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January 2024 |
Wednesday Evening
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Wednesday, 31-January-2024 20:57:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Apple Mac recently turned 40. I'm not a Mac guy but you can't deny the impact it's had over the years. In 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh, the world's first truly user friendly computer. With a unique and novel graphical interface, icons, and a mouse - the Mac revolutionized mass-market computing, earning the Macintosh a dedicated following. It also laid the foundation for Apple's enduring commitment to elegant design, innovation, effective marketing, and cutting-edge engineering, values that continue to define the company four decades later.
A new mega data breach has been discovered, nicknamed The Mother of all Breaches. A quick run through the data tree reveals an astoundingly large number of records compiled from previous breaches. The largest number of records, 1.4 billion, comes from Tencent QQ, a Chinese instant messaging app. However, there are supposedly hundreds of millions of records from Weibo (504M), MySpace (360M), Twitter (281M), Deezer (258M), Linkedin (251M), AdultFriendFinder (220M), Adobe (153M), Canva (143M), VK (101M), Daily Motion (86M), Dropbox (69M), Telegram (41M), and many other companies and organizations.
HighPerformanceLaptops have updated their roundup of Australia's Top 30 Laptops for February 2024. High Performance Laptops’ laptop reviews use of an exhaustive scoring system that mathematically compares every new laptop with everything that’s come before it. However, price and availability changes all the time and, consequently, so do the value proposition and overall rank. That’s why we always update our monthly best laptop group test – to produce the definitive Australian laptop buying guide.
Meanwhile iFixit have a teardown video of the new Framework 16 modular laptop. We did get this hardware a bit early, but our opinions are our own, and when you see this hardware, I think you’ll understand why we’re so impressed.
Seagate have announced the world's largest hard drive. With its newly released hard disk drive, storage company Seagate has broken the record for the largest hard drive ever. The Exos X Mozaic 3+ offers a whopping 30TB of space.
Florida is proposing a law to ban social media for under 16s. The bill would require social media platforms to prohibit minors from creating new accounts, terminate existing accounts of those younger than 16 and use age verification for account holders, without a parental permission exemption.
Japan have had a rocky start to their moon lander mission as the lander is upside-down - but the rover is OK. Less than a week later, JAXA also confirmed that its LEV-1, a small robot deployed from SLIM after landing, successfully conducted activities on the lunar surface. LEV-1 then made direct communication with ground stations, as well as an inter-robot test radio wave data transmission from the Transformable Lunar Robot, also known as LEV-2 and nicknamed “SORA-Q”. LEV-2 later captured the awe-inspiring image of SLIM upside down on the rocky lunar surface.
MUTMAN spotted this 16-bit CPU simulated in Excel. A hobbyist has created a 16-bit CPU that was built and runs inside Excel at a 3Hz clock rate and has 128KB of RAM, a 16-color 128x128 pixel display, and a custom assembly language that all runs in the popular spreadsheet. In fact, you can even try out the CPU with files the creator has made available via Github.
Wednesday Evening Reviews
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Wednesday, 31-January-2024 17:51:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock Z790 Riptide WiFi Motherboard on OCInside.
AMD Ryzen 8000G Series CPUs on LanOC.
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G on Guru3D.
AMD Ryzen 5 8600G on Guru3D.
Ryzen 7 8700G & Ryzen 5 8600G Review: AMD Zen 4 With A Potent Radeon GPU on HotHardware.
Video Cards:
Sapphire Pulse RX 7600 XT OC on LanOC.
INNO3D GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER TWIN X2 on Tweaktown.
Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 XT Pulse on ThinkComputers.
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16G VENTUS 3X on Tweaktown.
Memory:
Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 Engineering Prototype 48GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
Kingston FURY Renegade RGB 96GB DDR5 6400MHz CL32 Dual-Channel Kit on NikKTech.
Storage:
Corsair MP600 Elite PCIe 4.0 DRAMless M.2 NVMe on Guru3D.
Corsair MP600 Elite 2TB SSD on Tweaktown.
Corsair MP600 Elite 2 TB Review - The new Phison E27T Tested on TechPowerUp.
Lexar PLAY 2230 PCIe 4.0 1TB SSD on FunkyKit.
Cases:
Montech Air 903 Base case on TechPowerUp.
APNX Creator C1 ChromaFlair Mid-Tower on Tweaktown.
Misc:
DXRacer Master Chair DM1200 on NeoSeeker.
ASUS TUF M3 Gen II mouse on TechPowerUp.
AQIRYS ALNAIR Wireless ANC Gaming Headset on MadShrimps.
ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB White Edition Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER
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Saturday, 27-January-2024 21:58:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD released the Radeon RX 7600 XT recently. This is a mainstream card but boasts substantial improvements over the vanilla RX 7600 - including higher clocks and double the VRAM. Discussion towards the end of this thread.
ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT Steel Legend 16GB OC on Tweaktown.
PowerColor HELLHOUND AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT on Tweaktown.
AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT Review: 1080p PC Gaming With PowerColor And XFX on HotHardware.
Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB - XFX QICK 309 on Guru3D.
Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 XT Pulse on TechPowerUp.
XFX Radeon RX 7600 XT Qick 309 on TechPowerUp.
XFX Qick319 RX 7600 XT Black on LanOC.
ASRock Radeon RX 7600 XT Steel Legend on TechPowerUp.
Sapphire PULSE AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT on Tweaktown.
Meanwhile NVIDIA unveiled the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER. This is a mid-range card and also boosts more compute power and more VRAM than the previous RTX 4070 Ti. Discussion towards the end of this thread.
Colorful GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Vulcan W OC on TechPowerUp.
PNY GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16GB XLR8 Gaming VERTO OC on Tweaktown.
Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GamingPRO White on Guru3D.
ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Gaming STRIX OC on Guru3D.
Galax GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER EX Gamer on Guru3D.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Gaming OC on TechPowerUp.
Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Phoenix GS on TechPowerUp.
ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Strix OC on TechPowerUp.
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER OC Edition on Tweaktown.
ASUS TUF GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Review: More Cores, Memory, Performance on HotHardware.
ASUS TUF GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER on Guru3D.
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Ventus 3X on Guru3D.
Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Panther OC edition on Guru3D.
ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 4070 Ti SUPER on LanOC.
Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Jetstream OC on TechPowerUp.
Galax GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super EX White on TechPowerUp.
PNY GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Verto OC on TechPowerUp.
Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Trinity on TechPowerUp.
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X on LanOC.
ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super TUF on TechPowerUp.
Saturday Night Reviews
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Saturday, 27-January-2024 21:42:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Did a 20km bushwalk today.. can't feel my legs.
Cooling:
DeepCool Infinity Series LT720 360mm Liquid CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Alphacool Apex Stealth 120 mm Fan on TechPowerUp.
Corsair A115 CPU Cooler on Guru3D.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Review: AI-Infused With All The Trimmings on HotHardware.
OnePlus 12 Review: The Return Of The Flagship Killer on HotHardware.
GEEKOM Mini IT12 Mini PC on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
Corsair K55 Core Keyboard on APHNetworks.
Razer Basilisk V3 Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse on OCInside.
Drop ALT V2 Mechanical Keyboard on ThinkComputers.
Misc:
Creality K1 Max High Speed 3D Printer on NikKTech.
Lian Li Strimer Plus V2 ARGB Extension Cables on ThinkComputers.
Dunu x Precogvision Mirai In-Ear Monitors on TechPowerUp.
Thanks to MUTMAN and Simon this week! Hope you're having a great Australia Day. This year marks 40 years since my family arrived in Australia. I couldn't think of anywhere better than this strange and beautiful country to raise my own family.
     
     
     
     
     
An interesting story from the Forums, about taking Apple to court, and winning. Two weeks later I get a call saying your device cannot be fixed under any program or under consumer law and that I would be in it for 1182AUD if I wanted the screen replaced. This perplexed me and got me doing some research, I found that on these particular models (2016-18) the back light flex cables are too short and also they are soldered to the display unit. These units suffer from what is widely know as "Flex gate".
Computer science pioneer Niklaus Wirth passed away on the 1st of this year, aged 89. He designed several programming languages, including Pascal, and pioneered several classic topics in software engineering. In 1984, he won the Turing Award, generally recognized as the highest distinction in computer science, "for developing a sequence of innovative computer languages". also: In 1995, he popularized the adage now named Wirth's law, which states that software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.
Meanwhile GCHQ in the UK are celebrating 80 years of Colossus. Today we have released a series of rare and never-before-seen images of Colossus, in celebration of the 80th anniversary of the code-breaking computer that played a pivotal role in the Second World War effort. The Colossus computer was created during the Second World War to decipher critical strategic messages between the most senior German Generals in occupied Europe, but its existence was only revealed in the early 2000s after six decades of secrecy. Nice high-res photo here.
Last month it was announced that E3 has been permanently cancelled, thanks tired. One of the highest-profile video game conventions is being shut down permanently, its organisers have confirmed. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E3, had been held annually in Los Angeles since 1995 and was a popular spot for game companies to tease their latest creations before they hit store shelves.
Google have apparently settled their incognito mode lawsuit. Chrome's Incognito Mode isn't really incognito. Google still tracks users browsing in Incognito Mode, which led to a $5 billion class action lawsuit in 2020. Google has reportedly agreed to settle the case in order to avoid a messy trial, but the exact terms of the deal are not yet available. Chrome users will probably get a little bit of cash, though.
TechPowerUp look back at their best of 2023. From cutting-edge processors that shattered performance barriers to graphics cards that restored value in the PC as a gaming platform, 2023 has been a year of remarkable advancements. The past year in particular has been when the world re-emerged fully from the horrors of the COVID pandemic and its crippling restrictions on our way of life. The pandemic applied strain on the semiconductor and ICT supply-chains, but more importantly, it coincided with the crypto-currency boom that kept GPUs away from the consumers they were designed for—us gamers.
This blog meanwhile attempts to summarise AI stuff from 2023. 2023 was the breakthrough year for Large Language Models (LLMs). I think it’s OK to call these AI—they’re the latest and (currently) most interesting development in the academic field of Artificial Intelligence that dates back to the 1950s. Here’s my attempt to round up the highlights in one place!
Monday Night Reviews
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Monday, 22-January-2024 21:07:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
FiiO FT5 Open-Back Planar Magnetic Headphones on TechPowerUp.
NZXT Relay Headset and SwitchMix on Guru3D.
Corsair HS80 Max Wireless Gaming Headset on APHNetworks.
ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG49WCD Gaming Monitor on Tweaktown.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Blackview Shark 8 (8GB/256GB/64MP) Smartphone on Guru3D.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 Laptop on Tweaktown.
Video Cards:
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming Slim 12GB Graphics Card on NikKTech.
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER OC Edition on Tweaktown.
ASUS TUF GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER OC edition on Guru3D.
Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Panther OC edition on Guru3D.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 Super Aorus Master on TechPowerUp.
Palit GeForce RTX 4070 Super JetStream OC on TechPowerUp.
ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 Super TUF OC on TechPowerUp.
Memory:
V-Color Manta XPrism RGB 48GB DDR5-8200 Memory Kit on FunkyKit.
G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB 32GB DDR5 7200MHz CL34 Dual-Channel Kit on NikKTech.
Misc:
ASRock B650 Steel Legend WiFi Motherboard on FunkyKit.
darkFlash Twister DX 360 Ver 2.6 CPU cooler on TechPowerUp.
Finally some sunny weather - thanks to Zac this week!
     
     
     
     
Retro Gaming January 2024
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Wednesday, 17-January-2024 23:36:29 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN
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This month's better late than never "Retro Racing" game is Rave Racer from 1995.
In Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer 2 there was only a first-person point of view, but in Rave Racer a third-person point of view was added. A new soundtrack was also composed for this game consisting of 12 unique C352 songs. In addition to both tracks from the previous games, two new tracks were added with various side roads. The four tracks are: Ridge Racer Short, City, Ridge Racer Long and Mountain. As with its Ridge Racer, one needs to master the art of drifting, as this allows players to take corners at high speed. This is crucial in reaching check points and overtaking other racers.
click for the thread!
While this month's "Retro Let's Play" for January is Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force from 2000
The game is set in the Star Trek universe, specifically relating to the fourth Star Trek television series, Star Trek: Voyager. The player assumes the role of Ensign Alex Munro, a member of the Hazard Team, a new elite security section created to deal with particularly dangerous and hostile away missions. The game's plot focuses on the USS Voyager being trapped in a starship graveyard, heavily damaged and under attack from a variety of hostile factions. The Hazard Team is tasked with protecting Voyager as repairs are made, and investigating the cause of their entrapment.
Set Phasers to Frag
click for the thread!
Wednesday Evening News
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Wednesday, 17-January-2024 23:07:40 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN
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The phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants" is a metaphor to "using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress". I feel like battery chemistry is one of those giants.
Fifty years after the birth of the rechargeable lithium-ion battery, it’s easy to see its value. It’s used in billions of laptops, cellphones, power tools, and cars. Global sales top US $45 billion a year, predicted to be more than $100 billion in the coming decade. This transformative invention took nearly two decades to make it out of the lab, first developed by M. Stanley Whittingham at Exxon in 1972, it didn’t get far. It was manufactured in small volumes by Exxon, appeared at an electric vehicle show in Chicago in 1977, and served briefly as a coin cell battery. But then Exxon dropped it.
2024 and we still tick boxes on paper to vote. For vision impaired this is a bit of an inconvenience and electronic voting might be much more user friendly. NSW tried this before in 2021 and had some issues, but looks like they might be willing to try again.
The commission wants to “ascertain the availability, suitability and viability of a potential internet voting solution for use by electors who are blind or have low vision at the NSW state general election in 2027”. The RFI document notes that internet voting "appears to be the preferred way for electors who are blind or have low vision to cast their votes independently and in secret”, and that feasibility of internet voting “is contingent on the availability of suitable market solutions, adequate government funding and legislative reform.”
NBN Co turns to AI to improve network management. No wise cracks from me, not a word.
The company’s executive general manager for technology transformation Jo Dutton said AI is a useful technology for improving network management thanks to its ability to make use of the terabytes of data that the NBN network generated each day. “What people expect from us is a reliable network that really allows them to do what they want to do and when they want to do it, so they just want it to work,” Dutton said. “And that's why we see assurance of the network moving from transactional processes to proactive ones.
CES was packed to the eyeballs with "AI", consumer tech was "AI everywhere, AI everything". Toms Hardware have an article on enthusiast tech and were surprised by the AI. They go on to list their favourite products from the show.
Instead, we were excited to see a number of products that really moved the ball forward in ways that were more evolutionary than revolutionary: new graphics cards and CPUs that add more performance for the money, a high-end 3D printer that zooms along at 600 mm/s and works with carbon fiber or a gorgeous OLED monitor that can run at up to 480 Hz at 1080p or 240 Hz at 4K.
IntelInside sent word on an interesting story of an iPhone surviving quite a ‘drop test’. Airplane mode indeed.
We've all heard of the terrifying story of Alaska Airlines flight 1282 when a door plug on a Boeing 737 Max 9 suddenly flew open minutes after the flight took off on January 5. Everyone on board was safe, but several objects were sucked out of the aircraft and fell roughly 16,000 feet – including an iPhone. Sean Bates, a Washington resident, took to X revealing that he had found a fully intact phone and that it was still in "airplane mode and with half battery."
Geforce RTX 4070 Super NVidia GPU's
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Wednesday, 17-January-2024 22:26:58 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN
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New 4070 Super NVidia GPU's, and a few others that looked lonely in the news inbox;
INNO3D GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER TWIN X2 @ TweakTown
Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 Super Trinity @ TechPowerUp
Gainward GeForce RTX 4070 Super Ghost @ TechPowerUp
ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 Super Dual @ TechPowerUp
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition @ TechPowerUp
GeForce RTX 4070 Super @ HotHardware
GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER (founder edition) @ guru3D
Palit GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER DUAL @ guru3D
ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER DUAL @ guru3D
PNY GeForce RTX 4070 Super Verto @ TechPowerUp
Nvidia RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition @ LanOC
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition @ TweakTown
ZOTAC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Trinity Black Edition @ cowcotland
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER FE @ cowcotland
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super FE @ TechPowerUp
ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti SSD OC Edition @ TweakTown
ASRock Intel Arc A580 Challenger 8GB OC @ TweakTown
SPARKLE Intel Arc A770 TITAN OC Edition @ TweakTown
Wednesday Evening Reviews
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Wednesday, 17-January-2024 22:24:16 (GMT +10) - by MUTMAN
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CES 2024 has wrapped up, here's a few reviews from there and the usual haunts;
Audio Visual:
RODE Wireless Pro @ FunkyKit
AVerMedia Live Streamer Ultra HD GC571 @ TechPowerUp
AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K 2.1 GC575 @ TechPowerUp
iFi audio ZEN Air USB DAC & Headphone Amp @ NikKTech
IOGEAR UpStream 4K Capture Card @ Neoseeker
Monoprice Dark Matter Sentry Streaming Microphone @ Neoseeker
Philips Evnia 34M2C8600 @ guru3D
TOZO Open Buds Bluetooth Earphones @ aphNetworks
Maonocaster AMC2 NEO @ Neoseeker
Keyboard, Mouse, Etc:
LAMZU Thorn @ TechPowerUp
Genesis THOR 404 TKL Gateron Gaming Keyboard @ FunkyKit
CHERRY MX 8.2 TKL WIRELESS WHITE Gaming Keyboard @ Madshrimps
Corsair K55 CORE RGB Gaming Keyboard @ TweakTown
Ducky ProjectD Tinker 75 Mechanical Keyboard @ TechPowerUp
Corsair K70 CORE SE RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard @ TweakTown
Corsair K55 Core RGB Gaming Keyboard @ ThinkComputers
Cases and Cooling:
Corsair A115 CPU Cooler @ ThinkComputers
AZZA MESA 811 @ cowcotland
CORSAIR iCUE LINK QX120 RGB 120 mm Fan @ TechPowerUp
HYTE Y40 Panoramic @ NikKTech
Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet @ TechPowerUp
Noctua NA-FH1 Fan Hub @ Neoseeker
Valkyrie Dragonfang 360 ARGB AIO Liquid Cooling System @ NikKTech
Cooler Master NCORE 100 MAX Mini-ITX Case @ ThinkComputers
Storage:
Crucial T500 Pro 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD @ NikKTech
HP FX700 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD @ NikKTech
TERACLE T450 @ cowcotland
Phison PS5026-E26 Max14um @ HotHardware
Addlink S93 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe @ guru3D
Phison E26 Max14um Reference Design 2TB SSD @ TweakTown
Phison PS5026-E26 Max14um Solid State Drive @ ThinkComputers
Memory, CPU:
Kingston Fury Beast RGB 64GB DDR5 2x 32GB DDR5-6000 @ OCinside
Core i9-14900K VS Ryzen 9 7950X3D @ cowcotland
Portable & Prebuilt:
Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro @ HotHardware
Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01 @ HotHardware
HP ultraportable Omen gaming laptop (and more) at CES @ HighPerformanceLaptops
MSI ‘Claw’ handheld and new laptops at CES @ HighPerformanceLaptops
Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gaming Laptop @ TweakTown
Forums Outage Yesterday
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Monday, 15-January-2024 14:47:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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You may have noticed we had an outage yesterday - looks like the webserver hung for some reason. Unfortunately at the time I was on a plane back from Hyderabad, with no WiFi. However our friends at Micron21, who provide our hosting, detected the outage and worked to resolve it. So by the time I landed, it was already back up and running. Thanks Micron21!
Retro Misc Pics
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Friday, 12-January-2024 14:40:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Currently overseas again, so here's Retro Misc Pics from March 2011:
4th March 2011:
     
     
     
     
11th March 2011:
     
     
     
     
18th March 2011:
     
     
     
     
25th March 2011:
     
     
     
     
Audio Visual:
Westone AM Pro X30 Professional In-Ear Monitors @ TechPowerUp
Nebula Mars 3 Extreme Outdoor Projector @ NikKTech
Corsair HS80 MAX @ TechPowerUp
Tozo Open Buds @ OCinside
Logitech G Litra Beam LX @ LanOC
Skullcandy TMNT Push Active Earbuds @ Neoseeker
Keyboard, Mouse:
SteelSeries Rival 650 Wireless @ OCinside
irocks K71R Wireless Mech Keyboard and M36 Pure Wired Mouse @ Neoseeker
Cases and Cooling:
Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO XL Full Tower Case @ TweakTown
Corsair iCUE LINK H150i RGB @ TechPowerUp
be quiet! Shadow Base 800 FX Midi-Tower @ NikKTech
Motherboard, Memory, CPU:
Intel 5th Gen Xeon Processors @ HotHardware
MSI Plans - Z790 Max, ATX12VO, USB4 @ cowcotland
Lexar ARES RGB DDR5-7200 2x16GB DDR5 @ aphNetworks
TEAM T-Force Xtreme Narvic Black DDR5-8200 48GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit @ TweakTown
KLEVV CRAS V RGB DDR5-8000 32 GB @ TechPowerUp
Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 RGB DDR5-8000 48GB Dual-Channel Memory @ TweakTown
PSU:
Deepcool PX1200G ATX 3.0 PSU @ guru3D
Video Card:
ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT Phantom Gaming White 20GB OC @ FunkyKit
ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT Phantom Gaming White 20GB OC @ TechPowerUp
Cooler Master Atlas ARGB GPU Support Bracket @ Neoseeker
Portable & Prebuilt:
Shuttle XPC nano Barebone NC40U5 @ Madshrimps
Acer Nitro 17 Budget Gaming Laptop Unveiled at CES @ HighPerformanceLaptops
Acer 16” and 18” Predator Helios and Neo gaming laptops @ HighPerformanceLaptops
Acer Swift Go and Swift X laptops @ HighPerformanceLaptops
Dont forget you can drop a link to the OCAU News Inbox (news@overclockers.com.au) if you see anything cool or interesting you think others might like. There's plenty of CES news right now and I'm bound to miss some of it.
Friday again! Last of the Xmas stragglers this time.
     
     
     
     
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 3-January-2024 17:28:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's an interesting article comparing a Cray 1 Supercomputer with modern devices. In 1978, the Cray 1 supercomputer cost $7 Million, weighed 10,500 pounds and had a 115 kilowatt power supply. It was, by far, the fastest computer in the world. The Raspberry Pi costs around $70 (CPU board, case, power supply, SD card), weighs a few ounces, uses a 5 watt power supply and is more than 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1.
Also from the pages of history, this story of the secret father of modern computing. This is the story of Ed Roberts, the man who created the personal computer, launched the careers of Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak, and decided—at the height of his success—to walk away. It is based on archival video interviews with Roberts, Gates, Steve Wozniak, and many of the other key figures involved. I also draw on written accounts by Forrest Mims, Paul Allen, and others who were there; contemporary publications, such as Dr. Dobbs Journal and Popular Electronics; and books like Fire in the Valley and Endless Loop: A History of Basic.
We don't often consider the environmental impact of new operating systems, but MUTMAN sent in this report that ending support for Windows 10 could send 240M PCs to landfill. Microsoft announced a plan to provide security updates for Windows 10 devices until October 2028 for an undisclosed annual price. If the pricing structure for extended Windows 10 support mirrors past trends, migrating to newer PCs could be more cost-effective, increasing the number of older PCs heading to scrap, Canalys said. Microsoft aims to discontinue support for Windows 10 by October 2025. The next generation of the OS, anticipated to bring advanced artificial intelligence technology to PCs, could potentially boost the sluggish PC market. Still happily using Windows 10 on this PC and my two (work/home) laptops.
Also from MUTMAN, this story about chatbots jailbreaking chatbots. The method used to jailbreak an AI chatbot, as devised by NTU researchers, is called Masterkey. It is a two-fold method where the attacker would reverse engineer an LLM's defense mechanisms. Then, with this acquired data, the attacker would teach another LLM to learn how to create a bypass. This way, a 'Masterkey' is created and used to attack fortified LLM chatbots, even if later patched by developers. Like professors using AI to spot students using AI, or the stockmarket, how long until it's all just bots vs bots out there? :)
IntelInside meanwhile sent in this advanced iPhone exploit campaign. Researchers on Wednesday presented intriguing new findings surrounding an attack that over four years backdoored dozens if not thousands of iPhones, many of which belonged to employees of Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky. Chief among the discoveries: the unknown attackers were able to achieve an unprecedented level of access by exploiting a vulnerability in an undocumented hardware feature that few if anyone outside of Apple and chip suppliers such as ARM Holdings knew of.
Intel, Samsung and TSMC are racing to create the the first 2nm chip. “Samsung sees 2 nanometer as a game-changer,” said James Lim, analyst at US hedge fund Dalton Investments. “But people are still doubtful it can execute the migration better than TSMC.”
On a related note, the big 3 are all also working on 3D-stacked transistors, thanks MUTMAN. In the FinFET, the gate controls the flow of current through a vertical silicon fin. In the nanosheet device, that fin is cut into a set of ribbons, each of which is surrounded by the gate. The CFET essentially takes a taller stack of ribbons and uses half for one device and half for the other. This device, as Intel engineers explained in the December 2022 issue of IEEE Spectrum, builds the two types of transistor—nFETs and pFETs—on top of each other in a single, integrated process.
If you wanted to start 2024 off with a fight, apparently we're all building our PCs wrong. Before I dive too deep into my theory, I wanted to bring up some historical context and even directly reference some of my motherboard reviews. This will help you understand why this is such a big deal and why the Computer Hardware Enthusiast community is to blame.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 3-January-2024 13:52:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
Corsair Xeneon FLEX 45WQHD240 OLED Monitor on TechPowerUp.
Between 3ANC Earbuds Review: Superb Audio, Comfort And Price on HotHardware.
Storage:
ADATA SE920 2TB USB4 Portable SSD on FunkyKit.
ANACOMDA i4-X 4TB PCIe Gen4 2280 M.2 SSD on MadShrimps.
ADATA SE920 1TB USB4 External Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
HP FX700 2TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD on FunkyKit.
Crucial T700 Pro 4 TB Review - 4 TB of Gen 5 Goodness on TechPowerUp.
Crucial T500 2TB Solid State Drive on APHNetworks.
Memory:
Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 DDR5-7600 48GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
Kingston Fury Renegade RGB DDR5-7200 48GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
Misc:
EcoFlow Delta 2 Max Smart Extra Battery review - more than just an upgrade! on FunkyHome.
Don’t Like Legion Space? Install Playnite on ComputingOnDemand.
Chieftec Atmos 850 W PSU on TechPowerUp.
Endgame Gear OP1we mouse on TechPowerUp.
Cougar MX600 RGB Full Tower on Tweaktown.
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This month's "Retro Let's Play" for January is Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force from 2000
The game is set in the Star Trek universe, specifically relating to the fourth Star Trek television series, Star Trek: Voyager. The player assumes the role of Ensign Alex Munro, a member of the Hazard Team, a new elite security section created to deal with particularly dangerous and hostile away missions. The game's plot focuses on the USS Voyager being trapped in a starship graveyard, heavily damaged and under attack from a variety of hostile factions. The Hazard Team is tasked with protecting Voyager as repairs are made, and investigating the cause of their entrapment.
Set Phasers to Frag
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