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August 2017 |
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 31-August-2017 15:16:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Rezin sends word that there's been another huge data breach, although many emails in this one have simply been harvested by a spambot, it seems. Still, worth checking and changing your passwords as needed. Last week I was contacted by someone alerting me to the presence of a spam list. A big one. That's a bit of a relative term though because whilst I've loaded "big" spam lists into Have I been pwned (HIBP) before, the largest to date has been a mere 393m records and belonged to River City Media. The one I'm writing about today is 711m records which makes it the largest single set of data I've ever loaded into HIBP. Just for a sense of scale, that's almost one address for every single man, woman and child in all of Europe. This blog posts explains everything I know about it.
Tweaktown have been showing off with some 8K benchmarking. 8K might seem like it's twice as much as 4K, because - well, 4+4 = 8... but it's far more pixels than you think. 8K is 4x the pixels of 4K and 16x the pixels of 1080p. This means if you look at your 1080p TV, you'd have to have 16 of them to have the pixels that are bursting around the place at 8K. It's an incredible feat. I have Dell's new UP3218K display, which is the only native 8K monitor on the market. There are other tests done on other sites and by YouTubers at "8K", but it's not native 8K. You can run 8K by running 200% resolution on your game on a 4K monitor (200% on top of 4K renders the game at 7680x4320), but it's still not native.
Surely there can be no greater indicator that crytocurrencies have hit mainstream, than having them come free with a burger. Rather than give you another punch card or plastic loyalty card for your wallet, Burger King has a different idea for rewarding its customers: cryptocurrency. In Russia, The BK Lounge has started issuing Whoppercoins when people buy food. Save enough and you can redeem them for nuggets, burgers and King Bouqets Buckets in the country. So, pretty much just a loyalty program, but you can sell and trade the coins online like any other altcoin. Interesting.
Wednesday Midday
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Wednesday, 30-August-2017 12:30:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Recent typhoons have caused internet issues for Australia. Australian internet service providers are warning users to expect increased traffic latency for the next six weeks after twin typhoons broke a number of subsea links between Sydney and Hong Kong. Advisories by the TPG-owned iiNet and Internode report that the main issue for Australians is a cable break around 54 kilometres off the coast of Hong Kong.
Intel launched some new Xeon CPUs. The single-socket Intel Xeon W processor delivers mainstream performance optimized for the needs of traditional workstation professionals. The Intel Xeon W processor features up to 18 cores and up to 36 threads, with an Intel Turbo Boost Technology frequency up to 4.5 GHz. Mainstream workstations will experience up to a 1.87x boost in performance compared to a 4-year-old system and up to 1.38x higher performance compared to the previous generation.
Phoronix meanwhile have compared Linux distros on a dual Xeon server with 80 threads. While we routinely run various Linux distribution / operating system comparisons at Phoronix, they tend to be done on desktop class hardware and the occasional servers. This is our look at the most interesting enterprise-focused Linux distribution comparison to date as we see how Intel's Xeon Scalable platform compares on different GNU/Linux distributions when using the Tyan GT24E-B7106 paired with two Dual Xeon Gold 6138 processors. The tested configuration has 96GB of DDR4-2666 memory and 40 cores / 80 threads to see how different modern Linux distributions are affected with the latest-generation Xeon platform.
Backblaze posted their hard drive failure rates for Q2 2017. Since our last report for Q1 2017, we have added 635 additional hard drives to bring us to the 83,151 drives we’ll focus on. In Q1 we added over 10,000 new drives to the mix, so adding just 635 in Q2 seems “odd.” In fact, we added 4,921 new drives and retired 4,286 old drives as we migrated from lower density drives to higher density drives.
PCI-SIG have unveiled PCIe 4.0 and 5.0, report TomsHardware. The industry needs PCIe 4.0 to land soon, and PCI-SIG assures us it will ratify the new specification by the end of 2017. ... PCI-SIG indicates that PCIe 4.0 will be a short-lived specification because the organization has fast-tracked PCIe 5.0 for final release in 2019.
OCInside have a report from Gamescom in Germany. One of the most important European gaming fair took place in Cologne, Germany from 22nd to 26th August 2017. We have attended gamescom as well and published a gamescom report with approx. 400 gamescom pictures of latest gaming hardware, VR headsets, DCMM casemods, Cosplayer and current games on several pages at OCinside.de. It is available in German only, but it is worth watching the pictures with or without translation tool to discover the latest games and gaming hardware trends.
Some interns at NVIDIA have been learning to use AI, as Techgage report. Internships are about sorting files, serving drinks, and menial labor, right? Not at NVIDIA. When you take some high school students with an aptitude for robotics, and teach them the power of AI and deep learning, some interesting things can happen. Jetson-powered robots run rampant at NVIDIA’s head office, as the interns go wild with their new-found knowledge.
TechSpot looked into Android battery life. Battery life is one of the key features that most consumers want to see upgraded in their new phone. But what's great and what's not in today's market? We'll be looking at 500+ hours of battery life testing across 12 tests, to ensure we have the best possible picture of how current generation phones perform. Disappointed to not see my trusty uleFone Power or Power II represented.
There's a Defense Industry Cyber Challenge for all you 1337 hax0rs out there. Australia's first defence industry cyber challenge will kick off at the University of Adelaide today, in an effort to upskill and nurture home-grown infosec talent. The competition seeks to address fast-growing demand for cyber security workers, according to AustCyber (formerly known as the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network) chief Craig Davies.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 30-August-2017 10:51:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
SteelSeries Arctis 7 Lag-Free Wireless Gaming Headset on NikKTech.
SJCAM SJDASH Car Dashboard Video Camera on NikKTech.
Cooling:
Koolance CPU-390CI CPU Waterblock on PC Perspective.
Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Storage:
QNAP TS-453B 4-bay NAS on TechPowerUp.
Crucial BX300 480GB SSD on Guru3D.
Crucial BX300 on Vortez.
Synology DS1817 8-Bay NAS (Tested at 10Gbps) on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
Cooler Master MasterSet MS120 mouse & KB on LanOC.
Creative Sound BlasterX Vanguard K08 Mechanical Keyboard on APHNetworks.
Misc:
Arozzi Arena Gaming Desk on NeoSeeker.
Raijintek Thetis case on TechPowerUp.
ASUS XG-C100C 10Gbe PCIe Network Adapter on Tweaktown.
AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition 11G Graphics Card on ThinkComputers.
G.SKILL Flare X DDR4 memory on Vortez.
BeQuiet! SFX-L 600W PSU on PC Perspective.
Moto Z2 Force Review: Shatterproof, Modular Android phone on HotHardware.
Destiny 2 Beta: Performance Analysis game on TechPowerUp.
Tuesday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 29-August-2017 17:16:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Quantum Computing slips closer to mainstream, with Google offering it soon. In early July, Google announced that it will expand its commercially available cloud computing services to include quantum computing. A similar service has been available from IBM since May. These aren’t services most regular people will have a lot of reason to use yet. But making quantum computers more accessible will help government, academic, and corporate research groups around the world continue their study of the capabilities of quantum computing.
Phoronix have some Threadripper 1950X Linux benchmarks. Last week I posted some preliminary AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Linux tests while today's article is much more thorough with having more time to spend with the system. This is also the first of many other articles to come looking closer at the Threadripper Linux performance followed by EPYC. In today's article are also some initial performance-per-Watt, AC system power consumption, and performance-per-dollar results for the 1950X and other tested AMD/Intel systems.
Soon there'll be shark-detecting drones patrolling Australian beaches, according to Reuters. Drones equipped with a shark detection system powered by artificial intelligence will start patrolling some Australian beaches from next month in a bid to improve safety. The battery-powered drones will provide a live-video feed to a drone operator who then uses the shark-spotting software to identify sharks in real time and with more accuracy than the human eye.
China has extended their internet regulation, and will soon require name verification before people can comment. On August 25, China’s top internet regulator announced new rules to manage internet forums and communities, forbidding unidentified netizens from posting anything on internet platforms. The new rules will become effective on October 1. As The Diplomat has been following, since Chinese president Xi Jinping took office, China has been systematically increasing online control, and 2017 has witnessed the most fierce wave of internet censorship yet: Banning VPNs and independent multimedia contents, demanding international publishing houses such as Cambridge University Press remove specific content, punishing China’s top three internet giants for failing to manage their online platform properly, to name just a few.
Monday Midday Reviews
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Monday, 28-August-2017 12:03:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Video Cards:
RX Vega 64 Liquid “Unleashed” – 10 VR Games Benchmarked on BabelTechReviews.
The Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid, Vega 64 & Vega 56 Test: 32 Games on TechSpot.
Input Etc:
SteelSeries Sensei 310 Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
Cooler Master Devastator 3 Keyboard and Mouse on FunkyKit.
Storage:
AKiTiO Thunder3 Quad Mini Four-Bay Enclosure on Tweaktown.
iStorage diskAshur2 Review: Ultra-Secure 256-Bit AES External Storage on HotHardware.
Misc:
Team Group T-Force Delta RGB 2x 8 GB DDR4 memory on TechPowerUp.
GIGABYTE X299 AORUS Gaming 3 Motherboard on Tweaktown.
dodocool DA84 Mini Bluetooth Speaker Video Review on APHNetworks.
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX case on LanOC.
AVM FRITZ!Box 7560 AC1300 VDSL/ADSL Modem Router on NikKTech.
Friday again!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 25-August-2017 14:32:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Over 7400 households have signed up for the ACCC's broadband testing scheme. “We believe the fact that speed performance will be public is already encouraging providers to lift their game and will ensure the market operates effectively by encouraging retailers to compete on performance, as well as price, by provisioning sufficient capacity to meet their consumers’ expectations.”
Meanwhile there's been a surge in NBN impersonators scamming people. ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said the NBN scammers were signing up victims to fake accounts and often demanding payments using iTunes gift cards. Others were impersonating NBN staff to gain remote access to people’s computers, or requesting personal details as part of a phony NBN set-up.
Microsoft (or at least, part of Microsoft) say they won't be doing forced downloads anymore. Microsoft's German subsidiary has promised never again to forcibly download the installation files for new operating systems onto PCs, following a lawsuit from a consumer-protection authority. Between mid-2015 and mid-2016, as it was giving people a free upgrade to Windows 10, that's precisely what Microsoft did, dumping 6GB of data onto people's hard drives without giving them an easy way to opt out.
TechGage took a look at the high bandwidth cache controller in AMD RX Vega. AMD’s Vega GPU architecture brings many notable features to the table, but the one to find its way into Radeon chief Raja Koduri’s heart is HBCC – or “high-bandwidth cache controller”. In this article, we’re going to take a look at what HBCC is, why it offers no benefit right this moment, and talk about what it could offer in the future.
TechSpot meanwhile consider Ryzen 3 vs. Core i5-2500K vs. FX-8370 when it comes to upgrading. Although five years have passed, if we're being honest, the difference between today's seventh-generation Core i5-7600K and the 2500K isn't that big when they're matched clock-for-clock. Nonetheless, many Core i5-2500K owners have been wondering if it's time to upgrade, specifically asking whether they should move to the ultra-affordable Ryzen 3 1200 or the higher-threaded R5 1400.
TomsHardware looked into the different GPU packages people are reporting with AMD's Vega. There's been some confusion floating around about the GPU package construction of AMD's new Vega, in particular surrounding the use of molding and its impact on package height and how this will affect third-party graphics card manufacturers, both in terms of cost and timing. We've talked to several sources, examined various packaging, and conducted a couple of quick experiments in order to provide a clearer picture of these issues.
HardOCP look back at what they consider the five worst CPUs of all time. This is going to be another tough one because a lot of players have come and gone over the years and both the remaining challengers left standing have produced some turds in their day. Processors will be judged on several criteria. Among these criteria will be relevance, market lifespan, performance, overclockability, timing, innovation, and anything else I can think of at the time.
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 25-August-2017 04:31:32 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
ASRock X399 Taichi on Guru3D.
MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium on OCinside.
MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic on Modders-Inc.
Gigabyte X299 AORUS Ultra Gaming on Modders-Inc.
MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium on Hardware Canucks.
Storage:
Samsung 960 EVO 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD on NikKTech.
BIOSTAR G330 240GB SSD on Funky Kit.
Cooling:
Fractal Design Celsius S36 on techPowerUp.
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 140 Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Input etc:
Corsair's K68 water-resistant gaming keyboard on The Tech Report.
Razer Lancehead on Vortez.
Audio:
Corsair VOID Pro RGB Wireless on Vortez.
Corsair VOID PRO Wireless Gaming Headset on Techgage.
Misc:
Seasonic PRIME 1000W Platinum Power Supply on PC Perspective.
HyperX Predator 3200MHz DDR4 Memory Kit on Legit Reviews.
In Win 301 Case on ThinkComputers.
Asus ROG GR8 II Mini Gaming PC on Funky Kit.
Aorus X5 v7 gaming laptop on The Tech Report.
Acer Predator Z271T With Tobii Eye Tracking on PC Perspective.
De-Lidding & Liquid Metal
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Thursday, 24-August-2017 16:15:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Ratzz has posted an interesting thread exploring whether it's worth de-lidding your CPU and using liquid metal thermal paste. His testbench is a pretty cool setup too:
click for the thread!
Intel's 8th Generation Core CPUs
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Wednesday, 23-August-2017 22:52:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Intel recently announced their 8th Generation Core Processors, first unveiling a set of four "Kaby Lake Refresh" 15W CPUs with four cores and eight threads. There's a press kit website with plenty of information here. Delivering up to a 40 percent performance boost compared to 7th Gen, 8th Gen enables you to do more of what you love — and do it better, faster and easier. The first processors available are the mobile processors for thin and light laptops and 2 in 1s; consumer desktop will follow in the fall. There's coverage on PC Perspective, Tweaktown, LegitReviews and Tech Report.
Discussion continues in this thread in our Intel Hardware forum.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 23-August-2017 11:56:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Video Cards:
Vega 64 “Unleashed” – 27 Games, Liquid Cooled Edition vs. GTX 1080 & 1080 Ti on BabelTechReviews.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini on FunkyKit.
Audio Visual:
MSI Immerse GH70 Gaming Headset on NeoSeeker.
CORSAIR VOID PRO RGB Wireless Gaming Headset on MadShrimps.
Corsair Void Pro RGB Gaming Headset on BenchmarkReviews.
Corsair Gaming VOID PRO RGB Wireless Headset on Guru3D.
Corsair VOID PRO RGB Wireless SE Gaming Headset on PC Perspective.
Corsair Void Pro RGB Wireless headset on TechPowerUp.
Corsair VOID PRO RGB Wireless Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers.
Dodocool DA109 Magnetic Wireless Stereo Sports Headphone on FunkyKit.
Etymotic ER4 XR & SR in-ear headphones on TechPowerUp.
Cases:
Cooler Master's MasterCase Pro 6 on TechReport.
SilverStone Raven RVZ03 mITX on APHNetworks.
Input Etc:
Cooler Master MM520, MM530, and MasterMouse Pro L on LanOC.
SteelSeries' Rival 310 and Sensei 310 gaming mice on TechReport.
Ozone Strike Pro Spectra Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech.
Misc:
AORUS X5 V7 gaming laptop on Vortez.
GIGABYTE X399 AORUS Gaming 7 TR4 Motherboard on Tweaktown.
Noctua NF-A Series Cooling Fans on APHNetworks.
HyperX Predator DDR4 on Vortez.
Linksys WRT32x AC3200 Wireless Gaming Router on Tweaktown.
XCELLON AC Power Bank (PB-1200AC) on ModSynergy.
Monday Afternoon
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Monday, 21-August-2017 14:38:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The ACCC have taken action on NBN advertising. Telcos should "immediately implement measures" set out in the guide, which include: providing consumers with typical peak evening speeds, adopting standardised labelling of peak evening speeds, offering customers discounts or refunds if they cannot get the speeds they expect, and making it clear to consumers on fibre-to-the-node and fibre-to-the-basement that they may not get typical NBN speeds.
Meanwhile more than 50 pirate websites will be blocked in Australia within a few days, with more info here, thanks AmB. The targeted internet service providers have 15 days to disable access to the online locations found to have been engaging in or facilitating copyright infringement. The two cases in NSW Federal Court, brought by Roadshow Films and Foxtel, which is jointly owned by Telstra and News Corp, ordered internet service providers to block access to 59 websites and 127 web domains delivering access to copyright-infringing material.
Kaspersky have been a mainstay of the antivirus scene for a long time, but now the FBI is urging people to cut ties with them, following an earlier push for a military ban. The briefings are one part of an escalating conflict between the U.S. government and Kaspersky amid long-running suspicions among U.S. intelligence officials that Russian spy agencies use the company as an intelligence-gathering tool of global proportions.
Elon Musk continues to warn the world about killer robots. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Google’s Mustafa Suleyman are leading a group of 116 specialists from across 26 countries who are calling for the ban on autonomous weapons. The UN recently voted to begin formal discussions on such weapons which include drones, tanks and automated machine guns. Ahead of this, the group of founders of AI and robotics companies have sent an open letter to the UN calling for it to prevent the arms race that is currently under way for killer robots.
Techspot have an article on how you can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free, if you missed the earlier push and now decide you want it. Although Microsoft concluded its free Windows 10 upgrade program on July 29, 2016, the company has yet to close some of the loopholes that it originally opened for folks running Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. If you thought about taking advantage of the launch promotion but never got around to it, there's still nothing stopping you from downloading a free copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft's servers.
There's some angst out there about AMD's RX Vega pricing - Techgage have a summary of the current state of things. I don’t think enough stink is being raised about these shenanigans. AMD told a ballroom full of press and analysts that Vega 64 carried an SEP of $499. As we understand it today, this price was never meant to be permanent. Launch reviews were based on that $499 pricing. AMD had to have known that within 15 minutes of the card going on sale, that price would no longer be relevant.
HotHardware checked out Whisper Mode for NVIDIA-powered gaming laptops. Like its recently introduced Max-Q technology that paves the way for thinner and lighter gaming laptops such as the ASUS ROG Zephyrus GX501, Whisper Mode is another type of mobile gaming optimization, except it focuses on noise output with the intrinsic benefit of lower power draw as well. Short and to the point, it is an intelligent framerate pacing technology designed to lower GPU power consumption, utilization, and ultimately fan noise, while still delivering a smooth and playable gaming experience.
It turns out that playing video games can either grow or shrink your brain, thanks metamorphosis. The study, conducted over four years at the University of Montreal, recorded brain scans of players before and after they played first-person shooters for 90 (non-consecutive) hours. It found a reduction in gray matter in every participant who navigated games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor using memorized directions, or “non-spatial memory.” In participants who navigated using landmark-based spatial memory, however, the researchers found an increase in gray matter.
This month's second "Retro Let's Play" is Klonoa: Door to Phantomile from 1997. Playing less like the newer 32bit all-3D Mario, Sonic Adventure or Crash Bandicoot games and returning to side-scrolling 2D (using 3D effects more for visuals than anything), Klonoa was a throwback to games more like the previous 16 bit generation, only not terrible.
Motherboard:
ASRock X370 Taichi (AM4) Motherboard on FunkyKit
Gigabyte X399 Aorus Gaming 7 on Guru3D
BIOSTAR RACING X370GTN AM4 Motherboard on Madshrimps
Phone:
ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie (ZD553KL) (Preview) on TechARP
ASUS ZenFone 4 (ZE554KL) Smartphone (Preview) on TechARP
Oukitel K10000 Max & Pro on TechARP
Case:
Thermaltake View 71 TG Full Tower on NikKTech
Aerocool Project 7 P7-C1 Pro Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown
Videocard:
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 versus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 on Legit Reviews
Gaming:
Origin Neuron Gaming Desktop on Techspot
What Remains of Edith Finch XBOX on Gaming Nexus
Cooling:
Arctic Summair Light USB Fan on OCInside
Scythe Mugen 5 CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.org
Audio:
Sound BlasterX AE-5 Sound Card on Hot Hardware
Tesoro Tuned In-Ear Pro Headset on techPowerUp
V-MODA Remix Bluetooth Speaker on APH Networks
Keyboard/Mouse:
Tt eSports Level 10M Hybrid Advanced Gaming Mouse on FunkyKit
Bloody B820R Gaming Keyboard on Benchmark Reviews
Corsair K68 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on techPowerUp
Memory:
Team T-Force Delta RGB RAM on Vortez
Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR4-3000C15 32GB on ocaholic
CPU:
AMD Ryzen 3 1300X and Ryzen 3 1200 AM4 CPU on Modders-Inc
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X and Ryzen Threadripper 1950X CPUs on Techreport
Misc:
ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 Wireless Gaming Router on TweakTown
Thanks to TonyR and MelB this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Interesting Forum Threads
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Friday, 18-August-2017 10:47:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a quick snapshot of what people are discussing in the forums. Remember that OCAU has official Twitter, Facebook and Google+ pages - if you can follow or like us on those, it helps us keep you up to date.
Coffee Lake 6 core, this August with z370 chipsets? in Intel Hardware.
AMD Vega GPU in Video Cards & Monitors.
Replacing a 42RU cabinet almost fully stacked with a new solution. ideas? in Networking.
How close your NBN? in Networking.
Looking to fabricate vertical GPU Mount in Modding.
Nokia is finally back, and it's looking good! in Google Android.
Run .sh files without having to enter password in Other Operating Systems.
China Shatters “Spooky Action at a Distance” Record, Preps for Quantum Internet in Science.
WOLFENSTEIN ll - The New Colossus in PC Games.
What old game have you replayed lately? in PC Games.
How I store my peanut butter in Geek Food.
Garlic butter/sauce injected chicken breast sous vide in Geek Food.
Where does fusion stop and confusion set in? in Geek Food.
Heinz tinned macaroni and cheese: review/PSA in Geek Food.
Big changes to Import Laws in Motoring.
Ford F150 'Pursuit' Ute in Motoring.
ACCC Sues Ford Over Its Dual-Clutch PowerShift Gearboxes in Motoring.
Takata airbag recall (various makes affected) in Motoring.
Electricity service charges in Lifestyle.
Bathroom Renovations in Lifestyle.
Rememory - SciFi with Dinklage, Ormond, Yelchin - free on Google Play soon in Entertainment.
Game of Thrones in Entertainment.
Bitcoins as an investment? in Career, Education & Finance.
Important figures in Technology History in Career, Education & Finance.
Trump presidency and government in Politics & Policies.
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 17-August-2017 15:57:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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From our "obvious in hindsight" department comes news that after months of my phone being so slow it was barely useable, I finally got around to backing it up and factory resetting it and now it's like a brand new phone again. Should have done it months ago..
The Senate has passed laws concerning telecomms security. Similarly to New Zealand telecommunications security laws that came into effect in 2014, telcos will need to tell the Attorney-General's Department about any changes they plan to make that could have a material impact on their obligations to secure their networks. This includes moves like outsourcing network management, offshoring, and purchases relating to sensitive parts of telcos' infrastructure.
Intel have partially unveiled their next generation Core architecture, codenamed Ice Lake. There's coverage on Anandtech. In an unusual move for Intel, the chip giant has ever so slightly taken the wraps off of one of their future generation Core architectures. Basic information on the Ice Lake architecture has been published over on Intel's codename decoder, officially confirming for the first time the existence of the architecture and that it will be made on Intel's 10nm+ process. Discussion here.
NBN Co have rated themselves as 7 out of 10 for customer satisfaction. AUSTRALIA’S National Broadband Network revealed its connections had been rated as low as 5.9 out of 10 by users but blamed individual internet providers for much of the “negative sentiment” around the $49 billion network. NBN Co revealed the score, and its average ranking of seven out of 10, as it delivered its annual financial results, showing the broadband network had reached 5.7 million premises by the end of the financial year. ITWire meanwhile point out that they're barely hitting a target set 10 years ago.
Looks like there'll be a spike in video card pricing soon, thanks to VGA RAM prices going up. August quotes for RAMs used in VGA graphics cards have risen to US$8.50, up by 30.8% from US$6.50 in July. Both RAM industry leaders Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have allocated part of their VGA RAM production capacities to producing memories for servers and handsets, fueling the price rally. Sources from the upstream supply chain expect the pricing to go even higher in September and the shortages will pose a great challenge to graphics card and gaming notebook players over their abilities to handle component inventory.
There's a new 802.11ax Max WiFi standard and it's being hailed as a big deal. One technology that does promise to live up to the hype is 802.11ax, the next standard for wireless LANs. I say that because this next generation of Wi-Fi was engineered for the world we live in where everything is connected and there’s an assumption that upload and download traffic will be equivalent. Previous generations of Wi-Fi assumed more casual use and that there would be far more downloading of information than uploading. Discussion here.
If you're a Firefox user, there's good news and bad news. Good news: the new version will improve speed and memory use. Bad news: it'll break a heap of add-ons. On November 14 Mozilla will take the biggest gamble in its long history when the organization will ship Firefox 57, the first version of its browser that will stop supporting legacy Firefox add-ons.
Thursday Morning Reviews
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Thursday, 17-August-2017 10:37:27 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
MSI X299 SLI Plus on LanOC Reviews.
ASRock X399 Taichi Threadripper TR4 on TweakTown.
Storage:
Samsung T5 Portable SSD on Guru3D.
Samsung T5 Portable SSD on Hot Hardware.
Samsung T5 Portable SSD on The Tech Report.
Samsung T5 Portable SSD on Vortez.
Samsung T5 Portable SSD on PC Perspective.
Samsung T5 Portable SSD on Tweaktown.
Samsung T5 Portable SSD on The SSD Review.
Samsung T5 Portable SSD on Legit Reviews.
10TB WD Red (WD100EFAX) Hard Disk Drive on TechARP.
NETGEAR ReadyNAS 626X 10Gbe NAS on TweakTown.
Cooling:
CORSAIR Hydro Series H115i Liquid CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Deepcool Captain 240EX RGB AIO CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc.
Fractal Celsius S24 on LanOC Reviews.
Input etc:
HyperX Alloy Elite Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Funky Kit.
Cooler Master MM520, MM530, and MasterMouse Pro L on LanOC Reviews.
Cooler Master MasterSet MS120 Gaming Keyboard & Mouse Combo on ThinkComputers.
Audio:
Cooler Master MasterPulse MH320 Headset on techPowerUp.
Cooler Master MasterPulse MH320 Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers.
Misc:
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift on ocaholic.
G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3000 32GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers.
Gigabyte Aorus X5 v7 Notebook on Techspot.
AMD Radeon RX Vega Reviews
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Tuesday, 15-August-2017 14:57:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The reviews for AMD's new Radeon RX Vega 56 and 64 are officially available as of last night. These are AMD's attempt to tackle the dominance of NVIDIA's GTX 1070 and 1080. Here's some reviews:
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB on Guru3D.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 8GB on Guru3d.
AMD Radeon RX Vega Benchmark Review: Vega 64 and Vega 56 Tested on LegitReviews.
ETH mining performance on LegitReviews.
AMD’s Radeon RX Vega 64 Workstation & Compute Performance on Techgage.
Radeon RX Vega 64 And RX Vega 56 Review: AMD Back in High-End Graphics on HotHardware.
Radeon RX Vega On Linux: High-Performance GPUs & Open-Source No Longer An Oxymoron on Phoronix.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 & Vega 56: More To Come on Tweaktown.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 on TechSpot.
AMD's Radeon RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 graphics cards reviewed on Tech Report.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8 GB on TechPowerUp.
Vega 64, Vega 64 Liquid, Vega 56 Tested on PC Perspective.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 8 GB on TechPowerUp.
Discussion continues in our AMD Radeon Vega thread.
Forum Projects
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Monday, 14-August-2017 21:55:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Catching up on a few reviews and projects from the forums:
Monday Afternoon
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Monday, 14-August-2017 15:10:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Once again Australia is lagging in international broadband comparisons. A test of broadband speeds across 189 countries has found that Australia ranks 55th, well behind New Zealand (30th) and miles behind table-topper Singapore. The table was compiled by British broadband advice site Cable.co.uk from more than 63 million broadband speed tests. The data collection was done across 12 months ending on 10 May, by M-Lab, a partnership between New America's Open Technology Institute, Google Open Source Research, Princeton University's PlanetLab, and other partners.
That's not too surprising, given a third of FTTN services in Australia can't hit 50Mbps. NBN Co has revealed that one-third of all active fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) services are currently incapable of achieving a downlink in excess of 50 Mbps. The network builder this afternoon released a set of figures showing Layer 2 attainable bitrates for the FTTN portion of its network, as of June 18.
OCClub have a guide to GTX 1080 Ti Overclocking. In this article, I will be covering everything from NVIDIA's infamous Boost 3.0 technology to the actual overclocking tutorial. While this does mainly apply to the 1080 Ti, the core concepts and basic principles of overclocking will apply to the GTX 1060, 1070, 1080, and the Titan X / Xp, which are all in the same Pascal GPU family.
FOTW spotted this new 330TB tape. IBM and Sony have developed a new magnetic tape system capable of storing 201 gigabits of data per square inch, for a max theoretical capacity of 330 terabytes in a single palm-sized cartridge. For comparison, the world's largest hard drives—which are about twice the physical size of a Sony tape cartridge—are the 60TB Seagate SSD or 12TB HGST helium-filled HDD. The largest commercially available tapes only store 15TB. So, 330TB is quite a lot.
Retro gamers will enjoy this huge Quake map. When the game's good enough, the mod scene lives eternal, and there may be no better proof of that than Quake. The most ambitious Quake map ever completed was uploaded on Quake mod site Quaddicted in June, and it looks unbelievable for a game that's now more than 20 years old. Called The Forgotten Sepulcher, the map is a modern reinterpretation of the original Quake map E1M3: The Necropolis.
But more exciting is this new Amiga going on sale later this year. The world's getting a new Amiga for Christmas. Yes, that Amiga – the seminal Commodore microcomputers that brought mouse-driven GUIs plus slick and speedy graphics to the masses from 1985 to 1996. The Amiga was beloved by gamers, graphics pros and many an IT aficionado who just appreciated their speedy (for their time) Motorola 680x0 CPUs, multi-threading operating system and ability to work with images, sound and video.
Elon Musk has issued another warning about AI. Tesla CEO Elon Musk fired off a new and ominous warning on Friday about artificial intelligence, suggesting the emerging technology poses an even greater risk to the world than a nuclear conflagration with North Korea. Musk—a fierce and long time critic of A.I. who once likened it to "summoning the demon" in a horror movie—said in a Twitter post that people should be concerned about the rise of the machines than they are.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
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Monday, 14-August-2017 13:52:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS ROG STRIX X370-F Gaming on Vortez.
Gigabyte AB350N-GAMING WiFi on Phoronix.
Networking:
Linksys LGS326P 26-Port Smart Gigabit PoE+ Switch on NikKTech.
TP-Link Deco M5 Whole-Home Wi-Fi System on BigBruin.
TP-Link Deco Mesh Wi-Fi on LanOC.
Storage:
ADATA XPG GAMMIX S10 512GB SSD on Vortez.
Toshiba EXCERIA PRO M501 MicroSDXC Card on MadShrimps.
SilverStone TS12 Docking Station on APHNetworks.
Corsair NX500 400GB NVMe HHHL SSD on PC Perspective.
Corsair Neutron NX500 NVMe SSD 400GB on TheSSDReview.
Input Etc:
GAMDIAS HERMES M1 keyboard on Vortez.
Gamdias Zeus M1 RGB Mouse on BenchmarkReviews.
Cases:
Rosewill Orbit-Z1 Mid-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown.
Bitfenix Nova TG on TechPowerUp.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Dell XPS 15 9560 laptop on Anandtech.
Asus Chromebook C202SA on TechSpot.
Thanks to mpot and Rezin this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Ma Baker stepping down as Forum Administrator
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Friday, 11-August-2017 11:49:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Today Ma Baker is stepping down from her role as Forum Administrator. She was a Forum-Wide Admin for a couple of years, before I originally asked her to take over the day-to-day running of the forums when my first child was on the way. He's going to turn 11 in December! So now she'll go back to being a normal forum user, which will let her focus on other things. She's been extremely helpful to me and a great friend of the community so I hope to still see her regularly in the forums. Please join me in thanking her for putting up with us all for so long. :)
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 11-August-2017 06:20:59 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X on TweakTown.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X on Legit Reviews.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X on Techspot.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X on Hot Hardware.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X on PC Perspective
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X on Guru3D.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X on Vortez.
AORUS X299 Gaming 9 Motherboard on ThinkComputers.
Storage:
Corsair Neutron NX500 400GB & 800GB NVMe PCIe SSD on TweakTown.
BIOSTAR G300 240GB SSD on Funky Kit.
WD My Passport SSD 1TB on LanOC Reviews.
Cases:
Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Case on Benchmark Reviews.
Fractal Design Meshify C on techPowerUp.
Fractal Design Meshify C on Tweaktown.
Fractal Design Meshify C on ocaholic.
Cooling:
Thermaltake Floe Riing 360 TT Premium CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
Alphacool Eisbaer 240 AIO CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc.
Notebooks:
Origin PC EON15-S on Hot Hardware.
Asus ROG Zephyrus on Techspot.
Input etc:
Patriot Viper V570 RGB Gaming Mouse on Techgage.
Dream Machines DM PAD L & XL Soft Gaming Mouse Pad on techPowerUp.
Misc:
TP-Link NC450 HD Pan/Tilt Wi-Fi Camera on NikKTech.
Silverstone LS02 RGB LED Strip with LSB01 RGB Control Box on Modders-Inc.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 9-August-2017 09:49:27 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
Intel Core i7-7820X CPU on TweakTown.
MSI X299 Gaming M7 ACK on PC Perspective.
AMD Ryzen 3 1300X Quad-Core Processor on TechARP.
Storage:
QNAP TVS-473 SMB NAS (Tested at 10Gbps) on TweakTown.
Kingston DCP1000 NVMe SSD Enthusiast Testing in RAID 0 on The SSD Review.
Memory:
GeIL EVO X DDR4-3200 16GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers.
Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4 SODIMM Memory Kit on Madshrimps.
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2666MHz DDR4 on Modders-Inc.
Cases:
PrimoChill Praxis WetBench on Guru3D.
Aerocool Project 7 P7-C0 Mid-Tower on TweakTown.
BitFenix Shogun Tempered Glass Enclosure on PC Perspective.
Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Orange on LanOC Reviews.
Cooling:
Alphacool Eisblock HDX-2 M.2 SSD Cooler on Funky Kit.
15 New AMD Ryzen CPU Coolers Revealed on TechARP.
Input etc:
BenQ ZOWIE EC2-A on Vortez.
Matias Quiet Pro Mechanical Keyboard on techPowerUp.
Cooler Master MasterKeys S PBT Mechanical Keyboard on APH Networks.
Misc:
Aerocool Project 7 PSU 650 W on techPowerUp.
Tueday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 8-August-2017 17:03:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Phoronix have been investigating an issue with Ryzen CPUs segfaulting under load. In their latest article they have a response from AMD. AMD engineers found the problem to be very complex and characterize it as a performance marginality problem exclusive to certain workloads on Linux. ... AMD was also able to confirm this issue is not present with AMD Epyc or AMD ThreadRipper processors, but isolated to these early Ryzen processors under Linux.
If giant fighting robots is your thing, you may be in luck soon. Two summers ago, a group of American roboticists formed a company called Megabots, and released a video challenging a Japanese collective to a giant robot fight. About a week later, the Japanese group, Suidobashi Heavy Industry, agreed to clash robots. After over two years of robot-building and excessive YouTubing of the process—and a year after MegaBots originally said they would fight—the two teams are nearly ready to engage.
The Net Neutrality debate continues in the USA, with Congress taking the FCC to task in a recent report. How and to what extent the FCC should regulate internet access has been a hot question for years, and the present administration holds opposite views than the previous one, resulting in a proposal to eliminate 2015’s Open Internet Order. But Congress (or at least a few of its members) isn’t going to take that lying down: 10 Representatives who helped craft the law governing the FCC itself have submitted an official comment on the proposal ruthlessly dismantling it.
Back to AMD, with the first single rack PetaFLOPS computer. On Monday, AMD unveiled a tiny supercomputer called Project 47 that achieves a whopping 1 petaFLOPS while being stuffed inside a single server rack. 1 petaFLOPS is equal to the world’s most powerful supercomputer circa 2007, IBM’s $100 million Roadrunner. IBM’s Roadrunner took up 296 racks and 6000 square feet of floor space and used 2,350,000 watts of electricity. The cluster consisted primarily of around 6,912 Opteron CPUs and 12,960 PowerXCell processors. Now ten years later the Law of Accelerating Returns (a lot of engineering work) has enabled the construction of a system that consumes 98% less power and takes up 99.93% less space than Roadrunner did.
This sounds like a sentence I would have posted about 15 years ago, but TomsHardware have a thermal paste roundup. The difference in quality between a celebrated third-party paste and what OEMs use on their builds is smaller than you might think. It's not uncommon to realize a performance improvement by simply bolting your hardware together more carefully. A lot of folks then erroneously attribute this betterment to their new paste.
Australia's National Portrait Gallery has a Digital Portrait Award contest. Submissions for the 2017 Digital Portraiture Award are now open and close at midnight on 17 September 2017. Finalist works will be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra from 1 December 2017 to 18 February 2018, and the winner will be announced at the opening.
Amazingly, it's almost 40 years since the Voyager Spacecraft launched into space. Voyager 1 and 2 achieve 40 years of operation and exploration this August and September, 2017. Despite their vast distance, they continue to communicate with NASA daily.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
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Monday, 7-August-2017 14:22:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Input Etc:
Sandberg Hailstorm Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech.
ROCCAT Leadr Wireless Optical Mouse on APHNetworks.
Cooling:
Scythe Byakko SCBYK-1000 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Thermaltake Pacific RGB G1/4 Fittings for PETG Hard Tube 16mm OD on FunkyKit.
Furniture:
Autonomous Smart Desk 2 on HotHardware.
Arozzi Vernazza Gaming Chair on HardOCP.
Misc:
Prusa i3 MK2S Kit 3D printer on LanOC.
MJX Bugs 2 WiFi GPS Brushless Camera Drone on ModSynergy.
Corsair HX Series 850W Platinum PSU on PC Perspective.
MSI X299 SLI PLUS motherboard on TechPowerUp.
Remember you can see ASIGN_Baz's Iron Man at the Sydney Knife Show this Sunday from 11am. Meanwhile, thanks to Simon and metamorphosis this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 4-August-2017 08:36:27 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
AMD Ryzen 3 1200 & Ryzen 3 1300X Linux Performance on Phoronix.
MSI X299 Gaming M7 ACK on TweakTown.
Graphics Cards:
ZOTAC GTX 1080 Ti MINI on Vortez.
Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Mini 8 GB on techPowerUp.
Storage:
HP SSD S700 PRO Solid State Drive on Benchmark Reviews.
Seagate Game Drive Hub 8TB on TweakTown.
ASUSTOR AS6404T 4-bay NAS on Madshrimps.
Toshiba XG5 1Tb SSD on Anandtech.
Cooling:
Bykski FOUR Founders GTX 1080 GPU Waterblock on techPowerUp.
Watercool HEATKILLER IV for GTX 1080Ti Waterblock on Funky Kit.
Audio:
GAMDIAS HEBE M1 RGB Gaming Headset on Madshrimps.
AUDIOCASE Portable Speaker on techPowerUp.
Chairs:
noblechairs ICON on Vortez.
AK Racing ONYX Deluxe Gaming Chair on NikKTech.
Misc:
Logitech Powerplay Wireless Charging System on PC Perspective.
ASUS ZenBook Deluxe 3 UX490UA on Hot Hardware.
Corsair One Pro 1080 Ti Compact Gaming PC on Legit Reviews.
Unitek USB 3.0 Hub + Card Reader on ThinkComputers.
Team DARK Pro '8 Pack Edition' on Vortez.
Retro Let's Play - Early August - Wiz 'n' Liz
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Wednesday, 2-August-2017 14:44:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The "Retro Let's Play" for early August over in the Retro & Arcade Forum is Wiz 'n' Liz from 1993. Wiz 'n' Liz is a super fast platform "collect-em-up", where you play one of either Wiz or Liz, two little wizards who must race around levels collecting "Wabbits" in a strict time limit.
click for the thread!
The action is frantic, and your biggest enemy is time, with no other real enemies or spikes/pits/hazards common to other games of the era (with the exception of a couple of large end bosses, but these still aren't typical). Once enough wabbits are collected, you can exit a level and take on the next stage. Bonuses can be picked up for extra time, and between levels are a number of amusing mini games.
You can play Wiz'n'Liz in your browser here thanks to archive.org.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 2-August-2017 13:20:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard on ThinkComputers.
BIOSTAR Racing Z270GT6 Motherboard on FunkyKit.
ASRock Fatal1ty X299 Pro Gaming i9 Motherboard on Tweaktown.
Cases:
MeanIt 5PM ARC Red Case on BenchmarkReviews.
SilverStone LSB01 Case Lighting System on APHNetworks.
Input Etc:
Aukey KM-G4 RGB Mechanical Keyboard on TechPowerUp.
Logitech G413 Mechanical Backlit Gaming Keyboard on LegitReviews.
SteelSeries' Rival 500 gaming mouse on TechReport.
Corsair K68 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown.
SteelSeries Rival 310 and Sensei 310 on LanOC.
AZIO MK Retro Classic Typewriter Keyboard on Tweaktown.
Azio MGK L80 RGB Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech.
Misc:
ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 STRIX OC 11 Gbps on Guru3D.
Asus Designo MX34VQ 34" Ultra Wide Curved 100Hz Monitor on TechSpot.
CUJO Smart Internet Security Firewall on BigBruin.
Corsair T1 Race Gaming Chair on TechPowerUp.
LG G6 Android Phone on APHNetworks.
Alphacool Eisplateau Anti-Static Mat on LanOC.
Gigabyte GeekRap Competition
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Tuesday, 1-August-2017 10:06:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Something a little different in the OC&HW forum: a competition where you can win by out-overclocking, or out-rapping! Choose to compete with either AMD, Intel or your slamming rhymes. Prizes from GIGABYTE, and the contest closes Sunday 3rd of September 9PM Melbourne Time.
click for the thread!
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