March 2021

Intel Rocket Lake Core i5-11600K and Core i9-11900K CPUs (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 31-March-2021  00:41:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg A heap of Rocket Lake reviews just arrived in the news box. These are of course Intel's new CPU family, and the specific parts today seem to be the Core i5-11600K, a mid-range, 6-core, 12-thread CPU and the Core i9-11900K, which despite being the flagship CPU has only 8 cores and 16 threads. These CPUs have the new Gen12 Xe integrated GPU as well. There's some Z590 motherboard reviews too, so with no further ado: Intel Core i9-11900K Review - World's Fastest Gaming Processor? on TechPowerUp. Intel Core i5-11600K Review - Impressive Value on TechPowerUp. Intel Core i9-11900K "Rocket Lake S" CPU on Tweaktown. Intel Core i5-11600K vs. AMD Ryzen 5 5600 vs. Core i5-10600K on TechSpot. Intel Core i5-11600K "Rocket Lake S" CPU on Tweaktown. Intel Core i5 11600K + Core i9 11900K Linux Performance Across ~400 Benchmarks on Phoronix. Intel Core i9-11900K on Guru3D. Intel Core i5-11600K on Guru3D. Intel Core i5-11600K and Core i9-11900K on Vortez. Intel Core i9-11900K And i5-11600K Review: Rocket Lake-S Liftoff on HotHardware. ASRock Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E (11th Gen) on TechPowerUp. MSI MEG Z590 ACE (11th Gen) on TechPowerUp. Gigabyte Z590 AORUS Master (11th Gen) on TechPowerUp. Gigabyte Z590I AORUS Ultra (11th Gen) on TechPowerUp. MSI MPG Z590 Carbon EK X (11th Gen) on TechPowerUp. ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero on TechPowerUp. Discussion continues in this thread. Tuesday Night (15 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 30-March-2021  23:48:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg Telstra is going to split into sub-companies in an upcoming restructure. Telstra said there will be no changes to ownership levels as part of the restructure, which will split the company into four divisions - InfraCo Fixed, InfraCo Towers, ServeCo and Telstra International. Mr Penn added the restructure will not effect any executive positions and will not lead to any job losses beyond what has been previously outlined under its T22 program. I'm reminded of this quote. Meanwhile TSMC have grown into a linchpin of the global economy. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the largest contract chipmaker in the world, is building a plant to make 3 nanometer chips, semiconductors expected to be up to 70 percent faster and more power-efficient than the most advanced in production now and which will be used in devices from smartphones to supercomputers. Intel have hired Justin Long, formerly of the "I'm a Mac" ads, to make some snarky PC vs Mac ads. In five video ads labeled "Justin Gets Real" that have been published to Intel's YouTube channel, Long begins by saying, "Hello, I'm a... Justin, just a real person doing a real comparison between Mac and PC," referencing the "Hello, I'm a Mac" and "I'm a PC" start to Apple's numerous ads. Long briefly examines a Windows laptop with an Intel processor, then an Apple Silicon-equipped Mac. Eventually he comes to conclusions about how the Macs are too limited compared to what the Intel PCs can do. Is it just me or does this seem kinda childish for one of the biggest tech companies in the world? I guess it's fair play in response to the original "I'm a Mac" ads. Aircraft nerds will enjoy this guided tour of an F-15C cockpit. Today Ars Technica brings you inside the pilot’s seat of an F-15C Eagle fighter jet to break down every button in the cockpit. Join retired United States Air Force pilot Col. Andrea Themely as she walks you through everything at your disposal, from emergency features and communication controls to navigation features and weapons and defense. If flight simulators, punchy-punchy or shooty shooty rooty patooty games are a bit too exciting for you, maybe Lawn Mowing Simulator is more your style. New lawn care professionals will be able to visit the British countryside, large equestrian fields, castle grounds and much more, to take care of incredible landscapes. ... Besides the game's gorgeous look, the developers managed to license mowers models from Toro, STIGA, SCAG. Pfft, no John Deere? From the "because I can" files comes this story of booting DOS from a vinyl record. There is a small ROM boot loader that operates the built-in “cassette interface” of the PC (that was hardly ever used), invoked by the BIOS if all the other boot options fail, i.e. floppy disk and the hard drive. The turntable spins an analog recording of a small bootable read-only RAM drive, which is 64K in size. This contains a FreeDOS kernel, modified by me to cram it into the memory constraint, a micro variant of COMMAND.COM and a patched version of INTERLNK, that allows file transfer through a printer cable, modified to be runnable on FreeDOS. As you can imagine, the audio on the video is deeply unpleasant. TechPowerUp have a guide to building a keyboard. Instead of reviewing someone else's prebuilt keyboard, we today take a look at how hot-swappable switch sockets make it extremely easy to build your own. This particular article covers a 68% form factor keyboard that is put through four uncommon Gateron switches and topped off with a fairly unique set of keycaps! Today's timewaster is this Escape Room made with Google Docs. Alrighty then. Sunday Evening (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 28-March-2021  19:14:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg The Google Doodle a few days ago was about David Warren. David Ronald de Mey Warren AO (20 March 1925 – 19 July 2010) was an Australian scientist, best known for inventing and developing the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder (also known as FDR, CVR, and "the black box"). There's reports of a Rocket Lake CPU doing 6.5GHz on LN2. There is overclocking, and then there is extreme overclocking, the latter of which requires equally extreme cooling solutions. The go-to method of choice for record overclock attempts is liquid nitrogen, otherwise known as LN2. And it was LN2 that a pair of overclocking enthusiasts in India employed to bring an Intel Core i9-11900K processor all the way to 6,500MHz (or 6.5GHz). Intel recently announced their plans for manufacturing, innovation and leadership for the future. During the company’s global “Intel Unleashed: Engineering the Future” webcast, Gelsinger shared his vision for “IDM 2.0,” a major evolution of Intel’s integrated device manufacturing (IDM) model. Gelsinger announced significant manufacturing expansion plans, starting with an estimated $20 billion investment to build two new factories (or “fabs”) in Arizona. He also announced Intel’s plans to become a major provider of foundry capacity in the U.S. and Europe to serve customers globally. Meanwhile there is a global semiconductor shortage. The shortage in chips, the “brain” within every electronic device in the world, has been steadily worsening since last year. Initially the problem was only a temporary delay in supplies as factories shut down when the coronavirus pandemic first hit. However, although production is back to normal, a new surge in demand driven by changing habits fuelled by the pandemic means that it is now reaching crisis point. Matt sent over this amusing (but probably surprisingly useful) website: The High QA Guy. When I'm high, I have trouble using websites/apps. If your website works for somebody who is stoned, your website can work for anyone. Also from Matt, news that the UK have released a new fifty pound note with Alan Turing on it - great news! To celebrate, they have released a puzzle challenge to test any would-be codebreakers. I got through the first three pretty quickly.. Sunday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 28-March-2021  13:57:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASUS ROG Strix B550-Xe Gaming Wi-Fi on Tweaktown. ASRock Z590 PG Velocita on Guru3D. MSI MPG Z590 Carbon EK X on TechPowerUp. Portable & Prebuilt: HP Spectre X360 13 (2021) Review: Gem-Cut Beauty Of A Laptop on HotHardware. Intel NUC 11 Enthusiast (Phantom Canyon) SFF PC on Tweaktown. Memory: Thermaltake Toughram XG RGB 16GB DDR4 2x 8GB DDR4-3600 RAM on OCInside. HyperX Fury RGB 32GB DDR4 3200MHZ CL16 Dual-Channel Kit on NikKTech. Storage: Team Group T-Force Cardea IOPS 1 TB on TechPowerUp. ADATA SE900G 2TB USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Portable SSD on Tweaktown. Cases: Thermaltake The Tower 100 Snow mITX on APHNetworks. XPG Starker on TechPowerUp. Thermaltake View 51 TG ARGB on ThinkComputers. Video Cards: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT vs. 5700 XT: Clock-for-Clock Performance on TechSpot. XFX MERC319 6700 XT on LanOC. Input Etc: CORSAIR K65 RGB MINI Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on MadShrimps. Razer Viper 8K mouse on TechPowerUp. Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro mouse on TechPowerUp. Misc: Woojer Vest Edge Haptic Vest For Games & Music on NikKTech. Ring Video Doorbell Pro Review and Ring Chime on FunkyHome. EnGenius ECW120 Wireless Access Point video review by OCClub. Misc Pics (37 Comments) (link)  Friday, 26-March-2021  15:09:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg Seems to have finally stopped raining here.. hope you haven't been too badly affected by the floods. Tuesday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 23-March-2021  18:28:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cooling: CORSAIR iCUE SP120 RGB ELITE Fan on TechPowerUp. Cooler Master MasterAir MA624 Stealth CPU Cooler on FunkyKit. Audio Visual: Creative Sound Blaster Z SE High-Performance PCI-E Gaming & Entertainment DAC on NikKTech. ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air Wireless Gaming Headset on APHNetworks. Cougar Phontum Pro Headset on OCClub. Memory: Neo Forza MARS 16GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18 Dual-Channel Kit on NikKTech. XPG SPECTRIX D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 MHz CL19 2x8 GB on TechPowerUp. Power Supply: Enermax CyberBron 700W 80+ Bronze PSU on FunkyKit. Sandberg Survivor Camper Powerbank 42000mAh on NikKTech. Cooler Master V650 Gold V2 White Edition 650W on APHNetworks. Storage: T-FORCE CARDEA IOPS Gen 3 x4 PCIe NVMe 1TB SSD on BabelTechReviews. Lexar Professional 1066x SDXC UHS-I Silver 128GB Flash Memory on APHNetworks. Sabrent Rocket Q 8TB M.2 NVMe SSD on NikKTech. Neo Forza eSports NFP075 m.2 2280 1TB PCIe SSD on MadShrimps. Buffalo LinkStation SoHo LS720DB NAS on Tweaktown. Patriot P300 M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 2TB SSD on MadShrimps. Silicon Power Superior 1TB MicroSDXC UHS-I Memory Card on NikKTech. Cases: Thermaltake The Tower 100 ITX case on OCInside. XPG Defender Pro E-ATX chassis on TechPowerUp. Input Etc: Kailh Box Jade Switch for keyboards on OCClub. Genesis Xenon 770 Hybrid FPS/MMO Mouse and Boron 500 XXL RGB Mouse Pad on FunkyKit. Cooler Master MM831 Gaming Mouse (with Qi Wireless Charging) on FunkyKit. Logitech ERGO K860 Wireless split keyboard on DVHardware. Sharkoon Light² S mouse on TechPowerUp. Thermaltake ARGENT MP1 RGB Gaming Mouse Pad on FunkyKit. EVGA X17 Gaming Mouse on FunkyKit. Ajazz K620T 2.0 Keyboard on TechPowerUp. Corsair K65 RGB MINI 60% Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown. CORSAIR K65 RGB MINI keyboard on TechPowerUp. Corsair K65 RGB Mini keyboard on Guru3D. Corsair K65 RGB Mini Gaming Keyboard on ThinkComputers. Thermaltake ARGENT K5 RGB Gaming Keyboard on FunkyKit. Corsair Katar Pro XT mouse on TechPowerUp. Video Cards: Gigabyte Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming OC on TechPowerUp. Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT NITRO+ on Guru3D. EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC BLACK GAMING on Tweaktown. PowerColor RX 6800 Red Devil on OCClub. Networking: Vilfo VPN Router on TechPowerUp. EnGenuis ECS1008P PoE 8 Port Layer 2 Switch video review by OcClub. Misc: Vivify Aceso W10 and Vivify Arquus W73 cables on OCInside. Going Medieval Preview game on OCClub. MSI MEG Z590 ACE motherboard on TechPowerUp. Xiaomi Mi 11 Review: A Loaded, Value-Priced Android Flagship smartphone on HotHardware. Win Stuff with OCAU Sponsors! (13 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 21-March-2021  13:32:56 (GMT +10) - by Agg I noticed some of our sponsors have giveaways at the moment. These are not being run on OCAU so be aware some of them give you more entries for social media posts etc. First up is OCAU Major Sponsor Computer Alliance, giving you the chance to win an 11th Gen Intel CPU & Gigabyte Motherboard Bundle, or a complete Alliance i7 Kratos Gaming Desktop: click for details! Next is OCAU Major Sponsor Scorptec, where you can win one of 3 Intel Core 11th Gen Rocket Lake Processors: click for details! Finally, OCAU sponsor PLE Computers are giving away an Intel 11th Gen 11700K Desktop Processor & ROG Strix Z590-E WiFi ATX Motherboard: click for details! Misc Pics (29 Comments) (link)  Friday, 19-March-2021  14:17:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday again! AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (3 Comments) (link)  Friday, 19-March-2021  00:30:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg AMD have unveiled the RX 6700 XT GPU. This is a mid-range card, aiming for high-FPS gaming at 1440p resolution, so competes with the RTX 3070 or 3060 Ti. However, one of the main battlegrounds for GPUs nowadays is simply availability. Value for money doesn't count for much if they're not on the shelves. Part of the launch strategy for this card is to have lots of variants immediately available from lots of partners, instead of just an in-house reference card. So here's a few reviews of those various cards, from around the web: XFX RX 6700 XT MERC 319 on OCClub. Powercolor Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound on Guru3D. AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT on TechSpot. MSI RX 6700 XT Gaming X on LanOC. The Red Devil & Reference RX 6700 XT take on the RTX 3070 & RTX 3060 Ti on BabelTechReviews. AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (reference) on Guru3D. MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X on Guru3D. XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT MERC 319 on Guru3D. ASUS Radeon RX 6700 XT STRIX OC on Guru3D. XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Merc 319 Black on TechPowerUp. Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Nitro+ on TechPowerUp. MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X on TechPowerUp. PowerColor RX 6700 XT Red Devil on TechPowerUp. PowerColor Red Devil RX 6700 XT on Vortez. ASUS Radeon RX 6700 XT STRIX OC on TechPowerUp. AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT on TechPowerUp. MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X on ThinkComputers. Discussion continues in this thread in our Video Cards forum. Wednesday Morning (2 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 17-March-2021  00:25:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg AMD have unveiled their 3rd generation EPYC processor, using the new Zen 3 core. These are of course enterprise or datacentre grade CPUs, with up to 64 cores. AMD have an announcement video, and there's coverage on TechGage, HotHardware, Phoronix, ServeTheHome and Anandtech (and an interview here). NVIDIA meanwhile have accidentally unlocked GPU mining on their 3060 non-Ti GPUs, which is presumably going to make them all now vanish from shelves into mining rigs. While Nvidia has now removed the driver, the genie is out of the bottle. Nvidia’s latest 470.05 beta driver automatically unlocks performance for most RTX 3060 cards, boosting hashing rates for Ethereum mining. Mirrors of the driver can easily be found online, and Nvidia won’t be able to prevent RTX 3060 owners from continuing to use this driver in the future. NewsCorp and FB have struck a deal over Australian news content appearing on FB. News Corp Australia is the largest media company to sign an agreement with Facebook since the Morrison government passed the legislation that would require Google and Facebook to negotiate with news outlets for payment last month. The spectre of the law initially saw Facebook strip Australian news from its platform in an eight-day blackout that only ended after high-level talks with the federal government. The "Online Safety Bill" is making its way towards law, despite widespread concerns. Google, Twitter, and Twitch all raised concerns that the definitions contained within the Bill were too broad; Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) joined the tech giants in considering the powers given to the eSafety Commissioner as too overreaching; and the Australian Digital Rights Watch highlighted the many negative impacts on the country's adult industry, as some examples. Latest in probably-witchcraft from Photoshop is Super Resolution, which can apparently turn small photos into big ones without engaging potato mode. Though it might be hard to make out in the screenshot below, I took the surfing image shown below, which was captured a decade ago with a Nikon D700 — a 12MP camera — and ran the Super Resolution tool on it and the end result is a 48.2MP image that looks to be every bit as sharp (if not sharper) than the original image file. This means that I can now print that old 12MP image at significantly larger sizes than I ever could before. It's probably worth mentioning that OCAU Major Sponsor Scorptec have free site-wide delivery on orders over $100 until April 5th. Tuesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 16-March-2021  00:27:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg Video Cards: COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Advanced OC on Tweaktown. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 on TechSpot. Inno3D GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCHILL X3 on Tweaktown. Audio Visual: Philips 279P1/27 LCD Monitor with USB-C on FunkyKit. 1MORE Colorbuds True Wireless In-Ear Headphones on NikKTech. HyperX Cloud II Wireless headset on DVHardware. Creative SXFI Trio headphones on TechPowerUp. Razer Hammerhead True Wireless Pro In-Ear Headphones on MadShrimps. Power Supply: Enermax MarbleBron 650W 80+ Bronze PSU on FunkyKit. be quiet! Dark Power 12 1000W Power Supply Unit on NikKTech. Input Etc: Mad Catz M.O.J.O. M1 mouse on TechPowerUp. ASUS ROG Strix Scope RX Mechanical Keyboard on APHNetworks. Goldtouch Go!2 Bluetooth Wireless Mobile Keyboard on TechPowerUp. Thermaltake ARGENT M5 Wireless RGB Gaming Mouse on FunkyKit. ROCCAT Vulcan TKL Pro Mechanical Keyboard on APHNetworks. Networking: Linksys MR7350 Wireless Router on Tweaktown. ASUS RT-AX68U Wi-Fi 6 Wireless Router on Tweaktown. D-Link PCIe Wi-Fi 6 adapter on BusinessIT. Software: Blender 2.92 Linux & Windows Performance on TechGage. The Medium - PC Performance & IQ Review on BabelTechReviews. Misc: TEAMGROUP T-Create Classic 10L DDR4 Memory on PCTestBench. Antec DF700 Flux case on TechPowerUp. G.Skill Enki 360 LCS liquid cooler on Guru3D. Zadak Spark RGB 1 TB SSD on TechPowerUp. Monday Morning (3 Comments) (link)  Monday, 15-March-2021  00:21:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg Jaycar founder Gary Johnston has passed away. Jaycar founder and managing director Gary Johnston has died after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, a type of cancer, two weeks ago. The 71-year-old multimillionaire founded the electronics retailer in 1981 and it has grown to 146 stores in Australia and New Zealand. Cambridge University has a site estimating the power consumption of Bitcoin. Given that the exact electricity consumption cannot be determined, the CBECI provides a range of possibilities consisting of a lower bound (floor) and an upper bound (ceiling) estimate. Within the boundaries of this range, a best-guess estimate is calculated to provide a more realistic figure that we believe comes closest to Bitcoin’s real annual electricity consumption. Intel's "Rocket Lake" CPUs are not due to be unveiled until the end of the month, but strangely some have appeared in retail channels early and thus some websites, even those under NDA, have published reviews - like this one on Anandtech. Units obtained by that method are not under NDA by definition, and we obtained the Core i7-11700K for this review at retail, and as such we are not under NDA for any information we have obtained through using this processor. There's discussion in this thread. TechGage wondered which CPUs are best for rendering and video encoding. We’re taking a fresh look at workstation performance revolving (almost) entirely around the CPU. With many encoding and rendering tests in-hand, we’re exploring different performance angles with the help of our CPU collection which includes models ranging from six- to 64-cores. What matters more; core-count or clock speeds? In something that sounds straight out of a Bond film, Russia and China are teaming up to build a Moon base. Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), and Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos, signed the document during a virtual meeting March 9. The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) is described as a comprehensive scientific experiment base built on the lunar surface or on the lunar orbit that can carry out multi-disciplinary and multi-objective scientific research activities including exploration and utilization, lunar-based observation, basic scientific experiment and technical verification, and long-term autonomous operation. This is a cool PC-based aquarium project. Basically it puts a screen displaying a nice fishtank screensaver into a fishtank-like 3d-printed frame. One of Serene Screen’s claims to fame is that way back in 2008 it was updated with a 3D background, designed to fit on two widescreen displays (it slowly scrolls left and right at lower resolutions). Since 32:9 is just a stone’s throw from 4:1, and both aspect ratios were in the ballpark of common aquarium sizes, the screen and the screensaver seemed like they were made for each other. It didn’t take a giant leap from there to realize that an all-in-one digital dollhouse aquarium was in my future. Meanwhile, Rob spotted this awesome Steampunk PC! RIP Murray Walker - and some Retro Gaming (3 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 14-March-2021  11:25:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg I was saddened to hear that Murray Walker, the voice of F1 for many decades, has passed away aged 97. Not a bad innings but he will certainly be missed around the paddock. There's an official F1 tribute video here. Anyway, this month's Retro Racing game over in the Retro & Arcade forum is Need For Speed II from 1997. The game features eight real life high-end sports cars and concept cars which the player can drive and race against. The "Special Edition" release of the game added four additional cars. In addition, the game features a "showcase" which provides photos, videos, and technical information about the cars as well as the history of each company and background of each car's development. click for the thread! Or if that's not your style, perhaps the Retro Let's Play game for this month is - it's Blood & Magic, in the Forgotten Realms universe, from 1996. In a mysterious corner of the Forgotten Realms, powerful mages prepare for battle using magic long lost. You are one of those wizards, conjuring warriors, wyverns, sirens, wraiths and more. Armed with ancient artifacts, your troops rally forth to battle goblin hordes, dark wizards, and lords of chaos. Can you defeat your foes to become master of the realm? click for the thread! Misc Pics (28 Comments) (link)  Friday, 12-March-2021  13:50:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday again! OCAU Merchandise! (13 Comments) (link)  Friday, 12-March-2021  00:47:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg It's been a while since I've reminded you that we have OCAU Merchandise over on RedBubble. There's various goodies in there, including our 20th Anniversary mugs: Click for the product page! Thursday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 11-March-2021  23:59:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASRock Z590 Steel Legend WiFi 6E on TechPowerUp. ASRock B550 TAICHI – RAZER EDITION on FunkyKit. Cooling: Noctua NH-D15S & NH-U9S chromax.black CPU Coolers on NikKTech. Iceberg Thermal IceSLEET X7 Dual CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. Storage: Gigabyte VISION Drive 1TB Upgrade Kit on FunkyKit. Kingston Workflow Station Hub + Readers on TechPowerUp. Samsung 980 1TB NVMe SSD on Guru3D. Samsung 980 1TB M.2 SSD on Tweaktown. QNAP TS-253D NAS on Modders-Inc. Yottamaster DF4RU3 Y-Defender 4-Bay Professional External Drive Enclosure on NikKTech. CARDEA Ceramic C440 Gen4 x4 PCIe NVMe 1TB SSD on BabelTechReviews. Input Etc: HyperX Pulsefire Haste mouse on DVHardware. Marsback M1 Keyboard Review - Custom Switches, Custom Keycaps on TechPowerUp. ASUS ROG Keris Wireless mouse on TechPowerUp. Razer Viper Ultimate Wireless Gaming Mouse on ThinkComputers. Sunday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 7-March-2021  21:37:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cooling: Arctic BioniX P120 A-RGB fan on OCInside. Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360 Sub-Zero AIO cooler on LanOC. Cooler Master MasterAir MA612 Stealth ARGB CPU Cooler on FunkyKit. Video Cards: Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo on TechPowerUp. MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio 12G on NeoSeeker. Nvidia RTX 3070 Laptop vs Desktop GPU on TechSpot. EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming on NeoSeeker. Inno3D GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCHILL X3 on Tweaktown. Storage: Sabrent EC-SSD2 Dual-Drive NVMe USB Type-C Enclosure on Tweaktown. Lexar Play 256GB microSDXC UHS-I Card on FunkyKit. Western Digital WD_BLACK AN1500 2TB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks. Crucial X6 & X8 Portable Solid State Drives on ThinkComputers. WD_BLACK D50 1TB Thunderbolt Dock on Tweaktown. iStorage Datashur BT USB Flash Drive on ThinkComputers. Input Etc: Logitech Pro X Superlight gaming mouse on LanOC. Genesis THOR 420 RGB Slim Mechanical Keyboard on FunkyKit. Corsair MM700 & Corsair Katar Pro XT mouse and pad on Guru3D. Software: MS Flight Simulator (2020): the 2021 PC graphics performance benchmark review on Guru3D. Loop Hero game on OCClub. Home Security: Novostella 20W RGBCW Smart LED Flood Light on BigBruin. Reolink RLC-423 camera (video review) by OCClub. Misc: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro SL DDR4-3600 MHz CL18 2x8 GB on TechPowerUp. Gigabyte Z590 AORUS Master motherboard on TechPowerUp. Chieftronic GPX-750FC Power Supply Unit on NikKTech. EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid earbuds on Vortez. Antec P10 FLUX Performance Series Mid-Tower on Tweaktown. ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 Wi-Fi 6e Router on Tweaktown. ORICO Aluminum Powered USB Hub on PCTestBench. Misc Pics (39 Comments) (link)  Friday, 5-March-2021  14:52:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg Happy birthday to two special people in my life today - only one of whom reads the OCAU newspage. :) Wednesday Night (5 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 3-March-2021  21:39:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg France are working on a repairability index for consumer goods. In a world-first move last month, France began requiring makers of certain electronic devices, including smartphones and laptops, to tell consumers how repairable their products are. Manufacturers selling these devices in France must give their products a score, or “repairability index,” based on a range of criteria, including how easy it is to take the product apart and the availability of spare parts and technical documents. While France won’t be enforcing use of the index with fines until next year, some companies have already begun releasing scores for their products. The University of Colorado meanwhile are working on turning you into a battery, but not in a take-the-blue-pill way. The device, described today in the journal Science Advances, is stretchy enough that you can wear it like a ring, a bracelet or any other accessory that touches your skin. It also taps into a person's natural heat—employing thermoelectric generators to convert the body's internal temperature into electricity. "In the future, we want to be able to power your wearable electronics without having to include a battery," said Jianliang Xiao, senior author of the new paper and an associate professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder. I stumbled across this random article about Australia's combat drones. Just days after the first flight of the Boeing Airpower Teaming System combat drone that’s being developed for Australia, the company confirmed this unmanned aircraft will also provide the basis for its offering for the U.S. Air Force’s Skyborg loyal wingman program. In the meantime, the Royal Australian Air Force, or RAAF, has doubled its order for the drone, now buying six examples in total, as the program continues to hit new milestones. I missed this earlier so there is possibly more up to date info now, but a proposed new bill could have ramifications for adult content in Australia. Under new draft laws, the eSafety Commissioner could order your nude selfies, sex education or slash fiction to be taken down from the internet with just 24 hours notice. Officially, the Morrison government’s new bill aims to improve online safety. But in doing so, it gives broad, discretionary powers to the commissioner, with serious ramifications for anyone who engages with sexual content online. Actually here's a more recent article with Google's take on it. VLSI Technology, a company from the far distant past, has emerged from the grave and claimed $2.18B damages from Intel for patent infringements. The last time it was an independent company was in 1999, when Philips purchased the semiconductor design firm for $1 billion. Its assets later traveled to Philips spinoff NXP (which you may know from its tap-to-pay NFC chips, among other things). NXP will reportedly get some of Intel’s money, too. One of VLSI’s claims to fame was being part of the original project with Apple and Acorn to produce the first ARM processors — and the ARM company — responsible for the underpinnings of the chips that now appear in every smartphone, most tablets, and a growing number of laptops and servers. I'm not going to pretend I fully understand this, but here's some hardcore nerdery to figure out how to improve GTA Online loading times by 70%. GTA Online. Infamous for its slow loading times. Having picked up the game again to finish some of the newer heists I was shocked (/s) to discover that it still loads just as slow as the day it was released 7 years ago. It was time. Time to get to the bottom of this. I have quite a long commute at the moment, but I can't quite make the leap to an electric car just yet. Wouldn't it be great if the car charged itself from solar energy as I drove along? The dream began in 1955, with a tiny, toylike creation called the "Sunmobile." Built from balsa wood and hobby shop tires, it was just 15 inches long. The 12 selenium solar cells that decorated its exterior produced less horsepower than an actual horse. But it was proof of a concept: Sunlight alone can make a vehicle run. nVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 2-March-2021  22:17:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg NVIDIA recently released the GeForce RTX 3060. This seems an oddball product at first glance, with more RAM than the 3060 Ti but less cores. It's priced pretty low because they're aiming it directly at the stragglers who have yet to upgrade from a 1060 6GB or lower-to-midrange 20x0-series card. Of course it doesn't matter what it costs if, like every other recent GPU launch, there's none of them on shelves to be bought. One way they are addressing that is by having a mining-specific version and (allegedly) intentionally nerfing the hash rate of this new card in order to make it less appealing to miners. Anyway, here's some reviews from the news box: GIGABYTE RTX 3060 GAMING OC on Vortez. Inno3D GeForce RTX 3060 iCHILL X3 RED on Tweaktown. EVGA RTX 3060 XC Black on LanOC. Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Advanced OC 12GB on NikKTech. EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Gaming on ThinkComputers. GeForce RTX 3060 Review: NVIDIA's Most Affordable Ampere Yet on HotHardware. ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 STRIX Gaming OC on Guru3D. EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Gaming on Guru3D. MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X TRIO on Guru3D. PALIT GeForce RTX 3060 DUAL OC on Guru3D. ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3060 AMP WHITE on Guru3D. MSI GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING X TRIO on Tweaktown. EVGA RTX 3060 XC Black on OCClub. MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio on ThinkComputers. MSI RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio on LanOC. The Mega 50+ Game RTX 3060 Launch Review – Part 1, Virtual Reality on BabelTechReviews. The Mega 50+ Game RTX 3060 Launch Review – Part 2 on BabelTechReviews. Discussion continues in this enormous thread. Tuesday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 2-March-2021  20:41:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASRock Z590 Extreme Wi-Fi 6E Motherboard on Tweaktown. ASRock B550 Taichi Razer Edition Motherboard on Tweaktown. ASRock B550 Taichi Razer Edition AMD AM4 Motherboard on OCInside. Storage: Silicon Power UD70 PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 1TB SSD on MadShrimps. Intel SSD 670p Review: Snappy, Budget-Friendly NVMe Storage on HotHardware. Intel 670p 2TB M.2 SSD on Tweaktown. Patriot Viper VP4100 PCIe 4.0 NVMe Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers. Lexar Professional 128GB 1066x SDXC UHS-I Card on FunkyKit. Audio Visual: Alienware AW2721D 27" Gaming Monitor on TechSpot. In-Home Streaming Faceoff: Steam Remote Play vs. Moonlight on TechSpot. Cases: Streacom DA2 V2 (Black) ITX Chassis on FunkyKit. Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact video review by OCClub. Input Etc: EVGA Z15 RGB Optical Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on FunkyKit. EVGA Z20 RGB Optical Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on FunkyKit. CORSAIR KATAR PRO XT and MM700 RGB mouse and pad on Vortez. Corsair Katar Pro XT Review mouse on NeoSeeker. Corsair Katar PRO XT Optical Mouse on APHNetworks. CORSAIR KATAR PRO XT Ultra-Light Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps. Cooling: Arctic P12 Slim PWM PST fans on OCInside. Arctic Freezer 50 CPU cooler on OCInside. Misc: QNAP QHora-301W SMB Router on Tweaktown.

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