March 2019

Misc Pics (27 Comments) (link)  Friday, 29-March-2019  14:55:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday again - have a great weekend! Thursday Morning (1 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 28-March-2019  00:42:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg ASIGN_Baz has sent word that he will be making an appearance in his Steel MKIV Iron Man Suit at the Rise Above Convoy for Cancer Families at EPIC in Canberra. The Rise Above Convoy for Cancer Families is an annual event to raise money and awareness for Rise Above – Capital Region Cancer Relief. Every April hundreds of Trucks and Motorbikes take the journey from Beard Industrial Estate just outside of Queanbeyan and drive through Canberra to Exhibition Park, where the family fun day and concert wrap up the Convoy. Apparently more than 110,000 Australians were impacted by the Facebook access token attack in September last year. About 47,912 had only basic personal information – their name, email and phone number – compromised. But other Australians were more exposed. Hackers were able to access information on 62,306 users’ hometown, most recent check-ins, birthday, education, work history, Facebook search history, name, email, phone number, gender, relationship status and religion. These users also had their most recent Facebook location check-ins exposed. In another 1,595 cases, the names in private Facebook messenger conversations could be accessed, as could details of a person’s membership of Facebook groups. This doesn't affect Australia directly, but it's a worrying precedent - the European Parliament has voted in favour of Article 13. While ostensibly aimed at fixing copyright, many are worried that Article 13 will completely change how we share information online and make it much harder for small sites to compete with tech giants. Some ASUS update software was compromised recently, with thousands of computers infected, but curiously only a few hundred specific MAC addresses would activate the malware's payload. The researchers estimate half a million Windows machines received the malicious backdoor through the ASUS update server, although the attackers appear to have been targeting only about 600 of those systems. The malware searched for targeted systems through their unique MAC addresses. Once on a system, if it found one of these targeted addresses, the malware reached out to a command-and-control server the attackers operated, which then installed additional malware on those machines. Computerworld look back at the history of mobile coverage in Australia, as Telstra announce their 10,000th mobile site. Telstra revealed today that it had connected its 10,000th mobile site, with the 5G site coming online some 32 years after the telco first began delivering cellular services. In 1987 the government-owned Telecom Australia — which eventually became Telstra — unveiled its first-generation cellular network. However, the roots of mobile telephony in Australia go back even further. NanoDuke sent in today's timewaster: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, in Google Earth. Accessing Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? is as simple as visiting the Google Earth site. From the homepage, players are given the option to “Catch Carmen Sandiego,” and selecting it begins “The Crown Jewels Caper.” The Where is Carmen Sandiego? Google game can also be accessed on iOS and Android mobile devices. Tuesday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 26-March-2019  18:09:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: MSI MEG X399 CREATION (AMD X399) on Tweaktown. Biostar A10N-8800E AMD Mini-ITX on GND-Tech. ASUS X299 Rampage VI Extreme Omega on OC3D. Cooling: Alphacool Eisbaer Extreme Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. Alphacool Eisbaer 240LT watercooler on Vortez. Video Cards: Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC 6G on Modders-Inc. ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 Ti STRIX OC 6 GB on TechPowerUp. MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X (6GB GDDR5) on FunkyKit. Cases: Cooler Master Masterbox NR400 on TechPowerUp. Cooler Master Masterbox NR600 on TechPowerUp. Thermaltake V200 TG RGB Mid Tower on NikKTech. Misc: SANSI C2440-FW Security Floodlight on APHNetworks. Sound BlasterX G6 DAC/amp on AudioScienceReview. Patriot Viper VPN100 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD on FunkyKit. Enermax MaxRevo 1800W Power Supply on HardOCP. Monday Afternoon (6 Comments) (link)  Monday, 25-March-2019  16:04:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg Google have revealed their game-streaming service, Google Stadia. Google Stadia will run a selection of existing PC games on Google's centralized servers, taking in controller inputs and sending back video and audio using Google's network of low-latency data centers. The company revealed a new Google-produced controller, along with a game-streaming interface that revolves around a "play now" button. Press this on any Web browser and gameplay will begin "in as quick as five seconds... with no download, no patch, no update, and no install." I'm sure it will be fantastic via my NBN connection. More info here, here and here with discussion here. TechPowerUp built a PC using components from ASRock's Phantom Gaming Alliance. Thus, what we are seeing now is ASRock's Phantom Gaming Alliance, which currently includes Cooler Master and Teamgroup. By bringing together vendors, they can all offer improved compatibility along with themed products, which is certainly a nice touch because it allows users to build systems that match a singular theme if they so choose. It also allows for parts that offer guaranteed compatibility and should just "work", which bring us to today's review: A system built entirely out of parts carrying the Phantom Gaming label. Apple have unveiled some beefed-up iMacs. The 21.5-inch iMac now has a 6-core, eighth-generation Intel CPU option—up from a maximum of four cores before. The 27-inch now has six cores as the standard configuration, with an optional upgrade to a 3.6GHz, 9th-gen, 8-core Intel Core i9 CPU that Apple claims will double performance over the previous 27-inch iMac. The base 27-inch model has a 3GHz 6-core Intel Core i5 CPU, with intermediate configurations at 3.1GHz and 3.7GHz (both Core i5). The big news is arguably that both sizes now offer high-end, workstation-class Vega-graphics options for the first time. Apple added a similar upgrade option to the 15-inch MacBook Pro late last year. TechPowerUp have an AMD Ryzen Memory Tweaking & Overclocking Guide. I am the developer of the DRAM Calculator for Ryzen, author of numerous BIOS mods, and curator of dozens of topics about and related to these processors. After two years of research and development, I am ready to share my secrets on optimizing memory on a Ryzen-powered system. By optimization, I specifically mean overclocking and tuning of system RAM the right way—the way that won't break it. TechSpot looked into Ray Tracing in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The inclusion of ray tracing in Shadow of the Tomb Raider marks the implementation of the third and final ray tracing technique we currently have at our disposal. Battlefield V uses ray traced reflections, Metro Exodus uses ray traced global illumination, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses ray traced shadows. NVIDIA have a magic paint program that is pretty much just witchcraft. A deep learning model developed by NVIDIA Research turns rough doodles into highly realistic scenes using generative adversarial networks (GANs). The tool is like a smart paintbrush, converting segmentation maps into lifelike images. More info here. This might count as a flash timewaster: a 3D panorama of Sydney you can zoom and rotate and explore. Sunday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 24-March-2019  23:38:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: iStorage diskAshur2 1TB USB 3.1 PIN Authenticated Portable SSD on NikKTech. Icy Dock flexiDock MB795SP-B Review - 3.5" & 2.5" Single Bay on Tweaktown. ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks. ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro SSD on HotHardware. Icy Dock flexiDock MB524SP-B Review - 4x 2.5" SATA, 5.25 Bay on Tweaktown. Input Etc: Logitech G903 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown. ROCCAT Vulcan 100 Mechanical RGB Keyboard on MadShrimps. Aukey KM-G6 Mechanical Keyboard on TechPowerUp. ROCCAT Vulcan 120 AIMO Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers. Patriot Viper V765 Keyboard on Guru3D. Logitech G603 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown. Portable & Prebuilt: Verizon GizmoWatch Kids Smart Watch Phone on BigBruin. TickTalk 3 Kids Smart Watch Phone on BigBruin. Samsung Galaxy S10+ (SM-G975) on TechARP. Misc Pics (24 Comments) (link)  Friday, 22-March-2019  15:17:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to Dan and Andrew this week! BTW, if you're a Facebook user, you might want to change your password. Wednesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 20-March-2019  23:44:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg Networking: ASUS RT-AX88U Wi-Fi 6 Router on Tweaktown. Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR700 router on Vortez. ASUS RT-AX88U (Dual band AX6000) router on Guru3D. QNAP QSW-1208-8C-US 12-Port Unmanaged 10GbE Switch on Modders-Inc. Video Cards: ZOTAC Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Ti AMP Edition on FunkyKit. GeForce GTX 1660 Tested: 33 Game Benchmark feat. The Division 2 on TechSpot. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q on TechSpot. MSI GeForce GTX 1660 GAMING X & VENTUS XS on Tweaktown. Input Etc: SteelSeries Rival 650 mouse on Vortez. Zowie Divina S Series mouse on TechPowerUp. Software: Shadow of the Tomb Raider Ultra RTX Performance and IQ Analysis on BabelTech. Shadow of the Tomb Raider perf review update: RTX & DLSS on Guru3D. RTX and DLSS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider on TechPowerUp. Tom Clancy's The Division 2: PC Review on BabelTechReviews. Misc: reMarkable – a remarkable digital notepad on Bjorn3D. Logitech G432 headset on GamingNexus. Republic Wireless Relay Screen Free Kid's Phone on BigBruin. Tuesday Afternoon (9 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 19-March-2019  17:42:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg TechSpot have a look back at the 30-year history of the Web. Thirty years has brought along a lot of changes to the World Wide Web where we’ve witnessed how it evolved from static to brimming with activity and creativity. As we commemorate another anniversary let’s look back at some of the events and milestones that helped transform the web into what it is today. Given it's world backup day soon, it's worth noting that MySpace lost 12 years of music recently. All music uploaded onto Myspace prior to 2015 – an estimated 50 million songs by 14 million artists – has been lost. The site revealed that all of users’ media from Myspace’s first 12 years of existence were erased in a server migration and cannot be retrieved. NVIDIA's ray tracing technology will soon work on older, non-RTX cards. The technology will work on GPUs from the GTX 1060 and up, albeit with some serious caveats. Some games like Battlefield V will run just fine and deliver better visuals, but other games, like the freshly released Metro Exodus, will run at just 18 fps at 1440p -- obviously an unplayable frame-rate. Several Australian ISPs have blocked certain websites for hosting footage of the recent Christchurch attacks. Telstra noted on Twitter late yesterday that they had begun preemptively blocking websites, but a post on the Telstra Exchange this afternoon went further, saying that "with these sites continuing to host disturbing content we feel it is the right thing to do to block them". There's an interesting article here about the role social media plays in this kind of event. On a lighter note, I stumbled across this amusing competition to make the worst volume control possible. Yep. That super simple volume control UI we interact with several times a day. How can we make it extremely complicated? OCClub take a look into the world of anti-aliasing. One setting present in many if not all modern PC games that can dramatically impact performance and quality is anti-aliasing and, to be honest, I never really understood how it works. Sure we have the general idea that super-sampling is in effect running at a higher resolution and then downscaling, but then what is multi-sampling? How do post-processing methods work, like the very common FXAA and often favored SMAA? The USA are working on a new supercomputer, and aiming to be the world's fastest again. Lab officials predict it will be the first American machine to reach a milestone called “exascale” performance, surpassing a quintillion calculations per second. That’s roughly seven times the speed rating of the most powerful system built to date, or 1,000 times faster than the first “petascale” systems that began arriving in 2008. Tuesday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 19-March-2019  16:04:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: NVIDIA Jetson Nano: A Feature-Packed Arm Developer Kit For $99 USD on Phoronix. ASUS Zenith Extreme Alpha (AMD X399) Motherboard on Tweaktown. Intel Core i9-9900KF: Disabled Graphics and No Discount on TomsHardware. Xeon Entry Quad-Core CPUs: E-2174G, E-2134, and E-2104G on Anandtech. Cooling: ID-Cooling Auraflow X 240 on TechPowerUp. Reeven Okeanos RC-1402 CPU Cooler on APHNetworks. Enermax LIQTECH II 360 White CPU Cooler on FunkyKit. Video Cards: The GTX 1660 41 game OC Shootout vs. the RX 590 on BabelTechReviews. ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 2070 O8G GAMING on HardOCP. NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 on StorageReview. NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 on StorageReview. Misc: Corsair Crystal Series 680X RGB Chassis on FunkyKit. Cooler Master SK630 Low Profile Keyboard on ThinkComputers. Core i9 8950HK Mini PC – A Beast of A PC Smaller Than A PSU on TechTablets. FiiO M6 Portable High Resolution Music Player on NikKTech. iStorage Disk Ashur Pro2 SSD on Vortez. Sunday Midday Reviews (3 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 17-March-2019  12:45:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg Humble Bundle are giving away Grid 2, with Spa and Bathurst tracks, for free. But only for the next 15 hours or so. It's on Steam, too. It's not a mistake. Some companies spend money on Super Bowl ads or billboards. We'd rather spend it supporting game developers and getting you an awesome game for free. That is an affiliate link, BTW. Anyway, while it's downloading, here's some reviews: Motherboard & CPU: ASRock B365M Phantom Gaming 4 Motherboard on Tweaktown. ASRock B450M Steel Legend (AM4) on FunkyKit. GIGABYTE X399 Aorus Xtreme (AMD X399) on Tweaktown. BIOSTAR A10N-8800E Motherboard on MadShrimps. Cooling: Bannermen - PC Game on BabelTechReviews. ARCTIC Freezer 33 eSports Edition CPU Cooler on Tweaktown. Arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler on FunkyKit. Noctua NT-H2 and NA-SCW1 Cooling Accessories on APHNetworks. Noctua NF-F12 PWM chromax Fan on TechPowerUp. Memory: Thermaltake WaterRAM RGB Liquid Cooling Memory – DDR4-3200 16GB Kit on FunkyKit. Mushkin Redline DDR4-3200 16GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers. XPG GAMMIX D30 DDR4 kit on Vortez. Storage: LaCie d2 Professional USB-C on Tweaktown. Addlink S70 NVMe SSD Review - Phison E12 on Tweaktown. ASUSTOR AS4004T 10GbE NAS Server on NikKTech. Video Cards: MSI GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X on Bjorn3D. Radeon VII & GeForce RTX 2080 using Ryzen 7 2700X & Core i7-8700K on TechSpot. Gigabyte GTX 1660 Ti OC 6G on LanOC. ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 2070 MINI on Modders-Inc. Input Etc: Patriot Viper V765 mechanical keyboard review: At least it’s shiny on TechReport. Corsair M65 RGB Elite mouse on OCInside. Software: Apex Legends Benchmarked: Core i9-9900K With The Latest GPUs on Tweaktown. Denuvo Performance Cost & FPS Loss Tested copy-protection on TechPowerUp. The Division 2: PC graphics performance benchmark analysis on Guru3D. Misc: SilverStone LSB02 and LS03 Case Lighting System on APHNetworks. noblechairs Hero Real Leather Gaming Chair on TechPowerUp. Corsair Carbide Series 678C case on Vortez. Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus (SM-G975) smartphone on TechARP. iiyama G-Master GB2730QSU Monitor on OCInside. Misc Pics (41 Comments) (link)  Friday, 15-March-2019  15:47:51 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot and Joanna this week. I just heard about the shooting in Christchurch while putting this lot together. Not sure what to say really, but it's a terrible situation. I hope the outcome isn't as bad as it is being reported at the moment. There's a thread here about the incident. NVIDIA GTX 1660 Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 15-March-2019  14:35:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg NVIDIA have released the GeForce GTX 1660, the non-Ti version, which is aimed at the budget gaming market. Here's a few reviews from the news box: MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X on Bjorn3D. MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X 6 GB on TechPowerUp. EVGA GTX 1660 XC takes on Red Devil RX 590 in 41 games on BabelTechReviews. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Review: Smooth 1080P Gaming For Less on HotHardware. MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X 6G on ThinkComputers. Zotac GTX 1660 on LanOC. Palit GeForce GTX 1660 StormX OC on Guru3D. MSI GeForce GTX 1660 VENTUS XS 6G OC on Guru3D. MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X on Guru3D. Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Twin Fan 6 GB on TechPowerUp. Palit GeForce GTX 1660 StormX 6 GB on TechPowerUp. EVGA GTX 1660 XC Ultra 6 GB on TechPowerUp. Discussion continues in this thread in our Video Cards forum. Wednesday Afternoon (12 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 13-March-2019  15:59:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg The world wide web turns 30 this year, and we owe thanks to Tim Berners-Lee. His proposal, “Information Management: A Proposal,” was the beginning of http, urls and html. Today, roughly half the world is online and nearly 2 billion websites exist. Scary to think that OCAU has existed for 20 of those years. On that note, the National Library of Australia has an Australian Web Archive going back to 1996. The Australian Web Archive captures over twenty years of website snapshots of our cultural and social history. The oldest snapshot of OCAU seems to be from March 2000. Microsoft have confirmed a recent Windows 10 patch causes gaming issues. Microsoft claimed that it’s currently working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release. Still, and as a workaround, PC gamers can uninstall KB4482887 to regain performance. Meanwhile Windows 7 will start nagging you about being end of life soon, thanks TJ. For those organizations that intended to keep using Windows 7 beyond its January 14, 2020 cut-off date, Microsoft has up to three years of paid fixes through its new Extended Security Update (ESU) scheme. I am typing this on a Windows 7 Pro PC, hrm. TechSpot checked out five FreeSync monitors from LG. Earlier this year we first put Nvidia's support for FreeSync monitors to the test, grabbed every FreeSync monitor we had in the office, and verified that in all cases adaptive sync worked as expected. LG recently sent us 5 of their latest FreeSync monitors, which we've used to revisit Nvidia's FreeSync support. G.Skill have a worldwide overclocking contest. The online qualifier competition stage will be held from March 13, 2019 until April 16, 2019 on hwbot.org. The top 9 winners of the online qualifier will be qualified to join the live competition at the G.SKILL booth during Computex 2019 week from May 29th to 31st and compete for a chunk of the $25,000 USD cash prize pool. This pretty much just sounds like buzzword bingo, but apparently an Australian company is going to use blockchain to block piracy. “The virtual video files are stored within the blockchain - the way cryptocurrency is today - meaning that the protective power of blockchain can be applied to video for the first time,” he said. Mr Richardson said uploading these virtual video files to blockchain will give rights holders complete control and visibility over access. GPS might, but probably won't, break soon. GPS was originally designed to timestamp signals using a system that counts weeks using a 10-digit field that tops out at 1024 weeks (~19.7 years). It expresses the time of a signal sent by satellite in weeks and seconds into the week. For a few reasons, a GPS receiver on the ground has to take that signal and calculate the current date as part of the processes it uses to determine location. Once that ten digit field in legacy GPS devices fills up it resets to zero, and that could cause problems. Once again I'm slightly miffed about the way the article downplays the Y2K issue as a hoax, ignoring the hard work of many people to get systems up to date in time for Y2K, which was the main reason why nothing bad happened. But it's been 19 years and I'm over it now. Honest. Wednesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 13-March-2019  11:34:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cases: Corsair Carbide Series 678C on Vortez. Corsair Carbide 678C on Guru3D. CORSAIR CRYSTAL 680X RGB ATX Smart Case on NikKTech. Corsair Crystal 680X PC Chassis on Guru3D. Corsair Crystal 680X RGB on TechPowerUp. Corsair Carbide 678C on TechPowerUp. CORSAIR Crystal Series 680X RGB Tempered Glass on Modders-Inc. Corsair 680X RGB vs. Lian Li O11 Dynamic on GamersNexus. Corsair Crystal 680X RGB on OC3D. Arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler on Hexus. Video Cards: NVIDIA Titan RTX Review: Benchmarks And Overclocking A Gold Turing Beast on HotHardware. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming OC 6G on ThinkComputers. GeForce GTX 980 Ti vs. GTX 1660 Ti vs. RTX 2060 on TechSpot. Input Etc: HyperX Alloy FPS RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech. ASUS ROG Balteus Qi Mouse Pad with phone charger on TechPowerUp. Aimpad's analog input on the Cooler Master MK850 keyboard on TechReport. ASUS ROG Gladius II Wireless on TechPowerUp. SteelSeries Rival 710 mouse on Vortez. Monday Afternoon Reviews (1 Comments) (link)  Monday, 11-March-2019  14:47:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASUS Maximus XI Formula (Intel Z390) Motherboard on Tweaktown. Testing old 16 core Opteron 6386 SE on a Jingsha X89 motherboard on RkBlog. Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB 650W on NikKTech. SeaSonic Focus Gold SGX-650 SFX on Anandtech. Input Etc: Corsair K83 Wireless Entertainment Keyboard on Vortez. SteelSeries Rival 650 Wireless Optical Mouse on APHNetworks. CORSAIR K83 Wireless Keyboard on TechPowerUp. CHERRY MX BOARD 1.0 BACKLIGHT Mechanical Keyboard on MadShrimps. Portable & Prebuilt: Aftershock Impulse mini-ITX system on Vortez. Samsung Galaxy S10+ Review: 10th Generation Android Greatness on HotHardware. Video Cards: ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming X 8 GB on TechPowerUp. MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GAMING X TRIO on HardOCP. 117 Benchmarks, NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti / RTX 2060 vs. AMD RX 590 / RX Vega 56 on Phoronix. Cooling: Silverstone Tundra TD02 CPU Liquid Cooling Heatsink on FrostyTech. Scythe Ninja 5 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown. Corsair H150i PRO RGB AIO Cooler TR4 on FunkyKit. ID-COOLING AuraFlow X 240 AIO High Performance Water Cooler on NikKTech. Arctic Liquid Freezer 120 CPU Watercooler on FrostyTech. Storage: Lexar NM600 Low-Cost NVMe SSD on Tweaktown. Crucial P1 NVMe SSD on PCWorld, OCAU review here. Misc: Devil May Cry 5 Benchmark Performance Analysis on TechPowerUp. Bitfenix Enso Mesh Chassis on Guru3D. Misc Pics (35 Comments) (link)  Friday, 8-March-2019  14:45:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mr bill and Simon this week! Friday Afternoon (1 Comments) (link)  Friday, 8-March-2019  14:37:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg There's a new Intel security flaw, like Spectre, but apparently worse. While similar to the Spectre security flaws publicised in January 2018, the so-called Spoiler flaw works very differently, claim the team of researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts and the University of Lübeck in Germany. Microsoft have a new Technology Centre in Sydney, and TechARP went for a tour. Microsoft opened a brand new Technology Centre in downtown Sydney last month, and we were one of the few that were given an exclusive tour. Join us for the Microsoft Technology Centre Sydney tour, and find out what it offers, and how it looks inside! TechSpot wonder if quad-core is dead for gaming in 2019. Today we’re discussing quad-core processors, namely how relevant they are in 2019. The last time we covered this specific topic was back in 2017, however since then the quad-core CPU discussion has become far less relevant for the simple fact there’s no longer a top tier CPU that only features four cores. OCClub have a guide to flashing your RTX card to a BIOS from a different series. The main reason to flash the BIOS is that many of the cards are artificially limited by having a low Power Target. This means the card can never reach its true potential. Whether this is NVIDIA doing or not, it's hard to tell. Either way, NVIDIA has to sign off on every BIOS since it's encrypted to stop outside modification. That brings me to the main selling point of flashing the BIOS to a different series. Many series have a basic, OC, and an extreme model. In previous generations, most people in the overclocking scene knew most of the time the base model could achieve similar results. OCInside meanwhile are using liquid metal in a laptop to improve overclocking potential and lower temperatures. In this new tutorial on OCinside.de we have modified a laptop using liquid metal so that the CPU can be overclocked higher thanks to better cooling and can even be operated permanently at maximum turbo clock. In this tutorial, we test the Conductonaut liquid metal from Thermal Grizzly, which has already proven its worth in CPU Delidding. Some interesting space news recently, with further evidence supporting the existence of another, distant planet in our solar system. Neptune cannot account for this kind of behavior. So the hypothesis that Batygin and others are exploring is that some other massive object—call it Planet 9—must be responsible. What’s more, these detached objects seem to form clusters of their own. Their elliptical orbits, for example, are tantalizingly aligned, suggesting a kind of herding effect. That too is consistent with the presence of a Planet 9. More info here. Thursday Afternoon (10 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 7-March-2019  17:58:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg Praise Jebus, after a 16-day outage I have internet back in the AggCave. Sadly we're only connecting at 26/9Mbps, but it's better than nothing, and better than our previous ADSL2+. I guess we're not part of the 90% though. NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory are anticipated to be the only states and territories that are expected to have over 90 percent of fixed line premises capable of at least 50Mbps peak speeds by the time the network is built and the co-existence period - where some NBN services are speed-limited to avoid impacting ADSL services - ends. USB 4 has been announced. A new industry standard for the popular cable specification has just been announced by the USB Promoter Group and it's going to change the way we hook up devices and transfer data. Here's everything you need to know about the USB4 specification - including speed, release date and how it's going to affect your existing gadgets. However, you might want to exercise caution when plugging in USB-C devices, warns Skymaster. Security researchers have unearthed a set of severe vulnerabilities involving the Intel and Apple-developed Thunderbolt peripheral and charging connector interface that allow attackers to fully take over computers. Until recently, there were only two Blockbuster video shops left in the entire world, but now the one in Perth is closing. That’s because, at the same time, the staff of the last Blockbuster in Australia will be winding down the business and shuttering the store — leaving just one final location of the venerable franchise left on Earth. According to the Australian Associated Press, the Blockbuster located in the Perth suburb of Morley has finally succumbed to the tide of competition from video streaming services and notified customers that it will be closing its doors by the end of the month. Simon reminded me that March 31st is World Backup Day - the day before April Fool's Day. World Backup Day is a day for people to learn about the increasing role of data in our lives and the importance of regular backups. I'm not sure if this counts as a timewaster or not, but here's a cool site that colourises black and white photos. Our deep learning model performs best on higher resolution images that prominently feature human subjects and natural scenery. We do not store images that you upload for colourisation. Thursday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 7-March-2019  13:33:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASRock X399 Phantom Gaming 6 (AMD X399) Motherboard on Tweaktown. ASUS PRIME Z390-A LGA 1151 Motherboard on HardOCP. Cooling: Scythe Mugen 5 Rev B (SCMG-5100) Heatsink on FrostyTech. Enermax LIQFUSION RGB 360 CPU cooler on Vortez. Storage: SanDisk Extreme PRO 500GB M.2 NVMe 3D SSD on FunkyKit. MyDigitalSSD M2X NVMe USB-C Enclosure on Tweaktown. Synology DS218 with 2x Seagate 2TB Reader on OCinside. Video Cards: GTX 1660 Ti 4-way/40 game OC Shootout on BabelTechReviews. Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 (Laptop GPU) on TechSpot. GeForce RTX Performance And IQ In Metro Exodus, Post Patch on HotHardware. MSI Gaming X Geforce GTX 1660 TI on Modders-Inc, OCAU review here. Palit GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GamingPRO OC on Guru3D. Audio Visual: EVGA NU Audio Sound Card on TechPowerUp. abra MOVE Style Edition Wireless Stereo Headphones on NikKTech. Misc: Blender 2.80 (Beta) Viewport & Rendering Performance on Techgage. Examining the Cooler Master MM830 gaming mouse and its d-pad on Tech Report. Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB RAM Experiences on HardOCP. Tuesday Lunchtime Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 5-March-2019  12:16:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASRock B365M Pro4 Motherboard on FunkyKit. ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 (Intel Z390) Motherboard on Tweaktown. Audio Visual: Logitech G935 headset on GamingNexus. 1MORE Spearhead VR BT In-Ear Headphones on NikKTech. SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Gaming Headset on Techgage. Input Etc: SteelSeries QcK Edge & Heavy mousepads on TechPowerUp. VORTEX Race 3 TKL Mechanical Keyboard on NikKTech. Tesoro Gram MX ONE Keyboard on TechPowerUp. Cooler Master MM830 gaming mouse on Vortez. Misc: Phanteks Eclipse P600s Chassis on Guru3D. Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. FileGear One Plus NAS on Tweaktown. OCC Reviews DiRT Rally 2.0 game on OCClub. GIGABYTE GTX 1660 Ti GAMING OC video card on Vortez. GIGABYTE Aero 15-Y9 (Coffee Lake-HK) Laptop on Tweaktown. Misc Pics (36 Comments) (link)  Friday, 1-March-2019  14:31:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot and Paul this week! The last one may be NSFW.. Friday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 1-March-2019  14:25:35 (GMT +10) - by Agg Power Supply: SilverStone Nightjar NJ600 600W Power Supply on APHNetworks. ApexGaming AG-650M 650W on NikKTech. Enermax RevoBron TGA 700 W on TechPowerUp. Portable & Prebuilt: Gigabyte Aero 15 X9 Laptop Review: RTX Inside on TechSpot. AVM FRITZ!Fon C4 & C5 DECT Cordless Telephones on NikKTech. Input Etc: SteelSeries Stratus Duo game controller on Vortez. Cooler Master MK730 Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers. Cooler Master MK850 Keyboard on TechPowerUp. Cooler Master SK630 TKL Mechanical Keyboard on FunkyKit. SteelSeries Rival 710 Optical Mouse on APHNetworks. Motherboard & CPU: ASRock B365 Phantom Gaming 4 Motherboard on FunkyKit. ASRock Z390 Taichi Motherboard on OCInside. ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Omega on Guru3D. ASRock Rack EPYCD8-2T Makes For A Great Linux/BSD EPYC Workstation on Phoronix. Cooling: Silverstone AP142-ARGB and AP124-ARGB Cooling Fan on APHNetworks. DeepCool GAMMAXX L240 CPU cooler on Vortez. SilentiumPC Navis RGB 240 & 280 LCS CPU coolers on Guru3D. Audio Visual: Xanova JUTURNA-U Gaming Headset on NikKTech. Alienware AW988 Wireless Headset And AW959 Elite Mouse on HotHardware. Razer Kraken Tournament Edition Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers. Cooler Master MH752 Gaming Headset on TechPowerUp. Storage: Samsung 983 ZET Z-NAND SSD on Tweaktown. Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB on TechReport. Plugable NVMe Enclosure on Tweaktown. Promise SANLink N1 Thunderbolt 3 Adapter on Tweaktown. HP EX950 512GB SSD on Tweaktown. Video Cards: GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mega Benchmark on TechSpot. Zotac RTX 2060 AMP on Modders-Inc. ZOTAC GTX 1660 Ti on Vortez. NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 Review: Turing Powered Pro Graphics on HotHardware. Memory: CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB Memory Kit on MadShrimps. Colorful iGame DDR4 3200 8 GB on TechPowerUp. ADATA XPG SPECTRIX D41 3000MHz RGB Memory on Modders-Inc.

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