July 2019 - Overclockers Australia

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July 2019

Wednesday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)
Wednesday, 31-July-2019 13:19:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg

If you enjoyed my recent guide to upgrading a Thinkpad, you might be interested in this HP channel on YouTube. Over the last few days they have uploaded a huge number of support-related videos showing how to open and upgrade or replace components on many HP products. Even if you don't have an HP product, there's lots to learn about PC maintenance there.

Also on YouTube, a video from Tech YES City showing a Ryzen 5 3600 on an A320 Motherboard, to see if the budget boards still cut it. With Zen 2 sporting some serious improvements in IPC and efficiency I thought to myself, why couldn't one transition these benefits to existing products? One product in particular is the A320 motherboards, which have had their memory overclock limit restrictions unlocked, however with the Ryzen 5 3600 being so efficient, would an A320 motherboard be able to handle this chip with the included Wraith stealth cooler? Well today we are going to find out.

HotHardware meanwhile compare the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X vs Intel Core i9-9900K in an instructions-per-cycle shootout. AMD's new Ryzen CPUs can clock as high as 4.6GHz, a notable bump over previous models, but what about AMD's purported IPC gains? Has Zen 2 caught up to Coffee Lake? To test this hypothesis, we fired up our Ryzen 9 3900X and Core i9-9900K test benches again. Both CPUs had their maximum multipliers capped at 40 across all cores, which for both CPUs resulted in a nice, round 4 GHz. The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X we had on hand also had two cores disabled on both of its chiplets, bringing the total core count down from 12 to 8 in a couple of tests, a perfect match to Intel's octal-core Core i9-9900K. This should put both CPU architectures on an even playing field.

There's new chipset drivers for Ryzen 3000, which affect how the CPU ramps up clock speeds. One issue that was repeatedly brought up by the community over the past weeks was the new CPU’s idle behaviour both in terms of temperature as well as voltages. In particular, the new parts seemingly looked like they rarely idled at lower performance states and instead looked to remain at high frequencies even when not doing much. While initially appearing as an issue, it really wasn’t one and rather just a side-effect of AMD’s new CPPC2 fast frequency ramp-up behaviour.

TomsHardware looked into individual core speeds on Ryzen 3000. Only one core on our Ryzen 5 3600X processor will hit AMD's rated boost frequency. AMD confirmed some cores in Ryzen 3000-series processors are faster than others, which is denoted in Ryzen Master. That means that not all cores on can hit the single-core turbo frequencies. Instead, there are a mix of fast and slow cores.

TechSpot liquid-cool a Radeon RX 5700XT and see how high they can overclock it. This remains a decent 18% overclock and given the 5700 XT was only 9% slower on average than the RTX 2080 (non Super), this overclock should push the 5700 XT ahead. Of course, you can also overclock the RTX 2080 but that’s besides the point, we’re trying to achieve 2080-like performance at a significant discount. So let’s fire up our i9-9900K GPU test rig and see how the liquid cooled 5700 XT performs.

A 16-year-old from Pennsylvania has won USD $3M playing Fortnite. Fortnite has wrapped its first-ever massive sporting event in New York's Arthur Ashe tennis stadium. It was anyone's game: It didn't matter how famous a player was nor what large organization was backing each member of the all-male playing field. Beating out other pros and famous streamers, Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf, 16, made a name for himself by dominating from the first round and ultimately taking home the $3 million grand prize for individual players. That's the largest-ever payout for a single player in an esports tournament.

Here's something I didn't expect to be typing in 2019: the floppy disk is dead, or at least, no longer actively supported by Linux. About a week ago, Linus Torvalds made a software commit which has an air about it of the end of an era. The code in question contains a few patches to the driver for native floppy disc controllers. What makes it worthy of note is that he remarks that the floppy driver is now orphaned. Its maintainer no longer has working floppy hardware upon which to test the software, and Linus remarks that “I think the driver can be considered pretty much dead from an actual hardware standpoint“, though he does point out that active support remains for USB floppy drives.

Monday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
Monday, 29-July-2019 13:29:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Audio Visual:
ADATA XPG EMIX H30 Gaming Headset on APHNetworks.
1MORE Triple Driver BT In-Ear Headphones on MadShrimps.
E-Lektron EL12-DA Professional Speaker on NikKTech.

Video Cards:
ASUS GeForce RTX 2080S Dual EVO OC on Guru3D.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Founders Edition on TechARP.
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING X TRIO on Tweaktown.
NVIDIA TITAN RTX Workstation Performance on TechGage.
GALAX GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER EX on Guru3D.
Galax GeForce RTX 2060 Super EX on TechPowerUp.

Cooling:
ID-Cooling DASHFLOW 360 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
ID-Cooling ZOOMFLOW 240 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.

Motherboard & CPU:
MSI MEG X570 ACE (AMD X570) Motherboard on Tweaktown.
Windows 10 vs. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Performance On AMD Ryzen 9 3900X on Phoronix.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Review: the New Mid-Range CPU Leader on TomsHardware.

Cases:
Antec Dark Avenger DA601 Mid-Tower on NikKTech.
NZXT H700i on TechPowerUp.
Enermax Equilence Mid-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown.
In Win A1 Plus Mini-ITX on ThinkComputers.
NZXT H510 Elite Mid-Tower on Tweaktown.
NZXT H210i Mini-ITX on Tweaktown.
SilverStone LD01 (video) by Ponchato.

Portable & Prebuilt:
MOFT Invisible Laptop Stand on Bjorn3D.
Acute Angel AA B4 Mini PC Video on OCInside.

Input Etc:
Tecware Haste Gaming Mouse Pad on TechPowerUp.
Thermaltake Premium Level 20 RGB Razer Green Gaming Keyboard on FunkyKit.
Corsair Glaive RGB Pro mouse on TechPowerUp.
Cooler Master MP860 Dual-Sided RGB Mousepad on ThinkComputers.

Software:
Wolfenstein Youngblood Benchmark Test & Performance Analysis on TechPowerUp.
Darksiders III - Keepers of the Void DLC on OCClub.

Misc:
Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 3866 MHz Memory on Modders-Inc.
Crucial P1 1TB Type 2280 SSD on MadShrimps, OCAU review here.

Misc Pics (38 Comments) (link)
Friday, 26-July-2019 13:38:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Have a great weekend!

Thursday Evening (6 Comments) (link)
Thursday, 25-July-2019 18:12:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Australian game studio Defiant Development is closing down. Hand of Fate developer Defiant Development is winding down. The Australian studio announced today that it will no longer develop games; the company said it is now "in caretaker mode" to support its existing games instead of developing new ones.

Corsair meanwhile are acquiring Origin PC, an enthusiast PC builder. Corsair announced that it has acquired Origin PC, a company known for its pre-built enthusiast gaming desktops and laptops. According to a press release, the purchase is a play to expand Corsair’s reach toward more gamers who don’t want to fuss with building their own PCs.

TechSpot have tested the Radeon Anti-Lag feature. The basic goal of Radeon Anti-Lag is to reduce input lag while gaming. Input lag is the delay between when you make an input, like a mouse click or key press, and when the action takes place on your display. For fast-paced competitive games, especially shooters like CS Go, Overwatch or Fortnite, it’s key to have the lowest input lag possible so you can spot your enemies, target them with your weapon, and shoot them as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Australia's data retention laws have resulted in more than 296k accesses in FY 2018. The Department of Home Affairs today released its annual report on the operation of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 for 2017-18 (a delayed release of the TIA Act report is not unusual for the government). The report offers a snapshot of telecommunications interception, access to stored communications, and access to historical and prospective telecommunications data. Telecommunications data, sometimes dubbed ‘metadata’, covers a range of information such as the source, destination and timing of a particular communication, but not its content.

The anti-spam act needs to be beefed up to cover charities and political parties, some say. The Bill seeks to amend the Spam, Electoral, and Do Not Call Register Acts to give consumers more control over which unsolicited messages they get from political parties and registered charities. In the second reading of the Bill, Griff said the need to reduce charities’ and political parties’ exemptions from those laws was highlighted by Clive Palmer’s recent SMS-based campaigns. “It is not the first time this has happened and, unless the measures in this bill pass, it will not be the last,” Griff said.

Team Group T-Force Vulcan SO-DIMM DDR4 (11 Comments) (link)
Wednesday, 24-July-2019 18:59:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg

I've taken a look at a T-Force Vulcan SO-DIMM DDR4 memory kit from Team Group. It doesn't have any RGB bling like some other recent products we've seen, but it does boast a "super-slim graphene copper-foil heat spreader", which sounds pretty fancy:

click for the review!

NVIDIA RTX 2080 SUPER Cards (0 Comments) (link)
Wednesday, 24-July-2019 18:38:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg

PLE Computers Wish List Competition (0 Comments) (link)
Tuesday, 23-July-2019 12:59:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg

PLE Computers are giving away a $500 voucher to go towards your PLE wishlist! Head over to the Sponsor Specials forum for more info:

click for the thread!

Tuesday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
Tuesday, 23-July-2019 12:28:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg

CPU & Motherboard:
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 on TechPowerUp.
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, SMT on vs SMT off, vs Intel 9900K on TechPowerUp.
ASRock X570 Taichi (AMD X570) Motherboard on Tweaktown.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor on Guru3D.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six core processor on Guru3D.
Ryzen 5 3400G Review: CPU + Vega Graphics on TechSpot.
Ryzen 5 3600 vs. 3600X: Which should you buy? on TechSpot.
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X vs. 3700X Review: Don't Waste the Money (video) by GamersNexus.

Input Etc:
Razer BlackWidow (2019) Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers.
Xanova MENSA PRO Gaming Mouse on NikKTech.

Portable & Prebuilt:
Dell Latitude 7400 2-In-1 Review: A Lethal Weapon For Road Warriors on HotHardware.
Gigabyte AERO 15 OLED XA (with RTX 2070) Laptop on FunkyKit.
MSI GE65 Raider 9SF (with GeForce RTX 2070 and 240Hz panel) Gaming Laptop on FunkyKit.
Mobvoi TicWatch S2 Wear OS Smartwatch on NikKTech.

Video Cards:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER on TechARP.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X: RTX 2080 Ti NVLink vs. GTX 1080 Ti SLI on Tweaktown.
Gigabyte RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming OC and Windforce OC on LanOC.

Storage:
ADATA XPG SX6000 Pro NVMe SSD on Tweaktown.
Patriot P200 512GB 2.5? SATA SSD on FunkyKit.
Kingston KC2000 High-Performance NVMe SSD on Tweaktown.
Silicon Power P34A80 PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 NVMe 1TB SSD on TechnoYard.

Misc:
E-Scooter Review and E-Scooter Provider on OCInside.
Darksiders III Performance Analysis on OCClub.
NETGEAR GS908 8-Port Gigabit Network Switch (video) by OCClub.
Scythe Big Shuriken 3 CPU cooler on TechPowerUp.
Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB 850 W Gold PSU on TechPowerUp.
Viper Gaming Viper Steel DDR4 16GB 3866MHz memory on LanOC.
Aerocool Klaw case on TechPowerUp.
Corsair HS35 Stereo Gaming Headset on APHNetworks.

Misc Pics (35 Comments) (link)
Friday, 19-July-2019 14:49:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Thanks to Axe and Simon this week!

Friday Afternoon (1 Comments) (link)
Friday, 19-July-2019 14:48:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg

A fake telco technician scam syndicate has been smashed by the Police. Acting on intelligence from the Fintel Alliance - which is run by AUSTRAC and has members including the Big 4 banks - NSW authorities arrested the alleged head of the syndicate, a 25-year-old man from South Wentworthville, and shut down the operation. The Fintel Alliance said it was “able to provide NSW Police with financial intelligence about a 79-year-old [banking] customer who had $20,000 stolen from him”. Hopefully that's why "Nicole from the National Broadband Network" has stopped robo-calling me five times a day recently.

An informal Australian study has shown that moderate video gaming is unlikely to cause depression and loneliness in teens. "We got the idea that we should prove it to him, one way or the other — I think we expected to win the argument," Professor Garbarino said. So the family surveyed 250 people aged between 18 and 25 — seeking responses about gaming habits in high school, types of games played, current gambling habits and emotional wellbeing. Zach also helped formulate the questions and identify the difference between skill-based and luck-based games.

This link comes via The Sizzle - a blog about how many different types of USB-C cables there are. For the end user, this meant that as long as they have a cable that would physically connect to both the host and the device, the system would function properly, as there is only ever one kind of cable that goes from one A plug to a particular flavor of B plug. Does the same hold for USB-C? Sadly, the answer is no. Turns out the answer is 6, with pretty much no way of knowing what type you have or need.

Intel have apparently admitted they were too aggressive with 10nm. Originally, 10nm was intended to ship by 2016, following delays to the company’s 14nm process. Intel has since been forced to push the date back multiple times, though the company has repeatedly stated that it will not miss its own promise to have Ice Lake on store shelves by the holiday season of 2019. According to Intel CEO Bob Swan, that delay was caused by the company’s overly aggressive strategy for moving to its next node. The delay, Swan said at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference, was “somewhat a function of what we’ve been able to do in the past, which in essence was defying the odds. At a time when it was getting harder and harder, we set a more and more aggressive goal. From that, it just took us longer.”

Meanwhile UNSW have improved quantum communications. Simmons, a former Australian of the Year, and her team at the University of New South Wales announced in a paper published in Nature journal on Thursday that they have been able to achieve the first two-qubit gate between atom qubits in silicon, allowing them to communicate with each other at a 200 times faster rate than previously achieved at 0.8 nanoseconds.

Not to be outdone, RMIT has a new brain-inspired chip. Researchers at RMIT University have used an emerging light-based tool in biotechnology to develop a chip that replicates the way brains store and lose information – paving the way for more efficient computing. Optogenetics is a biological technique that allows neuroscientists to manipulate neurons with light, allowing them to be turned on or off very precisely.

Or just go straight to the source, as Elon Musk is trying to do with his new Neuralink startup. The goal is to drill four 8mm holes into paralyzed patients’ skulls and insert implants that will give them the ability to control computers and smartphones using their thoughts. Yes, really. “A lot of people have written this off like it’s impossible,” says Hodak. “There will be great things to come in this field in the next decade, and they should take it seriously.” Anyone else remember the movie Brainstorm? Anyway, discussion here.

Thursday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
Friday, 19-July-2019 00:20:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and AMD Ryzen 9 3900X CPUs on Modders-Inc, OCAU review here.
Ryzen 9 3900X vs. Core i9-9900K: 36 Game Benchmark on TechSpot.
Gigabyte X570 AORUS Pro WiFi on TechPowerUp.
ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII HERO (Wi-fi) on Guru3D.
GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Master (AMD X570) Motherboard on Tweaktown.
ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X Motherboard on FunkyKit.
MSI MEG X570 Godlike Ryzen Series 3000 motherboard on Guru3D.
Ryzen 7 3700X vs Core i7 9700K: Can AMD Challenge Intel in Gaming? (video) by DigitalFoundry.
Ryzen 5 3400G APU (video) by Hardware Unboxed.
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Review: Core i7 Has a New Challenger on TomsHardware.

Video Cards:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER on TechARP.
MSI RTX 2060 Super Gaming X on LanOC.
Zotac GeForce RTX 2070 Super AMP Extreme on TechARP.
ZOTAC RTX 2070 SUPER Twin Fan on Vortez.
Palit GeForce RTX 2070 Super GameRock Premium on TechPowerUp.
NVIDIA RTX 2060 SUPER Vulkan Performance Examined on TechARP.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT benchmarked at 3440x1440 on Tweaktown.
Zotac GeForce RTX 2070 Super AMP Extreme on TechPowerUp.

Audio Visual:
MXL Tempo Microphone on ThinkComputers.
Logitech G935 Wireless 7.1 Surround Gaming Headset on Vortez.
Yeskamo Floodlight Smart Home Security Camera (video) by OCClub.
Cooler Master GS750 Desktop Hub headset stand on FunkyKit.
Cooler Master GS750 Headphone Stand on APHNetworks.
Cooler Master GS750 Wireless Charging Headset Stand on OCClub.

Cooling:
Scythe Choten and Kotetsu Mark II TUF Gaming Alliance CPU coolers on OCInside.
Cooler Master Masterliquid ML240P Mirage AIO CPU Cooler on FunkyKit.
Cooler Master Masterliquid ML240P Mirage AIO Cooler on Modders-Inc.
Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240P Mirage Closed Loop Water Cooler on APHNetworks.
Innovation Cooling Graphite Thermal Pad vs Arctic MX-4 Thermal Paste (video) by PhilsComputerLab.

Memory:
Team Group T-Force 4133 MHz 16GB DDR4 on Guru3D.
Team Group T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4-3200 MHz CL16 2x8 GB on TechPowerUp.
Ballistix Elite 32GB DDR4-3600 Memory Kit on FunkyKit.

Storage:
ORICO TCM2-C3 & PCM2-C3 NVMe M.2 SSD Enclosures on NikKTech.
Kingston DC500 SSD Review: High Capacity Enterprise Storage on HotHardware.
Terra Master F2-210 NAS (video) on OCClub.

Misc:
Corsair VS Series 650 W PSU on TechPowerUp.
NZXT H500i Mid-Tower Chassis on Tweaktown.
CORSAIR NIGHTSWORD RGB Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night game on Tweaktown.

G.SKILL Trident Z RGB DC Series (1 Comments) (link)
Wednesday, 17-July-2019 00:51:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg

OCAU member headin2001 has taken a look at the G.SKILL Trident Z RGB DC Series memory. These are big, not just logically but also physically, and price-wise. They're an unconventional product but in certain circumstances they might be just what you need:

click for the review!

Tuesday Afternoon (1 Comments) (link)
Tuesday, 16-July-2019 14:31:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Rezin noticed these new Australian Indigemojis. Indigemojis are set to include a boomerang, a love heart and crown in the colours of the Aboriginal flag. The icons, made by young people of Arrernte country in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, also include a kangaroo tail and a dingo. According to the Indigemoji website, the emojis are designed to “inspire young people to decolonise their digital spaces.” I'm trying to imagine the conversation that would require a severed kangaroo tail emoji.

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing is only a few days away. Wired have an interesting article about a group of hackers who recovered images of the lunar surface. The photos were stored with remarkably high fidelity on the tapes, but at the time had to be copied from projection screens onto paper, sometimes at sizes so large that warehouses and even old churches were rented out to hang them up. The results were pretty grainy, but clear enough to identify landing sites and potential hazards. After the low-fi printing, the tapes were shoved into boxes and forgotten. More info here on Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, the Hayabusa2 probe has landed on an asteroid successfully. Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission to the asteroid Ryugu is an ambitious one to begin with, and the team recently made the decision to up the stakes with a second touchdown on the space rock’s surface. Not only did all go as planned, but we now have the best shots of an asteroid’s surface ever to be sent back to Earth.

There's a new Android malware called Agent Smith. Check Point’s researchers say the malware so far has been used to display dodgy advertisements for financial gain on users devices, but they’ve warned it’s capable of much, much worse. Users are completely unaware of Agent Smith taking over their smartphones and tablets. It infects devices when the user installs an app that contains the malicious code, typically games installed from third-party sites.

TechSpot have a 4GHz CPU Battle. Expanding upon all the testing we performed in our day-one 3rd-gen Ryzen coverage, today we'll be running a clock-for-clock comparison benchmark. IPC can be a good indicator of a processor's architecture efficiency, so we're pitting the new Ryzen 3900X and 3700X against Intel's Core i9-9900K. We covered similar ground in our recent Ryzen 3 review.

One of the more exciting things about the Ryzen 3 launch, for me, is the arrival of PCIe 4.0 storage. TechPowerUp had a play with a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. We hence set out to test one of the recently announced M.2 NVMe SSDs that offer PCI-Express 4.0 on our Ryzen 3000 test system. The SSD in question is the GIGABYTE AORUS NVMe SSD Gen4, an M.2-2280 drive that combines a Phison PS5015-E16 controller with Toshiba-made 3D TLC NAND flash memory and DRAM cache. On paper, this drive offers up to 5000 MB/s reads and up to 4400 MB/s writes. Interestingly, every client-segment PCIe 4.0 drive launched so far appears to be based on this controller.

One much less cool and trendy storage medium is the trusty CDR - and here's one reason why. The CDRs were absolutely falling apart. Some of the photos are already lost because the CDRs just tend to rot over time, and here, about 18 years later, that was asking a lot. Back up your old CDRs please.

BabelTechReviews meanwhile have a RTX 2070 SUPER vs GTX 1080 Ti overclocking showdown, followed by a RX 5700 XT Anniversary Edition vs. the liquid cooled RX Vega 64 and vs. NVIDIA’s SUPER Cards comparison. BTR purchased a $449 RTX 5700 XT Anniversary Edition directly from AMD.com on its launch day. After three days evaluating it and comparing with ten other competing cards by benching it with 40 games, here is our review. Our focus is on its performance compared with the premium liquid-cooled RX Vega 64 as well as versus the RTX 2070 SUPER and RTX 2060 SUPER.

OCClub have an interesting video showing what's inside your air-cooler. Do you know what is inside your cooler? Chris from Overclockersclub takes a look inside an air CPU cooler. You will be surprised to find out what is actually inside.

I've mentioned before my sneaking suspicion that much of electronics is essentially witchcraft - here's a video that helps dispel that, by showing how to build a VGA card. Let's build a circuit that displays an image on a VGA monitor! In this video, I talk about how VGA signals work and build a circuit that provides the correct timing of sync signals so that a monitor recognizes the signal.

Monday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
Monday, 15-July-2019 22:10:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock X570 Taichi on Vortez.
GIGABYTE X570 AORUS MASTER on Vortez.
ASUS ROG STRIX X570-E Gaming on Vortez.
ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming X on OCInside.
MSI MEG X570 Ace on ThinkComputers.
ASRock X570 Taichi on ThinkComputers.

Cooling:
Ryzen 9 3900X: Wraith Prism RGB Stock Cooler vs. 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler on TechSpot.
Scythe Big Shuriken 3 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Noctua NH-U12A 3 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Cooler Master MASTERAIR Ma620P CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.

Video Cards:
AMD Radeon RX 5700 In-Depth Review - 1440p Gaming FTW on TechARP.
ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER MINI on FunkyKit.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER on TechARP.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT on LanOC.

Input Etc:
Tecware Impulse Pro on TechPowerUp.
Gigabyte Aorus M4 Gaming Mouse on TechnoYard.
Gigabyte AORUS M2 Optical Mouse on APHNetworks.
CORSAIR NIGHTSWORD RGB Performance Tunable FPS/MOBA Gaming Mouse on NikKTech.
Corsair NightSword RGB gaming mouse on Guru3D.

Misc:
ViewSonic XG350R-C 35" Curved Gaming Monitor on TechSpot.
Thermaltake Core P90 Tempered Glass Edition Mid-Tower on NikKTech.
Seagate FireCuda 510 1TB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
PC Specialist Vulcan PBA prebuilt PC on Vortez.
Super Flower Leadex III 850 W PSU on TechPowerUp.

Misc Pics (28 Comments) (link)
Friday, 12-July-2019 15:57:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Thanks to mpot, Axe and Andrew this week!

Thursday Afternoon (1 Comments) (link)
Thursday, 11-July-2019 15:49:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg

The new Raspberry Pi 4 has some USB-C compatibility issues, and the makers have confirmed the problem. After reports started popping up on the Internet, Raspberry Pi cofounder Eben Upton admitted to TechRepublic that "A smart charger with an e-marked cable will incorrectly identify the Raspberry Pi 4 as an audio adapter accessory and refuse to provide power." Upton went on to say, "I expect this will be fixed in a future board revision, but for now users will need to apply one of the suggested workarounds. It's surprising this didn't show up in our (quite extensive) field testing program." The "suggested workarounds" are to just use a non-e-marked cable, like the official Pi 4 charger. Doesn't seem to be that big a deal as it's only fancy E-Marked cables that are confused. Discussion continues in this thread.

AMD's new X570 chipset seems to be very power hungry, with more info here. Switching from the MSI X570 Godlike to the X470 Gaming M7 AC reduces power consumption under Prime95 by 38W. Idle power drops from 67W to 52W, a substantial reduction. Suddenly, the 7nm AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is now only slightly behind the Intel CPUs rather than being separated from them by a gulf.

On that note, TechPowerUp tested a shiny new Ryzen 9 3900X on a cheap B350 mobo. AMD just launched its 3rd generation Ryzen "Zen 2" processors and has extended support for them to even the B350 and B450 chipsets. Quite a few B350 motherboards have received beta BIOS updates that enable 3rd generation Ryzen to run on them, including support for the mighty Ryzen 9 3900X 12-core processor that painted the wall with Core i9-9900K on Sunday. We wondered what would happen if we paired a cheap B350 chipset motherboard with this chip.

TechPowerUp also looked into memory scaling with the 3900X. Memory has been both the Achilles heel and the greatest performance contributor for Ryzen so far. On the first two generations of "Zen," memory clock is synchronized with the Infinity Fabric frequency, and overclocking memory beyond a point would destabilize the vital on-die interconnect, which limited memory overclocking headroom compared to Intel platforms. On the other hand, turning up memory clock would tangibly benefit performance since Infinity Fabric bandwidth would proportionately increase, enabling faster data-transfers between the various on-die components—most importantly, the two quad-core compute complexes (CCXs).

Telstra are in the news for the wrong reasons again, this time for a dodgy NBN install. A 40-second clip posted to the "Humans of Bankstown" Facebook page on July 7 shows cabling that was supposed to be underground strung up and across two trees on a suburban street as a means of circumnavigating access issues.

IntelInside noticed that the ACMA looked into NBN modems and found lots struggled with 100MBps FTTN connections. Disclosed a public report, ACMA found 43 modems tested (from 11 brands and 10 ISPs) struggled to notch 100/40 Mbps broadband speeds over the average 450m copper run. They also say to make sure you're using 5GHz and not 2.4GHz WiFi for best speeds. Not a problem on my 29Mbps connection. :/

Sony have a new tiny VAIO with a truckload of ports. Just look at everything you can plug in! That’s three USB-A ports, one USB-C for charging, HDMI, a full-size SD card slot, a headphone/mic port, an Ethernet port, and even VGA. The keys now stretch to the edge of the laptop, and the bezels have been slimmed down. The SX12 uses Intel 8th Gen quad-core Core i5 or i7 processors and have an optional LTE module. It weighs 888 grams, or a little under two pounds.

In a guaranteed flamewar-starter, here's a blog about moving from Mac to Windows in 2019, by Owen Williams. Two years ago, I made the jump from macOS to Windows despite being a long-time Apple fan. I'll be honest: it wasn't an easy switch at first, but as time went by it's become clear it was the right choice. In 2019, the state of Apple's macOS devices is a disaster.

Thursday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
Thursday, 11-July-2019 14:52:51 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming X on TechPowerUp.
AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 9 3900X CPUs on TechReport.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Review: Best All-Round Value CPU on TechSpot.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X Workstation Performance on Techgage.

Memory:
Team Group Vulcan Z DDR4 3200 MHz 2x 8GB on Guru3D.
TeamGroup T-Force T1 Gaming Series DDR4-2666 16GB Memory Kit on FunkyKit.

Audio Visual:
Sound Blaster AE-9 Review: Pristine High Def PC Gaming Audio on HotHardware.
Creative Outliner Air earbuds on GamingNexus.
DLink DCS-4705E - 5MP Mini Bullet Poe Network Camera on TechnoYard.
Sennheiser GSP670 Wireless Gaming headset on Vortez.
Logitech G Pro X Gaming Headset[/ur] on LanOC.
HyperX Cloud Gaming Earbuds with Mic on FunkyKit.
1MORE Stylish True Wireless In-Ear Headphones on MadShrimps.

Video Cards:
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT Review: Thermals, Noise, Gaming, & Broken Drivers (video) on GamersNexus.
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Ventus 6G OC on Modders-Inc.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 & 2070 SUPER on Vortez.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER in NVLink Benchmarked on Tweaktown.
RTX 2060 SUPER vs. the Liquid-cooled RX Vega 64 Overclocking Showdown on BabelTechReviews.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2060 & 2070 SUPER At 1080p, 1440p & Ultrawide on TechGage.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER: TITAN Xp Performance For $499 on Tweaktown.
ASUS GeForce RTX 2070 Super STRIX OC on TechPowerUp.
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super Gaming X Trio on TechPowerUp.
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 Super JetStream on TechPowerUp.
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Super Gaming X on TechPowerUp.
EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 Super SC Ultra on TechPowerUp.
EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 FTW3 Ultra on TechPowerUp.
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X TRIO on Tweaktown.
MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming X on Guru3D.
ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Strix on Guru3D.
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER JetStream on Guru3D.

Misc:
F1 2019 game on OCClub.
Autonomous ErgoChair 2 on ThinkComputers.
Ergotron WorkFit-TX Standing Desk Converter on NikKTech.
Dark Project ME2 gaming mouse on TechPowerUp.
TP-Link Archer A20 Ac400 Wireless Router on Tweaktown.
ARTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Cooler Master Mastercase H100 case on TechPowerUp.
Asus ROG Thor 1200W Platinum PSU on OCInside.
Corsair MP600 (2TB) PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD on Guru3D.
Computer Upgrade King Continuum Micro Gaming PC (Ryzen 7 2700 + RX 580 4GB) on TechPowerUp.

AMD X570 Chipset AM4 Motherboards (0 Comments) (link)
Thursday, 11-July-2019 13:49:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg

One of the good things about the new Ryzen 3 CPUs is that you might not need a new motherboard to use them, given they use the same AM4 socket as previous generations. But in case you DO want a new motherboard to unlock all the new features, there's a heap of new X570 motherboards out there, and here's some reviews:

AMD X570 11x Motherboard Roundup (video) on eTeknix.
AMD X570 Motherboard Overview: Over 35+ boards on Anandtech.
Gigabyte X570 AORUS Master on ThinkComputers.
ASRock X570 Taichi on TechPowerUp.
MSI Prestige X570 Creation on Vortez.
ASUS Prime X570-Pro on TechPowerUp.
ASUS PRIME X570-Pro Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
Gigabyte X570 AORUS Pro Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
Gigabyte X570 I AORUS Pro WiFi Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
ASUS RoG Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
Gigabyte X570 AORUS XTREME Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
ASUS ROG STRIX X570-E Gaming Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
MSI MEG X570 ACE Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus (WiFi) Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
ASRock X570 Taichi Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.
Gigabyte X570 AORUS Master Motherboard (video) on eTeknix.

Radeon RX 5000 Series GPUs (0 Comments) (link)
Thursday, 11-July-2019 00:31:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg

AMD's second big announcement this week was the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT video cards. These are the brand new 7nm GPUs, formerly codenamed "Navi" and teased for the last 3 years. Are they as impressive as the recent CPU launches? Here's a pile of reviews to find out:

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 on TechSpot.
AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 & RX 5700 XT At 1080p, 1440p & Ultrawide on Techgage.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT on TechPowerUp.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 & 5700 XT Graphics Card Review (video) on Techgage.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT And RX 5700 on HotHardware.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 on TechPowerUp.
AMD Radeon RX 5700XT & Radeon RX 5700 on Modders-Inc.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 / RX 5700XT Linux Gaming Benchmarks on Phoronix.
AMD Radeon 5700 & 5700 XT (1080p/1440p/4K BENCHMARKS) (video) on eTeknix.
Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT on Guru3D.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 & 5700 XT on Vortez.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT/RX 5700: A Step In The Right Direction on Tweaktown.
PCI-Express 4.0 Performance Scaling with Radeon RX 5700 XT on TechPowerUp.
Welcome 7nm, AMD NAVI is here! – AMD Radeon RX 5700XT and RX 5700 on Bjorn3D.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 Graphics Card In-Depth Review on TechARP.

More info and discussion in this thread.

Wednesday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
Wednesday, 10-July-2019 20:19:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Audio Visual:
Corsair HS35 headset on LanOC.
Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ Review: The Best Monitor We've Ever Tested on TechSpot.
SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Gaming Headset on FunkyKit.

Cases:
Bitfenix Enso Mesh on TecjPowerUp.
SilentiumPC Armis AR7X TG RGB on OCInside.
Asus ROG Strix Helios Chassis on Guru3D.
Lian Li Lancool One Digital Mid-Tower on Tweaktown.
be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev. 2 Full-Tower on Tweaktown.
Aerocool Cylon Pro RGB Flow Mid-Tower on NikKTech.
RIOTORO CR500 Mid-Tower on NikKTech.

Input Etc:
Corsair Nightsword RGB Tunable FPS/MOBA[/utl] mouse on Vortez.
HyperX Alloy Core RGB Gaming Keyboard on FunkyKit.
Bloody SP80 Bleeding Edge Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown.

Cooling:
Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240R RGB AIO CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc.
CORSAIR Hydro X Series XC9 RGB CPU Water Block on TechPowerUp.
Scythe Fuma 2 CPU Cooler (video review) on OCClub.

Storage:
Asura Genesis Xtreme RGB M.2 NVMe SSD on HWAsylum.
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB High-Performance NVMe SSD on Tweaktown.
CORSAIR Force Series MP510 480GB M.2 SSD on MadShrimps.
LaCie Mobile SSD 500GB USB 3.1 External Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
ASUSTOR AS3102T V2 NAS Server on NikKTech.

I got distracted from this post by another cool SciFi short from DUST. Some amazing CGI in this one.

Ryzen 3 Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
Tuesday, 9-July-2019 00:08:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Here's a few more Ryzen 3 reviews from the news box. Remember to check out our review as well!

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X on TechPowerUp.
AMD Zen 2 Memory Performance Scaling with Ryzen 9 3900X on TechPowerUp.
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X Processor on ThinkComputers.
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X and Ryzen 7 3700X on TechSpot.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X Performance In Linux on TechGage.
Ryzen 3900X & Ryzen 3700X Review on Bjorn3D.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Processor on ThinkComputers.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X on Vortez.
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X on Vortez.
Ryzen 3700X + 3900X Offer Incredible Linux Performance But With A Big Caveat on Phoronix.
Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X processors on Guru3D.
AMD Ryzen 3900X and 3700X (Zen2) on Tweaktown.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X Review [BENCHMARKS] (Video) on eTeknix.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X & Ryzen 9 3900X Processor Review on eTeknix.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor In-Depth Review on TechARP.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 9 3900X on LanOC.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X on TechPowerUp.
AMD Ryzen 3900X & 3700X Tested on X470 on TechPowerUp.
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X And Ryzen 7 3700X Zen 2 on HotHardware.

Discussion continues in this thread.

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 9 3900X (12 Comments) (link)
Sunday, 7-July-2019 23:15:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg

AMD have unveiled their new Ryzen 3 generation of CPUs. These boast an entirely new architecture, on a new 7nm process, with a new chiplet-based design with PCIe 4.0 support and a health clockspeed increase - all while sticking with their long-standing AM4 socket. Did they manage to pull off this engineering miracle? Check out OCAU's review, where booj has looked at the 3700X and 3900X in some detail, with plenty of benchmarks:

click for the review!

Misc Pics (37 Comments) (link)
Friday, 5-July-2019 17:06:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg

Thanks to mpot and Axe this week! Very late because a minor mission to help a mate collect his new car turned into a major saga involving helping a crashed motorcyclist, endless paperwork, etc etc.. anyway, enjoy your weekend!

GeForce RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super (1 Comments) (link)
Wednesday, 3-July-2019 16:18:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg

NVIDIA have unveiled the GeForce RTX SUPER range. As the name suggests, these are beefed-up versions of the standard RTX 2060 and 2060 cards, with more memory, more cores and a speed bump. Here's some reviews from around the web:

NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER & RTX 2070 SUPER on Bjorn3D.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER and 2070 SUPER on Guru3D.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2060 Super on TechSpot.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Review: $399 Performance Beast on Tweaktown.
NVIDIA’s SUPER Cards Arrive to Take on Vega with 40 games on BabelTechReviews.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super on TechPowerUp.
NVIDA GeForce RTX 2070 Super on TechPowerUp.
GeForce RTX 2070 Super And RTX 2060 Super on HotHardware.
NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super & 2070 Super on GamersNexus.
Nvidia RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super on OC3D.
GeForce RTX 2060 and 2070 Super on TomsHardware.
GeForce RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super on Anandtech.

Discussion continues towards the end of this thread.

Tuesday Evening (4 Comments) (link)
Tuesday, 2-July-2019 18:25:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg

This month marks 50 years since Apollo 11, when humans first set foot upon the Moon. The Mission Control facility has been restored as part of the celebrations, with more info here. Here's an article on the Guidance Computer, and a detailed look at the core memory of the computer.

The Government has been asked to create new ISP blocking powers. The government has been asked to formalise content blocking by Australian internet providers during “online crisis events” with new laws. The proposal is part of a report published by Prime Minister & Cabinet on Sunday that was prepared by a taskforce compromising “Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Telstra, Vodafone, TPG and Optus.”

NSW drivers meanwhile can get a digital license in a couple of months. NSW citizens are just weeks away from getting their hands on a digital driver's licence, with the state government planning its statewide rollout in August this year. The much-anticipated electronic vehicle licence is currently being piloted in three metropolitan and regional centres across NSW.

iFixit take a look back at Jony Ive's legacy with Apple, from a user-serviceability standpoint, as well as considering what Apple can do to improve things in future. Nobody, to our knowledge, has gotten Ive to explain how gluing batteries into products is useful and respectful to the buyer. Ive only speaks with the media occasionally, in highly controlled settings. We’ve read about Ive’s enthusiasm for recycled aluminum (or alu-min-i-um), but not his explanation of the utterly disposable nature of AirPods.

AMD have released a video explaining the updates to Precision Boost Overdrive in the Ryzen 3000 series. Learn how updates to Precision Boost Overdrive on select AMD Ryzen 3000 Series processors provides an all-new automatic overclocking feature that can give you higher performance.

Phoronix have been testing a new IBM POWER9 CPU. A few weeks ago we received a POWER9 Raptor Blackbird for testing that features an IBM POWER9 4-core (16 thread) processor clocked at 3.80GHz. For those curious about the performance potential for low-end POWER9 parts compared to the more common high-core/thread count POWER processors we have benchmarked before like in the Talos II server, here are some initial tests of that petite POWER9 processor.

Anandtech report that Verbatim have been sold to CMC. I remember Verbatim from way back in the floppy disk days. But what really caught my eye was the name of the author of that article, Anton Shilov. He was the editor of XbitLabs, and that made me realise I haven't heard anything from those guys for a while. Turns out the site shut down back in 2017. That's a shame.

Here's a cool online museum of retro sounds. Conserve the sound is an online museum for vanishing and endangered sounds. The sound of a dial telephone, a walkman, a analog typewriter, a pay phone, a 56k modem, a nuclear power plant or even a cell phone keypad are partially already gone or are about to disappear from our daily life. Discussion here.

Tuesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)
Tuesday, 2-July-2019 01:05:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg