April 2021

Misc Pics (18 Comments) (link)  Friday, 30-April-2021  14:42:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to Dan and metamorphosis this week! Retro Racing April 2021 - 1080 Snowboarding (15 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 29-April-2021  00:20:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg Our "Retro Racing" game for April 2021 is 1080 Snowboarding from 1998. 1080° Snowboarding is a 1998 snowboarding video game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Nintendo 64 and re-released in 2008 for the Wii's Virtual Console. In the game, The player controls a snowboarder in one of several modes. 1080° has two trick modes (trick attack and contest), three race modes (race, time attack, and 2 players) The objective of the game is either to arrive quickly at a level's finish line or to receive maximum points for trick combinations. click for the thread! Tuesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 27-April-2021  00:37:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: Intel Core i5-11600K CPU on PCTestBench. SUPERO Core Gaming C9Z590-CGW Motherboard on FunkyKit. AMD Ryzen 5 5600X on OCInside. ASRock Z590 Taichi Motherboard on Tweaktown. Intel Z590 Motherboard Roundup: Entry-Level VRM Test on TechSpot. ASUS TUF Z590-Plus WIFI on Guru3D. Intel Core i7-11700KF Review - Almost as Fast as the 11900K on TechPowerUp. Gigabyte Z490 AORUS Master Motherboard and Intel Core i9-11900K CPU on FunkyKit. ASRock Z590 Extreme Motherboard on OCInside. Gigabyte Z590 AORUS Master Motherboard on ThinkComputers. Video Cards: ASRock Radeon RX 6700 XT Phantom Gaming D OC video card on Guru3D. Razer Core X External GPU on TechSpot. Cases: DarkFlash DLH 21 ITX chassis on TechPowerUp. Phanteks Eclipse P200A ITX case on TechPowerUp. NZXT H710i Premium Mid-Tower on NikKTech. Portable & Prebuilt: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 Review: A Mighty Zen 3 Gaming Laptop on HotHardware. Falcon Northwest Talon Review: Killer Bird Of Prey Gaming PC on HotHardware. Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 1TB SSD on LanOC. Silicon Power UD70 2 TB SSD on TechPowerUp. Lexar NQ100 480GB – 2.5? SATA III SSD on FunkyKit. Audio Visual: EPOS H3 Closed Acoustic Gaming Headset on NikKTech. EPOS H3 Gaming Headset on Vortez. EPOS H3 Gaming Wired Headset on Tweaktown. SteelSeries Arctis 7P Wireless Gaming Headset on MadShrimps. Input Etc: HyperX Alloy Origins Core Keyboard on TechPowerUp. VAXEE Outset AX mouse on TechPowerUp. Patriot Viper V551 mouse on DVHardware. Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Optical Mouse on APHNetworks. Cooling: Cooler Master MA624 STEALTH CPU cooler (video review) by OCClub. G.SKILL ENKI 360 AIO CPU cooler on TechPowerUp. Noctua NH-U12S redux CPU Cooler on APHNetworks. Cooler Master SF120M ARGB Fan (video review) by OCClub. SilverStone IceGem 280 ARGB AIO Cooler on HWAsylum. Misc: HeimVision GREETS 1 Smart Video Doorbell on NikKTech. Acer Predator Apollo and Predator Talos 3600 MHz DDR4 DRAM on Guru3D. Z390 GeForce Resizable BAR Performance Analysis on BabelTechReviews. Cooler Master V650 GOLD-V2 WHITE EDITION PSU on PCTestBench. Monday Evening (1 Comments) (link)  Monday, 26-April-2021  19:10:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg From Callan, news that you need to update your QNAP NAS before ransomware locks it down. Official info from QNAP here. QNAP strongly urges that all users immediately install the latest Malware Remover version and run a malware scan on QNAP NAS. The Multimedia Console, Media Streaming Add-on, and Hybrid Backup Sync apps need to be updated to the latest available version as well to further secure QNAP NAS from ransomware attacks. QNAP is urgently working on a solution to remove malware from infected devices. A Sydney man has avoided jail time for selling pirated Netflix subscriptions, among other things. Evan McMahon, 23, received a discounted sentence of two years and two months to be served under an intensive corrections order in the community, with NSW District Court judge John Pickering urging the man to use his valuable technical skills to achieve great things for society. Fresh from the "..but why?" files comes Bitcoin mining on a C64. Commodore 64 was released in 1982 by CBM. It features a MOS Technology 6510 processor which has a frequency of 1.023 MHz. The console is equipped with 64KB of RAM, 20KB of ROM, and a special VIC-II graphics chip. This is very old and weak hardware to mine blockchain-based cryptocurrency, and at that time no one would have imagined this will be used for Bitcoin mining. but this is exactly what 8-Bit Show And Tell achieved in his latest modding attempt. Meanwhile the latest thing to catch the eye of cryptocurrency miners is Chia, which uses storage space instead of computational effort. So instead of mass miners buying up all the GPUs, they're now buying up all the SSDs and HDDs. But, I freely admit I am GPU mining and chia farming in my own lowly way. Anyway, discussion in this thread. Microsoft's DirectStorage will use your GPU to speed up your storage, in a way. Currently, decompression is handled by special CPU-based algorithms, but with PCIe 4.0 speeds and massive asset sizes, CPU overhead is a big problem. This is one of the main reasons why today's games don't run at max data rates advertised on high-end NVMe SSDs. To solve this problem Microsoft is working closely with chip-makers like Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD to make GPU-based compression tech for existing CPUs and GPUs. I avoid mainstream media so hadn't noticed, but apparently there's sod-all tech coverage in Australia anymore. There’s no question that a lot of tech news is driven by a global news agenda which means overseas outlets might be the winners of Australian eyeballs for daily tech news trends. And many local tech outlets, print and digital, are largely underpinned by content delivered from overseas partners and parents to flesh out the coverage local teams can offer. I should note that link came from Anthony over at The Sizzle - one of the places I get my Aussie tech news. Account Hijacks (24 Comments) (link)  Monday, 26-April-2021  08:53:48 (GMT +10) - by Agg We had two forum accounts that seemed to have been taken over by someone else in the last few days. There's no indication of a data leak from OCAU, and it seems more likely those accounts used the same credentials as somewhere else which was leaked. But still, it's a good reminder to change your password regularly, use a long, difficult-to-guess password, and never use the same password on multiple sites. You can also enable 2FA on OCAU if you like - but make sure you keep a copy of your backup codes, in case you lose access to your 2FA app. ANZAC Day (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 25-April-2021  19:46:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg Apologies for being a little late this year. Hope you had a good weekend and, on your own terms, gave a thought to those who sacrificed so much, that we might enjoy our way of life today. They shall grow not old As we who are left grow old Age shall not weary them Nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun And in the morning We will remember them Lest We Forget Misc Pics (26 Comments) (link)  Friday, 23-April-2021  14:21:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday again! Wednesday Morning (4 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 21-April-2021  00:04:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg Humanity has now flown an aircraft on another planet for the first time. Nasa is celebrating the first powered, controlled flight on another planet after its Ingenuity helicopter rose into the Martian sky, hovered for a moment, then gently returned to the dusty surface. The robotic craft climbed to an altitude of about 3 metres on its maiden flight on Monday morning, having hitched a ride to Mars with Nasa’s Perseverance rover, which touched down in February on a mission to search for signs of life. Here's some hardcore geekery to uncover some mystery CPU instructions. For starters, finding unused opcodes is a lot harder than it might sound. You can’t just stuff memory with every value from 0x00 through 0xFF, execute it, and watch what happens. That’s especially true of x86 processors, which have variable-length instructions and a convoluted system of code prefix bytes, suffix bytes, modes, and internal register designations. Instructions that work with some registers don’t work with others. Some memory modes are supported by some instructions but not others, and so on. It’s unabashedly nonorthogonal. The chip shortage continues, and a prolonged drought in Taiwan isn't helping. TAIPEI: More than one million households and businesses in Taiwan's heavily industrialised central regions were put on water rationing Tuesday (Apr 6), as the island battles its worst drought in 56 years. The shortage is expected to particularly impact the water-intensive microchip manufacturing sector during a global shortage of semiconductors that power everything from cars to iPhones and computers. Microsoft meanwhile are trialling immersion cooling in their datacentres. The cooling works by completely submerging server racks in a specially designed non-conductive fluid. The fluorocarbon-based liquid works by removing heat as it directly hits components and the fluid reaches a lower boiling point (122 degrees Fahrenheit or 50 degrees Celsius) to condense and fall back into the bath as a raining liquid. This creates a closed-loop cooling system, reducing costs as no energy is needed to move the liquid around the tank, and no chiller is needed for the condenser either. TechGage have a GeForce & Radeon 1080p & 1440p Gaming performance roundup. Equipped with 11 graphics cards, ten game titles, and a bunch of synthetic tests, we’re taking a look at select GPUs from AMD’s and NVIDIA’s previous- and current-gen series to see which models stand out of the crowd, and perhaps offer the best bang-for-the-buck (…at least, as far as SRP goes). Currently the primary purchasing decider seems to still be "what do they actually have stock of today?" IntelInside sent word that the ACCC have decided Google misled consumers about location data. The Court ruled that when consumers created a new Google Account during the initial set-up process of their Android device, Google misrepresented that the ‘Location History’ setting was the only Google Account setting that affected whether Google collected, kept or used personally identifiable data about their location. In fact, another Google Account setting titled ‘Web & App Activity’ also enabled Google to collect, store and use personally identifiable location data when it was turned on, and that setting was turned on by default. Yahoo Answers is going away soon. Yahoo Answers, one of the longest-running and most storied web Q&A platforms in the history of the internet, is shutting down on May 4th. That’s the day the Yahoo Answers website will start redirecting to the Yahoo homepage, and all of the platform’s archives will apparently cease to exist. The platform has been operating since 2005, and in the years since its relevance as a meme haven has remained intact while its practicality as a forum has waned during the rise of Reddit, Quora, and other competing internet hangouts. Tuesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 20-April-2021  23:40:52 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: Intel Core i9-11900K CPU on PCTestBench. Intel Core i9-11900K Processor on ThinkComputers. AMD Ryzen 7 5800U mobile CPU on TechSpot. Intel Core i5 11400F processor on Guru3D. ASRock Z590 Extreme Motherboard on FunkyKit. ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero motherboard on Vortez. ASRock Z590 PG Velocita Motherboard on Tweaktown. Intel Core i5-11400F Review - The Best Rocket Lake on TechPowerUp. Cases: Silverstone Sugo 14 SFF case on Modders-Inc. Thermaltake Tower 100 Mini ITX Case on HWAsylum. Storage: Lexar NM620 1 TB on TechPowerUp. Samsung 980 500GB NVMe SSD on Tweaktown. TeamGroup Delta Max White 1TB SSD on PCTestBench. Team Group T-Create Expert 2 TB on TechPowerUp. Patriot Viper VP4300 M.2 PCIE Gen4 x4 2TB SSD on FunkyKit. Video Cards: PowerColor Red Devil RX 6700 XT on OCClub. XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster MERC 319 Black on Tweaktown. Input Etc: G.SKILL KM360 Keyboard + Crystal Crown Keycaps on TechPowerUp. Pulsar Xlite mouse on TechPowerUp. Audio Visual: HyperX Cloud II Wireless 7.1 Gaming Headset on Tweaktown. EIZO FlexScan EV2795 monitor on TechPowerUp. Patriot Memory Viper V380 Gaming Headset on MadShrimps. VIOFO A129 Pro Duo 4K UHD Car Dashcam on NikKTech. HyperX Gaming Spectre React Eyewear on Tweaktown. Cougar VM410 Gaming Headset on FunkyKit. Portable & Prebuilt: Razer Blade 15 Base Edition (2021) laptop on Bjorn3D. Razer Book 13 (2021) Notebook on Tweaktown. Memory: XPG Spectrix D50 DDR4-3600 2x8GB DDR4 RAM on APHNetworks. Thermaltake TOUGHRAM XG RGB DDR-3600 MHz CL18 2x8 GB on TechPowerUp. TeamGroup Xtreem ARGB White DDR4 Memory on PCTestBench. Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro SL 3600 MHz 32GB on Guru3D. Team Group T-Force Dark Z FPS DDR4-4000 MHz CL16 2x8 GB on TechPowerUp. Cooling: Cooler Master MF120 Prismatic Fan video review by OCClub. Cooler Master MasterAir MA624 Stealth CPU Cooler on APHNetworks. Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240 Illusion CPU Cooler on FunkyKit. Bitspower Summit M Silver Metal CPU Block on TechPowerUp. Enermax Aquafusion 360 LCS on Guru3D. Misc: Bosch Smart Home Eyes Outdoor Camera Lamp on FunkyHome. CORSAIR TBT100 Thunderbolt 3 Dock on NikKTech. APC BX1400U-GR & Legrand Keor SP 1500VA UPS on NikKTech. Misc Pics (23 Comments) (link)  Friday, 16-April-2021  15:25:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to Dan and Axe this week! Thursday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 15-April-2021  00:32:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg Input Etc: Thermaltake W1 Wireless Keyboard on TechPowerUp. ASUS ROG Keris Wireless Optical Mouse on APHNetworks. Corsair PBT DOUBLE-SHOT PRO Keycap Mod Kit on Tweaktown. Corsair K70 RGB TKL and Sabre RGB Pro keyboard and mouse on NeoSeeker. i-Rocks K71M RGB Keyboard on TechPowerUp. HyperX Alloy Elite 2 mechanical gaming keyboard on DVHardware. Thermaltake W1 Wireless Gaming Keyboard on FunkyKit. CORSAIR SABRE RGB PRO CHAMPION SERIES mouse on Vortez. CORSAIR K70 RGB TKL CHAMPION SERIES Keyboard + Mint Green Replacement Keycaps on TechPowerUp. CORSAIR K70 RGB TKL keyboard on Vortez. Corsair K70 RGB TKL Champion Series Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown. CORSAIR SABRE RGB PRO FPS/MOBA Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps. Corsair K70 RGB TKL keyboard on Guru3D. Corsair Sabre RGB Pro mouse on TechPowerUp. Logitech MX Vertical mouse on DVHardware. Video Cards: PowerColor Red Devil Ultimate Radeon RX 6900 XT on HotHardware. ASRock Radeon RX 6700 XT Phantom Gaming D on TechPowerUp. Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V on HotHardware. GeForce RTX 3070 vs. Radeon RX 6700 XT: 45 Game Benchmark on TechSpot. Gigabyte Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming OC on Guru3D. AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT in Crypto Mining: ETH Mining @ 120W tweaked on Tweaktown. Cases: Antec Dark Cube on TechPowerUp. Cougar Gemini T PRO video review by OCClub. Portable & Prebuilt: OnePlus Watch Review: A Great First Effort In Need Of Polish on HotHardware. Razer Book 13 on TechSpot. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Review: A Petite Premium Powerhouse on HotHardware. Cooling: be quiet! Silent Loop 2 (280mm) on Guru3D. Cooler Master MA612 Stealth ARGB CPU cooler video review by OCClub. Misc: Corsair RM650x (2021) power supply on Guru3D. TP-Link Archer GX90 Wireless Router on APHNetworks. Wednesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 14-April-2021  23:55:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: Intel Core i5-11400F Review: The New Value Champ on TechSpot. ASRock Z590 Taichi GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS MASTER on Vortez. GIGABYTE Z590 Vision G Motherboard on Tweaktown. ASRock Z590 Extreme on Guru3D. MSI MAG B560M Mortar WiFi on Vortez. ASRock Z590 Taichi on Vortez. MSI MEG Z590 ACE Motherboard on Tweaktown. Memory: Neo Forza MARS RGB 64GB 3200MHz DDR4 Kit on MadShrimps. Neo Forza FAYE 64GB DDR4 3200MHz CL16 Dual-Channel Kit on NikKTech. Storage: Corsair MP400 2 TB SSD on TechPowerUp. Neo Forza eSports NFP075 1 TB on TechPowerUp. SilverStone ECU06, ECU07, MS12 SSDs on APHNetworks. Sabrent Rocket Pro 2TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 Portable SSD on NikKTech. Audio Visual: ANNKE NC400 Super HD 4MP Night Chroma IP Camera on NikKTech. MSI Immerse GH61 Gaming Headset on Tweaktown. Lypertek PurePlay Z3 True Wireless Earbuds on TechPowerUp. XGIMI Mogo Pro+ Projector on TechPowerUp. Genesis HELIUM 300BT ARGB Bluetooth Speakers on FunkyKit. MSI Immerse GH61 headset on TechPowerUp. Misc Pics (31 Comments) (link)  Friday, 9-April-2021  14:13:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday again! Monday Night (3 Comments) (link)  Monday, 5-April-2021  23:36:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg Got to be careful catching up on news, to make sure no April Fools stories have stuck into the newsbox.. Anyway, first up is this story that China's first domestically produced 7nm GPGPU is nearing mass production. Tianshu Zhixin claimed that BI offers "nearly twice the performance of mainstream manufacturers' products" at a lower power consumption while also offering a more attractive price-to-performance ratio. (Pricing details weren't revealed, however.) The company said that its "progress of product development and commercial application is 1-2 years ahead of domestic counterparts." That's an important lead to claim as China pushes companies to reduce their reliance on foreign products. Still mostly vapourware but interesting nontheless. Meanwhile LG have announced they will be exiting the mobile phone business. LG Electronics Inc. (LG) announced that it is closing its mobile business unit. The decision was approved by its board of directors earlier today. LG’s strategic decision to exit the incredibly competitive mobile phone sector will enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services. AMD have warned of a potential Spectre-style attack in Zen 3 CPUs. The attack is similar in scope to Spectre and involves a feature introduced with Zen 3 called Predictive Store Forwarding (PSF). PSF, in effect, guesses the result of a load and uses speculative execution with subsequent commands. "In typical code, PSF provides a performance benefit by speculating on the load result and allowing later instructions to begin execution sooner than they otherwise would be able to," AMD explains. "Most of the time, the PSF prediction is accurate. However, there are cases where the prediction may not be accurate and cause incorrect CPU speculation." Tweaktown have a RTX 3060 Roundup. The new GeForce RTX 3060 is the new mid-range member of the Ampere family, offering up GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER levels of performance -- and if available in better numbers (or at all) -- on the cheap. The MSRP for the GeForce RTX 3060 is meant to start at $329 but unfortunately GPU prices are out of control right now. In a perfect world you'd be able to buy the GeForce RTX 3060 so let's pretend we're there right now -- and you can buy the GeForce RTX 3060. This article will help you at least cover 4 of the custom variants of the RTX 3060 that I've had through my doors. TechPowerUp checked out the PCI-Express Resizable BAR setting on NVIDIA cards. PCI-Express Resizable BAR, pioneered by AMD, seems to be a magic bullet for unlocking additional double digit FPS gains. NVIDIA finally released their implementation for GeForce Ampere cards. In our PCIe BAR review we test the feature on RTX 3090, 3080, 3070 and 3060 Ti, in 22 games, at Full HD, 1440p and 4K. Gibbon noticed that our friend Captains Workspace has checked out the RTX 4090 and 4090 Ti - it seems around this time every year that he gets the latest unreleased goodies. :) The video is amazing as always. Monday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 5-April-2021  10:52:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Pro Wi-Fi Motherboard on Tweaktown. MSI MEG Z590 ACE on Guru3D. ASUS ROG Maximus XIII HERO on Guru3D. Intel Core i9-11900K and i5-11600K on LanOC. ASROCK Z590 Phantom Gaming Velocita on TechPowerUp. Intel Core i9-11900K Review: Not a Great Flagship CPU on TechSpot. Audio Visual: HyperX Cloud Buds Wireless Headphones on FunkyKit. EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid Closed Acoustic Gaming Wireless Earbuds on NikKTech. MOVO Microphones Roundup on NeoSeeker. Philips Wireless Neckband ANC PN505 Bluetooth Earphones on APHNetworks. Reolink RLN16-410 PoE NVR video review by OCClub. Power Supply: Be Quiet! Dark Power 12 - 850W PSU on Guru3D. Gigabyte P450B Power Supply on FunkyKit. Corsair RMx Series 850 W (2021) on TechPowerUp. Cougar GEX 850 Power Supply on FunkyKit. Gigabyte P1000GM Power Supply on FunkyKit. Portable & Prebuilt: OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro Review: Great 5G Flagships With A Catch on HotHardware. Lenovo ThinkStation P620 Review: Beastly 64-Core Performance on HotHardware. Cooling: Cooler Master MasterFan MF120 Prismatic/SF120M ARGB Fan on FunkyKit. SilentiumPC Navis EVO ARGB 360 V2 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler on NikKTech. Cases: Antec P10 FLUX Computer Case on APHNetworks. Cougar DarkBlader X5 RGB mid-tower on NeoSeeker. MSI MPG Gungnir 110M on TechPowerUp. Software: 21 Years of Hitman: How Stealth Action Got Perfected on TechSpot. The Sim Side: 2021 Test Suite Overview – Assetto Corsa Competizione on BabelTechReviews. Storage: Samsung 870 EVO SSD on ThinkComputers. Quick Look: iStorage diskAshur M2 on TechPowerUp. Patriot Memory Viper VP4100 PCI-E m.2 Gen 4x4 1TB SSD on MadShrimps. Lexar NM620 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD on NikKTech. Input Etc: EVGA X17 Review - 8K Polling Rate FTW mouse on TechPowerUp. CORSAIR K55 RGB PRO XT Keyboard on TechPowerUp. CORSAIR K55 RGB PRO XT Gaming Keyboard on Vortez. GHT PW-S7403H USB HDMI 4 Port KVM Switch on OCINside. Corsair K55 RGB PRO XT keyboard on Guru3D. NlZ Plum x87 35g Keyboard on TechPowerUp. CORSAIR K55 RGB PRO XT Gaming Keyboard on MadShrimps. Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 64GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18 Dual-Channel Kit memory on NikKTech. Misc Pics (39 Comments) (link)  Friday, 2-April-2021  14:24:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg Have a safe and happy long weekend - thanks to mpot, Axe and metamorphosis this week!

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