG12 Micro-ATX Case on Benchmark Reviews.

Power Supplies:
EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650 W on techPowerUp.
DeepCool DQ750 EVO Quanta 750W PSU on NikKTech.

Cooling:
Noctua NH-D15S CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Reeven Steropes RC-1206 Low-Profile CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
Deepcool Assassin II on OCC.

Input etc:
Tesoro Excalibur Spectrum Mechanical Keyboard on APH Networks.
Tt eSPORTS BLACK V2 Gaming Mouse on Madshrimps.
Cooler Master introduced their Quickfire XTi keyboard on LanOC Reviews.
Corsair STRAFE on Vortez.

Graphics Cards:
ASUS R9 390X STRIX DirectCU III 8G OC on HardOCP.
HIS Radeon R9 390 IceQ X2 OC 8GB on TweakTown.

Misc:
Six 32-inch Ultra HD monitors on Hardware.info
Toshiba AL13SXB600N 600GB SAS 6Gb/s HDD on NikKTech.



Monday Morning (7 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 17-August-2015  08:29:55 (GMT +10) - by booj

Are you one of those who worries about all the electromagentic radiation whizzing around from phones and WiFi? Want to protect your crown jewels? Grab yourself some shielded undies. A British scientist has developed a new line of underpants called Wireless Armour, that aims to protect male fertility by blocking electromagnetic radiation from Wi-Fi devices such as smartphones and laptops.

Is Apple building a self driving car? The guardian thinks so. Documents show the oft-rumoured Apple car project appears to be further along than many suspected.

Phoronix test the GTX 980 Ti under Linux. For the past few weeks I've been extensively testing the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti on Linux and it's been a rather pleasant experience. Compared to the troubles with the R9 Fury on Catalyst Linux, the GTX 980 Ti has been a pleasant experience and yielding terrific results, assuming you're okay with using NVIDIA's proprietary driver.

Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, better known as the comet visited by the Rosetta probe, has passed perihelion, or its closest approach to the sun.

In case you missed it, Samsung have announced the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Anandtech have a hands on here.

The ongoing court battle over the illegal downloading of Dallas Buyers Club has seen another development with the Federal court effectively ruling against speculative 'license fees' and 'extra damages' The Federal Court has refused an application from the makers of the movie Dallas Buyers Club which would have forced internet service providers (ISPs) to hand over the details of customers who illegally downloaded the film.

Mozilla have introduced a new privacy mode to their Firefox Browser. The new Private Browsing option, released in a pre-beta version of Firefox for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android, takes the existing privacy window and layers on blocking of third-party analytics and tracking systems.

Is 4Gb of video memory enough? The Tech Report try to answer that question. Will a 4GB video card run into performance problems in current games, and if so, when?



2015 NVIDIA GeForce Garage (7 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 14-August-2015  21:22:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg

NVIDIA are running a PC modding contest, with entries open until the 20th of August and community voting taking place after that.

Enter NVIDIA’s PC Modding Contest and you could win US$1,000 Cash! NVIDIA invites you to build up your own gaming PC machine from the bottom up, assembled from parts you select according to your own preference.
The Top 3 modding cases will win cash of US $1,000, US$600 and US$300 respectively. Plus, both participants and voters will have a chance to win GeForce GTX series card.


It's open to Australians but seems to require a Facebook account to participate. Discussion here in Modding.



Misc Pics (28 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 14-August-2015  14:29:50 (GMT +10) - by Rezin

Friday again!







Friday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 14-August-2015  06:52:09 (GMT +10) - by booj

Motherboards & CPUs:
GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 on TweakTown.
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on OCC.
AMD A10-7870K on LanOC Reviews.
AMD vs Intel - 8-Core CPU Gaming Performance on TechnologyX.

Storage:
Strontium Nitro Plus Nano 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on TweakTown.
Samsung SSD 850 Evo 2TB on Legion Hardware.
Toshiba HK3R2 960 GB SSD on Techpowerup.
Seagate PRO NAS DP6 on Computing on Demand.

Cooling:
SilverStone Tundra Series TD03-Lite AIO CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
SilverStone TD03-E Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Noctua NH-U9S U-Type Tower CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Reeven Brontes CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc.

Cases:
Thermaltake Core X1 ITX Computer Case Video Overview on Modders-Inc.
Fractal Design Node 202 on Madshrimps.
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Tower on TweakTown.

Input etc:
Corsair Gaming Strafe Mechanical Keyboard on Legit Reviews.
Corsair Strafe Mechanical Keyboard on Guru3D.
ROCCAT NYTH Modular Gaming Mouse on Benchmark Reviews.

Misc:
Kingston HyperX CLOUD II Pro Gaming Headset on NikKTech.
Vantec U320GNA USB 3.0 Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet Adapter on TweakTown.
Nvidia Shield Android TV on TechReport.
EVGA GTX 980 Ti Classified Video Card on Hardware Asylum.



Wednesday Morning Reviews (1 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 12-August-2015  09:09:58 (GMT +10) - by booj

Motherboards & CPUs:
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on Lan OC.
EVGA Z170 FTW on TweakTown.
Intel Core i7-6700K on Modders-Inc.
MSi 970A SLI Krait Edition on eTeknix.
ASUS Z170-A on Hardware Heaven.

Graphics Cards:
HIS R9 380 IceQ X2 OC 2GB on Madshrimps.
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G on TweakTown.
ASUS Radeon R9 390X STRIX 8G on Guru3D.

Storage:
Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SSD on NikKTech.
SilverStone MS08 Internal SATA Hot Swap Bay on APH Networks.
ADATA Premier SP610 256GB Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.

Cases:
Fractal Design Core 1500 on ThinkComputers.
Cooltek RM1 on techPowerUp.

Cooling:
Noctua NH-D9L CPU Cooler on Frostytech.
Noctua NH-C14S on TweakTown.

Portable & Prebuilt:
ASUS ROG G751JY Laptop on Hot Hardware.
NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV on Techgage.

Input etc:
Corsair Strafe mechanical keyboard on Hardware Heaven.
AZIO EXO1-K Gaming Mouse on Neoseeker.

Misc:
LG 34UC87C 34-inch 21:9 Curved UltraWide IPS Monitor on TweakTown.
Hobbico Heli-Max 230Si Quadcopter Drone on Geek Inspector.



Tuesday Morning (12 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 11-August-2015  08:07:05 (GMT +10) - by booj

Tech Report has a podcast featuring special guest David Canter to deep dive into Intel's new Skylake CPU's. Well worth a listen if you want to hear from someone who truly understands CPU architectures.

Techspot test Windows 10 to find out how it fares compared to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in various aspects of the operating system including boot up and shutdown times, file copying, encoding, browsing, gaming and some synthetic benchmarks. There's plenty of Win10 discussion ongoing in this thread.

ISS astronauts have had their first taste of space lettuce. The vegetable experiment had been a long-awaited harvest for the astronauts, who say that the ability to grow and sustain crops in space may someday aid travelers on long space trips. Cultivating crops is seen as a critical step in the path to traveling to Mars, for instance. The verdict? “That’s awesome,” Mr. Lindgren said.

Are you a lol'er, a haha'er or a hehe'er? Based on a new report from Facebook, users that use LOL or laugh out loud to show laughter are in a minority. The vast majority of people in our dataset are haha-ers (51.4%), then there are the emoji lovers (33.7%), the hehe-ers (12.7%), and finally, the lol-ers (1.9%).

There's plenty of talk about how DirectX 12 will lead to increases in GPU performance by increasing the number of 'draw calls'. What exactly is a draw call (and what can it do)? Check out this article at PC Perspective to find out.

A new report on the cost of ad blocking has been released. With the use the ad blocking software on the rise, it is set to cost publishers in excess of $40bn by the end of next year according to a report from Adobe and anti-ad blocking firm PageFair, with European audiences more likely to block commercial content, compared to their US counterparts. Maybe if ads weren't so intrusive?...

The number of people falling victim to the latest version of the cryptolocker ransomware is increasing. The deputy chairwoman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Delia Rickard, said over the past two months there had been a spike in the number of people falling victim to the scam. The commission has received 2,500 complaints this year and estimates about $400,000 has been paid to the hackers.

Google have announced a massive restructuring. In a blog post today, Google co-founder Larry Page announced a massive restructuring of the company, instituting Sundar Pichai as CEO and shifting himself and co-founder Sergey Brin to a larger holding company called Alphabet.

Phoronix has a review of Windows 10 from a Linux users perspective. When I first started to talk to Michael about working with him this summer, one of the things we agreed on is that I would do a review of Windows 10. While I vastly prefer Linux as my day-to-day operating system, I do use Windows for gaming, and I also support Windows clients as part of my job at my University.

Nvidia G-Sync or AMD Freesync? Tom's Hardware ran a blind test to see what users felt was the better solution.



GearBest Contests (1 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 10-August-2015  11:28:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg

OCAU sponsor GearBest have two new contests for OCAU members. They're both pretty easy to enter:

1. Win an Android Mini TV Box

2. Win a Mechanical Keyboard

Good luck!



Sunday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Sunday, 9-August-2015  19:00:38 (GMT +10) - by aftahours

Cooling:
Xigmatek LOKI II CPU Cooler on eTeknix
Reeven Okeanos RC-1402 CPU Cooler on eTeknix

Motherboard:
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on Ocaholic
ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6 (Intel Z170) Motherboard on TweakTown
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard on ThinkComputers.org
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 on LanOC

Keyboard/Mouse:
SteelSeries Heroes of the Storm Gaming Mouse on Legit Reviews
Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 Plus on Techgage

Case:
Zalman Z11 NEO Case on Modders-Inc
ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB998SP-B Eight-Bay SATA Backplane Cage on TweakTown

Videocard:
Zotac GTX 970 AMP! Extreme Core Edition on PC Perspective
Sapphire R9 Fury Tri-X OC 4 GB on TechPowerUp
GeForce GTX 980 Ti SLI vs. Radeon R9 Fury X Crossfire on Techspot

Misc:
Datacolor Spyder5PRO Monitor Calibration Tool on APH Networks
Vantec UGT-PC370A 2-Port USB 3.1 Gen II Type-A PCIe Card on TweakTown
Intel Core i7-5775C on Modders-Inc
SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 750W & Titanium 1000W Power Supply on eTeknix



Misc Pics (23 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 7-August-2015  14:35:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Friday again! Thanks to Simon and Jake this week.









Friday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 7-August-2015  14:30:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
Biostar N3150NH Mini-ITX Motherboard on Modders-Inc.
DDR4 Memory Scaling on Intel Z170 on LegitReviews.

Storage:
Silicon Power Blaze B50 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech.
ADATA XPG SX930 SSD Review (120GB/240GB/480GB) on TheSSDReview.
Silicon Power Blaze B50 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech.
MyDigitalSSD 240GB SATA m.2 SSD on BenchmarkReviews.
Micron M510DC 480GB Enterprise SATA III SSD on Tweaktown.

Audio Visual:
Video review: Asus' MG279Q FreeSync monitor on TechReport.
Amazon Echo speaker and personal assistant on HotHardware.

Video Cards:
Sapphire R9 380 Nitro 4GB on TechnologyX.
Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme on Bjorn3D.
GeForce WHQL 353.62 Performance Analysis on BabelTech.

Input Etc:
ROCCAT NYTH mouse on Vortez.
Azio Vision Backlit Wireless Keyboard on NeoSeeker.

Cooling:
Corsair Hydro H100i GTX High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
EK Water Blocks L360 Liquid Cooling on Bjorn3D.
BeQuiet Shadow Rock LP Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Corsair Hydro H80i GT High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.

Misc:
Accell UltraAV Mini DisplayPort Y-Cable Docking Station on Tweaktown.
Lenovo LaVie Z and LaVie Z 360 notebooks on PCPerspective.



Intel Z170 Motherboard reviews (1 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 7-August-2015  07:28:55 (GMT +10) - by booj

Accompanying the new Intel Skylake CPUs is a full range of Z170 motherboards from all the major manufacturers. Note that Gigabyte appears to be absent from the first wave reviews. Expect their first reviews to follow within days.

The new LGA1151 motherboards bring DDR4 memory support and of course support overclocking for the new 6600K and 6700K processors.

ASUS Z170-A on Vortez.
ASUS Z170 Deluxe on ocaholic.
ASUS Z170-A on Tech Report.
ASUS Maximus VIII Hero on Kitguru.
ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero on TweakTown.
ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero on Guru3D.
ASUS Z170 Deluxe on Guru3D.
ASUS Z170-A on ThinkComputers.

ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ on ocaholic.
ASRock Z170 Gaming K6 on Guru3D.

MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on Guru3D.
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on Vortez.
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on Techpowerup.
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on HardwareHeaven.
MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on Hexus.



Intel Skylake Processor reviews (5 Comments) (link)
 Friday, 7-August-2015  06:38:01 (GMT +10) - by booj

Late Wednesday AU time saw the official release of Intel's highly anticipated 6th generation processors codenamed 'Skylake'.

The first processors to launch are the Core i7-6700K and i5-6600K. They are accompanied by Z170 chipset motherboards and bring the DDR4 memory standard to the mainstream PC market. Other CPUs and chipsets, right down to the entry level will follow at a later date.

Check out this list of reviews:

Anandtech

Bjorn3D
Guru3D
Hardware Heaven
Hexus
Hot Hardware
Kitguru
Lan OC
Legit Reviews
Neoseeker
Overclockers Club
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Retro Roundup (3 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 5-August-2015  21:39:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Our Retro & Arcade Forum is one of the more interesting little corners of OCAU. Here's a few projects from people in there:


Revenger is building an
Astro City arcade machine

badmofo modded an Atari
2600 with composite out

/invariance\ is cleaning
up an IBM Model M KB


philscomputerlab has a video
on building a 4-in-1 retro gamer

Urbansprawl built a
Sega Blast City MAME box

philscomputerlab also
built a Voodoo 5 P3-S gamer


badmofo also built a
Voodoo 3, Slot 1 based gamer

while alvarez used a
Voodoo2 SLi setup

and Kie built a
MAME arcade cabinet

Also, here's a few retro threads that might be of interest:

Win 9x MS-DOS Mode Tutorial by philscomputerlab.
Internet Archive - DOSbox collection - the ultimate timewaster by power.
Arcade joystick compatible games by elvis.
Anyone into original arcade boards? by @rt.
Seeking retro fulfillment by adz.
Retrobrite extreme frustration by jeremybh1.
Flyer fever by power.
N64 Thumbstick repair or replacement - what's best? by the3coopers.
Video + Poll: Is Doom playable on a 386? by philscomputerlab.
Worst rip-off consoles ever by DerekP.



Wednesday Evening (0 Comments) (link)
 Wednesday, 5-August-2015  19:07:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg

If you're in Melbourne and willing to help troubleshoot a graphics issue with a fundraising PC for Panda's Ear, find out more details of how you can lend a hand in this thread. I'll also, be very keen for help (especially in regards to Liquid Cooling, I severely lack experience here) so if anyone is keen, I am in the outer Western Suburbs (near Calder Park) or I'll make some availability to come to you with Panda (within Greater Melbourne area), probably weekends.

Windows 10 continues to roll out, with discussion continuing in our Windows Operating Systems forum. Tweaktown explain how to force an update if you're tired of waiting, while HotHardware have a migration guide, Gizmodo has 5 settings to check after installation and BGR cover opting out of features that might be concerning from a privacy perspective. If that sentence sent shivers down your spine, don’t worry. As invasive as it is, Microsoft does allow Windows 10 users to opt out of all of the features that might be considered invasions of privacy. Of course, users are opted in by default, which is more than a little disconcerting, but let’s focus on the solution.

Mozilla's CEO meanwhile isn't happy about some default settings and the ease of changing them in Windows 10, with more info here. Upgrading to Windows 10 using "express settings" will automatically make Microsoft Edge your PC's default Web browser, even if you used a different browser when your PC was running Windows 7 or Windows 8. You can make Mozilla Firefox, Google (GOOGL, Tech30) Chrome, Apple (AAPL, Tech30) Safari or another app your default browser in Windows 10, but it's not as easy or intuitive to do that as it was in previous versions of Windows.

TechSpot look back at 10 years of Intel CPUs. It's hard to believe 15 years have passed since I first tested the Pentium 4 series. Although it was a pretty rubbish series, I do have many fond memories of testing the Core 2 Duo range, which arrived six long years later, and included the most popular enthusiast processor we've seen yet, the Q6600. Today we're going to take a look back at the Core 2 CPUs and compare them to the current generation Haswell Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, i5 and i7 parts.

There's some followup info on the earlier "audiophile Ethernet cables" story, thanks mpot. Firstly normal people can't tell them apart and even experts say the tests are marginal. Our cable adventure is coming to a close. First we took our two $340 AudioQuest Vodka Ethernet cables to Las Vegas and subjected one of them to a live listening test; listeners were unable to tell it apart from a $2.50 Ethernet cable of the same length. Then we took the cable we didn’t use on stage and gutted it, exposing its innards. We found an interesting mix of high craftsmanship (a thick polyethylene sheath, genuine S/FTP construction) and corner cutting (masking tape, unterminated shields).

TechRadar meanwhile have info on a working hoverboard from Lexus, thanks AmB. In a detailed video, the company revealed that it took the team 403 days from concept to final build to create to a workable hoverboard, which now weighs 11.5kg. While it's still not a true hoverboard, in the sense that it really only works on the company's 'Hoverpark' (so no, you won't be able to just pick one up for your next trip to the skate park), the tech is still rather impressive.

Also on the howto video front, Microsoft have shown how they record holographic video content for HoloLens.



Tuesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Tuesday, 4-August-2015  22:48:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
Intel Core i7-5775C LGA1150 Broadwell Processor on FutureLooks.
MSI X99A GODLIKE GAMING (Intel X99) Motherboard on Tweaktown.
AMD A-Series A10-7870K Kaveri Refresh APU on Tweaktown.

Video Cards:
HIS R9 380 IceQ X2 on PureOC.
MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G on ThinkComputers.

Cases:
Antec Signature S10 Full Tower Enclosure on PCPerspective.
anidees AI7m on TechPowerUp.

Portable & Prebuilt:
Shuttle DS57U Barebone on MadShrimps.
Dell Venue 10 Series 7000 Android Tablet on MegaTechNews.
Wiko Highway Pure 4G on OCAholic.
Motorola Moto E vs. Samsung Galaxy S6 on TechSpot.

Storage:
Seagate Desktop SSHD ST4000DX001 4TB Hybrid Hard Drive on APHNetworks.
Synology DiskStation DS1515 on LegionHW.

Misc:
MIPOW VoxTube 500 Bluetooth Headset on NikKTech.
Silverstone Tundra TD02-E Watercooler on HWAsylum.
Logitech's MX Master and MX Anywhere 2 mice on TechReport.



Monday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
 Monday, 3-August-2015  13:24:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Input Etc:
Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma keyboard on Vortez.
Logitech G29 Driving Force Racing Wheel on PCPerspective.

Video Cards:
Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5 on Bjorn3D.
EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC ACX 2.0 on OCAholic.

Storage:
Toshiba FlashAir III Wireless SD Card on MadShrimps.
Buffalo MiniStation Extreme NFC 1TB External HDD on Tweaktown.
Addonics AD2U31PX2 USB 3.1 2-Port PCIe 2X on Tweaktown.

Misc:
KeySmart Key Organizer on GeekInspector.
Bitfenix Alchemy LED Strip on Modders-Inc.
Intel Core i7 5775C CPU on OCClub.
Benchmarking Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor On Linux on Phoronix.
Kingston HyperX Cloud II (Pink) Gaming Headset on APHNetworks.
REEVEN Okeanos RC-1402 CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Cyonic AU-450x Fully Modular 450W PSU on PCPerspective.




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