February 2016

Monday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 29-February-2016  08:25:52 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Case: Raidmax Monster II on ocaholic Streacom F12C Aluminium PC Case on NikKTech Fractal Design's Define Nano S Case on Tech Report Zalman Z11 Neo Midtower Chassis on Vortez PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1000W on Tech Powerup Whitenergy ATX-350W on Hardware Insights Storage: OCZ Trion150 240GB and 480GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix Mushkin Reactor 512GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix Lexar Professional 1800x 64GB UHS-II microSDXC Memory Card on TweakTown Patriot Supersonic Magnum 2 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on APH Networks Portable: Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Series (7568) 2-in-1 Laptop on Tech ARP Xiaomi Mi5 Mobile Phone on Anandtech Razer's Blade Stealth gaming ultraportable on Engadget Games: XCOM 2 PC on TweakTown Firewatch (PS4) on Gaming Nexus XCOM 2 PC on Tech Report Misc: Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 Motherboard on LanOC XFX Radeon R9 Fury Triple Dissipation Video Card on Legit Reviews ID-Cooling Hunter VC-Twin CPU Cooler on eTeknix Zalman ZM-M600R Optical Gaming Mouse on TweakTown Misc Pics (25 Comments) (link)  Friday, 26-February-2016  14:45:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot and xrobau this week! 3D OCAU Logo (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 26-February-2016  14:08:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg If you were one of the many OCAUers who bought one of the 3D printers from ALDI recently, you should check out the discussion thread here in our Hobby Engineering forum. Also, Bullus has sent in a file you can use to print out a cool little OCAU logo. I imagine it works on other printers too: click for the post! Friday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 26-February-2016  13:51:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: Verbatim 16GB Store 'n' Go Mini Metal USB 3.0 Flash Drive on ModSynergy. Toshiba EXCERIA N301 64GB SDXC Card on MadShrimps. Synology DiskStation DS216+ on LegionHW. Input Etc: Roccat Ryos MK FX RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on eTeknix. Cooler Master Sentinel III Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps. GAMDIAS Ares Essential Gaming Combo Keyboard & Mouse on Tweaktown. Misc: Radeon R9 390X CrossFire vs. Radeon R9 FuryX video cards on OCAholic. Rise of the Tomb Raider game on OCClub. [url="http://www.technologyx.com/featured/noctua-nh-d15s-d…pu-cooler-review/"]Noctua NH-D15S D-Type Premium CPU Cooler on TechnologyX. 9-Way Intel Xeon E3 v5 Skylake Benchmarks On Ubuntu Linux on Phoronix. First Look axiim Q Wireless Home Theater System on MissingRemote. Netgear Nighthawk X8 AC5300 Tri-Band Quad Stream Wi-Fi Router on Tweaktown. Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Case on OCClub. Friday Morning (4 Comments) (link)  Friday, 26-February-2016  00:58:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg If you've been bothered by the recent lack of Tapatalk support in the forums, it is working again now - discussion continues here. Dick Smith stores will be shutting down for good, it seems. Receiver Ferrier Hodgson said on Thursday it has been unable to find a buyer for the troubled electronics retailer, which hit the rails in January with debts of about $400 million. The retailer, which blossomed with the CB radio boom of the 1970s and went on to sell computers and stereos to generations of consumers, will close 363 Australian and New Zealand stores within eight weeks. Discussion continues here. OG spotted this worrying article about gadgets phoning home. Imagine buying an internet-enabled surveillance camera, network attached storage device, or home automation gizmo, only to find that it secretly and constantly phones home to a vast peer-to-peer (P2P) network run by the Chinese manufacturer of the hardware. China is building a flippin' huge telescope. Known as FAST (Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope) the project is located in the Guizhou province in China’s southwest. It began in 2011 and engineers have now completed roughly two-thirds of the panels making up the 500m-diameter of the telescope. The current largest telescope in the world is the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico but China’s new world-beater will dwarf this version which boasts a 300m diameter. Tech Report look into the world of robot vacuums. Operating a robot vacuum as a hobbyist is a bit like running an overclocked CPU. I'm not talking about the bang-for-your-buck side of overclocking, though. It's more along the lines of the finicky but rewarding side of the endeavor. The world of robot vacuums does have its own value and performance winners, to be sure, but even the very best choices have their limits. Let's explore some of those limitations and appreciate how engaging these seemingly mundane devices can be. Thursday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 25-February-2016  12:19:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: Gigabyte X99P-SLI Motherboard on ThinkComputers. Intel Core i7-6700K vs. i5-6600K Stock and OC - CPU Gaming Performance on OCAholic. Input Etc: Corsair Scimitar RGB MMO Gaming Mouse on TechGage. Fnatic Gear Flick G1 Optical Mouse on OCClub. Audio Visual: Steelseries Siberia 200 Gaming Headset on eTeknix. SVS Prime Tower Surround Package on MissingRemote. Creative Sound BlasterX P5 Pro-Gaming Earphones on Tweaktown. Logitech Artemis Spectrum G933/G633 Headset on PCPerspective. Software: Ashes of Singularity: DX12 Benchmark II with Explicit Multi-GPU mode on Guru3D. Ashes of the Singularity with AMD and NVIDIA GPUs on Tweaktown. Ashes of the Singularity DirectX 12 Mixed GPU Performance on TechPowerUp. DirectX 12 Multi-GPU Technology Tested on TechSpot. How Ubuntu 16.04 Is Performing Compared To Five Other Linux Distributions on Phoronix. Portable & Prebuilt: Dell Inspiron 15 7568 2-in-1 Laptop on TechARP. ASUS ZenFone Zoom Review: An Android With True 3X Optical Zoom on HotHardware. Gladiator Computers APOCALYPSE Gaming PC on eTeknix. ECS LIVA ONE - A SFF PC with Muscle on Tweaktown. Misc: Noctua NH-C14S C-Type Premium CPU Cooler on TechnologyX. Sapphire Nitro OC R9 Fury Graphics Card on eTeknix. Samsung Portable SSD T3 2TB on LegitReviews. Linksys WRT1900ACS AC1900 Smart Wi-Fi Wireless Router on NikKTech. Aerocool Dream Box Chassis Kit on eTeknix. Tuesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 23-February-2016  23:07:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: Samsung Portable SSD T3 1TB on TechSpot. Samsung Portable SSD T3 2TB on PCPerspective. Samsung Portable SSD T3 2TB on Tweaktown. Samsung Portable SSD T3 on BenchmarkReviews. Samsung T3 SSD on HotHardware. Samsung T3 Portable SSD Review (2TB) on TheSSDReview. Audio Visual: Plantronics RIG 500 HD Modular Headset on Tweaktown. Corsair VOID Surround Gaming Headset on LegitReviews. Amkov AMK7000S 4K Action Camera on ModSynergy. Corsair VOID Surround headset on Vortez. Patriot Viper V360 headset and V560 Mouse on LanOC. Corsair Gaming VOID Hybrid Surround Dolby headset on Guru3D. Remocam Home Monitor on TechnologyX. Corsair VOID Surround Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers. Corsair Void Surround Hybrid Gaming Headset on eTeknix. Corsair VOID Surround Gaming Headset on MadShrimps. Input Etc: Tt eSPORTS Ventus X Laser Gaming Mouse on NikKTech. G.SKILL RIPJAWS KM780 RGB on Vortez. Misc: Swiftech H220 X2 CPU cooler on TechPowerUp. Klevv CRAS 16GB DDR4-3000C16 memory on OCAholic. EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Reference video card on OCAholic. Hands-On Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge And Gear 360 VR With Submersion Test on HotHardware. Monday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 22-February-2016  18:12:27 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Case: Corsair Carbide 600C on Tech Powerup Raidmax Hyperion Case on Modders-Inc Thermaltake Chaser A71 Full Tower Case on Johnny Guru NZXT Manta Mini-ITX Case on Hexus Audio: Epic Gear ThunderouZ Gaming Headset on TweakTown ROCCAT RENGA Gaming Headset on TweakTown Edifier H850 Hi-Fi Headphone on NikKTech Razer Adaro Earphones on TweakTown Storage: OCZ Trion 150 480 Gigabyte on ocaholic Transcend SSD370 solid-state drive on Tech Report Thermaltake Level 10 Miniature (Mini) 3.5" Storage Enclosure on TweakTown OCZ Trion 150 480GB & 960GB SATA SSD on Hardware Canucks Keyboard/Mouse: Cougar Attack X3 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TweakTown Gamdias GKC1001 Mechanical Gaming Combo Keyboard/Mouse Set on APH Networks Cooler Master Storm Sentinel III Optical Mouse on APH Networks Misc: Ventev Chargesync Alloy Cable on Techware Labs Asus B150 Pro Gaming/Aura (LGA1151) Motherboard on eTeknix Synology RT1900ac Wireless Router on Techgage HyperX Savage 2666Mhz 32GB Memory on OCC Sapphire Nitro R9 380 ITX Compact on PCWorld Asus Republic of Gamers GL552VW Gaming Laptop on Hexus.net ASUS GeForce GTX 960 Strix Direct CUII OC 2GB (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 21-February-2016  11:07:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg headin2001 has posted an impressively detailed review of the ASUS GeForce GTX 960 Strix Direct CUII OC 2GB video card. The card is based on the Maxwell based GM206 GPU with a healthy overclock from the factory. The main competitor for this series of card is AMD’s R9 285 which is priced quite a bit higher than the GTX 960. click for the thread! Misc Pics (19 Comments) (link)  Friday, 19-February-2016  14:49:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot and aftahours this week! Friday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 19-February-2016  14:47:53 (GMT +10) - by Agg Australia's proposed 3-strikes anti-piracy scheme has been shelved over cost issues. A three strikes scheme to track down individual pirates and send them warning letters about their downloading habits has been all but quashed, after rights holders and ISPs decided that manually targeting and contacting downloaders would be too costly. Apple have posted a letter to their customers, outlining their concerns about a recent ruling that they should let the FBI access customer data. Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession. Discussion here. Engaget report on new 5D disks that might last pretty much forever. Researchers at the University of Southampton's Optical Research Center announced on Tuesday that they've perfected a technique that can record data in 5 dimensions and keep it safe for billions of years. The method etches data into a thermally stable disc using femtosecond laser bursts. The storage medium itself holds up to 360 TB per disc, can withstand temperatures up to 1000 degrees C and are estimated to last up to 13.8 billion years at room temperature without degrading. Finally, Trevor68 wants to remind everyone that OCAU has a Folding@Home Team. To get your PC helping to search for cures for diseases, find more info in the Wiki. Friday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 19-February-2016  06:56:43 (GMT +10) - by booj Motherboards: ASRock Z170 Extreme4 motherboard on Vortez. Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 6 on TweakTown. Storage: Silicon Power Mobile C80 Dual Flash Drive for Type-C on Madshrimps. Verbatim 16GB Store 'n' Go Mini Metal USB 3.0 Flash Drive on ModSynergy. OCZ Trion 150 SSD on Techspot. Samsung 950 Pro M.2 PCIe Gen 3x4 NVMe SSD RAID 0 on TweakTown. OCZ Trion 150 480GB & 960GB SATA SSDs on Hardware Canucks. Cases: NZXT Manta Mini ITX chassis on Guru3D. Phanteks Eclipse P400S on TechnologyX. Corsair Carbide 400C on Hardware Canucks. Cooling: Thermalright Le Grand Macho Passive CPU Cooler on NikKTech. CRYORIG H5 Ultimate CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. SilverStone Tundra TD-03 Slim AIO CPU Cooler on HardOCP. Input etc: Gamdias Mechanical Gaming Combo on Benchmark Reviews. SteelSeries Apex M800 Customizable Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech. Zalman ZM-K700M Keyboard on Vortez. Misc: Braven BRV-1 Bluetooth Speaker on ThinkComputers. Patriot Viper Elite DDR4-3200 16GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown. Asus Chromebit CS10 ChromeOS HDMI Dongle on Missing Remote. MINIX NGC-1 Intel Braswell-Based Silent, SFF Mini PC on Hot Hardware. Thursday Morning Reviews (2 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 18-February-2016  06:01:01 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Keyboard: Corsair STRAFE RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard[ on Madshrimps Cougar 450K Gaming Keyboard on Think Computers PSU/NAS: SilverStone Strider Platinum ST75F-PT 750W Power Supply on APH Networks QNAP TS-453A 4-bay NAS on techPowerUp Case: DeepCool GamerStorm Genome on Guru3D Thermaltake Core P5 Case on Ocaholic Motherboard: MSI Z170A Xpower Gaming Titanium Edition Motherboard on Madshrimps ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4 ATX on Toms Hardware Storage: Samsung 750 EVO SSD Review (120GB/250GB) on The SSD Review Samsung 750 EVO 120GB and 250GB 2.5" SATA SSD on PC Perspective Samsung 750 EVO 120 & 250GB SATA III SSDs on TweakTown Cooling: EKWB Predator 360 All-in-one CPU Cooler on Modders Inc Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer 120 AIO CPU Cooler on HardOCP SilverStone Tundra TD-02 Slim AIO CPU Cooler on HardOCP Misc: NVIDIA Shield 4K Android TV on TweakTown Huntkey SZN507 Smart Power Strip on TechARP Huawei Mate 8 Mobile Phone on Hot Hardware Diamond GameCaster HD GC2000 Capture Device on Gaming Nexus Synology RT1900ac 802.11ac Wireless Router on TweakTown IOGear Kaliber Gaming Saga Surround Sound Gaming Headphones on OCC ADATA SP550 240GB SSD (3 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 17-February-2016  10:31:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg I've taken a look at the Premium SP550 SSD from ADATA, in 240GB capacity. It's a budget drive in a minimalist package, but seems pretty good for the price: click for the review! Tuesday Afternoon (2 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 16-February-2016  16:40:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg Unsurprisingly, Telstra's "free mobile data" offer on Sunday resulted in their busiest day ever. By midnight, our customers had downloaded 1,841 terabytes of data. That’s the equivalent of around 2.3 million movies, or 5.1 million episodes of Game of Thrones, or 23 million downloads of Kanye’s new The Life of Pablo album, or 1.4 billion downloads of last year’s Miles Franklin winner, Eye of the Sheep – depending on the source and the quality of the file, of course. The Dallas Buyers Club case is officially over, with the film's owners choosing not to continue with their legal fight with iiNet. Michael Bradley, the managing partner of DBC LLC law firm Marque Lawyers, told iTnews the company would not make any further applications in the case after its bid to access the details of 4726 alleged pirates was blocked in the federal court. In December, Justice Perram said DBC LLC had failed to prosecute its case to access the details. I have to admit I don't really get the whole Twitch thing. But others obviously do, as they are growing rapidly and raising a fortune for charities, thanks aftahours. Just in case anyone was still confused about the bright purple future of live streaming, today the company shared some internal statistics from 2015, including the fact that it helped streamers raise $17.4 million for more than 55 charities last year. Tech-Report built a mini powerhouse PC. We recently built a small-form-factor PC we like to call the Breadbox with some help from our sponsors at Gigabyte, OCZ, G.Skill, EVGA, and Logitech. We documented this Breadbox on video, and now it's ready to make its Hollywood debut. Grab some popcorn and enjoy our tour of this pint-sized gaming PC. There's a fatal date bug in 64-bit iOS. Manually setting the date of your iPhone or iPad to 1 January 1970, or tricking your friends into doing it, will cause it to get permanently stuck while trying to boot back up if it’s switched off. The bug within Apple’s date and time settings within iOS causes such an issue that users are reporting that the fail-safe restore techniques using iTunes are not able to repair the problem. Unsurprisingly pranksters are apparently bricking demo phones in Apple stores this way, and the suggestion is an evil NTP server could send out poisoned packets to kill devices too. Quite a few people sent word that ALDI will have a $500 3D printer on special from tomorrow. I don't normally link sales as news, but this is a pretty noteworthy step on the way to 3D printing becoming mainstream. With the affordable and reliable Cocoon Create 3D Printer you can now print your own toys, jewellery, crafts, replacement parts, figurines etc. The heated bed, strong steel construction and durable components ensure your prints are consistent, every time. Discussion here. Sniper meanwhile spotted this functioning V8 engine.. made of paper. Tuesday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 16-February-2016  16:16:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg CPU & Motherboard: Intel Core i5-6600K Stock versus 4.5GHz Overclocked on OCAholic. MSI Z170A Xpower Gaming Titanium Edition on HWHeaven. Cooling: AMD Wraith Cooler on HWHeaven. SilverStone TD03-Slim Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. Storage: OCZ Trion 150 SSD on HWHeaven. Qnap TAS-268 NAS on HWHeaven. Mushkin Striker 480GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix. Audio Visual: Amkov AMK7000S 4K Action Camera on ModSynergy. Monster 24K Bluetooth Superstar Backfloat speaker on TechWareLabs. Acer Predator X34 Curved G-SYNC Gaming Monitor on TechGage. ViewSonic 27-inch 4K LED Monitor (VP2780-4K) on Tweaktown. Thrustmaster Y-280CPX Gaming Headset on OCInside. Input Etc: Razer Wildcat gamepad on Vortez. Razer Naga Chroma mouse on HWHeaven. Furniture: BattleBull Combat Gaming Chair on Tweaktown. Vertagear S-Line SL4000 Gaming Chair on Modders-Inc. Misc: Deepcool Dukase Midi Tower on NikKTech. MSI’s New 14" Portable Gaming Powerhouse on CustomPCReview. Sunday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 14-February-2016  23:49:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: OCZ TRION 150 480GB SATA III SSD on Tweaktown. Synology DiskStation DS416 4-bay NAS on MadShrimps. OCZ Trion 150 480GB SSD on LegitReviews. OCZ Trion 150 SSD on HotHardware. Mushkin Striker 480GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix. Memory: G.Skill TridentZ 3200 MHz DDR4 on Guru3D. GeIL Super Luce DDR4-3000C16 16GB on OCAholic. Cases: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M on APHNetworks. Corsair Carbide 400C on APHNetworks. Video Cards: Sapphire R9 380 ITX Compact 4GB on LanOC. ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti Matrix 6 GB on TechPowerUp. GeForce GTX 980 Ti vs. Radeon R9 FuryX on OCAholic. EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Hybrid Gaming on LegitReviews. Audio Visual: ASUS PB328Q 2560x1440 32-in VA-panel Monitor on PCPerspective. Monster Adistar Adidas Bluetooth Headphones on TechWareLabs. Kinivo URBN Bluetooth Headphones on ThinkComputers. Input Etc: Cougar 450K Hybrid Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown. G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 MX Keyboard on HWAsylum. Misc: CRYORIG A80 Hybrid Liquid Cooling System on NikKTech. NZXT HUE+ RGB LED Controller on BenchmarkReviews. Moto 360 Sport - A Smartwatch Fitness Tracking Hyrid on HotHardware. GIGABYTE GTX 980Ti G1 & XTREME GAMING motherboards on Vortez. ToughTested Rugged Battery Pack on LegitReviews. Free Telstra Mobile Data Tomorrow (55 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 13-February-2016  17:28:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg If you're a Telstra customer you probably know this already, but if not, Telstra are offering free mobile data tomorrow, by way of apology for the recent major outage. To show how sorry we are for the inconvenience this caused, we’re giving our Telstra mobile customers free mobile data within Australia this Sunday. Free mobile data is available from midnight to midnight in your local Australian time zone on Sunday 14 February 2016. I assume the "within Australia" refers to where your device is, not that it only applies to websites hosted within Australia. :) Scheduled Outages (3 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 13-February-2016  09:39:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg Around midnight tonight and at about 10am tomorrow there'll be a couple of forum outages for maintenance and upgrades. The plan is to upgrade a few things including the forum software, which will hopefully help us narrow down some other issues. Thanks for your patience. Done! Report any weirdness in this thread, please. Misc Pics (28 Comments) (link)  Friday, 12-February-2016  14:23:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot and OneArmedMan this week! and now here's a quick timewaster: search for "atari breakout" in Google then go to the images page. Enjoy! Thursday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 11-February-2016  07:53:36 (GMT +10) - by booj Motherboards & CPUs: AMD Carrizo on Anandtech. ASUS Z170 Maximus VIII Extreme Assembly on Guru3D. Storage: PNY CS1311 SSD Review (120GB/480GB) on The SSD Review. Samsung PM863 240 Gigabyte SSD on ocaholic. ASUSTOR AS5002T 2-Bay Intel Bay Trail NAS on Missing Remote. Cases: Fractal Design Core 500 SFF Chassis on Madshrimps. NZXT Manta on ThinkComputers. Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX on PC Perspective. Input etc: SteelSeries Apex M800 Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Techgage. Cooler Master Storm QuickFire XT (Cherry MX Green/Blue) Mechanical Keyboard on APH Networks. Tt eSPORTS Poseidon Z RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech. Ozone Neon Precision Laser Mouse on Neoseeker. Cougar 450M Ambidextrous Optical Gaming Mouse on TweakTown. ASUS Cerberus Gaming Peripherals on eTeknix. Hot Keys Project Artisan Keycaps on LanOC Reviews. Portables & Prebuilt: Dell Precision 15 5510 Mobile Workstation on Hot Hardware. Intel Compute Stick "2" STK1AW32SC 2GB Windows 10 on TweakTown. Misc: EVGA 750W GQ Power Supply on PC Perspective. Swiftech H220 X2 Prestige CPU Cooler on Techpowerup. GAMDIAS EROS ELITE EQ Headset on Benchmark Reviews. Stanley FatMax LEDLISL Lithium-Ion LED Flashlight on ModSynergy. Lexar Jumpdrive M20i Flash Drive (5 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 10-February-2016  23:46:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg It's not very often that we look at Apple-specific products, so I had to outsource this review to a friend in the Mac camp. So, what does HE think of the Lexar Jumpdrive M20i? Well... click for the review! Wednesday Lunchtime (6 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 10-February-2016  12:46:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg Today is apparently Safer Internet Day 2016. A couple of people pointed out that Google are encouraging people to review their security settings, by offering 2GB of Google Drive for free. To get the extra Drive space, all you have to do is sign into your Google account and review your security settings, including factors like two-step verification, authorized devices, account verification settings, and a couple more. The process takes just a few minutes, and once you complete the check-up, you'll be awarded the extra 2GB of permanent Drive space for free. Amazon have a new free game development service called Lumberyard. Amazon Lumberyard is a free, cross-platform, 3D game engine for developers to create the highest-quality games, connect their games to the vast compute and storage of the AWS Cloud, and engage fans on Twitch. This game engine helps developers build beautiful worlds, make realistic characters, and create stunning real-time effects. Discussion here. One Telstra tech had a bad day yesterday, apparently single-handedly causing a nationwide outage. In his defence, there probably shouldn't be a situation where one misconfiguration can take the whole network down for hours. Telstra chief operations officer Kate McKenzie said that there are 10 signalling nodes distributed around the country and one was taken down around lunchtime. “Unfortunately, the individual did not follow the correct procedures and restarted the malfunctioning node before he transferred the customers off to the other nodes,” she said. “That then caused sever congestion across the remaining nodes and prevented people from being able to register a signal.” Apparently Google will serve up bogus search results to would-be Jihadis, thanks aftahours. Jihadi sympathisers who type extremism-related words into Google will be shown anti-radicalisation links instead, under a pilot scheme announced by the internet giant. The new technology means people at risk of radicalisation will be presented with internet links which are the exact opposite of what they were searching for. I'm ok with this specific instance, but somehow this seems a slightly worrying precedent. The popular media player VLC turns 15. Technically the project is almost 5 years older but this is the anniversary of VLC being licensed to the GPL license, which happened on the 1st of February 2001. Under the GPL license, it is now worked on by many contributors across the world but prior to that it was being developed by students at Ecole Centrale Paris. Congrats Bullus! (10 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 9-February-2016  15:46:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg Congratulations to OCAU member Bullus! I'll let him tell the story: Thanks to your news post on Friday regarding the Nvidia event I was able to register and attend the event (which was a blast, got to talk to all the vendors PR people) and won final prize of the first session, a MSI GeForce GTX 970 OC 4GB :). Here is an image of my new MSI dragon teaching my WoW whelplings about the increase of framerates we will get in Nvidia 3D vision while playing WoW in stereoscopic 3D. Nice! click to enlarge Tuesday Afternoon Reviews (2 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 9-February-2016  14:41:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg Portable & Prebuilt: Dell XPS 13 (Late 2015) Windows laptop on TechSpot. iBuyPower Paladin Z860 Custom Gaming PC on OCInside. Motherboard & CPU: ASUS 970 PRO GAMING/AURA on Vortez. SuperMicro C7Z170-OCE (LGA1151) on eTeknix. Cooling: AMD's Wraith CPU cooler on TechReport. Scythe Ninja 4 SCNH-4000 Heatsink on FrostyTech. Input Etc: Patriot Viper V760 Keyboard on Modders-Inc. SteelSeries Nimbus MFi Wireless iOS Controller on eTeknix. Audio Visual: Beelink MX64 TV Box on PCReview. Amkov AMK5000S WiFi HD Action Camera on ModSynergy. BoomCloud 360’s BoomStick speaker on TechnologyX. Jabra ROX Wireless In-Ear Stereo Earbuds on NikKTech. Storage: Kingston HyperX Savage 128GB USB 3.1 Gen 1 Flash Drive on NikKTech. Lexar Professional 2000x 128GB SDXC UHS-II/U3 on LegitReviews. QNAP TS-453A 4-bay QTS-Ubuntu Combo NAS on MadShrimps. Cases: Jonsbo UMX1 Plus Windowed on OCAholic. Phanteks Eclipse P400 on APHNetworks. Software: Rise Of The Tomb Raider PC Game Benchmarks on LegitReviews. Rise of the Tomb Raider PC Graphics and CPU Performance on TechSpot. Misc: Holy Stone F181 Universe Explorer Quadcopter Drone on ModSynergy. NVIDIA GeForce GT 710: NVIDIA's Newest Sub-$50 GPU On Linux on Phoronix. G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-3400 16GB Memory on OCClub. TP-LINK Archer C2600 MU-MIMO Wireless Dual-Band Router on Tweaktown. Monday Afternoon (15 Comments) (link)  Monday, 8-February-2016  13:35:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg AMD have some new CPUs and a new stock cooler, called the Wraith, which they claim offers better cooling with less noise. Coverage on PC Perspective, HotHardware, LanOC, TechARP and Techgage. People are reporting an issue with a new software update which seems to disable iPhones that have been fixed by unauthorised repairers. The issue appears to affect handsets where the home button, which has touch ID fingerprint recognition built-in, has been repaired by a “non-official” company or individual. It has also reportedly affected customers whose phone has been damaged but who have been able to carry on using it without the need for a repair. SilentPCReview have a 4K Gaming PC Build Guide. A 4K (aka UHD) display has a native resolution of 3840x2160, quadruple that of 1080p, for a ridiculous total of 8.3 million pixels. Spread across a large display, this arguably offers a more immersive gaming experience than a triple-monitor configuration with bezels in between, and a more usable workspace for non-gaming activities. It's not a cheap endeavor however as even some high-end GPUs can't deliver suitable frame rates. Given this kind of horsepower, component selection is critical to limit the noise output on such a PC. Unfortunately Presto say that Australia's internet is too slow for 4K content. The TV-streaming firm will officially launch new phone and tablet apps, Apple TV streaming, and high-definition content for subscribers on Tuesday, but it will postpone offering 4K content until broadband speeds improve in Australia. Seagate is being sued over hard drive failures. According to details, spotted by Overclock3d.net, Seagate is sued for the high failure rates of their 3TB external and internal hard disk drives as well as the inability to deliver non-defective hard drives that conform to their express and implied warranties. The lawsuit states that this is a breach of consumer protection, unfair competition and false advertising as well as unjust enrichment. Tweaktown have spent a month with the Thecus N5810 Pro NAS and really like it. I'm quite fond of the one I reviwed recently too. The setup of the Thecus N5810 PRO was super-easy, so much so that I was up and running within minutes. The longest time you'd spend on the setup procedure would be building your RAID array, which can take hours. I'm only using two Seagate HDDs in the N5810 PRO, so it was a quick experience getting things to operational capacity. Microsoft are working on underwater datacentres. The preliminary results of Project Natick — the testing of a prototype vessel on the ocean floor — have been released after a four-month plan. The Natick mission was to build and operate an underwater data centre. The overall goal of the project is to deploy data centres at scale anywhere in the world from decision to power-on within 90 days. As hinted at in Misc Pics last week, eagles are being trained to attack drones. In collaboration with raptor training company Guard From Above, Dutch police taught an eagle to recognize a DJI drone. Once in sight, the bird flies toward its mechanical prey, snatches it with its enormous talons and then takes it to safe place. The eagle is one of the two "physical" methods the force are trialling -- the other being a safety net -- but a trained bird of prey gives officers more control over where the offending drone is brought down to earth. Saturday Night Reviews (1 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 6-February-2016  22:27:02 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Cooling: Swiftech H320 X2 All-In-One Watercooling Kit on Modders-Inc Antec Kuhler H20 H1200 Pro & H600 Pro AIO Water Cooler on eTeknix Noctua NH-D15S CPU Cooler on eTeknix Portable: Ventev 3015+ Battery Pack/Wall Charger combo on Techware Labs HP Pro Slate 8 on Hot Hardware EXMobile iCute Plus Smartphone on Rojak Pot Storage: PNY CS2211 SSD on Techware Labs Micron M600 512GB SSD on NikKTech OCZ TRION 150 SSD (240GB) on Guru3D PNY CS1311 SSD Review (480GB) on TechnologyX CRUCIAL BX200 960 GB SSD on OC Inside Micron M600 512GB SSD on NikKTech Keyboard/Mouse: Zalman ZM-M600R Mouse on Vortez Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum RGB Mechanical Keyboard on PC Perspective G.Skill Ripjaws KM780 RGB Mechanical Keyboard on APH Networks RAM: Patriot Viper 4 DDR4 3200MHz 16GB (2x8GB) Dual Channel Memory Kit on eTeknix Apacer Panther DDR4-2666 16GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown Motherboard: MSI X99A Godlike Gaming on Ocaholic Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 on Hot Hardware Audio: G.Skill Ripjaws SR910 Real 7.1 Gaming Headset on Hardware Asylum AfterShokz Gamez Bone Conducting Gaming Headphones on Legit Reviews Accessory Power Enhance GX-H2 Gaming Headphones on Technology X Misc: OWC Mercury Pro 16x External USB 3.0 Blu-ray Drive on TweakTown Zotac NEN SN970 Steam Machine on ThinkComputers.org EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 PSU on Tech Powerup Corsair Carbide 400Q Case on Benchmark Reviews Misc Pics (50 Comments) (link)  Friday, 5-February-2016  14:46:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday again! Wednesday Night Reviews (2 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 3-February-2016  23:48:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: Asus ROG Maximus VIII Impact on TechReport. ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Impact on NeoSeeker. Cooling: Reeven Okeanos CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. SilverStone Tundra TD03-SLIM Closed Loop Water Cooler on APHNetworks. Cases: Lian Li PC-X510 on OCInside. NZXT Manta Mini-ITX case on Vortez. NZXT Manta Mini-ITX on eTeknix. BitFenix Pandora ATX on OCAholic. Fractal Design Core 500 Mini-ITX Chassis on eTeknix. Fractal Design Define Nano S mini-ITX on Guru3D. BitFenix Pandora ATX on OCAholic. Video Cards: Gainward GTX 960 Phantom 4GB on LegionHW. GeForce GTX TitanX vs. Radeon R9 FuryX on OCAholic. AMD Radeon R9 Fury X vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X @ 11,520 x 2160 on Tweaktown. Inno3D GeForce GTX 980Ti X3 Ultra DHS on eTeknix. Portable & Prebuilt: M-Edge Beast iPhone 6/6S Case on TechnologyX. Shuttle XPC Slim XS35V5 Pro Barebone on MadShrimps. Storage: PNY CS2211 SSD Review (480GB) on TechnologyX. Triple M.2 Samsung 950 Pro Z170 PCIe NVMe RAID Tested - Why So Snappy? on PCPerspective. Synology DS216play Two-Bay Consumer NAS on Tweaktown. Kingston HyperX Savage 128GB USB 3.1 Gen 1 Flash Drive on Modders-Inc. Input Etc: Cooler Master Sentinel III mouse on TechPowerUp. OZONE Argon Ocelote World Laser Gaming Mouse on NikKTech. Input Club Infinity ErgoDox Ergonomic Keyboard Kit on LanOC. Misc: Rise of the Tomb Raider: AMD and NVIDIA Performance Results on PCPerspective. be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Power Supply on ThinkComputers. NETGEAR Nighthawk R7300 AC1900 DST Router on Tweaktown. Forum Projects (1 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 2-February-2016  13:29:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's some reviews and projects from the forums: slipperyskip has a new Project SkyVue wooden PC gazza30 checked out the MSI Z170 SLI PLUS mobo HMHAMz is building a mostly printed CNC/3D printer shane41 tried out a CPU de-lidding tool Paulie_AU has a very tidy FD Define S WC PC -inVaRed.'s Project TITAN has had some more updates Monday Evening (4 Comments) (link)  Monday, 1-February-2016  20:47:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg Gigabyte, Team.AU and HWBOT have a new overclocking competition in the forums. For those of you who don't know HWBOT is; hwbot.org is the foremost overclocking website, where individuals and teams compete in overclocking benchmarks against each other from all around the world, pushing hardware to it's silicone limits. Currently our Australia OC HWBot team is ranked 20th in the world out of 3328 and is punching well above it's weight. The team is free to join and new members are welcome. Apple have issued a global recall for power adapters, due to an electrical shock risk. Apple is recalling some power adapters sold with Mac computers, iPhones, iPads and iPods since 2003. The affected adapters were made between 2003 and 2015, and use a two-prong plug into the power socket, used across Europe, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and South Korea. They were also included in Apple’s World Travel Adapter kit sold in the UK and US. Tired of updating the Java plugin? I'm not, coz I removed it ages ago. But it seems Oracle are going to kill it off for good soon. Despite these improvements, Oracle is still deprecating the Java plugin when it releases Java 9, and removing it entirely at some point after that date. Both Edge and Chrome have already nuked browser support for Java from orbit; Firefox announced plans to do so late last year. Historically, Oracle has been slow to respond to vulnerabilities in Java, and its sandboxing was never as foolproof as the company advertised. Google apparently have big plans, for solar-powered drones providing fast internet access. In a secretive project codenamed SkyBender, the technology giant built several prototype transceivers at the isolated spaceport last summer, and is testing them with multiple drones, according to documents obtained under public records laws. If you long for the days when the Amiga ruled the world of computer graphics, you can have a retro flashback thanks to the Amiga Graphics Archive. Launched in 1985 the Commodore Amiga boasted graphics capabilities that were unsurpassed for it's time. It featured an intricate collection of custom chips that enabled it to do things that, until then, had been impossible to achieve with other personal computers. This site is dedicated to graphics made with or for the Commodore Amiga home computer. Amiga discussion continues here in our Retro & Arcade Forum. Stirring even more nostalgia is this project to restore the U.S.S. Enterprise, by the National Air and Space Museum in the USA. That's the model used for external shots in the original series of Star Trek, of course. After a year of extensive research, conservation work on the original studio model of the USS Enterprise is now underway in the Museum’s spacedock. Our goal is to stabilize the model and return it to its appearance from August of 1967, during the filming of the episode The Trouble with Tribbles, which marked the last known modification of the ship during the production of Star Trek. A few people pointed out that there's a live feed from Himawari-8, a geostationary satellite lined up with Japan (and thus Australia). Amazing high-def, real-time photos of our part of the world, from space. Update: David sent word that there's a more Australia-centric viewer of the satellite data. Thanks! Monday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 1-February-2016  13:11:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg Input Etc: CM Storm Xornet II Gaming Mouse on OCInside. Microsoft Xbox One Elite Wireless Gaming Controller on Tweaktown. Cooler Master Storm Xornet II Optical Mouse on APHNetworks. Audio Visual: G.SKILL RIPJAWS SV710 Virtual 7.1 Gaming Headset on LegitReviews. Foscam FI9900P Outdoor 1080p HD Wireless IP Bullet Camera on Tweaktown. Storage: WD My Passport Ultra 3TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive on NikKTech. ioSafe 214 Fire and WaterProof NAS Video Review on MadShrimps. Kingston DataTraveler 2000 Encrypted Flash Drive on LegitReviews. Synology DiskStation DS1515+ Network Attached Storage on Modders-Inc. Software: Rise of the Tomb Raider PC performance analysis, good on NVIDIA & AMD on Tweaktown. Rise of the Tomb Raider: Performance Analysis on TechPowerUp. Misc: HIS Radeon R9 380X IceQ X2 Turbo 4GB video card on Tweaktown. Seek Thermal Turns Your Android Phone/Tablet Into A Thermal Imaging Camera on Phoronix.

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